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

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

The New York Times [7/21/2025 3:15 AM, Ana Ley, 330K] reports an off-duty customs officer was shot in the face and arm during a robbery attempt at a park in Manhattan late Saturday night, police officials said. The officer, 42, was sitting with a friend on rocks at the water’s edge along the Hudson River in Upper Manhattan just before midnight when two men rode up on a scooter, Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. When one of the men approached the officer and revealed a firearm, the officer realized he was being robbed and drew his service weapon, Commissioner Tisch said. The robber fired his weapon first, and the two men exchanged gunfire, she said. The robber was also shot and limped back to the scooter, and he fled the scene with his companion, Commissioner Tisch said, adding that the attack was captured by security cameras. The commissioner said there was no indication that the officer, whom the police have not named, had been targeted for his employment. He is expected to recover from his injuries. The police have detained Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, 21, as a person of interest in relation to the shooting, Commissioner Tisch said. Mr. Mora walked into a hospital in the Bronx shortly after the attempted robbery with gunshot wounds to the groin and the leg, she said, which were consistent with the injuries sustained by the man who shot the officer as captured on video. Mr. Mora underwent surgery and is in custody at Lincoln Hospital, and he is expected to be arrested on Sunday, Commissioner Tisch said. The police are looking for his accomplice in the shooting, who has not been identified. Officials said that Mr. Mora entered the United States illegally in 2023 through Arizona. He was arrested twice previously on domestic violence charges in New York, and officials had issued an arrest warrant after he failed to show up to a court date in one of those cases, Commissioner Tisch said on Sunday. Mr. Mora is also wanted in connection with a robbery in December and a stabbing in January, both of which occurred in the Bronx, as well as a pawnshop robbery in Massachusetts in February in which guns were stolen, the commissioner said. At the news conference on Sunday, Mayor Eric Adams lamented a “proliferation of guns” in the city as well as the problem of “violent migrants and asylum seekers” and said that the shooting reflected badly on migrants who have not committed any violent crimes. “We have to be quick and swift to deal with those who believe they’re going to inflict violence, not only on documented New Yorkers, but they are known to commit violence on undocumented New Yorkers,” Mr. Adams said. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, wrote on social media that Mr. Mora was from the Dominican Republic and that he had been released from custody after being apprehended in Arizona near the Mexico border in April 2023. President Trump denounced the shooting on the Truth Social platform, calling Mr. Mora a “monster freed into the country under Joe Biden” and blaming Democrats, who he said “have flooded our nation with Criminal Invaders” who are “evil and dangerous.” Francis J. Russo, the director of field operations for Customs and Border Protection’s New York field office, praised the off-duty officer at the news conference. “He did exactly what we ask of all of our officers under the circumstances,” Mr. Russo said. “He executed our mission, which is to protect the country, and he did it by stopping a threat.” The AP [7/20/2025 8:52 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports that the 42-year-old officer was in stable condition Sunday and expected to survive. There was no indication that the was targeted because of his employment, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The office, who was not in uniform, had been sitting with a woman in a park beneath the George Washington Bridge when two men approached on a moped just before midnight. In a social media post Sunday afternoon, President Donald Trump seized on the shooting as evidence of Democrats’ failures to secure the border. “The CBP Officer bravely fought off his attacker, despite his wounds, demonstrating enormous Skill and Courage,” Trump added. On Sunday, the acting director of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, said he would allow agents to continue covering their faces as a safety measure. “If that’s a tool that the men and women of ICE that keeps themselves and their families safe, then I will allow it,” Lyons said. The Daily Caller [7/20/2025 3:59 PM, Harold Hutchison, 1010K] reports Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said one suspect had re-entered the United States illegally. "The first subject, is an illegal re-entry and has a warrant from Massachusetts for kidnapping," McLaughlin posted Sunday. "On the evening of July 19, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection @CBP officer was shot in what looks like an attempted robbery. The officer, who was off duty at the time, is currently in the hospital in stable condition," DHS said. "One of the alleged perpetrators was an illegal alien with prior arrests for felony 2nd and 3rd degree assault and an order of deportation. The New York Police Department is currently investigating the incident.” McLaughlin told the Daily Caller News Foundation Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem will hold a press conference in New York City about the incident at 9 a.m. Monday. FOX News [7/20/2025 4:04 PM, Bill Melugin and Andrea Margolis, 46878K] Video: HERE DHS also told Fox News that Nunez has an active warrant for kidnapping in the state of Massachusetts, in addition to prior felony arrests. During a press conference on Sunday, New York Mayor Eric Adams said that Nunez was in custody. "This 21-year-old male has prior arrests for assault and violating an order protection," Adams said. "At the time of this shooting, he had an active bench warrant from the Bronx, was wanted for a robbery from last December, and [a] stabbing from January.” "He has inflicted violence in our city and once he is charged for last night’s crimes, we will be able to add attempted murder to his rap sheet," the mayor added.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [7/20/2025 7:23 PM, David Propper, 49956K]
The Hill [7/20/2025 2:41 PM, Emily Rahhal and Julie Millet, 18649K]
ABC News [7/20/2025 7:13 PM, Staff, 31733K]
NBC News [7/20/2025 8:11 PM, Rebecca Cohen and Jonathan Dienst, 44540K]
FOX News [7/20/2025 6:57 PM, Andrea Margolis, 46878K]
Washington Examiner [7/20/2025 2:52 PM, Annabella Rosciglione, 1934K]
Daily Wire [7/20/2025 10:05 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 3816K]

Breitbart [7/20/2025 4:51 PM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports an illegal alien released by the Biden administration allegedly shot an off-duty Border Patrol agent in the face during an attempted robbery in New York City. Despite being shot twice, the agent managed to return fire, wounding the suspect as he fled on a moped. A video released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shows two men riding a moped into a park along the Hudson River in New York. One of the men gets off the moped and approaches the off-duty Border Patrol agent who was sitting on a rock near the riverbank. As the man approaches the agent, he appears to pull a weapon and begin shooting at the agent. The agent moves for cover and begins firing back. The exchange of gunfire lasts about 25 seconds as the agent raised up twice and returned fire. He continued to move for cover as he fired. Eventually, the alleged robber gets up and gets on the moped. He appears to be wounded as he attempts to flee. The moped then drives away. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem identified the suspected robber as Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez is a national and citizen of the Dominican Republic. She said the suspect illegally re-entered the U.S. in April 2023 and was apprehended by Border Patrol agents near San Luis, Arizona. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Southwest Land Border Encounters Report shows that the Dominican national was one of nearly 212,000 illegal aliens who entered the U.S. along the southern border that month. Due to overcrowding in detention facilities, Biden-era catch-and-release policies dictated that agents release the man into the U.S. interior. Secretary Noem reported that Mora Nunez has a criminal warrant out of Massachusetts for kidnapping. His record includes several other crimes committed during his short stay in the United States. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin reported that the man received a final order of removal in 2003. That made his illegal re-entry in 2023 a felony. She reported that his prior arrests include felony 2nd and 3rd degree assaults. Despite this, Biden-era policies dictated that the man be released from custody. President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the Border Patrol agent "bravely fought off his attacker, despite his wounds, demonstrating enormous Skill and Courage." He described the shooter as a "Monster freed into the Country under Joe Biden.” The New York Post reported that the agent sustained two gunshot wounds to his face and forearm during the exchange. The agent survived his surgery and is in stable condition, according to DHS officials. At the time of his arrest for the shooting, he was wanted on kidnapping and weapons charges out of Massachusetts, sources said.

Breitbart [7/20/2025 3:02 PM, Amy Furr, 3077K] reports a man in Cincinnati, Ohio, is accused of making violent threats against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and a federal official online. The suspect is identified as Anthony Kelly, whom federal authorities recently took into custody, Fox News reported Saturday. In a social media post, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin shared screenshots of posts Kelly allegedly made. In one, it appears he wrote, "Thanks for giving We The People permission to shoot your #Gestapedos #TomHoman.” In another post, he appeared to threaten DHS Secretary Kristi Noem: "Anthony Kelly out of Cincinnati, OH has been taken into federal custody for making terroristic threats against ICE agents. Kelly will face federal charges for threatening to assault, kidnap, and murder a United States official," McLaughlin’s post read. "During the search, HSI Cincinnati recovered one firearm and ammunition from his residence. Thank you to our law enforcement. These threats will not be tolerated. You will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," she added. The news comes not long after DHS reported a San Antonio City Council candidate was calling for the shooting of ICE agents in Los Angeles California, per Breitbart News, noting the man is a self-described Democrat political consultant. In addition, a man from Jamestown, New York, was recently charged with threatening to kill an ICE agent and his children, according to Breitbart News: Following an investigation, federal prosecutors arrested and charged 43-year-old Matthew White of Jamestown with communicating interstate threats after he allegedly threatened ICE agents with murder on several occasions in social media posts. "The defendant stands accused of making vile threats against officers and agents who risk their lives every day to uphold an oath they swore to protect the public — even those who wish them harm. There is no place in our community for such hate against any human beings, including and especially innocent children," ICE’s Erin Keegan said in a statement.

AP [7/20/2025 8:38 PM, Martha Bellisle, Cedar Attanasio and Colleen Slevin, 56000K] reports after a Seattle immigration judge dismissed the deportation case against a Colombian man — exposing him to expedited removal — three people sat with him in the back of the courtroom, taking his car keys for safekeeping, helping him memorize phone numbers and gathering the names of family members who needed to be notified. When Judge Brett Parchert asked why they were doing that in court, the volunteers said Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers were outside the door, waiting to take the man into custody, so this was their only chance to help him get his things in order. "ICE is in the waiting room?" the judge asked. As President Trump’s mass deportation campaign focuses on cities and states led by Democrats and unleashes fear among asylum seekers and immigrants, their legal defenders sued last week, seeking class-action protections against the arrests outside immigration court hearings. Meanwhile, these volunteers are taking action. A diverse group — faith leaders, college students, grandmothers, retired lawyers and professors — has been showing up at immigration courts across the nation to escort immigrants at risk of being detained for deportation by masked ICE officials. They’re giving families moral and logistical support, and bearing witness as the people are taken away. The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project was inundated by so many community members wanting to help that they made a volunteer training video, created "Know Your Rights" sheets in several languages and started a Google sheet where people sign up for shifts, said Stephanie Gai, a staff attorney with the Seattle-based legal services nonprofit. "We could not do it without them," Gai said. "Some volunteers request time off work so they can come in and help.” Robby Rohr, a retired nonprofit director, said she volunteers regularly. "Being here makes people feel they are remembered and recognized," she said. "It’s such a bureaucratic and confusing process. We try to help them through it.” Volunteers and legal aid groups have long provided free legal orientation in immigration court, but the arrests have posed new challenges. Since May, the government has been asking judges to dismiss deportation cases. Once the judge agrees, ICE officials arrest them in the hallways and put them in fast-track deportation proceedings, no matter which legal immigration pathway they may have been pursuing. Once in custody, it’s often harder to find or afford a lawyer. Immigration judges are executive branch employees, and while some have resisted Homeland Security lawyers’ dismissal orders in some cases, many are granted. Masked ICE agents grabbed the Colombian man and led him into the hallway. A volunteer took his backpack to give to his family as he was taken away. Other cases on the day’s docket involved immigrants who didn’t show up. Parchert granted "removal in absentia" orders, enabling ICE to arrest them later. When asked about these arrests and the volunteers at immigration courts, a senior spokesperson with the Department of Homeland Security said ICE is once again implementing the rule of law by reversing "Biden’s catch-and-release policy that allowed millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be let loose on American streets.” Some volunteers have recorded arrests in courtroom hallways, traumatic scenes that are proliferating online. How many similar scenes are happening nationwide remains unclear. The Executive Office for Immigration Review has not released numbers of cases dismissed or arrests made at or near immigration courts.

Telemundo51 [7/20/2025 3:35 PM, Staff, 177K] reports civil groups denounced the unhealthy nature of the "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention centre and reported at least six people hospitalized due to the rugged conditions offered by the Everglades wetland surrounding the tents that house hundreds of immigrants. The Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) said the camp, inaugurated on July 1 by President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, is home to "more than 1,000 men in tents vulnerable to flooding." "The internment camp is an atrocity in our community," Tessa Petit, a FLIC director, said in a statement. He added that the concept is "morally repugnant because it mimics concentration camps" and the conditions in which detainees are kept "generate serious medical concerns." He detailed that bathing and sink systems, if not cleaned properly, can cause serious environmental pollution and warned about the lack of temperature control within "cages." "Prolonged exposure to heat not only facilitates the spread of germs and viruses, but can cause serious health problems, including cardiac arrest." Fresco Steez, a spokeswoman for Dream Defenders, denounced the center at the heart of an endangered ecosystem and urged Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava to close it. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis denied that migrants detained in ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ were exposed to such conditions and said inmates had been given the opportunity to self-deport "with all expenses paid" before entering the center. On criticism of the quality of food that migrants receive, DeSantis also denied that it was in poor condition, and said that "it is the same food that the center workers receive." Finally, he indicated that for the Administration it would be preferable for prisoners to be deported, noting that it is "cheaper to have to go through the current process."

The AP [7/20/2025 6:19 PM, Gabriela Molina, 56000K] reports Ecuador on Sunday extradited to the United States the leader of a violent Ecuadorian gang who relied on hitmen, bribes and military weapons to do business. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is "Fito," escaped from a prison in Ecuador last year and was recaptured late June. In April, a U.S. Attorney indicted him in New York City on charges he imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States. Macías "was removed from the La Roca Detention Center under the custody of the National Police and Armed Forces for the appropriate proceedings in the context of an extradition process," Ecuador’s government agency responsible for overseeing prisons, SNAI, said in a message sent to journalists. Details of the handover were not specified. A photograph released by SNAI showed Macías wearing a T-shirt, shorts, a bulletproof vest and helmet. Several police officers were guarding him at an undisclosed location. The Ecuadorian will appear Monday before Brooklyn’s federal court "where he will plead not guilty," Macías’ lawyer Alexei Schacht told The Associated Press via email. After that, he will be detained in a prison yet to be determined, Schacht added. The extradition decision came after the United States sent a document to Ecuador offering guarantees for the respect of the rights of the 45-year-old criminal leader. Since 2020, Macías has led "Los Choneros," a criminal organization that emerged in the 1990s. The gang employed people to buy firearms and ammunition in the United States and smuggle them into Ecuador, according to April’s indictment. Cocaine would flow into the United States with the help of Mexican cartels. Together, the groups controlled key cocaine trafficking routes through Ecuador, violently targeting law enforcement, politicians, lawyers and civilians who stood in the way. Telemundo Washington DC [7/20/2025 8:16 PM, Staff, 56K] reports that in the United States, ‘Fito’, the head of the Los Choneros criminal gang, was indicted last February on seven charges, including conspiracy to distribute cocaine internationally, use of firearms, and smuggling firearms from the US. According to the indictment, Los Choneros, in alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel, operated a large-scale network "responsible for the shipment and distribution of tons of cocaine from South America through Central America and Mexico to the United States and elsewhere. In February 2024, the US government had already imposed sanctions against Los Choneros and ‘Fito’, so that all properties and interests of the accused on US soil or in the possession or control of US citizens would be blocked. Fito became the first Ecuadorian to be extradited after last year’s referendum eliminated the prohibition on accepting extraditions that existed in the current constitution. Fito, the leader of the oldest and one of the largest criminal gangs operating in Ecuador, was sent to the United States on a Justice Department plane, three days after the National Court of Justice (CNJ) accepted the extradition request presented by the US authorities. Under heavy security measures, the plane departed from the Guayaquil airport (southwest) at around 2:00 p.m. (19:15 GMT), the Ecuadorian government confirmed. The criminal leader had accepted last Friday, in a court hearing, to be sent to the United States because of the risk of being the target of a possible attack by criminal gangs inside La Roca, Ecuador’s maximum security prison, where he had been held since he was recaptured by Ecuadorian authorities on June 25. Fito, who had become a key target for the government of President Daniel Noboa in the "war" he launched in early 2024 against organized crime, was trapped in a bunker built under a house on the outskirts of Manta, the birthplace and stronghold of Los Choneros. His new capture came after a year and a half on the run, following his escape at the end of 2023 from the Guayaquil Regional Prison, where he was serving a 34-year sentence imposed in 2011 for various crimes including drug trafficking, murder and organized crime.

Washington Post [7/21/2025 5:02 AM, Justin Jouvenal, 32099K] reports President Donald Trump and his appointees have been accused of flouting courts in a third of the more than 160 lawsuits against the administration in which a judge has issued a substantive ruling, a Washington Post analysis has found, suggesting widespread noncompliance with America’s legal system. Plaintiffs say Justice Department lawyers and the agencies they represent are snubbing rulings, providing false information, failing to turn over evidence, quietly working around court orders and inventing pretexts to carry out actions that have been blocked. Judges appointed by presidents of both parties have often agreed. None have taken punitive action to try to force compliance, however, allowing the administration’s defiance of orders to go on for weeks or even months in some instances. Outside legal analysts say courts typically are slow to begin contempt proceedings for noncompliance, especially while their rulings are under appeal. Judges also are likely to be concerned, analysts say, that the U.S. Marshals Service — whose director is appointed by the president — might not serve subpoenas or take recalcitrant government officials into custody if ordered to by the courts. The allegations against the administration are crystallized in a whistleblower complaint filed to Congress late last month that accused Justice officials of ignoring court orders in immigration cases, presenting legal arguments with no basis in the law and misrepresenting facts. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor also chided the administration, writing that Trump officials had “openly flouted” a judge’s order not to deport migrants to a country where they did not have citizenship. The Post examined 337 lawsuits filed against the administration since Trump returned to the White House and began a rapid-fire effort to reshape government programs and policy. As of mid-July, courts had ruled against the administration in 165 of the lawsuits. The Post found that the administration is accused of defying or frustrating court oversight in 57 of those cases — almost 35 percent.

Los Angeles Times [7/20/2025 10:06 AM, Taryn Luna, 14672K] reports in a common insult the Trump administration uses against dissidents of federal policy, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called a California judge a "communist" after she blocked roving immigration arrests based on race alone. The MAGA-embraced epithet from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s official press office in response, however, was hardly typical for a Democratic politician. "This fascist cuck in DC continues his assault on democracy and the Constitution, and his attempt to replace the sovereignty of the people with autocracy," the California governor’s office posted on social media. "Sorry the Constitution hurt your feelings, Stephen. Cry harder.” Popular among the far right and the gutters of social media, the term is used to insult liberals as weak and is also short for "cuckold," which refers to the husband of an unfaithful wife. The low blow sanctioned by a potential 2028 presidential candidate set a new paradigm for the political left that has long embraced Michelle Obama’s "when they go low, we go high" motto to rise above the callousness of Trump and his acolytes. It’s also an example of Newsom’s more aggressive social media strategy. This week the governor posted memes of Trump with child molester and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Shortly after the Department of Homeland Security detained and handcuffed U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla at a news conference in June, state Assemblymember Joe Patterson (R-Rockland) alleged on X that he would be treated the same way if he interrupted an event held by the governor. "I’d politely ask you to leave," retorted Newsom’s communications director, Izzy Gardon. "Though you do not deserve politeness in this moment for this grotesque tweet, you bald little man." (Patterson later added "Bald little man" to his profile on the social media site.). The governor and his taxpayer-supported press office joked that HBO had cast Miller as Lord Voldemort — the pasty, hairless super villain in the "Harry Potter" stories — and mocked the scandal-plagued Texas attorney general after he accused Newsom of fomenting lawlessness. The governor defended the more combative posture at a recent news conference. He noted that Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, had used the word last month when he called Newsom "the biggest cuck in politics.” "I don’t think they understand any other kind of language, so I have no apologies for standing tall and firm and pushing back against their cruelty," Newsom said.

New York Post [7/20/2025 8:55 PM, Carl Campanile, 49956K] reports legal and migrant advocacy groups fighting to block New York from helping the Trump administration enforce US immigration laws have been awarded more than $600 million in taxpayer dollars from the city and state governments, a Post review of contracts revealed. The Bronx Defenders alone has received more than $500 million in city contracts since fiscal year 2018 to provide a host of legal services to poor criminal and civil defendants, including migrants, according to a review of contracts from 2009 to the present. And the legal aid group raked in another $32 million from the state over the years, records kept by the state comptroller’s office show. Other groups were also funneled big bucks as they worked to undermine federal immigration policy, including Make the Road NY — which received $56 million to provide legal, health and other services mostly to immigrants, state and city contract records. The group helped organize a rally at the state Capitol last month urging passage of a sanctuary bill as rally goers chanted, "No hate, no fear. Immigrants are welcome here.” The New York Immigration Coalition received $46 million. "New York City should not be in the business of carrying out Donald Trump’s mass disappearance agenda, which is in fact illegal under our local laws," said Murad Awadeh, executive director of the NYICC, on his X handle @HeyItsMurad. Awadeh also reposted an interview he did with New York Public News Network on May 30. "Sanctuary policies are public safety measures," he said. "They encourage people to participate within our society so that they’re able and comfortable enough to report things that are happening and without them, a lot of people won’t do that, because they are fearful, and rightfully fearful, especially in the world that we’re living in today, that they may end up entrapped in this ICE enforcement that’s happening.” Additionally, New Yorker Lawyers for the Public Interest received $19 million, including about $5 million from 2022 to present, city and state records show. The Bronx Defenders have been part of a wider push for a statewide sanctuary bill — the New York for All Act — that would bar state and local law enforcement from cooperating with US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. That would include assisting in providing information, turning over or deporting illegal immigrants.

The Hill [7/20/2025 12:00 PM, Alfredo Ferrero, 18649K] reports the Peruvian government’s recent call for all members of the Organization of American States to declare the transnational criminal group Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization is a landmark action that will reverberate positively throughout the Western Hemisphere. The statement — supported by the U.S., Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama and Paraguay — requests that OAS member states consider designating Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization, or to adopt equivalent legal frameworks that allow for greater prosecution capacity, asset freezes and enforcement actions. Tren de Aragua, which began in a Venezuelan state prison around 2014, is today one of the most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the Americas. The group has rapidly expanded its operations into neighboring countries and beyond, leaving a trail of violence, exploitation and suffering. It operates as a highly organized criminal corporation, using violence and a hierarchical structure to control illicit markets, and terrorist tactics to eliminate competition and instill fear. Tren de Aragua has sown chaos, undermined local governance and endangered the lives of countless citizens. Thriving on fear and financial gain, Tren de Aragua is estimated to have around 5,000 members, and its annual profits range between $10 million and $15 million. Their use of extreme violence, targeted assassinations and mass intimidation to maintain control and expand influence aligns with the modus operandi of terrorist organizations. Its expansion has been swift and violent, exploiting deficient law enforcement, corruption and large migrant flows. Many nations in the region have been affected by the influence of this criminal network, which has disrupted communities in vulnerable border areas. Its operations have rapidly expanded into cities, effectively transforming into a new form of urban terrorism. The expansion of Tren de Aragua represents a significant regional crisis. This gang engages in drug trafficking, extortion and hired killings. It utilizes terrorist tactics such as torture and public displays of violence to instill fear and maintain control. Members often disseminate graphic content on social media to intimidate both rivals and law enforcement agencies. In April, the U.S. filed charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against 27 members and associates of Tren de Aragua for acts committed both in America and abroad. This case showcases the need to address this pervasive threat further through coordinated international action. The recent U.S. designation of Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization marks a crucial strategic step.

FOX News [7/21/2025 5:00 AM, Simon Hankinson, 46878K] reports "All Quiet on the Western Front" is the title of Erich Maria Remarque’s moving World War I novel. As of July 2025, it’s all quiet on the U.S. southern border. How quiet? In June, the Border Patrol encountered just over 6,000 inadmissible aliens at ports of entry. Under President Joe Biden, they sometimes saw twice that many in a single day. The total number of inadmissible aliens encountered in June, at both our northern and southern borders, at or between ports of entry, was 25,243 – the lowest monthly total in U.S. history. And of all those encountered in June, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released zero - for the second month in a row. In May, DHS also released not a single alien they stopped trying to enter the United States illegally. In May 2024, in contrast, they released at least 62,000 – not counting more than 30,000 inadmissible aliens they let in every month using immigration parole, and thousands more "gotaways" who snuck in without being stopped or identified. Other than abusing parole, the Biden administration disguised the entry of millions of inadmissible aliens into our country through catch-and-release: detain them for a few hours, do cursory data entry, then move them inside where they are hard to find and deport later. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testified in December 2023 that DHS was releasing upwards of 85% of aliens caught entering illegally. That was the worst month for encounters of inadmissible aliens on the southern border in U.S. history – 251,178. That means around 213,500 were likely released – about 10 times the TOTAL number of aliens encountered last month on all our borders combined. More inadmissible, unidentified aliens were released, in one month, than the current population of Tallahassee, Florida. Making it hard for a future president to restore the rule of law was part of the plan – and now, the legacy media is doing its part by painting routine law enforcement as authoritarian excess. Under President Donald Trump, aliens entering without permission are mostly being detained pending the completion of their due immigration process – as the law explicitly requires. In some cases, that will mean an expedited removal process under the Immigration and Nationality Act. But many more will exploit our overly generous and backed-up asylum process to slow things down. Reportedly, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will no longer allow routine bond hearings for aliens to ask an immigration judge to release them pending their process. Why? Because, when detained, aliens always show up for each hearing. They want it done quickly, especially if they know they have no credible asylum case. When let loose in the country, free to work, aliens want to drag it out. Many don’t show up for their immigration court dates. In Biden’s term, more than half a million aliens didn’t show up for their removal hearings.

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [7/20/2025 9:10 AM, Staff] reports on Friday, the Trump administration secured the release of 10 wrongly detained Americans from Venezuela in exchange for the release of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants whom the U.S. had deported first to the notorious El Salvador prison, now to Venezuela. U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler played a key role in getting this deal across the line, bringing those Americans home. Mr. Boehler joins the show today to give an update on the returned American condition and time spent in Venezuela. "They weren’t treated so great for the most part. Some were in different cells, but they were sometimes beaten, sometimes deprived of basic food. Before they came out, they put them in shackles, they shaved their heads, and left them in prison uniforms. Now, we knew they would come out like that, so we were all able and ready when we picked them up in the bus to have USA hats, USA T-shirts, and changed them so they looked strong." Boehler stated. This exchange involved negotiating not only with the Venezuelan government, but also the Salvadoran government. Boehler is asked: How complicated was the negotiation? How long was this exchange in the works? " It was months in the works, and there were a lot of very focused people doing it. We have got a great, unbelievable team in terms of people on the ground, career people that folks don’t ever hear of, and they were driving this bus really hard back and forth. The reality here is Bukele had -- who’s been great, Bukele had a number of people there at CECOT. He made a deal with Venezuela, and then Venezuela released all Americans, and so our portion of that deal was to make sure that all of our boys got home." Boehler stated.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [7/20/2025 9:21 AM, Staff, 2344K] reports Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been on the front lines as her city has faced the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown. "Los Angeles is a city of immigrants. 3.8 million people and about 50 percent of our population is Latino. And so, when the raids started, fear spread. The masked men in unmarked cars, no license plate, no real uniforms, jumping out of cars with rifles, and snatching people off the street, leading a lot of people to think maybe kidnappings were taking place. How do you have masked men who then say, well, we are federal officials with no identification?" Bass comments. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in a press release that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are facing an 830 percent increase in assaults from January 21st to July 14th compared with the same period in 2024. "We have a Los Angeles Police Department that has to deal with crime in this city every single day, and they’re not masked. They stay here. The masked men parachute in, stay here for a while, and leave. And, so you enter a profession like policing, like law enforcement, I’m sorry, I don’t think you have a right to have a mask and snatch people off the street." Bass states.

FOX News Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo [7/20/2025 10:00 AM, Staff, 2714K] reports Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on bombshell accusations that the Obama administration ‘manufactured’ intelligence to create the 2016 Russian election interference narrative.

FOX News Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo [7/20/2025 10:00 AM, Staff, 2714K] reports Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., discusses the execution of President Donald Trump’s policies, what’s next on the legislative agenda, the state of the Democratic Party and more.

Los Angeles Times [7/20/2025 9:30 AM, Andrew J. Campa, 14672K] reports news about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and arrests seems to flow as if emanating from an unending tap. That makes it difficult, at times, to pick up on important topics and issues. I’m going to use this space to highlight a few articles from my colleagues focusing on the potential growth of ICE in the coming years, new tools that federal agents can use to expand crackdowns, and what the actual numbers say. My colleague Andrea Castillo dove into the numbers and reality of an agent hiring spree. The massive funding bill signed into law this month by President Trump earmarks about $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement, including tens of billions for new deportation agents and other personnel. During his first term, when Trump called for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire 15,000 people collectively, a July 2017 report by the Homeland Security inspector general found significant setbacks. In 2017, ICE hired 371 deportation officers from more than 11,000 applications and took 173 days on average to finalize hires, the news outlet Government Executive reported. According to Cronkite News, Border Patrol shrunk by more than 1,000 agents after Trump left office in 2021. The Homeland Security inspector general concluded that to meet the goal of 10,000 new immigration officers, ICE would need more than 500,000 applicants. For CBP to hire 5,000 new agents, it would need 750,000 applicants. Castillo added that past and potentially future corruption, the prospect of lowering hiring standards and competition with other police agencies make Trump’s hiring goal an uphill battle. My colleagues Jenny Jarvie and Hannah Fry noted that the Trump administration is forging ahead with a plan to hand over the personal data of millions of Medicaid recipients to Homeland Security personnel seeking to track down people living in the U.S. illegally. The huge trove of private information includes home addresses, Social Security numbers and ethnicities of 79 million Medicaid enrollees. The plan, which has not been announced publicly, is the latest step by the Trump administration to deliver on its pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and arrest 3,000 undocumented immigrants a day.

CBS News [7/20/2025 12:53 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51860K] Video: HERE reports in an exclusive interview with CBS News, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said his agents will arrest anyone they find in the country illegally, even if they lack a criminal record, while also cracking down on companies hiring unauthorized workers. Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, said his agency will prioritize its "limited resources" on arresting and deporting "the worst of the worst," such as those in the U.S. unlawfully who also have serious criminal histories. But Lyons said non-criminals living in the U.S. without authorization will also be taken into custody during arrest operations, arguing that states and cities with "sanctuary" policies that limit cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement are forcing his agents to go into communities by not turning over noncitizen inmates. "What’s, again, frustrating for me is the fact that we would love to focus on these criminal aliens that are inside a jail facility," Lyons said during his first sit-down network interview on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." "A local law enforcement agency, state agency already deemed that person a public safety threat and arrested them and they’re in detention.” "I’d much rather focus all of our limited resources on that to take them into custody, but we do have to go out into the community and make those arrests, and that’s where you are seeing (that) increase" in so-called "collateral" arrests, Lyons added, referring to individuals who are not the original targets of operations but are nonetheless found to be in the U.S. unlawfully. If ICE encounters someone "that is here in the country illegally, we will take them into custody," Lyons said. Collateral arrests by ICE were effectively banned under the Biden administration, which issued rules instructing deportation officers to largely focus on arresting serious criminal offenders, national security threats and migrants who recently entered the U.S. illegally. That policy was reversed immediately after President Trump took office for a second time in January. As part of Mr. Trump’s promise to crack down on illegal immigration, his administration has given ICE a broad mandate, with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller pushing the agency to conduct 3,000 daily arrests. While ICE has so far not gotten close to that number, the agency just received tens of billions of dollars in additional funds from Congress to turbo-charge its deportation campaign. Lyons said "it’s possible" to meet the administration’s target of 1 million deportations in a year with the new infusion of funds. ICE has recorded nearly 150,000 deportations in Mr. Trump’s first six months in office, according to internal government data obtained by CBS News.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/20/2025 11:06 PM, Tara Suter, 18649K]

CNN [7/20/2025 12:00 PM, Priscilla Alvarez and Michael Williams, 21433K] reports the Trump administration is preparing for a historic infusion of cash into the president’s sweeping mass deportation campaign that is expected to supercharge immigration enforcement nationwide — and likely place additional pressure on the already-overwhelmed federal agency at the center of it all. Since receiving its mass deportation edict after President Donald Trump took office in January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has fielded criticism from people inside the administration who think they aren’t doing enough, lawmakers and advocates who think they are doing too much, and an incensed public that in some cases is taking drastic action to impede immigration enforcement. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly touted the work of ICE and the agents on the ground making immigration arrests. "These are strong people — tough people — that love our country," Trump said at the White House on Wednesday. "If they weren’t tough, they wouldn’t survive.” While the public messaging from the president and DHS leadership has been positive, the reality for officers is far more complicated, involving tense calls with the White House daily and working around the clock amid public backlash. ICE, a Homeland Security official told CNN, "keeps getting kicked in the teeth.” Now, ICE is set to receive $75 billion in funding from the president’s sweeping agenda bill for detention expansion and enforcement and removal operations, including hiring new agents. It’s an unprecedented amount of cash for an agency that’s historically been underfunded, and Trump administration officials are preparing to make the most of it. "We’re going to come harder and faster, and we’re going to take these criminals down with even more strength than we ever have before," Noem said this month, describing how the infusion of cash will bolster her agency’s immigration-enforcement apparatus. ICE is charged with arresting and detaining immigrants in the United States. For years, current and former officials say, it has struggled with limited federal funds and personnel. In multiple interagency discussions, senior Trump administration officials have been drafting plans to hire thousands more agents and drastically expand immigrant detention. White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN he’s been in regular calls with ICE and US Customs and Border Protection to check on progress with contracts, though he’s largely recused himself from the process given previous work, and he’s in discussions over how to bring on thousands more officers and bolster the academy where they’re trained. But top of mind is bringing online thousands more detention beds to keep pace with arrests. "I think we’ll have 100,000 beds by the end of the year. That’s a priority," Homan said. ICE was previously funded for around 41,000 beds. Homan said some of the new beds would be in permanent buildings, and others in temporary structures like tents.

FOX News [7/20/2025 8:53 AM, Staff, 46878K] Video: HERE reports Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, joins ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to weigh in on the surge in assaults against immigration enforcement officers amid violent rhetoric from Democrats and the party’s ‘audit’ of the 2024 election.

Washington Post [7/21/2025 4:05 AM, Niha Masih, 32099K] reports the top U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said that he will continue to allow ICE agents to wear masks during immigration raids — a controversial practice that has drawn scrutiny amid the Trump administration’s deportation push. In an interview that aired on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of ICE, said that although he was not a proponent of mask use, if ICE agents used them “to keep themselves and their families safe, then I will allow it.” He pushed back on the interviewer’s question about whether agents should identify themselves, and on the potential for impostors to use masks to pose as agents, saying ICE agents can be identified by markings on their clothing. This month, 14 Democratic Senators sent a letter to Lyons, saying that plainclothes agents wearing masks sweeping up people from workplaces and streets are tactics to “engender fear and sow chaos” and “to avoid accountability for agents’ actions.” The letter demanded clarity on ICE policies regarding the use of masks and uniforms. On Sunday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) voiced her objections to the practice in a television interview saying: “These masked men pull up in unmarked cars and jump out of the cars with rifles and detain people. So, for the average citizen, it looks like it’s a violent kidnapping.” A CNN poll published Sunday found that a majority of Americans oppose the intensifying deportation efforts, with 55 percent saying the president has gone too far — up 10 points from February. The opposition to Trump’s mass deportations is driven by Democrats and independents, with just 15 percent of Republican-aligned adults responding that the administration’s efforts have gone too far.

FOX News [7/20/2025 11:00 AM, Taylor Penley, 46878K] reports ICE agents have been doxed, demonized and terrorized since setting President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans into motion – and now three unmasked agents are pushing back against rhetoric that has landed them in the public’s crosshairs. "It has been very sad to see how we’re villainized, the names used towards us," officer Kristian Moreno told "My View" host Lara Trump this weekend. "Just doing this [interview] right now, I had to talk to my family about it and say, ‘Hey, this is something that I believe in, something I think is important for us to get our stories out there and let the American public know we’re humans.’ We got a job to do. We’re just enforcing the law. We’re not making up the law, and it’s sad, but we just keep pushing through it," he added. Moreno works out of the field office in Baltimore, Maryland. He initially served in the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) before going to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in San Ysidro, California. He and officers Edgardo Centeno and Chris Sandoval shared their inside-looking-out perspectives on the violence ICE officers risk daily, as the Department of Homeland Security indicates assaults against ICE agents have surged 830% since President Trump’s second term began in January. Centeno boasts the longest service record of Trump’s three guests. Despite serving across four administrations, he has "never seen" anything like the hatred ICE faces today. "I think the dynamics and environment that we’re working in is sad. What we’ve seen in California, Los Angeles, New York, it is, in my opinion, unacceptable," he shared. "We have to do our job. We raised our hands to defend the Constitution, and we’re enforcing the law, so we’re adjusting as we see what’s going on in our country, but it’s saddening my heart, especially when you serve in combat and come back and see your country so divided.”

Washington Examiner [7/20/2025 1:43 PM, Asher Notheis, 1934K] reports a trio of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers defended their use of face masks as a security precaution in response to scrutiny from some lawmakers. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) was among lawmakers criticizing ICE officers for concealing their identity, comparing them to "masked bank robbers" this past week. In response to these criticisms, ICE deportation officer Edgardo Centeno said a lot of people believe the agency deals with cases solely related to immigration status, which he said was "wrong.” "Most of the criminals that we get out of the streets, they have a rap sheet, interpol notices, homicide, murderers, but people only think that we’re arresting them because of immigration," Centeno said on Fox News’s My View with Lara Trump. "That’s not true, and that’s how we change it, and that’s a reason some of us decided to cover our faces. It is scary! Social media is a madness out there.” Fellow ICE officer Kristian Moreno discussed a story of an arrest he conducted involving an illegal immigrant with "a rap sheet," including" convictions of drug trafficking. Moreno did not wear a face mask at the time, and the illegal immigrant’s daughter recorded her father’s arrest and shared it online, leaving Moreno unable to "tell my side of that story.” ICE officer Christopher Sandoval said it was "really sad" how lawmakers are critical of ICE officers, saying these lawmakers are encouraging violence by "putting your words out there for someone else" to take action. He added that those carrying out violence against officers, such as "throwing rocks," are not thinking about how their actions put both the officers and the public at risk.

NewsMax [7/20/2025 7:13 AM, Solange Reyner, 4622K] reports Democratic officials in several states and cities are considering proposals to ban ICE agents from wearing masks and requiring them to display IDs when taking people into custody, reported Axios. Lawmakers in California, New York, and Massachusetts are discussing or have introduced legislation that would ban the use of face coverings and plainclothes by ICE and other federal enforcement agents during immigration actions and local leaders in Chicago, Albuquerque, New Mexico and several towns in Southern California are considering proposals to ban masks and require agents to wear IDs. 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. Democrats contend that the sight of masked agents carrying out enforcement is creating a whole new level of conflict, in a way that has no real comparison in the U.S. history of policing. "I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is," Todd Lyons, Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director, said last month.

New York Times [7/20/2025 5:51 PM, Alyce McFadden, 138952K] reports Immigration raids by masked federal agents have helped create a “reign of terror” in Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC. Fear of arrest and deportation has prompted many of Southern California’s immigrants — no matter their legal status — to hunker down in their homes, missing work, forgoing church services and skipping milestones like children’s graduations. And Ms. Bass said the practice some Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have adopted of obscuring their faces with black masks makes a menacing encounter even more frightening. “These masked men pull up in unmarked cars and jump out of the cars with rifles and detain people,” Ms. Bass said in a separate interview on Sunday on CBS. “For the average citizen, it looks like it’s a violent kidnapping. You should never have that.” Earlier this month, 14 Democratic senators said in a letter to Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, that agents grabbing people off the street while masked and in plain clothes “represents a clear attempt to compound” the “fear and chaos” of immigration raids and “avoid accountability for agents’ actions.” Mr. Lyons said in an interview Sunday on CBS that he did not encourage agents to use masks but would continue to let them wear them in the field “if that’s a tool they need to keep them and their families safe.” Federal officials say the face coverings help protect ICE agents from being doxxed, or having personal details like a home address or contact information shared online. Mr. Lyons also said that federal law enforcement agents can be identified by markings on their clothes. The Department of Homeland Security, the parent federal agency of ICE, has said that its agents are facing a sharp uptick in attacks and threats, including an 830 percent increase in assaults compared with last year. Mr. Lyons said that the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement has meant that ICE agents are more visible and more often in contact with members of the public. But he also blamed elected officials for the increase in attacks, saying they were “shaming, if you will, or speaking out against ICE.”

Univision [7/20/2025 7:05 AM, Patricia Clarembaux, 4992K] reports one immigrant killed. At least one U.S. citizen detained. Farmworkers missing or hidden for hours. Outside the platforms of federal agencies, this is the result of the July 10 raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on a marijuana farm in Camarillo, California’s Ventura County, which activists have called "aggressive," "chaotic." George Retes, a 25-year-old American, was not even at the facility, but was forcibly detained. He says he had been an employee of the company, Glass House Farms, for seven months. As usual, he was on his way to work that day as security, but on the way he was caught in the middle of the confrontations between the protesters who opposed the operation and the agents who were blocking their way. "ICE escalated the situation," Retes recounted at a press conference Wednesday. They smashed his car window, pepper-sprayed him in the face and pulled him out. "Two officers knelt on my back and one on my neck to arrest me, even though I already had my hands behind my back and was covered in OC (pepper) gas." And when they handcuffed him, they did not explain the reason for the arrest to him or others. "They asked me if I was a citizen and I told them yes. They didn’t care. They never told me the charges and then they sent me to a place in downtown Los Angeles without even telling me why they arrested me." He spent three days in detention. Retes said he decided to tell his story so that no one else would be put in that position. After his arrest he claims he was not allowed to wipe the chemical residue off his body and spent the days resisting the burning. "It was too much," he noted, and was at a loss for words to describe how he felt. In an email to Univision Noticias, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to Univision Noticias that Retes was arrested in the raid and released. "He has not been charged," she assured. "The U.S. Attorney’s Office is reviewing his case, as well as dozens of other cases, to determine potential federal charges related to the execution of the search warrant in Camarillo." The American said at the press conference that he will sue the government. "No one deserves to be treated this way."

AP [7/21/2025 1:09 AM, Staff, 31733K] reports the Guatemalan government on Sunday denied that U.S. authorities deported a Chilean man to the Central American country. The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania, reported Luis Leon, 82, a legal permanent resident of the United States who won asylum in 1987, ended up in Guatemala after being handcuffed in a Philadelphia immigration office, where he went to replace his lost green card. The news report relied on family accounts. The Morning Call reported Sunday that Leon was recovering from pneumonia in Guatemala and didn’t plan to return to the United States, according to his granddaughter. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was looking into the circumstances, according to The Morning Call. ICE did not respond to questions from The Associated Press on Sunday. The Guatemalan Migration Institute said in a statement that it coordinates with ICE on all deportations from the United States and that no one matched Leon’s name, age or citizenship. Guatemala agreed in February to receive people deported from the United States who are from other Central American countries. Its agreement does not extend to Chileans. The Trump administration has embraced deporting people to countries other than their own, including El Salvador, South Sudan and, last week, the African kingdom of Eswatini.

USA Today [7/20/2025 11:23 AM, Lauren Villagran, 75552K] reports far from the jazz clubs and nightlife of New Orleans, thousands await their fate inside immigration jails. Louisiana has more dedicated Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers than any other state besides Texas – nine total – after it converted nearly half a dozen correctional facilities to immigrant detention. Most are remote, scattered near farms and forests. Among the sites is a unique "staging facility" on a rural airport tarmac for rapid deportations. President Donald Trump is increasingly leaning on Republican-led Southern states to detain and deport millions of immigrants ‒ from "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades to the expansion of a sprawling Georgia immigration facility. Far from the U.S.-Mexico border, Mississippi has the ICE jail with the highest average daily population. But Louisiana was the first non-border state to surge immigration detention capacity, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana and Tulane University Law School. The state opened five new facilities to detain immigrants in 2019, during the first Trump administration, and vastly expanded the number of detainees during the Biden administration. Immigrants are sent here from all over the country, far from their families, communities and, often, their lawyers. The Trump administration has confined some of its highest-profile detainees in Louisiana, including now-released Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil and Harvard University scientist Kseniia Petrova. USA TODAY traveled to four of Louisiana’s nine ICE facilities, hoping to see firsthand what life is like for immigrants detained there. But the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied multiple requests for a tour of any of the locations. In an emailed statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said ICE originally expanded its detention capacity in Louisiana "to address the increasing number of individuals apprehended at the border" under the Biden administration. "ICE continues to explore all options to meet its current and future detention requirements while removing detainees as quickly as possible from the U.S.," she said.

Breitbart [7/20/2025 10:45 AM, Amy Furr, 3077K] reports an illegal immigrant charged in a woman’s grisly death in Waukegan, Illinois, and who was set free is in custody again. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents nabbed the illegal, identified as Mexican native 52-year-old Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, in Chicago on Saturday, Fox News reported. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the suspect had been arrested in April and charged with concealing a corpse, abusing a corpse, an obstruction of justice, but his time in custody did not last very long because Lake County Judge Randie Bruno decided to cut him loose. The victim in the case is identified as 37-year-old Megan Bos, who was reported missing in early March after relatives said she disappeared in February. Police later found her body stuffed into a container in Mendoza-Gonzalez’s yard. In addition, authorities said the victim had been decapitated and the container was filled with bleach. A DHS spokesperson said "It is absolutely repulsive this monster walked free on Illinois’ streets after allegedly committing such a heinous crime. Megan Bos and her family will have justice.” Mendoza-Gonzalez pleaded not guilty in May, NBC Chicago reported. The outlet said Bos’ family demanded changes to the Illinois SAFE-T Act after the suspect was released. Her father said, "This guy belongs in jail. Who does this? Who isn’t held accountable for their actions? For hiding a body for 51 days in a dumpster?". In addition, her mother said the suspect claimed Bos was with him to do drugs and she overdosed. "We don’t know if any of that is true. And he’s not being held before we find out if he had a hand in what happened to my daughter," the victim’s mother stated.

Reported similarly:
Univision Chicago WGBO [7/20/2025 12:44 PM, Staff, 4992K]

Chicago Tribune [7/20/2025 11:50 PM, Laura Rodríguez Presa, 172K] reports thirteen-year-old Xally Morales stared blankly at a letter she received from the Department of Homeland Security last month. She could not read the dozens of lines in English addressed to her. She arrived in the country from Mexico a little over seven months ago, crossing the southern border in search of safety. Xally knows very little English. “They say I have to leave the country immediately,” the young teen whispered in Spanish, barely meeting anyone’s eyes at a Chicago law firm on a recent Friday afternoon. No explanation. No hearing. And no time. The night she received the letter, she said, the family went into hiding after her older sister translated the letter for her. “Trump wants me to go back to Mexico. But how can I do that alone?” Xally told the Tribune. “I’m scared ICE will come for me.” Xally is one of at least 12 children in the Waukegan area — all unaccompanied minors from Mexico — who received sudden deportation letters from DHS last month, according to advocates. All of the them legally entered the country within the past year under humanitarian parole as unaccompanied minors and were later reunited with undocumented parents or other family already living in the U.S. But despite that reunification, the minors are unable to be legally represented by their parents in immigration court due to the way they entered the country. Immigration advocates warn that these cases are becoming more common, with a growing number of children now receiving letters from DHS ending their humanitarian parole. They say this could signal a troubling shift under the Trump administration: a move to strip asylum protections from children, even those with pending claims, and accelerate the deportation of minors without due process. Unless their families can find and afford scarce legal representation, the children could be at risk of getting detained or could be forced to face a judge alone, advocates and attorneys said. But an assistant secretary of DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, in an emailed statement to the Tribune said that “accusations that ICE is ‘targeting’ children are FALSE and an attempt to demonize law enforcement.” McLaughlin added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement “does not ‘target’ children nor does it deport children.” The agency also does not separate families, she said in the statement. Instead, “ICE asks mothers if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone safe whom the parent designates.” But questions regarding why letters are being sent to unaccompanied minors, like Xally, and what the protocol is to deport them, as stated in the letter, were left unanswered.

Breitbart [7/20/2025 11:29 AM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and the FBI teamed up to create a Homeland Security Task Force in Houston to combat the “emerging threats from transnational criminal organizations in Southeast Texas.” The announcement follows the arrest in June of nearly 1,400 criminal aliens in the Houston area. The Houston Field Office of ICE Homeland Security Investigations and FBI Houston announced the creation of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) on July 17. The HSTF’s stated objective is to end the presence of transnational criminal organizations in Southeast Texas. Earlier this month, Breitbart Texas first reported that ICE officers in the Houston area arrested 1,361 criminal aliens in June. The arrests included 32 child predators, nine murderers, one illegal alien convicted of hijacking an airplane, and 16 cartel or gang members. “As transnational criminal organizations, foreign terrorist organizations, drug cartels, foreign gangs and other bad actors continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, it’s vital that we work together as a law enforcement community to find transformative ways to confront emerging threats,” said HSI Houston Special Agent in Charge Chad Plantz. “This is especially true in Southeast Texas, where we face a myriad of unique border-related challenges and threats from transnational criminal organizations.” The HSTF will utilize a “whole-of-government” approach to conduct “intelligence-driven, multijurisdictional investigations targeting drug trafficking, money laundering, weapons trafficking, human trafficking, alien smuggling, homicide, extortion, kidnapping, child exploitation, and other transnational crimes,” ICE officials stated.

Daily Signal [7/20/2025 5:00 PM, Terence Jeffrey, 558K] reports Democrat Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware introduced the Law Enforcement Congressional Badge of Bravery Act on Jan. 29, 2008, in what would later prove to be a sadly ironic moment. One element of this bill, according to its official summary, would authorize “the Attorney General to award a State and Local Law Enforcement Congressional Badge of Bravery to a state or local law enforcement officer who is cited by the Attorney General for performing an act of bravery while in the line of duty.” While introducing this bill, Biden pointed to the increasing dangers faced by law enforcement officers. “The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund—which commemorates the service and sacrifice of law enforcement officers and helps promote law enforcement safety—found that officer deaths were up sharply nationwide last year,” Biden said, according to the Congressional Record. “Police departments around the country are scrambling in an arms race to match the firepower of the bad guys,” he said. No one in Congress disagreed with Biden’s proposal. It became law. Three years later—on Feb. 19, 2011—the Tulsa World ran a story with this headline: “Illegal immigrant pleads guilty to Owasso robbery.” “A twice-deported man who was shot by police as he robbed an Owasso convenience store last year pleaded guilty Friday to the heist as well as to a related firearm charge,” the story said. In a plea agreement made in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, Jose Luis Moreno-Yanez, a Mexican national, pled guilty to two counts. The first was “Hobbs Act Robbery and Attempted Robbery.” The second was “Use, Carry, and Brandish a Firearm During a Crime of Violence.” In the agreement, this illegal alien described the actions he had taken on July 21, 2010. “I walked into the Kum & Go convenience store at 10603 East 86th Street North, Owasso, Oklahoma, in the Northern District of Oklahoma, armed with an Armscor, Model 1600, .22 caliber rifle,” he said. “While pointing the rifle at an employee,” he said, “I ordered the employee to take money from the registers and put it in a bag. When the employee did not move fast enough, I jabbed him in the right shoulder with the barrel end of the rifle and threatened to kill him if he did not hurry, after which I grabbed the money from the registers.” How was this armed robbery thwarted? While this illegal alien was aiming his rifle at the store clerk, Owasso Police Department Detective Jason Woodruff, who had just gone off duty, drove up in front of the Kum & Go to fill his car with gas. What he did then would earn him the Law Enforcement Congressional Badge of Bravery. Woodruff, says a Justice Department statement, “observed multiple bystanders and store employees huddled at the east end of the business.” “The bystanders and employees alerted Detective Woodruff to a robbery in progress,” it says. “Detective Woodruff, without further regard for his own safety, approached the convenience store to assess the robbery. He determined the best course of action was to confront the gunman inside the store to prevent the possibility of an outdoor shoot-out amongst the bystanders and passing motorists.” “Detective Woodruff drew his weapon and entered the business while the gunman’s attention was away from the door,” it says. “He announced his authority and confronted the ski-masked gunman. The gunman pointed his assault rifle and Detective Woodruff fired at the gunman. He pursued the gunman inside the store and incapacitated him. At this point, the store clerk and two customers were able to flee the store.” This courageous detective then called the local emergency services “to expedite medical assistance for the wounded gunman.”

Univision [7/20/2025 4:05 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports the arrest of a father in front of a preschool in a suburb of Portland, Oregon, has led to commotion as ICE officers smashed his car window to stop him in front of children, families and downtown workers. "I feel like a nursery, which is where young children are cared for, should be a safe place," Natalie Berning said after leaving her daughter at Montessori in Beaverton on Friday morning. Not only is it traumatizing for the family, it is also traumatizing for all the other children. Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, a 38-year-old chiropractor and a citizen of Iran, was initially arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) on Tuesday, when he was taking his son to school. Asked if he could leave the child first, he continued to drive and called his wife to tell him what had happened, the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity over privacy concerns for her and her young son, said. His wife rushed to school, pulled their son out of the car and took him inside the school. Khanbabazadeh stayed in the vehicle in the parking lot and asked if he could move to a place outside the school grounds for consideration of the children and families, his wife said. He left the parking lot, headed to the street and started opening the car door to get out when officers broke the window and arrested him, according to his wife. Kellie Burns, who has two children attending preschool, said her husband was there and heard the glass break. "More than anything, we want to express how unnecessarily violent and inhumane this was," he said. They all felt helpless. Everyone was scared. ICE said it stopped Khanbabazadeh because he exceeded the length of his visa, which his wife denies. "The officers tried to arrest Khanbabazadeh at a traffic stop when he applied for permission to leave his son in the daycare center," ICE said in a statement. The officers allowed him to go to the parking lot of the nursery where he stopped cooperating, resisted arrest and refused to leave his vehicle, which caused ICE agents to enter by breaking one of the windows to complete the arrest.

FOX News [7/20/2025 3:45 PM, Danielle Wallace, 46878K] reports Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass repeatedly dodged answering directly on whether all illegal immigrants in the sanctuary city should be allowed to stay. In an interview with ABC’s "This Week," Bass further criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize 4,000 National Guard troops and deploy about 700 Marines to Los Angeles amid anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) riots and protests. The Democratic mayor was questioned by ABC host Martha Raddatz on who she thinks should be deported – whether that should be just people convicted of crimes – given Los Angeles has about a million "undocumented workers.” "What should happen to those people?" Raddatz asked. "Let me just say that, because we are a city of immigrants, we have entire sectors of our economy that are dependent on immigrant labor. We have to get the fire areas rebuilt. We’re not going to get our city rebuilt without immigrant labor," Bass claimed. "And it’s not just the deportations, it’s the fear that sets in when raids occur, when people are snatched off the street. And I know you are aware that even people who are here legally, even people who are U.S. citizens, have been detained.” "So they should not be deported?" Raddatz pressed. Bass responded, "I don’t think so. I think they should stay.” The ABC host interjected, noting that the mayor was discussing "a million undocumented people.” "No, let me just tell you, what I think we need is comprehensive immigration reform. I served in Congress for 12 years," Bass said. Raddatz again interrupted the mayor, noting that Bass, as a congresswoman, did not ensure the passage of such immigration reform. "And why didn’t we get it? I mean, after I left, there was an immigration reform bill that had bipartisan support," Bass said, attempting to blame Trump. "This was during the campaign. The president decided he didn’t want to have it happen because he didn’t want immigration reform to happen, where he didn’t take credit for it.” Noting the surge in border crossings under former President Joe Biden, Raddatz recalled asking a Border Patrol agent whether he felt badly for illegal immigrants. His response, Raddatz said, was yes, but "they’re cutting in line in front of those people who want to do it legally in the right way.”

The Hill [7/20/2025 4:56 PM, Elvia Limon, 18649K] reports Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) on Sunday pushed back against the Trump administration’s reasoning for allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to wear masks as a means of protecting themselves and their families from retaliation. "Well, first of all, let me just tell you that the masked men are not from Los Angeles, and so how their families could be retaliated against," Bass told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation.” "And then what is that to say to local law enforcement, the Los Angeles Police Department, none of whom are ever masked, who always identify themselves and even hand someone a business card. So that makes absolutely no sense at all," she added. In an interview clip aired on Sunday, Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, told CBS that while he was not a proponent of officers wearing masks, he would still allow them to do so due to safety concerns. "However, if that’s a tool that the men and women of ICE to keep themselves and their family safe, then I will allow it," Lyons said. "I do kind of push back on the criticism that they don’t identify themselves.” He pointed to the officers’ gear, which have markings that identified them to others. However, during her interview, Bass said many ICE agents in Los Angeles are in "plainclothes with vests on that say ‘police.’". "It looks like something that they could have gotten online," she said.

FOX News [7/20/2025 12:46 PM, Cameron Arcand, 46878K] reports California has become the epicenter of the immigration debate under the Trump administration, which is leading to questions about what cultivated the protests and riots that happened in the area in June and continue to pop up around the country. Heather Mac Donald, a Manhattan Institute fellow and author of "When Race Trumps Merit," said she believes that the border crisis under the Biden administration paved the way for civil unrest. "It shows that lawlessness in one area breeds lawlessness in another. We’ve had an absolutely lawless situation going on with regards to the border. We’ve had California and Los Angeles tolerate criminal lawlessness, and so it’s not surprising that activists and protesters and immigrant rights activists felt that they were entitled to wreak absolute chaos and havoc in the streets," Mac Donald said in the wake of riots in Los Angeles last month. Mac Donald added that the large amount of immigration could lead to cultural assimilation woes. "This is nothing new, but Americans have turned their eyes away and have bought into the narrative that the more diversity, the better, the more demographic change, the better," she said. Mac Donald added that a cap on the number of people allowed to come into the United States could be beneficial in the long term. "Well, for assimilation, a cap would definitely be necessary. We saw that with the long decades after maximal immigration at the turn of the century, when we did halt immigration. And that allowed the assimilation to go on, that it did. With nonstop immigration coming in, you’re running a losing race to assimilate. So that would absolutely be ideal.” "We should reform the agriculture sector. You know, we have temporary worker programs for that, and whether we want to carve out any exceptions to a moratorium for very, very high-skilled workers, that is definitely worth considering. But certainly for chain migration, the bringing in of remote family members, that should be ended now until we are confident that we are creating Americans and not people who will get out in riots and wave flags of non-American countries," Mac Donald continued. When it comes to the overall stance of the American population on immigration, she explained that mass deportations, which the Trump administration has said they are working toward while highlighting those with criminal convictions and charges, could be the best path forward in the short-term aftermath of the border crisis.

Washington Examiner [7/20/2025 7:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1934K] reports attendance at Spanish-language services at a Catholic diocese near Los Angeles has dropped by more than half as parishioners skip weekly services for fear of being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Heightened ICE activity in and around Los Angeles has scared many immigrants and even nonimmigrants from going out to attend a church service as police activity has ramped up this summer, San Bernardino Catholic Diocese spokesman John Andrews told the Washington Examiner. "There’s at least a 50% drop in attendance across all of our parishes, and some more than that, some less, but for the Spanish language masses," Andrews said in a phone call Friday. Over the past two months, federal police have detained immigrants who are illegally in the country outside two Catholic parishes in the San Bernardino Diocese. In the first incident, ICE took several men near the church into custody. In a second incident, an active parishioner on church property at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Montclair was approached and detained by ICE outside while doing landscape work, Andrews said. "This is a guy who’s been in the country for many years. His family is very involved in the parish. He had nothing on his record other than not having the legal status," Andrews said, adding that the man’s eldest son had been in the Army National Guard for over a decade. He was sent to a federal immigration detention center in Texas and, at last notice, remained detained in New Mexico. The crackdown outside San Bernardino Diocese parishes is having a significant effect. This single Diocese serves an estimated 1.5 million Catholics east of Los Angeles between San Bernardino and Riverside, making it one of the largest in the Nation. Bishop Alberto Rojas of the San Bernardino Diocese issued a decree on July 9 that permitted certain parishioners not to attend Sunday Mass if they genuinely feared immigration enforcement. The decision was made based on observations from diocese leadership, coupled with input from parishioners about not feeling safe walking into the church, according to Andrews. "Dispensation from the Obligation to Attend Mass: All members of the faithful in the Diocese of San Bernardino who, due to genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions, are unable to attend Sunday Mass or Masses on holy days of obligation are dispensed from this obligation, as provided for in Canon 1247, until such time as this decree is revoked or amended," Rojas said in a public statement posted on social media and the church website.

Politico [7/20/2025 2:00 PM, Rachel Bluth and Emily Schultheis, 16523K] reports that, one recent morning, not long after the Trump administration launched its extraordinary immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, Alfredo Contreras pulled a large RV into the parking lot of a rehab center south of the city’s skyline. The RV is part of a small fleet of rolling exam rooms run by St. John’s Community Health that have taken on heightened importance in the city’s health care — and, increasingly, political — landscape since the start of the raids. With teams of masked agents cruising the streets, many of the region’s nearly 1 million undocumented immigrants are keeping close to home, refusing to go far to grocery shop or work, let alone visit the doctor. Contreras recalled that seven women were waiting to be seen when the staff got word of a raid happening at a nearby church. The agents, they were warned, likely were headed their way next. Contreras and another worker slipped quietly outside and posted up in front of the parking lot’s gate. Soon after, five unmarked cars with tinted windows pulled up nearby. One of the cars drove closer and a standoff ensued. Contreras told his colleague they wouldn’t let the agents pass unless they had a warrant. An agent snapped photos of the men, but came no further. The cars left. “The patients are out there, but they’re afraid,” Contreras said later. “That’s one of our biggest downfalls right now … people are not coming out.” With the immigration enforcement ongoing, the incident highlighted the severe challenges facing groups like St. John’s. As families balance the need for medical care against the risk of deportation, community health centers are scrambling to continue to provide care and to stay afloat amid the financial impact brought on by the crisis. Meanwhile, the upheaval in health care access is contributing to a shift in politics in the nation’s second-most populous city — turning health care practitioners into donors and lobbyists. Clinic leaders, including St. John’s CEO Jim Mangia, are taking on increasingly political roles, working the halls of government to stave off threats not just from Republicans in Washington, but Democrats in Sacramento as well. St. John’s has been a presence in Los Angeles for 60 years. And for about half of that time, Mangia has been a presence at St. John’s. The nonprofit is mostly funded by the federal government and has a mandate to serve everyone who walks through its doors regardless of ability to pay. The clinic operates 28 sites in and around L.A. that serve about 125,000 patients who make 550,000 visits each year. Mangia believes his organization is the largest provider of care for undocumented immigrants in the country, with around 25,000 of its patients living in the country illegally.

Breitbart [7/20/2025 7:52 AM, Neil Munro, 3077K] reports executives are using a 1990 law to import another 85,000 mixed skill, lottery picked, contract worker, foreign graduates for U.S. white collar jobs — despite high unemployment among the nation’s young college grads. The 2025 inflow was announced Friday by an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS): “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS] has received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year 2026.” But the same agency also announced on Thursday it is drafting a regulation to change how companies import the H-1B workers. The cryptic announcement merely said: “Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions.” The announcement did not provide a schedule or a description of the draft regulation, but the rules may match the short-lived reforms set by President Donald Trump’s deputies in 2021. The new regulation “is a good idea,” said Kevin Lynn, founder of U.S. Tech Workers, which advocates for U.S. professionals. For example, a Trump-style regulation that allocates visas to companies offering higher pay would “make it less predatory towards more ordinary tech workers and [to new] graduates entering STEM fields,” he said. USCIS officials recently narrowed the white-collar TN visa worker program, ending its use by foreign doctors, computer experts, welders, and electricians. “We’re starting to see the impact of having [President Donald Trump’s] good appointments throughout these agencies, at the Department of Labor, at DHS, and the Department of Justice,” said Lynn. “We already have greater public recognition of the problem since the big H-1B kerfuffle over Christmas … there is rising public awareness of the six percent-plus unemployment rate of recent computer science graduates.”

Washington Examiner [7/21/2025 12:01 AM, Staff, 1934K] reports President Donald Trump has accomplished something that every elected Democrat and some Republicans, such as Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), said was impossible. He has secured the southern border against illegal immigration without needing Congress to pass a new law. Now, unfortunately, some Republicans are trying to undo his success. Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL), a former Univision journalist, has introduced legislation she calls the Dignity Act, which would make Trump’s deportation efforts more difficult and would grant amnesty to millions of migrants who entered the country illegally. She wants, oddly, to create new pathways for future Democratic presidents to flood the country with foreigners whom Americans do not want in the country. At the height of the border crisis created by former President Joe Biden’s maladministration, more than 300,000 migrants were arrested in a single month for illegally crossing the southern border. It is estimated that over the course of Biden’s four years in office, the illegal immigrant population swelled by more than 5 million. When Biden was president, Lankford and Democrats insisted that new legislation was indispensable if order was to be restored. Trump, once again in the Oval Office, proved them wrong. He simply enforced existing law. The most recent data show that just 9,306 migrants were arrested after illegally crossing the southern border in June, an all-time low. However, some Republicans now make an argument that sounds reasonable for those only passingly familiar with immigration history. They say that with the border secure, it is safe to give citizenship to those already here illegally. Salazar’s bill does not give citizenship to every illegal immigrant, just to those who came before Biden was president and were under 18 years old when they arrived. (This would include Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged gang member and human trafficker.). Those who cannot provide evidence that they were under 18 years old when they entered the country would be given amnesty rather than citizenship and would be enrolled in something called "the Dignity Program" which would give them "temporary" legal status, work authorization, travel authorization, special protection from deportation, and, we’re not making this up, exemption from Social Security and Medicare taxes. The legislation contains bells and whistles about criminal background checks, requirements to buy health insurance, and promises that those granted amnesty will be excluded from means-tested welfare programs. However, there is no forcing mechanism anywhere in the legislation empowering anyone to make sure a future Democratic president upholds any of these requirements. Instead, it is chock-full of waiver authorities granted to the Department of Homeland Security to ignore safeguards and make up reasons for granting amnesty.

FOX News [7/21/2025 3:34 AM, Landon Mion, Bill Melugin, 46878K] reports Border Patrol said following a raid at a Home Depot in Sacramento, California, last week — in which 11 suspected illegal migrants were arrested — that five of those detained have a criminal history. A Border Patrol official told Fox News that records checks show that five of the migrants arrested in the raid on Thursday have a criminal history, including three who are convicted felons. The arrests include Mexican national Javier Dimas-Alcantar, who Border Patrol says is an aggravated felon who has been booked into California jails 67 times since 1986. His criminal history includes transporting and selling narcotics or controlled substances, felony burglary, possession of a controlled narcotic with intent to sell, carrying a loaded firearm in public and felony-level marijuana possession charges for sale. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin criticized so-called sanctuary policies following the arrests. "Dimas has been convicted of a myriad of offenses — you would not want this man to be your neighbor and yet politicians like [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom defend criminals who terrorize American communities and demonize law enforcement who defend those same communities," McLaughlin said. "He and every other sanctuary politician should be thanking CBP for getting this scum out of American communities instead of obstructing federal law enforcement at every possible turn," she continued. Another migrant arrested on Thursday was Mexican national Carlos Mata, also a convicted felon, who Border Patrol says fled and broke into a nearby apartment before he assaulted the person inside as he attempted to evade arrest, prompting a 911 call for a reported break-in. His criminal history includes convictions for sex with a minor, battery on a spouse, carrying a concealed dagger, possession of a controlled substance, possession of narcotics, receiving stolen property and first-degree burglary. The other apprehended migrants included a previously deported Guatemalan aggravated felon, a previously deported Mexican migrant with a previous arrest for driving without a license and a Guatemalan migrant who had a voluntary return removal in 2009 with previous arrests for trespassing and failure to provide identification. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [7/21/2025 5:00 AM, Blaise Gainey, 37958K] reports just over two weeks since floods in the Texas Hill Country killed more than 130 people, Texas lawmakers start a special legislative session today with the aim of funding recovery and protecting from future disasters. This spring they failed to pass a bill that could have led to increased spending for emergency warning systems. Now special committees of the House and Senate plan to go to Kerrville, the area with the most flood fatalities, to hear about the life-saving help local governments need. They’ll be working while there’s uncertainty at the national level about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency in doubt after calls from members of the Trump administration that it be cut back or eliminated. There were already plans for a special session this month on the totally different topic of laws to regulate sales of hemp products. But Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, in his proclamation calling the session, led with flood-related matters. And disaster relief wasn’t all he added to the session, which can last up to 30 days. He’s also including a list of controversial GOP priorities. They include redrawing congressional voting districts in ways that would impact the 2026 midterm elections and tightening laws against medication abortion. Here are some of the issues at stake. Abbott is asking that lawmakers improve early warning systems, strengthen communications infrastructure and provide relief money for areas impacted by the recent flood or future floods.

The Hill [7/20/2025 2:00 PM, Amalia Huot-Marchand, 18649K] reports uncertainty is hanging over this year’s hurricane season as meteorologists predict "above-normal" activity and the Trump administration sends shifting signals over the future of the federal government’s role in natural disaster response. Despite talk of eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in its current form, the administration says it remains "laser focused on disaster response and protecting the American people.” But red and blue states alike say they aren’t sure what the future of FEMA looks like. In June, at a hurricane preparedness news conference, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) was asked whether the state could take on more responsibilities amid the administration’s push for states to take a bigger role. "I don’t know what added responsibilities that would be," he responded. A handful of states have set up task forces or commissions to prepare for changes being discussed in Washington. A bipartisan coalition of Georgia state lawmakers led by state Rep. Clint Crowe (R) created a study committee on disaster mitigation. Kentucky’s state Legislature passed a law creating a task force to prepare for potential changes in FEMA funding. Republican state Sen. Matthew Deneen, who co-sponsored the Kentucky bill, said the panel would make sure the state is prepared for whatever comes. "Well, I think that any time that we’re going to have change coming out of Washington, D.C., on the federal level, you know, we don’t know exactly what those numbers are going to be, and so it’s very important for us to be agile, to be responsive and to be prepared," he told The Hill. Trump administration officials and some Republicans on Capitol Hill argue the agency is inefficient and should take a more supportive role, with states taking the lead in disaster response. "Federal emergency management should be state and locally led rather than how it has operated for decades," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said earlier this month. "This entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency," she added. But rhetoric from President Trump’s officials shifted toward reforming FEMA, rather than axing it entirely, following the devastating floods in Texas this month. Noem faced criticism over reports of botched disaster response efforts, and the Houston Chronicle editorial board even slammed Noem’s leadership, comparing FEMA’s response to the Texas floods to the Hurricane Katrina debacle. The Texas floods killed at least 120 people, with more than 100 still missing. A preliminary estimate from AccuWeather projects the disaster to cost between $18 billion and $22 billion. Still, Trump has praised Noem’s handling of the floods and brushed off reports that her changes to funding decisions slowed down the federal response in Texas.

Axios [7/20/2025 9:30 PM, Rebecca Falconer, 13599K] reports much of the eastern U.S. and Midwest was facing the threat of severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall, while heat alerts were issued Sunday for over 50 million people from Kansas to the Carolinas. NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center issued a Level 3 out of 4 risk for excessive rainfall over parts of the Ohio Valley through Monday morning, with storms containing 3-4"/hour rainfall rates developing Sunday evening. Forecasters said parts of Missouri and Illinois could see "locally significant" flash flooding. A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for parts of Iowa, including Des Moines. Severe thunderstorm watches were issued for parts of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont until 9pm Sunday ET and for portions of Montana and North Dakota through midnight local time. Per a National Weather Service forecast discussion, there’s a slight risk of severe thunderstorms over parts of the Northeast, including New England; the Ohio Valley into the Central Appalachians; and the Northern and Central High Plains on Sunday and parts of the Northern Plains on Monday.

USA Today [7/20/2025 12:42 PM, John Bacon, 75552K] reports bouts of severe weather coupled with unrelenting heat threaten to provide Americans with a tumultuous and possibly deadly weather week, forecasters say. Multiple rounds of thunderstorms will bring risks of flash flooding through the Midwest and East on the periphery of a "heat dome" that could bring triple-digit temperatures to parts of multiple states, AccuWeather warned. More than 50 million Americans from Texas to Missouri were already under National Weather Service extreme heat warnings or advisories on July 20. Thunderstorms at night could bring hail downpours from southern Nebraska to Canada, with wind gusts possibly reaching 85 miles per hour. The severe weather threat sweeps across the Midwest and East on July 21, with Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia all facing the possibility of flash flooding and gusty winds. AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said that much of the region was hammered by heavy thunderstorms recently and can’t absorb another round. "We are highly concerned about the risk of dangerous to life-threatening flash flooding in the zone from southern Illinois and Indiana to central and eastern Kentucky, central and southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia," Sosnowski said. A bulge in the jet stream developing as high pressure builds could create a persistent heat dome lingering well into August, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Chad Merrill said. The Kansas City, Missouri, area, which hasn’t hit 100 degrees in two years, could reach the figure multiple times this week, he said. Dallas could see 100 degrees for the first time in 2025. "This has the look of a long-lasting heat wave with limited rainfall," Merrill said. "Drought will expand through the central Plains by mid-August and worsen in Kansas and Nebraska, where there are already pockets of moderate to extreme drought.”

FOX News [7/20/2025 9:01 AM, Stephen Sorace, 46878K] reports nearly 100 people who had still been listed as missing after deadly flash flooding swept across central Texas on July 4 have been found safe, with only three individuals still missing, Kerr County officials said Saturday. The updated missing list comes as the search entered its third week, marking a sharp decline from the more than 160 people initially unaccounted for in Kerr County alone. "This remarkable progress reflects countless hours of coordinated search and rescue operations, careful investigative work, and an unwavering commitment to bringing clarity and hope to families during an unimaginably difficult time," Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said in a statement the city shared on social media Saturday night. As of Sunday, the death toll in Kerr County stood at 107, including 70 adults and 37 children. Across Texas, at least 135 people were killed when the gushing waters of the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet, washing away homes and vehicles. The fast-rising waters tore through the Hill Country, where vacation cabins and youth camps line the riverbanks and hills of Kerr County. Camp Mystic, a century-old Christian summer camp for girls, lost at least 27 campers and counselors in the flood. Recovery efforts continue, with more than 1,000 local, state, and federal personnel – alongside thousands of volunteers from across the country – combing the area on foot from the river’s headwaters to Canyon Lake. "Our thoughts remain with the families still awaiting news, and we will continue to stand with them as efforts persist," said Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr.

New York Times [7/21/2025 3:15 AM, By Alyce McFadden and Chris Hippensteel, 330K] reports the number of missing people in the Texas county hardest hit by the devastating July 4 floods is now just three, a dramatic drop from the nearly 100 officials had reported just days ago. Many were confirmed to be safe, local officials said on Saturday. The new figure is a significant decrease from the 97 who were reported earlier in the week, and it represents those missing only in Kerr County. A handful more remain unaccounted for in other areas of the Hill Country that were devastated by the disastrous floods, which have killed at least 135 people statewide. Kerr County was the area in the state most affected by the floods, accounting for 107 of the deaths. In a statement on Saturday, officials in Kerrville, the seat of Kerr County, said that “many individuals who were initially reported as missing have been verified as safe.” As of Saturday evening, the death toll in Kerr County had not changed. It is not clear how many of the people previously listed as missing were actually affected by the floods. Some could have been out-of-town vacationers whom the authorities eventually found to be safe back home. Others could have been reported erroneously by worried relatives. The authorities have not publicly released a list of the missing. “We are profoundly grateful to the more than 1,000 local, state and federal authorities who have worked tirelessly in the wake of the devastating flood that struck our community,” said Dalton Rice, the Kerrville city manager. It’s common for the number of missing to fluctuate or to decline sharply after a natural disaster. After a catastrophic wildfire in Maui, Hawaii, in 2023, the number of missing people was initially listed as 1,100, but about six months later, it had dropped to two, with 102 deaths. Few of the missing turned out to be dead. Even with the huge drop in numbers, officials in Kerrville said on Saturday that the search for those still missing would continue. State and local officials have vowed to find every missing person since the floods struck more than two weeks ago. “Our thoughts remain with the families still awaiting news, and we will continue to stand with them as efforts persist,” Mayor Joe Herring Jr. of Kerrville said in the statement. The floods hit the idyllic Hill Country — a river-threaded region of Central Texas whose natural beauty has long drawn visitors and made it a popular site for children’s summer camps — in the predawn hours of July 4. As residents and tourists slept beside the Guadalupe River’s banks, heavy rains swelled its waters by 20 to 30 feet in some areas within just a few hours.

Washington Post [7/20/2025 4:49 PM, Molly Hennessy-Fiske, 32099K] reports the number of missing in this month’s catastrophic flooding in Kerr County, Texas, has dropped to three, local officials said late Saturday, but they provided few details on why the figure had fallen so significantly from the nearly 100 cited days ago. The revision was the result of “extensive follow-up work” and cooperation among local, state and federal authorities, the Kerrville Police Department said in a post on Facebook. Many of those initially reported missing had been verified as safe, it said. “This remarkable progress reflects countless hours of coordinated search and rescue operations, careful investigative work, and an unwavering commitment to bringing clarity and hope to families during an unimaginably difficult time,” said Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice. Numbers of those missing in natural disasters are often fluid and can decline dramatically. Overwhelmed local officials can struggle to obtain an accurate count, especially when those missing involve visitors to the affected region or people without stable housing. Some of those initially described as unaccounted for in Kerr County — the county most impacted by the deadly flooding on July 4 — did not live in the area but had traveled there for the holiday weekend. That so many had remained missing more than two weeks after the devastating flooding deepened the horror of the tragedy, which left at least 135 people dead, dozens of them children. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has pledged to continue the search until every person is found. “Our thoughts remain with the families still awaiting news, and we will continue to stand with them as efforts persist,” Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. said Saturday. On Monday, the Texas legislature is expected to convene in Austin for a special session in which lawmakers will discuss the catastrophic flooding. State legislative leaders have formed committees to examine flood warning systems, relief efforts and disaster preparedness. They plan to hold a hearing in Kerrville on July 31. Jonathan Lamb, spokesman for the Kerrville Police Department, said in a statement Sunday that investigators had engaged in an “exhaustive effort to verify the status of each individual who was reported missing,” narrowing hundreds of names down to three. “This process takes time, but it is essential to ensure that every lead is thoroughly followed and each person is properly accounted for,” Lamb said.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/20/2025 3:25 PM, Erica Pauda and Julianna Russ, 18649K]

New York Times [7/20/2025 6:47 PM, Rick Rojas, 138952K] reports that, in the swirl of anguish and uncertainty that followed the devastating floods in Central Texas, one of the most confounding elements of the aftermath was why there were so many people still missing weeks after the disaster. Where were they? Who were they? What happened to them? Last week, state and local officials said there were 97 people missing in Kerr County, which sustained the worst of the July 4 floods in the Hill Country. But then, on Saturday, they released a revised figure: three. The death toll there remained unchanged; the county had 107 of the 135 deaths recorded statewide. The drop was substantial, yet it was not entirely unexpected, according to officials and those familiar with the rhythms of deadly natural disasters. The fluctuation was a reflection of the chaos unleashed by a disaster of this magnitude and of the methodical work — sometimes painstaking to the point of frustration — required to bring clarity to the confusion. Whether in flash floods, wildfires or tornadoes, making sense of the list of the missing is a crucial part of the official response. “This process takes time,” Officer Jonathan Lamb of the police department in Kerrville, the county seat of Kerr County, said in a statement on Sunday, shedding some light on such an abrupt and drastic change. “It is essential to ensure that every lead is thoroughly followed and each person is properly accounted for.” Last week, when 97 were thought to be missing in Kerr County, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas cautioned residents not to assume that being counted as missing necessarily meant that the person had died in the flood. “There’s no certainty that all 97 of those people were swept away by the storm,” the governor said on Monday.

NBC News [7/20/2025 3:32 PM, Erik Ortiz, 44540K] reports the country’s largest wildfire this year has burned over 95,740 acres, fire officials in central Oregon said Sunday, as ground crews made progress to partially contain a blaze that could still intensify to become a so-called megafire. The size of the Cram Fire was adjusted slightly downward from Saturday after "more accurate mapping" was completed, officials said. They added that the massive blaze — which has drawn more than 900 fire personnel, destroyed a handful of homes and prompted evacuations in two counties — was 49% contained after crews struggled to keep back the flames last week. "Yesterday was another favorable day with us with the weather, and so a lot of good work was done," Scott Stutzman, operations section chief of the Oregon State Fire Marshal, said Sunday in a Facebook video. "We’ll have those crews out there continuing to maintain a presence mopping up, and also assisting our wildland partners on the perimeter.” Cooler temperatures and higher humidity over the weekend are expected to continue early this week, potentially aiding firefighting efforts, but the sheer size of the fire has been staggering: If it grows to at least 100,000 acres, it would be classified as a megafire, becoming the first one in the U.S. in 2025, said Stanton Florea, a spokesman with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates the country’s wildland firefighting operations. Oregon saw six wildfires reach megafire status last year, federal data shows. The phenomenon is considered rare, but it has grown in frequency as wildfires in general become more widespread and intense. Megafires "are more common now," Florea said. "We’re having longer fire seasons — what we’re calling, the ‘fire year.’ And more intense fires that are lasting longer.” So far this year, there have been 40,934 wildfires, the highest year-to-date total in at least a decade, according to National Interagency Fire Center data. But of the 1.6 million wildfires that have occurred since 2000, just 254 exceeded 100,000 acres burned, and only 16 were at least 500,000 acres, a Congressional Research Service report said in 2023. "A small fraction of wildfires become catastrophic, and a small percentage of fires accounts for the vast majority of acres burned," the service said. "For example, about 1% of wildfires become conflagrations — raging, destructive fires — but predicting which fires will ‘blow up’ into conflagrations is challenging and depends on a multitude of factors, such as weather and geography.”

USA Today [7/20/2025 7:30 PM, Thao Nguyen, 75552K] reports the Cram Fire in central Oregon became the nation’s largest wildfire this year as the blaze neared 100,000 acres on July 20, destroying four homes and threatening hundreds of structures, authorities said. The fire, which broke out on July 13, exploded in size over recent days after hot and dry conditions and gusty winds increased wildfire risks in parts of the state. Fire crews were challenged during the week by changing wind directions and rugged, steep terrain, but cooler temperatures and higher humidity levels over the weekend are expected to help firefighting efforts. By 9 a.m. local time on July 20, the fire had expanded to 95,748 acres and was 49% contained, according to the Central Oregon Fire Information. The size of the fire was "slightly reduced" from July 19 after "more accurate mapping" was completed, officials said on the fire’s information page. "Crews are building on the progress made yesterday and overnight," according to a July 20 update on the fire’s information page. "Cooler temperatures and higher humidity are creating better conditions for mop-up work, especially along the fire perimeter and around structures." The fire ignited near Willowdale, a sparsely populated area about 133 miles southeast of Portland, and swept through grasslands and rangeland in the region, fire officials said. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation. A total of four residences and two other structures were destroyed in the fire, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Local authorities in Jefferson, Wasco, and Crook counties have issued evacuation orders or warnings across multiple zones. By the afternoon of July 20, authorities lowered evacuation levels in parts of Jefferson, Wasco, and Crook counties. The Cram Fire is one of at least 46 active wildfires, most of which have been contained, in Oregon, according to the state’s fires and hotspots dashboard. The fire also leads the list of wildfire incidents in 2025, followed by the Madre Fire in central California that has burned nearly 81,000 acres, according to InciWeb, a federal government wildfire tracker.

NBC News [7/21/2025 2:42 AM, Jay Blackman and Dennis Romero, 44540K] reports Alaska Airlines and its regional subsidiary Horizon Air requested a ground stop to all flights Sunday night due to a computer system outage. The request to federal authorities kept Alaska and Horizon flights out of the air until the FAA said the stop was lifted after 2 a.m. ET. Monday. In a statement earlier, Alaska said the outage involved its information technology network and was "impacting our operations." “We are experiencing issues with our IT systems. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to resolve the issues," read a message on the airline’s website. Even as the problem is now resolved, it could have a lasting effect and cause delays to the airlines’ schedules through Monday. "There will be residual impacts to our operation throughout the evening," Alaska said in its earlier statement. Alaska and Horizon Air ticket holders were asked to check the statuses of their flights before they arrived at their departure points. It was one year ago nearly to the day that the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike’s sensor configuration update to its widely used platform triggered a system crash that affected airlines, medical facilities, businesses and police forces around the globe, with Microsoft computers showing “blue screens of death.” The exact cause of Sunday’s Alaska outage was not immediately clear.

San Francisco Chronicle [7/21/2025 11:21 AM, Aidin Vaziri, 4120K] reports Alaska Airlines lifted a system-wide ground stop late Sunday night after an information technology outage disrupted operations across the country, the company said. The technical issue began around 8 p.m. and led Alaska to halt all flights operated by the airline and its regional subsidiary, Horizon Air. The airline requested a nationwide ground stop from federal aviation authorities as it worked to resolve the system failure. “As of 11 p.m. Pacific, the ground stop has been lifted, and our operations have resumed,” Alaska said in a statement. “It will take some time to get our overall operations back to normal.” The disruption lasted approximately three hours and affected both departures and arrivals. While service has resumed, the airline warned of continued delays and cancellations as it works to reset its flight schedule. “There will be residual impacts to our operation,” the company said earlier Sunday. Passengers were urged to check their flight status before heading to the airport. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the ground stop had lifted but did not provide additional details. Alaska did not immediately identify the cause of the outage. The incident comes nearly a year after a widespread IT failure linked to a faulty software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike disrupted multiple sectors globally, including aviation. No link between the two incidents has been established. Seattle-based Alaska Airlines is the fifth-largest airline in the U.S. and operates hundreds of daily flights across North America. In late April, the company reported it was operating 238 Boeing aircraft under the Alaska brand and another 45 aircraft under the Horizon Air brand.

Bloomberg [7/21/2025 2:08 AM, Mark Anderson and Jane Lanhee Lee, 19320K] reports Microsoft Corp.’s server software was exploited by unidentified hackers, with analysts warning of widespread cybersecurity breaches across the globe. The Redmond, Washington-based software maker said it had released a new security patch for customers to apply to their SharePoint servers “to mitigate active attacks targeting on-premises servers,” adding it was working to roll out others. The vulnerability allowed hackers to access file systems and internal configurations, as well as execute code, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said. Cybersecurity firms cautioned that a broad section of organizations around the world could be affected by the breach. Silas Cutler, a researcher at Michigan-based cybersecurity firm Censys, estimated that more than 10,000 companies with SharePoint servers were at risk. The US had the largest number of those companies, followed by the Netherlands, the UK and Canada, he said. “It’s a dream for ransomware operators, and a lot of attackers are going to be working this weekend as well,” he added. Palo Alto Networks Inc. warned that “these exploits are real, in-the-wild, and pose a serious threat.” Google Threat Intelligence Group said in an e-mailed statement it had observed hackers exploiting the vulnerability, adding it allows “persistent, unauthenticated access and presents a significant risk to affected organizations.” “When they’re able to compromise the fortress that is SharePoint, everybody is kind of at their whim because that is one of the highest security protocols out there,” said Gene Yu, CEO of Singapore-based cyber incident response firm Blackpanda. Washington Post reported that the breach had affected US federal and state agencies, universities, energy companies and an Asian telecommunications company, citing state officials and private researchers. Researchers at Eye Security were the first to identify the vulnerability, Cutler said. They reported an intrusion on Friday resembling one identified earlier in the week in a demo by researchers Code White GmbH, which reproduced vulnerabilities presented by others at the Pwn2Own hacking contest. Eye Security said the vulnerability allows hackers to access SharePoint servers and steal keys that can let them impersonate users or services even after the server is patched. It said hackers can maintain access through backdoors or modified components that can survive updates and reboots of systems. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment beyond the company’s statement.

Washington Post [7/20/2025 5:01 PM, Ellen Nakashima, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Joseph Menn, 32099K] reports the "zero-day" attack, so called because it targeted a previously unknown vulnerability, is only the latest cybersecurity embarrassment for Microsoft. Last year, the company was faulted by a panel of U.S. government and industry experts for lapses that enabled a 2023 targeted Chinese hack of U.S. government emails, including those of then-Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. This most recent attack compromises only those servers housed within an organization — not those in the cloud, such as Microsoft 365, officials said. Microsoft has suggested that users make modifications to SharePoint server programs or simply unplug them from the internet to stanch the breach. Microsoft issued an alert to customers but declined to comment further. "Anybody who’s got a hosted SharePoint server has got a problem," said Adam Meyers, senior vice president with CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm. "It’s a significant vulnerability.’’. The FBI said in a statement that it was aware of the matter. "We are working closely with our federal government and private sector partners," it said. "We are seeing attempts to exploit thousands of SharePoint servers globally before a patch is available," said Pete Renals, a senior manager with Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42. "We have identified dozens of compromised organizations spanning both commercial and government sectors.’’. With access to these servers, which often connect to Outlook email, Teams and other core services, a breach can lead to theft of sensitive data as well as password harvesting, Netherlands-based research company Eye Security noted. What’s also alarming, researchers said, is that the hackers have gained access to keys that may allow them to regain entry even after a system is patched. "So pushing out a patch on Monday or Tuesday doesn’t help anybody who’s been compromised in the past 72 hours," said one researcher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because a federal investigation is ongoing. It was not immediately clear who is behind the hacking of global reach or what its ultimate goal is. One private research company found the hackers targeting servers in China as well as a state legislature in the eastern United States. Eye Security said it has tracked more than 50 breaches, including at an energy company in a large state and several European government agencies. At least two U.S. federal agencies have seen their servers breached, according to researchers, who said victim confidentiality agreements prevent them from naming the targets. In Arizona, cybersecurity officials were convening with state, local and tribal officials to assess potential vulnerabilities and share information. "There is definitely a mad scramble across the nation right now," said one person familiar with the state’s response. The breaches occurred after Microsoft fixed a security flaw this month. The attackers realized they could use a similar vulnerability, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA spokeswoman Marci McCarthy said the agency was alerted to the issue Friday by a cyber research firm and immediately contacted Microsoft.

NewsMax [7/20/2025 7:55 PM, Brian Freeman, 4622K] reports hackers launched a global attack on government agencies and businesses over the last several days by exploiting a security flaw in widely used Microsoft server software, Washington Post reported on Sunday. The U.S. government, along with partners in Canada and Australia, are probing the compromise of SharePoint servers, which provide a platform for sharing and managing documents. Victims worldwide have been left to scramble to respond as tens of thousands of such servers are at risk, experts said, and Microsoft has issued no patch for the flaw. This attack is only the latest cybersecurity embarrassment for Microsoft. Last year, the company was criticized by a panel of U.S. government and industry experts for lapses that allowed a 2023 targeted Chinese hack of U.S. government emails, including those of then-Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. This most recent attack compromises only those servers housed within an organization - not those in the cloud, such as Microsoft 365, officials told the Post. Microsoft has suggested that users make modifications to SharePoint server programs or unplug them from the internet in order to halt the breach. "We are seeing attempts to exploit thousands of SharePoint servers globally before a patch is available," said Pete Renals, a senior manager with Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42. "We have identified dozens of compromised organizations spanning both commercial and government sectors.’’ Such a breach can lead to theft of sensitive data as well as password harvesting, Netherlands-based research company Eye Security pointed out. Another problem is it was not immediately clear who is behind the hacking or what its ultimate goal is. Eye Security said it has tracked more than 50 breaches, including at an energy firm in a large state and several European government agencies. At least two U.S. federal agencies have seen their servers breached, according to researchers, who said victim confidentiality agreements prevent them from naming the targets. One state official in the eastern U.S. said the attackers had "hijacked" a repository of documents provided to the public to help residents understand how their government works. Such "wiper" attacks are rare, and this one left officials alarmed in other states as word spread. The breaches took place after Microsoft repaired a security flaw earlier this month, but the attackers realized they could use a similar vulnerability, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA spokeswoman Marci McCarthy said the agency was alerted to the issue Friday by a cyber research firm and immediately informed Microsoft. On Friday, Microsoft said it would stop using China-based engineers to back Defense Department cloud-computing programs after a report by investigative outlet ProPublica revealed the practice, which led Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to order a review of Pentagon cloud deals. Others that were breached included a government agency in Spain, a local agency in Albuquerque, and a university in Brazil, security researchers said.

CNN [7/20/2025 8:15 AM, Hanna Park, Rebekah Riess and John Miller, 21433K] reports a lively night outside a bustling East Hollywood nightclub took a devastating turn early Saturday when a car barreled through a crowded sidewalk, injuring at least 30 people, including seven critically. The crash occurred outside The Vermont Hollywood, where 29-year-old Fernando Ramirez had been kicked out for being disruptive before police say he drove his car into the crowd. The suspect was beaten and shot by bystanders after the crash and is now in custody, facing potential charges including attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, police said. Video footage after the crash showed blood on the street and injured patrons sprawled on the pavement as first responders provided aid, with some victims carried away on stretchers. Police cordoned off the area as investigators worked to piece together the sequence of events. The crowd had gathered outside for valet services, food stands and entry to the nightclub. A taco stand and valet podium were among the structures hit, but the venue itself sustained no structural damage, officials said. Ramirez, who remains hospitalized, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, but a motive has not yet been identified, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson told CNN. The driver had been kicked out of The Vermont Hollywood for being disruptive prior to the incident, Los Angeles Police Department Captain Ben Fernandes told the Los Angeles Times. “From review of the video, he went up to the sidewalk further down and when he hit bystanders, it was an intentional act,” Fernandes told the LA Times. After the crash, bystanders pulled the driver from the vehicle and began assaulting him, according to Jeff Lee, a public information officer with the LAPD. During the altercation, one of the bystanders shot the driver, Lee said. First responders discovered the gunshot wound during a secondary assessment, said Capt. Adam VanGerpen, public information officer for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

FOX News [7/20/2025 12:46 PM, Taylor Penley, 46878K] reports Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard detailed "striking" findings from declassified documents released Friday, claiming to showcase "overwhelming evidence" that an Obama-era cabal laid the groundwork for what would be the years-long Trump-Russia collusion probe after the 2016 election. "The implications of this are frankly nothing short of historic," Gabbard said on this week’s "Sunday Morning Futures.” "Over 100 documents that we released on Friday really detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an issue that is so serious it should concern every single American because it has to do with the integrity of our democratic republic," she continued. Documents shared by Gabbard’s office claimed that before the 2016 election, there was no evidence showing Russia tried to directly alter vote counts. However, members of the intelligence community later suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help Trump win. Gabbard argues the narrative shift was politically motivated rather than based on new findings. "Creating this piece of manufactured intelligence that claims that Russia had helped Donald Trump get elected contradicted every other assessment that had been made previously in the months leading up to the election that said exactly the opposite, that Russia had neither the intent nor the capability to try to ‘hack the United States election,’" Gabbard told host Maria Bartiromo. "So the effect of what President Obama and his senior national security team did was subvert the will of the American people, undermining our democratic republic and enacting what would be essentially a years-long coup against President Trump, who was duly elected by the American people.” Evidence released by Gabbard’s office implicated then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, among others, in addition to the former president. Gabbard confirmed her intent to send all the uncovered documents to the Department of Justice and the FBI for a criminal referral. The DailySignal [7/20/2025 7:00 PM, Lorenzo Prieto, 558K] reports that the evidence also incriminates former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, as well as Obama. Gabbard stated the intent to file the records with the FBI and the Department of Justice with the hope DOJ would criminally prosecute those involved in the hoax. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., called out Gabbard’s statements on X as "utter nonsense," accusing her of fabricating false claims to divert the public’s attention from the Epstein Files case. "This is utter nonsense. Completely. Odd that then CIA Director Pompeo didn’t say any of this. Or that none of the six DNIs in Trump’s first term said any of it. Once again, @DNIGabbard is trashing her own people in an attempt to regain Trump’s favor or to distract from the Epstein scandal. Probably both.” The Daily Wire [7/20/2025 7:27 AM, Daniel Chaitin, 3816K] reports Gabbard, a former congresswoman from Hawaii who broke with the Democratic Party, made the announcement on Fox News after first disclosing last week what she dubbed a “treasonous conspiracy” by high-level Obama administration officials to undermine President Donald Trump’s first term. “Next week, we will be releasing more detailed information about how exactly this took place and the extent to which this information was sought to be hidden from the American people, hidden from officials who would be in a position to do something about it,” Gabbard told “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo. She added later, “Accountability is essential for the future of our country. For the American people to have any sense of trust in the integrity of our democratic republic, accountability, action, prosecution, indictments for those who are responsible for trying to steal our democracy is essential for us to make sure that this never happens to our country again.” In a thread posted to X on Friday, Gabbard shared clips of documents and contended that Obama directed his top intelligence officials to “create” a new intelligence assessment in December 2016 that contradicted prior analyses, after which they “leaned on their allies in the media to advance their falsehoods” and push the narrative that Russia “intervened to hack the election in Trump’s favor.” Gabbard told Bartiromo that her team released 100 documents on Friday. They “provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected,” she noted. Gabbard also said they were referring all the records to the Department of Justice and FBI for a criminal referral.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [7/20/2025 2:25 PM, Pam Key, 3077K]

Reuters [7/20/2025 11:56 PM, Humeyra Pamuk, 51390K] reports that, days before President Donald Trump said he would help Afghan evacuees who fled their country and were stuck in the United Arab Emirates, the Emirati government had already begun returning them to Afghanistan and informed Washington that it was doing so, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Sunday. The UAE, a close security partner of the United States, agreed in 2021 to temporarily house several thousand Afghans evacuated from Kabul as the Taliban ousted the U.S.-backed government during the final stages of the U.S.-led withdrawal. Throughout the years, about 17,000 Afghan evacuees have been processed through the Abu Dhabi facility, known as Emirates Humanitarian City. However, more than 30 remaining Afghans have been stuck with their fate in limbo. News outlet "Just the News" reported on Sunday that UAE officials were preparing to hand over some Afghan refugees to the Taliban. "I will try to save them, starting right now," Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday that linked to an article on the Afghans held in limbo there. However, it may already be too late for some. In a July 10 meeting with U.S. officials in Abu Dhabi, Salem al-Zaabi, UAE Special Advisor to the Foreign Minister, told the Americans that two families had been "successfully and safely" sent back to Afghanistan in early July, the cable, which had the same date as the meeting, said.

Reuters [7/21/2025 4:24 AM, Shivam Patel and Aftab Ahmed, 51390K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump’s lunch meeting with Pakistan’s military chief prompted a private diplomatic protest from India in a warning to Washington about risks to their bilateral ties while New Delhi is recalibrating relations with China as a hedge, officials and analysts said. The meeting and other tensions in the U.S.-India relationship, after decades of flourishing ties, have cast a shadow in trade negotiations, they said, as Trump’s administration weighs tariffs against one of its major partners in the Indo-Pacific. India blames Pakistan, especially its military establishment, for supporting what it calls cross-border terrorism and has told the U.S. it is sending the wrong signals by wooing Field Marshal Asim Munir, three senior Indian government officials directly aware of the matter told Reuters. It has created a sore spot that will hamper relations going forward, they said. Pakistan denies accusations that it supports militants who attack Indian targets and that New Delhi has provided no evidence that it is involved. U.S.-India ties have strengthened in the past two decades despite minor hiccups, at least partly because both countries seek to counter China.

Reuters [7/20/2025 8:04 AM, Staff, 24051K] reports South Korea’s national security adviser has headed to Washington, authorities said on Sunday, with less than two weeks to go until U.S. President Donald Trump’s Aug. 1 deadline to secure a trade deal or face steep tariffs. Wi Sung-lac’s trip comes just two weeks after his last visit to Washington for talks on tariffs and security. After Trump’s announcement, South Korea said it planned to intensify trade talks. There were no immediate details on who he was planning to meet. Presidential aide Woo Sang-ho told journalists Wi would engage in negotiations on various issues, without elaborating. Earlier this month, Trump said he planned to impose a 25% tariff on South Korea from August 1, posing the first major test for South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung since he came to office barely a month ago. On his last trip to Washington, Wi said he had met U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and proposed including security and investments in trade negotiations.

{End of Report} RETURN TO TOP