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.

NBC News [7/11/2025 5:00 AM, Nnamdi Egwuonwu, 44540K] reports President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will travel to Texas on Friday to meet with first responders and grieving families in the aftermath of last week’s catastrophic flooding that has left more than 100 people dead. During his visit, Trump is expected to receive a briefing from local elected officials and meet with victims’ relatives. He will be joined by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn told reporters this week that they planned to travel with Trump to tour the flood damage. It is unclear whether state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a staunch ally of the administration who is challenging Cornyn in next year’s GOP primary, will join them. Authorities continue to search miles of the Guadalupe River for more than 150 people who remain missing as hopes of finding more survivors dwindle. Among those confirmed or feared dead are 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp in Hunt. Trump on Sunday signed a major disaster declaration for Texas to make federal funding available for hard-hit Kerr County, where nearly 77% of voters backed him in the 2024 election. The trip to Texas will be Trump’s second to the site of a natural disaster since he was inaugurated for his second term; he visited Los Angeles in January after a wildfire devastated large swaths of Southern California. During his first term, he made multiple trips to Texas in 2017 in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and its deadly floods. The same year, he traveled to Puerto Rico to survey damage caused by Hurricane Maria. The Trump administration has faced criticism from officials and lawmakers at various levels of government who have argued that recent job cuts at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, alongside plans to shutter the Federal Emergency Management Agency, prevented accurate forecasting and worsened the effects of the floods. Administration officials have repeatedly rejected those assertions. Trump has pledged to "get rid" of FEMA, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, and his administration has overseen a largely voluntary exodus of experienced personnel at the agency, fueling concerns about its ability to promptly respond to disasters. The concerns were heightened by a new policy from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem mandating her approval for any agency spending in excess of $100,000. Asked by NBC News on Thursday whether the new policy delayed FEMA’s response to the tragedy in Texas, Trump defended Noem. "We were right on time. We were there — in fact, she was the first one I saw on television," Trump told "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker in a phone call. "She was there right from the beginning.” The AP [7/11/2025 12:00 AM, Will Weissert, 5801K] reports "Nobody ever saw a thing like this coming," Trump told NBC News on Thursday, adding, "This is a once-in-every-200-year deal." He’s also suggested he’d have been ready to visit Texas within hours but didn’t want to burden authorities still searching for the more than 170 people who are still missing. Trump’s shift in focus underscores how tragedy can complicate political calculations, even though Trump has made slashing the federal workforce and charging ally-turned-antagonist Elon Musk with dramatically shrinking the size of government centerpieces of his administration’s opening months. The president is expected to do an aerial tour of some of the hard-hit areas. The White House also says he’ll visit the state emergency operations center to meet with first responders and relatives of flood victims. Trump will also get a briefing from officials. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Ted Cruz are joining the visit, with the GOP senators expected to fly to their state with Trump aboard Air Force One. It’s relatively common for presidents visiting disaster sites to tour the damage by air, a move that can ease the logistical burdens on authorities on the ground. Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, observed the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina and Hurricane Milton in Florida last fall by air before meeting with disaster response officials and victims on the ground. Trump, though, has also used past disaster response efforts to launch political attacks. While still a candidate trying to win back the presidency, Trump made his own visit to North Carolina after Helene last year and accused the Biden administration of blocking disaster aid to victims in Republican-heavy areas. First lady Melania Trump will accompany the president Friday, marking the second time this term that she has joined her husband to tour a natural disaster site. During his first weekend back in the White House, Trump again visited North Carolina to scope out Helene damage and toured the aftermath of devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. But he also used those trips to sharply criticize the Biden administration and California officials. Trump has promised repeatedly — and as recently as last month — to begin "phasing out" FEMA and bring disaster response management "down to the state level.” During Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump didn’t mention those plans and instead praised the federal flooding response. Turning to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, he said, "You had people there as fast as anybody’s ever seen.” Pressed this week on whether the White House will continue to work to shutter FEMA, press secretary Karoline Leavitt wouldn’t say. "The president wants to ensure American citizens always have what they need during times of need," Leavitt said. "Whether that assistance comes from states or the federal government, that is a policy discussion that will continue.”

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CNN [7/10/2025 6:01 PM, Adam Cancryn]

The New York Times [7/11/2025 3:42 AM, Zach Montague and Pat Grossmith, 330K] reports a federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a contentious executive order ending birthright citizenship after certifying a lawsuit as a class action, effectively the only way he could impose such a far-reaching limit after a Supreme Court ruling last month. Ruling from the bench, Judge Joseph N. Laplante of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire said his decision applied nationwide to babies who would have been subject to the executive order, which included the children of undocumented parents and those born to academics in the United States on student visas, on or after Feb. 20. The Trump administration has fought to challenge the longstanding law, laid out in the Constitution, that people born in the United States are automatically citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Judge Laplante’s order reignites a legal standoff that has been underway since the beginning of President Trump’s second term. The judge, an appointee of President George W. Bush, issued a written order formalizing the ruling on Thursday morning. He also paused his order for seven days, allowing time for an appeal. The lawsuit, brought by the A.C.L.U., was filed hours after the Supreme Court’s ruling last month limiting the ability of lower court judges to issue nationwide injunctions. The case tested the new landscape after the Supreme Court decision and made use of what appeared to be the only remaining practical and efficient way for district court judges to freeze the implementation of policies they found unlawful. Class actions, which involve a population of similarly situated people, were seen as the workaround. Before the Supreme Court’s decision, nationwide or “universal" injunctions were the main tool judges could use to halt executive branch policies. The Supreme Court’s decision on birthright citizenship did not address the core dispute surrounding the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s executive action, but it paved the way for a majority of states to begin enforcing it. However, the court’s majority said the executive order could not be carried out until July 27, allowing time for lawsuits to be filed. The A.C.L.U.’s lawsuit had proposed that all children born in the United States after Feb. 20 and their parents constituted a class. It warned that under the terms of Mr. Trump’s order, people born to parents in the country unlawfully risked being rendered “effectively stateless.” “For families across America today, birthright citizenship represents the promise that their children can achieve their full potential as Americans,” the lawsuit said. “It means children born here can dream of becoming doctors, lawyers, teachers, entrepreneurs or even president — dreams that would be foreclosed if their citizenship were stripped away based on their parents’ status.” The Washington Post [7/10/2025 2:20 PM, David Nakamura, 32099K] reports that in a written order, Laplante said the petitioners “are likely to suffer irreparable harm if the order is not granted.” The decision represents a fresh setback for the Trump administration in its efforts to begin implementing the president’s executive order that would deny automatic citizenship to the children born in the United States to unauthorized immigrants and foreign visitors. Some studies suggest more than 150,000 children each year would be affected. Trump has said the directive is necessary to end a system that he contends has encouraged illegal immigration, enticing foreigners, many without documentation, to enter the country to give birth. Civil liberties groups have denounced the order as a violation of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment that has guaranteed that virtually everyone born on U.S. soil is an American. The New York Post [7/10/2025 2:43 PM, Ryan King, 49956K] reports Concord US District Judge Joseph Laplante agreed to certify a nationwide class for "those deprived of citizenship," using an authority that the Supreme Court left untouched after its landmark decision June 27. "The preliminary injunction is just not a close call to the court," Laplante, a George W. Bush appointee, stated during a hearing. "The deprivation of US citizenship and an abrupt change of policy that was longstanding … that’s irreparable harm.” The 14th Amendment stipulates that "[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Trump argued that birthright citizenship has been abused and ushered in an era of "birth tourism," in which foreign nationals have babies in the US to give their children citizenship. Federal judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington had issued sweeping universal injunctions, also known as nationwide injunctions, to block that order from taking effect. But the Supreme Court ruled last month that the lower courts lack the authority to issue universal injunctions, a practice that has become more frequent over recent decades. The high court left open the possibility of other national blocks against presidential actions, including when class action lawsuits are filed, which allow plaintiffs to sue on behalf of a larger cohort of people. The Supreme Court did not weigh in on the merits of Trump’s order.

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The New York Times [7/11/2025 2:09 AM, Livia Albeck-Ripka, 138952K] reports federal agents raided a large cannabis farm in Southern California on Thursday, clashing with protesters and arresting multiple people, the latest confrontation in a state that has become a flashpoint for President Trump’s immigration agenda. Footage taken by local news media from helicopters showed the agents firing tear gas and crowd control munitions during the operation in Camarillo, Calif. The agents were “executing criminal search warrants,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said on social media. Rodney Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said on social media that “10 juveniles,” eight of them unaccompanied, were found at one of the facilities raided on Thursday, and that all of them were in the country illegally. The federal operation on Thursday was the latest in a series of immigration raids that have triggered demonstrations and caused panic in Latino communities across California, and prompted a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration to stop them. Some Republican lawmakers have also pleaded with President Trump to focus enforcement efforts on immigrants with criminal backgrounds. Federal agents went to multiple cannabis cultivation facilities owned by Glass House Farms on Thursday. In addition to the facility in Camarillo, which is spread across 5.5 million square feet in Ventura County, there was also a raid around 35 miles away at the company’s farm in Carpinteria, Calif., local media and immigrant rights groups said. The company said on social media that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials came to its facilities and that it complied with the search warrants. It is legal for licensed companies to grow cannabis in California. It was not immediately clear how many federal agencies were involved in the operation, and if they were assisted by National Guard troops. Some footage aired by local media showed armored military-style vehicles at the farms. The Ventura County Fire Department said it deployed to the Camarillo area only to provide medical aid and was not involved in any immigration action. During the clash near Camarillo, a person appeared to fire a pistol at law enforcement officers, the F.B.I. said, offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to that individual’s conviction. Bill Essayli, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said that multiple individuals were arrested for “impeding” the operation, warning in a social media post that those interfering would be arrested and charged with a federal offense. ICE and the Homeland Security Department did not immediately respond to requests for information made outside business hours. CBS News [7/11/2025 2:07 AM, Chelsea Hylton and Matthew Rodriguez, 51860K] Video HERE reports that in a statement provided to CBS News, the Department of Homeland Security said that its agents were serving a warrant at a marijuana facility. "DHS law enforcement is executing a warrant at a marijuana facility," the statement read. "Our brave officers will continue to enforce the law." CBS News Los Angeles had a photographer nearby where agents could be heard telling protesters to back up, before they deployed what appeared to be tear gas canisters and less-than-lethal rounds into the crowd. "Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields," California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a post to X. "Trump calls me "Newscum" — but he’s the real scum." Responding to Newsom on X, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott wrote that agents found 10 juveniles at the marijuana farm. "Here’s some breaking news: 10 juveniles were found at this marijuana facility - all illegal aliens, 8 of them unaccompanied," Scott wrote. "It’s now under investigation for child labor violations. This is Newsom’s California." U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli wrote in a post to X that a protester "appeared to fire a pistol" at federal law enforcement. FOX News [7/11/2025 1:34 AM, Louis Casiano and Landon Mion, 46878K] Video HERE that another raid also occurred at another Glass House Farm in Carpinteria. People were seen confronting the agents, who used tear gas and smoke bombs. Federal personnel used gas to push back protesters who arrived on scene after getting word of a raid. Military helicopters were also seen flying low over the fields, a maneuver generally used to flush out people hiding. "It is becoming increasingly apparent that the actions taken by ICE are bold and aggressive, demonstrating insensitivity towards the direct impact on our community," Luis Mc Arthur, the mayor of nearby Oxnard, said in a social media post. "These actions are causing unnecessary distress and harm. I remain committed to working alongside our Attorney General and the Governor’s office to explore potential legal avenues to address these activities." Footage captured by the news outlet showed several people being detained. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The AP [7/10/2025 10:26 PM, Amy Taxin, 56000K] reports vehicles from Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection blocked the road in a largely agricultural area of Camarillo, California, lined with fields and greenhouses. There were military-style vehicles and a helicopter flying overhead. Television images showed dozens of demonstrators gathered on a road between fields where uniformed officers stood in a line across from them. In other images, white and green smoke can be seen as protesters retreat. Other images showed protesters shouting at agents wearing camouflage gear, helmets and gas masks. It wasn’t clear why the authorities threw the canisters or if they released chemicals like tear gas. Another image from KTLA showed people sat against a wall with their hands bound in front of them; it wasn’t clear if they were workers or protesters. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests for comment. Glass House Farms said on social media that it was visited Thursday by officials for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and "fully complied with agent search warrants.” The company has a permit to grow cannabis in the Ventura County, and as of last year used half of the space for cannabis while half was dedicated to tomatoes and cucumbers, the Ventura County Star reported. Judith Ramos said she received a call Thursday morning from her father, who worked in the tomato fields. "He said immigration was outside his job, and if anything happened to take care of everything," Ramos said, her voice cracking. The 22-year-old certified nurse assistant said she has two young siblings. Ramos went to the farm and saw a busload of people being taken out. She was protesting alongside others when agents sprayed the deterrent. "They didn’t want us to get any closer, and they started firing," Ramos said. "I got some in my eyes. I had to put milk on my face.” Ramos said she does not know where her father is and had not had contact with him for more than an hour. His truck is still at the worksite, she said.

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NBC News [7/11/2025 2:15 AM, Phil Helsel, 44540K] reports the FBI is offering a $50,000 reward in the search for someone who appeared to fire a pistol at federal immigration agents during protests Thursday near Los Angeles, the U.S. attorney for the region said. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor for the Central District of California based in Los Angeles, announced the reward Thursday night, hours after what appeared to be tear gas was used against protesters near Camarillo in Ventura County. He shared on X helicopter news footage from ABC affiliate KABC of Los Angeles that showed a man in a black T-shirt point what appeared to be a handgun during the protest and tear gassing. He and U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the incident happened around 2:26 p.m. There were no reports of anyone being struck by gunfire during the incident. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said Thursday night that the farm was a marijuana grow, and that 10 juveniles who are in the country without authorization were found there. "It’s now under investigation for child labor violations," Scott said. "The company fully complied with agent search warrants and will provide further updates if necessary," the company said. Cannabis is legal in California under state law approved by voters. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, on social media shared video showing tear gas being used and children running. Newsom said in reply to another comment on X that he condemns any assault on law enforcement.

Breitbart [7/10/2025 9:30 PM, Ian Hanchett, 3077K] reports on Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” California Assemblyman Steve Bennett (D) stated that while he doesn’t know very much about the clash between immigration agents and others in Ventura County, “this was a very peaceful morning at this field in Camarillo, until this militarization effort, basically, took place. And I might point out that that is sort of the beginning, if you try to normalize the militarization of domestic life. There was nothing going on in these fields that suggested we needed to have this enormous amount of military presence showing up in this field.” Host Blake Burman asked, “What do you know about what’s going on there?” Bennett answered, “Well, I don’t know very much, because I’m up here in Sacramento. This is a work day, and this is happening down in Ventura County, the county that I represent in Sacramento. I have had some reports, but I don’t think any of us have specific details yet.” He continued, “I might push back a little bit, a White House official said everybody has the right to protest, we have no evidence yet that anybody’s laid any hands on any ICE agents or impeded what they were doing.” Burman then cut in to say, “I think he’s getting at the general sort of what we witnessed in L.A. weeks ago.” Bennett responded, “Certainly, but what we have — the situation we have in Ventura County is we have thousands and thousands of farm workers that have been here for decades, hardworking citizens, contributing, their kids are in our schools. They’re great members of society. And this was a very peaceful morning at this field in Camarillo, until this militarization effort, basically, took place. And I might point out that that is sort of the beginning, if you try to normalize the militarization of domestic life. There was nothing going on in these fields that suggested we needed to have this enormous amount of military presence showing up in this field.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [7/10/2025 4:05 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports officials have arrested “almost 600 known or suspected terrorists” in the U.S. interior, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin announced this week. “Keep in mind… we have arrested almost 600 known or suspected terrorists within the United States — 2,700 members of Tren de Aragua, a vicious gang that kills rapes and maims Americans for sport,” she said during an appearance on Fox News. “That is who these politicians are protecting. And unfortunately, because they won’t let us in these jails to lodge detainers and eventually deport these depraved individuals, we’re going to have to go out in the streets and really flood the zone to get these criminals off of our streets, and it makes it a lot less safe for these communities,” she added. This update comes as immigration enforcement officials continue to detain criminal illegal aliens all across the country. DHS has noted time and time again that the vast majority of those they are arresting have prior convictions or pending charges.

New York Post [7/10/2025 12:56 PM, Mary K. Jacob and Andy Tillett, 49956K] reports insiders have exposed the "conveyor belt" of rape and abuse of vulnerable migrant children in the US under President Joe Biden’s border free-for-all to The Post, now being cleared up by President Trump. Following federal "border czar" Tom Homan’s recent revelation on Miranda Divine’s "Pod Force One" podcast that children had been trafficked across the country with little oversight before Trump took office, whistleblowers have exposed how the terrifying scheme works. Between 2019 and 2023, 448,000 unaccompanied minors were encountered by the Department of Homeland Security, according to its figures, who were then transferred into the US. Many of the children, sometimes younger than 5, arrive with little more than phone numbers scribbled on their arms or clothes. Much of it was a scam, perpetrated by cartels who saw Biden’s lax border policies — which saw 8 million attempt to cross into the US during his time in office, per official figures — as an opportunity. "The smugglers would drop off kids at the border, Customs and Border Protection couldn’t do anything with them, they have to get them to the Office of Refugee Resettlement within 72 hours. "Once they get there, non-government contractors [private companies] look at the paperwork and say ‘this is their sponsor, this is where they are to be delivered,’" Morgan Lerette, a former Blackwater contractor and Army intelligence officer told The Post. "But they weren’t confirming that it was a real person, family, or addresses that was given – some addresses were storage units or strip clubs. "The officers were literally handing the kids right back off to the other side of the smuggling rings in the US," he alleged. Another twisted smuggling scheme was exposed in 2024, when Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) busted a ring who were bringing kids under five, some sedated with melatonin gummies, over the border. The smugglers tried to sneak the kids from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico to Laredo, Texas by using the birth certificates of actual US citizen children, according to a release by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They then dropped the kids off at stash houses, who passed them further into the US.

FOX News [7/10/2025 10:32 AM, Madison Colombo, 46878K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is sounding the alarm over what she describes as an intense rise in violence targeting immigration officers. She explained the threats against ICE agents were "getting worse" and blamed inflammatory rhetoric from the left. "Some of these Democrat leaders in some of these communities and states are really, really elevating the emotion out there and lying, and putting these officers’ lives in jeopardy," Noem said on "Fox & Friends," Thursday. "They are just upholding the rule of law. … It really is unprecedented, this environment that we’re in.” Her remarks come after an attack on officers in Alvarado, Texas last Independence Day. A group of heavily armed individuals used fireworks and graffiti to lure ICE agents into a parking lot near a migrant facility. Phrases like "traitor" and "ICE pig" were spray-painted onto their personal vehicles. While officers responded, shots were fired from nearby, striking one local police officer in the neck, who is expected to survive. Noem said attacks like this are part of a troubling pattern. The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News they’ve seen assaults against ICE officers rise nearly 700% since the same time last year, something Noem called "unprecedented.” "These targeted attacks against these law enforcement officers is a disrespect and a dangerous situation that we’re in," she said. Tensions regarding immigration enforcement have escalated, with anti-ICE riots breaking out in Los Angeles last month. Many city and state leaders have pushed back against the Trump administration’s deportation agenda, refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities. Critics argue the raids are politically motivated and destabilize communities. Noem said that rhetoric by politicians has had real-world consequences for her officers. "I think about it every day, every word that comes out of my mouth. I think, how can I protect these officers so they can do their jobs?" said Noem. "It’s a heavy weight that sits on you every single day.”

FOX News [7/10/2025 8:46 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss anti-ICE rhetoric as agents face growing threats, the latest on the investigation into a shooting at a Texas ICE facility and more. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/10/2025 7:39 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports Former Trump DOJ prosecutor Jim Trusty discusses charges against suspects in the ambush on an Alvarado, Texas, ICE facility and the upcoming hearing in Kilmar Abrego-Garcia’s case. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/10/2025 4:00 PM, Gabriel Hays, 46878K] reports U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem savaged a CNN report Thursday stating she delayed FEMA’s response to the deadly Texas flooding from last weekend. During a segment on "Fox & Friends," Noem responded to CNN’s piece, which alleged that FEMA – an agency under DHS – ran into "bureaucratic obstacles" imposed by the secretary that slowed the agency in providing life-saving resources to the victims of the disaster in central Texas. Over 100 people have died and over 150 others have gone missing due to flash flooding that devastated parts of central Texas near the Guadalupe River over the Fourth of July weekend. A CNN article published Thursday claimed that Noem’s recent order that every DHS "contract and grant over $100,000 now requires her personal sign-off before any funds can be released," slowed down FEMA’s attempts to secure funds for disaster relief costs and contracts with on-the-ground crews. While on "Fox & Friends," Noem countered the claims that she caused a delayed response, stating DHS teams were deployed to the disaster zone immediately. She continued, noting that her department is also responding to flooding in New Mexico and North Carolina and working with ground teams there.

FOX News [7/10/2025 9:56 AM, Staff, 46878K] Video: HERE reports Secretary Kristi Noem responded to a CNN report alleging she has slowed response efforts following the catastrophic Texas floods, calling the claims ‘absolutely trash.’

Blaze.com [7/10/2025 3:45 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1805K] reports the Department of Homeland Security forcefully denied an article from CNN claiming that DHS Sec. Kristi Noem delayed deployment of search and rescue teams to the devastating flooding in Texas. The CNN story said that search and rescue teams are usually deployed in anticipation of a disaster, but in the case of the Texas floods, they were delayed by several days after the flooding event. The report blamed a new cost-saving measure implemented by Noem that required a personal sign-off for any spending above $100,000. The report depended on four sources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency who spoke to the outlet anonymously. They said the $100,000 sign-off requirement would significantly hamstring their efforts. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told CNN that other search and rescue assets were used before the need for FEMA resources rose to the point that Noem signed off on the expenditure. CNN also claimed that by Monday, only 86 FEMA staffers had been deployed to the disaster, which was "a fraction" of the response typically ordered for such an operation. That number increased to 311 staffers by Tuesday evening. On Wednesday the official account for DHS responded on social media. "This is a FAKE NEWS LIE from CNN. This reporting is an unapparelled [sic] display of activist journalism and distracts from the robust, coordinated federal response led by Secretary Noem that has saved over 900+ lives," read the statement. "While these ‘journalists’ slept comfortably in D.C., Secretary Noem deployed to Texas, working day and night to approve every possible need that search and rescue workers had," the agency added. "Within moments of the flooding in Texas, DHS assets, including the U.S. Coast Guard, tactical Border Patrol units and FEMA personnel surged into unprecedented action alongside Texas first responders. The U.S. Coast Guard alone rescued over 230 Americans." The statement went on to tout Noem’s "breakthrough" management of the emergency response that focused on sending funding support immediately to the states to jump-start local response efforts.

ABC News [7/11/2025 5:07 AM, Kerem Inal, Peter Charalambous, and Gaby Vinick, 31733K] reports the risk of the catastrophic flooding that struck Texas Hill Country as people slept on July 4 and left at least 120 dead was potentially underestimated by federal authorities, according to an ABC News analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency data, satellite imagery and risk modeling. Some of the youth camps and recreational areas most devastated by the extreme weather were established on land designated by the FEMA as "special flood hazard areas" or in the river’s floodway, making them especially vulnerable to the July 4 flash floods that exceeded some federal estimates for a worst-case scenario. At some points, water extended for hundreds of feet outside the Guadalupe River’s banks and beyond FEMA estimates, according to satellite data. First Street, a risk modeling company, told ABC News that the company believes that more than double the 8 million homes nationwide that are designated by FEMA to be in flood zones are actually at risk, finding that government models are outdated and fail to consider extreme weather events. Along the river banks in Kerr County, the all-girls Camp Mystic was overrun by flood waters, which claimed the lives of 27 campers and counselors and swept multiple buildings from their foundations. According to FEMA maps, more than a dozen of the 36 cabins were located within areas designated as high risk for potential flooding on the river and nearby Cypress Creek. "We knew this camp was predominantly in a flood zone, and even the areas that we showed that were outside were right on the edge of a flood zone," said Jeremy Porter, the head of climate implications research at First Street, which provides climate data for companies like Zillow and Redfin. Multiple buildings at Camp Mystic, including four cabins, were built within the Guadalupe River’s "regulatory floodway," where most new construction is severely limited due to flood risk and to "protect human life and health," according to Kerr County’s Flood Damage Prevention Order from 2020. The document noted that the stretch of land where Camp Mystic is situated is "an extremely hazardous area due to the velocity of flood waters which carry debris, potential projectiles and erosion potential.” An additional 12 cabins at Camp Mystic were built on land designated as "special flood hazard areas," where residents face a 1% chance of flooding annually and are normally required to have flood insurance. "These should guide where you should or should not construct, whether you should have mitigation processes in place, like putting homes on elevated beds," said Jonathan Sury, a senior staff associate at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University in Manhattan. But some of those structures at the nearly 100-year-old camp were built decades before FEMA began issuing its flood maps in the 1960s and were likely permitted to remain despite modern construction regulations, Porter noted.

Axios [7/10/2025 6:40 PM, Megan Stringer, 13599K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not deploy search and rescue teams to the Texas Hill Country until Monday, more than 72 hours after the deadly floods, per CNN. The July Fourth flooding, which left at least 120 people dead, offers a first look into how FEMA could handle catastrophes as President Trump has pushed to dismantle the agency and put emergency response in the hands of states. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, recently enacted a rule that requires her personal permission on spending over $100,000, a measure aimed at saving costs, per CNN. She has vigorously defended the response in Texas. Noem did not give the green light to deploy search and rescue teams to Texas until Monday, per the report. By Monday night, there were 86 FEMA staffers in Texas, per CNN. That grew to 311 staffers by Tuesday night. Spokespeople for Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Division of Emergency Management declined to answer questions from Axios this week about how many FEMA staff are on the ground in Central Texas and what they are doing. They instead referred inquiries to the federal agency, which did not respond to questions. Abbott and state officials have praised President Trump and the federal response, which includes a major disaster declaration, signed Sunday by the president, that will help people in Kerr County with temporary housing and home repairs. FEMA worked with the state to open a Disaster Recovery Center on Thursday. "FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens," per a Department of Homeland Security statement to Axios. "DHS assets, including the U.S. Coast Guard, Border Patrol and FEMA personnel surged into unprecedented action alongside Texas first responders," Noem said Thursday in response to CNN’s reporting. "President Trump, Secretary Noem and FEMA have been exceptional partners throughout the flood response," Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris tells Axios in an email.

Washington Post [7/10/2025 8:02 PM, Brianna Sacks and Hannah Natanson, 32099K] reports two days before torrential rains turned the Guadalupe River into a raging flood, a veteran official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency told The Washington Post that one of the main concerns for this disaster season was the agency’s ability to quickly deploy specialized search and rescue teams. The Trump administration’s new rules mean disaster specialists can no longer “make decisions” on their own. The official then watched it happen in real time in Texas. Deployments of critical resources, such as tactical and specialized search and rescue teams, were delayed as a result of a budget restriction requiring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem to approve every purchase, contract and grant over $100,000, according to a dozen current and former FEMA employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. When rapidly responding to billion-dollar disasters, that "is basically everything," said one current official. Other efforts by the administration to constrain spending have hampered FEMA’s operations, officials said, which is likely to make it harder for the agency to be proactive during what is predicted to be a busy disaster season. Multiple former officials and current employees say that several contracts with companies that provide crucial services for disaster response have run out or are about to lapse and have not yet been extended. And the agency has created work-arounds to get money out the door more quickly, according to documents reviewed by The Post. DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the department had decentralized some of FEMA’s functions, but that these changes had not undermined its disaster response. The delay in deploying search and rescue teams was first reported by CNN. "The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades," McLaughlin said.

The Hill [7/10/2025 12:07 PM, Amalia Huot-Marchand, 18649K] reports Democrats Reps. Greg Stanton (Ariz.) and Gabe Amo (R.I.) slammed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday over the administration’s response to fatal flooding in Texas amid its efforts to cut disaster response, climate and weather agencies. "They need to justify it. And I guarantee you here, they will not be able to defend these actions," Amo said about the overhaul during the Thursday presser. This past weekend, at least 120 people were killed and nearly 160 individuals remain missing in south-central Texas after flash flooding hit along the Guadalupe River. Stanton and Amo, the top Democrats on the subcommittees overseeing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), respectively, called on Noem and acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson to testify to Congress after the flooding spurred questions about the preparedness of the agencies. "Gutting FEMA won’t make it more responsive, just like getting rid of it won’t make disaster response better; it lets communities fend for themselves in their darkest hour. That’s not reform. That’s abandonment," Stanton said, echoing concerns from fellow Democrats. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin pushed back on Stanton and Amo’s characterization of the federal response, stating the administration "has taken an all-hands-on-desk approach" to recovery efforts. "FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens" she said in a statement. "The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades." Breitbart [7/10/2025 8:16 PM, Pam Key, 3077K] reports Thursday on MSNBC’s "The Weeknight," Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be investigated for her response to the deadly floods in central Texas. Moskowitz said, "Kristi Noem has no idea what she’s doing, okay. FEMA is cutting the grant that gives states money to build their capacity. At the same time telling them they need to build more capacity. She’s cut, she’s been pausing grants of $10 billion for previously approved disasters. They cut 20% of the workforce and every decision has to come to her. David Richardson who’s the new FEMA administrator or acting administrator, has zero emergency management experience. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s not going to do anything without Kristi Noem’s approval. So when we see reports that they didn’t send swift water rescue crews for 72 hours, that’s because Kristi Noem didn’t approve it for 72 hours. Let me tell you by the time those crews arrived they were useless after 72 hours. ".He added, "I sent a letter to both the Homeland Security Committee and the Transportation Committee asking for a full investigation on the timeline of when decisions were made and why they deviated from known protocols. It’s questionable whether these decisions may have caused additional death in Texas.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [7/10/2025 12:48 PM, Thomas Frank, 16523K] reports that, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency responds to the deadly flooding in Texas, one key resource is missing: the FEMA leader. David Richardson, the agency’s acting administrator, has not been to the site of one of the nation’s deadliest floods in the U.S. in the past 25 years, upending a long practice of FEMA leaders making themselves visible after major disasters. Public appearances by FEMA administrators, including meetings with governors and disaster survivors, have been a typical part of the nation’s disaster response, reassuring the public of federal support and showcasing political unity. The Department of Homeland Security, FEMA’s parent agency, did not respond directly to questions Wednesday from POLITICO’s E&E News about Richardson’s role in the government’s response to the disaster. “DHS and its components have taken an all-hands-on-deck approach” to the Texas flooding, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an email, referring to help by the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection. “FEMA has deployed extensive staff to support Texas response and recovery operations based on staff skills and requirements.” Still, former FEMA officials said Richardson’s absence — and his lack of public appearances, statements and social media postings — raise concerns that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is controlling FEMA’s response. Noem, who visited the flooded area of central Texas on Saturday, oversees 22 agencies, of which FEMA is just one. “The secretary has a huge portfolio, and she will quickly get pulled in different directions to handle all of the things she needs to manage. You need the FEMA administrator, whose job is only to manage the disaster,” said Deanne Criswell, who ran FEMA during the Biden administration. Since leaving Texas, Noem has held news conferences announcing DHS actions easing airport security and limiting foreign farmland purchases. She also met Wednesday in Washington with Qatar’s interior minister to discuss mutual cooperation ahead of the 2026 soccer World Cup in the United States. “It shows governors and emergency managers around the country that when they have a need from the federal government, Richardson is probably not going to be their first call,” former FEMA chief of staff Michael Coen said of Noem’s lead role with the Texas flooding.

The Washington Post [7/10/2025 8:22 PM, Susan Svrluga, 32099K] reports Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student activist who was detained for months as the federal government sought to deport him, has filed a claim against the Trump administration, seeking $20 million in damages. Khalil would use the money to help others similarly detained, according to his lawyers. He would also be satisfied with an official apology and the government abandoning what he calls its unconstitutional policy instead. Khalil was the first noncitizen activist to be seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as the Trump administration launched efforts to deport pro-Palestinian protesters it labeled terrorist-supporting radicals. Khalil challenged his detention on constitutional and other grounds, and a federal judge ordered his release last month. After months in a Louisiana detention center more than 1,000 miles from his home in New York, he was released and reunited with his wife and newborn son, Deen, last month. The deportation case against Khalil continues in the immigration court system. “This is the first step towards accountability,” Khalil said in a written statement Thursday. “Nothing can restore the 104 days stolen from me. The trauma, the separation from my wife, the birth of my first child that I was forced to miss.” He said the same government that targeted him for speaking out “is using taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power.” His lawyers contend that the government’s actions were marked by malice and brought lasting harm, including Khalil being “smeared as a terrorist, subjecting him and his family to harassment, threats to their safety, and economic insecurity. In response to his arrest and public denigration, a human rights nonprofit rescinded his job offer, jeopardizing his career in his chosen field and placing in doubt his ability to secure future employment.” Baher Azmy, an attorney for Khalil and legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said Khalil’s claim is the first case he’s aware of to seek accountability for ICE’s practice of detaining student protesters. “Mahmoud’s goal here is to use the federal court to showcase how their behavior was unlawful from beginning to end, how it harmed him and others as a way to shine a light on broader ICE practices,” Azmy said. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that Khalil’s claim that DHS officials “branded him as an antisemite and terrorized him and his family is absurd. It was Khalil who terrorized Jewish students on campus. He ‘branded’ himself as antisemite through his own hateful behavior and rhetoric.” She said it’s a privilege to be granted a visa or green card and the Trump administration “acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property.” Reuters [7/10/2025 6:40 PM, Jack Queen and Jonathan Allen, 51390K] reports Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent U.S. resident of Palestinian descent, was arrested in March and detained for months while the Trump administration sought to deport him, saying his support of Palestinians undermined U.S. relations with Israel. He was released on June 20 after an intense legal fight where his lawyers accused the Trump administration of unconstitutionally targeting him for political reasons. "I hope this would serve as a deterrent for the administration," Khalil told Reuters on Thursday. "Trump made it clear he only understands the language of money.” Khalil said he would also accept an official apology and a commitment by the administration to no longer arrest, jail or seek to deport people for pro-Palestinian speech. Axios [7/10/2025 3:54 PM, Sareen Habeshian, 13599K] reports Khalil is seeking the $20 million in damages to help others "similarly targeted by the Trump administration and Columbia University," per his attorneys. "He would accept, in lieu of payment, an official apology and abandonment of the administration’s unconstitutional policy," they said. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in an emailed statement called Khalil’s claim that DHS officials branded him as an antisemite and terrorized him "absurd." The Daily Wire [7/10/2025 1:39 PM, Virginia Kruta, 3816K] reports Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Khalil’s claim was "absurd," and that he had participated in and led the "hateful behavior and rhetoric" that left so many Jewish students feeling unsafe.

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [7/10/2025 5:34 PM, Victoria Albert, 646K]
Bloomberg [7/10/2025 4:06 PM, Patricia Hurtado, 19320K]

CNN [7/11/2025 5:00 AM, Christiane Amanpour, 21433K] reports Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil joins CNN’s Christiane Amanpour to discuss and shares details about his time at a Louisiana ICE detention center, where he spent more than three months after he was arrested outside his apartment on Columbia University’s campus. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/10/2025 7:13 PM, Breanne Deppisch and Jake Gibson, 46878K] reports U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered lawyers for the Justice Department and Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia to return to court Friday morning for another day of hearings as she continues to weigh next steps in the civil case. Those steps include an effort by Abrego’s attorneys to preempt the Trump administration’s plans to deport him to a third country as early as next week. Xinis made the call for an additional day of arguments at 5:30 p.m. over the stated objections of Justice Department lawyers, who told her that at least two of them had prior obligations and could not appear in court. For her part, Xinis was unsympathetic. She said the witness they provided to the court "took four times as long as he should have" in testimony "because he knew nothing.” "That’s on the government," Xinis said pointedly. "If you want to discuss that now, we can.” Both parties were ordered to appear in court at 9 a.m. Friday to continue arguments. Xinis also suggested the possibility of a temporary restraining order, by which the government would agree to certain things, such as requirements that ICE keep Abrego Garcia in immigration custody for at least 48 hours before he is removed and that they keep him in local immigration detention facilities and do not "spirit him away to Nome, Alaska," to prevent access to counsel before his removal. "However, I’m not willing to just allow an unfettered release of Abrego Garcia," if he is released from U.S. custody in Tennessee next Wednesday, she said. "I want full-throated assurances," and there remains "much delta" between where they ended things Thursday and where she had hoped the court would be at the end of Thursday’s hearing. The extended arguments capped a lengthy day of testimony in court led by witness Thomas Giles, the assistant director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations office. Judge Xinis had ordered the government to produce for the court a witness with "personal knowledge" of Abrego Garcia’s case to testify, under oath, about the "who, what, where, and when" in regards to Abrego Garcia’s case and the government’s stated plans to take him into ICE custody pending release from criminal detention in Tennessee and deport him to a third country.

NewsMax [7/10/2025 8:51 PM, Michael Katz, 4622K] reports a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official testified Thursday in federal court in Maryland that the agency doesn’t know where Kilmar Abrego Garcia will be deported should he be released from federal custody next week. Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant, was deported to his home country but was returned to the U.S. to face human smuggling charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. The Trump administration asserts that he is a member of the MS-13 gang. Thomas Giles, assistant director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, testified in front of U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, The Hill reported. Xinis, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, on Monday ordered the Department of Justice to produce a witness to provide plans for Abrego Garcia if he’s released from custody in Tennessee as soon as next week. "We don’t work cases not in ICE custody preemptively, because our docket officers are worried about the cases they have now," Giles told Xinis. Giles testified for several hours, but Xinis will hear legal arguments from attorneys before she issues a ruling, The Hill reported. The hearing will resume Friday morning, a court official told reporters. Giles testified that ICE has issued an immigration detainer requesting custody if Abrego Garcia is released, which is expected to be honored. That would enable the transfer to happen in a "secure environment" in the Tennessee jail, Giles said. But until that happens, Giles said ICE does not determine how to proceed with one person’s immigration case. "No decision has been made," Giles said.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/10/2025 5:50 PM, Zach Schonfeld, 18649K]

Axios [7/11/2025 5:00 AM, Marc Caputo, 13599K] reports that, under pressure from worried farmers and hotel owners, the Trump administration is launching a program to streamline issuing visas for temporary, migrant workers to try to make sure fruits get picked, meat is packed and lodgings are cleaned. President Trump’s immigration crackdown has put his administration between a MAGA rock and a special-interest hard place. Farmers who rely on noncitizen workers — who make up as much as 40% of the agricultural labor market — are howling that Trump’s mass deportation program is damaging the labor market, and could therefore threaten the food supply. But Trump’s MAGA base wants to ratchet up deportations, saying the administration shouldn’t allow employers to incentivize illegal immigration by granting "amnesty" to certain noncitizen workers. Trying to balance those competing interests, the Department of Labor has created the Office of Immigration Policy. It’s designed to be a red-tape-cutting, one-stop shop to help employers get faster approval for temporary worker visas for noncitizen labor. "Today, @USDOL took action to ensure taxpayer-funded workforce services are reserved for American workers — not illegal immigrants," Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer wrote Thursday on X, announcing new labor guidelines. The Office of Immigration Policy is so new that it has no stats on how many employers it plans to work with, but officials say it will have "customer-centered policies" with employers, help coordinate with other federal agencies and try to speed visa approvals. The new office won’t help those who are in the country illegally to stay or get work visas — that’s barred by current immigration law, officials said. New visa recipients would have to have their paperwork completed in their home country before legally migrating to the U.S. "This is not amnesty. It’s not amnesty lite," a senior administration official told Axios. "No one who is illegally here is being given a pathway to citizenship or residency." Trump has pushed the strongest, toughest and meanest immigration policies of any modern president. But his recent suggestions of leniency to farmers and key industries that have hired unauthorized workers have left MAGA hardliners suspicious. "Any time someone says, ‘This isn’t an amnesty because ...’ then it’s an amnesty. If an illegal alien gets to stay, that’s an amnesty," said Mark Krikorian, a vocal immigration restrictionist. Krikorian said Trump should start raising the minimum wage for H-2A visas so that farmers start investing in mechanization to wean themselves from "illegal labor." Because the agricultural industry has had so much unauthorized labor, it will take years to have a fully authorized workforce, even with the new Office of Immigration Policy’s program. An estimated 70% of the workers are already gone from some farms. Generally, unauthorized farmworkers have had a de facto type of amnesty from immigration officials, who are hesitant to conduct raids on a labor force that supplies food across the nation. There have been some farm raids under Trump (including a high-profile operation Thursday in California), but he mostly backed off widespread farm raids after June 12, when he took to Truth Social and lamented the loss of farm, leisure and hotel-sector labor. "That was the bat signal to ICE: Leave the farmers alone," one Trump adviser said.

Politico [7/10/2025 5:56 PM, Myah Ward, 2100K] reports President Donald Trump is soliciting a range of opinions on how to deal with undocumented farm labor, a question that pits two important MAGA constituencies against one another. The discussions are still in the early stages, border czar Tom Homan told POLITICO’s Dasha Burns during The Conversation, but he noted that the departments of Labor, State and Agriculture are all working on a policy solution. Homan insisted that there will be “no amnesty” for undocumented farm workers and said the administration will not “greenlight” businesses “knowingly breaking immigration laws.” “No one hires an illegal alien out of the goodness of their heart,” Homan said. “They hire them because they can work them harder, pay them less, and undercut their competition with U.S. citizen employees. … And many, many illegal aliens do not pay taxes. They’re paid under the table. The employers don’t pay employee taxes, they don’t pay unemployment insurance. So they’re cheating the system.” Still, the president has suggested his administration will come up with a program that farmers and agriculture producers can use to ensure they have the labor they need. Homan’s insistence that there will be no amnesty — a line White House officials and Cabinet secretaries are keen to repeat — captures the broader tension playing out inside the Trump administration, as the president’s top officials try to square the need for labor in an industry crucial to the country’s food supply with the White House’s aggressive immigration agenda. Adding to the challenge is that Trump has appeared sympathetic to both sides.

New York Post [7/10/2025 4:11 PM, Kendall White and Josh Christenson, 49956K] reports the Trump administration moved Thursday to block illegal immigrants from accessing taxpayer-funded aid to enroll in educational programs and receive health care benefits. The departments of Education, Agriculture, Labor, Justice and Health and Human Services made separate announcements Thursday, touting savings of around $40 billion. HHS called the change a "significant policy shift" that will "ensure that taxpayer-funded program benefits intended for the American people are not diverted to subsidize illegal aliens." The changes are part of the Trump administration’s broader "no amnesty" and zero tolerance immigration policy.

Breitbart [7/10/2025 7:30 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 3077K] reports an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in February is resulting in the protection of roughly $40 billion in public benefit programs from illegal aliens, according to the White House. In February, Trump issued his executive order titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” which directed agencies to identify federally funded programs that allow “illegal aliens to obtain any cash or non-cash public benefit.” On Thursday, the White House issued a release announcing that illegals would no longer have access to a number of public benefits within five different agencies following the review, including the departments of Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, and Labor. “Past presidents sat by and allowed illegal aliens to steal public benefits at the expense of hardworking American taxpayers – that ends now. Under President Trump, it’s America first always,” White House assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers said in a statement to Breitbart News. More than half of the roughly $40 billion in benefits preserved are in 13 HHS programs, including $11.3 billion in Head Start, $7.1 billion in the Health Center Program, $2.7 billion in the Health Workforce Programs, and $2 billion in the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant to name a few examples, according to White House figures obtained by Breitbart News.

AP [7/10/2025 9:50 PM, Annie Ma, 56000K] reports the Trump administration will restrict immigrants in the country illegally from enrolling in Head Start, a federally funded preschool program, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday. The move is part of a broad effort to limit access to federal benefits for immigrants who lack legal status. People in the country illegally are largely ineligible for federal public benefits such as food stamps, student loans and financial aid for higher education. But for decades they have been able to access some community-level programs such as Head Start and community health centers. HHS said it will reclassify those programs as federal public benefits, excluding immigrants in the country illegally from accessing them. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the changes were part of a larger effort to protect American citizens’ interests. "For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration," Kennedy said in a statement. "Today’s action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.” A spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families, which administers Head Start, said that eligibility will be determined based on the child’s immigration status. Requiring proof of immigration status would likely create fear and confusion among families seeking to enroll their children, said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association. "This decision undermines the fundamental commitment that the country has made to children and disregards decades of evidence that Head Start is essential to our collective future," Vinci said.

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [7/10/2025 11:46 PM, Sabrina Siddiqui, 646K]

Federalist [7/10/2025 8:40 AM, M.D. Kittle, 1142K] reports the liberal Wisconsin judge accused of helping an accused violent illegal immigrant elude federal authorities argues that her case should be dismissed because she has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions taken as a judge. A federal magistrate judge called BS. U.S. Magistrate Nancy Joseph found Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan’s arguments "unconvincing" in recommending Dugan’s motion to dismiss the charges against her be denied. In short, Joseph believes the criminal trial — already delayed — must go on. "It is well-established and undisputed that judges have absolute immunity from civil lawsuits for monetary damages when engaging in judicial acts. This, however, is not a civil case," Joseph wrote in her thorough, 37-page decision. "Accordingly, I recommend that Dugan’s motion to dismiss the indictment on judicial immunity grounds be denied." The magistrate also rejected the defendant’s argument that the 10th Amendment’s states rights protections shield the activist judge from prosecution. "We are disappointed in the magistrate judge’s non-binding recommendation, and we will appeal it," one of Dugan’s attorneys, former federal prosecutor Steven Biskupic, said in a statement to the Associated Press. "This is only one step in what we expect will be a long journey to preserve the independence and integrity of our courts."

Reuters [7/10/2025 12:12 PM, Alphonso Toweh and Robbie Corey-Boulet, 51390K] reports the Trump administration this week pressed five African presidents to take in migrants from other countries when they are deported by the U.S., two officials familiar with the discussions told Reuters on Thursday. The plan was presented to the presidents of Liberia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon during their visit to the White House on Wednesday, according to a U.S. and a Liberian official who both asked not to be named. The White House and official spokespeople for the five nations did not respond to requests for comment. It was not immediately clear if any of the countries had agreed to the plan. Since returning to office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has been pressing to speed up deportations, including by sending migrants to third countries when there are problems or delays over sending them to their home nations. On Saturday, eight migrants - from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam, according to their lawyers - arrived in South Sudan’s capital after they lost a legal battle to halt their transfer. Wednesday’s meeting at the White House had been organised partly to talk about the deportation plan, the U.S. official said. Liberia’s government was "preparing to accommodate" an effort to house migrants in its capital Monrovia, the U.S. official added. The Liberian official confirmed that the deportation plan was a focus of Wednesday’s meeting, but did not say whether Liberian President Joseph Boakai had agreed to it. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that an internal State Department document sent to the African governments before the meeting called on them to agree to the "dignified, safe, and timely transfer from the United States" of third country nationals. Under the proposed plan, the governments would agree not to send the migrants "to their home country or country of former habitual residence until a final decision has been made" on their U.S. asylum bids, according to the report.

NewsMax [7/10/2025 3:33 PM, Jim Mishler, 4622K] reports an African nation leader who met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday said his country would not take third-country deportees from the U.S. The president of Guinea-Bissau said his country would accept deportees who are citizens of his country, but would not be interested in those from any other nation. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration attempted to sound out the African leaders by correspondence in advance of their White House meeting about assisting the U.S. with detaining illegal aliens. There’s no indication from the leaders of the other nations attending the Wednesday White House meeting if they are interested.

New York Times [7/10/2025 11:12 AM, Annie Correal and Pranav Baskar, 153395K] reports for the U.S. government, sending deportees accused of being gang members to a prison in El Salvador fits with President Trump’s promise to aggressively deport undocumented migrants and to crack down on crime. For El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, the rewards appear to have included, among other things, a White House visit and stamp of approval, despite widespread concerns over Mr. Bukele’s crackdown on civil liberties. While the exact terms of the agreement have not been made public, leaders around the world may be watching, experts and immigration lawyers say, especially as the Trump administration searches for countries willing to take expelled migrants of other nationalities. “Other leaders and countries are trying to emulate the Bukele arrangement,” said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, a director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based group that has represented immigrants in lawsuits against the Trump administration. Countries are increasingly “raising their hand to volunteer their incarceration facilities and to facilitate the deportation of people,” he added. A White House spokeswoman has said the administration is “grateful for President Bukele’s partnership” and for the use of his maximum-security prison, adding, “There is no better place for these sick, illegal criminals.”

Bloomberg Law News [7/10/2025 11:14 AM, Ian Lopez, 88K] reports US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is restricting undocumented immigrant access to Head Start and other federal programs that the Trump administration says are intended for American citizens. "For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration," Kennedy said in a Thursday statement announcing the action. "Today’s action changes that—it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.” The US Department of Health and Human Services’ rescinded a decades-old interpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. That interpretation, the HHS said, "improperly extended certain federal public benefits to illegal aliens.” Also impacted by the action are grants and programs for mental health services, substance use treatment, transitioning out of homelessness and family planning efforts. The HHS issued a Federal Register notice giving the public 30 days to weigh in on its efforts. Nevertheless, the HHS said in the notice that it’s "necessary to apply this interpretation to HHS programs immediately, prior to receipt and consideration of any comments.” "Any delay would be contrary to the public interest and fail to address the ongoing emergency at the Southern Border of the United States," the HHS said.

Blaze [7/10/2025 3:10 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1805K] reports the Trump administration’s Department of Education announced a move to prevent American tax dollars from being used by illegal aliens. On Thursday, the Education Department revealed that it rescinded a Clinton-era interpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act that allowed illegal immigrants to receive taxpayer subsidies for postsecondary education. The department’s new interpretive rule also ensures that unqualified illegal aliens remain ineligible to access programs authorized under the Higher Education Act, including Pell Grants and student loans. U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon argued that taxpayer-funded education programs were only meant to be accessed by American citizens. The Trump administration’s HHS made a similar announcement on Thursday, stating that it rescinded a Clinton-era interpretation that allowed illegal immigrants to receive federal health care benefits.

DailySignal [7/10/2025 11:45 AM, Virginia Allen, 558K] reports Democrats "missed on the issue of immigration," John Kerry says he told President Joe Biden. His party "allowed the border to continue to be sieged," Kerry, who served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, said Thursday during an interview with BBC. Kerry was the Democratic Party presidential nominee in 2004 and said all presidents should recognize that "without a border protected, you don’t have a nation.” President Donald Trump "was right" on the issue of immigration, Kerry said while discussing some of the reasons Democrats lost the 2024 election, adding that the issue is "we all should have been right.” Under the four years of the Biden administration, over 10 million illegal aliens entered the U.S., including about 2 million known "gotaways"—individuals who evaded Border Patrol apprehension. In 2024, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that more than 662,000 criminal illegal aliens were released into the interior of the U.S. Among those, 435,719 had already been convicted of a crime, with 226,847 more facing pending criminal charges. Multiple U.S. citizens were brutally murdered by illegal aliens during the Biden administration, including Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and Maryland mother Rachel Morin. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly highlighted stories of victims of illegal immigration, pledging to secure America’s border and deport those living in the U.S. illegally. Since Trump’s return to the White House, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan have spearheaded the administration’s efforts to seal the border and arrest and deport illegal aliens, with priority placed on the removal of criminal illegal aliens. "The Biden administration let in people from all over the world that are horrible individuals, along with people who came here trying to be a part of America," Noem said Thursday during an interview on Fox News. Since Trump took office, the Department of Homeland Security has "removed hundreds and hundreds of known and suspected terrorists through these ICE operations," Noem said.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [7/10/2025 9:30AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4622K]

The Hill [7/10/2025 12:30 PM, John Gross, 18649K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia is guilty of something, even if the government isn’t quite sure what it is. At the June 6 press conference announcing his return to the U.S. from El Salvador and his indictment, Attorney General Pam Bondi promised a "major update in an important case." She went on to list a series of crimes — everything from the trafficking of women, children, gang members, guns and drugs, to the solicitation of nude photos from a minor and the murder of a rival gang member’s mother. But the actual indictment charged him only with the unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens based on a single traffic stop in Tennessee from 2022. The average sentence for such a crime is just 15 months. This was hardly a "major update in an important case," until you consider what is at stake — namely the legitimacy of the current administration’s aggressive deportation policies. While campaigning, President Trump promised to prioritize deportation for people without legal status who were a threat to public safety. But Abrego Garcia, who had been living in the United States for over a decade, had no criminal record before he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador this year. The 29-year-old Salvadoran man was married and working in construction. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has consistently claimed, with little to no evidence, that Abrego Garcia is a dangerous gang member whom they had every right to deport, even if they failed to follow all the steps required to afford him due process and sent him to a country where they were not supposed to. It is clear their approach to immigration enforcement is either indiscriminate or incompetent; or both.

Washington Examiner [7/10/2025 11:32 AM, Christopher Tremoglie, 1934K] reports it’s an achievement that could be considered another example of the Trump administration’s "promises made, promises kept" mantra. With their commitment to purging radical left-wing cultural indoctrination programs that have corroded the government, the presidential administration recently removed another government initiative from the Department of Homeland Security. During the last week of June, Secretary Kristi Noem terminated the deceptively named "Invent2Prevent," a federal program that claimed to motivate high school and college students to develop ideas to prevent terrorism. However, a statement by the agency about the I2P program revealed its connections, and outright promotions, of encouraging students to embrace left-wing, agenda-driven ideals and principles. "Despite its high cost, the program accomplished very little towards its apparent mission: preventing terrorism," read a release announcing Noem’s decision to cut the program. "Instead, it funneled taxpayer money into a highly politicized organization called ‘The Eradicate Hate Global Summit,’ which promoted DEI and LGBTQ ideology at K-12 schools." Additionally, the release claimed that funds were used to deceive and manipulate people at a young age. Specifically mentioned were programs that supposedly had benevolent objectives but were used as fronts for political messaging that focused on left-wing objectives such as DEI and radical gender ideology. "President Trump was given a mandate by the American people to eliminate wasteful government spending, and that is exactly what we are doing," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "This program was not only wasteful, it was also using public money to support an openly partisan and political organization. Politicized NGOs like Eradicate Hate have been siphoning away taxpayer dollars for far too long. We are ending the grift."

FOX News [7/10/2025 8:00 AM, Jeremy Hunt, 46878K] reports this week, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a nationwide ban on farmland sales to Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries. At the same joint press conference, Defense Sec. Hegseth added that the Department of Defense would also work specifically to restrict the sale of other properties near American military bases. As a former Army intelligence captain, this week’s announcement doesn’t just bring welcome news—it delivers a sigh of relief. After four years of weakness under the Biden administration, we finally have a commander-in-chief who isn’t afraid to confront the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) dangerous moves on American soil. In recent years, Chinese nationals expanded their ownership of U.S. land to 265,000 acres. Even worse, Chinese entities have strategically purchased properties near 19 key military installations, including Fort Bragg and Fort Hood. They’ve also bought control of key industries vital to our food supply lines. In fact, China now controls the import of 70% of crop protection products that our farmers rely on to grow their crops. You don’t need to be an intelligence expert to see the inherent national security vulnerability that arises if we surrender key American industries to Chinese-backed companies. Fortunately, several states like Georgia, Florida, and Texas have already stepped up to ban foreign land purchases, especially near military bases within their states. Now, the Trump administration is taking the fight nationally. Officials are cracking down on acquisitions across the country and taking the decisive steps needed to protect both our military infrastructure and American food security. These concerns aren’t just hypothetical—they’re playing out in alarming ways. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [7/10/2025 7:00 AM, Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet, 18649K] reports beware of fiery Chinese dragons proffering peace proposals to end the bloody fighting in Ukraine. They are not what they seem to be. In February, Chinese officials floated the idea of Xi Jinping hosting a peace summit with President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Team Trump wisely rejected Xi as an intermediary, given the growing military and economic alliance between Moscow and Beijing. Xi’s offer was indeed a Trojan Horse, designed, at best, to obtain Ukraine’s unconditional surrender at the expense of the U.S., and, at worst, calculated to buy Putin time as his military is bogged down in a war of attrition. Now we are seeing China’s real intentions. Beijing increasingly views Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a useful proxy war against the U.S. Team Trump admirably wants to end the senseless bloodshed. Xi, however, is now aiming to prolong the war so as to strategically deplete U.S. weapons and munitions stockpiles and to provide the Kremlin time to rebuild its badly mauled military. Beijing’s participation in Putin’s war was indirect at first, coming in the form of cheap oil and gas purchases and then dual use technologies. Now, Xi is dropping the pretense. Last week in Brussels, Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, said the quiet part out loud. During a private conversation with Kaja Kallas, he made clear that "Beijing can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine as this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China." Then, on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky brought receipts. Ukraine’s Security Service, sifting through the wreckage of Putin’s massive July 4 attack on Kyiv, found evidence that five Chinese companies were directly supplying key components of the Russian-built version of the Iranian Shahed 136/131 drone. Ukraine immediately imposed economic sanctions on the five Chinese companies whose stamped parts were found in the drones — Central Asia Silk Road International Trade, Suzhou Ecod Precision Manufacturing, Shenzhen Royo Technology, Shenzhen Jinduobang Technology, and Ningbo BLIN Machinery. Since the beginning of the war in February 2022, Beijing has taken an official stance of neutrality. In reality, however, Xi is fully colluding with Putin.

CBS News [7/10/2025 6:52 PM, Staff, 51860K] Video: HERE reports the U.S. is on the verge of its most intense spending spree on immigration enforcement in modern history, fueled by tens of billions of dollars inside the new economic law that President Trump signed on July Fourth. CBS News immigration and politics reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez has the details.

NewsMax [7/10/2025 1:49 PM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4622K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests were at their highest point in five years last month, while the number of people being deported has amounted to about half of those who were arrested, new internal figures from the agency show. Data obtained by NBC News shows that ICE agents arrested about 30,000 immigrants in June, the most in one month since the agency started making its reports public in November 2020, with over 18,000 being deported. In May, ICE arrested roughly 24,000 immigrants, deporting over 15,000. Immigration attorneys explained that the difference between the arrests and the deportations comes from many who have been arrested but still have pending asylum cases and other orders from immigration judges, which temporarily block their deportations. President Donald Trump’s administration, since February, has averaged about 14,700 deportations per month, coming in below the monthly average of 36,000 in 2013, when the Obama administration had the most deportations. ICE data show that from February to April 2024, the Biden administration was deporting an average of 12,660 immigrants a month, including a surge of immigrants who were arrested by Customs and Border Protection at the U.S.-Mexico border. The previous record high for arrests, meanwhile, came in January 2023, when agency data showed ICE arrested 18,170 people. Detained immigrants have complained about the lack of medical care, food, hygiene, and access to bedding and laundry at the holding facilities, but Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said any claim of "overcrowding or subprime conditions is categorically false."

NewsMax [7/10/2025 12:57 PN, Mark Swanson, 4622K] reports Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., slammed dangerous law enforcement rhetoric being generated by the left, telling Newsmax on Thursday that inciting violence against officers shows Democrats are "ignorant pawns" in a "subversive, anarchist agenda." Moody joined "National Report" in the wake of two targeted attacks on federal border and immigration facilities in Texas over the past week. Moody pointed out it is not just Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents under attack; local and state law enforcement officers — as well as their families — are also under fire from the rhetoric to unmask and confront officers involved in illegal immigration enforcement. "[President Donald] Trump came in and said, ‘America, I’m here to help: We’re going to make communities safe again,’" Moody said. "And he has enlisted other agencies outside ICE. You also have state and local law enforcement officers helping in this effort to make communities safe." An Alvarado, Texas, police officer was shot in the targeted and organized attack on the Prairieland Detention Center on July 4. A man was shot and killed Monday by federal and local law enforcement after opening fire on a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas. Moody put the blame at the feet of Democrats. "We have to understand that this is just more of the same Democratic anti-police rhetoric," Moody said. "We saw it years ago with the riots – and the defund police and we should abolish police – so when you’re seeing lawmakers using this really incendiary rhetoric and showing up at ICE facilities and saying it’s inspiring that people are going after and targeting ICE, using words like the Gestapo. I mean, it’s not just the law enforcement officers that are feeling this, it’s their families."

The Hill [7/10/2025 10:57 AM, Tara Suter, 18649K] reports Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents Wednesday for wearing masks as they carry out the Trump administration’s escalating crackdown on illegal immigration. "These ICE agents would do themselves a lot of favor and have more credibility if they did not wear masks and they identified themselves more, because if they are standing on lawfulness, they shouldn’t be afraid to show their faces," Swalwell told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on his show. "And so that part bothers me as well, that they, no other law enforcement agency, operates routinely the way that they’re doing this, and it’s terrorizing people," he added. In a Monday letter, a group of Senate Democrats pressed ICE on uniform and masking protocol. "We write regarding the apparent widespread violations of historical norms and traditions in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (‘ICE’) operations in Los Angeles and across the country by engaging in law enforcement activities—including arrests—without wearing identifying uniforms and while masked," the lawmakers wrote. In their letter, the group of Democrats questioned ICE on its "policies with regards to wearing masks while on duty" and its "policies with regards to wearing uniforms or other identifiable markers while on duty."

NPR [7/10/2025 5:00 AM, Leila Fadel, Adam Bearne, Barry Gordemer, and H.J. Mai, 37958K] reports a man lies pinned in the middle of the road, groaning in pain. He’s surrounded by men in tactical gear marked "Police," their faces covered by masks and dark sunglasses. One officer punches him repeatedly in the head. Outside a courthouse in San Antonio, a woman and her 3-year-old son are led away by men in plainclothes with their faces obscured. Her husband calls out, "My wife, my son," in Spanish. These scenes have been captured in various videos posted online by firsthand witnesses of the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration across several U.S. cities. The arrests follow a pattern: masked agents, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal officers assigned to work with ICE, wearing plainclothes and sometimes arriving in unmarked vehicles. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told NPR that agents are covering their faces to protect themselves from doxing and increasing threats. But civil rights groups and legal advocates say it’s creating fear and undermining public trust. "It may well be a reason for masking if you are engaged in a clandestine operation against an organized drug ring or a well-armed gang of some sort," said Stephen Kass, a member of the New York City Bar Association, which last month criticized agents for obscuring their identities through masking. "But that’s not what’s happening here." Kass is referring to arrests like the one that Job Garcia witnessed at a Home Depot in Hollywood, Calif. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

The Hill [7/10/2025 6:09 PM, Elizabeth Crisp, 18649K] reports Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) continued to distance himself from the progressive wing of his party on Thursday with a social media post defending Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "ICE performs an important job for our country," he wrote on the social platform X. "Any calls to abolish ICE are [100 percent] inappropriate and outrageous.” Fetterman’s post comes as some Democrats have joined protests against ICE during President Trump’s immigration crackdown and mass workplace raids. Several protesters and Democratic figures have been arrested, detained or charged in recent weeks over their tactics, which have included impromptu appearances at ICE detention facilities and at immigration court hearings. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who backed legislation to abolish the immigration enforcement agency in 2018, called ICE a "rogue agency that doesn’t follow the law and has zero oversight or accountability" in an Thursday post on X. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) recently faced backlash over a fundraising email renewing her calls for ICE to be dismantled. Asked about the push among some Democrats to eliminate ICE during an appearance on ABC’s "The View" on Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) didn’t directly respond to the merits of the movement but reiterated his opposition to ICE’s tactics. "I definitely think that we need aggressive oversight as it relates to the overly aggressive behavior that we’re seeing from ICE, from the Department of Homeland Security," he said.

FOX News [7/10/2025 8:18 AM, Danielle Wallace, 46878K] Video HERE reports a new bill in Massachusetts aims to require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal immigration enforcement officers to unmask. The legislative proposal was introduced Wednesday by Democratic state Rep. James Hawkins. It calls for a new section to the Massachusetts Penal Code that states, "A law enforcement officer shall not wear any mask or personal disguise while interacting with the public in the performance of their duties, except for medical grade masks that are surgical or N95 respirators designed to prevent the transmission of airborne diseases and masks designed to protect against exposure to smoke or toxins during a state of emergency.” "A violation of this section shall be punishable as a misdemeanor," the bill, which was co-sponsored by another 10 Democratic state representatives, said. It says the intent of the legislature is to enact legislation "to require law enforcement officers to include their name or badge number on their uniforms," as well as to enact legislation to "ensure that Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team officers can utilize gear necessary to protect their faces from physical harm while they perform their SWAT responsibilities." ICE acting director Todd Lyons defended mask-wearing by his agents during a May press conference announcing an operation had resulted in nearly 1,500 arrests across Massachusetts. "I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line, because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is," Lyons during a press conference in Boston. "Is that the issue here that we’re upset about, the masks? Or is anyone upset about the fact that ICE officers’ families were labeled terrorists?" Most of those arrested in the Massachusetts operation had "significant criminality in the U.S. or abroad" and agents targeted "the most dangerous alien offenders in some of the most crime-infested neighborhoods of Massachusetts," officials said. "If sanctuary cities would change their policies and turn these violent criminal aliens over to us, into our custody, instead of releasing them to the public, we would not have to go out to the communities and do this," Lyons added. "Boston’s my hometown, and it really shocks me that officials all over Massachusetts would rather release sex offenders, fentanyl dealers, drug dealers, human traffickers and child rapists back into the neighborhoods." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [7/10/2025 2:19 PM, David Zimmermann, 1934K]

NewsNation [7/10/2025 12:01 PM, Mira Wassef and Katie Corrado, 5801K] reports a New York high school student from Haiti was released from ICE custody Wednesday, more than a month after he was detained at a court in Lower Manhattan, officials said. Alan Junior Pierre, 20, who attends Spring Valley High School, was taken into custody following an immigration hearing on June 4 and was being held at Delaney Hall in Newark. Pierre told NewsNation affiliate WPIX through a translator that he was very grateful to be out. He described eating only bread and water for a week while at the facility. His dad, Dutan Pierre, who is a U.S. citizen, said he tried to bring his son from his native Haiti on a green card. It was not a safe environment for him, the dad said. Congressman Mike Lawler said he was grateful for Pierre’s release after working with the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate the process.

The Hill [7/10/2025 9:29 AM, Emily Rahhal, 18649K] reports Jane can only remember crying twice during her hours-long detention after being denied entry into the United States from Switzerland. The first time was when she was chained to a chair at John F. Kennedy Airport after six hours of interrogation. The second was when she realized her menstrual cycle had started inside Elizabeth Detention Center, a privately owned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility criticized for poor conditions since it opened in the 1990s. "The way I felt, I smelled, I looked — dehumanizing," Jane, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Nexstar’s WPIX. "They treat us worse than animals." What was meant to be a birthday trip after a battle with cancer had quickly turned into a nightmare when Jane was denied entry into the United States and detained at the New Jersey facility. Documents on ICE letterhead reviewed by WPIX confirm Jane was detained and released from Elizabeth Detention Center this year. Jane’s experience left her scarred with recurring nightmares and bruises, she said. But as the daughter of political refugees and a language teacher, Jane has found new purpose. "I had to experience this to be able to show people the ugly truth of America," Jane said. "They took away from me my biggest love, they took away New York from me in such an ugly way. But I saw it, and I saw what this country’s doing with innocent girls." Jane was told she was denied entry because officers suspected she planned to work in the United States, something not allowed with the Visa Waiver Program that Jane has used without issue for years. The visa waiver is offered to only 42 countries, including many in Europe, and requires travelers to waive their right to contest a deportation, according to the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. At the airport, multiple Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers combed through her luggage, phone, laptop, bank accounts and social media. They repeatedly accused her of lying, Jane said.

Axios [7/10/2025 5:45 AM, Laura Barrero, 13599K] reports the threat of ICE enforcement is weighing on Charlotte’s immigrant community. A surge in arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is fueling fear, racial tension and economic hardship in Charlotte, local business owners tell Axios. President Trump’s team has been demanding that agents arrest 3,000 immigrants a day — an unprecedented pace ICE is still trying to reach, Axios’ Brittany Gibson reports. We spoke to three immigrant entrepreneurs in Charlotte, who say they’re seeing a trickle-down effect across several industries due to the immigration crackdown. Fear is spreading, regardless of immigration status. "No matter what their status is, they’re afraid to go out, to drive, to speak up," said Astrid Muñoz, who co-owns SQS Catering, Mr. Pollo, SQS Junk Removal Service and SQS Janitorial with her husband Carlos Bergman. Muñoz describes customers and staff alike growing anxious about public interaction. Racist language, tense encounters with clients and fear of separation from family are all part of the emotional toll.

DailySignal [7/10/2025 5:27 PM, Rebecca Downs, 558K] reports Imam Ayman Soliman, formerly a chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital with suspected ties to a terror watchlist, has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported such news on Wednesday, though it left out some crucial details. The original headline and a post shared over X failed to mention that Soliman is a former chaplain at the hospital. The report detailed how Soliman was detained by federal officials on July 9, seven months after his asylum status was revoked. Such a status would have been revoked in December 2024, when then-President Joe Biden, whose administration was particularly relaxed on immigration, was in office. Melugin’s post focused on Soliman’s asylum status being revoked during the Biden administration last year, how he was "apparently flagged on the FBI terror watchlist," has sued the federal government "multiple times," and met with ICE and FBI before his arrest. Further, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, called out her "hometown paper" for not properly addressing "the FBI terror watchlist" connection, and emphasized that his status was revoked under the previous administration.

Chicago Tribune [7/10/2025 7:20 AM, Richard Requena, 3987K] reports Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents seized and detained a man who has lived in Skokie for 25 years when he was walking in his neighborhood Saturday, local government officials said. Several officials quickly expressed concern, and Cook County Commissioner Josina Morita said the man, originally from Mexico, does not have a criminal record, is in his 50s and lives with his family, including his grown children and grandkids. Morita, in a separate capacity from her commissioner role, also leads the Niles Township branch of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights Rapid Response team, which is assisting the Skokie man and his family. The news prompted words of support from the Skokie Village Board and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s office. At Monday’s Skokie Village Board meeting, Mayor Ann Tennes called the incident "a difficult day in Skokie." Rep. Schakowsky is personally leading an attempt to reunite the man with his family, said Alex Moore, her office’s communications director. Morita said that in her role with ICIRR, she has been in contact with the Skokie immigrant’s family, and they told her he was transported from Skokie to a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview. Because the Broadview facility is not a detention center, he awaits being transferred to a detention center, with the closest ones being in Wisconsin, Kentucky and Indiana, Morita said. To her knowledge, she said, the Skokie man is the first person to be detained by ICE in Niles Township, which includes Skokie, Lincolnwood and portions of Niles and Morton Grove.

The Hill [7/10/2025 12:16 PM, Winnie Dortch, Marisa Rodriguez, and Julian Crews, 18649K] reports local leaders are speaking out after they say federal agents entered Chicago’s National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture and refused to show a badge or identification. Nexstar’s WGN was informed that several federal agents arrived at the museum, located in the city’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, on Tuesday afternoon. No prior notice was given, and when they were asked to show identification, the federal agents reportedly refused. "What happened yesterday was an intentional scare tactic and has nothing to do with safety," said 35th Ward Alderperson Anthony Quezada. "It was meant to send a message to our undocumented neighbors, to our cultural institutions and to our entire community that they are being watched and that they are not safe. But let me be absolutely clear, we reject that message. We will not be intimidated. We will not allow federal overreach to violate our rights or are spaces. We will resist." Alderperson Jessie Fuentes said several Homeland Security vehicles pulled into the museum’s parking lot and were there for about two hours. "We watched the parking lot get filled up with about 15 to 20 Homeland Security vehicles," Fuentes added. Security cameras at Chicago’s Museum of Puerto Rican Art captured the unexpected arrival of what appeared to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Homeland Security agents. "What they did yesterday was a blatant attack," Quezada said. "A fear tactic. You are not welcome in Chicago."

American Military News [7/10/2025 5:00 PM, Timothy Frudd] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested 11 illegal immigrants who have been convicted as “sexual predators” as part of an enforcement operation last month in Minneapolis. In a Wednesday press release, the Department of Homeland Security announced that ICE officials at the St. Paul field office arrested multiple “criminal illegal aliens, all of whom are convicted sexual predators” as part of a coordinated enforcement operation from June 6 to June 11 in the Minneapolis area. “Under Tim Walz’s leadership, these depraved individuals have been walking freely around Minneapolis with impunity terrorizing American children,” the Department of Homeland Security stated. The illegal immigrants arrested in the Minneapolis enforcement operation include Pao Angelo Vang and Thong Lao, two Laotian illegal immigrants convicted of second-degree sexual assault of a child; Va Vang, a Laotian illegal immigrant convicted of first-degree sexual assault; Xiong Pao Vang, a Laotian illegal immigrant convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14; Pok Vue, a Laotian illegal immigrant convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct; and Hue Nai Cheng, a Laotian illegal immigrant convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Breitbart [7/10/2025 12:33 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is skewering the media for suggesting that the alleged illegal immigrant pedophiles arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of operations in Minneapolis had a fundamental "cultural misunderstanding.” DHS detailed the several Laotian and Thai criminal illegal aliens who were arrested as part of the operation. Some had convictions of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, and others had rap sheets including 2nd degree sexual assault of a child. The Minnesota Star put it this way: "The deportations bring anxiety to the Hmong community, and accusations of cultural misunderstanding.” Cher Her of St. Paul, a surgical instrument repair technician who was there buying medicinal herbs, said people with extensive, violent criminal records deserve deportation. But he also pointed out the cultural complications in a Hmong culture where people marry much younger than in America. Her married at 16; he’s now 41, married to the same woman and has eight kids. He’s been a U.S. citizen for decades. He worries how shifting deportation tactics could affect his brother, who got in trouble with the law as a teen but has since matured, with a job, a wife and a family. "Rather than defend American victims, the Minnesota Star Tribune sympathized with convicted child sexual predators," DHS wrote in response, adding more perspective by highlighting Chia Neng Vue, who was convicted of criminal sexual conduct with a child under 13 years old in 1998 and convicted of "committing a crime for the benefit of a gang." His final order of removal was issued October 31, 2003. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the framing on these arrests by the Minnesota Star "may take gold for despicable.” "We have seen a lot of gross reporting, but this may take gold for despicable. There is no excuse for anyone to commit crimes against innocent children. These pedophiles are the types of sickos our brave ICE law enforcement officers are putting their lives on the line to arrest and remove from American communities," she said, emphasizing that this illegal immigrant "repeatedly broke our laws, committed sex and other violent crimes.”

FOX News [7/10/2025 10:54 AM, Greg Norman, 46878K] reports a suspect was arrested in Texas after allegedly damaging and chasing down an Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicle, police said. The office of Harris County Constable Mark Herman said the incident unfolded Wednesday near a shopping plaza in Humble, just outside of Houston. "ICE agents reported that they were being aggressively pursued by an unknown suspect," it said in a post on Facebook. "Deputies quickly responded and located the suspect, identified as Sergio Olivares.” "An investigation revealed that Olivares had confronted the federal agents, damaged a side mirror on their vehicle, and then chased them down the roadway in a reckless and dangerous manner, endangering surrounding motorists," the office added. Constables then helped ICE bring the situation under control and took Olivares into custody without further incident, authorities said. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Olivares was charged with criminal mischief and is being held at the Harris County Jail on a $500 bond. The incident happened just days after the Justice Department named 10 individuals charged with shooting a police officer in the neck and opening fire on other correctional officers outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on the Fourth of July. "On Independence Day, a group of about 15 rioters violently attacked the ICE Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas – and shot at a local police officer," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The officer sustained an injury to his neck and was transported to a nearby hospital. Thankfully, he has since been discharged and is expected to make a full recovery.”

Federalist [7/10/2025 7:38 AM, Kyle Shideler, 1142K] reports months of violent left-wing anti-ICE rhetoric achieved its apparently desired end state this week as an alleged Antifa cell conducted an attempted assassination of police officers outside the Praireland Detention Center, being used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a detention facility for illegal aliens. On July 4, 11 black-garbed individuals, some equipped with body armor, ammunition, and firearms, conducted what the Department of Justice described as a "planned ambush." Two of the attackers allegedly opened fire on ICE officers after their comrades initiated a disturbance to lure officers out of the building and into the line of fire by launching fireworks and spray painting anti-ICE slogans on nearby property. A police officer was shot in the neck but is expected to live. According to the criminal complaint filed by the Department of Justice, pamphlets on insurrectionary anarchism and propaganda materials, including a "Resist Fascism" flag, were recovered by law enforcement. The equipment, tactics, political literature, and target selection are all consistent with Antifa, short for Anti-Fascist Action, a networked movement of anarcho-communist groups that use violence against political opponents. For a decade now, I have been a student of this network, its origins, and ideology. As I told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution in 2020, Antifa is the direct linear descendant of the violent communist urban guerrilla movements of the 1970s like the Weather Underground. Like its predecessors, which also began with campus protests and street riots, Antifa has over the past several years evolved to the use of bombings, especially firebombings targeting police vehicles, pregnancy resource centers, and more recently Tesla dealerships. And to this escalation, we can now add the planned ambush of federal officers. This was a totally foreseeable development. As a 2021 German Ministry of the Interior report noted, Antifa and related left extremists were demonstrating: …an obvious shift away from the ‘mass militancy’ of demonstrations and towards violent acts by small groups acting covertly. Their violence has shifted to the sidelines of gatherings or is entirely independent of these events. In other words, a warning was provided. Since 2020, I have traveled the country providing threat briefings on Antifa to state and local law enforcement agencies, warning of the increased likelihood of violence, including a case study of Willem Van Spronsen, the Antifa member who used Molotov cocktails and a rifle in an attack on a Tacoma, Washington, ICE detention center in July of 2019. Many of the officers I speak to have privately expressed a frustration about the ability to get quality information about Antifa and similar left-wing extremist threats from the federal government.

Breitbart [7/10/2025 10:43 AM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports a Harris County Precinct 4 Deputy Constable arrested a man who reportedly attempted to interfere with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace enforcement operation near Houston on July 9. The man, who is the son of the owner of the business visited by ICE agents, allegedly chased the agents and then struck one of the vehicles as it stopped at a traffic light. Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman told Breitbart Texas on Thursday that his deputies received a high-priority call from ICE agents asking for assistance following the attack on their agents near Humble, Texas, a city located on the northeast side of Houston. Deputies responded to the call for assistance and arrested 22-year-old Sergio Olivares, a U.S. citizen. Herman told Breitbart that ICE agents carried out a workplace enforcement operation in Humble. As the agents finished their business and were about to leave, Herman said Olivares arrived in a vehicle and began to confront the agents, causing damage to one of the vehicles. When the agents departed, the man reported to be the son of the business owner, began to pursue the agents. Agents said he drove in a reckless manner, endangering the lives of the agents and other motorists in the area. Herman’s deputies arrested the man on charges of criminal mischief and reckless driving, both are classified as misdemeanors. "The liberal Democrat district attorney’s office would not accept any charges of more serious crimes," the constable told Breitbart. "We will be getting with federal authorities and the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas to pursue additional charges for interference with federal agents.” In November 2024, Olivares was charged in Harris County with interference with public duties when he allegedly interfered with a police officer in the performance of their official duties, according to court records obtained by Breitbart Texas. That charge was later dismissed. At the same time, Olivares was also charged with two counts of racing on a highway. All three of these misdemeanor charges were dismissed in exchange for a plea on a subsequent felony charge. In March 2025, Olivares was charged with a State Jail Felony possession of less than one gram of cocaine and unlawful carrying of a firearm. The District Attorney’s office and the defendant’s court-appointed lawyer negotiated a pre-trial diversion agreement for a period of one year-leading to the dismissal of all of the pending misdemeanor charges, the records show. One of the conditions of the pre-trial diversion program is that the defendant commit no crime in the state of Texas, any other state, or the United States for which he can be arrested. This week’s arrest appears to be a violation of that agreement. Breitbart contacted the office of Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare for additional information about why the assistant district attorneys declined more serious charges and whether the office will pursue a violation of the pre-trial diversion. If Olivares is subsequently convicted on the cocaine possession charge, he could face up to two years in State Jail.

The Washington Examiner [7/10/2025 6:18 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1934K] reports the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that it captured two internationally wanted MS-13 gang leaders this week. Authorities captured Rene Escobar-Ochoa, an alleged drug trafficker, in Omaha, Nebraska, and captured an unnamed El Salvadoran national, wanted for multiple murders, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. "The Biden administration allowed two ringleaders of MS-13, one of the most violent gangs in the world, straight into our country," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a press release. "One of these depraved aliens is on El Salvador’s 100 Most Wanted Fugitives list and is wanted for five counts of murder. The other has an INTERPOL notice for drug trafficking. These are the kinds of scum-bags sanctuary politicians are protecting and letting walk free on America’s streets," she added. The Trump administration has designated the Mara Salvatrucha gang as a terrorist organization and touted the other arrests of top leaders in the organization, including an MS-13 leader in March. Homeland Security Investigations special agents at HSI-Omaha led the investigation, leading to the two arrests of individuals, both wanted in El Salvador, with assistance from federal and international law enforcement partners. Escobar-Ochoa has an "INTERPOL Red Notice from El Salvador for drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit murder," according to the DHS. Border Patrol encountered him in 2023, but the DHS says he was allowed to remain in the U.S. ICE has removed more than 65,000 people from the U.S. since President Donald Trump took office. "We removed over 65,000 illegal aliens to countries across the world," ICE acting Director Todd M. Lyons said in June when ICE released the numbers from the first 100 days. "We’re just 100 days into this administration, and thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is using every tool at its disposal to enforce our country’s immigration laws and protect our communities.” NewsMax [7/10/2025 10:46 AM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4622K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested a man in Omaha, Nebraska, that the agency described as an MS-13 "kingpin" and one of El Salvador’s top 100 most wanted fugitives. ICE reportedly declined to identify the man who was arrested Wednesday, citing the ongoing investigation. A press release described him as "a criminal alien wanted in El Salvador" on several charges, including "the aggravated homicide of five victims; attempted aggravated homicide; deprivation of liberty; and terrorist organization affiliation.” "These illegal aliens didn’t just sneak into our country; they brought with them a legacy of violence, terror, and death," Homeland Security Investigations’ Mark Zito wrote in a statement. "They thought they could hide in America’s heartland, but they were sadly mistaken. Not on our watch.” Zito is special agent in charge in Kansas City. According to ICE, the high-ranking MS-13 gang member was arrested along with another MS-13 member he was living with, who was also in the United States illegally. The associate was identified as Rene Saul Escobar Ochoa, 30, who is also wanted in El Salvador. Escobar Ochoa is accused of ordering fellow gang members "to commit a variety of crimes, including multiple homicides, extortion, imprisonment, and drug trafficking.” "Our ICE officers and agents are protecting your neighborhoods, even when you don’t know the threat is there, so either support them or get out of the way," Todd Lyons, ICE acting director, wrote in a statement. The investigation is being conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s Enforcement Removal Operations, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to the release.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/10/2025 4:52 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K]
Breitbart [7/10/2025 5:06 PM, Amy Furr, 3077K]
Daily Wire [7/10/2025 9:56 AM, Mary Margaret Olohan, 3816K]

Axios [7/10/2025 8:20 AM, Erin Alberty, 13599K] reports since mid-May, immigration agents in Utah — and nationwide —have ramped up arrests of people who have no criminal convictions or pending charges. ICE arrests in Utah have more than doubled since President Trump took office, compared with the same period last year. That’s according to data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, newly obtained by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley. After a blitz of arrests during the first few weeks of President Trump’s term, ICE agents in Utah detained fewer people in March and April. They also focused more on subjects with criminal records, according to the arrestees’ listed criminal status. During those spring months, people without charges or convictions accounted for about 5% to 10% of all arrests each week. That appears to have changed in mid-May, when arrests spiked. Since then, about a third of those arrested in Utah had no criminal history documented in the ICE data. "Secretary Noem has unleashed the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) to target the worst of the worst—including gang members, murderers, and rapists," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson wrote to Axios in a statement.

Los Angeles Times [7/10/2025 6:13 PM, Dakota Smith, 14672K] reports for a week, two guards linked to the Department of Homeland Security have camped out in the lobby of a Glendale hospital to monitor the movements of a woman patient admitted after she was arrested by federal agents — a constant watch that has been denounced by nurses, a state lawmaker and others. Ariana Gomez, labor representative at California Nurses Association, which represents nurses at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, said Thursday there is "overwhelming discomfort" about the use of the guards. At first, the guards positioned themselves behind a reception desk. The guards eventually moved a couple of feet away and several panels were erected to partially obscure their presence from hospital visitors in the lobby. The patient, Milagro Carolina Solis-Portillo, an El Salvador national, was arrested July 3 by federal officials near her Sherman Oaks home and later brought to the hospital after she suffered a medical emergency during her transport. Solis-Portillo "is an illegal alien from El Salvador who has been removed from the United States twice and has been arrested for crimes of false identification, theft, and burglary," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She declined to comment on the protocol of DHS-contracted security at hospitals. DHS declined to provide additional details about Solis-Portillo’s case.

NBC News [7/10/2025 4:10 PM, Joey Safchick, NBC San Diego, 44540K] Video: HERE reports a grandmother planning to document Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests at the San Diego courthouse instead became herself the story on Tuesday, after video of her arrest began circulating online. The 71-year-old woman, U.S. citizen Barbara Stone, was accused of pushing an ICE agent and was placed in custody for several hours. Stone denied the allegation to NBC 7 on Wednesday. Stone was handcuffed and held by federal agents for eight hours, according to her family. NBC 7 made several attempts to contact ICE about the incident but was referred to the Federal Protective Service, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. FPS has not responded to a request for comment. Stone was at the court to observe proceedings, which is legal and a First Amendment right, according to Ruth Mendez of the organization Detention Resistance. No charges have been pressed against Stone, but her family said her phone was confiscated.

The Hill [7/10/2025 10:06 AM, Josh DuBose, 18649K] reports a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation inside a California medical clinic earlier this week grew heated as staff came to the defense of an undocumented man seeking shelter inside the facility. The Tuesday incident unfolded inside the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center after 30-year-old Denis Guillen-Solis and two other landscapers, who were working outside the building, were targeted by federal immigration officers in masks and bulletproof vests. Javier Hernandez, who is with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said the agents never identified themselves. "They basically just started running after him," he explained. "[Solis] then ran inside of the clinic where they were working to seek shelter." In a video of the tense confrontation, staff in scrubs can be heard and seen telling the agents to leave, that they were trespassing on private property without a warrant and that they needed to take their hands off the 30-year-old. Two agents, one on either side of a doorway at the clinic, both of whom had their faces covered, were attempting to detain Solis as he clung to the doorway frame, desperately trying to hold on, while weeping. Hernandez told KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo that clinic staff were asking the agents to present identification, a badge or a warrant, but that they never did. In a statement to KTLA about Tuesday’s incident at the surgery center, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: "ICE officers conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest two illegal aliens. Officers in clearly marked ICE bulletproof vests approached the illegal alien targets as they exited a vehicle. One of the illegal aliens, Denis Guillen-Solis who is from Honduras, fled on foot to evade law enforcement. He ended up near the Ontario Advanced Surgical Center where hospital staff assaulted law enforcement and drug the officer and illegal alien into the facility. Then, the staff attempted to obstruct the arrest by locking the door, blocking law enforcement vehicles from moving, and even called the cops claiming there was a ‘kidnapping.’" It’s unclear if any of the staff members at Ontario Advanced Surgery Center will face federal charges.

AP [7/10/2025 6:49 PM, Janie Har, 56000K] reports federal immigration agents seeking to detain a Honduran landscaper chased him into a Southern California surgical center and quickly found themselves in a tense standoff as clinic staff demanded to see identification and a warrant. In a video clip of the Tuesday altercation that has spread on social media, Ontario Advanced Surgery Center staff in blue scrubs are heard telling an armed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent wearing a mask and bulletproof vest to let go of the man, who is crying and gasping for breath. "Get your hands off of him. You don’t even have a warrant," says one staff member, shielding the man from an immigration agent. "Let him go. You need to get out.” ICE has become much more public in detaining migrants, now going into immigration courts and workplaces to cuff people and take them away. This week, the bishop of San Bernardino formally excused Catholic parishioners from their weekly obligation to attend Mass following immigration detentions on two parish properties in the diocese, which includes Ontario. The Department of Homeland Security posted on the social platform X that officers in Ontario were conducting a targeted operation to arrest two men who were in the country illegally when one of the men, identified as a 30-year-old from Honduras, fled on foot. The department said the surgery center staff "assaulted law enforcement" and attempted to obstruct the arrest. The private surgery center, which is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment. Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said agents eventually arrested the Honduran man, and advocates do not know where he is. He was sending money to Honduras to help his mother with her dialysis treatments, Hernandez said. He said he doubts it was a targeted operation as ICE claims because agents also questioned two co-workers until learning they both had legal status, one as a U.S. citizen and the other as a permanent resident.

Telemundo52 [7/10/2025 3:26 PM, Carlos Sánchez and Marvelia Alpizar, 103K] reports the arrest of a Honduran gardener at a clinic in Ontario, San Bernardino County, continues to generate controversy. According to witnesses, the worker ran toward the medical facility after seeing the arrival of federal agents while he was performing his duties. The footage shows the officer attempting to detain the immigrant inside the clinic. Amid the chaos, the staff asks the officer to let him go. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the officers, identified by the initials ICE on their vests, were conducting an operation to arrest two undocumented immigrants when the man fled toward the clinic to evade them. The immigrant was later identified as Denis Guillén. The images have sparked outrage among pro-immigrant organizations and controversy over the authority of federal agents to make arrests on private property. DHS said medical center personnel assaulted law enforcement, attempted to obstruct the arrest, blocked the movement of official vehicles, and called police alleging kidnapping. However, they did not indicate whether Denis Guillén has a criminal record or if anyone at the medical center will face charges.

New York Post [7/10/2025 7:35 PM, Caitlin McCormack, 49956K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents clashed with a mob of masked protesters outside of San Francisco Immigration Court on Tuesday, according to footage released by ICE. The wild confrontation was reportedly sparked by ICE’s detainment of an immigrant at the courthouse, Mission Local reported. The protesters, many donning keffiyehs as makeshift masks, tried to tussle with the agents while shrieking and chanting "Shame on you, shame on you," according to the video. The plain-clothed agents pushed back with their batons, dragging the fight into the street while another group of protesters blocked the entrance to the courthouse. Some agents eventually clambered into their vehicle and tried to drive away as protesters slammed against the side of the car. "F–k you, a——s!" one protester shouted. The car was blocked in by the group of protesters as other ICE agents tried to form a shield around it. The back door, all the while, was still wide open as protesters wailed against the side of the car. Others vaulted onto the hood of the car. The confrontation between the two groups comes as assaults against ICE agents soared up to 700% higher than last year, according to ICE. Last year, deportation raids were also notably lower — and less public — as immigration enforcement wasn’t as high a priority under the Biden Administration. "This behavior is NOT protesting. It’s assaulting federal employees while they’re on duty. It’s impeding federal officers. It’s ILLEGAL. It’s DANGEROUS. And it will NOT stop us from enforcing immigration law," ICE wrote in a post Thursday. Many protesters against ICE asserted that the agency needs to be more transparent by wearing uniforms and ceasing operations in unmarked vehicles. Legislation prohibiting immigration officers from wearing face coverings that conceal their identity has cropped up in Democrat-led states across the US, first in California after the fiery anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.

FOX News [7/10/2025 11:08 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss growing anti-ICE sentiment as agents face increased threats and why critics believe Democrats are heightening the resistance. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [7/10/2025 4:43 PM, Alicia Victoria Lozano, 44540K] reports San Francisco activists said they will continue protesting against the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement after a confrontation with federal officials turned violent this week. On Tuesday, an unmarked SUV drove through a small crowd of demonstrators who had gathered outside the immigration courthouse. The protesters were trying to prevent the arrest of a detained immigrant by blocking the entrance to the building, according to video obtained by NBC Bay Area. The confrontation escalated as federal officials attempted to pull the protesters away from the door. Several refused to move, but a few were forced into the street. A skirmish broke out as at least one demonstrator jumped onto the hood of a vehicle while others were pushed onto the ground. The 50501 Movement, which has organized several anti-Trump and anti-immigration enforcement marches across the country, said in a statement that the protester was injured and was "bleeding everywhere." 50501 added that despite the skirmish, activists will not be intimidated. In an emailed statement, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said protesters were responsible for the violent attack.

Los Angeles Times [7/10/2025 6:00 AM, Michael Wilner, 14672K] reports National Guard troops and immigration agents on horseback, clad in green uniforms and tactical gear, trotted into MacArthur Park on Monday, surrounding the iconic square with armored vehicles in a show of force widely denounced as gratuitous. The enforcement operation produced few tangible results that day. But the purpose of the display was unmistakable. The Trump administration’s monthlong operation in Los Angeles, which began on June 6 with flash raids at work sites and culminated days later with Trump’s deployment of Marines and the Guard, continues to pay political dividends to a president who had been in search of the perfect foil on his signature issue since retaking office, officials close to the president told The Times. At first, officials in the West Wing thought the operation might last only a week or two. But Trump’s team now says the ongoing spectacle has proven a resounding political success with few downsides. Thus far, the administration has managed to fend off initial court challenges, maintain arrests at a steady clip, and generate images of a ruthless crackdown in a liberal bastion that delight the president’s supporters. It may be premature for the president to declare political victory. Anger over the operation has swelled, prompting activism across California. And signs have emerged that the White House may be misreading Trump’s election mandate and the political moment, with new polls showing public sentiment turning nationwide on the president’s increasingly aggressive enforcement tactics. The city has struggled to cope, hobbled by an unpopular mayor and a nationally divisive governor who have been unable to meaningfully respond to the unprecedented federal effort. But the raids have also provided California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, with an opportunity to fill a leadership vacuum as his party grapples to find its footing in the resistance. Lawsuits could still change the course of the operation. A crucial hearing set for Thursday in a case that could challenge the constitutionality of the operation itself. But critics say the pace of litigation has failed to meet the urgency of the moment, just as the president’s aides weigh whether to replicate their L.A. experiment elsewhere throughout the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection have arrested nearly 2,800 people in the L.A. area since the crackdown began.

Breitbart [7/10/2025 5:11 PM, Jasmyn Jordan, 3077K] reports the city of Perris, CA, issued a public alert this week instructing residents to stay home and avoid engaging with federal immigration agents, effectively advising illegal immigrants on how to evade arrest during ongoing ICE operations. In a video message posted to official city channels, Perris Mayor Michael M. Vargas addressed reports of ICE activity, urging residents to remain indoors and avoid contact with federal agents. The message mirrors rhetoric used by larger sanctuary cities like Los Angeles, where Democrat officials have taken increasingly aggressive steps to block federal immigration enforcement.

FOX News [7/10/2025 4:04 PM, Ashley Oliver, Bill Melugin, Cameron Arcand, 46878K] reports a judge in Los Angeles is set to preside over a hearing Thursday that could have major implications for immigration enforcement in California, a state that has become a focal point of President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda. Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, will hear arguments about whether to grant emergency restraining orders against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over allegations the agency is violating constitutional rights during its immigration arrests. The case was initially brought in June as a routine petition from three detainees, but it has ballooned into a weighty lawsuit challenging the way ICE operates. Immigration rights groups and local governments, including the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver, and West Hollywood, have all intervened in the case and Democrat-led states have filed an amicus brief in support of them. The plaintiffs alleged in court papers that ICE is "indiscriminately" arresting people with "brown skin" at Home Depots, car washes, farms and more. Authorities made the arrests with no "reasonable suspicion" and sometimes mistakenly apprehended U.S. citizens in the process, all in violation of the Fourth Amendment, attorneys wrote. The plaintiffs argued the Trump administration gave ICE an unrealistic quota of 3,000 arrests per day, causing officers to feel pressured to blow past legal requirements to achieve those numbers. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is disputing the allegations and denies wrongdoing. Department of Justice attorneys wrote that immigration arrests, of which there have been nearly 3,000 across California since early June, have been carried out legally. The plaintiffs have also asked the judge to expand visitor access to a short-term detention facility in downtown Los Angeles.

New York Times [7/11/2025 3:42 AM, Claire Moses and Orlando Mayorquín, 330K] reports the Diocese of San Bernardino has told its parishioners that they do not have to attend Mass for fear of federal immigration raids. Bishop Alberto Rojas, the leader of the Roman Catholic community of about 1.6 million worshipers in Southern California, said in a letter on Tuesday that members who face a “genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions” if they attend Mass on Sundays or holidays are “dispensed from this obligation.” The bishop’s message was issued as a formal decree. The lifting of the obligation for Catholics is a rare step usually reserved for extenuating circumstances such as the pandemic and comes after many churches in the Los Angeles region have experienced significant drops in attendance at Mass and other events. The diocese in San Bernardino, 60 miles east of Los Angeles, said attendance at Spanish-language Masses across its parishes had dropped by at least half. The San Bernardino Diocese is at least the second in the United States to excuse its members from Mass as the Trump administration escalates federal raids nationwide. In May, after immigration raids in Nashville, that city’s diocese said in a statement that “no Catholic is obligated to attend Mass on Sunday if doing so puts their safety at risk.” In Southern California, interviews with pastors at four churches revealed the extent to which the raids are evoking memories of the Covid lockdowns and are striking at the core of how they support and engage with parishioners. Parents are canceling Baptism ceremonies. Important church events are being postponed. The four pastors said the drop in attendance at Mass at their churches ranged from about 5 percent to as much as 50 percent. At St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles, people used to cram inside the church, with many standing in aisles, said its pastor, Mario Torres. But after the first major raid on June 6, pews that typically fit about 900 people began to only fill about halfway. The church, which primarily serves immigrants from Mexico and Central America, did not hold its annual fiesta at the end of June. “I decided I don’t want to put the people in danger because our parishioners would be outside all day,” Father Torres said of the decision to cancel the event. Still, he has tried to assure his parish that the halls of the church are a safe space. “If ICE shows up to the church, I’ll just close the church, and if they’re going to arrest somebody I’ll be the first one,” he said.

San Francisco Chronicle [7/10/2025 7:00 AM, Ko Lyn Cheang and Chirstian Leonard, 4120K] reports in a windowless courtroom in Concord this May, an El Salvadoran man sat before an immigration judge and an attorney from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He had waited four years for a hearing on his application for asylum. In the days leading up to his day in court, the man told the Chronicle, he had felt sick with fear that he would be deported back to El Salvador, where he said he’d been terrorized by MS-13 gang members who killed six of his family members. Yet the man, whom the Chronicle granted anonymity to protect him from retaliation and to avoid jeopardizing his case, also faced another fear: He had heard stories in the news about asylum seekers getting arrested at their hearings, a Trump administration tactic to escalate the mass deportation of the estimated 11 million unauthorized migrants in the U.S. He knew he had to appear for his hearing if he wanted a chance at being granted asylum. A no-show would all but guarantee an order for his removal in absentia. But by going, he risked detention — and deportation. "One feels the fear," he told the Chronicle in Spanish. "Nowadays, it seems that they don’t care whether this person has a court date or if he has a permit to work. They don’t care." People who’ve waited years for their court date are now afraid to attend their hearings. "I think people are just not here because they’re scared," said Judge Shira Levine as she ran through the list of no-shows at her San Francisco immigration court last month. Immigration courts, an arm of the Department of Justice once little known to most Americans, have been thrust into the spotlight since ICE officers began ramping up arrests of migrants at their hearings in a reversal of the Biden administration’s practice.

Axios [7/10/2025 5:30 AM, Emily Peck, 13599K] reports a small but growing number of employers are offering immigrants support in obtaining visas and green cards — especially those looking for physicians and surgeons, according to new data from jobs site Indeed. Immigration plays a key role in filling jobs within industries facing labor shortages — with health care at the top of the list. The share of job postings that include an offer of visa support spiked over the past few years — from 0.04% in June 2021 to 0.14% in May. These are very small numbers. But what’s most notable is that almost three-quarters of all the job postings that include immigration benefits were in the health care sector. In May 3.2% of help-wanteds for physicians and surgeons included an offer of visa support or green card sponsorship, per Indeed. In New York, 18% of physician jobs offered immigration support.

The big picture: There’s a growing shortage of doctors in the U.S. — projected to reach into the tens of thousands over the next decade, per the Association of American Medical Colleges. Immigration is seen as one way to fill the gap — though there are other policy levers that could be pulled. Health employers facing immediate staffing shortages can turn to temporary visas like H-1Bs that allow qualified professionals to work in the U.S. for a fixed period, often tied to employer sponsorship, per Holland & Hart. Those looking to fill longer-term positions with foreign workers can sponsor them for permanent residency.

AP [7/10/2025 10:11 PM, Javier Cordoba, 31733K] reports the vice president of Costa Rica’s Congress said Thursday that the U.S. embassy told her the U.S. had revoked her visa because of alleged contacts with the Chinese Communist Party. Vanessa Castro of the opposition Social Christian Unity Party, speaking in the Legislative Assembly, denied such ties and said that media outlets allied with President Rodrigo Chaves knew her U.S. visa had been revoked before she did. Castro was one of several Costa Rican figures who came forward Wednesday to say their U.S. visas had been cancelled, including the president of the Congress, who belongs to the opposition National Liberation Party, and two justices on the Supreme Court’s constitutional chamber who have issued rulings that Chaves disliked. "I went and I checked and they told me in the embassy that they had received information that, among other things, I had connections with members of the Chinese Communist Party," Castro said. "You all know me, I have a pretty public life, can you imagine I have a relationship with members of the Chinese Communist Party?". She also noted that she had supported U.S.-Costa Rica initiatives like a regional free trade agreement and joint patrols against drug traffickers. Castro said media outlets that support Chaves’ administration showed up at her office to ask about the visa before she had even been notified. The U.S. embassy said its policy is to not comment on individual visa cases. Chaves played up the visa cancellations Wednesday, saying that "it seemed extremely embarrassing to him that" such important political figures as Castro and Congress President Rodrigo Arias should be unable to travel to the United States. In April, former Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, Rodrigo Arias’ brother, said the U.S. had cancelled his visa without explanation. He speculated that Washington may not have liked his comments on the war in Ukraine, the U.S. trade conflict with China, or the situation in Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made his first overseas trip as the top U.S. diplomat to Central America in February and curbing China’s influence in the region was one of the trip’s central talking points.

CBS News [7/10/2025 8:11 AM, Emmet Lyons, 51860K] Video HERE reports a university in France says nearly 300 American researchers have applied for a space in its "Safe Place for Science" program that was created to lure U.S. researchers seeking "scientific asylum" amid aggressive academic spending cuts and other actions against colleges by the Trump administration. Brian Sandberg, who has taught history at a major U.S. state university for almost two decades, is one of those who’ve sought to take advantage of the program launched in March by Aix-Marseille University. He told CBS News the U.S. risks losing its status as the most attractive global hub of academic research. He expects the White House’s actions to lead to a "brain drain," as many of his academic colleagues in a range of subjects look to depart for similar programs abroad due to the White House’s policies. "The entire American system of research universities and of research in general are under attack in so many different ways," Sandberg told CBS News. "I don’t have any inside knowledge of the Trump administration’s motives, but clearly from their statements and from their actions, there’s an attempt to control research and to control knowledge." "Researchers in all domains of academic research are having their funds frozen by the federal government. In some cases, existing grants were rescinded," he said. "The new grant processes are all being politicized with certain keywords used to essentially censure which subjects are worthy of research and which aren’t," Sandberg said. "So I’ve seen a lot of researchers talking about looking for a plan B." They will find plenty of options. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Federal News Network [7/10/2025 3:12 PM, Terry Gerton, 2346K] Video: HERE reports Customs and Border Protection’s Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) program recently opened it’s seventh office in Laredo, Texas. The program was started in 2001 to ensure safety in international supply chains.

Telemundo47 [7/10/2025 10:36 PM, Staff, 145K] reports ambulances would now be used as a new method for illegally crossing migrants from Mexico to the United States. The director of operations on the San Diego border, Sidney Aki, warned on social media about a case reported last Sunday, July 6, in which an ambulance was allegedly used to cross a migrant from Guatemala. He said the driver, paramedic and migrant, identified as Pedro Jesús González, were arrested. He detailed that the alleged patient was actually what he described as a undocumented impostor who "attempted to deceive to enter the country illegally." The court documents explain how the man was carried out on a secondary inspection to the man’s biometric and fingerprint tests and found to have been deported. However, the federal court in San Diego informed TELEMUNDO 20 of three more cases that would also have occurred in the San Ysidro gate. An ambulance crossed San Diego, on June 10, at 2:39 p.m., was reported to be in San Diego. Later, on 17 June, two ambulances carried out the same strategy, at 6:47 a.m. and 5:34 p.m., it was reported. As a result, there were at least six detainees, three of whom were undocumented Mexicans who had been deported from the United States. They were identified as Juan, Heriberto and Emeterio, deported in 2000, 2023 and 2025, respectively. "I think people are very desperate and they say, ‘Go, we’re going to do it, maybe they didn’t communicate with everyone in the port, not everyone knows about this.’ And the methods are changing those who dedicate themselves to that," said Ricardo González, a criminal lawyer in San Diego. He noted that this irregular crossing mode could affect U.S. citizens in Baja California who really need medical attention. According to Celia Díaz, director of the Binational Emergency Committee, a person without documents can ask for medical support in the United States, but requires a more complex process, with the authorization of the federal authorities. "They have to have some kind of documents so they can cross the line, but if they don’t have, I communicate them with the migration department, to see if they can give them a permit and transport them to the hospital they’re going to receive," Diaz explained.

Politico [7/10/2025 6:31 PM, Ben Fox, 2100K] reports border security was a big winner when Congress passed the “big beautiful bill,” which authorized about $150 billion in new spending to aid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. That includes money to recruit and hire 3,000 Border Patrol agents and 5,000 Customs and Border Protection officers — two law enforcement agencies that have historically been on the front lines of U.S. border security. But that doesn’t mean either agency will have more boots on the ground. Both CBP, whose officers work at the nation’s 328 ports of entry, and the Border Patrol have struggled to hire and retain personnel and both face huge increases in expected retirements over the next three years. The problem is serious enough that both agencies won’t see much, if any, net gain in personnel out of what is otherwise an unprecedented package of border security spending. CBP, for example, has projected a 400 percent increase in retirements in 2028 and its own models have shown a need for 5,850 more officers, according to the National Treasury Employees Union. The union’s president, Doreen Greenwald, said in a statement to POLITICO Nightly that she strongly supports the decision to fund 5,000 positions along with retention bonuses but that Congress still needs “to provide adequate annual funding to maintain hiring and allow the agency to backfill those forthcoming vacancies as quickly as possible.” Border Patrol and CBP have in recent years faced some of the same issues in recruitment that other law enforcement agencies have encountered. It’s harder to find Americans who have the physical fitness and other attributes required for the work and don’t prefer jobs in the generally more lucrative private sector. The Border Patrol, in particular, has the additional challenge of finding people willing to do an often difficult job in a remote outpost like Sanderson, Texas, or Ajo, Arizona. Just hiring, screening and training new agents can take a year — and many people don’t want to spend years in a desolate place where their spouse can’t also find a job. The acting chief patrol agent of the San Diego sector, Jeffrey Stalnaker, said Wednesday that he didn’t yet know the details of the “Big Beautiful Bill” but welcomed any new agents or funding for enforcement as well as retention. “San Diego could use more personnel,” he said. “We could also use additional infrastructure as well as additional technology to help detect anyone crossing the border illegally.”

(B) NBC 10 Boston Today at 6:00am [7/10/2025 6:53 AM, Staff] reports that a New Hampshire man who has lived in the US for more than 40 years is stuck in Canada. Chris Landry holds a green card and is a legal US resident but he was stopped at the border in Houton, Maine. This was on Sunday while returning from a family vacation to Canada. Agents questioned him about his past convictions. Landry was charged with marijuana possession and driving with a suspended license in early 2000. He was denied entry and was told the only way he could get back was by seeing an immigration judge.

FOX News [7/10/2025 7:44 PM, Diana Stancy, 46878K] reports details about the shooter who opened fire on Border Patrol agents at an annex in McAllen, Texas, Monday remain scant days later as assaults against federal immigration officials are on the rise. Authorities identified Ryan Louis Mosqueda, 27, as the suspect Monday, confirming Mosqueda was killed at the scene. "Both Border Patrol agents and local police helped neutralize the shooter," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Monday. "Two officers and a Border Patrol employee were injured, including one shot in the knee. All three have gone to the hospital. This is an ongoing investigation led by the FBI.” But the motive of the shooter still remains unknown, and McAllen, Texas, Police Chief Victor Rodriguez did not have any additional information to share with reporters during a news conference Monday about why Mosqueda opened fire on the agents. The McAllen, Texas, Police Department did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for more details. Rodriguez said the gunman fired off "many dozens" of rounds at Customs and Border Protection’s McAllen, Texas, station. Mosqueda is affiliated with a Michigan address, and his car had Michigan license plates. However, Rodriguez said Mosqueda was reported missing from an address in Weslaco, Texas, less than 20 miles away, and that "an hour and a few minutes later he was at this particular location, opening fire on a federal building.” Mosqueda’s brother, Joe, told Detroit’s WDIV Local he’d never witnessed his brother speak about immigration issues or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but said he suspected he was dealing with undiagnosed mental health challenges. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. The Department of Homeland Security reported earlier in July that assaults against ICE officers and other federal immigration agents have risen nearly 700% compared to 2024. While the agency reported 10 assault incidents between Jan. 1, 2024, and June 30, 2024, that number rose to 79 reported assaults in the same time frame in 2025.

Telemundo 48 El Paso [7/10/2025 4:43 PM, Staff, 9K] reports in an emotional ceremony held this morning at the War Eagles Air Museum, the official change of command of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry took place. The event was led by Hector Mancha, Director of Operations for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the El Paso Sector. Although Michael Quinonez took office in October of last year, his official appointment was only made today to agents, colleagues, and family members. With a 23-year history of federal public service, Quinonez began his career at the Douglas, Arizona, Port of Entry.

San Diego Union Tribune [7/10/2025 7:39 PM, Caleb Lunetta, 1611K] reports a San Ysidro man was charged Wednesday in San Diego federal court with attempting to smuggle 14 exotic toucans across the U.S.-Mexico border after the protected birds were found bound and hidden in his car’s dashboard. The driver, 35, was charged with smuggling merchandise and importation contrary to law, according to federal prosecutors. The arrest occurred June 25 at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry after a Customs and Border Protection dog alerted its handler to a Volkswagen Passat during a screening, according to federal prosecutors and court records. An officer searched the car and found a bird wrapped in cloth and duct-taped underneath the car’s dashboard. The officer didn’t know what the bound object was until it began to move and flutter, prosecutors said. He and his colleagues then pried open a side panel of the dashboard and reportedly found 13 more bound and sedated birds. Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were called to the scene, and a wildlife inspector recognized the animals as juvenile Keel-billed toucans — an exotic species that can be sold for upwards of $5,000 per bird on the black market, prosecutors said. The 14 birds were immediately taken to veterinary services at the southern border, according to investigators. Some of the toucans were diagnosed with broken tails, and at least one had a broken leg.

Bloomberg [7/10/2025 11:08 AM, Mathieu Dion and Randy Thanthong-Knight, 19320K] reports a growing number of migrants in the US are heading north to seek asylum, even as Canada adopts increasingly restrictive immigration policies of its own. During the first six days of July, Canadian officials at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing — the busiest land port between New York and Quebec — received 761 asylum claims, a more than 400% increase from the same period a year ago, according to data from the Canada Border Services Agency. The number of claims at the crossing rose 128% in June and is up 82% since the start of the year. The spike comes amid a renewed push by President Donald Trump to tighten immigration enforcement. In recent months, US authorities have stepped up immigration arrests and begun unwinding temporary humanitarian programs that had allowed hundreds of thousands of people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and other nations to live and work in the US, in many cases for years. With a well-established Haitian community in French-speaking Quebec and growing anxiety among undocumented populations in the US, migration experts say a continued — even if modest — increase in Canadian asylum claims is likely. “All the people who arrive here are afraid of being arrested, whether they have papers or not,” said Marjorie Villefranche, an advocate for the Haitian community in Montreal and former director of Maison d’Haiti, an organization that assists migrants.

AP [7/10/2025 5:27 PM, John Hanna, 24051K] reports the U.S. has closed its southern border again to livestock imports, saying a flesh-eating parasite has moved further north in Mexico than previously reported. Mexico’s president was critical Thursday, suggesting that the U.S. is exaggerating the threat to its beef industry from the parasite, the New World screwworm fly. The female flies lay eggs in wounds on warm-blooded animals, hatching larvae that are unusual among flies for feeding on live flesh and fluids instead of dead material. American officials worry that if the fly reaches Texas, its flesh-eating maggots could cause large economic losses, something that happened decades ago. The U.S. largely eradicated the pest in the 1970s by breeding and releasing sterile male flies to breed with wild females, and the fly had been contained in Panama for years until it was discovered in southern Mexico late last year. The U.S. closed its southern border in May to imports of live cattle, horses and bison but announced June 30 that it would allow three ports of entry to reopen this month and another two by Sept. 15. However, since then, an infestation from the fly has been reported 185 miles (298 kilometers) northeast of Mexico City, about 160 miles (258 kilometers) further north than previously reported cases. That was about 370 miles (595 kilometers) from the Texas border. "The United States has promised to be vigilant," U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement Wednesday announcing the border closing. "Thanks to the aggressive monitoring by USDA staff in the U.S. and in Mexico, we have been able to take quick and decisive action to respond to the spread of this deadly pest.” In Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum said authorities there were following all established protocols to deal with the northernmost case. Mexican authorities said the country has 392 infected animals, down nearly 19% since June 24. "From our point of view, they took a totally exaggerated decision to closing the border again," Sheinbaum said. "Everything that scientifically should be done is being done.”

Univision [7/10/2025 6:39 AM, Staff, 4992K] reports the United States has reinstated its ban on Mexican cattle entering the country across its southern border after tests showed positive for the dreaded New World screwworm ."The United States pledged to be vigilant, and after detecting this new case, we are pausing the planned reopening of ports of entry to extend the quarantine and address this deadly pest in Mexico," Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced in a statement. “Thanks to rigorous monitoring by USDA personnel in both the United States and Mexico, we have been able to take swift and decisive action to respond to the spread of this deadly pest,” Rollins added. The current administration had already halted imports of cattle, horses, and bison across the southern border on May 11 due to an outbreak in Mexico of the parasitic fly larvae, which feed on live mammal flesh. But Rollins had said significant progress had been made, and Mexican Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development Julio Berdegué had announced that, after meeting with Rollins, they had agreed to gradually open the border starting July 7. Following joint efforts between the two countries to mitigate the dangerous pest, Mexico prepared to resume cattle exports to the U.S. on Monday, as agreed, but Rollins’ new statement notes that further efforts are needed in specific regions. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [7/10/2025 3:19 PM, Staff, 56000K] Video: HERE reports Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum criticized Tuesday the United States’ decision to suspend the entry of Mexican cattle following the detection of a screwworm case, calling the move “completely exaggerated.” The suspension was announced just three days after the border had reopened, ending a three-month closure.

ABC News [7/10/2025 1:16 PM, Aaron Katersky, 31733K] reports Svetlana Dali -- the woman found guilty of stowing away on a Delta flight from New York to Paris last year -- was sentenced on Thursday to time served with one year of supervised release after she told the judge she sneaked onto the plane because the U.S. military had poisoned her. "My actions were directed toward only one purpose: to save my life," Dali said through a Russian interpreter before the sentence was handed down. Dali, a Russian citizen and U.S. permanent resident who recently lived in Philadelphia, blamed her attempts to stow away on an outbound flight on "circumstances beyond my control," claiming in a labyrinthine statement that lasted more than a half hour that the U.S. military subjected her to poisonous chemicals. "I was forced to escape from the United States because I was poisoned," Dali said. "I can draw a conclusion that I was poisoned by those military chemicals in the United States.” Dali has already been in jail the past seven months, which federal prosecutors said was sufficient as her sentencing guidelines range was zero to six months in prison. "Stowaway travel is a serious offense that endangers both the offender and other air passengers. Deterrence is particularly important in stowaway cases, as publicized incidents encourage copycat behavior that threatens the safety of air travel and undermines the integrity of airport security systems," prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that noted agreement with the defense. Judge Ann Donnelly conceded Dali has had a "difficult life" but imposed a sentence of time served, noting the need for deterrence. "When someone gets onto a plane without a seat, without a ticket, it’s a danger," Donnelly said. "It’s possible that other people would try to do the same thing and that’s a situation our society cannot tolerate.” Over the objection of the defense, Donnelly also included a year of supervised release. She insisted it was not meant to be punitive but to help Dali get treatment for mental illness. "I hope you will work with all the people who are trying to help you," Donnelly said. A Brooklyn jury convicted Dali of a federal stowaway charge back in May.

Washington Post [7/10/2025 10:53 AM, Andrea Sachs, 32099K] reports for nearly 20 years, millions of bare feet have marched through security checkpoints at airports around the country, a motley parade of hairy and Roman toes, calloused soles and cracked heels, nails black from marathons or chipped red from faded manicures. These feet are best enjoyed in private. Yet since 2006, they have been on stark display. Until this week. With little warning and much fanfare, all those feet have disappeared. After a tip-toe-quiet rollout at select airports earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security announced that the shoes-off rule is now on. Since Monday, passengers no longer have to remove their footwear in standard Transportation Security Administration lanes. Feet are finally back where they belong: in shoes. “We don’t have to feel as if we’re in the airport with Bigfoot anymore,” said Dani Korwin, president of Parts Models, a New York modeling agency that specializes in extremities. On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem assured travelers that TSA’s technology is advanced enough to detect contraband in shoes still attached to the wearer. Scrapping this step should speed up the line and free up space in the cramped security area. Checkpoints will no longer resemble DSW stores.

ABC News [7/10/2025 3:31 PM, Oren Oppenheim, 31733K] reports in the wake of the flooding event in central Texas, some governors and mayors are raising concerns over how current or potential cuts to agencies that are part of the federal government’s response to major weather events will impact how effectively the government can respond in the future. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- the latter of which oversees the National Weather Service -- have lost hundreds of staff members through layoffs or early-retirement programs, and both face the potential of budget cuts. Budget cuts to NOAA are mostly directed at its climate programs, not forecasting. President Donald Trump has indicated wanting to phase out FEMA and have emergency responses be handled by states. Though the president has avoided talking about those plans after the Texas flood. There has been no indication of any staffing issues or other concerns related to FEMA, NOAA or NWS connected to the flooding event in central Texas. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees FEMA, told the FEMA Advisory Council on Wednesday that how FEMA responded "to Texas is exactly how President Trump imagined that this agency would operate, immediately making decisions, getting them resources and dollars that they need." Some mayors shared their concerns about cuts to FEMA and NOAA with ABC News.

Axios [7/10/2025 5:24 PM, Josephine Walker, 13599K] reports multiple governors say they’re being increasingly pushed to scrounge for disaster recovery money without the support they traditionally rely on from the federal government. President Trump announced Sunday that he had signed a major disaster declaration to help free up federal resources for Kerr County, Texas, after devastating floods killed at least 120 people. Yet, other state leaders say they were denied or are still waiting for additional help. In April, the Trump administration denied a request submitted by former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee after a bomb cyclone ripped through the state in November. The administration then denied an appeal of its decision in late June. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) denied North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein’s request for an extension of federal assistance for Hurricane Helene recovery in May, after stating the request was "not warranted. Additionally, the administration initially denied an April request from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to declare a series of destructive storms and tornadoes in March a major disaster, before reversing the decision upon appeal in May. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Tuesday that he is pushing for the Trump administration to grant a disaster declaration for two counties in his state after flash flooding from heavy rain killed at least nine people in mid-June. Since February, Trump denied six out of 10 major-disaster requests from Democrat-run states, while approving 14 out of 15 requests from Republican governors, according to an investigation from NPR affiliate KUOW.

Breitbart [7/11/2025 2:52 AM, Ian Hanchett, 3077K] reports that, during portions of an interview with CNN Chief National Correspondent John King aired on Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s "AC360," Hot Springs, NC Mayor Abby Norton stated that the federal government has done a better job helping her city with disaster relief under the Trump administration than it did under the Biden administration, but FEMA needs to be reformed but it shouldn’t be eliminated. King said that, in Hot Springs, “most of downtown is still a mess. Hot Springs Mayor Abby Norton puts the build back at 40%.” He then played video where Norton said, “What I thought Washington would do would be to immediately come in and either fix everything or supply the funds for us to fix everything. But that’s not how it works.” King then stated, “Mayor Norton says she voted third party for president, just weeks after the flood.” He then played a clip where he asked Norton, “Is there a Biden difference or a Trump difference in what you have experienced?” She responded, “First of all, I’m not a politician. I never have been. But it has been better under the Trump administration than it was under Biden, my opinion.” King followed up, “Is that because they’re more receptive and responsive, or is it because Biden was president when it was hell or –?” Norton responded that the federal government is more responsive under Trump and “Things are getting done faster. They are more responsive. We’re getting a lot more help than we did.” King then stated, “But the Mayor is quick to say things still take too long, like waiting for federal help to rebuild the town offices. Now, troubled when she hears the president talk of big FEMA changes.” He then played video of Norton stating, “FEMA doesn’t need to be eliminated. It just — the processes need to be easier, more user-friendly. No, I don’t think it needs to be eliminated at all.” King then asked, “Or shifted to the states or –?” And Norton answered, “No.”

New York Times [7/10/2025 11:38 AM, Pooja Salhotra and Talya Minsberg, 153395K] reports search crews found no new victims overnight in Kerr County, where the bulk of the deaths occurred from the Texas floods nearly a week ago, leaving the number of missing there at 161 for a third straight day. The death toll remains at 96 in Kerr County, officials said Thursday, and 120 statewide. The slowing pace of discovery, even as more than 2,100 emergency workers spread across the county seeking victims, underscored the difficulty of digging through the muddy remains of trailer parks, cabins and campsites, and suggested a much longer wait for families awaiting news of their lost loved ones. It is unclear how many people remain missing outside of Kerr County. Gov. Greg Abbott last provided a statewide update on Tuesday, when he said 173 people remained unaccounted for. The floods are among the deadliest U.S. disasters for children in decades. In just Kerr County, 36 children were killed, many from Camp Mystic, a century-old Christian summer camp for girls. Five campers and one counselor from the camp are still missing, Kerr County officials said at Thursday morning news conference. State and local officials have also faced an onslaught of questions about the lack of warning sirens along the banks of the Guadalupe River, an area known as “Flash Flood Alley,” and whether more could have been done to prepare for the floods. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said flood-warning signs might have saved lives and needed to be in place by next summer. Local officials have said they would conduct an extensive review of their preparations and response to the flood. “If improvements need to be made, improvements will be made,” Sheriff Larry Leitha of Kerr County said during a Wednesday news conference. Gov. Greg Abbott has called on state lawmakers to improve how the state prepares for and responds to the floods in the upcoming special session this month. Mr. Abbott asked lawmakers to consider policies that would improve early warning systems and strengthen emergency communications in flood-prone areas. Lawmakers also plan to address a range of other issues, like regulating intoxicating hemp products and cutting property taxes. Governor Abbott has also called on lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional maps.

NPR [7/10/2025 12:37 PM, A Martínez and Obed Manuel, 37958K] reports it could take weeks — or even months — to locate the more than 160 people believed to be missing after the deadly floods in Central Texas over the Fourth of July weekend, according to an Army lieutenant general who led the military response to Hurricane Katrina. Officials have not found any survivors of the Texas Hill Country floods since July 4. Gov. Greg Abbott has pledged that search efforts will continue until every missing person is found. But the thousands of officials and volunteers scouring the flood-affected zone are bound to run into challenges posed by the wreckage and the current environmental conditions, retired Army Lieutenant Gen. Russel L. Honoré told Morning Edition. Honoré led the effort to bring military relief to New Orleans after Katrina in 2005 and has spent years working on disaster recovery operations. Search efforts can be painstakingly slow because piled up debris has to be carefully removed, Honoré said. "It’s not like bringing the excavator in and start moving debris. You’ve got to take it off a piece at a time and respect that that might be a person under the next piece of wood you’re picking up," Honoré said. Rain that fell after the initial devastating flooding also slowed search efforts. On Wednesday, the Kerville Police Department asked volunteers on social media to not use heavy equipment to tear down large pieces of debris "due to the possibility that a victim could be inside." Honoré spoke to NPR’s A Martínez about why search efforts after a disaster can be so challenging and his experience leading efforts after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

ABC News [7/10/2025 5:26 AM, Maia Rosenfeld, Jared Kofsky, and Laura Romero, 31733K] reports at 4:22 a.m. on Friday, as Texas’ Hill Country began to flood, a firefighter in Ingram – just upstream from Kerrville – asked the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office to alert nearby residents, according to audio obtained by ABC affiliate KSAT. But Kerr County officials took nearly six hours to heed this call. "The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39," the firefighter said in the dispatch audio. "Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?" "Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor," a Kerr County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher replied. The first alert didn’t come through Kerr County’s CodeRED system until 90 minutes later. Some messages didn’t arrive until after 10 a.m. By then, hundreds of people had been swept away by the floodwaters. Kerr County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At a Wednesday morning press conference, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha declined to answer a question about delayed emergency alerts, saying that an "after-action" would follow the search and rescue efforts. "Those questions are gonna be answered," he added. Records show Kerr County’s CodeRED Emergency Notification System, which alerts subscribers to emergencies through pre-recorded phone messages, has been in place for at least a decade.

The Hill [7/10/2025 12:16 PM, Elizabeth Crisp, 18649K] reports House Democrats are calling for an immediate hearing on disaster preparations, including Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) resources, after catastrophic flooding in Texas killed more than 100 people over the weekend. "The flooding … raises serious concerns about FEMA’s readiness and highlights the damaging role that the Trump administration has played in weakening the Federal government’s capacity to respond to disasters," Democratic Reps. Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Julie Johnson (Texas), the top Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee, wrote in a letter to chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday. The letter, which primarily takes aim at President Trump’s administration, was cosigned by 20 additional Democratic House members. Green, who announced Monday that he will resign from the House later this month to take a job in the private sector, said in a statement to The Hill that the Democrats’ request struck him as “ironic,” but he welcomes bipartisan discussions about how FEMA can better serve the public. “Homeland Democrats spent the weekend politicizing the tragedy in Texas instead of soberly talking about solutions,” the Tennessee Republican said. “Next time, instead of writing letters to leak to the media, Homeland Democrats can just walk across the hall and talk to us.” He also accused Democrats of being “oddly quiet” after multiple FEMA workers were fired for directing responders to ignore homes with Trump campaign signs during the Biden administration.

NPR [7/10/2025 5:54 AM, Lauren Sommer, 37958K] reports years before the flooding took more than 90 lives in Kerr County, Texas, local officials knew residents faced threats from rapidly rising water. They started planning a flood warning system, one that could alert residents when a flash flood was imminent. Still, like many other communities around the country, Kerr County struggled to find a way to pay for it. They turned to the largest source available for most localities: funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA has granted billions over the last five years to help communities prepare for disasters. The idea is one that has been proven on the ground: When communities invest in infrastructure and preparation before a disaster, it can dramatically lessen the damage when a disaster hits, as well as save lives. Kerr County’s funding application was turned down by Texas officials in charge of administering the federal funds. As with most of FEMA’s programs, there was more demand for money than was available. Kerr County looked into a Texas state grant program for flood projects, but gave up when they learned it would cover only a small portion of the cost. In Texas alone, more than $54 billion in flood projects are waiting to be built, and state legislators have only dedicated a small fraction of that funding so far. Now, funding prospects for communities at risk are getting even more limited. The Trump administration has frozen or canceled billions of dollars dedicated to help communities prepare for disasters. Trump signed an executive order saying states should be responsible for funding disaster preparedness, instead of the federal government. "I think that’s going to be a big gap to fill," says Christopher Steubing, executive director of the Texas Floodplain Management Association, which represents flood officials around the state. "FEMA has a reason to be around and they need to be there. There’s a lot of programs that they engage with and oversee that communities rely on.”

(B) KTTC News at Noon [7/10/2025 1:31 PM, Staff] reports that law enforcement and volunteers have worked tirelessly to find victims of the devastating central Texas flooding. At least 100 people are missing. 120 have died. Amidst the rescue work questions are rising to the surface over the steps being taken before the water came. Sources say FEMA’s response to last week’s flooding was slowed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s cost controls. Noem recently enacted a sweeping rule aimed at cutting spending. Every contract and grant over $100,000 now require her personal sign off before any funds can be released, officials inside the agency said. In responding to the flooding, FEMA ran into bureaucratic obstacles almost instantly. City officials say it is going to be some time before the recovery efforts are finished and a true accounting can be made of what led up to this tragedy.

Houston Chronicle [7/10/2025 4:55 PM, Benjamin Wermund, 1982K] reports Gov. Greg Abbott was quick to request federal assistance last week after devastating floods hit the Texas Hill Country. But the Republican governor is simultaneously helping the Trump administration find ways to "wean off" of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has sent more than $7 billion to Texas over the last decade for natural disasters like the flooding that had left 120 people dead and dozens more missing as of Thursday. Abbott is on a Trump-appointed panel drafting recommendations for reforming the agency. He has criticized FEMA as ineffective, even as Texas has been one of the biggest recipients of the agency’s largesse. It is unclear exactly what Trump may seek to do with FEMA. The president said last month that he wants to "wean off FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level." Trump said he wants to "give out less money," and to "give it out directly," sidestepping FEMA programs. He said he did not know who would distribute the funds, saying they could come "from the president’s office" or DHS.

Washington Post [7/11/2025 5:00 AM, Natalie Allison, 32099K] reports that, for months, President Donald Trump and his homeland security secretary have said the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be eliminated. But as the president heads to Texas to view the impact of last week’s deadly floods, administration officials say abolishing the agency outright is not on the agenda. A senior White House official told Washington Post that no official action is being taken to wind down FEMA, and that changes in the agency will probably amount to a “rebranding” that will emphasize state leaders’ roles in disaster response. The official and others emphasized that Trump will make the ultimate decision, but said at this point, FEMA is not set to be abolished. “Without any official action,” the official said, “you’re already seeing the theory” of the administration’s new approach “taking place in Texas.” “The president immediately delivered the dollars, Texas already has that money in their hands, and Gov. [Greg] Abbott is the lead decision-maker when it comes to the Texas floods,” the official said. “You should expect this structure, that has quietly taken place, to continue.” Trump on Friday is scheduled to meet with first responders and family members of the victims in Texas, receive a briefing from local elected officials and take part in a roundtable discussion. Abbott, a Republican, is expected to join him during the visit. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem in recent months raised the prospect that the agency could be abolished altogether. In describing an executive order on FEMA shortly after he took office, Trump said it would “begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA.” “I think, frankly, FEMA’s not good,” Trump said in January, explaining that “the FEMA thing has not been a very successful experiment.” Administration officials are now hedging their comments, emphasizing that FEMA will undergo changes as part of a review process. The FEMA Review Council, which Trump created by his executive order, met for the second time this week and is expected to release a report in November with recommendations to improve federal disaster response. How those recommendations will be implemented at FEMA ultimately comes down to Trump, who has dialed up and down his aversion to the agency, depending on the occasion. A second White House official said the review council’s meetings on May 20 at the White House were “productive,” and noted that “thousands of interested Americans” listened in to this week’s gathering in New Orleans. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that the review council “will recommend to the president how FEMA may be reformed in ways that best serve National Interest, including how America responds to and recovers from disasters such that the Federal role remains supplemental and appropriate to the scale of disaster.” Federal resources are intended to “supplement state actions, not replace those actions,” Jackson said, adding that “FEMA’s outsized role created a bloated bureaucracy that disincentivized state investment in their own resilience.” “President Trump is committed to right-sizing the Federal government while empowering state and local governments by enabling them to better understand, plan for, and ultimately address the needs of their citizens,” she said.

Reuters [7/10/2025 6:10 PM, Jane Ross and Rich McKay, 51390K] reports six days after flash floods swept through parts of Texas Hill Country and killed at least 120, authorities say there are still more than 160 people unaccounted for, as thousands of searchers combed through piles of mud-covered debris for survivors on Thursday. But that figure may not reflect the true number of missing people, according to disaster response experts. The number of people reported missing in the aftermath of a natural disaster often turns out to be far greater than the eventual death toll. Worried members of the public, unable to reach a relative or friend, report the name to local authorities and to crowd-sourced online databases, and it gets added to a list that can grow distressingly long. Josh Dozor, a former deputy assistant administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and now an executive at the disaster response company International SOS, said the list of missing people could still change significantly. "There could be people listed as missing who don’t even know they’re on the list," he said. "There are power issues, someone might not have a cell phone charged. People are at shelters. It could take time to reassemble with loved ones." Kerr County, home to the vast majority of victims and missing people, is a sprawling, rural county with areas that have spotty cell phone service. More than 2,100 first responders were continuing a painstaking, mile-by-mile search across the country, hoping against long odds to find survivors six days after torrential rains sent a wall of water raging down the Guadalupe River in the predawn hours of July 4. Authorities have not found anyone alive since the day of the floods. At least 96 people, including 36 children, died in Kerr County, officials said at a briefing on Thursday morning.

NBC News [7/10/2025 8:13 PM, Phil Helsel, 44540K] reports President Donald Trump expressed support Thursday for flood alarms in Texas and said he thinks "everyone’s doing a great job" responding to a disaster that has left more than 100 people dead and 170 people missing. "After having seen this horrible event, I would imagine you’d put alarms up in some form, where alarms would go up if they see any large amounts of water or whatever it is," Trump told NBC News’ "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker in a phone interview Thursday. "But the local officials were hit by this just like everybody else," he said. Trump will visit Texas on Friday, a week after the deadly flooding in Kerr County and other parts of the region, when the Guadalupe River surged to almost 30 feet in Hunt on July 4. That was higher than a 1987 flood disaster on the same river. Among those confirmed or feared dead are 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic in Hunt. Kerr County did not have audible flood alarms to warn residents. Gov. Greg Abbott bristled at a reporter’s question this week about who was to blame for the scope of the disaster and the deaths, saying "that’s the word choice of losers.” Trump said Thursday that "nobody ever saw a thing like this coming" and that "this is a once-in-every-200-year deal.” "It’d be easy to blame them. I wouldn’t blame them," Trump said. "I think from the standpoint of the future, you’d have to have some kind of an alarm and lighting system, maybe.” Trump also defended Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response. Trump has talked about possibly "getting rid of" FEMA. NBC News reported this week that Noem now requires that all agency spending over $100,000 be personally approved by her. On Monday, FEMA officials created a task force to speed up the process of getting Noem’s approval, according to the reporting, which cited two people familiar with that unit.

New York Times [7/10/2025 7:53 PM, Christopher Flavelle, J. David Goodman and Andrea Fuller, 138952K] reports the warning last fall was, in retrospect, achingly prescient. “It is likely” that Kerr County “will experience a flood event in the next year,” city and county officials concluded in a report for the Federal Emergency Management Agency released last October. Such floods, they added, could pose a particular danger to people in “substandard structures” and result in “increased damage, injuries, or loss of life.” One solution, county officials noted, would be a flood warning system that could alert residents to rising waters. They estimated the cost of such a system at less than $1 million, and noted that FEMA had grant programs that could pay for it. But by the time floodwaters raged down the Guadalupe River last Friday morning, killing at least 121, including at least 36 children, no such alarm system had been installed in Kerr County. A week later, amid trees shorn of their bark from the force of the water, recovery crews were still cutting through towering piles of debris, in search of the missing. The October warning, part of a 220-page “hazard mitigation” report that addressed a range of threats and that counties are required to send periodically to FEMA, followed years of failed attempts by local officials to secure funding for such a system, according to records and interviews with local officials. The New York Times identified at least three occasions between 2017 and 2024 when local officials sought funding for a flood warning system but were rebuffed by the state. Those failed applications came even as the federal government made billions of additional dollars available for disaster-reduction projects — including $1.9 billion that has flowed to Texas over the past decade to be spent at the discretion of state officials, according to a Times analysis. The Texas Division of Emergency Management rejected a 2017 request from Kerr County because it did not meet federal requirements, according to Wes Rapaport, a department spokesman. Those included a requirement to have completed a recent plan for addressing natural disasters. The state rejected a 2018 request from the county because state officials chose to focus that spending on counties affected by Hurricane Harvey, a massive storm that caused flooding across large portions of Texas in August 2017, Mr. Rapaport said. Kerr County, a popular resort area northwest of San Antonio with only about 50,000 full-time residents, was not among those counties. A FEMA spokesman said in a statement that the Trump administration was shifting the agency “to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens.”

USA Today [7/10/2025 10:52 PM, Thao Nguyen, Kristian Jaime, Natassia Paloma, 75552K] reports at least 200 homes were damaged after torrential rains triggered a deadly flash flood that killed three people, including two children, as waters rapidly swept through a mountain village in New Mexico, authorities said on July 10. The village of Ruidoso, located in south-central New Mexico, was continuing recovery and clean-up efforts after heavy rains from slow-moving storms overwhelmed the Rio Ruidoso on July 8. The sudden flooding trapped dozens of people in homes, vehicles, and trees, and caused widespread damage. A man and two young children, who had been camping at an RV park, were swept downstream and later found dead, according to local authorities. One person remained unaccounted for as of July 10, said Lincoln County Emergency Manager Eric Holt. Local authorities reported that between 200 and 400 homes were damaged in the flooding, and about 65 swift water rescues were conducted. New Mexico officials, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, surveyed the area on July 10. The governor noted that the state received partial approval for a federal emergency declaration, which will provide immediate assistance for search and rescue teams and incident management. Lujan Grisham said at a news conference that the federal government plans to provide financial assistance, including $3 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $12 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to help communities rebuild. "This federal declaration is a critical first step, but it’s not everything Ruidoso needs and deserves," Lujan Grisham said. "We will continue working with the federal government for every dollar and resource necessary to help this resilient community fully recover from these devastating floods." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [7/11/2025 3:44 AM, Staff, 31733K] reports visitors and staff at two national parks in the U.S. West have been evacuated because of wildfires. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, about 260 miles (418 kilometers) southwest of Denver, closed Thursday morning after lighting sparked blazes on both rims, the park said. The wildfire on the South Rim has burned 2.5 square miles (6.5 square kilometers), with no containment of the perimeter. The conditions there have been ripe for wildfire with hot temperatures, low humidity, gusty winds and dry vegetation, the park said, adding that weather will remain a concern Friday. The Grand Canyon’s North Rim in Arizona also closed Thursday because of a wildfire on adjacent Bureau of Land Management land near Jacob Lake. The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office said it helped evacuate people from an area north of Jacob Lake and campers in the Kaibab National Forest nearby. The fire began Wednesday evening after a thunderstorm moved through the area, fire officials said. It has burned about 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers) with zero containment.

Reuters [7/10/2025 5:22 PM, Jasper Ward, 51390K] reports six Secret Service agents on duty during last year’s assassination attempt against Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally received suspensions ranging from 10 to 42 days, the agency said on Thursday. The Secret Service did not identify the agents or disclose specific grounds for their suspensions. A gunman opened fire at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024, while the candidate was speaking on stage. The shooter accessed a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to the former president. Trump and others were injured, and a bystander and the shooter were killed. Multiple investigations were launched into the Secret Service, and its director resigned. Trump said in an interview that will air on Saturday that the Secret Service erred by not stationing an agent on the rooftop and not including local police in the communications system. Secret Service Director Sean Curran, who was the agent in charge of Trump’s security detail at the rally, said in a statement: "The agency has taken many steps to ensure such an event can never be repeated in the future." The Secret Service said it has implemented 21 of 46 recommendations made by congressional oversight bodies. Sixteen other recommendations were in progress and nine were not directed at the Secret Service, it said. The Secret Service said it was implementing protective measures for golf courses. After the Butler assassination attempt, a man with a gun hid near a Trump-owned golf course in Florida with the intent to kill the then-Republican presidential candidate. The New York Times [7/10/2025 5:47 PM, Eileen Sullivan, 138952K] reports that all six had been placed on restricted duty after the shooting while the agency conducted its internal review. Lawmakers have called for agency leaders to hold those responsible accountable for operational failures. There was a second attempt on Mr. Trump’s life later the same year in September, as he golfed in Florida. In a statement on Thursday, the agency’s director, Sean M. Curran, reflected on the events in Butler. At the time, Mr. Curran was the lead agent on Mr. Trump’s personal security detail and was one of the agents who lunged to Mr. Trump’s side to shelter him after shots were fired. In January, Mr. Trump promoted him to lead the agency. Multiple inquiries, including from Congress, into the security lapses at Butler had some overlapping conclusions, in particular that there was a significant breakdown in communications between agents themselves, and between Secret Service agents and the local law enforcement helping to secure the rally site. The agency said on Thursday that it had “implemented numerous operational, policy and organizational reforms” based on internal and external recommendations.

Reported similarly:
(B) NBC News Daily [7/10/2025 2:31 PM, Staff]
Washington Times [7/10/2025 9:45 AM, Mallory Wilson, 2106K]
NewsMax [7/10/2025 8:50 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4622K]
Daily Wire [7/10/2025 3:48 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 3816K]

Washington Examiner [7/10/2025 9:26 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1934K] reports President Donald Trump said in an interview clip released Thursday that he was "satisfied" with the investigation into the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt, but admitted that law enforcement there "had a bad day.” Trump narrowly missed death during the 2024 presidential election cycle when a shooter at a Butler rally snuck through the president’s defenses and took a shot that could’ve been lethal to the president, but instead grazed his ear. "So there were mistakes made, and that shouldn’t have happened," he told his daughter-in-law Lara Trump on Fox News. "And that building was a prime building in terms of what they were trying to do, but I was satisfied in terms of the bigger plot, the larger plot, I was satisfied. And, you know, great confidence in these people. I know the people, and they’re very talented, very capable. They had a bad day.” The assassination attempt resulted in the resignation of then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for security failures that day. Law enforcement mistakenly allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks to climb up on a nearby rooftop, after surveying the area with a drone, and take several shots at Trump. None of the shots significantly injured the president, but did kill firefighter Corey Comperatore and injure several others. Sean Curran, who shielded Trump at the Butler rally, is now the Secret Service Director. A House task force on the assassination attempt found in December 2024, "significant failures in the planning, execution, and leadership of the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners.” "The failures that led to the tragic events of July 13 were not entirely isolated to the campaign event itself, or the days preceding it," the report says. "Preexisting issues in leadership and training created an environment in which the specific failures identified above could occur. Secret Service personnel with little to no experience in advance planning roles were given significant responsibility, despite the July 13 event being held at a higher-risk outdoor venue with many line-of-sight issues, in addition to specific intelligence about a long-range threat. Further, some of the Secret Service agents in significant advance planning roles did not clearly understand the delineation of their responsibilities.” Crooks was shot dead shortly after he fired his first shots. Little has been found to indicate the then-20-year-old’s motivation for the shooting. His family noted that his mental health had been declining in the year before the shooting. Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, said in May that there was no "big, explosive there there." He added, "If it was there, we would have told you.” The shooting’s consequences have continued. Six Secret Service agents have been suspended without pay in connection with the assassination attempt. An independent Department of Homeland Security review on the shooting criticized the Secret Service. "The Secret Service does not perform at the elite levels needed to discharge its critical mission," the report found. "The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved.” The shooting’s first anniversary is this weekend. Trump has acknowledged that without an immigration chart that he tilted his head toward, he would not be alive. The shooting was the first of two notable assassination attempts on the president. The second came from Ryan Routh, who crept around near his West Palm Beach golf club with a rifle before Secret Service agents spotted him and chased him off before his arrest. He’s now being prosecuted for the attempt.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [7/10/2025 6:24 PM, Staff, 3077K]
Axios [7/10/2025 9:00 PM, Sareen Habeshian, 13599K]

Axios [7/10/2025 8:23 PM, Rebecca Falconer, 13599K] reports nearly a year on from the assassination attempt on President Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, the U.S. Secret Service announced major reforms designed to ensure "a tragedy like this can never happen again." The USSS noted in a report Thursday that "breakdowns in communication, technological issues, and human failure, among other contributing factors" led to the events of July 13, 2024, which left Trump with an injured ear, a Butler, Penn., rally-goer dead and two others injured. The Secret Service faced was criticized by both parties over the shooting and a bipartisan congressional task force report found it was preventable. The USSS acknowledged in its report there was "an operational failure that the Secret Service will carry as a reminder of the critical importance of its zero-fail mission and the need for continuous improvement. The Secret Service has over the past year acted on recommendations and "implemented numerous operational, policy and organizational reforms," according to its report. The agency suspended six U.S. Secret Service agents in relation to their conduct concerning the assassination attempt. It has implemented 21 of the 46 recommendations currently made by Congressional oversight bodies in the wake of the shooting, 16 others are in progress and "nine are addressed to non- Secret Service stakeholders," the USSS said.

ABC News [7/10/2025 3:55 PM, Luke Barr, 31733K] reports since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last year, the Secret Service has streamlined operations, ensured its workforce is up to meeting its "current and future demands," enhanced partnerships, modernized the training the service goes through and innovate its technologies, according to a report outlining the changes the agency has made. On July 13, 2024, an assassin opened fire on a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one and injuring three others. Trump was hit in the ear by a bullet. Secret Service Director Sean Curran, who was leading Trump’s protective detail in Butler, said he has kept his experience of July 13 "top of mind" since being appointed director and said the agency has taken "many steps to ensure such an event can never be repeated in the future." The attempted assassination has been the subject of at least three reviews by two of the three branches of government and an independent review -- all of which concluded the agency failed on July 13. The Secret Service said of the more than 40 recommendations made in the wake of the assassination attempt, the agency has implemented 21 of them, 16 are in progress, and nine are addressed to non-Secret Service stakeholders. On Wednesday, an official told ABC News that six agents have been issued suspensions for failures connected to the attempted assassination, including the head of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office. On Fox News’ "Fox and Friends" on Thursday morning, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Trump is "satisfied" with the report and its outcome.

NewsMax [7/10/2025 7:15 PM, Michael Katz, 4622K] reports the Secret Service said Thursday that since the assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania – the one-year anniversary of which is Sunday – it has implemented numerous operational, policy, and organizational reforms. Among 46 recommendations made by congressional oversight bodies, the Secret Service said in a news release it has implemented 21, while 16 are in progress, and nine are addressed to non-Secret Service stakeholders. The agency said that among the reforms implemented were changes to protective operations policies to ensure clear lines of accountability and improved information sharing with local law enforcement partners; the creation of an Aviation and Airspace Security division dedicated to maintaining the agency’s crucial aerial monitoring capabilities; and modifications to the agency’s resourcing process, in order to ensure that assets are better accounted for and appropriately applied. "One year ago, I was by President Trump’s side when a lone gunman attempted to assassinate him in Butler, Pennsylvania," said Secret Service Director Sean Curran in the news release. "My heart will always be with all those impacted on that day, especially Corey Comperatore, who lost his life while protecting those around him. "Since President Trump appointed me as director of the United States Secret Service, I have kept my experience on July 13 top of mind, and the agency has taken many steps to ensure such an event can never be repeated in the future. Nothing is more important to the Secret Service than the safety and security of our protectees. As director, I am committed to ensuring our agency is fully equipped, resourced, and aligned to carry out our important mission each and every day.” Trump was struck in the right ear by a bullet fired from Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who scaled a building about 130 yards away undetected. Comperatore, 50, a firefighter from nearby Sarver, Pennsylvania, was killed and two others were seriously wounded. A Secret Service sniper down gunned Crooks.

FOX News [7/10/2025 9:26 AM, Alexis McAdams, 46878K] reports one year after Corey Comperatore was killed at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, his widow is demanding accountability from the Secret Service. "We were all sitting ducks that day. Our blood is all over their hands. I am angry. I lost the love of my life. They screwed up," Helen Comperatore told Fox News. The Secret Service has admitted to multiple failures after 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks climbed onto a rooftop and fired off eight rounds. Those shots killed Comperatore and wounded three others, including then-former President Donald Trump. "Why Butler? Why was that such a failure? Why weren’t they paying attention? Why did they think that that roof didn’t need covered? I want to sit down and talk to them. I have the right to. They need to listen to me," Comperatore said. Police say Crooks fired those gunshots. Investigators say the once-shy college student planned the attack for days, stockpiling weapons and making explosives in his bedroom. Six Secret Service agents were suspended without pay or benefits on Wednesday in the wake of the shooting, the agency confirmed.

FOX News [7/10/2025 2:52 PM, Amanda Macias, 46878K] reports following the suspension of six Secret Service agents tasked with protecting President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. on July 13 of last year, growing calls for accountability are sounding on social media. GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida called the suspension the "absolute bare minimum.” "Given the shocking security failures that day, this is the absolute bare minimum," Luna wrote on X. Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah posted the news on his personal account and told one user in a thread that he intends "to find out why" the Secret Service agents had been suspended instead of fired. "Why didn’t this happen a long time ago?" asked a user to his post. "The Deep State is deliberately slow," Lee replied in the thread. Retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer said the move to suspend the agents involved was expected. Coffindaffer wrote in an X post that the Secret Service’s "incompetence cost a life," referring to Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter, father and husband, who was shot and killed that day. The assailant, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired eight shots from an AR-15–style rifle from a rooftop approximately 400 feet from the stage where Trump was speaking. One bullet grazed Trump’s right ear, while another fatally struck rally attendee Comperatore, who shielded his family.

DailySignal [7/10/2025 12:04 PM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 558K] reports the Secret Service is "totally accountable" for the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, of now-President Donald Trump, the agency’s deputy director told CBS News. "Secret Service is totally accountable for Butler," Matt Quinn said. "Butler was an operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again.” The Secret Service suspended six personnel without pay following intense scrutiny caused by the assassination attempt against Trump at a rally last July. On July 13, 2024, Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire during a campaign rally, and a bullet grazed Trump’s ear. A firefighter in the audience, Corey Comperatore, was shot and killed. A few weeks later, a second assassination attempt occurred at the president’s golf course in Palm Beach, Florida, catalyzing the resignation of then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and multiple investigations and congressional hearings.

FOX News [7/10/2025 3:29 PM, Alex Miller, Ryan Schmelz, 46878K] reports Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is gearing up to subpoena the FBI and Justice Department for more information on last year’s assassination attempt against President Donald Trump. Johnson, who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, was a co-author of last year’s bipartisan Senate Homeland Security Committee report on the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pa. But that report was not the final product. Now he’s plowing ahead with the investigation that he described as "maddening" because of the roadblocks and barriers he has faced along the way. And last night, he approved a subpoena to get more information from the FBI and Department of Justice. Johnson accused the FBI and DOJ of "not sharing with us," and said that he needed documentation to move forward with his investigation and that he was "not getting it."

CBS Pittsburgh [7/10/2025 8:14 PM, Jennifer Borrasso, 51860K] reports the family of Corey Comperatore, the man shot and killed at the Donald Trump rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, nearly a year ago, is condemning the Secret Service’s response as insufficient after it announced it suspended six people without pay or benefits. Corey Comperatore’s sister Kelly Comperatore Meeder says her family is "furious" at what they see as a lack of answers or accountability for the failures that enabled the attempted assassination to occur on July 13, 2024. "How does something like this happen and nobody is fired? Ten days to 42 days of suspension and they returned to their jobs. They returned to their jobs on restricted duty or limited duty. What does that mean?" Comperatore Meeder said. Six Secret Service personnel, four of whom are from the Pittsburgh office, were suspended without pay as the agency faced intense scrutiny following the shooting at then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign rally. "They have my brother’s blood on their hands and they are able to return to work and go back to living their lives. It’s not fair. It isn’t fair. Our family is furious," said Comperatore Meeder. Former fire chief, husband and father Corey Comperatore was shot in the head and killed while shielding his family from the shots fired by Thomas Crooks at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds. He was 50. Rally-goers Jim Copenhaver and David Dutch were shot but survived. Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn told CBS News six agents were suspended for varying lengths of 10 to 42 days, without pay or benefits. "Secret Service is totally accountable for Butler. Butler was an operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again," Quinn said. But to Comperatore’s family, it’s not enough. Meanwhile, attorney Joe Feldman, who represents Comperatore Meeder as well as survivors David Dutch and Jim Copenhaver said while he is relieved that the Secret Service issued suspensions, he’s saddened that it took so long for the agency to act. Feldman’s statement said: "Although we are relieved that the Secret Service has issued suspensions in relation to the gross breakdown in security at the July 13, 2024 Butler Rally, we are deeply saddened with the delay in the Secret Service’s decision. We are hoping that the Secret Service can provide us with additional details as to the individuals on suspension and their role in the breakdown in security. We are concerned that the punishment does not fit the negligence. The families impacted by this event want real answers and deserve real answers. These are human beings and American citizens. We should take care of our people.”

New York Post [7/10/2025 3:58 PM, Steven Vago and Chris Nesi, 49956K] reports Helen Comperatore, the widow of Corey Comperatore, who was shot and killed at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, by a bullet intended for President Trump last July, has no love lost for the Secret Service. The agency’s response to the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt drew widespread condemnation from both sides of the aisle, ultimately resulting in then-director Kimberly Cheatle stepping down from her post in disgrace. On Thursday, nearly a year to the day after the botched security operation, six agents working the rally were suspended from duty. Corey Comperatore, 50, who served as the fire chief for Buffalo Township, was struck by a bullet fired by would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks, who wounded then-candidate Donald Trump from the rooftop of a building near the rally stage.

DailySignal [7/10/2025 11:26 AM, Fred Lucas, 558K] reports police arrested a Florida woman outside of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Monday after she told Secret Service agents she had an "urgent message" for the president, the Palm Beach Post reported. Caroline Shaw, 49, of Orlando, had a handgun in her gray Mercedes van, which was taken during her arrest. She told officers she had firearms in her vehicle. Shaw was charged with driving with a suspended license and failure to register a vehicle, the newspaper reported. Her vehicle’s registration expired in December 2021, and her Florida driver’s license was suspended in April 2023 for unpaid traffic tickets, according to the newspaper. She pleaded not guilty on Tuesday before Palm Beach County Judge Donald Hafele. The judge ordered Shaw to have no contact with Trump, Mar-a-Lago, the area around Mar-a-Lago, or any of Trump’s properties.

AP [7/10/2025 2:39 PM, David Fischer, 56000K] reports a man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump last year at his Florida golf course told a federal judge Thursday he wants to fire his court-appointed lawyers and represent himself. Ryan Routh made his request during a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon. When the judge asked Routh, 59, whether he wanted her to appoint new attorneys to defend him, Routh replied: "No. I will represent myself." Routh is scheduled to stand trial in September, a year after prosecutors say a Secret Service agent thwarted his attempt to shoot Trump as he played golf. Routh has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.

USA Today [7/10/2025 3:17 PM, Trevor Hughes, 75552K] reports climate change is opening up a new front in the ongoing cold war between the United States and China, and President Donald Trump is gearing up with new icebreakers to help patrol the Northwest Passage connecting Alaska to Greenland. Contained in the new federal spending law formerly known as the "Big Beautiful Bill" is funding for 17 icebreakers, 21 cutters, more than 40 helicopters and six large patrol airplanes, Coast Guard officials said. It could take as long as 15 years to get the first of the large ships commissioned, according to government estimates. The icebreakers and ice-strengthened cutters would work in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, which are seeing increasing focus as climate change makes mining and shipping more practical by melting some of the ice. Shrinking sea ice in Alaska in particular means more commercial ships would be traveling through or fishing the area, requiring more Coast Guard patrols. "This historic investment marks a new era for the Coast Guard," Coast Guard Acting Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday said in a statement. The Coast Guard currently only has one heavy icebreaker, the USCGC Polar Star, and it’s almost 20 years beyond its expected service life. The Coast Guard’s other icebreaker, the 27-year-old medium-duty USCGC Healy, has suffered repeated fires. Last year the Coast Guard cancelled its planned Alaska-area patrols due to an engine-room fire, according to officials. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

FOX News [7/10/2025 9:20 AM, Anders Hagstrom, 46878K] reports Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is reigniting a congressional push to ban the Chinese Communist Party from buying up farmland and residential land in the U.S. on Thursday. Hawley is introducing the Protecting Our Farms and Homes from China Act, which bans Chinese corporations and individuals associated with the Chinese Communist Party from making such purchases. President Donald Trump’s administration has sounded the alarm about Chinese ownership of U.S. land in recent days, particularly around American military bases. "China’s ownership of U.S. farmland poses a direct threat to American interests," Hawley told Fox News Digital in a statement. "We should never let our nation’s greatest adversary have access to our vital resources, including our housing supply. That’s why I’m introducing legislation to protect American assets from the CCP once and for all.” While the bill would impose a flat ban on relevant purchases of farmland, the ban on residential purchases would only apply for two years, leaving an option for the president to re-up the prohibition every two years beyond that. The legislation also requires Chinese corporations and CCP-affiliated individuals who own affected land to divest that ownership within one year. It also establishes penalties for failing to comply with the law, ranging from fines to outright forfeiture. Hawley’s move comes in tandem with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announcing its National Farm Security Action Plan earlier this week. The plan is specifically meant to address threats from foreign governments, like China, and how those threats impact American farmers. The plan laid out executive reforms and called for Congress to pursue legislation like Hawley’s. "The farm’s produce is not just a commodity, it is a way of life that underpins America itself. And that’s exactly why it is under threat from criminals, from political adversaries, and from hostile regimes that understand our way of life as a profound and existential threat to themselves," USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a press event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Joining Rollins at the event were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Washington Examiner [7/10/2025 6:00 AM, Sean Durns, 1934K] reports China and other adversaries are threatening America’s food supply. A recent legislative push promises to better protect Americans while redefining what constitutes national security policy. On Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and other top Trump administration officials announced the National Farm Security Action Plan. According to the Agriculture Department, the plan “elevates American agriculture as a key element” of national security and seeks to strengthen the “resilience of our nation’s food and agricultural systems.” The National Farm Security Action Plan addresses foreign ownership of farmland, guards against intellectual property theft, preempts biothreats, targets fraud, and works “to identify non-adversarial partners to work with when domestic production is not available.” Importantly, the proposal calls for increasing contingency planning and classifying farms, foods, and supply chains as national security assets, affording them protection as critical infrastructure. "American agriculture is not just about feeding our families," Rollins told reporters, "but about protecting and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us." The Trump administration is clearly prioritizing what it calls a "launch point" for additional efforts. Rollins was joined by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. In his remarks, Hegseth cited the threat posed by foreign ownership of land near strategic bases and military installations, while Bondi and Noem emphasized the dangers of agro-terrorism and supply chain vulnerabilities. The administration has also worked with policymakers at the state and national levels, including governors and senators from locales where agriculture is dominant. This is fitting. For years, state governments, not the feds, have been at the forefront of protecting our nation’s farmland from foreign adversaries such as China.

Bloomberg [7/10/2025 8:25 PM, Julian Luk, Joe Deaux, and Catherine Lucey, 19320K]
US President Donald Trump’s plans to impose 50% import tariffs on copper imports are set to include the kinds of materials used for power grids, the military and data centers. Plans involve including semi-finished products, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named as discussions are private. That comes as few details of Trump’s plans for copper tariffs have been revealed so far. The tariff measures haven’t yet been formalized and they could change. It has been widely expected that refined copper would be tariffed, but it was unclear what would happen with semi-finished products — a category that includes wires, sheets, tubes and plates. Including semi-fabricated goods would ramp up the impact of the levies. Copper on Comex in New York rose as much as 1.3% in early Asia trading on Friday. The levies, which Trump said will come Aug. 1, will have far-reaching impacts for the US. The move is expected to raise costs across a swath of the US economy due to the myriad of industries and applications reliant on the metal. Copper is used in everything from consumer electronics and automobiles to construction and the military. Trump is pursuing the tariffs as part of his effort to bolster America’s copper supply chain, which encompasses mining, refining and processing, recycling and making semi-finished goods and end products.

Reuters [7/10/2025 1:22 PM, Daphne Psaledakis and Rozanna Latiff, 51390K] reports U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met counterparts in Southeast Asia on Thursday during his first visit to Asia since taking office, seeking to reassure them the region is a U.S. priority despite President Donald Trump’s tariff offensive. Washington’s top diplomat joined foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Kuala Lumpur at a meeting that includes Australia, China, the European Union, Japan, Russia, South Korea and others. The visit is part of an effort to renew U.S. focus on the Indo-Pacific and look beyond conflicts in the Middle East and Europe that have consumed much of the Trump administration’s attention. "The story of the next 50 years, will largely be written here in this region," Rubio told ASEAN ministers, describing the Indo-Pacific as a "focal point of U.S. foreign policy". "When I hear ... that perhaps the United States or the world might be distracted by events in other parts of the planet, I would say distraction is impossible," Rubio added. However, Trump’s global tariff strategy has cast a shadow over the trip after he unveiled steep tariffs from August 1 on eight ASEAN members, including Malaysia, as well as on close Northeast Asian allies Japan and South Korea. In a sign of the upset, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told a television news programme Japan needed to wean itself from U.S. dependence in key areas. "If they think Japan ought to follow what America says as we depend heavily on them, then we need to work to become more self-sufficient in security, energy and food, and less dependent on America," he said. Analysts said Rubio would look to press the case that the United States remains a better partner than China, Washington’s main strategic rival.

NewsMax [7/10/2025 7:44 PM, Solange Reyner, 4622K] reports the FBI has been using polygraphs to crack down on news leaks within the bureau and test whether senior employees have said anything negative about its director, Kash Patel, The New York Times reports. Polygraph examinations have been traditionally used for security clearances and preemployment screening, but the technology has been used at the FBI to investigate allegations of leaks, a notable shift. Reuters reported in late May that the Trump administration was working to expose leaks of all kinds. "President [Donald] Trump has made it clear he will not tolerate federal government employees leaking to the fake news media. This is common sense," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Reuters at the time. "Government employees who spend their time leaking to the media instead of doing the job American taxpayers expect should be held accountable.” In several government agencies — including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Defense — managers told employees they would have to take polygraph tests, sometimes called lie detector tests, after unclassified information was reported in the media, six of the government workers told Reuters. The Times report said the FBI had asked senior employees whether they had said anything negative about Patel. "An F.B.I. employee’s loyalty is to the Constitution, not to the director or deputy director," James Davidson, a former agent who spent 23 years in the bureau, told the Times. "It says everything about Patel’s weak constitution that this is even on his radar.”

Daily Wire [7/10/2025 4:09 PM, Tim Pearce, 3816K] reports the Pentagon is cutting bureaucratic hurdles to unleash "American drone dominance" and outcompete hostile powers such as China and Russia. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a slate of reforms to jolt U.S. production of drones and equip U.S. service members with the skills to use them effectively. The Department of Defense posted a video on social media Thursday of Hegseth signing orders delivered by drone. "While our adversaries have produced millions of cheap drones before us, we were mired in bureaucratic red tape. Not anymore," Hegseth said. After noting that President Donald Trump signed an executive order in June to energize the drone industry in the United States, Hegseth said, "Today, I’m rescinding restrictive policies that stifle production. And this will unleash American manufacturing and the ingenuity of our war fighters.” The Pentagon’s newest drone strategy has three main pillars, according to Hegseth. First, the Department of Defense will prioritize buying American-made drones to help expand drone-making on the domestic front. Second, Hegseth said the military would leverage the United States’ "world-leading engineers and AI experts" to arm combat units with drones. And third, the secretary plans to stamp out a risk-averse mindset that he suggested has held back senior military staff from innovating with drones. "We’re going to train as we expect to fight," Hegseth said. "Senior officers must overcome bureaucratic risk aversion in budgeting, weaponing, weaponeering, and training.” "This is the future. We’re in the fight. We’re in the fight to win it. And we’re never going to back down," he concluded. Hegseth’s orders will allow for the first time commanders with the ranks of colonel or captain to obtain and test drones that meet national security standards, according to Fox News, which first obtained the memos signed on Thursday. The orders also cut through a series of approval processes so that the drones may be tested immediately. The orders reclassified drones from being durable military assets to consumables, taking them out of bureaucratic tracking systems and allowing faster acquisition. The orders also directed military officials to coordinate with the Federal Aviation Administration on expanding range restrictions where needed and setting up sites for military training in drone use.

New York Post [7/10/2025 10:08 PM, Victor Nava, 49956K] reports President Trump revealed Thursday that imported goods from Canada will be subject to a 35% tariff starting next month, and that blanket levies may exceed 10%. Trump, 79, notified Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of the incoming tariffs in a letter – one of dozens the president has fired off to foreign leaders this week ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline for nations to secure trade pacts with the US. "It is a Great Honor for me to send you this letter in that it demonstrates the strength and commitment of our Trading Relationship, and the fact that the United States of America has agreed to continue working with Canada, despite Canada having financially retaliated against the United States," Trump wrote in the missive. "As you will recall, the United States imposed Tariffs on Canada to deal with our Nation’s Fentanyl crisis, which is caused, in part, by Canada’s failure to stop the drugs from pouring into our Country," the president continued. "Instead of working with the United States, Canada retaliated with its own Tariffs.” "Starting August 1, 2025, we will charge Canada a Tariff of 35% on Canadian products sent into the United States, separate from all Sectoral Tariffs.” Trump warned Carney that "goods transshipped to evade this higher Tariff will be subject to that higher Tariff" and that if Canada retaliates, the rate will go up. The president noted that Canadian companies that opt to "build or manufacture product within the United States" will not be subject to tariffs and that his administration "will do everything possible to get approvals quickly, professionally, and routinely — In other words, in a matter of weeks.” Last year, the US traded an estimated $762.1 billion in goods with its northern neighbor, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative. The US trade deficit with Canada– which Trump described as a "major threat" the American economy and national security – was estimated at $63.3 billion in 2024, a 1.4% drop from 2023. "If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter," the president said. "These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country.” "You will never be disappointed with The United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter!". Trump previously imposed a 25% tariffs on automobiles, aluminum, steel and imports from Canada, as well as Mexico, that don’t comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). It’s unclear if the USMCA exemption will apply come Aug. 1.

CNN [7/10/2025 7:59 PM, Samantha Waldenberg, 21433K] reports President Donald Trump told NBC on Thursday he struck a deal with NATO for the US to send weapons to Ukraine through the alliance, and that NATO will pay for those weapons "a hundred percent.” "We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, a hundred percent," the president told NBC News’ Kristen Welker in a phone interview Thursday. "We’re going to be sending Patriots to NATO, and then NATO will distribute that," he said, according to NBC News. CNN has reached out to NATO for comment. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke to Trump earlier Thursday. "Earlier today I urged leaders to go further so Ukraine has more ammunition & air defences," Rutte posted on X. "I’ve just spoken with President Trump & am now working closely with Allies to get Ukraine the help they need.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said earlier Thursday that the United States is "actively" talking to countries in Europe about sharing Patriot batteries with Ukraine. "There are other Patriot batteries and there are other opportunities. Countries that have ordered Patriot batteries that are about to receive shipments of them, it’d be great if one of them volunteered to defer that shipment and send it to Ukraine instead," Rubio told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The Hill [7/10/2025 6:00 AM, Ellen Mitchell, 18649K] reports President Trump’s about-face on last week’s pause of some weapons shipments to Ukraine has revealed chasms within the administration, with the president claiming several times that he didn’t know who approved the halt. Trump on Monday said he would restart the dispatch of defensive weapons to the country — to include air defense missiles — reasserting control from leading figures in the Defense Department who have sought to pivot the U.S. military away from Europe. "We’re really starting to see the strains of the limits of the coordination amongst the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department," said Heather Conley, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Conley said Trump’s ever-shifting policies, reduced personnel across agencies, and varying agendas of influential national security figures has "created this perfect storm" with Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth apparently moving out ahead of Trump on Ukraine lethal aid. The original decision to hold off on the weapons to Kyiv was largely driven by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, a close ally to Vice President Vance, and signed off on by Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg after it was discovered that the U.S. only has about 25 percent of the Patriot interceptors needed for all Defense Department military plans, The Guardian first reported. Multiple outlets also have reported that Hegseth did not inform the White House or the State Department the pause was happening. Trump’s reversal of the move, at least in part, also comes as he has ramped up criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Trump said Tuesday was "throwing bulls—" in talks about ending the war.

The Hill [7/10/2025 6:43 AM, Kristina Karisch and Alexis Simendinger, 18649K] reports President Trump and Congress are threatening harsh sanctions against Moscow for its three-year war in Ukraine, with Republican lawmakers feeling more confident about passing sanctions legislation this month after Trump sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin this week. Trump has at times vilified Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and praised Putin, only to reverse his rhetoric on the two leaders. This week, the president stepped up his criticism of the Russian leader, accusing him of pushing "bulls—" and characterizing his warm words as "meaningless." Putin brushed aside Trump’s ramped-up rhetoric and is pushing ahead with renewed intensity in his assault on Ukraine, launching a record drone attack on various regions in the country. The Russian leader is convinced that Moscow’s battlefield superiority is growing, and that Kyiv’s defenses may collapse in the coming months, New York Times reports. Zelensky is meeting in Rome today with European politicians, business leaders and American officials for the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine, seeking to shore up further support from allies. Back in Washington, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he hopes the Senate passes legislation to place tough sanctions on Russia by the August recess.

AP [7/10/2025 6:57 PM, Ellen Knickmeyer and Tara Copp, 56000K] reports Israel believes deeply buried stocks of enriched uranium at one Iranian nuclear facility hit by the U.S. military are potentially retrievable, a senior Israeli official said. And the agency that built the U.S. "bunker buster" bombs dropped on two other nuclear sites said Thursday that it is still waiting for data to be able to determine if those munitions reached their targets. Both developments widen the views on the damage from last month’s strikes, when the United States inserted itself in Israel’s war in a bid to eliminate the threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon. Iran says its program is peaceful. President Donald Trump is adamant that the U.S. strikes "obliterated" the three Iranian nuclear facilities it targeted. International assessments and an initial U.S. intelligence assessment have been more measured, with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency saying in a preliminary report that the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not destroy them. CIA Director John Ratcliffe has since told skeptical U.S. lawmakers that American military strikes destroyed Iran’s lone metal conversion facility, a setback to the nuclear program that would take years to overcome, and that the intelligence community assessed that the vast majority of Iran’s amassed enriched uranium likely remains buried under the rubble at Isfahan and Fordo. The White House didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday. Much of Iran’s enriched uranium is believed deeply buried at the third site, Isfahan, the senior Israeli official said. The U.S. used B-2 stealth bombers to target the Fordo and Natanz sites. The official spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to share Israeli assessments that had not been made public.

NBC News [7/10/2025 11:19 PM, Andrea Mitchell, 44540K] reports Israel believes at least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was buried beneath Iran’s Isfahan facility by U.S. strikes and not destroyed or moved beforehand, a senior Israeli government official said in Washington on Wednesday night. But it is effectively unreachable, the official said, because Israel is watching, and if it believes Iran is trying to dig up the material, it will not hesitate to conduct new strikes. Asked about Israel’s conclusion regarding the uranium at Isfahan, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told NBC News in a statement: "As President Trump has said many times, Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities. The entire world is safer thanks to his decisive leadership.” In a lengthy briefing with reporters Wednesday night, the senior Israeli government official said Israel decided to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities because of intelligence it had that Tehran had begun rapidly and secretly proceeding to weaponize its enriched uranium after Israel’s targeted assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September. The official said that Israel had shared the intelligence with President Donald Trump but was preparing to strike with or without a green light or participation from the United States and that American support was not a condition for Israel’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. The official would not specify the source of the intelligence. Iran denies that it wants to build a nuclear weapon. In an interview with NBC News a day before the U.S. strikes, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said every country has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. "This is an achievement of our own scientists. It’s a question of national pride and dignity," he said. Asked about National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard’s having testified before Congress in March that the U.S. intelligence community "continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003," the Israeli official dismissed the question, viewing the assessment as not serious. According to the official, Israel believes Iran’s nuclear program has now been set back up to two years. An initial assessment by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency leaked late last month found that the U.S. strikes on Isfahan and two other sites may have set back the program only several months. The question of how damaged Iran’s nuclear program was — along with how much its timeline toward building a nuclear weapon should it ever decide to do so was delayed — has been a politically charged one. Trump and his administration have denounced the leak of the DIA assessment and the outlets that first reported it. The day after the initial DIA assessment was first reported, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement that "a body of credible intelligence" indicated the program was "severely damaged.” "This includes new intelligence from an historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years," he said.

FOX News [7/10/2025 8:45 AM, Stephen Sorace, 46878K] Video: HERE reports Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te oversaw the island’s military performing live-fire drills with U.S.-made Abrams M1A2T tanks Thursday, part of annual exercises aimed at sharpening its defenses against China. Lai watched as four of the tanks fired individually, in pairs, and as a group at a testing ground south of Taipei on the second day of the 10-day Han Kuang exercises – Taiwan’s longest ever. The tanks fired on the move and from fixed positions, hitting both stationary and moving targets with 100% accuracy, according to the army. Lai described this year’s exercises as "large-scale, realistic combat drills.” "When our military has greater strength, the nation, society, and people will be safer. Once our country becomes secure, the Indo-Pacific region will be more peaceful and stable," the president told troops and reporters at the base in Hsinchu county. Taiwan agreed to buy 108 of the tanks from the U.S. for $1.45 billion in a major upgrade to the island’s arsenal training practices, which now include F-16V jet fighters, HIMARS missile defenses and stealthy unmanned vehicles. China has threatened to use force to bring Taiwan under its control, harassing the island on a near-daily basis with balloons and military ships in nearby waters. Beijing has derided the war exercises as a farce that will have no effect on its determination to take over the island, whose population overwhelmingly rejects unification with China. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [7/10/2025 7:01 AM, Staff, 51860K] Video HERE reports China said Thursday it had cracked three spying plots, including one in which a public servant was lured by the "seductive beauty" of a foreign agent, urging government workers to remain vigilant against overseas threats. Beijing has stepped up espionage warnings in recent years as relations with the United States and other Western nations have worsened. Its Ministry of State Security (MSS) said Thursday that foreign spies "have been increasingly active in infiltrating and stealing secrets from China" and were targeting public officials. "Individual officials have caused the damaging effects of leaking secrets due to a lack of belief, a weakened sense of discipline and a loosened awareness of rules... harming national security and interests," the MSS said. It described a case in which a provincial government employee surnamed Li fell into a "meticulously designed honey trap" while traveling overseas for work. "Unable to resist the seductive beauty of the foreign intelligence agent," Li was then blackmailed with "intimate photos" and forced to hand over official documents once back in China. He was sentenced to five years in prison for espionage, according to the statement. In May, 60 Minutes reported that the MSS has grown into the largest, most active spy agency in the world, and that its top target is not foreign powers, but China’s own people, including those living in the U.S. Former U.S. diplomat Jim Lewis, who has more than 30 years of direct experience with China’s intelligence agencies, told 60 Minutes that Chinese nationals on foreign soil "could be learning something that Xi doesn’t want them to learn. And so, they are seen as a risk — not as a threat, but as a risk." But Lewis said the MSS also targets foreign nationals with the same tactics as other spy agencies, namely sex, money, and revenge. He said the honey trap or "honeypot" strategy was common, but that monetary incentive was also a reliable option for recruiting foreign agents. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [7/11/2025 12:59 AM, Eric Martin and Manolo Serapio Jr, 19320K] reports Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will visit Washington this month for his first trip there since Donald Trump took office, as the US highlights its deepening partnership with both Manila and Tokyo. The visit will be from July 20 to 22, Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a briefing Friday in Manila, adding that details including the agenda are still being finalized. The trip comes after the Trump administration raised a planned tariff on Philippine exports to the US to 20% from 17%, spurring concern from Washington’s long-time ally. Philippine trade officials are traveling to the US next week to hold further negotiations on tariffs. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he looks “forward to hosting the president of the Philippines in Washington in a few days.” “We have a great relationship with Japan and the Philippines, and work very closely with them on the economic corridor, on maritime security and territorial integrity,” Rubio told reporters Thursday after meeting representatives from the two countries at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ summit in Malaysia. The last time Marcos was in the US was April 2024, when he met with then President Joe Biden and former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the first trilateral summit among leaders of the US and the two allied nations.

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