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 AP [7/17/2025 12:34 PM, Kimberly Kindy and Amanda Seitz, 56000K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will be given access to the personal data of the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, to track down immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States, according to an agreement obtained by The Associated Press. The information will give ICE officials the ability to find "the location of aliens" across the country, says the agreement signed Monday between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement has not been announced publicly. The extraordinary disclosure of millions of such personal health data to deportation officials is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which has repeatedly tested legal boundaries in its effort to arrest 3,000 people daily. Lawmakers and some CMS officials have challenged the legality of deportation officials’ access to some states’ Medicaid enrollee data. It’s a move, first reported by the AP last month, that Health and Human Services officials said was aimed at rooting out people enrolled in the program improperly. HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon would not respond to the latest agreement. It is unclear, though, whether Homeland Security has yet accessed the information. The department’s assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, said in an emailed statement that the two agencies "are exploring an initiative to ensure that illegal aliens are not receiving Medicaid benefits that are meant for law-abiding Americans.” FOX News [7/17/2025 5:48 PM, Alexandra Koch, 46878K] reports that, though the true number of illegal immigrants on Medicaid is unknown, about 1.4 million people currently on Medicaid do not meet citizenship and immigration status requirements for Medicaid enrollment, according to a document from the Congressional Budget Office. DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital the initiative will ensure illegal immigrants do not receive taxpayer-funded health benefits. "President Trump consistently promised to protect Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries," McLaughlin wrote in a statement. "To keep that promise after Joe Biden flooded our country with tens of millions of illegal aliens CMS and DHS are exploring an initiative to ensure that illegal aliens are not receiving Medicaid benefits that are meant for law-abiding Americans.” The deal was signed weeks after California and 19 other states sued the Trump administration for transferring Medicaid data to the DHS. The Los Angeles Times [7/17/2025 6:08 PM, Jenny Jarvie and Hannah Fry, 14672K] reports that critics have sounded the alarm ever since the Trump administration directed the CMS last month to send the DHS personal information on Medicaid enrollees, including non-U.S. citizens registered in state-funded programs in California, Illinois, Washington and Washington, D.C. These states operate state-funded Medicaid programs for immigrants who are otherwise ineligible for federal Medicaid and had committed not to bill the federal government. California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff warned last month of potential violations of federal privacy laws as Trump officials made plans to share personal health data. "These actions not only raise ethical issues but are contrary to longstanding HHS policy and raise significant concerns about possible violations of federal law," the Senators wrote in a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [7/17/2025 5:48 PM, Neil Munro, 3077K]
Reuters [7/17/2025 5:35 PM, Ahmed Aboulenein and Kanishka Singh, 51390K]
Axios [7/17/2025 6:26 PM, Maya Goldman, 13599K]
NBC News [7/17/2025 6:16 PM, Nicole Acevedo, Laura Strickler, and Alicia Victoria Lozano, 44540K]
Daily Caller [7/17/2025 2:59 PM, Sally Lynne, 1010K]
Washington Examiner [7/17/2025 7:45 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1934K]

Reuters [7/17/2025 3:16 PM, Leah Douglas, 51390K] reports the Trump administration’s plan to amass a database of U.S. food aid recipients for the purpose of checking immigration status and avoiding duplicate enrollment amounts to an unlawful privacy violation, lawmakers said in a letter on Thursday to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in June that it would gather information from states to build the database with the goal of reducing waste and strengthening the program, as well as in keeping with President Donald Trump’s directives to promote data-sharing across the federal government. The data would include the social security numbers, immigration status and other information of people who have received, are receiving or have applied to receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to agency documents. California Senator Adam Schiff and 12 other Democratic senators said in the letter that the database would violate benefit recipients’ right to privacy and that the USDA should cease compiling the data. "The new FNS policy would violate federal law and undoubtedly lead to a loss of trust," the letter said.

The Hill [7/17/2025 1:14 PM, Elizabeth Crisp, 18649K] reports that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is seeking information from the Trump administration about what he called its "chilling expansion" of efforts to collect DNA from migrants, including children, as it carries out its sweeping immigration crackdown. "It appears the only basis for this DNA surveillance is to further the Trump administration’s animus toward immigrants," Wyden wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi this week. "I worry that such broad DNA surveillance led by your Departments may result in the over-policing of immigrant communities and deter them from seeking out essential services." The Democratic senator’s office released the letter Thursday. Wyden cited research from the Georgetown University School of Law released this month that found the number of DNA samples Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collected and sent to the federal Combined DNA Index System has swelled more than 5,000 percent in the past five years. More than a quarter of a million people were added to the government DNA database by CBP in the first four months of this year, the researchers found. In the letter, Wyden asked the Trump administration to provide him information by Aug. 1 to explain the U.S.’s "interest in collecting and retaining DNA from noncitizens in the course of immigration detention and enforcement," which agencies are gathering DNA and how the biometric information is being used. "What information are DOJ and DHS, respectively, able to extract from the DNA they retain?" he wrote. "Is DNA accessed to determine any ethnographic or racial information about the individual?"

FOX News [7/17/2025 6:23 PM, Alexandra Koch, 46878K] reports the Department of Justice on Thursday issued requests to sheriffs in multiple large California counties—including Los Angeles and San Francisco counties—for lists of all inmates in their jails who are not citizens of the United States. The requests also include the illegal immigrant’s charges or conviction, and their scheduled release dates, according to a news release from the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs. "In recent years, the United States suffered an invasion of illegal aliens at an unprecedented scale," officials wrote in the release. "Far too many of those illegal aliens have gone on to commit crimes on American soil, including rapes, murders, and other violent crimes. Today’s data requests are designed to assist federal immigration authorities in prioritizing the removal of illegal aliens who committed crimes after illegally entering the United States.” Although every illegal immigrant by definition has violated federal law, the DOJ said those who go on to commit crimes after coming into the country illegally pose a heightened risk to the nation’s safety and security. "Removing criminal illegal aliens is this Administration’s highest priority," Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in the release. "I look forward to cooperating with California’s county sheriffs to accomplish our shared duty of keeping Californians and all Americans safe and secure.” The DOJ said it "hopes" California sheriffs will voluntarily produce the requested information, but if necessary, the department will "pursue all available means of obtaining the data, including through subpoenas or other compulsory process.” The requests come weeks after Border Czar Tom Homan, on Fox News’ "Kudlow," vowed to "double down and triple down" on sanctuary cities that are obstructing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. The New York Times [7/17/2025 5:43 PM, Jesus Jiménez, 153395K] reports that the move comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been under pressure from the White House to increase its arrests of undocumented immigrants and after weeks of federal immigration raids across Southern California. Andres Kwon, a senior policy lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said it was possible that any sheriff who complied with the request could be in violation of California’s so-called sanctuary state law, which bars the use of state and local resources from being used for federal immigration enforcement. “Even the federal government has admitted that these requests to local law enforcement agencies are simply that — requests,” Mr. Kwon said. “Because if they’re commands, that would be in violation of the 10th Amendment,” which reserves for states any powers not explicitly granted to the federal government in the Constitution. The California attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The largest sheriff’s agency in the country, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, signaled that it would not honor the request from the Justice Department. “The only time the Sheriff’s Department transfers an individual into ICE custody is with a federal judicial warrant signed by a judge,” the department said. “Immigration officials are not in our facilities, and are prohibited from using county property, databases, and personnel unless there is a federal warrant.” At least 20 inmates were released to ICE in the months of May and June, the agency said. Nineteen were subject to federal immigration judicial warrants. The other inmate was released to ICE based on an agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the county district attorney’s office.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/17/2025 4:19 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K]
Axios [7/17/2025 7:46 PM, Josephine Walker and Sareen Habeshian, 13599K]
NewsMax [7/17/2025 5:58 PM, Jim Thomas, 4622K]

CNN [7/17/2025 7:54 PM, Alexandra Skores, 875K] reports the Department of Homeland Security announced an expansion of Transportation Security Administration checkpoints for families traveling with children and military members on Thursday. TSA will add a dedicated family lane at security checkpoints under a program called "Families on the Fly," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced at a press conference at Nashville International Airport. The project began with a pilot program in Orlando because of its close proximity to Disney World, she said, and it will be rolled out first in areas where families often travel with children. "There will be expanded areas that will give them the benefit of recognizing that they have children with them and will help make sure that we have the ability to take care of them and their families as they go through this expedited process with their kiddos," Noem said. Families will also get a $15 discount if they enroll in TSA’s Trusted Traveler program, PreCheck. The special lane for uniformed military members, called the Honor Lane, is currently available at 11 different airports, and will expand nationwide. Noem also highlighted initiatives announced earlier this month including providing Gold Star families, the immediate family members of a service member who died while serving in the military during a time of conflict, access to the PreCheck free of charge. "We want everybody to know that we’re extremely grateful for their service to our country and recognize the sacrifice that their families have made," she said Thursday.

AP [7/17/2025 5:56 PM, Gerald Imray, 56000K] reports five immigrants deported by the United States to the small southern African nation of Eswatini under the Trump administration’s third-country program are in prison, where they will be held in solitary confinement for an undetermined time, a government spokesperson said. Thabile Mdluli, the spokesperson, declined to identify the correctional facility or facilities where the five men are, citing security concerns. She said Eswatini planned to ultimately repatriate the five to their home countries with the help of a United Nations agency. In cell phone messages to The Associated Press on Thursday, Mdluli said it wasn’t clear how long that would take. The men, who the U.S. says were convicted of serious crimes and were in the U.S. illegally, are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos. Their convictions included murder and child rape, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said, describing them as "uniquely barbaric.” Their deportations were announced by Homeland Security on Tuesday and mark the continuation of President Donald Trump’s plan to send deportees to third countries they have no ties with after it was stalled by a legal challenge in the United States. Four of the five countries where the men are from have historically resisted taking back some of their citizens deported from the U.S., which has been a reoccurring problem for Homeland Security. Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the administration was happy the men were "off of American soil" when she announced their deportations. There have been no details on why Eswatini agreed to take the men and Mdluli, the government spokesperson, said "the terms of the agreement between the U.S. and Eswatini remain classified."

CNN [7/17/2025 3:12 PM, Nimi Princewill, Sarah Dean, Larry Madowo, and Hamilton Wende, 875K] reports that across Africa, and in the tiny nation of Eswatini, fury has erupted over the arrival of foreign deportees from the United States, after its government confirmed that migrants described by a Department of Homeland security spokesperson as "depraved monsters" had been sent to its prisons. Roughly the size of New Jersey, Eswatini — formerly known as Swaziland — is governed by a monarch who has absolute power. On Wednesday, officials said that five deportees from the US were now being held in isolated units in its jails, acknowledging "widespread concern" but insisting the deported men "pose no threat to the country or its citizens." The deportation, according to a statement by acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli, was the "result of months of robust high-level engagements" between the US and the southern African nation. Critics of the move say it is unacceptable for Eswatini to be treated as a "dumping ground" for people considered unfit to live in the US. While the Trump administration’s mass deportations to the prisons of El Salvador have made headlines around the world, the White House has also been quietly attempting to strike agreements with a number of African countries to accept deportees originally from other nations. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X Wednesday that the five detainees flown to Eswatini were nationals from Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, Yemen and Vietnam. "This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back," she wrote. "These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities but thanks to @POTUS Trump @Sec_Noem they are off of American soil," McLaughlin added.

FOX News [7/17/2025 6:25 PM, Preston Mizell, 46878K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secretary Kristi Noem announced Thursday the cancellation of $18.5 million in taxpayer-funded grants for the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3). The grants were designated by the Biden administration to provide taxpayer funds to various organizations that DHS says are "ideologically driven programs" promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and LGBTQ agendas. "These cancellations reflect DHS’s commitment to fiscal responsibility and national security," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. "By eliminating wasteful and ideologically driven programs, we are redirecting resources to initiatives that uphold American values, respect the rule of law and effectively combat terrorism and violence.” Some of the cuts include $851,836 to the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, which DHS refers to as a DEI organization, and $209,407 to the Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders group, which DHS says promotes radical gender ideology learning to K-12 students while targeting kids as young as kindergarten. CP3, which replaced the Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention in 2021, was originally designed to be a division within DHS with a mission of strengthening the nation’s ability to prevent targeted violence and terrorism through being guided by public health principles.

New York Times [7/18/2025 3:02 AM, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, 330K] reports a coalition of legal groups representing immigrants filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, arguing that the federal government’s campaign to arrest people at immigration courthouses so that they can be swiftly deported is unlawful and violates due process protections. The lawsuit, filed by Democracy Forward and three other legal organizations on behalf of 12 immigrants, aims to stop the arrests at immigration courts, a contentious tactic that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency began using in May to increase deportations nationwide. From New York to California, ICE agents have arrested immigrants appearing for routine proceedings at immigration courts, prompting criticism from Democrats and activists that ICE is unfairly targeting people who are following the rules by showing up to court. Federal agents, typically wearing masks, have become a mainstay in courthouse lobbies and hallways, where they have arrested scores of migrants who are leaving courtrooms and who are placed in expedited deportation proceedings that don’t require hearings. The lawsuit was filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of Justice, which oversees the immigration courts; the Department of Homeland Security; and ICE. Several officials at federal agencies also were sued. The plaintiffs include 12 immigrants, identified only by pseudonyms, from Cuba, Ecuador, Guinea, Venezuela and elsewhere. Many had entered the country without authorization from 2021 to 2024 and had applied for asylum. They were arrested when they showed up at courthouses this year. Most are in detention — in New York, Pennsylvania and Texas — and fear persecution in their home countries, the lawsuit said. One immigrant was deported to Ecuador less than a month after he was arrested in June. “Noncitizens, including most of the individual plaintiffs here, have been abruptly ripped from their families, lives, homes and jobs for appearing in immigration court, a step required to enable them to proceed with their applications for permission to remain in this country,” the lawsuit says. The courthouse arrests have become a relatively easy way for ICE to detain immigrants, as they show up for mandated court dates, without having to send agents to arrest people in their homes or workplaces, which requires more time and resources. ICE has cast the practice as an easy way to quickly expel the millions of people who entered the country under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and to bypass backlogs in the courts, where deportation proceedings take years. In a statement on Thursday, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, rejected the arguments made in the lawsuit, saying, “We aren’t some medieval kingdom, there are no legal sanctuaries where you can hide and avoid the consequences for breaking the law.”

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/17/2025 1:40 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18649K]

Daily Caller [7/17/2025 11:25 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports a slate of liberal groups is suing the Trump administration to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from making arrests at immigration courts. Democracy Forward, the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and other pro-immigrant groups moved to stop ICE and other federal agencies from making apprehensions at immigration courts, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit marks the latest legal challenge against the Trump administration’s widespread crackdown on illegal immigration. "The Trump-Vance administration is weaponizing immigration courts by threatening people who follow the law and appear for their hearings as directed by the court," Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward, claimed in a public statement. "This unlawful scheme will chill participation in the legal process and violates the fundamental principles of due process and fairness that underpin our legal system.” "We are witnessing an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. immigration court system by the Trump administration," Keren Zwick, the director of litigation at the NIJC, said in a prepared statement. "People who attend their hearings to seek permission to remain in this country and comply with U.S. immigration law are being rounded up and abruptly ripped from their families, homes, and livelihoods.” The new lawsuit represents 12 people, some of whom are gay and living with HIV, who had been arrested at immigration court hearings, according to the lawsuit. The individuals — who were simply identified in documents with initials — typically claimed asylum before their case was dismissed and they were apprehended. Immediately upon re-entering office, President Donald Trump and his administration implemented several directives aimed at making it easier for ICE agents to arrest illegal migrants. DHS issued new guidance in January that allowed deportation officers to make arrests at so-called "sensitive locations" that were mostly prohibited for them in the past. The new guidance allowed ICE agents to conduct civil enforcement actions at or near courthouses, according to the agency. The Trump administration has pushed back, suing New York State in June over its law and charging the Wisconsin judge with obstruction for her alleged efforts. DHS officials have long argued that courthouse arrests are safe for both agents and individuals being apprehended, as opposed to conducting enforcement actions in the field where there’s a greater chance for violence. "We aren’t some medieval kingdom, there are no legal sanctuaries where you can hide and avoid the consequences for breaking the law," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. "Nothing in the constitution prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them.” "The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense," McLaughlin said. "It conserves valuable law enforcement resources because they already know where a target will be.” "It is also safer for our officers and the community. These illegal aliens have gone through security and been screened to not have any weapons," McLaughlin said. "Secretary Noem is empowering law enforcement to use common sense to remove criminal illegal aliens from American communities.”

Reported similarly:
NewsNation [7/17/2025 12:58 PM, Anna Kutz, 5801K]

Bloomberg [7/17/2025 12:24 PM, Zoe Tillman, 19320K] reports immigrant advocates are suing to stop what they allege is an unlawful effort by the Trump administration to ramp up arrests of migrants who appear at US immigration courts. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal district court in Washington, claims US officials are violating migrants’ due process rights with courthouse arrests and policies that make it easier to block legal paths for migrants to contest being deported. It’s the latest of many court challenges to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Lawyers for migrants accuse the US Justice Department and immigration officials of unjustly targeting people who are following the rules when they show up for hearings. They also allege agents are taking people into custody who have pending claims to stay in the country. People “have been abruptly ripped from their families, lives, homes and jobs for appearing in immigration court, a step required to enable them to proceed with their applications for permission to remain in this country,” lawyers representing advocacy groups and individuals argued in the complaint. In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin defended the administration’s actions. The US isn’t “some medieval kingdom,” McLaughlin said. “There are no legal sanctuaries where you can hide and avoid the consequences for breaking the law. Nothing in the constitution prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them.”

AP [7/17/2025 2:04 PM, Martha Bellisle, 24051K] reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday defended its policy of having Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrest people at their immigration court hearings after a class-action lawsuit was filed that seeks to stop the practice. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the agency and ICE says the arrests of thousands of people at court have stripped them of rights afforded to them under immigration law and the U.S. Constitution. Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs, told The Associated Press on Thursday that arresting people at immigration court is safer for law enforcement officers because the immigrants have gone through security and were screened for weapons. It also conserves law enforcement resources "because they already know where a target will be," she said. "We aren’t some medieval kingdom, there are no legal sanctuaries where you can hide and avoid the consequences for breaking the law," McLaughlin said in an email. "Nothing in the constitution prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them." The large-scale immigration court arrests that began in May have unleashed fear among asylum-seekers and immigrants. In what has become a familiar scene, a judge will grant a government lawyer’s request to dismiss deportation proceedings against an immigrant while ICE officers wait in the hallway to take them into custody. They’re then moved to an expedited removal process.

Breitbart [7/17/2025 7:20 PM, Staff, 3077K] reports in gloomy corridors outside a Manhattan courtroom, masked agents target and arrest migrants attending mandatory hearings — part of US President Donald Trump’s escalating immigration crackdown. Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to deport many migrants, has encouraged authorities to be more aggressive as he seeks to hit his widely-reported target of one million deportations annually. Since Trump’s return to the White House, Homeland Security agents have adopted the tactic of waiting outside immigration courts nationwide and arresting migrants as they leave at the end of asylum hearings. Missing an immigration court hearing is a crime in some cases and can itself make migrants liable to be deported, leaving many with little choice but to attend and face arrest. Armed agents with shields from different federal agencies loitered outside the court hearings in a tower block in central New York, holding paperwork with photographs of migrants to be targeted, an AFP correspondent saw this week. The agents arrested almost a dozen migrants from different countries in just a few hours on the 12th floor of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building. Brad Lander, a city official who was briefly detained last month by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents as he attempted to accompany a migrant targeted for removal, called the hearings "a trap.” "It has the trappings of a judicial hearing, but it’s just a trap to have made them come in the first place," he said Wednesday outside the building. Lander recounted several asylum seekers being arrested by immigration officers including Carlos, a Paraguayan man who Lander said had an application pending for asylum under the Convention Against Torture — as well as a future court date.

NewsMax [7/17/2025 9:49 AM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4622K] reports FBI agents have arrested another suspect in connection with the premeditated July 4 ambush at a Texas ICE detention facility. Benjamin Hanil Song, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist, was arrested on Wednesday by agents in Dallas after a weeklong search, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, reported The Washington Examiner. Song has been charged with three counts of attempted murder of federal agents, along with three counts of discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. He had been on the FBI’s Most Wanted list since a Blue Alert was issued following his alleged role in the organized and armed attack, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Song is the 14th person charged after the attack. According to federal officials, he and 10 other suspects allegedly arranged the attack on ICE agents at the Prairieland Detention Center. "Though Song escaped by hiding overnight after the attack, we were confident he would not remain hidden for long," acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Nancy E. Larson said in a statement. "The 14 individuals who planned and participated in these heinous acts will be prosecuted, and we expect justice will be swift.” The capture and arrest of the attack suspects sends a "clear message" about violence against ICE agents, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security commented. "On Independence Day, as Americans were celebrating our freedoms, a group of violent extremists attempted to assassinate federal officers protecting us from violent criminals," she said in a statement issued by the DHS. "Song’s arrest sends a clear message: under President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem, if you lay a hand on an ICE agent, you will NOT walk free," McLaughlin added. "We will not forget, and we will not rest until every attacker is in custody.”

Washington Examiner [7/17/2025 5:13 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1934K] reports the Trump administration has located thousands of unaccompanied migrant minors who were deemed untraceable, with a significant majority being identified through a door-knocking campaign carried out by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. ORR is the Department of Health and Human Services office responsible for detaining unaccompanied migrant children after they cross the border and placing them with adult sponsors in the United States. But senior White House officials tell the Washington Examiner that, since January, the office has also “located, contacted, and updated case information” for 7,500 unaccompanied migrant children who were considered “lost” because of incomplete or inaccurate contact information originally provided at the time of their release to HHS. Furthermore, Department of Homeland Security investigators have located an additional 100 lost children while pursuing separate federal investigations. ORR has also resolved roughly two-thirds of a separate backlog of safety complaints filed with the Biden administration regarding the safety of unaccompanied minors. In some cases, those have led to the discovery of child labor and sexual abuse cases. White House officials estimate that when coupled with the number of children repatriated through Trump’s general deportation agenda, the administration has properly identified and located more than 10,000 unaccompanied children who were misidentified by the previous administration. The contacts represent a significant step forward for Trump, who claimed in July that 300,000 children who came over the border alone were “missing” and that 10,000 children had been found.

Bloomberg Law [7/17/2025 1:57 PM, Mallory Culhane, 88K] reports Florida and Trump administration officials are allegedly preventing noncitizens held at Florida’s "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility from communicating with their attorneys. The government’s restrictions on client-attorney communications have made it "virtually impossible" for detainees to file petitions with immigration courts to contest their detention, a group of detainees in the Miami-Dade County facility and legal aid organizations assert in a proposed class action filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The plaintiffs are seeking to represent a class of all detainees at the Florida Everglades facility, which has been dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz.” The state-run facility, which can house roughly 3,000 people, was built in just eight days pursuant to Florida’s state of emergency over "illegal immigration." The fast-tracked schedule and reports of poor conditions in the facility have drawn concerns from human rights groups and some lawmakers. The only way detainees can communicate with family and attorneys is through "infrequent access to collect pay phone calls that are monitored and recorded, and last approximately five minutes," the plaintiffs claim. The US Department of Homeland Security and Florida officials have allegedly provided no information on how attorneys can get in touch with their clients, and repeatedly refused them access. Officials at a checkpoint near the facility have allegedly turned away attorneys and provided them a "faulty email address" or visitation request form to arrange a visit.

Telemundo51 [7/17/2025 3:09 PM, Hatzel Sailing, 177K] reports a 38-page complaint explains how, according to reports, people detained at the "Alligator Alcatraz" detention centre in the Everglades do not have access to their lawyers. One of the plaintiffs, Michael Borrego, claims he remains there and has not been able to see his immigration lawyer. "They are violating their human rights," Yaneisy Fernández Silva, Borrego’s mother, told Telemundo 51. "His lawyer waited three hours outside and couldn’t get in [the detention centre]." According to the lawsuit, the first to formally address these allegations, Borrego is a Cuban citizen who lived in South Florida with his family before his arrest on June 10. He was arrested for violating his probation for pending traffic offences. Telemundo 51 also discovered that Borrego was charged with major theft in the past. Borrego has been detained at the "Alligator Alcatraz" detention center since July 5, 2025, according to the lawsuit arguing that: "Borrego has a final deportation order and requires the assistance of a lawyer to file credible fear applications with the immigration court." "The defendants in this case have prevented detainees at the centre from accessing legal assistance. There are no protocols in this center to provide standard confidential means of communication between lawyer and client, such as face-to-face visits of the lawyer and telephone calls or video calls, available in any other detention, prison or prison center," explains the lawsuit, filed Wednesday. The complaint goes on to explain: "The only way in which detainees can communicate with the outside is through rare access to call-to-charge phone calls, which are monitored and recorded, and last approximately five minutes."

AP [7/17/2025 5:09 PM, Kate Payne, 56000K] reports Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration left many local officials in the dark about the immigration detention center that rose from an isolated airstrip in the Everglades, emails obtained by The Associated Press show, while relying on an executive order to seize the land, hire contractors and bypass laws and regulations. The emails show that local officials in southwest Florida were still trying to chase down a "rumor" about the sprawling "Alligator Alcatraz" facility planned for their county while state officials were already on the ground and sending vendors through the gates to coordinate construction of the detention center, which was designed to house thousands of migrants and went up in a matter of days. "Not cool!" one local official told the state agency director spearheading the construction. The 100-plus emails dated June 21 to July 1, obtained through a public records request, underscore the breakneck speed at which the governor’s team built the facility and the extent to which local officials were blindsided by the plans for the compound of makeshift tents and trailers in Collier County, a wealthy, majority-Republican corner of the state that’s home to white-sand beaches and the western stretch of the Everglades. The executive order, originally signed by the Republican governor in 2023 and extended since then, accelerated the project, allowing the state to seize county-owned land and evade rules in what critics have called an abuse of power. The order granted the state sweeping authority to suspend "any statute, rule or order" seen as slowing the response to the immigration "emergency." A representative for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On July 1, just 10 days after Collier County first got wind of the plans, the state officially opened the facility, welcoming DeSantis, Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other state and federal officials for a tour.

NewsMax [7/17/2025 5:24 PM, Michael Katz, 4622K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she has talked with five Republican governors about developing large-scale detention facilities for illegal immigrants, similar to "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida. During a news conference Saturday in Tampa, Florida, Noem applauded Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for partnering with DHS to open "Alligator Alcatraz," a detention facility on a remote airstrip surrounded by the Everglades. "We’ve had several other states that are actually using Alligator Alcatraz as a model for how they can partner with us, as well," Noem said, without revealing the states involved. Noem said she hadn’t asked the governors if she could use their names but added the talks were "ongoing," with announcements on additional new detention facilities "coming soon." "As you all know, we need to double our capacity and detention beds because we need to facilitate getting people out of this country as fast as possible and to sustain our operations," Noem said. Spokespersons for governors in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas said they are ready to assist in President Donald Trump’s mass deportations of illegal immigrants, without confirming whether they have been contacted, NewsNation reported Thursday. "Texas will continue to assist the Trump administration in arresting, detaining, and deporting illegal immigrants," Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for Gov. Greg Abbott, said. "Mississippi will do whatever it takes to help support President Trump’s immigration agenda," Cory Custer, chief of staff to Gov. Tate Reeves, said. "Nothing is off the table." South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has directed state officials to "keep exploring how The Palmetto State’s unique assets can be utilized," a spokesman told NewsNation.

NewsNation [7/17/2025 3:58 PM, Jeff Arnold, 5801K] reports that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has suggested that a Florida migrant detention tent camp known as "Alligator Alcatraz" be used as a blueprint for other states as the federal agency seeks to add locations to hold undocumented migrants facing deportation. Noem said an announcement about where similar facilities could be opened is coming soon. Noem has been in touch with five GOP governors about their states’ housing detention centers, but she has yet to specify with whom she has spoken. However, without confirming that they have been contacted, spokespersons for governors in South Carolina, Mississippi and Texas have told NewsNation they are ready to assist in President Donald Trump’s expanding immigration enforcement plans. "Texas will continue to assist the Trump administration in arresting, detaining, and deporting illegal immigrants," Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for Gov. Greg Abbott, said. "Mississippi will do whatever it takes to help support President Trump’s immigration agenda," Gov. Tate Reeves’ Chief of Staff Cory Custer said. "Nothing is off the table." South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has directed state officials to "keep exploring how the Palmetto State’s unique assets can be utilized", a spokesman said. The statement came after Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace wrote on X that "South Carolina’s gators are ready. And they’re not big on paperwork. If I was Governor, we’d be bringing Alligator Alcatraz to South Carolina."

Miami Herald [7/17/2025 4:19 PM, Claire Healy and Ana Ceballos, 3800K] reports in the rush to open a detention camp in the Florida Everglades for “some of the most vicious” migrants illegally in the country, state and federal officers detained a 15-year-old boy with no criminal record and sent him in handcuffs to Alligator Alcatraz, the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times have learned. The teenager, a Mexican national whose name is Alexis, was a passenger in a vehicle stopped in Tampa by Florida Highway Patrol troopers and later handed over to federal immigration authorities on July 1. His father spoke to the Herald/Times and said his son spent three days in the tents and chain-link pens at the pop-up detention center, making him one of the first immigrant detainees shuttled to site. State and federal officials initially deflected questions or denied that Alexis had been locked up at the facility. But on Wednesday, the DeSantis administration acknowledged that they had in fact held the teenager at Alligator Alcatraz, and said that he lied about his age when stopped by law enforcement. “While at Alligator Alcatraz, an individual disclosed they had misrepresented their age upon arrest to ICE. Immediate action was taken to separate and remove the detainee in accordance with federal protocols,” said Stephanie Hartman, a spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which oversees the site. Alexis, whom the Herald/Times is identifying only by his first name because he is a minor, was transferred out of Alligator Alcatraz on July 4. He is now in the custody of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and being held at a shelter for migrant children. The state maintains no minors will be held at Alligator Alcatraz, but the boy’s detention shows how wide a net the DeSantis and Trump administrations have cast in their zeal to round up undocumented immigrants — and the haste with which state and federal authorities have acted to send detainees to a facility billed as a game-changer in the effort to speed up deportations. When the Herald/Times first contacted the Department of Homeland Security and the Division of Emergency Management on Monday about Alexis’ detention at Alligator Alcatraz, they deflected or denied that a minor had been sent to the site. “This is inaccurate. You have bad info,” Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in an email to the Herald/Times. It wasn’t until Wednesday, when reporters said they’d confirmed he’d been held there, that the state acknowledged the story was true.

FOX News [7/17/2025 8:59 AM, Ashley Oliver, 46878K] Video HERE reports President Donald Trump signed a bill into law on Wednesday that classifies fentanyl-related drugs as more dangerous substances as part of the president’s broader crackdown on the country’s opioid epidemic. The bill, called the Halt All Lethal Trafficking (HALT) of Fentanyl Act, was a Republican-led effort but gained wide bipartisan support in the House and Senate. It places fentanyl-related substances permanently into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, which means crimes related to the illicit drugs will require prison sentences. More than two dozen Republican state attorneys general previously urged Congress to pass the bill, calling it "vital" to addressing a "cataclysmic surge of overdose deaths" in the United States in a letter to congressional leaders. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson told Fox News Digital just before Trump signed the bill that even though laws already impose mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug traffickers who sell fentanyl, the bill addresses fentanyl analogues, which are synthetic opioids similar in structure to the original drug. "When a Chinese chemist or a Mexican cartel chemist changes one molecule, changes one component of the fentanyl drug, they actually make it difficult for federal prosecutors to go after them," Wilson said, adding that the new law will end what has become a game of "cat and mouse" for prosecutors. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [7/17/2025 2:53 PM, Holmes Lybrand and Angélica Franganillo Díaz, 21433K] reports lawfully present non-citizens in the United States likely have the same First Amendment rights as US citizens, a federal judge said Thursday, even in cases of speech some feel has a repugnant political message. "I’m asking if a lawfully non-citizen has the same rights as a citizen," Judge William G. Young said Thursday. "Probably they do. The answer is in the affirmative. Again, we are talking about pure speech." "Antisemitism is not illegal," Young said. "It may be repulsive, but it is not illegal. It is protected under the First Amendment." The trial, involving a group of university professors who say the administration’s efforts to deport individuals over their anti-Israel views is intended to limit protected political speech, is set for closing arguments Monday. On Thursday, the judge also said that in order to find that someone has supported Hamas, it "has to be something more" than criticism of Israel or support of Palestine. Over the course of the two-week trial, Homeland Security agents and leadership within the department have testified about how DHS works with the State Department to investigate individuals who may violate an executive order from President Donald Trump on antisemitism. According to testimony from DHS agents, the State Department has referred individuals — sometimes through lists compiled by third-party organizations – that they want Homeland Security Investigators to research.

Bloomberg [7/17/2025 6:34 PM, Patricia Hurtado, 1707K] reports a federal judge said the US can’t immediately deport Mahmoud Khalil, blocking the Trump administration’s attempts to get another court to give it permission to ship the former Columbia University graduate student out of the country. The ruling Thursday by US District Judge Michael Farbiarz said the immigration court didn’t have the authority to deport Khalil while a June 11 order by Farbiarz blocking such a move was still in place. The ruling, however, directs the immigration court to take another look at the issue under new guidance from Farbiarz. Khalil, who was born in Syria and is Palestinian, has become a symbol of the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus protests over the war between Israel and Hamas. The 30-year-old spent 104 days at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana before Farbiarz ordered his release last month. Farbiarz said in a June 11 ruling that Khalil couldn’t be detained or deported based on the Trump administration’s claims that his participation in the protests compromised US foreign policy. But after Khalil was released, Farbiarz said that an immigration court ordered his deportation on June 20. Farbiarz vacated the immigration court’s deportation order, saying that judge failed to "fairly" consider that Khalil’s wife and child are both US citizens. Instead, Farbiarz said the immigration court relied solely on a determination by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a reason to remove Khalil from the country. "The ruling makes clear that the administration must actually follow the law and Constitution," Baher Azmy, a lawyer for Khalil at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in an email. The so-called "adverse foreign policy charge is patently unconstitutional and the administration cannot attempt to remove him on that ground, plain and simple," Azmy said. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

NBC News [7/17/2025 1:21 PM, Albinson Linares and Daniella Silva, 44540K] reports Immigrant youth who faced neglect and abuse filed a lawsuit seeking class action status Thursday, challenging the Trump administration’s ending of a 2022 policy that automatically gave them protection from deportation and work permits while they waited to apply for green cards, a process which can take years due to backlogs. The plaintiffs, made up of several immigrant youth with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and legal service providers Central American Refugee Center and Centro Legal de la Raza, are seeking the court to reinstate the 2022 policy. Attorneys in the case say its termination last month by the Trump administration is unlawful, and goes against what Congress intended in protecting young people who had faced trauma and neglect. "This is a case about broken promises with devastating consequences," Rachel Davidson, an attorney to the plaintiffs and the director of the End SIJS Backlog Coalition at the National Immigration Project, said in a statement. "State courts and the federal government have already found that it is not safe for these young people to return to their countries of origin, but their protection is now being callously stripped away. These young people have survived abuse, abandonment, and neglect only to be retraumatized now by the constant threat of detention and deportation from the same agencies that vowed to keep them safe.” The SIJS classification, created by Congress in 1990 as part of the Immigration and Nationality Act, protects immigrant minors who have been victims of abuse, abandonment or neglect in their countries and gives them a path to permanent residency in the U.S. They must be under 21 or under 18 in some states. "Congress has agreed that this group of young people are particularly vulnerable and in need of protection. One form of that protection has been deferred action. The government wants to take away the protections. The law requires it to provide a good, reasoned explanation. It failed to do so here. So in order to protect these most vulnerable children, we’re filing this lawsuit," Alexander Shalom, chair of the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest, told NBC News. The White House deferred NBC News to the Department of Homeland Security when asked for comment on the lawsuit. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Following the recent changes to SIJS, a group of 19 lawmakers led by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem expressing concern about the changes. The letter said it "leaves abused and abandoned youth in legal limbo while heightening their vulnerability to exploitation.” Cortez Masto and other Democrats introduced the Vulnerable Immigrant Youth Protection Act in Congress, seeking to change visa categories for SIJS beneficiaries and prevent delays in adjusting their status, among other things. But the lack of Republican lawmakers supporting it could hamper its passage. The bill is still in its early stages of discussion in the Senate, according to Cortez Masto’s office, and members of Congress have not yet received an official response to the letter sent to Noem.

New York Post [7/17/2025 9:01 AM, Ryan King, 49956K] reports Vice President JD Vance gleefully ridiculed the New York Times over a Wednesday opinion piece penned by an ex-Biden administration official — who pitched a plan to fix the US immigration system. Vance read the headline of the op-ed, “I Was One of Biden’s Border Advisers. Here’s How to Fix Our Immigration System,” while delivering remarks in West Pittston, Pa., drawing laughter from the crowd. “What would he know about fixing our immigration system? It was the Biden administration that broke our immigration system,” Vance said with a grin. “So we’ve been having a little fun around the office.” The vice president then read off a few spoof headlines submitted by administration colleagues. “The Department of Homeland Security — their take on this was ‘I was Humpty Dumpty. Here’s how to sit on a wall,’” he mused. “This is what a buddy of mine sent me, he said, ‘I am a Cincinnati Bengals player, here’s how you win Super Bowls.’ That cut a little deep,” the Ohio-born vice president continued.

Breitbart [7/18/2025 3:30 AM, Neil Munro, 3077K] reports the White House has rejected Rep. Maria Salazar’s (R-FL) suggestion President Donald Trump owes God a favor and should repay the debt by signing her amnesty and migration bill. "The same God who saved you from death in Pennsylvania one year ago and who put you back in the Oval Office, against all odds, is the same God Almighty who millions and millions [of illegal migrants] are begging to for some type of dignity," Salazar (R-FL) declared at a July 15 press conference on Capitol Hill. "It’s in your hands, Mr. President. May the Lord guide you," Salazar declared. On Thursday, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt replied: "The president made it clear he will not support amnesty for illegal aliens in any way.” "From my understanding, neither the White House nor the President has actually read through this legislation," she said. Salazar’s theocratic pitch for amnesty and cheap labor is "insulting," said Jessica Vaughan, policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies. Vaughan added: “She thinks that that’s what he’s a sucker for, [and for] flattery, and [her] promises that he will be loved more by the people she’s advocating on behalf of … [But] he doesn’t need these people — they’re never going to agree with him on any of his immigration policy goals.”

Washington Post [7/17/2025 8:27 PM, María Luisa Paúl, 32099K] reports in Atlanta, demonstrators marched toward a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. In New York City, they circled a federal building downtown. In Los Angeles, they held a candlelight vigil alongside portraits of people killed by police or swept up in recent immigration raids. Across the country, protesters rallied on Thursday under a shared refrain inspired by former congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis: “Good trouble lives on.” Thousands of people took to the streets in what organizers cast as a national day of action — a sweeping protest of the Trump administration’s cuts to safety net programs and efforts to roll back protections for immigrants and marginalized communities. "We are here to honor the past, confront the present and demand a future where our voices are not just heard, but obeyed," Arianna Walker, an organizer involved in the Los Angeles protest, said in a statement. "This is about community, about showing up for one another, standing shoulder to shoulder, and refusing to let love, dignity, hope, or joy be silenced.” The demonstrations, timed for the fifth anniversary of Lewis’s death, are taking place in more than 1,500 sites across all 50 states, following the "No Kings" protests in June that drew millions of people across the country. They’re also the latest in a sprawling anti-Trump movement that organizers say is fueled by fear, hope and defiance in equal measure. That movement is a direct response to what some experts see as a period of regression in civil rights and attacks on democracy — a moment that David Blight, a history professor at Yale University, said requires aggressive pushback. "It’s been a bewildering assault by the Trump administration, the Heritage Foundation, the 2025 project road map, in so many areas from schools to universities to government agencies to National Park Service," Blight said. "Every day they’ve been ingeniously laying out some new target and stymieing people.” Many previous moments of mass dissent in the United States, like protests of the Vietnam War, focused on singular issues. Now, there are numerous rights, groups and institutions at risk at the same time, Blight said. An Associated Press-NORC poll released Thursday found that about half of Americans say Trump’s policies have harmed them.

Reported similarly:
NewsNation [7/17/2025 9:38 AM, Taylor Delandro, 5801K]
Washington Examiner [7/17/2025 12:13 PM, David Zimmermann, 1934K]

Breitbart [7/17/2025 8:05 AM, Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby, 3077K] reports the Arizona arrest of a Canadian mobster with ties to Irish, Indian, and Middle Eastern crime syndicates uncovered just one of the networks used by the Sinaloa Cartel to move narcotics from Mexico and the U.S. into Canada and then into multiple other countries. Federal authorities in Arizona recently arrested Opinder Singh Sian on federal drug trafficking charges. The man remains in federal custody awaiting future hearings later this month. The charges against Singh come from a criminal indictment filed in the Central District of California. While the case remains sealed, some of the documents have been leaked online and shed light on how various ethnic gangs in Canada have been working with the Sinaloa Cartel and others to move precursors and manufacture large quantities of narcotics, including fentanyl and methamphetamines. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a new law classifying fentanyl-related precursor chemicals as Schedule 1 narcotics, Breitbart News reported. "Today, we strike a righteous blow to the drug dealers, narcotic traffickers, and criminal cartels that we’ve all been hearing so much about for so many years," Trump said during the signing ceremony in the Oval Office. Following a 17-second ovation, he continued, "… and we take a historic step toward justice for every family touched by the fentanyl scourge as we saw in the halt fentanyl Act into law."

Los Angeles Times [7/17/2025 6:00 AM, Jenny Jarvie, Grace Toohey, and Christopher Buchanan, 14672K] reports they were deployed by the Trump administration to combat "violent, insurrectionist mobs" in and around Los Angeles, but in recent days the only thing many U.S. Marines and California National Guard troops seemed to be fighting was tedium. "There’s not much to do," one Marine said as he stood guard outside the towering Wilshire Federal Building in Westwood this week. The blazing protests that first met federal immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles were nowhere to be seen along Wilshire Boulevard or Veteran Avenue, so many troops passed the time chatting and joking over energy drinks. The Marine, who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said his duties consisted mostly of approving access for federal workers and visitors to the Veterans Affairs office. More than five weeks after Trump mobilized an extraordinary show of military force against the will of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, few National Guard troops and Marines have remained in public view, most retreating to local military bases in Orange County. As an indication of the military’s dwindling role in immigration enforcement operations, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday ordered the release of 2,000 National Guard troops. Now, Bass, Newsom and others are demanding the complete removal of remaining troops — or about 2,000 California National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines.

CBS News [7/17/2025 8:38 PM, Carlos E. Castañeda, 51860K] Video: HERE U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi took a tour of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay Thursday morning as part of President Trump’s directive to revert the popular tourist attraction to a federal penitentiary. Bondi toured Alcatraz, currently part of the National Park Service, along with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, arriving on a Coast Guard vessel. They were joined by a contingent of administration officials and Secret Service staffers who walked in the chilly bay air among the crumbling buildings, many dating back to the late 19th century. The attorney general was seen posing for pictures in front of Alcatraz signs and vista points on the island. Later, Bondi and Burgum posted images of their tour on the X social media platform. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told CBS News that Bondi and Burgum were visiting Alcatraz to receive a briefing on the facility and the surrounding island. They were also directing staff to collaborate on the necessary planning to rehabilitate and reopen the facility, the spokesperson said. In an interview on Fox News, Bondi spoke about Alcatraz’s potential to once again hold prisoners. "Alcatraz could hold the worst of the worst. It could hold middle-class violent prisoners, it could hold illegal aliens, it could hold anything," said Bondi. "This is a terrific facility, needs a lot of work, but no one has been known to escape from Alcatraz and survive.” In May, Mr. Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he was directing the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and Homeland Security to "reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.” Following the announcement, Bureau of Prisons Director William K. Marshall III said in a statement that his agency would "vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the President’s agenda" and that he ordered "an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps.”

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/17/2025 2:55 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 18649K]

New York Times [7/17/2025 6:28 PM, Heather Knight, 138952K] reports in early May, President Trump mused on social media that he wanted to reopen Alcatraz, now a tourist site in the San Francisco Bay, as a federal prison to “house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders” and remove criminals “who came into our country illegally.” The seemingly off-the-cuff idea took a step forward on Thursday, as two prominent members of the administration, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, visited the island known as “The Rock” to study whether the plan was feasible. It appears their answer was yes. “Alcatraz could hold the worst of the worst,” Ms. Bondi told a Fox News reporter as she stood outside a rusting former prison cell. “It could hold illegal aliens. It could hold anything.” “This is a terrific facility,” she added. The pair were there for a tour of the island and to direct its staff to collaborate with them on reopening the decrepit museum as a federal prison, according to an email from a Justice Department spokeswoman. The visit took place before the public ferries to the island began running. Ms. Bondi and Mr. Burgum allowed only Fox News journalists to accompany them, and did not respond to other media outlets’ questions until after the brief visit was over. The island, which is also a park and bird sanctuary, is run by the National Park Service. Under President Trump’s plan, it would become part of the Bureau of Prisons under the Justice Department. It would operate as part of Mr. Trump’s efforts to stop “the invasion of illegal aliens after years of negligence from Democrats,” the Justice Department email continued. Ms. Bondi and Mr. Burgum shared photos on X showing them riding a U.S. Coast Guard vessel to the island and walking past a cell block. “We are Making America Safe Again,” Ms. Bondi wrote. Neither provided details of how exactly they would reopen Alcatraz, but Mr. Burgum wrote that “the work to renovate and reopen the site” had already started. Both echoed Mr. Trump’s sentiments that the prison would be mainly used for detaining undocumented immigrants, perhaps akin to its namesake, the new “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades in Florida. Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social this month that various prison development firms were working with the administration on conceptual plans. He said the new prison would be “so foreboding” and “surrounded by sharks.” While there are nonthreatening shark species in San Francisco Bay, including small leopard sharks, great white sharks that pose a danger to humans are typically found only outside the Golden Gate in the Pacific Ocean.

CBS News [7/17/2025 2:09 PM, Emily Mae Czachor, 51860K] reports that federal authorities sanctioned six leaders and affiliates of Tren de Aragua on Thursday, the latest step in the United States’ ongoing effort to target members of the Venezuelan gang. The Treasury Department announced sanctions against Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, the head of the gang known as "Niño Guerrero," as well as five others connected to Tren de Aragua, whom the U.S. agency described as "key" members. The Treasury Department says Guerrero has been involved in criminal activity for more than two decades "and has expanded Tren de Aragua from a prison gang involved in extortion and bribery to an organization with growing influence throughout the Western Hemisphere." The U.S. State Department has offered up to $5 million as a reward for information that leads to his arrest or conviction. The sanctions have been issued issued through the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. They aim to block all transactions between sanctioned individuals and anyone inside the U.S., as well as any properties or entities owned to any degree by the individuals. Violations could warrant civil or criminal penalties on Americans and non-U.S. citizens, Treasury officials said. "Today’s action highlights the critical role of leaders like Niño Guerrero and his lieutenants in Tren de Aragua’s efforts to increase its destabilizing influence throughout the region," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement. "The Trump Administration will not allow Tren de Aragua to continue to terrorize our communities and harm innocent Americans. In line with President Trump’s mandate to Make America Safe Again, Treasury remains dedicated to dismantling Tren de Aragua and disrupting the group’s campaign of violence."

Reported similarly:
FOX News [7/17/2025 1:09 PM, Alexandra Koch, 46878K]
NewsMax [7/17/2025 11:34 AM, Staff, 4622K]

Daily Wire [7/17/2025 10:35 AM, Matt Walsh, 3816K] reports as we approach the six-month mark of Donald Trump’s second term in office, it’s hard to think of another administration in modern history that’s faced more resistance from within — that is to say, resistance from within its own party — when it tries to follow through on its single most important and prominent campaign pledge. Normally, when presidents take office after making an explicit campaign promise, their party tries to turn that agenda into reality. If nothing else, from a political perspective, it’s obviously the smart thing to do. That’s certainly what happened when Joe Biden took office. Every Democrat in the country lined up behind Biden to push every single talking point his administration produced, whether it was about COVID or January 6. There was zero dissent anywhere in the party. But that’s not happening in the second Trump administration. Instead, many Republicans have set out to undermine the immigration platform that Donald Trump ran on. You probably remember Tom Homan at the Republican National Convention, telling illegal aliens — all of them — that they should start "packing their bags" because they’re going to be deported. As recently as last week, Homan emphasized the importance of that objective, saying there will be no special protections for any illegal aliens, including farmworkers. Top White House official Stephen Miller, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and the president himself have all made that same point in the past few days. But Republicans in Congress, and in various states, have taken the opposite approach. They’ve been waging a battle against immigration enforcement. And it’s a more expansive fight than you might realize.

The Hill [7/17/2025 8:00 AM, Veronica Cardenas, 18649K] reports I hadn’t heard the rattling of chains in a courthouse since 2012, when I was a prosecutor for the Department of Homeland Security at the Varick Immigration Court in New York City. Back then, shackles were reserved for individuals deemed a public safety threat or flight risk by ICE as they were being escorted from their holding cells. They often already had arrests or convictions. But in 2025, it’s a whole new world. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and other elected officials have been arrested for bearing witness to immigration enforcement. Last month, ICE agents handcuffed New York City Comptroller Brad Lander at 26 Federal Plaza after he linked arms with an immigrant during what should have been a routine court appearance. Each day, ICE raises the stakes –– even targeting Americans who dare to show solidarity. I no longer work for ICE, but I still advocate for immigrants. And what I’m seeing representing clients at ICE check-ins and court hearings is seriously disturbing. Courtrooms that once served as venues for justice are now used to intimidate and remove those who challenge policy. President Trump’s militarized immigration enforcement has produced shocking due process violations, chaos and widespread fear. The chains are back, but this time they serve a different purpose. Detainment is no longer about controlling security threats or managing who enters the country. Instead, courtroom arrests are part of a broader effort to restructure the immigration system by force and without debate or legislation. With each new policy, principled professionals inside the courtroom resign, leaving fewer voices willing to question what’s happening. This quiet exodus should alarm us all, not just noncitizens. If no one within the system challenges this overreach now, we will soon witness the collapse of immigration courts as we know them.

Washington Post [7/17/2025 6:00 AM, Staff, 32099K] reports President Donald Trump entered his second term talking about eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Then Texas’s Guadalupe River flooded, killing more than 130 Americans. Now, Trump’s team is scrambling to insist that its changes at FEMA did not hinder the federal response. Trump had a point before his administration’s change in tone: FEMA is a mess. Yet his provocative musings about cutting the agency were destined to make him look negligent as soon as a major disaster struck. So were some of the reckless changes his team made at FEMA before the Guadalupe tragedy. But the emergency agency still needs big alterations — including a renegotiation of how much responsibility for disaster management the federal government shoulders, rather than the states. In 2024, the Government Accountability Office warned that the agency was losing its ability to respond to disasters effectively, largely because its workforce was left stretched thin and struggling to handle the increasing number of disasters hitting the country. In March, the GAO issued a separate report pleading with Congress to address the nation’s “fragmented” approach to disaster relief, which sprawls across more than 30 agencies. The complicated bureaucracy has often made it difficult for survivors to access federal aid and slowed down recovery efforts. The second Trump administration made things worse. The U.S. DOGE Service conducted undiscriminating cuts of about a fifth of FEMA’s already resource-strapped workforce. The New York Times reported that on July 5, the day after the deadly floods struck Texas, the administration allowed the contracts of hundreds of workers managing FEMA’s disaster assistance line to expire. In the following days, FEMA answered only a fraction of the thousands of calls it received. Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, insisted on personally signing off on any contract or grant of more than $100,000. This added yet another bureaucratic step that delayed approvals of federal aid for Texas’s search and rescue operations, CNN reports. Noem dismissed reports of unanswered calls as “fake news” and struggled to defend her grant approval policy. “It’s not extra red tape,” she said. “It’s making sure everything is getting to my level,” she explained, restating the problem. A FEMA spokesperson also defended the federal flood response, noting the volume of resources it surged into the effort. The Trump administration’s foibles risk overshadowing its fair point: States should play a more active role in disaster management. As things stand, the federal government is the primary payer of disaster aid, allowing states to shirk investing in their own disaster programs.

San Diego Union Tribune [7/17/2025 9:00 AM, Robert H Wood, 1611K] reports it’s easy to criticize tough immigration enforcement from a distance. But anyone who’s watched the chaos at our southern border up close knows that something has to give. The debate over asylum seekers isn’t just about paperwork and policy — it’s about whether the United States can remain a nation of laws while still being a nation of compassion. Donald Trump’s administration, for all its controversy, did something overdue: It forced the country to confront the uncomfortable reality that our asylum system was being gamed. The numbers don’t lie. Over the last decade, there’s been a surge of people arriving at the border, many coached by NGOs and activists to say the right words — "credible fear" — to gain entry, regardless of whether they actually meet the legal definition of a refugee or are qualified to claim asylum. What began as a safety net for the truly persecuted became a loophole for economic migrants and those seeking a shortcut around our legal immigration process. Enforcing our immigration laws, or any laws, isn’t cruel or heartless. It is necessary. Trump’s policies, including denying fraudulent asylum claims and supporting ICE’s enforcement efforts, were attempts to put the brakes on a system spinning out of control. We can — and should — welcome those who follow the rules and face real danger in their home countries. But we can’t do that if our borders are open to anyone willing to lie and game the system or enter illegally.

Breitbart [7/17/2025 12:40 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have arrested what officials call "the worst of the worst," recently taking into custody illegal aliens convicted of murder, rape, and sexual abuse of children. ICE agents recently arrested illegal alien Edgar Ismael Gomez-Lara of Mexico in Houston, Texas, after he was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. According to prosecutors, Gomez-Lara brutally stabbed his 24-year-old victim, leaving them in critical condition. "The crimes that these criminal illegal aliens have committed are the result of open border policies: brutal stabbings, sex crimes, and murder," the Department of Homeland Security’s Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: Under the Biden administration, criminal illegal aliens like these were left to freely brutalize our communities. President Trump and Secretary Noem are restoring order. We are removing threats, standing up for victims and restoring law and order in our streets.”

Breitbart [7/17/2025 8:48 AM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports in exchange for a plea of guilty, a federal judge in San Antonio sentenced a Honduran illegal alien to ten years in prison for his role in leading a human smuggling organization that brought nearly 3,000 migrants into the United States without authorization. The judge also fined the Honduran national $4,500. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas charged Enil Edil Mejia-Zuniga, a 34-year-old Honduran national, with smuggling thousands of illegal aliens into the U.S. for financial gain. Officials say the defendant and his co-conspirators made millions of dollars by smuggling nearly 3,000 illegal aliens into the United States. The smuggling incidents took place between November 2020 and March 2023. "The Mejia-Zuniga alien smuggling organization (ASO) smuggled aliens from Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, India, Pakistan, and Colombia, through Eagle Pass, Texas," prosecutors stated. "Aliens primarily contracted with a Pakistani smuggler based in Brazil to be transported to the United States. In turn, the Brazilian-based smuggler worked with Mejia-Zuniga, who was based in San Antonio, Texas, to facilitate the travel of the aliens from South America to the United States. Mejia-Zuniga directed operations of the ASO and paid drivers, armed ‘coyotes,’ and stash house operators.” Officials say the organization charged between $6,500 and $12,000 per person to bring them illegally into the United States. Mejia-Zuniga admitted to being paid $30,000 for every ten illegal aliens he smuggled through Mexico to the Rio Grande and an additional $30,000 for every ten that made it to San Antonio. "This sentence sends a clear message to those who exploit our immigration system for personal profit," said Special Agent in Charge Craig Larrabee of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Antonio. "For more than three years, these individuals operated a transnational smuggling ring driven by greed, moving illegal aliens from 11 countries in blatant disregard of the law. The sentencing in this case is a testament to HSI’s commitment to upholding national security. Human smuggling undermines the security of our borders and disrupts lawful immigration processes. HSI will continue to work tirelessly to protect our national security."

NewsMax [7/17/2025 12:57 PM, Sam Barron, 4622K] reports that the arrests of people without criminal charges or convictions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement rose sharply in June, according to newly obtained data by Axios. People without criminal charges or convictions made up an average of 47% of daily ICE arrests in early June, up from about 21% in early May, before the Trump administration tripled ICE’s arrest quota — telling ICE to arrest 3,000 people a day, up from 1,000, Axios reported. The average number of daily arrests for those with charges or convictions also increased in early June but not to the same degree, according to Axios. Overall, ICE reported an average of 930 daily arrests, according to data obtained by the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Deportation Data Project via Freedom of Information Act requests and based on seven-day trailing averages, Axios reported. "The media continues to peddle this false narrative that ICE is not targeting criminal illegal aliens," Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said to Axios. "The official data tells the true story: 70% of ICE arrests were criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges. Additionally, many illegal aliens categorized as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gang members and more — they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S. This deceptive ‘non-criminal’ categorization is devoid of reality and misleads the American public."

Daily Signal [7/17/2025 8:00 AM, Joshua Arnold, 558K] reports "ICE is trash," announced the handwritten note, placed atop a pile of garbage, dumped on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s front lawn. Another vulgar note threatened the officer by name. Such personal intimidation of law enforcement officers is part of an escalating trend of violence, as the left-wing agitators that pitched Black Lives Matter riots five summers ago now direct their inappropriate ire against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency tasked with enforcing federal immigration law. After failing to deter ICE law enforcement efforts through mass rioting in Los Angeles, lawless radicals have adopted tactics that might be called more "sophisticated," although they remain just as sinister. "Criminals have posted fliers in officers’ neighborhoods, that includes their name, address, pictures of them and their families," warned the Department of Homeland Security. "These fliers threaten officers with text that says, ‘NO PEACE FOR ICE’ and ‘CHINGA LA MIGRA’ (translation: F— immigration services).” In addition, "multiple organizations" have published the personal information of ICE officers on "anarchist and Antifa-affiliated" websites, DHS added. As a result of these doxing campaigns, as well as street agitation, violence against ICE officers has increased 830% between Jan. 21 and July 14 of this year, compared to the same period in 2024, DHS announced in a Tuesday statement obtained by The Washington Stand. "Name a police agency that has a 700% increase in assaults. Name one. You can’t," border czar Tom Homan said in a recent interview. "So, they’re wearing masks to help give them some sort of protection." "From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi Gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is despicable. This violence against ICE must end," said Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement provided to The Washington Stand. "Every day the men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect and defend the lives of American citizens." For courageously assuming this risk, left-wing agitators would punish ICE officers by putting an even larger target on their backs. This is not only fundamentally unjust, it is also a direct assault on the American government and should be treated as such. "We will prosecute those who dox ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law. These criminals are taking the side of vicious cartels and human traffickers," declared DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. "We won’t allow it in America."

FOX News [7/17/2025 1:28 PM, Matt Finn and Michael Dorgan, 46878K] reports that the growing national debate over whether federal immigration agents should be allowed to wear masks during dangerous enforcement actions is intensifying into a showdown between the Trump administration, Democrats and anti-ICE activists. The news comes as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has raised concerns about the doxxing of ICE agents, as attacks on them have skyrocketed by 830% since January, the agency said. In a new July memo, the DHS has called on the Justice Department to prosecute anyone suspected of "doxxing" ICE agents by posting agents’ photos and personal information online or in public. "We will prosecute those who dox ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law. These criminals are taking the side of vicious cartels and human traffickers," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is quoted in the memo. "We won’t allow it in America." In California, a bill aimed at preventing law enforcement from covering their faces passed a key committee this week, edging it one step closer to becoming state law. Similar bills have been introduced in Massachusetts and New York, while 21 Democrat attorneys general have also urged Congress to ban federal immigration agents from wearing masks or plainclothes during enforcement operations. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin slammed Democrats’ resistance to ICE enforcement. "Brave ICE law enforcement are risking their lives every day to keep our communities safe from the worst of the worst criminals," 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."

FOX News [7/17/2025 6:54 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports acting ICE director Todd Lyons joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss released photos of an immigration enforcement officer’s injuries after an attempted arrest of an illegal migrant. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

DailySignal [7/17/2025 2:12 PM, Virginia Allen, 558K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement illegal-alien detention facility standards "are among the highest in the nation," the agency insists. Images of a library, doctor’s office, a gym with kids playing dodgeball, and a clean cafeteria are featured in a new video ICE released Thursday touting the conditions of illegal-alien detention facilities in the U.S. "Democrats and the mainstream media love to spread lies about ICE detention facilities, but this video shows the truth: ICE detention facilities have the highest standards," Abigail Jackson, White House spokeswoman, told The Daily Signal. ICE detention facilities "are safe, clean, and hold illegal aliens who are awaiting final removal proceedings," Jackson added. "The mainstream media shouldn’t be so quick to believe lies from criminal illegal aliens complaining about ICE facilities when we can all see the truth." On Monday, NBC News ran a story with the headline, "Immigrants in overcapacity ICE detention say they’re hungry, raise food-quality concerns." "We do have the highest detention standards out of any other prison system here in the United States," Todd Lyons, acting ICE director, says in the video released on the social media platform X. "ICE does not detain punitively," according to Lyons. "We detain to remove people. We don’t want to have people in custody," the acting director explained, adding that because of the high cost of detention, it is the goal of ICE to quickly and safely return illegal aliens to their home countries. "ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens," Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, said in a statement.

FOX News [7/17/2025 2:37 PM, Madison Colombo, 46878K] reports that amid growing hostility toward immigration officials, Lara Trump met with ICE agents to hear their side of the story. "We do have to worry about watching our backs," one agent told Trump during the interview, set to air Saturday on "My View with Lara Trump." "People film us for only one reason," he continued, "to try and push other people to do harm on us." The agent condemned those calling for the release of the identities of ICE officers, saying it would lead to violence against immigration enforcers. "I mean, there’s no other reason why you would take a picture of someone and post it somewhere, other than to put them on blast," he said. His concerns come as calls to expose the identities of ICE officers continue to gain traction among Democrats, with DHS accusing one lawmaker of doxxing an officer. During a raid on a marijuana facility in California earlier this month, violence erupted between protesters and officers. One agent was hospitalized with a hand injury after demonstrators threw objects at ICE. In a press release, the Department of Homeland Security called out Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., who attended the protest. ICE officials allege that Carbajal doxxed an ICE public affairs specialist after the officer handed him a business card. Carbajal reportedly held up the card and showed it to the crowd, revealing the officer’s identity. The agent was later struck by a rock and injured, going to the hospital for a hand laceration. The lawmaker has denied the doxxing accusation, calling it a "blatant attempt to distort" the events at the protest.

AP [7/17/2025 7:54 PM, Deepti Hajela, 56000K] reports that in a matter of months, it has become a regular sight around the country — immigration enforcement agents detaining people and taking them into custody, often as public anger and outcry unfold around them. But in the process, something has disappeared: the agents’ faces, covered by caps, sunglasses, pulled-up neck gaiters or balaclavas, effectively rendering them unidentifiable. With the year only half over, the covered face — as deployed by law enforcement in a wave of immigration crackdowns directed by President Donald Trump’s White House — has become one of the most potent and contentious visuals of 2025. The increase in high-profile immigration enforcement was already contentious between those opposed to the actions of Trump’s administration and those in support of them. The sight of masked agents carrying it out is creating a whole new level of conflict, in a way that has no real comparison in the U.S. history of policing. Trump administration officials have consistently defended the practice, saying that immigration agents have faced strident and increasing harassment in public and online as they have gone about their enforcement in service of Trump’s drive toward mass deportation, and hiding their identities is for their and their families’ safety to avoid things like death threats and doxing, where someone’s personal information is released without their permission on the internet.

Federalist [7/17/2025 7:29 AM, M.D. Kittle, 1142K] reports in May, IMC Logistics’ Memphis terminal was stormed by a pack of thieves arriving in seven vehicles. The criminals cut the front gates and drove straight to a specific area of the terminal. "They were interrupted by our security team, but not before they had stolen $25,000 worth of merchandise in just three minutes," Donna Lemm, chief strategy officer for the Tennessee-based drayage company, told the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this week. The hit was no petty theft, and the criminals weren’t your run-of-the-mill thieves. A wave of smash-and-grab retail robberies has swept the country in recent years. In many cases, the thieves are employees of some of the world’s most nefarious criminal enterprises — including cartels, terrorists organizations, and traffickers. And these transnational criminal outfits are using their pilfering proceeds to fund their network of illicit activities. "One Homeland Security Investigations operation, called King of Thieves, uncovered an organized retail crime ring which had sent millions of dollars in criminal proceeds overseas. That same group financed coyote fees for deported individuals to return to the United States," Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, Judiciary chairman, said in his opening statements at Tuesday’s hearing on a bill aimed at coordinating law enforcement efforts to take on the transnational theft rings. Retail theft prevention experts testified at the hearing, titled, "Beyond the Smash and Grab: Criminal Networks and Organized Theft," each with disturbing accounts of the impacts of the multi-billion dollar crime epidemic. And, yes, the retail theft rings have been supported in no small part by some of the millions of illegal immigrants that poured into the country thanks to Biden administration’s open border policies. Grassley and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., reintroduced the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (CORCA).The bipartisan bill would create an Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center within the Department of Homeland Security, bringing together federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies working alongside retail industry representatives. The legislation also would provide new tools to assist in investigating and prosecuting organized retail crime, and track and return stolen property and proceeds. An array of organizations have endorsed the proposal, including law enforcement associations, the National Retail Federation, transportation industry groups, and the nation’s online retailer, Amazon.

The Hill [7/17/2025 3:30 PM, Misty Chally, 18649K] reports that over the last month, American businesses have faced a destabilizing whiplash of immigration enforcement proposals. What began as a reported pause on raids targeting farms, hotels and other industries quickly reverted to aggressive action — with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents returning to fields and factory floors just days later. These shifts are more than policy tweaks — they are actively undermining the ability of American employers to operate, staff, and grow during a severe labor shortage that is on track to become much worse. The whiplash for America’s employers has been painful. Most recently, President Trump alluded to possible worker protections for certain industries, echoing statements that assured farmers that they could continue to use undocumented labor, stating "we can’t put the farms out of business." On June 12, Trump suggested a reprieve for key sectors, leading many to believe a targeted pause was in effect. By June 16, enforcement had resumed in full force, with top officials like border czar Tom Homan flatly denying any exemptions had ever been granted. The lack of clarity — compounded by differing statements from within the administration — has left employers scrambling. Businesses that rely heavily on consistent staffing — whether it’s a vineyard in California or a food processing plant in Iowa — are suddenly operating in fear that their workforce may vanish overnight.

FOX News [7/17/2025 4:31 PM, Michael Dorgan and Griff Jenkins, 46878K] reports that the release of a twice-deported rapist in Virginia is putting renewed focus on the dangers posed by Democrat-led sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Guatemala national David Cabrera was collared by ICE last week after being set free by sanctuary-aligned jurisdiction Arlington County, who refused to honor a federal detainer and released him without notifying ICE. In a video obtained by Fox News, Cabrera is seen roaming a local street before ICE agents initiate his arrest. Cabrera entered the U.S. illegally in 2014 and was convicted of felony rape in 2015. He was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, although a portion of it was suspended. He was released into ICE custody in 2017 and subsequently deported to Guatemala, but re-entered the U.S. again at an unknown time and date. He was then arrested again for a probation violation and deported again in 2020, only to re-enter again. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons blasted the release, telling Fox News it puts agents and the public at risk. "This is the whole reason why sanctuary jurisdictions do not keep America safe," Lyons said. "It lets criminals back on the street to reoffend again. If Arlington had cooperated, we could have arrested him in a secure facility — instead, our agents had to track him down in the community, where they could have encountered others."

NewsNation [7/17/2025 7:20 PM, Matt Christy, 5801K] reports an El Salvador citizen who was unlawfully in the United States, according to the FBI, has been arrested more than a year after he allegedly caused a deadly crash in Indianapolis. Alexis Otoniel Hernandez-Araujo, 26, was taken into custody by a joint FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement team on Thursday morning in Indianapolis. Hernandez-Araujo is accused of driving drunk on July 6, 2024, and colliding into a vehicle driven by a pregnant woman in the 1200 block of Reisner Street. Previous reports detail how Hernandez-Araujo’s 19-year-old brother was killed in the crash after he was ejected from the vehicle Hernandez-Araujo was driving. A pregnant woman and two children were in the vehicle that Hernandez-Araujo collided with. All three were seriously injured, with a 5-year-old child suffering from a skull fracture and a broken hip. At the time of the crash, Indy metro police reported that Hernandez-Araujo fought with officers who were trying to detain him at the scene. Investigators also discovered at least six other vehicles along Reisner Street had been struck. Hernandez-Araujo was taken to a hospital after the crash, but despite being detained by police at the scene, court and jail records indicate that he was never officially arrested. Hernandez-Araujo was found to be on probation at the time of the crash for a previous charge of drinking and driving. A seven-day hold was requested by the state of Indiana but Hernandez-Araujo seemingly disappeared.

FOX News [7/17/2025 11:15 AM, Taylor Penley, 46878K] reports acting ICE Director Todd Lyons scorched Chicago Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday, slamming his "disgusting" claim that President Donald Trump is using ICE as a "militarized force" to "engender and institute anxiety and fear.” "For an elected official like the mayor of Chicago to compare us to a militarized force… that’s absolutely disgusting, and he’s totally wrong," Lyons told "Fox & Friends" co-host Lawrence Jones. "What he should really do is look at Chicago with the amount of criminal aliens that he’s harboring under his sanctuary policies. The men and women of ICE are out there every day doing their law enforcement mission. They are some of the bravest people I’ve ever had a chance to serve with," he added. Deep blue Chicago’s sanctuary policies and progressive leadership have remained in the Trump administration’s crosshairs since the president’s return to office. Johnson’s remarks regarding Trump’s policies are consistent with some he made previously, including last month when he compared immigration enforcement to "terrorism" and suggested Trump’s America showcases how the country would look if the Confederacy had won the Civil War. Lyons, meanwhile, praised ICE officers for acting courageously as the Department of Homeland Security indicates they face doxing and physical assault risks. DHS announced Tuesday that its ICE officials have faced a staggering 830% increase in assaults between Jan. 21, 2025 and July 14, 2025, compared to the same period last year. The timeframe recorded begins on the day after President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office. Despite the numbers, some Democrats have pushed to unmask ICE agents, drawing ire from Republicans who argue the move would further jeopardize federal law enforcement.

NBC News [7/17/2025 11:56 AM, Daniella Silva, 44540K] reports that a Chicago father who has lived in the United States for about 30 years and has no criminal record has become a prime example of the kind of immigrants being swept up without warrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the Trump administration seeks to increase deportation numbers, according to immigration advocates who say the arrest and that of others were unlawful. Abel Orozco, an undocumented immigrant, was swept up in an arrest about six months ago when ICE agents without a warrant went into his backyard and onto his porch, according to the National Immigrant Justice Center. The agents were looking for his eldest son, who is also an immigrant, but detained Orozco instead when his car pulled up to the property, according to his attorney. "They immediately reached through the car window, forcibly opened the car and immediately handcuffed Abel Orozco and threw him in the back of one of their cars. It was only 45 minutes to an hour later that they realized they didn’t have the right person, but instead of releasing him, they kept him handcuffed until they could figure out who he was and then claim that his arrest was based on a warrant that didn’t exist," Mark Fleming, the associate director of litigation at the center, told NBC News. Orozco remains detained, and his attorneys and family are seeking his release.

New York Post [7/17/2025 5:38 PM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports that he ran, but he couldn’t hide. The military veteran accused of shooting at officers during an ambush at an ICE detention facility in north Texas earlier this month was able to evade cops for a week with the help of his getaway-driver former roommate, a new Walmart wardrobe and the moniker "champagne," court documents reveal. Former Marine Corps Reservist Benjamin Hanil Song, 32, of Dallas, allegedly fired two AR-15 style rifles at three Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during the July 4 mob attack at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, according to charging documents. Following Song’s capture, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons congratulated cops for getting the "wannabe-killer… off the streets." "It’s horrifying that dangerous rhetoric, often spread by elected officials, has brought us to this point, but let this be an example to other people planning on terrorizing federal law enforcement officers: If you attack the brave men and women protecting this nation from dangerous criminal aliens, we will arrest you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law," he said. Song faces three counts of attempted murder of a federal officer and three counts of discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

New York Post [7/17/2025 6:27 PM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports an illegal migrant fled from ICE during a traffic stop in Oklahoma City, dragging an officer for nearly a block in the latest assault on federal immigration agents, authorities said. The chaos unfolded when feds were attempting to nab Jose Melgar-Rivas, a Honduran citizen, on Tuesday after he was already given a deportation order, according to charging documents. But Melgar-Rivas refused to get out of his van and instead hit the gas, speeding away so fast that one of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers was "unable to escape," the docs state. The officer was dragged down the street while wedged inside the partially open door and sustained gnarly bruises and scrapes, according to photos shared on X by ICE on Thursday. The feds collared Rivas several hours later, according to the US Attorney’s office. He’s charged with resisting, assaulting and impeding a federal officer. "This is just one of the hundreds of cases across the country of these individuals that have been ordered deported or have committed crimes in the United States, yet ICE is demonized because we’re effectuating the law," acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told Fox & Friends Thursday. ICE has reported an 830% increase in assaults on agents, with recent incidents involving rioters hurling rocks, throwing molotov cocktails, and shooting at officers, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Axios [7/17/2025 8:19 AM, Erin Alberty, 13599K] reports the Utah County Commission approved a partnership Wednesday between the sheriff’s office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under the plan, the county will create a task force and gain access to ICE data — a proposal commissioners OK’d Wednesday after roughly four hours of opposing public comments. Sheriff Mike Smith acknowledged that Utah County had previously backed out of an ICE partnership, known as a 287 (g) agreement, due to the risk of costly lawsuits. Smith also said ICE has historically been opaque with Utah police departments, adding that he is "not comfortable with ICE raids." The sheriff said current ICE leadership in Utah is more transparent and the agreement would trigger "no large changes to what we’re already doing." "This brings us to the table," Smith said, noting the county would be better able to keep ICE focused, at least locally, on criminal suspects rather than indiscriminate deportations.

Blaze [7/17/2025 4:15 PM, Andrew Chapados, 1805K] reports that a Mexican transgender asylum seeker was released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after an order from a district court judge. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2024, ordered the release of a 24-year-old Mexican male asylum seeker who claims to be female. The migrant, known only as "O-J-M" according to Fox News, was arrested outside a Portland courtroom in June before being transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. The migrant’s case for asylum came with shocking claims from his legal team about his origins in Mexico. Judge Baggio ordered O-J-M’s release from the all-male detention facility because he was allegedly deprived of liberty without proper procedural safeguards. A different judge had previously granted a government request to dismiss the migrant’s asylum case, which was based on alleged death threats and assaults while he was in Mexico. OPB reported in June that when the migrant sought asylum at the port of entry on the California-Mexico border, it was claimed that Mexican drug cartels "threatened to kill her because O-J-M is a transgender woman." A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told OPB in June that "ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been." "If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation," DHS noted.

Washington Examiner [7/17/2025 1:38 PM, Carleen Johnson, 1934K] reports that the man accused of attacking an independent journalist during protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle last month was arrested Wednesday. The victim, Cam Higby, told The Center Square he got a text from a detective with the Seattle Police Department confirming 33-year-old Jeremy Lawson was in custody. The Center Square also received notice via email from SPD Detective Eric Munoz at 2:23 p.m. Wednesday. "Jeremy Calvin Lawson, 33, was arrested this afternoon by SPD’s Community Response Group Officers," Munoz said. "He was booked into KCJ [King County Jail] for Felony Investigation of Assault. CRG, in coordination with homicide detectives, located and arrested a suspect wanted for a politically motivated felony assault that occurred during an anti-ICE protest. The suspect was booked into KCJ without incident." In a Wednesday afternoon phone call with The Center Square, Higby said the detective who called him provided details of how the arrest went down. "He was in Sultan, and he was going floating on the river, and they caught him just as he was about to get on his raft with this cooler, and they arrested him and took him in," Higby said. As reported by The Center Square, Higby was covering June 14 protests near the Seattle federal building when he was attacked. "It was out of nowhere, completely out of nowhere that they got violent," said Higby, whose attack was captured on video and posted to X. The attack left him bloodied, bruised and with a concussion that was still causing headaches and blurred vision a week later.

NewsMax [7/17/2025 8:26 AM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4622K] reports the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, for the first time since 2020, is once again transferring jail inmates to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, releasing 20 inmates since May through a legal maneuver that is not blocked by local sanctuary policies. According to sheriff’s department records reviewed by The Los Angeles Times, the department released eight inmates to ICE in May and another 12 in June. Eleven of those transferred are Mexican, six are from Guatemala, and one each came from Colombia, El Salvador, and Honduras. They ranged in age from 19 to 63 years old. The transfers were the first since 43 people were turned over to ICE custody in early 2020, a sharp drop from the 457 who were transferred to federal custody in 2019, when President Donald Trump was still serving his first term in office. The transfers followed state, county, and city ordinances and sanctuary policies that were approved in recent years, the sheriff’s department and legal experts said. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE, reported last week that more than 2,700 people were arrested in the Los Angeles area since it launched a crackdown in June. Such detainees are sent to federal immigration detention facilities rather than county jails.

Washington Examiner [7/17/2025 9:07 AM, Emily Hallas, 1934K] reports Los Angeles police officers have begun working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement once again despite warnings from the city’s mayor that ICE is a disruptive force threatening the community. For the first time since early 2020, Los Angeles County authorities in May began handing over jail inmates to ICE, transferring eight prisoners said to be illegal residents to federal agents that month, and a dozen more in June. Los Angeles is a sanctuary city, generally preventing local authorities from assisting ICE with carrying out immigration enforcement efforts through actions such as detaining or deporting illegal immigrants. However, the Trump administration is using a loophole to resume some level of cooperation between the Los Angeles police and ICE, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Trump administration obtained federal judicial warrants to secure the transfer of prisoners from local jails to ICE custody, capitalizing on a provision marking an exception to sanctuary policies that allows city authorities to cooperate with the government on cases that involve criminal offenses. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the recent transfers involved federal warrants for prisoners who reentered the country illegally after having been previously deported, a federal crime that can carry a multiyear prison sentence, per the outlet. The sheriff’s cooperation with federal agents comes despite Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s public animosity toward ICE, which she has accused of disrupting immigrant communities through raids targeting illegal immigrants for deportation, including many working in industries heavily reliant on migrant labor. Anger over the Trump administration’s deportation effort was highlighted during anti-ICE protests in June, some of which turned into riots where demonstrators attacked law enforcement officials. Amid the unrest, federal officials, "border czar" Tom Homan among them, have warned that ICE agents are at risk of murder, as assaults on officers surge.

Breitbart [7/17/2025 12:08 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is revealing new details about some of the illegal aliens arrested in a highly publicized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on a marijuana farm in the sanctuary state of California. On July 10, ICE agents raided two marijuana farms in Carpinteria and Camarillo in the sanctuary state of California. Agents found at least 14 migrant children at the sites, believed to have been labor trafficked, and more than 360 illegal aliens — including those convicted of rape, child molestation, and kidnapping, among other crimes. "It is shameful that as we continue our investigation and reveal the facts, politicians and activists are continuing to defend violent criminal illegal aliens over the safety of children and our communities," DHS’s Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Ten of the migrant children rescued in the raid have since been turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Democrats have blasted the ICE raid, with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) going as far as to call President Donald Trump "scum.”

Breitbart [7/17/2025 3:52 PM, Sean Moran, 3077K] reports that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is considering legal action against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency after a Mexican farmworker fell to his death during an immigration raid in California. Jaime Alanís Garcia was hospitalized and ultimately passed away after falling off a roof during an ICE raid in Caramillo, California. Federal agents clashed with protesters during the immigration raid at the farm in Ventura County, one of at least two large-scale raids in Southern California on July 10. Garcia’s family said he fell about 30 feet off a building while he was possibly trying to run from federal agents. Garcia suffered a broken neck and skull. The tragic situation led Sheinbaum to say that they are considering legal options. "We are supporting the family, we are in contact with them, and we’re also exploring the possibility of filing a complaint (in the U.S.) because this is unacceptable," Sheinbaum said during a press conference. She added, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently reviewing the matter. It is very unfortunate that this happened. All our solidarity and support go to the family, and there must not be another case like this one. That’s why the complaint must be filed in the courts over there.” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Public Affairs Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, "This man was not in and has not been in CBP or ICE custody. Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible."

Daily Caller [7/17/2025 12:25 PM, Daisy Roser, 1010K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Thursday blasted Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ recent rant about ICE agents wearing masks during raids on illegal immigrants. Bass had recently announced that her office is filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to discover the identities of ICE agents working to detain illegal immigrants in California, later posting a clip of the MSNBC interview on X with the question, "Who are these masked men going around our city, snatching people off the streets?" ICE responded on the social media platform that the officers in question "wear masks because rhetoric like [Bass’] has ramped up threats and assaults against their families." ICE’s official X account stated further that its agents are "doing their job and detaining illegal aliens who broke immigration law." ICE also demanded Bass stop "fearmongering for political attention.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently announced that assaults against ICE officers and Immigration enforcement have risen almost 700% this year. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem added on Tuesday that the number has now risen to an 830% increase of assaults on ICE agents compared with the same time last year. Bass has been an avid opponent of U.S. Customs and immigration policy in California, recently filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration for Los Angeles ICE raids. She even showed up at a July 7 immigration raid at Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park, telling reporters that the government agents "need to leave and they need to leave right now!".

Free Beacon [7/17/2025 6:06 PM, Chuck Ross, 773K] reports Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass (D.) promoted what federal prosecutors now say was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by an illegal alien who sought to "generate public sympathy and solicit donations" by falsely claiming to have been kidnapped by masked ICE agents. On July 1, Bass touted the claims of Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, a 41-year-old Mexican national whose family said she was abducted in a Jack in the Box parking lot on her way to work days earlier. At a press conference on June 30, Calderon’s family said "she was taken … to the border and pressured to sign self deportation paperwork.” "She’s a mother from L.A.—taken out of her car on her way to work, and then held in a warehouse as officers hoped she would ‘self-deport,’" wrote Bass, citing a local news report about Calderon. "No hearing. Just fear," Bass added. "This doesn’t make anyone safer.” But according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, "this entire story was fabricated.” Video footage shows her calmly leaving the Jack in the Box parking lot in a sedan—not a vehicle with heavily armed federal agents, according to the criminal complaint against Calderon. "Telephone records demonstrate Calderon fabricated the entire story," prosecutors say. Calderon later staged photos of her "rescue" that were made to look like she was abused in ICE custody. Calderon "planned to hold a press conference on July 6 to increase donations to the GoFundMe page and to obtain other benefits," prosecutors say. Calderon lied to Homeland Security investigators after they tracked her down at a shopping center on July 5 by claiming that she had been held in federal custody, according to the complaint. Calderon, a longtime community organizer with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, a "racial and social justice" group, is charged with conspiracy and lying to federal agents, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles announced. She is now being held in federal immigration custody and will appear in federal court in the coming weeks. "Dangerous rhetoric that ICE agents are ‘kidnapping’ illegal immigrants is being recklessly peddled by politicians and echoed in the media to inflame the public and discredit our courageous federal agents," said Los Angeles U.S. attorney Bill Essayli. "The conduct alleged in today’s complaint shows this hoax ‘kidnapping’ was a well-orchestrated conspiracy.”

NewsNation [7/18/2025 3:10 AM, Marc Sternfield, 5801K] Video: HERE reports the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced charges against a 41-year-old undocumented mother from South Los Angeles, accusing her of orchestrating a fake kidnapping by federal immigration agents to generate sympathy and solicit donations. Yuriana Julia "Juli" Pelaez Calderon is charged with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers. On June 30, Calderon’s family and attorney held a news conference claiming she had been taken from a fast-food restaurant parking lot in downtown Los Angeles, driven to the U.S.-Mexico border, and told to self-deport. At the same time, her daughter launched a GoFundMe campaign, and federal agents began searching for Calderon since she was not in their records as being in immigration custody, according to the DOJ. Authorities later found Calderon at a shopping plaza in Bakersfield, California. "Dangerous rhetoric that ICE agents are ‘kidnapping’ illegal immigrants is being recklessly peddled by politicians and echoed in the media to inflame the public and discredit our courageous federal agents," U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. "The conduct alleged in today’s complaint shows this hoax kidnapping was a well-orchestrated conspiracy.” The June 30 news conference drew significant media attention as the family and attorney alleged Calderon was taken by "bounty hunters" working for the government. They claimed the mother of three and local community activist was driven to San Ysidro, presented with self-deportation paperwork, and, after refusing to sign, was moved to a warehouse at an undisclosed location where she was denied food. In a post on X, the Department of Homeland Security immediately called the case a "hoax.” "This woman was never arrested or ‘kidnapped’ by ICE," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told NewsNation local affiliate KTLA, without providing further details at the time. The DOJ said surveillance footage shows Calderon leaving a Jack in the Box parking lot and getting into a sedan, and telephone records also indicate that she fabricated the story, prosecutors said. "Calderon and her family knew that law enforcement was searching for her and feared for her safety, but Calderon and her family did not come forward," the DOJ said. "Instead, Calderon created what law enforcement believe to be fabricated photos of her ‘rescue,’ made to look as if she was abused while in ICE custody and planned to hold a press conference on July 6 to increase donations to the GoFundMe page and to obtain other benefits.” A spokesperson for GoFundMe released the following statement to KTLA: "GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform, or any attempt to exploit the generosity of others, and cooperates with law enforcement investigations of those accused of wrongdoing. This fundraiser was removed from the platform and the $80 raised was refunded; at no point did the organizer have access to any of the funds. The GoFundMe Giving Guarantee guarantees donors a full refund in the rare case something isn’t right.” If convicted, Calderon faces up to five years in federal prison for each charge, the DOJ said. She remains in custody awaiting her first court appearance. Essayli indicated that additional individuals could face charges. This is a developing story.

Los Angeles Times [7/17/2025 3:45 PM, Libor Jany and Zurie Pope, 14672K] reports that federal prosecutors have charged a woman with faking her abduction by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in downtown Los Angeles last month, alleging a "well-orchestrated conspiracy" meant to elicit public sympathy and donations based on her undocumented status. Authorities on Thursday announced that Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, 41, of South L.A., has been charged with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers, with prison terms of up to five years. She has not yet entered a plea and is expected to make her initial court appearance in the coming weeks. "Dangerous rhetoric that ICE agents are ‘kidnapping’ illegal immigrants is being recklessly peddled by politicians and echoed in the media to inflame the public and discredit our courageous federal agents," U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said in a statement. On June 25, friends, family members and activists gathered outside a Jack in the Box in downtown to decry what they said was the "kidnapping" of a local mother by a group of masked men. Attempts to reach her attorney for comment on Thursday were unsuccessful. At the time of the press conference, numerous immigrant rights groups showed up to support Calderon, including the Immigrant Defenders Law Center and Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, of which Calderon is a member. They spoke about working to find Calderon in ICE’s detainee locator system, and contacting numerous branches of DHS. Despite their search, no evidence of Calderon’s whereabouts could be found.

FOX News [7/17/2025 6:08 PM, Peter Pinedo, 46878K] reports a Mexican illegal alien living in Los Angeles was charged with orchestrating her own fake ICE "kidnapping" to generate sympathy and solicit donations, the Justice Department announced Thursday. Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, 41, a resident of South Los Angeles, was charged with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers, the DOJ said. Calderon had been living in the U.S. based on a federal law enforcement parole that expired in 2023. She is in federal custody after she allegedly faked her kidnapping. This comes after local outlet KTLA reported on a news conference held by Calderon’s "loved ones and attorneys," who claimed she had been "kidnapped" by uniformed men in unmarked cars June 25. The outlet reported that a woman identified as an attorney named Stephano Medina claimed Calderon was cornered in a Jack in the Box parking lot in Los Angeles by men who did not identify themselves but were possibly bounty hunters. Medina claimed Calderon was taken to the border and presented to an "ICE staffer," who demanded she sign self-deportation paperwork. Medina said that when Calderon refused to sign the paperwork, she was taken to a warehouse until she agreed to sign the document. Fox News Digital obtained a copy of the criminal complaint against Calderon, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. An affidavit filed with the complaint alleges that Calderon and others "planned a hoax kidnapping" for their benefit, "including their own pecuniary gain." The daughter filed a missing person report with the Los Angeles Police Department, which notified Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) of Calderon’s supposed kidnapping. HSI determined Calderon was not in DHS custody and, out of concern for her safety, the agency launched its own investigation to find her.

Bloomberg Law [7/17/2025 2:48 PM, Maia Spoto, 1707K] reports the Ninth Circuit denied the federal government’s request to pause a district court’s temporary restraining order on immigration enforcement in the Central District of California. The order leaves intact, for now, a block barring US authorities in the region from using racial or ethnic profiling during immigration sweeps, and requiring detainees to have access to lawyers. Federal rules require parties in most cases to ask a district court to pause an order pending appeal before bringing that request to appellate judges. The government didn’t request a stay from the district judge until after it asked the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which was too late, a Wednesday night order filed by the court’s clerk said. The case was brought by a group of California residents, legal advocates, and organizers, who said immigration raids are terrorizing the region. It’s part of a broader clash between Democratic leaders and the Trump administration over immigration that has zeroed in on Los Angeles. Trump has argued he’s following the will of voters to deport undocumented immigrants. The order also said the federal government didn’t show a reason why moving for a stay with the lower court would’ve been too difficult, the order said.

New York Times [7/17/2025 10:30 PM, Jesus Jiménez, 138952K] reports Border Patrol agents conducted an immigration raid on Thursday at a Home Depot parking lot in Sacramento County, in a sign that federal officials are heading deeper into California after focusing on the Los Angeles region in recent weeks. Gregory K. Bovino, the head of Border Patrol’s El Centro region, said in a produced video that federal agents had begun operations in the Sacramento area, and that at least eight people had been arrested for being in the country without authorization. Sacramento is a nearly 600-mile drive northwest of El Centro, Calif., and the border with Mexico. The raid came nearly a week after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop indiscriminate immigration arrests in the Los Angeles region. The ruling in the Central District of California did not apply to Sacramento. The edited video, which was overlaid with the song “Power” by Kanye West, appeared to show people running away from masked federal agents in tactical gear in a Home Depot parking lot. “Folks, there is no such thing as a sanctuary city,” Mr. Bovino said in the video. “There’s no such thing as a sanctuary state.” The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that at least 11 undocumented immigrants had been arrested in the Sacramento area as of Thursday evening. One person, Mr. Bovino said, was arrested on Thursday for impeding or assaulting a federal officer during the raid. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that one man arrested on Thursday was a “dangerous serial drug abuser and dealer” who has faced 67 charges, including felony burglary. “You would not want this man to be your neighbor,” Ms. McLaughlin said. The department did not indicate a criminal history for most of the other immigrants who were detained on Thursday. Kevin McCarty, the mayor of Sacramento, said in a statement on social media on Thursday that at least one ICE raid took place at a Home Depot on Florin Road, about eight miles southeast of the California State Capitol. The store is situated in an unincorporated pocket of Sacramento County adjacent to the city, in a neighborhood that is home to many immigrant communities. The parking lots of Home Depot stores, which are common gathering spots for day laborers looking for work, have been the targets of numerous immigration raids over the past few weeks. “These ICE raids are a violation of civil rights and an affront to democracy,” Mr. McCarty said. “There’s a difference between deporting criminals and targeting people at Home Depot looking for work to feed their families. These raids are immoral and inhumane. They are intended to instill fear and chaos and cannot be tolerated in our city.”

FOX News [7/17/2025 4:18 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin rides along with the U.S. Border Patrol as they conduct an immigration raid at a California Home Depot on ‘America Reports.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsNation [7/18/2025 3:14 AM, Josh DuBose, 5801K] reports a violent clash between demonstrators and officers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reportedly unfolded outside the federal courthouse, near the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles Thursday afternoon. The incident, according to a witness who emailed NewsNation local affiliate KTLA, unfolded at around 1:15 p.m. in the 500 block of North Alameda Street. In camera footage of the clash, officers donning bullet-proof vests emblazoned with the words "Homeland Security" crossed the street where a handful of "Occupy ICE" demonstrators were camped out in front of signs, many of them containing profanity, protesting the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in L.A. A violent clash between DHS officers and demonstrators in downtown L.A. was captured on camera July 17, 2025. (VIdeo/Images: Kimiko Carpenter). It’s unclear why officers initially approached the demonstrators, but the situation quickly devolved into a violent physical struggle where several people, including two women, were taken to the ground as a man was pulled out of the group and separated by several officers. Another man, in a white T-shirt with a backpack, looked as if he was yelling at officers to stop, prompting one of the officers armed with what appeared to be a less-than-lethal firearm to raise the weapon in the man’s direction. As the confrontation continued, the man initially pulled into the street can be seen struggling with agents, eventually ending up on the ground with three officers on top of him. Another protester was caught by DHS officers as he attempted to run away from the scene. The witness claimed that federal officers crossed the street without provocation, adding that an official later said one of the men was targeted for permanent-marker graffiti, though these details have not yet been confirmed by federal officials. It is unclear if any arrests were made.

Newsweek [7/17/2025 8:42 AM, Billal Rahman, 52220K] reports a U.S. Army veteran arrested during an immigration raid at a Southern California marijuana farm has said federal agents pepper-sprayed him. George Retes, a 25-year-old security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, said he was also tear-gassed and dragged from his car by government agents during an immigration raid on July 10, despite identifying himself as a U.S. citizen. "George Retes was arrested and has been released. He has not been charged. The U.S. 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," Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsweek. Retes said he had just arrived at work when agents surrounded his vehicle, broke his window and pinned him to the ground before taking him into custody. He said he was detained during raids at two Southern California farms, where federal authorities arrested more than 360 people. Retes was held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he said he was placed under suicide watch and monitored daily after experiencing emotional distress related to his detainment and missing his 3-year-old daughter’s birthday on July 12. He said federal agents did not inform him of the reason for his arrest or allow him to contact a lawyer or his family during the three days he was in custody. Retes also alleged that he was not permitted to shower or change clothes despite being exposed to tear gas and pepper spray. He said his hands burned throughout the first night. On Sunday, an officer asked him to sign a document and escorted him out of the detention center, informing him that he was not facing any charges, he said.

AP [7/17/2025 1:52 AM, Olga R. Rodriguez, 56000K] reports a U.S. Army veteran who was arrested during an immigration raid at a Southern California marijuana farm last week said Wednesday he was sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray before being dragged from his vehicle and pinned down by federal agents who arrested him. George Retes, 25, who works as a security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, said he was arriving at work on July 10 when several federal agents surrounded his car and — despite him identifying himself as a U.S. citizen — broke his window, peppered sprayed him and dragged him out. "It took two officers to nail my back and then one on my neck to arrest me even though my hands were already behind my back," Retes said. The Ventura City native was detained during chaotic raids at two Southern California farms where federal authorities arrested more than 360 people, one of the largest operations since President Donald Trump took office in January. Protesters faced off against federal agents in military-style gear, and one farmworker died after falling from a greenhouse roof. Retes was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he said he was put in a special cell on suicide watch and checked on each day after he became emotionally distraught over his ordeal and missing his 3-year-old daughter’s birthday party Saturday. He said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention. Authorities never let him shower or change clothes despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, Retes said, adding that his hands burned throughout the first night he spent in custody. On Sunday, an officer had him sign a paper and walked him out of the detention center. He said he was told he faced no charges. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed Retes’ arrest but didn’t say on what charges. "George Retes was arrested and has been released," she said. "He has not been charged. The U.S. 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."

Univision [7/17/2025 6:00 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports a U.S. Army veteran, a U.S. citizen and father of a family, was arrested during the massive immigration raid on July 10 at a cannabis farm in Camarillo. His name is George Retes, 25, works as a security guard at Glass House Farms, and claims he lived one of the most traumatic experiences of his life. My mind was confused. "They didn’t let me talk to a lawyer, or bathe the three days I was in detention, even though they had thrown pepper and tear gas in my face and all over my body," Retes said. According to him, when he arrived at his working day, he was surrounded by federal agents who, without listening to his explanations or verifying his documentation, began shouting orders and forced his vehicle. Some broke the windows, while others sprayed it with irritating gases and dragged it out. Retes claims he identified himself as an American citizen and as an employee of the plant, but that the agents completely ignored him. He was transferred to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center, where he was held incommunicado for three days. According to his testimony, he spent the first night with a burning in his hands and unable to clean his face or body. He was not allowed to change clothes or take a shower. On Sunday, an officer simply made him sign a document and escorted him to the exit of the detention center, without charging him. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that George Retes was released without charge and that his case, like that of other detainees, is under review. For the time being, Retes has not decided whether to take legal action.

Washington Examiner [7/17/2025 6:26 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1934K] reports United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not targeting illegal immigrants inside a medical facility or religious facility, despite concerns that the Trump administration would do so after the rollback of a Biden-era policy earlier this year. While recent reports have suggested that ICE and other federal law enforcement have gone into hospitals and churches to find and arrest immigrants who are illegally residing in the U.S., the agency said that although employees are allowed to make arrests at those sites, they have not done so. "Allegations of so-called enforcement at a medical facility or church have been false," an ICE official authorized to speak with the media wrote in an email. ICE personnel did arrest a Honduran landscaper inside the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center in Southern California in early July; however, officials did not seek the landscaper out at the facility and only entered the hospital while in pursuit of the man, according to the official. "A viral video from Los Angeles indicated ICE arrested a man at a medical center while he was getting treatment. This was totally false. He was encountered while driving and ran to evade officers, fleeing to a medical building down the road," the ICE official said. Federal police, while not arresting illegal immigrants inside a church, have arrested individuals on church grounds, including detaining illegal immigrants at two Catholic parishes in San Bernardino’s Diocese in Southern California. San Bernardino Catholic Diocese spokesman John Andrews told the National Catholic Register that several men were arrested in a church parking lot. In a different incident, a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes in Montclair was taken into custody on church property. Just a day after taking office in January, President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security empowered federal law enforcement officers to go into schools and churches to arrest illegal immigrants, ending what had been a yearslong ban from entering those facilities. The then-acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a directive to employees at ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in late January allowing them to make arrests inside those facilities and outside on nearby property. "This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens, including murderers and rapists, who have illegally come into our country," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. "Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

SFGate [7/17/2025 6:00 AM, Allaire Conte, 11859K] reports Los Angeles is reeling from a one-two punch. First, devastating wildfires destroyed more than 16,000 structures, displacing tens of thousands of residents in January. Now, immigration enforcement raids are threatening the city’s ability to rebuild. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that nearly 2,800 people had been arrested in a series of sweeping immigration raids across the city. The announcement sent shockwaves through L.A.’s immigrant communities, and subsequently rattled the contractors, builders, and homeowners trying to piece the city back together. The labor the city desperately needs to recover is now going underground. Experts say the raids have created a chilling effect that could mean blown budgets, delayed rebuilds, and deferred dreams of recovery. "It’s just added another layer of uncertainty to an already very difficult time," says Brock Harris, a local real estate agent who is working closely with developers on rebuilding efforts. The fear is no longer hypothetical. Since June, ICE’s high-profile enforcement actions have left a deep mark on L.A.’s construction workforce. So much so that many contractors and laborers were unwilling to speak on the record, worried that saying too much could make them a target. Economists have a name for this phenomenon: the chilling effect. It’s almost exactly what it sounds like: a situation where uncertainty or fear discourages businesses, investors, or individuals from conducting business.

Los Angeles Times [7/17/2025 3:12 PM, Gabriel San Román, 14672K] reports with federal immigration sweeps having targeted car washes, public parks and day laborers outside of Home Depot, Anaheim officials are looking for ways — including a recent Disney affordable housing donation — to contribute to a fund created to help undocumented immigrants amid a climate of fear. Launched last month, Anaheim Contigo has provided accurate information on immigration enforcement raids while linking to critical resources on the city’s website. It has also facilitated grants through the Anaheim Community Foundation to help residents who are otherwise too terrified to go to work out of fear of being arrested by masked Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, or already had a relative apprehended, keep up with utility bills and rent. Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken pushed for a discussion at Tuesday’s Anaheim City Council meeting on allocating $250,000 from the city coffers to bolster the fund. "When we announced Anaheim Contigo, we [did so] without financial support, which was lost on me at the time," she said. "It’s a façade of unity with the community if we’re not willing to put a dime towards helping our residents.”

Breitbart [7/17/2025 3:18 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 3077K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently deported Cuban Interior Ministry official Daniel Morejón García who had participated in the brutal repression of the peaceful July 2021 anti-communist protests in Cuba, Martí Noticias reported on Wednesday. Morejón García is a member of the Cuban Communist Party who served as head of the National Defense Council in the province of Artemisa and was part of the regime’s rapid response brigades — groups of trained civilians who harass and brutally repress Cuban dissidents in the country. Morejón García was reportedly arrested by ICE in April after an investigation determined that he lied to U.S. authorities by failing to disclose his communist past. "Daniel Morejón García is an illegal alien from Cuba who did not disclose his affiliation with the Interior Ministry or his participation in the repression of the Cuban people during the 11J protests," an ICE spokesperson told Martí Noticias on Wednesday, confirming that he was deported back to Cuba in late May. The nongovernmental organization Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC), which maintains a public list of known Castro regime repressors, further detailed that Morejón García was as a former director of a state-owned animal feed factory in Las Cañas, Artemisa, and a Cuban state security collaborator or officer involved in the brutal repression and unjust conviction of at least three Cuban men who participated in 2021 protests. Those protests attracted thousands of people nationwide, flooding the streets of Cuba’s major cities to demand an end to over six decades of communist rule. Morejón García’s name appears on a list that Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) presented to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this year. The list contains the names and corresponding positions within the Castro regime of over 100 known Cuban repressors who entered the United States in recent years by taking advantage of the lax borders policies implemented during the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden. The administration of President Donald Trump has prioritized efforts to restore the hardline U.S. policies against the Cuban regime implemented during Trump’s first term and reverse generous concessions granted by the Biden administration to the ruling communists.

USA Today [7/17/2025 1:58 PM, Josh Rivera, 75552K] reports the cost of coming to the United States is going up. The recently passed legislative package (referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) includes a new law approving fee hikes for travelers using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) or the Electronic Visa Update System (EVUS) systems and new charges for migrants apprehended at the border. From a minimum $13 ESTA fee to $5,000 penalties for arrests of undocumented people, the act reshapes the financial landscape of entering the U.S. While the U.S. is trying to attract more global tourists, it’s also getting serious about fees that will impact border crossing for both travelers and migrants. "Something that the act does is guarantee funding for Brand USA (America’s destination marketing organization). Yet the ESTA and ... the nonimmigrant visas are being raised – sort of curtailing the intended purpose of funding Brand USA," Jorge Loweree, Managing Director of Programs and Strategy at the American Immigration Council, told USA TODAY. The visa integrity fee is a mandatory $250 fee to be paid by nonimmigrant visa applicants. It is applied in addition to any other existing visa-related fees. The purpose of the fee is to support enforcement and administrative efforts related to U.S. visa policy and border security. The visa integrity fee does not replace or offset any other fees, like the DS-160 application fee, biometrics, or reciprocity fees, and it cannot be waived or reduced. The act also does not limit how the fee may be increased or applied across visa categories, leaving it to the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement via regulation.

Reuters [7/18/2025 4:48 AM, Olivia Le Poidevin, 51390K] reports up to 11.6 million refugees may lose access to humanitarian assistance due to funding cuts, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday. "Our funding situation is dramatic. We fear that up to 11.6 million refugees and people forced to flee are losing access to humanitarian assistance provided by UNHCR," said Dominique Hyde, UNHCR Director of External Relations.

Washington Post [7/17/2025 6:40 AM, Lauren Kaori Gurley, 32099K] reports they are nurses, mechanics, sanitation workers and executives. They’ve fallen in love, bought houses and raised children. They’ve opened restaurants and construction companies, paid taxes and contributed to Social Security, living and working legally in the United States since 1999. Now more than 50,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans stand to abruptly lose their legal status as the Trump administration seeks to end their protections, in place since the Clinton era, under the temporary protected status program, or TPS. Amid a broader campaign to crack down on immigration, the Department of Homeland Security said that because “conditions have improved” in Honduras and Nicaragua, it is ending the program for natives of those countries in early September. The decision, announced in early July, has been met with outrage from immigrant communities across the country, prompting a lawsuit by the National TPS Alliance, an advocacy group, and seven impacted individuals. The parties allege that the decision violated federal law by “relying on a predetermined political decision” and “racial animus,” while ignoring “dire” local conditions in those countries. Immigration advocates hope federal courts will step in to intervene. But in the meantime, the order has left tens of thousands of people grappling with the possibility that they will be forced to leave their families and U.S.-citizen children to return to countries where they have no immediate family, no community, no jobs — places that in some cases they haven’t seen in nearly three decades. “My life has been here in the Bay Area,” said Jhony Silva, 29, a certified nursing assistant from Honduras, who is suing the Trump administration for ending the program. His parents brought him to the United States as a toddler in 1998. “I’ve been doing everything the right way this whole time,” said Silva, who fears being separated from his 9-year-old child, a U.S. citizen. “I am very, very worried.” Hondurans and Nicaraguans have had temporary protections for much longer — in some cases decades more — than immigrants from the other countries. Nearly 27 years after Hurricane Mitch, “Honduran citizens can safely return home,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said in a statement about ending that country’s program. Of Nicaragua’s termination, a DHS spokesperson said the program “was never meant to last a quarter of a century.” It’s not clear whether people affected will leave the U.S. voluntarily or try to lie low to avoid deportation. The average TPS holder from Honduras and Nicaragua is 48 years old and has been in the U.S. for more than 30 years, according to estimates from FWD.us, an immigration advocacy group.

Bloomberg Law [7/17/2025 10:01 AM, Staff, 1707K] reports the Trump administration is asking a federal appeals panel to overturn a lower court’s injunction that blocked it from rescinding the protected status of some 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants. But the panel signaled Wednesday that federal officials’ "arguably racist" comments could get in the way, Isaiah Poritz reports. The Temporary Protected Status program allows immigrants from certain countries to legally stay in the US and work for up to 18 months when it’s unsafe to return to their home country due to armed conflicts or natural disasters. US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has argued TPS shouldn’t protect Venezuelans.

Axios [7/17/2025 5:30 AM, Maya Goldman, 13599K] reports community health centers are in a legal bind following the Trump administration’s directive to restrict undocumented immigrants’ access to their services. The federally funded clinics are supposed to serve everyone — but now, only if they fulfill a citizenship requirement. Health centers aren’t sure how to carry out seemingly contradictory directives, and worry that an incorrect move could result in being kicked out of multiple federal programs. And that could be crippling amid already ominous health workforce challenges and looming Medicaid cuts from Republicans’ tax-and-spending law There’s "a high level of confusion," said Louise McCarthy, CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County. "We don’t want to break any rules. We don’t want to jeopardize our funding. We want to make sure that we can speak to our patients. ... But what can we tell them?" Until Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued the notice, the clinics weren’t considered federal public benefits. That meant even undocumented immigrants could access their services. Health and Human Services said changing its interpretation of the law to include health centers as public benefits will make sure that federal resources are "no longer used to incentivize illegal immigration," per a news release.

FOX News [7/17/2025 4:38 PM, Cameron Arcand, 46878K] reports that new legislation would create harsher penalties for executives of publicly traded companies who knowingly fail to comply with federal employment eligibility verification laws. The proposal comes as federal immigration authorities continue to crack down on alleged violations of immigration laws, including a criminal search warrant that was executed in California earlier this month on a cannabis facility, which resulted in multiple arrests of illegal immigrants and a child labor investigation. "While liberals like Gavin Newsom pretend to care about human rights, the sad truth is that the Democrats’ open-borders agenda is really about undercutting American wages and ensuring their billionaire donors have a constant supply of cheap, foreign labor," Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "So, let’s make this simple, executives who abuse illegal immigrants with slave wages should be held personally liable and face severe consequences if they’re caught. This cannot be a country built on servitude. American workers must come first," he added. Specifically, Moreno’s "Strengthening Accountability for Employers Hiring Individuals and Reforming Enforcement Act" (SAFE HIRE Act) would require a company’s CEO and chief human resources officer to sign off on their employment practices in annual SEC reports, including confirming that the company verified the legal work status of all employees. In addition, companies will certify in their SEC reports that they have disclosed to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice any "significant deficiencies" that would interfere with their ability to follow federal employment eligibility requirements or of any known violations.

AP [7/17/2025 4:57 PM, Valerie Gonzalez, 24051K] reports that attorneys representing migrant children who were abused, neglected or abandoned by a parent asked a federal court on Thursday to restore their deportation protections after the Trump administration ended them. The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of New York, was filed on behalf of nine young people and their legal advocates who want a judge to keep the protections for up to nearly 150,000 beneficiaries. "These young people have survived abuse, abandonment, and neglect only to be retraumatized now by the constant threat of detention and deportation from the same agencies that vowed to keep them safe," said Rachel Davidson, plaintiff attorney with the National Immigration Project. The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were both named in the lawsuit. USCIS Spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser said, "As a matter of practice, USCIS does not comment on pending litigation." DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Migrant children who suffered parental abuse, neglect or abandonment are designated through state courts and the federal government with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, which was created by Congress in 1990 with bipartisan support.

Washington Post [7/17/2025 9:48 AM, Victoria Bisset, 32099K] reports over the course of almost a decade, the police chiefs and marshal allegedly received about $5,000 for each of the names included in false crime reports in several parishes in central Louisiana, acting U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook told a news conference in Lafayette on Wednesday. He added that there were "hundreds" of names featured in the false crime reports. "There was an unusual concentration of armed robberies, a large number of armed robberies, of people that were not from Louisiana," Van Hook said, adding: "Well, in fact, the armed robberies never took place and those listed in the applications were never victims of crime.” The Trump administration is increasingly targeting unauthorized immigrants with no criminal record as it ramps up arrests, a Washington Post analysis of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data shows. Congress created the U visa program in 2000 for victims of certain crimes — including extortion, false imprisonment, domestic violence, sexual assault and felonious assault — who suffered mental or physical abuse and helped law enforcement or government officials to investigate or prosecute the criminal activity. Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Eric DeLaune said at the same news conference that the investigation began over a year ago, following a tip from Citizenship and Immigration Services, and involved multiple agencies. The 62-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury earlier this month included charges such as conspiracy to commit visa fraud, visa fraud, bribery, mail fraud and money laundering. According to the indictment, people seeking U visas paid thousands of dollars to Oakdale businessman Chandrakant Patel to be named as victims in police reports about armed robberies. Patel, who owned two convenience stores and operated a fast-food franchise, himself obtained a U visa in 2023 "based on his alleged status as a victim of armed robbery," the indictment alleged. Patel then paid the four others — Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle, Forest Hill Police Chief Glynn Dixon, former Glenmora police chief Tebo Onishea and Oakdale Marshal Michael Slaney — to create the false reports and certify federal immigration forms for U visa applications, prosecutors say.

Reported similarly:
AP [7/17/2025 6:28 PM, Sara Cline and Jim Mustian, 56000K]

DailySignal [7/17/2025 4:45 PM, Rebecca Downs, 558K] reports that in May, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, sent a letter to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security about a 24-year-old illegal immigrant allegedly impersonating a 16-year-old student at Perrysburg High School. On Thursday, Moreno provided an update on the increasingly alarming situation. The senator shared over X a letter from FBI Assistant Director Marshall Yates. "Insanity: an illegal migrant Joe Biden allowed into the country infiltrated an Ohio high school & impersonated a student," Moreno posted. "After I called for an investigation, the FBI revealed he was armed & dangerous.” Anthony Emmanuel Labrador-Sierra, a Venezuelan national, has been charged with several criminal offenses under Title 18. These include Sections 922(g)(5)(A), Possession of a Firearm by an Alien Unlawfully in the United States; 922(a)(6), False Statement in Connection With Acquisition of a Firearm; and 1001(a)(3), Making or Using a False Document. Moreno sent his letter to FBI Director Kash Patel and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on May 21. Labrador-Sierra was charged on May 23. A grand jury for the Northern District of Ohio returned on indictment for these offenses on June 25. As a press release by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio detailed: According to the criminal complaint and underlying affidavit, Perrysburg Schools reported to the Perrysburg Police Department that they had received information that Labrador-Sierra, a student attending Perrysburg High School, was actually a 24-year-old man who enrolled under false pretenses. Labrador-Sierra is also alleged to have submitted false material information to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services about his date of birth in connection with applications for Temporary Protective Status and Employment Authorization Documents in 2024 and 2025.

Univision [7/17/2025 10:10 AM, Carlos Chirinos, 4992K] reports Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich (New Mexico) introduced the DREAMers Privacy Protection Act on Thursday to prevent information about DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients from being used in President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation policy. According to the communication sent exclusively to Univision News by Senator Heinrich’s office, the initiative seeks to offer legal guarantees to current and potential DACA applicants, the so-called dreamers, that the data they have provided during the registration process for the program will be shared with other agencies to identify them and place them on a deportation list. “We need to ensure that Dreamers ‘ private information isn’t used as a weapon against them and is protected,” Heinrich said in the statement announcing the introduction of the bill, which currently has 18 Democratic co-sponsors. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [7/17/2025 12:07 PM, Joshua Peguero, 18649K] reports that a husband is both grieving and frustrated after he says the United States denied him entry to the country to settle his wife’s affairs following her death in Nevada. Her husband, Evaristo Vega, lives in Tijuana, Mexico. "She was everything to us. She was everything to us. She basically became the head of the family, you know?" Vega said. Gloria Vega Nava, 41, died of wounds she suffered in a car crash over the Fourth of July holiday, according to the Clark County Coroner’s Office. (Evaristo Vega). The crash happened on Saturday, July 5, near Moapa. Vega learned that his wife and another person in the vehicle were seriously hurt. He said she worked at a warehouse in Las Vegas. "She was in a bad condition. She suffered a very bad accident and very bad injury on the brain," he said. The Clark County Coroner’s Office confirmed to Nexstar’s KLAS that Vega Nava died three days after the crash at a local hospital. Details on the manner and cause of death were pending.

Federalist [7/17/2025 7:30 AM, Logan Washburn, 1142K] reports after revelations that Oregon’s "motor voter" system registered hundreds of possible noncitizens, the state government launched an audit. Auditors found one in 35 voters didn’t have proof of citizenship — then looked the other way. Oregon officials discovered in September hundreds of potential noncitizens had registered to vote. They examined limited data and eventually found the motor voter system had placed more than 1,600 possible ineligible voters on the rolls. State leaders commissioned an audit — which, as Oregon journalist Jeff Eager first reported, found one in 35 voters labeled as "citizens" had no proof of such citizenship in the motor voter system. The state’s motor voter system reportedly registered 766,756 people total to vote, as of September. The one-in-35 ratio (2.8 percent), applied across the state, suggests the system may have registered more than 21,470 voters without proof of citizenship. Instead of flagging this lack of documentation as a massive gap in election integrity, the auditor — Chicago firm Baker Tilly — dismissed it, saying this would probably be too small to decide elections. But, as of November 2024, the Oregon DMV already registered 54,600 voters who have not proven citizenship. The audit, released July 1, noted numerous issues in Oregon’s motor voter system — the lack of citizenship proof was only the first.

AP [7/17/2025 11:21 AM, Valerie Gonzalez and Elliot Spagat, 31733K] reports in 2006, top U.S. Border Patrol officials were asked how long it would take to hire 6,000 agents, a roughly 50% increase at the time. Michael Fisher, then deputy chief in San Diego, says the officials concluded they would need five years. "You have 2 1/2 years," Fisher recalls being told. With Immigration and Customs Enforcement now preparing to add 10,000 employees within five years to assist with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts, the Border Patrol’s torrid expansion in the early 2000s serves as a cautionary tale. Hiring and training standards were changed and arrests for employee misconduct rose. Pressure to turbo-charge growth can also lead to attrition. "If they don’t uphold pretty rigorous standards and background checks, you can end up hiring the wrong people, and then you pay a huge price in how the public perceives them," said Gil Kerlikowske, who was commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, from 2014 to 2017. ICE, the main agency responsible for arresting and deporting people within the U.S., is set to get $76.5 billion, nearly 10 times its annual budget, under a bill Trump signed on July 4. Most of that money is for detention, but some is for hiring and other uses. The White House says ICE will grow from 20,000 employees to about 30,000. "To do it today is an effort that needs to start years ago," said Matthew Hudak, former Border Patrol deputy chief. "The funding is there, but it is nearly impossible to bring in that many people that quickly because you hit challenges.” The Border Patrol nearly doubled its workforce from 11,264 agents in October 2005 to 21,444 agents six years later. ICE and Homeland Security did not respond to questions about lessons that the Border Patrol’s hiring spree or detailed plans for hiring at ICE. "The unprecedented funding for ICE will enable my hard-working officers and agents to continue making America safe again by identifying, arresting and removing criminal aliens from our communities," Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, said after Trump signed the bill. Critics say the administration’s policy to target anyone in the country illegally, not just those with criminal records, could lead to abuses. Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and lead architect of his immigration policies, had set an aggressive target of at least 3,000 arrests a day even before any additional hiring. "When there are no priorities, everybody’s a priority," said Nayna Gupta, policy director of the American Immigration Council. "You’re very likely to see confusion, delay, wrongful arrest, more mistakes when law enforcement agencies, especially large ones, don’t have clear direction and guidance for prioritization.”

Los Angeles Times [7/17/2025 9:14 PM, Rachel Uranga and Brittny Mejia, 14672K] reports Border Patrol agents raided a Home Depot and other locations in Sacramento on Thursday in what appeared to be a heavily orchestrated operation intended to send a message that the Trump administration would not back down on immigration enforcement, despite legal blockades. While the raids took place miles from the state Capitol grounds, Greg Bovino, the U.S. Border chief of the El Centro sector who has been leading operations in Southern California, recorded a video in front of the statehouse shortly after. "There is no such thing as a sanctuary city. There’s no such thing as a sanctuary state," Bovino posted on X, in a produced video featuring the state capitol building and highway signs reading Sacramento. "This is how and why we secure the homeland for Ma and Pa America. We’ve got your back, whether it’s here in Sacramento or nationwide, we’re here and we’re not going anywhere.” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office immediately blasted the sweeps. "The Border Patrol should do their jobs — at the border— instead of continuing their tirade statewide of illegal racial profiling and illegal arrests," said Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for Newsom. On Wednesday, Newsom had railed against Trump’s immigration crackdown during a news conference at a Downey Memorial Christian Church, where agents swarmed and arrested a patron in June. Parishoners at the church remain shaken, and one girl he met was carrying around her passport. "She’s here legally. She’s carrying her passport," he said. "That’s Trump’s America, 2025.” The Sacramento enforcement came after a federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday blocked agents from using racial profiling to carry out warrantless arrests that have upended hundreds of lives in immigrant communities throughout Southern California. And it took place in an area that, along with the Central Valley and a large swath of Northern California, is under a similar preliminary injunction stemming from unlawful raids launched by Bovino in January, targeting farmworkers and laborers in Kern County. The Department of Homeland Security said 11 undocumented immigrants were arrested during the operation including, Javier Dimas-Alcantara, who they said is "dangerous serial drug abuser" who "has been booked into jail 67 times.” "You would not want this man to be your neighbor," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "And yet, politicians like Gavin Newsom defend criminals who terrorize American communities and demonize law enforcement who defend those same communities.” Bovino, who has been a key figure in the raids across Southern California and is named in both lawsuits, said on X operations unfolded in Los Angeles and Sacramento on Thursday. Another individual, he said, was arrested on suspicion of impeding and or assaulting a federal officer. Based on videos posted Thursday, that man appears to be Jose Castillo Jr., who was on his way to work as an HVAC repairman in the Sacramento area when he stopped at the home improvement store. His wife, Andrea Castillo, said he is a hard-working family man who would "not be out instigating.” Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor U.S. Customs and Border Protection responded to requests for comment about Castillo. The Border Patrol told Fox News that it had surveilled locations in Sacramento and ran license plates for two days before executing the arrests. Some plates came back as owned by previously deported immigrants in the country illegally.

FOX News [7/17/2025 8:10 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 46878K] Video: HERE reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agency is evaluating changes to its liquid restrictions rule for airline carry-ons — a potential major shift in the Transportation and Security Administration’s (TSA) policy that’s been in place since 2006 and a symbol of post-9/11 travel. Noem, who last week ended the shoe-off requirement at TSA security checkpoints at every airport nationwide, floated the idea that the 3.4 oz liquids rule would also be rolled back. "The liquids I’m questioning, so that may be the next big announcement is what size your liquids need to be," Noem said at an event in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press. "We have put in place in TSA a multilayered screening process that allows us to change some of how we do security and screening so it’s still as safe." Noem said Wednesday that she is questioning "everything TSA does" and laid out her vision for airport travel. "Hopefully, the future of an airport, where I’m looking to go is that you walk in the door with your carry-on suitcase, you walk through a scanner and go right to your plane," Noem said. "It takes you one minute." [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The San Francisco Chronicle [7/17/2025 3:56 PM, Aidin Vaziri, 4120K] reports "The liquids, I’m questioning. So that may be the next big announcement — what size your liquids need to be," Noem said, speaking at the Hill Nation Summit in Washington. Since 2006, the TSA has limited carry-on liquids to containers of 3.4 ounces or less, all of which must fit inside a single quart-sized plastic bag. The rule was implemented after authorities thwarted a plot involving liquid explosives. But Noem suggested new technology and a "multi-layered screening process" could soon render the rule obsolete. "It is still a process that is protecting people who are traveling on our airlines. But it has to make sense," she said. "It has to actually do something to make you safer." Last week, the DHS lifted another post-9/11 protocol, allowing travelers to keep their shoes on at domestic checkpoints — a reversal of a policy introduced after the attempted shoe bombing by Richard Reid in 2001. Noem laid out an ambitious vision for the future of air travel. "You walk in the door with your carry-on suitcase, you walk through a scanner and go right to your flight," she said. "It takes you one minute.” She added that DHS is piloting advanced screening technologies at select airports and working with multiple companies to evaluate solutions. "We’re working to see what we can do to make the traveling experience much better and more hospitable for individuals, but also still keep safety standards," she said. USA Today [7/17/2025 10:52 AM, Eve Chen, 75552K] reports that at Wednesday’s summit, Noem added, "I’m working with several different companies with technologies to give us competitive bids on what they actually can do, and you will see us pilot this at a couple of airports before it gets implemented nationwide.” The Department of Homeland Security and TSA told USA TODAY in a statement: "Secretary Noem and TSA are constantly looking for ways to enhance security and improve the travel experience for the public. Any announcements on policy changes will be made through official channels.”

Reported similarly:
CBS News [7/17/2025 8:34 PM, Staff, 51860K]

CBS News [7/17/2025 7:54 PM, Staff, 51860K] Video: HERE reports last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the TSA announced the end of the rule requiring passengers to take off their shoes during airport security screenings. Could changes also be coming for liquids?

The Hill [7/17/2025 11:53 AM, Miriam Waldvogel and Amalia Huot-Marchand, 18649K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been exploring ways to lighten the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) rules governing airport travel, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told NewsNation host Blake Burman at the Hill Nation Summit on Wednesday. Noem teased a potential easing of regulations on the size of liquid containers allowed through airport security in carry-ons and said the "future of an airport," in her view, would allow travelers to essentially walk straight through security. Noem’s remarks came shortly after the TSA announced it would allow travelers to keep their shoes on during security screening. She claimed that since Day 1, she started "questioning everything TSA does.” It’s not clear when new changes, if any, would be announced or what their implementation would look like. "It’s not certainly anything we’ll be announcing in the next week or two, but we’re working to see what we can do to make the traveling experience much better and more hospitable for individuals, but also still keep safety standards," Noem told The Hill after her appearance at the summit. Liquids in carry-on items are restricted to small containers of 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) or less, generally packed together in a 1 quart plastic bag. Travelers may pack more liquids in their checked luggage. "I will tell you — I mean the liquids — I’m questioning. So that may be the next big announcement is what size your liquids need to be," Noem said at the Hill Nation Summit. The TSA’s liquid regulations were instituted in response to a 2006 plot thwarted by British authorities to allegedly blow up a U.S.-bound plane with liquid explosives. The agency initially banned liquids and gels in carry-on bags altogether before revisiting to adopt the current size restrictions. The liquid regulations also apply to aerosols, gels, creams and pastes ranging from shampoo to hair spray to peanut butter. Noem also touted the possibility of new technology that would simplify the overall process. The DHS chief said she is "working with several different companies with technologies to give us competitive bids on what they actually do.” The new services would be piloted in select U.S. airports and, if successful, deployed nationwide, she said.

New York Times [7/17/2025 6:12 PM, Christine Chung, 138952K] reports the Transportation Security Administration has been shaking up its security screening policy at airports, last week ending a decades-old requirement to remove shoes. Now, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, is fueling growing speculation that limits on liquids could be axed next. For nearly two decades, the T.S.A. has restricted the quantities of liquids that travelers can bring through airport security checkpoints. At a political conference hosted by The Hill and NewsNation in Washington on Wednesday, she addressed the possibility directly, saying that she was “questioning” the longstanding policy. “So that may be the next big announcement, is what size your liquids need to be,” Ms. Noem said. “We have put in place in T.S.A. a multilayered screening process that allows us to change some of how we do security and screening.” But how soon could liquid limits be lifted and what would this measure take? We spoke to several security screening experts to learn more. Travelers bringing carry-on luggage are limited to liquids, aerosols and gels in quantities of less than 3.4 ounces, or 100 milliliters, that fit in one clear, quart-size bag. This T.S.A. policy, known as the 3-1-1 rule, has been in place since 2006, following a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives, smuggled in soda bottles, aboard multiple flights traveling from Heathrow Airport in London to the United States and Canada. While the plot was foiled by the British authorities, the threat reverberated worldwide, prompting tighter security screening. The T.S.A. initially banned all liquids from carry-on baggage, then amended its policy with the 3-1-1 rule, which still leaves most travelers ditching their water bottles at checkpoints. All travelers, regardless of whether they are enrolled in expedited screening programs, follow the 3-1-1 rule. However, while T.S.A. PreCheck travelers can keep their liquids in their luggage, the policy for all other travelers varies depending on what imaging technology is deployed at the airport. Airports have been gradually rolling out advanced X-ray scanners called computed tomography, or CT, machines, which can identify liquids in bags and detect whether they are explosives. These machines aren’t installed at every airport in the country. “Smaller airports don’t have them,” said Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former T.S.A. officer with a travel newsletter called Gate Access. “A key indication of whether this is going to be implemented nationwide is when all airports get CT machines.” The T.S.A. and D.H.S. declined to provide further details about technology at airports. It could be years away. A T.S.A. spokesperson told Travel + Leisure last year that a rule allowing larger liquids in carry-ons could take until 2040 to put in place because it would need many more CT machines for the large number of airports. The spokesperson said there were about 2,000 screening lanes in about 430 airports.

CBS News [7/17/2025 11:13 AM, Tracy J. Wholf, 51860K] reports that there have been 27 major disaster declarations issued by President Trump so far in 2025. The disasters range in size and scope, from the L.A. wildfires to Midwest tornadoes and the Texas flooding as well as several winter storms. Many of them have resulted in fatalities and billions of dollars in damage to property and businesses, but one major deadly weather event that occurred in June hasn’t been declared: an extreme heat wave. Between June 20-24, a heat dome, or the presence of high heat over a region that lingers for an extended period of time, exposed nearly half of the country to dangerously high temperatures. On June 24, seven states tied or broke monthly high temperature records, many exceeding triple digits. One of those states, Maryland, reported that 472 people needed medical assistance for heat-related illnesses during that time when the heat index topped 110 degrees in some places. But there’s no disaster declaration for the event listed on the FEMA website. That’s because extreme heat is not considered a "disaster" that is eligible for federal funding, according to the Stafford Act, which is the guiding law that outlines when and how the president can declare disasters and direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide assistance to state and local governments. Now, three Democratic lawmakers are attempting to change that. Senators Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, along with Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia of Texas, have proposed legislation to classify extreme heat as a disaster, which would allow federal funding to flow into areas where hotter temperatures cause significant physical and economic distress. Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York has signed on as a co-sponsor.

CBS News [7/17/2025 7:44 AM, Staff, 51860K] reports the Texas governor requested a disaster declaration to help those impacted by the six-alarm fire in Fort Worth. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [7/17/2025 5:13 PM, Martin Kaste, 37958K] Audio: HERE reports after early criticism for being late on the scene, FEMA is now getting high marks from people affected by the July 4 flash flood, especially in the hard-hit community of Hunt, TX. But locals heap even more praise on the help from religious charities. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Telemundo 48 El Paso [7/17/2025 2:37 PM, Staff, 9K] reports Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the death toll from the floods in Kerr County rose to 116. Mr. Abbott said the statewide figure rose to 135, making the July 4 floods one of the worst natural disasters in the state. Amid the press conference, Mr. Abbott said he would address the issue of housing for people affected by the floods at his next special legislative session, which begins on July 21, 2025. Abbott also spoke about the inclusion of other counties, including Hamilton, Lampasas, Maverick, Sutton and Uvalde, to the disaster declaration, bringing the total to 26 counties. The following counties are already approved for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Public Assistance Program: Burnet, Coke, Concho, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Llano, Mason, McCulloch, Menard, St. Saba, Tom Green and Williamson.

The Hill [7/17/2025 11:39 AM, Kelly Wiley, Dalton Huey and Josh Hinkle, 18649K] reports Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) data does not show a record of Kerr County officials issuing a locally targeted emergency alert to warn people in the area of the rapidly rising waters until two days after the deadly flood. The emergency flash flood warnings issued on July 4 and 5 came from the National Weather Service, which were distributed through CodeRED, a mass notification system that requires members of the public to register to receive alerts. Records show the earliest warnings of the flash floods, which claimed more than 100 lives in Kerr County alone as of July 15, were issued by the NWS at 1:14 a.m. on July 4, telling people to move to higher ground. The county shared a San Antonio meteorologist’s post on Facebook at 5:31 a.m. on July 4. County officials added their warning to the shared post, saying, "Flooding along the Guadalupe River is happening now. Be safe and move to higher ground. Do not drive through water. Turn Around – Don’t Drown!". After the initial alert at 1:14 a.m., an additional 21 flash flood alerts were issued by the NWS on July 4 in Kerr County, according to archived alert data. FEMA records indicate that the county itself never issued an alert on July 4 about the dangerous flash flooding through the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS), which can alert all phones in a geographical area, regardless of whether a person has enrolled for emergency alerts.

Houston Chronicle [7/17/2025 12:13 PM, James Osborne, 1982K] reports two days after torrential rains set off fatal flash flooding in the Texas Hill Country, President Donald Trump authorized staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to travel to the flood zone to help state and local officials begin the rebuilding process. But that quick response, following widespread media coverage of a disaster that claimed at least 134 lives and left 100 people missing, marked a sharp shift in approach since Trump took office in January, experts say. As natural disasters like flooding, tornadoes and landslides piled up across the country this spring, FEMA accumulated a backlog of disaster requests that is still lingering as the Gulf of Mexico’s hurricane season gets underway. Currently, five states including Indiana, Oregon and Maryland are awaiting a federal response more than a month after they requested a federal disaster declaration to unlock funds and other critical resources. "You’re waiting weeks, sometimes months to have your disasters declared," said Sarah Labowitz, a senior fellow at the non-profit Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Texas is the exception, not the rule.” FEMA, which is overseen by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, declined to comment for this story. But the Trump administration has repeatedly questioned FEMA’s necessity in managing emergency response to natural disasters, at one point saying they were going to eliminate the agency before taking a softer tone following the Texas floods this month. "We want FEMA to work well," Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters earlier this month. "And, you know, the president is going to continue to be asking tough questions from all of his agencies.” Disaster declarations are necessary to allow the release of federal disaster funds that do everything from giving survivors money to buy food and other necessities and begin large-scale debris removal. Under new Trump administration rules, FEMA must get clearance from Noem to move ahead on all contracts over $100,000. An investigation by The New York Times revealed that on July 6 and July 7, as the Guadalupe River swamped residents’ homes and children’s camps, thousands of calls to FEMA call centers went unanswered after hundreds of contractors were laid off when their contracts expired July 5. Noem denied the policy had resulted in delays, saying on NBC’s Meet the Press that Homeland Security had resources in Texas "just an hour or two after the flooding.” Within the agency, employees have grown weary of taking action that might attract the attention of the administration, said Rafael Lemaitre, a former FEMA spokesman during the Obama administration. He said former colleagues had described a "crisis of fear and paralysis at the agency.”

The Hill [7/17/2025 6:00 AM, Saul Elbein, 18649K] reports Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is under fire amid reports of a botched disaster response effort in Texas, one that the editorial board of the state’s biggest newspaper is comparing to the debacle that followed Hurricane Katrina. "Heck of a job, Secretary Noem," The Houston Chronicle’s editorial board wrote on Monday, riffing on former President George W. Bush’s notorious praise of then-Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Michael Brown as New Orleans flooded. The editors joined Democratic members of Congress — including Sens. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), Chris Murphy (Md.) and Ed Markey (Mass), as well as Texas Reps. Greg Casar and Jasmine Crockett — in calling for investigations into Noem’s handling of FEMA, an agency both she and President Trump have previously talked about closing, amid reports of poor response times and local volunteers filling in for federal responders. On Tuesday, Markey called for Noem’s resignation, describing her handling of the floods as "an absolute disgrace.” In a video posted on X, Murphy said that FEMA had begun to look like "a PR agency for the Secretary of Homeland Security, not an actual disaster response agency.” Rafael Lemaitre, FEMA director of public affairs under former President Obama, said Trump and Noem’s vision for FEMA — one where it exists mostly to back up state responses — is largely already reality. The Trump administration, he said, "is in denial about the role of FEMA, the improvements that FEMA has made since Hurricane Katrina — not only in its ability to respond better to disasters, but to help communities prepare for them in an era of increased severity and frequency in disasters." In a statement to The Hill, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin decried reporting that the agency had been slow to deploy teams as "lies" and "an unapparelled display of activist journalism." "Within moments of the flooding in Texas, DHS [Department of Homeland Security] assets, including the U.S. Coast Guard, tactical Border Patrol units and FEMA personnel surged into unprecedented action alongside Texas first responders," McLaughlin said. "By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people," she added.

CBS News [7/17/2025 6:42 PM, Marissa Armas, 51860K] Video: HERE Millions of dollars are funneling in to help the community in the Hill Country floods, but where is all that money going? "Over the last week, the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country has received more than $30 million through the Kerr County Relief Fund," said Austin Dickson, the CEO of the organization, on July 11. The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country is one of several organizations collecting a large majority of those funds, and donations are continuing to roll in. "We granted out $5 million last week to individuals that were helped through nonprofits in our area," said Jayne Zirkel, the communications and events manager. "We granted out to some business organizations that are helping others in the business community around here. We granted money to some of the volunteer fire departments. All of these organizations have mobilized. They know how to get the aid to people right away, and they’re doing that.” So far $1,250,000 has gone to four organizations that help families and individuals like the Salvation Army Kroc Center in Kerrville. Another $1,250,000 has gone to businesses via the Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce and Lift Fund. Another $1,250,000 was handed over to local volunteer fire departments, and $1,250,000 was given to groups and churches that assist with crisis response.

CNN [7/18/2025 5:03 AM, Rebekah Riess, 21433K] reports sixty miles of river. Murky waters, thick mud and seemingly insurmountable piles of debris. The painstaking recovery efforts continue for around 100 people still missing following the devastating July Fourth flooding along the Guadalupe River in central Texas. “More than 1,000 local, state and federal responders – in addition to thousands of volunteers from across the country – continue intensive search operations,” Kerr County Emergency Operations Center Unified Command said Tuesday. “Teams have had boots-on-the-ground from the headwaters of the Guadalupe River to Canyon Lake and back again, focused on the mission of recovering and returning loved ones to their families.” Images of search teams on their hands and knees sifting through two-story piles of debris from trees turned into sticks illustrate the painstaking efforts. The grim effort, using strategies from hand-sifting to sophisticated dives, is expected to drag on for months. While many families are waiting for answers, some have already learned their loved ones were among the more than 130 people who died as a result of the floods. “We have a long, long way to go to really thoroughly search this area,” said Capt. Max McQuarrie of the Virginia Beach Water Rescue Team, whose crew is assisting in Texas. “It’s going to be a slow, methodical process … to really provide the answers that everyone’s looking for.”

FOX 10 Phoenix [7/17/2025 12:12 PM, Kenneth Wong] reports Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is joining another multi-state lawsuit against the Trump administration. The lawsuit, which involves Arizona and what was described as "a coalition of 20 states" that involves the Attorneys General of California, Colorado, Oregon, and other eastern and midwestern states, is reportedly over disaster relief funds that were withheld from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The plaintiffs in the suit are challenging plans to cut emergency response funding and shut down programs designed to help the state proactively reduce disaster damage. One program mentioned is "Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities" (BRIC), which was set to fund $4.5 billion in projects across the country to improve infrastructures. "Arizona has been selected for BRIC grants for 25 projects, totaling $9.8 million," read a portion of the statement. "Roughly $1.2 million of these funds were directed to the State for salaries and other management costs. The remaining BRIC funding would support critical disaster mitigation projects." Some of the Arizona projects that were selected for BRIC grants, per the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, include a $4.6 million infrastructure project in Buckeye that aims to divert floodwater away from the city’s historic downtown area, as well as a flood mitigation project in Camp Verde. "Arizona does not have the budgetary resources or flexibility to make up for the lost funding without drawing funding away from other important initiatives," read a portion of the statement.

HS Today [7/17/2025 8:43 AM, Staff, 38K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for the Highland Fire burning in Crook County, Oregon. The state of Oregon’s request for a declaration under FEMA’s Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) program was approved by FEMA Region 10 Acting Administrator Vincent J. Maykovich on Saturday July, 12, 2025, at 10:58 p.m. PT. He determined that the Highland Fire threatened to cause such destruction as would constitute a major disaster. This is the fourth FMAG declaration in 2025 to help fight Oregon wildfires. At the time of the state’s request, the wildfire threatened homes in and around the community of Prineville Lake Acres. The fire was also threatening roads, infrastructure, utilities, a watershed, and wildlife resources.

Los Angeles Times [7/17/2025 6:00 AM, Hayley Smith, 14672K] reports California lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about federal staffing cuts at the National Weather Service, which they say are harming the state’s agriculture industry and putting critical fire operations in jeopardy. In a letter dated Wednesday and obtained by The Times, both U.S. senators from California, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, urged the Trump administration to reverse its considerable cuts to the nation’s leading weather agency, which has lost at least 600 employees to layoffs and buyouts this year. "The safety and lives of millions of Americans as well as the economic success of California depend on weather forecasts from the state’s NWS offices," reads the letter, which was spearheaded by Schiff and addressed to Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, and Laura Grimm, the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the National Weather Service. "Protecting human lives from severe weather events is not a partisan issue, and it is important that the NWS has the workforce required to meet its core mandate to protect human life," the senators wrote. Schiff and Padilla requested that federal officials provide updated vacancy information, details on staffing needs and hiring plans, and effects on fire-related work, farmers and the food supply chain, by July 31.

AOL [7/17/2025 10:41 AM, Jacqueline Kehoe, 32092K] reports that a powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck offshore of Alaska’s Peninsula at 12:37 PM, July 16th, local time. Hitting 55 miles south of Sand Point — southwest of Katmai National Park — the quake was felt widely, prompting immediate tsunami warnings and evacuations across multiple coastal communities. It rattled from the immediate epicenter to major cities like Anchorage and Juneau, some 800 miles away. The earthquake’s effects varied dramatically across Alaska’s expansive coastline. In tiny Sand Point, the closest community to the epicenter with about 600 residents, locals reported objects flying from pantries and shelves as the ground shook violently. Homer residents described the motion as "mild rolling" with lamps and plants swaying gently. Despite the significant magnitude, luckily, no major structural damage has been reported in communities nearest to the earthquake’s source. The human response was swift and coordinated. Within minutes of the earthquake, the National Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning covering a 700-mile stretch of Alaska’s southern coast. Communities from Sand Point to Unalaska quickly activated evacuation procedures, with residents moving to higher ground as a precautionary measure. The tsunami warning initially covered communities from 40 miles southwest of Homer to Unimak Pass, affecting major population centers including Kodiak (population 5,200), King Cove (870 residents), and Unalaska (4,100 residents). The U.S. Coast Guard evacuated personnel at its Kodiak base to higher ground as a precautionary measure. Fortunately, this Alaska earthquake generated only minimal water level changes and damage reports remained surprisingly minimal.

Blaze [7/17/2025 10:00 AM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1805K] reports President Donald Trump was struck by a would-be assassin’s bullet this time last year in an attack that injured two others and claimed the life of Corey Comperatore. The U.S. Secret Service has since been under intense scrutiny. Two reports released over the weekend highlighted the agency’s deadly failures in Butler — saying nothing of the agency’s other potential failures with regard to the alleged attempt on Trump’s life 64 days later at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. The first report, which was requested by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and released by the Government Accountability Office on Saturday, highlighted numerous USSS procedural and planning errors that helped set the stage for the July 13 shooting. The second report, released Sunday by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, described the events at the bloody Pennsylvania rally as a "cascade of preventable failures that nearly cost President Trump his life" and emphasized that the "consequences imposed for the failures so far do not reflect the severity of the situation.” Project Veritas provided a damning indication this week that the USSS has yet to learn its lesson and shape up. According to the investigative journalism outfit, an officer violated Secret Service protocol, possibly compromised White House security, and disparaged the president, all in an apparent attempt to woo a stranger he met on a dating site who turned out to be an undercover reporter. Blaze News has reached out to the White House, to the USSS, and to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. "Nothing is more important to the Secret Service than the safety and security of our protectees," Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement last week. "As director, I am committed to ensuring our agency is fully equipped, resourced, and aligned to carry out our important mission each and every day.”

Breitbart [7/17/2025 7:09 PM, Sen. Rand Paul, 3077K] reports the near-assassination of President Donald Trump was the result of numerous, completely preventable failures which nearly cost President Trump his life. There must be accountability for the United States Secret Service’s failure to protect the President and those attending the rally on July 13, 2024. It cost the life of a devoted husband and father in the audience. The American people have demanded answers, and the victims of that day deserve them. As Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the chief oversight committee of the United States Senate, I have thoroughly investigated the scandalous mistakes that were made before, during, and after the attempted assassination of President Trump, and I have released the findings of this investigation as our nation marks the one-year anniversary of that tragic day in Butler, Pennsylvania. If not for a tilt of his head, President Trump may not have survived the failures of those tasked with protecting him. This must be a wakeup call for our country’s top protective agency and how it safeguards our leaders. There will need to be substantial changes within the Secret Service in order to prevent a future tragedy. Congress must now demand accountability and reform, ensuring that the Secret Service corrects each and every mistake that my investigation has uncovered. To be clear, and what my investigation has confirmed, is that this was not a tactically superior threat outmaneuvering the Secret Service or a single lapse in judgment made in a matter of seconds. This was a systemic failure—a top-to-bottom breakdown that allowed a single gunman, deemed by law enforcement as suspicious, to roam free for nearly 45 minutes, eventually gaining access to a clear line-of-sight on President Trump. Beginning well before the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally, the Secret Service received intelligence on threats against President Trump, who was a protectee as a former president and presidential candidate. In 2022, websites affiliated with the Iranian government posted a video depicting an animated drone strike against President Trump while playing golf at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida. One day before the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally—July 12, 2024—the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a Pakistani man with ties to Iran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as he tried to leave the United States. According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) filing, he was arrested for his involvement in a murder-for-hire plot against American political officials. As threats against President Trump increased before the rally, his Secret Service detail made at least 10 requests to the Secret Service Headquarters for additional staff, more assets, and greater resources to protect President Trump as he campaigned, according to documents reviewed during my investigation. These requests were routinely denied or left unfulfilled. These documents also contradict testimony by the then-Director of the Secret Service, who in 2024 testified to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that no such requests had been denied.

Chicago Tribune [7/17/2025 1:59 PM, Meredith Colias-Pete, 3987K] reports that U.S. District Judge Gretchen Lund sentenced a Hammond man Thursday to five years in prison for a federal gun charge. Isaiah Castro, 23, pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a gun trafficking crime, Acting U.S. Attorney M. Scott Proctor said in a release. Court filings state Castro had a gun while he sold fentanyl pills on April 16, 2024. A search warrant turned up two weapons, ammunition and cash. A Griffith man was recently charged after allegedly downloading child porn from February to July. Brian C. Sadowski, 56, was charged July 11 with six counts of possession of child pornography. He is in custody, held on an $18,000 cash bond. His next court date is July 25 in a bid to reduce his bond. U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Skylar Veto wrote an investigation led to Sadowski’s IP address. Investigators wrote he downloaded over 9,000 files from a known child pornography website. "I know I made a mistake," Sadowski told agents, adding, "I know I looked at things I shouldn’t have looked at." U.S. District Judge Philip Simon sentenced a Chicago man Tuesday to 46 months in prison for his role in a fraud scheme. Damone Scott, 24, pleaded guilty to wire fraud. As part of his sentencing, he will repay $13,000 in restitution. Authorities allege Scott was the "ringleader" of a June-July 2023 scheme where the group deposited $192,000 and withdrew $13,000 in fake checks, Acting U.S. Attorney M. Scott Proctor said in a release. A Hobart man was charged July 10 with five counts of possession of child pornography. Indiana State Police arrested Jeffrey Laurinas, 75, of Hobart on July 12. He posted a $9,000 cash bond on July 14. His next court date is July 25.

VOZ [7/17/2025 6:45 AM, Williams Perdomo] reports the Coast Guard announced the seizure of 242,244 pounds of cocaine since the start of President Donald Trump’s administration on Jan. 20 through July 2025. This represents an increase of more than 100% over the cocaine seized during the Joe Biden Administration in the same period of 2024. The information was released by the Department of Homeland Security in a statement published on its official website. "Since just 1.2 grams of cocaine can be lethal, the Coast Guard has seized over 91 million potentially lethal doses—enough to kill the entire population of the states of California, Texas, and New York combined," the agency explained in the report. Similarly, the department detailed that this milestone comes after President Trump ordered an increase in Coast Guard resources at the country’s maritime border on his first day in office, tripling the number of forces along the U.S. southern border and maritime approaches. "The U.S. southern border is an interconnected system, and as illegal migration and smuggling become harder across the southwest land border, cartels may try different routes," said Coast Guard Acting Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday. "Our message to the cartels is this: We own the sea, not you. Using every capability at our disposal, the Coast Guard will prevent threats from reaching our borders," he added.

CyberScoop [7/17/2025 3:30 PM, Matt Kapko] reports United Natural Foods said the cyberattack that prompted the food distributor and wholesaler to completely shut down its network last month resulted in lost sales of up to $400 million. Executives, during a business update call Wednesday with analysts and investors, said the financial impact from the attack is largely contained to the current quarter, which ends in early August. The operational interruption caused by the cyberattack, which the company discovered June 5 and disclosed four days later, will result in a net income loss of up to $60 million. Executives did not mention a ransom demand or payment during the call. The attack on Whole Foods Market’s primary distributor was part of an ongoing attack spree linked to Scattered Spider, a financially motivated cybercrime collective that’s hit dozens of companies in the retail, insurance and aviation industries since it regrouped earlier this year. The orders United Natural Foods was unable to fill — resulting in empty store shelves and spoilage in the wake of the attack — shows the wide financial impact of cybercrime. The company operates 52 distribution centers that fulfill about 250,000 products from more than 11,000 suppliers to 30,000 customer locations in North America. “Because of the unique role UNFI plays in the food-supply chain, we recognize that this cyber incident impacted our customers and the industry we serve. We never want to be the reason that a local grocer is out of stock on a product that their shoppers count on,” CEO Sandy Douglas said during the call.

Reuters [7/18/2025 5:20 AM, Stephen Nellis, 51390K] reports a U.S. senator is asking the Pentagon for more information on Microsoft’s (MSFT.O), reported use of Chinese engineers in maintaining military cloud computing systems, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters. Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who chairs the chamber’s intelligence committee and also serves on its armed services committee, sent the letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after a report in investigative journalism publication ProPublica earlier this week. The report detailed Microsoft’s use of Chinese engineers, to work on U.S. military computing systems under the supervision of U.S. "digital escorts" hired through subcontractors who have security clearances but often lacked the technical skills to assess whether the work of the Chinese engineers posed a cybersecurity threat. Contacted by Reuters about both the ProPublica report and Cotton’s letter, Microsoft declined to comment. The company, which is a major contractor to the U.S. government and whose systems have been breached by both Chinese and Russian hackers, told ProPublica that it disclosed its practices to the U.S. government during an authorization process. The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cotton asked the U.S. military for a list of all contractors that use Chinese personnel and for more information on how U.S. "digital escorts" are trained to detect suspicious activity. "The U.S. government recognizes that China’s cyber capabilities pose one of the most aggressive and dangerous threats to the United States, as evidenced by infiltration of our critical infrastructure, telecommunications networks, and supply chains," Cotton wrote in the letter. The U.S. military "must guard against all potential threats within its supply chain, including those from subcontractors."

The Hill [7/17/2025 4:48 PM, Filip Timotija, 18649K] reports the U.S. government sanctioned the head of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, and its five other key leaders and affiliates Thursday, citing involvement in various criminal activities. The Treasury Department said Tren de Aragua is a threat to public safety throughout the Western world and is involved in the illicit drug trade, extortion, human smuggling and trafficking, money laundering, sexual exploitation of women and children, and other criminal conduct. "Today’s action highlights the critical role of leaders like Niño Guerrero and his lieutenants in Tren de Aragua’s efforts to increase its destabilizing influence throughout the region," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Thursday statement. "The Trump Administration will not allow Tren de Aragua to continue to terrorize our communities and harm innocent Americans," Bessent added. "In line with President Trump’s mandate to Make America Safe Again, Treasury remains dedicated to dismantling Tren de Aragua and disrupting the group’s campaign of violence." Apart from Guerrero Flores, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Yohan Jose Romero, Josue Angel Santana Peña, Wilmer José Perez Castillo, Guerrero Flores’s wife Wendy Marbelys Rios Gomez, and Felix Anner Castillo Rondon. Thursday’s sanctions will block all property and interests in property of the six people. Also, any entities owned directly or indirectly at a 50 percent rate or more will be blocked.

FOX News [7/17/2025 3:16 PM, Peter Pinedo, 46878K] Video HERE reports as suspected Maryland MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia stands trial in a high-profile criminal case, three more alleged MS-13 members in the state are being charged with racketeering conspiracy, including murder and drug trafficking. Commenting on the charges, acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti said the men’s actions "furthered MS-13’s reign of terror across communities in Maryland." The charges, filed against Salvadoran nationals living in Maryland – Maxwell Ariel Quijano-Casco, 24, Daniel Isaias Villanueva-Bautista, 19, and Hyattsville, Maryland man, Josue Mauricio Lainez, 21 – were announced in a Department of Justice statement on Wednesday. According to the statement, the three men allegedly killed a homeless man as part of their involvement with MS-13. The DOJ said the three allegedly killed the man on July 4, 2024, in a "retaliatory murder." Quijano-Casco and Villanueva-Bautista were arrested by Prince George’s County Police on Aug. 23, according to the DOJ. Quijano-Casco was found in possession of a semi-automatic handgun and about eight grams of cocaine at the time of his arrest. Both admitted that they were present for the altercation where the victim was murdered and Quijano-Casco allegedly admitted to police to stabbing the individual. The three are being charged with racketeering conspiracy, including the July 4, 2024, murder. If convicted, they face sentences of up to life in prison. Galeotti said, "Their actions furthered MS-13’s reign of terror across communities in Maryland." This comes as Abrego Garcia, 29, another Salvadoran national who was living in Maryland, faces charges of human smuggling and conspiracy. According to the indictment, Abrego Garcia played a "significant role" in a human smuggling ring operating for nearly a decade. Attorney General Pam Bondi described him as a full-time smuggler who made more than 100 trips, transporting women, children and MS-13 gang-affiliated persons throughout the U.S. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [7/17/2025 3:23 PM, Ayden Runnels, 56000K] reports a Texas state appeals court judge on Wednesday ordered Uvalde County and its school district to release records and documents related to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting, affirming a previous trial court order. A coalition of 18 news organizations, including The Texas Tribune, sued the City of Uvalde, Uvalde County and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District in 2022 for access to body camera footage, 911 call records and communications made during the school shooting. Law enforcements’ response to Texas’ deadliest school shooting, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed, has been scrutinized extensively for failures in communication that delayed response time while the shooter was still in two classrooms with children. Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell had opposed providing the records, pointing to criminal proceedings against former Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo that she said could be hampered by the documents’ release. But Judge Velia Meza with Texas’ Fourth Court of Appeals wrote in the opinion for the case that the criminal proceedings and a separate lawsuit were not enough reasons to withhold the records. "In response, these entities offered only minimal justification — citing a grand jury investigation and a civil lawsuit — without providing legal or evidentiary support for withholding the information," Meza wrote. Arredondo is facing several felony charges of child endangerment, with a trial date set for October.

Univision [7/17/2025 6:37 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) confirmed on July 15 the extradition to the United States of Héctor Manuel Avendaño Ojeda, alias "El Meño," an alleged Sinaloa Cartel logistics operator and close associate of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who was wanted by a District of Columbia court. "El Meño," arrested in 2016, is accused of coordinating the entry of cocaine shipments into international waters from Colombia to Mexico’s Pacific coast. His surrender to US authorities culminates nearly a decade of litigation in Mexico to stop his extradition. "Manuel ‘A’, along with his brother, was part of a criminal network that received cocaine shipments through Colombian intermediaries," reported the Attorney General’s Office. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified Hector Manuel and his brothers Martin Guadencio and Sergio Avendaño Ojeda as key operators in a criminal cell under the orders of "Mayo" Zambada. In 2011, all three were placed on the Kingpin List, which freezes assets and prohibits financial transactions in the US. The Avendaño Ojedas ran drug trafficking routes from South America to the United States, as well as being involved in money laundering operations. Businesses such as "Autos Mini" in Ensenada and the "Autódromo Culiacán" continue to be subject to economic sanctions for their alleged relationship with this criminal network, according to the indictments. Héctor Manuel Avendaño was captured in June 2016 in Culiacán by members of the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC). Since then, he filed injunctions and judicial appeals that delayed his surrender for almost nine years. Between 2018 and 2020, the case advanced through various judicial instances, in parallel with increasing pressure from the Donald Trump administration to extradite the main operators of the Sinaloa Cartel. Finally, on July 15, 2025, Mexico authorized his extradition and he was handed over to U.S. federal agents, who transferred him to Washington D.C., where he will face charges for conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and criminal association with international criminal structure.

Univision [7/17/2025 4:43 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports President Donald Trump signed a law that permanently strengthens and makes mandatory minimum penalties for fentanyl trafficking in the United States, at a ceremony at the White House where he was accompanied by legislators and relatives of victims of people who died of overdoses. At Wednesday’s event, Trump emphasized that this law gives a fair blow to traffickers and criminal cartels, and reiterated his position that the cartels have very strong control over Mexico. His statements included strong criticism of the Mexican authorities, whom he accused of being "petrified" in the face of the influence of organized crime. In response, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, stressed that her government has implemented firm actions against drug trafficking and fentanyl trafficking. The president said that several of the measures announced by the United States in its new law already exist in Mexican law. Trump-led legislation, known as the HALT Fentanyl Act, makes mandatory minimum sentences of five years in prison for trafficking at least 10 grams of fentanyl and ten years for trafficking 100 grams of grams permanent.

The Hill [7/17/2025 6:49 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K] reports Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum addressed the defamation lawsuit against El Chapo’s American lawyer on Tuesday, rejecting his allegations of corruption in her administration. New York attorney Jeffrey Lichtman previously defended three of the cartel leader’s sons and said they could detail the government’s misconduct under her leadership. "Moral and political authority is required to govern Mexico, and to be worthy of our people. So, the certainty of that authority — my history speaks for me," Sheinbaum told reporters on July 15 in response to his claims, according to USA Today. Lichtman told the outlet her "lawsuit has no teeth" and knocked it as a "cheap effort to score political points" in a separate post on social media. "After the plea, I spoke up about what I considered to be absurd remarks made by the president of Mexico about not only my client but the American government for even negotiating a plea deal with him. My response triggered a hastily convened press conference by the Mexican president in which she denied none of my words but claimed I was disrespectful to her office," he added in the statement.

Reuters [7/18/2025 12:07 AM, Kanishka Singh and Bhargav Acharya, 51390K] reports the U.S. government designated The Resistance Front, considered an offshoot of the Pakistani extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, as a "foreign terrorist organization" over the April 22 Islamist militant attack in India-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday. The Resistance Front, also known as Kashmir Resistance, initially took responsibility for the attack in Pahalgam before denying it days later. Lashkar-e-Taiba, listed as a "foreign terrorist organization" by the United States, is an Islamist group accused of plotting attacks in India and in the West, including the three-day deadly assault on Mumbai in November 2008. TRF’s designation by Washington as a "foreign terrorist organization" and "specially designated global terrorist" enforced President Donald Trump’s "call for justice for the Pahalgam attack," Rubio said in a statement. Rubio called TRF, which emerged in 2019, a "front and proxy" for Lashkar-e-Taiba. It is considered an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a Delhi-based think tank. India said it appreciated the move, with Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar calling it a "strong affirmation of India-US counter terrorism co-operation," in a post on X. The April attack sparked heavy fighting between nuclear-armed Asian neighbors India and Pakistan in the latest escalation of a decades-old rivalry. New Delhi blamed the attack on Pakistan, which denied responsibility while calling for a neutral investigation. Washington condemned the attack but did not directly blame Islamabad. Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based South Asia analyst and writer for Foreign Policy magazine, said in designating TRF, "Washington is flagging its concern about the terrorist attack that provoked the recent India-Pakistan conflict, and siding with New Delhi’s view that the group is linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba." He added: "This can be a shot in the arm for a U.S.-India relationship looking to rebound after a few tough months."

Reuters [7/17/2025 6:34 PM, Daniel Wiessner, 51390K] reports judges on a U.S. appeals court on Thursday said they likely lacked the power to second-guess President Donald Trump’s decision to strip hundreds of thousands of federal employees of the ability to unionize and collectively bargain. A three-judge 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in San Francisco heard arguments on whether to pause pending an appeal of a judge’s ruling that temporarily blocked 21 agencies from implementing an executive order, that said many union contracts could interfere with national security. The panel last week granted a brief administrative stay of the ruling by U.S. District Judge James Donato pending its decision. Trump’s executive order exempted agencies that he said primarily have "intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security" functions from collective bargaining obligations, including the entire U.S. Department of Justice, Treasury Department and Department of Veterans Affairs and many offices within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Interior Department and the Energy Department. The order significantly expanded an existing exception for workers with duties implicating national security, such as certain employees of the CIA and FBI. Circuit Judges Bridget Bade and Daniel Bress, who are Trump appointees, both said that federal law appeared to give the president essentially unreviewable power to bar union bargaining in the name of national security.

AP [7/17/2025 9:37 PM, Matthew Daly, 4120K] reports President Donald Trump is granting two years of regulatory relief to coal-fired power plants, chemical manufacturers and other polluting industries as he seeks to reverse Biden-era regulations he considers overly burdensome. Trump issued a series of proclamations late Thursday exempting a range of industries that he calls vital to national security. The proclamations cover coal-fired power plants, taconite iron ore processing facilities used to make steel, and chemical manufacturers that help produce semiconductors and medical device sterilizers. The proclamations allow the facilities to comply with Environmental Protection Agency standards that were in place before rules imposed in recent years by President Joe Biden’s administration, the White House said. Trump called the Biden-era rules expensive and, in some cases, unattainable. His actions will ensure that "critical industries can continue to operate uninterrupted to support national security without incurring substantial costs,’’ the White House said in a fact sheet. Trump’s EPA had earlier exempted dozens of coal-fired plants from air-pollution rules for the same reasons. The EPA also offered other industrial polluters a chance for exemptions from requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene. An electronic mailbox set up by the EPA allowed regulated companies to request a presidential exemption under the Clean Air Act to a host of Biden-era rules. Environmental groups denounced the offer to grant exemptions, calling the new email address a "polluters’ portal" that could allow hundreds of companies to evade laws meant to protect the environment and public health. Mercury exposure can cause brain damage, especially in children. Fetuses are vulnerable to birth defects via exposure in a mother’s womb.

AP [7/17/2025 5:16 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday President Donald Trump will not recommend a special counsel in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, even as the administration maintains it has been fully “transparent” in its handling of the matter. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [7/17/2025 3:24 PM, Kaelan Deese, 1934K] reports the House Oversight Committee on Thursday expanded its investigation into former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and the use of an autopen to authorize high-level executive actions, adding four more transcribed interviews with senior Biden aides to its schedule this fall. The committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), has scheduled interviews with Ian Sams, Andrew Bates, Karine Jean-Pierre, and Jeff Zients, according to a committee aide. All four officials held top White House posts during the final months of the Biden presidency and were involved in either communications or policy implementation tied to clemency and other executive actions. Sams, formerly a special assistant to the president and senior adviser in the White House Counsel’s Office, is set to appear on Aug. 21. Bates, who served as deputy assistant to Biden and senior deputy press secretary, will be interviewed on Sept. 5. Jean-Pierre, Biden’s former press secretary, is scheduled for Sept. 12, followed by Zients, Biden’s final chief of staff, on Sept. 18.

New York Post [7/17/2025 8:04 AM, Caitlin Doornbos and Ronny Reyes, 49956K] reports President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, are considering a "mega deal" that would see the US buy battlefield-tested Ukrainian drones in exchange for Kyiv agreeing to buy a swath of weapons from America, the Ukrainian leader said. Speaking exclusively with The Post on Wednesday, Zelensky revealed that his latest talks with Trump focused on a breakthrough deal that would see the US and Ukraine prop up each other’s aerial technology — with Kyiv offering to share everything it’s learned about modern warfare in the three-year conflict with Russia. The deal could be transformative for the US military and national security, with officials and drone experts warning that America’s technology lags far behind Russia and China, and American soldiers are ill-equipped to use the UAVs or defend against the types of devices being produced by adversaries. "The people of America need this technology, and you need to have it in your arsenal," Zelensky told The Post of Ukraine’s latest drones, which have been able to penetrate Russia’s defenses to take out heavy bombers and strike as deep as 800 miles over the border. "I think this is really a mega deal, a win-win, as they say," he added.

NPR [7/18/2025 5:00 AM, Claudia Grisales, 37958K] Audio HERE reports it’s not often these days on Capitol Hill that Democrats are lining up to co-sponsor bills with Republicans. But lawmakers say the stakes with Russia go well beyond partisan disputes. Now, a broad coalition of members have joined forces to slap the country with aggressive sanctions and believe the souring relationship between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has created a new opening. "We need to push forward with our bill," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on his way to Senate votes recently. "Our bill already has been instrumental in shifting attitudes in the White House." A bipartisan group of more than 160 members of Congress has signed onto the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025 in a bid to force Russia to the negotiating table for peace talks or relegate it as a trading island, further isolating the country from the world. The timing also coincides with new coordination between the U.S. and NATO to increase military aid to Ukraine. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

CBS News [7/17/2025 10:03 PM, James LaPorta, 51860K] reports Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was injured during one of Israel’s attacks on Iran last month, two U.S. intelligence sources have confirmed to CBS News. The sources told CBS News that reports in Iranian state-run media are accurate that Pezeshkian was attending a Supreme National Security Council meeting when the Israeli strike happened. The state media report said he sustained leg injuries while escaping through an emergency shaft. It remains unclear if he was intentionally targeted. During an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Pezeshkian claimed Israel attempted to assassinate him by bombarding an area in which he was participating in a meeting. Asked whether he believed Israel had tried to kill him, Pezeshkian responded, "They did try, yes. And they acted accordingly, but they failed.” "It was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. I was in a meeting. We were discussing the ways to move forward. But thanks to the intelligence by the spies that they had, they tried to bombard the area…in which we were holding that meeting," he said in the interview, which was translated from Farsi. Pereshkian did not specify the exact date of the strike. The White House has not commented on the report, and neither has the Israeli government. An Iranian government official declined to comment. The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran killed hundreds in Iran and 28 in Israel. Both Israel and Iran claimed victory after a ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration. Some of Iran’s commanders were killed in the conflict, including the chief of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, and the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh. The U.S. also conducted airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities during the conflict.

Reuters [7/17/2025 3:37 PM, Staff, 51390K] reports a Russian crew member of a Greek cargo ship sunk by Houthi militants is undergoing treatment in Yemen, Russia’s state RIA news agency said on Thursday, quoting a source. RIA identified the Russian mariner as Aleksei Galaktionov, one of several crew members picked up by the Yemeni navy after the ship was sunk. It quoted a highly placed source as saying the man, who had suffered wounds in the attack, was now in a markedly improved condition. Maritime security sources had earlier reported that 10 mariners -- eight crew members and two security guards - had been rescued and taken to Saudi Arabia. The sources said all the crew were Filipino, except for one Russian. The sources said the Iran-aligned Houthis had sunk the Liberia-flagged Eternity C, with 22 crew and three armed guards on board, after attacking the vessel with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades over two consecutive days. The remaining 15 people who were on board were considered missing and a privately run search to find them has been called off.

Breitbart [7/17/2025 6:14 PM, John Hayward, 3077K] reports Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared his country’s support for the "national sovereignty and dignity" of Iran after meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday. The foreign ministers from the two authoritarian regimes met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin. The SCO is technically a regional security block for Central and Southeast Asia, but it has increasingly served as the front lobby for the Chinese-Russian axis of influence. Wang promised Araghchi that China would "continue to support Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty and dignity, resisting power politics and bullying, defending its legitimate rights and interests through political negotiation, and adhering to the principle of good-neighborliness and friendship to continuously improve and develop relations with its neighboring countries." Iran, the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism and a constant destabilizing force in the Middle East, is no one’s idea of a "good neighbor." Wang poured on the flattery because China sees an opportunity to build ties with the Islamic Republic after its military was humiliated by Israel and the United States in the 12-Day War.

Reuters [7/18/2025 12:47 AM, Lewis Jackson, 51390K] reports China’s Ministry of State Security on Friday said foreign spy agencies had tried to "steal" rare earths and pledged to crack down on infiltration and espionage targeted at its critical mineral sector. Foreign intelligence agencies and their agents had colluded with "domestic lawbreakers" to steal rare earth-related items from China, posing a serious threat to China’s national security, the spy agency said in a statement on its WeChat account without naming any specific country. The ministry said it had detected attempts by an unnamed country to bypass export restrictions by forging labels, falsifying cargo manifests and transshipping cargoes, where products are routed through third countries before going to their final destination. Reuters reported exclusively this month that unusually large quantities of antimony - a metal used in batteries, chips and flame retardants - appeared to have been transshipped into the United States via Thailand and Mexico after China banned U.S. exports. China added several rare earths and related magnets to its export restriction list in early April in retaliation for U.S. tariffs. The decision rattled global supply chains key to electric vehicles, robots and defence, forcing some automakers outside China to partially suspend production due to shortages. However, China’s rare earths exports rose 32% in June from the month before in a potential sign that agreements reached last month between Washington and Beijing to free up the flow of the metals are bearing fruit. Nvidia’s (NVDA.O) planned resumption of sales of its H20 AI chips to China was part of the rare earth negotiations.

New York Post [7/17/2025 11:22 AM, Taylor Herzlich, 49956K] reports that China has threatened to block a deal for dozens of global ports – including two near the Panama canal – if its own shipping giant doesn’t get a sizable stake, according to a report Thursday. The deal, valued at around $20 billion, hands over more than 40 global ports owned by Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-Shing to US asset manager BlackRock and Mediterranean Shipping Company. China is demanding that Cosco, its largest shipping firm, be an equal partner to BlackRock and MSC in the deal, sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. BlackRock, MSC and Li’s firm, CK Hutchison, are all open to that idea, sources said. MSC, Cosco and the Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment. BlackRock declined to comment. The firms are currently staring down a July 27 deadline, when exclusive talks between the three partners will end and Cosco can be added to the deal. But that change will likely anger President Trump, who has viewed the deal as a national security win as he argues that the US needs to "take back" the waterway. Chinese officials, meanwhile, have told Chinese state-owned companies to freeze any incoming deals with Hutchison or other businesses linked to Li, sources told the Journal. The inclusion of Cosco emerged as a way to nudge the deal forward following intense US-China trade talks in Switzerland, Bloomberg reported last month.

Reuters [7/18/2025 3:05 AM, Staff, 51390K] reports Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr will visit the United States next week with a clear message to President Donald Trump that the Philippines must become economically stronger if it is to serve as a truly robust partner, an official said on Friday. The visit, the first by an ASEAN head of state since Trump took office in January, will focus on economic cooperation, with Marcos expected to discuss concerns over proposed U.S. tariffs on Philippine exports. "The President’s official visit also aims to address the U.S. tariff proposed to be levied on Philippine exports," Department of Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Raquel Solano told a media briefing. Trump raised reciprocal tariffs on Philippine exports to 20% this month from the 17% threatened in April. Talks between Philippine trade officials and their U.S. counterparts are ongoing in Washington to hopefully seal a reciprocal deal that is "mutually acceptable and mutually beneficial" for both countries, Solano said. During the visit, the two leaders will also discuss closer cooperation in defence and security matters, including issues in the South China Sea where Manila and Beijing have had a series of maritime confrontations. Relations between Manila and Beijing have soured under Marcos, who has pivoted closer to the United States, granting it expanded access to Philippine military bases as both countries aim to counter what they have described as China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and towards Taiwan. "The purpose of this visit is to further strengthen the Philippines-United States Alliance, to proactively engage the U.S. in all aspects of the relations and seize opportunities for greater security and economic cooperation," Solano said. The United States and the Philippines have a seven-decade old mutual defence treaty and hold dozens of annual exercises, which have included training with U.S. Typhon missile system, and more recently with the NMESIS anti-ship missile system, angering China. Marcos will also meet separately with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as U.S. business leaders who are investing in the Philippines.

{End of Report} RETURN TO TOP