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 [7/15/2025 10:03 PM, Hamed Aleaziz, 153395K] reports the Trump administration sent five migrants from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba to a small African nation on Tuesday, resuming the practice of so-called third-country deportations after the Supreme Court cleared the practice earlier this month, Department of Homeland Security officials said Tuesday. The deportations were announced on social media by the agency on Tuesday evening. “NEW: a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed — This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” wrote Tricia McLaughlin, a D.H.S. spokeswoman. She added that the men had been convicted of crimes including murder, assault and robbery. Since the early days of the Trump administration, homeland security officials have sent migrants to countries they are not from, including sending hundreds of migrants from countries including China, Iran and Pakistan to Panama and Costa Rica in February. The migrants had spent six weeks in Djibouti, after a federal judge ruled that the administration needed to allow more time for migrants to express fear of torture in a third country and to appeal any potential denial of their claims. That ruling was put on pause by the Supreme Court. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials released internal guidance allowing for such deportations to occur quickly if the State Department received assurances that the migrants would not be persecuted in the third country. Even without such assurances, officials could still deport migrants in as little as six hours in certain circumstances. The Trump administration has been increasingly encouraging immigrants to self-deport, emphasizing the potential consequences for those who remain in the United States without authorization, including detention at a center in Florida known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” FOX News [7/16/2025 1:34 AM, Landon Mion, 46878K] reports McLaughlin listed five deportees from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen who she said were convicted of egregious crimes, including child rape and murder. A Vietnamese national was convicted of child rape, a Jamaican citizen was convicted of murder, robbery and weapons possession and a Laos citizen was convicted of murder, murder and burglary as well as aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of methamphetamine and operating a motor vehicle under the influence of a controlled substance, according to McLaughlin. She said a Cuban citizen was convicted of murder and aggravated battery — including on a police officer — as well as Grand Theft Auto, eluding law enforcement and reckless driving, while a Yemeni citizen was convicted of homicide, assault and battery as well as resisting and obstructing an officer, cruelty to a dependent adult and assault with the intent to do great bodily harm. The Washington Post [7/16/2025 12:50 AM, Frances Vinall, 32099K] reports that the approach is part of President Donald Trump’s wider anti-immigration push, which has also involved immigration raids in cities, as his administration tries to fulfill his campaign promise of conducting mass deportations. The United States rarely sent immigrants to third countries in the past, though it has used detention facilities outside its borders such as the camp at Guantánamo Bay. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could deport people to places where they are not citizens, while litigation on the issue continues in lower courts. The court’s ruling overturned an order issued by a federal judge in Massachusetts that migrants must have a “meaningful opportunity” to contest their removal. Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote in a memo to the ICE workforce last Wednesday that the Supreme Court had cleared the way for officers to “immediately” start sending immigrants to “alternative” countries, Washington Post reported. The memo also said that if officials have given assurances that deportees will be safe from persecution or torture, federal immigration officers may deport them to third nations with no advance notice. In “exigent" circumstances, immigrants can be deported to third countries without such assurances, with just six hours’ notice, it said. In May, the U.S. attempted to send eight men to South Sudan, seven of whom are not citizens of the country, but they were held in Djibouti for weeks until the Supreme Court decision, and arrived in South Sudan earlier this month. It has also sent dozens of Venezuelan migrants to a megaprison in El Salvador, and deported hundreds of people from various nations to Costa Rica and Panama. Renamed from Swaziland in 2018, Eswatini is a roughly 1.1 million-person, lower-middle income nation. It is slightly smaller than New Jersey in land area and borders South Africa and Mozambique. It was not immediately clear when or on what grounds the U.S. made an agreement with Eswatini to send migrants there. The Department of Homeland Security, the Eswatini Foreign Ministry and the Eswatini Embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday night. CBS News [7/15/2025 10:13 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51860K] reported in early May that the U.S. had asked Eswatini, alongside other countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, to receive deportees who are not their own citizens. The talks are part of a larger, aggressive effort by the Trump administration to persuade as many countries as possible — regardless of their human rights record — to accept citizens of other nations, including criminals. President Trump’s administration has already used agreements to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador; migrants from Africa and Asia to Costa Rica and Panama; and eight convicted criminals from Asian and Latin American countries to conflict-ridden South Sudan. Trump administration officials have persuaded other nations, like Honduras and Kosovo, to accept deportees from other countries, though those agreements have not been fully implemented yet. U.S. officials have approached other nations — including Moldova, Libya and Rwanda — to strike similar deals. Historically, the U.S. has sought to deport unauthorized immigrants to third countries if they hail from nations where it’s difficult or impossible to deport them, such as those that limit or entirely reject U.S. deportations. The directive, authored by acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons, said detainees with final orders of deportation can be deported to third-party countries, without any notice or further proceedings, if those nations make "credible" assurances to the U.S. that they will not persecute or torture the deportees. If those assurances are not received or are not deemed credible, Lyons’ memo instructs ICE officials to give detainees 24-hour notice of the agency’s intention to deport them to a third country. But the guidance says ICE officials can give just 6 hours of notice in "exigent circumstances," so long as the detainees are given "reasonable means and opportunity" to talk to an attorney. During those notice periods, detainees will have the burden of expressing fear of being harmed in a third country to try to contest their deportation. ICE officials will not affirmatively ask detainees about any potential fears, the Lyons memo says.

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NBC News [7/15/2025 8:30 PM, Daniella Silva and Didi Martinez, 44540K] reports the Trump administration may deport immigrants to a country where they have no connections, in some cases with as little as six hours’ notice and without assurances from the destination country that the deported individuals "will not be persecuted or tortured," according to a new memo from a top immigration official. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo, which says the policy is "effective immediately," was issued July 9 by acting Director Todd Lyons. It provides guidance to ICE employees on how to deport people to countries other than their country of origin and, "in exigent circumstances," even if there’s a risk they will be persecuted or tortured there. "If the United States has received diplomatic assurances from the country of removal that aliens removed from the United States will not be persecuted or tortured, and if the Department of State believes those assurances to be credible, the alien may be removed without the need for further procedures," said the memo, which was first reported by Washington Post and became public Tuesday in court filings. Lyons wrote that "in all other cases" where the United States has not received those assurances, ICE must comply with several procedures, including that an ICE officer will serve the immigrant with a notice of removal that lists what country the federal government intends to deport them to in a language that the immigrant understands; will not affirmatively ask whether the person is afraid of being sent to that country; and will wait at least 24 hours before removing the person from the U.S. But "in exigent circumstances," Lyons wrote, the officer may deport the person in as little as six hours as long as the person is "provided reasonable means and opportunity to speak with an attorney.” Immigrants who could be subject to the policy include those who have been given final orders of removal but in which a judge has found they would still be at risk of persecution or torture if deported from the Unites States, as well as those who come from countries where the U.S. lacks diplomatic relations or an established ability to send deportees to those countries, such as Cuba. Though ICE officers are told not to ask migrants if they are afraid of deportation to a third country, those who do state such a fear will will be referred for screening for possible protection within 24 hours, according to the memo. That screening could lead to the migrant being referred to immigration court for further proceedings or ICE possibly trying to send them to a different country than they one which they express fear of being deported to. Trina Realmuto, the executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which is involved in a federal lawsuit challenging the deportations of migrants to countries other than their own, said in a statement to NBC News that the memo establishes a policy that "blatantly disregards the requirements required by statute, regulation, and the Constitution.” She said the memo means there will be "no process whatsoever when the government claims to have credible diplomatic assurances" for immigrants who are to be deported to third countries. Those assurances, she added, "are unlawful" because they don’t protect deportees from persecution or torture at the hands of non-state actors and because they violate legal requirements establishing that they be individualized and that migrants have the chance to review and rebut them. In a statement to NBC News on Tuesday, before the memo became public, the Department of Homeland Security said the agency has "successfully negotiated nearly a dozen safe third country agreements.” "If countries aren’t receiving their own citizens, other countries have agreed that they would take them. It is incredibly important to make sure we get these worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens out of our country," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the statement. "That is why these agreements, which ensure due process under the U.S. Constitution, are so essential to the safety of our homeland and the American people.”

The Washington Post [7/15/2025 11:12 PM, Anumita Kaur, Angie Orellana Hernandez and Niha Masih, 32099K] reports about half of the California National Guard members deployed to Los Angeles last month are being released, the Pentagon said Tuesday, significantly rolling back the Trump administration’s unprecedented military deployment to the city. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell indicated in a statement that the administration had been successful in dispelling what it deemed violent dissent in the region. “Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding,” he said. “As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission.” President Donald Trump had ordered about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles in June, in response to mass demonstrations opposing immigration raids across the region. State and city leaders have repeatedly called for an end to the deployment, which had been authorized for 60 days despite the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). It marked the first time in about 60 years that an American president made such a decision without a governor’s consent. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) on Tuesday credited the withdrawal of troops to the city’s pushback against the deployment. “This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today’s retreat,” Bass said in a statement. In a later news briefing, Bass — who had personally asked White House officials not to send in the Guard — again argued that the deployment was unnecessary. “We are a city of 500 square miles. We had problems in about two square miles,” she said. Bass suggested that ceasing the use of certain tactics during the immigration raids would have eased tensions: “What we saw was masked men, unmarked cars, drawing guns, snatching people off the street.” Washington Post reported Friday that a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops in the Los Angeles area and denying detainees access to lawyers. The June protests drew thousands of people but were not especially large by Los Angeles standards. Videos circulated showing smashed cars and self-driving Waymo cars set ablaze, and Los Angeles police reported that some people threw “concrete, bottles and other objects.” But the protests remained contained to a few downtown blocks, and instances of violence were sporadic. Trump repeatedly condemned participants as “insurrectionists,” “looters” and “criminals” before deploying the military to the city. The AP [7/15/2025 10:01 PM, Julie Watson, David Klepper, Damian Dovarganes and Amy Taxin, 37958K] reports that in late June, the top military commander in charge of troops deployed to LA had asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for 200 of them to be returned to wildfire fighting duty amid warnings from California Gov. Gavin Newsom that the Guard was understaffed as California entered peak wildfire season. The end of the deployment comes a week after federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived at MacArthur Park with guns and horses in an operation that ended abruptly. Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t explain the purpose of the operation or whether anyone had been arrested, local officials said it seemed designed to sow fear. "Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement in announcing the decision. On June 8, thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to Trump’s deployment of the Guard, blocking off a major freeway as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd. Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire. A day later, police officers used flash bangs and shot projectiles as they pushed protesters through Little Tokyo, where bystanders and restaurant workers rushed to get out of their way. Mayor Karen Bass set a curfew in place for about a week that she said had successfully protected businesses and helped restore order. Demonstrations in the city and the region in recent weeks have been largely small impromptu protests around arrests.

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The Wall Street Journal [7/15/2025 2:58 PM, Michelle Hackman and Victoria Albert, 646K] reports the Trump administration is attempting to make millions of immigrants living in the country illegally ineligible to be released from detention on bond as they fight their deportation cases, according to a memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The policy shift, issued under what is known as interim guidance by acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons last week, will apply to all immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, no matter when. Lyons told officers in a memo that such immigrants should remain in detention throughout their deportation proceedings, which can stretch for months or even years, according to the memo. The move marks a significant departure from decades of practice, when immigration judges had the latitude to release someone from detention on a bond if they weren’t deemed a flight risk. Immigration law states that all immigrants in the country illegally must be detained while their fates are decided, but with limited beds available in ICE jails, the government had considered the law effectively impossible to enforce. “The Biden administration dangerously unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into American communities—and they used many loopholes to do so,” Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. “President Trump and Secretary Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.” Immigration officials asked the general counsel’s office at the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, to reconsider the longstanding policy of allowing immigrants to be released on bond, given that the agency will soon have the capacity to detain them, said an administration official familiar with the matter. A small number of people might still be released from detention, Lyons wrote, but those decisions will now be made by an ICE officer rather than a judge. The legal interpretation ICE is now using has faced previous legal challenges in Washington state, where advocates say immigration court judges in Tacoma for years denied bond to almost all of the immigrants there who have entered the country illegally. The Washington Post [7/15/2025 3:33 PM, Maria Sacchetti and Carol D. Leonnig, 32099K] reports that lawyers say the policy will apply to millions of immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border over the past few decades, including under the Biden administration. In the past, immigrants residing in the U.S. interior generally have been allowed to request a bond hearing before an immigration judge. But Lyons wrote that the Trump administration’s departments of Homeland Security and Justice had “revisited its legal position on detention and release authorities” and determined that such immigrants “may not be released from ICE custody.” In rare exceptions immigrants may be released on parole, but that decision will be up to an immigration officer, not a judge, he wrote. The provision is based on a section of immigration law that says unauthorized immigrants “shall be detained” after their arrest, but that has historically applied to those who recently crossed the border and not longtime residents. Lyons, who oversees the nation’s 200 immigration detention facilities, wrote that the policy is expected to face legal challenges. “This is their way of putting in place nationwide a method of detaining even more people,” said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It’s requiring the detention of far more people without any real review of their individual circumstances.” ICE said in a statement that the new policy “closes a loophole” in the nation’s immigration laws and ensures that everyone who entered the United States without permission is treated equally. Homeland Security officials said officers are enforcing the “law as it was actually written to keep America safe.” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott issued similar guidance last week; that agency did not respond to questions.

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Washington Post [7/15/2025 8:18 PM, Sammy Westfall, 32099K] reports the Trump administration’s plan to deport people to countries where they are not citizens represents a sharp change for the United States, where such expulsions have been rare. But other countries have tried similar policies. The United States has already deported eight men who arrived in South Sudan this month — via Djibouti, where they were held for weeks in a metal shipping container at a naval base. All but one of the migrants had no connection to South Sudan. The State Department lists South Sudan as a Level 4: Do Not Travel country because of “crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.” Last week, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd M. Lyons, wrote in a memo to his workforce that officers could “immediately” start sending immigrants to “alternative” countries, even those where officials have not provided “diplomatic assurances” that migrants will be safe, and with as little as six hours’ notice. A Supreme Court ruling this month cleared the way for the policy. Usually, under a removal order, migrants are deported to a country of which they are a citizen. But some countries do not always cooperate with the United States on deportations. They include Cuba, Laos and Myanmar; some of the eight migrants sent to South Sudan were from those three nations. In cases where countries do not agree to take in their own citizens, “other countries have agreed that they would take them in … and take care of them until their home country would receive them,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem on “Fox News Sunday.” The United States under President Donald Trump has also sent more than 130 Venezuelan migrants to the legal black hole of prisons in El Salvador. Trump used the wartime Alien Enemies Act to remove them, accusing them of terrorism because they had alleged markers of gang membership. Although not the same as sending migrants to third countries, the United States has used offshore detention facilities to hold terrorism suspects and process asylum seekers. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the United States began sending terrorism suspects apprehended abroad to a detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where some detainees still remain without having been tried. Though most former Guantánamo detainees were returned to their home countries, about one-fifth ended up in third countries for resettlement, under deals brokered by Washington.

NewsMax [7/15/2025 7:33 PM, Nicole Wells, 4622K] reports Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsmax on Tuesday that the 830% increase in assaults against DHS agents are "despicable" and the result of the left’s "violent rhetoric against them.” "We’re seeing AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.], [Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz, [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom, Mayor [Michelle] Wu out of Boston likening our law enforcement to the Nazis, to the modern-day gestapo," McLaughlin said on "The Chris Salcedo Show.” She went on to slam what she called the "lies" of the mainstream media regarding immigration enforcement operations, saying the dishonesty of the left-wing press is designed to "demonize and vilify our law enforcement.” "We’ve seen doxxing on our law enforcement," McLaughlin said. "There was actually a congressman from California on the ground of those ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] riots and he actually went forth to target one of our ICE employees, doxxing him and giving those rioters his contact information. [The agent] went on to actually be injured. "It’s just un-American. We should be thanking our brave law enforcement, our ICE and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] officers who are making America safer. Seventy percent of those illegal aliens who have been arrested under this administration have either prior convictions, criminal convictions, or pending criminal charges," she said. The congressman who McLaughlin referenced, Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., allegedly revealed the identity of an ICE public affairs specialist to protesters at a California marijuana farm during a recent raid by displaying the individual’s business card. According to DHS, the ICE specialist sustained serious injuries to his left hand that required stitches after being struck by a rock thrown by protesters. Images released by the agency show the agent’s hand covered in blood both before and after medical treatment. McLaughlin said that the raid at the California marijuana cultivation facility known as Glass House Farms was "one of the biggest operations in ICE history" that netted a number of criminal illegal aliens, as well as children who "were likely being exploited.”

FOX News [7/15/2025 6:43 PM, Greg Wehner, 46878K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is blaming Democrat politicians and the mainstream media for an 830% increase in assaults on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, saying their "lies and fake stories" continue to stir hate and violence. DHS announced Tuesday that its ICE officials have faced an 830% increase in assaults between Jan. 21, 2025 and July 14, 2025, compared to the same period in 2024. The timeframe recorded begins on the day after President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office. "Just in: our brave @ICEGov law enforcement are now facing a 830% INCREASE in assault against them," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday in a post on X. "This new data reflects the violence against our law enforcement in cities across the country in the last few weeks. Politicians across the country, regardless of political stripe, must condemn this.” The DHS accused political figures and the mainstream media of escalating anti-ICE rhetoric, particularly pointing to Congressional Democrats who the department said were caught "doxing and even physically assaulting" officials working for ICE. Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., DHS said, shared an ICE employee’s business card with a violent group of people this week, placing a target on the employee’s back and prompting the mob to attack him. As a result, the official was hit by a rock and taken to a hospital where he received stitches. Another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., is accused of storming the Delaney Hall detention facility in May, where she allegedly assaulted an ICE officer. She was indicted on federal assault charges. "Brave ICE law enforcement are risking their lives every day to keep our communities safe from the worst of the worst criminals," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "ICE law enforcement are succeeding to remove terrorists, murderers, pedophiles and the most depraved among us from America’s communities, even as crazed rhetoric from gutter politicians are inspiring a massive increase in assaults against them. It is reprehensible that our officers are facing this threat while simply doing their jobs and enforcing the law.”

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Daily Caller [7/15/2025 9:15 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports House lawmakers are probing the role many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played in facilitating the illegal immigration crisis that rocked the country during the Biden administration. The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday to examine how NGOs — nonprofit organizations that operate independently of the U.S. government — orchestrated and benefited from the historic southern border crisis and how some leftist organizations are still allegedly undermining federal immigration enforcement. At the center of the controversy is whether these NGOs used taxpayer dollars to promote illegal immigration. "This committee led the way in impeaching Secretary Mayorkas for his willful and systemic refusal to enforce longstanding immigration laws — laws passed and amended over the years by bipartisan majorities in Congress," Mississippi GOP Rep. Michael Guest, chairman of the Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee, is slated to say Wednesday, according to testimony obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. "What is not known by many, and what will be highlighted today at this hearing, is that the Biden-Harris administration could not execute an open borders policy on its own," Guest continues." They needed help, and that help came from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) funded by the federal government." The Homeland Security Committee’s ongoing investigation follows an unprecedented border crisis. Fiscal years 2023 and 2024 were the worst and second-worst years, respectively, in nationwide migrant encounters, according to Customs and Border Protection data. While President Donald Trump has achieved record-breaking success in restoring order to the U.S.-Mexico border, questions remain on how exactly the border crisis was fomented — and who paid the tab for it. GOP members of the House Homeland Committee say numerous NGOs got fat checks from the Biden administration while laying out the red carpet to waves of illegal migrants. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided grants to numerous NGOs through a program that later became known as the Shelter and Services Program, according to a Department of Homeland Security report. These NGOs, many of them operating at the southern border, spent billions of taxpayer dollars given to them by the Biden White House to provide an array of benefits to illegal migrants recently released from DHS custody, such as transportation and hotel stays. The Homeland Security Committee has since been launching investigations into these groups.

Blaze [7/15/2025 10:04 AM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1805K] reports federal law enforcement officers executed immigration raids on Thursday at a pair of state-licensed marijuana facilities operated in Camarillo and Carpinteria, California, by Glass House Farms — a company run by a donor both to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and to Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.). Among the 361 illegal aliens arrested at the two sites were a number of dangerous criminal noncitizens, including Roman Izquierdo, a Mexican convicted of kidnapping, attempted rape, and attempted child molestation; Juan Duarte-Valasquez, a Mexican convicted of rape and DUI; and Jose Orellana, an illegal alien from El Salvador convicted of DUI and a hit-and-run with property damage. According to the Department of Homeland Security, agents rescued at least 14 migrant children during the raids from "potential exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking.” While saving children and capturing foreign rapists, federal agents were savagely attacked by a mob of radicals who learned of the raids and apparently sought to obstruct the immigration enforcement actions. Among those who came out in opposition of law enforcement was Carbajal. In addition to faulting Carbajal for apparently joining the ranks of the rioters, the DHS has accused the Democratic congressman of doxxing an ICE employee who was later injured by the mob. "During the enforcement operation in Carpinteria, California, Rep. Carbajal spoke to an ICE Public Affairs Specialist, who gave the congressman his business card," the DHS said in a statement. "The congressman then showed the ICE employee’s business card to the mob, making a target out of him. The employee was subsequently attacked, with lacerations to his left hand due to a rock being thrown at him. The employee had to go to the emergency room and get stitches for his injury.” In an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent, Carbajal once again named the ICE agent he spoke to, admitted to repeatedly trying to break through the ICE perimeter, and accused ICE of "violating the rights of U.S. citizens," adding, "If you’re brown, you’re going to have your civil rights violated.” ICE blasted the Democratic congressman for downplaying the violence of the rioters and painting federal officers as villains, stating, "THIS is precisely the rhetoric that has led to orchestrated attempts to murder officers and a 700% increase in officer assaults.” "The actions by Representative Carbajal are downright un-American," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "He dares to claim that his actions were simply congressional oversight, but doxxing ICE personnel and inciting a mob of rioters to attack law enforcement is NOT oversight — it’s abominable.” Carbajal stated on Monday, "ICE’s claims of ‘doxxing’ and ‘violent mobs’ are attempts to deflect attention from their unjust tactics, distort the facts to support misleading narratives, and avoid accountability for their aggressive actions that caused injuries and left our community traumatized.”

Bloomberg Law [7/15/2025 12:17 PM, Staff, 1707K] reports a federal judge on Tuesday nixed the operative part of a temporary restraining order he imposed on the Trump administration, accepting the government’s assurances that money at issue in a lawsuit isn’t at risk of being used to pay for the new "Alligator Alcatraz" migrant detention facility. Judge Matthew Kennelly of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated the sentence in his order that barred the Department of Homeland Security from "reprogramming, transferring, de-obligating, or otherwise eliminating" Shelter and Services funding from Chicago, Denver, and Pima County, Ariz. The rest of the order is set to expire Wednesday. Those jurisdictions sued earlier this year, saying the Trump administration removed funding Congress assigned them to provide services for migrants released from Homeland Security custody. Over the weekend, they asked Kennelly for a temporary restraining order, citing fears that the funding in question would be used to pay for the new detention center in Florida. Kennelly granted the order July 12. Since the suit’s filing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said a new migrant detention facility in Florida—the so-called Alligator Alcatraz—would be funded by money from the Shelter and Services Program, the plaintiffs have said. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy (D) said legislators were notified of a plan to use funds from that program to "detain noncitizens," according to the plaintiffs, which they said was an apparent reference to the facility. But as administration attorneys wrote in a response and reiterated in court Tuesday, the detention center will be paid for with a fiscal year 2025 appropriation—not funds assigned to the plaintiffs in years past, which is the money at issue in the lawsuit.

The Hill [7/15/2025 1:37 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K] reports that Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost (D) on Monday described the conditions immigrants are being held under at the Trump administration’s newest detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz." The lawmaker visited the site over the weekend and said he could see a reflection of his image while looking at the individuals being detained in the Florida Everglades. "Looking at the hundreds of men in there, I saw myself in those cages. I saw people who were my age, people who looked exactly like me," Frost said during a Monday appearance on MSNBC’s "The Rachel Maddow Show." "And I thought when we were walking out of those doors of the — of the internment camp, I thought, I’m one of the only people that looks like me and that’s my age that’s going to actually walk out of this place without being deported or without being a staff member that’s not allowed to really talk about what’s going on in there," he added. Frost is of Puerto Rican, Lebanese, and Haitian ancestry, according to his official website. "Everyone’s using different language, different names. I’m going with internment or even prison detention center because this — and this isn’t even a detention center, right? The thing people have to realize too is when an immigrant is being detained, they’re being detained because they’re going through the legal process of deportation," Frost told Maddow.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 11:53 AM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports that Alligator Alcatraz is being used to house some of the most dangerous criminal migrants, despite narratives from the radical left, according to Florida’s attorney general. Officials have stated that the detention facility that opened up this month in the Florida Everglades would hold some of the worst criminal migrants. Across the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations have taken off the streets illegal migrants with convictions for homicide, child abuse, forcible rape, kidnapping and sexual assault of a child under 13, vehicle theft, aggravated assault of a police officer, producing and distributing child pornography, and more. DHS has released examples of the "dangerous criminal illegal aliens arrested by ICE" in the Sunshine State, noting that "These are the types of violent criminal illegal aliens who could end up being detained at Alligator Alcatraz." Fox News obtained a list of some of the migrants actually detained at the facility via Florida Attorney General James Uthemeier’s office. "The left-wing press continues to spend their time amplifying false reports, but the reality is that there are monsters awaiting deportation within Alligator Alcatraz far worse than the monsters lurking in the surrounding Everglades," Uthmeier’s communication’s director Jeremy Redfern said in a statement. "This group of murderers, rapists, and gang members are just a small sample of the deranged psychopaths that Florida is helping President Trump and his administration remove from our country," he added.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 12:59 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports that facilities like Alligator Alcatraz are "what we need," Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) — who is hoping to be the next governor of Florida — told Breitbart News during an interview at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit. Donalds, who toured the facility ahead of its grand opening, told Breitbart News that it is precisely "what we need." "You know, our jails are full," he said, explaining that the Krome Detention Center — the primary detention facility for ICE — is full. "And so, you have to find a place to place illegals to make sure that they’re prepared to be deported with ICE. So, what we did, really, what the governor gave us is — to his credit — what he did with his team is they built out this facility at the Jetport," he said, as the facility is the transformed Miami-Dade Collier Training Facility in the Florida Everglades. It "makes it easy for ICE to come in, pick up people and then take off again. So that actually makes it logistically a lot simpler," he said, noting this makes it more straightforward across the board. "The jail systems all through Florida. You talk to our sheriffs — they’re full," the congressman explained. "So, we need this facility now in order to relieve that, that bed space in our county jails." "Is it something that’s going to be permanent? That remains to be seen. That really is going to depend on what are the needs of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security into the future, but it’s the facility we need now to alleviate the backlog," Donalds said.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 6:44 PM, Neil Munro, 3077K] reports the federal government will allow private debt collectors to extract payments from migrants who have racked up massive fines for illegally staying in the United States, says a New York immigration lawyer. The promise came in a letter demanding $1.8 million that was sent to the client of an immigration lawyer, Latoya McBean Pompy, in White Plains, NY. "The government is sending out these $1.8 million collection notices to individuals here in the United States with a [judge’s] final removal order," McBean said on TikTok. She read the letter, saying: Treasury may also take the following actions. Number one, reduce any eligible federal and state payments due to you. Number two, refer your debt(s) to a private collection agency. Number three, refer your debt(s) to the U..S Department of Justice to initiate litigation. Number four, report the indebtedness to the national credit bureaus. And number five, report your debt(s) to the IRS as potential income. "Guys, this is crazy," she said. "It’s intimidating for those of you who get such a notice [to] work with a collections attorney to work something out to the extent possible with the government," she added. Many migrants who have lived in the United States have worked to build assets, such as a home, bank accounts, autos, and retirement savings. The government’s threat to take these assets is likely to accelerate the growing number of self-deportations by illegals. "The law doesn’t enforce itself; there must be consequences for breaking it." said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "President Trump and Secretary Noem are standing up for law and order and making our government more effective and efficient at enforcing the American people’s immigration laws. Financial penalties like these are just one more reason why illegal aliens should use CBP Home to self-deport now before it’s too late.”

Bloomberg Government [7/15/2025 2:00 PM, Ellen M. Gilmer, 111K] reports a bipartisan group of House lawmakers is renewing a push for sweeping immigration legislation that combines penalties and legal pathways for the undocumented, weeks after Republicans approved more than $150 billion to support the Trump administration’s enforcement crackdown. Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) on Tuesday plan to introduce a modified version of a bill they’ve pushed for years to provide a route to legal status for immigrants in the country illegally, while seeking to deter illegal border crossings.

FOX News [7/15/2025 11:43 PM, Landon Mion, 46878K] reports Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., and Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, introduced legislation on Tuesday to reform the U.S. immigration system, including offering legal status for certain illegal immigrants to continue working in the country amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policies. The Dignity Act of 2025 would allow illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. since before 2021 the opportunity to apply for up to seven years of legal status with work authorization. The immigrants would pay restitution and check in regularly with the Department of Homeland Security, and their legal status could be renewed based on good conduct and restitution. The bill would offer a path to permanent residency, but the legal status afforded to the immigrants would not allow for any federal benefits or a path to U.S. citizenship. "The Dignity Act of 2025 is a revolutionary bill that offers the solution to our immigration crisis: secure the border, stop illegal immigration, and provide an earned opportunity for long-term immigrants to stay here and work," Salazar said in a statement. "No amnesty. No handouts. No citizenship. Just accountability and a path to stability for our economy and our future.” The bill would be fully funded through restitution payments and application fees made by immigrants, meaning it will not rely on any taxpayer money. The measure would also aim to end catch-and-release and further bolster security at the Southern Border as well as require employers across the country to use E-Verify, the government system for checking the legal status of workers. It would also expand training, apprenticeships, and education for American workers. The legislation seeks to address the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which has heavily affected farms and food service providers and included raids targeting migrant workers at local businesses, sparking protests in Los Angeles and elsewhere across the U.S. against the president’s mass deportation agenda. A recent raid on two cannabis facilities in Southern California led to a few hundred migrant arrests and clashes between federal immigration agents and protesters. One person died after the raids and others were critically injured. "I have seen firsthand the devastating consequences of our broken immigration system, and as a member of Congress, I take seriously my obligation to propose a solution. Realistic, common-sense compromise is achievable, and is especially important given the urgency of this moment. I consider the Dignity Act of 2025 a critical first step to overhauling this broken system," Escobar said. "Immigrants – especially those who have been in the United States for decades – make up a critical component of our communities and also of the American workforce and economy," she continued. "The vast majority of immigrants are hard-working, law-abiding residents; and, most Americans recognize that it is in our country’s best interest to find bipartisan reforms. We can enact legislation that incorporates both humanity and security, and the Dignity Act of 2025 offers a balanced approach that restores dignity to people who have tried to navigate a broken system for far too long." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
NBC News [7/15/2025 12:00 PM, Ryan Nobles, 44540K]

CBS News [7/15/2025 7:01 PM, Nikole Killion, 51860K] reports a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Tuesday reintroduced a comprehensive bill to reform the immigration system and create a potential pathway to legal status for long-term undocumented immigrants. Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, Republican of Florida, and Veronica Escobar, Democrat of Texas, announced the legislation, known as the DIGNITY Act, at a press conference alongside more than a dozen co-sponsors. "We have 10 million people or more working in construction, hospitality, agriculture, dairy, fisheries, slaughterhouses who are undocumented but are not criminals," Salazar told reporters. "No more need to choose between amnesty or deportation. The Dignity bill is the answer!". The measure would establish a "Dignity Program" to grant legal status, including work and travel authority, to undocumented immigrants who have resided in the United States for at least five years. Eligible applicants would have to pass a criminal background check, pay taxes and submit $7,000 in restitution over the duration of the seven-year program. After completion, they could renew their status indefinitely to stay and work in the U.S. as long as they meet the criteria. Participants would not be eligible for federal benefits or entitlements. "Congress has not passed comprehensive immigration reform in our country in nearly four decades," Escobar said. "This bill addresses long standing, long overdue legislation that will benefit our Dreamers, some of the most important young people in our country who by no choice of their own are here and know no other land than America. This will help American families who are married to an undocumented spouse who have long sought relief through the courts, through law. This will help millions and millions of people who are a critical component of the American economy.” The bill makes additional investments to border security and enforcement but would protect sensitive locations from enforcement activities without prior approval, such as schools, hospitals and places of worship. It would also cut visa backlogs and reform the asylum program by expediting processing of asylum seekers with determinations made within 60 days. The bill also includes a $70 billion fund for training American workers.

Houston Chronicle [7/15/2025 7:00 AM, Julián Aguilar, 1982K] reports Houston immigrants are already feeling sticker shock from President Trump’s "Big, Beautiful Bill" as they face steep fees in asylum cases with no clear way to pay them. Attorneys and advocates say the fees are a new tactic by the Trump administration to make the process of seeking asylum or other forms of legal presence in the United States out of reach for immigrants. For a family of three from Cuba who sought asylum in Houston earlier this year, a failure to pay a hefty fee that is now required for some asylum cases led an immigration judge to deny their requests to stay in the country. "I opened up my email and I received a rejected filing notice," the family’s immigration attorney, John Dutton, told the Houston Chronicle. "The file was rejected in immigration court because — and this is brand new — it does not include the proper fees." Dutton said the law is so new, there’s no clear process in place to pay the immigration fees for those who can afford it.

Houston Chronicle [7/15/2025 11:03 AM, Anusha Fathepure, 1982K] reports Texas-based budget carrier Avelo Airlines announced Monday it will close its base at the Hollywood Burbank Airport and end all West Coast operations by the end of the year, citing financial reasons. The announcement comes as the Houston-based carrier has faced backlash over its agreement with the Department of Homeland Security in April to conduct deportation flights from Arizona under a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But company officials say the decision was financially driven and unrelated to pushback over the ICE contract. The company will reduce its operation at the airport to one aircraft in August and then, in early December, fully close the California base, which currently serves 13 routes. CEO Andrew Levy wrote in a statement that the company did not feel operating on the West Coast would deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop. "We intend to redeploy these BUR aircraft to business areas where we see more efficient longer-term growth prospects, while also building depth and breadth to our East Coast operation," Levy wrote. Avelo wrote in a statement to the Chronicle that the decision will have no impact on its flights in Houston or Dallas. The company clarified that the decision was not related to its contract with the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement with DHS sparked boycotts and protests across the nation. In May, around two dozen Houstonians gathered at Avelo Airline’s headquarters at Greenway Plaza as part of the national Stop Avelo Coalition.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/15/2025 10:18 AM, Travis Schlepp, 18649K]
FOX Business [7/15/2025 8:39 AM, Stephen Sorace, 9940K]
San Francisco Chronicle [7/15/2025 2:40 PM, Julie Johnson, 4120K] r

CBS News [7/15/2025 5:36 PM, Ken Molestina, 51860K] reports efforts to secure the border and combat illegal immigration in the state of Texas are being bolstered by two new bills signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday. He joined the Sheriff’s Association of Texas annual training along with the U.S. border czar, Tom Homan, in Fort Worth to discuss the legislation. SB 8 would require all Texas sheriff’s offices to enroll in a federal program known as 287(g). Currently, in North Texas, Tarrant, Denton, and Collin counties are already participating at different levels. Dallas County is not. SB 36 will create a division of Homeland Security within Texas’s Department of Public Safety to, among other things, consolidate border operations and intelligence resources.

AP [7/15/2025 9:28 PM, Rebecca Santana, 56000K] reports seventeen immigration court judges have been fired in recent days, according to the union that represents them, as the Trump administration pushes forward with its mass deportations of immigrants in the country. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents immigration court judges as well as other professionals, said in a news release that 15 judges were fired “without cause” on Friday and another two on Monday. The union said they were working in courts in 10 different states across the country — California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia. “It’s outrageous and against the public interest that at the same time Congress has authorized 800 immigration judges, we are firing large numbers of immigration judges without cause,” said the union’s President Matt Biggs. “This is nonsensical. The answer is to stop firing and start hiring.” The firings come as the courts have been increasingly at the center of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration enforcement efforts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arresting immigrants as they appear at court for proceedings. A spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which is the part of the Justice Department that oversees the courts, said in an email that the office would not comment on the firings. The large-scale arrests began in May and have unleashed fear among asylum-seekers and immigrants appearing in court. In what has become a familiar scene, a judge will grant a government lawyer’s request to dismiss deportation proceedings against an immigrant. Meanwhile, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are waiting in the hallway to arrest the person and put them on a fast track to deportation as soon as he or she leaves the courtroom.

FOX News [7/15/2025 7:59 AM, Greg Norman, 46878K] Video: HERE reports a panel of federal judges declined to permanently appoint an interim U.S. attorney who reportedly claimed just days ago that his extension was approved. The term of John Sarcone -- who was appointed to the role of United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York on an interim basis by Attorney General Pamela Bondi in March – is set to expire Tuesday, according to WXXI. "The Board of Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York declines to exercise the authority granted pursuant to 28 U.S. Code § 546(d) to appoint a United States attorney for the Northern District of New York," the panel said in a statement Monday, without elaborating further. Last month, Sarcone told Fox News that he feared for his life after allegedly being confronted by a knife-wielding illegal immigrant in Albany, the capital of New York. The Department of Homeland Security said on June 17, Saul Morales-Garcia, who is from El Salvador, "lunged at Sarcone with a knife while yelling aggressively in a foreign language." In the lead-up to the panel’s statement, Sarcone said Friday he received word that the federal judges had voted to extend his appointment, WNYT reported. However, the panel later issued a statement to the station saying "The Board of Judges of the Northern District of New York has taken no action with respect to U. S. Attorney Sarcone." Sarcone’s hopes of returning to the position on a permanent basis now rely on being formally nominated by President Donald Trump and then being confirmed by the Senate, WXXI reported. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg Law [7/15/2025 6:33 PM, Quinn Wilson, 1707K] reports attorneys who represented a class of unaccompanied migrant children collected more than $900,000 in fees Tuesday after a district court ruled that only a 15% reduction of the award was appropriate. A 15% reduction from the attorneys’ original request of just over $1 million is appropriate considering there were deficient billing entries in the fee bid, Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher said in a memorandum opinion. The US District Court for the District of Maryland partially granted the attorneys’ bid for the fees, rejected the US Department of Homeland Security’s argument that the fee award is inappropriate.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 1:30 PM, Matthew Boyle, 3077K] reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has commenced an ethics investigation into former DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni, who Democrats now claim is a "whistleblower" against Emil Bove. Bove, who is President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as an appellate judge on the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is one of Trump’s former personal attorneys. He also served in a senior role at the Department of Justice for several months at the beginning of Trump’s second term earlier this year. Bove’s confirmation is expected to move forward through the Senate Judiciary Committee later this week, but Democrats on the committee are trying one last-ditch desperate play to try to derail him: Rallying behind the claims of Reuveni, who served for many years as a career attorney at DOJ, Democrats have pressed Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to bring Reuveni in for a hearing before proceeding with Bove’s nomination. At the center of Reuveni’s allegations against Bove are claims that Bove sought to violate court orders, particularly about immigration and deportations including the order surrounding illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia. But now it’s coming to light here for the first time that Reuveni may have some serious issues of his own and that the Democrats’ star "whistleblower" does not have the most stellar record when it comes to ethics matters. Several Justice Department officials familiar with the matter told Breitbart News that in 2023 when Democrat Joe Biden was the president, Reuveni may have crossed major ethical boundaries by possibly revealing privileged information regarding then-Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials to personnel in the Florida Attorney General’s office.

Wall Street Journal [7/15/2025 6:04 PM, Staff, 646K] reports when the Secret Service failed to stop a gunman from taking eight shots at Donald Trump last summer at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., the country came close to a political disaster. A year later it isn’t clear that enough has changed. In a Senate report released Sunday, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Rand Paul called the near miss on Mr. Trump’s life that also killed an attendee and injured two others a “cascade of preventable failures.” The report concludes “the consequences imposed for the failures so far do not reflect the severity of the situation.” Many details of the Secret Service’s failure in Butler have been documented. Inadequate preparation was exacerbated by a breakdown in communications among Secret Service agents, local law enforcement providing additional security at the site, and counter-snipers unaware of intelligence regarding threats against Mr. Trump. The report says the Secret Service told the committee that before the Butler rally the agency had rejected requests for additional staff and “assets,” including counter-unmanned aerial system assets, to protect Mr. Trump, often because the Secret Service was stretched too thin. Conspiracy theorists will run with any suggestion that Mr. Trump was denied protective assets during the Biden Administration, but the problem seems to be bureaucratic bungling. “Notwithstanding the history of denials from USSS Headquarters,” the report says, “the current Chief Counsel of USSS, appointed by President Trump, told the Committee that there was no discernible evidence of political animus related to the reason for these denials.” The Secret Service has struggled with a mission divided between protecting the President and other potential targets and the odd-duck pairing of financial investigations. Agents rotate between protective details and desk jobs, an arrangement that has left the Service with an annual attrition rate from 8% to more than 10% in recent years. That’s several times the rate at the FBI or CIA. The Butler failure boggles the mind, but the most effective short-term reforms will address the on-site communications breakdown that allowed a disgruntled loner to defeat an agency with a “zero-fail” mission. The agency also needs more protective agents in the field who aren’t working desk jobs on the side.

Blaze [7/15/2025 6:00 AM, Brian Lonergan, 1805K] reports in yet another low point for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D), she marched into the drug-ridden chaos of MacArthur Park — press corps in tow — to join a protest last week against federal immigration enforcement. She demanded that agents leave the area immediately. The stunt accomplished nothing beyond generating a photo op and pushing the false narrative that Bass stood for her city’s "honor." In reality, her appearance exposed a familiar truth: Sanctuary city mayors like Bass offer no real solutions to the crises they helped create. Worse, they routinely display ignorance of how federalism actually works. The Supremacy Clause — Article VI, Clause 2 of the Constitution — makes clear that federal law overrides state and local laws when they conflict. Immigration policy, long upheld by the courts as a federal responsibility, lies squarely within Washington’s authority. In Arizona v. United States (2012), the Supreme Court reaffirmed that states and localities cannot pursue policies that obstruct federal immigration enforcement. By declaring Los Angeles a sanctuary city and demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stand down, Bass didn’t just express a policy preference. She tried to seize power that the Constitution explicitly grants to the federal government. This isn’t a symbolic squabble. Immigration enforcement involves national security, public safety, and international diplomacy. Local governments lack both the authority and the expertise to handle these matters on their own. The leftist mayor’s public campaign against ICE is especially galling considering that the agency’s presence in Los Angeles stems directly from the city’s sanctuary policies. For years, Los Angeles has limited cooperation with federal immigration authorities, refusing to honor ICE detainers and withholding information when illegal aliens are released from custody.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 10:32 AM, Warner Todd Huston, 3077K] reports Pro-illegal migrant activist groups are expanding their campaign against President Donald Trump’s deportation policies, and their efforts are helping to generate more violence and criminal actions. These organizations are retooling from supporting illegal entry into the U.S. to creating training workshops, passing out know-your-rights flyers, and organizing networks of volunteers to spot, track, and attack ICE agents while they are performing their legal duties. These activists and their tracking networks are increasingly violent as they become bolder and more organized. They have already prevented several attempts by ICE to arrest gangbangers and criminals who have deportation orders out against them and some officers have been injured as the activists organize riots to disrupt the enforcement of immigration laws. "In LA, these were not merely ‘demonstrations,’ they were riots — and attacks on federal law enforcement will never be tolerated. The Trump Administration will continue enforcing federal immigration law no matter how upset and violent left-wing rioters get," said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, according to the Washington Post. One example of the activities by these networks of informants is centered on the parking lots of Home Depot and other big box hardware chains where day laborers often gather to wait for employers to troll by to hire them illegally. In L.A., groups including Union del Barrio and Los Angeles Tenants Union are using volunteers to stake out these parking lots and when they see, or think they see, ICE officers drive in, they call their HQs and then yell over loudspeakers that ICE is coming, the Mercury News reported. Another such group seeking to disrupt law enforcement activities is Orange County Rapid Response Network (OCRRN), a group working out of the L.A. area, which claims to have hundreds of volunteers, the New Yorker reported. OCRRN helped to organize a riot early in June featuring rocks, bottled water, and other items thrown at federal agents, who responded with pepper balls and tear gas, the paper added.

CBS News [7/15/2025 8:00 PM, Lilia Luciano, Luisa Garcia, 51860K] reports that, as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on illegal immigration, some migrants are turning to apps that tell them the location of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to avoid arrest. Oscar, who came to the U.S. from Venezuela two years ago, drives horses across the country for work. Oscar, who asked CBS News to change his name to protect his identity, works legally in the country under temporary protected status. But, he says that offers little protection from the threat of an ICE arrest and indefinite detention. "I am traumatized right now," Oscar said. "I feel like somebody is behind me, even if I don’t do anything wrong." To do his job, Oscar relies on the app Coqui, which shows him if ICE agents are nearby. On a recent trip hauling horses from New York to South Carolina, he spotted ICE activity, forcing him to take an alternate route. Coqui is one of several apps that have been developed recently to let people know when ICE agents are nearby. ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan told CBS News she thinks such apps are dangerous and could be used to spot and ambush ICE agents. "There’s always a form of free speech and a lot of things in technology, and we understand that and respect that, but where it crosses a line is when it becomes dangerous, not only to the ICE officers ...," Sheahan said, adding, "If it’s impeding in law enforcement effort, that’s where that line comes in as well." Coqui was developed by a somewhat unlikely founder: Peter, who asked CBS News not to use his last name to protect his identity. He runs an animal rescue. Asked what motivated him to create the app, Peter told CBS News, "There certainly is the desire to protect the people that you love, but there’s also a very practical reason. We need help here, and we need workers to get to work." Peter said some of his employees weren’t just not showing up for work, "People were scared to leave their homes." Even though he’s here legally, Oscar says the app lets him do his job with a little less fear. "I’m afraid because these people don’t ask you before getting detained," he said. "I saw people I know getting detained and being deported." Being deported, Oscar says, would mean "the end of my American dream."

Axios [7/15/2025 5:12 PM, Alayna Alvarez, 13599K] reports a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general is urging Congress to ban federal immigration agents from wearing masks or plainclothes during enforcement operations. It’s the latest flashpoint in a growing national effort by blue-state officials to curb what they see as overreaches by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and stop tactics they argue are designed to sow fear. It comes amid a spike in reports of ICE officers snatching people from streets, homes, workplaces and courthouses while concealing their identity and using unmarked vehicles. In a letter to congressional leaders on Tuesday, the attorneys general called on Congress to pass legislation prohibiting federal immigration agents from hiding their faces and requiring them to display identification and agency insignia — with exceptions only in narrowly justified cases. They argue the tactics erode public trust, create confusion with criminal kidnappings, and violate core democratic values.

The Hill [7/15/2025 6:00 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18649K] reports the dramatic surge in funding for immigration enforcement agencies puts spending at a level that rivals foreign military forces, creating a benchmark critics fear will serve as the norm for years to come. President Trump’s "big, beautiful bill" triples funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Its $30 billion now exceeds funding levels for the militaries of Canada and Turkey. The bill likewise allocates $45 billion in funding for detention centers, allowing the U.S. to more than double its current capacity in the hopes of detaining more than 100,000 people. It also designates roughly $47 billion for continuing construction of Trump’s border wall. "I think what we can’t even quite comprehend yet is what the human impact will be and the ways in which this money is going to further convert the United States into a police state for immigrant communities and beyond," Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, told The Hill. "They’re talking about creating a militarized environment for anyone in this country they believe to be worthy of deportation." Border czar Tom Homan over the weekend told Politico the bill is "going to give us more resources and more boots on the ground, so when we have to go to these sanctuary cities, we want to send in many more agents in sanctuary cities. … It’s going to ramp up deportations, because it’s going to buy us some more beds to hold people. It is going to buy more transportation contracts to remove people more efficiently and quicker." Jorge Loweree, director of policy at the American Immigration Council, said the funding levels aren’t just historic — he’s worried they could also become the baseline funding levels for immigration enforcement. Both immigration advocates and Trump administration officials have referred to the funding levels as "unprecedented." "The unprecedented funding for ICE will enable my hardworking officers and agents to continue making America safe again by identifying, arresting and removing criminal aliens from our communities," acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said when the bill passed Congress earlier this month.

CNN [7/15/2025 4:43 PM, Holmes Lybrand, 21433K] reports federal investigators normally tasked with uncovering narcotic and financial crimes were told to prioritize the arrest of a university student with no criminal record, and not tell her that her visa was revoked, a Homeland Security Investigation agent testified Tuesday, a marked shift for the agency under President Donald Trump. The agent, Patrick Cunningham, appeared during the second week of a trial in Boston over the Trump administration’s so-called ideological deportation policy, which a group of university professors say is intended to limit protected political speech. The trial has highlighted how the Department of Homeland Security began taking orders from the State Department as it targeted certain professors and students to change their immigration status and work to have them deported. Critics have claimed the administration is targeting these individuals because of their pro-Palestinian views and statements against Israel. Cunningham was asked Tuesday about the arrest of Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was approached by a plain-clothed officer near her Somerville, Massachusetts, home in March.

New York Post [7/15/2025 3:18 PM, Jennie Taer and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 49956K] reports a Venezuelan migrant who begged a judge to send him to Rikers Island to avoid being taken into custody to waiting immigration agents has been turned over to the feds. Nolveiro Vera Ordonez, 30, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court June 4 on petty larceny and possession of stolen property charges for allegedly stealing a bicycle while five masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waited for him outside the courtroom — prompting him to demand to be locked up. Although the judge complied and ordered him held on $100 "voluntary" bail, Ordonez couldn’t outrun the feds forever — he was handed over to the Department of Homeland Security on a federal warrant less than three weeks later, authorities confirmed this week. According to the department, Ordonez was turned over to the feds on June 23. Federal sources told The Post that Ordonez was being held at the Brooklyn federal lockup this week after being picked up by US Marshals and is awaiting transfer to Texas. As of late Monday, he was not in ICE custody and was not currently due for deportation, sources said. Ordonez was picked up by police for allegedly stealing a bike, and was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, petty larceny and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 4:22 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports an illegal alien has pleaded guilty to causing a crash in Hazelwood, Missouri, that ultimately killed 11-year-old Travis Wolfe just one day before his 12th birthday. This week, Venezuelan illegal alien Endrina Bracho pleaded guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter and two counts of second-degree assault for causing the December 2023 crash that killed Wolfe. Bracho had been charged in March of last year with the three counts she pleaded guilty to, as well as two counts of child endangerment, and one count of driving without a license. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who shed a national spotlight on the tragedy, revealed that Bracho had arrived at the United States-Mexico border sometime in 2023 and was released into the U.S. interior by former President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The case became even more of a scandal late last year when Judge Bruce Hilton let Bracho out of jail without paying bail so that she could spend the Christmas holiday with family and friends. Bracho is facing almost 20 years in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for September.

FOX News [7/15/2025 8:26 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports U.S. Attorney for Alvarado, Texas Nancy Larson joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the manhunt for Benjamin Song, a former Marine charged with the attempted murder of an ICE officer. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [7/15/2025 11:39 AM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports that prosecutors in the District of Arizona filed federal charges against a Phoenix-area business owner for employing illegal aliens. The owner, an illegal alien from Mexico, was also charged with being an alien in possession of a firearm. ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested 42-year-old Blademir Angulo Audeves, a Mexican national illegally present in the United States, on July 8. Prosecutors charged the man with Harboring of an Illegal Alien, Knowingly Employing Unauthorized Aliens, Improper Entry by an Alien, and Alien in Possession of a Firearm. HSI agents began investigating Angulo in March based on allegations that he was employing illegal aliens without work authorizations at his chain of Taqueria El Taco Loko restaurants and trucks in the Phoenix area. Agents determined at least 12 illegal aliens were working in the various business locations, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona. Angulo allegedly housed illegal aliens in two of his Phoenix-area homes. Agents executed a warrant at Angulo’s residences and business locations on July 8 and took the man into custody. While executing search warrants at two of Angulo’s residences, the agents reportedly encountered "several Mexican citizens without legal permission to be in the United States. The agents also arrested Angulo. Prosecutors say agents found three firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition inside the home in a master bedroom closet.

NBC News [7/15/2025 4:49 PM, Mirna Alsharif, 44540K] reports ICE detained an expectant father in Washington state just months before his wife is scheduled to give birth. On Friday morning, Guilherme Lemes Cardoso E Silva was on his way to pick up his daughter in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, about 100 miles north of Seattle, when multiple unmarked ICE vehicles containing masked agents stopped him on a private road near his home, according to his wife, Rachel Leidig. Silva, originally from Brazil, is a 35-year-old visual artist currently based in Washington state. Photos posted to his Instagram account show some of his colorful work that can be seen across the country. Silva and Leidig met in 2023 at a Flaming Lips concert in San Francisco. The couple married in April and are expecting a baby boy in October. Silva — or Gui, as Leidig calls him — was meant to move to Sausalito, California, at the end of the month to be with Leidig. "He’s just one of those people who it’s like, when you meet him he’s just so loving and warm and kind," Leidig said. "Anyone that genuinely knows Gui knows that he’s an amazing person.” Silva has no criminal record or outstanding warrants, Leidig said. Silva and Leidig were working with an immigration attorney and in the process of submitting an application to legalize his residency status in the U.S. when Silva was detained. After his detainment, Leidig submitted an I-130 form, or a "petition for alien relative." He was also in the process of renewing his work permit, Leidig said.

AP [7/15/2025 2:27 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports a transgender asylum seeker from Mexico has been released from an immigration detention facility in Washington state, where she was held for over a month after her arrest at an Oregon immigration court, attorneys said Tuesday. The release of the transgender woman, identified in court filings as O-J-M, came after a federal judge in Oregon ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday to free her. In her order, U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio wrote that O-J-M had been deprived of her liberty by the government without procedural due process. The nonprofit Innovation Law Lab, whose attorneys represent O-J-M, said in an email Tuesday that she was "now home with her family.” "We are grateful the court recognized that OJM deserves to be free while her case proceeds," the group said in an emailed statement. "No one should be punished for seeking safety.” O-J-M said in court filings that she crossed the border in September 2023, two years after being raped by cartel members because of her gender, and had regularly checked in at ICE offices as instructed. O-J-M was arrested in Portland’s immigration court in early June after a judge granted the government’s request to dismiss her case. She was then transferred to an ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, where she was held for over 40 days.

Los Angeles Times [7/15/2025 11:48 AM, Hannah Fry, Brittny Mejia and Rachel Uranga, 14672K] reports there have been numerous legal challenges to President Trump’s immigration sweeps across California that have led to at least 3,000 arrests. But one lawsuit has the potential to dramatically alter the policy. A coalition of civil rights groups and private attorneys sued the federal government, challenging the cases of three immigrants and two U.S. citizens swept up in chaotic arrests that have sparked widespread protests since early June. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, an appointee of President Biden, temporarily blocked federal agents in the Southland from using racial profiling to carry out immigration arrests after she found sufficient evidence that agents were using race, a person’s job or their location, and their language to form "reasonable suspicion" — the legal standard needed to detain an individual. Frimpong ruled that using race, ethnicity, language, accent, location or employment as a pretext for immigration enforcement is forbidden by the 4th Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. The order covers Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The judge also ordered that all those in custody at a downtown detention facility known as B-18 must be given 24-hour access to lawyers and a confidential phone line. On Monday, the administration asked a federal appeals court to stay the judge’s order blocking the roving patrols, allowing it to resume raids across the seven California counties. "It is untenable for a district judge to single-handedly ‘restructure the operations’ of federal immigration enforcement," the appeal argued. "This judicial takeover cannot be allowed to stand.”

FOX News [7/15/2025 10:27 AM, Michael Dorgan, 46878K] Video HERE reports a California professor has been arrested for allegedly throwing a tear gas canister at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a massive raid on a cannabis farm last week, where agitators also hurled rocks at law enforcement vehicles. The raid led to the arrest of more than 350 illegal aliens and the farm is suspected of using 14 children in potential forced labor, exploitation and trafficking violations. Jonathan Anthony Caravello, a math professor at California State University Channel Islands, was arrested by federal agents conducting a raid at Glass House Farms in Ventura County, California, on Thursday, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli confirmed via X. Essayli was responding to a local report on Caravello’s arrest, which quotes a social media post from the California Faculty Association (CFA) labor union accusing agents of "kidnapping" Caravello. "Professor Jonathan Caravello was not ‘kidnapped’ by federal agents,’" Essayli wrote. "He was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement." Essayli wrote that Caravello was charged with a violation of 18 USC 111, assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal officer. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC 7 Los Angeles [7/15/2025 2:11 PM, Staff, 168K] reports the disabled Army veteran who was detained and held for days after last week’s immigration raid in Camarillo is speaking out. George Retes, 25, reached out to Eyewitness News personally to tell his side of the story. In a statement, he said he was wrongfully detained last Thursday while reporting for his security job at Glass House Farms. Retes added that he identified himself as a U.S. citizen and employee of the cannabis farm, but federal agents ignored him. He claims he was held for three days without being charged, without a phone call, without access to legal help, and without medical care for the chemical agents he came into contact with. Retes’ statement reads, in part: "What happened to me wasn’t just a mistake - it was a violation of my civil rights. It was excessive force. And it was a failure of justice. I’m speaking out not just for myself, but for every citizen who could have ended up in my place that day." Retes is now calling for a full investigation into the actions of federal agents involved in last week’s immigration operation. Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, released the following statement: "George Retes was arrested and has been released. He has not been charged. The US Attorney’s Office is reviewing his case, along with dozens of others, for potential federal charges related to the execution of the federal search warrant in Camarillo."

Los Angeles Times [7/15/2025 6:00 AM, Jenny Gold, 14672K] reports Sonia’s son has been anxious lately, crying and asking why their neighbor had been picking him up from preschool instead of his mom. She doesn’t know what to tell him. At just 4 years old, he’s too young to understand the truth. Sonia has lived in the U.S. without legal status for 25 years, harvesting squash, cilantro and tomatoes in the fields of Riverside County. But she can no longer risk leaving her house to pick up her child for fear of being detained or deported by federal agents. She has begun preparing for something far worse than a missed pickup — the possibility that their separation could become permanent. Last week, Sonia visited the offices of TODEC, a legal center in the Inland Empire serving immigrants and farm workers, to fill out the forms that will allow her sister to take over the care of her three American citizen children — ages 4, 7, and 10 — in the event that she and her husband are deported. "I already want to cry," said Sonia, who requested that her full name not be used to protect her. Since June 6 — when the Department of Homeland Security began widespread raids throughout the Los Angeles region — the number of immigrant parents making emergency arrangements for their children’s care has skyrocketed. Parents have flooded legal rights organizations in person and on Zoom for help filling out the forms that will designate another adult to take over responsibility of their children, many of whom are citizens, if they are detained or deported. An estimated 5.62 million American children have an undocumented household member, and nearly 2 million of them are under the age of 6. More than half of these children do not have a parent with legal status, according to a report from the Brookings Institution. Parents who are detained by ICE are "asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "DHS takes its responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to ensure that children are safe and protected." McLaughlin said that parents in the country illegally "can take control of their departure" with a the CBP Home Mobile Application, an app with services provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "The United States is offering illegal aliens $1,000 and a free flight to self-deport now," McLaughlin said. "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.”

Los Angeles Times [7/15/2025 9:04 PM, Patrick J. McDonnell and Cecilia Sanchez Vidal, 14672K] reports more than half of the Mexican citizens detained by U.S. immigration agents and recently interviewed by Mexican consular authorities in Los Angeles had been living in the United States for at least a decade — and more than one-third had lived in the United States for more than 20 years. Almost one-third of those interviewed had U.S.-born children. Those are among the findings of a study released Tuesday by Carlos González Gutiérrez, the Mexican consul general in Los Angeles. The findings, the consul said, expose as false the widespread notion that many of those detained during the Trump administration’s worksite raids had only recently crossed the border. "It’s clear that the majority of these people had made roots in this country and were integrated into United States society," the consul said. "These types of operations create fear, create panic.” Los Angeles County is home to the nation’s largest community of immigrants from Mexico. The survey results come from 330 detained Mexican citizens interviewed from June 6 — when U.S. immigration officials launched an ongoing series of raids — to July 7. The individuals — 309 men and 21 women, all adults — were interviewed at a federal building in downtown Los Angeles after being detained "as a result of operations carried out by various federal agencies," the consulate said in a news release. Not included in the findings were scores of Mexican citizens detained at other federal sites and during the recent raids at the Glass House cannabis facilities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Of those surveyed, the consulate said, 52% had resided for at least a decade in the United States, and 36% had resided in the country for more than 20 years. Almost 1 in 3 — 31% — had children born in the United States. The detained Mexican citizens included in the survey worked in a wide variety of occupations, the consulate said, but the largest sectors represented were car washes (16.4%), construction (13.3%), factories (13%) and landscaping (11.5%). "The vast majority are hardworking individuals who have contributed to the economy of Southern California for years," the consulate said. There was no word on how many of the 330 Mexican citizens had been deported to Mexico or how many decided to fight removal in court. "Every deportation is devastating for those involved," the consul said. "In every case there is a person or family that pays a high price and is emblematic of the high human cost that is implicit behind every deportation.” Diplomats assigned to Mexico’s broad web of consulates across the United States are tasked with speaking with detained Mexican citizens and trying to provide them with legal and other help. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has publicly decried the "persecution" of immigrants during the recent U.S. raids, has directed consular authorities to step up their assistance in light of the Trump administration’s mass deportation program.

San Francisco Chronicle [7/15/2025 7:00 AM, Bob Egelko and Ko Lyn Cheang, 4120K] reports just before 10 p.m. on July 4, which is typically a court holiday, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered immigration agents to release a Peruvian woman they had seized outside the courthouse a day earlier. Frescia Garro Pinchi arrived in the United States two years ago seeking political asylum, saying she would face persecution if returned to Peru. Now 27 and living in Hayward, she has no criminal record, has serious medical conditions, is working and raising a family, and posed no apparent threat to society when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested her after a hearing in immigration court, said U.S. District Judge Rita Lin. They took her to an ICE detention center in San Francisco, then, according to her lawyer, shackled her by hand and foot and drove her nearly 300 miles to ICE’s Mesa Verde detention center in Bakersfield, run by GEO Group, a private prison company that is the largest detention provider for ICE with about 22,000 beds at 20 ICE facilities nationwide. Lin said she was joining "a series of other District Courts" in requiring the government to seek approval from a "neutral decision-maker" before arresting non-citizens who have been on longstanding release while seeking legal U.S. residency. Abby Sullivan Engen, the woman’s attorney, said the action was the result of the Trump administration’s order to arrest 3,000 immigrants every day. The woman is one of at least 30 migrants who’ve been arrested at their immigration hearings in San Francisco in a new Trump administration tactic to ramp up mass deportations of the nation’s approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants. Immigrants arrested by ICE are held, usually for many months, in sites that are even less subject to outside inspection or regulation than jails or prisons. Bay Area detainees are typically taken to Mesa Verde in Bakersfield and the nearby Golden Gate Annex, where conditions were criticized in a May 2025 report by state Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office. Immigrant advocates have voiced concern over conditions in overcrowded ICE detention facilities as the Trump administration detained a record 58,000 people as of June 29, about 72% of whom have no criminal records, according to TRAC. After someone is detained, "time is of the essence" for their attorneys to prevent them from being subject to expedited removal, or deportation without a hearing, said Jordan Weiner, legal director of the immigration removal defense program at San Francisco nonprofit La Raza Centro Legal. She also serves as an on-call attorney with the Rapid Response Network, providing emergency counsel to people who are detained. The Trump administration has fast-tracked deportations of people who cannot prove they’ve been in the U.S. for at least two years, allowing only a hearing before an immigration judge appointed by the Justice Department, with no right to a government-funded attorney.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 6:25 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 3077K] reports a Mexican sex trafficker is facing 15 years in jail after a team at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) exposed his massive network. An ICE investigation led to the arrest of Hugo Hernandez-Velazquez, who was extradited to the United States from Mexico in February of 2021, according to an ICE press release. Hernandez-Velazquez pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking and was sentenced on July 10. He will be deported after completing his sentence. Prosecutors proved in court that Hernandez-Velazquez and his family in Mexico used force, fraud, and coercion to trick young women in Mexico into engaging in prostitution in the U.S. by telling them they had marriage proposals from men living in the U.S. But once the woman made it to America, they were enslaved into the sex trade. The girls were beaten, forced to undergo abortions, often heavily drugged, and were told their families in Mexico were at risk if they did not obey their traffickers. The organization headed by Hernandez-Velazquez operated in New York, Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. "For nearly a decade, the defendant and his family oversaw a vicious sex trafficking campaign wrought with violence, manipulation, coercion, and outright force against women whom they lured into romantic relationships through false promises of love and support," said ICE Homeland Security Investigations New York Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patell. "Every day, victims are targeted for human trafficking and other vile forms of exploitation and abuse, often at the hands of their own spouses or purported caretakers. Today’s sentencing is no doubt a direct result of the bravery of each survivor who courageously spoke up. Together with our partners, HSI is unflinchingly committed to investigating and vigorously pursuing anyone, anywhere, who sexually exploits the very individuals they claim to care for.”

Bloomberg [7/15/2025 6:38 PM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 1707K] reports the Senate voted to confirm Joseph Edlow as the next director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency charged with administering green cards and other immigration benefits. Edlow, who was approved by a 52-47 margin, enters the position with plans for the agency to play a key role in President Donald Trump’s enforcement agenda. Trump now has his nominees confirmed to lead each Homeland Security immigration agency, except for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Prior experience at USCIS, including a stint as acting director in the last year of Trump’s first administration, is expected to be an asset for Edlow in pushing through tougher policies on enforcement and vetting. He’s already signaled plans to axe postgraduate training options for foreign graduates and remove temporary immigrant protections expanded under the Biden administration. Edlow also promised to reduce backlogs for asylum and green card applications. But he told lawmakers in a May confirmation hearing that "at its core, USCIS must be an immigration enforcement agency.” His nomination was praised by groups advocating to restrict immigration like the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Heritage Foundation. As a visiting fellow at Heritage he contributed to the group’s Project 2025 blueprint, which proposed policy changes such as adding biometric requirements for immigration benefits and expanding the role of the USCIS fraud detection unit in signing off on petitions. During Edlow’s first go-round at USICS, the agency ratcheted up administrative hurdles that slowed approval of benefits. It added to the waiting period before asylum seekers could get work authorization and required Dreamers to renew Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals protections more frequently.

Telemundo [7/15/2025 1:51 PM, Catalina Ruiz, 37K] reports the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ( USCIS ) announced that it is working to increase fees for certain immigration procedures. The agency made the announcement on its website in a brief message that provided no further details. "USCIS will soon begin charging new fees for certain immigration benefit applications. We will provide details on the implementation of these fee changes in the coming days," the brief statement reads. Although the Donald Trump administration has not released further details about this announcement, the National Immigration Forum warned in a report that the increase in immigration fees was contemplated in the Republican president’s " Big and Beautiful" fiscal bill. USCIS has not announced when new fees will apply to certain immigration procedures, but they are likely to begin in fiscal year 2026.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 8:13 AM, John Binder, 3077K] reports Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is introducing legislation that would finally end the nation’s birthright citizenship policy that rewards the United States-born children of illegal aliens with automatic American citizenship. On Tuesday, Cotton will introduce the Constitutional Citizenship Clarification Act, Breitbart News has exclusively learned. The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify that the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, often referred to as "anchor babies," are not eligible for birthright American citizenship. Likewise, the bill would ensure that the U.S.-born children of foreign terrorists and foreign spies are similarly not rewarded with birthright American citizenship. "There is no constitutional right for illegal aliens to cross the border to gain citizenship for their children," Cotton said in a statement. "Granting birthright citizenship to illegal aliens has contributed to the highest levels of illegal immigration in history. Fixing this will help reduce the damage from Joe Biden’s catastrophic border crisis."

Bloomberg [7/15/2025 12:14 PM, Erik Larson, 19320K] reports President Donald Trump is fighting to end automatic citizenship for children born to parents who are in the country unlawfully or on temporary visas, part of his broader crackdown on undocumented immigrants and a change that could overturn more than a century of legal precedent. Trump took aim at birthright citizenship with an executive order hours after his January swearing-in, triggering lawsuits by civil rights groups and Democrat-led states. They argued Trump couldn’t unilaterally alter birthright citizenship because it’s enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. On July 10, Joseph Laplante, a federal judge in New Hampshire, granted a preliminary injunction, restricting enforcement of Trump’s order nationwide while the case proceeds. The US Supreme Court is expected to take up whether the order is constitutional in its next session, which begins in fall 2025.

The Washington Examiner [7/15/2025 11:11 AM, Annabella Rosciglione, 1934K] reports that an appeals court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from revoking temporary protected status for thousands of people from Afghanistan living in the United States. The Trump administration was planning to revoke Afghans’ temporary protected status as part of a broader push to revoke the status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants living legally in the U.S. with TPS. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, however, blocked the administration from withdrawing temporary protected status for one week. The Biden administration extended TPS to Afghans in 2023, citing a "deepening humanitarian crisis" and "economic collapse" in Afghanistan since the U.S. military’s 2021 withdrawal and the Taliban takeover of the country. The administration has said these protections are temporary and that Afghanistan’s security situation has improved. Opponents have said the country is still unsafe, as those who are sent back to Afghanistan will face the Taliban. The TPS program is different from the more permanent "special immigrant visas," which were issued to Afghans who worked for the U.S. military, typically as translators, in the U.S. war against the Taliban. Members of Congress, including Republicans, have been apprehensive about the administration ending TPS for Afghans due to the threat of the Taliban. The Trump administration has moved in recent weeks to terminate protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, Cameroon, and Afghanistan. This includes around 348,000 Haitians, who were allowed into the U.S. due to political instability and extreme violence in their country, around 348,000 Venezuelans who left under Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorship and the country’s deep economic crisis, and around 52,000 Hondurans and about 3,000 Nicaraguans who have had long-term TPS due to widespread damage from a 1998 hurricane. Breitbart [7/15/2025 6:46 AM, Staff, 3077K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the designation for Afghanistan would be terminated on July 14. "We’ve reviewed the conditions in Afghanistan with our interagency partners, and they do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation," she said. Prior to the order on Monday, the National Immigration Forum warned that ending TPS designation for Afghanistan would disrupt thousands of lives, harm their U.S. communities and remove essential workers from the workforce. "These individuals are not only our allies, but our friends, employees and neighbors," Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, said in a statement. Breitbart [7/15/2025 5:25 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports CASA, Inc., the open borders organization, filed a lawsuit. TPS for Afghans was supposed to be terminated on July 12, but the appeals court has now halted DHS from moving forward with the plan, giving the Trump administration and CASA about a week to file briefs on the merits of the lawsuit. There has been widespread fraud and abuse within the Afghan resettlement carried out by Biden, law enforcement agencies and inspectors general offices have repeatedly found.

Washington Post [7/16/2025 5:01 AM, Danielle Villasana, Maham Javaid, and Yutao Chen, 32099K] reports a final trip to the laundromat before she packed her belongings. A phone call to Wells Fargo to let them know she was leaving. A flurry of farewells with friends and former co-workers on Staten Island and in Brooklyn. That was Kataleya Nativi Baca’s last day in the United States. The 34-year-old transgender woman came to the U.S. in 2021 to request asylum. She was permitted to stay while her claim was being considered and was waiting for her interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But now President Donald Trump was promising to deport 1 million immigrants in his first year in office. Videos of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents busting through windows to wrestle people into zip ties were flashing across social media. The government was flying detainees, handcuffed and shackled, to third countries. Asylum seekers were not spared. “The president came into power and threatened to take our rights away and deport us,” she told The Washington Post as she ran last-minute errands. “I don’t want them to deport me. It’s better I go on my own.”

Daily Caller [7/15/2025 2:31 PM, Christine Sellers, 1010K] reports that an illegal migrant from Venezuela pleaded guilty Monday to causing a December 2023 car crash that killed an 11-year-old Missouri boy and injured his family, according to FOX 2 Now. Endrina Bracho pleaded guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter and two counts of second-degree assault in St. Louis County Circuit Court as a result of the crash, FOX 2 Now reported. Bracho entered into a blind plea, which means the defendant agreed to plead guilty "without prior discussion or agreement with the prosecution about sentencing," according to the outlet. At the time of the incident, Bracho was traveling westbound on Dunn Road in a Dodge van with her two children. She then allegedly crossed into the eastbound lane, where she struck Travis Wolfe and his family’s Jeep head-on, the outlet reported, citing both the Hazelwood Police Department and an eyewitness. Bracho is in the U.S. illegally, FOX 2 Now reported in January 2025, citing court records. At the time, she was being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Indiana, according to the outlet. Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley reacted to Wolfe’s death by introducing "Travis’s Law" in January 2025. In a statement announcing the measure, Hawley emphasized protecting Americans from preventable crimes.

Detroit Free Press [7/15/2025 3:12 PM, Beki San Martin, 4241K] reports Head Start providers across the country on July 10 received notice from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that they are now required to verify the citizenship and immigration status of kids before enrollment, effectively barring some families from accessing Head Start programming. Leadership of Michigan’s Head Start Association said they await guidance on how to implement the new rule. The policy requires documentation of immigration status as a condition for enrollment for the first time in the program’s 60-year history. "Head Start grant recipients will be asked to determine eligibility for newly enrolled children based on the immigration status of the child," according to Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Emily Hilliard. A press release from Health and Human services said it is changing its policy to better follow federal law and make sure that federal benefits only go to eligible Americans. At the moment, though the policy is actively in effect, no children will be unenrolled from the program nor will Michigan Head Start providers’ enrollment practices change as grant recipients wait for answers around exactly how they will be expected to implement this policy, according to Robin Bozek, executive director of the Michigan Head Start Association. "Like other recent executive actions, this notice does not provide guidance or detail on how to implement the policy," said Bozek. "It is important for Head Start programs to continue to serve children and not make any immediate changes to enrollment policy while we sort out the nuances of this policy. There is no immediate enforcement mechanism and it will take some time to get answers to outstanding questions.” For around 30 years, Head Start, a federal program that provides free preschool for children in low-income families, among other services, was exempt from a 1998 interpretation of a law that prohibits some immigrants from accessing public benefits. The new policy undoes this exemption for Head Start along with 22 other health and human service programs. According to Hilliard, guidance around how Head Start grant recipients should actually implement the new policy is forthcoming from the Administration for Children and Families, the division of HHS that oversees Head Start. No further specifics were given. In the absence of details, basic questions remain unanswered and Head Start programs cannot act, said Bozek.

Federalist [7/15/2025 9:03 AM, Beth Brelje, 1142K] reports welcome to 2025, where we are still uncovering election fraud from the 2020 and 2022 elections. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating more than 100 possible noncitizens who may have voted in both the 2020 and 2022 elections, casting more than 200 ballots. In this case, most of the suspected illegal ballots were cast in Harris County. Paxton is also investigating in Guadalupe, Cameron, and Eastland counties, based on information from the Texas Secretary of State. Add the possible 100 fraudulent voters announced this week to the 33 potential noncitizens who may have voted illegally in 2024. Paxton started investigating those 33 voters in June after the Texas secretary of state made a referral, based on information found in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (USCIS) SAVE database, showing they voted in the 2024 general election. Some 1,200 federal agencies use SAVE to verify U.S. citizenship or determine current immigration. For example, when an applicant applies for a Social Security Number, a drivers license, or for public housing assistance, the agency will check SAVE to see if they are a citizen. Legally, noncitizens are not allowed to vote in U.S. elections. "Illegal aliens and foreign nationals must not be allowed to influence Texas elections by casting illegal ballots with impunity. I will not allow it to continue," Paxton said in a statement. "Thanks to President Trump’s decisive action to help states safeguard the ballot box, this investigation will help Texas hold noncitizens accountable for unlawfully voting in American elections. If you’re a noncitizen who illegally cast a ballot, you will face the full force of the law.” No one can realistically say fraudulent, noncitizen voting doesn’t happen. There are too many examples to ignore.

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [7/15/2025 4:04 PM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K]

Newsweek [7/15/2025 4:40 PM, Andrew Stanton, 52220K] reports an Oklahoma man who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam when he was 13 years old has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), his family said. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsweek that Ho Nguyen is a "serial criminal." Newsweek also reached out to ICE and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for comment via email. Nguyen, who has lived in the United States since he was 13 years old and was on a work visa, was taken into custody during a routine court check-in on Thursday, his family told local news station KFOR. They are worried he could be deported back to Vietnam, where he hasn’t lived for decades. ICE data shows that Nguyen was being held in the David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The detainment likely stems from an arrest in the 1990s on an illegal gambling charge, reported the news station. He served his sentence and had his green card revoked but has been working to get it back since. He came to the U.S. through the Amerasian Homecoming Act, a law passed in 1987 that allowed those born to an American father in Vietnam to immigrate to the U.S. His family is seeking a DNA test to help him become a citizen and said his detainment has upended their lives, the station reported. McLaughlin also told Newsweek: "On July 10, ICE arrested Ho Van Nguyen, an illegal alien and serial criminal from Vietnam who was ordered removed from the U.S. by a judge. Nguyen’s criminal record includes convictions for aggravated robbery for which he was sentenced to 17 years in prison, unlawful possession of a firearm, and DUI. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal aliens are not welcome in the U.S."

Axios [7/15/2025 7:55 PM, Russell Contreras, 13599K] reports illegal crossings at the nation’s borders have fallen to their lowest point in decades, according to new U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) numbers. The data suggest that President Trump’s hardline immigration approach — especially along the U.S.-Mexico border — may be achieving its goal, even as the administration has not stopped all noncitizens without papers from entry. Driving the news: Illegal crossings in June at the nation’s borders dropped to the lowest level ever recorded, the CBP said Tuesday. There were 25,228 total encounters nationwide, which is the lowest monthly total in CBP history, according to the agency. U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions nationwide also hit a new historic low with 8,024. The Southwest border saw 6,072 apprehensions, a 15% drop from the previous record in March. The agency hit its lowest recorded single-day total on June 28 with only 136 apprehensions, CBP said. The CBP added that there were zero parole releases compared to 27,766 released in June 2024 amid an increase in migrants at the border then. No one knows precisely why migrant traffic along the U.S.-Mexico border has fallen so much, but immigration experts tell Axios that it’s likely because migrants and smuggling networks are waiting to see how Trump’s enforcement actions play out. The massive drop does come as the Trump administration has sent more resources to the border, worked to end humanitarian paroles and similar programs and scaled back on refugee entries. It also comes as the number of migrants trying to travel through the dangerous jungles of the Darién Gap to get from Colombia into Panama has fallen dramatically in recent months. That’s a sign that fewer migrants from South America are risking the treacherous, 2,600-mile journey north to the U.S. border in the early days of Trump’s immigration crackdown. "From shutting down illegal crossings to seizing fentanyl and enforcing billions in tariffs, CBP is delivering results on every front," CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a statement. "Under this administration, we are protecting this country with relentless focus, and the numbers prove it."

FOX News [7/15/2025 7:16 PM, Cameron Arcand, 46878K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported the lowest number of border crossings in recorded history in June. Nationwide, there were 25,228 CBP encounters, the lowest monthly number the agency has recorded, including a "historical low" of 8,024 apprehensions. Encounters include legal ports of entry, whereas apprehensions are arrests of those coming into the United States illegally. At the southern border alone, there were only 6,072 apprehensions in June, which is "15% lower than the previous March record." June also brought along the lowest number of apprehensions in a day on June 28 with just 136. "From shutting down illegal crossings to seizing fentanyl and enforcing billions in tariffs, CBP is delivering results on every front. Under this administration, we are protecting this country with relentless focus, and the numbers prove it." CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a press release Wednesday. Like May, there were no parole releases, compared with 27,766 in 2024. On drug seizures, the department said there was a 3% uptick from last month in fentanyl seizures, with 742 pounds confiscated. Notably, there was a 102% increase in meth seizures from May, a 19% increase in heroin seizures and a 9% increase in cocaine seizures. According to the press release, CBP has also collected $108.9 billion in "all tariffs, taxes and fees," specifically noting the tariffs imposed by the president. Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls told Fox News Digital the change has been "peaceful" after a major strain on local resources, like the regional hospital, while crossings were soaring. Earlier Wednesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced there was an 830% increase in assaults on ICE agents from last year. This comes as both border and immigration policies have seen major shifts in recent months since the border crisis under the Biden administration. "This new data reflects the violence against our law enforcement in cities across the country in the last few weeks. Politicians across the country, regardless of political stripe, must condemn this," Noem posted to X.

Washington Times [7/15/2025 6:44 PM, Stephen Dinan, 2106K] reports Homeland Security on Tuesday said the border under President Trump is now the "most secure" it’s been in history, celebrating the latest monthly data showing unfathomably low border activity in June. Customs and Border Protection set several new records, including the lowest day ever for illegal immigrants arrested by the Border Patrol along the southern boundary — 136 on June 28 — as well as the lowest monthly total at 6,072. Nationwide, including legal border crossings and airports and seaports, CBP said it detected the fewest unauthorized entries ever. And not a single illegal immigrant was released on "parole," the agency said. That compares to nearly 28,000 catch-and-release parolees in June 2024, under President Biden. The agency declared it the "most secure border in history.” "From shutting down illegal crossings to seizing fentanyl and enforcing billions in tariffs, CBP is delivering results on every front," said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. The Border Patrol detected just 278 illegal immigrants crossing as family units in June, down from 28,000 in the same month last year, and from more than 100,000 as recently as December 2023. CBP also said it has collected nearly $110 billion in tariffs and customs fees since the start of the Trump administration, as revenue rises on Mr. Trump’s imposition of global and country-specific levies. Mr. Trump’s promise to secure the border, along with his vow of "mass deportations" for illegal immigrants inside the U.S., may have been his most visible promises from last year’s campaign. His success at the border came after he reversed lenient Biden-era policies, canceled the legally iffy use of parole to bring in migrants who lacked a legal visa, and declared a border emergency to shut down asylum claims. The results have been astounding, particularly when viewed over the last five months from February — the first fully under control of Mr. Trump — to June.

FOX News [7/15/2025 12:38 PM, Peter D’Abrosca, 46878K] reports a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesman confirmed Tuesday that five Iranians were arrested while attempting to illegally cross the U.S. northern border with Canada. "On July 1, Border Patrol Agents from the Champlain, New York Station, responded to suspicious activity near Mooers Forks, NY," CBP’s Swanton Sector said on Facebook. "Agents located a minivan occupied by five citizens of Iran and two citizens of Uzbekistan.” The Champlain Station is part of the Swanton Sector. Swanton is a rural town in Vermont near Highway 89 just south of the Canadian Border. CBP said that all seven men had been previously arrested for attempting to cross the border illegally. All seven aliens are detained and awaiting deportation. "They are currently detained and pending removal proceedings," CBP said. "Border security is national security and directly correlates to public safety, Swanton Sector Agents remain vigilant and committed to protecting our borders and enforcing immigration laws.” Earlier this month, a counterterrorism expert told Fox News Digital that Iranian terrorist sleeper cells could be hiding in plain sight. The U.S. military crippled several Iranian nuclear sites after targeted airstrikes on June 22. "Where these sleeper cells may be is in plain sight," former FBI special agent and terrorism task force member Jonathan Gilliam said. "And that’s the real terrifying part of this is that putting people in place, as we’ve seen over the past four years, everyone’s scrambling because certain amounts of people could come in here and get in here.” Gilliam pointed to the Biden administration’s border policies as a reason for concern. "They could even go to the border and say they [want to] seek asylum, and the Biden administration, instead of putting them into DHS housing or ICE housing and holding them there so they could have their first appearance. To be vetted and whether or not they get asylum," he said.

NewsNation [7/15/2025 11:19 AM, Sandra Sanchez, 5801K] reports as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the United States will cut red tape to get more military drones up in the air, a border lawmaker says that also needs to happen to get more drones up along the Southwest border by the Department of Homeland Security. Hegseth last week announced in a video posted to X a major overhaul in the U.S. military drone policy. He said the Pentagon is cutting "red tape" to speed up drone production. And he wants service members from all military branches trained in drone operations. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, recently told Border Report that the procurement process for DHS border law enforcement is also cumbersome and slow and that Mexican cartels are able to launch thousands of drones over the U.S. border because they pay for them with cash. "We’re at a disadvantage in many ways when it comes to the drones used by the cartels," said Cuellar, who sits on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. "Drones are something that we need to use more of the drones, because we’ve seen, all the possibilities and opportunities that drones can provide," he said. "The U.S. has to do a better job at using drones, but also countering drones and the procurement process is part of the issue that we need to address. The cartels don’t go through a procurement process. They have the money go by and, boom, use them. That’s what they use. That’s their procurement process. Ours’, you know, you got to go and, you know, there’s a whole process, and it takes such a long time.” On June 11, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to accelerate domestic drone production. The order secured supply chains, and reduces reliance on adversarial nations to "empower our domestic drone economy to assist with critical infrastructure, emergency response, and long-distance cargo and medical delivery.” The executive order also mentions border surveillance and says the United States will "address the growing threats from criminal, terrorist, and foreign misuse of drones inside U.S. airspace. This administration is securing our borders against aerial threats by cracking down on unlawful drone activity and prioritizing real-time detection and identification of drones to safeguard national security.” Several Stryker military units that last week arrived in the South Texas border to the Laredo area along with hundreds of new soldiers have equipment to detect and counter Mexican drones, Cuellar said. It’s unclear whether the procurement process for drones also will be streamlined for the Department of Homeland Security.

Houston Chronicle [7/15/2025 2:52 PM, Julián Aguilar, 1982K] reports that a Palestinian man who was detained by immigration officials at George Bush Intercontinental Airport for nine days was released Monday afternoon, a family attorney said. Muhanad J. M. Alshrouf, 22, had been confined to the secondary screening area at the airport since July 5, when he entered the country on a valid visa. The detention prompted his family and civil rights groups to publicly call on Customs and Border Protection officials to release Alshrouf. Maria A. Kari, the family’s attorney and the executive director of Project TAHA, a Houston nonprofit, told the Houston Chronicle late Monday that Alshrouf called her and said he had suddenly been released. Kari was unable to ask CBP agents what led to her client’s detention, why it spanned over a week and what led to Alshrouf being let go. "No reason’s been given for (his) continued detention," Kari said Monday before her client was released. "We really don’t know what’s going on back there." She said CBP officials decided to release her client only hours after the Houston chapter of the Council on Islamic-American Relations alerted the press about Alshrouf’s detention. CBP officials did not provide details on why Alshrouf was detained. In an email, Rusty Payne, a public affairs officer with the CBP Houston office, said that generally, an immigrant who wants to enter the country bears the burden of proof "to establish that they are clearly eligible to enter the U.S." CBP officials did not immediately comment Tuesday morning on Alshrouf’s release or his prolonged detention.

Daily Caller [7/15/2025 5:04 PM, Sally Lynne, 1010K] reports a U.S. citizen is facing federal conspiracy charges after leading Border Patrol on a 140 mph chase through the New Mexico desert with a car full of illegal immigrants, authorities said. The pursuit began around 6:20 a.m. on Thursday when agents spotted a black Subaru speeding away from the U.S.-Mexico border along a route known for smuggling, according to the Border Report. Multiple Border Patrol vehicles, all-terrain units and a helicopter joined the chase before the car ran out of gas and occupants scattered. The driver, later identified as Michael Thomas Raines, allegedly tried to pin the incident on his passengers, telling agents, "The Mexicans jumped me and stole my car," according to a criminal complaint obtained by the outlet. Raines reportedly stuck to his story even after being taken to the Lordsburg station, telling agents he only exited from the driver’s side because the passenger door was blocked. But after agents searched his cellphone — with his permission — they uncovered messages instructing him to "just go straight to Albuquerque" to pick up migrants for cash, as well as videos of him shooting guns and selling firearms through an app, the records reportedly say. Agents also learned Raines had served 13 years in prison for premeditated murder, according to the Border Report. Raines is charged with conspiracy to bring in and harbor aliens.

San Diego Union Tribune [7/15/2025 10:02 aM, Erika Ritchie, 1611K] reports a new group of Camp Pendleton Marines are working alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Border Patrolat the southern border. The group, which includes 500 Marines and sailors, is part of the Combat Logistics Battalion 15, 1st Marine Logistics, and has assumed "operational responsibilities" as Task Force Forge under Joint Task Force-Southern Border, Marine officials said on Monday, July 14. That means they will provide critical engineering and logistical support under the presidential executive order issued Jan. 20, when President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, directing the Department of Defense to help address the situation. Following that order, 500 Marines also from Camp Pendleton deployed to San Diego and El Paso on Jan. 23. Those servicemembers were part of Task Force Sapper. Two of those Marines - Lance Cpl. Albert A. Aguilera, of Riverside, and Lance Cpl. Marcelino M. Gamino of Fresno - died in April when their vehicle crashed while in a convoy in New Mexico. The new group of Marines trained "hands-on" with the Marines from Task Force Sapper for several weeks before preparing for the mission, Marine officials said.

NewsNation [7/15/2025 11:16 AM, Salvador Rivera, 5801K] reports drivers heading into Tijuana through the San Ysidro Port of Entry are reporting increased vehicle checks and scrutiny on their way out of the United States. The checks are done on a regular basis as a way to prevent drugs, guns and money from being smuggled into Mexico. When the crossing was remodeled six years ago, special booths for U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were installed at every southbound lane. Marcos Ramirez, a construction worker who lives in Tijuana and works in Tijuana, says the added patrols are becoming a nuisance and an inconvenience. "I get what they are doing, but it only makes our commute longer, sometimes you just want to get home, why can’t the customs guys in Tijuana take care of that?," Ramirez asked. Border Report reached out to CBP to see if there has been an increase in the number of southbound inspections in recent weeks, but the agency has not returned our messages. "People shouldn’t be alarmed by the inspections," said Joaquín Luken, of the Smart Border Coalition based in San Diego. "This is nothing new, this has nothing to do with the Donald Trump administration.”

Reuters [7/15/2025 7:04 PM, Joseph Ax and Maria Tsvetkova, 51390K] reports two people were killed in New Jersey during flash flooding as severe storms lashed the New York City area on Monday night into Tuesday, submerging cars and flooding subway stations. The intense rainfall caused widespread travel disruption across the region’s airports, highways and railways. More than 2 inches (5 cm) of rain were recorded in a single hour in Manhattan’s Central Park, the second most for a 60-minute period in history, according to Mayor Eric Adams. Videos showed flooding in several subway stations on Monday evening, including a geyser of water spewing into a station on Manhattan’s West Side. Officials said the subway system was simply overwhelmed by the amount of rainfall in such a short amount of time. The antiquated sewer system can handle around 1.75 inches (4.44 cm)of rainfall per hour, Rohit Aggarwala, the city’s environmental protection commissioner, told reporters on Tuesday, compared with a rate of more than 4 inches an hour at the storm’s peak. "I probably don’t recall seeing that level of rain before," Adams said. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency and said two people died in Plainfield when their vehicle was swept away by floodwaters. The victims were found in a submerged car, Murphy told reporters.

CNN [7/15/2025 1:14 PM, Stephanie Matarazzo, 21433K] reports that millions across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic remain under flash flood warnings as slow-moving summer storms bring heavy showers to the East Coast, impacting transportation and leaving people stranded in vehicles on waterlogged roads. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS New York [7/15/2025 10:58 AM, Dick Brennan, Christina Fan and Adi Guajardo, 51860K] Video HERE reports torrential rain and flash flooding led to dramatic rescues Monday in New Jersey, as Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency. Cars stalled and crews scrambled to shut down roads in the Garden State while storms pummeled the Tri-State Area. Route 22 eastbound remains closed for emergency repairs in Somerset County. Drivers are being detoured onto Washington Avenue in Greenbrook. Raging floodwaters raced through Scotch Plains, and much of Union County, stranding drivers who were trapped in their vehicles as the waters rose. Authorities also launched boats into the flooded streets, as the intense rainfall caused the Green Brook River in the Watchung Reserve to overflow. Many said it was some of the worst flooding they had ever seen. As first responders were busy with dozens of water rescues, they received a report of a house explosion in North Plainfield. They arrived to find the home in pieces. The front was blown off, exposing the staircase to the second floor. Firefighters said the home was engulfed in flames when they first arrived. After getting the fire under control, they did a thorough search and determined the home was unoccupied. No injuries were reported to firefighters either. The firefighting effort was complicated by the torrential rains. First responders had to wade through ankle deep water as they dragged their hose lines. The fire department has since left. How the fire started is still under investigation.

USA Today [7/15/2025 7:44 AM, Gabe Hauari, 75552K] reports the National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday, July 15, it is continuing to track a trough of low pressure located off the Atlantic coast of Florida that is "gradually becoming better defined." The system, now designated as Invest 93L, is forecast to move west across the Florida Peninsula Tuesday, then reach the northeastern Gulf by the middle part of this week, hurricane forecasters said. The NHC said environmental conditions appear generally favorable for additional development and that a tropical depression could form by the middle to latter part of this week as the system moves across the northeastern and north-central Gulf. "Regardless of development, heavy rainfall could produce localized flash flooding over portions of Florida through mid-week," the hurricane center said, adding that portions of the north-central Gulf Coast could also see flash flooding during the middle to latter portions of this week. The system currently has a 40% chance for tropical development over the next seven days and a 40% chance over the next 48 hours.

Axios [7/15/2025 4:31 PM, Carlie Kollath Wells, 13599K] reports New Orleans and Jefferson Parish officials are preparing for up to 10 inches of rain as a tropical system heads toward Louisiana. Some parishes are preparing for the threat by setting up sandbag locations and encouraging residents to prepare for the possibility of street flooding. The system was moving over Florida on Tuesday and expected to reach the Gulf on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said. A tropical depression could form while it moves west in the Gulf, per NHC. It will be named Dexter if it strengthens into a tropical storm. It’s expected to approach Louisiana’s coast on Thursday, NHC said. The biggest concern for southeast Louisiana is flooding, according to the National Weather Service’s Slidell office. It’s too early to tell where the heaviest rain will fall.

Houston Chronicle [7/15/2025 12:55 PM, Jarrod Wardwell, 1982K] reports Kerrville and Llano hospitals impacted by the devastating and deadly July 4 flooding will receive $1.9 million from the state, according to a news release from Gov. Greg Abbott’s press office Tuesday. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission will award the money as grant funding that can cover unplanned, flooding-related expenses, including repairs, staffing and "operational issues," the release states. The Peterson Regional Medical Center in Kerrville will receive $1.5 million, and the Llano Regional Hospital will receive $396,000, according to state officials. "Our healthcare professionals are working tirelessly on the front lines to help heal Texans who have been injured during these devastating floods," Abbott said the release. Abbott said the total funding would exceed $1.9 million but did not specify any grants beyond those to the pair of hospitals.

CBS News [7/15/2025 7:16 AM, Staff, 51860K] Video: HERE reports Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) needs improvements while updating reporters on flood recovery.

The Hill [7/15/2025 5:06 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 18649K] reports Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Tuesday called on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to resign over her response to the catastrophic flooding in Texas that caused a triple-digit death toll. In an interview on "CNN News Central," Markey pointed to reporting suggesting the deployment of resources to Texas was delayed because of Noem’s new rule requiring her personal sign-off on all Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contracts or grants worth more than $100,000. Because of that rule, according to the reports, FEMA was slow to deploy search-and-rescue teams to the region. Other reporting indicated agency call centers were not adequately staffed. Noem has forcefully pushed back against reporting about delays, calling it "fake news" and insisting that the agency was prompt in responding to the emergency. Breitbart [7/15/2025 12:53 PM, Pam Key, 3077K] reports “We’ve seen all of the evidence with regard to Kristi Noem not responding quick enough. She should resign. What she did in response to the Texas floods is an absolute disgrace. She did not get the relief there fast enough. She did not have the the phone-answering capacity in place quick enough to hear people be able to call in with all of their problems.” He added, "Only 16% of the calls were being answered by FEMA three days after that flood began. They have an absolute crisis on their hands right now. It’s very reminiscent of George W. Bush and Katrina, where he said to his FEMA director, ‘Great job, Brownie.’ That’s what Trump is now saying to Kristi Noem. And it’s not a great job. And everyone in America can see it as the lead story on their televisions every single night. It is still a crisis in Texas, and this administration has completely and totally failed those people. And NOAA, of all things, should not be cut because that’s the warning system that these storms are coming in." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [7/15/2025 1:35 PM, Thomas Frank, 2100K] reports he wore blue jeans, rings on three fingers, cowboy boots and a straw planters hat. Federal Emergency Management Agency leader David Richardson, making a rare public appearance, visited the site of deadly flash flooding in Texas in a trip that was neither announced nor promoted beyond five government photos on social media. Richardson’s trip Saturday to Kerr County, Texas, where at least 132 people were killed, was his first known visit to a disaster site since President Donald Trump named him FEMA acting administrator May 8 after firing his first agency acting administrator. The visit came amid ongoing questions about Richardson, a former Marine officer with a background in weapons of mass destruction and no apparent emergency management experience. Richardson’s absence from the Texas disaster in the week after the catastrophic flooding drew criticism and concern that he was not in charge of FEMA’s response to one of the deadliest U.S. floods and had ceded the role to his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. She went to Texas the day after the flooding and spoke publicly. During his trip to Kerr County, Richardson met with Texas Division of Emergency Management chief Nim Kidd, according to a photo the division posted on its LinkedIn account. Two other photos show Richardson meeting with emergency workers in what appears to be a FEMA command room in Kerrville, Texas, the Kerr County seat. The Texas Division of Emergency Management did not respond to questions from POLITICO’s E&E News but posted a note next to its photos saying Richardson met with emergency responders “to see response & recovery efforts in action.”

New York Post [7/15/2025 7:24 AM, Emily Crane, 49956K] reports Camp Mystic’s co-owner only started evacuating campers more than 45 minutes after getting an emergency alert about the "life-threatening" flash floods, it has been revealed. Richard "Dick" Eastland — who died trying to save young girls at his Hunt, Texas, camp on the Guadalupe River — got the initial National Weather Service blast on his phone at about 1:14 a.m., a spokesperson for his family told ABC News. But he only began relocating campers at the private all-girls Christian camp to higher ground by 2:00 a.m. — just as the situation began deteriorating rapidly. "They had no information that indicated the magnitude of what was coming," the family spokesperson, Jeff Carr, said of the floods that would kill 27 children and counselors. "They got a standard run-of-the-mill NWS warning that they’ve seen dozens of times before," Carr said. Eastland immediately began communicating with family members who worked at the camp via walkie-talkie as soon as he received the alert, which didn’t include an evacuation warning, according to Carr. They started moving campers to higher ground when they saw the flood waters, he added. Carr said the timeline, which he stressed was preliminary, had been pieced together after speaking with Eastland family members who worked at the camp and frantically helped in the evacuation. He noted the family wanted to release the timeline to avoid speculation after the devastating flash floods ended up claiming the lives of 27 children and counselors.

New York Times [7/15/2025 6:15 AM, Natalie Kitroeff, 153395K] reports a little over a week after the devastating flooding in Central Texas, more than 130 people are confirmed dead — and the search for the missing continues. In the aftermath of the disaster, there have been mounting questions about how local officials handled the critical hours before and during the storm. This episode of “The Daily” looks at the missed opportunities that may have contributed to the growing tragedy — and whether anything more could have been done to save lives. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Axios [7/15/2025 9:20 AM, Christine Clarridge, 13599K] reports the Washington Department of Natural Resources has responded to 920 wildfires so far this year, spokesperson Ryan Rodruck told Axios. Several major fires are burning across Washington, from the Olympic Peninsula to the state’s northern border, according to the state’s wildfire dashboard. One of those is the Bear Gulch fire, which has spread across 443 acres at the north end of Lake Cushman. The investigation into the human-caused blaze is ongoing, per Rodruck. Other active fires in Washington include: Pomas fire: 3,430 acres, burning in the Wenatchee National Forest and Glacier Peak Wilderness. Western Pines fire: 5,812 acres, burning northeast of Davenport. Hope fire: 7,117 acres, 8% contained, burning in Stevens County northwest of Northport. A fire weather watch was issued Monday for parts of the Cascade Mountains as officials urge extra caution across the state.

New York Times [7/15/2025 2:26 PM, Christine Hauser, 138952K] reports Gusty, shifting winds and high temperatures have enabled a wildfire in Central Oregon to spread rapidly, reaching nearly 30,000 acres and prompting evacuations in ranches and communities in two counties, the authorities said on Tuesday. The Cram fire was first reported on Sunday, burning in vegetation of grass, brush and juniper along U.S. Route 97, a north-south highway, near the sparsely populated area of Willowdale in Jefferson County. By Monday afternoon, the fast-moving flames covered 4,500 acres, prompting evacuations in the county and in adjacent Wasco County, according to the Oregon State Fire Marshal agency. The state fire marshal, Mariana Ruiz-Temple, called the weather conditions “extremely challenging” in a statement. “The wind was all day 25 miles per hour, and the terrain is a lot of hills, ridges and valleys, which makes it worse,” Gert Zoutendijk, a spokesman for the fire marshal, said in an interview. “The wind shifted, and basically it took the fire and ran,” he said. By early Tuesday, the fire had grown to about 28,600 acres, according to Central Oregon Fire Info, an interagency dispatch service. Firefighters and other crews, including from the Bureau of Land Management and Oregon Department of Forestry, installed containment lines and used air support from tankers and helicopters to cool hot spots, the service said. But despite those efforts, shifting winds propelled the fire over bulldozer lines that had been cut into the ground to prevent the spread of flames, Mr. Zoutendijk said. On Tuesday, the wind shifted again, pushing the fire, which was zero percent contained, into the vicinity of the small community of Ashwood, which consists of about 30 homes, he said. Firefighters had initiated a controlled burn to rid the area of vegetation that could fuel further spread. But on Tuesday morning there were already reports the fire was on the move again, propelled by the wind. “This one is going the opposite direction, northwest back to Highway 97,” Mr. Zoutendijk said. “It is very unpredictable.”

Washington Examiner [7/15/2025 7:00 AM, Samantha-Jo Roth, 1934K] reports threats against public officials have risen in the year since the first assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, prompting lawmakers to demand more resources and to lower the political temperature, warning that extreme language can incite violence. Trump’s two assassination attempts during his bid for a second term drew bipartisan outrage and renewed appeals to cool the country’s overheated political rhetoric. But the violence has only escalated. Earlier this year, a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and her husband were shot and killed in their home in what officials described as a targeted assassination. Just days earlier, another Democratic officeholder and his wife were wounded in a similar attack. In Texas, 10 people were charged in a coordinated assault on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility that left a police officer shot in the neck. In June, threats from an armed man forced the evacuation of the Texas State Capitol. A 25-year-old is facing federal charges after allegedly sending messages threatening sexual violence against Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Deb Fischer (R-NE). Other incidents have raised alarms: someone set fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home; two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.; an armed man was arrested near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house; and a gunman in Wisconsin murdered a retired judge while carrying a hit list that included Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Politically motivated violence ranks among the country’s top threats in 2025, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s most recent annual assessment. The report flagged a growing volume of violent rhetoric in online spaces frequented by domestic extremists, much of it tied to divisive topics such as immigration, abortion, LGBT rights, and the 2024 election. Officials warned that such rhetoric is likely to continue fueling threats this year. An investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police found that the number of direct threats and alarming statements aimed at members of Congress more than doubled between 2017 and 2024, including an 18.3% increase from 2023 to 2024 alone. In response, Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger (R-TX), and others introduced a resolution marking the first anniversary of the Trump assassination attempt. The measure condemns all political violence and specifically references recent attacks targeting Shapiro and Minnesota state lawmakers.

Bloomberg [7/15/2025 6:22 PM, Alexia Massoud, 1707K] reports the US Secret Service won a federal appeals court ruling affirming dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a citizen journalist who said he was handcuffed and detained after he wouldn’t stop filming through their Washington building’s open garage door. Tobias Jones routinely records Washington law enforcement activity, according to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling issued Tuesday. From a sidewalk in 2019, he pointed his camera inside the building until one agent told him to point it elsewhere. Another agent later arrived and asked Jones for ID, which he refused to present. The second agent, Sergeant Travas Holland, cuffed and searched him. Then, a third officer arrived and said Jones had a right to continue filming, after which he was released, the court said. In 2022, Jones sued the service, Holland, and the first agent, James Fisher, alleging they’d violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights, seeking damages and related relief. The lower court rejected those claims. The damages claims depended on the scope of Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the appellate court said citing a 1971 Supreme Court case that held the Fourth Amendment contained an implied cause of action for that relief. The ability to be covered under Bivens, however, turned upon whether the case presented Bivens context not previously recognized. "If a claim arises in a new context, a Bivens remedy is unavailable if there are special factors indicating that the Judiciary is at least arguably less equipped than Congress to weigh the costs and benefits of allowing a damages action to proceed," Judge Justin R Walker wrote for the court. Jones’ Fourth Amendment damages claims differ from the claim in Bivens, and the court "cannot extend Bivens to this new context," Walker said. This case is meaningfully different from Bivens because it creates a greater risk of judicial intrusion into the Executive Branch, the judge said. The law enforcement activity in Bivens "materially differs from the protective activity of guarding a federal building from perceived threats," which is what the Secret Service agents were doing in this case, he said.

Washington Examiner [7/15/2025 11:59 AM, Annabella Rosciglione and Christian Datoc, 1934K] reports the Secret Service has lifted a lockdown of the front lawn of the White House, after a tourist threw something over the 13-foot fence. Press were moved inside to the White House briefing room as they were waiting outside for an informal press conference with Education Secretary Linda McMahon. The lockdown, called around 11:30 a.m., was lifted about 30 minutes later. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the press that security levels were "back to green" after the incident. A similar incident happened in 2020, when Secret Service evacuated President Donald Trump during a press conference and then shot a man who claimed he had a weapon.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 10:51 AM, Jeff Poor, 3077K] reports Monday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s "Jesse Watters Primetime," Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) urged Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to declassify the information tied to the July 2024 attempted assassination on Donald Trump in Butler, PA. "Senator, the security footage at the Trump rally should tell us at least something," FNC host Jesse Watters said. "Have you heard anything about that?". "No, I haven’t, and I haven’t heard answers to any of the other questions that you posed, Jesse, or once frankly, the whistleblower has revealed to us almost a year ago, many of which you reported on this show," Hawley replied. "I mean, for instance, why were local drones refused? You might remember, local law enforcement had drones, offered them to the Secret Service, they said, no. Why in the world did that happen?". "Here’s what needs to happen now," he added. "All of this needs to be declassified. I’m calling on Secretary Noem to declassify all of the information related to the Butler shooting. It has been a year. The guy is dead. They’re never going to bring criminal charges against him. Let’s get the truth out there to the American public. Everybody deserves to know, from the President on down, what really happened. All of these documents ought to be declassified immediately.”

NewsMax [7/15/2025 8:23 AM, Eric Mack, 4622K] reports Former President Joe Biden’s U.S. Secret Service received a credible threat on President Donald Trump’s life 10 days before last July 13’s Butler, Pennsylvania rally, but chose to leave the assigned details for Trump and the rally in the dark. "This past weekend, the Government Accountability Office produced [to] me its report on the July 13 assassination attempt," Grassley told the Senate in a floor speech Monday night. "The Government Accountability Office’s report starts by stating, ‘The U.S. Secret Service failed to implement security measures that could’ve prevented the assassination attempt on then-former President Donald J. Trump during a July 13, 2024, campaign rally.’ "According to the report, prior to the July 13 rally, Secret Service received information from the Intelligence Community about a threat against President Trump’s life. "Yet, this threat information wasn’t shared with Secret Service personnel or local law enforcement officials all responsible for securing that event. "Clearly, had all federal, state and local law enforcement officials known of this threat, it would’ve changed how they secured the AGR building, where the sniper opened fire from." Notably, the threat was not specific to the event or the ultimate shooter, according to the GAO. "Prior to the July 13 rally, senior-level Secret Service officials became aware of a threat to then-former President Trump," the report concluded in the summary of findings. "This information was not specific to the July 13 rally or gunman.”

New York Post [7/15/2025 6:00 AM, Chris Nesi, 49956K] reports the Secret Service was woefully underprepared when a gunman opened fire on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania last July — with major breakdowns in the communication of threats, in adequate training and the denial of multiple requests for key security resources, according to a pair of damning reports released by Senate investigators. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rand Paul (R-KY) outlined the agency’s "inexcusable negligence" before, during and after the attempt on Trump’s life in what they called a "cascade of preventable failures." Many of the findings were previously reported, but the parallel reports by the chairmen of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees offer definitive accounts of what happened — and why federal agents failed to stop the gunman, despite multiple sightings.

Blaze [7/15/2025 3:35 PM, Joseph M. Hanneman, 1805K] reports Ryan W. Routh is attempting to fire his court-appointed attorney and represent himself less than two months before his trial on charges that he tried to assassinate Donald J. Trump in September 2024 — just after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to stymie Routh’s desire to "turn this trial into a circus." Routh, 59, of Greensboro, N.C., sent a typed letter to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that was dated June 29 and filed on the court docket July 11 saying that he would "be representing myself moving forward." Routh faces a Sept. 8 trial on five federal charges stemming from the attempted assassination of President Trump at his West Palm Beach, Fla., golf resort. Routh is charged with the attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, brandishing a firearm in furtherance of the assassination attempt, intentionally assaulting a Secret Service officer, illegally possessing a firearm as a felon, and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

NewsNation [7/15/2025 4:58 PM, Nancy Loo, 5801K] reports that the U.S. is taking steps to get ahead of global adversaries when it comes to the changing landscape in the Arctic, with President Donald Trump ordering 40 icebreaker ships to be added to the Coast Guard’s fleet. NewsNation got an exclusive first look at one of the heavy-duty ships that is currently being retrofitted before it’s commissioned in Alaska. The Storis, named using a Scandinavian word that means "great ice," will be the first new icebreaker to join the polar fleet in 25 years. It’s also the second Storis, a nod to a historic Coast Guard ship that operated for 64 years before being decommissioned. The U.S. needs more icebreakers because the Arctic region is changing fast due to climate change, melting ice, and increased ship traffic. Icebreakers can open channels in icy seas, enabling other ships to deliver supplies to remote communities, respond to oil spills, enforce regulations and conduct search-and-rescue missions in the region. The Coast Guard needs more major hardware to patrol the icy waters where Russia and China have been building up a presence and holding joint exercises for years. The Storis is a previously owned vessel being retrofitted by the Coast Guard, a convenient stopgap in times of need.

Reuters [7/15/2025 6:04 PM, Staff, 51390K] reports a U.S. state’s Army National Guard network was thoroughly hacked by a Chinese cyberespionage group nicknamed "Salt Typhoon," according to a Department of Homeland Security memo. The memo obtained by Property of the People, a national security transparency nonprofit, said the hackers "extensively compromised" the unnamed state Army National Guard’s network between March and December 2024 and exfiltrated maps and "data traffic" with counterparts’ networks in "every other US state and at least four US territories.” The National Guard and the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber defense arm, CISA, did not immediately return messages. News of the memo was first reported by NBC News. Salt Typhoon has emerged as one of the top concerns of American cyber defhen Coatesenders. U.S. officials allege that the hacking group is doing more than just gathering intelligence; it is prepositioning itself to paralyze U.S. critical infrastructure in case of a conflict with China. Beijing has repeatedly denied being behind the intrusions.

Reported similarly:
NBC News [7/15/2025 3:06 PM, Kevin Collier, 44540K]

Axios [7/15/2025 1:04 PM, Sam Sabin, 13599K] reports that after years of aggressive growth and regulatory expansion under previous administrations, the workforce and mission of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are rapidly shrinking.

Why it matters: As nation-state attacks on critical infrastructure intensify, states and private companies lack the capacity to fill the gaps left by CISA’s retreat, former officials tell Axios.

Driving the news: Congress is pursuing what will likely be a significant budget decrease for the agency in the upcoming fiscal year, although the exact cuts are under debate. House appropriators have proposed a $135 million cut to the agency’s $3.01 billion budget from last year — far less than the $495 million cut the Trump White House initially proposed, though still substantial. The White House’s budget request also called for a 10% cut in overall cybersecurity spending across civilian agencies compared with 2024 levels. The big picture: Based on the proposed budget cuts and workforce reductions, don’t expect as many public events or major public awareness campaigns coming from CISA during the second Trump administration. Instead, the agency is likely to revert to a scaled-back role that focuses on protecting federal government networks and tracking digital threats against critical infrastructure, former officials say.

CyberScoop [7/15/2025 3:30 PM, Derek B. Johnson] reports Former White House national security adviser Mike Waltz brushed aside criticisms Tuesday that he put sensitive military operations at risk by holding discussions about military strikes in a Signal group chat, claiming the app’s use was authorized by the federal government’s top civilian cyber agency. In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Waltz — who has been nominated to represent the U.S. at the United Nations — was pressed about his short tenure as President Donald Trump’s top national security official. In particular, he was grilled by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., for his use of the end-to-end encrypted messaging application Signal to coordinate with other officials over airstrikes on Houthi rebels. While much of the initial attention was focused on Waltz adding journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat, national security experts were also aghast by government officials at the highest levels coordinating highly sensitive military operations using a free application. The incident is widely viewed as contributing to Waltz’s departure just months after leaving Congress to take the role, and his subsequent shuffling to a new nomination at the U.N. Coons referenced Waltz’s long background of public and military service, arguing he should have known better.”In your role in the Army, in the House, as national security adviser, you have long handled classified and highly sensitive information. We both know Signal is not an appropriate, secure means of communicating highly sensitive information,” Coons said. But Waltz was defiant in his response, not only insisting that classified information wasn’t involved — the chats involved detailed descriptions of targets, timing, aircraft and munitions that would be used — but that his use of Signal had been “driven by and recommended by the Cybersecurity [and] Infrastructure Security Agency.” Waltz further claimed that the incident was subject to investigations by the White House and DOD. While the DOD investigation is still ongoing, he said the White House review cleared him of any wrongdoing, concluding that “the use of Signal was not only authorized, it’s still authorized and highly recommended.”

CyberScoop [7/15/2025 6:13 PM, Matt Kapko] reports a 21-year-old former Army soldier pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from a series of attacks and extortion attempts last year on telecommunications companies, including AT&T. Cameron John Wagenius, who identified himself as “kiberphant0m” and “cyb3rph4nt0m” on online criminal forums, conducted extensive malicious activity for years, including while he was on active duty, the Justice Department said. Wagenius pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud, extortion in relation to computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. He faces a maximum of 27 years in prison for the charges and is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 6. Wagenius previously pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful transfer of confidential phone records information in connection with this conspiracy, the Justice Department said. “This is one of the most significant wins in the fight against cybercrime,” Allison Nixon, chief research officer at Unit 221B, told CyberScoop. “The cybersecurity workers helping the victims through a storm, federal law enforcement with the fastest federal arrest I have ever witnessed, and the prosecutors now destroying them in court — all brought their A game and they deserve to celebrate tonight.”

Daily Caller [7/15/2025 6:09 PM, Wallace White, 1010K] reports Microsoft has relied on engineers based in China for years to help maintain some of the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) most sensitive cloud computing systems, potentially leaving them vulnerable to hacking, according to a new investigation from ProPublica released Tuesday. Because U.S. law prohibits foreign nationals from directly accessing federal systems that handle sensitive data, Microsoft has been funneling work through American "digital escorts" — low-paid workers with security clearances but often possessing limited technical expertise — who input commands from more skilled China-based engineers into federal networks, according to ProPublica. The arrangement, largely unknown even within the federal government, is raising alarms among national security and cybersecurity experts as the engineers could gain access to sensitive government data with little oversight, potentially exposing critical systems to Chinese cyber espionage. The system has reportedly been in place for over a decade, ProPublica reported. China remains America’s top cyber security adversary, posing both a threat to government and private sector entities, according to a February 2024 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. This arrangement is used to handle "high impact level" information, which includes "data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin," where "loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability could be expected to have a severe or catastrophic adverse effect on organizational operations, organizational assets, or individuals," according to U.S. government policy reviewed by ProPublica. The escorts effectively act as middlemen, copying and pasting commands from foreign workers into Pentagon-linked systems, in some cases without fully understanding the functions of those commands. "We’re trusting that what they’re doing isn’t malicious, but we really can’t tell," one escort, who works for Microsoft contractor Insight Global and spoke on condition of anonymity, told ProPublica. "They’re telling nontechnical people very technical directions," the current Insight Global escort said, adding that the foreign engineer could install an update allowing an outsider to access the network.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [7/15/2025 8:11 PM, Alec Schemmel, 46878K]

Axios [7/16/2025 4:49 AM, Andrew Solender, 13599K] reports a House Democrat is digging into the Department of Homeland Security’s reported hiring of 22-year-old Thomas Fugate to lead a terrorism prevention task force, Axios has learned. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) argued in a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that Fugate’s role raises "troubling questions about whether DHS is taking the prevention of domestic terrorism seriously."

NewsMax [7/15/2025 6:40 PM, Steve Karnowski, 4622K] reports a federal grand jury indicted a man Tuesday on charges that he fatally shot a prominent Minnesota state representative and her husband and seriously wounded a state senator and his wife while he was allegedly disguised as a police officer. The indictment handed up lists murder, stalking and firearms charges against Vance Boelter. The murder counts in the deaths of former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, could carry the federal death penalty. "This political assassination, the likes of which have never occurred here in the state of Minnesota, has shook our state at a foundational level," acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said. He said a decision on whether to seek the death penalty "will not come for several months" and will be up to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Minnesota abolished its state death penalty in 1911, but President Donald Trump’s administration says it intends to be aggressive in seeking capital punishment for eligible federal crimes. Prosecutors initially charged Boelter with the same counts. But under federal court rules they needed a grand jury indictment to take the case to trial. Boelter’s federal defender, Manny Atwal, did not immediately return messages seeking comment on the indictment and the new allegations. Thompson also disclosed new details at a news conference. He said investigators had found a handwritten letter by Boelter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel in which he confessed to the shootings and made bizarre claims. "In the letter, Vance Boelter claims that he had been trained by the U.S. military off the books and he had conducted missions on behalf of the U.S. military in Asia, the Middle East and Africa," Thompson said. Boelter also said in the letter that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had approached him about killing the state’s two U.S. senators, fellow Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith. Asked by a reporter if all that was a fantasy, Thompson replied: "Yes, I agree.” "There is little evidence showing why he turned to political violence and extremism," Thompson said. "What he left were lists: politicians in Minnesota, lists of politicians in other states, lists of names of attorneys at national law firms.”

NewsNation [7/15/2025 3:30 PM, Jordan Perkins, 5801K] reports that the U.S. Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration announced a series of drug busts as part of its Operation Take Back America initiative. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said during a press briefing on Tuesday that DEA agents conducted several raids over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, including one where 71 kilograms of fentanyl and 20 kilograms of methamphetamine were seized in Columbia, South Carolina. "This is near the University of South Carolina, where we all know dealers will often target college kids," Bondi said. "They put these drugs in pill form to go after our kids.” Bondi also described a seizure in Fresno, California where 24 pounds of carfentanil that was disguised as prescription pills were seized. She added that cartels have been getting illegal immigrants to do their bidding and bring drugs into the U.S. "The DOJ will continue to prosecute these violent criminals," Bondi said. "If you are dealing in these drugs to Americans or any citizen in this world, you’re a violent criminal, and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law." Since the DEA carried out Operation Take Back America in January, Bondi said the agency has seized millions of pounds of drugs. Bondi said under the recently passed "big, beautiful bill," there was $3.3 billion allotted to the agency to help with the initiative’s efforts.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 1:12 PM, Staff, 3077K] reports that Ovidio Guzmán López pleaded guilty to four U.S. federal charges last week during a hearing held in the Northern District of Illinois. At 35 years old, El Chapo Guzmán’s son accepted the charges for operating a continuous criminal organization and conspiring to traffic drugs, including fentanyl, and arms trafficking. The Trump administration continues to target Mexican criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel. Since the official announcement of his guilty plea, analysts and journalists warned that the pact with Ovidio Guzmán is not only a legal procedure but a strategic move that could benefit both governments. Obtaining confessions, valuable names, operational tactics, and information about the Sinaloa cartel infrastructure represents a hugely successful operational victory for the United States. The Department of Justice has already said that Guzmán’s statements could be considered and may reduce his sentence if they are helpful. Ovidio’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lickman, insists that his client will not only collaborate but also reveal the high-level connections that for years protected the Sinaloa cartel. Ovidio’s cooperation could open a Pandora’s box and could change the way we fully understand the relationship between Mexico’s politicians and criminal organizations. The structures of organized crime in Mexico are not simple criminal groups. They have been historically linked to influential economic and political figures. Exposing the names of politicians, businessmen, and military personnel mentioned as beneficiaries or accomplices could disrupt Mexico’s institutions, potentially having a lasting impact on the integrity of the Mexican government.

CBS News [7/15/2025 12:39 PM, Caitlin Yilek, 51860K] Video HERE reports Mike Waltz, President Trump’s former national security adviser, testified Tuesday at his Senate confirmation hearing to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, where he fielded questions about the administration’s foreign policy and his plans for the role if he is confirmed. The hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was the first opportunity for lawmakers to publicly question him about his role in a Signal chat in which top administration officials inadvertently disclosed sensitive details about a military strike in Yemen. In the weeks following the scandal, Democrats said they expected the hearing would be "brutal" for Waltz, but the Signal controversy did not come up until more than an hour into the hearing, which focused mostly on the administration’s approach to China, Israel and the work of U.N. agencies around the world. The role of U.N. ambassador — the last of Mr. Trump’s Cabinet to be confirmed — has been vacant for six months, leaving the U.S. without a top representative on a major world stage as several international crises play out. Waltz is likely to be confirmed, given Republican control of the Senate. Waltz would take the position as Mr. Trump’s frustrations increase with Russia over its refusal to end its war in Ukraine and as the U.S. seeks to manage tensions with China and Iran. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze [7/15/2025 1:40 PM, Rebeka Zeljko and Cooper Williamson, 1805K] reports that Mike Waltz is in the hot seat as the Senate kicks off his contentious confirmation hearing to serve as ambassador to the United Nations. Waltz, who previously served as national security adviser to President Donald Trump, was removed from the role following a string of scandals. Most notably, Waltz accidentally added the editor in chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a private Signal group chat with other administration officials where they discussed and coordinated an imminent airstrike against the Houthis in Yemen. Although Waltz has taken full responsibility for the "embarrassing" slipup, "Signalgate" was the Democrats’ cannon fodder of choice on Tuesday. Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware pressed the nominee over the use of Signal to communicate about ongoing military operations, saying it is "not an appropriate, secure means of communicating highly sensitive information." Coons also asked Waltz if he had been investigated over the incident. "The use of Signal, as an encrypted app, is not only authorized, it was recommended by the Biden-era CISA guidance," Waltz said in defense of the chat. "Of course, there was no classified information exchanged," Waltz added. USA Today [7/15/2025 4:21 PM, Francesca Chambers, 75552K] reports that he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a July 15 hearing on his nomination to be United Nations ambassador, the next role he’s been tapped for, that Biden-era guidance from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, advised senior officials to use the platform for personal and professional communication. "The use of Signal was not only authorized... It’s still authorized and highly recommended," Waltz said. He also testified that he was "not fired" from the White House. Waltz confirmed that he remained on the payroll after Trump took him out of his role as national security adviser. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared the details of a strike on Houthi militants in Yemen before the operation happened in a conversation on the commercially available encrypted app. Unbeknownst to him, Waltz accidentally added a journalist to the chain. The scandal prompted multiple internal investigations. At the hearing, Waltz said a White House investigation ended without any disciplinary action. NPR [7/15/2025 2:36 PM, Michele Kelemen, 37958K] reports that Waltz, who was ousted from his national security post in May after adding a journalist to a Signal group chat discussing military strikes on Yemen, tried to defend his actions and reassure lawmakers of his fitness for the job. More than an hour into the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Senate Democrats began pressing Waltz on the controversy. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) called the move "amateurish," while Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) asked if Waltz had been disciplined. "The White House conducted an investigation," Waltz said, adding that the Department of Defense is still conducting its own probe. "No disciplinary action was taken from the White House investigation," he added, saying Signal was an "authorized and highly recommended" communications tool, even by the Biden administration’s cyber experts. But that explanation didn’t sit well with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), who accused Waltz of deflecting blame and "profound cowardice" for his lack of leadership during Signal chat controversy. "At a moment where our national security was clearly compromised, you denied, you deflected, and then you demeaned and degraded those people who objectively told the truth and criticized your actions," Booker said, calling the incident "disqualifying." The Hill [7/15/2025 2:14 PM, Laura Kelly, 18649K] reports that President Trump’s former national security adviser, Mike Waltz, emerged Tuesday from a Senate confirmation hearing largely unscathed over his role in mistakenly adding a journalist to a group chat discussing sensitive military attack plans against the Houthis in Yemen. While some Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee promised a "brutal" hearing for Waltz’s nomination as ambassador for the United Nations, his confirmation is nearly guaranteed in the Republican-controlled Senate, and lawmakers generally focused their questions on substance rather than scrutiny. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) delivered one of the most scathing rebukes of Waltz and appeared to get under his skin. Booker criticized Waltz, a former Army colonel, Green Beret and three-term Republican congressman from Florida as showing "profound cowardice." "At a moment where our national security was clearly compromised, you denied, you deflected, and then you demeaned and degraded those people who objectively told the truth and criticized your actions," Booker said. Waltz pushed back, referring to his time in the military. "I appreciate the men and women that I’ve had to lead in combat, and I think the last thing they would call me is a coward," he said.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [7/15/2025 1:46 PM, Staff, 3077K]
CNN [7/15/2025 3:41 PM, Jennifer Hansler, 875K]

Politico [7/15/2025 1:28 PM, By Cheyanne M. Daniels, 16523K] reports Democratic lawmakers laid into former national security adviser Mike Waltz on Tuesday over his role in the Signalgate messaging scandal — saying he lied about aspects of the leaked chats and castigating him for the fact that U.S. officials shared sensitive and potentially classified information on the app. “I was hoping to hear from you that you had some sense of regret over sharing what was very sensitive, timely information about a military strike on a commercially available app that’s not, as we both know, the appropriate way to share such critical information,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), speaking at the nomination for Waltz to become the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) argued that Waltz had made false assertions about how a journalist was added to the chat, saying “I’ve seen you not only fail to stand up, but lie.” Waltz, for his part, blamed the Biden administration for approving the use of the messaging app, saying that the app was “not only authorized, it was recommended” by the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure agency. He said there was no classified military information discussed in any Signal chats he was part of. In March, The Atlantic reported its editor in chief was included in an unsecured Signal group chat with top Cabinet members — including Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — to coordinate plans to launch air strikes against the Houthi militant group in Yemen. Trump administration officials have repeatedly denied that any classified information was shared in the chat. Democrats on congressional intelligence panels and former national security officials have insisted that the information in the chats would be considered highly classified and could have jeopardized U.S. fighter pilots if leaked in advance. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) noted that there are multiple investigations into the use of the app currently underway and said those probes haven’t reached a conclusion about whether classified information was shared. He added that it was an “amateurish move” to add a reporter to the chat. Following the Atlantic’s disclosures, POLITICO reported that Waltz was known to use Signal regularly to set up chats to coordinate official work on national security issues. Coons pressed Waltz on the continued use of the app. “It doesn’t seem to me that the administration has taken any action to make sure this doesn’t happen again. There’s been no consequences, and yet the president continues to denounce those who leak information. We both know signal is not a secure way to convey classified information,” Coons said.

FOX News [7/15/2025 10:38 AM, Morgan Phillips, 46878K] reports Secretary Pete Hegseth pulled senior Defense Department officials from the Aspen Security Conference for promoting the "evil of globalism.” Military commanders were set to speak at the conference, which begins on Tuesday, as has been tradition through Republican and Democratic administrations. But Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson told Just the News the secretary’s office believes the conference "promotes the evil of globalism, disdain for our great country, and hatred for the President of the United States.” Wilson added that DoD "has no interest in legitimizing an organization that has invited former officials who have been the architects of chaos abroad and failure at home.” The forum will host other Trump administration officials: Adam Boehler, presidential envoy for hostage response, and Tom Barrack, U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Syria. It will also hear from some contentious Biden administration officials – Jake Sullivan, former national security advisor, and Brett McGurk, a former National Security Council coordinator. Mark Esper, Trump’s former acting defense secretary, and David Petraeus, who was briefly CIA director under President Barack Obama, will also be speaking, along with Condoleezza Rice, a national security advisor and secretary of state during the Bush years. "Senior Department of Defense officials will no longer be participating at the Aspen Security Forum because their values do not align with the values of the DoD," chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.

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NewsMax [7/15/2025 2:10 PM, James Morley III, 4622K]

The Hill [7/15/2025 1:47 PM, Staff, 18649K] reports that Deputy Secretary of State Michael Rigas will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday afternoon on the State Department’s fiscal 2026 budget request. The hearing comes just days after the Trump administration began its plan to layoff 1,300 employees amid its reorganization efforts. The decision has drawn criticism from Democrats and former diplomats alike that say the move risks national security. "For the State Department to become an effective instrument of American Foreign policy, we must reform and streamline our institution," Rigas, who handles management and resources, said in his prepared testimony. The hearing also follows the dismantling of the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) earlier this month. The actions come as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts — with the support of President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — to cut down on "waste, fraud and abuse" within the federal workforce. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [7/15/2025 5:24 PM, Gram Slattery, 24051K] reports two senior officials at the White House National Security Council have left their roles in recent days, according to two sources familiar with the moves, the latest departures for a body that has been cut sharply in recent months. Ian Bennitt, the senior director for maritime and industrial capacity, and Brian McCormack, the NSC’s chief of staff, both departed last week, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel moves. Bennitt is expected to leave for the private sector, the sources said, while McCormack is slated to become chief of staff for Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, a Trump ally. Hagerty’s office had already said last week that McCormack would soon take up the chief of staff role for the senator, indicating his departure from the NSC was imminent. Bennitt’s departure has not been previously reported. While it was not clear what immediate impact the moves would have on national security policy, the departures follow multiple waves of firings that have at times dented morale and left the NSC a shell of its former self. Some sections of the NSC have been eliminated, while others - such as those overseeing the Middle East and Africa - have been combined, according to several people familiar with the moves. Very few senior officials at the NSC who were hired at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s administration remain. McCormack and Bennitt were among the last holdouts. Bennitt’s departure is particularly significant given the Trump administration’s early focus on revitalizing the U.S. Navy and rebuilding the country’s maritime capacity. Trump signed an executive order to bipartisan applause in April aimed at reviving domestic shipbuilding and reducing China’s grip on the global shipping industry. The White House had pointed to the establishment of a maritime office at the NSC as a sign of its commitment to the industry. But by early July, five of that office’s seven workers had departed, the Wall Street Journal reported. A White House official told Reuters there was now a greater emphasis on maritime affairs at the State Department and at the Office of Management and Budget, a separate White House agency that helps decide the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.

AP [7/15/2025 2:50 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports that President Donald Trump praised his Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files Tuesday, telling reporters she “has handled it very well” and saying it’s up to her whether to release any more records related to the sex trafficking investigation. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The Hill [7/15/2025 2:05 PM, Brett Samuels, 18649K] reports that President Trump on Tuesday expressed his support for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein amid uproar from his supporters over a lack of transparency. Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a trip to Pennsylvania that he would defer to Bondi to release whatever evidence she deems credible. The administration’s handling of documents related to Epstein has fueled backlash from prominent figures in the MAGA movement. "The attorney general has handled that very well. She has really done a very good job," Trump said of Bondi. "The credibility is very important. And you want credible evidence for something like that. And I think the attorney general has handled it very well," Trump added. The president said Bondi recently provided him a "very quick briefing" on the Epstein documents. Trump pushed back when asked if he was told his name was on the list of those connected to Epstein. "No, no. She’s given us just a very quick briefing and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen," Trump said. "But she’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her whatever she thinks is credible, she should release," he added.

New York Post [7/15/2025 1:35 PM, Ryan King, 49956K] reports that California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna’s bid to force the release of the Justice Department’s files on notorious sex predator Jeffrey Epstein fell flat in the House on Monday. Khanna sought to capitalize on the raging MAGA revolt over Epstein by tacking on an amendment to pending legislation on cryptocurrency and national defense that would have required the files to be disclosed to the public. The rep vowed to keep fighting after his defeat. "We won’t stop until the files are released. This may have been our first attempt, but the public will not be gas-lit. We will keep fighting for transparency," Khanna said. On Monday evening, the House Rules Committee, which is a critical gatekeeper for how most legislation makes its way to the floor for a vote, rejected Khanna’s amendment in a 7–5 vote. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) was the sole Republican on the rules panel who voted in favor of Khanna’s bid to force the release of the Epstein files. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), whose district was slammed with flooding, was not present. All Democrats joined in with Khanna. The California Democrat meanwhile said he would expect the DOJ to protect the identities of Epstein’s victims if it releases the files. Other key Democrats, such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, have also pressed the Trump administration to release the files.

Breitbart [7/15/2025 11:19 AM, Alana Mastrangelo, 3077K] reports Tech giant Apple is backing President Donald Trump in a push for rare earth minerals, and is expected to announce a $500 million investment in the only rare earth mine currently operating in the United States. Apple plans to invest $500 million in the Las Vegas-based rare earth mining company, MP Materials, multiple sources familiar with the deal told FOX Business. The White House, meanwhile, is calling the deal a "major win" for the Trump administration. "This is a huge win for the president, who has the foresight to make this issue a priority," a senior White House official told Fox News. "Apple deserves a lot of credit for stepping up. It’s good for the country, good for American workers, and it’ll prove to be good business, too.” "Other companies should take notice," the White House official added. The deal also includes building a new recycling facility in Mountain Pass, California, which will reportedly reprocess materials from used electronics to be used in future Apple products. Moreover, Apple and MP Materials plan to build another facility in Fort Worth, Texas, to create magnets that will be used in the tech giant’s products, as well as other electronics around the world, sources told Fox News. Apple has previously announced significant expansions to its manufacturing presence in Texas. The deal, which includes Apple’s commitment to buy American-made rare earth magnets from MP Materials’ Texas factory, comes days after the U.S. Department of Defense announced it is also taking a $400 million stake in the mining company.

Chicago Tribune [7/15/2025 9:31 AM, Elaine Kurtenbach, 3987K] reports Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang says the technology giant has won approval from the Trump administration to sell its advanced H20 computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence to China. The news came in a company blog post late Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run CGTN television network in remarks shown on X. "The U.S. government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon," the post said. "Today, I’m announcing that the U.S. government has approved for us filing licenses to start shipping H20s," Huang told reporters in Beijing. He noted that half of the world’s AI researchers are in China. "It’s so innovative and dynamic here in China that it’s really important that American companies are able to compete and serve the market here in China," he said. Huang recently met with Trump and other U.S. policymakers and this week is in Beijing to attend a supply chain conference and speak with Chinese officials. The broadcast showed Huang meeting with Ren Hongbin, the head of the China Council for Promotion of International Trade, host of the China International Supply Chain Expo, which Huang was attending. Nvidia is an exhibitor. Nvidia has profited enormously from rapid adoption of AI, becoming the first company to have its market value surpass $4 trillion last week. However, the trade rivalry between the U.S. and China has been weighing heavily on the industry.

ABC News [7/15/2025 6:19 PM, Shannon K. Kingston, 31733K] reports after President Donald Trump threatened to impose "very severe" economic penalties against Vladimir Putin’s Russia if he doesn’t agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine within 50 days, the Trump administration has so far declined to provide many additional details about the consequences Russia will face or why he picked the deadline he chose. "Well, at the end of 50 days, if we don’t have a deal, it’s going to be too bad," Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. When asked why he decided to give the Russian leader nearly two months to comply with his demand, President Trump deflected. "I don’t think 50 days is very long. It could be sooner than that," Trump said. "You should have asked that same question to Biden. Why did he get us into this war?" he continued. "You know why he got us in? Because he’s a dummy, that’s why.” Despite pledging additional U.S. made weapons for Ukraine, Trump also said he didn’t support Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy ordering strikes on the Russian capital. "He shouldn’t target Moscow," he said. "No, we’re not looking to do that.” On Monday, Trump said that Russia’s failure to reach a negotiated settlement with Ukraine within 50 days would lead to his administration imposing a 100% tariff rate on Russian imports as well as what he called "secondary tariffs" on countries that have continued to do business with Moscow. "We’re very, very unhappy with him," Trump said of Putin on Monday. "We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days.” U.S. imports from Russia, which totaled around $3 billion in 2024 according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, account for a small share of Moscow’s revenue, meaning Trump’s threat to hike tariffs on Russian goods likely wouldn’t pack much punch. However, the president’s promise to raise tariffs on imports from third-party countries could carry more weight.

New York Post [7/15/2025 10:37 PM, Shane Galvin, 49956K] reports Russia assaulted Ukraine with a fresh wave of deadly drone and missile strikes Wednesday in another audacious rebellion of President Trump’s 50-day peace ultimatum to Vladimir Putin. Northeastern city Kharkiv was rocked by 17 strikes in just 20 minutes after midnight, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing Ukrainian government officials. The intense barrage was focused on the city’s Kyivskyi district, where at least two people were killed and several more injured, Reuters reported. There were also strikes reported to the east of Kharkiv in the town of Kupiansk and in the city of Kryvi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, according to the Kyiv Independent. Power and water supplies were knocked out of service at several of the bombed areas, the outlet reported, citing a local military official, and explosions were also heard in Izmail, a city in Odesa Oblast in southern Ukraine. The deadly strikes mark the second day in a row that the Russian military violently rebelled against Trump’s 50-day peace ultimatum he issued to Putin on Monday. Early Tuesday morning, Russia killed five and injured 43 others, including two teens and four children, in bombing strikes targeting Sumy, with Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblast also under assault, the Kyiv Independent reported. Russia claimed to only target military-industrial facilities, but local reports stated several residential buildings, a university and medical sites were also hit by drones, according to EuroNews. The "billions of dollars" worth of weapons being sent over to Ukraine via NATO allies will include "everything," Trump vowed Monday during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Rutte later warned Moscow’s allies to "call Vladimir" and tell him "to get serious" about the commander in chief’s potential "secondary tariffs" threat on Moscow’s allies within those 50 days if no peace deal is reached.

Washington Examiner [7/15/2025 2:06 PM, Mike Brest, 1934K] reports that President Donald Trump announced this week that the United States will sell weapons to European nations that will ultimately help Ukraine, but many of the details are still being hammered out between allies. Trump, joined in the Oval Office on Monday by North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Mark Rutte, described the agreement as “a very big deal” that amounts to “billions of dollars worth of military equipment.” He said the deal would be comprehensive but provided little detail other than highlighting that NATO members would pay for the weapons the U.S. gives up. "It’s everything. It’s Patriots. It’s all of them. It’s a full complement with the batteries," the president said. Trump’s language is in line with his fervent stance that European countries need to become more self-reliant in national security instead of depending on the U.S. All NATO allies except Spain agreed to increase their defense spending target to 5% of GDP, up from the 2% benchmark that had been in place prior. Rutte noted that Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, and Canada are prepared to participate in this effort to arm Ukraine. Aside from Patriot missile defense systems and the missiles needed to operate them, it’s unclear what other weapons will be involved in this deal. It’s also unknown if any offensive weapons will be provided in this plan.

AP [7/15/2025 12:35 PM, Vasilisa Stepanenko and Lorne Cook, 1611K] reports that Ukrainians welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge of more U.S.-made weapons in their three-year fight against Russia’s invasion, though it is unclear what exactly they will get and how quickly. The time frame for the further arms deliveries, which European countries have agreed to pay for, is crucial. Russia is making a summer push to break through along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and its drones and missiles are hammering Ukrainian cities more than at any time in the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Trump for his "willingness to support Ukraine." In Kyiv, resident Nina Tokar, 70, said Tuesday that with more U.S. weapons going to Ukraine "maybe this will all end faster." However, following Trump’s threat late last week to impose major sanctions on Russia for failing to reach a deal to end the fighting, the American president said Monday that Moscow would get 50 days to come to a settlement or face "very severe" economic sanctions. While some believe strict tariffs on Moscow could be a game changer, the decision to postpone them until September struck some European observers as being too long. Ukrainian officials made no direct comment about the 50-day window, but for Russia, the delay of new sanctions came as a reprieve.

The Hill [7/15/2025 11:45 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K] reports that Russian leaders responded flippantly Tuesday to the Trump administration’s threat of "severe" tariffs if Moscow doesn’t quickly come to a peace agreement with Ukraine. "Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences," Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, wrote in a post on the social platform X. "Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care," Medvedev, who also previously served as president and prime minister of Russia, added. President Trump has upped his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent days, saying Monday he was "very unhappy" with the leader’s continued onslaught in Kyiv. Trump has sought to pressure Russia to come back to the negotiating table through the threat of potential sanctions — including a 100 percent tariff on countries that trade with Moscow — and by arming Ukraine. "We’re very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in about 50 days," the president said during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House. "I will tell you that Ukraine wants to do something," Trump said later, arguing the Eastern European conflict has been one of the few he has not been able to help settle. "It’s all talk, and then missiles go into Kyiv and kill 60 people," he continued. "It’s got to stop. It’s got to stop."

CBS News [7/15/2025 7:07 AM, Staff, 51860K] reports an American who spied on Ukrainian troops to help Moscow’s military offensive in the country has been granted Russian citizenship, Moscow-installed authorities said Tuesday. Daniel Martindale spent two years in Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, transmitting coordinates of military facilities to Russia’s secret services, according to reports in Russian state media. "By decree of our President Vladimir Putin, a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation was awarded to Daniel Martindale," Denis Pushilin, the head of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that Martindale had "long since proven with his loyalty and actions that he is one of us." "He spent more than two years in the territory under enemy control. And not only did he survive — he helped. He supported our guys, passed on important information to our special services, risked his life," he added. Martindale received his passport from interior ministry officials at a ceremony in Moscow, according to state media and a video published by Pushilin. Martindale thanked Russia for "accepting me," and said becoming a Russian citizen was a "dream.” "Russia is not only my home, but my family," he said in Russian on the video.

Bloomberg [7/15/2025 1:29 PM, Eric Martin, 19320K] reports NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Brazil, China and India will face secondary sanctions from the US if Russia doesn’t negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine, and said they should lean on President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire. "My encouragement to these three countries particularly is if you live now in Beijing or in Delhi, or you’re the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard," Rutte told reporters Tuesday. “So please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way,” he said. Rutte’s remarks offered clarity about the potential outcome after President Donald Trump announced Monday that he was giving Putin 50 days to enter into peace talks with Ukraine or face what he called “secondary tariffs” of 100% as well as secondary sanctions. Those penalties target countries that do business with sanctioned nations. Trump didn’t name Brazil, China or India but those are three countries that have continued to buy Russian oil and petroleum products in the years since Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine in 2022. US senators are pressing for a bill that calls for 500% tariffs on countries doing business with Russia.

New York Times [7/15/2025 7:48 PM, Ephrat Livni, 138952K] reports the United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, on Tuesday called on the Israeli authorities to “aggressively investigate” the death of a 20-year-old Palestinian-American citizen in a clash on Friday with Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling his killing a “murder” and a “criminal and terrorist act.” Mr. Huckabee, who has been vocal about his support for settlement in the occupied West Bank — which is widely viewed as illegal in the international community — used uncharacteristically strong language in his statement condemning the death of Sayfollah Musallet, a young Floridian who had been visiting his family in the area. “There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,” Mr. Huckabee said. The ambassador’s demand comes amid a rise in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank during the war with Hamas in Gaza. Mr. Musallet was one of two Palestinian men who died in the violence near the northern West Bank town of Sinjil on Friday. The other, Mohammad Shalabi, 23, was shot during a confrontation between settlers and Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, though it was not clear who had shot him as armed settlers and soldiers had both been present on the scene. The Israeli military has neither confirmed nor denied the two deaths, saying only that there had been a violent exchange between Palestinians and Israeli civilians near Sinjil, and that the domestic intelligence agency and police were looking into reported casualties. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has confirmed Mr. Musallet’s death, as well as his American citizenship. Exactly how Friday’s clash unfolded is unclear. The Israeli military has said that confrontations began when Palestinians hurled stones at Israeli civilians, slightly injuring two Israelis. Mohammad Zaban, the mayor of Mazraa al-Sharqiya, a town near Sinjil, said the violence had escalated after weeks of increased tensions in the area between settlers and Palestinians as a result of Israelis installing themselves on hilltops overlooking Sinjil on land claimed by Palestinians and confronting local residents. Witnesses and officials in the West Bank said there had been an hourslong standoff between settlers and Palestinians and that Mr. Musallet had ended up badly wounded. The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said in a statement that Mr. Musallet had died after he was “severely beaten” by settlers.

CBS News [7/15/2025 2:05 PM, Emily Mae Czachor, 51860K] reports that federal authorities on Tuesday released new images of three Iranian intelligence officers allegedly involved in the abduction of retired FBI special agent Robert Levinson. Each attached to a seeking information poster, the images of Reza Amiri Moghadam, Taghi Daneshvar and Gholamhossein Mohammadnia are part of an extensive investigation into Levinson’s disappearance in 2007, the FBI’s Washington field office said. Moghadam is the current Iranian ambassador to Pakistan and previously led the operations unit of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security in Tehran, an agency whose members the FBI has accused of helping orchestrate Levinson’s abduction. Daneshvar is described by the FBI as a high-ranking officer in the Iranian intelligence ministry involved in counterespionage activities. Around the time Levinson disappeared, he allegedly oversaw the work of Mohammad Baseri, another Iranian intelligence officer whom the United States government has accused in the abduction. "These three intelligence officers were among those who allegedly facilitated Bob’s 2007 abduction and the subsequent cover-up by the Iranian government. Bob likely later perished in captivity far away from his family, friends, and colleagues," said Steven Jenson, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington office, in a statement. "The FBI will continue its relentless pursuit to hold anyone involved in his abduction to account for their reprehensible actions." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [7/16/2025 3:22 AM, Brad Lendon, 21433K] reports Japan is facing its most severe security environment since World War II as three potential adversaries in East Asia – China, Russia and North Korea – ramp up military activities in the region, the country’s defense minister said Tuesday. "The existing order of world peace is being seriously challenged, and Japan finds itself in the most severe and complex security environment of the post-war era," Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said in an introduction to the ministry’s annual defense white paper. China’s military activities present "an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge" to Japan, the report said. Beijing is "rapidly enhancing its military capability in a qualitative and quantitative manner" while "intensifying" activities around the region, Nakatani said, specifically mentioning the Senkaku Islands, a chain in the East China Sea that Tokyo controls but which is also claimed by Beijing, which calls them the Diaoyus. The 34-page document gives a dire outlook on the future of the region, especially on the rivalry between China and the United States, Tokyo’s most important ally. "The global balance of power is shifting dramatically and competition among states continues. In particular, the inter-state competition between the United States and China is likely to intensify even further in future," the white paper says. The paper says escalating Chinese military activity around the democratically controlled island of Taiwan poses a threat. "China seeks to create a fait accompli where the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is operating, and improve its actual combat capabilities," it says. It cites a similar situation in the South China Sea and says PLA actions there are a legitimate Japanese concern because Tokyo has major sea lanes running through the waterway. Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for China’s Defense Ministry, said Wednesday that Japan was "hyping up the ‘China threat,’ and grossly interfering in China’s internal affairs.” "The Japanese side is fabricating false narratives to find excuses for loosening its military constraints," Jiang said, referring to Japan’s strict post-war constitution, which limits its military forces to self-defense only.

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