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.

New York Times [1/25/2025 3:19 PM, Tim Balk, 161405K, Negative] reports the Senate voted on Saturday to confirm Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary, putting a former South Dakota governor in charge of the department at the heart of President Trump’s agenda to crack down on immigration. The vote was 59 to 34. Ms. Noem, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump who was once seen as a contender to be his running mate, issued a statement on Saturday thanking him and vowing to “work to make America SAFE again!” She takes charge of a sprawling agency that runs the nation’s immigration system — including Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and that leads counterterrorism efforts. The Homeland Security Department also oversees the Secret Service, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (In recent days, Mr. Trump has suggested disbanding FEMA.) Ms. Noem, a former congresswoman and two-term South Dakota governor, has been closely aligned with Mr. Trump on immigration, the issue he says won him the White House. She has described high levels of immigration to the United States in recent years as an “invasion,” and she has supported restoring a policy that requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico for the duration of their U.S. cases. The policy, in place during Mr. Trump’s first term, was heavily criticized by Democrats and immigration-rights activists. As governor of South Dakota, she opposed accepting Afghan refugees after the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan, and she sent members of her state’s National Guard to Texas to address the immigration crisis — a contentious move that Mr. Trump cited in picking her for homeland security secretary. While most Senate Democrats opposed Ms. Noem’s nomination, she received scattered support from Democratic lawmakers. Her confirmation went smoothly compared with the bruising battle to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who faced allegations of sexual abuse and excessive drinking, which he denied. Mr. Hegseth was approved by a 51-to-50 vote on Friday after Vice President JD Vance stepped in to cast a tiebreaking vote. Reuters [1/25/2025 6:03 PM, Ted Hesson, 48128K, Negative] reports that, Noem, who was governor of South Dakota, shares Trump’s hardline immigration views and called illegal immigration an ‘invasion’ during a confirmation hearing earlier this month. While she served as governor of a state closer to Canada than Mexico, Noem deployed dozens of South Dakota National Guard troops to assist the Republican-led state of Texas with border security in recent years, including one controversial deployment in 2021 funded by a Republican billionaire. Politico [1/25/2025 12:02 PM, Myah Ward, Neutral] reports the South Dakota governor’s ascension to DHS came as a surprise in some quarters. She doesn’t have a law enforcement background, and during her four terms as a House member she never served on the committee overseeing the department. But she had key support from Trump’s 2016 campaign chief, Corey Lewandowski, and border czar Tom Homan, who advocated for her nomination. Her history as a Trump loyalist also helped her win the nod, as well as her backing of the president’s plans to further crack down on the border and deport undocumented immigrants living in the country. But given her lack of experience, outside allies have viewed Noem’s selection as further indication that the administration’s immigration policy will be centralized in the White House, run by Homan and Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. This could allow Noem to focus more attention on the numerous other agencies within the sprawling department, including FEMA, TSA and the Secret Service. NPR [1/25/2025 2:26 PM, Staff, Neutral] reports Noem told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, about why she is best for the role. "I knew that it would be needed to have someone in the position, that would do what the president promised the American people and would be strong enough to do it," she said. During her confirmation hearing, Noem said she would partner with Trump to reinstate the "Remain in Mexico" policy, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, which would require certain asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their court hearing dates in the U.S., in an effort to limit the number of people waiting inside U.S. borders.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [1/25/2025 2:47 PM, Maegan Vazquez, 40736K, Neutral]
Roll Call [1/25/2025 12:11 PM, Chris Johnson, 440K, Neutral]
Bloomberg [1/25/2025 7:40 PM, Alicia Diaz and María Paula Mijares Torres, 57114K, Neutral]
The Hill [1/25/2025 11:59 AM, Rebecca Beitsch and Al Weaver, 16346K, Neutral]
ABC News [1/25/2025 1:15 PM, Luke Barr, 33392K, Neutral]
CNN [1/25/2025 7:38 PM, Clare Foran, Morgan Rimmer, Annie Grayer and Shania Shelton, Neutral]
Axios [1/25/2025 12:03 PM, Stef W. Kight, Stephen Neukam, 16349K, Positive]
FOX News [1/25/2025 12:23 PM, Adam Shaw, 49889K, Neutral]
USA Today [1/25/2025 1:56 PM, Savannah Kuchar, 89965K, Negative]
Washington Examiner [1/25/2025 11:59 AM, Samantha-Jo Roth, 2365K, Neutral]
Telemundo [1/25/2025 12:02 PM, Staff, 2623K, Neutral]

NBC News [1/25/2025 8:45 AM, Suzanne Gamboa, Didi Martinez, Laura Strickler and Julia Ainsley, Negative] reports President Donald Trump is closing out the week with troops on the border, immigration officers launching raids and more immigrants at risk of deportation. Trump promised voters his first day in office would see mass deportations bigger than any in American history. While things didn’t happen that quickly, he set in motion efforts to follow through on his pledge. The result has been heightened fear in immigrant communities, cheers from supporters, announcements from city and state officials staking out the roles they will play in assisting — or not — with immigration enforcement, and multifront legal fights over Trump’s actions and executive orders. The week started with Trump rescinding the executive orders that President Joe Biden enacted on immigration, including those that built legal pathways for record numbers of migrants arriving at the border in recent years. Trump also signed a slew of his own, most prominently declaring an emergency on the U.S. southern border and seeking to stop children born in the U.S. to some immigrants from gaining automatic American citizenship, the latter of which a federal judge temporarily blocked. On Thursday, some of the 1,500 Army and Marines personnel the Department of Defense announced would be sent to the southwest border arrived in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego. On Friday, two massive C-17 military cargo planes shuttled people who migrated from Guatemala out of the country. ICE was also making a show of force with arrests around the country, most visibly workplace raids in Newark, New Jersey, which included the questioning and detaining of U.S. citizens. “President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X. Though mass deportations didn’t materialize on Day 1 as Trump vowed, he has “strategically laid the groundwork for scaling up capacity and bringing in additional agencies for more detention and removals than the prior administration,” said Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration think tank that supports immigration reform.

Reported similarly:
Telemundo [1/25/2025 3:28 PM, Suzanne Gamboa, Didi Martínez, Laura Strickler and Julia Ansley, 2623K, Negative]

ABC News [1/25/2025 4:32 PM, Mike Levine, 33392K, Neutral] reports the Trump administration won’t be able to remove every undocumented migrant inside the United States, and the success of its promised mass deportation plan is "going to be based on what Congress gives us," the administration’s new "border czar" Tom Homan told ABC News. "I’m being realistic," Homan said in an interview with ABC "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz. "We can do what we can with the money we have. We’re going to try to be efficient, but with more money we have, the more we can accomplish." Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t currently have enough funding from Congress to detain all of the undocumented immigrants that the Trump administration says it hopes to arrest, Homan said, so the scope of its enforcement operations is dependent on the scope of funding from Congress. "The more money, the better I’m going to do," he said. Homan said success comes down to this: "Take as many public safety threats off the street as possible." That includes deporting "every illegal alien gang member in this country, including Tren de Agua," the Venezuelan cartel, he added. "When we see the crime rate from illegal aliens go down, that’s success," he said. "Every public safety threat removed [from] this country is success. Every national security [threat] we find and remove from the country is a success." In the interview airing Sunday, Homan said the U.S. government for the first time ever used military aircraft to transport migrants back to their home country, and it will now be a daily occurrence. According to U.S. officials, the U.S. military on Thursday flew more than 150 migrants to Guatemala on two separate flights. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [1/25/2025 8:56 AM, Joel Rose, 35747K, Positive] Audio: HERE reports President Trump began his immigration crackdown with a flurry of executive orders. Immigration experts say they lay out a blueprint for how he hopes to transform enforcement at the border and beyond.

Newsweek [1/25/2025 4:23 PM, Natalie Venegas, 56005K, Neutral] reports Representative María Salazar, a Florida Republican, pushed on Friday to protect migrants through legislation as President Donald Trump ramps up his mass deportations efforts. Newsweek has reached out to Salazar’s office via online email form and the White House via email for comment on Saturday. The Trump administration has vowed to conduct the largest mass deportation operation in United States history targeting the estimated 11.7 million people who are in the country without legal status. Trump made immigration a central theme of his successful presidential campaign and Americans largely support his mass deportation plans. A New York Times/Ipsos poll, carried out from January 2 to 10, found 55 percent of voters strongly or somewhat supported such plans. Eighty-eight percent supported "deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records." Large majorities of Democrats and Republicans agreed that the immigration system is broken. Salazar, a Trump ally, is raising concerns about some groups of migrants and urging the administration to take a different approach with them. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, the congresswoman urged the Trump administration to protect migrants through legislation, naming the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cuban natives or citizens living in the U.S. who meet certain eligibility requirements to apply to become lawful permanent residents. "I’m urging Homeland Security to PROTECT Cubans awaiting legal status adjustment through the Cuban Adjustment Act. We must ALSO protect the Venezuelans and Nicaraguans without a criminal record going through the asylum process. Don’t penalize them for Biden’s screw-ups!" Salazar wrote on X, attaching a letter she wrote to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the Friday letter to the DHS, Salazar, a second generation Cuban American, urged the Trump administration to protect migrants who qualified under former President Joe Biden’s "humanitarian parole" program, which specifically allows Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians to live and work in the country for up to two years. "Although President Biden originally created this new program on dubious legal grounds and brought individuals here without a plan for their future, they were still enrolled under programs offered to them. Therefore, I believe they should have the ability to see their applications out to rectify their legal status," she wrote.

Washington Post [1/25/2025 6:36 PM, Staff, 40736K, Negative] reports two suspects in a shootout that killed a U.S. Border Patrol agent in northern Vermont on Monday had been known to authorities for almost a week before the fatal traffic stop, according to court filings unsealed Friday. Teresa Youngblut, 21, was charged with one count of using a deadly weapon while assaulting a Border Patrol agent and one count of using and discharging a firearm. Felix Baukholt, a German citizen who was traveling with her, was also killed in the shootout. Investigators had been performing “periodic surveillance” of Baukholt and Youngblut since Jan. 14, when a concerned citizen notified law enforcement about their behavior, according to court documents. After the shooting, authorities said they recovered guns and tactical equipment from Baukholt and Youngblut’s vehicle. Youngblut and Baukholt were driving a Toyota Prius registered to Baukholt when Border Patrol agents stopped them near the U.S. border with Canada to conduct an immigration inspection, according to a criminal complaint. Baukholt appeared to have an expired visa in a Department of Homeland Security database, the complaint stated. Citing evidence from the scene, an FBI agent wrote in the complaint that Youngblut fired a .40-caliber pistol at least twice from the driver’s side of the Prius and “one or more” Border Patrol agents returned fire with 9mm handguns. Youngblut, Baukholt and Border Patrol agent David Maland all sustained gunshot wounds. Baukholt was pronounced dead at the scene, and Maland was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later. Youngblut, who was treated at a hospital for her injuries, is scheduled to appear Monday before a magistrate judge in Burlington, Vermont. If convicted, Youngblut faces 10 years to life in prison. An attorney for Youngblut listed on court filings did not return a request for comment Saturday.

Miami Herald [1/25/2025 12:16 PM, Milena Malaver, 6595K, Negative] reports a Miami Beach man cast his vote in local and national elections six times before authorities said they determined that he was a British national illegally living in the United States. James Ross Wightman, 65, was jailed on Friday and charged with six counts of illegal voting, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Authorities say Wightman was voluntarily deported from the United States in September 1989 after overstaying his visitor visa and being arrested for a drug offense in Hawaii, avoiding formal deportation proceedings. He would return to the United States in November 2000 and submit a voter registration application falsely affirming U.S. citizenship, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. “Voting is a civic duty for every American citizen. James Wightman knew that he was not an American citizen having previously left for the United Kingdom when facing deportation,” Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. In November 2013, Wightman provided a fake Ohio birth certificate to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to renew his Florida driver’s license, authorities say. The Ohio Department of Health confirmed that no birth certificate exists for Wightman, according to authorities. Wightman would then go on to vote in six local and national elections in 2022, 2023 and 2024, officials say. Voting records show that Wightman has been registered with no party affiliation since 2013. He was jailed at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Saturday afternoon, court records show. No attorney information was available on the county clerk’s website. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Election Crime Unit led the investigation, working with the Florida Department of State Office of Election Crimes and Security, U.S. Department of State, and Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Office. The Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office and Miami Beach Police Department assisted in the arrest.

Chicago Tribune [1/25/2025 8:56 AM, Rebecca Johnson, Nell Salzman, Caroline Kubzansky, and Jeremy Gorner, Neutral] reports a reported sighting of immigration agents attempting to enter an elementary school on Chicago’s Southwest Side Friday was actually Secret Service agents investigating a threat, a federal spokesperson said late Friday afternoon. This announcement came hours after leaders at Chicago Public Schools announced they blocked federal immigration officers from going into Hamline Elementary School in the New City neighborhood and talking to students, leading to swift responses from city and state leaders and immigration advocates. Principal Natasha Ortega said at a Friday afternoon news conference that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up to the school, located at 1548 W. 48th St., at 11:15 a.m. She said school employees “followed the protocols that we’ve been trained and practiced and have discussed,” ensuring students’ safety. “We will not open our doors for ICE, and we are here to protect our children and make sure they have access to an excellent education,” Ortega said. “We stand in solidarity with our families and the Back of the Yards community.” An ICE spokesperson later denied in a statement that the encounter involved the agency, while Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Tribune it was their officers who were investigating a threat against a “protectee” in connection with TikTok. Guglielmi would not identify the protectee, but the Secret Service oversees protection for President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, their immediate families and former presidents. Two Secret Service agents went to a residence near the school before stepping on campus, Guglielmi said. The officials identified themselves as Secret Service agents and left their business cards for school leadership to call them, he said. “The U.S. Secret Service does not investigate or enforce immigration matters,” Guglielmi said.

SFGate [1/26/2025 3:00 AM, Staff, 14282K, Neutral] reports Richmond’s mayor and city manager issued a joint statement Saturday pledging to stand by the city’s majority Latino population as federal immigration policy changes. "In light of recent threats from the federal administration regarding mass deportations, we want to assure our community that Richmond will not waver in its values of inclusion, diversity, and respect for all residents," Mayor Eduardo Martinez and City Manager Shasa Curl said in a statement in English and Spanish. In the statement, addressed to "Dear Residents of Richmond," the city pointed to a history shaped by immigrants. "Our policies reflect our belief that all residents, regardless of immigration status, deserve to feel safe and supported in their community," the mayor and manager wrote. "Under the U.S. Constitution and established legal precedent, state and local governments, including our city, cannot be required to enforce federal immigration laws, and we will not allow fear and intimidation to erode the trust we have built within our community." The officials underscored that Richmond police do not inquire about immigration status "and their commitment to uphold our sanctuary city policies remains unchanged."

Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 3:46 PM, Jorge Ventura, 57114K, Neutral] reports the White House and the State Department are denying news reports that Mexico is refusing migrant deportation flights, saying there was a miscommunication. On Saturday night, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said via X: “Thanks to President Trump: Yesterday, Mexico accepted a record 4 deportation flights in 1 day! “This comes in addition to unrestricted returns at the land border, the deportation of non-Mexicans, & reinstatement of Remain-in-Mexico. Mexico has also mobilized 30K National Guard.” In response to an NBC News story stating migrant flights were being refused by Mexico, Tammy Bruce, a spokesperson for the State Department said via X: “The fake news is already lying about our successful partnership with Mexico helping to make our region safe again.” “The truth is, four ICE flights arrived in Mexico yesterday. Two military flights were sent to Guatemala because they were filled with Guatemalans. 2000 aliens were deported to Mexico yesterday alone by land and air, as Remain in Mexico was reimplemented. Promises made, promises kept.” Earlier this week, deportations to Mexico were undertaken on the ground in Hidalgo, Texas en route to Reynosa, Mexico. Sources in Mexico say that this is a regularity, but they expect those deportations to ramp up in the coming weeks under the Trump administration. Officials also told NewsNation they have now launched the “Mexico Embraces You” program to provide resources such as shelter to Mexican deportees. Reuters [1/25/2025 7:04 PM, Phil Stewart and Diego Oré, Neutral] reports that Mexico’s foreign ministry, in a statement late on Friday, said the country had a "very great relationship" with the U.S. and cooperated on issues such as immigration. "When it comes to repatriations, we will always accept the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms," the ministry said. The Mexican official did not give a reason for the denial of permission to land, while the foreign ministry did not mention the incident. Trump’s administration earlier this week announced it was re-launching the program known as "Remain in Mexico," which forced non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their cases in the United States were resolved. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday such a move would require the country receiving the asylum-seekers to agree, and that Mexico had not done so. The U.S. State Department and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. U.S.-Mexico relations have come into sharp focus since Trump started his second term on Monday with the declaration of a national emergency along the two nations’ shared border. He has ordered 1,500 additional U.S. troops there so far, and officials have said thousands more could deploy soon. The president has declared Mexican drug cartels terrorist organizations, renamed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and threatened an across-the-board 25% duty on Mexican goods beginning in February. Sheinbaum has sought to avoid escalating the situation and expressed openness toward accommodating Mexican nationals who are returned. But the leftist leader has also said she does not agree with mass deportations and that Mexican immigrants are vital to the U.S. economy. The use of U.S. military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s response to Trump’s national emergency declaration on Monday. In the past, U.S. military aircraft have been used to relocate individuals from one country to another, like during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. This was the first time in recent memory that U.S. military aircraft were used to fly migrants out of the country, one U.S. official said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [1/25/2025 7:04 PM, Phil Stewart and Diego Oré, Neutral] reports Mexico has refused a request from President Donald Trump’s administration to allow a U.S. military aircraft deporting migrants to land in the country, a U.S. official and a Mexican official told Reuters. U.S. military aircraft carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday. The government was not able to move ahead with a plan to have a C-17 transport aircraft land in Mexico, however, after the country denied permission. A U.S. official and a Mexican official confirmed the decision, which was first reported by NBC News. Mexico’s foreign ministry, in a statement late on Friday, said the country had a "very great relationship" with the U.S. and cooperated on issues such as immigration. "When it comes to repatriations, we will always accept the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms," the ministry said. The Mexican official did not give a reason for the denial of permission to land, while the foreign ministry did not mention the incident. Trump’s administration earlier this week announced it was re-launching the program known as "Remain in Mexico," which forced non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their cases in the United States were resolved. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday such a move would require the country receiving the asylum-seekers to agree, and that Mexico had not done so. The U.S. State Department and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. U.S.-Mexico relations have come into sharp focus since Trump started his second term on Monday with the declaration of a national emergency along the two nations’ shared border. He has ordered 1,500 additional U.S. troops there so far, and officials have said thousands more could deploy soon. The president has declared Mexican drug cartels terrorist organizations, renamed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and threatened an across-the-board 25% duty on Mexican goods beginning in February. Sheinbaum has sought to avoid escalating the situation and expressed openness toward accommodating Mexican nationals who are returned. But the leftist leader has also said she does not agree with mass deportations and that Mexican immigrants are vital to the U.S. economy. The use of U.S. military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s response to Trump’s national emergency declaration on Monday. In the past, U.S. military aircraft have been used to relocate individuals from one country to another, like during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. This was the first time in recent memory that U.S. military aircraft were used to fly migrants out of the country, one U.S. official said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Telemundo [1/25/2025 6:59 PM, Staff, 2623K, Neutral] reports Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) assured that it will always accept the arrival of Mexicans to the country, even in the case of repatriations, after NBC News reported that a U.S. military plane with deportees on board was denied landing. "In the case of repatriations, we will always accept the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms, Mexico embraces you," the Foreign Ministry published in a brief message on social networks. Mexico embraces you," the Foreign Ministry published in a brief message on social networks. In the publication, the Foreign Ministry affirmed that Mexico "has a very good relationship" with the U.S. government "and we cooperate with respect for our sovereignties on a wide range of issues, including migration." The SRE’s reaction comes after NBC News published a story quoting two U.S. Department of Defense officials and a third person familiar with the matter, who said that two Air Force C-17 aircraft, each with about 80 people on board, departed Thursday night from the United States, and a third flight bound for Mexico never took off. NBC News reported that a White House official said that in the case of the plane bound for Mexico it was "an administrative issue and it was resolved quickly". The truth is that after the swearing in of President Donald Trump, relations between this country and Mexico have been strained, especially since the Republican threatened to impose a general tariff of 25% on the Latin American country in retaliation for the crisis at the border. On Friday, the White House indicated that migrant deportations had "begun," a reference to Trump’s main campaign promise to carry out the largest mass deportation operation of foreigners in U.S. history.

Newsweek [1/25/2025 3:07 PM, James Bickerton, 6595K, Neutral] reports the Mexican government has launched an initiative called "Mexico Embraces You," seeking to welcome migrants deported from the United States and integrate them into the labor market. Newsweek contacted the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment on Saturday via email. U.S. President Donald Trump made immigration a key plank of his 2024 campaign, promising mass deportations and other hard-line policies. A New York Times/Ipsos poll conducted between January 2 and 10 found that 55 percent of voters strongly or somewhat supported such policies. Eighty-eight percent supported "deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records." Large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agreed that the country’s immigration system was broken. Earlier this month, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum indicated her country could accept non-Mexican migrants deported by the Trump administration. Integrating large numbers of deported migrants will be a major challenge for Mexico-which, in 2023, had 43.9 percent of its population living in poverty, according to the World Bank Group. The Mexican government launched the Mexico Embraces You program this week following months of planning in the aftermath of Trump’s presidential election victory. According to New York Times, the program will include the construction of nine migrant reception centers along the U.S.-Mexican border, with tent encampments to be created in parking lots, warehouses and stadiums and emergency kitchens to be operated by the armed forces. Medical facilities will be made available for returning migrants, who will also be eligible for transportation to their hometowns, help applying for welfare and cash cards valued at up to $100. Earlier this week, Mexican Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said at a news conference, "Repatriation is an opportunity to return home and be reunited with family."

Washington Post [1/25/2025 9:00 AM, Mary Beth Sheridan and Valentina Muñoz Castillo, 40736K, Negative] reports tens of thousands of migrants from Venezuela, Guatemala and other countries are stranded in Mexico after the Trump administration shut down the asylum system at the border, increasing the pressure on a nation bracing for a wave of Mexican deportees. Frustration had already been growing in Mexico over the number of migrants camped out in cities far from the border, trying to secure American asylum appointments through a mobile app run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In Mexico City, some migrants have built tent cities and slept on the streets. In a country long sympathetic to migrants, neighbors started protesting. Now, those migrants have no clear path to the United States. “Everyone is in limbo, desperate, trying to figure out what to do,” said the Rev. Juan Luis Carbajal, who runs the Archangel Raphael migrant shelter in southern Mexico City. The Mexican government has no data on how many foreigners have been waiting within its borders for their U.S. appointments. Reuters and the Associated Press, citing CBP officials, have reported that each day around 280,000 would-be migrants in Mexico try to make appointments. A CBP spokesman said he couldn’t confirm those figures. Since January 2023, almost 1 million people have crossed into the United States via the app, CBP One. Once asylum seekers obtained their appointment — which could take months — they could live and work in the United States while their requests were processed. The Biden administration and the Mexican government praised the system for curtailing the practice of migrants swarming the border. But migrants then congregated in places like Mexico City, to avoid cartel-controlled areas further north. The cancellation of the CBP One program comes as the Mexican government is worried about its own migrants. It’s building huge shelters for its citizens who may be sent back from the United States under President Donald Trump’s “mass deportation” program. Mexico may also wind up accepting some foreign deportees — though that’s not yet confirmed. “For the Mexican deportees there’s a good plan,” said Arturo Rocha, who served as a senior Mexican migration official until last year. But for the foreigners now stranded in Mexico, “there’s uncertainty about what’s going to happen to them.” They could be a valuable asset for Mexico, if they can be integrated into the labor market, he said. But, as in the United States, it’s difficult for undocumented immigrants to obtain legal status.

Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 7:20 PM, Will Grant, 57114K, Neutral] reports that, in the shadow of a vast crucifix, labourers and construction workers in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez are building a small city of their own. A tent city. On the old fairgrounds, beneath an altar constructed for a mass by Pope Francis in 2016, the Mexican government is preparing for thousands of deportees they expect to arrive from the United States in the coming weeks. Juarez is one of eight border locations along the 3,000-kilometre-long (1,900 miles) border where Mexico is getting ready for the anticipated influx. Men in boots and baseball caps climb on top of a vast metal structure to drape over thick white tarpaulin, erecting a rudimentary shelter to temporarily house men and women exactly like themselves. Casual labourers, domestic workers, kitchen staff and farm hands are all likely to be among those sent south soon, once what President Donald Trump calls "the largest deportation in American history" gets under way. As well as protection from the elements, the deportees will receive food, medical care, and assistance in obtaining Mexican identity documents, under a deportee-support programme which President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration calls "Mexico Embraces You". "Mexico will do everything necessary to care for its compatriots and will allocate whatever is necessary to receive those who are repatriated," said the Mexican Interior Minister, Rosa Icela Rodriguez, on the day of Trump’s inauguration.

AP [1/25/2025 4:46 PM, Trisha Thomas, 47097K, Neutral] reports the president of Haiti’s transitional presidential council said the Trump administration’s decisions to freeze aid programs, deport migrants and block refugees will be “catastrophic” for Haiti. Leslie Voltaire made the comment in an interview with The Associated Press in Rome on Saturday following a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican. He visited the pope to ask for help for Haiti. “I’m knocking on the doors of people who love Haiti. The pope loves Haiti, and he is eager to help,” Haiti’s interim president said. The pontiff and Voltaire discussed the dire situation in Haiti where gangs have killed civilians and operate across the Caribbean nation with impunity. Half of Haiti’s 11.4 million people are already hungry, according to Voltaire, and losing humanitarian assistance will make the situation dramatically worse. “Trump said that Haiti is a ‘shithole,’ so I don’t think he will care about Haiti,” Voltaire said, noting that thousands of people are already being repatriated from the Dominican Republic every week and gangs are terrorizing the populace. With the new U.S. policies, “the situation will be catastrophic.” During his first administration, President Donald Trump used bluntly vulgar language to question why the U.S. would accept immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa. At the time, the White House did not deny his remark but issued a statement saying Trump supports immigration policies that welcome “those who can contribute to our society.” Voltaire said there are roughly 1.5 million Haitians in the United States and roughly 150,000 who were accepted under a program called the “Temporary Protection System.”

FOX News [1/25/2025 2:24 PM, Michael Dorgan, 57114K, Neutral] reports that they need more planes. The Trump administration began its promised deportations of illegal immigrants this week, but senior Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Friday that more aircraft are needed to speed up the process. Miller told reporters that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had been hampered in its ability to deport illegal migrants because of a lack of aircraft and the administration is trying to secure enough planes from half a dozen sources, per Bloomberg. ICE raids took place as early as Tuesday and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt released photos of people boarding C-17s on Friday morning, announcing that "deportation flights had begun,". One of the photos was taken at Biggs Army Airfield at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, U.S. and it was one of two flights that had departed for Guatemala on Thursday at 5 p.m. local time. Customs and Border Protection sources told Fox News the plane in the image had 80 people. A third flight, bound for Mexico, never took off after Mexico declined to consent to the landing, a State Department official told Fox News. But on Friday Miller suggested the administration was looking to scale up the operations and was looking into sourcing aircraft including from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD) to do so. "You have obviously DHS air assets, you have DOD air assets, you have State Department air assets, you have commercial air assets, you have charter air assets, so every asset that can be used to conduct a lawful deportation," Miller said, per Bloomberg. "Border czar" Tom Homan told ABC News on Friday that the administration will use military aircraft every day to help carry out the operation. Around 2,000 illegal immigrants were deported to Mexico on Thursday, both on the ground and in the air. In addition, Mexico detained roughly 5,000 migrants within its borders, Fox News reported.

New York Times [1/25/2025 9:26 AM, Brett AndersonTejal Rao and Korsha Wilson, 161405K, Neutral] reports that, as the Trump administration rolls out its changes to the immigration system, fear is surging in the food-service industry as it braces itself for a promised crackdown on unauthorized workers. Immigrant labor, both authorized and unauthorized, is integral to the staffing and running of restaurants in the United States. In a 2024 data brief, the National Restaurant Association reported that 21 percent of restaurant workers in the United States were immigrants. That figure does not include unauthorized workers, however; the Center for Migration Studies has estimated they number an additional one million employees. Under the new administration, proprietors and workers are preparing for the worst. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweep at the Ocean Seafood Depot in Newark on Thursday deepened the anxiety (though it is unclear whether the action, which resulted in three arrests, was part of the Trump administration’s plan). And many restaurant owners around the country were reluctant to be interviewed, saying they worried that their businesses and workers would be targeted. Several declined to comment at all. Chicago and its restaurant industry have been anticipating actions by ICE since plans for post-inauguration immigration actions were leaked to the news media last week, with Chicago slated to be the first location. Even well-known Chicago chefs and restaurateurs who have been vocal about political issues in the past, including immigration, were hesitant to speak publicly about the threat of immigration arrests, so as not to put “a target” on their businesses and employees as numerous owners told New York Times. A photo provided to The Times shows a handwritten sign in the kitchen of a prominent Chicago restaurant that reads: “Don’t let ICE in the building! And no snitching!” (The person who provided the photo asked that the restaurant not be named for fear of it being targeted.) And scripts have been passed around to employees at the restaurant, with recommended phrases to use in the event that they’re confronted by ICE agents.

FOX News [1/25/2025 8:10 PM, Brie Stimson, 49889K, Negative] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this week arrested three Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members in two states as the new administration begins its mass deportation push, a senior Trump administration official told Fox News. Nestor Jose Mendoza-Garcia was nabbed Thursday in San Antonio, Texas, and Elmer Aparicio-Castillo and an unidentified 36-year-old man were arrested the same day in Nashville, all after allegedly entering the country illegally last year when they were processed and arrested by the Biden administration. "Throughout this week, the heroes of ICE have been hunting down and arresting hundreds of illegal alien criminals, and it’s immediate expulsion, including those with charges of convictions for rape, child sexual assault, terrorism and even murder," President Donald Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas Saturday. "Members of the savage Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Aragua. You know that gang? This is not a nice group of people. They formed in prison, and then [Venezuela] dumped their prisons into our country. "They’re as bad as the bloodthirsty MS-13 gangs." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [1/25/2025 6:53 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 2365K, Neutral] reports a House Republican whose district spans nearly half of the entire U.S.-Mexico border said President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation and border crackdown are off to a smooth and expeditious start with bigger plans on the horizon. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose 23rd District spans from south-central Texas north to San Antonio, through West Texas and over to El Paso, told the Washington Examiner on Saturday that the White House-led immigration operations will increase exponentially in the coming days to turn back migrants who illegally cross the border, as well as return illegal immigrants who have been arrested within the United States. "I expect very quickly this will be streamlined, and instead of 80 a day, or a few hundred, it’ll pick up very quickly. There’ll be hundreds a day," Gonzales said in a phone call from El Paso, where he has spoken with senior military, homeland security, Mexican partners, and local elected officials late this week. "You’re going to talk hundreds, and then you’re going to talk thousands," Gonzales said. "You’re going to have people that are going to be driven from detention centers or other places to points along the Mexican border and released — that has happened. It’ll continue to happen and probably happen at a larger scale on the Mexican side, if you will. And then there’ll be more and more flights going back to various different countries.” The White House announced Friday morning that the Defense Department had begun to repatriate illegal immigrants, using military cargo aircraft as the Trump administration steps up its crackdown at the southern border. The first such military flight out of El Paso took place Thursday evening, originating from Biggs Army Airfield and bound for Guatemala with approximately 80 Guatemalan nationals on board, according to a Department of Homeland Security official authorized to speak with the media.

Chicago Tribune [1/25/2025 7:00 PM, Peter Breen, 4917K, Negative] reports four local immigrant advocacy groups sued the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and two federal officials, seeking an injunction prohibiting certain types of immigration raids in Chicago. The suit filed Saturday in U.S. District Court asks that a federal judge prohibit ICE, its acting head and the acting secretary of Homeland Security from conducting immigration raids in Chicago when the intention of the raids chills free speech. Specifically, the groups are asking the court to prohibit immigration raids intended to quash activism related to advocating for sanctuary city policies. Immigrant communities in Chicago are scared but don’t want to live in fear, Antonio Gutierrez of Organized Communities Against Deportation, one of the groups that sued, said in a news release. “The impending raids are a brazen attempt to stomp out the sanctuary city movement and run roughshod over the First Amendment,” Sheila Bedi of Northwestern University’s Community Justice Clinic, which is representing the groups, said in the release. “Our communities need organizers’ vision and advocacy now more than ever. This lawsuit is about prohibiting the Trump Administration from using law enforcement to decimate a vital social justice movement.” An ICE spokesperson said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation. Ahilan Arulanantham, faculty co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA’s law school, views the lawsuit as an attempt to scrutinize the constitutionality of statements made by President Donald Trump and those around him since the start of his 2024 presidential campaign. “The Trump administration and the Trump campaign as well leading up to the election have made a number of statements with respect to immigration that seem designed to spread fear in immigrant communities,” Arulanantham said. “And the interesting thing about this lawsuit is that it seems to take those statements and subject them to constitutional scrutiny.”

Reuters [1/25/2025 9:16 PM, Luciana Novaes Magalhaes, 37270K, Neutral] reports Brazilian officials demanded that U.S. agents remove handcuffs from a group of deportees who were flown to the South American country on Friday, with a prominent minister in President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government calling the practice "blatant disrespect" for the rights of his fellow citizens. Federal police, acting under the instructions of Brazilian Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, met the flight after it made an unexpected landing in the Amazonian city of Manaus due to technical problems, the Brazilian government said in a statement on Saturday. The plane, which was carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 U.S. security agents, and eight crew members, had been originally scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, the statement said. The handcuffs were removed from the passengers after the intervention of the Brazilian police, the government said. The use of handcuffs and other restraints on migrants being deported on flights from the U.S. to Brazil has stirred controversy in the South American nation. Conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, also called for a halt to the practice. Officials of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

CBS News [1/25/2025 4:39 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 52225K, Neutral] reports the Trump administration has directed refugee resettlement groups to stop using some federal funds in light of the president’s suspension of American foreign aid, according to a U.S. State Department memo obtained by CBS News. While refugee resettlement groups are still scrambling to interpret the scope of the funding freeze, advocates believe the move will affect their efforts to integrate refugees into communities across the United States. John Slocum, the executive director of Refugee Council USA, a coalition of groups supporting those displaced by violence, said the Trump administration’s funding suspension would be "unfathomably cruel" if it affects reception services for refugees. "This unprecedented decision undermines our moral and legal obligations to those we promised to protect - and to the communities who welcome them," Slocum said. "These core services serve as a lifeline for resettled refugees and Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders who assisted the U.S. mission." Hours after taking office, Trump enacted an indefinite pause on admissions of refugees, who are identified as people fleeing war and violence overseas and who undergo a years-long vetting process before being admitted into the U.S. legally. It will not be restarted until the president determines resuming refugee arrivals is "in the interests of the United States." Those who help refugees said the funding pause order could hinder their ability to provide critical assistance to refugees already in the U.S., including Afghans who aided the American war effort in Afghanistan. Refugee advocates fear the directive could affect funds resettlement agencies use to help refugees during their first 90 days in the U.S. as part of a government-overseen reception program. That assistance includes casework, childcare, food and housing aid and other key social services designed to place refugees on a path to self-sufficiency in the U.S. In a notice on Friday, resettlement agencies, many of which are faith-based groups, were told some of their federal funding awards were "immediately suspended."

NBC News [1/25/2025 1:55 PM, Daniella Silva, 50804K, Neutral] reports that, for the last two years, Carlos Carpio has created a life for himself in Chicago, a city he now loves. He works at a factory, rents an apartment and has made friends. He goes to church every Sunday and is a part of the community here. But for Carpio, who is a Venezuelan immigrant in the country legally with temporary status, that stability shattered this week when Donald Trump became president, riding into office on a campaign promise to carry out the largest mass deportation the United States has ever seen. “There’s so much fear over what Trump has been saying, and now what he’s doing,” said Carpio, 50. “Since the day Trump became president, I live in fear.” Carpio is among the roughly 1 million people in this country who have what’s known as temporary protected status, or TPS, which gives them the right to stay in the U.S. temporarily due to civil unrest and natural disasters in their home country. His was set to expire this April, but the Biden administration earlier this month extended those protections for another 18 months for people from Ukraine, Sudan, Venezuela and El Salvador. The TPS program has been used by administrations going back to George H.W. Bush. People with TPS do not have pathways to legal residency, a precursor of citizenship, without leaving the country. In an executive action on Monday, Trump called for a review of TPS and for federal officials to consider if the program is “appropriately limited in scope.” In his first administration, Trump also made ending TPS for some countries a target, arguing that most countries in the program have recovered from the related disasters or conflicts and that the status has been renewed for years beyond its need.

FOX News [1/25/2025 10:46 AM, Michael Dorgan, 49889K, Negative] reports the birthright citizenship debate exploded back into the national discourse this week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning it. Trump’s ban was slated to take effect on Feb. 19, but a federal judge in Seattle on Thursday temporarily blocked the order. Some experts believe the issue will eventually be settled by the Supreme Court. Should the ban eventually go into force, it would likely impact tens of thousands of children born to the parents of illegal immigrants. The Center for Immigration Studies, a non-profit research organization that focuses on immigration, said Friday that based on its preliminary findings, there were between 225,000 to 250,000 U.S. births to illegal immigrants in 2023, which accounts for about 7% of total births in the U.S. that year. To put the figure into context, the group says those figures are greater than the total number of births in all but two states taken individually. Furthermore, it appears that more children were born to illegal immigrant parents than to legal noncitizens. Although not yet available, the group says that the 2024 numbers are likely to be even higher given the surge of illegal immigrants into the country under the Biden administration. The Center for Immigration Studies says it last did a deep dive into the births of legal and illegal immigrants in the U.S. in 2018 based on an analysis of the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). The group says it was using the same methodology for its preliminary 2023 findings. The group says that illegal immigrants are present in Census data, but they are never explicitly identified by the Bureau. Fox News Digital requested figures from the Census Bureau and Homeland Security but did not immediately receive a response. The 2018 report found that in 2014, one in five births (791,000) in the U.S. was to an immigrant mother (legal or illegal). The group said it estimated that legal immigrants accounted for 12.4% (494,000) of all births and illegal immigrants accounted for 7.5% (297,000).

Reported similarly:
Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 4:24 PM, Mike Heuer, 57114K, Negative]

Colorado Public Radio [1/26/2025 6:00 AM, Tom Hesse, 688K, Neutral] reports one of President Donald Trump’s first moves to begin his second term was an executive order suspending refugee resettlement, a move that stranded thousands of refugees cleared to move to the U.S., many of whom already had plane tickets. The order halts admissions into the country “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States." Ron Buzard, executive director of the African Community Center of Denver — one of Colorado’s official resettlement agencies — spoke with Colorado Matters senior host Ryan Warner about what the order means for their operations and what he says to those who don’t think the United States has the means to help those abroad.

Miami Herald [1/25/2025 3:10 PM, Lauren Girgis, 6595K, Neutral] reports a lawsuit filed in federal court Friday against President Donald Trump alleges his executive order intending to ban birthright citizenship violates the rights of three noncitizen pregnant women in the Seattle area. The class action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, argues some children could be left "stateless" under the executive order, unrecognized as citizens in the U.S. or their parents’ countries of origin. Even if it was legally possible, some countries, including Venezuela, offer no consular services to verify citizenship in the U.S. "Citizenship is the fundamental marker of belonging in this country," the lawsuit states. "Indeed, without citizenship, the babies soon to be born in this country whom President Trump unilaterally and unconstitutionally seeks to strip of citizenship will be left without any legal immigration status." Trump’s executive order has swiftly drawn opposition as an affront to constitutional law and was temporarily banned by a federal judge in Seattle, among others nationwide. It is stated in the Constitution that every person born on U.S. soil is a citizen. The 14th Amendment reads: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." In addition to Trump, the lawsuit names Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Department of State, acting Attorney General James McHenry, the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The lawsuit was filed by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project on behalf of Alicia Chavarria Lopez, Cherly Norales Castillo and Delmy Franco Aleman but is argued on behalf of all others similarly situated in Washington. The women are not citizens or lawful permanent residents, according to the lawsuit.

Reuters [1/25/2025 8:31 PM, Jonathan Landay, 57114K, Neutral] reports President Donald Trump’s foreign aid pause has forced a suspension of flights for more than 40,000 Afghans approved for special U.S. visas and at risk of Taliban retribution, a leading advocate and a U.S. official said on Saturday. Most of those stranded are in Afghanistan and the rest are in Pakistan, Qatar and Albania, said Shawn VanDiver, head of #AfghanEvac, the main coalition of veterans and advocacy groups working with the U.S. government to evacuate and resettle Afghans who worked for the United States during the 20-year war. The stoppage was triggered by Trump’s order to halt foreign development aid for 90 days pending a review of efficiencies and consistency with his "America First" foreign policy. Experts and advocacy groups say the foreign aid pause has led to chaos in U.S. and international aid operations and halted nutrition, health, vaccination and other programs. The order also triggered a suspension by the State Department of funds for groups that help Afghans with Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to find housing, schools and jobs in the U.S. Trump promised an immigration crackdown during his victorious 2024 reelection campaign. VanDiver said he does not believe that the flight suspension was intentional. "We think it was a mistake," he said. He said he hoped the administration would grant exemptions to the orders for Afghans approved for SIVs because they worked for the U.S. government during the war that ended in the final U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. "They fought alongside us. They bled alongside us," said VanDiver, who added that tens of thousands of other Afghans are waiting for SIV applications to be processed. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reports by the U.N. mission in Afghanistan say the Taliban have detained, tortured and killed former soldiers and officials of the prior U.S.-backed government. The Taliban issued a general amnesty for former troops and government officials and deny the allegations.

New York Times [1/26/2025 3:21 AM, Suhasini Raj, 153395K, Neutral] reports the family arrived at the ornately carved temple in western India bearing a special sweet of dried milk and clarified butter. It was a desperate offering for their son’s safety: He had just crossed into the United States, only days before President Trump took office promising a fierce crackdown on illegal immigration. In their village in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the markers of migration are everywhere. Plaques on buildings trumpet donations from Indians in America. Houses sit locked and empty, their owners now in the United States — many legally, many not. Mr. Trump’s threats of mass deportations of illegal immigrants have raised the loudest alarms in countries closer to the United States, like in Mexico and Central America. But the fear and uncertainty — and the potential for political repercussions — are also rippling through India. India is one of the top sources of illegal immigration to the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. As of 2022, more than 700,000 undocumented Indians were living in the United States, the center estimates, making them the third-largest group, behind Mexicans and Salvadorans. Some Indians arrive legally and overstay their visas. Others cross the borders without authorization: In 2023 alone, about 90,000 Indians were arrested as they tried to enter the United States illegally, according to U.S. government data. India’s government, which has expanded defense, technology and trade ties with the United States, has expressed confidence that it is better positioned than most to weather the global reckoning with another “America First” administration. Mr. Modi has a bond with Mr. Trump, calling him “my dear friend” as he congratulated him on taking office for a second time. Nevertheless, there are signs that India is trying to keep Mr. Trump on its good side by cooperating with his clampdown on illegal migration.

New York Times [1/25/2025 5:48 PM, David Zucchino and Zia ur-Rehman, 161405K, Neutral] reports Nasir, a legal adviser to the Afghan Air Force during the war, helped approve airstrikes against Taliban fighters. He is still in Afghanistan, where he has lived in hiding since the Taliban takeover in 2021 while awaiting approval to resettle in the United States. He had passed background checks and needed only a medical exam to finish the process, he said. But this past week, he and tens of thousands of other Afghans found their paths to the United States blocked by an executive action signed by President Trump. The order suspended a resettlement program that brings thousands of legal refugees to the country each year. Among the many now in limbo are Afghans who assisted the American war effort and are seeking a new start and a sense of security in the United States. Nasir, a former lieutenant colonel who asked that his full name not be used, wrote in a text message that Mr. Trump had “not only disregarded the interests of Afghans in this decision, but also failed to consider the interests of the United States.” “How can the world and America’s allies rely on the U.S. government?” he added. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, in place since 1980, allows legal immigration for vetted people who have fled their home countries because of persecution, war or other threats. In suspending the program, Mr. Trump said that continuing it would burden communities that were not equipped to handle refugees. Mr. Trump’s order, titled, “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” takes effect on Monday. It says that the secretary of state and the homeland security secretary may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis, but only if they determine that it is “in National Interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.”

Washington Examiner [1/25/2025 7:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 2365K, Neutral] reports the number of immigrants arrested for entering the United States from Mexico illegally has been cut in half since October, marking a stark decline since the election and the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term. A Washington Examiner analysis of both public and undisclosed U.S. Customs and Border Protection data revealed that illegal border crossings dropped 54% from the month of October to the first part of this week. The decline came as President Joe Biden implemented programs to facilitate lawful migration toward the end of his term, while Trump has begun a crackdown at the southern border in his first week in office. More than 56,000 immigrants were taken into custody at the southern border in October, or an average of 1,823 arrests per day. By comparison, 946 immigrants were arrested across the southern border, on average, between Monday and Wednesday of this week — the first days of Trump’s second term. On Tuesday, 840 were arrested followed by 843 arrests on Wednesday. Biden had brought down levels of illegal immigration significantly since they peaked during the first three and a half years of his administration, at one point reaching a record 250,000 arrests in December 2023 following his rollback of Trump policies.

Newsweek [1/26/2025 5:00 AM, Dudley L. Poston, Jr., 56005K, Neutral] reports President Donald Trump will get the several billions of dollars of funds and support from Congress and the leaders of the border states to complete the wall. But the point is not whether he will complete the wall during his second term. The question should be: When the border wall is completed, will it work? And the answer is an unequivocal no. There are a lot of issues involved. A border wall won’t reduce the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and could well have the opposite effect. Plus, it won’t stop drugs and contraband from entering the U.S. Almost one-quarter of the 46.2 million people living in the U.S. in 2022 who were born in another country, or about 11.7 million people, are undocumented immigrants. These are the immigrants Trump wants deported. But Trump apparently doesn’t know that more than two-fifths (40 percent) of these undocumented immigrants, or almost 4.7 million, are visa overstayers. They entered the U.S. with legal passports and legal visas but either stayed past their visa expiration dates or otherwise violated the terms of their admission into the U.S., perhaps by accepting employment. I don’t think that Trump presently has any plans to address the issue of visa overstayers. At least, I’ve not heard of any. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security does not match entry and exit records of people coming into and leaving the U.S.

Newsweek [1/26/2025 5:00 AM, Shane Croucher, 56005K, Neutral] reports when President Donald Trump’s first term ended in January 2021, he had made progress on his campaign’s flagship promise to "build the wall" at the southern border and deter illegal crossings. But the controversial wall was still incomplete. The wall is largely a mixture of concrete barriers and metal fencing at various points along the 1,933-mile-long U.S. border with Mexico. According to the CBP, around 654 miles of pedestrian or vehicle barriers currently exist along its Border Wall System. Now, Trump is back in the White House and intends to make good on finishing the job. "America’s sovereignty is under attack," said Trump’s day one executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern border, unlocking powers and funds for the wall. "This invasion has caused widespread chaos and suffering in our country over the last 4 years...This assault on the American people and the integrity of America’s sovereign borders represents a grave threat to our Nation." Some of Trump’s opponents question both the effectiveness and value for money of his border wall proposals, and he faces legal hurdles around land ownership and the forced sale of property to the federal government in affected states such as Texas and Arizona. As part of some of his first executive orders, President Trump declared a national emergency which, in part, directs the Secretaries of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to add additional barriers. And the Securing the Border order directs that all "appropriate action" be taken to establish physical barriers. Still, it is unclear where these barriers will be going, how much barrier will be built, and where the funding is coming from.

CBS Miami [1/25/2025 3:46 PM, Margaret Brennan, James LaPorta, Eleanor Watson, 52225K, Neutral] reports the U.S. Army has told units to prepare for deployment in anticipation of a decision to further increase U.S. military presence at the U.S.-Mexico border in the next 24 to 48 hours, CBS News has learned. A defense official said no additional orders have been handed out yet, but officials are reviewing deployment options which could include sending Army Stryker eight-wheeled armored vehicles to the southwest border. On his second full day in office, President Trump declared a national emergency along the southern border and ordered the Defense Department to provide troops and resources "to support the activities of the Secretary of Homeland Security in obtaining complete operational control" of the border. He also instructed the military to help build border barriers to discourage migrants. An internal Customs and Border Protection memo dated Jan. 21 and obtained by CBS News indicated that Trump administration officials are considering deploying as many as 10,000 soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a dramatic crackdown on illegal immigration. The memo also said officials are considering using Department of Defense bases to hold migrants awaiting deportation. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the president had signed another executive order to deploy 1,500 troops to the southern border, where 2,500 soldiers are already stationed under federal orders. Texas and other states have also deployed National Guard soldiers to the border in recent years, including to fortify it with razor wire. The Trump administration’s plans to greatly expand the role of the U.S. military in border enforcement is part of a larger campaign to seal U.S. borders to migrants and asylum-seekers. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

San Francisco Chronicle [1/25/2025 1:55 PM, Joe Garofoli, 4368K, Neutral] reports Bay Area Rep. John Garamendi is asking the Department of Defense to explain why military personnel from Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield are being used to enforce President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border in what the congressman said could constitute an “inappropriate militarization of our civilian affairs.” A spokesman for Travis confirmed Friday that “there have been aircraft from Travis Air Force Base providing support to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s mission along the Southwest border.” They aren’t the only Californians at the border. The Pentagon announced earlier that 1,000 Army soldiers and approximately 500 Marines from Camp Pendleton are also headed there. Acting Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses said Wednesday that “the department will provide military airlift to support Department of Homeland Security deportation flights of more than 5,000 (undocumented immigrants) from the San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas sectors detained by Customs and Border Protection.” “President Trump directed action from the Department of Defense on securing our nation’s borders and made clear he expects immediate results. That is exactly what our military is doing under his leadership,” Salesses said. Garamendi, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, wants the Pentagon to more clearly define the mission. In a letter sent to Salesses on Thursday, Garamendi demanded that the Pentagon “clearly explain how these new forces will be used and the precautions being taken to ensure they do not violate protections ensuring that the military is not illegally used for domestic law enforcement. The use of military forces to conduct law enforcement activities in these circumstances would be a dangerous escalation and could constitute an inappropriate militarization of our civilian affairs.” Garamendi pointed out that the “the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits using active-duty military personnel for domestic law enforcement functions,” he said. The law “explicitly prohibits the military’s direct participation in a search, seizure, arrest or other similar activity. Utilizing military aircraft operated by active-duty military members to deport civilians breaches this long-standing law.”

CBS News [1/26/2025 6:00 AM, Jack Fink, S.E. Jenkins, Nathalie Palacios, 52225K, Neutral] reports Trump declares national emergency at the southern border As part of President Trump’s emergency declaration at the southern border, the Pentagon sent 1,500 troops to El Paso, TX and San Diego, CA. It’s considering sending as many as 10,000 troops to the southern border. They will help build more barriers there. The military will also use its planes to deport migrants and use its bases to hold them. The White House Press Secretary released two photos Friday morning showing deportation flights on military aircraft had already begun. The man who President Trump calls his Border Czar, Tom Homan, said last week that the emergency declaration has already had an impact. The number of apprehensions at the southern border dropped to 766 in one 24-hour period. He said that’s down from an average of 10,000 to 12,000 apprehensions in the same time frame. The Trump administration revoked a rule by the Biden administration that kept immigration authorities from making arrests at sensitive locations such as schools, houses of worship, and healthcare facilities. The non-profit group Children at Risk brought together advocates and immigration experts Thursday, and they believe the Trump administration’s new policies could hurt children and their families: Homan said immigration authorities are targeting the most violent criminals first. Those who pose threats to national security and public safety.

Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 4:47 PM, Dave Burge, 57114K, Neutral] reports a second batch of troops arrived at Fort Bliss on Saturday, Jan. 25 to augment operations along the southern border with Mexico. The Pentagon announced earlier this week that about 1,500 troops were being sent to El Paso and San Diego as the Department of Defense begins deploying troops to the southern border to implement new President Donald Trump’s executive orders cracking down on immigration. Army officials did not say how many troops arrived on Saturday, but allowed the media to come on post and take video and photos of their arrival. Fort Bliss officials said the troops were arriving to support the “ongoing border mission.” Army officials also did not say where the troops that landed on Saturday were from. An initial batch of troops arrived at Fort Bliss on Thursday. The Associated Press reported that there are already about 2,500 National Guard and Reserve forces deployed to the border and the new 1,500 would add to that total.

Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 3:23 PM, Matthew Self, 57114K, Positive] reports soldiers from Fort Riley are being sent to the U.S.-Mexico border this week as part of a push to build up security in the region. Mark Otte with Fort Riley said in a press release on Jan. 25 that 200 soldiers from Kansas will be sent south as part of this deployment. The troops hail from Fort Riley, home of the 1st Infantry Division. The office of Kansas Congressional Senator Dr. Roger Marshall issued a press release on Jan. 25 regarding the situation. In it, he thanked the men and women being sent to the border for their service to the nation. “My heart is with Kansas families and loved ones as soldiers from Fort Riley are sent to protect and secure our borders,” Marshall said. “Kansans and Americans across the country extend our deepest gratitude to them for keeping us safe.” U.S Northern Command announced on Jan. 24 that multiple elements from the U.S. military would be sent to the border, including members of the Army coming from Kansas. These include the 977th Military Police Company and 41st Combat Engineer Company-Armored, both from Fort Riley. Kansas gov. reacts to heated argument among officials at Topeka bar The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced on Jan. 22 that 1,500 active-duty members of the military were being sent south to augment 2,500 other troops already in the area which are supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). President Donald Trump declared a “National Emergency at the Southern Border” earlier in the week.

Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 7:36 PM, Cody King, 57114K, Negative] reports a suspect involved in a fatal hit-and-run crash in Urbana has been arrested in Texas after fleeing the scene and using a false identity, authorities said. The crash occurred at 1:55 a.m. Jan. 19 at the intersection of University Avenue and Coler Avenue. A Honda Civic was traveling eastbound on University and stopped at Coler for a red light when a Mitsubishi SUV, heading in the same direction at a high speed, struck the Civic. The collision caused severe damage to both vehicles and multiple injuries, according to Urbana police. The SUV driver fled on foot, heading south on Coler, and was not initially located by officers. Urbana police obtained a new arrest warrant on Jan. 23 for the SUV driver. Authorities identified the driver as 29-year-old Julio Cucul Bol, of Guatemala, who had previously used the alias Juan JaHaziel Saenz-Suarez and falsified Mexican paperwork. Bol was located in Milford, Texas, by the U.S. Marshals Service while riding an El Expreso bus heading for Matamoros, Mexico, according to a report from FOX News. Milford is located about an hour south of Dallas. Bol was taken to the Dallas County Jail to await extradition. The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed he had been previously deported from the U.S.

Los Angeles Times [1/26/2025 6:00 AM, Patrick J. McDonnell, 142K, Neutral] reports a sense of despair has engulfed the migrant camp of La Soledad, named after the colonial-era church that towers over the shantytown in downtown Mexico City. It was supposed to be a temporary stop, a place to regroup and wait for the right moment to continue on toward the United States. Then President Trump issued decrees that effectively shut down migration along the U.S.-Mexico border, leaving tens of thousands of migrants marooned in camps, shelters and other accommodations across Mexico, from the southern hinterlands to the Rio Grande. Despondent and broke — many sold homes, borrowed cash, paid smugglers and left children behind in pursuit of the American dream — they now face an existential reckoning: What next? “There’s great uncertainty right now,” said Manuela Pérez Jerónimo, a 47-year-old from Guatemala who was roasting potatoes over charcoal. “No one knows anything. Will we be able to cross the border? Will we all get deported?” The Times spoke to some of the 1,500 or so denizens of La Soledad as they weighed their three main options: turn back, wait and see, or push on.

FOX News [1/25/2025 12:49 PM, Rachel Wolf, 49889K, Negative] reports a TSA officer was arrested at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Tuesday after police received a report of an officer with a firearm beyond the security checkpoint. Atlanta police say that the officer, who was identified as 58-year-old Matthew Gilbert, was charged with reckless conduct. It is unclear why Gilbert was allegedly carrying a firearm. Gilbert was taken to Clayton County Jail and has since been released, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. The local outlet added that Gilbert is not alone when it comes to airport employees carrying firearms, noting that police say dozens have been caught. "We do not want guns in the secured area of the airport," said Capt. Toya Young of Atlanta Police told Fox 5 Atlanta. "Prior to getting to the secured area, you’re free to carry, but once you’re entering into a secured area, it is against the law to carry a firearm." A graphic on the TSA’s website indicates that officers confiscated 440 firearms at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, more than any other in the nation. The agency claims it intercepted more than 6,670 firearms in 2024. "One firearm at a checkpoint is too many," TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. "Firearms present a safety risk for our employees and everyone else at the checkpoint. It’s also costly and slows down operations." For those who must travel with firearms, the TSA has clear instructions on how to legally do so. However, TSA says there are "limited exceptions for law enforcement officers" when it comes to traveling with firearms. When asked for comment, a TSA spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "TSA is aware of the arrest of an officer at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) on Tuesday morning." "TSA has zero tolerance for misconduct on or off duty and the officer involved has been removed from screening status, placed on leave pending further action, based on resolution of the case. Passenger and employee safety is top priority for TSA, and we are working closely with our Atlanta Airport Police partners on this incident."

Washington Examiner [1/25/2025 11:19 AM, Brady Knox, 2365K, Negative] reports President Donald Trump blasted the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the fires ravaging California. During a tense press conference with local officials, Trump repeatedly bemoaned the perceived decline of FEMA, saying that it "was good" in years past, but it’s "no good anymore." He suggested doing away with the agency altogether, suggesting that a localized approach to natural disaster response would be more effective and efficient. Trump’s trip to Los Angeles, coming after a stop in North Carolina, represents his first trip as president. According to Cal Fire, the blazes covering the Los Angeles and San Diego areas have scorched over 55,000 acres, killed at least 28 people, destroyed over 16,000 structures, and required an emergency response of nearly 40,000 personnel.

AP [1/25/2025 7:10 PM, Staff, 47097K, Negative] reports rain on the way to parched Southern California on Saturday will aid firefighters mopping up multiple wildfires. But heavy downpours on charred hillsides could bring the threat of new troubles like toxic ash runoff. Los Angeles County crews spent much of the week removing vegetation, shoring up slopes and reinforcing roads in devastated areas of the Palisades and Eaton fires, which reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble and ash after breaking out during powerful winds Jan. 7. Most of the region will likely get around an inch of precipitation over several days, but “the threat is high enough to prepare for the worst-case scenario” of localized cloudbursts causing mud and debris to flow down hills, the National Weather Service said on social media. “So the problem would be if one of those showers happens to park itself over a burn area,” weather service meteorologist Carol Smith said Saturday. “That could be enough to create debris flows.” Rain was expected to begin late Saturday, increase throughout the weekend and possibly last into early Tuesday, Smith said. Flood watches were issued for some burn areas. Snow was likely in the mountains. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order this week to expedite cleanup efforts and mitigate the environmental impacts of fire-related pollutants. LA County supervisors also approved an emergency motion to install flood-control infrastructure and expedite and remove sediment in fire-impacted areas. Fire crews filled sandbags for communities while county workers installed barriers and cleared drainage pipes and basins. Officials cautioned that ash in recent burn zones was a toxic mix of incinerated cars, electronics, batteries, building materials, paints, furniture and other household items. It contains pesticides, asbestos, plastics and lead. Residents were urged to wear protective gear while cleaning up.

Reported similarly:
AP [1/25/2025 7:10 PM, Staff, 47097K, Negative]

Newsweek [1/25/2025 2:04 PM, Adeola Adeosun, 56005K, Negative] reports the National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a flood watch for recently burned areas in Southern California from Sunday at 4 p.m. to Monday at 4 p.m. The watch covers several major burn scars, including the Eaton, Palisades, Franklin, Hughes, and Bridge fire areas, amid increasing concern about potential debris flows. Southern California faces its first significant rain of the winter following a series of devastating wildfires that have left the region vulnerable to flooding. The Palisades fire, now 81 percent contained, has burned more than 23,400 acres, destroyed 6,809 structures and claimed 11 lives. The Eaton fire has proven even more destructive, burning over 14,000 acres, destroying 9,418 structures, and resulting in 17 fatalities despite reaching 95 percent containment. The Hughes fire, while smaller at 10,400 acres and 87 percent containment, adds to the region’s vulnerable burn areas. The probability of significant flash flooding and debris flows in the most vulnerable areas has doubled from the initial forecast, now standing at 10 percent to 20 percent. Additional hazards include possible thunderstorms, small hail, and wind gusts reaching 60 mph in the Antelope Valley foothills.

Reported similarly:
Telemundo [1/25/2025 4:45 PM, Benjamin Papp, 2623K, Negative]

San Diego Union Tribune [1/25/2025 8:25 PM, Phillip Molnar, 2212K, Neutral] reports the massive wildfire burning near the U.S.-Mexico border grew by another 300 acres Saturday and remained 10% contained. Cal Fire officials said Saturday the Border 2 fire in the Otay wilderness had burned 6,625 acres by 3 p.m. From Los Angeles to the border, fire officials remain hopeful a Pacific storm late Saturday could bring enough rain and snow to slow wildfires. The fire started Thursday afternoon and spread quickly with high winds through much of Friday. The growth overnight was relatively small compared to what the region had experienced for the last two days. The Red Cross has set up a temporary evacuation shelter at Cuyamaca College, 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway in El Cajon. Christine Welch, regional communications director for the Red Cross, said 31 people and 12 pets stayed at the shelter overnight Friday and 68 people slept in RVs in the parking lot. A thick smell of smoke has engulfed dense residential areas of Chula Vista, including Eastlake and Otay Ranch. In a promising sign, no new evacuation orders had been issued since Friday afternoon as winds have slowed. Jonathan Pangburn, a forester with Cal Fire, told firefighters at a briefing Saturday that there was a chance of rain aiding the fight, but it wasn’t a guarantee. “There is a chance of maybe a little bit of (precipitation) into the evening hours and then overnight trying to get potentially as much as a tenth to a quarter inch (of rain),” he said. “However, don’t count on that affecting your fire behavior. It’s going to take a while before that starts influencing your fuels.” CalFire said it anticipates wind blowing west away from residential areas in the evening hours. Areas to the east of the blaze are mainly wilderness, although smoke will also affect the much more populated Tijuana side of the border. Aiding the blaze is the Lower Otay Reservoir, providing a barrier between residential areas and providing water, carried by helicopters, on to hot spots. Many San Diego County firefighters have been running from fire to fire all week. The biggest of them all has been the Border 2 Fire, with more than 1,100 firefighters assigned to stopping it. Despite its size, no one appears to have been injured, nor have any structures burned.

NPR [1/25/2025 8:56 AM, Scott Simon, Eleana Tworek, Martha Ann Overland, 35747K, Negative] Audio: HERE reports the National Guard is letting some Altadena residents back into neighborhoods burned in the wildfires. Victoria Wilson and her family recorded their return to the wreckage that was once their home.

Los Angeles Times [1/25/2025 12:59 PM, Doug Smith, Neutral] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will open a new recovery center in Altadena for those who incurred damage from the Eaton fire. The Altadena Disaster Recovery Center will open Monday at 540 W. Woodbury Road and will operate from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Representatives from state and federal agencies will be present to assist anyone who experienced damage to a primary home, personal property loss or other emergency related to the wildfires. The current recovery center, at the Pasadena City College Community Education Center, will cease operations after Friday. FEMA operates one other recovery site for victims of the Palisades fire at the UCLA Research Park West, 10850 W. Pico Blvd. Applications for federal assistance can be made at the centers, online at DisasterAssistance.gov, via the FEMA app or by phone at (800) 621-3362. Additional information about California’s disaster recovery is available at fema.gov/disaster/4856. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced on X that the Altadena Station will conduct property checks of vacant homes. A uniformed sheriff’s deputy or trained volunteer will inspect the property for unlocked windows or doors, evidence of possible forced entry or other suspicious activity. To obtain a check, a property owner should email their name, address and a callback number to altadenahomecheck@lasd.org.

Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 5:53 PM, Emmy Victor, 57114K, Negative] reports hundreds of people took to Michigan Avenue Saturday afternoon to protest the Trump administration’s policies. While some people had the Middle East on their minds, others were concerned about U.S. immigration raids. Protestors spent hours waving flags and holding posters to bring awareness to conflicts in the Middle East. “The situation there is devastating. I can’t believe that we, as the world, aren’t doing a little bit more,” demonstrator Magdalena Alvarado said. Hundreds of people came out to support Palestine and protest the war between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian militant group. While a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect last week, people in Chicago said the work is far from over.

St. Louis Public Radio [1/26/2025 6:00 AM, Andrea Y. Henderson, 243K, Negative] reports in slightly above-freezing weather, Fatima Suarez walked in and out of a crowd of about 100 protesters on Saturday in Overland, handing out “Know Your Rights” fliers to inform people who are against harsh federal deportation policies on how to protect themselves or family members when encountering U.S. immigration agents. “I received these from the place that I work at … they wanted me to spread out the information,” Suarez said. “These [are] what to do … if they get detained in public, in their houses or at workplaces, and it’s a link to a website on how to handle the situations.” Suarez is familiar with the deportation process and its damaging effects on families. As a child, federal immigration agents separated her from her parents, who were sent to detention centers in California and Arizona because she was a U.S. citizen and her parents at the time were without legal status. “It was just the worst feeling,” she said.

Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 6:57 PM, Kyle Werner, 57114K, Neutral] reports hundreds gathered in front of the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines on Saturday to support immigrants and express their opposition to newly inaugurated President Donald Trump’s vow of mass deportations. "We are standing together with people all across the country the attacks against immigrants," Jessica Brown of the Party for Socialism and Liberation of Iowa told the crowd. "How many immigrants do we know that have been forced out of their home countries because the billionaires have overturned their governments? "And now those same billionaires try to convince us that immigrants, people who are friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, are the ones that are criminals," Brown said. "But we know that it is the billionaires who are the real criminals." Another member of the group, Aya Salem, added that "we are here today as part of a national movement to say that immigrants will not be the point that our family deported, that our families will stay together, and that the Trump agenda will not pass across the entire country. This time, we know what a Trump administration looks like."

Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 9:01 PM, Colleen Guerry, 57114K, Negative] reports after a three-day trial, a federal jury convicted a Hopkinsville man for conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl, as well as seven counts of money laundering, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between May 20, 2020, and Jan. 22, 2022, Robert Blaine, 46, of Hopkinsville, conspired with Roderick Tutt and Jessica Ochoa to possess with the intent to distribute more than 50 grams of meth and more than 400 grams of a fentanyl mixture. During that period, Blaine not only wired money to Ochoa “as payment for the drugs and in furtherance of the overall conspiracy,” but he also mailed Ochoa a box with $36,960 from illegal drug sales, officials said. Officials said the case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Paducah Post of Duty; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations Division; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Louisville Division; and the Hopkinsville Police Department. The FBI Louisville Field Division, the Tonto Apache Police Department, and the DEA Phoenix Division also assisted with the investigation.

FOX News [1/25/2025 5:38 PM, Alexandra Koch, 49889K, Negative] reports the Secret Service is investigating after a Florida man was arrested in West Palm Beach and charged with calling for the assassination of President Donald Trump on Facebook. Shannon Depararro Atkins, 46, of West Palm Beach, was arrested after allegedly threatening the life of the president, West Palm Beach Interim Police Chief Tony Araujo confirmed during a press conference Saturday. Atkins is charged with felony intimidation, drug possession and smuggling contraband in a county detention center, according to jail records. A tip was called in to the FBI National Threat Operations Center late Sunday, reporting Atkins was making violent threats against the president on Facebook. A Palm Beach detective began working the case Monday and found "disturbing" posts, according to Araujo. Some of the posts included, "Lincoln, JFK, Reagan, Martin Luther King and Trump - unfortunately, one is still alive"; "Bullets, please. Jesus, save America"; and "I’ve been banned from X because I said ‘I hope and pray someone kills him. We haven’t had an assassination in years.’" The department secured a probable cause warrant and began surveillance, arresting Atkins near one of his homes at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Officers found three bags of cocaine in Atkins’ pocket at the time of the arrest, according to Araujo. While being interviewed, he admitted to writing the Facebook posts but said he was joking, authorities said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] NBC News [1/25/2025 4:25 PM, Alexandra Marquez and Rebecca Cohen, 50804K, Negative] reports police in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday announced the arrest of a 46-year-old man who allegedly made threats on social media to kill President Donald Trump. At a news conference Saturday, Police Chief Tony Araujo said police received a tip on Jan. 19 — the day before Trump was inaugurated — that the man, Shannon Atkins, lodged threats against Trump on Facebook. “Folks, this is not a joke. Nothing of that sort is a joke,” Araujo said. “You really can’t say things like this. We have incident after incident, example after example of when these threats become real, and we take these very seriously. “ Araujo urged residents to report similar tips to police or to the FBI. The AP [1/25/2025 3:37 PM, Staff, 30936K, Negative] reports Atkins lives a few miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, but there was no indication he took any steps toward going there. West Palm Beach police said the Secret Service will determine whether any federal charges will be filed.

Reported similarly:
AZCentral [1/25/2025 6:56 PM, Natalie Neysa Alund, 6018K, Negative]
Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 5:54 PM, Diego Diaz Lasa, 57114K, Negative]

FOX News [1/25/2025 7:41 PM, Alexandra Koch, 49889K, Negative] reports a Missouri man is facing nearly a decade of jail time after attempting a 2023 attack on the White House with a rented box truck. Sai Varshith Kandula, 20, of St. Louis, was sentenced Jan. 16 in U.S. District Court to eight years in federal prison for an attempted attack on the White House with a rented U-Haul truck May 22, 2023. The attack "aimed to overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States in order to replace it with a dictatorship fueled by Nazi ideology," according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. Kandula pleaded guilty May 13, 2024, to a charge of willful injury or depredation of property of the United States before U.S. District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich. In addition to the prison term, Friedrich ordered Kandula to serve three years of supervised release. Kandula is an Indian national, according to authorities. At the time of the incident, he was a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. with a green card. U.S. Park Police and Secret Service officers arrested Kandula, according to the attorney’s office. At the time of the crash, he was attempting to gain access to the White House to seize political power, according to the plea agreement. "Kandula’s intent was to replace the democratically elected government with a dictatorship fueled by [the] ideology of Nazi Germany and for himself to be put in charge of the United States," according to the statement. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [1/25/2025 4:35 PM, David Andreatta, 161405K, Neutral] reports a Canadian cargo freighter carrying 17 crew members that had been wedged in ice on Lake Erie for three days amid a prolonged cold snap was dislodged on Saturday after the Coast Guards of both the United States and Canada deployed ice-breaking vessels to free it. The ship, a 663-foot-long bulk carrier called the Manitoulin, had gotten stuck Wednesday morning about a mile off the shore of Buffalo, after delivering a shipment of wheat and attempting to return to its home port in Sarnia, Ontario, on Lake Huron. The vessel began moving again early Saturday afternoon. While it is not uncommon for shipping vessels to become temporarily immobilized by ice in the Great Lakes, the Manitoulin’s proximity to land and its extended stay captured the imaginations of Buffalo residents and boating enthusiasts alike. “It’s so unusual to be literally stuck,” said Karen Taylor, who was among dozens of people gathered along the shoreline Saturday to take in the spectacle before the ship started moving. “We’re used to ice on the lake, but not seeing something that enormous not able to move through it.” Her friend, Barb Fleissner, said her heart was with the crew and that, for her, the scene evoked memories of disasters at sea. “Thank God they’ve got electricity and can stay warm,” Ms. Fleissner said. “You hear stories and remember the Edmund Fitzgerald when they lost power and they didn’t have anything and you’re like, ‘Oh, God, I hope these guys are all right out there,’ because it’s been bitter cold.” By all official accounts, the situation on the Manitoulin was not dire. Lt. Kyle Rivera, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman, had reported that the crew was safe and had provisions to last five days. A few hours before the ship was freed, he said that a private tugboat had delivered more food to the crew. Indeed, the crew seemed to accept their circumstances with good humor, listing “EXASPERATED SIGH” as their reported destination on a marine traffic system.

Reported similarly:
AP [1/25/2025 4:41 PM, Staff, 47097K, Neutral]
Newsweek [1/25/2025 10:16 AM, Martha McHardy, 56005K, Neutral]

FOX News [1/25/2025 10:34 PM, Alexandra Koch, 49889K, Negative] reports the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) is conducting several "alien expulsion flight operations" between California and Texas, which included intercepting a boat carrying illegal migrants that was sinking in U.S. waters. The USCG is coordinating with multiple Coast Guard units in support of the operations in coordination with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). On Saturday, USCG Southern California shared a photo on X showing crew aboard the cutter Active intercepting a vessel carrying nine illegal migrants bound for San Diego. "The migrant vessel began to sink shortly after the Active crew stopped the voyage," the post read. "All persons aboard the sinking vessel were safely removed and transferred to CBP." Led by the Eleventh Coast Guard District in California, the service is surging assets and personnel from around the nation to support the Department of Homeland Security-led operation, according to a statement from the USCG.

Reported similarly:
Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 9:23 PM, Anna Ashcraft, 57114K, Negative]

New York Times [1/25/2025 4:39 PM, Edward Wong, 161405K, Neutral] reports a sudden and sweeping halt to U.S. foreign aid by the Trump administration does not apply to weapons support to Israel and Egypt and emergency food assistance, according to a memo issued by the department to bureaus and U.S. missions overseas on Friday. The same day, the White House told the Pentagon it could proceed with a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel that President Biden abruptly halted last summer to try to dissuade the Israeli military from destroying much of the city of Rafah. Israeli forces went ahead with bombing the city. The shipment has 1,800 MK-84 bombs, said a White House official who agreed to discuss sensitive weapons aid on the condition of anonymity. Such bombs are judged by U.S. military officers to be generally too lethal and destructive for urban combat. Until the halt, the Biden administration had shipped the bombs to Israel as its military fought Hamas in Gaza. The memo on foreign aid was sent by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and lays out how the State Department, the linked United States Agency for International Development, or U.S.A.I.D., and other agencies are expected to execute an executive order halting foreign aid during a 90-day reassessment period. President Trump signed the executive order on Monday, soon after his inauguration. The memo requires any employee working on foreign aid to refrain from designating new funding and taking applications, and to issue “stop-work” orders to groups that have received grants. The memo has circulated online and has ignited panic among groups around the world that rely on foreign aid from the United States for their programs — which range from disease prevention to curbing infant mortality to alleviating the impact of climate change. Some groups say they will likely stop work immediately and begin laying off employees or suspending salaries. The State Department also oversees military aid to allies and partner nations. A line in the memo specifically exempts Israel and Egypt and any salaries paid to people who manage that aid. Both nations receive foreign military financing, which is direct money from the U.S. government for them to purchase weapons and other military equipment. They then use that money to buy arms and equipment from U.S. weapons makers, as well as to pay for military training.

CBS News [1/25/2025 4:55 PM, Staff, 52225K, Negative] reports that, at least 56 bodies have been discovered in unmarked mass graves in northern Mexico, not far from the border with the United States, local prosecutors said Saturday in a statement. The remains included some bodies, some complete skeletons and other partial remains, as well as clothing and bullet casings. They were exhumed earlier this week in Chihuahua state — which lies along a drug and migrant trafficking route to the U.S. — in a military-aided operation that lasted several days, the statement said. Prosecutors gave no details about the possible identities of the victims. The remains have been sent to a forensics lab to determine the time and cause of death, with hopes that the victims can be identified, prosecutors said. The bodies were exhumed in an area known as "El Willy," controlled by a criminal organization called La Linea -- one of the armed branches of the Juárez cartel active on the border, according to local media. Mass graves are not uncommon throughout Mexico, especially in areas plagued by cartel violence. There are over 345,000 people in Mexico who have been reported missing, according to the country’s national registry. Last month, Mexican authorities discovered 12 bodies buried in clandestine graves in Mexico’s northern Chihuahua state. Another 12 bodies were also found in several graves about two hours from Ciudad Juarez, which lies across the border from El Paso, Texas. More than 450,000 people have been murdered countrywide since Mexico launched a major offensive against drug cartels in 2006. One of the largest mass graves in Mexico was reported in 2017 when more than 250 skulls were found in what appears to be a drug cartel mass burial ground on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz.

New York Times [1/25/2025 11:12 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Andrés R. Martínez, 153395K, Neutral] reports President Trump said he told King Abdullah II of Jordan during a phone call Saturday that he would like Jordan and Egypt to take in more Palestinians from Gaza, an idea that is likely to reignite debate about the future of nearly two million Palestinians. “I said to him, ‘I’d love for you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess,’” Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One. He added that he would also like Egypt to take in more Palestinians and that he would speak to the country’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, on Sunday. Mr. Trump made the remarks on an evening flight after a rally in Las Vegas; it is unclear whether they signal a change in U.S. policy toward Palestinians. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have started returning to their homes as the cease-fire between Hamas and Israel enters a second week. It is only the second pause in fighting between the two since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas led an attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 Israelis. Since then, Israel’s military has killed at least 46,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health officials who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. It has also destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in Gaza and killed many of Hamas’s leaders.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [1/26/2025 4:53 AM, Landon Mion, 49889K, Neutral]
CNN [1/26/2025 4:26 AM, Betsy Klein and Lex Harvey, 24052K, Neutral]
AP [1/26/2025 2:54 AM, Zeke Miller and Will Weissert, 2600K, Neutral]
Wall Street Journal [1/26/2025 5:21 AM, Doc Lieber and Carrie Keller-Lynn, 646K, Neutral]

Washington Examiner [1/25/2025 10:50 PM, Zach LaChance, 2365K, Neutral] reports President Donald Trump indicated that he spoke with the king of Jordan on Saturday about potentially relocating the more than 1 million Palestinians still living in Gaza to other Arab countries and urged that “something has to happen” as the strip is “literally a demolition site right now.” Speaking to reporters on Air Force One after a Las Vegas rally earlier in the day, Trump detailed his conversation with Jordan’s Abdullah II, saying he asked him to take in more Palestinians. "I said to him that I’d love you to take on more, because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess," Trump said. Trump also said he wanted Egypt to take in more Palestinians as well, and that he would speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about it on Sunday. He then floated the idea of "just clean[ing] out" the whole strip.

FOX News [1/25/2025 9:00 PM, Beth Bailey, 49889K, Neutral] reports in the final hours of his term, President Joe Biden negotiated a prisoner exchange with the Taliban that released U.S. citizens Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty from Taliban custody. Not included in the deal, however, were U.S. citizens George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi. On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X that he was "just hearing" of the detentions of additional Americans by the Taliban. "If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on Bin Laden," Rubio wrote. Dennis Fitzpatrick, who is coordinating efforts outside the U.S. government for Glezmann’s release, claimed Glezmann was "never a serious priority for the Biden White House." "President Biden and [former National Security Advisor] Jake Sullivan decided to leave George Glezmann in Kabul for no good reason," Fitzpatrick told Fox News Digital. "We are confident that President Trump’s clear-eyed leadership will secure George’s release to his family."

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [1/25/2025 9:47 PM, Zach LaChance, 2365K, Neutral]

Bloomberg [1/25/2025 11:24 PM, Kyungjin Yoo and Soo-Hyang Choi, 21617K, Positive] reports North Korea test-fired strategic cruise missiles on Saturday the official Korean Central News Agency reported, marking a third launch this month as Donald Trump returned to power in the US. The sea-to-surface missiles hit targets after traveling 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) in just over 2 hours, KCNA says on Sunday, adding that the tests had no negative impact on the security of neighboring countries. South Korea confirmed in a statement that its military was aware of the tests, which are being analyzed by the S. Korean and US intelligence agencies. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who oversaw the launch, said the they showed “the armed forces of the DPRK are being perfected more thoroughly,” according to the report, using the abbreviated official name of North Korea. Saturday’s firings come after President Trump said he plans to reach out to Kim, whom he met at a summit in Singapore during his first term in office. “I got along with him,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News earlier this week. North Korea’s foreign ministry promised “the toughest counteraction” against the US as long as it rejects the country’s sovereignty and security interests, KCNA said in separate report.

Reported similarly:
Yahoo! News [1/25/2025 5:39 PM, Staff, 57114K, Neutral]

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