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

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

The New York Times [2/21/2025 6:20 PM, Hamed Aleaziz and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 161405K] reports that the Trump administration on Friday replaced the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the latest leadership shake-up as agency officials try to meet White House pressure to ramp up deportations and arrests across the country. The decision to reassign Caleb Vitello, a career official who was selected for the job in December, comes as the agency tries to meet the extraordinary promises of a mass deportation effort laid out during President Trump’s campaign. Earlier this month, the two top officials overseeing deportation efforts were moved to regional roles with the agency. On Friday, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said that Mr. Vitello would oversee deportation efforts and remain with ICE. As of Friday evening, it was unclear who had been selected to run the agency. ICE’s official leadership page still showed Mr. Vitello as its leader on Friday after the news spread. The administration is tapping Madison D. Sheahan, the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, to be deputy director of the agency, according to an administration official familiar with the hiring, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the preliminary plans. Before overseeing conservation, hunting and fishing in Louisiana, Ms. Sheahan established ties with Kristi Noem, now the homeland security secretary. Ms. Sheahan was an aide to Ms. Noem when she served as governor of South Dakota, and then became the state’s executive director for the Republican Party. ICE officials have ramped up arrests across the country, including major operations in cities like Chicago and New York City. They have publicized the efforts through ride-alongs with journalists and social media posts highlighting the arrests. From the beginning of the Trump administration through mid-February, ICE officers made more than 15,000 arrests, according to the Department of Homeland Security, at more than double the daily rate seen in recent years. Supporters of the administration’s crackdown said that more funding from Congress was needed. The Wall Street Journal [2/21/2025 4:59 PM, Michelle Hackman and Josh Dawsey] reports that another administration official said the team at ICE would be expanded. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Vitello is “actually being elevated so he is no longer in an administrative role, but is overseeing all field and enforcement operations: finding, arresting, and deporting illegal aliens.” Vitello will remain at ICE and will head the office responsible for arrests and deportations. Efforts to reach Vitello weren’t immediately successful. Officials are expected to hire Madison Sheahan, the Louisiana Secretary for Wildlife and Fisheries, in a senior role at ICE, people familiar with the matter said. It is unclear who the next director of the agency would be. A spokeswoman for Sheahan declined to comment. President Trump hand-selected Vitello to lead ICE because, though he is a career government official, he worked closely with top Trump immigration officials in the first administration. His removal follows the ouster of two other top deportation officials at ICE earlier this month. Top administration officials have been putting growing pressure on ICE to increase its daily arrests, even at one point telling individual field offices they were expected to hit daily targets of 75 arrests a day, or about 1,500 across the country. They have been casting around for solutions as daily arrests haven’t been hitting those targets. Reuters [2/21/2025 3:53 PM, Ted Hesson, 48128K] reports that U.S. President Donald Trump deported 37,660 people during his first month in office, previously unpublished U.S. Department of Homeland Security data show, far less than the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns in the last full year of Joe Biden’s administration. A senior Trump administration official and experts said deportations were poised to rise in coming months as Trump opens up new avenues to ramp up arrests and removals. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Biden-era deportation numbers appeared "artificially high" because of higher levels of illegal immigration. Trump campaigned for the White House promising to deport millions of illegal immigrants in the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. Yet initial figures suggest Trump could struggle to match higher deportation rates during the last full year of the Biden administration when large numbers of migrants were caught crossing illegally, making them easier to deport. The deportation effort could take off in several months, aided by agreements from Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, and Costa Rica to take deportees from other nations, the sources said.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [2/21/2025 3:39 PM, Alicia A. Caldwell, Hadriana Lowenkron, and Akayla Gardner, 21617K]
The Hill [2/21/2025 4:01 PM, Brett Samuels, 16346K]
Reuters [2/21/2025 5:24 PM, Ted Hesson, 48128K]
AP [2/21/2025 6:38 PM, Rebecca Santana, 17996K]
CBS News [2/21/2025 3:52 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez]
NBC News [2/21/2025 3:45 PM, Julia Ainsley, 50804K]
FOX News [2/21/2025 4:24 PM, Adam Shaw, Bill Melugin, 49889K]
Washington Examiner [2/21/2025 4:27 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 2365K]

The AP [2/21/2025 5:22 PM, Gisela Salomon and Rebecca Santana] reports days after telling legal groups who help migrant children who arrive in America alone — some so young they are in diapers or their feet dangle from their chairs in court — that they must stop their work, the federal government Friday reversed itself. The Trump administration told the groups that they can resume providing legal services to tens of thousands of unaccompanied children. The Acacia Center for Justice said that they received notice from the government of the reversal. The notice came after the government on Tuesday suspended the program that provides legal representation to children who have arrived in the United States across the border with Mexico without parents or legal guardians. Several organizations that offer assistance to migrant children had criticized the measure and said at the time that the minors were at risk. The $200 million contract allows Acacia and its subcontractors to provide legal representation to about 26,000 children and legal education to another 100,000 more. NBC News [2/21/2025 4:22 PM, Daniella Silva, 50804K] reports "We welcome the news that the stop-work order on Acacia’s Unaccompanied Children Program has been lifted," Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, said in the statement. "We will continue working alongside the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that these critical services upholding the basic due process rights of vulnerable children are fully restored and our partners in the legal field — legal lifelines safeguarding the rights and well-being of children seeking safety — can resume their work without future disruption or delay." The Department of the Interior sent a letter on Friday addressed to the center saying it may "resume all activities" related to its contract for providing legal aid for unaccompanied minors, according to a copy of the letter obtained by NBC News. The Los Angeles Times [2/21/2025 5:49 PM, Rachel Uranga] reports that in California, the program represents about 4,000 children who don’t have a legal guardian. The decision came after supporters flooded Congress members with letters of support. But advocates worry the program may eventually lose funding, as the administration continues to strip away support from immigrants in the country without status. While children in the immigration system do have the right to an attorney, they do not have the right to a court-appointed one

ABC News [2/21/2025 5:52 PM, Luke Barr, 33392K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transported 177 migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras for final removal to Venezuela, according to a post on X from the agency. Most of the migrants being housed at Guantanamo Bay were Venezuelan. In court filings, the government contended the Guantanamo Bay operation was "meant to be a temporary stopover" on the path to repatriation. The migrants left on two flights on Thursday. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a brief video earlier in February that she visited the base and checked out the operations the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense were standing up. There were 10 U.S. military flights that originally transported all the migrants to Guantanamo Bay, with the first carrying 10 migrants arriving on Feb. 4. While some of the migrants were suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, the charges they faced were unclear. The removal of the migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras follows the migrants being granted access just this Thursday to speak to their attorneys over the phone. DHS said at the time that it was determining "feasibility and necessity" for in-person visits from the migrants’ attorneys. It is unclear whether there will be future migrant flights to Guantanamo Bay.

USA Today [2/21/2025 4:03 PM, Trevor Hughes, Lauren Villagran, 89965K] reports President Donald Trump’s decision to fly ICE detainees to a U.S. military base in Cuba has effectively blocked almost anyone ‒ including members of Congress ‒ from monitoring what’s happening there. By establishing a 30,000-bed ICE facility on the Guantanamo Bay naval base, Trump has made an end run around the power Congress specifically gave itself as a check on the executive branch. Now, some members of Congress are expressing concern that Trump’s move means they cannot conduct the kind of oversight their equal branch of government is supposed to do, from checking whether conditions are humane to ensuring that taxpayer money isn’t being wasted. NBC News reported Thursday, and USA TODAY has independently confirmed, that ICE agents had cleared out all of the approximately 180 detainees being held at Guantanamo but were preparing to transfer more in.

Newsweek [2/21/2025 7:33 PM, Kate Plummer, 56005K] reports that diplomatic security staff whose usual job is protecting diplomats and keeping information safe have been authorized to investigate and apprehend illegal migrants under new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans. Since assuming office, President Donald Trump has made immigration a top priority, vowing to crackdown on border security, carrying out mass deportations and ending federal benefits for people entering the country illegally. Meanwhile, the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has prioritized restructuring federal agencies to cut costs and streamline bureaucratic processes. A memo written by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and dated February 18 said: "I hereby authorize the special agents of the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) to perform the following functions of an immigration officer." A statement from the DHS said up to 600 special agents would be deputized across the country. "Under President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security will use every tool and resource available to secure our border and get criminal illegal aliens out of our country," the statement said.

CBS Austin [2/21/2025 1:09 PM, Ray Lewis, 581K] reports that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem signed a memo Tuesday saying she is making hundreds of agents in the Department of State deputies, according to an announcement. DHS said in a press release that up to 600 special agents in the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service will now help with the arrests and deportations of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. The department has also deputized employees at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Justice to help with immigration enforcement, according to the release. The actions are a "key part" of giving law enforcement resources they need to fulfill a promise by President Donald Trump to carry out mass deportations, according to DHS. "Under President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security will use every tool and resource available to secure our border and get criminal illegal aliens out of our country," Noem explained in a statement. "The safety of American citizens comes first." Chloe East, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies immigration policy, claimed that using IRS employees to focus on U.S. borders will result in a loss of billions of dollars in tax revenues for the country, according to the Associated Press. "The Trump administration would rather pursue immigrants rather than pursue money launderers," she reportedly said. FOX News [2/21/2025 8:00 AM, Adam Shaw, 49889K] reports that the move is the latest effort by the department to expand the number of officials involved in immigration enforcement, amid a push by the Trump administration to aggressively increase the arrests and deportation of illegal immigrants. DHS has deputized IRS employees, law enforcement components of the Justice Department and law enforcement officials with the Texas Attorney General’s Office. "It is DHS’s understanding that the Department of Treasury has qualified law enforcement personnel available to assist with immigration enforcement, especially in light of recent increases to the Internal Revenue Service’s work force and budget," Noem said last week. Fox News Digital reported last week that interior arrests have skyrocketed compared to the same period in 2024, while numbers of crossings of illegal immigrants at the border have continued to trend downward. According to Department of Homeland Security data, there were 11,791 interior ICE arrests from Jan. 20 to Feb. 8, compared to 4,969 during the same period in 2024. That is a 137% increase. The administration has said it is trying to target the "worst of the worst," focusing on criminal illegal immigrants and gang members but has also stressed that it is not ruling anyone out of contention. Meanwhile, the administration has secured additional cooperation at the border from Mexico and Canada, as well as agreements from Venezuela and Colombia to take back their nationals. DHS has also moved to shut down Biden-era parole programs and the use of Temporary Protected Status to allow migrants to avoid deportation. The administration is also tapping into the resources of the Pentagon by deploying the military to the border and is also using Guantanamo Bay to house illegal immigrants.

Yahoo! News [2/21/2025 10:58 PM, Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng, 57114K] reports the Department of Homeland Security has budgeted up to $200 million to run anti-immigrant ads in the United States and overseas that repeatedly thank President Donald Trump for leading an immigration crackdown. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday night that these ads were Trump’s idea, and during the administration’s transition to power, the president asked her to star in ads thanking him "for closing the border.” Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s Ronald Reagan dinner on Friday night — at a tux and gown affair that served striploin, mashed potatoes, and raspberry cake — Noem recalled Trump telling her after she was nominated: "I want you to do [ads] for the border, and I want you to do those everywhere, not just in the United States, but I want them around the world. I want you to tell people not to come to this country if they’re going to come here illegally.” She said the president continued: "We’re not going to let the media tell this story, because the media will never tell the truth. We’re going to run a marketing campaign to make sure the American people know the truth of what you’re doing.” The ad campaign amounts to an extremely expensive taxpayer-funded propaganda blitz to scare off migrants and to flatter Trump on television. On Friday, Trump’s DHS secretary entertained the CPAC high-roller audience with her account of how Trump orchestrated the whole thing. Noem said that Trump instructed that he didn’t want to be in the ads himself, telling her: "I want you in the ads, and I want your face in the ads … but I want the first ad, I want you to thank me. I want you to thank me for closing the border.” She recalled: "I said, ‘Yes, sir, I will thank you for closing the border.’ So if you notice, in that ad, we thanked him for closing the border.” The Homeland Security Department announced this week that it was launching ads "on radio, broadcast, and digital, in multiple countries and regions in various dialects.” In the domestic version of the ad, Noem says: "Thank you, President Donald J. Trump, for securing our border, for deporting criminal illegal immigrants, and for putting America first.”

CNN [2/21/2025 5:48 PM, Manuel Cobela, 22417K] reports that a plane carrying 177 Venezuelan migrants, who were held in Guantanamo Bay after being deported from the US, arrived in Venezuela on Thursday, nearly emptying the naval base of the migrants sent there after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The migrants were initially flown to Honduras for transfer to Venezuela, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Hundreds of migrants were sent to Guantanamo Bay as part of Trump’s sweeping crackdown on migration, but they have since been mostly flown elsewhere after questions were raised over the legality of such an initiative. The base on Cuba is notorious for holding prisoners of the US-led "war on terror." The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has alleged that Venezuelan migrants sent to Guantanamo Bay have ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, a criminal network that started in a Venezuelan prison. The Venezuelan government said in a statement that it had requested the repatriation of Venezuelan nationals who were "unjustly taken to the Guantanamo naval base."

Reported similarly:
NPR [2/21/2025 5:33 PM, Joel Rose, 35747K] Audio: HERE

FOX News [2/21/2025 9:01 AM, Michael Dorgan, 49889K] reports that a group of migrants is suing the Trump administration for ending a deportation shield for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the U.S., claiming that the move was illegal and driven by race. The 48-page federal suit names Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. government for revoking Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 600,000 Venezuelans. TPS grants protection from deportation and allows work permits for nationals living in the U.S. from countries deemed unsafe for them to be returned. Then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced extensions for TPS for Venezuela, as well as El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine, for an additional 18 months in the final few days of the Biden administration. That move, if left in place, would have complicated President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport large numbers of those nationalities. "These actions have the effect of robbing 600,000 Venezuelan TPS holders of the right to live and work in this country for the next 18 months," the lawsuit reads. Without the protection, at least 350,000 Venezuelan TPS holders stand to lose their legal status on April 7 and their work authorization as soon as April 2, per the lawsuit.

Newsweek [2/21/2025 1:00 PM, Sean O’Driscoll, 56005K] reports that a federal judge has blocked the deportation of a group of asylum-seekers after President Donald Trump claimed the U.S. was being "invaded" by immigrants, in a potentially momentous case. Newsweek sought email comment from the Justice Department on Friday. The court’s decision to stay Trump’s executive order is an important moment in the battle between the Trump administration on one side and immigrant groups and Democratic politicians on the other. The case will determine whether immigrants have a right to claim asylum on the southern border. On a broader level, it is also a test of whether presidential orders can supersede Congress. A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has stopped the Trump administration from deporting eight asylum-seekers. Some of eight asylum-seekers have already been deported and will have a right to return while the case continues. Others are still in the U.S, in immigration detention. On February 20, Judge Randolph Moss, a Barack Obama appointee, placed a temporary stay on the deportations until the Justice Department provides more information. Moss ordered that the eight, identified only in court documents as A.M, Z.A, T.A, A.T, M.A, N.S, B.R, and G.A, not be deported "during the pendency of the stay."

Newsweek [2/21/2025 2:50 PM, Dan Gooding, 56005K] reports the Trump administration said Thursday that its first month had seen "massive strides" in increasing border security and cutting illegal immigration, as the legal challenges to the president’s policies keep coming. In a 15-point list, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) laid out what it said were "promises made, promises kept", including an increase in arrests of illegal immigrant criminals and the scrapping of former President Joe Biden’s policies. Despite promises of mass deportations, the number of immigrants removed from the country since January 20 was not mentioned by either the press release or White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller at a briefing. The Reuters news agency later reported that 37,660 migrants had been deported in Trump’s first month, putting the new administration behind Biden’s monthly average of 57,000.

VOA News [2/21/2025 3:26 PM, Jeff Seldin, 2717K] reports moves by U.S. President Donald Trump to potentially gut programs aimed at supporting election security are not sitting well with key state election officials, who are now asking the Trump administration to reconsider. The National Association of Secretaries of State sent a letter Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warning that changes to the department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency could endanger future elections. The letter says that while U.S. elections "firmly remain a state and local responsibility," several initiatives from CISA have provided valuable services and allowed for the sharing of critical information for states that choose to participate.

USA Today [2/21/2025 11:35 AM, Riley Beggin, 89965K] reports that Senate Republicans advanced their version of President Donald Trump’s agenda in a marathon session that ran into early Friday morning − a border security and defense package that will likely become a "Plan B" for the narrowly-divided Congress. Senate Democrats forced Republicans to vote on −and defeat − dozens of add-ons designed to put them in uncomfortable positions with voters, such as an amendment to prevent tax cuts for people earning more than $1 billion, even though the bill does not include tax policy, or to reject controversial moves by Trump or Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The framework passed around 5:00 a.m. with 52-48 support mostly along party lines. Only GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted with Democrats against it, citing increased federal spending. The framework would allow Congress to spend around $340 billion, including at $175 billion for border security and $150 billion for defense. If House Republicans adopt the same plan, it would start the first phase of passing Trump’s priorities, with a separate tax bill to come later. But this blueprint is likely to become a backup plan for the House version, which is significantly larger and would include Trump’s sweeping tax proposals – and would likely necessitate big cuts to Medicaid and food programs for low-income Americans.

New York Times [2/22/2025 5:01 AM, Remy Tumin and Kate Christobek, 161405K] reports a series of violent confrontations across the United States believed to be linked to members of a fringe group known as the Zizians has left at least six people dead, including a Border Patrol agent shot in Vermont, a man stabbed in California and a couple shot in a double homicide in Pennsylvania. Seven people are currently in custody in connection with the sprawling web of crimes, which came further into view this week after three people were arrested on trespassing charges in Maryland. Law enforcement and news media reports have connected these individuals to the “Zizians,” a name for the followers of a person known as “Ziz,” who blogged about self-improvement, ethics and artificial intelligence. The group’s goals aren’t completely clear but online writings about their beliefs touch upon veganism, artificial intelligence and gender identity. The latest arrests in Maryland have brought renewed attention to the rash of cases across state lines, and prosecutors have said that they have the group’s leader in custody on trespassing and weapon charges. Legal representatives listed in court records for some of the defendants could not be immediately reached or had no comment. On Feb. 16, law enforcement authorities in Allegany County, Md., arrested Jack LaSota, 34, Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26, for an incident in Frostburg, Md., a small city about 130 miles west of Baltimore. LaSota and Zajko were accused of trespassing, obstruction, and possessing a handgun. Blank did not face the weapon charge, but was arraigned on the other charges, while Zajko was also charged with resisting arrest. They were located after a resident reported three “suspicious” people on his property who had requested to camp there for a month, according to CNN. When police arrived, two of the suspects were sitting in a box truck wearing gun belts with ammunition, The Associated Press and ABC 6 in Philadelphia reported. A search of the truck discovered a long rifle in the back and a handgun on the floorboard.

Wall Street Journal [2/22/2025 8:59 AM, Ginger Adams Otis] reports New York City has filed a lawsuit against the federal government and President Trump to reclaim $80 million for migrant expenses that the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently clawed back. The federal lawsuit, filed Friday in the Southern District of New York, names the president as well as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem among the defendants. The suit alleged that FEMA removed the money from New York City’s central treasury account on Feb. 11—seven days after it was received—and after its disbursement had been approved. “FEMA did not provide any advance notice to the city of the money grab,” the lawsuit said. “In fact, FEMA does not appear to have followed any administrative process at all.” Mayor Eric Adams’s administration argued in the suit that FEMA had abused its authority to implement congressionally approved and funded programs. “The city seeks to recoup the funds and ensure the federal government does not, again, improperly withdraw disbursed funds or hold future funds that the city is entitled to receive,” the administration said. The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The $80 million was a payment through FEMA’s Shelter and Services program, a funding stream Congress set up to help cities, states and nonprofits across the country deal with an influx of migration. It was intended to help pay for migrant housing and services. Since 2022, tens of thousands of migrants have arrived in New York. The city has spent more than $7 billion on migrant services, according to the mayor’s office. The $80 million FEMA sent was the “bare minimum” that taxpayers deserve, according to Adams. “That’s why we’re going to work to ensure our city’s residents get every dollar they are owed,” the mayor said.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/21/2025 7:10 PM, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, 161405K]
The Hill [2/21/2025 7:11 PM, Zach Schonfeld, 16346K]
Newsweek [2/21/2025 9:58 PM, Sonam Sheth and Gabe Whisnant, 56005K]

Washington Post [2/21/2025 5:33 PM, Jeremy Roebuck and Shayna Jacobs, 40736K] reports that the federal judge overseeing the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams declined to immediately grant the Justice Department’s request to drop the charges and instead appointed an outside lawyer to argue the case against it. U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho on Friday chose Paul Clement, a U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush who has typically represented conservative political causes in court, to advise him on the matter. Ho noted that “there has been no adversarial testing” of the government’s motion to abandon the Adams prosecution — a controversial decision that prompted at least eight federal prosecutors to resign in protest. Those who quit included Danielle Sassoon, the former acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York; the lead prosecutor on the case; and most of the leadership of the Justice Department’s public integrity section. The order offered the clearest sign yet that Ho harbors reservations about the government’s motives regarding the case against Adams, a recent Trump ally, and was not willing to simply rubber-stamp its request for dismissal. “Normally, courts are aided in their decision-making through our system of adversarial testing,” Ho wrote, “which can be particularly helpful in cases presenting unusual fact patterns or in cases of great public importance.” Ho’s order came as something of a surprise, given that prosecutors are typically given wide latitude over which cases they pursue or abandon.

Reported similarly:
CNBC [2/21/2025 4:32 PM, Luc Cohen, 36472K]

Washington Examiner [2/21/2025 6:19 PM, Jack Birle, 2365K] reports as Mangione’s trial looms, here is what happened in court Friday and what else to know about the case of Thompson’s murder in New York City late last year. Friday’s court appearance in the Manhattan courtroom was a status hearing for both sides and the judge. While there was a belief that a trial date may have been selected at the hearing, ABC News reported that none was set. During the hearing, Mangione’s attorneys reportedly alleged "very serious issues" with how police obtained evidence from their client. His lawyers also filed a motion to exclude some evidence that police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, obtained from him following his arrest from being used in the trial. Mangione faces 11 charges in New York over his alleged killing of Thompson on Dec. 4, 2024, outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan. He has pleaded not guilty to all state charges against him but has not yet entered a plea on federal murder charges related to the Thompson murder. The state charges include one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree. Two of the murder charges were enhanced over "intent to commit terrorism.” If convicted, the maximum penalty Mangione could face for the state charges is life in prison without the possibility of parole. His federal charges have a maximum penalty of death.

New York Times [2/22/2025 5:02 AM, Alan Feuer, 161405K] reports the decision this week by Judge Christopher R. Cooper to hand President Trump a legal victory but denounce his wrecking-ball approach to government reform showed, if nothing else, the tensions confronting the federal bench in Washington. Even as he admitted that the district courts might not always be the place to stop Mr. Trump’s bid, Judge Cooper, in a ruling issued on Thursday, acknowledged that the new administration had been marked so far by “an onslaught of executive actions” leading to “disruption and even chaos.” Chief among them, he wrote, were serial efforts to gut government agencies and slash the federal work force. Many of these proposals have landed at the feet of Judge Cooper and his fellow jurists in Federal District Court in Washington who have spent the past four years dealing with an exhausting caseload emerging from efforts by Mr. Trump and his supporters to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Now, these same judges are grappling with how to handle a different sort of power grab by Mr. Trump, sometimes halting his blizzard of executive actions and sometimes letting them move forward. “These mixed results should surprise no one,” Judge Cooper said, in what almost seemed to be a tone of somber resignation. “Federal district judges are duty-bound to decide legal issues based on evenhanded application of law and precedent — no matter the identity of the litigants or, regrettably at times, the consequences of their rulings for average people.” This frank confession came as he and the 23 other federal judges in Washington have faced a tsunami of emergency petitions in the past few weeks, arising from a complex constellation of concerns and leading to a series of hastily called hearings. The issues they have dealt with, essentially on the fly, have been mind-bogglingly varied: transgender rights, immigration policy, the status of independent agencies and the inner workings of Elon Musk’s government efficiency body. “It’s absolutely extraordinary, just on the numbers of issues being raised,” said Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge who was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton. “Then again, Washington is the seat of government. It’s where all of this stuff happens.”

Miami Herald [2/22/2025 4:12 AM, Lautaro Grinspan, 6595K] reports that, when three trained engineers from Mexico accepted opportunities to come work in Georgia as industrial engineers, they believed they had received tickets to white-collar work in the U.S. But according to a lawsuit filed in Georgia federal court, the engineering job offers were fake, and the Mexican professionals were instead asked to perform assembly line labor at a building materials plant in Calhoun. Their claim of an "employment bait-and-switch scheme" accused the operator of the Calhoun plant, LX Hausys America Inc., along with two Georgia staffing companies, of violating Georgia’s version of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO - among other infractions. Last month, a Georgia federal judge ruled the RICO claim was strong enough to survive an effort to have the case thrown out of court. "Plaintiffs have successfully alleged a RICO enterprise," wrote Magistrate Judge Regina Cannon, of the Northern District of Georgia. They "have alleged enough facts to suggest Defendants coordinated together as a continuing unit with a common purpose - specifically, to fraudulently recruit cheap labor from Mexico under the pretense of the (Trade NAFTA) visa program." The Trade NAFTA, or TN, visa is a mechanism that allows employers to fill high-skilled jobs in the U.S. with Mexican and Canadian professionals. According to a list published by the U.S. Department of State, jobs as engineers and technicians are among the professions covered by the TN visa program. Assembly line work is not. U.S. authorities vet TN visa applications and job offers before migrants travel - and when they first arrive in the country - but experts say there is no oversight of the program once migrants actually report to work. The Mexican nationals behind the suit are Sinuhe Cabrera Torres, Pedro Dominguez Balderas and Angel Manuel Santillan Sanchez. They each had between four and 14 years of work experience when they applied for the listed engineering jobs between November 2021 and the summer of 2022.

Yahoo! News [2/21/2025 12:03 PM, Presley Bo Tyler, 57114K] reports that Mardi Gras in New Orleans is considered a SEAR 1 event, which is a rating of special events based on risk-assessment, meaning that the event will receive federal interagency support. The city of New Orleans is currently preparing to make Mardi Gras safe and secure by enacting higher levels of security. In order to ensure public safety, additional law enforcement, barricades and first aid stations will be present for Mardi Gras. Concerns still linger amongst attendees after a terrorist attack killed 14 people on famous Bourbon Street on New Year’s. Since Mardi Gras is deemed a SEAR 1 event this year, New Orleans will be able to utilize more security resources, including explosive detection canine teams, cyber risk assessments, venue screening and field intelligence teams, as well as air security and tactical operations support, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The New Orleans Police Department will be deploying more officers this year, with a majority assigned to the parades and the rest will be monitoring activity outside of the parades. Also, Louisiana State Police will have an enhanced security zone in the French Quarter.

Newsweek [2/21/2025 8:03 AM, Billal Rahman, 56005K] reports Arizona Republicans have introduced a bill that would let local law enforcement agencies shoot down cartel drones suspected of trafficking drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. President Donald Trump has already signed an executive order designating Mexican drug cartels and other Latin American groups such as the Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren de Aragua (TdA) as terrorist organizations. Trump’s order states that these groups "threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.” The president has previously floated the possibility of deploying U.S. troops into Mexico to combat crime syndicates and said it "could happen.” Republican state lawmaker David Marshall’s proposal has garnered bipartisan support, and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, and the state’s top prosecutor, is backing the measure. The bill would grant authorities immunity from any potential injuries resulting from taking down unmanned drones within 30 miles of the southern border. House Bill 2733 states that a "public entity or employee is not liable for any injury caused by a peace officer intercepting, capturing or shooting an unmanned aircraft within 30 miles of the border.” "Our local law enforcement need every tool to fight back against the cartels," said Mayes. "The drones are dropping fentanyl payloads inside our state and serving as air intelligence for the cartels.” Concerns have been raised that the bill could lead to severe injuries if drones are disabled in busy areas. "This is not going to happen in urban areas, this is going to happen in the desert. That is where it is happening," said Mayes. "I believe and trust in our law enforcement to do the right thing and shoot the drones down in the appropriate location.” According to authorities, cartels often use drones to monitor law enforcement operations. These devices help cartels evade agents and smuggle drugs into the U.S. The FAA told the Arizona Mirror that it is against federal law to shoot down an aircraft. "An unmanned aircraft hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air," the FAA told Newsweek in a statement. "Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in a civil penalty from the FAA and/or criminal charges from federal, state or local law enforcement.”

Yahoo! News [2/21/2025 11:45 AM, Ed Lenderman, 57114K] reports that State Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R-San Diego) is set to join other local leaders Friday morning to announce a bill aimed at overhauling California’s sanctuary state law. The press conference is slated for 10 a.m. at the San Diego County Administration Building, located at 1600 Pacific Hwy. Jones will be joined by County Supervisor Joel Anderson, El Cajon Mayor Bills Wells, Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa), Vista Mayor John Franklin, among others. Jones is expected to announce the introduction of his new legislation, "Safety Before Criminal Sanctuary." As explained by the lawmaker, the bill would prevent local jurisdictions from passing sanctuary city measures stronger than current law. It would require law enforcement to cooperate with ICE for violent offenders and specific crimes. "My bill is a simple reform that begins to address some of the most egregious crimes that are being committed in our state by people that probably shouldn’t be here," Jones previously stated on the matter.

Los Angeles Times [2/21/2025 6:00 AM, Michael Wilner, Kate Linthicum and Patrick J. McDonnell, 57114K] reports that, in recent days, the Trump administration has ramped up CIA surveillance drone flights over Mexico, formally designated drug cartels as “foreign terrorist” groups and floated the possibility of deploying troops there to fight organized crime. Mexico is “essentially run by the cartels,” President Trump has said, insisting that the United States should “wage war” against them. No administration in modern times has taken such a militaristic approach to Mexico, a U.S. ally that Trump blames for producing the fentanyl that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. His stance upends recent U.S. policy, which emphasized beefing up the rule of law in Mexico, and stands at odds with Mexico’s security strategy, which has veered away from the sort of fierce cartel confrontations that drove record levels of bloodshed. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that she will propose a constitutional reform aimed at protecting her nation’s sovereignty — a move that comes amid growing fears of a U.S. incursion that many believe would only spark more violence. “The Mexican people under no circumstances will accept interventions, meddling or whatever other act from abroad that would be harmful to the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the nation,” she said, adding that that included “violations by land, sea, or air.” Drones flying over Mexico today are not armed with lethal capabilities. But future strikes are a possibility, according to U.S. officials. Todd Zimmerman, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s special agent in Mexico City, said in an interview that the administration’s decision this week to label drug cartels as terrorist organizations was a pointed message to their leadership that U.S. military action is on the table. “They’re worried because they know the might and the strength of the U.S. military,” he said. “They know that at any time, they could be anywhere — if it comes to that, if it comes to that — they could be in a car, they could be in a house, and they could be vaporized. They’ve seen it in the Afghan and Iraq wars. So they know the potential that’s out there.” Zimmerman said the pace of fentanyl production in Mexico has remained “relatively stable” in recent months. Still, he praised Sheinbaum for stepping up raids by the Mexican military, which he said has resulted in more drug seizures and increased pressure on the cartels.

AP [2/21/2025 12:23 PM, Staff, 30936K] reports that Mexico’s government is reviewing a petition by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime leader of the Sinaloa cartel who is jailed in the United States, to be returned to Mexico for trial, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday. The president confirmed Mexico’s consulate in New York had received the request. Sheinbaum noted that Mexico’s attorney general was already investigating the circumstances of how Zambada was arrested in the U.S. with another Sinaloa cartel leader by authorities near El Paso, Texas in July. He is awaiting trial. “No one is defending this person,” Sheinbaum said. “Beyond the person and his crimes … the issue is how he was detained.” Zambada has maintained that he was kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of former cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and flown to the United States. The Mexican government shortly after said it was opening an investigation of possible treason against those involved in turning over a Mexican citizen to foreign agents. Guzmán López was also arrested by U.S. authorities on arrival in Texas.

NBC News [2/21/2025 4:51 PM, Gabe Gutierrez and Erika Angulo, 2623K] reports that more than 2,500 Mexican troops, from the states of Tlaxcala, Durango, Yucatán and Mexico City, have fanned out along this historically violent border city in a show of force. The troops are part of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s attempt to stave off President Donald Trump’s executive order announcing tariffs on Mexican, Canadian and Chinese goods coming to the U.S., a move aimed at pressuring the three countries into stopping the flow of fentanyl and immigrants into the U.S. Trump delayed the tariffs on Mexico and Canada for 30 days, after both countries announced steps to ramp up security at their borders. In total, Sheinbaum is deploying 10,000 troops across Mexico’s border with the U.S. The White House has touted Mexico’s troop deployment as a victory. During an interview along the fence across the border from New Mexico, Mexican National Guard Maj. Alexander Vásquez Hernández attributed the drop in illegal border crossings to the amount of new personnel in the area. “The principal objective is to inhibit the trafficking of fentanyl,” he said in Spanish, adding that the deployment of troops has helped them recognize key transit points. Mexican National Guard troops have been mobilized to at least 13 cities from Tijuana to Matamoros across the nearly 2,000-mile border.

New York Times [2/21/2025 9:45 PM, Annie Correal and David Bolaños, 161405K] reports many migrants arrived in Costa Rica without even knowing where they were and were desperately seeking to reach their relatives to let them know their circumstances, according to a report released on Friday by Costa Rica’s ombudsman that sharply criticized the treatment of deportees sent by the United States. When the 135 deportees arrived at an international airport outside the country’s capital, San José, many people “expressed visible distress,” the report said. Many people in the group, which included children, did not have access to their documents, complicating the process of verifying family relationships, it said. (It was not clear if the migrants’ documents had been confiscated by American or Costa Rican authorities.) The migrants sent to Costa Rica are the latest group of deportees, largely from Asia and the Middle East, to be sent to Central America by the Trump administration, which says they illegally crossed the U.S. border. More than half of those sent to Costa Rica are from Uzbekistan, China and Armenia, according to the Costa Rican government. Costa Rica’s security minister, Mario Zamora, disputed the ombudsman office’s claims, asserting that its assessment was based on a two-hour period after the migrants landed, rather than when they reached their final destination, a facility several hours from the capital. “We do not agree with what was stated,” Mr. Zamora said in a statement. “And regret that they did not accompany the migrants on their journey south as they should have.” The ombudsman’s report was also directed at the United States, noting that the migrants said they had not been given any information about their transfer to Costa Rica, about how long they would be in the country or what “migration procedures” they were subject to. “The lack of this information increased the distress and uncertainty of these individuals,” the report said.

The New York Times [2/21/2025 4:14 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Hamed Aleaziz and Eric Schmitt, 161405K] reports the Trump administration is ramping up plans to detain undocumented immigrants at military sites across the United States, a significant expansion of efforts by the White House to use wartime resources to make good on the president’s promised mass deportations. President Trump’s team is developing a deportation hub at Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas, that could eventually hold up to 10,000 undocumented immigrants as they go through the process of being deported, according to three officials familiar with the plan. Fort Bliss would serve as a model as the administration aims to develop more detention facilities on military sites across the country — from Utah to the area near Niagara Falls — to hold potentially thousands more people and make up for a shortfall of space at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, the officials said. But the Trump administration plan would expand that practice by establishing a nationwide network of military detention facilities for immigrants who are subject to deportation. The proposal would mark a major escalation in the militarization of immigration enforcement after Mr. Trump made clear when he came into office that he wanted to rely even more on the Pentagon to curtail immigration. USA Today [2/21/2025 5:21 PM, Tom Vanden Brook, Davis Winkie, 89965K] reports the Army has begun planning to house as many as 30,000 migrant detainees on bases inside the United States, according to a Defense official. Fort Bliss in Texas would likely be the first to receive detainees, according to the official who was not authorized to disclose military planning decisions. Fort Huachuca in Arizona and other domestic bases are also being considered as sites for detainees. Officials have begun taking stock of what they’ll need for the operation, including tents and concertina wire, the official said. A second Defense official said construction is under way on the Bliss facility.

Border Report [2/21/2025 6:14 PM, Julian Resendiz, 153K] reports the thousands of troops already deployed to the border could be but the tip of the iceberg of increased cooperation between the Department of Defense and Homeland Security. DOD already provides aircraft, navigation, logistical support and analysis to enhance intelligence capabilities of DHS agencies like the Border Patrol. Military airplanes have been used for out-of-country deportation flights in recent weeks, and now there’s reports that bases across the U.S. – including Fort Bliss – will be used to detain migrants prior to deportation. On Friday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was in the El Paso area assessing the recent troop deployments and discussing future steps in cooperation with DHS in wake of executive orders from President Donald Trump to secure the border. "It was important for me to come up, particularly with the focus over the course of the past month with the executive orders from the Administration and our focus on the southwest border," Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., told reporters as he stepped off a helicopter at the Doña Ana International Jetport in Santa Teresa. Brown spoke about the use of Army aircraft, logistical support and analysis to help "take some of the pressure off" U.S. Customs and Border Protection agencies like the Border Patrol.

Yahoo! News [2/22/2025 3:59 AM, Melissa Cruz, 57114K] reports proponents of the Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation signed into law by President Donald Trump in his second term, claim that it ensures "no more innocent lives" will be lost to a broken immigration system. The law significantly expands the scope of offenses that will land an undocumented immigrant in federal custody, including petty crimes like shoplifting, theft, and larceny. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now required to indefinitely detain any undocumented person arrested or charged with such an offense, even if they are never convicted. Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, who wrote the bill after the murder of 22-year-old Athens nursing student Laken Riley, argues this will make American communities safer. But immigration advocates say that it’s this wide net, coupled with the law’s disproportionate focus on low-level offenses, that could put more people in danger. President Donald Trump speaks to Allyson Phillips, mother of Laken Riley, after he signed the Laken Riley Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, January 29, 2025. In October 2023, José Antonio Ibarra, the Venezuelan immigrant who would later be convicted of killing Riley, was arrested for shoplifting from a Walmart in Georgia. Supporters of the bill argued that local police failed to inform ICE about his undocumented status, ultimately leading to Riley’s death on Feb. 22, 2024. Local officers, however, were not required to inform ICE about his arrest because it was for a low-level offense. That wouldn’t necessarily change under the Laken Riley Act, says Nayna Gupta, policy director of the American Immigration Council. "This law is not asking state or local police to do anything differently," Gupta notes. "This is a law that specifically tells ICE to prioritize making immigration arrests against the set of undocumented people who have arrests, charges, or convictions for low-level theft offenses.” Even with the Laken Riley Act in place, the Georgia police officers who arrested Ibarra for shoplifting would not have been required to report him to ICE. The onus of immigration enforcement operations still falls to federal authorities. Now, when ICE makes large-scale arrests, agents are required to place those people in mandatory detention. They have no option for a bond hearing under immigration law. Another part of the problem could be ICE finding the capacity to hold that many people. Because of limited space, the agency might be required to release immigrants already in its custody to make space for the people swept up under the Laken Riley Act. ICE warned Congress that the Laken Riley Act could undermine public safety in December 2024, saying that if it passed, the agency anticipated that "tens of thousands of noncitizens would need to be released by the end of the fiscal year, resulting in the potential release of public safety threats.”

NBC News [2/21/2025 2:35 PM, Albinson Linares, 50804K] reports that Estrella Santos-Zacaría says there’s one thought that often terrifies her, whether she’s at home, at work or with her friends: being deported to her native country of Guatemala. "I told my lawyer: ‘You know what I think most? I’d rather die than go back there. I don’t want to leave,’" the transgender woman said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo from Los Angeles, the city where she has lived for the last year and a half. "In the place where I lived, they don’t accept me," said Santos-Zacaría, 36. Santos-Zacaría’s story gained media attention in 2023 when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in her favor, giving her another chance to argue that U.S. immigration officials were wrong in rejecting her bid to fight deportation on the grounds she’d face persecution in Guatemala. Santos-Zacaría has testified in public legal documents that she was raped and threatened with death as a teenager in her native country. "I was abused, I was raped, and I was only about 12 years old. I never told my family what happened to me, because if I spoke, that boy would kill me or someone in my family. The fear I had left me traumatized, and I said that the best thing to do was to leave," Santos-Zacaría said. Now, amid new Trump administration policies restricting immigration, amping up deportations and rescinding some legal pathways for immigrants and asylum-seekers to stay in the U.S., those arguing Santos-Zacaría’s case are worried.

Yahoo! News [2/21/2025 5:40 PM, Maria Papadopoulos, 57114K] reports a local court ignored a federal immigration detainer and released a Brazilian national and gang member convicted of assault, and he has been arrested in Bellingham, federal immigration authorities said Friday. Federal officers arrested Caio Vitor Guimaraes-Silva, 21, who is in the U.S. illegally, in Bellingham on Feb. 3, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement. He remains in federal custody. In an arrest photograph released Friday by ICE, Guimaraes-Silva is seen grinning as federal officers take him into custody. "Caio Vitor Guimaraes-Silva has not only shown a blatant disregard for U.S. immigration laws, but he also presented a significant danger to the residents of Massachusetts," ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said in a statement. "As a documented member of a violent street gang and an alien convicted of a violent crime, we could no longer abide Mr. Guimaraes’ presence in our community," Hyde said. "ICE Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing illegal alien offenders from our New England neighborhoods.”

CBS Boston [2/21/2025 6:05 PM, Tiffany Chan, 52225K] reports Suyanne told WBZ-TV that her husband, Lucas Amaral, was on his way to work as a painter when he was arrested by ICE agents on January 27. The family’s lawyer said he was mistaken for another man ICE was looking for, but when they realized Lucas was here on an expired visa from Brazil, they arrested him. He was eventually sent to the Texas border. President Trump promised mass deportations with a focus on those with a criminal history, but Lucas’ family said besides overstaying his visa, he has a clean record. A judge approved bail for Lucas, but it’s unclear when exactly he’ll return to Massachusetts.

FOX News [2/21/2025 12:01 PM, Michael Dorgan, 49889K] reports that a Cuban migrant brought a "white powdery substance" to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Florida on Thursday, leading to a security guard becoming ill and sparking an evacuation of the premises. The early morning scare took place at ICE’s Miami field office in Miramar at 7:15 a.m. when the migrant was being screened, an ICE spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Hazmat teams descended on the 145th Avenue scene and were seen dressed in splash protection suits with masks and carrying spray guns. After coming back out of the facility, they hosed each other down while sniffer dogs were also deployed. "Authorities were immediately notified, which led to a hazardous material response by Miramar Fire Rescue and Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue," an ICE statement reads, in part. "The building was evacuated and individuals were quarantined until the powder was identified." The uniformed security guard, who reportedly started feeling ill after coming in contact with the powder, was rolled out of the building on a stretcher holding his neck. It’s unclear if the guard touched the powder or fell ill due to being in proximity to it. Both the Cuban migrant and the guard were transported to a local hospital as a precaution, where they were both treated and released, ICE said.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [2/21/2025 12:19 PM, Staff, 49889K]

FOX News [2/21/2025 6:51 PM, Peter Pinedo, 49889K] reports new exclusive video obtained by Fox News reveals intense moments from a high-speed vehicle chase as law enforcement pursued two illegal immigrants suspected of carrying fentanyl through a cornfield in Grundy County, Illinois, late last year. A Grundy County official told Fox News that Illinois sanctuary state policies allowed the two Honduran illegal immigrants to travel through the county unchecked. Grundy is a primarily rural county northwest of Chicago. The footage, taken Oct. 24, shows the two immigrants, Roybin Barahona, 18, and Cristhian Anahel Erazo Velasquez, 23, swerving in a vehicle through the cornfield, and authorities rammed a vehicle into their car to get them to stop. After their car was rammed, the two men fled their sedan, and officers continued their pursuit. Footage taken later shows law enforcement discovering a deadly payload of seven pounds of fentanyl in the immigrants’ burned-out vehicle. Both were charged with controlled substance trafficking, possession with intent to deliver fentanyl and resisting arrest, according to local outlet WSPY News. Due to the Illinois SAFE-T Act, which abolished Illinois’ cash bail system in 2023, Barahona was released without bail, after which he allegedly fled to California. Velasquez, meanwhile, remains in custody, and the Department of Homeland Security has filed a detainer against him. Despite the detainer, Illinois sanctuary laws continue to prevent local law enforcement from sharing information with federal immigration officials about Velasquez.

Minnesota Star Tribune [2/21/2025 3:10 PM, Maya Rao] reports the Minnesota Star Tribune has identified at least 11 detainees who were recently moved from Kandiyohi, Sherburne and Freeborn County jails to the IAH Polk Adult Detention Facility an hour north of Houston. ICE has not responded to a request for explanation, but attorneys suggest it may be a matter of Minnesota running out of immigrant detention space as the Trump administration pushes for mass deportations and expanded jailing of undocumented residents. Nationally, ICE detention space is already over capacity with 42,000 noncitizens locked up. He confirmed that some people who appear to have no criminal record were also moved to the Texas jail to await a bond hearing, and said that some immigrants were taken from Minnesota to jails in South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa for space reasons.

Newsweek [2/21/2025 6:00 AM, Billal Rahman, 56005K] reports the owners of Abby’s Bakery in South Texas were arrested and charged with harboring individuals unlawfully present in the U.S., as well as aiding and abetting their harboring, according to a criminal complaint. The case is a rare instance of federal authorities targeting business owners for allegedly employing undocumented immigrants. 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. Homeland Security Investigations conducted a "worksite enforcement action" at Abby’s Bakery in Los Fresnos on February 12, arresting eight undocumented workers. The owners, Leonardo Baez and Nora Alicia Avila-Guel, were charged with "bringing in and harboring aliens" and "aiding and abetting the harboring of aliens," according to DHS. According to the criminal complaint, Baez and Avila-Guel admitted to knowing the individuals were illegally present in the country and acknowledged harboring them on property they owned. Two individuals who were in the country illegally identified Baez and Avila-Guel as the bakery owners and the ones who provided them and others with shelter. Los Fresnos Mayor Alejandro Flores described the situation as "frustrating" in a statement shared on Facebook. ICE said the undocumented workers found in the bakery will remain in custody until their removal. Mayor Flores said in a post: "I acknowledge the concerns regarding the presence of ICE agents at Abby’s Bakery. However, we recommend reaching out directly to ICE for any updates on this matter. As this is an ongoing issue, we are unable to speculate at this time. I do agree that this doesn’t look good, and since ICE is not putting out any statements, we are left to speculate. My prayers are with Mr. Leonardo Baez and his family during this difficult time. This is very frustrating.” A spokesperson for ICE said in a statement: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a worksite enforcement action at Abby’s Bakery in response to information or allegations received by ICE Homeland Security Investigations. Any allegation received is taken seriously and may result in an investigation. "ICE HSI is tasked with enforcing the business community’s compliance with federal employment eligibility requirements and has the responsibility to conduct comprehensive worksite enforcement initiatives targeting employers who violate employment laws. During these operations, any alien determined to be in violation of U.S. Immigration laws may be subject to arrest, detention and, if ordered removed by an immigration judge or other authority, subject to removal from the United States. Those arrested in Abby’s Bakery workforce enforcement action remain in ICE custody pending removal.” Baez and Avila-Guel remain in federal custody.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [2/21/2025 12:48 PM, Rachel Wolf and Bill Melugin, 49889K]

The Oklahoman [2/21/2025 3:47 PM, Alexia Aston, Murray Evans and Jordan Gerard] reports Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Friday the state of Oklahoma has finalized three agreements with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to grant state law enforcement agencies the authority to enforce federal immigration laws under Operation Guardian. Operation Guardian is a state initiative to deport more than 500 undocumented immigrants currently in state prisons. Through the agreements, Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers, agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and agents from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control soon will be working with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to "arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from the state." Under the agreement, ICE will delegate some enforcement authority to Oklahoma law enforcement agencies. Agencies will join ICE task forces to investigate and apprehend individuals who pose significant risks to public safety.

Newsweek [2/21/2025 12:51 PM, Billal Rahman, 56005K] reports that immigrant rights activists from the Community Self-Defense Coalition patrolled South Los Angeles on Wednesday, keeping watch for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Their goal is to alert the community to immigration enforcement activity and educate residents about their rights. "You will not come into our community without facing an organized resistance," Ron Gochez of the Union Del Barrio said at a press conference. Newsweek has contacted ICE for comment. Immigration was a key element of President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign and helped Republicans sweep to power on a national level. While large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agree that the immigration system is broken, as indicated in a recent New York Times/Ipsos poll, Americans disagree on how policies such as deportations should be carried out. A coalition of Latino, Black, Filipino and Jewish organizations in Los Angeles and throughout Southern California is alerting immigrants about ICE raids in the area. The coalition is made up of 60 groups, including Union Del Barrio, Centro CSO, the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, Black Men Build and the Los Angeles chapters of the Association of Raza Educators, Jewish Voice for Peace and Anakbayan-USA.

ABC News [2/21/2025 11:23 AM, Peter Charalambous and Armando Garcia, 33392K] reports that a federal judge temporarily blocked the deportation of eight asylum-seekers on Thursday, but the move was too late for one woman who her lawyers believe has already been deported by the Trump administration. Despite seeking asylum in the United States to escape a violent former partner, according to her legal team, the woman was sent back to Ecuador this week -- just hours before a court blocked her deportation -- where her lawyers fear she might be killed. "Plaintiff N.S. fled Ecuador to escape horrific violence and kidnapping by her former partner—a police officer who called her anti-indigenous slurs while raping her, beating her, and holding his gun to her head—and fears that he will kill her if she is removed," her lawyers wrote in a filing to the court, adding that the woman was held captive by her former partner. Her rapid removal comes as immigrant advocates raise concerns that the Trump administration is hastily carrying out deportations of migrants while disregarding their asylum claims and in spite of active litigation to stop their removals. DHS declined to comment or confirm if N.S. was deported to Ecuador. A DOJ attorney representing the case did not respond to a request for comment.

AP [2/21/2025 8:14 AM, James Pollard, 47097K] reports refugees had been arriving in the United States at levels unseen in nearly three decades, assisted by nonprofits and ordinary people across the political spectrum. More than 160,000 Americans across every state signed up to resettle newcomers through the Welcome Corps, a public-private effort launched two years ago. More than 800,000 new arrivals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ukraine and Afghanistan were also welcomed with help from financial supporters through a legal tool known as humanitarian parole. That screeched to a halt after President Donald Trump’s inauguration and his administration’s immediate 90-day suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program — a move that stranded thousands of vetted refugees, cut nonprofits’ staffing and left sponsors uneasy about the future of fledgling programs they felt had enriched their own lives. Rivly Breus is among those feeling anxious. Working from a pastel peach house in South Florida, the crisis counselor has backed the resettlement of more than 30 people from Haiti, Ukraine and Cuba. She wanted to show them how to "thrive," she said, rather than "being in survival mode all the time.” "It’s also left us in limbo because we’re not able to answer some of the questions that our sponsees have," Breus said. "We’re not able to give them the encouragement that we usually do, or the hope.” Humanitarian parole had been applied for seven decades towards migrants unable to use standard routes. The Biden administration expanded it for Ukrainians and with another program known as CHNV allowing up to 30,000 monthly entrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Migrants needed to clear security checks and have U.S.-based financial supporters. The intention was to dissuade illegal border crossings by providing two-year work authorizations, though they weren’t a path to citizenship. The State Department allowed private sponsors to ease refugees’ transition through the Welcome Corps beginning in January 2023. Groups of five or more sponsors had to secure at least $2,425 per refugee and commit to planning transportation, housing, education and employment. They could match with pre-approved applicants or name a specific refugee. "Private sponsorship means we’re not asking a government or the taxpayer to fund this," Ed Shapiro, a leading Welcome Corps funder, said in an email. "We’re saying, ‘Let us do this for our citizens, religious organizations, businesses and universities who want (or in some cases, need) to do this.’".

FOX News [2/21/2025 12:56 PM, Adam Shaw, 49889K] reports that the Trump administration has canceled an extension of deportation protections for migrants from Haiti implemented by the Biden administration, opening the door for them to be removed from the country sooner. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced that she has vacated a decision by the Biden administration to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals by 18 months in June of last year. "President Trump and I are returning TPS to its original status: temporary," Noem said in a statement. It now means that instead of ending in February 2026, TPS protections will end in August. TPS grants protection from deportation and allows work permits for nationals living in the U.S. from countries deemed unsafe for them to be returned. Republicans have been skeptical of the program, saying it has been used too broadly, with 17 countries designated by the end of the Biden administration. In a release, DHS said TPS has been "exploited and abused" and noted that Haiti had been designated for TPS since 2010. More than 520,000 Haitians were estimated to be eligible for TPS protection in July.

New York Times [2/21/2025 11:25 AM, By Hamed Aleaziz, 740K] reports that the Trump administration on Thursday cut protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the United States, putting them on track to be targeted for deportation this summer, according to government documents and an official with the Department of Homeland Security. The decision was signed this week by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and is the latest in President Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration, including people whom the Biden administration had authorized to remain in the country. The Haitians affected by the decision had been living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status, which is intended to help people in the United States who cannot return safely and immediately to their countries because of a natural disaster or an armed conflict. More than 500,000 Haitians in the United States are eligible for the status. Before he left office, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had granted them an 18-month extension of their deportation protections. On Thursday, Ms. Noem revoked that extension — meaning those protections will now expire in August instead of next February.

Newsweek [2/21/2025 2:16 PM, Billal Rahman, 56005K] reports that fears are growing within the Haitian community as thousands face deportation after President Donald Trump revoked Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants. With 500,000 people at risk of being forced back to a country plagued by political instability and gang violence, advocates warned that the move is not only inhumane but describe by some as "mass murder." Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Thursday a rollback of deportation protections and work permits for Haitian TPS holders. The protections, now set to expire in August, overturned a Biden administration decision that had extended them until February 2026. The department said that one reason for allowing the protections to expire was the inclusion of people who entered the country illegally. Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition and a Haitian immigrant, warned that the move will have dire consequences. "Sending Haitians back to Haiti, over 500,000 of them, that it is inhumane and it’s practically mass murder," Petit told Newsweek. "I have friends and family who have that status. I’ve spoken to some advocates who are community leaders who have expressed the concern that has already been growing in the Haitian community."

Yahoo! News [2/21/2025 4:29 PM, Jessica Phillips, 57114K] reports an Illinois woman pleaded guilty to marriage fraud and perjury in Greenbrier County. According to a press release, on Thursday, February 20, 2025, 27-year-old Kalee Ann Huff, of Fairbury, Illinois, pleaded guilty to marriage fraud and perjury. The press release stated that according to court documents, Huff married a foreign national in Greenbrier County on September 3, 2021. Huff revealed that she agreed to the marriage in exchange for $10,000 as part of a plan to keep the foreign national in the United States due to the upcoming expiration date of his immigration visa. Huff also admitted that after the foreign national received lawful permanent resident status, also known as a Green Card, they planned to divorce. According to the press release, Huff acknowledged that two family members living in Greenbrier County pressured her to be involved in the fake marriage scheme due tot he family needing money for household expenses. On January 29, 2025, Huff’s brother-in-law, 33-year-old Joseph Sanchez, of Fairbury, Illinois, pleaded guilty to participating in an immigration marriage fraud conspiracy. Sanchez revealed that he helped arrange the fake marriage with the intent that $5,000 would be paid once the marriage was finalized, and that the remaining $5,000 would be paid once the foreign national received a Green Card. Huff admitted that of the intended $10,000, they only received $5,000 and that she never directly received or spent the money. Huff signed a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Form I-864, Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) on October 17, 2021, and listed her address as an apartment in the White Sulphur Springs area of Greenbrier County. The announcement was made by acting United States Attorney Lisa G. Johnston, who thanked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for their work on the investigation.

CBS Miami [2/21/2025 7:26 PM, Ivan Taylor, 52225K] reports Haitian Americans in South Florida are calling on the Trump administration to reverse its decision to roll back the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) extension for more than 500,000 Haitians in the U.S., warning that deportations would send them back to dangerous and unstable conditions. "We are not criminals… we are law-abiding citizens," community members said at a press conference in Little Haiti on Friday, joined by Haitian American elected officials, activists, and attorneys. Among them was 25-year-old Tasha, a recent South Florida college graduate and TPS recipient. "I am a TPS recipient, and I am legal," she said. "Sending us Haitians back home would mean sending us back to a non-livable country.” "Both inhumane and unjust". Speakers at the press conference highlighted Haiti’s ongoing crises, including political instability, economic hardship, and the lingering devastation from past natural disasters. In response to criticism, the Department of Homeland Security defended its decision, stating: "For decades, the TPS system has been exploited and abused. For example, Haiti has been designated for TPS since 2010. The data shows each extension of the country’s TPS designation allowed more Haitian nationals, even those who entered the U.S. illegally, to qualify for legal protected status.”

New York Times [2/22/2025 3:28 AM, Patricia Mazzei, 740K] reports Republicans worked hard in recent years to court Venezuelan American voters in Florida, convinced that their party’s focus on law and order and attacks on socialism could win over the fast-growing group. Their efforts paid off in cities like Doral, west of Miami, where about 40 percent of residents are of Venezuelan origin. Many Venezuelan Americans basked in the attention and became devoted to the politicians who bestowed it on them, especially President Trump. Their admiration has mixed with surprise and hurt in recent weeks, though, after the Trump administration moved to end Temporary Protected Status, or T.P.S., for more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants in the United States, many of them in South Florida. The T.P.S. program allows migrants from certain unstable countries to live and work in the United States for a limited time; critics say it has allowed many migrants to stay indefinitely. Now, Venezuelan Americans in Doral and beyond are trying to persuade the White House to change course before the 300,000 migrants lose T.P.S. in April. Their campaign is testing just how much political currency they have with Mr. Trump and other Republicans who had treated them as a key population. On Thursday, a group of Venezuelans with T.P.S. sued the Trump administration in federal court in San Francisco over the decision to end the protection, claiming that the move was unlawful and “motivated, at least in part, by racial animus.” Two immigrant rights groups filed a similar suit on Thursday in Maryland. Channeling their constituents’ concerns, elected leaders in at least three Florida municipalities — Miami-Dade County, Miami and Doral — have passed symbolic measures in recent weeks urging the Trump administration to reverse its decision or find another way to help law-abiding Venezuelans stay legally.

FOX News [2/21/2025 11:21 AM, Rachel Wolf, 49889K] reports that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. CQ Brown is visiting the U.S.-Mexico border to assess the military’s progress in fortifying sections of the wall, the Associated Press reported on Friday. The Defense Department deployed 1,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border just two days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. More servicemembers were sent to the border earlier this month. There are approximately 9,200 U.S. troops on the border, 4,200 of whom were deployed under federal orders, according to the Associated Press. The other 5,000 are National Guard troops. The Trump administration on Wednesday designated eight gangs and cartels, including Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel and MS-13, as foreign terrorist organizations. This move expands the U.S. government’s ability to crack down on criminal organizations operating in its territory. In a public notice on the matter, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that there was a "sufficient factual basis" under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to issue the designations.

Miami Herald [2/21/2025 1:34 PM, Cady Woodall, 6595K] reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to ramp up action, and much of the impact of the new Trump administration can be seen at the southern border. ICE agents are working to apprehend people who are in the country illegally - enforcement efforts that are in line with President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to initiate mass deportations. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, in a Thursday interview with CBS News, detailed how Trump’s crackdown is already having a major impact on illegal immigration. Illegal border crossings are down 94% compared with the same period last year, he said. Banks said Trump’s executive orders have led to the drop, with agents apprehending 285 migrants per day in the last week compared with 4,800 a day at the same time in 2024. He also credited the Texas National Guard soldiers working as immigration officers. Banks told FOX News earlier this month that prosecutions have increased by more than 50%. The actions have sent a message to those who try to enter the country illegally that they will be deported, Banks said. "The greater the punishment, the larger the deterrent," he said in the CBS interview.

NBC News [2/21/2025 9:01 AM, Marlene Lenthang, 50804K] reports that a JetBlue pilot was arrested at Boston’s Logan International Airport Thursday evening on a warrant out of another state, just before a flight to Paris, officials said. Jeremy Gudorf, 33, of Ohio was detained Thursday evening by Massachusetts State Police. State police responded to a request for support from U.S. Customs and Border Protection at 8:40 p.m. Thursday, a state police spokesperson said. While conducting a "standard review" of the manifest of a Boston-to-Paris flight, CBP "identified an active North Carolina warrant lodged against a member of the flight crew who was detained." Troopers assumed custody of Gudorf and transported him to the barracks for booking. Massachusetts State Police did not disclose what charges he faced. Gudorf appeared in East Boston District Court on Friday morning, where prosecutors said he had a warrant in North Carolina for a charge of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, NBC Boston reported. His attorney told the station he has no previous criminal history and that Gudorf is aware of the seriousness of the charges and intended to appear in North Carolina to answer the warrant. Bail was set at $10,000 on the condition that Gudorf appear in North Carolina to clear the warrant by Tuesday.

Reported similarly:
CBS Boston [2/21/2025 6:21 AM, Neal Riley, 52225K]
Miami Herald [2/21/2025 12:12 PM, Clyde Hughes, 6595K]

UPI [2/21/2025 3:19 PM, Allen Cone, 1825K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 200,000 counterfeit U.S. Forever Stamps at the inland Port of Birmingham in Alabama. The counterfeit stamps from Hong Kong have a suggested retail price of $146,000, according to CBP. They had a rendering of the American flag. The confiscation date wasn’t given. The packages’ contents looked authentic but further examination revealed the stamps inside were deemed counterfeit and in violation of multiple intellectual property rights laws.

FOX News [2/21/2025 2:39 PM, Staff, 49889K] reports that Fox News correspondent Danamarie McNicholl follows along with a Customs and Border Protection Marine unit to report how they’re working to stop human trafficking. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Border Report [2/21/2025 3:54 PM, Fernie Ortiz, 153K] reports since the start of the year, border officers in El Paso have encountered more than 90 people attempting to import eggs from Mexico. On Friday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection warned border crossers to be aware that raw egg imports from Mexico are prohibited. According to a news release, CBP agriculture specialists have issued 16 civil penalties totaling almost $4,000 linked to the attempted smuggling of prohibited agriculture and food products, including raw eggs. Although not poultry, CBP officers did seize 180 rooster gaffs earlier this month at the Paso Del Norte Bridge in Downtown El Paso. The individual who had the rooster gaffs allegedly also had 7,500 Viroton animal steroid tablets. CBP seized the blades and the steroids and fined the individual $2,000. A drug-sniffing alerted CBP officers at the Ysleta Port of Entry to 64 pounds of methamphetamine on Valentine’s Day. The drugs were hidden in a 2008 Ford F-150 driven by a 32-year-old Mexican man. CBP officers removed 56 drug-filled bundles from multiple locations in the truck. The driver was turned over to the Texas Department of Public Safety to face state charges associated with the failed smuggling attempt. CBP officers also made multiple cocaine and marijuana busts this week, as well as seizing peyote cream from one traveler. During the last seven days, according to CBP, officers recorded 30 National Crime Information Center fugitive apprehensions. The NCIC targets were wanted for a variety of offenses, including assault, drugs, probation violations, and stolen vehicles. The fugitives are processed and turned over to local authorities.

CBS News [2/21/2025 8:11 PM, Jack Fink, 52225K] Video: HERE reports Democrats from North Texas disagree about whether Congress should pay back the State of Texas billions of dollars that it spent to prevent illegal immigration. The Democrats who serve in Congress oppose the request by Gov. Greg Abbott, while Democrats who serve in the Texas Legislature support the idea. Abbott has traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for $11.1 billion in reimbursement. Republican members of Congress and the state Legislature are unified in their support. Abbott argues that Operation Lone Star’s increased efforts led to a drop in migrant entries into Texas, while other southern border states saw increases. Congressional Democrats, however, attribute the decline in illegal immigration to President Biden’s changes to asylum laws and Mexico’s enhanced efforts to curb the migrant flow into the U.S. Either way, Democrats representing Texas are on different sides when it comes to the state being paid back. U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, criticized the reimbursement request. "It’s ridiculous with Elon Musk and Trump and DOGE," Veasey said. "Why in the world would they want to reimburse anyone that’s spent all of this money that’s virtually been ineffective at doing anything to stop the flow of immigration from coming across the border? Isn’t DOGE about preventing waste and fraud? Why would you give back $11 billion to the guy who’s been wasting money?".

Border Report [2/21/2025 7:16 PM, Salvador Rivera, 153K] reports the head of Tijuana’s Tourism and Conventions Committee says American tourists, especially from Southern California, continue to visit the city of Tijuana despite President Donald Trump’s border policies and rhetoric against illegal immigration. Committee chair Teresa Velázquez told reporters on Thursday they feared a backlash, but it has not materialized as visits from Americans to Northern Baja California have kept pace with previous years. "We see visits at a normal rate including tourism for real estate, medical and sports purposes, we have not seen tourism drop," she said. Velázquez believes strong ties within the San Diego-Tijuana region bond people who share a culture and traditions in spite of the border and politics. Baja California receives 28 million visitors per year and almost 60% are U.S. residents mostly from California, according to Velázquez.

Axios [2/21/2025 6:00 AM, Monica Eng, Mike D’Onofrio, Carrie Shepherd, Chrissy Suttles, 16349K] reports the TSA says you have to get your Real ID by May 7. After that date, Real IDs or valid passports will be required for domestic travel and entry into certain government facilities. The Real ID is 20 years in the making after Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005. It looks just like your driver’s license but has a symbol in the upper right corner. In Pennsylvania, it’s a gold star. You need a Real ID if: You travel on a plane in the U.S. (and don’t have a valid passport), Visit a military base, Visit a secure federal building like a courthouse. Real IDs are optional. Pennsylvanians can get a Real ID by applying online or visiting a driver’s license center or Real ID center. Here’s the full checklist of the documents you need. Only certain state driver’s license centers are able to issue Real IDs over the counter, including: Chartiers Valley Shopping Center, 1025 Washington Pike in Bridgeville. Chippewa Plaza, 2580 Constitution Blvd. in Beaver Falls. 1100 Lowry Ave. in Jeannette. Other license centers, including at 158 Point Plaza in Butler and 250 Oak Springs Road in Washington, will exclusively process REAL IDs from 10am-2pm on Feb. 24 during Real ID Days. Cost: Real IDs cost $30, then $39.50-$42.50 every four years.

Yahoo! News [2/21/2025 11:48 AM, Brady Doran, 57114K] reports that the Transportation Security Administration intercepted a Lebanon County man attempting to go through security with a gun in his pocket at a Pennsylvania airport. According to TSA, the man was cited by police on Thursday, Feb. 20, after TSA agents at Lehigh Valley International Airport intercepted a gun at the airport security checkpoint. TSA said the man, who told them he was a musician, was not ticketed to fly but had received a "gate pass" to enter the secure area of the terminal because he was scheduled to perform on that side of the checkpoint. While going through security, the man said he had forgotten to remove a loaded .380 caliber gun from his pocket, TSA said. TSA requires individuals who have already entered the checkpoint to complete the screening process. TSA officials said Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority police were notified, the weapon was confiscated, and the man was cited on a criminal charge.

CNN [2/21/2025 8:00 AM, Annie Grayer, 22417K] reports a developing Trump administration plan for deep staff cuts and drastic changes at the Federal Emergency Management Agency is raising alarm among some state officials and even Republican lawmakers, who worry that it will weaken responses to future disasters. Republicans have had trouble getting details of the administration’s plan, even as President Donald Trump has made clear his desire to eliminate the agency. He and Elon Musk have argued that it’s ineffective and inefficient, pointing to recent incidents where the agency has come under fire. Department of Government Efficiency personnel have been inside FEMA offices, meeting with agency staff and reviewing FEMA files, according to multiple sources. Trump has also created a FEMA Review Council to recommend changes to the agency. In recent days, senior officials in a key office at FEMA were given a stark mandate to submit for firing a list that includes "anyone who worked or works on climate, environmental justice, equity, DEIA," according to a copy of the email shared with CNN. "I understand this will impact the majority of our staff" the email sent to senior officials in the resiliency office at FEMA read. "I know that this feels like a shock to many of you and is an exceedingly difficult task.” FEMA is just the latest agency on DOGE’s chopping block – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters has been shut down, orders to terminate the Department of Education have been drafted and the US Agency for International Development has had its aid work around the world largely brought to a standstill. The request for cuts at FEMA comes at a time when the agency is activated around the clock, as the US is battered by year-round disasters ranging from winter wildfires to spring thunderstorms producing dangerous amounts of hail. Hurricane season used to be the agency’s biggest concern, former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN recently, but now the agency is responding to increasingly frequent climate change-fueled disasters.

Newsweek [2/21/2025 1:59 PM, Jason Lemon, 56005K] reports that some Republican lawmakers are defending the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as President Donald Trump’s administration moves to fire hundreds of the agency’s employees. Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email on Friday. FEMA plays a crucial role in responding to natural disasters, providing aid and support to affected communities across the United States. The decision to reduce FEMA’s workforce has raised concerns from some about the country’s ability to effectively manage emergency situations, particularly in states that frequently face hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters. The firings come as part of a broader restructuring effort by the Trump administration and spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk, which has cited efficiency improvements and cost-saving measures. Critics argue that the move undermines the agency’s ability to respond to crises, particularly as the country heads into another season of extreme weather events. Politico reported that some 200 FEMA employees were notified via email about the cuts, with the majority of those affected being classified as probationary staffers. This means they were either recently hired or promoted to a new role in the past year. The agency also appears to be facing further cuts, as Politico reported an email was sent out asking the agency to make a list of staff working on climate or equity-related projects.

Reuters [2/21/2025 5:42 PM, Staff, 48128K] reports New York City sued the Trump administration on Friday after the Federal Emergency Management Agency revoked $80.5 million of grants because of the city’s handling of migrants. The complaint over the February 11 clawback was filed in Manhattan federal court.

Axios [2/21/2025 6:18 AM, Jeff Weiner, 16349K] reports even a few storm seasons in Florida are enough to become an expert in hurricane jargon, from storm surge to the cone of uncertainty, to how watches differ from warnings. But for those whose homes flood, another realm of red tape and bureaucratic terminology awaits. Area residents in recent months have been receiving "substantial damage letters" from local governments, which indicate whether a homeowner has the OK to rebuild. The Tampa Bay Times rounded up guidance on these letters — what they mean, who gets them and what to do if you’ve received one. Here’s the gist. The key metric: 50%. If inspectors determine that repairing your home would cost more than half its value, they’ll deem it to be "substantially damaged." That means the home can’t simply be repaired. Rather, it must be elevated to the current floodplain (and updated to current building code standards) or demolished and replaced. This determination is made by local governments, either via contractors or their own inspectors, who rely on a FEMA estimation tool. One important factor: the high-water mark, which can indicate how badly a building flooded. The goal of this process is to prevent homes that are likely to flood again from being rebuilt as they were. You may disagree with your assessment. That’s fine; the letter’s arrival is not a final determination. If you think they’ve overestimated the cost of repairing your, home follow the instructions in the letter to seek a re-assessment. Be prepared for that new review: Gather your home’s appraisal, document the specific damage, and collect estimates on repair costs, including labor and debris disposal.

WKU Public Radio [2/21/2025 2:30 PM, Justin Hicks, 9K] reports that earlier this week, every Kentucky federal lawmaker sent a letter to the White House to urge President Trump to unlock financial aid programs for households in at least 10 counties impacted by flooding and other severe weather. They estimated at least 8,000 homes and businesses across the state were destroyed or damaged by flooding and landslides that followed heavy rains and snow in recent weeks. As of Friday morning, Trump had yet to approve the spending. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is in Washington D.C. on Friday, lobbying Trump’s administration for Kentucky households to be eligible for disaster money. Beshear previously criticized plans to eliminate FEMA, while conceding that some improvement would be welcome. "This is my number one most important job for the Commonwealth right now," he said. "To help those who have been through the worst and hopefully opening up this ability to get a little bit of financial aid." If Kentucky’s application for FEMA’s "individual assistance" program is approved, it could mean immediate grants of more than $700 for survivors and nearly $44,000 for household repairs and replacement of damaged property. Households have 18 months to apply and appeal these financial awards, but can appeal as many times as needed.

AP [2/21/2025 10:35 PM, Staff, 33392K] reports a member of the San Carlos Apache tribe was arrested Friday for allegedly starting a wildfire that destroyed 21 homes and forced hundreds of people on the southeastern Arizona reservation to evacuate, federal prosecutors said. Keanu Rudy Dude, 25, was charged with arson in the July 2024 fire that burned more than 3 square miles (7.8 square kilometers), according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona. He was arrested on an outstanding indictment issued by a federal grand jury in Phoenix. A lawyer for Dude did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment. The fire damaged power lines — causing a temporary power outage — and took a week to fully contain, authorities said. A state of emergency was declared to help members of the tribe. No one was injured in the Watch Fire, but the tribe’s chairman, Terry Rambler, described it at the time as the “most serious structural fire” on the reservation in decades. Dude will have his initial court appearance Feb. 24. Tribal officials have said he has a criminal record. No other information about Dude’s arrest or a possible motive was immediately released.

CNN [2/22/2025 4:37 AM, Kristin Chapman and Max Rego, 987K] reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom requested nearly $40 billion in wildfire recovery aid in a letter to members of Congress on Friday. At least 29 people died as a result of the raging fires in Southern California last month, with over 16,000 structures destroyed. The letter, obtained by CNN affiliate KCRA, was addressed to House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Reps. Tom Cole and Rosa DeLauro, the chair and ranking member, respectively, of the House Appropriations Committee. The aid would go toward “immediate and long-term recovery work needed to rebuild lives and properties,” according to the letter. The request includes $16.8 billion in public assistance funding, $9.9 billion for house and business repairs, $9.61 billion in business loans and grants and $2 billion in low-income housing tax credits. “The impacted communities have experienced widespread devastation and the total impact on California’s economy will take years to fully quantify,” Newsom said in the letter. Last month, Newsom signed legislation issuing a $2.5 billion relief package to California, though he said in a news conference that he expects the federal government to reimburse the state. Before leaving office in January, former President Joe Biden said the federal government would cover 100% of costs for the first 180 days of recovery. But since taking office, President Donald Trump – along with some Republican members of Congress, including Johnson – have suggested that aid to California could be conditioned on the state altering its environmental management policies. Newsom visited Washington, DC, earlier this month to meet with Trump and members of Congress regarding aid for the state’s recovery efforts.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [2/22/2025 12:50 AM, Mrinmay Dey, 48128K]

Los Angeles Times [2/21/2025 5:17 PM, Michael Wilner and Faith E. Pinho] reports the Trump administration is planning to set conditions on federal disaster assistance to Los Angeles as it rebuilds from the Eaton and Palisades fires, a top aide to the president said Friday, indicating that the California Coastal Commission would be a central target of the White House. Ric Grenell, a longtime ally to President Trump serving as his presidential envoy for special missions, said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington that "there will be conditions" to the coming aid, echoing previous warnings from both men in recent days. This week, a Trump administration official told The Times that Federal Emergency Management Agency funding for Los Angeles designated for resiliency — such as clearing overgrowth — had not been fully tapped by the mayor at the time of the fires. The federal response is currently focused on expediting regular debris removal, accelerating the Environmental Protection Agency’s hazardous debris removal process, and speeding up Angelenos’ access to their homes, the official said. The White House has no plans to conduct a full-fledged federal investigation of the local response that could help determine where to focus federal dollars, the official added, although FEMA is discussing lessons learned with local authorities. It is unclear how engaged Grenell has been on the federal disaster response, despite Trump naming him as the administration’s designated lead to the crisis during his visit to Los Angeles last month. The official said Grenell is primarily responsible for briefing the president on the progress of the response and serves as a go-between with state and local officials.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [2/21/2025 4:09 PM, Rachel Frazin, 16346K]

The Hill [2/21/2025 4:02 PM, Filip Timotija, 16346K] reports Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) has removed the city’s fire chief, Kristin Crowley, amid ongoing tensions over the handling of and response to the region’s deadly January wildfires. Crowley was removed effective immediately Friday, as Bass argued that the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) needs "new leadership." Former LAFD Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva, a 41-year department veteran, was named interim fire chief, according to Bass. Crowley said during an interview in January that in fact the city failed her department. At the time, the blazes had burned more than 37,000 acres of land and killed 11 people. Crowley was referring to the Santa Ynez Reservoir, which was empty and shut down. The wildfires, which were accelerated by strong Santa Ana winds, began on Jan. 7. They have killed at least 29 people.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/21/2025 6:23 PM, Jesus Jiménez, Adam Nagourney and Shawn Hubler, 161405K]
FOX News [2/21/2025 3:06 PM, Brie Stimson, 49889K]
USA Today [2/21/2025 4:53 PM, Ernesto Centeno Araujo, Michael Loria, 89965K]

Hawaiʻi Public Radio [2/21/2025 5:13 PM, Catherine Cluett Pactol, 91K] reports after living out of a hotel for nine months, the Hoopai ‘ohana was moved by FEMA into a house in Kahoma Village, at the edge of Lahaina’s burn zone. Up until now, the Hoopais and about 1,100 fire survivors have been provided housing at no cost through FEMA’s direct lease program. But that’s about to change. Next week, federal law requires FEMA to start charging them rent. That amount is based on fair market rent established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Like many fire survivors, Hoopai has experienced frequent and unexpected changes in FEMA case workers, leading to having to recount her story, resubmit documents and feeling unheard. FEMA said households awaiting a final decision on their rental rate are required to pay the full amount until a decision is made, and afterward, will refund the difference.

The Hill [2/21/2025 12:27 PM, Miranda Nazzaro, 16346K] reports that the U.S. Marshals Service has deputized some of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s private security detail, giving them specific rights and protections of federal law enforcement agents, multiple outlets reported Friday. Concerns for Musk’s safety have ramped up in recent weeks as the Tesla CEO faces mounting scrutiny over carrying out President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts at various federal agencies. DOGE’s work has led to mass layoffs of federal workers, closures of entire independent agencies and access to sensitive information. The DOJ, White House and Secret Service did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment. Despite his closeness to the White House, Musk does not have a U.S. Secret Service security detail, limiting his personal detail’s abilities. With the deputation of some of his security members, they can carry weapons on federal grounds and if an issue occurred with the detail, the Marshals Service could be held legally liable, CNN reported Friday.

Yahoo! News [2/21/2025 6:25 PM, Jillian Smith, 57114K] reports the former leader of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police for assault on Friday. Enrique Tarrio is accused of assaulting a woman who was protesting the release of him and other Jan. 6 rioters, thousands of whom were pardoned by President Donald Trump on his first day in office. Tarrio and others who were pardoned for crimes stemming from the Capitol insurrection, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, had just finished up a press conference on Capitol grounds Friday when the incident happened. According to USCP, around 2:30 p.m., officers witnessed a counter-protester put her phone close to Tarrio’s face while they were both walking near the Capitol following the press conference that had ended "without incident," police said. USCP officers reported seeing Tarrio smack down the woman’s cellphone and hit her arm. She then told police she wanted to press charges. Tarrio was taken into custody and video of the arrest quickly began circulating on social media. He has been charged with simple assault. Enrique Tarrio was the leader of the group the Proud Boys. The organization is a group of self-described "Western chauvinists" who adamantly deny any connection to the racist "alt-right." They say they are "anti-political correctness" and "anti-white guilt."

CBS News [2/21/2025 6:42 PM, Staff, 52225K] Video: HERE reports employees with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are awaiting more possible layoffs. Some security experts fear this could make the U.S. vulnerable to bad actors. CBS News election law expert and political contributor David Becker explains.

Wall Street Journal [2/22/2025 4:59 AM, Vicky Ge Huang] reports Bybit, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, said Friday that a hacker took control of one of its digital wallets holding ether and transferred all the tokens to an unidentified address. The attack resulted in more than $1.4 billion worth of ether stolen, according to security researcher ZachXBT and blockchain analytics firm Certik. It is also the biggest crypto heist of all time, Certik said. Ben Zhou, chief executive of Bybit, said the exchange can cover the loss. Crypto exchanges are tempting targets for hackers. Unlike stock exchanges, which facilitate trading but don’t actually hold securities on behalf of investors, many crypto exchanges charge fees for storing cryptocurrencies for their customers. As a result, they have repeatedly suffered thefts in which hackers extract customers’ funds from the exchanges’ crypto wallets in the hope of cashing out.

New York Times [2/21/2025 9:30 AM, Cade Metz, 161405K] reports that OpenAI said on Friday that it had uncovered evidence that a Chinese security operation had built an artificial intelligence-powered surveillance tool to gather real-time reports about anti-Chinese posts on social media services in Western countries. The company’s researchers said they had identified this new campaign, which they called Peer Review, because someone working on the tool used OpenAI’s technologies to debug some of the computer code that underpins it. Ben Nimmo, a principal investigator for OpenAI, said this was the first time the company had uncovered an A.I.-powered surveillance tool of this kind. “Threat actors sometimes give us a glimpse of what they are doing in other parts of the internet because of the way they use our A.I. models,” Mr. Nimmo said. There have been growing concerns that A.I. can be used for surveillance, computer hacking, disinformation campaigns and other malicious purposes. Though researchers like Mr. Nimmo say the technology can certainly enable these kinds of activities, they add that A.I. can also help identify and stop such behavior. Mr. Nimmo and his team believe the Chinese surveillance tool is based on Llama, an A.I. technology built by Meta, which open sourced its technology, meaning it shared its work with software developers across the globe.

Newsweek [2/21/2025 5:07 PM, Gabe Whisnant and Dan Gooding, 56005K] reports that three people were fatally shot Friday afternoon outside a driver’s license office in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) reported the shooting occurred around noon at the Driver Licensing Regional Office on Dixie Highway, just north of Interstate 265. Newsweek reached out to the office of Louisville’s mayor and the Kentucky Department of Vehicle Regulation for comment via email Friday afternoon. Recent LMPD data showed there had been 25 non-fatal shootings in the city so far in 2025, down 42 percent on the same period last year, with 13 incidents in February alone. The department recorded 10 fatal incidents, down around 44 percent on the year before. LMPD said on X, formerly Twitter, that officers were called to the shooting at 12:00 p.m. ET. Officers found two women and one man who had been shot in the parking lot, with the man pronounced dead at the scene. The women were taken to a nearby hospital, where they died from their injuries. As of 1:50 p.m. ET, police said there were no known suspects. LMPD said its investigation remained active as of Friday afternoon. The victims had not yet been named.

Wall Street Journal [2/22/2025 12:11 AM, Nancy A. Youssef] reports the Trump administration fired the military’s highest-ranking officer, the admiral leading the Navy, and several other senior Pentagon leaders in a massive shake-up of the top ranks of the armed forces. The firings began with an announcement by President Trump on Friday that he had removed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., and was nominating a retired three-star general to succeed him. Shortly after Trump’s Truth Social post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was ousting Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy and to be on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. James Slife, the vice chief of staff for the Air Force. Hegseth also said he was planning to replace the top uniformed lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force. The firings were an unprecedented move to replace top uniformed officers in several branches of the armed services by an administration that has accused the Pentagon of failing to focus on its core war-fighting mission. While some firings at the Defense Department were anticipated, the moves caused shock waves at the Pentagon nonetheless and raise questions about what the moves portended, both for the commander in chief’s control of the military and for the careers of other generals and admirals the administration has criticized. “I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a post on X: “Purging these highly dedicated, decorated military leaders—based on politics, not merit—does immediate immense & lasting damage to the readiness of our armed forces & national defense.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said, “President Trump, like every president, deserves to pick military advisers that he knows, trusts and has a relationship with.”

MeriTalk [2/21/2025 1:59 PM, Andrew Rice, 31K] reports that the Senate voted on Thursday by a margin of 51 to 49 to confirm President Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel to become the next director of the FBI. The nomination follows fierce partisan fighting over Patel’s character, qualifications and past comments. The Senate moved forward with the confirmation vote after a filibuster by Senate Democrats to delay the nomination was ended Thursday morning. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted against Patel’s nomination, breaking with many Senate Republicans. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted in favor of Patel’s nomination in a break from his recent opposition to some of Trump’s appointees including Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. Senate Judiciary Committee members showed partisan divides over Patel’s nomination when they clashed fiercely in 12 to 10 vote on Feb. 13 that moved Patel’s nomination on to the Senate floor. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Patel’s nomination marked an opportunity for the FBI to root out corruption and reduce political biases.

FOX News [2/21/2025 11:36 AM, Jamie Joseph, 49889K] reports that ahead of his swearing-in as FBI director on Friday, Kash Patel laid out his top priorities for the agency in a letter to subordinates obtained by Fox News Digital, vowing to bolster the bureau’s resources and "rebuild the American people’s trust in the FBI." "I am honored to have been nominated and confirmed as your new Director," Patel wrote to colleagues. "While I’m new to the Bureau’s ranks, I’ve spent my career in government service and the past decade in national security, working shoulder to shoulder with the FBI and many of its partners throughout the law enforcement and intelligence communities. My commitment has always been — and always will be — to pursuing justice and upholding the rule of law, and I look forward to continuing that commitment alongside all of you." Patel also reiterated that keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad, is a "no-fail mission" that the FBI must continue to support in the coming months. The letter continued, "As I take on this new role, my priorities for our organization are twofold. First is to provide you with the tools and resources you need to keep our communities safe. This will include streamlining our operations at Headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation and collaborating even more closely with our essential partners in state and local law enforcement.

New York Times [2/22/2025 3:28 AM, Isabella Kwai, Christina Anderson and Johanna Lemola, 740K] reports the European Union vowed on Friday to increase security in the Baltic Sea as the Swedish authorities said they were investigating a new cable break, the latest example of damage to underwater infrastructure in the region. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said it would take new steps to prevent and detect threats to submarine cables, which carry internet traffic and transmit electricity. The severing of several undersea cables in the Baltic Sea in recent months has raised concerns that Russia is using the moves to retaliate against NATO countries that have supported Ukraine. Alliance officials have pointed to Russia as a possible culprit, but have said that it is difficult to prove. “We want to make sure Europe is equipped not only to prevent and detect sabotage to cables, but also to actively deter, repair and respond to any threat to critical infrastructure,” said Henna Virkkunen, the European Union official who announced the initiative. The recent episodes were of “great concern,” she said, adding that the bloc was taking “decisive action” to protect the cables. The measures, which the bloc said would be rolled out over the next two years, would bolster security and threat-detection in the region, and prioritize funding for new cables. The measures also strengthened enforcement of sanctions and diplomatic measures against what were termed hostile actors and the “shadow fleet.” NATO has also stepped up its military presence in the area with a new patrol and surveillance operation, called Baltic Sentry, aimed at protecting infrastructure in the sea. A spokesman for the Swedish police, Mathias Rutegard, declined to comment on the ownership of the latest damaged cable, but it appeared to be the C-Lion1, a major telecommunications line that runs between Finland and Germany, after its Finnish owner, Cinia, said on Friday that it had detected damage. The cable connects the telecommunications networks of Central Europe to the Nordic countries. The company said in a statement that the damage was minor and that telecommunications were transmitting as normal, but this would be the third time in recent months that the C-Lion1 had been damaged. It was unclear what had caused the damage. The authorities in Finland said on Friday that they were investigating after the rupture of a sea cable had been discovered two days earlier.

Washington Post [2/21/2025 9:03 PM, Michael Birnbaum, 40736K] reports the Trump administration and the Ukrainian government were nearing a deal Friday to hand Ukrainian mineral resources over to the United States in exchange for continued security assistance, a person familiar with the negotiations said, potentially easing President Donald Trump’s days of attacks against the embattled country and its leadership. Both Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that they were making progress in their discussions after the Ukrainian leader last week initially declined a demand from the Trump administration that he hand over half of Ukraine’s mineral resources to the United States. The request shocked the Ukrainians, officials said, because the potential value of the resources far exceeded that of U.S. assistance. The progress being made toward a deal underscored the way in which Trump has quickly reshaped Washington’s role in the world by shifting U.S. power toward winning deals from other nations rather than acting to uphold alliances or pushing back on efforts to redraw boundaries by force. Trump this week called the democratically elected Zelensky a “dictator,” blamed Ukraine for starting the war even though Russia invaded unprovoked, and expressed respect toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has imprisoned, exiled and killed his opponents since gaining power 25 years ago. “I’ve had very good talks with Putin, and I’ve had not such good talks with Ukraine,” Trump said Friday ahead of a meeting with governors. “They don’t have any cards, but they play it tough.” Trump’s Ukraine envoy, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, left the country Friday after days of discussions in Kyiv. Kellogg has been far more sympathetic to Ukraine and Zelensky, and on Friday wrote on X that he had “extensive and positive discussions with [Zelensky], the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war and his talented national security team.”

Newsweek [2/22/2025 5:56 AM, Jordan King, 56005K] reports U.S. negotiators have reportedly threatened to cut off Ukraine’s access to Starlink if an agreement on minerals cannot be reached. This is according to "three sources familiar with the matter" who spoke to Reuters. Newsweek has contacted Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and SpaceX, which owns Starlink, via email, for comment. Starlink provides crucial internet connectivity to Kyiv and its military. There are around 42,000 Starlink terminals in operation across hospitals, businesses and the military in Ukraine, according to The Kyiv Independent. "Losing Starlink would be a game changer," Melinda Haring, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, told Reuters. Tensions exist between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Most recently, Zelensky rejected a proposal made by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that would give American companies 50 percent ownership of Ukraine’s rare earth mineral deposits as a way to pay the country back for its military aid. Zelensky declined to sign the deal, arguing that it was too focused on U.S. interests and lacked provisions that would help deter future Russian aggression, The Associated Press reported. "I didn’t let the ministers sign a relevant agreement because in my view it is not ready to protect us, our interest," Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference. On top of this, the U.S. and Russia have held peace talks without Ukraine in Saudi Arabia, Zelensky has said Trump is influenced by Russian disinformation and Trump has called Zelensky a "dictator without elections.”

The Wall Street Journal [2/22/2025 3:59 AM, Feliz Solomon and Dov Lieber] reports Hamas began releasing a group of living hostages on Saturday who are the last to be freed under the first phase of a fragile cease-fire with Israel, adding to pressure for the sides to start negotiations geared toward permanently ending the war in Gaza. The militant group set free two men in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Avera Mengistu, 38, an Ethiopian-born Israeli, was taken captive in 2014 after crossing into Gaza on his own. Tal Shoham, 40, was kidnapped along with several relatives from Kibbutz Be’eri where he was visiting his wife’s family. Both Mengistu and Shoham were led onto a stage with two Hamas militants holding them from under their arms. Shoham spoke briefly but was inaudible due to weather conditions, and they were both quickly handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross after being forced to pose for pictures in front of large banners celebrating Hamas’s attacks on Israel. The Red Cross handed them over to Israeli forces. At a separate location in Gaza, Hamas set the stage to hand over four more hostages to the Red Cross, which was facilitating their release. They include Hisham Al-Sayed, 37, a Bedouin-Israeli who has spent around a decade in captivity. The other three hostages set to be released at this location are Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, all of whom were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023. With Saturday’s handover, in which Hamas is to free six living male hostages in exchange for the release of a group of Palestinians detained in Israel, the first phase of the weekslong truce will near its end. No more living hostages are expected to be freed until phase two of the deal begins, putting pressure on Israel to move forward with talks and secure their release. “It’s very emotional to see them reunited with their families, but it also always makes me think about the people who are not coming home and the need to bring them home as soon as possible,” said Ayelet Naaman, who brought her two sons, ages 9 and 5, to a plaza in Tel Aviv known as Hostage Square to watch a broadcast of the exchange. “It’s been a long time coming, I think too long, it should have happened a long time ago.” NPR [2/22/2025 4:39 AM, Kat Lonsdorf, Hadeel Al-Shalchi, 11K] reports that this comes two days after Hamas returned the bodies of four Israeli hostages, one of which was supposed to be Shiri Bibas, a mother who was 32 years old at the time of her kidnapping. Israeli forensic testing showed that those remains were in fact that of an unidentified woman. On Friday, Hamas returned a second body, which Israeli authorities confirmed was that of Bibas. Tal Shoham, 40, who was taken hostage from the Kibbutz Be’eri, and Avera Mengistu, 39, were released from the southern city of Rafah. Under a light drizzle of rain and to the chants of "God is Great," masked Hamas militants led the hostages one by one to a stage, where Shoham made a small speech. The other four hostages expected to be released Saturday in a separate ceremony at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza were Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; Omer Wenkert, 23 and Hisham Al-Sayed, 36. Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli man, and Sayed, a Bedouin Arab citizen of Israel, have been in captivity for around a decade after they crossed into Gaza on their own in separate incidents. The other four hostages were all taken in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Cohen, Tov and Wenkert had been at the Nova music festival when the attack began. Shoham had been with his family, most of whom were also taken hostage to Gaza but were released in an earlier deal. In exchange for the hostages released today, along with the bodies of four hostages returned earlier this week, Palestinian authorities expect Israel to release more than 600 prisoners and detainees. Those expected to be released include prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, but also many — including women and minors — who had been held in administrative detention without charge or sentencing. More than 400 are Palestinians who were detained in Gaza during the war, and will be released in the southern city of Rafah. In total, it’s the largest number of Palestinians freed at one time during this war.

Wall Street Journal [2/22/2025 4:04 AM, Anat Peled and Rory Jones] reports that, at Tel Aviv’s makeshift Hostage Square, a clock counts the days, hours, minutes and seconds that Hamas has held captives since its attacks in October 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza. The ticker now reads more than 500 days but still doesn’t reflect the time that Hamas’s longest-held Israeli hostage has spent in the enclave. Avera Mengistu, a 38-year-old Israeli of Ethiopian descent, has spent more than 3,800 days in captivity since crossing over to Gaza over a decade ago. He was released under the Gaza cease-fire deal on Saturday. For Mengistu’s family and the Ethiopian community in Israel, it marks a joyous moment of relief. But it is also a bitter reminder of how their efforts to free him failed to capture the public’s attention or force the government to strike a deal for his freedom. In the end, it took the capture of around 250 people in the Oct. 7 attacks—and the subsequent war in Gaza—to create the conditions for the return of Mengistu and another hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, 37, an Israeli Bedouin from southern Israel who also has been held for nearly a decade. Both men suffer from mental illness, according to their families, and crossed into Gaza of their own accord but weren’t stopped by the military. They both come from disadvantaged communities, and critics of the Israeli government say that is why it didn’t reach a deal to bring them home earlier. The plight of Mengistu, in particular, has become a symbol for Israelis of Ethiopian descent of their marginalized position in Israeli society. Many members of the community were airlifted from Ethiopia decades ago, in a series of daring operations to shield them from civil conflict in East Africa. “He could have been brought back home much earlier,” Pnina Tamano-Shata, an Israeli lawmaker of Ethiopian descent who has been in touch with the family over the years, said of Mengistu. “He was abandoned.” A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment on why negotiations to free Mengistu and Sayed failed previously. The pair are part of the final group of six living captives to be freed in the first phase of the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The current truce came together after 15 months of fighting and amid growing pressure from Israelis to free the Oct. 7 hostages.

Washington Post [2/22/2025 2:00 AM, Mohamad El Chamaa, Suzan Haidamous and Abbie Cheeseman, 40736K] reports that, as Hezbollah prepares to hold an elaborate funeral Sunday for its slain leader Hasan Nasrallah, the group he led for more than 30 years is struggling with a looming financial crisis after traditional supply lines of money from Iran have been severed. The United States, Israel and the new rulers of Syria, who overthrew Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the longtime Hezbollah ally, have clamped down on the Lebanese militant group’s sources of funding and weapons, analysts said. The financial straits come at a time when Hezbollah is under pressure to compensate and provide support to constituents disgruntled with the slow pace of reconstruction after their villages and neighborhoods were damaged in the group’s recent war with Israel. The World Bank said in a preliminary report in November that the conflict cost Lebanon an estimated $8.5 billion in physical damage and economic losses. “Restricting Iranian flows has put the group in a challenging position” said Sam Heller, a nonresident fellow at the Century Foundation. The war in Lebanon began after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and intensified in September, ultimately dealing Hezbollah a series of withering blows and diminishing its once powerful role in the Lebanese government. Israeli airstrikes wiped out a generation of senior Hezbollah leaders, including Nasrallah. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November amounted to another setback for the group, requiring it to withdraw fighters and arms from southern Lebanon. And in December, with Assad’s ouster by Syrian rebels, Hezbollah was denied a transit route through Syria for resupply from Iran. At home, Hezbollah has been increasingly sidelined by its political opponents, who have capitalized on the group’s setbacks. The group was unable to prevent the election of President Joseph Aoun, the former Lebanese army commander and the United States’ preferred candidate. And Hezbollah could not stop the nomination of Nawaf Salam, a former judge at the International Court of Justice, as prime minister. Both of these Lebanese leaders have signaled that the state should have a monopoly over weapons, meaning Hezbollah should not remain an independent armed force. For the first time in years, Hezbollah and its political allies were not able to secure more than a third of the seats in cabinet, which under the Lebanese constitution is what’s required to take major decisions or force a governing coalition to resign.

FOX News [2/22/2025 6:00 AM, Benjamin Weinthal, 49889K] reports after President Donald Trump announced he was reimposing his maximum economic sanctions pressure campaign on the Islamic Republic of Iran, a high-level Iranian general declared Thursday his nation will wage an attack designed to obliterate Israel. Tehran’s rogue regime launched two massive aerial attacks against the Jewish state, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, in 2024. According to Iranian regime media outlets, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Ebrahim Jabbari said, "Operation True Promise 3 will be carried out at the right time, with precision, and on a scale sufficient to destroy Israel and raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground.” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar fired back at Jabbari’s threat on X, saying, "If the Jewish people have learned anything from history, it is this: if your enemy says his goal is to annihilate you - believe him. We are ready.” Tom Gross, a Middle East expert, told Fox News Digital, "The Israeli foreign minister is right, of course. Genocidal threats from Iran need to be taken seriously. If previous threats by Iran and its Hamas terror allies had been taken more seriously, the Oct. 7 onslaught might have been prevented.” Jabbari’s remarks seem to also be aimed at setting up a showdown between Trump and Iran’s regime. Jabbari made his declaration to destroy Israel when he spoke to paramilitary forces during military drills called "The Great Exercise of Prophet Mohammad’s Power.” "The United States can do nothing against Yemen," Jabbari said in an apparent reference to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen.

Washington Examiner [2/21/2025 6:26 PM, Christian Datoc, 2365K] reports President Donald Trump took two separate executive actions Friday that seek to boost foreign investments in American manufacturing and shield American companies from overseas taxes. The Washington Examiner reviewed draft fact sheets the White House plans to circulate after the president signs the actions, both of which appear to build on and expand his overarching tariff agenda. The first action, a national security presidential memorandum, will simultaneously stand up a "fast-track" process to approve foreign investments in domestic manufacturing, "with conditions that prevent investors from partnering with our foreign adversaries in corresponding areas.” The White House says the fast track will include expediting environmental reviews for foreign investments over $1 billion. The Friday evening action caps off a whirlwind first month of Trump’s second presidency where he signed more than 100 executive actions, memos, and proclamations. The offensive executive strategy had swept up everything from shrinking the federal government, banning transgender athletes in women’s sports, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and imposing new taxes on foreign imports.

Newsweek [2/21/2025 1:15 PM, Micah McCartney, 56005K] reports that China said Friday it had expelled Philippine aircraft from a contested part of the South China Sea. Newsweek has reached out to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs by email with a request for comment. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said the planes were intercepted over the Spratly Islands, an archipelago claimed entirely by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan, and partially by Malaysia and Brunei. China dredged an estimated 3,000 acres across seven artificial islands between 2013 and 2015 and is believed to have fully militarized at least three. China’s growing presence within the Philippines’ maritime zone has fueled tensions in the long-running territorial dispute with Manila, a U.S. treaty ally. The U.S. Army deployed a Mid-Range Capability (MRC) missile system, also known as Typhon, in the Philippines last April for war games, but both countries decided to keep it there indefinitely, which China denounced as a "highly dangerous move." In January, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. demanded China stop its aggression in the South China Sea in exchange for the removal of Typhon. PLA Southern Theater Command spokesperson Tian Junli stated that three Philippine turboprop planes—two Cessna 208s and a Nomad N-22, "illegally entered the airspace near China’s Nansha Islands," using Beijing’s term for the Spratlys.

Wall Street Journal [2/22/2025 9:12 AM, Austin Ramzy] reports Chinese navy vessels carrying out exercises off Australia’s eastern coast drew complaints and concern on Friday after the ships said they would be performing live-fire drills, in the latest example of the Chinese military’s ability to operate increasingly far from home. The group of three Chinese ships had been sailing near Australia for more than a week, monitored in recent days by the Australian and New Zealand navies. When the ships announced live-fire exercises, commercial aircraft flying across the Tasman Sea, the body of water between Australia and New Zealand, had to quickly reroute to avoid the area. “This was very disconcerting for the planes that were flying,” Richard Marles, Australia’s defense minister, said in an interview Friday with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “But they were able to divert,” he said. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Chinese drills posed no imminent risk of danger to Australians. China’s military is gaining in size and strength, and seeking to increase its ability to project power far from home. That has stirred concerns in countries where it has made its presence newly felt, such as the U.S., where joint Russian and Chinese air and sea patrols have approached Alaska. New Zealand Defense Minister Judith Collins called the Chinese patrol a wake-up call for her country. The drills were “the most significant and sophisticated we have seen this far south” from the Chinese navy, she told Radio New Zealand on Friday. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she raised “Australia’s expectations around safe and professional military conduct” during a meeting on Friday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a Group of 20 summit in South Africa. “We do have concerns about the transparency associated with this and the notice” of live-fire drills, she told Australia’s national broadcaster, ABC, on Friday.

{End of Report} RETURN TO TOP