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

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

The New York Times [7/11/2025 6:03 PM, Shawn McCreesh, 153395K] reports President Trump and Melania Trump traveled Friday to an area of Texas devastated by last weekend’s extreme flash flooding, which left more than 120 people dead. The president and first lady passed downed trees and saw an overturned tractor-trailer as local officials took them on a tour of a disaster zone around Kerrville, a community along the Guadalupe River that has become a hub for search and recovery work. After the tour, Mr. and Mrs. Trump held a round table packed with state and local officials. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, sat beside Mr. Trump. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both Republicans, were there, too. House members from across the state turned up, as did Phil McGraw, the Trump-supporting reality television star with Texas roots. “Oh, there’s Dr. Phil,” Mr. Trump said. “Look at Dr. Phil. You’re looking good, Phil. This is a hell of a situation, isn’t it, huh?” Republican lawmakers, including Representative Chip Roy, whose district was the epicenter of the flood zone, praised the Trump administration for its response. “When I called you on Friday,” Mr. Roy said to Mr. Trump, “you said, ‘Whatever you need.’ When I called the secretary’s office, she called me within 15 minutes and said, ‘Whatever you need.’ And then she came here this weekend. I’ve never seen such a quick response and such a focus on delivering for the people.” But there have been questions about the response at the local and federal levels. The president angrily batted away suggestions that there was something lacking in how authorities handled the tragedy. Mr. Trump has repeatedly described the flood in Texas as an unavoidable act of nature — “a hundred-year catastrophe,” as he has put it — but his administration has faced intense scrutiny over its level of preparedness and response, including concerns over unfilled positions at local offices of the National Weather Service and troubles at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Mr. Trump has talked of eliminating FEMA for months. The agency has lost about a quarter of its full-time staff, including some of its most experienced officials. It is housed under the Department of Homeland Security. At the direction of Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, FEMA instituted a policy requiring all expenses over $100,000 — including the deployment of search-and-rescue teams — be approved directly by Ms. Noem. Questions have been raised about whether Ms. Noem’s decision contributed to delays in emergency relief. At a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Mr. Trump praised FEMA’s work, and Ms. Noem said that the agency was stronger under the current administration. “FEMA has been deployed, and we’re cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA, streamlining it much like your vision of how FEMA should operate,” she said. “It’s been a much better response to help these families get through this terrible situation.” The Wall Street Journal [7/11/2025 5:48 PM, Tarini Parti, Benoit Morenne, and Annie Linskey, 646K] reports that nobody has any idea how and why a thing like this could happen,” Trump said Friday during a meeting with local and state officials of the floods that killed more than 100 people last week in the Texas Hill Country. Describing the surge of water that swept away girls from a local camp, Trump said “the best surfers in the world would be afraid to surf” that wave of water. The president also was quick to praise the response to the tragedy. “Every American should be inspired by what has taken place in this short period of time,” he said, giving his administration credit for fixing up the Federal Emergency Management Agency “in no time.” Trump traveled to Texas on an unusual, blended mission—a presidential attempt to console combined with an effort to tout a restructured response to natural disasters, where the federal government takes a back seat to state and local responders. Trump arrived in Texas as the recovery process continues and nearly 200 people remain missing. Shortly before Trump left the White House on Friday morning, his budget director Russ Vought told reporters that the president wants to be sure Texas gets anything the state needs, but also added “we also want FEMA to be reformed.” The Trump administration, which has proposed cutting the FEMA budget by $646 million, has been reviewing ways to overhaul the agency to significantly shift the responsibility for disaster response to states. Trump spent much of the day Friday in Texas, including a helicopter tour of the damage from the Guadalupe River flooding. Along with the first lady Melania Trump and Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the president listened as first responders briefed them on the damage. Trump later met with first responders and local officials at a roundtable in Kerrville, Texas. “I have to say that the level of professionalism was incredible,” Trump said. When a reporter asked Trump about why flood warnings didn’t go out sooner, he called the journalist “an evil person.” For weeks, ahead of the flood, FEMA employees had been raising concerns about a new directive from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem instructing officials that any obligations for grants or contracts over $100,000 required her personal approval, according to a memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In the early days of the response, only a few dozen FEMA employees were deployed and the agency has since ramped up its presence, according to the employees. One of those people said FEMA was 48 to 72 hours behind where it would be in responding other than the door-to-door program, which has been entirely eliminated. As of Thursday, 500 federal employees were on the ground in Texas, including more than 200 FEMA staffers, according to employees familiar with deployment data. Noem, who toured the damage Friday with Trump, has defended FEMA’s response. “What we are doing here, sir, is empowering the state and the local officials to make the best decisions for their people,” Noem told the president.

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Breitbart [7/11/2025 6:27 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 3077K] reports President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump met first responders and grieving families in Kerrville, Texas, on Friday ahead of a roundtable with local officials after flooding ravaged the Texas Hill Country last week, leaving extreme death and destruction in its wake. The president and first lady met with what the White House press pool estimates is 30 first responders and guardsmen at a severely damaged site in Kerrville, Texas, shaking hands with all of them. This came after Texas Emergency Management and Kerrville Fire Department officials briefed Trump. After meeting with the first responders, the president met privately with many of the family members who lost loved ones in the Guadalupe River flood on July 3rd and 4th. Speaking at a roundtable at Happy State Bank Expo Hall in Kerrville, Trump opened his remarks by saying, "Well, this is a tough one," and he has "never seen anything like it.". "We just visited with incredible families that, I mean, look, they’ve been devastated. They lost their child, or two children, and just hard to believe," he said, flanked by the first lady and Gov Greg Abbott (R-TX). The death toll from the flooding surpassed 120 people on Friday, according to CNN, while another 160 souls, at least, remain unaccounted for after the Guadalupe River surged to extreme levels last week. "I’ve never seen anything like it, a little narrow river that becomes a monster, and that’s what happened," Trump said. "But the First Lady and I are here in Texas to express the love and support and the anguish of our entire nation in the aftermath of this really horrific and deadly flood.". Trump, who noted he is praying for the families, also expressed his deep condolences for the many young girls who were attending Camp Mystic when their lives were claimed by the flood. "They were there because they loved God. And as we grieve this unthinkable tragedy, we take comfort in the knowledge that God has welcomed those little, beautiful girls into his comforting arms in heaven. We believe that. Have to believe that, and we do," Trump said. "And we lost some wonderful people beyond the little girls. We lost some very brave men and women that tried to save the girls. As a nation, we mourn for every single life that was swept away in the flood, and we pray for the families that are left behind," he said. CBS News [7/11/2025 7:33 PM, Kathryn Watson and Emily Mae Czachor, 51860K] Video HERE reports President Trump expressed the "anguish of our entire nation" Friday after he and first lady Melania Trump met with families of the victims of last week’s deadly flooding in Central Texas. The president and first lady surveyed the devastation in Kerrville, Texas, and met with first responders, local officials and survivors. The death toll in the state stands at 121, but that figure is likely to climb, as rescuers and families continue their search for the missing. "We just visited with incredible families that — I mean, look, they’ve been devastated," the president said in a roundtable with state, federal and local officials in Kerrville. "They lost their child, or two children. And, just hard to believe. I’ve never seen anything like it, a little narrow river that becomes a monster, and that’s what happened. But the first lady and I are here in Texas to express the love and support and the anguish of our entire nation in the aftermath of this really horrific and deadly flood." Mr. Trump met with families behind closed doors, away from cameras. "We are grieving with you," the first lady said Friday. "Our nation is grieving with you." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [7/11/2025 5:24 PM, Eli Stokols, 16523K] reports President Donald Trump bristled at questions critical of the government’s response to deadly flooding during a visit to Texas Friday, and praised the Federal Emergency Management Agency that he had floated shutting down just last month. “FEMA has been really headed by some very good people,” Trump said during a roundtable with local officials, suggesting his administration turned the agency around after sharply criticizing the Biden administration-led FEMA response to flooding in North Carolina in late 2024. “We have some good people running FEMA. It’s about time. They failed us in North Carolina but when we got in on January 20, they fixed it up in no time.” Trump was in Kerr County to thank first responders and console victims of the flooding that claimed more than 100 lives, including dozens of children. With a white USA hat pulled down low over his head, the president began the meeting visibly stirred after he and first lady Melania Trump spent time with the loved ones of some of those who died in what Trump called “an unthinkable tragedy.” Deviating from his notes, Trump repeatedly remarked on the loss of life, declaring that “Americans’ hearts are shattered.” He lamented how many “beautiful souls” were killed when the Guadalupe River rose more than 20 feet in 95 minutes. “I’ve never seen anything like it…a little narrow river that becomes a monster.” But the president became defensive when a reporter asked him to respond to criticism over officials failing to warn victims in time. Trump said he had only “admiration” for the first responders. “Everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances,” said Trump, before criticizing the reporter. “Only a bad person would ask a question like that,” he continued. “I think this has been heroism.” Rep. Chip Roy, the Republican congressman who represents Kerrville, has called for improvements to disaster warning systems. But he took the opportunity to echo Trump, criticizing the reporter who’d asked about the scrutiny over the government’s response. “When you see 26 feet of water rising a foot a minute, don’t go around pointing fingers,” Roy said. Asserting that Democrats have had “an incredible run of bad talent,” Trump said he’d prefer to be bipartisan but “all [Democrats] want to do is criticize.” And he repeated a favorite talking point, that the U.S. had been “dead” under former President Joe Biden but was now “the hottest country.”

Washington Examiner [7/11/2025 5:54 PM, Haisten Willis, 1934K] reports after touring the devastating Texas floods, President Donald Trump sounded somber as he promised to help rebuild communities devastated by the disaster. "My administration is doing everything in its power to help Texas," Trump said during an afternoon roundtable, saying that he approved a request for funding to help the region within two minutes of receiving it. "We’ve deployed over 400 first responders and assisted or enabled more than 1,500 rescues." Accompanied by Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), first lady Melania Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and John Cornyn (R-TX) and more than a dozen other federal, state, and local officials, Trump expressed sympathy over the flooding’s devastation and the more than 135 lives confirmed lost in the tragedy. But the meeting wasn’t entirely without controversy. When Trump took to the press for questions, the first reporter asked about families upset because alerts didn’t reach people in time, which could have saved some of the lost lives. The president took umbrage at the question, calling the reporter, who works for a local CBS station, a "very evil person." Despite Trump’s offense, Trump and Abbott later acknowledged that an improved alert system may be in order for the area to prevent a similar disaster of the same magnitude. Abbott has revised the agenda for a special session of the Texas state legislature to address the flooding and said that he will work to devise a response that’s right for the area. After flying to Kerrville aboard Air Force One Friday morning, Trump’s motorcade stopped near the Guadalupe River, which runs through the city at the site of an overturned tractor-trailer. Before leaving the White House Friday morning, Trump described the Texas floods as "a horrible thing" and said that he would soon be there "with some of the great families and others — the governors, everybody."

The Hill [7/11/2025 9:05 AM, Miriam Waldvogel, 18649K] reports Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) called a reported Department of Homeland Security policy that Secretary Kristi Noem personally approve significant purchases "one of the stupidest decisions and policies I’ve ever heard of" as questions swirl about the federal response to deadly flash floods in Texas. "For an administration that tries to talk about red tape, they are adding red tape here. They are adding bureaucracy," the New Jersey Democrat said during an MSNBC appearance Thursday. "This is a terrible idea to bottleneck." Kim, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security Committee and serves as ranking Democrat on its disaster management subpanel, also took aim at the policy in a letter to Noem asking her department for its hurricane response plan for the 2025 season, which began in June. CNN and Washington Post reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) response to the floods, which have killed more than 120 people, was hamstrung by a DHS budget restriction that required Noem to approve every purchase, grant and contract over $100,000. The policy, which was previously reported by CNN in June, meant FEMA was slowed in positioning and deploying search and rescue teams as well as other resources. Those teams were reportedly not authorized until Monday, 72 hours after the flooding. Texas deployed its own disaster response to the floods, now among the deadliest weather events in state history. DHS has forcefully pushed back against CNN’s reporting, calling it a "FAKE NEWS LIE." Noem also ripped the news organization in a Thursday Fox News appearance. "It’s absolutely trash what they are doing by saying that," Noem said. "Every single thing they asked for, we were there.”

The Hill [7/11/2025 8:30 AM, Filip Timotija, 18649K] reports President Trump praised Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem for the federal response to the recent deadly floods in Texas that have killed at least 120 people, amid scrutiny over the speed of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) action in the Lone Star State. Trump, during a phone interview with NBC News Thursday, said he did not know anything when asked about recent reports of Noem having to sign off on any contract or grant by FEMA if it exceeds $100,000. Agency officials recently formed a task force looking to speed up the process of approval, NBC reported, citing two people familiar with the unit. "I don’t know anything about it," Trump told "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker. "We were right on time." "We were there — in fact, she was the first one I saw on television. She was there right from the beginning, and she would not have needed anything," he continued, referring to Noem. "She had the right to do it, but she was literally the first person I saw on television." The president added that the DHS secretary was "right on the ball" and has "done a great job.”

The Hill [7/11/2025 5:12 PM, Rachel Frazin, 18649K] reports rhetoric from Trump administration officials appears to be shifting more toward reforming the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), rather than axing it entirely. While the shift has been more apparent as the administration faces questions about the disaster agency in light of deadly floods in Texas, the subtle changes in how key figures talk about FEMA predates the July 4 tragedy. Some officials have walked a tightrope, emphasizing that they want to tear down the agency while also rebuilding it, a fuzzy picture for the future of federal disaster policy. While Noem has repeated the "eliminate" refrain in recent days, she and other officials have also emphasized rebuilding FEMA, indicating that they do not plan to entirely dismantle it. "This entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency," she said this week. Meanwhile, White House budget director Russell Vought told reporters Friday while addressing the Texas floods, "We also want FEMA to be reformed." Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, on Friday told The Hill that changes are coming to FEMA. "It’s not a secret that under Secretary Noem and acting Administrator [David] Richardson, FEMA, as it is today, will no longer exist," she said. "Federal Emergency Management will shift from bloated, D.C.-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens. The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades," she added. "Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, the FEMA Review Council is developing a comprehensive plan for necessary change."

The Hill [7/11/2025 3:55 PM, Miriam Waldvogel, 18649K] reports three House Democrats sent a letter to President Trump and two officials involved in weather infrastructure Friday expressing concerns about the government’s preparedness for future flood disasters and extreme weather events. "This tragedy echoes a troubling national pattern of accelerating flash flood disasters that have claimed lives: 46 lives in the greater New York City area in September 2021, 345 lives in Kentucky in July 2022, 20 lives in Tennessee in August 2021, and 250 lives across the Southeast in September 2024," Democratic Reps. Lloyd Doggett (Texas), Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) and Eric Sorensen (Ill.) wrote. "These events are not anomalies—they are harbingers of a climate-disrupted future," they added. The lawmakers expressed concern about whether the Department of Government Efficiency-driven staff reductions at the National Weather Service delayed warnings about the Texas floods, which have claimed at least 120 lives. The New York Times reported the vacancies may have complicated efforts to coordinate with local officials and that some of the unfilled positions predate the Trump administration. The letter was addressed to Trump alongside Army Corps of Engineers Gen. William Graham Jr. and acting National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Laura Grimm. The lawmakers also asked NOAA and the Army Corps of Engineers to detail how they planned to adapt federal weather services to what they called "the growing frequency of extreme precipitation events attributable to climate change."

New York Times [7/11/2025 8:06 PM, Maxine Joselow, 138952K] reports that, two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by New York Times. The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters. The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security. The details on the unanswered calls on July 6, which have not been previously reported, come as FEMA faces intense scrutiny over its response to the floods in Texas that have killed more than 120 people. The agency, which President Trump has called for eliminating, has been slow to activate certain teams that coordinate response and search-and-rescue efforts. Asked for comment, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security who declined to be identified wrote in an email, “When a natural disaster strikes, phone calls surge, and wait times can subsequently increase. Despite this expected influx, FEMA’s disaster call center responded to every caller swiftly and efficiently, ensuring no one was left without assistance.” After floods, hurricanes and other disasters, survivors can call FEMA to apply for different types of financial assistance. People who have lost their homes, for instance, can apply for a one-time payment of $750 that can help cover their immediate needs, such as food or other supplies. On July 5, as floodwaters were starting to recede, FEMA received 3,027 calls from disaster survivors and answered 3,018, or roughly 99.7 percent, the documents show. Contractors with four call center companies answered the vast majority of the calls. That evening, however, Ms. Noem did not renew the contracts with the four companies and hundreds of contractors were fired, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter.

AP [7/12/2025 5:56 AM, Jaimie Ding, 56000K] reports a federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties, including Los Angeles. Immigrant advocacy groups filed the lawsuit last week accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of systematically targeting brown-skinned people in Southern California during its ongoing immigration crackdown. The plaintiffs include three detained immigrants and two U.S. citizens, one of whom was held despite showing agents his identification. The filing in U.S. District Court asked a judge to block the administration from using what they call unconstitutional tactics in immigration raids. Immigrant advocates accuse immigration officials of detaining someone based on their race, carrying out warrantless arrests, and denying detainees access to legal counsel at a holding facility in downtown LA. Judge Maame E. Frimpong also issued a separate order barring the federal government from restricting attorney access at a Los Angeles immigration detention facility. Frimpong issued the emergency orders, which are a temporary measure while the lawsuit proceeds, the day after a hearing during which advocacy groups argued that the government was violating the Fourth and Fifth amendments of the Constitution. She wrote in the order there was a “mountain of evidence” presented in the case that the federal government was committing the violations they were being accused of. The White House responded quickly to the ruling late Friday. “No federal judge has the authority to dictate immigration policy — that authority rests with Congress and the President,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said. “Enforcement operations require careful planning and execution; skills far beyond the purview (or) jurisdiction of any judge. We expect this gross overstep of judicial authority to be corrected on appeal.” Immigrants and Latino communities across Southern California have been on edge for weeks since the Trump administration stepped up arrests at car washes, Home Depot parking lots, immigration courts and a range of businesses. Tens of thousands of people have participated in rallies in the region over the raids and the subsequent deployment of the National Guard and Marines. The order also applies to Ventura County, where busloads of workers were detained Thursday while the court hearing was underway after federal agents descended on a cannabis farm, leading to clashes with protesters and multiple injuries. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the recent wave of immigration enforcement has been driven by an “arbitrary arrest quota” and based on “broad stereotypes based on race or ethnicity.” When detaining the three day laborers who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, all immigration agents knew about them is that they were Latino and were dressed in construction work clothes, the filing in the lawsuit said. It goes on to describe raids at swap meets and Home Depots where witnesses say federal agents grabbed anyone who “looked Hispanic.” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in an email that “any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE.” McLaughlin said “enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence” before making arrests. After the ruling, she said “a district judge is undermining the will of the American people.”

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Washington Post [7/11/2025 3:36 PM, Victoria Bisset and Lauren Kaori Gurley, 32099K] reports federal officers raided a large cannabis farm in Southern California on Thursday, clashing with protesters and firing crowd-control munitions, including tear gas, in the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown on worksites. Video of the farm in Camarillo, Ventura County, showed officers in camouflage gear, helmets and gas masks, and accompanied by military-style vehicles, firing a large number of crowd-control munitions that emitted white gas during the raid. The agents were “executing criminal search warrants,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, wrote on social media about the operation. At a second farm, in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County, officers carrying out an immigration raid encountered protesters and deployed “flash devices and smoke devices,” Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-California) said in a statement. Ten young people, including eight unaccompanied minors, were discovered at one of the farms, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said on social media, adding that all of them were unauthorized to be in the United States. He said the facility is under investigation for child labor violations. The worksite raids follow a string of immigration enforcement actions that have terrified Latino communities throughout the state, sparking widespread backlash from Californians. The raids targeted Glass House Farms cannabis growing facilities. The company confirmed on social media that it was visited by officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and said it “fully complied with agent search warrants.” California legalized recreational cannabis in 2018, and Glass House Farms has multiple active licenses in the state to grow cannabis, according to the Associated Press. Carbajal said he tried to conduct oversight of Thursday’s raid in Carpinteria but was denied entry. He accused agents of showing “disproportionate displays of force.” “These militarized ICE raids are not how you keep our communities safe,” he said. The administration’s ramped-up worksite raids are aimed at boosting arrests to 3,000 a day across the country. But the operations have sparked backlash from the business community and farmers, including members of President Donald Trump’s base who depend on undocumented labor. The administration announced a pause in raids on farms, hotels and restaurants in June. But days later, DHS officials reversed that guidance. Trump has said in recent days that the administration is working on a system that would allow some undocumented farmworkers to remain in the United States, but has offered few details. Despite a pledge by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem to target “the worst of the worst,” the administration is increasingly targeting unauthorized immigrants with no criminal records, as The Washington Post reported last month.

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The Hill [7/11/2025 7:58 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrested approximately 200 people without permanent legal status during immigration raids on Thursday at two cannabis farms in California, which left one person dead. "We can confirm that a farm worker has died of injuries they sustained as a result of yesterday’s immigration enforcement action," the United Farm Workers (UFW) wrote in a Friday post on the social media platform X. In an earlier post on Friday, the labor union said workers at the farm, including U.S. citizens, were held by the authorities for hours as they executed criminal warrants. "US citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones," the union said. DHS did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment regarding the fatality, but the federal agency said in a Friday statement that more than 500 protesters, who gathered in the area, attempted to "disrupt" law enforcement operations. Four U.S. citizens were arrested for assaulting or resisting officer, DHS said. Agents were recorded using less lethal ammunition and tear gas on people. One individual, according to officials, fired a gun at officers during protests after the raids. Many Republicans on Friday applauded the federal operation while Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, bashed the move amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration across the country. "Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields," he wrote on social media Thursday. "[President] Trump calls me ‘Newscum’ — but he’s the real scum. In a Friday statement, officials said that 10 children without documentation were identified during the two immigration operations in Camarillo and Carpinteria, Calif., at farms owned and operated by the Glass House Brands Inc. Customs and Border Patrol commissioner Rodney Scott said on Thursday that the company is now under investigation for child labor violations. Glass House, in response, stated it never intentionally hired underage workers. Local organizers and labor leaders said the arrests would only lead to more turmoil. "It is unfortunately not uncommon for teenagers to work in the fields. To be clear: detaining and deporting children is not a solution for child labor," UFW said in a statement. "These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families.” The raids follow months of unrest in California, particularly in and around Los Angeles, in response to the administration’s efforts to increase deportation numbers.

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AP [7/11/2025 6:56 PM, Amy Taxin, Damian Dovarganes and Olga R. Rodriguez]

The Hill [7/11/2025 11:47 AM, Josh DuBose, 18649K] reports federal immigration agents, assisted by members of the National Guard, carried out raids at two Southern California cannabis farms Thursday, arresting dozens, including undocumented minors, in an operation that drew several hundred protestors and violent clashes with officers. The immigration sweeps, one at Glass House Farms in Camarillo and another about 35 miles up the coast at another Glass House facility in Carpinteria, unfolded simultaneously at around 8:30 a.m. In Camarillo, video from Nexstar’s KTLA showed a large federal law enforcement presence in the fields, with agents detaining workers as several hundred protesters began gathering. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli confirmed the operation in a post to X. "Federal agents are executing a search warrant at this marijuana farm," he wrote. "Agents have already arrested multiple individuals for impeding this operation and will continue to make arrests. Don’t interfere. You will be arrested and charged with a federal offense.” The scene escalated around 12:35 p.m. when tear gas and less-than-lethal rounds were deployed into crowds of protestors who had blocked roadways on both north and southbound Laguna Road. Essayli later posted a video to X, showing what looks like a man firing at federal agents. "[The] FBI has issued a $50,000 award for information leading to the conviction of an Unknown Subject who appeared to fire a pistol at Federal Law Enforcement Officers near Camarillo," he said. "The shooting occurred on 7/10/25 at approximately 2:26 p.m. on Laguna Rd between Wood Rd and Las Posas Rd.” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott posted to X that 10 undocumented minors at the Camarillo farm, eight of them unaccompanied, were found, and Glass House is now under investigation for child labor violations. "This is Newsom’s California," he added. During the Carpinteria operation, Congressman Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) attempted to enter the area cordoned off by federal agents, but was denied access and turned around, video from local news station KEYT showed. Carbajal released a statement following the enforcement operation in which he described a "troubling lack of transparency" from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since the Trump Administration began its high-profile immigration busts in California. "I will be demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security to find out who they detained and where the detainees are being taken," the statement reads in part. "These militarized ICE raids are not how you keep our communities safe. This kind of chaos only traumatizes families and tears communities apart.”

Federalist [7/11/2025 3:25 PM, Breccan F. Thies, 1142K] reports Democrats are continuing their assault on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by faking outrage over a raid where officers saved illegal alien children from an alleged child labor operation on a marijuana farm in Southern California. ICE agents on Thursday executed a federal search warrant at a Camarillo, Ventura County, marijuana growing operation, Glass House Farms, where 10 illegal alien children were found (eight without an adult) allegedly staffing the farm. A raid of another Glass House Farms location happened in Carpinteria on the same day. According to the Los Angeles Times, officials said that 200 illegal aliens were also detained. Footage of the raid showed violent protesters throwing rocks at the agents, and one even appeared to fire a gun at ICE agents. But that did not stop the media and other Democrats from lying through their teeth, falsely claiming these were just innocent people picking strawberries, having smeared ICE agents as "Nazis" for months. Dopey California Democrat Rep. Jimmy Gomez perpetuated the lie, claiming these marijuana grow-op workers were "immigrant farm workers who feed America." Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., added to the slop saying, "Instead of prioritizing dangerous criminals Trump is targeting families that have been here for years picking our food. The public outcry and protests are occurring [sic] because the American public knows this is wrong.” If "public outcry" means shooting at federal agents, hurling rocks at them, and bayonetting their vehicles with Mexican flags, then Gallego was apparently correct that kind of unlawful behavior is taking place. In reality, the Camarillo raid brought about 500 agitators to obstruct federal law enforcement, many of whom almost immediately became violent, forcing officers to use nonlethal force like tear gas to make the situation safer. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Daily Caller, "At the California marijuana facility, [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and CBP law enforcement rescued 8 unaccompanied migrant children from what looks like exploitation, violation of child labor laws and potentially human trafficking or smuggling." He added, "Yet, Gavin Newsom, Ruben Gallego and other politicians continue to demonize and attack the law enforcement officers who bravely rescued these children.”

Los Angeles Times [7/11/2025 2:52 PM, Clara Harter, 14672K] reports the FBI is investigating a shooting that took place Thursday during an immigration enforcement operation at a cannabis farm in Camarillo where hundreds of protesters clashed with federal agents. ABC7 News captured video of what appears to be a man shooting at federal agents after smoke canisters were fired into the crowd in an attempt to disperse protesters. It’s unclear if anyone was wounded. The FBI is now offering a $50,000 award for information leading to the conviction of the person who appeared to fire a pistol at federal officers at 2:26 p.m. on Laguna Road between Wood and Las Posas roads, U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said in a statement on X.

New York Post [7/11/2025 8:29 PM, Anna Young, 49956K] reports a migrant farm worker died after sustaining "catastrophic" injuries from a 30-foot fall during Thursday’s chaotic immigration raid at a southern California marijuana farm, according to family and officials. The worker, identified by family as Jaime Alanís, suffered a broken neck and skull, along with a severed artery, after immigration agents descended on Glass House Farms in Camarillo during a large-scale operation that erupted into a violent scene as authorities clashed with dozens of demonstrators. "We tragically can confirm that a farm worker has died of injuries they sustained as a result of yesterday’s immigration enforcement action," the United Farm Workers union announced on X. A family member told NBCLA that they initially believed Alanís — who was sending his earnings to his wife and daughter in Mexico — had been detained before later learning he was hospitalized. "We assumed they caught him," the loved one told the outlet. "But we got a call from the hospital that he’s in critical condition, catastrophic injuries," she added, noting that Friday morning she learned he wasn’t "going to make it.” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the worker wasn’t being pursued by federal authorities when he climbed onto the roof of a green house and fell. "This man was not in and has not been in CBP or ICE custody," she told The Post in a statement. "Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.” Several other farm workers were also critically injured during the raid, which resulted in the arrest of about 200 migrants suspected of being in the country illegally. US citizens were also detained, with some still unaccounted for, farm union officials said. Ten migrant youths, most of them who crossed the border unaccompanied, were also found at the Ventura County pot farm, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said. The facility is now under investigation for child labor violations. "Law enforcement rescued 8 unaccompanied migrant children from what looks like exploitation, violation of child labor laws and potentially human trafficking or smuggling," McLaughlin revealed Friday. Glass House Farms has since denied claims that it violated hiring regulations or employed minors. The farm, which uses half of its space for cannabis while the other is dedicated to tomatoes and cucumbers, said it "fully complied with agent search warrants" ahead of the immigration operation. "These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families," UFW President Teresa Romero said in a statement. Thursday’s raid is believed to be the largest carried out under the Trump administration.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [7/11/2025 8:57 PM, Miriam Jordan, 138952K]
Reuters [7/11/2025 5:46 PM, Leah Douglas, 51390K]
NBC News [7/11/2025 6:49 PM, Alicia Victoria Lozano, 44540K]
Univision [7/11/2025 5:39 PM, Staff, 4992K]
Univision [7/11/2025 4:04 PM, Staff, 4992K]

ABC News [7/11/2025 11:50 PM, Armando Garcia and Riley Hoffman, 31733K] reports a farmworker whose union said he suffered injuries in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid is alive and in critical condition, a California hospital said Friday evening. "The family of Mr. Jaime Alanis Garcia has authorized the Ventura County Medical Center (VCMC) to release the following information. Mr. Garcia is currently hospitalized at VCMC and remains in critical condition," VCMC said in a statement. Federal agents clashed with protesters during an immigration raid at a farm in Ventura, one of at least two large-scale raids in Southern California on Thursday. The incident occurred outside of an agricultural farm along Laguna Road in the Camarillo area of Ventura County. ABC News’ Los Angeles station KABC, reported the man was Jaime García. Earlier in the day, KABC spoke with a family member who said he fell about 30 feet off a building while he was possibly trying to run from federal agents. "This man was not in and has not been in CBP or ICE custody. Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible," said Department of Homeland Security Public Affairs Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. Garcia suffered a broken neck and skull, according to KABC.

NBC News [7/11/2025 10:31 PM, Alicia Victoria Lozano, 44540K] reports a farmworker at a Southern California cannabis farm is in critical condition after being injured during a chaotic immigration raid by federal officers, local officials said Friday. Jaime Alanis Garcia is hospitalized at Ventura County Medical Center and remains in critical condition, county officials said in a statement authorized by the man’s family. His family told NBC Los Angeles that the man is on life support using an assistive breathing machine and has "catastrophic" injuries. He has a broken neck, broken skull and a severed artery, a niece said. The United Farm Workers had previously said Garcia, an employee of Glass House Farms, died after falling some 30 feet. "These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families," UFW President Teresa Romero said in a statement to NBC News. Immigration officials said in a statement that Garcia was not in federal custody at the time of the fall. "Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.” Outside federal agents lobbed less-lethal weapons and tear gas at protesters who gathered at the Camarillo grow house Thursday while employees were being rounded up and arrested inside. Officers pepper-sprayed a disabled U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and works as a security guard at the facility, the man’s wife told NBC News. George Retes complied with federal officers when he arrived to check on friends and colleagues who might have been affected by the raids, she said, but instead he was arrested on suspicion of assault, according to immigration officials. A hearing is scheduled Monday. "He wasn’t even a protester," Guadalupe Torres said of her husband. "They smashed his window, and after they smashed his window, they pepper-sprayed him.” Aerial footage from NBC Los Angeles showed farm equipment being loaded up into tow trucks and people standing around in handcuffs. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/11/2025 9:21 PM, Louis Casiano, 46878K] reports President Donald Trump on Friday said he has given federal immigration agents "Total Authorization" to protect themselves after clashes with protesters during an enforcement operation at a California cannabis farm. Trump was traveling to Washington from Texas, where he toured the region where devastating floods have left at least 120 people dead, and he penned a lengthy post on Truth Social about the violence against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. "I am on my way back from Texas, and watched in disbelief as THUGS were violently throwing rocks and bricks at ICE Officers while they were moving down a roadway in their car and/or official vehicle," he wrote on Truth Social. "Tremendous damage was done to these brand new vehicles. I know for a fact that these Officers are having a hard time with allowing this to happen in that it shows such total disrespect for LAW AND ORDER.” Federal authorities conducted raids on Glass House Farms families in Camarillo and Carpinteria. Authorities used tear gas, and there were reports of objects being thrown at agents. In response, Trump said he directed Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Border Czar Tom Homan to instruct ICE, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other law enforcement on the receiving end of "thrown rocks, bricks, or any other form of assault, to stop their car, and arrest these SLIMEBALLS, using whatever means is necessary to do so.” "I am giving Total Authorization for ICE to protect itself, just like they protect the Public," he wrote. "I never want to see a car carrying a Law Enforcement Officer attacked again! AUTHORIZATION IMMEDIATELY GRANTED FOR ARREST AND INCARCERATION. Thank you for your attention to this matter!". The United Farm Workers said one worker died from his injuries. "This man was not in and has not been in CBP or ICE custody," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. "Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30 feet. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [7/11/2025 9:22 PM, James Morley III, 4622K] reports President Donald Trump has instructed his top law enforcement officials to use "any means necessary" to protect officers from being assaulted by protesters. "I am on my way back from Texas, and watched in disbelief as THUGS were violently throwing rocks and bricks at ICE Officers while they were moving down a roadway in their car and/or official vehicle. Tremendous damage was done to these brand new vehicles. I know for a fact that these Officers are having a hard time with allowing this to happen in that it shows such total disrespect for LAW AND ORDER," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Friday evening. The administration has blasted Democrats over their consistent rhetoric attacking the motives of field officers and encouraging their supporters to "fight" against Trump’s agenda. Democrats at both the state and federal level have pushed for field agents to remove their masks when making arrests, putting the officers and their families further at risk. Over the past week ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents have been shot at detention centers in Texas and Oregon and during a recent field operation in California. "Therefore, I am directing Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, and Border Czar, Tom Homan, to instruct all ICE, Homeland Security, or any other Law Enforcement Officer who is on the receiving end of thrown rocks, bricks, or any other form of assault, to stop their car, and arrest these SLIMEBALLS, using whatever means is necessary to do so. I am giving Total Authorization for ICE to protect itself, just like they protect the Public," the president continued. In Camarillo, California, television helicopters captured violent agitators hurling rocks and smashing windows of government vehicles after they concluded an operation at a cannabis farm. "I never want to see a car carrying a Law Enforcement Officer attacked again! AUTHORIZATION IMMEDIATELY GRANTED FOR ARREST AND INCARCERATION. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump concluded. James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.

Univision [7/11/2025 3:59 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports after hours of detention by federal agents, released farmworkers recounted what they experienced during the intense immigration raid on their Camarillo farm fields. What began as a normal workday ended with dozens of people detained, extensive searches, and a federal presence that many described as intimidating and disproportionate. The operation began around 10:00 a.m., according to several witnesses. Immigration agents, accompanied by heavily armed personnel and military vehicles, surrounded the farmland, closed roads, and proceeded to interrogate and detain dozens of people. Although many people were released without charges, testimonies reflect the high level of stress, fear, and uncertainty experienced. So far, the number of people arrested and no official details about the operation have been confirmed.

NewsMax [7/11/2025 4:30 PM, James Morley III, 4622K] reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Trump administration clashed on social media Friday over the recent raid of a California pot farm by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers. A tense confrontation between protesters and immigration officials erupted Thursday as CBP vehicles dispersed through the agricultural community of Camarillo. Authorities used gas canisters to clear the crowd outside a legal cannabis farm. During the raid, helicopter footage captured one anti-ICE protester firing a gun at federal agents as the crowd ran through the marked vehicles. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the individual. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott joined in hours later to clarify the severity of the immigration violation. "Here’s some breaking news: 10 juveniles were found at this marijuana facility — all illegal aliens, 8 of them unaccompanied. It’s now under investigation for child labor violations. This is Newsom’s California," Scott posted. Breitbart [7/11/2025 5:51 AM, Joel B. Pollak, 3077K] reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom protested against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on a marijuana farm in his state this week that was allegedly found to have been using child labor. Newsom reposted a video of the raid, calling President Donald Trump the "real scum" for enforcing the law. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott alleged that the farm had been found employing not only illegal aliens, but also "juveniles." Newsom was, in effect, trying to protect child labor. The Hill [7/11/2025 11:53 AM, Miriam Waldvogel, 18649K] reorts California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) took to social media Thursday to bash a federal immigration raid on a large cannabis farm in Southern California, where agents clashed with protesters and sprayed tear gas. "Trump calls me ‘Newscum’ — but he’s the real scum," Newsom wrote on X in response to a video from KTLA of protesters and apparent targets of the raid running from tear gas sprayed by officers in Camarillo, Calif. Trump administration officials hit back at the governor’s comment. "Why are there children working at a marijuana facility, Gavin?" the account for the Department of Homeland Security replied. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said 10 minors in the country illegally were found at the facility, which he said is "now under investigation for child labor violations.” "This is Newsom’s California," Scott wrote. The cannabis company said on social media that it complied with federal search warrants but denied employing minors, adding it "has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices.” Hundreds of people turned out to protest in Camarillo and clashed with law enforcement, which appeared to be accompanied by members of the National Guard. The raid and protests are the latest immigration-related standoff in California, which has become a national flash point in the Trump administration’s campaign for mass deportations.

Daily Caller [7/11/2025 4:52 PM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports The president of a marijuana company targeted in an immigration raid donated thousands of dollars to Democrats in recent years. Graham Farrar, the president of Glass House of Farms, doled out thousands of dollars to help elect Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic candidates, according to federal and state campaign finance records. Farrar’s company was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Thursday and is under investigation for violating child labor laws. Protesters — who were not connected to the company — violently demonstrated and assaulted federal agents during the marijuana farm raid, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The administration is now offering a $50,000 reward for information on an individual suspected of firing a gun at law enforcement during the mayhem. Farrar donated $10,000 to Newsom’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign, according to California campaign finance records. More recently, he donated $1,000 to California Democratic Assemblymember Gregg Hart in July 2023. The marijuana executive also doled out thousands in donations to the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee’s federal political action committee and Democratic California Rep. Salud Carbajal, according to Federal Election Commission records. ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents raided two marijuana farms in Southern California on Thursday, DHS previously confirmed to the DCNF. The administration says hundreds of illegal migrants were apprehended in the operation, including 10 illegal migrant minors who are suspected of being exploited. "At the California marijuana facilities, ICE and CBP law enforcement rescued at least 10 migrant children from what looks like exploitation, forced child labor, and potentially human trafficking or smuggling," Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a public statement. "Our law enforcement also arrested nearly 200 illegal aliens.”

Los Angeles Times [7/11/2025 6:00 AM, Jeanette Marantos, 14672K] reports the crowd outside Glass House Farms in Camarillo in the wake of Thursday’s chaotic immigration sweep was a strange mix. There were vocal protesters hurling insults and sometimes water bottles at federal agents, and there were anxious friends and family of those who work at Glass House, a huge cannabis operation. Then there were curious bystanders like Mike Elliott, a Camarillo resident who voted for President Trump and stopped to see what was happening, saying he wanted to bear witness. Also on hand was Oxnard native Christina Muñoz, who said she brought her 2-year-old son, 5-month old daughter and her mom in hopes of getting a glimpse of her husband, a member of the National Guard whom she hadn’t seen in 30 days. Federal agents raided two Glass House Farms sites on Thursday, said Maria Navarro, an Oxnard policy advocate for the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE). The organization was alerted at 10:20 a.m. that sweeps were happening at both California locations of the company, in Carpinteria and Camarillo. She hurried to the Camarillo site, where she came upon a tense scene, with protesters gathering and family members of workers trying to pick up their loved ones. But federal agents had already closed off access to the worksite. More and more people arrived, and Navarro said activists were trying to prevent trucks full of detainees from leaving. At the east entrance to the Camarillo facility, amid lush fields of blooming bush beans, the action started about 10 a.m. when federal agents entered the facility. Protesters and worried family began arriving soon afterward, and by 2:30 p.m., a line of about 30 agents, including National Guard members, was barricading nearby Laguna Road. The growing crowd was kept at least a quarter of a mile away from the facility. Protesters said that some people among the crowd had been detained. Jonathan Caravello, a philosophy professor at Cal State Channel Islands, was arrested, according to activist Angelmarie Taylor, who said she was one of his students and had accompanied him to the protest.

Daily Caller [7/11/2025 12:18 PM, Hudson Crozier, 1010K] reports organized activist groups encouraged protesters to arrive at a chaotic Southern California immigration raid where a man allegedly opened fire on federal agents Thursday, social media posts show. The Ventura County chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and local activist organization VC Defensa cheered on protesters who were confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as it searched a cannabis farm in Camarillo, California, according to Instagram posts. The FBI is on the hunt for a man seen on video allegedly shooting a handgun at agents, ABC7 reported, but the two organizations’ Instagram accounts are already calling for a Friday protest nearby. Authorities arrested dozens of people during the raid, including illegal immigrant minors, and fired projectiles and gas to disperse protesters, according to multiple reports. The suspect wanted by the FBI was seen running away from a canister emitting gas on the ground before he turned around and allegedly fired shots. Federal agents found ten illegal immigrant minors at the Camarillo farm, eight of them unaccompanied, and it is now under investigation for possible child labor, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said Thursday on X. Democrats quickly criticized the raid as supposedly targeting innocent migrants without acknowledging ICE’s findings.

Daily Caller [7/11/2025 10:39 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports democrats are fuming over an immigration raid at a marijuana farm in Southern California allegedly staffed by illegal migrant children. Federal immigration authorities on Thursday executed a search warrant at a marijuana farm in Ventura County, California, Trump administration officials confirmed. During the sweeping raid, law enforcement agents rescued 10 juvenile illegal migrants, eight of whom were unaccompanied, according to a statement by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott. Despite the alleged circumstances regarding the marijuana farm — which is now under investigation for violating child labor laws — a number of congressional and state Democrats issued public statements condemning the enforcement action. "Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields," California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on social media about the raid. "Trump calls me "Newscum" — but he’s the real scum.” "Instead of prioritizing dangerous criminals Trump is targeting families that have been here for years picking our food," Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego stated on social media. "The public outcry and protests are occuring because the American public knows this is wrong." The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ripped Democrats for their public statements about the raid. "At the California marijuana facility, [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and CBP law enforcement rescued 8 unaccompanied migrant children from what looks like exploitation, violation of child labor laws and potentially human trafficking or smuggling," a DHS spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. "Yet, Gavin Newsom, Ruben Gallego and other politicians continue to demonize and attack the law enforcement officers who bravely rescued these children," the spokesperson continued.

Daily Wire [7/11/2025 10:12 AM, Zach Jewell, 3816K] reports leftist activists and politicians claim that the Trump administration’s Thursday raids targeting cannabis farms in Southern California are proof that the president’s immigration enforcement operation is "self-sabotage," ripping workers away from critical American food supply chains. Federal agents conducted raids at two cannabis farms in Ventura County, where they were met by violent leftists — some of whom attacked the agents by pelting their vehicles with rocks — and one man appeared to fire a handgun at authorities. After the attacks, some on the Left vilified the feds for detaining suspected illegal immigrants working on the marijuana farms, arguing that the workers are "the backbone of our food chain.” "ICE just swarmed Ventura County fields, hauling away the very farm workers who keep America’s produce aisles stocked," wrote leftist political commentator Brian Allen. "We’re arresting assets; treating the backbone of our food chain like a threat. That’s not ‘border security.’ That’s self-sabotage in uniform." Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who represents parts of Los Angeles, reposted Allen on X, claiming that federal agents are targeting migrants picking strawberries. "How many MS-13 gang members are waking up at 3 a.m. to pick strawberries? O’yeah, zero!" Gomez said. "Trump said he’d go after ‘bad hombres,’ but he’s targeting the immigrant farm workers who feed America. Either he lied — or he can’t tell the difference." According to Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, agents at one of the Ventura County cannabis farm raids found 10 children at the marijuana facility, eight of whom were not accompanied by an adult. The farm is "now under investigation for child labor violations," Scott said.

CBS News [7/11/2025 4:53 PM, Mark Prussin, 51860K] reports immigration agents arrested 20 people during a raid at a warehouse in New Jersey this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said. The federal operation at the Alba Wine and Spirits warehouse in Edison on July 8 resulted in the arrests of "20 illegal aliens," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Friday in a statement to CBS News New York. ICE agents raid New Jersey warehouse U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted the joint operation at the Alba Wine and Spirits warehouse on Tuesday. The New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice said agents entered the warehouse to check workers’ immigration status and that 20 people were detained. DHS confirmed the operation three days later. There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine law enforcement’s efforts. Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability. These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation," the assistant DHS secretary said. The headquarters for Alba Wine and Spirits said it had no comment when asked earlier in the week about the raid. One man working at the warehouse said the raid seemed unnecessary. "They let me go because they had to, but they were just harassing people for no reason. People over here were only working. Nobody here’s doing nothing bad," he said. It was not immediately clear where the arrested individuals were taken. Delaney Hall, a controversial ICE detention facility that has been the site of several protests, is located in Newark. Critics say the facility failed to meet safety standards when it opened, which DHS denies. "The United States is offering illegal aliens $1,000 and a free flight to self-deport now," the assistant DHS secretary added. "We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return." "The repeated falsehoods about violent criminals that are shared by DHS about our immigrant community members is getting old. We know the truth because we live it every day. Our beloved community is made up of hardworking individuals who are building their American Dream, supporting their families, and strengthening our economy and community in countless ways. Instead of vilifying them, we should be honoring their contributions and protecting the rights of all individuals. These are our neighbors, our coworkers, and our families. The language used by DHS is not only dehumanizing but it’s dangerously out of touch with the values we hold. We stand with all immigrants and all Americans who believe in love, dignity, and human rights for all," community organizer Amanda Dominguez said.

Daily Wire [7/11/2025 7:44 AM, Zach Jewell, 3816K] reports President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, blasted leftists who attacked federal immigration agents during a raid at a Southern California cannabis farm on Thursday, saying there are "protesters becoming criminals" and they are being "emboldened" by Democrats. Homan told Fox News on Friday morning that protesters have a constitutional right to make their voices heard, but added that they cannot cross the line of impeding federal immigration enforcement operations. "That’s a felony," Homan said. "They certainly can’t put hands on an agent. That’s a felony. So what happened in California is another example of protesters becoming criminals, and they’ve been emboldened by … members of Congress who compared ICE to Nazis and racists and terrorists." "I mean, the rhetoric is so high. And I said two months ago, it’s going to end up with a loss of life, and we had one the other day in Texas," he added, reffering to the gunman who was shot dead by authorities after opening fire on a Border Patrol facility, wounding two police officers and a Border Patrol employee. During Thursday’s immigration raid at a cannabis farm in Camarillo, California, leftists threw rocks at federal agents’ vehicles that were leaving the farm with detainees. One man was also caught on camera appearing to fire a handgun at federal agents during the operation. Immigration authorities detained several suspected illegal immigrants and also found 10 children, including eight who were not accompanied by an adult, at the marijuana farm, according to Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott. The farm is "now under investigation for child labor violations," Scott said. "The work men and women of ICE are doing is incredible," Homan added. "We’re looking for over 300,000 missing children. We’ve already found 10,000. Have you heard that anywhere? No, the media is simply not covering it. This should be a nonpartisan issue. Arresting public safety threats and national security threats, everyone should be on the same page on that. Rescuing children should be a nonpartisan issue."

Reported similarly:
New York Post [7/11/2025 10:12 AM, Patrick Reilly, 49956K]

Daily Caller [7/11/2025 10:22 AM, Nicole Silverio, 1010K] reports Border czar Tom Homan said on Friday that border officials have rescued roughly 10,000 of the 300,000 unaccompanied migrant children that went missing under former President Joe Biden’s administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided a marijuana facility in Camarillo, California, where they encountered eight unaccompanied minors and two other juveniles, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott confirmed on Thursday. Homan said on "Fox & Friends" that around 10,000 of these children have been recovered since President Donald Trump reentered office. "We are looking for over 300,000 missing children. We’ve already found around 10,000, have you heard that anywhere? No, because the media’s simply not covering it," Homan said. "And look, this should be a non-partisan issue. Arresting public safety threats and national security threats, everyone should be on the same page on that. Rescuing children, I mean, that should be a non-partisan issue."

FOX News [7/11/2025 3:38 PM, Louis Casiano, 46878K] reports the Department of Homeland Security on Friday announced the arrests of five illegal immigrants convicted of a range of offenses, from murder to sexually abusing children. "These are not minor offenses. These are predators, abusers and murderers who should have never been in our country in the first place," said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, DHS is delivering on its promise to restore law and order and defend American families. If you are in this country illegally and have harmed others — your days here are numbered." The arrests came as ICE agents and the Trump administration continue to face pushback and legal challenges from Democratic and blue city officials over raids targeting criminal illegal immigrants.

FOX Business [7/11/2025 8:31 AM, Staff, 9940K] reports DHS Public Affairs Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin on the threats against ICE agents, Mahmoud Khalil filing a $20 million claim against the Trump administration and the ‘big, beautiful bill’ adding additional funds for border security. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [11/7/2025 6:30 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports Border czar Tom Homan calls for the violence against ICE agents to end after a protester allegedly fired a gun at federal officers. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [7/11/2025 7:48 PM, Laurel Rosenhall, 138952K] reports a federal judge on Friday ordered the Los Angeles Police Department to stop using foam projectiles, tear gas and flash-bang devices against journalists covering protests after reporters and photographers were struck during demonstrations last month. The temporary restraining order by Judge Hernán D. Vera of U.S. District Court also prohibits police officers from blocking journalists from closed areas, obstructing them from gathering information and detaining them for violating curfews or failing to disperse. The case stems from injuries that journalists experienced while covering street demonstrations against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration enforcement. A lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Press Club and Status Coup, an investigative reporting site, documented 35 instances in which Los Angeles police officers had used projectiles, tear gas or other forms of force against journalists or blocked them from public areas. The press organizations are likely to succeed in arguing that the journalists’ First Amendment rights were violated and that they would suffer harm in covering future protests in Los Angeles, the judge wrote in granting the temporary order, which lasts 14 days. “Indeed, given the fundamental nature of the speech interests involved and the almost daily protests throughout Southern California drawing media coverage, the identified harm is undoubtedly imminent and concrete,” Judge Vera wrote. He set a hearing for later this month to consider whether to issue a preliminary injunction and ordered the Los Angeles Police Department to disseminate the restrictions in his order to its officers within 72 hours. Adam Rose, the press rights chair for the Los Angeles Press Club, said the ruling was important because it showed the critical role journalists play in informing the public. It also shows that the Los Angeles police have not been following state laws that are meant to protect reporters covering protests, he said. “The press should be able to do their job without fear of being injured by police, without fear of their rights being chilled in other ways,” Mr. Rose said. The Los Angeles Police Department declined to comment, and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reported similarly:
Politico [7/11/2025 4:25 PM, By Lindsey Holden, 16523K]
The Hill [7/11/2025 11:24 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K]

The Hill [7/11/2025 9:47 AM, Filip Timotija, 18649K] reports Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) hammered Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over the federal response to the Texas flooding that has killed at least 120 people, claiming Noem has "no idea what she’s doing.” "If you look at what happened in Texas, evacuations are done at the local level in coordination with the state. And so, she has no idea what she’s doing," he said in a Thursday appearance on MSNBC’s "The Weeknight.” "The best thing that she can do now is … sponsor my bill, get FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] out of Homeland. Get it away from her, OK, so that we can start reforming and rebuilding the agency," added Moskowitz, who previously served as director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). Moskowitz introduced a bill in late March that would remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and elevate it to a Cabinet-level agency reporting directly to the president. "I mean, this is an agency that’s literally responsible, right, for the contingency plans for a government. God forbid, we had a major disaster, a war, some, some sort of, you know, you know, unbelievable event. OK?" the Florida Democrat continued. "And she’s breaking it to the point where it can’t function.” President Trump praised Noem for the federal response to the devastating Texas floods — after which more than 160 people are still unaccounted for — amid some backlash over the speed of FEMA’s actions in the Lone Star State. The president said Noem was "right on the ball" and has "done a great job.” He also acknowledged he did not know anything about recent reports of a FEMA rule requiring the Homeland Security secretary’s approval of any grant or contract totaling more than $100,000. The officials within the agency created a task force to accelerate the approval process, NBC reported. Noem and department officials have criticized CNN over its reporting, calling it "fake news.” "It’s absolutely trash what they are doing by saying that," Noem said in an interview with Fox News. "Because our Coast Guard, our Border Patrol, BORTAC teams were there immediately. Every single thing they asked for, we were there.”

FOX News [7/11/2025 11:22 AM, Amanda Macias and Emma Colton, 46878K] reports the White House is ramping up efforts to remove illegal immigrants from an array of taxpayer-funded benefits, framing the move as part of a broader campaign to reduce government waste. The Trump administration shared additional details on the new restrictions that would bar illegal immigrants from accessing more than 15 federal assistance programs, which collectively account for $40 billion in public spending. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital that illegal immigrants will no longer be able "to steal public benefits at the expense of hardworking American taxpayers.” "That ends now. Under President Trump, it’s America first always," Rogers said. The lion’s share of the programs being put off-limits to undocumented immigrants are overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, while others fall under the Departments of Education, Agriculture, Labor, and Justice. The White House said that several government health services – including Head Start, substance abuse prevention and treatment programs, family planning benefits, and health workforce loans and scholarships – will be inaccessible to illegal immigrants. The move aligns with President Donald Trump’s dual campaign promise of stricter immigration enforcement and elimination of wasteful government spending. The latest revelation comes on the heels of the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump’s hallmark spending and tax bill. Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans, proved to be a sticking point in both the House and Senate. As the bill inched across the finish line, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed claims that the measure would strip vulnerable Americans of their healthcare. "This bill protects Medicaid… for those who truly deserve this program, the needy, pregnant women, children and sick Americans who physically cannot work. It ensures that able-bodied Americans who can work 20 hours a week are actually doing so, and that will therefore strengthen and protect those benefits for Americans who need it," Leavitt told reporters during a White House briefing last month. Leavitt added that the measure will address "waste, fraud and abuse" and remove approximately 1.4 million illegal immigrants from the program.

The Hill [7/11/2025 10:41 AM, Brett Samuels, 18649K] reports Vice President Vance will travel to Pennsylvania next week to tout the benefits of the massive reconciliation package signed into law last week by President Trump. Vance will visit West Pittston, Pa., next Wednesday, the vice president’s office announced. He is expected to extol the tax and spending bill Congress passed last week and that Trump signed at the White House on the Fourth of July. The vice president’s travels are a sign that the administration may be ramping up its efforts to hit the road and sell the legislation, which polling has shown is unpopular with many Americans. The legislation contains numerous major campaign promises from Trump’s 2024 bid for the White House. It extends the tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017, which were set to expire later this year. The bill provides a $170 billion increase in funding for a border wall, immigration enforcement and deportations. It provides $150 billion in new defense spending for priorities like shipbuilding and a "Golden Dome" missile defense project.

AP [7/11/2025 3:10 PM, Christine Fernando, 56000K] reports a son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin "El Chapo" pleaded guilty Friday to US drug trafficking charges. He is the first of El Chapo’s sons to enter a plea deal. Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the Sinaloa cartel. They became known locally as the "Chapitos," or "little Chapos," and federal authorities in 2023 described the operation as a massive effort to send "staggering" quantities of fentanyl into the United States. As part of a plea agreement, Ovidio Guzman Lopez admitted to helping oversee the production and smuggling of large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl into the United States, fueling a crisis that has contributed to tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually. Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges tied to his leadership role in the cartel. Terms of the deal, including sentencing recommendations or cooperation agreements, were not immediately disclosed. Speculation about a deal had percolated for months, as behind-the-scenes negotiations quietly progressed. Jeffrey Lichtman, an attorney for the two brothers, said Friday he would wait until Ovidio Guzman Lopez was sentenced before discussing whether the agreement was a good deal. Guzman Lopez’s sentencing was postponed while he cooperates with US authorities, as he agreed to do so on Friday. Whether he avoids a life in prison sentence depends on whether authorities say he has held up his end of the agreement. Lichtman said he didn’t know whether the case against Joaquin Guzman Lopez could be resolved with a plea deal, noting that it is "completely different.” "Remember, Joaquin was arrested in America well after Ovidio was, so it takes time," he said.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/11/2025 3:25 PM, Elizabeth Crisp, 18649K]
Reuters [7/11/2025 2:08 PM, Renee Hickman and Jack Queen, 51390K]
NewsMax [7/11/2025 7:41 AM, Ana Fernández, 4622K]

Washington Post [7/11/2025 1:23 PM, Steve Thompson, 32099K] reports a federal judge in Maryland sharply rebuked a Justice Department attorney Friday after an immigration official could not answer basic questions about the Trump administration’s plans to deport Kilmar Abrego García if he is released pending trial on federal human-smuggling charges against him in Tennessee. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has been considering an order that would require the administration to keep Abrego close to Tennessee for 48 hours should the federal judge there decide he can be released pending trial — time enough for her to hold an additional hearing on a motion by Abrego’s lawyers seeking to have him returned to Maryland. But the Maryland judge did not issue a decision Friday, saying an order would be delivered in advance of a hearing in that case next week. “I can’t assume anything to be regular in this highly irregular case,” Xinis said on Friday during what was continuation of a hearing that began Thursday, suggesting that she did not trust the government’s claims about how it will handle Abrego’s due process rights moving forward after the administration had previously flouted court orders. In a sharp exchange, Xinis asked Justice Department lawyers if they could produce the detainer filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Abrego’s case. The document would serve as the government’s request for officials in the Nashville jail where Abrego is being held to keep him there until ICE takes him into custody, should the judge in his criminal case determine he could be released during his trial. The lawyers said they did not have the detainer, which Xinis had requested on Thursday. They said they were working to obtain it. In Maryland, Xinis has shown increasing frustration with the administration, which initially admitted that Abrego’s deportation was due to “an administrative error.” The administration then evaded Xinis’s orders to facilitate his return and one by the Supreme Court that called for the same thing. For weeks, the administration did not appear to be taking any steps toward returning Abrego to the United States, and officials resisted Xinis’s attempts to learn more about what was being done or not done. She ordered expedited discovery because, as she said in an order in late May, the administration was refusing “to follow the orders of this Court as affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.”

(B) NBC News Daily [7/11/2025 2:16 PM, Staff] reports Palestinian activist and former Columbia graduate students is seeking $20 million in damages from the Trump administration. The claim is in response to his detention in an ICE facility for more than 100 days. He is accusing the Trump administration of falsely imprisoning him and smearing him for his role in campus protests. The Department of Homeland Security sent a statement saying Khalil’s claim that DHS terrorized him and his family is absurd, it was Khalil who terrorized Jewish students, and the Trump administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority.

FOX News [7/11/2025 7:34 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports former deputy assistant DHS Sec. Jonathan Fahey weighs in after anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil brought a claim against the Trump administration and a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/11/2025 10:04 AM, Alex Nitzberg, 46878K] Video: HERE reports Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is taking aim at the U.S. government, seeking $20 million after he was targeted for deportation and locked up by the Trump administration. "Mr. Khalil is seeking $20 million, which he would use to help others similarly targeted by the Trump administration and Columbia University," the Center for Constitutional Rights noted in a press release. "He would accept, in lieu of payment, an official apology and abandonment of the administration’s unconstitutional policy.” The release stated, "The claim is a precursor to a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, which he will bring under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a 1946 federal statute that allows individuals to sue the U.S. government for damages for civil law violations.” "This is the first step towards accountability. 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. But let’s be clear, the same government that targeted me for speaking out is using taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza," Khalil said, according to the press release. Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin slammed Khalil in a statement. "Mahmoud 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," McLaughlin asserted. "It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. 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." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [7/11/2025 2:01 PM, Alan Feuer and Minho Kim, 153395K] reports a frustrated federal judge signaled on Friday that she would issue an order protecting Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, from being hastily expelled from the United States again after he was brought back last month to face criminal charges. The suggestion by Judge Paula Xinis, who is handling the original civil case emerging from the wrongful deportation, came during a hearing in Federal District Court in Maryland where she exploded at the Justice Department for having badly damaged the bonds of trust that are normally afforded by the courts to lawyers for the government. “This has been the process from Day 1,” said Judge Xinis, who in the past several months has chided the administration over and over for how it has handled Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case. “You have taken the presumption of regularity and you’ve destroyed it in my view.” Expressing their own frustrations, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have asked Judge Xinis at a series of hearings this week to give them the chance to challenge any efforts by the Trump administration to re-deport their client if he is released from custody in his criminal case and handed over to immigration officials. The lawyers want Judge Xinis to bar the administration from beginning removal proceedings for two or three business days if Mr. Abrego Garcia is freed from criminal custody, which could happen as early as Wednesday, when there is a separate hearing in his criminal case in Nashville. While the Justice Department initially vowed to take Mr. Abrego Garcia to trial on charges of immigrant smuggling filed against him in Nashville, department lawyers have more recently indicated that the Department of Homeland Security would seek to re-deport him before a trial took place — perhaps to a third country where he has never lived. Judge Xinis said some legal safeguard was needed because the administration had already shown in this and other deportation cases that it could not be trusted.

AP [7/11/2025 3:14 PM, Lea Skene and Ben Finley] reports a federal judge in Maryland scolded the Trump administration on Friday for its "utter refusal" to detail its deportation plans for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, including where the government plans to send him and whether he’ll get a chance to fight his expulsion before he’s whisked away. The Salvadoran national could be released from a Tennessee jail as soon as next Wednesday to await trial on human smuggling charges. U.S. immigration officials have said they would immediately detain him and begin deportation proceedings. The administration argues now that Abrego Garcia is a danger to the community and can be deported before his trial to a country other than El Salvador. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have asked Xinis to order the government to send him to Maryland if he’s released in Tennessee, a request that aims to prevent his expulsion before trial. In court on Friday, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys asked for at least a 72-hour hold that would prevent immediate deportation. Xinis didn’t rule from the bench Friday, but said she’ll issue an order before a federal judge in Tennessee holds a hearing on Wednesday to discuss Abrego Garcia’s release.

The Hill [7/11/2025 6:00 AM, Lexi Lonas Cochran, 18649K] reports the Trump administration is ramping up its war with Harvard University despite the president having previously hinted a deal was in the works. The White House is pulling nearly every lever at its disposal to try to get Harvard to bend the knee to its demands, threatening its accreditation and issuing a subpoena over international students in its latest moves this week. "We’re clearly seeing the emergence of a playbook by the Trump administration. They have been open about the fact that they are going to try to use every possible form of leverage they can find to compel institutions to bend to their will," said Jon Fansmith, senior vice president of government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education. "What we’ve seen so far is across every aspect of the public space, whether that’s in the courts, whether that’s in public opinion … they are losing these arguments, and it’s unfortunate they keep trying to expand the efforts. It’s unfortunate they keep trying to politicize processes that have worked well for a long time," he added. On Wednesday, the Education Department sent a letter to Harvard’s accreditor, saying that Trump administration probes have found the school in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws. "By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers. The Department of Education expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards," Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. Removing accreditation would cut off Harvard’s access to federal student aid. Universities that have lost accreditation typically shut down soon afterwards, though none the size or age of Harvard have ever been targeted. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security said it was going to subpoena Harvard for information about its foreign students, one of the major fronts in both President Trump’s war with Harvard and his sweeping immigration crackdown. Harvard has denied allegations from the federal government that it has withheld information about its international students and contends it has complied with all "lawful requests.”

NewsMax [7/11/2025 12:26 PM, Jim Mishler, 4622K] reports Harvard University appears intent on following through with at least some of the demands from the Trump administration to curb its position as an institution that supports Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The Harvard Crimson, the university’s daily student publication, reported that Harvard leadership this week began dismantling some of its DEI apparatus along with shuttering several related web pages. The Crimson reported that on Wednesday, the university announced internally that it would be closing its diversity office but replacing it with the Office for Academic Culture and Community. As of Friday morning, there was little content available on the new office web page, and it carried a short announcement: "Our website is evolving with continued content updates.” Web pages that were maintained by the University to support LGBTQ students, minority students, and women were closed down and are no longer accessible. The Trump administration does not appear satisfied with Harvard’s DEI elimination efforts. On Wednesday, the Department of Education said it was challenging Harvard’s accreditation for failing to address harassment of Jewish students on campus. The Department of Homeland Security was also issuing a subpoena relating to alleged misconduct on Harvard’s campus by foreign students.

Federalist [7/11/2025 7:37 AM, Garland Favorito, 1142K] reports a battle appears to be looming between President Donald Trump and the entire upper echelon of the national Democratic Party over Trump’s election Executive Order (EO) 14248. The order was signed on March 25, 2025, and entitled "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections." EO 14248 addresses key election integrity deficiencies involving voter eligibility, ballot fraud, foreign interference, and accountability for wrongdoing. It also implements sorely needed mechanisms to assess the accuracy of voter rolls and the security of voting machines. EO 14248 was immediately challenged by the "Who’s Who?" of the Democrat Party. Nineteen attorneys general filed a complaint in Massachusetts, while four top Democrat Party organizations filed their complaint in Washington, D.C., along with three civic groups. All similarly challenge certain parts of the election EO with only slightly different arguments. At issue is the president’s constitutional power regarding elections. The complainants argue that elections are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the states according to a selective reading of Art. I Sec. IV of U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs fail to acknowledge the second sentence: "but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Place of Chusing [sp.] Senators." Thus, Congress, not the states, has ultimate jurisdiction over federal elections. That clause birthed the National Voting Rights Act (1965), the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA, 1993) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA, 2002). Despite the clear, plain text of the U.S. Constitution, the attorneys general boldly state twice in their brief that their states will not adhere to those laws because: "Plaintiff States intend to administer federal elections according to State laws …" Article II, Section II explains the general power of the president in providing: "… he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed …" Thus, the president has unquestioned authority to order that the Executive Branch take any steps necessary to ensure federal and state laws regarding any matter is upheld. That is precisely what EO 14248 does. The EO contains nine key sections, each of which issues Executive Branch orders, carefully crafted with references to federal laws, that the orders help to enforce for United States elections.

Blaze.com [7/11/2025 3:10 PM, Julio Rosas, 1805K] reports "Are you here legally?" is a question normally asked by federal agents while determining the legal status of an immigrant, but it is a question being increasingly asked by Florida police departments and sheriff’s offices, as they have joined forces with the Trump administration. Florida law enforcement personnel have become integrated with U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement through the 287(g) program. The program gives local officers certain powers normally reserved for ICE agents, like arresting illegal aliens without needing to be part of an operation with their federal counterparts. Blaze Media was with the Florida Highway Patrol on Wednesday to see how the state’s largest law enforcement agency is helping the Trump administration follow through on mass deportations. FHP and other Florida law enforcement personnel who are part of the 287(g) program still carry out their normal patrol duties, and often, troopers will encounter illegal aliens during routine traffic stops.

The Hill [7/11/2025 4:33 PM, Amalia Huot-Marchand, 18649K] reports five state Democratic lawmakers, who were denied entry to Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz earlier this month, sued Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) Thursday, arguing he didn’t have the authority to block their effort to conduct oversight of the migrant detention facility. The lawmakers on Saturday were turned away from the detention facility, which is in the Florida Everglades and is overseen by the state. In the state Supreme Court lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue state law does not inhibit their efforts to conduct legislative oversight of the facility. The group is suing DeSantis as well as the head of Florida’s emergency management agency, Kevin Guthrie. A spokesperson from DeSantis’s office described the suit as "dumb" and "frivolous."

CBS Miami [7/11/2025 10:16 PM, Multiple Emmy, 51860K] Video: HERE Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski is speaking out against the recent surge in immigration arrests and deportations, as well as plans to detain migrants at Alligator Alcatraz, in the Everglades, calling both cruel and inhumane. "We all want to make America great again, but you’re not going to make America great by making America mean," Wenski said. He expressed concern about the safety and conditions at the Everglades detention site. "No matter how well secure you have the tents, in a strong storm I would think they would be hazardous. Plus the Everglades out there is very hot," Wenski said. He also criticized what he called dehumanizing rhetoric surrounding the site. "To mock these people that are detained here is to forget, that they… have parents, mothers, fathers, children, brothers and sister that are very distressed by people being detained here," he said. Wenski urged Congress to take action. "What makes it cruel right now is the arbitrariness of this push to deport more people that really have a stake, who’ve already been here, that put in sweat equity and staying here," he said. State Senator Shevrin Jones and fellow Democrats plan to visit the detention site tomorrow, though Jones voiced skepticism about what they’ll be shown. "Tomorrow, my expectation is that they’re going to show us what they want us to see, but not what we need to see that matches what family members have already communicated to us," he said.

The Hill [7/11/2025 4:19 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K] reports Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) signed an executive order Friday affirming the city’s support for immigrants amid an enforcement crackdown by the Trump administration. “Under my new Executive Order, I am submitting a request under the Freedom of Information Act about when and where enforcement activities have taken place in LA, the identities of individuals and reason they were arrested or detained,” Bass wrote in a Friday post on social platform X. “We will also be requesting information exposing how much these raids cost taxpayers nationwide,” she added. The order directs departments to deliver preparedness plans for immigration enforcement within two weeks and establish a working group with local police, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, immigrant rights organizations and community leaders to gather feedback and additional guidance on responses to federal authorities. CBS Los Angeles [7/11/2025 12:36 PM, Julie Sharp, 51860K] reports Bass wants each city department to have an "immigration affairs liaison," and if any department encounters federal officials, they are to contact the city and especially the Mayor’s Office "right away.” After officers with Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement swept through MacArthur Park on July 7, as a children’s summer camp was taking place, Bass condemned the operation and said it provoked "fear and terror.” At Friday’s news conference, Bass called the incident at the park "just a display of force.” President Trump has defended the operations by stating that Democrat-run cities like L.A. "use illegal aliens to expand their voter base, cheat in elections, and grow the welfare State, robbing good-paying jobs and benefits from hardworking American citizens.”

FOX News [7/11/2025 5:16 PM, Louis Casiano, 46878K] reports Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed an executive order Friday to bolster protocols and support immigrant neighborhoods, including offering cash assistance, in response to raids by the Trump administration targeting those living in the United States illegally. The order is intended to help protect the city’s workforce and residents from the federal government during immigration enforcement operations. It also demands that federal agencies provide records of the raids, who was detained and for what reason and the cost to taxpayers, which will be part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The order also requires city departments to create a plan for protocols and training on how to comply with Los Angeles’ sanctuary city ordinance. In addition, Bass said a plan is being worked out to provide cash assistance to those affected by the enforcement operations, the Los Angeles Times reported. Cash cards with a "couple hundred" dollars on them will be distributed by immigrants’ rights groups in about a week, Bass said. The money will not come from city coffers, but from philanthropic partners, she said.

New York Times [7/11/2025 7:53 PM, Tracey Tully and Jonah E. Bromwich, 138952K] reports that, Alina Habba, who has used her job as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor to aggressively target Democrats, is pursuing an investigation into remarks made by Gov. Philip D. Murphy about housing a migrant, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Mr. Murphy said in February that he was prepared to house a woman whose immigration status was unclear at his family’s home in Middletown. F.B.I. agents have since sought to interview at least four witnesses in connection with the comments, two of the people said, with one adding that the governor had been subpoenaed but not questioned. Ms. Habba, the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey, is a former personal lawyer for President Trump. She previously announced that she was directing prosecutors in her office to investigate the governor and New Jersey’s attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, in connection with the state’s immigration policies. Two of the people with knowledge of the investigation involving Mr. Murphy’s comments indicated that it was separate from any Justice Department inquiry related to New Jersey’s so-called sanctuary policy, which has been upheld by a federal appeals court. There has been no public sign of that inquiry moving forward. Mr. Murphy is one of at least four Democratic officials to become entangled in investigations pursued by Ms. Habba since she was named to the position in late March. Mr. Murphy made the remarks during a freewheeling discussion at a New Jersey college, telling an audience there that there was a person in his social orbit “whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to.” “And we said, ‘You know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage,’” he said. “And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her.” The comments set off an immediate outcry. Mr. Trump’s so-called border czar, Thomas Homan, pledged at the time that the administration would not let them go. “We’ll look into it,” he said. An aide to Mr. Murphy later clarified that the woman was in the United States legally and had never lived on Mr. Murphy’s property. The governor’s office declined to comment on the federal inquiry on Friday. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office also declined to comment. A person close to Mr. Murphy said the governor was not aware of any pending investigation against him. Mr. Trump recently nominated Ms. Habba to remain in the job permanently when her time as interim U.S. attorney ends later this month. She would need to be confirmed by the Senate, and New Jersey’s two Democratic senators have been critical of her performance. In a joint statement, the senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, said she had “degraded the office and pursued frivolous and politically motivated prosecutions.” It was unclear whether they would seek to block her nomination.

Blaze [7/11/2025 7:30 PM, Liz Roland, 1805K] reports that, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that restricted the ability of judges to block President Trump’s policies using nationwide injunctions, a federal court has barred the Trump administration from enforcing his executive order limiting birthright citizenship nationwide. U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante in Concord, New Hampshire, made the ruling on July 10 after being asked to grant class action status to a lawsuit filed seeking to represent infants who would not qualify for citizenship under Trump’s directive. "You might be able to blame Kavanaugh’s concurrence in the CASA decision for this," BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments. "You look at the CASA decision, and the majority decision from Chief Justice Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett said, ‘Universal injunctions likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to the federal courts.’ However, you had Kavanaugh in his concurrence who left the door open for what the judge is trying to do," Gonzales explains. "The decision today will not alter this Court’s traditional role in those matters. Going forward, in the wake of a major new federal statute or executive action, different district courts may enter a slew of preliminary rulings on the legality of that statute or executive action," Kavanaugh said. "Or alternatively, perhaps a district court (or courts) will grant or deny the functional equivalent of a universal injunction — for example, by granting or denying a preliminary injunction to a putative nationwide class under Rule 23(b)(2).” "I’m getting in the weeds here, but it matters," Gonzales says, explaining that "in order to have a judge take class action, you’ve got to have rule 23.” "It lays out the criteria. Numerosity: So you’ve got a class that’s so big that individual lawsuits are impractical. You’ve got to lump them all together because not doing so would cause too many lawsuits to happen," she continues. "Commonality: There are common legal or factual questions among class members. Typicality: The named plaintiff’s claims are typical of the whole class. Adequacy: So the plaintiffs and their attorneys will fairly and accurately protect the interests of the entire class. And then rule 23(b), which, of course, Kavanaugh referenced, is the injunctive relief for that class," she adds.

Reuters [7/11/2025 6:30 AM, Ted Hesson, Jeff Mason, and Kristina Cooke, 51390K] reports U.S. Marines on the streets of Los Angeles. Masked immigration officers at courthouses and popular restaurants. Bans on travelers from more than a dozen countries. For senior White House aide Stephen Miller, the architect of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, things were going according to plan. He’d set an aggressive quota of 3,000 arrests per day in late May, and the efforts to meet that goal pushed U.S. immigration officers into more communities and businesses, triggering protests and political tensions with Democrats. Then the president called Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was in Los Angeles with other immigration officials in mid June, according to three former U.S. officials with knowledge of the call. "He said: ‘We’re going to do this targeted,’" one of the three former U.S. officials said. "Everybody heard it." U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement paused raids on farms, hotels, restaurants and food processing plants after the call, the former officials said. Trump was not aware of the extent of the enforcement push, one of the former officials told Reuters at the time, and "once it hit him, he pulled it back." The pause was short-lived. ICE rescinded the guidance days after it was issued, leaving some officials confused about how to proceed. The episode illustrated a moment of dissonance within Trump’s immigration team, which has otherwise appeared to be in lock step on strategy, two of the former officials said. It was a sign that Miller’s no-holds-barred approach could go too far, even for the president, they said. A White House official said there was no daylight between Miller and Trump and Miller’s approach to immigration enforcement had not made farms a primary target. The official also said the initial ICE directive pausing raids had not been authorized by top administration leaders.

Politico [7/11/2025 5:29 AM, Myah Ward and Kyle Cheney, 16523K] reports border czar Tom Homan said the Trump administration hopes to forge deals with “many countries” to accept deported migrants from the United States — when their home countries can’t, or won’t, take them back. Homan spoke with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns for The Conversation in the wake of a recent Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for eight men to be deported to South Sudan, a nation that the State Department has warned Americans is too dangerous for all but essential personnel. Homan said he was unsure of the status of the eight men — or whether they are detained there — saying that they are no longer in U.S. custody. “They’re living in Sudan. And will they stay in Sudan? I don’t know,” he said. “When we sign these agreements with all these countries, we make arrangements to make sure these countries are receiving these people and there’s opportunities for these people. But I can’t tell if we remove somebody to Sudan — they can stay there a week and leave. I don’t know.” The deportations to places like South Sudan and El Salvador where migrants have no connections have raised concerns among lawyers and immigrant advocates who fear for the men’s safety in countries with a history of human rights violations. But Homan said similar arrangements with other countries are crucial to support Trump’s mass deportation agenda. He declined to name the other countries until there are “signed agreements” in place. “When you’ve got countries that won’t take their nationals back, and they can’t stay here, we find another country willing to accept them,” Homan said, adding that they may not send people to every country that agrees to accept migrants but want to ensure the tool is available. “If there is a significant public threat or national security threat — there’s one thing for sure — they’re not walking the streets of this country. We’ll find a third, safe nation to send them to, and we’re doing it.”

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [7/11/2025 6:46 PM, Staff, 4622K]

AP [7/11/2025 4:58 PM, Monika Pronczuk, 56000K] reports South Sudan has accepted eight third-country deportees from the U.S. and Rwanda says it’s in talk with the administration of President Donald Trump on a similar deal, while Nigeria says it’s rejecting pressure to do the same. Although few details are known, these initiatives in Africa mark an expansion in U.S. efforts to deport people to countries other than their own. The United States has sent hundreds of Venezuelans and others to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama but has yet to announce any major deals with governments in Africa, Asia or Europe. While proponents see such programs as a way of deterring what they describe as unmanageable levels of migration, human rights advocates have raised concerns over sending migrants to countries where they have no ties or that may have a history of rights violations. Earlier this week, Trump held a summit with five West African leaders in the White House, which highlighted the new transactional U.S. policy towards the continent. U.S. border tsar Tom Homan told the media Friday that the Trump administration hopes to forge deals with “many countries” to accept deported migrants.

CNN [7/11/2025 6:13 PM, Ana María Cañizares and Max Saltman, 21433K] reports Ecuador’s most notorious drug kingpin is headed to the United States. Jose Adolfo Macías, better known as "Fito," agreed Friday to be extradited from Ecuador to the US, where he is wanted by the US Justice Department on charges of drug and weapons trafficking. The head of the criminal organization Los Choneros accepted his extradition during a hearing at the National Court of Justice.

AP [7/11/2025 2:14 AM, Andrea Rodríguez, 31733K] reports the United States government announced Friday it was sanctioning Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other top officials for human rights violations and restricting access to visas on the anniversary of the biggest protests on the island in recent decades. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media platform X that the State Department also would impose visa restrictions on Cuban judicial and prison officials “responsible for, or complicit in, the unjust detention and torture of the July 2021 protesters.” The protests, which were not led by an opposition group, developed July 11 and 12, 2021, drawing attention to the depths of Cuba’s economic crisis. “The U.S. will continue to stand for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Cuba, and make clear no illegitimate, dictatorial regimes are welcome in our hemisphere,” Rubio said in the statement. The Trump administration has taken a harder line against Cuba’s government than the Biden administration. In addition to Díaz-Canel, the U.S. sanctioned Cuban Defense Minister Álvaro López Miera and Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas. Shortly after the announcement, Johana Tablada, deputy director of the U.S. department in the Cuban Foreign Ministry, lashed out at Rubio, calling him a “defender of genocide, prisons and mass deportations.” The rare protests in 2021 came about after repeated blackouts in Havana and other cities. One man died and some marches ended in vandalism. Groups supporting the government responded along with authorities to repress the protests. Human rights groups estimated there were more than 1,000 arrests but the government gave no official figures. At the time, the Cuban government said it was the result of a U.S. media campaign and decades of U.S. sanctions. In 2022, Cuban prosecutors said some 790 people were investigated for acts related to the protests ranging from disorder to sabotage and vandalism. The advocacy group 11J, whose name alludes to the protests, said late last year there were 554 people serving sentences related to the protests, but some were given conditional release in January after an appeal from Pope Francis.

New York Post [7/11/2025 9:14 PM, Staff, 49956K] reports a full year (as of Sunday) after Matthew Thomas Crooks came within a hair of killing President Donald Trump, the nation still has no good answers as to the how or why of it. That is, no clear info on the would-be assassin’s motives — and no satisfactory explanation of how the Secret Service let him come so very close to succeeding. New York Times managed to (seemingly) get access to Crooks’ web-browsing history, and still couldn’t say much of anything for sure. His family won’t talk to the press; that may be wise of them, but is frustrating to the many Americans who feel we should know more. He looks like a smart, lonely kid who sank into mental illness at an age common for the onset of several deep disorders; maybe we just can’t find out much more. But we surely can learn more about the security failures that cleared the shooter’s way onto that roof. Indeed, it’s pretty telling that only the determination of Corey Comperatore’s widow seems to have forced several Secret Service heads to roll — and it was only Thursday, three days before the anniversary, that six agents who worked the Butler, Pa., rally got suspended. Not fired, suspended, for 10 to 45 days. The timeline of what went wrong that day is damning: Crooks, armed with a rifle, was somehow able to get onto the roof of the the AGR building just 400 feet from the stage from where Trump would speak — a building the Secret Service had already identified as a security concern, yet somehow failed to secure. Nearly 30 minutes before the shooting, local cops raised alarms that a suspicious man with a rangefinder was spotted hanging around the building. And two minutes before, the Secret Service Security Room was told that someone was on the roof. Yet with all of that information, agents failed to act in time to stop Comperatore from being killed and Trump from very nearly being killed. This was no run-of-the-mill ball-dropping by one or two agents, but deadly incompetence on every level. The agency’s Biden-era leadership may have slow-rolled any investigation or punishment once then-USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle quit soon after the epic failure, but shouldn’t Trump’s hires have caught up by now? Getting to the facts is no impossible task; it starts with grilling each and every agent on duty that day, and the chain of command above them about each of their decisions: Give the public a complete accounting of who left the security team so undermanned; exactly how communications failed so badly; why information about a clear threat didn’t bring the appropriate response. That should be a top priority for FBI Director Kash Patel.

Houston Chronicle [7/11/2025 10:00 AM, Staff, 1982K] reports is Texas cursed? Are we being punished? Our state is so beset by drought, flood, fire, disease and violence, we can’t help but ask: Why us? The stories coming from the Texas Hill Country after the July 4 floods shake us to our core. Sisters who died with their hands locked together. A wife who perished trying to drive to safety but who made sure her husband escaped. Parents found dead, their two young sons missing. When last seen, the father was clinging to the boys as the Guadalupe River surged through the RV park where they were vacationing. Only their young daughter was found safe. Rescue efforts are now focused on recovering bodies entangled in miles of downed trees and metal debris. The death toll has surpassed that of Hurricane Harvey. And still, it keeps rising. What’s most difficult to process is that these deaths were largely preventable. If Texas is cursed, it is because over generations our leaders have not just abandoned us to tempests, but have enabled man-made catastrophes. Biblical weather events are out of our control, but repeated and catastrophic loss of life is of our own making. We choose where to build. Whether to install warning systems. And how we respond to urgent alerts. Our politicians choose to ignore the same calls to action after each unprecedented flood, each devastating hurricane. Yes, it’s true that other factors contributed to the lethality of the July 4 floods. It was a holiday weekend. The rains came in the middle of night. The rocky and steep hills unleashed a fast-moving wall of water. And yet, no one had to die. Not children at camps. Not families in a RV. Not the couple attending their law school reunion. If these people had realized the floodwaters were coming, they’d have been somewhere else, somewhere safe.

New York Post [7/12/2025 7:00 AM, Kevin Cohen, 49956K] reports that, last month, Fox News reported that more than 700 Iranian nationals — some flagged for terrorism concerns — had been admitted into the United States during the Biden years by US immigration authorities. Arrested while crossing our border with Mexico, they were later released by the administration into the sprawl of American life. But while political chatter continues to orbit the border — who crossed, when and how — the more urgent threat is hiding in plain sight. It doesn’t wear foreign colors or carry a forged passport. It wears a uniform. It carries a badge. It has credentials. And it has access. The danger isn’t who’s trying to get in. The danger is who American authorities have already let in — and who they’ve long since stopped watching. One of them was Joseph Daniel Schmidt. On June 20, the former Army intelligence sergeant pleaded guilty to attempting to deliver US military secrets to China. He is currently in federal custody and scheduled for sentencing this September. This wasn’t a Cold War thriller. It was a betrayal by a soldier with a security clearance and access to top-secret systems. Schmidt served at Joint Base Lewis–McChord from 2015 to 2020. After leaving the Army, he emailed Chinese government contacts offering to share information on American surveillance and intelligence capabilities. He then flew to Hong Kong, carrying a secure-access device and a set of classified military briefings. Prosecutors haven’t disclosed whether Schmidt was paid, but his communications suggested he was seeking protection or compensation in exchange for secrets. It’s easy to see Schmidt as a fluke. He isn’t. In April, Army analyst Korbein Schultz was sentenced to seven years for leaking 92 classified documents — including intelligence on missile defense — to someone he believed was a Chinese agent. He was paid $42,000. In March, three US soldiers were arrested for stealing and selling components from the Army’s HIMARS missile system. And just weeks ago, two Chinese nationals were charged with attempting to recruit US military personnel to spy for Beijing. For decades, America’s national security bureaucracy — from the Pentagon to the CIA — has operated under the assumption that once an employee is granted a security clearance, they remain trustworthy. The clearance — and access — is rarely reviewed again. Which is why so many of the most dangerous people we’re failing to watch are not infiltrators. They are government employees, contractors and uniformed personnel working within our bases, intelligence hubs and encrypted networks. And the systems meant to monitor them have failed to keep pace. A 2023 Government Accounting Office report found that nearly 80% of the 3.6 million Americans with security clearances aren’t enrolled in any kind of continuous vetting. Some go a full decade without a second look. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency’s vetting program covers 3.8 million individuals, but only alerts for administrative flags: arrests, bankruptcies, foreign travel. It does not monitor social media activity, encrypted communication platforms or psychological instability.

Chicago Tribune [7/11/2025 6:00 AM, Elizabeth Shackelford, 3987K] reports when I saw the news a few weeks ago that President Donald Trump’s administration was trying to deport eight men to South Sudan, I was shocked. I had worked and lived in South Sudan as a diplomat and know the country well. It is on the brink of yet another civil war, and its government has a horrific human rights record. America’s own travel warning for the country, updated most recently this March, is Level 4: Do Not Travel. The United States evacuated its nonemergency staff from the embassy earlier this year due to ongoing armed conflict and high levels of violent crime. It advised any Americans who choose to travel there anyway to draft a will, establish a proof of life protocol with loved ones in case they’re taken hostage and prepare their family to manage their affairs in the case of their death. These are not warnings the U.S. government issues lightly. Of nearly 200 countries on earth, why choose this as a deportation destination? Only one of the men deported there is from the country. The others have no ties to South Sudan whatsoever — rather, they come from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico. None of those are even on the African continent. This puts most of the men on a far, difficult and expensive journey away from anywhere they know. The only purpose would be to punish these individuals and to instill fear in any others considering migrating to the United States. The Statue of Liberty’s promise has been turned on its head. Unlike most migrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this year, these eight men are indeed convicted criminals, though many had either finished or were soon to finish serving their sentences. Being sent to an unfamiliar war zone far from their countries of origin, families or communities must feel like another criminal sentence. How and why did this happen? The due process rights of all people — not just citizens — in the United States have been well established by now. The Supreme Court ruled as recently as this May that deportees must be given a proper chance to raise legal objections to their removal to a third country. But, in the case at hand, weeks of legal battles over that right ended in July with the Supreme Court ruling that these deportations could go ahead anyway.

The Hill [7/11/2025 12:00 PM, Miguel Flores, 18649K] reports there was a knock on the door. I knew who it was. Some friends had warned me they might be coming. I had been trying not to think too much about it. I figured I was not high enough on their list. They had already arrested the most outspoken, public-facing government critics — human rights lawyers, opposition politicians, etc. They were already in jail. Why would they come for me? In November 2022, I was arrested in my home country of Nicaragua. I had been a student protester, leading marches and participating in negotiations with the authorities. The government accused me of terrorism and threw me in jail. There, I was psychologically tortured, stripped of my citizenship, and eventually exiled to the U.S. These days, when I read stories of other students — Mahmoud Khalil, Yunseo Chung or Rümeysa Öztürk, for example — my thoughts inevitably turn to my own experience. When I see the protests in Los Angeles met with military force, I am reminded of how President Daniel Ortega responded to our protests. When I hear President Trump accuse protestors of being paid, I remember when Ortega said the same about me. Throughout my life, I have watched the slow erosion of my own country’s democratic institutions; since my arrival in the U.S., I cannot help but notice the disturbing similarities here. In Nicaragua, the first step was El Pacto. Ortega, the famous Sandinista comandante of Nicaragua, ruled for 10 years in the 1980s but afterwards lost three subsequent elections. One of the candidates he lost to, the former mayor of Managua, Arnoldo Aleman, was eventually found guilty of stealing as much as $100 million from the impoverished country’s coffers. On the verge of spending 20 years behind bars, he and Ortega, leaders from opposing political parties, struck a series of deals that allowed Ortega to return to power and Aleman to avoid jail time. A key aspect of Ortega’s consolidation of power has been his war against the Nicaraguan university system. He first restricted their autonomy by forcibly aligning their curricula to the government’s ideologies and placing party loyalists in oversight positions. Not unlike the Trump administration’s revocations of federal funding to universities in the U.S., the University of Central America of Nicaragua, formerly one of the most highly regarded universities in the country, also saw the government cut off its funding. We have seen prestigious U.S. universities accused of terrorism, their federal funding revoked, and the visas of many of their students canceled. The demands made on Harvard called for the university to accept an unprecedented level of government control. Could private universities in the U.S. eventually be seized, just as they have been in Nicaragua?

Daily Wire [7/11/2025 10:58 AM, George Harizanov, 3816K] reports in January 2025, the White House finally did what should have been done years ago: it designated Mexico’s brutal drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. This gives American authorities broader tools to freeze assets, gather intelligence, and dismantle these violent syndicates. And it’s an important step in the right direction. But, from where I sit in Bulgaria, I cannot help but ask: why did it take so long? Here in Bulgaria, we know something about borders. We share one with Turkey, a gateway for migrants heading toward Europe. And yet, despite intense pressure, Bulgaria has not suffered the migrant chaos seen in parts of Western Europe or the United States. Why? Because we made the decision — like our neighbors in Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban — to treat national borders as sacred. Not suggestions. Not political bargaining chips. But sovereign, immovable lines of defense. The fentanyl crisis in the United States is a tragedy of epic proportions. China supplies the chemicals, but it is the Mexican cartels that manufacture and traffic the poison. Hundreds of thousands of American lives have been lost to synthetic drugs. And things would not have been this bad without the collapse of the southern border under the Biden administration. Bulgaria and Hungary chose a different path. We do not allow open borders. We do not allow foreign-funded NGOs to dictate our immigration policy. We do not apologize for protecting our own people. The results speak for themselves: we have little to no illegal immigration. No fentanyl crisis. No foreign cartel operations are taking root on our soil. That is not by accident. It is by design.

New York Post [7/11/2025 9:40 PM, Karol Markowicz, 49956K] reports it should be this week’s biggest story: Violent assailants are targeting on-the-job federal law enforcement officials with murderous intent. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is bearing the brunt of these assaults, with aggression against ICE agents up 700% compared to the same time last year. Blame the Democrats — as their unhinged rhetoric turbocharges the left’s "assassination culture.” On Thursday, a rioter trying to stop an ICE raid on a marijuana farm in Camarillo, Calif., shot a gun at agents, while other protesters pelted federal vehicles with large rocks. Agents found 10 underage illegal immigrants working at the farm, which is now being investigated for child labor violations. Days earlier, on July 4, a masked and armed mob dressed in tactical gear attacked an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. A local police officer was shot in the neck as assailants rioted and defaced officers’ vehicles with graffiti reading "traitor" and "ICE pig.” On Monday, a gunman ambushed Border Patrol agents in McAllen, Texas. Two officers and a federal employee were injured, one shot in the knee, before the shooter was neutralized. These attacks are escalating in frequency and ferocity. Earlier this year, Tesla dealerships were firebombed and shot at while conservative influencers, as well as their family members, were menaced by dangerous "swatting" calls that sent armed officers to their homes. In April I described in these pages a survey in which frightening numbers of left-leaning Americans said that political violence — up to and including assassination — can be "acceptable.” "It certainly feels like a powder keg," I wrote, "as violence is excused and celebrated online as never before.” Now that keg is exploding in our streets. We understand that people in public-facing roles are taking a risk when they do their jobs. It’s why assaulting a bus driver, say, carries a heavier penalty than raging at a co-worker. But Democrats are doing nothing to calm their base’s insane fury. Instead, they’re openly demonizing ICE agents, often comparing them to the Gestapo in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

Daily Caller [7/11/2025 11:47 AM, John Loftus, 1010K] reports democrats are chumming the political waters with lazy propaganda after the Trump administration’s latest attempt to crack down on illegal immigration. Anti-ICE protesters clashed with authorities Thursday during a raid on Glass House Farms, a state-licensed marijuana facility in Camarillo, California, and one agitator even appeared to fire a gun at federal agents. However, several Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, are trying to spin the incident and downplay the fact that the raids occurred at cannabis farms. "Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields. Trump calls me ‘Newscum’ — but he’s the real scum," Newsom said. Of course, the kids who were running from the tear gas may very well have been child slave laborers. Authorities discovered 10 juveniles — eight of whom were unaccompanied — at the facility, which is now under investigation for allegedly violating child labor laws, according to Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott. Gallego appears to believe that marijuana is a food, a key staple of our diets, no different than fruits or vegetables. "Instead of prioritizing dangerous criminals Trump is targeting families that have been here for years picking our food. The public outcry and protests are occuring because the American public knows this is wrong," the senator said. And Democratic California Rep. Jimmy Gomez omitted the raids occurred at marijuana farms, instead pretending that innocent workers were simply picking strawberries. "How many MS-13 gang members are waking up at 3 a.m. to pick strawberries? O’yeah, zero! Trump said he’d go after ‘bad hombres,’ but he’s targeting the immigrant farm workers who feed America. Either he lied — or he can’t tell the difference," Gomez said. Democrats are truly masters at denying reality. And maybe Newsom should focus less on picking cheap fights with Trump and touring South Carolina to bolster his presence ahead of 2028 and more on the possibility that a cannabis farm in his own state might have been employing child slave labor.

The Hill [7/11/2025 12:30 PM, Javier A. Hernandez, 18649K] reports the recent Supreme Court decision leaving open the possibility that President Trump’s denial of birthright citizenship to individuals born on U.S. soil to undocumented parents will be upheld, is sending shockwaves through legal, political, and immigrant communities. Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent captured the alarm: "No right is safe.” But beyond the continental United States, this decision reverberates in a unique and profound way in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory caught in political limbo since 1898. For more than a century, Puerto Ricans have held U.S. citizenship by statute, not by constitutional guarantee. That statute — the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917 — unilaterally imposed U.S. citizenship on Puerto Ricans (without their consent) not as a recognition of full inclusion, but as a tool of colonial control. Today, that statutory citizenship is proving to be as vulnerable as its colonial origins. The Supreme Court’s ruling now opens a wider conversation: If U.S. citizenship can be restricted or redefined by federal authorities, what future do Puerto Ricans really have within the U.S. system? The ruling has already been weaponized by the pro-statehood movement in Puerto Rico. Statehood advocates argue that only by becoming a state can Puerto Ricans ensure permanent, constitutionally protected birthright citizenship for future generations. But this narrow, fear-based response ignores both legal precedent and geopolitical logic. There is a better way — one rooted in dignity, sovereignty and international norms. Puerto Rico can and should become a sovereign nation, either under independence or a Compact of Free Association. In fact, the ruling strengthens the case for independence as the most just and stable long-term solution for Puerto Rico and the U.S. alike. Under the draft executive order recently proposed for Trump’s consideration, Puerto Rico would become a sovereign nation. Upon independence, the statutory U.S. citizenship conferred by the Jones Act would cease to apply to new births in Puerto Rico. All individuals born in Puerto Rico after independence would acquire Puerto Rican citizenship — a national identity of their own, defined by Puerto Rican law and values, not those of a distant foreign power. However, this does not mean the complete severing of U.S. ties for individuals. Children born in Puerto Rico to U.S. citizen parents (as defined under the Immigration and Nationality Act) would remain eligible for U.S. citizenship through a Consular Report of Birth Abroad — a system already in place for U.S. citizens worldwide.

Breitbart [7/11/2025 6:05 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports some 30,000 illegal aliens were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in June, the most illegals arrested by the agency in at least half a decade, when monthly figures were first made public, a new report states. The ICE data, obtained by NBC News, found that in June, about 30,000 illegal aliens were arrested by ICE. This is a slight uptick from May, when about 24,000 illegal aliens were arrested by ICE. The report from NBC News also includes removal and deportation figures, but does not distinguish between the two. According to the ICE data, more than 18,000 illegal aliens were either deported by ICE agents from the interior of the United States or returned to their home countries by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents while attempting to cross into the United States. The number of all-important deportations from the interior of the United States is still unknown, as DHS officials say more than 253,000 illegal aliens have been either removed or deported — also not distinguishing between ICE deportations and CBP removals.

USA Today [7/11/2025 6:03 AM, Kinsey Crowley, 75552K] reports as President Donald Trump continues his mission to carry out the biggest mass deportation in history, multiple reports show how much daily immigration enforcement arrests have ballooned nationwide. The administration has set its sights on deporting 1 million people annually, which would more than double the annual peak set during the Obama administration that helped earn him a critical reputation of "deporter in chief." Trump’s directives to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to expand its deportation efforts have led to widespread protests, more assaults on federal officers and multiple legal battles. A Reuters analysis of ICE and White House data shows the national daily arrest rate has doubled under the Trump administration compared to the last decade. A New York Times analysis of obtained data shows average daily arrest rates have more than doubled in 38 states compared to the 2024 rate. The recently passed tax and domestic policy bill allocates more funding to expand immigration enforcement and deportation efforts. The Department of Homeland Security said the $165 billion allocated in the bill would provide funding to hire 10,000 more agents and maintain detention capacity of 100,000 migrants. While the arrest rate has increased sharply, it has yet to be seen how that might translate into deportation rates.

USA Today [7/11/2025 8:41 PM, Bart Jansen, 75552K] reports President Donald Trump said in a social media post he saw video showing "THUGS" throwing rocks and bricks at Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and said he ordered authorities to "arrest these SLIMEBALLS, using whatever means is necessary" in future confrontations. Fox News played video of the violent clash repeatedly during the day July 11. Trump said he watched the recording while flying back from Texas, where he visited flood-damaged areas. The violent clash over immigration enforcement erupted July 10 during a raid at a marijuana farm in Camarillo, California. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a social media post 10 minors were found and the case was under investigation for child-labor violations. The Department of Homeland Security said 200 undocumented immigrants were arrested in raids at farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria. "During the operation, a violent agitator fired a gun at our brave officers," said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of Homeland Security. "We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who assaults or doxes federal law enforcement.” A union said a farmworker died in the clash. "We tragically can confirm that a farmworker has died of injuries they sustained as a result of yesterday’s immigration enforcement action," the United Farm Workers union said in a social media post. Trump said he directed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan to instruct all federal law enforcement officers "on the receiving end of thrown rocks, bricks, or any other form of assault, to stop their and arrest these SLIMEBALLS, using whatever means is necessary to do so." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [7/11/2025 10:06 PM, Taylor Robinson, 138952K] reports a suburban New York county that recently barred residents from wearing masks is now making an exception for police officers so they can obscure their identities while helping the federal authorities detain immigrants. Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, announced the new policy at a news conference on Friday, saying he had signed an executive order amending a county law that bans the wearing of masks in public except for religious or medical reasons. Under the amended law, all federal, state and local law enforcement officers operating in the county, on Long Island, can wear face coverings when it is “necessary to protect their personal safety, the personal safety of their families or the integrity of the operation.” Mr. Blakeman, a Republican, said the change did not apply solely to immigration actions, and he cast it as a safety measure meant to keep protesters from tracking down the personal information of police officers and agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The move comes as Democratic lawmakers in California and New York are pushing to ban the wearing of masks by federal agents, including those working for ICE, in many circumstances. The issue of ICE agents taking people into custody while wearing unmarked uniforms and balaclavas to conceal their faces has become a major point of conflict amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, with critics saying it smacks of authoritarianism. Mike German, a retired F.B.I. agent and fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, said he had not heard of other local police departments allowing officers to cover their faces. Doing so, he said, puts the officers at greater risk rather than protecting them. “If people in the community don’t know who these masked people are, using force against people that they know, obviously there is a reaction to resist that kind of force,” Mr. German said. That the masks provoke public resistance, he added, “should be a clue for officials who are genuinely concerned with public safety and officer safety to understand that that’s not helpful, it’s provocative.”

USA Today [7/11/2025 6:04 AM, Eduardo Cuevas, 75552K] reports a Georgia-based journalist from El Salvador has been in custody for nearly a month after he was arrested while covering a protest. He faces removal from the United States. Mario Guevara, 47, runs MG News, a Spanish language news outlet serving Latino communities in Georgia. An Emmy Award-winning journalist, Guevara has more than 780,000 followers on his Facebook page. Guevara had documented increasing immigration enforcement in the region. He was arrested covering a June protest opposing the Trump administration. His arrest has drawn scrutiny on press freedom in the United States. "I am a victim of persecution for doing my journalistic work covering operations in the streets," Guevara said in a July 8 statement. He has asked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, an ally of President Donald Trump, to intervene in his case. Neither Bukele’s office nor did the Salvadoran embassy responded to an emailed request for comment. Initial charges against him were dropped and an immigration judge allowed him to post bond. But federal officials blocked his release after another set of traffic-related misdemeanor charges ‒ stemming from of an alleged incident nearly a month before his arrest ‒ were issued by a Georgia sheriff’s office. On July 10, Guevara’s lawyers announced prosecutors dropped the charges, yet Guevara is now in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said Guevara is in the country illegally. The department has begun deportation proceedings.

Telemundo Amarillo [7/11/2025 5:53 PM, Staff, 4K] reports multiple arrests were reported Thursday in operations involving alleged immigration agents in the Atlanta metropolitan area. According to witnesses, at least four people were arrested at Northeast Plaza in Brookhaven. The agents’ presence at the mall was captured in a video sent to our reporter Luis Estrada. Estrada is also receiving multiple reports of the possible presence of immigration agents on Jimmy Carter Boulevard and Singleton Road. Some are reporting that vehicles are being followed by private trucks and then allegedly being stopped by police officers.

Federalist [7/11/2025 8:34 AM, Beth Brelje, 1142K] reports the propaganda press is going out of its way to downplay the background of ICE detainee Ayman Soliman, an Egyptian imam who has been living in Cincinnati, Ohio, and who’s asylum, which was granted in 2018, was revoked in December 2024 by former President Joe Biden’s administration. Soliman has sued the United States in multiple cases over a partially failed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking documents that explain why he has an "FBI flag" on his name. But pay no attention to his immigration status or his connection to the terror watch list, or that he was imprisoned "multiple times" for his role in political protests in Egypt, according to his legal team. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s headline leads with a more sympathetic description, "Former Cincinnati Children’s Chaplain Detained By ICE.” "What my hometown paper @Enquirer doesn’t want to tell you is this Egyptian national was flagged on the FBI terror watchlist. He had his asylum status revoked by the *checks notes* BIDEN Administration," Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in response to the Enquirer’s headline. The Enquirer covered a press conference held by Soliman’s supporters, where they too milked the holy-man angle, saying he was an interfaith chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and a cherished member of the community. "They are telling us they’re detaining gangsters and rapists and drug dealers. Now they’re detaining faith leaders," Khalid Turaani, Executive Director of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Ohio said during the presser. "There’s something amiss in this whole policy that they are trying to market it as detaining criminals when they are really not doing so." No one at the press conference questions why ICE detained Soliman. They just automatically believe it is wrong.

CBS News [7/11/2025 7:52 AM, Staff, 51860K] reports authorities are searching for 32-year-old Benjamin Hanil Song, a former Marine accused of attempted murder and aiding terrorism after a coordinated July 4th ambush on a North Texas ICE facility left a police officer wounded. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Houston Chronicle [7/11/2025 5:31 PM, Julián Aguilar, 1982K] reports a family road trip from Houston that should have ended with Jonatan Pech excited about his first year of college following a scholarship offer instead ended Tuesday with the teenager left to guess about when he’ll next see his mother. Pech, 18, was traveling to Corpus Christi with his brother, sister and mother when they were pulled over by local law enforcement in Refugio near Corpus Christi, Pech told reporters Friday morning. His older brother was given a warning for driving with high beams on. But his mother, Santos Teresa Tzep Xaminez, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, was detained during the stop by Refugio police and taken from her family after local law enforcement asked her for her ID. Tzep Xamirez, a single mother, has no criminal history, the family said. They have no clear answers on why she was detained and transferred to federal custody. She’s since been transferred between detention facilities around the state.

New York Times [7/11/2025 10:50 PM, Hamed Aleaziz and Orlando Mayorquín, 153395K] reports the number of arrests by the Department of Homeland Security in the Los Angeles region has spiked over the last month as the Trump administration has deployed hundreds of agents and military members to crack down on the area. Since the beginning of June, homeland security agents and officers have arrested nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants in the Los Angeles area, according to the agency. The previous monthly high for immigration arrests in the Los Angeles area by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2025 was just over 850 arrests in May, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Deportation Data Project at the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. The sweeping enforcement campaign in the region has sent chills through immigrant communities. D.H.S. officials said this week that they had no intention of letting up on aggressive enforcement efforts. “The intensity and pace will continue until we get the terrorists, gang members, murderers, rapists and child abusers off Los Angeles streets,” said Tricia McLaughlin, an agency spokeswoman. “Mayor Bass should get used to it or, better yet, let law enforcement do their jobs.”

Los Angeles Times [7/11/2025 8:16 PM, Summer Lin, 14672K] reports masked immigration agents got into a confrontation with staff members of a medical facility in San Bernardino County this week after landscapers ran into their facility looking to avoid being taken into custody. According to video obtained by KTLA-TV, staffers at the Ontario Advanced Surgical Center on Tuesday told two agents to leave because they didn’t have a warrant to go onto the property. The agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement were trying to detain 30-year-old Denis Guillen-Solis and two other landscapers who had been working outside and ran into the surgical center when the agents showed up. "You guys need a warrant to come in here," one of the staffers is heard saying to the agents. In the video, Guillen-Solis is shown holding onto the doorway at the surgical center and asking the agents to present identification. The agents then pulled Guillen-Solis from the doorway and detained him. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that ICE agents were trying to "arrest two illegal aliens.” "Officers in clearly marked ICE bulletproof vests approached the illegal alien targets as they exited a vehicle," according to the statement. "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.’ ". The Ontario Advanced Surgical Center could not be immediately reached for comment. The incident occurred amid an extraordinary immigration enforcement effort by the Trump administration in Southern California. Thousands of undocumented immigrants — many without a criminal record — have been detained at work, in courthouses and on public streets going about their day.

San Diego Union Tribune [7/11/2025 2:25 PM, Mona Darwish, 1611K] reports Narciso Barranco, the 48-year-old Tustin landscaper and father of three U.S. Marines who was punched and detained by federal immigration agents last month — sparking a nationwide outcry — will be released on bond from the Adelanto U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center on Friday afternoon, July 11, a supporter said. Orange Councilmembers Arianna Barrios and Ana Gutierrez and Bishop Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Orange joined his family for his bond hearing at the center in San Bernardino County’s High Desert. "Today was a good day in this new battle for civil rights, due process and humanitarian principles," Barrios said. "I was so impressed that Bishop Vann made the long drive out to the desert to bear witness and bless this special family. "Mr. Barranco will be released on bond sometime tomorrow (Friday) afternoon, God willing! He can remain free until mid-August, where he will have another hearing to try and adjust his status to parole-in-place based on the fact that his wife is a U.S. citizen and his three American-born sons are active-duty U.S. military," she said. Video posted on social media shows Barranco getting pinned to the ground and repeatedly punched, then pepper sprayed, by at least one masked, armed federal immigration agent in Santa Ana in late June. The footage gained nationwide media attention and highlighted community concerns over immigration enforcement. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Barranco attacked agents with a weed whacker, went into traffic and refused to comply with them. "Show the full story," the agency posted on X with an 11-second clip that shows Barranco swinging the weed whacker in the direction of approaching agents but not hitting them.

FOX News [7/11/2025 8:14 AM, Greg Norman, 46878K] Video HERE reports staff at a California surgical center were captured on video trying to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from arresting a Honduran landscaper this week, with one telling a federal officer "you don’t even have a warrant for him." The tense scene unfolded Tuesday at the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center, located about 30 miles east of Los Angeles. The Department of Homeland Security said on X that ICE officers "conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest two illegal aliens" and "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," it added. "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,’" Homeland Security also said. Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, told the Associated Press that agents eventually arrested the Honduran man following the struggle inside the clinic that was captured on video. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [7/11/2025 8:20 PM, Lowell Cauffiel, 3077K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is hitting back on claims that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents failed to identify themselves as they detained an illegal immigrant who ran into a Southern California surgery center to escape them earlier this week. Posting on X, DHS stated: THE FACTS: ICE officers conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest two illegal aliens. Officers in clearly marked ICE bullet proof 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. DHS added, "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.’". The dramatic scene unfolded Tuesday at the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center, located about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, with more video from inside the center being posted by the Associated Press (AP) with commentary by the Inland Coalition for Immigration Justice, an advocacy group. Javier Hernandez, with the coalition, claimed the man was a gardener working outside the facility when ICE approached. Inside, the center’s staff in scrubs got involved, demanding ICE show "a warrant," Fox News reported. "Get your hands off of him," one staff member shouted, the network also reported, shielding the man from an immigration agent. "Let him go. You need to get out.” The incident caused the nursing website, nurse.org, to pose the question: Can ICE enter medical facilities? It answered by saying that hospitals are no longer formally protected as "sensitive locations" from enforcement restrictions, adopted in 2011 but now rescinded by the Trump administration. Southern California has become a hotbed of highly publicized confrontations and protests connected with ICE activity, beginning with a riot last month in downtown Los Angeles that caused President Donald Trump to dispatch the National Guard to the city. This week, as Breitbart News reported, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass got into the mix after protesters confronted Border Patrol agents patrolling downtown MacArthur Park, which has a long history of drug use and illegal activity. The mayor showed up and demanded agents and a military unit dispatched to protect the agents leave the park, where she claimed children were playing. Protesters also clashed with federal authorities Thursday during an immigration operation in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles, at a marijuana farm that allegedly employed illegal immigrants.

New York Times [7/12/2025 5:00 AM, Livia Albeck-Ripka and Orlando Mayorquín, 153395K] reports for months, the day laborers had decontaminated homes that survived the Los Angeles wildfires. Sweating in masks and protective suits, they vacuumed toxic soot and ash, wiped down books and framed photos, and disposed of clothes and furniture that could not be salvaged. One morning last month, they crammed into a small job center in Pasadena, Calif., ready for more work. But on this day, the situation felt too dangerous. It wasn’t the contaminants or toxic fumes. Outside the Winchell’s Donut House just blocks away, federal immigration agents had detained six people. The day laborers went home instead of heading to their job sites. “They’re living in fear,” said Jose Madera, the director of the Pasadena Community Job Center, which earlier this year helped train about 40 immigrant workers in fire cleanup. “They don’t know what can happen if they go to work — are they going to come back?” Immigrant workers are playing a crucial role in the recovery of Pasadena, Altadena and Pacific Palisades after the devastating fires in January. They have hauled debris, cleaned smoke-affected homes and in some cases begun reconstruction in the months since the Eaton and Palisades fires burned more than 16,000 buildings in the region. But raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have plunged workers in various occupations into a state of panic, leading many of them — regardless of immigration status — to stay home. And residents worry that the raids have already hurt recovery efforts in fire-torn neighborhoods. In two dozen interviews, residents, officials, real estate agents, contractors, community organizers and workers described ways in which the Trump administration’s raids have affected the rebuilding process in Southern California. Many of those involved agreed to speak only if they could remain anonymous because they feared retaliation from the federal government. “At a time when our communities need help healing from a natural disaster, the Trump administration is manufacturing a man-made one,” said Lindsey Horvath, who serves on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Undocumented immigrants, who make up a sizable share of construction workers in California, have the most acute concerns about the potential for raids. But even Latino workers with legal residency or American citizenship are worried about confrontations with federal agents. Pablo Alvarado, the co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said ICE agents showed up on a street in Altadena where construction crews were repairing two roofs damaged by the fire. The workers fled, Mr. Alvarado said, leaving their tools behind. “As long as they are around,” he added, referring to the federal agents, “workers are going to stay inside.” But federal officials said that agents with ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have not gone after workers in the fire recovery zones. “ICE and CBP have NOT targeted any construction sites in Altadena and the Palisades,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, wrote in an email, adding that “we will continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets.” The dread is palpable among workers.

San Diego Union Tribune [7/11/2025 12:27 PM, Brian Rokos, 1611K] reports a photo posted to the website People Over Papers, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are reported, showed a white van, law enforcement officers and yellow crime-scene tape at a McDonald’s in Riverside. In Orange County, the vehicles photographed en route to a protest against ICE at Angel Stadium were presumed to be driven by federal officers. And in another post, on the social media site X, a photo of law enforcement officers and a marked SUV shot from afar depicted, the author wrote, an ICE raid at a Jurupa Valley tire shop. In none of those instances, however, were ICE officers or any other federal immigration-enforcement officers present. In Riverside, the officers were city police investigating an in-custody death. In Orange County, those were sheriff’s deputies backing up Anaheim police on crowd control. And in Jurupa Valley, there was no raid at the tire shop in the Rubidoux neighborhood, only a state Park Ranger getting new rubber on his work vehicle. To be sure, a number of sightings are legitimate reports as ICE, Homeland Security and the U.S. Border Patrol make good on President Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. But there is confusion among civilians as these law enforcement officers carry out their missions sometimes while driving unmarked vehicles in civilian clothes or uniforms lacking significant identifying marks or that perhaps say only "Police.” Officials at Union del Barrio, an independent political organization that promotes and defends the rights of Mexican Americans living in the U.S., said thousands of reports about raids are posted every day and that most turn out to be well-intentioned but false. Others come from influencers seeking "likes" and "malicious people who want to scare our communities," the organization’s website says. "Sharing every rumor of ICE/migra activity may seem like a public service, but it unnecessarily promotes fear within our community," the website cautions. "Fear keeps people locked in their homes, unable to work, attend to their families, go to classes, go to the doctor, church or, worse, unable to defend themselves or our communities.” Homeland Security has said little about how many officers are conducting the raids, the number of raids and the number of arrests. Los Angeles Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez said on his website that from June 6 to June 22, 1,618 people had been arrested with the intent to deport them, citing Homeland Security data. Messages seeking comment from federal officials were not returned. But Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, did say in a post on X that federal officials say who they are with, are flanked by "vehicles that also say the name of the department" and wear vests saying "ICE," "ERO" (Enforcement and Removal Operations) or "Homeland Security.”

Los Angeles Times [7/11/2025 6:00 AM, Gustavo Arellano, 14672K] reports Huntington Park High School Principal Carlos Garibaldi was preparing to host a graduation on his campus when frantic colleagues radioed him: Immigration is coming. A fleet of trucks and vans was speeding up Miles Avenue in front of the school’s main building. School staffers followed the emergency plan that Garibaldi had discussed with them a day earlier. Secure the gates. Calmly urge parents streaming into the auditorium to hurry up. Let them know what’s going on. Prepare for the worst. But the fleet didn’t swoop in. They made a quick right toward a Home Depot next to the high school’s baseball field. Armed federal agents swarmed out to chase after day laborers and food vendors. Eyewitnesses said at least four people were detained. The crowd was smaller than usual that morning, though. That’s because Huntington Park City Councilmember Jonathan Sanabria had arrived minutes earlier, after receiving a tip, to yell out that la migra was coming. "Some people didn’t believe me," the first-term councilmember told me, his voice catching. The June 9 Home Depot raid kicked off a month of chaos in a city synonymous with Latino immigration in the Southern California imagination. Once a hub for blue-collar white families, Huntington Park is now 97% Latino, with 89% of households speaking a language other than English and 47% of residents foreign-born, according to the Census. The city’s transformation has long drawn national attention, little of it positive. On June 12, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accompanied ICE agents to Huntington Park, with a film crew tailing her. Two weeks later, federal agents blew out the front door of the home of a U.S. citizen who had accidentally crashed into a government vehicle. At least four raids have hit the city’s Home Depot. Sightings of migra are broadcast on social media almost daily. A senior DHS official did not respond to Sanabria’s allegation or say how many people have been detained in immigration sweeps in the city, noting only the total number of "illegal aliens" detained across Southern California in recent weeks.

Federalist [7/11/2025 7:37 AM, Chris Bray, 1142K] reports the federal raid on MacArthur Park is a political layup, but no one will take it. A giant, clumsy operation, it was meant to send a message, and it resulted in no arrests. It was telegraphed, with signs posted around the park by activists warning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was coming, and the use of horses means the Border Patrol equestrian units had to stage nearby and unload horse trailers. There was no danger that this law enforcement operation would result in any law enforcement. There’s a long and not-obscure history of policing as symbol performance and the use of federal agents as narrative instruments, and it’s the last thing MacArthur Park needs. I went there on the night of the raids, and the day after, and the park and surrounding neighborhoods went right back to being filthy and dangerous. The Trump administration sent a message and then . . left. If you oppose Trump, this is your opening. Here it is. Easy shot. The reason no one is taking the shot in any meaningful way is that the moment requires critics to start from reality. MacArthur Park is dirty, dangerous, violent, a site of ruin and despair, a place of death — the coroner was hauling the body of a young man out of the MacArthur Park light rail station yesterday, while I was there — and a symbol of failure.

Los Angeles Times [7/11/2025 5:10 PM, Zurie Pope, 14672K] reports Espejo was one of the estimated 200,000 people who attended the "No Kings" protest in downtown L.A. on June 14. He described the protesters as being largely peaceful. At 4 p.m., Espejo walked to L.A. City Hall, seeing a line of LAPD and L.A. Sheriff’s Department officers on the building’s steps. By 5 p.m. the sheriff’s department began firing tear gas, foam projectiles, and pepper spray, attempting to disperse the crowd. Then a projectile hit Espejo and exploded. The flash bang device that changed Espejo’s life was a "less lethal" weapon. The category includes tear gas and pepper balls, which were first used by law enforcement after World War I and deployed during strikes and political actions in the 1920s and ‘30s. However, these tools have been a source of controversy since their inception, with lawyers, activists and academics claiming they’re used too frequently and have devastating effects on targets. After Espejo was hit, he said, he ran west on Temple Street, hand bleeding, shouting for help. Bystanders called for a medic, and he was taken to Los Angeles General Medical Center, where he underwent emergency surgery. His left index finger was amputated. In a civil rights claim filed against the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and the city of Los Angeles, Espejo says sheriff’s deputies "used flash bangs, thrown at Plaintiff’s face, along with other less lethal munitions," and "it caused Plaintiff to suffer multiple injuries." "What happened to Mr. Espejo is not an isolated act of misconduct. It reflects a broader and deeply troubling pattern in which the Sheriff’s Department has repeatedly responded to peaceful protest with militarized violence," reads the claim submitted to the city of Los Angeles on June 19. The claim also critiques pervasive use of less-lethal weapons. According to the department’s use-of-force policy, such materials should be used only "when objectively reasonable given the circumstances." The same rules state that officers who use excessive force will face discipline or prosecution. But activists and attorneys say officers in the LAPD and LASD aren’t abiding by their own rules.

CNN [7/11/2025 7:22 PM, Michelle Krupa and Elizabeth Wolfe, 21433K] reports on the heels of major shows of force by federal immigration agents in Southern California, a judge is set to rule in a lawsuit seeking to halt immigration raids in Los Angeles. Federal immigration agents arrested approximately 200 migrants in a pair of chaotic raids at legal marijuana farms on Thursday, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Conflicting accounts from workers and federal officials have raised a flurry of questions as DHS officials say their agents were shot at and a farmers’ union says a worker has died following the raids. The developments again thrust a spotlight on a region that emerged weeks ago as an epicenter of large-scale immigration operations by the Trump administration – and of tense protests against the actions that often yielded arrests of their own. Demonstrations are planned again Friday in Los Angeles, as labor and faith leaders and immigrant rights advocates push back against deportation operations heralded by the Republican White House. The mayor also signed an order aimed at protecting immigrant communities.

FOX News [7/11/2025 7:20 PM, Rachel del Guidice, 46878K] reports California State University, Los Angeles, is giving professors the option of moving their classes online due to students’ fears about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Heather Lattimer, university provost and vice president for academic affairs, said in a letter to faculty this week, according to the Los Angeles Times, that she had heard students are "scared to take public transit and fearful of driving to campus.” Lattimer said faculty have "the option of working remotely for a limited time due to extraordinary circumstances they are facing.” The move comes as LA has become a hotbed of protest over President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement in the city. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Tuesday said the city would join the class-action lawsuit to stop what she called "the unconstitutional reckless raids in the LA region.” The class-action lawsuit "Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem," led by The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California and Public Counsel, a nonprofit, was filed against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and demands an immediate stop to the immigration raids in the Los Angeles area. Lattimer referenced the Monday raid near MacArthur Park, an area known to attract crime. "Recent events in the LA area — including the presence of heavily armed immigration agents in MacArthur Park earlier this week — have left many in our community concerned for their safety," Lattimer said. "This week also marks the 6-month anniversary of the wildfires that disrupted the lives of many in our community," she added. "As a campus we recognize the significant harm that has resulted from these events and reaffirm our commitment to supporting our students, faculty, and staff and prioritizing your safety and well-being.” She said the university wants to approach the concerns in a thoughtful way.

Los Angeles Times [7/12/2025 6:00 AM, Lila Seidman, 14672K] reports federal immigration agents raided a Home Depot in Barstow last month and arrested a man who had his 3-year-old pit bull, Chuco, with him. A friend managed to grab Chuco from the scene and bring him back to the garage where he lives. The dog’s owner was deported to Mexico the next day. The SPAY(CE) Project, which spays and neuters dogs in underserved areas, put out a call on Instagram to help Chuco and an animal rescue group agreed to take him, but then went quiet. Meanwhile, the garage owner took Chuco to an undisclosed shelter. After repeated attempts, SPAY(CE) co-founder Esther Ruurda said her nonprofit gave up on finding the dog or a home for him, since "no one has space for an adult male Pittie these days." So "the poor dog is left to die in the shelter.” It’s not an isolated incident. Since federal immigration raids, primarily targeting Latino communities, began roiling Los Angeles in early June, animal rescues and care providers across the county are hearing desperate pleas for help. At least 15 dogs were surrendered at L.A. County animal shelters due to deportations between June 10 and July 4, according to the county’s Department of Animal Care and Control. Pets belonging to people who are deported or flee are being left in empty apartments, dumped into the laps of unprepared friends and dropped off at overcrowded shelters, The Times found. "Unless people do take the initiative [and get the pets out], those animals will starve to death in those backyards or those homes," said Yvette Berke, outreach manager for Cats at the Studios, a rescue that serves L.A. Yet with many animal refuges operating at capacity, it can be difficult to find temporary homes where pets are not at risk of euthanasia. Fearing arrest if they go outside, some people are also forgoing healthcare for their pets, with clinics reporting a surge in no-shows and missed appointments in communities affected by the raids. "Pets are like the collateral damage to the current political climate," said Jennifer Naitaki, vice president of programs and strategic initiatives at the Michelson Found Animals Foundation. With shelters and rescues stuffed to the gills, an influx of pets is "another impact to an already stressed system," Berke said. Dogs — large ones in particular — can be hard to find homes for, some rescues said. Data show that two county shelters have seen large jumps in dogs being surrendered by their owners. The numbers of dogs relinquished at L.A. County’s Palmdale shelter more than doubled in June compared with June of last year, according to data obtained by The Times. At the county’s Downey shelter, the count jumped by roughly 50% over the same period. Some of this increase could be because of a loosening of requirements for giving up a pet, said Christopher Valles with L.A. County’s animal control department. In April the department eliminated a requirement that people must make an appointment to relinquish a pet.

Wall Street Journal [7/11/2025 8:00 AM, Paul Kiernan, Robert McMillan] reports that for more than two decades, employers seeking to stay on the right side of immigration laws have turned to a government program to verify that their employees are authorized to work in the U.S. The Trump administration’s flurry of workplace immigration raids has exposed an awkward truth: The program, called E-Verify, has vulnerabilities that enable migrants in the U.S. to illegally obtain jobs at American companies. On its website, the government tells employers E-Verify offers “peace of mind that your employees are legally authorized to work.” Participating companies gain a safe harbor from legal penalties. But it can also provide a false sense of security, as some employers have discovered. E-Verify, which matches names to Social Security numbers, has limited access to many other official databases with personal information. It doesn’t use biometric evidence or, in many cases, a photo to verify a new hire’s identity. It can thus be circumvented with a stolen Social Security number and fake driver’s license, according to current and former officials, congressional staffers and cybersecurity experts. Meat producer Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Neb., had been using E-Verify for more than a decade, said owner Gary Rohwer. On June 11, dozens of masked federal agents descended on Rohwer’s plant and, using Tasers and dogs, detained 76 workers. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said 70 of the workers had been using stolen Social Security numbers and identities “to unlawfully obtain wages, health benefits and employment authorization.” She said Nebraska doesn’t share state ID data with E-Verify, “which limits E-Verify’s ability to automatically verify these documents and therefore hampers its effectiveness.” Rohwer said the raid left his plant operating at 15% capacity with a skeleton crew. He said it would take weeks to return to prior staffing levels. “It’s just, why can’t the government come up with a way to screen these people?” Rohwer said. Amy Peck, an immigration lawyer with Jackson Lewis, said the first Trump administration conducted an audit of one of her clients, a meatpacking company. Of roughly 600 employees who had previously been cleared by E-Verify, more than half had submitted documents the audit found to be suspicious. “This has been an open secret, that E-Verify can be evaded,” Peck said. In 2022, the Labor Department found that one of the country’s largest food-safety sanitation companies had employed at least 102 children in hazardous occupations at 13 meat-processing plants in eight states. The company, now known as Fortrex, said the children had cleared E-Verify by submitting fake documents showing they were adults. Fortrex said it has used E-Verify for 100% of its employees for two decades and rejects fake IDs “almost every day” that clear the system. E-Verify traces its roots to a 1986 law that legalized millions of immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally while making it unlawful for employers to knowingly hire those who aren’t authorized to work in the U.S. The system became available in all 50 states in 2003, though it is voluntary in most. Nearly 1.4 million employers participate, according to its website. Proponents say E-Verify was never designed to be airtight. Its flaws often don’t come to light except during in-depth audits of companies’ payrolls, labor inspections or worksite raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Part of the reason why I think ICE is focused on these workplaces is they know the E-Verify system doesn’t work,” said Haywood Talcove, chief executive of LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Matthew Tragesser, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees E-Verify, said the system “consistently receives high marks from users and maintains a nearly perfect accuracy rate.” Still, susceptibility to identity theft has been a longstanding concern. In 2010, a USCIS contractor found roughly half of unauthorized workers run through E-Verify received an inaccurate finding of being legally employable, primarily because of identity fraud.

New York Post [7/11/2025 6:07 PM, Jennie Taer and Josh Christenson, 49956K] reports the Trump administration is launching a new visa program for migrant workers as farmers and hotel owners express concerns that their labor force is being threatened by the president’s mass deportation raids. The Department of Labor’s newly-created Office of Immigration Policy will help fast track visas for foreign laborers — but the administration has made it clear that the initiative is "not amnesty" for illegal migrant workers, a senior administration official told Axios. Migrants who are in the US illegally will not be eligible for the visa program and would-be foreign workers must apply from their home country before coming to the US legally, Axios reported, citing officials. The Office of Immigration Policy will attempt to cut through regulations the Labor Department argues the Biden administration used as incentives for employers to hire illegal immigrants. It’s unclear how the Trump administration intends to expedite the visas for migrant workers.

Axios [7/11/2025 6:40 AM, Marc Caputo, 13599K] reports 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."

New York Times [7/11/2025 12:03 PM, Miriam Jordan and Karen Weise, 138952K] reports Frantzdy Jerome, a Haitian immigrant in central Ohio, received shout-out after shout-out for his work at an Amazon warehouse he joined last year. In March, his manager commended him in a message for his “reliability, hard work and dedication to our team.” “Thank you for your flexibility and picking up the extra shifts,” read another message, on June 7. Two weeks later, Mr. Jerome, 35, lost his job. His work authorization was revoked in late June after the Trump administration ended a Biden-era program that allowed him to live and work legally in the United States. Hundreds of others at the same Amazon building in West Jefferson, which employs more than 3,700 people, also lost their jobs. They are among thousands of foreign workers across the country who have been swept up in a quiet purge, pushed out of jobs in places where their labor was in high demand and at times won high praise. While raids to nab undocumented workers in fields and Home Depot parking lots have grabbed attention, the job dismissals at the Amazon warehouse are part of the Trump administration’s effort to thin the ranks of immigrants who had legal authorization to work. “This is not unique to Amazon,” said Viles Dorsainvil, a Haitian community leader in nearby Springfield. He is aware of more than 100 Haitians with work authorizations who are now out of work in the area, he said, with the terminations reducing work forces in warehouses, auto-parts plants and stores. Such dismissals are happening at many of Amazon’s more than 1,000 facilities around the country, including in Massachusetts and the warehouse in Staten Island that fills orders for millions of New Yorkers. At one fulfillment center in Florida, hundreds were let go, a person familiar with the site said. The timing of the dismissals is tricky for Amazon, just before its Prime Day deals, an event that now stretches over four days in July. The deals typically drive a spike in customer orders — and overtime demands — rivaled only by the holiday shopping season. Amazon said it had prepared for the policy change, adjusting staffing plans and awaiting formal guidance from the government, which finally came last month. “We’re supporting employees impacted by the government’s recent changes in immigration policy,” Richard Rocha, an Amazon spokesman, said in a statement. The company has pointed workers to various resources, including outside free or low-cost legal services. The dismissals came with remarkable speed. On May 30, the Supreme Court granted temporary approval for the Trump administration to revoke a program known as “humanitarian parole,” which had allowed more than 500,000 migrants feeling political turmoil in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to quickly get work permits if they had a fiscal sponsor. The move to terminate the parole status was part of the Trump administration’s effort to roll back discretionary immigration programs established by the Biden administration and to fulfill Mr. Trump’s aim of mass deportations. On June 12, the Department of Homeland Security said it had begun notifying enrollees that the program was ending, saying the immigrants had been poorly vetted and undercut American workers. Ending the program “will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety and a return to America First,” a department spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said in statement announcing the change.

Federalist [7/11/2025 7:36 AM, John Daniel Davidson, 1142K] reports there is perhaps no greater issue in American life today than the debate over citizenship and national identity. I don’t just mean the debate over illegal immigration, which often serves as a kind of proxy for the underlying debate over what it means to be an American and preserve a distinctly American nation. Yes, we have to secure our border and put a stop to illegal immigration. But that’s just part — and arguably a small part — of a much larger and more difficult problem, which concerns American identity, national sovereignty, and cultural cohesion. I wrote last week that in America today not everyone with citizenship is actually an American. To some, this might sound incendiary or extreme. Certainly it violates the tenets of multiculturalism that have been ascendent in America for decades now. But it’s actually just a straightforward observation of reality — so long as we understand that being an American means something more than merely securing legal documents or going through a neutral administrative process. Doing so might confer citizenship, but it will not make someone an American.

NBC News [7/11/2025 4:08 PM, Michael Rosenfield, 44540K] reports a New Hampshire man is not being allowed to return home after taking a family trip to Canada. Chris Landry is a legal U.S. resident and has lived in the Granite State since he was 3 years old. He has a partner, five children and a job in manufacturing. He was stopped Sunday at the border in Houlton, Maine, while returning from a family vacation. "They pulled me aside and started questioning me about my past convictions in New Hampshire," Landry told NBC10 Boston. Three hours later, the 46-year-old was told he couldn’t come home, despite having a green card and being a legal U.S. resident. "They denied me re-entry and said, ‘Don’t come back or we will detain you,’ and the only way for me to get back in was to see an immigration judge," he told NBC10 Boston from New Brunswick. In 2004 and 2007, Landry faced charges of marijuana possession and driving with a suspended license, but he says he’s had no criminal record since then. He was given a suspended sentence and paid his fines. "I never thought that that would threaten my status as a resident of the United States," he said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection told NBC10 Boston, "Possessing a green card is a privilege, not a right, and under our nation’s laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused. Lawful Permanent Residents presenting at a U.S. port of entry with previous criminal convictions may be subject to mandatory detention and/or may be asked to provide additional documentation to be set up for an immigration hearing.". "It’s just very uncertain for me right now," said Landry. "I might end up spending the rest of my life in Canada. Who knows if I’ll ever have the right to re-enter the United States at this point?". Landry says he goes to Canada at least once a year and has never had a problem until now. As a Canadian citizen, he couldn’t vote for president, but he supported Donald Trump. He blames the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration for his plight.

NBC News [7/11/2025 7:00 AM, Fredlyn Pierre Louis and Yamiche Alcindor, 44540K] reports an immigrant couple whose employment authorization recently expired is relying on members of the Texas church that helped them flee Haiti to stay afloat while they fight deportation. Sherlie and Kevenson Jean left everything behind in Haiti in 2023 as gang violence and dwindling resources took over the capital. “We chose to leave Haiti because it was unsafe — kidnapping everywhere, gang control everywhere,” said Sherlie, 29, her voice cracking. “We were living in fear … and stress.” The Jeans legally immigrated to the United States through the humanitarian parole program during the Biden administration and later applied for Temporary Protective Status, which allows eligible foreign nationals to live and work in the United States temporarily because of unsafe conditions in their home countries. Now, the futures of both protections are in jeopardy. On June 27, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would terminate Haiti’s TPS designation on Sept. 2 — months before its original expiration date, Feb. 3, set during the Biden administration. DHS argued that conditions in Haiti had improved and no longer warranted the special protections. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson defended the administration’s move in a statement, calling it part of an effort to “restore sanity” to the immigration system.

Washington Examiner [7/11/2025 6:00 AM, Beth Bailey, 1934K] reports nearly four years after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, America’s Afghan allies remain in limbo due to a combination of bureaucratic dawdling under the Biden administration and rapid-fire changes in policy under President Donald Trump. Among the thousands of Afghans feeling the effects of changes stateside are those who entered the country via the CBP One App, Afghans who once relied on Temporary Protected Status for safety, and many of our closest allies, members of the Zero Units, Afghan special forces vetted and trained in counterterrorism operations by the Central Intelligence Agency. Tens of thousands remain in Afghanistan and third countries, where they face difficulties while waiting on processing for dwindling quantities of Special Immigrant Visas or for the still-suspended U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. As the Taliban took over Kabul and toppled the former Afghan government on Aug. 15, 2021, the U.S. government moved roughly 9,000 members of the Zero Units from their bases throughout Afghanistan and brought them to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. The Zero Units’ initial task was to clear the sprawling airport facilities before U.S. forces occupied the airfield. Once the airfield was clear, the Zero Units secured much of the airport’s perimeter. For two weeks, they helped American citizens, diplomats, and their own countrymen escape from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan before being ushered onto planes alongside U.S. forces and exfiltrated from Afghanistan on Aug. 30. Geeta Bakshi, a 14-year veteran of the CIA, gathered with former CIA officers to visit U.S. bases where around 80,000 Afghans who arrived during Operation Allies Refuge were being processed. "These guys needed our shoulder," Bakshi said. "They were in shock after a disastrous withdrawal, losing their homeland to the same enemy they fought for two decades and not knowing what their futures would hold. These were our best warfighters. They served the U.S. in uniform, but did not get a hero’s welcome.”

Breitbart [7/12/2025 1:44 AM, Ian Hanchett, 3077K] reports that, on Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent for the El Centro Sector Gregory Bovino discussed recent operations at marijuana facilities in California and said that those who are trafficked across the border have to pay off cartels and a cut of any money they make ends up in the hands of cartels. Host Laura Ingraham said, “One of my sources today in the federal government told me, look, remember that the money made at these farms or processing plants, remember, especially involving recent migrants, people who’ve crossed the border in the last few years, underage or not, a percentage of that money they’re making, whatever they’re making, is going to pay off their debt to the cartels who made sure that they got over the border. So, these illegal pot grows and other agricultural interests are helping fund the cartels that are terrorizing America with drugs and also engaged in rampant human trafficking. … And this organization, this, ‘business,’ this illegal pot grow — or pot grow, they’re helping the cartels, if this, indeed, is happening. And that’s reprehensible, in addition to all the other laws that are being broken here.” Bovino responded, “Laura, that’s exactly right. Every single person that’s trafficked across that border, whether it’s a child or an adult, pays several thousand dollars to come across the border. And that several thousand dollars does go to those cartels, as you say. Many are in modern-day slavery-like conditions to pay those debts off. Here, at this pot grow, at this drug farm that these children were working at, it’s untelling what’s happening to them, and, as you said, the money that goes to these cartels, that’s definitely happening, it happens all across America.”

New York Times [7/11/2025 8:06 PM, Neil Vigdor, 138952K] reports the driver of the Volkswagen Passat said he had nothing declare, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. But when a narcotics and human detection dog got a whiff under the steering wheel, which the authorities said had been covered with duct tape and cloth, it noticed something was amiss. So did the officer handling the dog, who made a startling find while reaching for something that was hidden behind the cloth. Stashed inside the vehicle’s dashboard were 14 live Keel-billed toucans, a threatened species of bird that is illegal to bring into the United States and can each sell for up to $5,000, the authorities said. Native to southern Mexico down through Ecuador, including Venezuela, Colombia and Nicaragua, the birds appeared to have been sedated when they were discovered during an early morning inspection on June 25 at the Otay Mesa U.S.-Mexico border crossing in San Diego. One of the birds “began to move rapidly in a flutter-like fashion,” investigators said in a federal criminal complaint. The driver, Carlos Abundez, 35, of San Ysidro, Calif., told a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent that he was not aware how the toucans got into his car, and that he had no connection to any bird trade activity, according to a criminal complaint. Mr. Abundez said that he had left his part-time residence in Tijuana, Mexico, late on the night of June 24 to cross the border into the United States to get McDonald’s when he saw two unfamiliar vehicles. He said that his car had been parked in the driveway and was locked. He was charged on July 7 with smuggling and illegal importation, both of which carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. After making his initial court appearance on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Diego, Mr. Abundez was released on $10,000 bond. He will be allowed to travel to his home in Mexico, and his arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 7. The birds, which were identified as juveniles, had injuries that included broken tails and a broken leg, according to customs officers. After receiving veterinary care at the border, the toucans were transferred to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Import Center for quarantine. Authorities said they were in stable condition. “Smuggling endangered birds by sedating them, binding their beaks and hiding them in car compartments is not just cruel — it’s criminal,” Adam Gordon, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of California, said in a statement.

Los Angeles Times [7/11/2025 5:58 PM, James Queally, 14672K] reports an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent was accused of drunkenly fighting with Long Beach police officers earlier this week after he was asked to leave a bar, authorities said. Isiah Hodgson, 29, was charged with three counts of resisting arrest, one count of battery causing injury to a police officer and several misdemeanor weapons offenses in connection with the July 7 episode in the Shoreline Village area, a busy tourist section of Long Beach not far from where the Queen Mary is docked, according to Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman. Hodgson was released on his own recognizance, but is not allowed to possess firearms or leave the state, according to the D.A.’s office. If convicted as charged, Hodgson faces up to seven years in state prison, prosecutors said.

Breitbart [7/12/2025 1:44 AM, Ian Hanchett, 3077K] reports on Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent for the El Centro Sector Gregory Bovino discussed recent operations at marijuana facilities in California and stated that several of the juveniles found at the facility weren’t sponsored and “came across the border — at least under the research that we found — a few years ago, and they disappeared.” Bovino said, “Several of them are not sponsored. Several came across the border — at least under the research that we found — a few years ago, and they disappeared. You talked about the children that disappear, these are those children that disappeared, the 300,000 children that disappeared, you’re seeing it, real-time, right here. This is what is happening to some of those children. I believe one of the children may have been, at least at this point in the investigation, accompanied, but the rest that you see in that picture were unaccompanied juveniles, including that 14-year-old.” He continued, “What happens to these children? Where do they live and what conditions are they put under, both at work and then when they’re not working? A lot of questions here, this is something that the Border Patrol has seen over the past four years when millions streamed across that border…including children. Some of the things that we saw on the border were truly reprehensible.”

Daily Caller [7/11/2025 10:04 AM, Melissa O’Rourke, 1010K] reports Canada became the latest country to be slapped with increased tariffs by the Trump administration on Thursday. Starting August 1, the U.S. will impose a 35% tariff on its northern neighbor, President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social platform on Thursday. Trump cited the trade deficit — which he called a threat to the U.S. economy and national security — as well as Canada’s role in fentanyl trafficking as reasons for the levies. In February, Trump announced his first round of tariffs on Canada, as well as China and Mexico, to pressure them to do more to combat the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., which claimed the lives of over 76,000 Americans in 2023. On Thursday, Trump claimed Canada has failed to take sufficient action. "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. Instead of working with the United States, Canada retaliated with its own Tariffs," Trump wrote in the letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The new 35% rate is an increase from the 25% levy that was announced in February. "If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter. These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country," Trump added.

Washington Times [7/11/2025 7:30 AM, Tom Howell Jr., 2106K] reports Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says his country is making progress in stopping fentanyl and will continue to work with the U.S. on trafficking and other matters ahead of the Aug. 1 tariff deadline set by President Trump. Mr. Trump said late Thursday he planned to impose a 35% tariff on Canadian goods as part of his aggressive trade plan, sparking a response from the prime minister, who’d been working toward a July 21 deadline for a trade deal with his neighbor. "Throughout the current trade negotiations with the United States, the Canadian government has steadfastly defended our workers and businesses. We will continue to do so as we work towards the revised deadline of August 1," Mr. Carney said late Thursday on X. "Canada has made vital progress to stop the scourge of fentanyl in North America," he said. "We are committed to continuing to work with the United States to save lives and protect communities in both our countries." Mr. Trump announced the planned tariff in a letter posted to Truth Social. The president said Ottawa imposes too many barriers on U.S. goods and needs to step up its fentanyl enforcement, although the majority of the drug is trafficked up from Mexico. In his letter, Mr. Trump said the new tariffs were separate from sector-specific tariffs that hit things like automobiles, steel and aluminum. An administration official said the new tariff of 35% is expected to apply to goods currently under a fentanyl-related tariff of 25%, and which are not exempt under the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement. But the official stressed that the situation remains fluid.

The Hill [7/11/2025 11:09 AM, Miriam Waldvogel, 18649K] reports a day after President Trump announced a new 35 percent tariff on Canadian goods beginning next month, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada had made "vital progress" toward stopping fentanyl. "Canada has made vital progress to stop the scourge of fentanyl in North America. We are committed to continuing to work with the United States to save lives and protect communities in both our countries," Carney wrote on social media late Thursday. Trump’s new tariff on Canada, which came with a flurry of levies on other countries, is scheduled to take effect Aug. 1. It represents an escalation from the 25 percent he had previously assigned to the country. The president first targeted America’s northern neighbor in February over claims that Canada was allowing fentanyl and illegal immigration through the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized about 31 pounds of fentanyl on the northern border so far this year. "If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter," Trump wrote to Carney on Thursday.

Reuters [7/11/2025 1:53 PM, Shivani Tanna, 51390K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has no immediate plans to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency amid ongoing discussions about the disaster relief agency’s future, the Washington Post reported. No official action was being taken to wind down FEMA and changes in the agency would probably amount to a "rebranding" that would emphasize state leaders’ roles in disaster response, the newspaper reported citing a senior White House official. Trump, who took office in January vowing to gut or abolish FEMA, was visiting Texas on Friday to see the aftermath of flash floods that swept through parts of the Texas Hill Country and killed at least 120, with more than 160 people unaccounted for. Trump has frequently said he wanted states to have primary responsibility for responding to disasters. When asked by a reporter on Sunday whether he still planned to phase out FEMA following the Texas floods, Trump responded that it was a topic "we can talk about later". "The president’s FEMA Review Council, comprised of top experts in their field, will recommend to the president how FEMA may be reformed in ways that best serve the 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,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in an email to Reuters. Speaking at the FEMA review council on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called for FEMA to be eliminated in its current form, saying states and local authorities should take the lead in emergency management.

HS Today [7/11/2025 6:22 AM, Staff, 38K] reports the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will evaluate a Biennial Radiological Emergency Preparedness Exercise at the Surry Power Station. The exercise will occur on July 22, 2025 to assess the ability of the Commonwealth of Virginia to respond to an emergency at the nuclear facility. “These drills are held every other year to evaluate government’s ability to protect public health and safety,” said Lilian Hutchinson, Acting Regional Administrator for FEMA Region 3. “We will assess state and local government emergency response capabilities within the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone within the Commonwealth of Virginia.” Within 90 days, FEMA will send its evaluation to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for use in licensing decisions. The final report will be available to the public approximately 120 days after the exercise. FEMA will present preliminary findings of the exercise during a public meeting at 4:30pm on July 24, 2025. Planned speakers include representatives from FEMA and the NRC.

CBS News [7/11/2025 10:57 AM, Brittany Rainey, 51860K] Video HERE reports a hot and humid Friday is underway with no weather alerts currently in effect, but conditions in North Texas are expected to shift as the weekend approaches. Temperatures today will climb into the mid-90s across the area under sunny skies and breezy southwesterly winds. However, it will feel even hotter, with heat index values ranging from 100 to 103 degrees during the peak afternoon hours. Winds will gust between 10 to 20 mph, adding to the muggy feel throughout the day. Rain and storm chances are set to return Saturday afternoon and continue through early Monday, as a front slides into northwestern areas and sea breeze storms drift northward. Widespread severe weather is not anticipated, but a few strong storms may bring gusty winds. The main threats this weekend are lightning and heavy rainfall, which could cause localized flooding in low-lying areas. Residents to exercise caution and avoid driving through flooded roads. Temperatures will dip slightly over the weekend due to increased cloud cover and rain, with highs expected in the upper 80s to low 90s. After the unsettled weather clears out Monday, dry and sunny conditions return for much of next week, with highs back in the mid to upper 90s. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [7/11/2025 10:57 AM, Ryan Foley and Christopher Keller, 51860K] reports federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove Camp Mystic’s buildings from their 100-year flood map, loosening oversight as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous flood plain in the years before rushing waters swept away children and counselors, a review by The Associated Press found. The Federal Emergency Management Agency included the prestigious girls’ summer camp in a “Special Flood Hazard Area” in its National Flood Insurance map for Kerr County in 2011, which means it was required to have flood insurance and faced tighter regulation on any future construction projects. That designation means an area is likely to be inundated during a 100-year flood — one severe enough that it only has a 1% chance of happening in any given year. Located in a low-lying area along the Guadalupe River in a region known as flash flood alley, Camp Mystic lost at least 27 campers and counselors and longtime owner Dick Eastland when historic floodwaters tore through its property before dawn on July 4. The flood was far more severe than the 100-year event envisioned by FEMA, experts said, and moved so quickly in the middle of the night that it caught many off guard in a county that lacked a warning system. But Syracuse University associate professor Sarah Pralle, who has extensively studied FEMA’s flood map determinations, said it was “particularly disturbing” that a camp in charge of the safety of so many young people would receive exemptions from basic flood regulation. “It’s a mystery to me why they weren’t taking proactive steps to move structures away from the risk, let alone challenging what seems like a very reasonable map that shows these structures were in the 100-year flood zone,” she said. Camp Mystic didn’t respond to emails seeking comment and calls to it rang unanswered. The camp has called the flood an “unimaginable tragedy” and added in a statement Thursday that it had restored power for the purpose of communicating with its supporters. n response to an appeal, FEMA in 2013 amended the county’s flood map to remove 15 of the camp’s buildings from the hazard area. Records show that those buildings were part of the 99-year-old Camp Mystic Guadalupe, which was devastated by last week’s flood. After further appeals, FEMA removed 15 more Camp Mystic structures in 2019 and 2020 from the designation. Those buildings were located on nearby Camp Mystic Cypress Lake, a sister site that opened to campers in 2020 as part of a major expansion and suffered less damage in the flood. Campers have said the cabins at Cypress Lake withstood significant damage, but those nicknamed “the flats” at the Guadalupe River camp were inundated. Experts say Camp Mystic’s requests to amend the FEMA map could have been an attempt to avoid the requirement to carry flood insurance, to lower the camp’s insurance premiums or to pave the way for renovating or adding new structures under less costly regulations. Pralle said the appeals were not surprising because communities and property owners have used them successfully to shield specific properties from regulation.

CBS News [7/11/2025 10:45 PM, Doug Myers, 51860K] reports that, one week after severe flooding devastated Central Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday activated state emergency response resources in anticipation of more severe weather and potential flash flooding across Texas this weekend. Citing the National Weather Service, the Governor’s Office warned that severe storms could bring heavy rainfall and flash flooding to regions across the state. "Texas continues to stand ready to deploy all necessary resources to support Texans as severe storms move across our state," Abbott said in a news release. The governor said swiftwater rescue boat squads from Texas A&M Task Force 1 have been deployed to assist local storm response efforts, complementing ongoing flood response and recovery operations throughout the state. Affected areas could include parts of Northwest Texas, far West Texas, North Texas, the Big Country, the Permian Basin, the Concho Valley, and the Hill Country, with impacts expected to begin Friday night and continue through the weekend, the Governor’s Office said. "Isolated to scattered shower and storm activity looks to build for Central Texas and the Hill Country Saturday afternoon and evening, and then once again Sunday afternoon and evening," CBS News Texas Chief Meteorologist McKenna King said. "The concern with these cells is that with minimal upper-level shear, storms will remain fairly stationary, dropping heavy downpours over one area, as opposed to traveling through quickly," she said. "While weekend showers do not look like a washout for these areas, or really for the entire state of Texas, even scattered storm activity can cause flood concerns in areas of saturated soil.” King emphasized the importance of having multiple ways to receive weather alerts and recommended a NOAA Weather Radio as the most reliable source, especially in areas without cell service. The governor urged Texans to "remain weather-aware and heed the guidance of state and local officials to ensure the safety of themselves and their loved ones.”

Houston Chronicle [7/11/2025 8:38 PM, Caroline Wilburn, 1982K] reports the death toll in the devastating July 4 flooding in Central Texas rose to 103 Friday, with 67 adults and 36 children confirmed dead, Kerr County officials said. At least 160 people were still missing as of Thursday as recovery efforts continued in the Hill Country. President Donald Trump visited Kerr County on Friday to survey the devastation in the area. "The search for the missing continues. The people that are doing it are unbelievable," Trump said during a Friday news conference with Gov. Greg Abbott and First Lady Melania Trump. The death toll across the state rose to 120 on Thursday, as 24 deaths were reported in surrounding counties, including Travis, Kendall, Burnet, Williamson and Tom Green counties.

New York Times [7/12/2025 5:01 AM, Christopher Maag and Edgar Sandoval, 138952K] reports that, with a poke from his pitchfork, Joe Espinoza found the red door of an old Chrysler and wondered if the entire car was buried beneath it, in the mud. He called to his wife and two friends, fellow volunteers from Kerrville, Texas, who were searching the Guadalupe River floodplain for neighbors who were swept away by the July 4 deluge. The four volunteers bent low and pried the door free. Underneath, they found only more mud. It has gone that way often for the army of searchers hunting for more than 100 people who are still missing along the Guadalupe. More than 2,100 search workers from 12 states have descended on Kerr County, Texas, said Sergeant Jonathan Lamb of the Kerrville Police Department, including public workers from Nebraska, Louisiana, Virginia and even Mexico. Indiana alone sent people from 15 different fire and police departments. Then there are volunteer groups, dozens of them from across the country, some who received donations for private flights into Kerrville-Kerr County Airport to begin searching as quickly as possible. It is painstaking work, full of disappointments like the Chrysler door. “You think you find something that might help someone, a body, or just a drivers license,” said Evan Cervantes, 34, who joined Mr. Espinoza in the search on Thursday after their shifts as psychiatric nursing assistants at Kerrville State Hospital. “But then you find nothing.” But there is also solidarity in the struggle. “It’s overwhelming to see so many people come and help in the search,” said Amy Vanlandingham, 38, a Kerrville resident who spent hours on Thursday searching along the river. “This is our town. I do it so I can sleep.” The search for human remains is focused on an area of Texas that is unlike many of the places where recovery professionals are accustomed to looking, several experts said. Most major search operations in recent years have happened in large urban areas hit by hurricanes, said Mr. Koester and Scott Hammond, a professor in the Department of Management at Utah State University who studies search-and-rescue teams. In the flood plain of Central Texas, by comparison, searchers are dealing with a relatively high number of people who are missing and presumed dead, spread across an expanse of mostly narrow, rural territory, spanning more than a hundred miles of shallow valleys along the river. The destructive power arrived with little notice, in a relatively constrained river valley where there are few homes or other buildings to serve as likely search targets. The recovery efforts are therefore focused on the massive piles of debris. That will continue to make the search especially slow, dangerous, painstaking and long. “This effort in Texas will go on for some time,” said Mr. Hammond, a canine search handler who is part of the Utah County Sheriff Search and Rescue team.

Washington Post [7/11/2025 5:20 PM, Joyce Sohyun Lee, Brianna Sacks, Aaron C. Davis, Scott Dance, Andrew Ba Tran and Imogen Piper, 32099K] reports the Texas county where nearly 100 people were killed and more than 160 remain missing had the technology to turn every cellphone in the river valley into a blaring alarm, but local officials did not do so before or during the early-morning hours of July 4 as river levels rose to record heights, inundating campsites and homes, a Washington Post examination found. Kerr County officials, who have come under increasing scrutiny for their actions as the Guadalupe River began to flood, eventually sent text-message alerts that morning to residents who had registered to receive them, according to screenshots of the texts. But The Post’s review of emergency notifications that night found that even as a federal meteorologist warned of deteriorating conditions and catastrophic risk, county officials did not activate a more powerful notification tool they had previously used to warn of potential flooding. The National Weather Service sent its own alerts through this system, beginning at 1:14 a.m. on July 4. The lack of alerts sent through IPAWS from Kerr County officials as the Guadalupe River flooded was a critical misstep in their response, said Abdul-Akeem Sadiq, a professor at the University of Central Florida who researches emergency management.

The Hill [7/11/2025 9:16 AM, Matt Grant and Josh Hinkle, 18649K] reports local officials in Kerr County continue facing public scrutiny after days of seeming to deflect questions about their preparedness and response to the July 4 flash flood that left dozens dead. The attention comes, as records reviewed by KXAN reveal leaders determined in 2024 that the county likely "will experience a flood event in the next year.” On Wednesday, during a morning press conference, they updated the death count to 95 with 161 people still missing. While again avoiding answers about specific actions in the hours between weather warnings and the Guadalupe River rising 30 feet, Sheriff Larry Leitha said there would be an "after-action" review following his "priority" of notifying victims’ families. "We will answer those questions," Leitha told reporters. "I wish y’all would bear with me on that, okay? Bear with me. We’ll get them. I can’t tell you when – in a week or two, okay? We’re gonna get them.” The sheriff also assured answers for "the people that put me in this office" regarding concerns over the county’s CodeRED alerts – which allow subscribers to receive emergency notifications to their mobile devices. The effectiveness of the alerts has surfaced during press events, along with the revelation that Kerr County has no system of warning devices – like sirens – to alert the public, despite a decade of failed attempts to fund and install such a system. Officials, like County Judge Rob Kelly, have maintained they "did not know this flood was coming," though the National Weather Service issued a flood watch Thursday – the day before the disaster. It also issued a flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. Friday, still hours before the river hit its height. The county has not fully explained the timing of evacuations. At 5:31 a.m., it made an initial post on Facebook: "Be safe and move to higher ground. Do not drive through water. Turn Around – Don’t Drown!" A minute later, the sheriff’s office also reposted NWS information on its own Facebook page, adding: "If you are near the water, move to higher ground immediately. Stay clear of low water crossings – turn around, don’t drown!". Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has also said the Texas Division of Emergency Management communicated directly with county judges and city mayors about the weather forecast the day before the flood. At Wednesday’s press conference, Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring, Jr., said he "did not receive a telephone call" and did not know what resources TDEM had in place. He did not confirm if Kelly was part of any call. KXAN has requested a response on those claims and also a record of communication between local leaders, the NWS, TDEM and other state officials – along with any emergency notifications made – to better understand decisions regarding communication and their public warnings.

CNN [7/11/2025 6:15 AM, Curt Devine and Casey Tolan, 21433K] reports Dick Eastland warned for decades about the hidden dangers of the beautiful but volatile Guadalupe River, a peril he saw firsthand while running his family’s youth camp alongside its banks. Eastland saw floods damage Camp Mystic again and again – and his pregnant wife was even airlifted to a hospital while the camp in central Texas was cut off by floodwaters. He successfully pushed for a new flood warning system after 10 children at a nearby camp were swept to their deaths in 1987, and in recent years served on the board of the local river authority as it supported renewed efforts to improve warnings on the Guadalupe. "The river is beautiful," Eastland told the Austin American-Statesman in 1990. "But you have to respect it." But after 27 people were killed at Camp Mystic in last week’s cataclysmic flooding – along with Eastland himself, who died while trying to rescue his young campers – the scale of the tragedy highlights potential missed opportunities by Camp Mystic’s owners and government officials to better mitigate those risks.

(B) CBS 2 News at Midday [7/11/2025 1:05 PM, Staff] reports that more rain is expected in the forecast for flood ravaged parts of New Mexico. Governor Michelle Grisham said she received assurances from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that federal aid will arrive soon. Governor Grisham says the federal administration plans to provide over $3 million from FEMA and $12 million from the USDA. At least three people died in the Ruidoso flooding, including two children. Authorities are working to clear debris ahead of the anticipated rainfall tomorrow.

Breitbart [7/11/2025 10:04 AM, Frances Martel, 3077K] reports the Canadian province of Manitoba declared a state of emergency on Thursday for the second time this year due to sprawling forest fires, which Canada has struggled to appropriately contain in the past half-decade. Canada has experienced a significant increase in disruptions due to forest fires, particularly in the past three years. Currently, according to Natural Resources Canada, the Canadian government has documented 2,672 fires in 2025, with 354 of them still active as of Thursday and 105 of them designated "uncontrolled.” Some of the fires, reports in Canadian media noted, have been burning since 2023, the worst years for forest fires in recorded Canadian history. That year, 100 million Americans were affected in some way by the fires, with states coast-to-coast ordering people to stay indoors and wear protective respiratory gear to avoid the detrimental health effects of the fires. Dramatic images of major American cities as far south as New York engulfed in suffocating brown and orange smoke made headlines as then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shrugged off the crisis as inevitable due to "climate change." Many Canadian officials continue to blame an alleged climate crisis for the situation, though researchers indicate that poor management of the nation’s forests and some occasional instances of arson have exacerbated the problem. In anticipation of the fires to the north affecting their constituents, a group of six Republican Congressmen, led by Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI), sent a letter on Monday to Canadian Ambassador to Washington Kirsten Hillman requesting information on how the Canadian government is planning to contain the fires, emphasizing that millions of Americans are hurt by Ottawa’s failure to remedy the situation on an annual basis. The lawmakers emphasized their responsibility to Americans to address the matter even as it takes place abroad because "our constituents have been limited in their ability to go outside and safely breathe due to the dangerous air quality the wildfire smoke has created." "In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things," they observed.

New York Times [7/11/2025 10:07 AM, Vjosa Isai, 138952K] reports smoke from Canadian wildfires is casting a shadow for many Americans this summer, a group of six Republican lawmakers say, and they want Canada to answer for it. “In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories,” the U.S. representatives from Wisconsin and Minnesota wrote in a letter this week. “But this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things.” Their letter, addressed to Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, demanded to know her government’s plan for tackling the wildfires and accused it of lax forest management which has contributed to “suffocating” smoke. “Our communities shouldn’t suffer because of poor decisions made across the border,” Tom Tiffany, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin and one of the letter’s authors, said in a post on X. Canada’s government said it was reviewing the letter and planned to offer a response. The letter was also signed by Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin and Brad Finstad, Pete Stauber, Tom Emmer and Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota. Tarryn Elliott, a spokeswoman at the Canadian Embassy, said in an email that “Canada takes the prevention, response and mitigation of wildfires very seriously.” The premier of Manitoba province in Western Canada, where wildfires have been particularly bad and killed two people in May, blasted the letter by the U.S. lawmakers. The official, Wab Kinew, told reporters on Thursday that the lawmakers were “trying to trivialize and make hay out of a wildfire season where we’ve lost lives in our province.” The U.S. lawmakers also partly blamed arson for the wildfires, but a vast majority of the blazes are actually caused by lightning. Many of the areas where fires burn are in areas so remote that forest management techniques to lessen their severity, such as prescribed burns and thinning combustible plant matter, are not possible. About 45 percent of Canada’s forests that are on public land are managed, while 30 percent are not, according to the federal government. Fire is also an important natural process in boreal forest ecosystems, helping create openings in the tree canopy that allow sunlight to reach smaller plants and enriching the soil with burned plant matter. Canada, which is home to some of the world’s largest tracts of boreal forest, is accustomed to the seasonal rhythm of wildfires, but the country’s annual fire season became a major issue in the United States in 2023. That year, when wildfires burned more land in Canada than had ever been recorded, smoke from uncontrollable flames, particularly across Quebec, was so intense it turned the skies over New York City a frightening shade of orange.

CNN [7/12/2025 6:00 AM, Whitney Wild, Holmes Lybrand, and Sean Lyngrass, 21433K] reports that, one year after the near assassination of Donald Trump, a deep frustration has set in at the Secret Service over the agency’s response to the security failures of that day. In interviews with CNN, a dozen current and former federal law enforcement officials and lawmakers describe an overall lack of accountability, especially for top Secret Service officials and those agents in Trump’s detail during the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July. That includes Sean Curran, the top-ranking agent on Trump’s detail that day, who has since been promoted to director of the Secret Service. Several Congressional investigations and federal reports, including the Secret Service’s own analysis, found multiple failures, including communication breakdowns with local police who spotted the shooter and confronted him on a nearby roof before he took aim at Trump. Ten days after the rally, Kimberly Cheatle, the then-director of the Secret Service, resigned amid scrutiny over the security lapses. Since then, only six Secret Service personnel have been disciplined — issued short suspensions without pay — a decision that has felt inconsistent to many at the agency. "None of those operational people have been held accountable, some were even promoted," said one former senior agency official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to preserve relationships with former Secret Service colleagues. The majority of those who have faced any kind of discipline are from the agency’s Pittsburgh field office, sources said, fueling a sense among some that the office was scapegoated for the failures of higher-ups. Outside the Pittsburgh field office, just one low-ranking person from Trump’s security detail and one counter-sniper deployed that day have been issued suspensions. At least two of the six are appealing the suspensions, and so far, not one Secret Service employee has completed any proposed discipline, according to a source familiar. Amid the fallout over the Butler rally, the agency has also seen a significant loss of institutional knowledge and expertise as a number of high-ranking officials have left, fueling concerns over a potential brain-drain at the Secret Service, sources said. Secret Service leadership last week received a subpoena from Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican chairman of the Senate’s homeland security committee, asking for records regarding who in the service has been disciplined over Butler, three sources familiar with the subpoena told CNN. One of the sources told CNN that the subpoena was dropped after the Secret Service quickly turned over records Paul was seeking. Paul’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A Secret Service spokesperson did not comment on the subpoena or reply to multiple requests for comment for this story. In a press release put out by the Secret Service on Thursday, Curran said that his experience from Butler has been top of mind as director and "the agency has taken many steps to ensure such an event can never be repeated in the future.” Feelings are still raw among current and former Secret Service agents about what went wrong on July 13, 2024. Given the failures in communication and coordination that led to the near assassination of Trump and left one person dead and two in critical condition, some sources said any agent involved in security that day should have been immediately placed on leave. However, the crush of a busy campaign calendar, coupled with the concern Trump would be more comfortable with a detail he knew, pushed the agency to keep those agents working.

CBS News [7/11/2025 7:40 PM, Nicole Sganga, 51860K] Video: HERE it was almost one year ago that 20-year-old Thomas Crooks attempted to assassinate President Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, an incident which prompted several investigations into the U.S. Secret Service’s actions and procedures on that day. Prior to the shooting on July 13, 2024, Crooks flew his own commercial drone for 11 minutes above the Butler campaign rally site, but the Secret Service missed it. This week, CBS News was taken inside the Secret Service’s James J. Rowley Training Center in Laurel, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., to see the agency’s newest eyes in the sky, a fleet of military-grade drones that reimagine aerial reconnaissance in a post-Butler era. Matt Quinn, Secret Service deputy director, told CBS News he feels confident in the new technology. "Yes, we’re in position now, to not just detect, but to mitigate unauthorized UAS (unmanned aircraft systems)," Quinn said. In Butler, local police warnings did not reach Secret Service counter-snipers because the agencies could not radio each other directly. Along with the military-grade drones, the Secret Service also established a system of mobile command posts — with price tags ranging from $600,000 to $1.5 million — which allow agents to communicate over radio directly with local law enforcement, something that did not exist in Butler. "This is tremendous to be able to consolidate communications, make sure everyone’s on the same page," Quinn said.

CBS News [7/11/2025 6:23 AM, Graham Kates, Cara Tabachnick, Matt Clark, Laura Geller, Scott MacFarlane, and Nicole Sganga, 51860K] reports before Thanksgiving 2023, Thomas Crooks’ online life was fairly routine for a 20-year-old. He’d scroll through social media, listen to music on Spotify, visit news sites and peruse Reddit. But a plan for mass violence was brewing, and in order for it to succeed, Crooks had to compartmentalize his life. It was something he was already comfortable doing from a childhood in which he let few people get close. Friends knew little about his home and tight-knit family. They were rarely invited over to the Crooks home to play or, as they got older, hang out. In late 2023, he pivoted to keeping a new set of secrets -- building homemade improvised explosive devices in his bedroom and planning an assassination, while pursuing a career in engineering.
On some days, he left little trace of his activity, choosing instead to first turn on Mullvad. Virtual private networks, known as VPNs, route a user’s web traffic through encrypted tunnels, hiding their activity from prying eyes, such as a college’s web tracking security software. While Crooks was using Mullvad, his browsing history was effectively sealed off. In December 2023, a month before Crooks’ final semester started, his life began to split in two. He was focused on his college applications, and at the same time fixated on mass violence. Around this time, some in Crooks’ life did notice erratic behavior. Crooks’ father told investigators that, in retrospect, he spotted signs of his son’s declining mental health, according to excerpts of a Pennsylvania State Police report. Those excerpts were first made public in December by a House of Representatives task force on the attempted assassination. On the morning of the attack, Crooks drove to the Butler Farm Show grounds, and stayed for a little more than an hour before driving home. Three local police officers first noticed Crooks around 5 p.m. One officer, a sniper, said Crooks "stood out." Crooks was alone, the officers noted, and he wasn’t paying attention to the campaign festivities. A Pennsylvania State Police sergeant later told investigators that he alerted Secret Service personnel to the suspicious person. Congressional task force investigators said there’s no indication that message reached Secret Service personnel on the stage or in charge of security. Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said in an interview with CBS News that poor planning and communication gave Crooks the opportunity he had been seeking.

Washington Post [7/12/2025 6:00 AM, Carol D. Leonnig, 32099K] reports that, on the morning of Sunday, July 14, just 16 hours after a gunman tried to kill Donald Trump, top officials gathered in the White House Situation Room to brief President Joe Biden on what the FBI knew about the would-be assassin. Could Iran be behind this plot to murder the former president, Biden asked? Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told Biden they were indeed concerned Iran might have recruited the man who fired at Trump during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to three people with knowledge of the briefing. Hours earlier, in fact, FBI agents had rushed to Texas in the middle of the night to interview an alleged Iranian operative the bureau had arrested Friday on suspicion of recruiting hit men to kill U.S. politicians, two said. Wray, appearing by video feed, said they had found no clear link between the shooter and the Iran plot, but they continued to run down every possibility. This account reveals previously unreported details about the urgent efforts to find any possible Iran connection — though after months of investigation and extraordinary steps, the bureau ultimately concluded there was none — and determine what motivated the shooter. A year later, largely by process of elimination, investigators have concluded that Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, acted alone. Crooks left no writings explaining his actions, but officials said he fit a profile of assassins the bureau has studied: socially isolated, educated but friendless, motived not by politics or ideology but by a sense of insignificance and a desire to become known. He was fatally shot by a Secret Service countersniper after he wounded Trump and killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore. “The most frustrating thing in the world for law enforcement is not getting an answer on what caused this,” said one former FBI official, who like some others interviewed for this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “We just can’t quite say for certain, but that’s where all the evidence points to.” The case remains classified as open, but a current senior FBI official said no new leads are being actively mined. “Absent anything new, there’s not much to do,” the official said. The lack of a clear, definitive motive has spawned numerous conspiracy theories and led to suspicions among some Trump supporters that the FBI was withholding information about the gunman, a registered Republican who also donated $15 to a Democratic organization and spent weeks planning an attack on the once and future Republican president. As a high school student, Crooks scored a 1530 on his SAT, putting him in the top 1 percent of all test takers. He earned straight A’s at his community college near Pittsburgh and won plaudits from teachers, as when he designed a complex Braille chessboard. Yet starting in the month he turned 16 he was searching online for information about explosives, and in the year before the shooting he was trying to buy chemicals for homemade bombs. He also searched the internet for information about major depressive disorder. The investigation ran around-the-clock in the early weeks, with Wray getting briefed at all hours by his deputy director, Paul Abbate, and chief of staff, Jonathan Lenzner. It consumed FBI agents and analysts from half of the bureau’s field offices, nearly every headquarters division and some international offices. Early on, in the hopes of tamping down baseless speculation, FBI leaders decided to share far more details about the probe than they typically would. Within two weeks, the FBI had conducted over 450 interviews, including with witnesses, neighbors, classmates, teachers and family members, and had served legal requests on 64 companies to obtain phone, email, gaming and other accounts linked to Crooks. By late August, six weeks after the shooting, agents had interviewed about 1,000 people, accessed Crooks’s communications on three encrypted applications, and gained an understanding of his interests and obsessions as revealed through hundreds of his computer searches. Yet in some respects, Crooks remained a cipher. “I remember thinking, ‘We have all of the tools and investigative power of the mighty United States trained on this 20-year old kid. And we just don’t know,’” said one former law enforcement official involved in the probe. “That’s kind of scary.”

Washington Post [7/11/2025 6:00 AM, Shawn Boburg, 32099K] reports as gunfire erupted at Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler last July, Aaron Zaliponi glanced up and caught sight of the shooter’s head and shoulders jutting above the peak of a roofline about 115 yards away. The Butler County SWAT team operator, standing in an open field between the gunman and the rally stage, snapped up his rifle, aligned the red dot of its scope with the shooter’s chin and fired a single shot. Would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks immediately jerked to his right and slumped back from the roof’s ridge, Zaliponi recalled, ending his volley of eight gunshots over five seconds that left Trump bloodied, one rallygoer dead and two seriously injured. "I just got you," Zaliponi recalled thinking. Zaliponi, a 46-year-old Army combat veteran, is convinced that his round — which public officials have called the "ninth shot" — struck Crooks’s rifle and forced him to stop shooting. His belief that he cut short the assassination attempt has been echoed by Butler County’s district attorney, the county’s SWAT team commander and a congressman who investigated the events that day. Yet one year later, the significance of Zaliponi’s shot is still unresolved. The FBI has said it found no forensic evidence that the ninth shot hit Crooks or his rifle. What is certain is that Crooks, who had additional ammunition and an AR-style rifle that was still operational, never fired again. Zaliponi’s shot was followed by a 10-second pause in gunfire that ended when a U.S. Secret Service countersniper killed Crooks. In the months after the assassination attempt, the nation’s attention — and multiple investigations — focused on the Secret Service’s most glaring security failure in decades and on vexing questions about the shooter’s possible motives. The story of the local officer’s quick and decisive action amid chaos was largely overshadowed. Zaliponi’s account has been documented in closed-door interviews with congressional investigators and celebrated quietly within his SWAT team. Washington Post reported on the ninth shot last July but did not identify Zaliponi, who declined interview requests through an intermediary at the time. In the year since, Zaliponi has been interviewed not only by congressional investigators but also by the Pennsylvania State Police, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, which took his rifle into evidence — and has not returned it. None of those law enforcement agencies have publicly offered a definitive conclusion about whether his shot hit Crooks’s body or gun.

USA Today [7/11/2025 12:18 PM, Aysha Bagchi, 75552K] reports Ryan Routh, the man charged with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump in Florida before the 2024 election, is asking to represent himself in his September trial, which prosecutors say Routh wants to turn "into a circus.” Florida federal trial Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee assigned to Routh’s case, considered the request at a July 10 hearing, but hasn’t issued a ruling. Routh was arrested Sept. 15, 2024, after a Secret Service agent allegedly saw him holding a rifle through a fence at the Trump International Golf Club. Trump was playing on the green about a hole behind Routh’s location. Federal prosecutors initially brought gun charges against Routh, but later elevated his case with a charge of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate. Cannon has set aside two weeks starting Sept. 8 for Routh to have a jury trial. At the July 10 hearing to determine whether Routh’s publicly financed lawyers would be terminated from the case, Routh reaffirmed to Cannon that he wanted to represent himself, according to an order she issued later that day. Routh, 59, is not a lawyer. He previously worked as a roofer and contractor, and has advocated on social media for Ukraine to get assistance in defending against Russia’s invasion. Even as she considers his request, Cannon told Routh’s lawyers to stick to their current responsibilities, including responding to a government request to keep certain evidence out of the trial.

Washington Examiner [7/11/2025 9:51 PM, David Zimmermann, 1934K] reports that, Ryan Routh, the second alleged would-be assassin of President Donald Trump, told the Florida judge presiding over his case on Friday that he wants to offer himself to Russia, China, Iran, or North Korea as part of a prisoner exchange with one of the foreign adversaries. Routh’s offer was shared in a letter he addressed to United States District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee. "I had wished for a prisoner swap with Hamas, Iran for a female protester, or China for Jimmy Lai or one of the 40 others or to freeze to death in Siberia in exchange for a Ukrainian soldier so that I could die being of some use and save all this court mess, but no one acts," he wrote to Cannon. "Perhaps you have the power to trade me away.” Jimmy Lai is the jailed media tycoon and pro-democracy activist who protested Beijing’s national security crackdown on Hong Kong in 2019. The "40 others" Routh is likely referring to are the 47 pro-democracy figures arrested by Beijing in 2021 for organizing an unofficial primary election in Hong Kong. Routh says his part in a prisoner swap would make sense for Trump, whose administration has prioritized the release of people wrongfully imprisoned, including the Israeli captives held by Hamas. "What an easy diplomatic victory for Trump to give an American he hates to China, Iran, or North Korea, or wherever, as a gesture of peace in exchange for an unjustly held democratic prisoner," he wrote. "Everyone wins.” Last September, the suspect failed to assassinate Trump while camping outside the then-candidate’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The alleged gunman fled the scene after a Secret Service agent spotted him hiding in a bush along the property’s fence. Routh faces numerous federal charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, in addition to state charges brought by the Florida attorney general. In the letter, the defendant revealed that he fired his attorneys and wishes to represent himself in the case moving forward. "It was ridiculous from the outset to consider a random stranger that knows nothing of who I am to speak for me. That was foolish and ignorant, and I am sorry," he wrote, noting it was "a childish mistake.” Judge Cannon held hearings on Thursday to assess Routh’s decision to fire his attorneys. He swore under oath that he understood the implications of such a decision. Until Cannon issues a ruling, his lawyers will remain on the case. Routh explained in the letter how he feels unsupported and ignored by his legal defense team and apologized to the judge for being a burden. The 59-year-old defendant is scheduled to stand trial on Sept. 8. If convicted, he could face life in prison or the death penalty.

FOX News [7/11/2025 8:49 PM, Joshua Q. Nelson, 49956K] reports a local Kentucky school board chairman resigned after a social media post resurfaced of him allegedly calling to "shoot Republicans." Jeffrey Miller, who had served as chairman of Erlanger-Elsmere Independent School District since 2016, resigned Thursday, the newly-elected chairperson, Sara Shackelford-Ross, announced. Miller’s social media post, reacting to a mass shooting that took place in Jacksonville, Florida in 2018, reportedly said, "i’d be ok with the NRA if these psychos were just once the victims of a mass shooting. WINK WINK: please shoot republicans.” Kentucky Republican state representative Steven Doan said the social media comment resurfaced after he received complaints from his constituents this spring. Doan wrote an op-ed calling for Miller’s resignation in June after learning about Miller calling for "political violence." More backlash against Miller’s social media post then ensued. When Miller officially resigned, Doan reacted to the news by posting on X, saying, "It took the entire community to remove this man, now we must find a replacement who will stand up for our children and community."

USA Today [7/11/2025 5:56 PM, Bart Jansen, 75552K] reports a Texas man was arrested July 10 and charged with threatening President Donald Trump before he toured the state’s flood-damaged area, the Justice Department announced. Robert Herrera, 52, of San Antonio, commented on a local news outlet’s Facebook post pertaining to Trump’s planned visit to the Texas Hill Country, according to court records. "I won’t miss," Herrera allegedly posted, along with a picture of Trump surrounded by Secret Service agents immediately after the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. After an exchange with another poster, Herrera allegedly posted a picture of an assault rifle with loaded magazines. Herrera was charged with making threats against a president and making interstate threatening communications. He faces a maximum five years in prison on each charge if convicted.

NewsMax [7/11/2025 3:38 PM, Michael Katz, 4622K] reports a new movement in Iran claims to have raised more than $40 million online as a bounty for the assassination of President Donald Trump after fatwas, or religious decrees, issued against him by senior clerics of the Islamic regime. Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, Iran’s top Shiite cleric, and Grand Ayatollah Hossein Noori Hamedani issued fatwas against Trump after the U.S. bombings of Iranian nuclear facilities last month, citing alleged threats against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and that anyone who works with the U.S. and Israel is an "enemy of Allah." Shirazi proclaimed that any "Muslims of the world" who successfully assassinate Trump or Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be deemed "warriors of Allah" and "receive blessings." The fatwas prompted the creation of an organization called the "Blood Covenant," which claims to have raised nearly $40.3 million for Trump’s assassination, The Washington Free Beacon reported Friday, citing an analysis by the Middle East Media Research Institute, which monitors jihadi movements in the region. The Blood Covenant operates "under the aegis of the Iranian regime" and poses a substantial threat to Trump given Tehran’s resources and coordination on the matter, according to MEMRI. "The U.S. Secret Service operates in a heightened and very dynamic threat environment and the safety and security of the President and all of our protectees remains our highest priority," Secret Service spokesperson Alexi Worley told Newsmax. "To preserve operational integrity, we cannot comment on specific protective intelligence matters. However, our teams work around the clock with international, federal, state and local partners to ensure the highest levels of protection."

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [7/11/2025 4:16 PM, Hudson Crozier, 1010K]

USA Today [7/11/2025 3:07 PM, Melina Khan, 4241K] reports a search and rescue operation is underway after a semi-truck crashed and then plunged off the Delaware Memorial Bridge into the river below early July 11, officials said. At around 3:40 a.m. local time on Friday, a bobtail tractor traveling over the bridge crossed three lanes of traffic and crashed into a concrete wall, the Delaware River & Bay Authority said in a press release. The impact collapsed the wall, and the truck "careened into the Delaware River," DRBA said. Shortly after 11 a.m., crews recovered the cab, which was located in about 20 feet of water, James Salmon, DRBA’s director of communications and marketing told USA TODAY. "Dive crews are currently assessing the safety of area where the cab is located to investigate further," Salmon wrote in a statement. It’s unclear how many occupants were inside the truck at the time of the crash. There were no additional details about occupants after the cab was recovered, Salmon said. No other vehicles were impacted. Dive teams were on site for the search effort, DRBA said. They included units from local and state emergency responders as well as members of the U.S. Coast Guard Air and Marine Units, according to the agency. The accident is under investigation, according to DRBA.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [7/11/2025 9:30 AM, Zoe Hussain, 49956K]

CBS News [7/11/2025 11:30 PM, Staff, 51860K] Video: HERE reports members of the U.S. Coast Guard are sharing powerful stories from recent flood rescues in Central Texas. One rescuer recalled spotting a young girl in the back of a rescue vehicle, tears streaming down her face. He gave her a thumbs-up, and she returned the gesture with a scared but brave smile. These small moments of connection brought comfort to frightened children during harrowing rescues.

DefenseScoop [7/11/2025 1:59 PM, Mark Pomerleau, 150K] reports the Senate Armed Services Committee wants the Department of Defense to examine its use of cyber power beyond the forces of U.S. Cyber Command. A provision in the committee’s version of the annual defense policy bill, of which an executive summary was released Friday, would require the secretary of defense to review future force employment concepts for cyber operations. The full text of the bill has yet to be released. Senior congressional officials that briefed reporters Friday pointed to the fact that to date, cyber operations and forces have largely been focused on the strategic level. More and more, there are other avenues to conduct digital actions, officials said, to include tactical cyber. In fact, the DOD updated its cyber doctrine at the end of 2022 to include for the first time a definition of what it called “expeditionary cyberspace operations,” defined as “[c]yberspace operations that require the deployment of cyberspace forces within the physical domains.”

Federal News Network [7/11/2025 6:30 PM, Justin Doubleday, 2346K] reports in 2018, an assistant legal attaché with the FBI was meeting with sensitive sources in Mexico City. The attaché was working the high-profile "El Chapo" drug cartel case. As the attaché traveled the streets of Mexico City, a hacker working for the cartel was watching their every move. The hacker had compromised the attaché’s cell phone and was able to see their phone calls, as well as their geolocation data. The hacker also accessed Mexico City’s camera system, using it to follow the attaché through the city and identify who they met with. The cartel used that information to intimidate and even kill sources and cooperating witnesses. That stunning story was revealed publicly for the first time in an audit released by the Justice Department’s inspector general late last month. The highly redacted report evaluates the FBI’s efforts to address so-called "ubiquitous technical surveillance.” That’s a jargon term for the world of smart phones, online data, interconnected technology and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. It can create a detailed and continuous portrait of anyone’s life. And it’s something the FBI and the government writ large is struggling to address as a major counterintelligence and security challenge. "How do you handle it when something is ubiquitous, when it’s everywhere and growing?" Eric O’Neill, a former FBI counterintelligence agent, said in an interview. "Part of that is being smart, but I just don’t see a really great solution to an issue that will just become broader and more ubiquitous. If you want to say that, then that’s something that can ever be contained, not in our society. You go off grid. That’s basically the only way. According to the DoJ audit, some within the FBI and partner agencies like the CIA have described the threat of ubiquitous technical surveillance as "existential.”

FOX News [7/11/2025 11:16AM, Kurt Knutsson, 46878K] reports Microsoft hasn’t received much love for Windows 11, with many users still reluctant to ditch Windows 10 even four years after the newer OS launched. The main reasons include Microsoft’s constant push to use its own services, strict hardware requirements and questionable interface changes. But if you’re looking for yet another reason to dislike Windows 11, security researchers recently uncovered a critical vulnerability affecting Secure Boot. This feature is supposed to prevent malware from loading during startup. Now, hackers can bypass that protection and silently infect systems. The flaw allows attackers to disable Secure Boot on nearly any modern Windows PC or server, leaving even fully updated devices open to stealthy, undetectable malware. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-3052, was discovered by firmware security firm Binarly. They found that a legitimate BIOS update tool signed by Microsoft could be abused to tamper with the Windows boot process. Once exploited, the flaw allows attackers to shut off Secure Boot entirely. In the wrong hands, this vulnerability could lead to a new generation of malware. These threats could bypass even the most advanced antivirus or detection software. At the center of the issue is a BIOS-flashing utility built for rugged tablets. Microsoft signed it using its UEFI CA 2011 certificate. Because that certificate is trusted on nearly every Secure Boot-enabled system, the tool can run without raising alarms. The danger lies in how the tool handles a specific NVRAM variable. Binarly’s researchers found that it reads this variable blindly, without checking what’s inside. That small oversight opens the door to a serious exploit. Binarly reported the flaw to CERT/CC in February 2025. At first, it appeared to affect only a single module. But Microsoft’s deeper investigation uncovered a bigger problem. The same vulnerability affected 14 modules signed with the same trusted certificate. Microsoft responded in June 2025 by revoking the cryptographic hashes of all 14 affected modules. These hashes were added to the Secure Boot revocation list, known as the dbx. This prevents the modules from running during startup. However, this protection is not automatic. Unless users or organizations manually apply the updated dbx, their systems remain vulnerable, even with other patches installed.

CNN [7/11/2025 5:16 PM, Annie Grayer, Sean Lyngaas, 21433K] reports suspected Chinese hackers have broken into the email accounts of attorneys and advisers at a powerful Washington, DC, law firm in an apparent intelligence-gathering operation, the firm, Wiley Rein, told clients this week in a memo reviewed by CNN. The hackers responsible have been known to target information related to trade, Taiwan and US government agencies involved in setting tariffs and reviewing foreign investment, said the notice from the firm. "We believe, based on the evidence reviewed to date, that a group that may be affiliated with the Chinese government accessed messages in the Microsoft 365 accounts of certain Wiley personnel for intelligence gathering purposes," the memo said. With clients that span the Fortune 500 and a team of top trade attorneys, Wiley Rein is a powerful player in helping US companies and the government navigate the trade war with China. The firm describes itself as "wired into Washington" and says it provides "unmatched insights into the evolving priorities of agencies, regulators, and lawmakers." Wiley Rein told clients it is still working to determine what information the hackers accessed. "We also notified law enforcement and are coordinating with them."

DefenseScoop [7/11/2025 1:03 PM, Mark Pomerleau, 150K] reports the Senate Armed Services Committee is proposing legislation that would require the Department of Defense to develop a deterrence strategy against cyber activity on critical infrastructure. The provision is part of the annual defense policy bill. The committee released a summary Friday, although the full text of the legislation won’t be released until a later date. The executive summary of the bill only offers that a provision mandates “a strategy to reestablish a credible deterrence against cyberattacks targeting American critical infrastructure using the full spectrum of military operations.” A senior congressional official who briefed reporters Friday on the condition of anonymity described the provision as trying to identify a full scope using various methods and full spectrum options to more critically deter adversaries, particularly China, from conducting attacks on critical infrastructure, especially defense critical infrastructure. An official noted the provision directs DOD toward what the department needs to be doing to more effectively establish a deterrent. Officials in open testimony have indicated a clear concern that Beijing, in particular, continues to attack critical infrastructure. They singled out Volt and Salt Typhoon by name, noting they’re a growing and more aggressive threat in cyberspace to utilities and critical infrastructure that supports DOD.

Bloomberg [7/11/2025 12:00 PM, Staff, 19320K] reports every huge crypto hack comes in two stages. First, the hack and theft itself. Then comes the money laundering: the process of evading investigators, transferring stolen assets and ultimately turning all that digital currency into untraceable cash. The biggest ever cryptocurrency hack was a stunning $1.5 billion heist of Ether from the Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit in February. The FBI has pinned blame on the Lazarus Group — infamous North Korean hackers who have brought in billions of dollars to support the regime in Pyongyang and fund its nuclear ambitions. Moving all that money is not so easy. Five months later, the second stage of the heist is still ongoing. The sheer scale of the theft means assets are still moving around – and that means sometimes the crypto can still be tracked down. Just this week, Greece successfully traced and froze a portion of the stolen funds. “It’s not as simple as getting the money to one exchange and getting $1.5 billion in cash,” said Andrew Fierman, the head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, a blockchain intelligence firm that aided Greece’s investigation. For hackers, he said, the goal is to break that big pile of assets into smaller pieces, gradually laundering them in a process that can take months or even years. Bybit didn’t respond to a request for comment. Its public dashboard says $72 million of the stolen ether has been frozen and $458 million is traceable, while another $870 million has “gone dark.” The Bybit hack “nearly doubled North Korea’s total crypto haul for all of 2024 in a single day and pushed the first half of 2025 into a record-breaking period for crypto theft,” said Ari Redbord, a former federal prosecutor and now global head of policy at the blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs. “But what really stood out was the speed of the laundering.” Redbord described a herculean effort by the hackers to launder an enormous amount of currency. Over $160 million was moving within 48 hours and within five days, he said, more than $400 million was being funneled through a range of channels. That operation is continuing through multiple money-laundering networks using a variety of tools such as mixing services, over-the-counter brokers, cross-chain swaps, and chain-hopping which all aim to complicate tracing, prevent seizure and confuse attempts at attribution. Laundering crypto, especially on this scale, is extraordinarily expensive. “Every movement costs money,” Fierman said. “Every time you use a mixer or bridge or new protocol, there’s a fee.” That means large amounts of stolen money will fall away from the hackers, as they seek quicker, more elaborate and more voluminous laundering operations.

The New York Times [7/12/2025 1:46 AM, Carol Rosenberg, 153395K] reports a federal appeals court on Friday overturned a plea deal to resolve the Sept. 11, 2001, case with life sentences, a decision that could restart lengthy proceedings toward a death penalty trial at Guantánamo Bay. The 2-to-1 decision was the latest upheaval for families awaiting a resolution in the long, agonizing case and does not mean the conspiracy trial can start soon. More appeals could come. Also, the previous military judge retired recently, and his replacement will need to read the voluminous record and decide threshold issues, including whether confessions prosecutors want to use were unlawfully obtained through torture. A senior Pentagon official reached the deal in the summer of 2024 with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man accused of being the mastermind of the plot, and two other defendants. Under the agreement, each would admit to his role in the plot to avert a capital trial. Within days of the deal, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III declared it void. But the judge in the case found that he was bound to the contract reached by the senior Pentagon official in charge of the war court, a retired Army lawyer whom Mr. Austin had appointed. On Friday, two judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia — Patricia A. Millett and Neomi J. Rao — found that Mr. Austin “indisputably had legal authority to withdraw from the agreements.” The judges wrote that while prosecutors and defense lawyers presented the deal to the court in the summer of 2024, “no performance of promises had begun.” The Washington Post [7/11/2025 4:34 PM, Spencer S. Hsu, 32099K] reports that the opinion marks the latest setback for the trouble-plagued military commission system set up to secure justice for the 9/11 attacks and to try suspects at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Mohammed’s case remains mired in bureaucratic and legal battles that include questions about the admissibility of evidence obtained through torture after he was captured in 2003 and before he was moved to the prison in 2006, charged in its special war court in 2008 and again in 2011.

NPR [7/11/2025 3:01 PM, Sacha Pfeiffer, 37958K] reports in a divided ruling, a federal appeals court panel has canceled plea deals reached with three men accused of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, deepening the legal morass surrounding the long-stalled case. Lawyers for the defendants, including alleged ringleader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are weighing whether to appeal the decision to the full federal bench or the U.S. Supreme Court. The issue before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was whether then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acted legally when he rescinded the plea deals two days after they were announced last summer by a U.S. military court in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Austin said the agreements, which would have let the 9/11 defendants plead guilty in return for sentences of up to life in prison, caught him off guard. He wanted the case to proceed toward a death-penalty trial.

Daily Caller [7/11/2025 12:03 PM, Audrey Streb, 1010K] reports agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Thursday night that her agency terminated more than 70 contractors and visiting scientists who are citizens of "countries of concern" after conducting an investigation. Foreign nationals have exploited the American agriculture industry by stealing intellectual property and technology, as well as smuggling hazardous biological materials that could cause serious damage to the food supply, Rollins wrote in her Thursday night X post. Rollins did not specify which countries the contractors were from and noted that there is no active threat, but the move aligns with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Farm Security Action Plan to crack down on malign influence from foreign adversaries in the farm industry, which was announced Tuesday. "For decades, foreign adversaries have exploited our open society by recruiting spies and operatives who steal our intellectual property, technology, and, in recent cases, smuggle dangerous biological materials that would threaten to destroy our food and supply chains," Rollins wrote. "After a thorough investigation, USDA has terminated 70+ contractors and visiting scientists who have citizenship from countries of concern."

Wall Street Journal [7/11/2025 10:37 AM, Connar Hart, 646K] reports the Pentagon is going all in on drones, a move that has provided a boost to several defense-technology stocks. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the removal of any policies that slow down the development and deployment of drones, according to a memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “I am rescinding restrictive policies that hindered production and limited access to these vital technologies, unleashing the combined potential of American manufacturing and warfighter ingenuity” he said in the memo, sent Thursday and titled “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance.” The memo builds upon executive orders signed by President Trump last month aimed at easing restrictions on U.S.-made drones and strengthening an industry that has struggled to compete with Chinese competitors. The Department of Defense plans to boost what it called a nascent U.S. drone manufacturing base by approving hundreds of American-made products for military purchase. The order is expected to deliver a lift to defense-technology companies specializing in drones and unmanned aerial vehicles. Truist analysts said the memo is likely to result in a continued inflow of capital to private defense companies, though they noted an expectation that publicly traded names would rise on the disclosure. Under its plan, the Department of Defense intends to arm combat units with a range of low-cost drones developed by American engineers and artificial-intelligence experts, according to the memo. Drones are additionally expected to be fully integrated into combat training by next year. “We’ll train as we expect to fight,” Hegseth wrote.

The Hill [7/11/2025 12:26 PM, Laura Kelly, 18649K] reports the State Department on Friday is carrying out plans to lay off 1,300 employees as part of a drastic reorganization effort, drawing outrage from former diplomats and Democrats who say the Trump administration is risking America’s national security by shrinking its diplomatic presence. While Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on diplomatic travel in Asia, State Department employees located in the Washington D.C. area were instructed to return to the office on Friday with government-issued equipment in preparation for the layoffs. "In view of the anticipated reorganization and RIF, there will be no telework tomorrow, Friday July 11. All employees should report to work with all Department issued equipment including: laptops, telephones, diplomatic passports, travel cards and any other property owned by the Department of State," read a letter sent to staff and obtained by The Hill’s partner-outlet News Nation. The Reduction in Force (RIF) notices are expected to go out to about 1,100 civil servants and 250 foreign service officers who are currently based in the U.S., NewsNation reported. "As we understand that badges will be collected at the time of out processing. Please ensure that any personal items are collected before that time," the letter read. "In the coming days of uncertainty I want to express my gratitude to each of you for your professionalism and hard work, particularly in this difficult time of transition. Our team efforts to continue the goals of the Department of State has had lasting and meaningful effects both in the U.S. and in the world at large.” Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs, according to an internal notice obtained by The Associated Press. For most civil servants, the separation period is 60 days, it said. Rubio announced in April a drastic reorganization of the State Department, eliminating 132 offices and transitioning 137 other offices to other locations within the agency — a move even critics concede may deliver some needed streamlining around policy development. Rubio, speaking to reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, said the layoffs are "a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.” "It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions," he said. "Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.”

Reported similarly:
NPR [7/11/2025 10:51 AM, Michele Kelemen, 37958K] Audio: HERE

Bloomberg Law [7/11/2025 10:14 AM, Ian Kullgren, 1707K] reports federal agency leaders still face obstacles to implementing widespread layoffs, and some are even reversing course after the Supreme Court greenlit President Donald Trump’s order to cut the public workforce. The high court stayed the farthest-reaching injunction blocking multiple federal agencies from cutting workers, but some departments are reversing course in planned layoffs, or still face legal challenges to them. Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with cutting the size of the government, is also now without its most notable leader, billionaire Elon Musk. In Musk’s absence, agency heads are showing signs of being more empowered to make their own decisions on cost-cutting, said one official with the American Federation of Government Employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the union is still assessing the impact. Union leaders remain hopeful—for now—that Trump’s advisers will be more restrained, and that future cuts won’t be as bad as they feared, the official said. In briefs filed as part of the legal challenge to Trump’s layoff order, a group of public sector unions said they represent nearly 1 million federal employees who face possible termination. "Individual agencies are free to make up their own minds," said David Nesting, a former technology adviser for the Office of Management and Budget, who was terminated in February. "What’s new now is a more significant amount of time has passed, so agencies have had time to internalize feedback, have had time for people to assert their roles.” Trump himself said he regrets some of DOGE’s early actions. "We could have done it differently," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting July 8. "I would have done it differently, a little bit, maybe." The US Department of Veterans Affairs, abandoned its plan for mass layoffs this week, sparing 50,000 jobs and instead focusing on attrition as a means for further staff reductions. Voice of America also withdrew layoff notices amid a union dispute days after the federal hiring office dialed back essay questions that were criticized for their partisan tilt. Lawmakers moved Thursday to protect the National Weather Services from future layoffs. The US Department of Labor, in a statement July 9, suggested it had no immediate plans terminate more workers. The agency has already cut its workforce by 20%, "achieving our goal to promote efficiency and eliminate redundancies, while retaining critical positions that fulfill our core mission of putting American workers first," spokeswoman Courtney Parella Spencer said. Some agencies aren’t done cutting. The US Department of Homeland Security plans to cut "non-mission-critical positions and bureaucratic hurdles," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Bloomberg Government, without offering details. The department began mass layoffs in February. While the Supreme Court order only allowed layoffs to move forward temporarily, any cuts will be hard to reverse.

Houston Chronicle [7/11/2025 5:12 PM, John Wayne Ferguson, 1982K] reports two weeks after flying into a Houston airport and about a month and a half before he would be accused of being a foreign agent, Liren Lai packed a suitcase into the trunk of a car and started a road trip west to California. On his way, according to the FBI, Lai stopped in Phoenix and left the suitcase with a friend there. Inside it was $20,000 in cash. Lai was picked up days later by federal agents as he made his way back to Texas. He and another man, Yuance Chen, were accused of acting as unregistered agents of the Chinese government, and accused of attempting to recruit members of the U.S. Navy to work for China. Lai appeared in court on Friday, where a judge ordered that he be held in custody until his trial, which will take place in California. The detention hearing revealed new details about the FBI’s years-long surveillance of Lai and Chen, and their alleged attempts to befriend and recruit West Coast-based sailors and gain access to military locations. Chen was arrested in Happy Valley, Oregon, last week. Friday’s hearing, where prosecutors argued he should be detained, focused largely on Lai’s most recent trip to the U.S.

The Hill [7/11/2025 7:51 AM, Filip Timotija, 18649K] reports President Trump said late Thursday that a deal was struck with NATO to send weapons to Ukraine, with the military alliance bearing the brunt of the cost. "We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100 percent," he said in a phone interview with NBC News. "So, what we’re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and NATO is paying for those weapons." The president added that the deal was struck in June at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands. "We send weapons to NATO, and NATO is going to reimburse the full cost of those weapons," Trump told NBC’s "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is talking to multiple countries in Europe, including Spain and Germany, that have Patriot batteries — a key element in the defense system used to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles — about sending them over to Kyiv.

Reuters [7/11/2025 8:01 AM, Sabine Siebold, 51390K] reports NATO will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, a U.S. Army general told Reuters. Russia’s effective use of long-range missiles in its war in Ukraine has convinced Western military officials of their importance for destroying command posts, transportation hubs and missile launchers far behind enemy lines. "The Russian army is bigger today than it was when they started the war in Ukraine," Major General John Rafferty said in an interview at a U.S. military base in Wiesbaden, Germany. "And we know that they’re going to continue to invest in long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences. So more alliance capability is really, really important." The war in Ukraine has underscored Europe’s heavy dependence on the United States to provide long-range missiles, with Kyiv seeking to strengthen its air defences. Rafferty recently completed an assignment as commander of the U.S. Army’s 56th Artillery Command in the German town of Mainz-Kastel, which is preparing for temporary deployments of long-range U.S. missiles on European soil from 2026. At a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Monday, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius is expected to try to clarify whether such deployments, agreed between Berlin and Washington when Joe Biden was president, will go ahead now that Donald Trump is back in the White House. The agreement foresaw the deployment of systems including Tomahawk missiles with a range of 1,800 km and the developmental hypersonic weapon Dark Eagle with a range of around 3,000 km. Russia has criticised the planned deployment of longer-range U.S. missiles in Germany as a serious threat to its national security. It has dismissed NATO concerns that it could attack an alliance member and cited concerns about NATO expansion as one of its reasons for invading Ukraine in 2022.

Bloomberg [7/12/2025 5:27 AM, Daryna Krasnolutska, 19320K] reports Russia launched its latest massive drone and missile strike on Ukraine, targeting areas in the nation’s west that border European Union states. The attack — including on areas that have seen few if any strikes in the war to date — left at least two people dead and damaged residential houses and other civilian infrastructure. Kremlin forces fired almost 600 Russian drones and 26 cruise missiles across Ukraine, including at Chernivtsi, near the border with Romania and Moldova. It was the first strike on the historically-significant city of some 265,000 people since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Two people were killed there and 14 wounded, including four hospitalized with serious injures, local authorities said. Additionally, residential houses, a university and city courts were damaged in the far western city of Lviv. A man was killed in the Donetsk city of Slovyansk by a Russian shell, the city’s mayor said. Russia has ramped up airstrikes on Ukraine after it increased drone production, and recently has often fired more than 500 UAVs in a day. The United Nations reported that Ukraine in June saw its highest monthly civilian casualties in three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured. “The pace of Russia’s aerial strikes demands swift decisions – and it can be curbed through sanctions right now,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on platform X on Saturday. “More air defense systems are needed, along with investments in interceptor drones, which are already delivering good results. We expect not just signals from our partners, but actions that will save lives.”

The Hill [7/11/2025 8:29 AM, Laura Kelly, 18649K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of a major Asian conference in Malaysia on Friday as President Trump’s tariffs roil U.S. partners in Asia. Rubio described his conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as “constructive and pragmatic” and emphasized the importance of keeping channels of communication open. He also said the “odds are high” that Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping but did not give a timeframe. “I think both sides want to see it happen,” the secretary of State told reporters Friday. “Obviously, we have to build the right atmosphere and the right deliverables so that a visit isn’t just a visit, but it actually has some takeaways from it that are concrete.” “But there’s a strong desire on both sides to do it. The president wants to do it. The Chinese side wants to see it happen. President Xi has said that publicly,” he continued. “So, I think the odds are high. I don’t have a date for you, but I think it’s coming. It’ll happen.”

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