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 Wall Street Journal [2/4/2025 8:44 PM, Tarini Parti, Nancy A. Youssef and Michelle Hackman, Neutral] reports that the first flight carrying detained migrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay landed at the American naval base in Cuba, as the Trump administration undertakes the initial phases of expanding a small migrant-detention center there. A flight Tuesday from Fort Bliss in Texas to Guantanamo, which left in the afternoon, had roughly a dozen migrants on board, people familiar with the matter said. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the developments Tuesday on FOX News. “The first flights from the United States to Guantanamo Bay with illegal migrants are under way,” she said, listing recent immigration-related actions that President Trump has taken. “He’s not messing around.” The U.S. base at Guantanamo always has had a facility to detain some migrants, typically those caught heading for the U.S. at sea. The administration has said it would expand operations there to hold up to 30,000. The base is now equipped to hold 120 migrants. Roughly 200 Marines were dispatched to Guantanamo in recent days, according to a defense official. That number is expected to rise to 500 in the coming days, the official said. The Marines will help set up the infrastructure, with tents added to increase the site’s capacity. Trump last week ordered the Pentagon and Homeland Security Department to construct a facility to “contain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” he said at the White House. He made the remarks while signing a bill passed in response to a murder by a migrant who was in the U.S. illegally. The Homeland Security Department didn’t respond to a request for more information on the migrants and whether they had a criminal record. The base is better known for its notorious prison where the U.S. has kept suspected terror suspects for more than two decades. The lesser known migrant center has been operational since the 1990s. The Biden administration used the facility to house a small number of migrants so they could be resettled to third countries. The detention center has been under scrutiny by advocacy groups in recent years who have pushed for it to be closed. The International Refugee Assistance Project revealed in a report last year through interviews with detainees and former staff that the center—which was characterized as a dilapidated building with mold and sewage problems—housed families with young children alongside single adults. Detainees were denied confidential phone calls, including with lawyers, and weren’t allowed to reveal any accounts of mistreatment, the report said. FOX News [2/4/2025 6:42 PM, Adam Shaw and Michael Dorgan, 49889K, Negative] reports that "I can also confirm that today the first flights from the United States to Guantanamo Bay with illegal migrants are underway," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. "And so President Trump, Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem are already delivering on this promise to utilize that capacity at Gitmo for illegal criminals who have broken our nation’s immigration laws and then have further committed heinous crimes against lawful American citizens here at home.” The first flight was scheduled to leave Fort Bliss with about a dozen migrants on board. They will be separated from the 15 detainees already there, who include alleged 9/11 planners, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. "Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust their countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back," Trump said last week of the migrants being sent there. "We’re going to send them to Guantanamo.” About 380 service members are supporting the holding operations at Naval Station Guantanamo, U.S. Southern Command said Tuesday, adding that the number of service members will continue to fluctuate based on DHS requirements. The Washington Post [2/4/2025 8:09 PM, Marianne LeVine, Sarah Cahlan, Jarrett Ley, Maria Sacchetti, 40736K, Negative] reports that a Department of Homeland Security official said one plane operated by the Defense Department transported “nine to 10” migrants to Cuba on Tuesday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the arrangements, described the migrants as “dangerous criminals” who are in ICE custody. Satellite images reveal that around 59 tents measuring about 18 feet by 36 feet have been erected at the base in recent days, along with 31 smaller structures, according to a Washington Post review of imagery from Planet Labs. Steven McLoud, a spokesperson for U.S. Southern Command, declined to comment, citing operational concerns. Trump said that Guantánamo would be used to detain “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people” and that it “will double our capacity immediately.” Trump has repeatedly sought to portray undocumented immigrants as criminals, even though there is little evidence that they commit crimes at a higher rate than U.S. citizens. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the camp would be used for “temporary transit,” as the migrants’ paperwork is processed and travel arrangements are made. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem posted several photos on social media Tuesday that showed military planes and handcuffed men in gray sweatshirts. “President @realdonaldtrump has been very clear: Guantánamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst. That starts today,” she wrote on X. Marines began arriving at the naval base over the weekend to staff the new mission, according to photographs released by the Defense Department. They include members of 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, an infantry unit at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The Defense Department has also sent hundreds of additional troops to the southern border, even as illegal border crossings are down significantly.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/4/2025 6:22 PM, Hamed Aleaziz and Eric Schmitt, 161405K, Negative]
Bloomberg [2/4/2025 1:34 PM, Alicia A. Caldwell, 21617K, Negative]
The Hill [2/4/2025 12:23 PM, Brett Samuels, 16346K, Negative]
NPR [2/4/2025 4:14 PM, Sacha Pfeiffer, 35747K, Negative]
AP [2/4/2025 4:42 PM, Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor, 12036K, Positive]
Reuters [2/4/2025 12:22 PM, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali, 48128K, Neutral]
ABC News [2/4/2025 6:22 PM, Matt Seyler, Luis Martinez, and Stacey Dec, 33392K, Negative]
CBS News [2/4/2025 4:12 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Elanor Watson, 52225K, Negative]
FOX News [2/4/2025 2:09 PM, Michael Dorgan and Greg Wehner, 49889K, Negative]
VOA News [2/4/2025 10:36 PM, Carla Babb, Jeff Seldin, 2717K, Negative]
Washington Examiner [2/4/2025 1:12 PM, Mike Brest, 2365K, Neutral]

Reuters [2/5/2025 3:57 AM, Aftab Ahmed and Adnan Abidi, 48128K, Neutral] reports a U.S. military plane carrying illegal Indian immigrants landed in India’s northern city of Amritsar on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, deporting an unspecified number of people as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. Some local media reported that the flight was bringing 205 people back, while others put the number at 104, and that they were mainly from the northern state of Punjab, where Amritsar is located, and the western state of Gujarat. The Trump administration has increasingly turned to the military to help carry out its immigration agenda, using military aircraft to deport migrants and opening military bases to house them. Although illegal Indian immigrants have been deported home by previous U.S. administrations, it is the first time Washington has used a military aircraft for the purpose. It is also the farthest destination so far for such flights using a military aircraft. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the C-17 aircraft with migrants on board had departed for India but would not arrive for at least 24 hours. The flight did not show up on public flight trackers but local news TV channels showed the aircraft taxiing after it landed in Amritsar. Migration has been among the key issues discussed by India and the U.S. since Trump took charge last month, and is also expected to come up during Trump’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, likely to take place in Washington next week. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also ‘emphasised’ the Trump administration’s desire to work with India to address "concerns related to irregular migration" when he met Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar last month. New Delhi has since said it will take back such illegal immigrants after verifying their details. The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner and the two countries are forging deeper strategic ties as they look to counter China. The New York Times [2/5/2025 4:43 AM, Suhasini Raj, 161405K, Neutral] reports that officials in the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who enjoys a close relationship with President Trump, have expressed confidence that India is better positioned than most countries to deal with the Trump administration, and they have publicly expressed a willingness to accept deportees. But Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, a minister in the state government of Punjab, where the plane landed on Wednesday, criticized Mr. Trump’s tough stance on illegal immigration and suggested that Mr. Modi’s government should do more to resist him. “The Indian federal government must take this very seriously — after all, there are people from many Indian states who have been deported,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “And what is their crime? They may have gone illegally, but it was for their livelihoods. I am greatly disheartened. President Trump must give these people another chance and, on humanitarian grounds, do a rethink of his decision.” Mr. Dhaliwal said that he would be at the airport to receive the deportees and ensure that they were not treated as criminals. The Pew Research Center estimated in 2022 that more than 700,000 undocumented Indian immigrants were living in the United States, more than from any country but Mexico and El Salvador. Recent reports in Indian news media said that just under 20,000 migrants were scheduled for imminent deportation. Indians are among the migrants from around the world who have illegally entered the United States through Mexico in growing numbers in recent years. Last year, more than 25,000 Indians were arrested while trying to cross the southern border illegally, according to U.S. government data. Indian migrants also contributed to rising numbers of arrests at the northern border with Canada last year.

AP [2/5/2025 1:11 AM, Michael Kunzelman and Mike Catalini, 47097K, Negative] reports a federal judge on Wednesday is set to hear arguments over temporarily pausing President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. to someone in the country illegally. Trump’s inauguration week order is currently on temporary hold nationally because of a separate suit brought by four states in Washington state, where a judge called the order “blatantly unconstitutional.” In total, 22 states, as well as other organizations, have sued to try to stop the executive action. U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman is set to hear arguments in Maryland federal court. Bringing the suit before Boardman are immigrant-rights advocacy groups CASA and Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, and a handful of expectant mothers. At the heart of the lawsuits is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision that determined Scott, a slave, wasn’t a citizen. “The principle of birthright citizenship is a foundation of our national democracy, is woven throughout the laws of our nation, and has shaped a shared sense of national belonging for generation after generation of citizens,” the plaintiffs argue in the suit. The Trump administration asserts that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore not entitled to citizenship. “The Constitution does not harbor a windfall clause granting American citizenship to, inter alia: the children of those who have circumvented (or outright defied) federal immigration laws,” the government argued in reply to the Maryland plaintiffs’ suit. The 14th Amendment was added in the aftermath of the Civil War to ensure citizenship for former slaves and free African Americans. It states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Newsweek [2/4/2025 12:22 PM, Billal Rahman, 56005K, Negative] reports that Cartels have approved the deployment of weaponized drone explosives targeting border agents and other U.S. law enforcement at the southern border, it has been reported. According to a leaked memo seen by NewsNation, violent threats continue to rise on social media, including pledges to use lethal force against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson told Newsweek: "We remain vigilant and stand ready to ensure the safety of our personnel, migrants, and local communities, and the security of our borders." ICE has been thrust into the forefront of the national conversation surrounding immigration enforcement operations as President Donald Trump lays the groundwork to begin large-scale mass deportations. CBP is distributing two memos to its agents and officers, according to reports. One post features a call for the murder of ICE officers, and another TikTok video instructs undocumented immigrants in the country to urinate and spit on the food of ICE officers and to defecate in their cars. Another social media post calls for the killing of local ICE agents. A second memo alerts that cartels have sanctioned the use of drone explosives targeting CBP personnel and U.S. law enforcement officers.

NPR [2/5/2025 5:01 AM, Ximena Bustillo, 35747K, Neutral] reports President Trump returns to a larger Department of Homeland Security than he had during his first term. Changes to hiring and retention practices allowed the Biden administration to increase the number of employees at DHS by over 19,000 in four years. Trump is preparing to use the department to enact his strict immigration agenda, which includes plans for mass deportation, stricter border security and reduced incentives to migrate legally to the U.S. But former officials warn current staffing levels still do not measure up to Trump’s ambitious policy goals, as well as increased levels of migration into the U.S. The three agencies overseeing immigration processing have long suffered recruiting and retention challenges while seesawing with each administration’s new priorities. "That’s one of the biggest problems that has plagued all immigration agencies for as long as I’ve been in the government," said Michael Knowles, executive vice president of AFGE National CItizenship and Immigration Services Council 119, which represents employees including asylum and immigration services officers. He has served as an elected union representative since 2000. "There’s not enough people to do the work that we were required to do by law and by public expectation." The Homeland Security Department did not respond to questions about the state of its workforce or plans moving forward. In an address to DHS staff, new Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said it is her "responsibility to do everything that I can to give you the resources that you need to do your job." "You need the training, you need the equipment, and the resources to make sure you’re prepared for every single situation you find yourself in," Noem said to staff.

Newsweek [2/4/2025 9:51 AM, Sean O’Driscoll, 56005K, Neutral] reports that since President Donald Trump assumed office on January 20, a slew of lawsuits have been filed challenging his executive actions. Newsweek sought email comment from the office of the acting attorney general on Tuesday. The lawsuits could delay or frustrate Trump’s policies for years. They involve everything from birthright citizenship to federal diversity programs. The Trump administration is facing over a dozen major lawsuits. The lawsuits include: Trump signed two executive orders outlawing all federal programs promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion [DEI]. The city of Maryland and three other groups sued the Trump administration on February 3, asking a federal court to declare the executive orders unconstitutional. The lawsuit, filed in Maryland federal court, seeks a permanent injunction against the orders. "In the United States, there is no king," reads the lawsuit from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors, the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and Baltimore city. Department of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman issued a policy guidance that instructs the Department of Justice to take action against so called "sanctuary cities" that prevent the arrest of illegal immigrants.

FOX News [2/4/2025 5:14 PM, Adam Shaw, 49889K, Neutral] reports President Donald Trump has scored a number of rapid-fire wins in his efforts to get other countries to assist the U.S. on border security, as a combination of tariff threats and diplomatic outreach appears to be pushing allies to act. On Monday, both Canada and Mexico announced new measures to assist the U.S. at their respective borders, which in turn led to the U.S. pausing the implementation of planned tariffs. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his country will be implementing a $1.3 billion border plan and will be appointing a "fentanyl czar." He also announced new helicopters, technology and enhanced coordination with U.S. authorities. Hours before that call, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that Mexico is deploying 10,000 troops to the U.S. border in exchange for a pause on similar tariffs that were going to impact Mexican goods entering the U.S.

NBC News [2/4/2025 5:58 PM, Julia Ainsley, 50804K, Negative] reports Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee raised concerns on Tuesday about law enforcement agents from agencies like the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives being diverted from their regular duties to help President Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Democratic members of Congress also raised concerns about a memo from Acting Deputy Attorney General, Emil Bove, diverting members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force away from terror investigations and prioritizing the arrest of undocumented immigrants "with no attempt to strategically prioritize public safety threats." Since Bove’s Jan. 21 memo, agents from the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies overseen by the Justice Department have accompanied ICE agents on "enhanced" operations, like those seen in Chicago and New York City last week. The letter also asked the Justice Department to provide information on how many agents from the various federal law enforcement agencies have been diverted to work on immigration arrests. The Democrats asked for the name of each employee, the years the employee has worked for the Department and how the person’s agency has been affected by their reassignment.

Washington Examiner [2/4/2025 3:13 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 2365K, Negative] reports the sudden push comes days after President Donald Trump nearly launched a trade war with Canada and Mexico over fentanyl and levied an additional 10% tariff on China over the deadly drug. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said on Tuesday that Congress must act now on how the government classifies fentanyl and related substances. The hearing took place days after Grassley joined Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) to introduce the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, or HALT Act. The bill would permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act, the highest possible rating. Seven Democratic senators have since co-sponsored the legislation. The House is set to vote on the HALT Act as soon as Wednesday.

AP [2/4/2025 6:47 PM, Matthew Lee, 57114K, Negative] reports that President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he was exploring whether he can move forward with El Salvador’s offer to accept and jail violent American criminals in the "most severe cases" even as he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both say it raises clear legal issues. Rubio reached an unusual agreement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele a day earlier that the Central American country would accept U.S. deportees of any nationality, including American citizens and legal residents who are imprisoned for violent crimes. "I’m just saying if we had a legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I don’t know if we do or not, we’re looking at that right now.” Hours earlier at a news conference in San Jose with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves, Rubio said there were "obviously legalities involved. We have a Constitution.” Rubio noted that it was "a very generous offer. No one’s ever made an offer like that — and to outsource, at a fraction of the cost, at least some of the most dangerous and violent criminals that we have in the United States."

Federal News Network [2/4/2025 1:01 PM, Michele Sandiford, 470K, Neutral] reports that lawmakers are raising concerns about Elon Musk’s access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems. Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) are both pressing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for more details. In separate letters, both Warren and Wyden say the DOGE team’s access to Treasury systems poses major legal and security concerns. They also ask whether any safeguards are in place to protect sensitive data. (Letters to Treasury Sec. Bessent on Treasury payment system - Offices of Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)). [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

CBS Austin [2/4/2025 12:30 PM, Jamel Valencia, 581K, Neutral] reports that large groups of people demonstrated against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Most of the protests took place on Monday for "A Day Without Immigrants." The movement encouraged many people to stay home from work, not spend any money, and not to take their kids to school in protest Trump’s immigration and deportation policies. Protesters took to the streets throughout the day. Some waived the Mexican flag and held signs in support of immigrants. Since the president returned to the White House, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have made arrests of undocumented immigrants around the country. In downtown Los Angeles, demonstrations turned chaotic in the evening. KCAL reported that a peaceful protest became dangerous when the driver of a Mustang convertible, with passengers in the backseat, repeatedly circled an intersection. Video from the media outlet showed smoke coming from the tires before the car slammed into a curb near demonstrators. Moments later, the same car was seen doing doughnuts, nearly striking a city bus. Los Angeles police officers wearing tactical gear were seen detaining some people.

CBS Austin [2/4/2025 12:00 PM, Winston Rogers and Brad Bell, 581K, Negative] reports that hundreds gathering outside Maryland’s state capitol building in Annapolis Tuesday morning are calling on legislators to pass bills protecting immigrants as leaders on Capitol Hill push mass deportation efforts. Switching between speeches and chants in Spanish and English, protestors called on lawmakers to prevent Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from entering schools and places of worship, among other immigrant-related issues. "We are fighting for the Sensitive Location Act," one protester said. " We are not going to allow ICE into our schools, courthouses, and places of worship." "We refuse to allow our children to be afraid to go to school," another protester said in Spanish. Tuesday’s protest is one of many happening across the DMV this week as many criticize the White House for their efforts to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts from federal agencies and while billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) looks to shut down several federal financial and international aid-based agencies.

The Wall Street Journal [2/4/2025 7:01 PM, Sadie Gurman and C. Ryan Barber, Neutral] reports agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation have sued the Justice Department to stop it from releasing a list of employees who participated in investigations of President Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying they feared retribution if their identities become public. The two lawsuits, filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, came after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove last week demanded the FBI compile a list of everyone who worked on those cases, stirring fear within the bureau of potential mass firings. Thousands of agents, analysts and other employees participated in the sprawling Capitol riot probe, one of the largest in Justice Department history. The anonymous agents said they feared they would be fired and the list would be “leaked or published to make them targets for the convicted felons who were recently pardoned, or any number of other bad actors seeking revenge,” according to one of the lawsuits, which also referenced Trump’s pledge on the campaign trail to seek retribution against perceived enemies in law enforcement. The other lawsuit included a social media post from Enrique Tarrio, a former leader of the Proud Boys whom Trump pardoned last month, calling for the arrest of an FBI agent who had testified against him. The employees sought court orders banning Trump officials from publicizing the names. Bove’s memo demanding the list—which also ordered the firings of eight senior FBI officials—further agitated FBI employees already on edge as they await the Senate confirmation of Kash Patel, who has promised sweeping changes to the bureau’s priorities and the way it operates. The Washington Post [2/4/2025 3:05 PM, Jeremy Roebuck and Perry Stein, 40736K, Negative] reports that the twin legal actions, both filed anonymously in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by agents involved in the probes, came as acting FBI director Brian Driscoll told the bureau’s workforce that he had complied with an order to provide information on roughly 5,000 bureau employees to interim leadership at the Justice Department by Tuesday afternoon. The demand for the names and other details of those who worked on the cases has set off a wave of panic among agents across the country who fear that the lists could be a precursor to retaliation from Trump administration officials and possible unlawful firings. Driscoll has opposed using the list of agents to carry out a mass purge, The Washington Post reported last week. His memo Tuesday said the bureau had taken steps to protect its agents, including identifying them by employee ID number rather than name in the information sent to the Justice Department, which also included details such as their current title, the office to which they are assigned and the date of their last involvement in a Jan. 6 case.

CBS Austin [2/4/2025 10:29 AM, Ruby Annas, Justin Berger, and Kelly Doty, 581K, Neutral] reports that hundreds of demonstrators walked through downtown Asheville on Monday, Feb. 3, to protest the country’s immigration policies. The protest appeared to be against immigration policies and ICE. One sign read, "We the immigrants make America great." Another sign read, "Migration is not a crime." "My mom and my dad, they’re immigrants and I [was] born in Texas. I grow up in Mexico, but I’m an American citizen and I’m here because they can’t be here. They’re too scared of police or ICE to come here and pick them up here," said protestor, Alexis Mendoza. Asheville police issued an alert around 7 p.m., saying 300 demonstrators were walking in the area of Haywood Street and marching through town. The crowd blocked Patton and Broadway for about 20 minutes, News 13’s Justin Berger reported around 8 p.m. The crowd eventually gathered at Pack Square Park before dispersing. Similar protests were held in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Houston on Monday. Almost every demonstrator had a sign with a unique message about why they believe immigrants are important in America. Demonstrators in Southern California also marched through the streets today as part of the Nationwide Day Without Immigrants protests. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [2/4/2025 11:51 AM, Myles Miller and Randall Williams, 21617K, Neutral] reports that Federal law enforcement agencies are rolling out one of the most extensive Super Bowl security operations in recent history, following the deadly New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans. Adding to precautions, the Secret Service is also now making preparations as President Donald Trump plans to attend the game, said people familiar with the situation. Punchbowl earlier reported that Trump is expected to be at the event. The heightened measures come as an estimated 125,000 visitors prepare to pack the Crescent City and the Caesars Superdome for Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9, where the Philadelphia Eagles will play the Kansas City Chiefs. “We were in a good spot before January 1,” said Eric DeLaune, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans and the designated federal coordinator for the event. “We’re in a better spot now.” With local, state, and federal agencies coordinating on land, water and in the air, DeLaune said authorities are determined to reassure both residents and tourists that New Orleans is safe. ABC News [2/4/2025 5:40 PM, Luke Barr, 33392K, Neutral] reports with more than 2,500 law enforcement officers from the state, local and federal law enforcement agencies, New Orleans will be the "safest city in America," according to the lead federal coordinator for Super Bowl security. "We will have more federal assets, more federal law enforcement, more state and local law enforcement, probably, than any other Super Bowl," New Orleans Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Eric DeLaune told ABC News. Joshua Jackson, the special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives New Orleans field office, told ABC News there will be covert and overt assets protecting those who visit and attend the game in New Orleans. Adding to the security presence, President Donald Trump is planning to attend the Super Bowl, marking the first time a sitting president will appear at the game. Following the announcement, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters in New Orleans on Monday that there are no credible threats to the game or its many surrounding events. Yahoo! News [2/4/2025 5:23 PM, Dylan Stableford, 57114K, Neutral] reports "We have no specific, credible threats to this event at the Super Bowl, which I think should give us all a sense of security," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters in New Orleans on Monday. "We recognize the importance of making sure that we’re doing due diligence and being prepared for events as proactive as possible." That includes pre-deploying resources and working with local partners, she said. Officials said that there will be over 2,700 federal, state and local law enforcement personnel working security during the week leading up to and during the big game.

Border Report [2/4/2025 11:31 AM, Mia Morales, 153K, Neutral] reports that the City of Brownsville is now among multiple cities across the country joining the movement for migrant rights. Protestors showed up in solidarity Monday afternoon at Southmost Road with Mexican flags and various signs. This is in response to the increased presence and deportation of migrants over the past few weeks. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been conducting increased operations in the Rio Grande Valley. Dolores Vasquez told ValleyCentral she came to support her people who are hard workers and come to this country to grow. "Everyone’s work is highly valued, from the construction workers to the farmers, we are all a team, and without our people, this will all go down," she said in Spanish. Vasquez emphasized that the community is all united. She said migrants are not alone and that together they help all the hard-working people who came to this country to help their families live a better life. Julia Manzanares, a protestor, said the intention behind this protest was to raise voices for those who are hiding and scared of being deported. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Los Angeles Times [2/4/2025 10:47 PM, Clara Harter, 6595K, Negative] reports mass demonstrations against President Trump’s crackdown on immigration continued for a third day in downtown Los Angeles, with hundreds of students walking out of class Tuesday to join the march and one adult protester arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism. The protests began in the morning and continued to grow throughout the afternoon, with crowds bearing flags from Mexico and other Latin American countries and waving anti-Trump banners. A man participating in the demonstration was arrested on suspicion of vandalizing several buildings and a Waymo, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. A dispersal order was issued and an unlawful assembly declared around Los Angeles City Hall at 3:36 p.m., following reports of students throwing rocks and bottles at officers, according to the LAPD. “Anyone who remains in violation of this order will be arrested,” Police Cmdr. Lillian Carranza said in a statement. “Officers and supervisors on the scene will ensure those who violate the law are cited or booked.” Slogans including “F— Trump,” “F— ICE” and a Spanish phrase that roughly translates to “F— Border Patrol/ICE” were spray-painted on City Hall and surrounding buildings. The Italian American Museum of Los Angeles reported having been vandalized during the marches. “The vandalism includes spray painted ‘Viva La Raza,’ ‘F— Ice’ and ‘F— Trump’ all across the building,” a spokesperson for the museum said in a statement. “Sadly, this is not the first time the museum has faced march-related vandalism and the repairs are often very costly for the museum which is a non-profit organization.” The protests began Sunday with thousands rallying downtown and shutting down a section of the 101 Freeway. The marches continued Monday, when many students skipped class and businesses shut down as part of a national protest called “A day without immigrants.” The Los Angeles Unified School District’s attendance was 66% Monday compared with 93% for the year as a whole, according to the district. Nicole Fefferman, an educator with the UCLA Labor Center, was teaching a class at Garfield High School on Tuesday when a large group of students walked off campus and joined with hundreds of students from other LAUSD campuses, including Marshall High School and the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, to make their voices heard at the protests, she said.

FOX News [2/4/2025 12:41 PM, Madison Colombo, 49889K, Neutral] reports that Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations is dismissing President Donald Trump’s argument that the nation would benefit by joining the United States. "By the way, we’re not the 51st state," U.N. Ambassador Bob Rae declared on "Special Report." "We’re a sovereign, independent country. Our leader deserves to be treated with respect, and we deserve to be treated with respect. That’s how we want to be seen." Trump has repeated the idea of assimilating Canada for months, arguing that absorbing the nation would benefit both economies amid looming tariff threats. "Canada should become our cherished 51st state," Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social. "Much lower taxes, far better military protection for the people of Canada—AND NO TARIFFS!" Trump agreed Monday to pause additional tariffs on Canadian imports for 30 days after a call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who made some concessions to temporarily stave off the levies. The leaders spoke hours before additional 25% tariffs were to take effect on Canadian goods coming into the United States. In a post on X, Trudeau said Canada will implement a $1.3 billion border plan and appoint a fentanyl czar. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [2/4/2025 6:10 PM, Kylie Madry, 48128K, Neutral] reports Mexico will not allow the United States to send Mexican migrants to Guantanamo Bay and prefers to receive them directly instead, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Tuesday. The Mexican government sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. embassy in Mexico saying such, according to Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente. The U.S. on Tuesday sent the first military aircraft carrying a handful of detained migrants to the naval base in Cuba, with U.S. President Donald Trump promising to expand the site to hold up to 30,000 migrants.

Wall Street Journal [2/4/2025 1:52 PM, Vera Bergengruen, Neutral] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that El Salvador has offered to accept deportees of any nationality from the U.S., including incarcerated American citizens who would be held in the country’s maximum-security prison. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele offered to “house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country,” Rubio said in San Salvador, the second stop on his first foreign trip, after meeting with Bukele. “No country has ever made an offer of friendship such as this,” he said, calling it the “most unprecedented and extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world.” Rubio said Bukele had also offered to take in any “illegal immigrant in the United States who’s a dangerous criminal,” including members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs. Rubio said that he was grateful for the offer, and added that he had spoken to President Trump about it earlier in the day. It wasn’t clear whether the U.S. planned to accept the offer. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on what such a plan could entail. Having U.S. citizens serve sentences in a prison in El Salvador would almost certainly face legal challenges. Under the Constitution, inmates are entitled to medical care, basic hygienic living conditions and to be free of excessive force being used against them, according to Betsy Ginsberg, a professor at Cardozo Law School at Yeshiva University. “A question would be whether the conditions of confinement in El Salvador would meet the constitutional level that we require,” Ginsberg said. Another federal statute requires the Bureau of Prisons, which oversees federal inmates, to house most incarcerated individuals within a few hundred miles of their primary residence.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [2/4/2025 11:38 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 2365K, Negative]

New York Times [2/4/2025 9:26 PM, Annie Correal and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, 161405K, Neutral] reports a day after President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador offered to imprison convicted criminals from the United States, including U.S. citizens, the question of whether such a plan could actually be accepted and implemented was still unanswered. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who stopped in El Salvador while visiting Central America this week, said on Tuesday that the Trump administration would have to “study” the offer from Mr. Bukele to jail convicts from the United States, for a fee. “But it’s a very generous offer,” he said. Mr. Rubio himself said it was unclear if the United States could legally send convicts, including Americans, to a foreign prison. But the proposal has drawn attention to the prisons that Mr. Bukele has used in recent years to cripple the gangs that once ran rampant in El Salvador. They have become symbols of his strength and popularity, including with Mr. Trump — even as human rights groups say the crowded prisons are holding pens for tens of thousands of people rounded up in arrests that have ensnared innocents. Analysts say it is unlikely such a plan would hold up in court, particularly where it concerns U.S. citizens. But whether or not Mr. Bukele’s offer is ever actually acted on, analysts said it serves as a way for both nations’ governments to project a shared vision of a tough approach to lawbreakers. “The announcement is a P.R. win,” said Gustavo Flores-Macías, a professor of government and public policy at Cornell University who specializes in Latin America. It allows Mr. Bukele to show he is all-in for Mr. Trump, and bolsters the Trump administration, “which is looking to dissuade undocumented migration by raising the stakes if apprehended.”

AP [2/4/2025 2:41 PM, Marcos Alemán, 4368K, Negative] reports that the Trump administration and the president of El Salvador said Monday that they’d struck a deal allowing the U.S. to ship both detained migrants and imprisoned citizens to the tiny Central American nation, which has suspended some basic rights as it battles powerful street gangs. The U.S. government cannot deport American citizens and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that "there are obviously legalities involved. " "We have a Constitution," he acknowledged. "But it’s a very generous offer ... obviously, the administration will have to make a decision." Bukele has made El Salvador’s stark, harsh prisons a trademark of his aggressive fight against crime. Since March 2022, more than 84,000 people have been arrested, many with little to no due process. Even before the campaign against gangs, El Salvador’s prisons were notoriously violent and overcrowded but the crown jewel of Bukele’s fight is the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, he opened in 2023. The government doesn’t regularly update the figure but the human rights organization Cristosal reported that in March 2024 El Salvador — population 6.36 million — held 110,000 people, including those sentenced to prison and those still awaiting trial.

New York Times [2/4/2025 9:05 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 161405K, Neutral] reports President Trump said on Tuesday that he was open to an offer by El Salvador’s president to jail convicted criminals, including American citizens, in the Central American nation’s notorious “megaprison.” “If we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Mr. Trump said. He almost surely does not have the legal right to do it, legal experts say, and any attempt to carry out President Nayib Bukele’s plan would probably be challenged in court. But Mr. Bukele’s proposal to essentially turn El Salvador into a penal colony for the United States showed how far he is willing to go to define himself as Mr. Trump’s primary ally in a region that the American president has disparaged. And for Mr. Trump, even musing over the proposal signaled his willingness to embrace extreme measures to show he is tough on crime and illegal immigration. “It’s quite extraordinary and unprecedented and alarming in many ways,” said Michael E. Shifter, a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue research institute in Washington. “I know a lot of experts have raised questions about the constitutionality and legality of this deal, but Bukele is a leader who has absolute power in El Salvador and it seems Trump seems to be moving in a similar direction in trying to reduce or eliminate any checks on his power.” Mr. Bukele, who has reshaped his country by cracking down on both gangs and civil liberties, said he would be open to imprisoning the deportees in the Terrorism Confinement Center, a prison built to house 40,000 people that has sparked concern from human rights groups over extreme overcrowding and reports of torture by guards. Despite questions over its legality, the proposal prompted praise from Marco Rubio, Mr. Trump’s secretary of state, as well as Elon Musk, the billionaire and powerful Trump adviser who has set about remaking the government. It would also involve jailing for a fee undocumented migrants from any country, not just El Salvador, who had been convicted of crimes. “There’s obviously legalities involved. We have a Constitution,” Mr. Rubio told reporters in Costa Rica on Monday. “But it’s a very generous offer.”

AP [2/4/2025 2:17 AM, Matthew Lee and Juan Zamorano, 11K, Neutral] reports U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio brought a warning to Panamanian leader José Raúl Mulino on Sunday: Immediately reduce what President Donald Trump says is Chinese influence over the Panama Canal area or face potential retaliation from the United States. Rubio, traveling to the Central American country and touring the Panama Canal on his first foreign trip as top U.S. diplomat, held face-to-face talks with Mulino, who has resisted pressure from the new U.S. government over management of a waterway that is vital to global trade. Mulino told reporters after the meeting that Rubio made “no real threat of retaking the canal or the use of force.” Speaking on behalf of Trump, who has demanded that the canal be returned to U.S. control, Rubio told Mulino that Trump believed that China’s presence in the canal area may violate a treaty that led the United States to turn the waterway over to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the American-built canal. “Secretary Rubio made clear that this status quo is unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the United States to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the treaty,” the State Department said in a summary of the meeting. The statement was unusually blunt in diplomatic terms, but in keeping with the tenor and tone Trump has set for foreign policy. Trump has been increasing pressure on Washington’s neighbors and allies, including the canal demand and announcing Saturday that he was imposing major tariffs on Canada and Mexico. That launched a trade war by prompting retaliation from those close allies. Mulino, meanwhile, called his talks with Rubio “respectful” and “positive” and said he did not “feel like there’s a real threat against the treaty and its validity.” The president did say Panama would not be renewing its agreement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative when it expires. Panama joined the initiative, which promotes and funds infrastructure and development projects that critics say leave poor member countries heavily indebted to China, after dropping diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and recognizing Beijing.

The Hill [2/4/2025 10:00 AM, Nolan Rappaport, 16346K, Negative] reports that the current administration is very serious about enforcing our immigration laws, and unlike the previous administration, it has not placed any restrictions on which provisions can be enforced. As border czar Tom Homan has said, "We’re enforcing the laws that Congress enacted and a president signed." Most of the provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act pertain to civil offenses, such as deportability and eligibility for relief from deportation. But the law also includes criminal provisions — including ones that make giving prohibited assistance to undocumented immigrants a felony. Individuals who help undocumented immigrants need to know that they may be committing a serious criminal offense that can result in severe consequences, including substantial fines and lengthy prison sentences. In extreme cases, offenders may face life imprisonment, or even the death penalty. This does not mean that you can’t help someone who might be an undocumented immigrant without subjecting yourself to prosecution.

The Hill [2/4/2025 7:30 AM, John Gross, 16346K, Neutral] reports that, last week, President Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act, which requires the attorney general to detain any non-citizen charged with theft or shoplifting, among other offenses. While doing so, the president claimed there are "30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.” Both the legislation and the president’s claim about our capacity to detain non-citizens indicate the current administration has taken a page out of "Alice in Wonderland," in which the Queen of Hearts demands "Sentence first, verdict afterward.” The Laken Riley Act mandates that non-citizens who are "charged with … arrested for … or admit (to) committing acts which constitute burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting or assault of a law enforcement officer" be taken into federal custody. It essentially ends the presumption of innocence for non-citizens since merely being accused of one of the designated offenses will subject the person to federal detention. The act also allows federal detention of non-citizens based solely on their admission that they committed one of the designated offenses. So law enforcement officers can now arrest someone they suspect of being a non-citizen and claim that the person admitted that they committed one of the designated offenses. That person can then be taken into federal custody without ever filing a charge in state court. This violates one of the oldest rules of evidence: A person cannot be convicted of an offense based solely on their confession. The rule is designed to discourage officers from trying to extract confessions from someone when they have no other evidence of their guilt. However, the Laken Riley Act makes it possible to detain someone based solely on the testimony of a law enforcement officer even if there is no other evidence that a crime occurred. If that’s not alarming enough, we have the president’s claim that there are 30,000 beds in Guantanamo Bay, a statement that can be added to his already long list of lies. While the naval base in Cuba has a detention center for suspected terrorists, it has never held more than 800 detainees and currently holds just 15 people. To put that 30,000 number further into perspective, the largest jail population in the United States belongs to Los Angeles, where there are approximately 13,000 inmates. Trump is claiming a detention facility with 15 detainees can increase by 199,900 percent and transform into our largest detention center overnight. Even if there were 30,000 beds in Guantanamo Bay, you would still need people to work there.

Washington Post [2/4/2025 3:00 PM, Staff, 40736K, Neutral] reports Trump is not even the only U.S. president to try to curtail the right to asylum. Trump’s efforts, like Biden’s, are probably unlawful. The E.U.’s commissioner for human rights has warned against European countries’ newfangled "models of externalising asylum." But these efforts are being made in response to the vast movement of people seeking a haven in the West. At the end of 2023, nearly 6.9 million migrants were seeking asylum around the world, up from 1.1 million 10 years earlier, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. During the same period, the number of applicants in the United States rose to 2.6 million from 84,000. Unease over what is perceived as chaotic, unrestrained immigration has blown apart political support for decades-old laws protecting asylum seekers.

Bloomberg [2/5/2025 5:15 AM, Patricia Lopez, 21617K, Neutral] reports hours after President Donald Trump had said he would impose a potentially crippling 25% tariff on Canadian goods, the Minnesota Wild faced off against the Ottawa Senators. As the Star-Spangled Banner began playing to a sold-out crowd, the Canadian audience started booing — heavily. The same thing happened at games in Ontario, and Calgary, and Alberta. Ostensibly, Trump’s reason for the tariff threat is illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking. Both are serious issues, but Canada plays little role in either problem. Canadians have noticed. And while a trade war with the US would be ruinous for Canada and Mexico — which also faced the threat of 25% tariffs over the weekend — the damage inflicted would hurt many Americans, including the very voters who sent Trump back to the White House. That includes US farmers, who may lose their biggest single market for corn (Mexico); for the millions of Midwesterners who get the vast majority of their energy from Canada; and those who voted for Trump because they thought he would lower prices. But Canadians have special cause to be irate. They are fed up with President Donald Trump’s barrage of threats to their economy and their very sovereignty. What started as a “joke” has taken on weight and structure as Trump continues to push the notion that Canada — physically larger than the US, with 10 provinces and 39 million people — should “become our Cherished 51st state.” Now liquor stores in Vancouver are emptying shelves of American stock and carry signs urging customers to “Buy Canadian.” Canadians are canceling trips to the US and boycotting American goods. They feel betrayed — and who can blame them? Canada has been a longtime US ally, friend and top trading partner. Meanwhile China, a US adversary, faces only a 10% tariff and Trump has been careful not to humiliate President Xi Jinping the way he has gone after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — even though China is an actual top supplier of the chemicals used to make fentanyl. Any serious effort to attack the problem at its source would have to aim there. But Trump, like many bullies, kisses up and kicks down. He perceives himself to be far stronger than either Canada or Mexico, even as he treats China warily.

The Hill [2/4/2025 11:00 AM, Melissa Ford, 16346K, Negative] reports that the undeclared war against the Mexican criminal cartels went hot again last Monday, when cartel gunmen opened fire on U.S. Border Patrol agents in Fronton, Texas, during an illegal smuggling operation. Mexican cartels, terror organizations by any reasonable definition, now feel so emboldened they are shooting at American law enforcement on U.S. soil. This is precisely why President Trump’s decision to designate these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations was not just necessary — it was long overdue. But the real question here is not why the U.S. designated these cartels as terrorists, but why Mexico has not. How can the Mexican government even pretend to claim sovereignty when up to 40 percent of its territory is under cartel control? For years, Mexico has either turned a blind eye or been too weak to confront these monstrous syndicates, allowing them to terrorize both Mexicans and Americans. Meanwhile, Trump’s bold move has redefined U.S. policy, marking the first time in a generation that the U.S. has stood up to Mexico’s inaction on cartels. The foreign terrorist organization designation is a game-changer, as it unlocks critical tools for U.S. law enforcement to combat these terrorists — seizing assets, charging material support to terrorism, and even deploying Special Forces if necessary.

Wall Street Journal [2/4/2025 4:50 PM, Eugene Kontorovich, Neutral] reports that, in his inauguration speech, President Trump accused Panama of violating the terms under which the U.S. handed over the Panama Canal. “We’re taking it back,” he declared. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during a visit to Panama this week, told President José Raúl Mulino that “absent immediate changes,” the U.S. will “take measures necessary to protect its rights” in the canal. The U.S. has a serious legal basis on which to contest—including by military intervention—what it regards as impermissible foreign influence in the canal. President Jimmy Carter signed two treaties with Panama in 1977: One provided for the gradual transfer of the strategic waterway from the U.S. to Panama by 1999, and the other established a permanent “regime of neutrality” over the canal. The regime of neutrality mandates equal access for all nations to peaceful transit, “just, equitable and reasonable” tolls and fees, exclusive Panamanian operation of the canal, and no foreign military or defense presence in the country. American shippers have objected to the canal’s toll system, but because it applies to all countries equally, it’s hard to see it as a treaty violation. But Messrs. Trump and Rubio are correct that there may be other violations of the neutrality regime. As Assistant Secretary of State Douglas J. Bennet Jr. testified during Senate ratification hearings in 1977, the treaty prohibits not only “the garrisoning of foreign troops” but also “foreign operation of the canal.” A Hong Kong-based company currently operates ports on both sides of the canal. In 1997, when the company first won contracts to manage the ports, Hong Kong was still a British territory. A few months later the U.K. handed Hong Kong over to China, and two years after that the U.S. handed the canal over to Panama. In the ensuing decades, China has cemented its control over Hong Kong far beyond what was contemplated in its agreement with the U.K., eventually imposing a rigid “national security” law in 2020. In a communist regime, distinctions between private and government-owned firms are matters of degree, not kind. China has an official strategy known as “military-civilian fusion,” aimed at integrating the country’s military and civilian sectors to advance the Chinese army. The country’s Belt and Road Initiative is a sprawling policy to strengthen its strategic influence overseas. Panama is an official signatory of the initiative, allowing China increased investment and influence.

Newsweek [2/4/2025 12:57 PM, Dan Gooding, 56005K, Negative] reports that while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has touted an increase in illegal immigrant arrests under President Donald Trump, the agency reportedly still does not have enough space to hold the extra detainees and has been releasing them back into communities. Around 8,000 people have been arrested by immigration officers since Trump returned to the White House on January 20, a marked increase on daily averages under former President Joe Biden. However, NBC News reported that some have been let go under supervision orders. On his return to office, Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, promised ICE raids across the country, targeting known illegal immigrant criminals who posed a threat to American citizens. The policy, which voters showed they wanted in polling before and after Election Day, has also met resistance from Democrat-run sanctuary cities and immigrant advocacy groups. While NBC News did not cite exact numbers, officials told the outlet that some of those detained in the past two weeks had been released under monitoring programs, including using GPS tags, which the president has been vocal in his disapproval of.

CBS News [2/4/2025 6:47 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 52225K, Neutral] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is releasing some migrant detainees, in some cases dozens per day, as space in its detention system has exceeded maximum capacity amid a spike in arrests by the agency under President Trump, internal government statistics obtained by CBS News show. On Tuesday morning, space inside ICE detention facilities was at 109% capacity, with the agency holding close to 42,000 migrant detainees, despite having, on paper, a 38,521-bed capacity in its network of for-profit prisons and county jails, according to the internal Department of Homeland Security data. More than half of those in ICE custody were initially arrested along the southern border, the figures show. On Monday, ICE released roughly 160 migrants from its custody, the figures show, an indication that the Trump administration, faced with the same operational and legal challenges on immigration enforcement that have bedeviled Democratic and Republican presidents, is being forced to release some detainees. Those released can be fitted by ICE with ankle monitors, to track their movements.

The Washington Post [2/4/2025 10:43 PM, Kyle Melnick, 40736K, Negative] reports police in South Carolina received a call last week reporting that a person was driving a vehicle without a license. But they later learned it was actually the caller who had committed a crime, the Sullivan’s Island Police Department said. That revelation came after a video, which Spanish news network Nuestro Estado shared on Facebook, showed a man telling the driver of a stopped truck that the driver was “going back to Mexico.” After reviewing the video and talking with witnesses, police said they obtained warrants for 33-year-old Sean Michael Johnson of Huger, South Carolina. Johnson is among a handful of people who have been arrested for impersonating law enforcement officers while citing immigration laws since President Donald Trump directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest more than 1,000 immigrants per day. The order has put immigrant communities across the United States on high alert; some people have even worried that ice cream trucks and Secret Service agents have been working for ICE. Men in Philadelphia and North Carolina have also been arrested for the impersonation of ICE officers in recent days, authorities said. In the Facebook video from South Carolina, the suspect — whom police identified as Johnson — is seen taking the driver’s keys and saying the person “got caught.” Sullivan’s Island Police Chief Glenn Meadows said there were three Hispanic people in the truck whom the department is not publicly identifying. Johnson was arrested Friday after turning himself in to police and was charged with multiple crimes, including petit larceny and kidnapping. He has since been released from a jail in North Charleston on a combined $231,587 bond, jail records show. On Tuesday, Johnson hung up a phone call after a reporter from Washington Post introduced himself, and he did not respond to a subsequent voicemail. Leaders of the Charleston County public defender’s office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday night. A public defender said in a virtual court appearance Saturday that Johnson was sorry, according to Charleston-based news channel WCIV. CNN [2/4/2025 6:30 PM, Artemis Moshtaghian, Gloria Pazmino and Nick Valencia, 22417K, Neutral] reports Sean-Michael Johnson, 33, was charged with kidnapping and impersonating a police officer after allegedly detaining a group of Latino men along a Charleston County road. Johnson is accused of "willfully and unlawfully presenting himself as an ICE Agent and detaining a vehicle of individuals from moving," according to court records. Johnson was charged with three counts of kidnapping and one count each of impersonating a law enforcement officer, petty larceny, assault and battery, according to jail records. In another impersonation case, in Philadelphia, police charged a Temple University student in connection with the alleged impersonation of ICE officers on campus. The incident, which occurred Saturday night, involved three individuals, two wearing shirts with "Police" and "ICE" in white lettering, attempting to enter a residence hall on campus, Temple University said in a statement. Philadelphia police arrested 22-year-old Aidan Steigelmann, charging him with impersonating a public servant, with the university saying that he’s been placed on "interim suspension." Two other suspects involved in the incident fled the scene in a light-colored SUV, according to the Philadelphia Police Department. Meanwhile, in Raleigh, North Carolina, Carl Thomas Bennett was arrested for allegedly impersonating an ICE officer and sexual assaulting a woman at a Motel 6 threatening to deport her if she didn’t comply, according to CNN affiliate WRAL.

NBC News [2/4/2025 6:32 PM, Suzanne Gamboa, 50804K, Negative] reports the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee is asking the Trump administration to do some explaining about U.S. citizens who were caught up in recent immigration enforcement actions. Following up on a report by NBC News, Rep. Jamie Raskin, House Judiciary Committee ranking member, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a subcommittee ranking member, asked for an accounting of immigration enforcement actions since Jan. 20 involving U.S. citizens. The request was made in a letter signed by Raskin, D-Md., and Jayapal, D-Wash., whose subcommittee oversees immigration. It was sent Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Caleb Vitello, Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director. A copy of the letter was first provided to NBC News. "If you’re not out looking for criminals based on crimes committed, but undocumented immigrants based on their looks, you’re going to sweep up a lot of innocent people, including innocent citizens," Raskin said in a statement to NBC News. "We’ve already seen cases of racial and ethnic profiling leading to the unlawful detention of U.S. citizens. That’s why I’m demanding answers about some of these profoundly troubling stories we’ve heard about citizens being targeted, detained and questioned.” The lawmakers noted that per a 2015 ICE policy regarding investigation of U.S. citizens, "ICE cannot assert its civil immigration enforcement authority to arrest and/or detain a U.S. citizen." And ICE officers and agents and attorneys have to handle the interactions with the "utmost care and highest priority," the letter stated. "This principle is essential to prevent the escalating government assault on immigrants from becoming a steamroller that crushes the rights of American citizens," the lawmakers’ letter said.

FOX News [2/4/2025 4:16 PM, Peter Pinedo, 49889K, Negative] reports President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration continues with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials making several criminal arrests over the last week in left-leaning "sanctuary" cities, including Philadelphia, Boston, Denver and Washington, D.C.

New York Times [2/4/2025 5:42 PM, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, 161405K, Neutral] reports that President Trump’s mission to widen and accelerate his immigration crackdown gained momentum in a New York City suburb on Tuesday, as Nassau County leaders announced a partnership with the Trump administration to empower law enforcement officers to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants. Bruce Blakeman, the Republican county executive, said that 10 Nassau detectives would be trained and deputized to conduct immigration arrests, just like a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Those detectives would embed with ICE teams targeting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes, he said. They could also be called upon to process immigrants arrested by the local police who, after a background check, are found to lack legal status or are wanted by ICE. The county will also set aside up to 50 cells in the county jail to hold immigrants for up to 72 hours before they are transferred to ICE custody for immediate deportation or long-term detention elsewhere, Mr. Blakeman added, stressing that “this isn’t about raids, this is about targeted enforcement.” “Our detectives are not out looking for illegal migrants,” Mr. Blakeman said during a news conference in the county’s executive and legislative building on Tuesday. “If a crime is committed, the officers will then do a background check, and if a background check says that they are here illegally or there is a detainer out there, then they will get ICE involved.”

AP [2/4/2025 7:34 PM, Dave Collins, 2315K, Negative] reports a county in New York City’s Long Island suburbs will be teaming up with federal authorities in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican and Trump ally, announced Tuesday that 10 county police detectives will be given the same authority as federal immigration agents and work with them to detain immigrants who are in the country illegally after they are charged with other crimes. While dozens of other police departments around the U.S. have similar arrangements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the move makes the county of nearly 1.4 million residents an outlier in New York, where state law limits when police agencies can cooperate with federal immigration officials. Blakeman said police will check the immigration status of people charged with crimes and notify ICE if they are there illegally. The arrangement also includes embedding officers with ICE and providing jail cells for short-term detainment until arrestees can be handed over to federal authorities. "I want to stress that this program is about illegal migrants who have committed crimes," said Blakeman. "This isn’t about raids. This is targeted enforcement of our laws based here in the state of New York — people who have committed crimes here and have violated federal laws by being in the United States illegally.” A federal law, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, authorizes ICE to delegate authority to state and local police to perform certain immigration officer duties under ICE’s oversight. But some states and communities have restricted how law enforcement officers can work with immigration authorities. New York law generally only allows police to arrest and detain people if there is reason to believe that a person has committed a crime. They aren’t allowed to arrest someone solely because that person is not in the U.S. legally or has been ordered deported. County jails also aren’t allowed to hold someone who has finished serving a sentence, or has been ordered released by the courts, simply because that person is wanted for noncriminal immigration law violations. Recent guidance from state Attorney General Letitia James advises local law enforcement against entering into agreements with ICE, saying they remain "unsettled" in New York law.

CBS New York [2/4/2025 3:53 PM, Jesse Zanger and Jennifer McLogan, 52225K, Negative] reports that Nassau County police will work directly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to carry out operations, County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced Tuesday morning. Blakeman said 10 police detectives will work with ICE agents to carry out targeted enforcement in the area. "We are partnering with ICE to accomplish two things. Number one, we are going to cross-designate and embed Nassau County police detectives with ICE for the purposes of picking up targeted, illegal migrants who have committed crimes, and then we will be detaining them in the jail as part of a short-term detainment program, at which time then ICE will find either a permanent detainment facility or they will simply deport illegal migrants," Blakeman said. "I want to stress that this program is about illegal migrants who have committed crimes. This isn’t about raids. This is targeted enforcement of our laws based here in the state of New York, people who have committed crimes here, and have violated federal laws by being in the United States illegally." Blakeman said it is the first program of its kind of this size in the United States. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [2/5/2025 3:00 AM, Tracey Tully, 161405K, Neutral] reports it was a remarkable feat. On a day when Democratic members of Congress joined protesters outside the government’s largest humanitarian aid agency and the U.S. defense secretary vowed to use active-duty troops to help stem migrant crossings, it was Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey who managed to be a primary focus of ire on Fox News. “I think the governor is pretty foolish saying what he said,” Thomas D. Homan, President Trump’s border czar, told the host Sean Hannity late Monday. Then Mr. Homan threatened to prosecute Mr. Murphy, who days earlier had seemed to imply that he was housing an undocumented immigrant in a garage apartment on his luxe waterfront estate in Middletown, N.J. “Won’t let it go,” Mr. Homan promised. “We’ll look into it.” If Mr. Murphy was, indeed, “concealing an illegal alien,” he said, “I will seek prosecution.” The warning stemmed from odd and misleading comments Mr. Murphy made Saturday during a freewheeling discussion before an audience at a New Jersey college. The conversation with a leader of a left-leaning political group was streamed live and posted to YouTube. “There’s someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to,” Mr. Murphy said. “And we said, ‘You know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage.’ “And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her,” he said. An aide to the governor clarified on Monday that the woman in question was in the country legally and had never lived on the Murphy family’s property. The aide did not make clear what sort of relationship, if any, the woman had with the governor or his wife. But news articles had already begun to amplify the statements, compounding the confusion. Elon Musk, whom Mr. Trump has afforded an extraordinary degree of power to reshape government, responded to Mr. Murphy’s comments with a one-word post on X: “Wow.”

Reported similarly:
CBS Austin [2/4/2025 2:01 PM, Ray Lewis, 581K, Negative]
Washington Examiner [2/4/2025 10:06 AM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2365K, Negative]

Miami Herald [2/4/2025 1:04 PM, Christopher Dornblaser, 6595K, Negative] reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested a man in Northampton County who authorities say is a suspected member of a Venezuelan street gang. ICE said in a news release Tuesday that Luis Gualdron-Gualdron, 22, a Venezuelan national, was arrested without incident Friday near Northampton County Prison in Easton "after an immigration detainer was not honored." Gualdron-Gualdron is a suspected member ofTren de Aragua, according to ICE. Law enforcement have described Tren de Aragua as a transnational crime organization that began in the Tocorón Prison in Aragua. "The arrest of Luis Gualdron-Gualdron, a suspected Tren de Aragua gang member with a serious criminal record, exemplifies our commitment to public safety and immigration law enforcement," said Brian McShane, the acting Philadelphia field office director for ICE. Gualdron-Gualdron was arrested in December 2023 near Brownsville, Texas, for entering the country without inspection or parole by an immigration official, according to ICE.

CBS Austin [2/4/2025 11:14 AM, Jackson Walker, 581K, Negative] reports that Temple University police and the Philadelphia Police Department on Saturday arrested a student accused of impersonating an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. Officers told The National News Desk (TNND) Aidan Steigelmann, 22, allegedly wore a shirt near campus with the words "ICE" and "police" on it. He was accompanied by two other similarly dressed individuals who also identified themselves as ICE agents, according to police. The Philadelphia Police Department said officers responded to a campus residence hall after receiving reports of "suspicious males identifying themselves as Police/ICE agents." They later encountered the group again at a nearby Insomnia Cookies location and arrested Steigelmann as the other two escaped, the department said. Steigelmann is charged with impersonating a public servant and is placed on interim suspension as police investigate the situation. Temple University said in a statement Sunday it is "deeply troubling and disappointing to know behavior like this reportedly occurred on our campus." The university noted Steigelmann was placed on interim suspension. "Our commitment is to provide a welcoming environment for all our students, faculty and staff, and we will continue to support the Temple community," the statement read.

Yahoo! News [2/4/2025 12:19 PM, James Tutten, 57114K, Neutral] reports that three young children are in DCF protection after one of them was almost hit by a car. Port Saint Lucie police say a 1-year-old boy was found walking by himself in the middle of a road on Friday. Detectives said the boy was being taken care of by five undocumented migrants. "Maybe he was disoriented or hungry or, you know, you never know what happened to that poor; that broke my heart," said neighbor Isabel Goldberg. The three children were taken to the hospital before being handed off to DCF. All five adults are facing child neglect charges and are in jail without bond, on a hold for ICE. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Border Report [2/4/2025 3:36 PM, Melissa Luna, 153K, Negative] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents apprehended three Venezuelan migrants, two of whom are members of the notorious Tren De Aragua prison gang, in El Paso. According to a news release from ICE, Jhonatan Johan Romero-Pineda, 34; Uzcategui-Uzcategui, 27; and Javier Irazabal-Rodriguez, 27 were apprehended on Jan. 28. Romero-Pineda and Uzcategui-Uzcategui have been identified as active associates of the Tren de Aragua transnational criminal organization.

FOX News [2/4/2025 7:00 PM, Alexander Hall, 49889K, Neutral] reports Councilwoman Stacie Gilmore of Denver, Colorado encouraged local residents to report ICE activity to her "more than 600 volunteers" who are available 24/7. Even before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, regional Democratic leaders across the U.S. had vowed to either not cooperate with or outright block Trump’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration in Denver became a national news story after a video went viral of alleged Venezuelan gang members carrying guns through an Aurora apartment complex. The president had promised during a campaign rally in Colorado last October, "Upon taking office, we will have an ‘Operation Aurora’ at the federal level to expedite the removals of these savage gangs.” Shortly after Trump actually took office, however, Gilmore used multiple social media platforms to encourage Colorado residents to report ICE activity. "This is a challenging and heartbreaking time for our community. If you see activity by ICE, stay safe and know you have every right to report it," she wrote. "More than 600 volunteers with the Colorado Rapid Response Network take calls in English and Spanish 24/7.” Gilmore laid out instructions in multiple slides featuring both English and Spanish, "See a raid? Make sure you stay safe and if you can: Take a photo or video of activity. Record the time, date, and location. Note the government agencies involved, their vehicles, uniforms, and what they’re doing.” This is the latest of many posts she has made for illegals, ranging from slides helping them to "know your rights," to sharing resources ranging from legal aid to jobs and training for illegal residents. But not all Colorado residents agree that illegal immigration should be tolerated. Republicans in Colorado specifically have condemned their Democratic opponents after Denver Mayor Mike Johnston vowed to station police to block ICE agents from carrying out deportations and a report showed that the city has spent over $356 million in taxpayer dollars on services for migrants.

FOX News [2/4/2025 12:27 PM, Greg Norman, 49889K, Negative] reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the removal of a "foreign fugitive" who is wanted in Mexico on a rape charge. Raymundo Rojas Bacilio, a Mexican-born illegal immigrant, was also convicted of sexually abusing an 11-year-old child in America after he previously was deported five times, Fox News Digital reported in December, citing ICE. The agency revealed Tuesday that Rojas was sent back to Mexico on Jan. 25. "The removal of the criminal alien Raymundo Rojas Bacilio, a sexual predator, underscores the critical importance of our enforcement actions. His repeated illegal entries into the United States and his heinous criminal acts posed a significant threat to the safety and security of our communities," ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia acting Field Office Director Brian McShane said in a statement. "This removal demonstrates that we will relentlessly pursue and remove those who endanger the American public," McShane added. ICE said Rojas was first arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol three times in May 2002 after trying to "unlawfully enter the U.S. at or near Douglas, Arizona." He voluntarily returned to Mexico each time.

KTLA [2/4/2025 3:33 PM, Will Conybeare, Neutral] reports the Los Angeles Police Department teamed up with the L.A. County Sheriff Department’s Regional Human Trafficking Task Force and over 100 other law enforcement agencies and victim advocacy groups to conduct "Operation Reclaim & Rebuild," a weeklong sting into human trafficking across California. According to an LAPD media release, the operation – conducted between Jan. 26 and Feb. 1 –primarily focused on rescuing victims of sexual slavery and human trafficking, apprehending their captors and disrupting the demand for vulnerable individuals. As a result of "Operation Reclaim & Rebuild," 547 suspects were arrested across California on various criminal charges, LAPD stated, with 333 of them described as "exploiters." A total of 166 adults were identified as trafficking victims, with a further 11 minors rescued from possible exploiters, bringing the total number of recovered victims to 177. All of them were offered support services; the minors were placed in protective custody and are receiving support from the Department of Children and Family Services.

Washington Post [2/4/2025 4:46 PM, Marianne LeVine , Maria Sacchetti and Siobhán O’Grady, 40736K, Negative] reports the Washington Post analyzed more than 4.1 million U.S. immigration court records from the past decade to find out where migrants come from and where they live once they arrive in the country. Hondurans could lose their status in July, and others could follow, including Haitians, Salvadorans and people from Sudan and Ukraine. Thousands of TPS recipients have lived in the United States for decades and many hoped Congress would pass legislation granting them a path to permanent residency and U.S. citizenship. Trump and other critics of the program say successive administrations have violated the spirit of the 1990 law that created TPS by extending temporary protections long after the emergencies that precipitated them have passed.

Miami Herald [2/4/2025 3:20 PM, Douglas Hanks, 6595K, Negative] reports Republicans and Democrats on the Miami-Dade County Commission on Tuesday urged the Trump administration to reverse course and extend deportation protection for Haitians, Venezuelans and other immigrants from countries the Biden administration deemed too dangerous for normal repatriation efforts. The resolution by Commissioner René Garcia, a former Miami-Dade GOP chair, urges the Trump administration to maintain all Temporary Protection Status (TPS) designations currently in place. There are currently 17 countries with TPS designations, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week took the first legal step toward ending the protection for Venezuelans. During the presidential campaign, Trump said he planned to end TPS for Haitians as part of a broader rollback on immigration protections and allowances.

Yahoo! News [2/4/2025 12:29 PM, Nicholas Liu, 57114K, Neutral] reports that Donald Trump is throwing his weight into the racial politics of South Africa, the country where Elon Musk grew up as the son of a wealthy property developer under apartheid. The president announced this week that he would withhold all aid from the country as punishment for a law intended to address persistent racial disparities in the formerly white supremacist state, particularly the fact that white landowners control three-quarters of its freehold farmland despite making up just 7% of the population. The law Trump has taken issue with would make it easier for the government to expropriate land "in the public interest," in hopes of undoing some of the injustice of the apartheid era in which the government seized Black people’s land and forced them to live in designated areas away from the white population. In Musk’s telling, it’s white South Africans who are now facing injustice, and he endorsed and shared an X post Tuesday from a user who suggested that the U.S. should encourage white-only immigration from South Africa.

FOX News [2/5/2025 4:00 AM, Bailee Hill, 49889K, Neutral] reports "Fox & Friends" co-host Lawrence Jones got a firsthand look at how the Trump administration is securing the border and reducing illegal immigration during a tour with border czar Tom Homan and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Jones toured the border with Homan and Hegseth in El Paso, Texas, on Monday, getting his own eyewitness account of how border agents are working alongside the U.S. military to crack down on the migrant surge. "Border security is national security. That’s what it’s all about," Hegseth told Jones during his first trip to the border since being confirmed. "And then also to see the troops. This is what we’re going to do everywhere we go, here at home, overseas, see the troops, make sure they’re locked in on their mission, make sure they know how much we appreciate what they do." "That’s what the president wants, that’s what the American people voted for, and we’re going to deliver it," he continued. Jones got a bird’s-eye view of the U.S.-Mexico border from a military aircraft, where he was able to see the border wall for himself and discuss the immediate construction of additional barriers. He asked Hegseth and Homan if President Donald Trump’s mission of having operational control of the southern border would happen by the end of his term. "Lawrence, sooner than that. If it takes that long, we’re not doing our job right," Hegseth responded. "Tom is going to go find them internally. We’re going to prevent them from coming in the first place, and between that, we’re going to secure the country because that is national security," he continued. Homan echoed his sentiment. "We’re not waiting four years," he said. "We’re going to get this done." Meanwhile, Mexican cartels have reportedly been given the green light to target border agents and other U.S. personnel with kamikaze drones and explosives as the presence of American officials surges along the international border. An internal memo titled "Officer Safety Alert" cited social media posts and other sources for the warning to federal agents, the New York Post reported. Agents were reminded to be "cognizant of their surroundings," to wear their ballistic armor and to utilize their long firearms. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [2/4/2025 5:12 PM, Kerry Breen, Negative] reports President Trump has said part of his motivation for imposing now-paused tariffs on Canada was to force the country to crack down on illicit fentanyl trafficking — but very little of the synthetic opioid enters the U.S. through its northern border. The 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada have been paused for at least one month following negotiations, while a 10% tariff on China remains in place. The tariffs were also meant to compel the countries to take further action to stop undocumented immigrants from entering the U.S. and to narrow their trade surplus. CBS Austin [2/4/2025 12:37 PM, Austin Denean, 581K, Neutral] reports that Canada and Mexico reached last-minute agreements with the White House to avoid punishing tariffs in exchange for ramping up border security as President Donald Trump continues to push America’s neighbors to help stem the flow of migrants and fentanyl across the borders. Trump’s threats to start an all-out trade war with two of its closest partners rattled markets and prompted concerns about what would happen with inflation and economic growth if they went into effect. But deals were reached before they went into place as Trump continues to ramp up his administration’s immigration enforcement. He has signed numerous executive orders on immigration, sent troops to the border to help with operations and added pressure on Canada and Mexico to help curb the flow of people and drugs into the country. Faced with the threat of 25% tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of goods, Canada and Mexico were able to at least temporarily stave off the economically threatening punishment for at least 30 days after announcing agreements with the Trump administration.

Border Report [2/4/2025 3:34 PM, Julian Resendiz, 153K, Neutral] reports a military airplane carrying 120 Mexican National Guard troops landed in Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday morning. The reinforcements to the 1,600 Guardsmen already on a permanent rotation in Juarez are part of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s commitment to shore up security at its border with the United States, Mexican officials said. The troops will patrol "all 800 kilometers of border between Chihuahua and the United States," Lt. Col. Jose Luis Santos told reporters in Juarez. The troops will also support local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. They will not engage in investigations nor participate in detentions that do not involve the flagrant commission of a crime. He said other National Guard units will be arriving in Juarez and in other Mexican cities that border the U.S. Sheinbaum demanded, in return, that the U.S. crack down in illegal firearms exports to Mexico. Those guns are being imported by the Mexican drug cartels and killing thousands of Mexicans each year. Reuters [2/4/2025 6:44 PM, Lizbeth Diaz, 48128K, Negative] reports that the Mexican troops will be posted to hot spots along the border with high rates of illegal migration and drug and weapons trafficking, including the border states of Baja California, Sonora and Tamaulipas, said three military and government officials with knowledge of the plan. The plan to eventually deploy 10,000 Mexican soldiers forms part of a deal announced on Monday under which U.S. President Donald Trump paused his threat of 25% tariffs on Mexican imports. Mexico had vowed to impose retaliatory tariffs. Under the agreement, the United States has also promised to work to stop the flow of high-powered weapons into Mexico from the U.S., Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said. The New York Times [2/4/2025 10:39 AM, James Wagner, 161405K, Neutral] reports that as part of her deal with President Trump to stave off steep tariffs on Mexico for a month, President Claudia Sheinbaum pledged to send 10,000 additional members of the country’s National Guard to the border to “prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, particularly fentanyl.” The deal is likely to put a lot of pressure on the National Guard, a force that is just a few years old and was recently put under the control of Mexico’s military. Unlike in the United States, there is no dedicated border patrol in Mexico. Because immigration officers are barred from carrying guns, Mexico relies on the military and National Guard to police the border, said Jonathan Maza, a Mexico-based security analyst.

Border Report [2/4/2025 8:29 PM, Julian Resendiz, 153K, Negative] reports three alleged smugglers and five migrants are in custody after U.S. Border Patrol agents executed a search warrant at an apartment complex in Glendale, Arizona. The Jan. 31 raid came after Tucson Sector Intelligence Unit agents gathered information about a smuggling organization operating a major migrant “stash house” at the property. The agents secured a residential search warrant from U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Ambri and converged on the property whose name and address were not immediately disclosed. Records show eight citizens of Mexico and Guatemala were apprehended, including Sergio Sabino Lorenzo, Miguel Angel Garcia Gayoso and Omar Martinez Lopez. The other migrants allegedly identified the three as the stash house caretakers. Agents found a lease agreement showing Martinez rented the apartment on Dec. 19. A bag on the floor of one of the bedrooms held keys to vehicles previously involved in migrant smuggling attempts and a debit card belonging to Sabino, court records show. A black ledger with the names of 131 migrants who had stayed at the apartment in the past two weeks also was found. Border agents ran a records check on all the detainees and established that at least four were previously removed from the United States. Garcia and Martinez allegedly volunteered they entered the U.S. illegally six and two years ago and that they live in Phoenix. Martinez allegedly said a criminal organization was paying the $1,600 monthly rent and that he received a similar amount for having his name on the lease. His job was to prevent the migrants from leaving the premises until a driver came to pick them up. Garcia denied involvement and Sabino, who was described by migrants as the man on the first floor consuming alcohol, did not immediately make a statement. The migrants told agents they paid a smuggling organization in Mexico $2,500 to $10,000 to be illegally crossed into the U.S. and taken to the interior of the country. Some say they were kept in the bedrooms most of the time and allowed to go to the kitchen one at a time to cook, eat and wash dishes.

Univision [2/4/2025 7:34 PM, Staff, 7281K, Neutral] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported the arrest of five citizens of the Dominican Republic who attempted to re-enter the country illegally by hiding as stowaways on a ship that arrived at the port of San Juan. The individuals, who had been previously deported, were arrested and charged with illegal re-entry. The incident took place on January 30, when CBP officers, part of the Anti-Terrorism and Contraband Enforcement Team (A-TCET), responded to a request from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and conducted a boarding on the high seas. This operation resulted in the capture of a first stowaway aboard a vessel. However, the case did not end there, since at the port of Isla Grande, CBP officers proceeded to inspect a tugboat and a barge known as "El Conquistador", which had arrived from Jacksonville, Florida. During the inspection, they found four other individuals, who were also detained while attempting to enter the country clandestinely. All of those arrested were identified as Dominican nationals, who had been deported or removed on previous occasions. Authorities indicated that the group was attempting to re-enter the country, a practice that puts the safety of both migrants and U.S. communities at risk. The five individuals were charged under Title 8 U.S. Code Section 1326 for violating federal law for illegal reentry after a previous deportation.

CBS Austin [2/4/2025 6:12 PM, Kristine Frazao, 581K, Neutral] reports Mexico’s pledge to send 10,000 troops to the border comes as those on this side of the border are facing new threats. The New York Post reported Monday on an internal memo warning, "Mexican cartel leaders have authorized the deployment of drones equipped with explosives to be used against US Border Patrol agents and US military personnel.” In an interview with The National News Desk Tuesday, John Fabbricatore, former ICE Field Office Director said, "They’re gonna try to do what they can to make these situations where the border patrol gets in trouble. Border Patrol agents are hurt. They’re responding to other situations so they can then get their smuggled goods across the border and continue human smuggling human trafficking sex trafficking whatever their profit source is," he said. In other words, it’s largely a strategy of diversion and part of an aggressive response to a significant loss in profits that smuggling groups have experienced in recent weeks. A House Homeland Security Report published in 2023, detailed how the profits grew rapidly while President Biden was in office, with a more lenient policy of letting migrants who arrived at the border remain in the country. In turn, there was a rapid rise of migrants from around the world wanting assistance getting to the U.S. border, with at least 80% of those coming, doing so with the help of smugglers they paid. In turn, it’s estimated cartels made about $13 billion a year on human smuggling alone.

Border Report [2/4/2025 3:55 PM, Julian Resendiz, 153K, Neutral] reports police in Chihuahua, Mexico, say they are investigating social media claims of a possible second illegal tunnel between El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. On Jan. 9, U.S. Border Patrol agents acting on intelligence from Homeland Security Investigations discovered a man-made tunnel originating in Mexico, going under the Rio Grande and leading to El Paso’s storm drain system. The quarter-mile underground structure has since been filled with concrete on the U.S. side and obstructed in part on the Mexican side. The new investigation stems from smugglers’ online claims they can cross migrants into the United States through a second functioning tunnel. Those online publications reportedly have been taken down since news outlets in Juarez published reports about the claims. Aguirre said state authorities keep permanent communication with the U.S. Border Patrol and will be watching out for relevant information gleaned from migrants they arrest as to how they crossed to the United States. A federal official in El Paso told Border Report on Tuesday that U.S. authorities are aware of the internet videos but that investigators have not found evidence of a second tunnel while looking for migrants who may be hiding in storm drains near the border wall.

Federal News Network [2/4/2025 11:58 AM, Tom Temin, 470K, Positive] reports that the Homeland Security Department is busy these days on a lot of fronts. Among the jobs not so visible: developing the next generation passenger screening technologies. Especially as passenger traffic keeps growing. Here with a report on some developments that promise to make screening both faster and more accurate from the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, John Fortune. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Yahoo! News [2/4/2025 9:19 AM, Brady Doran, 57114K, Neutral] reports that the Transportation Security Administration intercepted a Batarang-bladed knife at Harrisburg International Airport in January. The Batarang, a weapon used by the iconic comic book hero Batman, was discovered at a TSA security checkpoint at Harrisburg International Airport. Due to the TSA not revealing the identity of the individual in possession of the Batarang, it remains a mystery whether the caped crusader himself visited Harrisburg or just a super fan. Regardless of Batman’s no-killing rule, sharp objects, including Batarangs, are prohibited in carry-on bags on commercial flights. TSA prohibits most sharp objects from being transported on commercial flights. Most sharp objects must be secured appropriately and transported via a checked bag. Visit the TSA website to learn more.

WJHL [2/4/2025 6:21 PM, Slater Teague, Negative] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the State of Tennessee have approved $9.77 million to replace the Chestoa Pike bridge, which was destroyed by floodwaters during Hurricane Helene. FEMA’s share of the cost is $7.3 million and the nonfederal portion is $2.4 million, according to a release from FEMA. The federal share will be paid to the state. The federal funding is based on estimates from FEMA’s Rapid Assessment of Public Infrastructure Data, which uses geospatial and aerial imagery plus assessor information to develop a cost estimate.

Yahoo! News [2/4/2025 7:03 AM, Staff, 57114K, Neutral] reports FEMA has begun to call eligible survivors in Georgia regarding the Home Key housing initiative. FEMA’s Home Key initiative helps provide rapid and various strategies for finding immediate housing for survivors of Hurricane Helene who have been displaced from their primary residence since the storm. FEMA will review a person’s case to establish such a need for housing and if eligible and after signing some documentation and release forms, FEMA can refer shelter programs, help secure Rental Assistance, or refer to other FEMA-affiliated branches. Calls from FEMA may come from unfamiliar area codes or phone numbers. FEMA urges that victims of the storm answer the call, as there may be a new status update regarding themselves and the Home Key initiative. FEMA urges victims to also be aware of scammer calls; if you are uncertain of the validity of a call, hang up and call the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362.

Newsweek [2/4/2025 2:58 PM, Martha McHardy, 56005K, Negative] reports that President Donald Trump directed the Army Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water from two reservoirs in California’s Central Valley over 100 miles from the wildfire zones, a decision that has stunned residents. Newsweek reached out to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office via email for comment. It comes after water shortages allegedly hampered firefighting efforts in Los Angeles during the devastating wildfires, a claim that state officials deny, arguing that the hydrants went dry because of the high local demand. Since then, Trump has been highly critical of California authorities, calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to resign and dubbing him "Newscum" on social media, and falsely blaming water shortages during the response on California’s water management policies. He’s also threatened to withhold disaster aid unless California goes along with his moves to deliver more water. Trump’s latest move, which overrides California’s water policies, could hit local farmers hard.

Reuters [2/4/2025 6:00 PM, Judith Langowski, 48128K, Negative] reports California Governor Gavin Newsom is traveling to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to meet with Trump administration officials and members of Congress to discuss aid for victims of the Los Angeles area wildfires, his office said. Newsom, a Democrat, is trying to secure critical disaster aid for survivors and ensure that families who lost their homes and livelihoods have the support they need to rebuild and recover. It was not clear if Newsom would meet with President Donald Trump, a Republican who visited Los Angeles on Jan. 24 to see the fire damage. The president pledged to work with California. The Palisades fire and the Eaton fire in Altadena and Pasadena have killed 29 people and destroyed over 16,000 structures, Cal Fire said. Both fires are now 100% contained.

Hawaiʻi Public Radio [2/4/2025 4:15 PM, Catherine Cluett Pactol, 91K, Positive] reports all 167 brightly colored houses at FEMA’s Kilohana temporary housing site in Lahaina are now complete. The project took more than a year of construction, beginning less than two months after the 2023 wildfires. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed and prepared the 34-acre site, which is owned by the state. More than 100 households have been assigned to units so far, with more to come. FEMA said the modular homes have been built to last at least 30 years, though the Kilohana site is planned to house fire survivors for five years. They are the first prefabricated, modular temporary homes that FEMA has built that meet the International Building Code and local amendments.

ABC News [2/4/2025 12:51 PM, Mary Bruce, Kelsey Walsh, and Emily Shapiro, 33392K, Neutral] reports that President Donald Trump is planning to attend the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Sunday, marking the first time a sitting president will appear at the game. The Super Bowl 59 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles comes one month after a terrorist drove a truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more. Officials said Monday that there’s no credible threats to the game or its many surrounding events. "Right now we have no specific credible threats to this event... which I think should give us all a sense of security," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters in New Orleans on Monday. "We recognize the importance of making sure that we’re doing due diligence and being prepared for events as proactive as possible, and pre-deploying resources and partnerships that will help us make sure that these events come off safely and with a focus on security." Axios [2/4/2025 5:39 PM, Carlie Kollath Wells, 16349K, Neutral] reports the Secret Service is already in New Orleans ahead of President Trump’s visit for Super Bowl Sunday, New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick tells Axios exclusively. Security was a top focus in the city after the New Year’s Day terrorist attack, and now there will be an additional layer due to a presidential visit. Local law enforcement officials estimate several hundred Secret Service agents will join the 2,000 or so other officers who were already part of the plans. The new checkpoints for bag screenings go into effect around Bourbon Street on Wednesday. There’s a security perimeter with road closures around the Caesars Superdome as well. Federal agencies are also monitoring for drones and radiation. Eric DeLaune, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security’s New Orleans field office, told Axios exclusively on Tuesday that a presidential visit will likely mean additional closures. The Secret Service will be the lead agency, and their plans "will fold in seamlessly" with NOPD, Louisiana State Police and other partners, he said. Kristi Noem, the new Homeland Security secretary, was in town Monday to reassure residents and visitors about the safety measures, noting that more than 24 federal agencies are involved. There are no credible threats to the game, she said. A congressional delegation visited the city on Monday to review security protocols for the high-profile event.

Border Report [2/5/2025 2:30 AM, Rhea Caoile, 153K, Neutral] reports the United States Coast Guard interdicted a panga boat carrying 21 people of various nationalities near Point Loma Monday evening, according to a news release Tuesday. Around 10:45 p.m., Coast Guard personnel were notified by U.S. Customs and Border Protection about the 40-foot panga-style vessel. The boat appeared to be heading north, about 40 miles south of the maritime boundary line, officials said. Coast Guard teams successfully intercepted the vessel with CBP’s help, the release stated. After interviewing the individuals onboard, all of them claimed to be Mexican, officials said. However, subsequent checks identified two passengers as Guatemalan and Salvadorans. According to the Coast Guard, the people onboard were migrants, not immigrants. Migrants are defined by the International Rescue Committee as people who “move place to place, usually for economic reasons such as seasonal work.” Immigrants, on the other hand, are defined as those who “make a conscious decision to leave his or her home and move to a foreign country with the intention of settling there.” All 21 individuals onboard the panga were transferred to the custody of U.S. Border Patrol, the Coast Guard said.

MeriTalk [2/4/2025 11:58 AM, Andrew Rice, 31K, Positive] reports that long-time Federal government IT and cybersecurity leader Karen Evans has returned to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a senior advisor in the agency’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) component, DHS confirmed to MeriTalk. Evans previously served as chief information officer (CIO) at DHS during the first Trump administration. She also was assistant secretary for cybersecurity, energy security, and emergency response at the Department of Energy. Evans comes to CISA at a time when the agency’s top management focus is being revamped. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called for a "refocus" to CISA’s mission, with less emphasis on combatting misinformation and disinformation, during her confirmation hearing in January. "They’re using their resources in ways that [were] never intended. The misinformation and disinformation that they have stuck their toe into and meddled with should be refocused back onto what their job is," Noem said during the hearing. "[CISA] needs to be much more effective, smaller, more nimble to fulfill their mission."

Newsweek [2/4/2025 12:36 PM, Jasmine Laws, 56005K, Neutral] reports that Cyberattacks in the health care industry have been steadily increasing over the past 14 years and, in 2023, over 133 million records were exposed in the sector, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) data compiled by hipaajournal.com. Data breaches within the health care industry can have privacy implications and lead to identity theft, fraud and altered records. Cyberattacks could also lead to ransom demands, slow hospital functions and delay treatments. According to an IBM and Ponemon Institute Report, health care data breaches are more costly than those in other sectors, averaging nearly $10 million in 2024. Data breaches can have a "devastating" impact for patients and health care providers, Louisiana State University Professor Elias Bou-Harb told Newsweek. Compromised medical records can lead to identity theft, fraudulent billing and medical manipulation—where altered records result in misdiagnoses or incorrect treatments, Bou-Harb said. He added that for health care providers, cyberattacks can shut down hospitals, delay lifesaving treatments and force staff to revert to paper records, significantly slowing operations.

Washington Post [2/4/2025 12:30 PM, Dan Morse, 40736K, Neutral] reports that a 29-year-old neo-Nazi was convicted Monday of plotting to blow up Baltimore’s power grid in a scheme prosecutors said was designed to cause mayhem and lead to a White ethnostate. Brandon Russell faces up to 20 years in prison. His co-defendant, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, was recently sentenced to 18 years after pleading guilty to planning the attacks with him. Both were arrested in 2023 before any of the plans were put into action. The two wanted “to bring this city into chaos” by causing widespread power outages, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Baldwin told jurors during closing arguments Monday after a four-day trial in Baltimore that included more than 100 pieces of evidence and testimony from a key undercover operative. The 12 jurors rendered their verdict in just 45 minutes. As the verdict, to a single count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility, was announced just after 6 p.m., Russell showed little outward reaction. Two of his supporters in the second row of the courtroom were visibly upset as he was led away in handcuffs.

New York Times [2/4/2025 9:49 PM, Ed Shanahan, 161405K, Negative] reports a man who pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges nine years ago after being accused of plotting a suicide bombing at Heathrow Airport in London in support of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate was sentenced on Tuesday to 44 years in prison. Prosecutors said that the man, Minh Quang Pham, planned the bombing after having received military training in Yemen from Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical Muslim cleric and a leader of the Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen. The United States later killed him in a drone strike. The sentencing of Mr. Pham, 41, in Federal District Court in Manhattan, appeared to conclude a winding case that began with his indictment in New York on several terrorism counts in 2012 and his extradition to the United States from Britain in 2015. “Minh Quang Pham’s actions were not just an affront to the safety of this country, but to the principles of peace and security that we hold dear,” Danielle R. Sassoon, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said. “Today’s sentencing underscores our resolve to stop terrorism before it occurs.” A lawyer for Mr. Pham, Bobbi Sternheim, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Pham was born in Vietnam, moved to Britain as a child, worked as a web designer and converted to Islam. The events that led to his conviction and sentencing began in late 2010 when he traveled to Yemen, the base of operations for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, according to court documents. Mr. Pham planned to join the terrorist group, wage jihad on its behalf and martyr himself for its cause, prosecutors said. While in Yemen, he received training from Awlaki, who advised him to return to Britain and recruit others to the cause, according to court documents.

Newsweek [2/4/2025 12:47 PM, Sophie Clark, 56005K, Negative] reports that a neo-Nazi is facing 20 years in prison for conspiring to start a race war in the majority-Black city of Baltimore by attacking the power grid. Brandon Russell, 29, who is a self-proclaimed "National Socialist," is the cofounder of Atomwaffen Division (AWD) meaning atomic weapon in German, which he started as a teenager in 2015. This group believes in "accelerationism," which is the violent overthrow of the government in order to fuel societal collapse. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland has been contacted via email for further comment. Newsweek reported in December 2022, that the FBI was investigating three times as many domestic terrorism threats as they were five years ago. This is in part due to threats stemming from January 6, as the FBI defines ‘terror’ as a plot against the government. Anti-government militias in the U.S. have seen a rise in recruitment following January 6, 2021. At the federal District Court of Maryland in Baltimore, Russell, of Orlando, Florida, was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to damage an energy facility after pleading not guilty, following a six-day trial. The FBI Baltimore Joint Terrorism Task Force had investigated Russell as well as Sarah Beth Clendaniel, a woman recruited by Russell for his attack which was prevented when they were arrested in February, 2023.

Axios [2/4/2025 7:20 AM, Nate Rau, 16349K, Negative] reports Nashville remains on edge in the aftermath of the Antioch High School shooting last month. School safety is dominating conversations at kitchen tables and in the mayor’s office following the city’s second school shooting in less than two years. The concern comes hand-in-hand with an unnerving rash of copycat threats that officials are scrambling to address. A 16-year-old girl died in the Jan. 22 shooting in Antioch. Police said the shooter, also a student, killed himself on the scene. There have been at least 11 arrests for threats of violence against schools or school leaders since the Antioch shooting, according to police reports. A strict state law makes it a crime to make such threats. Three 12-year-olds are among those arrested for making threats in separate incidents. In one incident, police say a 12-year-old middle school student made threats against Antioch High and Hillsboro High in an Instagram story. Police say a Hunters Lane student admitted to telling another student he would "shoot up the school" the next day. Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway told WKRN she doesn’t think those kinds of threats were prevalent "until the Antioch incident." "For me, the most concerning part is these youth just don’t understand the gravity and the severity of what they’re doing," Calloway told the TV station. "They don’t understand how it emotionally affects everybody in our community. The school shootings have been a constant and they’ve been growing, and they are unnerving." Calloway urged parents to watch their children’s online behavior, especially on social media, to ensure they weren’t crossing the line. A police spokesperson tells Axios the number of such school threats increased following the Antioch shooting. "Making threats of mass violence by any means is not a joke," Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said at his press briefing last week. "Our Metro Nashville Police Department, the FBI and other law enforcement are constantly monitoring for threats of mass violence of any kind. Those responsible, once identified, will be prosecuted or otherwise held accountable."

CBS News [2/5/2025 4:00 AM, Brian Dakss, 52225K, Negative] reports one person was dead and five others wounded in a shooting that may have been "targeted" in a warehouse in a Columbus, Ohio suburb late Tuesday night, authorities said. New Albany Police Chief Greg Jones told reporters early Wednesday that a person of interest had been identified and authorities were working to bring the person into custody, adding that it wasn’t clear whether the person was an employee. He said there was no known motive but no reason to think there was an ongoing threat to anyone in the vicinity. Jones said the wounded were taken to hospitals but there was no word on their conditions. He said a firearm was found in the warehouse. The city said police responded a little before 11 p.m. to the active shooter situation at KDC/One, which is a cosmetics and toiletries company. Jones said some people were "self evacuating" when officers arrived and the rest in the "large building" were evacuated to another building nearby, roughly 150 in all. He told CBS News earlier that a drone was used to help clear them out. Jones noted that some were being interviewed and there was a language barrier with several. Many didn’t know what had happened until they were evacuated, Jones said. "This has been a very tragic situation. Our thoughts go out to the victims, their families and everybody that works at this facility" Jones said. "This is something that we hoped would never happen in our community, but we prepare for it, and this is where we are now." New Albany is 15 miles northeast of Columbus.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/5/2025 2:41 AM, John Yoon, 161405K, Negative]
ABC News [2/5/2025 2:20 AM, Jessica Gorman and Darren Reynolds, 33392K, Neutral]
FOX News [2/5/2025 3:26 AM, Elizabeth Pritchett, 49889K, Negative]

CBS Sacramento [2/4/2025 2:08 PM, Cecilio Padilla, 52225K, Negative] reports that two Northern California teenagers are under arrest after an investigation into alleged threats of a school shooting, authorities say. According to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office, deputies started investigating back on Feb. 3 after a School Resource Officer was alerted by staff about a social media threat against Nevada Union High School. The sheriff’s office noted that the post threatened a school shooting would happen later that same morning. Finding the threat credible, the sheriff’s office says deputies and school officials quickly went into action and were able to identify the suspect as a 17-year-old Nevada City boy. That boy was detained within four minutes of authorities learning of the alleged threat, the sheriff’s office says. On Tuesday, the sheriff’s office revealed that 18-year-old Nevada City resident and Nevada Union student Kaden David Beals had also been detained and ultimately arrested in connection to the threat investigation. No staff or students were harmed, the sheriff’s office says, and no weapons were found after a search of the school campus as well as the suspects’ homes. Beals and the 17-year-old are facing charges of criminal threats and conspiracy. Both teens remain in custody.

Newsweek [2/5/2025 4:06 AM, Ryan Chan, 6595K, Neutral] reports a United States spy plane on Monday flew over the Gulf of California, which is enclosed on three sides by Mexico, Newsweek’s map shows, using open-source flight tracking data. Newsweek has emailed the U.S. Northern Command, which has an area of responsibility that covers Mexico, as well as the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment. U.S.-Mexico relations remain strained, due to illegal immigration and drug smuggling, since President Donald Trump took office last month. He ordered the imposition of tariffs on Mexico but later agreed to pause for one month. Trump has signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in his first week at the White House. The Gulf is bound on the northeast, north, and northwest by the U.S., and its southwest and south are covered by Mexico and Cuba. Based on data captured by the aircraft tracking service Flightradar24, Newsweek’s map shows that a U.S. Air Force RC-135V Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft performed a flight over the international waters in the Gulf of California from Monday to Tuesday. The Gulf forms part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean along the northwestern coast of Mexico, which lies between the Baja California Peninsula to the west and the Mexican mainland to the east. It is approximately 750 miles long and an average width of 95 miles. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea stated that every state has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to 12 nautical miles [13.8 miles], which is measured from its coasts. It can exercise sovereignty over the airspace above its territorial sea. The spy plane was tracked taking off from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and flying toward the southwest to California. It then headed to the south along the western coast of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico before moving north into the Gulf of California. The map indicates that the aircraft did not reach the northern end of the Gulf, which is "blocked" by Mexico’s territorial sea. It flew back to Offutt using the same flight route in reverse. The Rivet Joint aircraft can detect, identify, and geolocate electronic signals, providing "near real-time" on-scene intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination capabilities, according to the U.S. Air Force. The Rivet Joint fleet is now permanently based at Offutt.

New York Times [2/4/2025 1:48 PM, Maya Tekeli and Amelia Nierenberg, 161405K, Neutral] reports that Greenland’s Parliament banned foreign and anonymous political funding on Tuesday, in the semiautonomous island’s latest reaction to President Trump’s stated intentions to acquire it. Greenland’s lawmakers fast-tracked the law — an effort to protect against outside interference — before upcoming parliamentary elections. The law is Greenland’s most aggressive effort yet to push back against Mr. Trump, who refused last month to rule out using military force to take the island. The law does not directly name him as a potential campaign contributor, but a proposal that laid out the law and its rationale made clear that his insistence inspired its authors. “Given the geopolitical interest in Greenland and the current situation — where representatives of an allied great power have expressed interest in acquiring and controlling Greenland — the country is particularly vulnerable to attempts to influence its elections and political decision-making processes,” the proposal read. The law was billed as an effort “to safeguard Greenland’s political integrity” in the proposal. Mute B. Egede, Greenland’s premier, proposed holding parliamentary elections on March 11.

CBS News [2/4/2025 11:20 AM, Olivia Rinaldi, 52225K, Neutral] reports that Vice President J.D. Vance will attend a two-day artificial intelligence summit in Paris next week for his first international trip since taking office in January. The Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, which is hosting leaders from across the globe, will focus on problems that can be solved by AI. It aims to "collectively establish scientific foundations, solutions and standards for more sustainable AI working for collective progress and in the public interest," according to the French Embassy. French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are co-hosting the gathering. The meeting comes on the heels of a new Chinese artificial intelligence site that has roiled financial markets in the U.S. and spooked the tech sector. DeepSeek debuted last week as a low-cost, open-source generative AI tool that rivals apps such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, despite the fact that it relies on inferior chips and technology. There are no international regulations governing the development of artificial intelligence.

AP [2/5/2025 12:02 AM, Will Weissert, Michelle L. Price and Zeke Miller, 47097K, Neutral] reports President Donald Trump offered a jaw-dropping performance during his joint news conference Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, suggesting that Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip could be permanently resettled elsewhere and that the U.S. might stage a long-term takeover of the vacated region — even leading redevelopment efforts to make it a seaside paradise in waiting. He refused to rule out sending U.S. troops in to seal the deal, and said he himself — ever the real estate developer — might pay a personal visit. Negotiations to sustain the tenuous ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas — and secure the liberation of the remaining living hostages in captivity there, including at least one American — are set to begin in earnest this week. Trump’s audacious proposal to relocate roughly 1.8 million Palestinians from the land they have called home, and look to as part of a future state, could completely upend those negotiations. The framework for the talks calls for surging humanitarian and reconstruction supplies to help the people of Gaza recover after more than 15 months of devastating conflict between Israel and Hamas. It was always going to be a challenge for mediators to try to win Hamas’ agreement to be uprooted as the governing authority in the territory. Trump’s suggestions that the U.S. take ownership of the area and redevelop it, with the possible support of American troops, is a sure non-starter for the militant group. It is also likely to put new stress on Qatar and Egypt, the other mediators in the talks, who have long advocated for Palestinian statehood. A breakdown in the negotiations could see the return to fighting in Gaza — jeopardizing the fates of the remaining living hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups in the territory.

Roll Call [2/4/2025 2:06 PM, John T. Bennett, 440K, Neutral] reports Donald Trump sent a clear signal about his Middle East strategy, and his preference for Gaza and its beleaguered population, by selecting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the first world leader to visit the White House during his second term — the latest high-profile move in the U.S. president’s all-gas-no-brakes start. "I think that we have a combination that’s unbeatable," Trump said Tuesday of his alliance with Netanyahu as a fireplace roared behind them in the Oval Office. Netanyahu’s visit came as Republicans and Democrats in Congress were still sizing up the new president’s approach to permanently ending the war in Gaza. Trump surely would face resistance from congressional Democrats over a contentious idea he floated before meeting with Netanyahu: that Palestinians should be removed from Gaza and relocated to a new permanent home, a notion that prominent Palestinian and other Arab leaders have also long opposed. "I don’t know how they could want to stay. It’s a demolition site," Trump said before his Israeli counterpart arrived at the White House. "If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places, with plenty of money in the area, that’s for sure. I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza.” As for the land itself, Trump, who has floated turning Gaza into a resort area, said the United States and wealthy Arab countries could "do something with it," adding, "The Gaza thing has not worked.” Later, seated in the Oval Office alongside a smiling Netanyahu, Trump said he would prefer to "resettle" Gaza residents after a conflict that has seen more than 45,000 Gazans killed and about 90 percent of the territory’s population displaced. Trump said he wants to use "money supplied by other people" to build up to six living areas for Palestinians from Gaza. "Who would want to go back?" the president said. "You take certain areas and you build really good-quality housing, like a beautiful town, like some place where they can live and not die, because Gaza is a guarantee that they’re going to end up dying," Trump said, speaking about the territory like no other American leader has. "The same thing is going to happen again. It’s happened over and over again, and it’s going to happen again.” The Wall Street Journal [2/4/2025 9:56 PM, Alexander Ward, Dov Lieber and Michael R. Gordon, Neutral] reports “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” Trump said during a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. “I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East.” The proposal, if implemented, would deeply involve the U.S. in a development project that Trump officials said earlier in the day could take 10 to 15 years. He left unaddressed how the U.S. would persuade Palestinians to voluntarily surrender their land and whether Israel would ultimately exercise sovereignty in the territory. Trump didn’t rule out sending U.S. forces to hold Gaza, a deployment that could launch the kind of long-term American military occupation in the Middle East that Trump has long decried. Trump cited the devastation in Gaza for why the enclave’s residents had to move. “I hope we can do something where they wouldn’t want to go back,” Trump said. The president added that he would like to see “really good quality housing” built for Palestinians outside Gaza. The rebuilt strip would provide jobs and stability to the region, Trump said, implying without providing details that it would be open to both Israelis and Arabs. Newsweek [2/4/2025 9:11 PM, Hannah Parry, 56005K, Neutral] reports Trump said that the U.S. will "be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and all of the other weapons on the site." Trump has doubled down on his proposals to "clean out" Gaza and shift its entire Palestinian population into neighboring Jordan and Egypt, despite strong resistance from Palestinians, much of the Middle East, and U.S. Democrats. Earlier this afternoon, the president branded the area a "demolition site" and claimed Palestinians would be "thrilled" to get displaced from their homes. "The Gaza thing has not worked, it’s never worked," he said. There are already more than 2.39 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, according to the U.N. Israeli officials support the proposal, and have made similar suggestions in the past. The proposal has been met with strong backlash by Jordan and Egypt, as well as most of the Arab world. Palestinian groups and international organizations have long condemned the proposals as forced displacement, and on Saturday, a group of Arab nations—including Egypt and Jordan—uniformly rejected Trump’s proposal. The countries along with organizations issued a joint statement formally opposing it. "We affirm our rejection of [any attempts] to compromise Palestinians’ unalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, or evictions or annex of land or through vacating the land from its owners ... in any form or under any circumstances or justifications," the statement said, according to Al Jazeera.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [2/4/2025 1:01 PM, Matt Viser and Michael Birnbaum, 40736K, Neutral]

Reuters [2/4/2025 11:20 PM, Kanishka Singh, 48128K, Negative] reports U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio late on Tuesday appeared to back President Donald Trump’s plan for a U.S. takeover of Gaza, saying the Palestinian enclave must be free from Islamist group Hamas. Trump on Tuesday proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza where Israel’s military assault in the last 16 months has killed tens of thousands, after he earlier suggested that Palestinians in the enclave should be permanently displaced. The idea was condemned by experts and rights advocates. Trump’s earlier comments that Palestinians should move to Egypt and Jordan were already rejected publicly by Palestinian leaders and leaders of the Arab world while being condemned by human rights advocates as amounting to a proposal of ethnic cleansing. "Gaza MUST BE FREE from Hamas. As @POTUS shared today, the United States stands ready to lead and Make Gaza Beautiful Again," Rubio said on X. "Our pursuit is one of lasting peace in the region for all people." While Trump had floated suggestions of Palestinian displacement since Jan. 25, statements issued since by Rubio’s State Department on its websites after the top U.S. diplomat’s subsequent calls with regional leaders did not explicitly mention Trump’s suggestion. Trump did not offer much detail is his Tuesday proposal. Rubio’s post also did not elaborate further. U.S. ally Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed over 47,000 Palestinians in the last 16 months, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies. The assault internally displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and caused a hunger crisis. The fighting has currently paused amid a fragile ceasefire. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [2/5/2025 1:57 AM, Christina Shaw, 49889K, Neutral]

The Hill [2/4/2025 2:12 PM, Laura Kelly, 16346K, Neutral] reports that Trump administration officials say the five-year timeline laid out in later phases of a peace deal between Israel and Hamas is too short, estimating the timeline will be at least twice that. While officials were cautious about explicitly backing Trump’s suggestion to "clean out" Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and house them elsewhere during reconstruction, they suggested the territory may be uninhabitable in the interim and called for "creative" regional solutions. "Phase three, the reconstruction, is not going to go the way that agreement talks about, which is a five-year program," Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East told reporters, referring to the three-phase ceasefire deal negotiated by the Biden administration. Trump’s team says reconstruction is likely to take between 10 and 15 years. A senior administration official said Trump "looks at the Gaza Strip and sees it as a demolition site" and "sees it as impractical for it to be rebuilt within three to five years, believes it will take at least 10 to 15 and thinks it’s inhumane to force people to live in an uninhabitable plot of land with unexploded ordnance and rubble."

New York Times [2/5/2025 3:24 AM, Ana Swanson and Chris Buckley, 740K, Neutral] reports Beijing responded swiftly on Tuesday to the tariffs President Trump had promised, announcing a fusillade of countermeasures targeting American companies and imports of critical products. Mr. Trump’s 10 percent tariff on all Chinese products went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the result of an executive order issued over the weekend aimed at pressuring Beijing to crack down on fentanyl shipments into the United States. The Chinese government came back with a series of retaliatory steps, including additional tariffs on liquefied natural gas, coal, farm machinery and other products from the United States, which will take effect next Monday. It also immediately implemented restrictions on the export of certain critical minerals, many of which are used in the production of high-tech products. In addition, Chinese market regulators said they had launched an antimonopoly investigation into Google. Google is blocked from China’s internet, but the move may disrupt the company’s dealings with Chinese companies. Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator, said the various measures were a signal from China of the range of options it has to respond to Mr. Trump’s trade actions. “This menu approach is not surprising,” she said. “Beijing has been building its toolbox for some time.” The U.S. tariffs, which Mr. Trump said on Monday were an “opening salvo,” come on top of levies that the president imposed during his first term. Many Chinese products already faced a 10 or 25 percent tariff, and the move adds a 10 percent tariff to more than $400 billion of goods that Americans purchase from China each year, particularly impacting computers and electronics, electrical equipment, and clothing. Mr. Trump had been planning to hit America’s three largest trading partners, Canada, Mexico and China, with tariffs of varying degrees. But after days of frantic negotiations, Mr. Trump agreed to pause the tariffs on Mexico and Canada for 30 days after the Canadian and Mexican governments promised to step up their oversight of fentanyl and the border.

Reported similarly:
AP [2/4/2025 2:21 PM, Ken Moritsugu and Huizhog Wu, 12036K, Negative]
CBS Austin [2/4/2025 1:46 PM, Jamel Valencia, 581K, Negative]

Newsweek [2/4/2025 10:34 AM, Micah McCartney, 6595K, Neutral] reports that the Philippines said it is monitoring three Chinese warships in nearby waters as territorial tensions persist between the two neighbors. Newsweek reached out to the Philippine armed forces and Chinese Foreign Ministry with written requests for comment outside of office hours. The Philippines is on edge over China’s increasing activities within its exclusive economic zone, where the U.S. ally is entitled to resources under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. China claims sovereignty over more than 90 percent of the South China Sea, citing historical rights, and rejected a 2016 international arbitral ruling that largely sided with the Philippines. Sunday marked 30 consecutive days of the Chinese coast guard presence in waters off the heavily populated Philippine island of Luzon. The Philippines’ armed forces said Monday that it was tracking three People’s Liberation Army vessels-a nearly 600-foot Renhai-class guided missile cruiser, a Jiangkai II-class frigate and a Fuchi-class replenishment oiler-that were first observed Sunday "in the vicinity of the West Philippine Sea."

Newsweek [2/4/2025 1:07 PM, Marni Rose McFall, 56005K, Neutral] reports that Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices and systems, describing the fast-emerging artificial intelligence tool as a security risk. Newsweek has reached out to a DeepSeek and Australia’s Department for Home Affairs via email for comment. Australia’s move signals a swift crackdown on the app, an example which may be followed by other countries. The move comes as the U.S. reckons with both the advancement of DeepSeek, and the future of the TikTok ban, which was upheld by the Supreme Court on January 17. President Donald Trump then signed an executive order telling the U.S. Attorney General not to enforce the law yet. Under a directive from the Secretary of Home Affairs, delivered under the Protective Security Framework, Australia has banned the app from its government’s systems and devices, on the grounds of national security, effective immediately. Noncorporate Commonwealth entities have been ordered to "identify and remove all existing instances of DeepSeek products, applications and service and services on all Australian government systems and mobile devices."

New York Times [2/4/2025 12:44 AM, Keith Bradsher, Ana Swanson and Jordyn Holman, 161405K, Neutral] reports the United States Postal Service announced Tuesday that it had temporarily stopped accepting packages from China and Hong Kong, hours after an order by President Trump took effect that ended duty-free handling of many smaller parcels. Mr. Trump ordered on Saturday that all goods leaving China starting on Tuesday must follow the rules for higher-value shipments. Until the change, parcels worth up to $800 apiece were not required to include detailed information on their contents and were not subject to tariffs. The United States imports close to four million of such lower-value parcels a day with little or no customs inspection and no duties collected — with most of them coming from China. The Trump administration and other critics have contended that allowing these packages into the United States has created a conduit for fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, and related supplies to enter the United States. But the duty-free provision on lower-value parcels, known as the de minimis rule, has also been used by many e-commerce companies to bring regular consumer items from China into the United States without paying tariffs on them. FedEx and UPS are also affected by the change in customs rules, as they move a large portion of the parcels, running frequent cargo flights from China to the United States. Neither company has responded yet to questions about how they will handle the new rules. The de minimis provision was included in a broader order by Mr. Trump that imposed an extra 10 percent tariff on all imports from China. Lower-value parcels from China, which previously were tariff-free, now face not only the 10 percent tariff but also the many complex tariffs on every category of goods that these shipments previously skirted entirely. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service did not respond to a question about whether stoppages were related to the change in trade rules, referring to a statement the service had released announcing the suspension.

FOX News [2/4/2025 7:33 AM, Danielle Wallace, 49889K, Neutral] reports U.S. and Philippine fighter aircraft staged a joint patrol and training Tuesday over a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese fighter jets fired flares last year to drive away a Philippine aircraft, Philippine officials said. The joint patrol and air-intercept drills over the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines were the first by the longtime treaty allies since President Donald Trump took office again. It comes as the Trump administration has promised to deliver a foreign policy that centers on "America First.” Two U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber aircraft and three Philippine Air Force FA-50 fighter jets joined the brief patrol and training, which involved practicing how to intercept a hostile aircraft, Philippine air force spokesperson Maria Consuelo Castillo said at a press conference. It was not immediately known if the joint patrol encountered any challenge from Chinese forces guarding the Scarborough Shoal. "The exercises focused on enhancing operational coordination, improving air domain awareness and reinforcing agile combat employment capabilities between the two air forces," the Philippine Air Force said. On Tuesday, the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command said its units would maintain a "high degree of alert, resolutely defend China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and control any military activities that disrupt the South China Sea," alleging the Philippines participated in joint patrols organized by other foreign countries to "undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea," according to Reuters. The Philippine Navy said at a press conference on Tuesday that it was "closely monitoring" three Chinese navy vessels within Manila’s maritime zones, including a Jiangkai-class guided missile frigate. "The presence of People’s Liberation Army-Navy reflects the People’s Republic of China’s complete disregard for international law and undermines the peace and stability in the region," Philippine Navy spokesperson John Percie Alcos said, according to Reuters.

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