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 [2/25/2025 8:53 PM, Hamed Aleaziz and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 145325K] reports the Trump administration said on Tuesday that it planned to make undocumented immigrants age 14 or older in the United States register and provide their fingerprints to the U.S. government or potentially face criminal prosecution. The announcement by the Department of Homeland Security is a drastic escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to push millions of immigrants in the country illegally to leave on their own. Administration officials have repeatedly implored such immigrants to depart. Now they are adding an implicit threat. “President Trump and Secretary Noem have a clear message for those in our country illegally: Leave now,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “If you leave now, you may have the opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American dream.” In a Fox News interview on Tuesday, Ms. Noem said the migrant registry plan was part of an effort to “use every single tool at our disposal to do exactly what President Trump promised the American people.” Migrants who do not register could face criminal or civil penalties, including fines. The Washington Post [2/25/2025 11:09 PM, Maria Sacchetti, 31735K] reports "The Trump administration will enforce all our immigration laws — we will not pick and choose which laws we will enforce," DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "We must know who is in our country for the safety and security of our homeland and all Americans.” Registration dates to the 1940s and is codified in the Immigration and Nationality Act. The law requires immigrants 14 and older to register and be fingerprinted within 30 days of arrival, if they had not done so already. Parents must register children. Anyone who fails to register could face misdemeanor charges, DHS said Tuesday. Among those who must register are people who sneaked over the border and visitors from Canada and elsewhere who entered the United States and were not issued evidence of registration. DHS said it would soon announce a process for immigrants to register online. The registration requirement will send an immediate chill through communities whose members are already paralyzed by fear of being arrested and deported, advocates for immigrants said. The new program could lead to a "nationwide show-me-your-papers regime" that could ensnare U.S. citizens and legal immigrants, Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, warned in an interview. The AP [2/25/2025 10:04 PM, Rebecca Santana, 24727K] reports "An alien’s failure to register is a crime that could result in a fine, imprisonment, or both," the statement said. "For decades, this law has been ignored — not anymore.” On its website, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service said it would soon create a form and process for registration. In one of his 10 inauguration day executive orders related to immigration, President Donald Trump initially outlined plans for creating a registry and required that Homeland Security "immediately announce and publicize information about the legal obligation of all previously unregistered aliens in the United States to comply.” It was not immediately clear how many people living in the country illegally would voluntarily come forward and give the federal government information about who they are and where they’re living. But failure to register would be considered a crime, and the administration has said its initial priority target for deportation is people who’ve committed crimes in the U.S. Reuters [2/25/2025 6:54 PM, Jasper Ward, 41523K] reports that all immigrants over the age of 14 who were not fingerprinted or registered when applying for a U.S. visa and who remain in the United States for 30 days or longer are required to register and be fingerprinted, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website where immigrants can register. Once an immigrant has registered and been fingerprinted, the Department of Homeland Security will issue evidence of registration, which must be carried by immigrants over the age of 18 at all times, according to the website. On his return to office last month, President Donald Trump declared illegal immigration at the Mexico border a national emergency and directed the department to ensure that immigrants register with the federal government. The administration has sought to shut down the previous Biden administration’s CBP One entry program, which had allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the U.S. legally by scheduling an appointment on an app.

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The Wall Street Journal [2/25/2025 9:19 PM, Tarini Parti and Annie Linskey] reports President Trump said Tuesday that he would allow wealthy individuals to pay $5 million for a “gold card” that would grant them permanent U.S. residency, ending an existing program that offers green cards to people who invest in the country. “Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card, they’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We think it’s going to be extremely successful.” Trump said the new program, which he hopes to roll out in the coming weeks, would eventually provide a pathway for full citizenship. Companies such as Apple could pay $5 million to get approval for highly skilled workers to reside in the U.S., Trump said. The president estimated that the U.S. could sell one million or more “gold cards.” The new “gold card” system would replace the EB-5 program, which was launched in the 1990s to channel foreign investment into economically marginalized areas and create local jobs. It offers green cards to people who invest at least $900,000 or $1.8 million—depending on the area—into qualified U.S. projects and show that they have created at least 10 jobs. Spouses of investors and their children under 21 also get green cards. The program has been plagued by cases of fraud, though it also enjoys strong bipartisan support from states, such as New York, that have benefited from the program. Under EB-5, each country gets no more than 7% of the program’s 10,000-visa annual quota, which creates long backlogs for countries with large numbers of applicants, especially China. Congress reauthorized the program for five years in 2022, tightening the criteria for the program. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who joined Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday, criticized the EB-5 program, pointing to past instances of fraud. Lutnick said people who apply for the “gold card” would be vetted. “We’re going to make sure they are wonderful world-class, global citizens,” Lutnick said, adding that the administration would use the proceeds from the program to reduce the deficit. Asked if a Russian oligarch would be eligible for the “gold card,” Trump said “possibly.” “I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” he said. With Lutnick laughing next to him, Trump added, “They’re not as wealthy as they used to be.” The Hill [2/25/2025 5:41 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12829K] reports t "It’s going to give you green card privileges plus its going to be a route to (American) citizenship, and wealthy people would be coming into our country by buying this card," Trump said, adding that details about the scheme will come out in two weeks. CNN [2/25/2025 10:01 PM, Michael Williams and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, 908K] reports "They’ll have to go through vetting, of course," Lutnick said, "to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens.” Created by Congress in 1992, the EB-5 program can grant green cards to immigrants who make a minimum investment of least $1,050,000, or $800,000 in economically distressed zones called targeted employment areas, to create jobs for American workers, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website. Businesses connected to Trump and his family have also made use of the program to fund major property developments. The program drew bipartisan criticism from lawmakers in Congress during Trump’s first term, with many warning that it had deviated from its goals and was in need of reform. The Trump administration in 2019 moved to raise the minimum investment amount for targeted economic areas to $900,000, and $1.8 million in other locations, but a federal judge struck down the change in 2021, finding that the acting Homeland Security secretary who authorized the rule had not been properly appointed. The program was last renewed in 2022 during the Biden administration, with the minimum investment requirements being raised to their current levels. The Washington Post [2/25/2025 11:43 PM, Marianne LeVine, 31735K] reports that the Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the new initiative will begin in two weeks and will reduce the federal deficit. The president shared few details on requirements, aside from the $5 million payment, but said those who buy the gold cards will be given green-card privileges and "a route to citizenship.” Immigration experts expressed skepticism that the Trump administration could enact the change without Congress, though the president insisted he could do so unilaterally because he was "not doing citizenship." Green-card holders can apply for citizenship after at least five years or at least three years if married to a U.S. citizen. Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, said that only Congress can end the EB-5 visa program for investors that Trump and Lutnick want to replace. Chishti said the announcement marked a shift for Trump politically from his first administration.

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The Wall Street Journal [2/25/2025 5:53 PM, Mariah Timms and Michelle Hackman] reports a federal judge in Seattle ordered the Trump administration to restart the refugee-admissions program that legally resettles people from across the globe, which the president had ordered shut down on his first day in office. U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead issued the injunction Tuesday. The judge, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, hasn’t yet issued a written ruling, and the injunction will remain in place for now while the legal case continues. During a court hearing, he said President Trump had acted outside his authority by shutting down the program completely, according to Linda Evarts, senior supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project, which represents some of the groups that brought the lawsuit. Before leaving office, Biden had set up the program to take in as many as 125,000 refugees this year. Trump halted the refugee-admissions program through an executive order on his first day in office, part of a series of immigration actions meant to shut down the southern border and increase arrests of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Three national and local refugee-serving agencies, along with nine individuals, sued earlier this month to challenge the order pausing the program. They argued that the order overstepped the president’s authority in an area typically controlled by Congress. The plaintiffs asked the court to immediately reinstate the program’s funding, citing concerns that refugees already scheduled for assistance would be harmed by remaining in dangerous situations. Tuesday’s decision is the latest legal setback for the Trump administration, which has faced court challenges to the flurry of orders it has moved to implement since taking office just over a month ago. The New York Times [2/25/2025 6:02 PM, Mattathias Schwartz, 145325K] reports that more than 3 million refugees have been admitted to the United States under the program. The plaintiffs’ argument that the White House’s order was an “effective nullification of congressional will” was likely to prevail, Judge Whitehead, who was nominated by former President Joseph R. Biden, said in ruling from the bench. Laurie Ball Cooper, vice president for U.S. legal programs at the International Refugee Assistance Project, a nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement that the president’s discretion was not limitless. “The refugee ban is illegal and must be stopped,” she said. Spokesmen for the White House and the Justice Department did not immediately return requests for comment. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program had persisted through seven presidencies, including Mr. Trump’s first term. The plaintiffs have accused Mr. Trump of violating the law that established the program, as well as the rule-making procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee to due process. The nine individual plaintiffs include a 22-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who spent two years applying to resettle in the United States, only to have his flight from Nairobi, Kenya, canceled two days after Mr. Trump signed the executive order on Jan. 20. Three organizations that receive federal funding to help refugees resettle in the United States joined them in the suit.

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CBS Austin [2/25/2025 3:27 PM, Cory Smith, 602K] reports the Trump administration is reportedly preparing a plan that will reinstate the Title 42 public health emergency that was used to keep migrants from entering the country during the pandemic. CBS News reported the administration could label migrants public health risks and order border authorities to turn back any immigrant they encounter. Border crossings have already fallen since Trump took office, without the help of Title 42. The Department of Homeland Security said last week that daily border encounters have plunged 93%. And Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said a 15-year low number of illegal immigrants were encountered along the southern border this weekend.

Roll Call [2/25/2025 5:10 PM, Chris Johnson, 503K] reports the Department of Homeland Security has started signing agreements with local law enforcement agencies to assist with federal immigration operations, with a nominee for a top post at the department telling senators Tuesday it would be a "major initiative." The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement website lists 20 agencies that signed up to participate in what is known as the 287(g) program since Trump signed an executive order last month directing the DHS to revive it. ICE lists another 56 as pending as of Monday, with 25 of those in Florida. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, after attending a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday for Troy Edgar to be DHS deputy secretary, told reporters the department has been working with "local leaders to get a lot of these folks in custody and get them out of the country."

AP [2/26/2025 12:00 AM, María Verza and Megan Janetsky, 34586K] reports Venezuelan migrants handed over to Mexico like it’s a U.S. immigration detention facility. Families from Central Asia flown to Panama and Costa Rica to await voluntary repatriation to their countries. Venezuelans from Guantanamo Bay handed off on a Honduran tarmac and returned to Caracas. It all sends the unmistakable message that trying to get to the U.S. border is no longer worth it. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has laid the groundwork to reverse the region’s migration flow. And while the numbers remain modest, an outline of how the U.S. hopes to overcome limited detention space as it gears up its deportation machine is emerging. In its first month, the Trump administration has reached deals with Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama to act as stopovers or destinations for migrants expelled from the U.S. It has brokered deals with Venezuela to pick up its people in Texas, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Honduras. But none of the agreements have been detailed for the public, raising concerns about evading international protections for refugees and asylum-seekers. Adam Isacson, a researcher with the Washington-based human rights advocacy organization WOLA, suspects many were little more than improvised "handshake deals.” They were requests made while Trump threatened tariffs and to take back the Panama Canal. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved through the region while U.S. foreign aid was suspended, bestowing exemptions when merited. Trump made deals during his first presidency with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to take in asylum-seekers, though only Mexico and Guatemala actually received them. But the agreements in his second term are more varied, ranging from Honduras letting Venezuelans get off a U.S. plane and board a Venezuelan one in its territory last week, to El Salvador offering to imprison deportees — and even U.S. citizen prisoners. "They’re being much more ambitious now," Isacson said. "The idea of sending people to be warehoused like goods, to deport them to third countries wasn’t an issue" in Trump’s first term.

FOX News [2/25/2025 7:15 AM, Staff, 46189K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced encounters at the southern border hit a record 15-year low on Saturday. "On Saturday, CBP encountered just 200 aliens at the US Southern Border. That’s the lowest single apprehension day in over 15 years," Noem posted to X on Monday afternoon. "Thank you to President [Donald Trump] and our brave men & women of [Customs and Border Protection]," she continued. "Make America Safe Again.” The low figure comes amid sweeping changes in border policy since President Donald Trump took office last month, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and sending more service members down to the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended just 29,116 illegal immigrants along the southern border during the month of January, down from 47,000 in December and hitting a low mark not seen since May 2020, when 32,349 arrests were made at ports of entry, according to a White House press release. Overall, CBP apprehended 61,465 illegal immigrants at the southern border in January, down 36% from the prior month, the release notes, citing new data. Last week, border czar Tom Homan touted how only 229 illegal immigrants were caught by federal authorities during a 24-hour timeframe, which was also considered to be a jaw-dropping number. "That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden," he posted to X on Feb. 17. "I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984 and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low. President Trump promised a secure border and he is delivering.” The swift policy changes resulted in a ripple effect nationwide. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday that the Roosevelt Hotel will no longer be used as a shelter for people who came to the country hoping to obtain asylum. "While we’re not done caring for those who come into our care, today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on an unprecedented international humanitarian effort," the Democrat said in a statement on Monday. "Now, thanks to the sound policy decisions of our team, we are able to announce the closure of this site and help even more asylum seekers take the next steps in their journeys as they envision an even brighter future, while simultaneously saving taxpayers millions of dollars," he continued. Still, this could just be the tip of the iceberg for the administration, as Trump swapped out the acting leader of ICE in hopes of increasing deportation numbers even higher. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [2/25/2025 12:48 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2296K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced she had fired the employees in her department who were leaking information to the press. This comes as activists against Immigration and Customs Enforcement have engaged in a variety of protests. Social media is rampant with warnings about the location of ICE officers, and Los Angeles saw flyers on display relaying the leaked names, faces, and job descriptions of other officers. "I have found some leakers. We are continuing to get more. They will be fired. There will be consequences. Remember, when they leak information to the press in order to blow an op, they are putting law enforcement lives in jeopardy," Noem said on Fox News’s Hannity. "They are risking their lives and putting their families in the position where they have to live without those individuals any further. So, you bet we have used every tactic that we have.” Among the tactics, Noem said she is implementing polygraph testing to examine the testimonies from staff. Digital searches are also ongoing. "It’s amazing how these bureaucrats, who have an agenda to stop the work that we’re doing to bring safety to America, how they will sell each other down the river if it’s just to protect themselves," Noem said. "So don’t worry. I am doing everything to find these leakers and get rid of them so that we can do our work and our law enforcement officers and agents can do it safely."

FOX News [2/25/2025 7:00 AM, Adam Shaw, 46189K] reports Border Czar Tom Homan is firing back against attacks from local politicians in a major "sanctuary city" while warning illegal immigrants that they need to be "looking over their shoulder" in the days and weeks ahead. Fox News Digital asked Homan about comments made by Boston City Councilor Sharon Durkan, who responded to comments made by Homan at CPAC, who said he was "bringing hell" with him to Boston and criticized the police commissioner for not working with ICE. "She needs to put her U.S. citizen taxpayer constituency ahead of illegal aliens who rape children," Homan told Fox News Digital. "I’m not coming for her, she shouldn’t be afraid of me. Who should be afraid of me are those in the country illegally. They need to be looking over their shoulder, because we’re coming.” "You’re not a police commissioner," Homan said about Commissioner Michael Cox last week. "Take that badge off your chest. Put it in the desk drawer. Because you became a politician. You forgot what it’s like to be a cop.” Durkan responded by mocking Homan for serving as a police officer in the village of West Carthage, New York, in the 1980s before eventually heading Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and serving as a Border Patrol agent. "Laughable that someone who spent their career policing a town smaller than a Fenway Park crowd thinks they can lecture Boston on public safety," Durkan’s post on X read. "Commissioner Michael Cox serves with distinction and earns trust with integrity," the city official continued. "Tom Homan should know, we don’t scare easy.” "Yes, I understand that Tom Homan spent his career as a federal agent within Border Patrol & ICE, but that’s a world away from the realities of policing a major city," she later clarified. "His background is in immigration enforcement, not community policing—where trust and accountability are key.” Speaking to Fox News Digital, Homan said Durkan should be grateful for ICE’s involvement. "ICE has recently arrested nine illegal aliens, sexual predators in Mass., and removed them from the streets of Mass. She ought to be thanking ICE for making the streets safer," he said. "And me coming there saying, ‘I’m going to bring some law enforcement resources to keep removing sexual predators from their communities and protect their children.’ She ought to be applauding ICE. She ought to support us. She ought, as the representative of a community, ought to be begging the governor and state legislature to end the sanctuary city policies and help ICE remove significant public safety trust from the communities," he said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [2/26/2025 4:00 AM, Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, 22131K] reports the Trump administration’s new point man for dealings with the Department of Homeland Security is a former far-right podcast host and election denier who once shared an article calling for "martial law" to keep Donald Trump in office following his loss in the 2020 election. Paul Ingrassia and the Twitter account for a podcast he co-hosted posted the remark and similar sentiments on social media in December 2020 and January 2021, according to a CNN KFile review of deleted and still-active posts by Ingrassia himself and the account of the podcast. The 29-year-old Ivy League-educated lawyer now serves as the second Trump administration’s White House liaison to the DHS, a key role that has historically involved managing the administration’s relationship with the department and overseeing the placement of political appointees. Since assuming the White House role, Ingrassia was present for the release of prisoners convicted of crimes for the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and, according to New York Times, had an office near Attorney General Pam Bondi while he was briefly at the Justice Department. CNN reached out to Ingrassia, his podcast’s co-host, the White House, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for comment but did not receive a response. On Monday, ABC News reported that Ingrassia was pushed out of the Justice Department as liaison following clashes between him and the chief of staff over pushing to hire candidates with "exceptional loyalty" to the president. CNN confirmed that Ingrassia is no longer at the Justice Department and his LinkedIn profile now lists him at Homeland Security. Ingrassia graduated from Cornell Law School in 2022 and during the 2024 Republican presidential primary published a discredited theory that candidate Nikki Haley was not a natural born citizen and not eligible to be president. The claim was later boosted by Trump on Truth Social. Ingrassia later called Haley an "insufferable bitch," in a recently deleted January 2024 tweet. Prior to his role in government, his comments on Twitter (now known as X) and the "Right on Point" podcast he co-hosted with his sister echoed some of the most extreme election denial rhetoric of the time. The podcast’s Twitter account – which Ingrassia linked to episode descriptions, his Twitter, and a Parler account he made in December 2020 – sent tweets in December 2020 calling for "secession" if court cases meant to keep Trump in office failed and numerous tweets calling to "support martial law.”

Washington Examiner [2/25/2025 7:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K] reports Republican governors around the country have sought to aid President Donald Trump by cracking down on towns and cities in their states that refuse to get on board with the White House’s immigration policies. Already, more than 20 states have pushed legislation aimed at taking down "sanctuary" cities or places that refuse to turn over criminal illegal immigrants in local police custody to federal immigration authorities. However, some states have gone even further and are not waiting for a bill to pass in order to force localities into cooperation, targeting them with threats of punishments, including lawsuits and fines, should they not get in line and become friendly with federal immigration authorities. The idea for Republicans is that by increasing the number of illegal immigrants who can be turned over to ICE, a greater number of people are being taken off the streets and potentially deported. Trump has vowed to carry out the "largest-ever" deportation operation. In mid-February, the Alabama Senate passed a measure that would allow local jails to detain individuals in custody until one’s immigration status can be confirmed as opposed to releasing them. "If you come to the country legally, if you come into Alabama legally, then these bills don’t affect you," said Republican state Sen. Wes Kitchens in a statement. Earlier this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a broad immigration bill that sought to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the state, as well as required the state attorney general to sue any municipality that refused to hold illegal immigrants in jail until Immigration and Customs Enforcement could arrive on the scene and transfer that person into federal custody. ICE tracks state and local databases nationwide and will wedge detainers with local police precincts to hold on to a person in custody until federal officers can physically arrive on the scene and transfer custody of that individual. Localities that refuse to cooperate face fines of up to $5,000.

Telemundo [2/25/2025 7:02 PM, Staff, 2454K] Video: HERE reports the Government had already cancelled asylum applications through this platform from Mexico and has now discontinued their use as a form of identification for undocumented immigrants when boarding a plane.

FOX News [2/25/2025 4:31 PM, Andrew Mark Miller, 46189K] reports President Trump’s Department of Agriculture announced on Tuesday that it is taking steps to ensure that illegal immigrants in the United States are not eligible for food stamp benefits. The press release adds that the directive "enforces" Trump’s executive order from February 19 aimed at "ensuring taxpayer resources are not used to incentivize or support illegal immigration."

Newsweek [2/25/2025 5:29 PM, Robert Thorpe, 52220K] reports in a significant move to reduce federal expenditures, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has initiated the closure of numerous Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offices across the country. This action aligns with the Trump administration’s broader strategy to downsize government operations and cut costs. As part of this effort, DOGE has directed the General Services Administration (GSA) to terminate leases on approximately 7,500 federal offices nationwide. This directive affects numerous DHS offices, leading to their closure and the consolidation of operations. As part of the DHS office closures, several locations across the country have already shut down, resulting in significant cost savings. According to the DOGE website, in California, the Los Angeles DHS office closure has saved an estimated $176,700, while in New York, the agency closed three offices, amounting to $3.58 million in savings. The most substantial savings thus far come from Delaware, where three office closures have led to an estimated $5.43 million in reductions. Meanwhile, in the District of Columbia, one DHS office has closed, and another has moved into a federal space, saving approximately $14.08 million.

AP [2/25/2025 7:46 PM, Staff, 5269K] reports that Elon Musk is vowing yet again to fire any federal workers who don’t respond to an email asking them to list five things they accomplished last week. Just after 7 p.m. EST — hours after the U.S. Office of Personnel Management had directed agencies that responses to its email were optional — Musk again threatened federal workers in a post on X, his social media platform. Several government agencies, including the FBI and State Department, have told their employees not to respond. Other news we’re following today: U.S. declines to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: In a dramatic shift in transatlantic relations, the United States split with its European allies by refusing to blame Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in votes on three U.N. resolutions. Dan Bongino gets top FBI role: The conservative pundit with TV shows and a popular podcast has been chosen to serve as FBI deputy director. Newly appointed FBI director Kash Patel previously promised that the role would be held by a career agent. Judge refuses to immediately restore AP’s White House access: The federal judge said the news organization had not demonstrated it had suffered any irreparable harm but said the issue required more exploration before ruling. He also urged the Trump administration to reconsider its two-week-old ban, saying that case law “is uniformly unhelpful to the White House.”

FOX News [2/25/2025 2:12 PM, Danielle Wallace, 46189K] reports that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report Tuesday detailing areas of the federal government especially vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse, hours ahead of a House Oversight Committee hearing to discuss its findings. The government’s chief watchdog releases a report at the start of each Congress to identify which federal programs are most susceptible to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Tuesday’s report, which includes recommendations to executive branch agencies as well as Congress, is the first delivered during the age of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. The GAO’s 2025 High-Risk List highlights 38 areas across the federal government "that are seriously vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement or that are in need of transformation." The report cites $84 billion in savings as a result of GAO recommendations over the past two years, but the watchdog adds that "the progress made overall varied." The watchdog added a new section this year dedicated to federal disaster assistance in the wake of California wildfires and back-to-back hurricanes that pounded the Southeast over the past several months.

FOX News [2/25/2025 11:49 AM, Emma Colton, 46189K] reports that more than one million federal workers participated in the Elon Musk and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directive to provide a bullet-point list of their work accomplishments from the previous week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday in a press briefing. "I can announce that we’ve had more than one million workers who have chosen to participate in this very simple task of, again, sending five bullet points to your direct supervisor or manager and CC’ing OPM," Leavitt told Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich when asked about the directive during Tuesday’s briefing. "I actually participated in it myself. It took me about a minute and a half to think of five things I did last week. I do five things in about ten minutes, and all federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working and moving." "We have a country to save, and we want this federal government to be responsive to the needs of the American people who reelected this president to have historic, massive reform. And that’s what the intention of this idea is," she said. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Chair Musk announced Saturday that federal employees would receive an email directing them to list their accomplishments from the week prior, with the DOGE leader adding later that day that the assignment should take less than five minutes to accomplish.

Newsweek [2/25/2025 2:57 PM, Daniel Bush, 3973K] reports that Elon Musk’s efforts to slash the federal workforce have hit a new roadblock as federal agencies push back against his demand that employees justify their performance to keep their jobs. The demand by Musk that federal workers list five things they did last week fell flat after multiple agencies instructed workers that responding to the request was voluntary, according to internal emails reviewed by Newsweek. Musk said in a social media post that federal workers had until midnight on Monday to respond to an email sent by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Saturday with the subject line "What did you do last week?" But employees at agencies across the federal government ignored the deadline after being told by supervisors that compliance was voluntary. The Department of Health and Human Services told workers in an email Monday that there "is no HHS expectation that HHS employees respond to OPM." "There is no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond," the HHS email added. The Department of Commerce instructed employees Monday to provide five bullet points about their recent job activities to immediate supervisors. "You do not need to copy other recipients at this time," the email added, a directive to not include the federal personnel management office.

New York Times [2/25/2025 12:58 PM, Ryan Mac, 145325K] reports that a group of 21 civil servants with technology expertise resigned on Tuesday rather than help implement an array of changes to the federal government being pushed by the billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. The government employees had worked for the U.S. Digital Service, a technology-focused unit housed in the executive branch, that had been rebranded by Mr. Musk and President Trump as the United States DOGE Service. The resignations pared the unit, which had already been reduced by layoffs, by roughly a third. “We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services,” the resigning group wrote in a letter addressed to Susie Wiles, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff. “We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE’s actions.” The resignations, which were reported earlier by The Associated Press, come as Mr. Musk and his allies have begun to radically reshape the size and scope of the federal government, engaging in layoffs, ending contracts and attempting to shutter entire agencies. Most recently, Mr. Musk created confusion for millions of federal employees by issuing a directive ordering them to detail what they had worked on during the previous week as a condition of keeping their jobs. Several Trump appointees ordered employees at their agencies to ignore Mr. Musk’s directive, even as workers received contradictory information about whether they need to comply with it.

FOX News [2/25/2025 11:31 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 46189K] reports that a massive 2,200 male-only migrant shelter has opened in the Bronx despite residents venting their opposition to the move and as the city announces the closures of other migrant shelters throughout New York City, including the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. The new facility, a 275,000-square-foot former warehouse, began accepting migrants on Saturday, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office told Fox News Digital. The opening of the facility, located at 825 E. 141st St., and the prospect of such a large influx of migrant men being housed in the community sparked furious scenes at a Bronx community board meeting last month where residents also said that they were never consulted on the decision. "I have young women who come to me to study. I have never been afraid in the South Bronx, I am now terrified," Judy Kudlow, an artist who said she operates an art school directly across from the building said. "I’m terrified for me, for my students. I will have to move… You have made a terrible mistake." The opening of the Bronx shelter comes as Adams’ office said Monday that there are currently fewer than 45,000 migrants in the city’s care, down from a high of 69,000 in January 2024. New York City taxpayers have forked out billions of dollars to pay for housing for more than 232,000 who have arrived in New York City seeking city services since the spring of 2022.

AP [2/25/2025 5:35 PM, Jennifer Peltz, 48304K] reports a Manhattan hotel-turned-shelter is set to close after becoming an emblem of New York City’s fraught effort to manage an influx of international migrants. Mayor Eric Adams said this week that the Roosevelt Hotel and more than 50 other migrant shelters are no longer needed and will shut by June. Arrivals have plummeted in the last seven months, and the city has ushered many migrants to other housing and other communities, he said. Migrant arrivals have dropped to an average of about 350 a week in the city, and the migrant shelter population has dropped from 69,000 about a year ago to under 45,000 now, Adams said Monday. Adams said those whose allotted shelter time runs into April or May will have a place to stay, at the Roosevelt or elsewhere. As for new arrivals, he pledged the city would continue to have "some form of intake" to get people on their feet. But the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless said they’re worried that the city won’t be able to handle the need.

Univision [2/25/2025 5:19 PM, Staff, 5325K] reports the leader of the Los Rojos drug cartel, Omar Cuenca Marino, alias "El Niño Popis," has been extradited from Mexico to Georgia, the U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed Tuesday. Cuenca Marino is originally from Guerrero and federal prosecutors accuse him of importing large quantities of drugs from Mexico to the United States between 2013 and 2016. In Georgia, alias ‘El Niño Popis’, faces charges of conspiring to possess and distribute methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin in the United States. In addition, he is accused of conspiring in money laundering operations.

Newsweek [2/25/2025 4:22 PM, Dan Gooding, 52220K] reports a Hungarian illegal immigrant is in custody for allegedly strangling to death two elderly men in Florida, with cops saying if he had not been arrested, his killing would have likely continued. Police in Miami arrested Zsolt Zsolyomi, 25, on Wednesday, February 19, over the deaths of two gay men he had befriended before they were killed in November and January. Zsolyomi’s first alleged victim was found dead in his Miami Beach apartment bathtub on November 21, 2024. Carlos Villaquiran, 66, was strangled to death, according to the Medical Examiner’s report. Police said the suspect had befriended Villaquiran and his second victim, Rodolfo Fernandez de Velasco, who died January 21, 2025. The 71-year-old was discovered in the driver’s seat of his car in Miami, with both front seatbelts wrapped around his neck. Surveillance footage showed the car crashing into a wall before an unknown man got out of the passenger door and fled the scene. When officers caught up with Zsolyomi in Miami Beach, he confessed to detectives and was taken into custody. He is being held on two counts of murder in the second degree, jail records showed, as well as an immigration detainer. Zsolyomi arrived in the U.S. in October 2022, police said, and overstayed his visa. He was awaiting deportation, ordered in September 2024, and was wearing an ankle monitor, but had not yet been removed when the crimes occurred.

Newsweek [2/25/2025 6:45 PM, Ewan Palmer, 3973K] reports that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced the creation of a Florida-based Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) task force, which aims to further eliminate "waste" within state government. Newsweek has contacted DeSantis’ office for comment via email. The Florida DOGE task force will work similarly to the department created by President Donald Trump and headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, which has overseen major federal cuts and the gutting of federal agencies since January 20. DeSantis, who will leave office in January 2027, has taken a number of steps in an apparent attempt to rebuild ties with Trump and his loyal supporters after the pair’s once strong relationship fell apart during the 2024 GOP primary campaign. These moves come as DeSantis considers his political future, including a potential White House bid in 2028. DeSantis’ office announced the creation of the DOGE task force on Monday, aiming to save taxpayers money and "ensure accountability" in Florida. The Florida State DOGE task force will utilize technology such as AI to reduce "bureaucratic bloat" and find ways to identify additional unnecessary spending. The team hopes to abolish 70 boards and commissions this year as part of cost-cutting measures. During a press conference on Monday, DeSantis said the task force will review about 900 state positions to determine if they can be eliminated.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 7:14 PM, Patrick Elwood, 52868K] reports Mayor Brandon Johnson will travel to Washington, D.C., next week to defend Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city. "We’re going to remain a welcoming city and hold to our values," Johnson said. Set to testify before a Congressional Committee in the nation’s capital, Johnson added that he is preparing for tough questions from the Republican-led oversight committee. "I’ve never backed down in a fight," Johnson declared. Chicago has been a sanctuary since 2012, established under then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. But in recent years, the number of migrants from the southern border has increased significantly, with many asylum seekers arriving by bus in the Windy City regularly since August of 2022 by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Despite many migrants leaving their homes due to sagging economies in their countries, conflict, or political turmoil, the topic became a critical talking point in the 2024 election. Sitting President Donald Trump wasted no time making good on his campaign promises by dispatching border czar Tom Homan to Chicago to oversee the arrests and deportations of who the administration identified as violent convicted criminals. The Trump Administration also sued Chicago, alleging that ‘sanctuary’ laws in the nation’s third-largest city "thwart" federal efforts to enforce immigration laws. At about the same time, Johnson accepted an invitation from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, along with mayors from Boston, Denver, and New York, who are also in the feds’ crosshairs. But Johnson maintains that he will stand his ground. "What I’m prepared to do on March 5 is to stand up for working people. The city of Chicago continues to lead the way in housing, behavioral health, education system the way we are showing up in community safety," Johnson said. "The city of Chicago is vibrant and its strong, even within these difficult times and challenges my administration has faced. There’s not one thing I said I was going to do and fight for when I ran that my administration has not addressed.” Johnson says he has also contacted former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, local congressional representatives, and others for guidance.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 8:04 PM, Staff, 52868K] reports Acting United States Attorney Margaret Leachman announced Tuesday that federal prosecutors in the Western District of Texas have filed more than 900 immigration and immigration-related criminal cases since Jan. 20. These cases were referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO), U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with the support and assistance of state and local law enforcement partners, a news release said. Along with enhanced interdiction efforts at the border, federal law enforcement has been also prioritizing immigration enforcement operations and prosecutions of aliens unlawfully in the interior of the country and also those otherwise engaged in criminal activity in the U.S., including those who commit drug and firearms crimes, who have serious criminal records, who have active warrants for their arrest, or who have outstanding final orders of removal from the U.S., issued by an immigration judge. Federal authorities have also been prioritizing investigations and prosecutions against drug, firearm, and human smugglers and those who endanger and threaten the safety of our communities and the law enforcement officers who protect us all, the release said. The arrest of Juan Ramon Hernandez-Limon in San Antonio, who had been previously convicted on April 28, 2021, for illegal re-entry into the United States and alien in possession of a firearm, and a second time on Feb. 8, 2024, for illegal re-entry. Hernandez-Limon repeatedly attempted to evade arrest during an ICE ERO operation on Jan. 26, 2025, and was eventually taken into custody. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison, if convicted.

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CBS 7 [2/25/2025 4:13 PM, Lauren Munt, 4K]

FOX News [2/25/2025 5:48 PM, Greg Wehner, 46189K] reports Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs plans to expand border security operations along the state’s four border counties, placing added focus on disrupting transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). Hobbs signed an executive order Tuesday to establish Operation Desert Guardian, a joint task force in which the state partners with local law enforcement, sheriffs and the federal government to disrupt TCO operations in the counties of Yuma, Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise. "I’m proud to launch Operation Desert Guardian to combat the cartels, stop drug smuggling and human trafficking and secure Arizona’s border," Hobbs said. "My administration has been in contact with the federal government and local sheriffs about the Operation, its critical objectives and our shared commitment to keeping criminals and drugs out of Arizona’s communities.” Hobbs added that the operation’s objectives will include identifying and mitigating security vulnerabilities along Arizona’s southern border, which stretches about 370 miles, while also combating border-related crimes committed by TCOs. To do so, Hobbs said, the joint task force plans to dismantle TCO supply chains and operating networks. Operation Desert Guardian’s funding will come from a portion of the state’s Border Security Fund, which has a balance of $28 million. The operation will also build on the efforts of Task Force SAFE (Stopping Arizona’s Fentanyl Epidemic), a joint operation between U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Arizona National Guard to stop drugs from entering Arizona at ports of entry. After President Donald Trump was re-elected to a second term in November, Hobbs said Arizona would not be aiding the incoming administration with its "misguided" plan to launch a mass deportation operation. She was asked by ABC News whether the Trump administration would bring a reset on the border, and she responded by focusing on current partnerships with the federal government to secure the border. "What I will unequivocally say is that, as governor, I will not tolerate efforts that are part of misguided policies that harm our communities, that threaten our communities, that terrorize our communities, and Arizona will not take part in those.” State Republicans have a different plan, and, in January, state Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, introduced the "AZ ICE Act," which would require sheriff’s departments and the Arizona Department of Corrections to enter into cooperative agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agreements are based on 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers certain immigration functions, including identifying and detaining suspected illegal immigrants.

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CBS News [2/25/2025 6:43 PM, Cara Tabachnick, 51661K]
Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 1:00 PM, Stacey Barchenger, 52868K]

FOX News [2/26/2025 4:00 AM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 46189K] reports Americans seeking a reprieve from blistering winter blues should stay alert as safety warnings grow amid a surge in murders in Mexico, an expert warns. Former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent Michael Brown, currently the global director of counter-narcotics technology at Rigaku Analytical Devices, told Fox News Digital that Americans must be on high alert when traveling to Mexico. "If you leave the resort, you’re definitely at high risk, especially if you’re an American female," he said. "You’re at risk of kidnapping or being sold into the sex trade. Anywhere in Mexico outside the resort is highly dangerous.” "Even in the resorts, the cartels have people scouting out," he said. "Oh, here’s a rich couple, let’s kidnap them or here are some attractive girls by themselves. Let’s grab them on a Saturday night.” "You cannot underestimate that," he said. "They [the cartels] have people out there watching to see what is going on and scouting potential targets.” According to data from the U.S. State Department, between January 2022 and June 2022, there were 115 deaths of U.S. citizens in Mexico, of which 25 were homicides. The largest number of deaths in that time period was a result of vehicle accidents, with unspecified accidents also accounting for 25 deaths. A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the agency was not immediately able to provide a more recent statistic of how many U.S. citizens died in Mexico in 2024, noting that they are in the process of "refining" their reporting. Brown noted that while the percentage of visitors to Mexico who end up being violent crime victims is tiny compared to the number who have an uneventful trip, it’s still wise to adhere to safety standards. "But if it’s your child that dies, it’s a big deal," he noted. "So I don’t think we can allow the low percentages to be our moral guidance as to is it is a crisis or is it not a crisis.”

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Miami Herald [2/25/2025 7:15 PM, Veronika Bondarenko, 3973K]

Univision [2/25/2025 3:06 PM, Staff, 5325K] reports the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) in Mexico revealed that it has been requesting the extradition to the United States for months of Ismael Zambada, alias ‘El Mayo’, arrested on US soil last year after decades of evading justice in his own country. Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero said at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s press conference that since the drug lord, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, was "kidnapped" at the end of July and handed over to U.S. authorities, the FGR requested his extradition. According to Gertz Manero, despite Mexico’s request in July that the United States send ‘El Mayo’ back, the US authorities have not responded to the request. On Monday, after El Mayo’s defense made public a letter in which the drug lord asked to be returned to Mexico, Sheinbaum said that the drug lord’s demand was supported by international norms that punish cross-border kidnappings.

VOA News [2/25/2025 6:46 AM, Jeff Seldin, 2913K] reports the United States has started sending more migrants deemed by officials to be "high threat" criminal aliens to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, just days after emptying out the base’s migrant facilities. A U.S. defense official confirmed to VOA that a C-130 military cargo plane carrying migrants left Fort Bliss in Texas and arrived at Guantanamo Bay on Sunday. A second defense official said all 17 migrants were assessed to be "high threat" and are being held at the base’s detention facility. Both officials spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss the deportation operations. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is spearheading the U.S. deportation efforts, along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has not yet responded to questions about the identities of the latest round of detainees sent to Guantanamo Bay, their countries of origin, or the crimes with which they are charged. The latest flight carrying migrants to Guantanamo Bay comes as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to visit the base Tuesday to review the military’s efforts to support the mass deportations ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump. Hegseth, according to a Pentagon statement, "will receive briefings on all mission operations at the base, including at the Migrant Operations Center and the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility.” "The Secretary’s trip underscores the Department’s commitment to ensuring the security and operational effectiveness of Guantanamo Bay Naval Station," the statement added. ICE announced last Thursday that it had transported 177 migrants being held at Guantanamo Bay to Honduras, where they were to be picked up by the Venezuelan government. U.S. officials had previously said that more than 120 of those detainees were dangerous criminals, including members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan street gang designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization. The approximately 50 other individuals who were deported Thursday had been held at the base’s migrant facility, designed to hold nonviolent individuals.

The New York Times [2/26/2025 3:56 AM, Carol Rosenberg, 330K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba on Tuesday to observe the Trump administration’s migrant detention operations there, and get a briefing on the base’s prison housing detainees in the war against terrorism. Mr. Hegseth arrived at the base with a former colleague from Fox News, Laura Ingraham, about an hour before a military flight from El Paso, Texas landed there, carrying nine migrants who the Homeland Security Department has decided will be housed at Guantánamo pending deportation. The Pentagon provided few details on the trip. But Ms. Ingraham posted a photograph of herself and Mr. Hegseth standing on the roof of a building at the airstrip as they were being briefed by the two-star Army general in charge of the operation. The cargo plane from Texas could be seen in the background. Mr. Hegseth served as an Army lieutenant at Guantánamo in 2004-05, then also visited the base in 2016, when as a correspondent for Fox News he joined a news media tour of the remote prison and reported about life there. He has spoken fondly of his deployment to the base, where he served as a platoon leader for an infantry unit of the New Jersey National Guard. The unit conducted security operations for what was then a massive operation of nearly 2,600 U.S. forces and more than 600 detainees, spread out across a sprawling prison zone on a bluff overlooking the Caribbean. As of Tuesday, he was visiting a much-reduced operation. The Defense Department now holds 15 foreign men there from the war on terrorism at a facility called Camp 5, including six men who are charged in death-penalty cases for Al Qaeda’s attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 and on the U.S.S. Cole on Oct. 12, 2000. Next door, in a prison building called Camp 6, the Homeland Security and Defense Departments on Tuesday were housing 26 men who the Trump administration has said are designated for deportation. They included seven men from Honduras, four from Colombia, three from El Salvador, two from Guatemala and one from Ecuador, aged 23 to 62, according to a document seen by New York Times. Nine of the migrants arrived on Tuesday’s flight from El Paso, according to two government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be identified. The Washington Examiner [2/25/2025 5:54 PM, Mike Brest, 2296K] reports "It was an honor to meet with servicemembers assigned to Joint Task Force Southern Guard here at Guantanamo Bay," Hegseth said on social media. "These are dangerous criminals and Guantanamo is the safest place to house them while waiting for deportation flights.” The president declared the facility should be built up to hold up to 30,000 migrants. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flew 177 of the 178 migrant detainees on several flights destined for Honduras last week, emptying the prison of migrants. Once in Honduras, Venezuelan planes bound for Caracas took over the second leg of the repatriation flights, preventing U.S. planes from flying into Venezuela. There are roughly 850 troops — 700 Army and Marine service members combined with Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and civilian personnel — at Guantanamo Bay supporting the DHS-led mission, according to a U.S. Southern Command spokesperson.

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CBS News [2/25/2025 1:30 PM, Staff, 51661K]
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NPR [2/25/2025 5:01 PM, Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, 29983K] reports NPR spoke to two immigrants sent to Guantánamo who allege mistreatment by soldiers who served as officers. They also allege the U.S. government misled them about where they were going, and once in Guantánamo, they were not allowed to contact attorneys or family. The detainees held a 5-day hunger strike. At least one time the detainees said they blocked the camera in their cells to catch the guards’ attention. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told NPR, "We cannot confirm [the] veracity of this illegal alien’s claims."

Washington Post [2/25/2025 7:15 AM, Marc A. Thiessen, 31735K] reports that, last year, Joe Biden tried to blame the border crisis on Republicans and their refusal to pass a bipartisan border bill. He needed the legislation to “give me, as President, the emergency authority to shut down the border until it can get back under control,” Biden declared. “If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.” Well, Congress didn’t pass the bill. And yet in his first month in office, Donald Trump has somehow managed to shut down the border without it. Since Trump’s inauguration, the southern border has suddenly become quiet. On Feb. 16, just 229 people were encountered by Border Patrol agents trying to illegally cross the southern border. "I’ve been doing this job since 1984 as a Border Patrol agent," White House border czar Tom Homan declared on X. "I’ve NEVER seen numbers that low." A week later, they got even lower. On Feb. 22, encounters fell to just 200, the lowest single day total in over 15 years, a Department of Homeland Security official tells me. Contrast that with the all-time high of 11,000 encounters on Dec. 18, 2023, under Biden. That’s a 98 percent drop. Indeed, DHS officials tell me that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has encountered only about 15,700 migrants on the southwest border in the entire 30 days since Trump’s inauguration. This represents the lowest 30-day number of southwest border encounters since April 2017. Southwest border encounters are down 94 percent from their high point of 263,900 in December 2023 under Biden, 91 percent from their 166,900 monthly average during the four calendar years of the Biden administration and down 80 percent from their average of 78,200 from 2000 to 2024. Trump has achieved all this without any new authorities from Congress. Indeed, the turnaround started even before Trump took office. In December, just after Trump’s election, as word got out that a new sheriff would soon be in town, CBP encounters were 81 percent lower than a year prior. Just the promise of a crackdown and mass deportations was enough to deter people from coming to the border. And, since Trump’s inauguration, encounters have fallen an additional 67 percent. How did he do it? By exercising the broad authority he already has under current law, upheld by the Supreme Court. Immediately on taking office, Trump declared a national border emergency, which allowed him to deploy 5,000 active-duty troops to help CPB secure the southern border. He issued an executive order ending Biden’s policy of "catch and release" at the border, ensuring detained illegal migrants won’t be released back into U.S. communities. He reinstated the "Remain in Mexico" policy he established during his first term, which Biden ended, requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated.

Washington Times [2/25/2025 4:20 PM, Scott Rasmussen, 1814K] reports the Trump administration’s dramatic efforts to deport some very bad actors in the illegal immigrant community have captured headlines and sent a powerful message. Although necessary, however, the nation’s illegal immigration crisis cannot be solved by law enforcement efforts alone. A lasting solution will be found only by remembering the most basic rule of politics: Follow the money. We have an illegal immigration crisis because financial incentives built into our laws encourage such behavior. If we take away the financial incentives, the flood of illegal border crossings will slow to a trickle. The place to begin is by removing the biggest financial incentive for people to enter the United States illegally: jobs. Sixty-three percent of voters recognize why people from around the globe dream of bringing their families here for a better life. America is still the land of opportunity. To ensure that people pursuing the American dream do so while respecting America’s laws, every American employer must verify that every employee is a legal resident of the United States. A Napolitan News national survey found that 70% of voters support this commonsense reform. The federal government has created an E-Verify system, a free program that lets companies verify the legal status of potential employees. Only 10 states require employers to use that system. Another 11 states require verification for all public employees and government contractors but not for private businesses. Most of the rest leave it up to the employer. California and Illinois significantly restrict the ability of employers to use the E-Verify system. Most Americans find such political behavior incomprehensible. They can’t understand why political leaders would encourage people to break the law by entering the country illegally. When told that not all states use the E-Verify system, 68% of voters think the federal government should mandate its use everywhere for every company and every employee.

Washington Examiner [2/25/2025 6:00 AM, Adriana Jones, 2296K] reports that, in late October 2019, I spoke with my sister, Maria, affectionately called “Rhonita” by those who were close to her. Our conversation was full of love, gratitude, and reflections on the joys of motherhood and how blessed we were to be raising our children and navigating this chapter of life together. I cherish that conversation with her, and I had no idea it would be my last. Just days later, we received the devastating news: Rhonita’s car, found about 70 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border, had been riddled with bullets and set on fire. Her four children — Howie, 12, Krystal, 10, and 8-month-old twins Titus and Tiana — were in that car. We learned that they had been slaughtered by Mexican drug cartels. Since then, it has been my family’s mission to do everything in our power to prevent others from experiencing the same pain and loss. The Mexican drug cartels are ruthless, evil organizations with no regard for human life. Rhonita and her children weren’t just victims of senseless gunfire; they were burned alive. The cartels doused their car with gasoline and set it ablaze, leaving them to suffer an unimaginable horror in their final moments — hearing, seeing, and feeling each other die in the flames. When President Donald Trump learned of this massacre, he boldly called for the recognition of Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Without that designation, it is almost impossible for families like mine to seek justice, to hold these evildoers accountable for their atrocities. We were so grateful to him for standing up and speaking out. However, after he left office, our fight for justice seemed to vanish from the national conversation. Trump’s reelection gave us hope, especially after he made clear on his first day in office that he would direct Secretary of State Marco Rubio to designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Last week, the Trump administration gave eight cartels this designation. I’m so grateful Trump has taken this important first step to call these criminals into account. But the list does not include the cartel primarily responsible for the massacre of Rhonita and her children. The powerful Juarez cartel, and its armed wing La Linea, working closely in conjunction with the Sinaloa cartel, are directly responsible for the deaths of three beautiful mothers and six wonderful children whom I think about and fight for every day. My family now fears we may be left behind and forgotten again.

FOX News [2/25/2025 4:30 PM, Alec Schemmel, 46189K] reports a coalition of religious groups successfully halted new rules under the Trump administration that allowed federal officials to enter houses of worship in order to enforce immigration laws. In response to a lawsuit from a group of Quaker, Baptist and Sikh congregations, an Obama-appointed federal judge in Maryland ordered Monday that the Trump administration must revert to Biden-era rules governing immigration enforcement at the locations where the plaintiffs worship. However, the judge’s order does not apply to all places of worship nationwide, and it does not pertain to situations involving a warrant. But according to Chuang’s ruling, the Trump administration argued that the purported chilling effect caused by its new directive is not "objectively reasonable," because it only iterates that officers exercise discretion when enforcing immigration laws in certain "sensitive" areas, but it does not require them to do so.

Telemundo [2/25/2025 8:50 PM, Julia Ainsley and Laura Strickler, 2454K] reports Trump administration immigration officials are planning a nationwide operation to locate and possibly deport children who entered the United States without a parent or legal guardian, according to two sources familiar with the plan. If a judge determines they have no legal basis to remain in the U.S., they could be placed in deportation proceedings. The two sources familiar with the plan told NBC News that the exact timing of the operation is not final, but could begin as early as this week. They said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will search for children who entered the United States without their parents and who do not have an immigration court date. Reuters reported on Sunday that a memo had been circulated to immigration agents directing them to step up enforcement for unaccompanied children. The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement is responsible for temporarily taking in unaccompanied migrant children after they cross the southern border and connecting them with sponsors in the United States. The agency contracts with groups that follow up on the child’s well-being, usually with a follow-up phone call after 30 days. Sources familiar with the details of the operation said ICE will focus on children whose sponsors did not answer the phone at the 30-day checkpoint, as well as those who do not have court dates.

USA Today [2/25/2025 9:32 AM, Deborah Barfield Berry, 75858K] reports Priscilla Weaver packed for her six-hour drive to Phoenix bringing along her U.S. passport and other forms of identification, including one showing she’s a Navajo Nation citizen. She said with her dark hair and brown skin she is sometimes mistaken for a member of another group and with the Trump administration’s push to deport millions of immigrants here illegally she and some other Native Americans fear they could be wrongly stopped and questioned. "You can’t take a chance on that. I was nervous about it," said Weaver, 65, of Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. "We’re feeling the stress. It’s scary.” Family and friends, she said, send texts warning each other to carry identification, including some showing they belong to a tribal community. More than a dozen Democratic senators said they have heard similar concerns, including stops by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and last week sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem urging her to address those worries. "These incidents have stoked fear and panic for many Tribal citizens living on and off reservation,’’ they wrote. Meanwhile, the Native American Rights Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union recently issued guidance to tribal leaders and communities recommending among other things that people know their civil rights and carry identification. The administration has been targeting alleged Venezuelan gang members in high-profile raids but people of many nationalities, including in Latin America, are being swept up. Advocates said they don’t how widespread incidents of ICE stopping Native Americans are, but the anxiety is real. "The fear of incidences happening is very high," said Jacqueline De León, senior staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit that provides legal assistance to Native American tribes, organizations and individuals. De León said it’s important to let people know "yes, they are unquestionably United States citizens and if they are approached by ICE here are the steps that they can take to protect themselves.” The concern is spurred in part by an increased presence of ICE agents and news reports of raids, activists said. Many reservations are in rural communities or near border towns in places like Arizona and New Mexico. Native Americans have sometimes been mistaken for being Latino, activists said. "The communities have raised concerns about the potential of racial profiling," De León said. Concerns were also heightened after Trump issued an executive order ending birthright citizenship, the automatic citizenship granted under the 14th Amendment to all children born in the U.S. Trump’s executive order, which has so far been blocked by the courts, would end citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to parents who are not themselves citizens or lawful permanent residents.

Boston 25 News [2/25/2025 4:14 PM, Maria Papadopoulos] reports a Brazilian national who is in the country illegally has been arrested on rape charges in a Cape Cod town, federal immigration authorities said Monday. Willian Robert Vasconcelos-Dos Santos, 21, of Brazil, is charged with three counts of rape and one count of selling or delivering liquor to a person under 21, according to the clerk’s office at Falmouth District Court. Falmouth Police arrested Vasconcelos-Dos Santos on Jan. 20, and charged him with rape, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement on Monday. Vasconcelos-Dos Santos was arraigned in Falmouth District Court on Jan. 21. Further details on the alleged rape were not immediately available on Tuesday. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested Vasconcelos-Dos Santos after he illegally entered the United States near San Diego on April 10, 2024, federal officials said. Border Patrol agents served Vasconcelos-Dos Santos with a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge and released him on an order of recognizance. Vasconcelos-Dos Santos is due back in court on March 7.

CBS Philadelphia [2/25/2025 5:44 AM, Staff, 51661K] Video: HERE reports three people who were living in the United States illegally were recently arrested while working at a business in Chester County, Pennsylvania, U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 11:28 AM, Matthew Sockol, 52868K] reports that the leader of the North Carolina Senate is moving forward with a new bill that will require state law enforcement officials to cooperate with federal immigration laws. Senate Bill 153, known as the "North Carolina Border Protection Act", was filed by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), state Sen. Warren Daniel (R-Burke), and state Sen. Buck Newton (R-Wilson) Monday. According to Berger’s office, the bill will do the following: State law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Public Safety, Department of Adult Correction, State Highway Patrol, and State Bureau of Investigation, are required to enter into memorandums of agreement with the director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to fully cooperate with immigration laws. State law enforcement agencies are required to determine the immigration status of anyone under their custody or supervision. The Office of State Budget and Management is required to determine if state-funded public benefit programs are being provided to authorized immigrations and post its findings publicly. The Office of State Budget and Management is required to ensure state-funded public benefits are only being provided to those who qualify for them. Any county or municipality that creates sanctuary cities will have its local immunity waived, allowing citizens harmed by illegal immigrants to sue them.

CBS Austin [2/25/2025 9:06 AM, Ian Kayanja, 602K] reports a man who worked at a local daycare before becoming a private babysitter in Mount Pleasant, Moncks Corner and Sullivan’s Island was arrested as part of an ongoing child sexual exploitation investigation, local authorities reported in a news release. According to jail records, Brandon Brill was arrested and booked on Feb. 19 on four counts of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of minor/criminal solicitation of a minor and one count of sexual extortion. On Feb. 19, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alongside the Mount Pleasant Police Department, alleged that Brill was involved in "sextortion." They also allege he was employed as a private babysitter since at least 2021 and worked at a local daycare in 2022. Between 2023 and 2025, Brill had advertised his babysitting services on Facebook and Nanny Lane for the area, police said. Due to his suspected online sextortion activity and employment, authorities with the two agencies are seeking information that may help identify potential victims Brill may have engaged or exploited, law enforcement said. News 4 requested the arrest report for Brill on Friday, Feb. 21, and has yet to receive it.

Telemundo Amarillo [2/25/2025 4:01 PM, Staff, 2K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and Newnan police officers arrested a Hispanic man as part of the “Innocent Shield” operation. According to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Atlanta, he is an undocumented Mexican citizen with 10 arrest warrants for child cruelty, sexual abuse and other crimes. Authorities have not revealed the identity of the detainee. In a post on social media site X, HSI said the Hispanic man was arrested as part of the Innocent Shield operation of ICE’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

CBS Austin [2/25/2025 7:58 AM, Sophie Pendrill, 602K] reports a routine traffic stop in Hernando County turned into a federal operation when deputies discovered a truck full of undocumented immigrants, including a driver previously deported from the United States. "Any time our deputies encounter individuals who may be in the country illegally, we will work with HSI agents to determine their status and, if appropriate, have those individuals deported after they answer for any local crimes," said Sheriff Al Nienhius. The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) said that while deputies were patrolling the area near Cortez Boulevard and Cyril Drive on Saturday, they noticed a truck with an invalid license plate. The deputy uncovered that the tag displayed a seize tag notification and that the registered owner did not possess a valid driver’s license. The driver, identified as Isidoro Morales, 36, told HCSO that he was a Mexican citizen without a valid driver’s license. It was later discovered that Morales had previously been deported from the United States. Further investigation revealed that four passengers in the truck were also in the country illegally. HCSO noted that they contacted the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office in Tampa. Agents responded to the scene and took all individuals into custody. The other passengers, namely Elias Reyes Garcia, 32, Benjamin Vazquez, 53, Carlos Nava Pajarito, 29, and Samuel Garcia Juarez, 34, were placed in detention facilities where they will undergo removal proceedings before an Immigration Judge. Morales received a criminal citation for driving without a valid driver’s license and will face federal charges for re-entering the country illegally.

FOX News [2/25/2025 11:10 AM, Brooke Taylor, 46189K] reports that roughly 90 illegal migrants were arrested in and around Colony Ridge, Texas, a largely Hispanic development outside Houston, during an operation targeting criminal and illegal migrants. Early Monday morning, Gov. Greg Abbott announced on X that Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers and special agents were assisting Homeland Security Investigations with the operation after months of planning. "Border czar" Tom Homan, sat down with Fox News after he joined the operation and said it was part of a "larger criminal investigation." While Homan could not reveal too many details about the investigation, he referred to the dozens of arrests Monday as "phase one." Among those arrested, ICE tells Fox News, was Florentin Chevez-Luna, a 39-year-old three-time previously deported criminal alien from El Salvador. ICE Homeland Security Investigations and Texas DPS took him into custody in Plum Grove, Texas. According to ICE, he had a criminal arrest warrant for alleged repeated sexual abuse of a minor over an eight-year period from November 2008 to November 2016. "This is something a little different today," Homan said. "You know, this is a larger criminal investigation into a network. And a lot of the people we were interested in were located in that area." According to Homan, he is still waiting on the exact number of arrests but said the majority of the illegal migrants taken into custody had criminal backgrounds. "The last number I saw was around 69 criminals," Homan said. "I know for a fact, several child sexual predators were arrested."

Univision [2/25/2025 5:54 PM, Staff, 5325K] reports the operation carried out last Monday, February 24 by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) in the Colony Ridge neighborhood, north of Houston, left a balance of 118 people detained, according to a statement from the agency. According to the ICE report, the detainees’ charges and convictions include criminal sexual conduct, homicide, robbery, negligent homicide, child sexual abuse, crimes of moral turpitude, weapons crimes and drug crimes. Troops and Special Agents from the Texas Department of Public Safety also assisted in the operation. ICE has so far only released the identity of one of the detainees: Florentin Chevez-Luna, 39 years old.

FOX News [2/25/2025 6:30 AM, Peter Pinedo, 46189K] reports Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that state authorities working with the Department of Homeland Security are conducting an immigration and law enforcement operation in Colony Ridge, a huge development known for attracting masses of illegal immigrants. "Colony Ridge is being targeted today," Abbott, a Republican, announced on X on Monday. Colony Ridge, which is less than an hour’s drive from Texas’ biggest city, Houston, is a housing development that advertises in Spanish for quality land for low down payments. There are believed to be thousands of illegal immigrants living in the community, which also reportedly has significant cartel activity and very little police presence. The governor said Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers and special agents were cooperating with Homeland Security Investigations in an operation in Colony Ridge this morning, "targeting criminals & illegal immigrants.” Abbott said he has been working on this operation with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, "for months.” In response to concerns that his post would endanger law enforcement’s operation in Colony Ridge, Abbott said the operation began hours before his post and that "long before my post anyone in the area would’ve known about the operation.” A spokesperson for DHS, however, declined to comment on the operation, citing the need to preserve secrecy about the details of the operations and concerns for the safety of the agents involved. Local outlet ABC13 reported that officials at the nearby Liberty County Sheriff’s Office further confirmed that DPS and ICE operations were underway. Another outlet called The Vindicator reported that at least one local man, Roberto Alfaro, 24, saw "undercover" agents he believed to be from ICE "forcefully" arresting a Mexican national outside his house. Alfaro told The Vindicator he had never seen anything like the operation underway in Colony Ridge before and that it "feels scary." He mentioned his concern that his mother and father would be deported back to Honduras and El Salvador. He also said he and some others were "chasing" ICE so "we could go behind them and warn others.” The Trump administration has unleashed a slew of immigration enforcement actions since taking office last month, one of the most notable being a string of ICE raids in cities across the country. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, Homan announced that in Trump’s first month in the Oval Office, ICE arrested 21,000 illegal aliens. "I’m happy with the numbers," he said. "But I’m not going to be satisfied until every criminal alien gang member, every criminal alien, every Tren de Aragua [gang member] is eradicated from this country and [we’ve] sent their a-- to Gitmo, where they belong.”

Univision [2/25/2025 3:34 PM, Staff, 5325K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has confirmed the arrest of a sexual assault suspect. During the operation carried out on February 24, by Troopers and Special Agents of the Texas Department of Public Safety, in the Colony Ridge area, Florentin Chevez-Luna, 39 years old and from El Salvador, was arrested. The suspect had been deported three times. Chevez-Luna was taken into custody pursuant to a criminal arrest warrant for alleged repeated sexual abuse of a minor over an eight-year period, from November 2008 to November 2016. Univision 45 was in the Cleveland, Texas area and was able to verify how elements of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), one of the main federal law enforcement agencies of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), were on different streets and areas. No official details have yet been released regarding the arrests or other measures resulting from the operation.

CBS Austin [2/25/2025 12:23 PM, Staff, 602K] reports that President Donald Trump’s deportation mission is bringing more arrests and removals of migrants with ties to gangs, violent criminal histories and allegations of sexual assault in the sweeping crackdown taking place across the country. The administration has said it is targeting illegal immigrants who pose a threat to the public in its initial crackdown before ramping up operations to remove the 11 million estimated people living in the U.S. illegally. Immigration officials have been highlighting the arrests of people suspected of trafficking drugs and fentanyl across the border and inside the U.S. as the administration tries to slow the flow of them into the country. Dany Belkis Vasquez-Rodriguez was arrested earlier this month in New Orleans for allegedly being in a fentanyl trafficking conspiracy. In Detroit, Jan Antonio Tamayo-Beltran was taken into custody for an alleged heroin trafficking conspiracy. Mirna Elisabeth Villatra-Rivas was arrested in San Diego on charges of drug trafficking. Jorge Alberto Galindo-Vargas, a Mexican national in the country illegally, was sentenced last week to 17 years in prison for trafficking cocaine after he was arrested in 2023 for having 12 kilograms of cocaine hidden in an ice chest in the vehicle. "The sentencing of this individual underscores our unwavering commitment to combatting drug trafficking and securing our borders," said ICE Homeland Security Investigations Rio Grande Valley Deputy special agent in charge, Mark Lippa.

Houston Chronicle [2/25/2025 11:15 AM, Matt deGrood and Nicole Hensley, 1769K] reports that ICE arrested 118 people after state troopers and federal agents descended on Colony Ridge as part of an operation targeting “criminals and illegal immigrants,” officials said on X, releasing a smattering of charges including homicide, theft, child sex abuse and crimes of moral turpitude. But as of Tuesday, they only provided one name in connection with the operation. Florentin Chevez-Luna, 39, is a three-time deportee from El Salvador who was arrested on a warrant for repeated sexual abuse of a minor from November 2008 to November 2016, according to a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE doesn’t typically release names in connection with immigration operations, a spokesperson said. They referred questions to their email address, but hadn’t responded to a request for a list of names and charges. Around the same time officials provided Chevez-Luna’s name, President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, told Fox News that agents had made around 90 arrests in connection with Monday’s operation. He did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment by the Chronicle. Abbott directed all questions related to the operation to DHS. Just after 2:30 p.m., ICE posted on X that the number was 118.

CBS San Francisco [2/25/2025 4:45 PM, Dave Pehling, 51661K] reports Bay Area Representatives Mark DeSaulnier and Zoe Lofgren on Tuesday sent a letter voicing their opposition to efforts by the Trump administration to reopen Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin to house immigrant detainees. Earlier in February, reports first surfaced that ICE might be considering the closed women’s prison in Dublin as a possible detention site, despite the facility’s numerous structural issues and infamous past. The letter from DeSaulnier, who represents California’s 10th Congressional District in the East Bay, and Lofgren, who represents California’s 18th Congressional District that stretches south from Santa Clara County, addressed the letter to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) William Lothrop, and Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Caleb Vitello. The letter outlined the misgivings the two representatives have over "the unsafe and hazardous conditions at the facility that necessitated its closure just months ago" as well as its "history of abuse of incarcerated immigrants" and "insufficient infrastructure for this population."

San Diego Union Tribune [2/25/2025 12:53 PM, Jessica Seaman, 1682K] reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security argues in a new court filing that federal policy regarding immigration arrests at schools hasn’t significantly changed under the Trump administration, despite the agency having rescinded previous guidance that largely prohibited such activity on campuses. The filing is the agency’s response to the lawsuit brought by Denver Public Schools on Feb. 12 that seeks to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from making arrests at the district’s schools. Superintendent Alex Marrero and other DPS leaders say they became concerned about ICE officers showing up at schools after the Trump administration rescinded a previous policy that prevented agents from detaining people at so-called sensitive locations, including churches and schools. The Denver district is not the only entity to sue the Trump administration over changes to the sensitive locations policy. Several religious groups have filed their own lawsuits, and on Monday a federal judge narrowly blocked ICE agents from detaining people in houses of worship for Quakers and a handful of other religious groups while their case proceeds. But the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, arguing on behalf of Homeland Security in the agency’s response filed Friday, said DPS leaders are incorrect in believing previous policy "categorically prohibited immigration enforcement at schools."

Washington Examiner [2/25/2025 9:42 AM, Emily Hallas, 2296K] reports that Government agencies censured anti-deportation activists after they revealed sensitive information about multiple federal immigration enforcement agents in California. Multiple flyers displayed across the Los Angeles area recently leaked the names, faces, and job descriptions of at least four people employed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security. "CAREFUL WITH THESE FACES," one flyer reads. "These armed agents work in Southern California. ICE and HSI racially terrorize and criminalize entire communities with their policies. They kidnap people from their homes and from the streets, separating families and fracturing communities. Many people have died while locked up in jails, prisons, and detention centers," the flyer continues. The DHS and FBI have condemned the activists for putting the federal agents in danger and are threatening an investigation into the matter. "These pathetic activists are putting targets on the backs of our law enforcement as they shield MS-13, Tren de Aragua and other vicious gangs that traffic women and children, kidnap for ransom and poison Americans with lethal drugs. These individuals will be held accountable for obstructing the law and justice. This shouldn’t be controversial," the DHS said in a statement to Newsweek. The Washington Examiner reached out to ICE, DHS, and the FBI for comment.

Border Report [2/25/2025 6:18 PM, Staff, 117K] reports Mexico’s Secretary of Defense, Gen. Ricardo Trevilla, told reporters Tuesday morning that U.S. intelligence-gathering drone flights have led to the arrests of at least two cartel leaders. Last week, Mexico announced it was working in conjunction with the U.S. government to conduct aerial surveillance of cartels and organized crime. "We’re talking about the apprehensions made in Culiacán were the result of this intelligence work," Trevilla said. Culiacán is the regional base for the Sinaloa cartel, which in spite of a leadership split and resulting violence, remains a major manufacturer and exporter of drugs such as fentanyl. "The aircraft help confirm information gathered by Mexican armed forces," Trevilla said. He refused to name cartel members who were arrested but he did say American personnel did not participate in the apprehensions. Mexico’s head of public safety and security, Omar García Harfuch, recently announced the arrests of "Wero Bryan," the presumed leader of the Chapitos, and Kevin Alonso, presumed chief of security for Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, "El Chapito.” The Chapitos are the sons of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the once powerful head of the Sinaloa cartel. Trevilla cautioned people by saying "this is not the beginning of spying operations using unmanned drones.” "These were not ordered by Donald Trump to watch Mexican cartels," he said.

Telemundo51 [2/25/2025 4:07 PM, Hatzel Vela, 171K] reports the Trump administration recently fired two dozen immigration judges, a move that has caused confusion as experts say more judges are needed to handle the country’s large caseload. According to Syracuse University researchers, as of December 2024, Florida had 567,226 pending cases, followed by Texas with 490,004 cases and California with 405,230 cases. The figures show that the immigration courts in Miami have more than 333,000 pending cases. The majority of these cases are from Cubans (107,882), followed by Haitians (57,195), Venezuelans (37,858) and Nicaraguans (31,004). Bush-Joseph said the massive backlog means people who deserve asylum protection wait years to receive it, while others who are not eligible are allowed to stay in the country longer. In Florida, the problem continues to worsen. Over a four-year period, the state has seen an increase of about 350 percent in pending cases going through immigration courts. Nationwide, there are more than 3.7 million cases pending in immigration courts.

Dallas Morning News [2/25/2025 6:50 AM, Alex Nguyen, 2778K] reports that, when Ali arrived in North Texas in early January, the 22-year-old gay refugee from Iraq thought he was finally able to live without fear. In his home country, LGBTQ people have long faced harassment and violence, including from the authorities based on penal code provisions "aimed at policing morals and public indecency," according to the nonprofit Human Rights Watch. A new federal lawsuit challenges funding freezes for refugee resettlement agencies and support programs imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration. Ali, who goes by the pseudonym in a federal lawsuit to protect himself from harassment as well as for his family’s safety in Iraq, was arrested and beaten by police in 2023 because they believed he was romantically involved with a man, according to a court document. It also said an officer tried to force him to perform oral sex. He was later released but continued to fear for his safety because the police had his personal information and could detain him again at any time, according to the document. Iraq also passed a law in April 2024 that explicitly criminalizes same-sex relationships, which could result in 10 to 15 years in prison. When he learned late last year he would be resettled in Dallas, he said in a self-recorded video at the time that he couldn’t stop laughing and crying. "I don’t know what to say, oh my god, and I got a goosebump," Ali said. "I’m going to America!". About two weeks after his arrival, President Donald Trump’s administration froze funding for refugee resettlement agencies and support programs. The move is part of a broader executive order that pauses foreign aid for 90 days to assess programs for "efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy.” Ali said the abrupt change has left him struggling to survive. Now, he is one of 12 plaintiffs — mostly refugees and resettlement agencies — suing the federal government over the funding freeze, as well as a separate executive order halting refugee admissions. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 10 by the International Refugee Assistance Project, a rights group that also challenged the first Trump administration. The Dallas Morning News reviewed the lawsuit and a court exhibit in which Ali submitted sworn declarations about his case. He also shared with The News his self-recorded video and screenshots of emails documenting his challenges in Dallas. "[President Trump’s orders] are designed to decimate the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and the infrastructure supporting refugee resettlement in the United States," said Linda Evarts, the International Refugee Assistance Project’s senior supervising attorney. "They violate Congress’ authority to make immigration laws, by trying to unilaterally override the Refugee Act.” On Tuesday, the group will present its case to a judge in Seattle asking for a preliminary injunction. Texas is a leading hub for recent refugee resettlement. While the federal government has yet to release January data, close to 2,000 refugees arrived in the state in November and December alone. "I hope for everything to get normal," said Ali. Ahead of the court hearing, the U.S. State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services all declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. The White House didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment. Prior to the lawsuit, the U.S. State Department described the broad aid funding pause as a way to reprioritize spending for what it called "an America first agenda.” "None of this would be possible if these programs remained on autopilot," said a Jan. 29 news release.

Univision [2/25/2025 6:13 PM, Staff, 5325K] reports posters with personal information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were placed in a neighborhood in Southern California, raising concerns among federal authorities. The posters include photographs, names and phone numbers of officers, with messages in Spanish denouncing their work in implementing immigration laws, so they are believed to have been placed by pro-immigrant activists. In the sign they warn that these officers work armed in the south of the state: Many people have died while they were locked up in prisons, prisons and detention centers. Officials from ICE and the FBI confirmed that they are aware of this situation and have initiated an investigation to determine who is behind the publication of this confidential information. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) condemned the actions, saying that exposing officers puts their safety and that of their families at risk. He also accused activists of protecting criminal gangs such as MS-13 and the Aragua Train. Finally, the FBI in Los Angeles warned that anyone who interferes with the operations of law enforcement agencies could face criminal charges.

Border Report [2/25/2025 11:09 AM, Dave Hendricks, 117K] reports that Border Patrol arrested six people and seized more than 560 pounds of cocaine Saturday morning near Sarita. At 8:15 a.m. Saturday, a white Ford F-150 stopped at the Border Patrol checkpoint south of Sarita for an immigration inspection, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. During the stop, a K-9 smelled something suspicious. Border Patrol sent the Ford F-150 to secondary inspection, where agents found 114 packages of cocaine stuffed in travel bags. Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, questioned the occupants of the Ford F-150 about the cocaine. One of the people in the truck, a woman named Delia Ramirez, declined to speak with agents. The other person, however, confessed to transporting cocaine. Juan Carlos Zuniga "also admitted to supplying narcotics to two (2) vehicles that drove in tandem" with the Ford F-150, according to the criminal complaint. Based on the information Zuniga provided, Border Patrol started looking for a black GMC Sierra and a white Buick Envista. The GMC Sierra stopped at the checkpoint just 30 minutes later. Border Patrol sent the GMC Sierra to secondary inspection, where agents found 67 packages of cocaine hidden in similar travel bags.

Border Report [2/25/2025 7:46 PM, Julian Resendiz, 117K] reports a man is facing charges of assault on a federal officer in connection with a Feb. 23 confrontation with three U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Gateway International Bridge in Brownsville, Texas. The incident took place after a CBP officer allegedly noticed a smell of marijuana in a 1998 GMC Yukon arriving from Mexico at the port of entry just after midnight with an adult man, and adult woman and three children. The officer further discovered that one of the passengers did not have proof that he was a United States citizen. A female driver identified as Brenda Rivera was told to proceed to a secondary inspection area; two CBP officers there explained to her they needed everyone to exit so they could search the vehicle. It was then that the male adult passenger identified as Julio Cesar Pena allegedly became verbally combative and told the officers he "wasn’t going to take his kids out of the (expletive) car," according to a complaint affidavit filed by the FBI in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The officers called a supervisor to the scene; they then attempted to remove Pena from the SUV. The complaint alleges Pena tried to close the vehicle door the officers had opened, grabbed on to the steering wheel and started kicking, striking the supervisor in the face three times. The other two officers ran around the SUV and pulled Pena out, but the struggle continued until Pena was forced to the ground and handcuffed, the complaint alleges. Pena was placed under arrest and taken inside offices at the port of entry. A medical contractor treated the supervisor for facial injuries including a cut lip and one of the officers for back and knee injuries sustained during the struggle. The officer was taken to a hospital and instructed by a physician not to return to work for four days; the supervisor resumed his duties without further medical treatment, court documents show. There is no mention of whether CBP found any marijuana in the SUV. Pena is being held without bond and faces a detention hearing on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Betancourt in Brownsville. The court appointed a public defender for Pena.

Border Report [2/25/2025 7:36 PM, Melissa Luna, 117K] reports that a Mexican man was sentenced in a federal court in El Paso to nearly four years in prison for three counts of assault on a federal officer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Carlos Ernesto Guerrero-Gutierrez was being detained in a pod of 20 individuals at an El Paso processing center in November 2023. Guerrero-Gutierrez became disruptive and was placed in a separate isolation pod where he dismantled the pod’s frame and removed a wooden board that had nails on it, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says when U.S. Border Patrol agents responded to the pod, Guerrero-Gutierrez bit one agent on the leg and injured two others using the board with nails. One of the agents was hit in the head and another agent was stabbed in the thumb with a nail. Guerrero-Gutierrez was ultimately subdued after two taser deployment attempts, cuffed and restrained. He pleaded guilty to three counts of assault on a federal officer on May 6, 2024. "Our Border Patrol partners place their lives on the line daily in defense of the United States and the integrity of our border," said Acting U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas. "We take these violations seriously and will vigorously prosecute violent individuals who assault those who work tirelessly to protect us and our communities." The FBI and U.S. Border Patrol investigated the case. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Austin [2/25/2025 6:04 PM, Ray Lewis, 602K] reports an improvised explosive device (IED) killed a Texas rancher near the state’s border with Mexico, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said Tuesday. The IED represents a growing threat posed by cartel activity along the state’s southern border, Miller explained in a press release. "A tragic and alarming incident occurred near Brownsville, Texas, where a U.S. citizen and Texas rancher was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED)," the release reads. "I urge all Texas farmers, ranchers, and agricultural workers who travel to Mexico or operate near the border to exercise extreme caution," Miller added. NewsNation reported the IED killed the rancher, 74-year-old Antonio Céspedes Saldierna, and another man, Horacio Lopez Peña, earlier this month. Ninfa Griselda Ortega, Peña’s wife, sustained injuries and has been hospitalized, according to the outlet. The device reportedly exploded when Saldierna ran over it. NewsNation said authorities suspect the explosive was set by a cartel. Miller urged Texas ranchers, farmers and agricultural workers who travel to Mexico or operate near the border to exercise "extreme caution.” "The Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) is a crucial part of Texas agriculture, and the safety of our agricultural community is of utmost importance," the commissioner said. "We cannot overlook the rising violence that threatens not only lives but also the security of our farms, ranches, and rural communities.”

Reported similarly:
Border Report [2/25/2025 6:02 PM, Staff, 117K]

Border Report [2/25/2025 11:04 AM, Veronica Salinas, 117K] reports that a McAllen man admitted he pointed a laser at a Customs and Border Protection helicopter, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced. The release states that on Dec. 29, a CBP aircrew in an official Air and Marine Operations helicopter saw a green laser beam being pointed at the helicopter several times during flight, impeding the pilot’s vision. Authorities were able to determine the laser came from the backyard of 35-year-old George Anthony Garza home. According to previous ValleyCentral reports, Garza was asked by police if had been pointing a light at an aircraft that was flying over. He replied he was testing out a flashlight that emitted a green light. Police say they smelled alcohol on Garza’s breath and asked him if he had been drinking. He said he consumed two beers. Garza told police he pointed the laser at some drones that were flying over the area, according to documents. U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton will sentence Garza on June 3. He faces up to five years in federal prison as well as a possible $250,000 maximum fine. Garza was allowed to remain on bond until he’s sentenced. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Austin [2/25/2025 1:54 PM, Jessica A. Botelho, 602K] reports that illegal border crossings have significantly declined since President Donald Trump took office last month, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Leavitt, speaking at Tuesday’s news briefing, said illegal crossings at the border are now at a 15-year low, noting the numbers plummeted during the weekend. "This administration’s efforts to seal the border continue to prove extraordinarily successful. In President Trump’s first month back in office alone, illegal border crossings hit lows not seen in decades -- down 94 percent over the past year, while the interior arrests are up 134 percent," Leavitt said. She also said there were "only" 220 illegal border crossings this past Saturday. "This is a 15-year low," she said. "Think about that in comparison to the amount of illegal border crossings we saw under the previous administration." Citing a FOX News report, Leavitt said a San Diego migrant shelter is set to close after they said they haven’t received any asylum-seeking families or individuals since Jan. 20. She added that New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday announced NYC is working to shut down what’s been dubbed as The Roosevelt Hotel’s "Asylum Arrival Center and Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Houston Chronicle [2/25/2025 9:09 AM, Jeremy Wallace, 1769K] reports that President Donald Trump has been in office for just over a month and his mark on federal government is already everywhere. But one of the biggest impacts so far has been his crackdown on the border, specifically in Texas. In January, U.S. Immigration and Customs reported just 16,553 encounters with people crossing along all five border patrol sectors within Texas. That amounts to a 63% drop from just a year ago and a nearly 80% drop from two years ago. In the Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, the number was down to just 3,500 encounters for January. Compare that to just over a year ago, when 71,000 encounters were reported. Eagle Pass became the center of the national debate over border security over the last two years as the number of migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti skyrocketed during Biden’s administration. It was in Eagle Pass, that Gov. Greg Abbott first began deploying razor wire and a floating bouy barrier in the Rio Grande to block people from crossing, and Republican presidential candidates, including Trump, all flocked to the region to call attention to it all. To be sure, the border crossing numbers had been on steady decline for the last six months as former President Joe Biden implemented programs to slow border crossing and got Mexican officials to step up their efforts to slow crossings.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 6:00 AM, Berenice Garcia, 52868K] reports migrant encounters at the Texas-Mexico border have declined for months. Even so, one county along the border just declared a disaster, citing a surge in migrants. After declining to do so for years, Starr County commissioners signed the disaster declaration to qualify for additional state money through Texas’ Operation Lone Star, according to Starr County Judge Eloy Vera. The move comes as Texas lawmakers are proposing to pour $6.5 billion in border security efforts over the next two years and state leaders continue to pressure state agencies to cooperate with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans. "It was brought to my attention by three departments — the DA, the sheriff and the county attorney — that the county, this year, if we did not sign, would lose anywhere between $5 to $8 million in county revenues," Vera said during a meeting of the county commissioners. "I’m not going to do anything that would hurt or jeopardize, in any fashion, the county so that’s the reason that I had a change of heart.” For years, the county had opted out of declaring an emergency since they were not using any resources to address migrant arrivals. El Paso County had also resisted signing a disaster declaration until the cost of housing and other needs for migrants became unmanageable and they relented last year. Starr County didn’t have such expenses. "We didn’t have the court fees, we didn’t have to house them at the jail, we didn’t feed them," Vera said. "They were taken to either Webb County or Hidalgo to be processed so we really didn’t have any disaster.” [In Odessa, multiple efforts are underway to help immigrants stay and work]. But the county was leaving money on the table. Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez said new grants could allow them to hire additional staff to prosecute border-related cases such as trespassing and drug smuggling cases which he said they currently don’t have the staff to prioritize. "We have many, many cases so sometimes they do sit there for a while," Ramirez said. Local agencies can receive up to $5 million through Operation Lone Star to cover the costs of additional personnel, equipment, supplies, contractual support, travel, and training in support of the border security mission. Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in 2021 in response to a high number of migrant crossings, which he blamed on immigration policies under President Joe Biden. As part of the program, the state deployed Texas National Guard soldiers and troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety to the border. Starr County, specifically, became a focal point of Texas leaders’ commitment to assist the Trump Administration in their deportation plans after the Texas General Land Office offered a 1,400-acre ranch here as a site to build detention centers.

Telemundo 48 El Paso [2/25/2025 2:24 PM, Staff, 11K] reports that Carlos Ernesto Guerrero-Gutierrez sentenced for assaulting Border Patrol agents at the El Paso processing center to 46 months in prison on three counts of assaulting a federal officer. The incident occurred in November 2023, when Guerrero Gutierrez was being held in a cell with 20 people where he behaved aggressively, prompting him to be taken to an isolation area, where he destroyed the cell frame and removed a nail board. When U.S. Border Patrol agents responded, Guerrero-Gutierrez bit one agent on the leg and injured two others using the nail board. One of the agents was struck in the head, causing bleeding above the temple, and another agent bled from his hand after being stabbed in the thumb with a nail. Guerrero-Gutierrez was eventually subdued after two attempts to use the stun gun, handcuffed and bound. He pleaded guilty to three counts of assaulting a federal officer May 6, 2024. "Our Border Patrol partners risk their lives daily in defense of the United States and the integrity of our border," said Acting U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas. "We take these violations very seriously and will vigorously prosecute violent individuals who attack those who work tirelessly to protect us and our communities.

CNN [2/26/2025 4:09 AM, Hanna Park, 22131K] reports newly revealed details from an arrest warrant describe the final moments of a California fire captain found fatally stabbed in her California home last week. Authorities allege her wife carried out the killing before fleeing across the border to Mexico. Cal Fire Capt. Rebecca "Becky" Marodi was discovered with multiple stab wounds in her home in Ramona on February 17, according to an arrest warrant filed in San Diego County Superior Court Friday. Marodi’s mother called 911 around 9 p.m., according to the warrant. Deputies arrived within minutes, but Marodi was pronounced dead at the scene about 15 minutes later. According to the arrest warrant, surveillance footage from the couple’s home captured part of the attack. At 8:08 p.m., the warrant says, Marodi is seen running across the patio, pursued by her wife, Yolanda Marodi, also known as Yolanda Olejniczak. "Yolanda! Please… I don’t want to die," Rebecca Marodi was heard pleading, investigators said. Olejniczak is said to have responded, "You should have thought about that before.” The surveillance footage shows Olejniczak holding a knife, apparent blood visible on her arms, ordering Marodi back inside the home, the warrant says. Marodi is heard repeatedly asking Olejniczak to call 911 before the two move out of frame. It was the last time Marodi was seen alive on camera, the warrant says. Minutes later, according to the warrant, Olejniczak was seen on the front door camera loading pets, luggage and belongings into a silver crossover SUV. By 8:22 p.m., she had left the home, investigators said. Homeland Security records show her vehicle crossing into Mexico less than an hour later, the warrant said. An acquaintance of Olejniczak contacted investigators with the contents of a text message Olejniczak sent her the day after the killing, according to the warrant. "Becky came home and told me she was leaving me, she met someone else, all the messages were lies," Olejniczak wrote, according to the warrant. "We had a big fight and I hurt her… I’m sorry.” Marodi sustained multiple stab wounds to her neck, chest and abdomen, authorities said. Olejniczak, who remains at large, was sentenced in 2004 after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of her then-husband, serving time in prison until 2013, according to court records. In a statement, Cal Fire honored Marodi’s decades of service and mourned her death. "Captain Marodi served over 30 years with Cal Fire, primarily in Riverside County, but also serving time in San Bernardino and San Diego Counties," the agency said. "The tragic loss of Captain Marodi is mourned by her family, friends and her Cal Fire family.”

Border Report [2/25/2025 5:05 PM, Julian Resendiz, 117K] reports Mexican officials have opened a migrant reception center in Juarez after a two-week delay due to wind damage and problems hooking up utilities. The Mexico te Abraza (Mexico embraces you) tent facility just west of Benito Juarez soccer stadium opened late last week with a notable absence of migrants. Enrique Serrano, head of the Chihuahua Population Council that runs the Migrant Assistance Center in Juarez, said Mexican immigration authorities as of last Saturday are bringing to the tent facility all migrants expelled by the United States to the border cities of Juarez and Ojinaga – south of Presidio, Texas. The kitchen, showers and rest spaces are open to all, but the plan is to route non-Mexican citizens to a gated federal shelter in Central Juarez and later taken to National Migration Institute (INM) facilities in the interior of the country. Serrano said U.S. immigration authorities are primarily sending Mexican migrants to Juarez but also have expelled migrants from seven other countries, including Cuba.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 5:56 PM, Sierra Rehm, 52868K] reports TSA officers stopped another gun from getting through a security checkpoint at Pittsburgh International Airport on Monday. The gun belongs to a man from Portage, Pa., and is the fifth gun TSA officers detected this month. It’s the eighth gun stopped so far this year. Last year, 42 guns were seized at the airport -- the most of any airport in the state. "It is extremely concerning that so many individuals are coming to our checkpoints with their loaded guns. This was a .380 caliber handgun loaded with six bullets," said Gerardo Spero, TSA’s federal security director for Pennsylvania. "Carrying a gun to a checkpoint is a security threat because we don’t know the intent of the individual with the gun. Now this man faces a potential federal financial penalty that can run into the thousands of dollars.” Passengers who bring guns to airport checkpoints can face federal civil fines of up to $15,000, depending on the specific weapon and the circumstances. This appies to travelers with or without a concealed carry permit.

Miami Herald [2/25/2025 4:09 PM, Simone Jasper, 3973K] reports an airport traveler stripped naked and shoved his underwear in a Transportation Security Administration worker’s face, prosecutors said. Now, nearly two years after the South Carolina man is accused of displaying the "lewd" behavior at the Indianapolis International Airport, he pleaded guilty to "interference with security screening personnel and assault of a federal officer." He’s ordered to serve nearly three years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.

Washington Examiner [2/25/2025 6:00 AM, Rachel Schilke, 2296K] reports a bipartisan and bicameral congressional trio is pushing the Small Business Administration to publicly report disaster relief loan funds in new legislation dropped Tuesday. The SBA Disaster Transparency Act, introduced by Reps. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) and Salud Carbajal (D-CA) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), comes as Republicans battle over whether to include disaster aid for several states in a spending deal ahead of a government shutdown deadline next month. Under the bill, the SBA would be required to issue monthly public reporting on its Disaster Loan Account’s balance, obligations, and projections, per text shared exclusively with the Washington Examiner. The agency, led by newly confirmed Administrator Kelly Loeffler, would also give Congress and the public "real-time insight" into the loans and "ensure funds remain available when businesses and homeowners need them most.” "The last thing anyone needs amid the stress of disaster recovery are confusing, bureaucratic roadblocks," Hinson said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. "This commonsense bill will improve transparency and streamline recovery efforts through the SBA, ensuring more Americans can access critical relief funds when they need them most.” The SBA would be required to align with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has publicly reported on its disaster relief fund since 2015. The agency does not currently provide the same information for small businesses, homeowners, and renters seeking disaster aid under the SBA loan account. "Transparency is crucial to ensure disaster relief programs work effectively," Carbajal said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. "Timely assistance is a lifeline for survivors, and we cannot allow delays due to lapses in funding. I’m committed to working across the aisle to make these changes and ensure our communities get the support they need when disaster strikes.” Wildfires in California and hurricanes across the East Coast, as well as tornadoes in the Midwest, have sparked bipartisan calls to revitalize the areas and provide aid for recovery. Scott said in a statement to the Washington Examiner the bill would allow Congress to act "before it’s too late," adding that he is committed to working with President Donald Trump to "ensure we have effective, top-of-the-line disaster response efforts in place.”

AP [2/25/2025 6:54 PM, Isabella O’malley, 48304K] reports three tropical cyclones are spinning in the South Pacific, an occurrence that scientists say is unusual. Tropical cyclones Rae, Seru and Alfred are all churning as the region is in the peak of a season that starts in November and ends in April. The storms are called cyclones when they happen in the Southwest Pacific and hurricanes when they form in the North Atlantic, but are essentially the same phenomenon. "It’s not incredibly unusual to have three hurricanes simultaneously in the month of September in the North Atlantic," said Brian Tang, an atmospheric science professor at University at Albany. "Certainly it is a very busy period for the South Pacific and three tropical cyclones is a lot to happen at once, but not unprecedented.” The last time three such storms occurred in the South Pacific was January 2021 when Lucas, Ana and Bina were churning simultaneously, though it’s not clear if Bina officially reached Category 1 status, Tang said.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 6:15 AM, Mike Taylor, 52868K] reports that, just days after floodwaters inundated Kentucky, a snowstorm and frigid temperatures arrived. A flood watch was issued for nearly the entire state early Feb. 13, and residents experienced extreme flooding over the weekend. At least two inches of rain fell, and some places received over 6.5 inches in 24 hours. The downpour stretched across neighboring states — a levee was breached in Tennessee — and brought to mind the floods that killed 39 people in the Bluegrass State just 18 months ago. This storm was not as bad but more widespread and will add further challenges to those ongoing recovery efforts. In Martin County, 237 people were rescued by boats and helicopters, and 344 roads were closed around the state. The Ohio River — which starts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north and Kentucky and West Virginia to the south — was not expected to crest in the Cincinnati area until Wednesday night, with a flood warning in effect until Friday morning. Fourteen people were killed across the entirety of the storm, including one in West Virginia and one in Georgia. "One of the biggest challenges is that there is impact and damage everywhere," Gov. Andy Beshear said in a news conference Monday. "There are still people at risk.” The storms knocked out power and water to residents, and some people were under boil water notices. Up to 8 inches of snow had fallen Tuesday and Wednesday, and freezing temperatures with wind chills below zero were expected through Friday as much of the country was blasted with Arctic air. Such extreme weather is becoming more frequent and severe because of rising global temperatures. Warmer air holds more moisture, which means heavy rainfall interspersed with drought. Unusual cold snaps could be the result of a destabilizing jet stream, as the polluting and heat-trapping gases released by the burning of dirty fuels for energy drive peaks and valleys. "I think we know that climate change is making more weather events happen, but we keep getting hit over and over," Beshear said.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 3:42 PM, Madylin Goins, 52868K] reports officials say Kentuckians affected by deadly flooding will be eligible for federal assistance. On Monday, President Donald Trump declared the severe weather beginning Feb. 14 a major disaster in the Commonwealth, paving the way for residents to receive individual federal assistance. "Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster," Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) wrote in a news release. Funding is also available for local governments and certain non-profits on a cost-sharing basis for "emergency protective measures.” "We fought hard to secure Individual and Public Assistance for our families and communities affected by flooding. Hours after approval, the FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator is in Kentucky and we’re setting up recovery centers, going door-to-door, and taking the first steps to rebuild together," Gov. Andy Beshear wrote on Tuesday.

Louisville Courier Journal [2/25/2025 5:50 PM, Killian Baarlaer] reports the number of deaths caused by recent severe weather in Kentucky has risen to 23 after a Graves County man was found to have died due to the storm, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday in a post on social media. President Donald Trump approved a major disaster declaration Monday to help Kentuckians in Breathitt, Clay, Harlan, Knott, Lee, Letcher, Martin, Owsley, Perry and Pike counties cope with the aftermath of the widespread flooding that started Feb. 15. Additional counties could qualify for federal funding "if warranted by the results of future damage assessments," a news release from Beshear’s office stated Monday.

Washington Post [2/25/2025 12:59 PM, Matthew Cappucci, 31735K] reports that the forecast on Monday hardly featured a chance of thunderstorms in South Dakota. So when a tornado touched down in Watertown in the eastern part of the state, it surprised even a seasoned storm chaser. The twister turned out to be South Dakota’s first February tornado on record — and it formed in the most unique of environments. Alex Resel has lived in South Dakota for his entire life and has chased a half dozen tornadoes within a short drive of his home. But he never expected to see one in February. “It was just hard to believe,” Resel said. “You had that classic, you know, supercellular look with it. It had cyclonic rotation … everything that you’d see from a tornado. But it took me a minute.” Resel, who is also a photographer, had finished his shift at a local manufacturing facility and decided to try his luck capturing what he believed were run-of-the-mill thunderstorms. Temperatures were in the upper 40s. He described a storm that was coming into town. About a half hour after he began photographing some lightning strikes, “that’s when it produced the tornado,” he said.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 5:07 PM, Jenn Jordan, 52868K] reports from Malibu to the South Bay, a stark reminder of California’s recent wildfires is now scattered across Los Angeles County beaches. Winter storms, driven by strong winds and heavy rainfall, have flushed pieces of timber, twisted metal and wildfire-charred sediment into rivers and streams—ultimately washing the debris back onto the Southern California coastline. This natural process, though common after major wildfires, is now being closely monitored by local agencies to ensure public safety and environmental health. Testing done at two of the impacted beaches confirmed the ashy sediment now being found on the sand is not hazardous to humans or marine life. In fact, experts are warning that removing it could do more harm than good by disrupting delicate coastal ecosystems. Meanwhile, maintenance crews are actively clearing large, potentially dangerous debris—including construction materials and wood with nails—as it washes ashore.

CBS News [2/25/2025 6:13 PM, Jennifer Jacobs, Nicole Sganga, 51661K] reports Sean Curran was a mostly anonymous U.S. Secret Service agent that July day in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a bullet clipped Mr. Trump’s ear, coming within inches of his skull. In the photo, Curran is the agent on the right, sunglassed and unsmiling, after he and his team sprang to the former president’s side to protect him. His relationship with the president was forged over seven years of near daily contact, including two assassination attempts and court hearings that numbered "too many to count." Just after his second inauguration, Mr. Trump named him director of the Secret Service. One recent change within the agency’s ranks has been to embed a team of six lawyers within Secret Service field operations — not for oversight of the officers, but for support in dealing with protesters or other circumstances.

CBS News [2/25/2025 7:25 PM, Jennifer Jacobs, 51661K] Video: HERE reports U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran was with President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the July 2024 assassination attempt at a political rally. He opened up about that experience in an exclusive interview with CBS News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 6:28 PM, Randi Bass, 52868K] reports deputies in Southern Maryland are searching for a suspect after someone swindled local Girl Scout troops out of cash, handing them counterfeit bills as they sold cookies. The Saint Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office (SMCSO) says it happened to two troops in California, Md. on Sunday. "It’s outrageous, and frankly, shame on you. These are Girl Scouts, out trying to earn funds for trips or trying to earn badges. They’re enjoying an afternoon. They’re so incredibly trusting. And this is a terrible thing to do," said ALisa Casas with the SMCSO. Leaders from one of those troops say it’s been tough for the girls to process. "Audrianna has just been going around saying, ‘I can’t believe someone was so mean to do this to Girl Scouts,’" said mother Elisabeth Randazzo. Audrianna, 8, and 10-year-old Lena were selling cookies with their mothers Sunday when things took a turn. "We needed some 1s, so I took four 20s and walked down to Giant to get some … It was the manager at Giant customer service who said two of these 20s are counterfeit. I was shocked and just surprised because I would never expect that to happen," said mother and troop leader Lee Anne Machi. Around the same time about a block away, another troop selling cookies also fell victim to fake bills. Troop 10005 is raising money for a trip to Europe.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 4:43 PM, Bill Palmer, 52868K] reports a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was called in to assist local fire departments and area dive teams, but luckily this was only a drill. The helicopter crew deployed a rescue basket as it hovered over the frigid waters. The drill provided members of the Erie Fire Department an opportunity to work with the Coast Guard, as well as dive teams from the North East Fuller Hose Company and Lake City Fire Department on open-water rescue practices. One Erie Fire Department official spoke about the importance a drill like this provides for those involved. "We’re getting some of the dive team out here, getting them some familiarity of working with the Coast Guard on the ice. We’re coming close to the end of the ice season here, probably a hazardous time as the ice starts to deteriorate from this point on," said Captain Shawn Lawry with the Erie Fire Department.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 10:30 AM, Colin Mixson, Thomas Tracy, and Ellen Moynihan, 52868K] reports that the Coast Guard has suspended its search for a missing 51-year-old fisherman who is presumed dead after his boat capsized in the waters off Queens Sunday, killing three of his friends. The search was ended for Bronx resident Vernon Glasford at 6 p.m. Monday, with his body still missing. Glasford was on the 30-foot Grady-White boat fishing boat when it began to take on water near Breezy Point near the entrance to the Ambrose Channel around noon Sunday. "The decision to suspend a search is always difficult," said Capt. Jonathan Andrechik, the Coast Guard Sector New York commander. "Though our active search has ended, our support and sympathy remain with all those impacted by this tragic incident." Six men were on the boat when it unexpectedly capsized, officials said. Two men survived, three died and Glasford was unaccounted for. Coast Guard crews responding to the capsized boat scoured 842 square miles during a 30-hour search, Coast Guard officials said. The search involved vessels of different sizes, helicopters, and small planes.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 5:33 PM, Katlyn Fernandez, 52868K] reports law enforcement officers with the Coast Guard Sector in Miami shut down 12 illegal charters in Biscayne Bay and the Miami River over the weekend. A 70-foot motor yacht, Indigo, and a 52-foot cabin cruiser, Second Wind, were among the boats cited. The owners of Indigo were reportedly operating as an illegal charter with 11 passengers for hire. The Coast Guard said the vessel was violating a Captain of the Port Order issued in May 2023 for operating as a bareboat charter without a choice of crew. The owners of Second Wind were also operating illegally with 13 passengers, violating a similar order from January 2023, the Coast Guard said. "Passenger vessel regulations are set standards for the safety of the crews, their passengers and the public around them," said Lt. j.g. Jasmine Smith, a Coast Guard investigating officer at Sector Miami. "Mariners in control of charter vessels should meet the regulatory safety standards and understand the consequences of disregarding safety violations. At the end of the day, we want the public to have a safe and enjoyable time on the water by complying with state and federal regulations.” The Coast Guard said those found in violation of Captain of the Port Order could face penalties up to $117,608 per day and potential felony charges, which could result in up to six years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines. Other violations included failure to have proper licensing, required safety equipment and drug and alcohol testing programs. The Coast Guard urged passengers to verify that their captains have proper credentials and a safety plan before booking charters.

New York Times [2/25/2025 11:44 AM, Nick Corasaniti, 145325K] reports that alarmed by cuts already made to federal agencies that help safeguard elections, and fearful that more could be coming, a bipartisan group of the nation’s top state election officials has appealed to Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, for help. In a rare move, the ordinarily restrained National Association of Secretaries of State wrote to Ms. Noem, the former South Dakota governor, on Friday asking that critical election programs and protections be spared during an upcoming agency review. Among the programs the group singled out for preservation were those aimed at assessing the physical security of voting locations and election offices, shoring up cybersecurity for election offices, sharing classified intelligence on foreign threats to elections and responding to attacks like ransomware. “We favor continuity of the core resources,” the secretaries said, while also asking Ms. Noem to discuss with them any “potential changes or impacts to election security-related services before making a final decision.” Last week, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had already reassigned several dozen officials working on foreign interference in U.S. elections at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and forced out others at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security.

CyberScoop [2/25/2025 12:00 PM, Matt Bracken] reports expelling all members of an independent federal cybersecurity advisory panel as it was investigating Salt Typhoon was necessary due to previous leadership and the board “going in the wrong direction,” President Donald Trump’s nominee for deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday. Troy Edgar, who is serving as a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as he awaits confirmation, called the Trump administration’s decision to dismiss Cyber Safety Review Board members a “great idea” during his testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In response to questioning from Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., Edgar said that as an adviser he wasn’t the one who made the decision to dissolve the CSRB, which had been reviewing the staggering — and ongoing — breach of U.S. and global telecommunications systems by the Chinese-linked group. “But I think it was a great idea,” he said. “I think that [the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency], with that steering committee, I think they need to be reconstituted.” Edgar, an IBM executive who also served at DHS during Trump’s first term, said CISA has taken over the investigation into Salt Typhoon as the CSRB is overhauled. Kim asked why the board — whose membership included federal cyber leads across agencies as well as private-sector experts — needed to be decommissioned. “I thought it was decommissioned because it was going in the wrong direction,” Edgar said. “It starts with the leadership there.” Though the CSRB’s investigation into Salt Typhoon has ceased, the FBI’s own investigation continues. Cynthia Kaiser, deputy assistant director in the bureau’s cyber division, said last week that Salt Typhoon has been “indiscriminate” in its collection of Americans’ data as it lingers in telecom networks. The hackers have successfully exploited compromised infrastructure, threat intelligence researchers say, blending their activities with regular operations accessed via trusted infrastructure.

MeriTalk [2/25/2025 3:55 PM, Grace Dille, 45K] reports Troy Edgar, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), told lawmakers today that he backs the administration’s decision to disband the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), adding that the board will be reinstated "at the right time." DHS dismissed the members of the CSRB, along with all other members on advisory committees within the department, on the first day of the Trump administration. Sen. Kim further pressed Edgar on who is currently conducting the investigation into Salt Typhoon, to which the nominee replied "CISA." The CSRB is composed of up to 20 members, who are appointed by the director of CISA. The members include private and public sector experts, whose appointments are "made without regard to political affiliation," according to the board’s charter.

Yahoo! News [2/25/2025 7:00 AM, Molly Boigon, 52868K] reports cyberattacks targeting automotive and smart mobility products jumped 39 percent last year from 2023, according to a new report from an automotive cybersecurity company. One key reason: attacks on electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Upstream’s 2025 Automotive & Smart Mobility Global Cybersecurity Report logged 409 cyberattack incidents in 2024, up from 295 in 2023. The share of these attacks involving EV chargers increased to 6 percent from 4 percent in 2023. Attacks are getting more common and more high risk, the cybersecurity company said. As devices, apps and other tools talk to each other, the potential footprint of an attack grows larger. Fifty-nine percent of the EV charging attacks in 2024 had the potential to impact millions of devices, including chargers, mobile apps, vehicles and more. Thirty-seven percent could have affected thousands of devices, Upstream said. "It’s not necessarily the number of assets, it’s the connectivity and the fact that they’re all interconnected that increases the risk dramatically," said Shira Sarid-Hausirer, Upstream’s vice president of marketing. Attackers have different reasons for targeting mobility devices and infrastructure, including quests for personal information, fraud attempts such as routing drivers to fake payment pages and the pursuit of ransom payments to perpetrators in exchange for the release of system control or data. Nearly three-fourths of the attacks on EV charging stations identified by Upstream involved service or business disruptions, meaning that hackers were in most cases able to impact the chargers’ functionality. Those attacks "had an impact of business or service disruption, which means no charging," Sarid-Hausirer said. "We have issues with adoption, with consumer trust, with range anxiety, all these things we’ve been talking about for a couple years now. This is it, right?".

CyberScoop [2/25/2025 5:53 PM, Matt Kapko] reports cybercriminals intentionally disrupted operations at a growing rate last year, Palo Alto Networks’ threat intelligence firm Unit 42 said in an annual incident response report released Tuesday. Of the nearly 500 major cyberattacks Unit 42 responded to last year, 86% involved business disruption, including operational downtime, fraud-related losses, increased operating costs and negative reputational impacts. Unit 42 called this trend the “third wave of extortion attacks,” another point of potential leverage for threat groups to impose on targets in addition to encryption and data theft. These disruptive attacks stand out for the pain, impact and broader ripple effects they inflict on society and the economy at large, said Sam Rubin, senior vice president of consulting and threat intelligence at Unit 42. “This is what organizations need to be worried about from a threat perspective and from a defensive strategy standpoint,” Rubin said. Encryption remains the most common tactic used in extortion attacks, which Unit 42 observed in 92% of attacks last year, followed by data theft in 60% of all cases. Yet, cybercriminals are demonstrating adaptability by intensifying attacks through operational disruptions, adding to the impact of data theft and encryption. “It’s often building on each other, but ultimately it’s how to get to that end game of getting paid,” Rubin said. Unit 42 observed attackers visibly disrupting organizations by removing systems, destroying data and harassing customers and partners, which allows them to gain leverage in rather significant ways. For example, in an attack on a large IT services firm, the threat group’s persistence and proven ability to continue deleting additional systems compounded financial losses, Rubin said. The CEO of the IT services firm was so determined to end the hardship, they instructed advisers to pay the large ransom demand without further negotiations. Unit 42 helped the organization lower the payment, but “that’s the urgency that they felt to just move on and get past this, because there’s just continuing pain and infliction of different tactics to take down parts of their environment,” Rubin said.

CyberScoop [2/25/2025 12:00 PM, Derek B. Johnson] reports cyberattacks against industrial organizations surged in 2024 as a glut of new threat actors increasingly targeted operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS), according to cybersecurity firm Dragos. According to a report released Tuesday, attacks on industrial organizations soared by 87% last year, while the number of ransomware groups impacting the OT/ICS space jumped 60%. Dragos CEO Rob Lee said much of the increased activity is happening downstream of larger geopolitical conflicts. Currently, Russia-Ukraine, China-Taiwan, U.S.-Russia, U.S.-China, India-Pakistan, and Israel-Hamas are in open war, on the cusp of it or engaged in cold war-like conflicts. “There’s just a lot of geopolitical strife and unfortunately one of the realities is state actors and non-state actors tend to target civilian infrastructure,” Lee told reporters in a briefing ahead of the report’s release. Indeed, U.S. national security officials have spent much of the past year sounding the alarm about Volt Typhoon, a Chinese government-linked hacking group that has been stealthily embedding itself into U.S. critical infrastructure networks for years. Officials have said they believe the group is pre-positioning for possible future destructive attacks on U.S. industry in an effort to deter Washington from responding if China invades Taiwan. But according to Lee, Volt Typhoon is part of a larger group of actors who have been shifting to target operational technology and industrial control systems over the past year — software designed to control and operate the physical machinery routinely used in manufacturing plants, electric utilities and other industrial sectors. While attacks on industrial IT systems can be disruptive to an organization, experts believe that many of the worst harms from hacking critical infrastructure — like poisoning the water supply or shutting down portions of the electric grid — can happen when hackers gain access to and manipulate the physical machinery that underpins many industrial operations.

AP [2/25/2025 11:30 AM, Staff, 48304K] reports that a cybersecurity expert who until recently led efforts to protect sensitive veterans data on VA.gov warns that sensitive information for millions could be at risk after DOGE suddenly fired him. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Miami Herald [2/25/2025 8:36 AM, Clyde Hughes, 3973K] reports President Donald Trump said his administration plans to implement tariffs on neighbors Canada and Mexico next week. The tariffs were delayed a month after the countries promised to beef up their border security but Trump told reporters Monday the tariffs will now move" forward on time, on schedule.” Trump said earlier that the country would be hit with 25% tariffs on its products. Canada will also see a 10% duty on energy products. "So the tariffs will go forward, yes, and we’re going to make up a lot of territory," Trump said, suggesting that countries have treated the United States unfairly economically, but failed to give examples. "It seems like that’s moving very rapidly," Trump said of the tariffs. "We’ve been mistreated very badly by many countries, not just Canada and Mexico.” Trump called for reciprocity between the United States, Canada and Mexico. "All we want is reciprocal," Trump said. "We want reciprocity. We want the same.” Canada and Mexico make up $900 billion in U.S. imports, including automobiles and agricultural products. The leaders of both countries said they would follow suit with retaliatory tariffs with Trump follows through.

New York Times [2/25/2025 11:01 PM, Julian E. Barnes, 145325K] reports Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said on Tuesday that more than 100 intelligence officers from 15 agencies had been fired for sexually explicit discussions on a government chat tool. The chat program was administered by the National Security Agency and intended for discussions of sensitive security matters. But a group of employees used it for discussions that contained sexual themes, intelligence officials said this week. The chats also included explicit discussion of gender transition surgery, officials said. Transcripts of the chat were first disclosed Monday by Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who writes for City Journal. Appearing Tuesday evening on Fox News, Ms. Gabbard said she had issued a directive to fire more than 100 people who participated in the discussions and to strip the officers of their security clearances. She said the chats were an “egregious violation of trust” that violated “basic rules and standards” of workplace professionalism. A spokeswoman for the office said on X that Ms. Gabbard had sent a memo to all intelligence agencies asking them to identify all employees who had participated in “sexually explicit chat rooms” on the N.S.A. tool by Friday. Ms. Gabbard put her actions in the larger context of her efforts to depoliticize the intelligence community and the Trump administration’s efforts to hold employees accountable. “Today’s action, in holding these individuals accountable, is just the beginning of what we are seeing across the Trump administration,” Ms. Gabbard said. She added that officials had moved to “clean house, root out that rot and corruption, and weaponization and politicization, so we can start to rebuild that trust in these institutions.” The Central Intelligence Agency and Ms. Gabbard’s office have moved to fire an undisclosed number of employees who worked on diversity issues during the Biden administration. That action was paused by a federal judge who was reviewing the action and was expected to make a ruling on Thursday. Unlike with the explicit chats, there is no allegation of wrongdoing by the officers involved in recruiting and diversity efforts, and the officers have sued the government arguing they should be offered other posts.

Newsweek [2/25/2025 6:59 AM, Maya Mehrara, 3973K] reports Poland has scrambled aircraft again due to Russian strikes on western Ukraine, according to an Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces’ post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Newsweek reached out to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for comment via email. As there have been numerous occasions where Poland has scrambled aircraft due to Russian strikes on Ukraine, concerns of the conflict spreading throughout Europe are increasing. NATO’s European members have been preparing for a possible war with Russia since last year, and Poland has started construction on what it has called its "East Shield," described as "the largest operation to strengthen Poland’s eastern border, NATO’s eastern flank, since 1945.” The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces announced that it had scrambled aircraft in the early morning hours on February 25 "due to the activity of long-range aviation of the Russian Federation carrying out strikes on objects located, among others, in western Ukraine.” The Polish forces wrote that in addition to beginning "military aviation" in Polish airspace, they also "activated all available forces and resources at its disposal, and ground-based, air-defense and radar-reconnaissance systems reached a state of readiness." These were a precautionary measure in order to ensure "safety in areas bordering the threatened areas.” A few hours later, the Polish military wrote on X that the "operation of military aviation in Polish airspace has been terminated due to the cessation of long-range aviation activity of the Russian Federation" and that the "launched ground-based, air-defense and radar-reconnaissance systems returned to standard operational activities.” The Operational Command added that "no violation of Polish airspace was observed.” Poland’s actions were likely in response to Russia’s launch of four Tu-95 MS aircraft-launched cruise missiles from near the city of Engels in Russia’s Saratov Oblast on February 25, according to a Ukrainian Air Force post on Telegram. Poland also mobilized fighter jets due to Moscow’s strikes on Ukraine on February 1. Warsaw also scrambled aircraft in mid-January, and on Christmas morning in December 2024 after Russia targeted Ukraine. Poland scrambled jets in November 2024, and in August 2024 to intercept a Russian aircraft performing a "reconnaissance mission.” The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces wrote on X: "#WojskoPolskie constantly monitors the situation in the territory of Ukraine and remains in constant readiness to ensure the security of Polish airspace." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [2/26/2025 3:56 AM, Constant Méheut, Andrew E. Kramer and Alan Rappeport, 330K] reports Ukraine has agreed to turn over the revenue from some of its mineral resources to the United States, an American and a Ukrainian official said on Tuesday, in a deal that follows an intense pressure campaign from President Trump that included insults and threats. The final terms of the deal were unknown, and it was not immediately clear what, if anything, Ukraine would receive in the end after days of difficult, sometimes tense negotiations. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had repeatedly pressed for security guarantees for his country in exchange for mineral rights, as Russia’s war has entered its fourth year. Previous draft agreements reviewed by New York Times included no such security commitment. Mr. Trump had insisted he wanted “payback” for past military aid to Kyiv, shifting America’s alliance with Ukraine to a nakedly mercantile footing. A final translated draft of the agreement was sent to Ukraine on Tuesday, according to the American official. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Ukrainian counterpart, the American official said, are expected to sign the agreement first and then Mr. Zelensky is expected to go to Washington for a signing with Mr. Trump. The American and Ukrainian officials insisted on speaking anonymously in order to describe private negotiations. On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Trump, speaking from the Oval Office in Washington, said of Mr. Zelensky: “I hear that he’s coming on Friday. Certainly, it’s OK with me if he’d like to. And he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that’s a big deal, very big deal.” Mr. Zelensky has been pressing for days to finalize any agreement with Mr. Trump in person. But the Ukrainian leader had rejected at least one other draft of an agreement because it lacked specific U.S. security guarantees and because Mr. Trump was requesting mineral rights worth $500 billion, along with other provisions that Ukraine considered unacceptable.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/25/2025 6:15 PM, Matthew Cullen, 145325K]

Washington Examiner [2/25/2025 5:36 PM, Mike Brest, 2296K] reports President Donald Trump announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit the White House on Friday as the two sides work toward finalizing an agreement over the Trump administration’s pursuit of repayment for previous U.S. military support. "We want to get that money back," Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday, though he did not confirm that the deal had been finalized. While some details remain unknown, the framework of the proposal is that the United States would "provide a long-term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine" in exchange for Ukraine contributing 50% of its revenue from minerals, oil and gas, its infrastructure, and its ports to an investment fund comanaged with the U.S. U.S. security guarantees to Ukraine do not appear to be part of the deal. When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent proposed the deal to Zelensky earlier this month, the Ukrainian president rejected the offer. It was a moment that ultimately led to a cascade of events that threatened further U.S. support for the besieged nation.

Reuters [2/25/2025 10:38 PM, Staff, 41523K] reports China’s government said on Wednesday that Taiwan was "manipulating" possible Chinese involvement in the latest severing of an undersea communications cable, saying the island was casting aspersions before the facts were clear. Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has repeatedly complained about "grey zone" Chinese activities around the island, designed to pressure it without direct confrontation, such as balloon overflights and sand dredging. Taiwan’s coast guard said it detained a China-linked cargo ship on Tuesday after a nearby undersea cable to the Penghu Islands in the sensitive Taiwan Strait was disconnected. Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters in Beijing that damage to undersea cables were a "common maritime accident" which occur more than a hundred times a year globally. "While the basic facts and the people responsible for the accident have not yet been clarified, the Democratic Progressive Party authorities have deliberately exaggerated the situation in an attempt at political manipulation, which will not enjoy popular support," she said, referring to Taiwan’s ruling party. Taipei was alarmed after a Chinese-linked ship was suspected of damaging another cable earlier this year, prompting the navy and other agencies to step up efforts to protect the undersea communication links, which are vital to the island’s connections to the rest of the world. Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, has pointed to similarities between what it has experienced and damage to undersea cables in the Baltic Sea following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Taiwan has pointed the finger at ships which are actually Chinese but carry "flags of convenience" of other countries.

New York Times [2/25/2025 7:05 AM, Chris Buckley, Agnes Chang and Amy Chang Chien, 145325K] reports Taiwanese authorities said they had detained a cargo ship crewed by Chinese nationals, which investigators believe may have severed an undersea communications cable near the island on Tuesday. It was the latest in a series of murky incidents that have prompted theories that China and Russia may be turning to cable sabotage as a form of harassment at sea. The cable that was damaged connected Taiwan to the Penghu Islands, which belong to Taiwan and lie about 30 miles west of the main island. Taiwan’s Coast Guard said that it was still investigating the latest incident and had not reached any conclusions about whether the severing was deliberate or accidental. But Ou Yu-fei, a press officer for the coast guard, said initial clues pointed to the detained ship, a dilapidated cargo carrier that used more than one name, including “Hong Tai 58.” The ship had Chinese funding, the coast guard said in a statement. “This was the only vessel in the area — that’s our judgment,” Mr. Ou said in a telephone interview, citing radar records of where the cable break occurred. “We’re not ruling out the possibility that it was engaged in an act of sabotage. We go by the evidence. It’s too early to reach conclusions.” Mr. Ou added that the ship may have used a false registration number and appeared to have suddenly had its name changed, among other details. The ship may have severed the cable — accidentally or deliberately — around the time that a Chinese coast guard ship warned it to leave the vicinity in the early hours of Tuesday, he said. “It is possible that it used the time when it was leaving to carry out sabotage,” he said. The cable that was broken is one of several connecting the Penghu Islands, also called Pescadores, to the main island. Communications were quickly rerouted after the damage was detected, and there was no major outage, the authorities said. Taiwan usually depends on undersea cables for its internet connections with outlying islands, such as the Penghu Islands, as well as for its connections to the rest of the world. Cables can be severed by natural factors like earthquakes or aging, but the most common cause is when ships drag anchors or fishing equipment that scrapes the sea floor. Recent incidents off Taiwan and in the Baltic Sea have raised suspicions among some officials and experts that China and Russia may sometimes deploy commercial cargo ships or oil tankers to deliberately cut cables by dragging their anchors.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [2/25/2025 8:27 AM, Anders Hagstrom, 46189K]
Miami Herald [2/25/2025 2:12 PM, Joe Fisher, 3973K]

Yahoo! News [2/26/2025 2:52 AM, Wayne Chang, Nectar Gan, 52868K] reports China’s military has set up a zone for "live-fire training" about 46 miles (74 kilometers) off the southwestern coast of Taiwan without advance notice, the island’s defense ministry said on Wednesday, condemning the move as provocative and a threat to international navigation. It comes a day after Taiwan’s coast guard detained a Chinese-crewed cargo ship suspected of cutting an undersea cable in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected 32 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait starting shortly before 9 a.m. on Wednesday (8 p.m. Tuesday ET). It added that 22 of those aircraft flew near the north and southwest of the island and carried out a "joint combat readiness patrol" with Chinese warships, according to the statement. "During this period, (China) blatantly violated international norms by unilaterally designating a drill zone approximately 40 nautical miles off the coast of Kaohsiung and Pingtung without prior warning, claiming it would conduct ‘live-fire training,’" the ministry said, adding that it "strongly condemns" these actions. Kaohsiung, a strategic commercial hub for Taiwan, is home to the island’s largest and busiest port. There was no immediate comment from Beijing on the Taiwan statement. China’s Foreign Ministry did not comment on it when asked at a regular news conference Wednesday, saying it’s "not a diplomatic issue." CNN has reached out to China’s defense ministry for comment. China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its territory, despite never having controlled it, and has vowed to take the self-governing democracy by force if necessary. Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing has significantly ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan. Taiwan’s defense ministry said China declared the drill zone within international shipping lanes via temporary radio broadcasts, posing "a severe threat to the safety of international aviation and maritime navigation.” "This is a blatant provocation against regional security and stability," the ministry added.

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