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

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

The AP [7/24/2025 10:07 PM, Lindsay Whitehurst and Hallie Golden, 37958K] reports a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s order seeking to end birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, affirming a lower-court decision that blocked its enforcement nationwide. The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes after Trump’s plan was also blocked by a federal judge in New Hampshire. It marks the first time an appeals court has weighed in and brings the issue one step closer to coming back quickly before the Supreme Court. The 9th Circuit decision keeps a block on the Trump administration enforcing the order that would deny citizenship to children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily. “The district court correctly concluded that the Executive Order’s proposed interpretation, denying citizenship to many persons born in the United States, is unconstitutional. We fully agree,” the majority wrote. The 2-1 ruling keeps in place a decision from U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour in Seattle, who blocked Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship and decried what he described as the administration’s attempt to ignore the Constitution for political gain. Coughenour was the first to block the order. The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The Supreme Court has since restricted the power of lower court judges to issue orders that affect the whole country, known as nationwide injunctions. But the 9th Circuit majority found that the case fell under one of the exceptions left open by the justices. The case was filed by a group of states who argued that they need a nationwide order to prevent the problems that would be caused by birthright citizenship only being the law in half of the country. “We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing a universal injunction in order to give the States complete relief,” Judge Michael Hawkins and Ronald Gould, both appointed by President Bill Clinton, wrote. CNN [7/23/2025 8:31 PM, Devan Cole, 21433K] reports that "The district court below concluded that a universal preliminary injunction is necessary to provide the states with complete relief. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing a universal injunction in order to give the states complete relief," appeals court Judge Ronald Gould wrote for the majority. "The states would suffer the same irreparable harms under a geographically-limited injunction as they would without an injunction," Gould, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, added, explaining that a narrower injunction would require the states that challenged the law to overhaul their eligibility verification systems for various social services programs. Wednesday’s decision also represents the first time an appeals court has fully concluded that Trump’s order is unconstitutional. The Trump administration has the option of asking the full 9th Circuit to review the case, but it could also appeal the matter straight to the Supreme Court. "The district court correctly concluded that the Executive Order’s proposed interpretation, denying citizenship to many persons born in the United States, is unconstitutional. We fully agree," Gould wrote in the ruling, which was joined by appeals court judge Michael Hawkins, also a Clinton appointee. He went on to say that Trump’s order contradicts the Citizenship Clause of the Constitution, an 1898 Supreme Court case known as United States v. Wong Kim Ark and decades of Executive Branch practice. FOX News [7/24/2025 3:36 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports Judge Patrick Bumatay, a Trump appointee, dissented after deciding that states don’t have the legal right or standing to sue the Trump administration over this. He did not weigh in on the constitutionality of ending birthright citizenship. The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment states that people born or naturalized in the U.S., or "subject to United States jurisdiction," are American citizens, but Department of Justice attorneys argue that does not mean children are automatically American citizens based solely on birth location. Trump’s EO would deny American citizenship to a child born to a mother without legal or permanent status in the U.S., and whose father does not hold legal or permanent status. The Trump administration is facing at least nine lawsuits across the country challenging the EO. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] Axios [7/23/2025 9:48 PM, Rebecca Falconer, 13599K] reports that although the Supreme Court limited lower courts’ powers, it left room for broader relief through the filing of class-action lawsuits. The Trump administration has since faced fresh challenges to the policy. A federal judge in New Hampshire blocked the action earlier this month by issuing a preliminary injunction following a request from immigration rights advocates to certify a nationwide class of all children born after Trump’s order went into effect who would be deprived of citizenship. Democratic attorneys general in Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon brought the case against Trump and agencies including the State Department, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security. Administration officials named in the suit include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Representatives for the Trump administration did not immediately respond to Axios’ requests on Wednesday evening for comment.

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New York Times [7/23/2025 10:23 PM, Mattathias Schwartz, 153395K]
Washington Post [7/23/2025 9:56 PM, David Nakamura, 32099K]
New York Post [7/23/2025 11:03 PM, Victor Nava, 49956K]
Reuters [7/23/2025 9:57 PM, Nate Raymond, 51390K]

CBS News [7/23/2025 12:40 PM, Caroline Linton, 51860K] reports the State Department said Wednesday that it would be investigating Harvard University’s participation in a visa program for foreign students and academics, the latest in a series of actions the Trump administration has taken targeting the Ivy League school. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the investigation on Wednesday, saying in a statement that "the American people have the right to expect their universities to uphold national security, comply with the law, and provide safe environments for all students.” The investigation centers around Harvard’s participation as a sponsor for the Exchange Visitor Program, which issues J-1 visas to foreign students, professors and researchers who are expected to return to their home countries. Some J-1 visa holders are required to return to their countries for at least two years before being eligible for other visas to enter the U.S. "To maintain their privilege to sponsor exchange visitors, sponsors must comply with all regulations, including conducting their programs in a manner that does not undermine the foreign policy objectives or compromise the national security interests of the United States," Rubio said, adding that the investigation "will ensure that State Department programs do not run contrary to our nation’s interests." The statement did not specify which aspects of Harvard’s participation in the program is under investigation. In a statement, Harvard said the probe is "yet another retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights.” "Harvard continues to enroll and sponsor international scholars, researchers, and students, and will protect its international community and support them as they apply for U.S. visas and travel to campus this fall," the university said in a statement. "The University is committed to continuing to comply with the applicable Exchange Visitor Program regulations.” Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the department would be subpoenaing Harvard for information about its foreign students related to its Harvard’s certification under the Student Visitor and Exchange Program. CNN [7/23/2025 12:43 PM, Jennifer Hansler and Andy Rose, 875K] reports that the administration has previously cited antisemitism on campus as a reason for putting the school’s international student program in jeopardy, along with the claim that Harvard did not provide the government with required information about its international students. The State Department investigation specifically targets people at Harvard under J-1 visas, which the university says is "to bring foreign nationals as professors, researchers, specialists and students to the University." It is separate from the F-1 visa program that is strictly for students and is largely administered by the Department of Homeland Security. "This investigation is yet another retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights," said Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton in a statement Wednesday. "Harvard continues to enroll and sponsor international scholars, researchers, and students, and will protect its international community and support them as they apply for U.S. visas and travel to campus this fall," the statement continued. "The University is committed to continuing to comply with the applicable Exchange Visitor Program regulations.” FOX News [7/23/2025 1:42 PM, Danielle Wallace, 46878K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem in May attempted to revoke Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, effectively barring the university from enrolling international students. She said the Trump administration was "holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus."

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New York Times [7/23/2025 10:10 AM, Michael C. Bender and Alan Blinder, 153395K]
Washington Post [7/24/2025 2:02 AM, Niha Masih, 32099K]
The Hill [7/23/2025 11:05 AM, Lexi Lonas Cochran, 18649K]
Reuters [7/23/2025 2:03 PM, Daphne Psaledakis and Bhargav Acharya, 51390K]
Washington Examiner [7/23/2025 12:40 PM, Brady Knox, 1934K]
Daily Caller [7/23/2025 12:21 PM, Staff, 1010K]
NewsMax [7/23/2025 12:19 PM, Solange Reyner, 4622K]

The New York Post [7/23/2025 8:20 PM, Josh Christenson and Chris Nesi, 49956K] reports the Trump administration has won unprecedented concessions from Columbia University in a sweeping settlement — with the Ivy League university paying more than $220 million and pledging to reverse racially discriminatory practices and resolve civil rights violations against Jewish students, The Post can exclusively reveal. The settlement, under which Columbia will agree to submit to independent monitoring to ensure it is complying with merit-based hiring and admissions requirements, is likely to put pressure on other schools — like Harvard — that have crossed the White House over tolerance of extreme Jew-hatred on campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas against Israel. The resolution comes after just four months of negotiations between Columbia and Trump, striking a stark contrast with Harvard, which decided to drag the administration into court for stripping the school of $2.6 billion in grants and other funding. A source familiar with the negotiations noted that $400 million yanked from Columbia in March when talks began would have snowballed to affect billions of dollars of university research grants and other funding. In addition to paying the feds $200 million to settle their discrimination claims, Columbia will also fork over more than $20 million to Jewish employees who were discriminated against amid fierce antisemitic demonstrations that followed the Hamas attack. The Trump administration is touting the employees’ sum as the largest public settlement of its kind in nearly 20 years and the highest for any victim who’s lodged a Title VI complaint. The Ivy League school has also agreed to end all programming that discriminated against faculty or students — bringing it into full compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision banning race-based affirmative action — and create some yet-to-be-announced faculty positions in the name of broadening intellectual diversity. The settlement further calls for Columbia to maintain a trained security force blocking demonstrations in academic spaces and coordinate with the NYPD to prevent a repeat of the takeover of Hamilton Hall by anti-Israel rioters in the spring of 2024 — while the university will impose a complete ban on masked protests. Disciplinary rules will no longer be governed by the faculty senate but, rather, by the Office of the Provost. On Tuesday, Columbia announced that dozens of students were going to be suspended or penalized — and a handful expelled — for a recent disruptive library demonstration and anti-Israel tent encampment that engulfed the campus last year.The New York Times [7/23/2025 8:01 PM, Sharon Otterman, 153395K] reports that the deal, which settles more than a half-dozen open civil rights investigations into the university, will be overseen by an independent monitor agreed to by both sides who will report to the government on its progress every six months. Columbia will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. “This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty,” Claire Shipman, Columbia’s acting president, said in the release. “The settlement was carefully crafted to protect the values that define us and allow our essential research partnership with the federal government to get back on track.” Linda McMahon, the federal education secretary, said in a statement that the deal was “a seismic shift in our nation’s fight to hold institutions that accept American taxpayer dollars accountable for antisemitic discrimination and harassment.” NewsMax [7/23/2025 8:41 PM, Michael Katz, 4622K] reports that the settlement came after four months of negotiations that started when the administration pulled approximately $400 million in federal grants, the New York Post reported. Most of that money will be returned under the settlement. Columbia will pay $200 million to the U.S., as well as $21 million into a claims fund for Jewish employees who were discriminated against during anti-Israel on-campus demonstrations that followed Iranian-backed Hamas’ terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip. Columbia agreed to end all programming that discriminated against faculty or students — bringing it into compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision banning race-based affirmative action — and create faculty positions to broaden intellectual diversity, the Post reported. The settlement further calls for Columbia to maintain a trained security force blocking demonstrations in academic spaces and coordinate with the New York Police Department to prevent a repeat of the takeover of Hamilton Hall by anti-Israel protesters during the spring of 2024. The university also will ban individuals from wearing masks during protests.

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Washington Post [7/23/2025 9:38 PM, Susan Svrluga and Emily Davies, 32099K]

NewsMax [7/23/2025 10:52 AM, Eric Mack, 4622K] reports while the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are facing an "830% increase in assaults against them," the Department of Homeland Security released an exclusive list of child pedophile and drug trafficker arrests Wednesday to Newsmax. President Donald Trump, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and border czar Tom Homan have targeted the "worst of the worst" first in the mass deportation force, and the DHS outlined five of its most "violent thugs" arrested to date. "Across the country, ICE agents are targeting dangerous criminal illegal aliens and taking them off American streets," assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement to Newsmax. "Violent thugs ICE arrested include child pedophiles, drug traffickers, and robbers." "As our brave ICE law enforcement arrests the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens, they are facing an 830% increase in assaults against them," McLaughlin’s statement continued. "Secretary Noem stands with ICE agents who put themselves in harm’s way to protect the American people from violent illegal alien criminals."

The Hill [7/24/2025 2:08 AM, Staff, 18649K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and several other republican officials, lawmakers spoke Wednesday at the Anti-Human Trafficking Summit at the 2025 CPAC event in Washington, D.C. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Wall Street Journal [7/23/2025 7:03 PM, Louise Radnofsky and Mariah Timms, 646K] reports a federal judge has restricted immigration officials’ ability to immediately re-deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly sent to El Salvador earlier this year and later brought back to the U.S. to face criminal charges. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said the government must give the 29-year-old Salvadoran native 72 hours notice before attempting to deport him to another country. She also ordered that he be sent to Maryland, where she has jurisdiction, if he is released from jail. “The Court shares Plaintiffs’ ongoing concern that, absent meaningful safeguards, Defendants may once again remove Abrego Garcia from the United States without having restored him to the status quo ante and without due process,” Xinis said. The ruling was a win for Abrego Garcia, guaranteeing him an opportunity to challenge any effort to deport him to a third country, and potentially allowing him to return to the state where his family lives. But it will change little about his immediate circumstances. In a near-simultaneous ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Tennessee, who is overseeing the criminal case against Abrego Garcia, ordered that he be released from jail there while he awaits trial. The Tennessee court then put Crenshaw’s ruling on hold, allowing Abrego Garcia to stay in custody there for at least 30 days, at the request of his own attorneys. The government has indicated that if Abrego Garcia were to be released from jail, immigration officials would seek to take him into custody and begin removal proceedings. It said it was impossible to predict where he would be held. Under Xinis’s order, they must send him to Baltimore for immigration-enforcement supervision there. A White House spokeswoman said of Xinis, “This local district judge has grossly overstepped her authority by attempting to interfere with ICE efforts to detain—pending removal—a criminal illegal alien who poses a threat to the safety of our communities.” FOX News [7/23/2025 3:15 PM, Breanne Deppisch, 46878K] reports that Xinis said at an evidentiary hearing this month that she would take action soon, in anticipation of a looming detention hearing for Abrego Garcia in his criminal case. She said she planned to issue the order with sufficient time to block the Trump administration’s stated plans to immediately begin the process of deporting Abrego Garcia again upon release — this time to a third country such as Mexico or South Sudan. Xinis’s order said the additional time will ensure Abrego can raise any credible fears of removal to a third country, and via "the appropriate channels in the immigration process." She also ordered the government to provide Abrego and his attorneys with "immediate written notice" of plans to transport him to a third country, again with the 72-hour notice period, "so that Abrego Garcia may assert claims of credible fear or seek any other relief available to him under the law and the Constitution.” Xinis said in her order Wednesday that the 72-hour notice period is necessary "to prevent a repeat of Abrego Garcia’s unlawful deportation to El Salvador by way of third-country removal.” "Defendants have taken no concrete steps to ensure that any prospective third country would not summarily return Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in an end-run around the very withholding order that offers him uncontroverted protection," she said. Axios [7/23/2025 3:36 PM, Andrew Childers, 13599K] reports that in her order, Judge Paula Xinis said Ábrego García had "remained in compliance" with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision order at the time he was wrongfully deported. Xinis said Ábrego García must be returned to the jurisdiction of ICE officials in Maryland rather than Tennessee. While the order doesn’t bar ICE officials in Baltimore from starting the process to deport Ábrego García to a country other than El Salvador, the order requires that they give him and his legal team 72 hours’ notice before hand. "The facts remain, this MS-13 gang member, human trafficker and illegal alien will never walk America’s streets again," Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said a emailed statement.

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AP [7/23/2025 4:27 PM, Ben Finley, 56000K]|
Daily Caller [7/23/2025 4:41 PM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K]

The New York Times [7/23/2025 6:35 PM, Alan Feuer, 138952K] reports a federal judge in Tennessee said on Wednesday that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant wrongfully deported to El Salvador, should be freed from custody in his criminal case even as a judge in Maryland issued a separate order protecting him from being hastily expelled from the country again. The convergence of the two judicial rulings, which came within minutes of each other, meant that Mr. Abrego Garcia could soon return as a free man for now to Maryland, where he had been living with his family before his monthslong ordeal of arrest, deportation and imprisonment in El Salvador began in March. Prosecutors charged him in Federal District Court in Nashville with taking part in a yearslong conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants across the United States as a member of the violent transnational street gang MS-13. But in his order releasing Mr. Abrego Garcia, Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., who is overseeing the criminal case, cast serious doubts on what he described as the government’s “poor attempts to tie Abrego to MS-13.” Judge Crenshaw noted in particular that there was no evidence that Mr. Abrego Garcia had any “markings or tattoos showing gang affiliation,” an assertion that directly undercut accusations that officials including President Trump have made. The judge also pointed out that prosecutors had offered no proof supporting claims that Mr. Abrego Garcia “has working relationships with known MS-13 members; ever told any of the witnesses that he is a MS-13 member; or has ever been affiliated with any sort of gang activity.” Moreover, Judge Crenshaw raised questions about the veracity of the government’s star witness in the case, Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, a Texas man who ran the smuggling operation that purportedly employed Mr. Abrego Garcia. In her order, Judge Xinis barred federal immigration officials from immediately taking Mr. Abrego Garcia into custody when he is released in Tennessee. The order also restored him to the legal situation he was in before he was arrested in Maryland on March 12 and sent to El Salvador three days later. In a final measure, Judge Xinis’s order required the government to begin any new removal proceedings against Mr. Abrego Garcia in Maryland. And the judge ordered the administration to provide Mr. Abrego Garcia and lawyers with a warning of at least three business days if they intended to start the process of seeking his expulsion to a country other than El Salvador. Reuters [7/23/2025 5:55 PM, Andrew Goudsward and Luc Cohen, 51390K] reports Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement accused Abrego of being a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and said he "will never walk America’s streets again." Politico [7/23/2025 6:56 PM, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, 16523K] reports “The fact this unhinged judge is trying to tell ICE they can’t arrest someone who is subject to immigration arrest under federal law is insane,” said the spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin. Crenshaw, an Obama appointee, upheld a magistrate judge’s conclusion that Abrego should not be detained pending trial and must be released on bail. The magistrate will set Abrego’s release conditions. Crenshaw also said prosecutors had made a sufficient showing that Abrego’s alleged smuggling activity likely involved “a minor victim.” That is enough to entitle the government to seek pretrial detention, but Crenshaw concluded that detention wasn’t appropriate because — with proper release conditions — Abrego is unlikely to flee or pose a danger to the community. Crenshaw said prosecutors’ claims that Abrego might flee because he could fear being picked up again by Immigration and Customs Enforcement amounted to “pure speculation.” “It is not difficult to see why one might seek to avoid ICE after experiencing what Abrego did in recent months,” the judge wrote, pointing to the Supreme Court’s description of Abrego’s saga. “Still, the irony of the Government making this argument when it (albeit a different department in the Executive Branch) created these circumstances is not lost on this Court.” The Washington Post [7/23/2025 7:06 PM, Steve Thompson, 32099K] reports Wednesday’s orders marked a pair of resounding defeats for the Trump administration in the legal drama surrounding Abrego after he was deported to a notorious El Salvador prison in March in violation of a federal immigration judge’s 2019 order barring his removal to that country. On Wednesday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson continued the administration’s vociferous approach to the case, attacking Xinis’s decision on social media. "The fact this unhinged judge is trying to tell ICE they can’t arrest an MS-13 gang member, indicted by a grand jury for human trafficking, and subject to immigration arrest under federal law is LAWLESS AND INSANE," Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said on X.

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Bloomberg [7/23/2025 4:33 PM, Erik Larson and Zoe Tillman, 19320K]
Reuters [7/23/2025 2:34 PM, Andrew Goudsward and Luc Cohen, 51390K]
NBC News [7/23/2025 4:16 PM, Gary Grumbach and Matt Lavietes, 44540K]
USA Today [7/23/2025 3:21 PM, Evan Mealins, Eduardo Cuevas, 75552K]
Daily Wire [7/23/2025 12:24 PM, Spencer Lindquist, 3816K]

CNN [7/23/2025 4:23 PM, Devan Cole] reports a federal judge in Tennessee declined on Wednesday to undo a separate judge’s decision to let Kilmar Abrego Garcia remain free while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges — though he’ll continue to remain behind bars for at least another month. The ruling from US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said federal prosecutors had not shown "through clear and convincing evidence" that Abrego Garcia would present a danger to others or the community if he were allowed to remain out of criminal custody as his case unfolds. But the magistrate judge — Barbara Holmes — said in another decision that Abrego Garcia would remain behind bars for at least 30 more days, granting an unopposed request by his lawyers for him to stay in criminal custody. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers had made the request earlier this week in an effort to ensure removal proceedings wouldn’t quickly begin once he’s released from custody. Just as Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, released his ruling, a third judge in Maryland who is overseeing a civil case brought by Abrego Garcia and his family over his wrongful deportation earlier this year to El Salvador released her own ruling that bars the administration from quickly deporting him again should he be released from criminal custody in coming days. That ruling from US District Judge Paula Xinis, also an Obama appointee, is meant to do two things: Restore Abrego Garcia to the immigration position he was in before his deportation in mid-March and ensure his due process rights aren’t violated again should officials try to remove him from the US a second time. Breitbart [7/23/2025 7:43 PM, Staff, 3077K] reports that a federal judge on Wednesday temporarily paused Kilmer Abrego Garcia’s release from criminal custody after two judges earlier in the day ruled the accused MS-13 gang member should return to his home in Baltimore awaiting trial. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national living legally in the United States since 2019, was deported in March to a notorious prison in El Salvador because of an "administrative error." In June, he was brought to Tennessee on two criminal charges of human smuggling. He pleaded not guilty. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holles, who serves in the Middle District of Tennessee, determined that Abrego Garcia should remain in federal custody for 30 days "pending further order." Magistrates are named by the court’s district judges. Both sides sought the pause — the federal government an opportunity to appeal and his legal team to seek further court relief. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville and Paula Ixis in Maryland had blocked the government from detaining and deporting after release from criminal custody. President Barack Obama appointed both judges. Crenshaw ruled the government "fails to provide any evidence that there is something in Abrego’s history, or his exhibited characteristics, that warrants detention." Last week, Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, described him as a "horrible human being and a monster, and he should never be released free."

NBC News [7/23/2025 9:28 PM, Gary Grumbach and Marlene Lenthang, 56K] reports that Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have asked a federal judge in Tennessee to order the Trump administration to stop making statements about his case after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly called him a "horrible human being" who should "never be released." Abrego, a Maryland resident, was erroneously deported in March to El Salvador, and his case became a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, sparking concerns over a lack of due process. He’s now being held in Nashville, Tennessee, on human smuggling charges. In a filing Tuesday, Abrego’s attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, who is overseeing the human smuggling case, to ensure the government complies with the court’s rules regarding extrajudicial statements to ensure Abrego is afforded a fair trial. Noem made the comments about Abrego’s case at a news conference Friday in Nashville to announce recent arrests of "criminal illegal aliens." On Monday, the defense requested that the government issue a retraction, but the Trump administration did not respond. The court had already ordered both the government and the defense on July 3 to stop making public statements about Abrego’s case to ensure a fair trial.

Daily Wire [7/23/2025 12:48 PM, Hank Berrien, 3816K] reports after Mahmoud Khalil —whom the Trump administration wanted to deport, prompting protests from leftists on campus and in the media — consistently avoided condemning Hamas on a television interview, the Department of Homeland Security bluntly declared, "Mahmoud Khalil refuses to condemn Hamas because he IS a terrorist sympathizer not because DHS ‘painted’ him as one.” Khalil, who filed a $20 million claim against the Trump administration this month, was interviewed on CNN by hosts Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown; Brown displayed her own prejudice by quoting a United Nations Special Committee stating it had grounds to say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians and Gaza. Blitzer and Brown supported Khalil as Blitzer selectively played a clip of Khalil making a statement against antisemitism, and Brown insisted, "You’ve consistently condemned antisemitism before and since your arrest.” The hosts conveniently ignored Khalil having led American undergraduates at Columbia University in actions in support of Hamas after its October 7, 2023, attack. "He served as the negotiator on behalf of the occupying students with the university, pressuring the administration to accommodate student demands based on their illegal activity. He helped organize an illegal encampment on the campus that denied access to ‘Zionist’ students," JNS noted. "Do you specifically condemn Hamas, a designated terrorist organization in the United States, not just for their actions on October 7?" Brown asked. "I condemn the killing of all civilians, full stop," Khalil dodged. "But what I don’t want to get into is — no. I am clear with condemning all civilians. I’m very straight in my position in that part. But it’s disingenuous to ask about condemning Hamas while Palestinians are the ones being starved now by Israel.” "It is fair to ask you about whether you can condemn Hamas because the Trump administration has claimed that you are a Hamas sympathizer. So, it’s very important to actually ask that question in this broad conversation," Brown persisted. "Yes. I simply asked and protested the war in Palestine," Khalil dodged again. "That’s what I did. That’s my duty as a Palestinian, as a human being right now, is to ask for the stop of the killing in my home country. And that’s consistent with who I am. I’m a firm believer in international law and human rights and all my values come from that. … And that’s why I wouldn’t really engage in much into such questions on condemnation or not, because selective condemnation is not — wouldn’t get us anywhere.”

Washington Examiner [7/23/2025 4:40 PM, Asher Notheis, 1934K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Mahmoud Khalil’s refusal to condemn Hamas shows he "clearly" endorses the terrorist group’s actions. Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist detained and released by the Trump administration, declined to say if he opposes Hamas on Tuesday, saying he does not support "selective condemnation." In response, Noem said Hamas’s charter has demonstrated targeting the Jewish population "for years," and Khalil had an opportunity to let the nation know "exactly" where he stands on the Gaza conflict. "He didn’t because of the actions he’s taken in the past, and because he clearly doesn’t want to draw that line between himself and that terrorist organization. So these are the individuals that make it so dangerous right now in this country," Noem said on Fox News’s Hannity Tuesday. Noem said the Trump administration is targeting "people who committed crimes in this country," and people who support Hamas should not remain in the United States. She added that people who sympathize with Hamas should not have the "privilege" of receiving visas. Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin similarly condemned Khalil’s statement on X, saying he declined three times to denounce Hamas.

FOX News [7/24/2025 3:17 AM, Landon Mion, 46878K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi abruptly canceled her scheduled Wednesday appearance at CPAC’s anti-trafficking summit in Washington, D.C., citing her recovery from a health issue. Bondi was expected to speak at CPAC’s Summit Against Human Trafficking when it was revealed she could not make her scheduled appearance. "I do have a note from the attorney general, from Attorney General Pam Bondi, that I wanted to share," Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti told attendees. Galeotti then read Bondi’s statement to the crowd. "I’m sorry to miss all of my CPAC friends today," Bondi said in her statement. "Unfortunately, I am recovering from a recently torn cornea, which is preventing me from being with you," she continued. "I truly wish I was able to join you and support all of the work being done on this critical issue.” After reading the statement, scattered applause was heard from the audience. "We appreciate the applause for her and not boos for me," Galeotti joked. "So I will do my best to fill those big shoes.” The Justice Department did not disclose additional information about Bondi’s health condition. Other Trump administration officials spoke at the event, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan. Bondi’s canceled appearance comes as she has faced recent scrutiny over the Trump administration’s refusal to release documents surrounding the case of deceased sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Detroit Free Press [7/23/2025 9:59 AM, Susan Tompor, 4241K] reports more than likely, you’ve never been to Mexico. And you never expected to receive a shipment of drugs from there or anywhere else. No matter, a crook is bound to try to convince you otherwise. Scammers who claim to be an agent from U.S. Customs and Border Protection are dialing for data and dollars. The caller often asks if you’re expecting a package from Mexico — and then will claim that U.S. Customs has intercepted your drug-filled package at the border. As might be expected, all sorts of scams that impersonate government officials continue to be making the rounds. The crooks know we’re hearing plenty about immigration, drug trafficking, tariffs, Medicare and more. And they’ve never been at a loss for ways to push our buttons. U.S. Customs and Border Protection warns that crooks who claim to be employees of the agency tell potential victims that a warrant is out for their arrest or that "a box of drugs and money being shipped has your name on it and has been intercepted.” If you stay on the line about that so-called package delay, according to an alert from the Federal Trade Commission, the odds are high that the caller impersonating Customs and Border Protection is going to demand that you pay using cryptocurrency, gift cards, or wire transfers, or tell you to give them your banking account or Social Security number. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services warns online that some businesses and websites pretend to be immigration experts or say they have special connections to the government. "They might also ‘guarantee’ that you can get a visa, Green Card, or work permit faster if you pay a fee," according to the agency. But it’s a scam. Elaborate immigration scams, according to an alert from the Federal Trade Commission, can start with someone impersonating attorneys and law firms, offering immigration services through posts on Facebook and other platforms. The service reportedly offers to help you with immigration paperwork. The consumer is often then asked to send money using Western Union or Zelle. In return, the con artists claim they’ll supposedly get you an appointment with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS.

FOX Business [7/23/2025 11:39 AM, Staff, 9940K] Video: HERE reports Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, discusses President Donald Trump’s plan to deal with states whose cities have sanctuary policies in place on ‘Varney & Co.’

Breitbart [7/23/2025 4:14 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has overseen a massive surge in detainer requests for criminal illegal aliens accused and convicted of crimes in the sanctuary city of New York City. On Wednesday, DHS officials revealed that since Jan. 20, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued 6,025 detainers for illegal aliens in New York City. Detainers are requests for local law enforcement to hold an illegal alien until they can be transferred to ICE custody. For perspective, in former President Joe Biden’s full four years in office, ICE agents issued less than 9,500 detainers for illegal aliens in New York City — indicating that such requests have increased more than 400 percent under Trump. Despite the huge increase in detainers, New York City officials have only honored a handful, according to DHS officials. "In just six months, ICE has issued over 6,000 detainers in NYC alone — that’s a more than 400 percent increase in the number of detainers lodged under Biden," DHS’s Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: “When sanctuary politicians like Mayor Eric Adams ignore ICE detainers, they are protecting criminal illegal aliens at the expense of American citizens. These are barbaric criminals with prior convictions for rape, murder, drug trafficking, and instead of holding them for ICE, sanctuary politicians release them back into your communities. These reckless policies have deadly consequences.”

New York Post [7/23/2025 7:10 PM, Haley Brown and Matthew Fischetti, 49956K] reports Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday he would "look into" conditions at 26 Federal Plaza after advocacy groups and local pols complained of "inhumane treatment" at the ICE facility. Videos released by the New York Immigration Coalition Tuesday showed a crowded holding cell at the federal immigration offices in Lower Manhattan, with over a dozen asylum seekers using thermal blankets as makeshift beds. "We’re going to look into it. It was brought to our attention yesterday and I spoke with the chief of staff and the team to find out exactly what’s going on there based on the videos that were presented," the mayor said at an unrelated news conference. In a letter sent later Wednesday to the General Services Administration, Adams requested the agency, which is responsible for managing federally owned buildings, conduct an inspection to ensure proper procedures were being followed. "The lack of clarity and transparency surrounding the facility’s current use raises serious concerns," reads the letter, shared with The Post. "We urge your office to conduct a thorough inspection and share your findings with the public immediately so that all parties may have a clear understanding of how this space is being used — and whether it aligns with its intended purpose under federal law.” The GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "26 Federal Plaza is not a detention center. It is a processing center where illegal aliens are briefly processed to be transferred to an ICE detention facility," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "Any claim that there is overcrowding or subprime conditions at ICE facilities are categorically false. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”

FOX News [7/23/2025 3:00 PM, Marc Tamasco, 46878K] reports New York City Mayor Eric Adams told the New York Post’s Miranda Devine on Wednesday that the Trump administration’s efforts to secure the southern border have provided "real relief" to New York City during an appearance on the "Pod Force One" podcast. Adams praised the Trump administration’s work in securing the southern border, crediting those efforts for NYC’s declining number of asylum seekers, and connected his criticisms of the Biden administration’s immigration policy to his federal indictment last year. "We’re now down to less than 100 migrant asylum seekers coming into our city a week and that’s due to the securing of the border. The Trump administration secured the border, and because of that, you’re not seeing the thousands of people coming in, and it has been a real relief for our city," Adams told Devine. The NYC mayor noted that the $7.7 billion the city spent on the housing and care of illegal immigrants over the past few years "could have gone to other services in our city," and lamented the long-term impact of "losing" those billions of dollars. When asked by Devine whether pushing back on the Biden administration’s immigration policies caused "friction" between him and the administration, he detailed why he believed his criticisms led to his federal indictment on bribery and fraud charges. "What happened of this investigation that they put in place… I was in route to Washington to talk about the migrants and asylum seekers when the FBI went into the home of my fundraiser, and it started to unravel a long investigation and I truly believe it was associated with my criticism of what was happening in the city and I just wanted to defend my city and say that this was hurting us," he explained. Adams argued that he was being unfairly targeted with "lawfare," and agreed with Trump’s claim that former President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice had become "too politicized.”

Reported similarly:
New York Post [7/23/2025 6:00 AM, Carl Campanile, 49956K]

Breitbart [7/23/2025 4:02 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) is leading a House Republican effort to effectively speed up deportations of illegal aliens, Breitbart News has exclusively learned. The plan has already been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). Nehls, joined by Reps. Barry Moore (R-AL) and Brandon Gill (R-TX), is introducing the Rapid Expulsion of Migrant Offenders who Violate and Evade (REMOVE) Act which would conclude deportation proceedings for illegal aliens within a 15-day period after those proceedings begin. The legislation is critical to helping Trump reach his goal of deporting about a million illegal aliens every year. Current deportation proceedings can take years before they wrap up. Under the REMOVE Act, timely deportation proceedings would be a requirement of federal law for illegal aliens who have been served Notices to Appear (NTA) before immigration judges.

DailySignal [7/23/2025 10:29 AM, George Caldwell, 558K] repots Texas Republican Rep. Keith Self has a big day today on Capitol Hill, introducing four bills to codify President Donald Trump’s executive orders. "These executive orders by President Trump reflect commonsense governance and clear priorities. Now more than ever, public accountability, educational integrity, and national security are vital," Self said in a statement. "To preserve the integrity of these accomplishments, we must protect them from being reversed by the radical left and cement these wins into law.” Per a press release, this bill "returns authority to teachers and school administrators, empowering them to maintain order in classrooms without fear of federal overreach.” In April, Trump signed an executive order supporting school discipline measures such as expulsion, suspension, and detention. Under the Biden administration, the Department of Education warned schools against such disciplinary policies, arguing that they have a disproportionate effect on minority students and are thus discriminatory by nature. The Trump administration believes this ironically led to schools adopting racially discriminatory discipline policies in their efforts to equalize the discipline rate for students of all races. Trump’s April executive order was meant to grant teachers the authority to equitably discipline their students without the fear of losing funding from the federal government or being prosecuted.

Los Angeles Times [7/23/2025 6:39 PM, Jasmine Mendez, 14672K] reports a Compton man who allegedly hurled concrete blocks at federal officers last month in Paramount was arrested Wednesday after fleeing to Mexico, authorities said. Elpidio Reyna, 39, was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List following his alleged participation in a standoff against federal agents after they conducted a raid at a nearby Home Depot on June 7. In video footage captured by The Times, individuals can be seen hurling objects at moving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles. At around 3:30 p.m. on June 7, Reyna allegedly threw concrete blocks at the cars, damaging the exterior of the vehicles and injuring a federal officer, according to the FBI. The agency did not elaborate on the extent and nature of the injury the federal officer suffered. Reyna was charged in a federal criminal complaint with allegedly assaulting a federal officer on June 8. Federal agents later confirmed Reyna had fled to Mexico. On June 11, the Department of Homeland Security announced a $50,000 reward to locate Reyna, according to a news release. Mexican authorities took Reyna into custody in the state of Sinaloa shortly after the post was made public, and Reyna surrendered to the FBI on Wednesday, according to the bureau. He was arrested at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and taken to L.A., where he was expected to make his initial court appearance Wednesday.

Los Angeles Times [7/23/2025 4:59 PM, James Queally and Brittny Mejia, 14672K] reports to bystanders at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, it sounded as though U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli would not take no for an answer. A prosecutor had the irate Trump administration appointee on speaker phone outside the grand jury room, and his screaming was audible, according to three law enforcement officials aware of the encounter who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The grand jury had just refused to indict someone accused of attacking federal law enforcement officers during protests against the recent immigration raids throughout Southern California, two of the officials said. It was an exceedingly rare outcome after a type of hearing that routinely leads to federal charges being filed.

CBS News [7/23/2025 8:06 PM, Ken Molestina, 51860K] reports that, for migrants newly in the United States, including many who don’t speak English, navigating immigration court is complicated. It’s even harder for children sent here alone. There are organizations around the U.S. that help minors navigate the process, but the future of these programs is now uncertain. "The different circumstances that lead these children to arrive have to do with poverty, have to do with persecution," said Farheen Siddiqi, a managing attorney at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a nonprofit that helps people affected by humanitarian crises across the U.S. and the world. "They’re already carrying a high level of trauma." For migrant children, who range in age from 3 to 17 years old and arrive in the U.S. without a guardian, applying for asylum can be another confusing obstacle. "The immigration system is so complex," Siddiqi said. "And then seeing the children’s faces. They have really no idea how to navigate that." It’s why U.S. law provides protections for unaccompanied children and why federal grants go toward legal representation for these children. The International Rescue Committee is one of the groups that receives funding to help unaccompanied minors. "We’ve gone through a lot of different variations of the funding being cut," Siddiqi said. This year, Siddiqi said the money that organizations like the IRC rely on has been jeopardized. In March, the network that oversees these nonprofits received a letter from the Department of the Interior ending the contract that pays for the network’s services. It puts legal representation for about 26,000 unaccompanied kids at risk. As a result, some of the nonprofits have sued. A federal judge has since restored the funding, for now. "But ... there’s no certainty as to the future of the program," Siddiqi said. "It’s only until September that we have continued funding." "If this elimination extends, in the future, that means that these children are going to be left with no representation whatsoever," Siddiqi added. Ultimately, that could mean children alone in courtrooms, unable to adequately present their case for immigration relief, end up with deportation orders. "As attorneys, we might be able to find another job, but these children and their future is at risk, ultimately," Siddiqi said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [7/23/2025 10:21 PM, Jim Thomas, 4622K] reports Democrats ignored child exploitation at the border and now are feigning outrage over Jeffrey Epstein-related documents, Kari Lake, senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, told Newsmax Wednesday. "I got a lump in my throat thinking about that poor child that’s been trapped in that life and knowing that there’s tens of thousands — possibly upwards of more than 100,000 — who are trapped in really bad conditions, and the Democrats keep turning their head on it," Lake told "Rob Schmitt Tonight." "I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or Republican; you should care about children. This is a point where we should come together to protect our children.” "We just saw those children who are being used working in really almost what equates to slave labor on these drug farms in California," Lane said. "And instead of folks in the uniparty and, you know, the ‘never Trumpers,’ they’re all attacking [President Donald] Trump for wanting to get these kids out of that situation. And they’re never saying, Wow, thank you for protecting the children.” On July 10, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents executed a search warrant for Glass House’s farms in Carpinteria and Camarillo, court filings show. The government said the business was being investigated for potential child labor, human trafficking, and other abuses. Agents found 14 children at one site. No information has been released about the minors. The company has not been charged. Federal and state laws allow children as young as 12 to work in agriculture under certain conditions, though no one under age 21 is allowed to work in the cannabis industry. Lake also criticized media coverage of the Epstein case. "You’re right about all this Epstein stuff — all of these pictures, everything. This is all old news, but they have not been covering it. So to their viewers, it might be new information," she said. "The Wall Street Journal has jumped the shark. It’s sad to see that they have gone the way of all of these other networks like MSNBC, CNN — frankly, New York Times and Washington Post. They’re all disreputable, and we can’t trust any of them.” In April, a report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General confirmed key findings by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, about gaps in the Biden administration’s handling of the unaccompanied alien children program. The report found that over 500,000 minors entered the program during Biden’s term, and many were released to unvetted adult sponsors amid surging cartel activity at the southern border.

Daily Caller [7/23/2025 10:49 AM, Harold Hutchison, 1010K reports Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York admitted in comments that resurfaced Tuesday that she was eager for immigrants to enter the United States to help Democrats with redistricting. Clarke initially made the comments during an Oct. 7, 2021, House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, which were previously resurfaced in a January 2024 post on X from the EndWokeness account before resurfacing again. During the 2021 hearing, Clarke took aim at Republicans who were objecting to Haitian migrants. "I’m from Brooklyn, New York," Clarke said during the hearing. "We have a diaspora that, that can absorb a significant number of these migrants and that, you know, when I hear colleagues talk about, you know, the, the, the doors of the inn being closed [and] no room in the inn, I, I’m saying, you know, I, I need more people in my district just for redistricting purposes.” Redistricting is a re-drawing of a state’s congressional districts and state and local districts that is required to take place after the Census, which occurs every ten years as required by the Constitution. The Border Patrol encountered millions of illegal immigrants during the Biden administration, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Residents of Springfield, Ohio, interviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation in 2024 outlined how the town struggled to handle an influx of 20,000 migrants, many from Haiti, who contributed to an increase in traffic accidents and skyrocketing housing prices.

NBC News [7/23/2025 12:00 PM, Sarah Dean, 44540K] reports to mark the first six months of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, the White House shared a social media post promising three things will continue as his term proceeds: the "winning," the deportations and the memes. "ATTENTION: TRUMP DIDN’T COME TO PLAY," reads the caption of the post, which was uploaded to Instagram and X on Sunday. It’s coupled with an illustration of Trump in front of an American flag, a bald eagle, fireworks and dollar bills. The post is a window into how the White House has approached its overall social media strategy during Trump’s second term. Previously, official White House social media accounts were used largely to promote presidents’ policies. Other official government accounts for various agencies have taken on similar tones. The Department of Homeland Security’s official account has promoted self-deportation through the CBP One app by posting a video set to the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads." The song "Ice, Ice Baby" is the soundtrack for another video pointing viewers to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement tip line. Asked whether she is concerned about the content’s being divisive or making light of issues the administration wants people to take seriously, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said: "Not at all." McLaughlin said she sees the role of the DHS social media accounts as giving people "the truth" and circumventing media outlets she deems hostile. "Eight years ago, under the first Trump administration, we didn’t have the social media environment that we have today, and so I think that we were more beholden to what the media was saying, and we couldn’t necessarily straighten out the facts," McLaughlin said. "And now, you know, we have a presence that we’re able to do that."

AP [7/23/2025 3:09 PM, Regina Garcia Cano, 4622K] reports Carlos Uzcátegui tightly hugged his sobbing wife and stepdaughter on Wednesday as the morning fog in western Venezuela lifted. The family’s first embrace in more than a year finally convinced him that his nightmare inside a prison in El Salvador was over. Uzcátegui was among the migrants being reunited with loved ones after four months in prison in El Salvador, where the U.S. government transferred them -- accusing them of being members of a foreign gang in the U.S. illegally -- in one of its boldest moves to crack down on immigration. "Every day, we asked God for the blessing of freeing us from there so that we could be here with family, with my loved ones," Uzcátegui, 33, said. "Every day, I woke up looking at the bars, wishing I wasn’t there.” "They beat us, they kicked us. I even have quite a few bruises on my stomach," he added before later showing a mildly bruised left abdomen. The migrants, some of whom characterized the prison as "hell," were freed Friday in a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments, but the latter sequestered them upon arrival to their country. Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and other officials have said many of the immigrants were physically and psychologically tortured during their detention in El Salvador, airing on state television videos of some of the men describing the alleged abuse, including rape, severe beatings and pellet-gun wounds. The narratives are reminiscent of the abuses that Maduro’s government has long been accused of committing against its real or perceived, jailed opponents. As the men reached their homes, they and their relatives shared deeply emotional moments in which sad tears and happy tears rolled down their cheeks at the same time. Uzcátegui’s wife, Gabriela Mora, 30, held onto their home’s fence and sobbed as she saw the military vehicle carrying him approach after a 30-plus-hour bus ride to their mining community nestled in Venezuela’s Andean mountains. She had set up gifts and decorations in their living room, including a star-shaped metallic blue balloon with a "Happy Father’s Day" greeting that his stepdaughter had saved since the June holiday.

CNN [7/23/2025 9:19 PM, Osmary Hernandez, Michael Rios, 21433K] reports that, for months, they say, they were beaten by prison guards, shot with pellets, deprived of adequate medical care and denied any due process inside El Salvador’s Center for Terrorism Confinement. "(The guards) tortured us physically and psychologically," said José Mora, one of 252 Venezuelan migrants recently held at the notorious mega-prison known as Cecot, after being deported there by the US. "It was a nightmare. I heard many brothers asking for help, shouting, ‘Mom, help!’" added Rafael Martínez, another detainee. That four-month "nightmare" ended on Friday, when El Salvador agreed to release all 252 migrants as part of a prisoner exchange deal between the US and Venezuela. Mora and Martínez are now reunited with their families in Venezuela and are speaking out about their experience, which they described as a violation of their human rights. CNN has reached out to the Salvadoran presidency for comment on their claims of abuse, but has not yet received a response. In the past, the government has said it respects the human rights of those in its custody "regardless of nationality," and that its prison system complies with standards of security and order. According to records, Martinez faced robbery charges in the US, pleaded guilty, and was released on bail before being arrested and sent to the Salvadoran prison. Mora, meanwhile, was jailed in Venezuela for drug possession-related offenses and served his sentence. In the United States, he received traffic violations, according to official records. Like many other Venezuelan migrants sent to El Salvador from the United States, Mora and Martínez say US officials wrongly accused them of belonging to the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua. Despite their denials, they were deported from the United States in March. Initially, they thought they would be flown home to Venezuela, but as soon as their deportation planes landed, they realized they had been sent to another country. Salvadoran officials boarded the aircraft and ordered them to exit, they said. "That’s where the mistreatment began," according Martínez, who said the officials forced them out by beating them, and held their heads down as they escorted them on to buses.

Reuters [7/23/2025 3:56 PM, Tathiana Ortiz, 51390K] reports a makeup artist who became the face of more than 250 Venezuelan migrants deported by the U.S. to El Salvador’s most notorious prison arrived home to his family on Wednesday after what he described as "an encounter with torture and death." Andry Hernandez, 32, and the other detainees returned to Venezuela on Friday as part of a prisoner exchange, after spending four months in El Salvador’s CECOT prison, where they and the Venezuelan government allege they were beaten, shot with rubber projectiles, held in dark cells, and served rotten food. Hernandez, detained at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration, had an active asylum case when he was deported to CECOT. His case was widely covered in the media. In a video broadcast on state television on Monday, Hernandez alleged sexual abuse by the guards at CECOT, and Venezuela’s attorney general has said his office will investigate El Salvador President Nayib Bukele over alleged abuses. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson has referred allegations of mistreatment to El Salvador’s government, while the U.S. Department of Homeland Security dismissed the allegations of abuse on Tuesday, calling the men "criminal, illegal gang members."

New York Times [7/23/2025 6:007 PM, Julie Turkewitz, José Bautista, and Frances Robles, 153395K] reports when the State Department secured the release of 10 Americans and permanent legal residents from a Venezuela prison last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the action as part of an effort to safeguard the well-being of Americans unjustly held abroad. But one of the men released from the prison, an American-Venezuelan dual national named Dahud Hanid Ortiz, had been convicted in Venezuela for the murder of three people in Spain in 2016, according to an official at the prosecutor’s office in Madrid and Venezuelan court records reviewed by The New York Times. The official asked not to be identified speaking publicly about the case. Mr. Hanid Ortiz, 54, had served 19 years in the in United States Army, according to military documents, and had been awarded a Purple Heart for injuries received in Iraq. He had multiple deployments and suffered physical and mental injuries as a result of his service, according to the Army. He was later dismissed from the military after pleading guilty to fraud and larceny. Then, in 2023, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a triple homicide committed in Madrid in 2016, according to Venezuelan court documents and Spanish news media coverage.

Washington Examiner [7/23/2025 3:19 PM, Paul Bedard, 1934K] reports migrants working in the United States send at least $200 billion home every year, including cash to criminal cartels, according to a new analysis of "remittances.” The money collected by legal and illegal migrants went to 134 nations, but most was directed to Mexico, India, Guatemala, the Philippines, and China. While much of the money was likely sent to relatives back home, some was also directed to cartels, said the analysis from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "Approximately $4.4 billion out of the $58.5 billion in total remittances sent to Mexico in 2022 were potentially linked to cartels," it added.

Washington Times [7/23/2025 4:59 PM, Wilson Beaver and Isela Becerra, 2106K] reports ask any American what security concerns President Trump’s executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” is addressing successfully, and the person is sure to mention our border with Mexico. But the threat isn’t limited to the continental United States. Illegal migration is also a serious problem in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), where many illegal drugs – and immigrants – begin their entry into the states. As Roberto Vaquero, the Customs and Border Protection director of field operations for Puerto Rico and USVI, has stated, “the consistent application of consequences for individuals found illegally present in the U.S. Virgin Islands is essential to maintaining the integrity of immigration laws and protecting national security.” Enhanced border security efforts are crucial to deterring national security threats, especially from Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). During 1994, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico were designated as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, which is still applicable today. Indeed, in 2023, 956 metric tons of cocaine were transshipped from South America through the Eastern Caribbean region, including the Virgin Islands. The USVI is where the “secondary flow” of drugs begins. Venezuela, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic source the two U.S. territories with drugs for consumption or for distribution to the U.S. mainland. This is why they remain concerns and should be given the resources to defend themselves against TCOs. Unfortunately, it is relatively easy for TCOs to push drugs through the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, because there are 1,000 miles of porous entry points, which limit Customs and Border Protection (CBP) searches on domestic cargo passing through the territory. A persistent issue in the USVI is illegal immigration of criminal aliens. In 2023, the Virgin Islands Police Department engaged with 627 illegals on the island of St. John. Then-commissioner Ray Martinez quoted a striking statistic saying, “More than 60 percent of the individuals that come in here [are] unknown to us.” Human trafficking through the USVI is on a far smaller scale than what was seen until very recently on the U.S. border with Mexico, but in many cases involves higher-profile illegal aliens on average, with members of international criminal organizations being trafficked to the U.S. mainland through the territory. The U.S. Virgin Islands need to be resourced with greater border patrol and immigration enforcement capabilities that will deter and punish transnational criminal organizations and illegal immigration – not only for the safety of the American citizens of the Virgin Islands, but also for the safety of the U.S. mainland.

The Hill [7/23/2025 8:00 AM, Sheldon H. Jacobson, 18649K] reports the Department of Homeland Security recently announced that travelers will no longer be required to remove their shoes when being screened through advanced imaging technology at airport security checkpoints. Since travelers who do not have a REAL ID to authenticate their identity are subject to greater security screening, they will almost certainly not be eligible. This change in policy was announced by the DHS secretary, not by the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (the deputy administrator is currently serving as the acting administrator). The Senate has not approved a new administrator since David Pekoske was relieved of his duties by the president on Jan. 20, 2025. Given that some senators have called for the TSA to be abolished, such cacophony likely means that a new TSA administrator will not be named too soon. The TSA security gauntlet is an intricate system of layers, many of which are invisible to travelers. The most visible aspects are what is deployed at airport security checkpoints, including advanced imaging technologies for passenger screening and CT scanners for passenger baggage. Some of the less visible layers include federal air marshals deployed on certain flights, hardened airplane cockpit doors, and Secure Flight, which vets passengers prior to their flight. To confuse the issue further, the DHS secretary has now indicated that the liquid policy is up for discussion, provided the necessary guardrails remain in place to keep the system secure. Perhaps relaxing the liquid restriction for PreCheck passengers traveling from airports with CT scanners will be the next step forward. Most people would welcome this policy change. But what can be done to ensure that the system’s security remains sufficiently robust?

Washington Post [7/23/2025 6:00 AM, Andrea Sachs, 32099K] reports at a panel event in Washington last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said her agency is considering a change to airport security that would do away with a common passenger annoyance. If the Transportation Security Administration allowed travelers to carry on liquids of more than 3.4 ounces, fliers no longer would have to empty their water bottles or trash full-size containers of shampoo to clear a checkpoint. “The liquids, I’m questioning,” Noem said during an interview at the conference hosted by politics website the Hill. “So that may be the next big announcement, is what size your liquids need to be.” Noem was speaking just days after she announced that TSA was ending its “shoes-off” policy. But scanning liquids requires different technology than does inspecting travelers’ shoes. Some aviation security experts caution that the agency’s infrastructure might not be ready for such a move. Noem has said that the Trump administration wants to usher in a new era of improved travel. From a security perspective, change does not appear imminent. Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor TSA answered questions about when the changes could occur, what a revision of the 19-year-old rule would entail, and whether the rollout would be nationwide or only at airports with the most advanced technology. “Secretary Noem and TSA are constantly looking for ways to enhance security and improve the travel experience for the public,” read a statement that Homeland Security sent to The Washington Post. “Any announcements on policy changes will be made through official channels.”

Washington Post [7/23/2025 11:47 AM, Sarah Labowitz, 32099K] reports at a July 12 news conference about the federal response to the devastating floods in Texas, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said, “What you saw from our response in Texas is going to be a lot of how President Trump envisions what FEMA would look like in the future.” In the days after the Hill Country floods, parts of FEMA showed up in Central Texas in the way that we have come to expect: The president approved Gov. Greg Abbott’s July 5 disaster declaration request the following day, and some FEMA staff deployed to the region and began coordinating among federal agencies to help local and state first responders. That said, search and rescue was delayed for three critical days because of new spending approval processes under Noem, and on Monday, the head of this elite team resigned. I study disasters, and the data shows that FEMA’s response in Texas is the exception to the Trump administration’s rules for disaster response. In fact, we should be looking at another recent disaster — one in St. Louis — to anticipate what’s to come for people who face disasters this hurricane season: long waits for federal help, stress on local responders and a confusing path toward getting help to people living through the worst moments of their lives. On May 16, five people died in the deadliest tornado in Missouri since 1959. For three weeks, FEMA did not deploy to St. Louis, leaving local first responders to manage search and rescue, sheltering, debris cleanup and damage surveys on their own. Spencer described the overwhelming responsibility of triaging the response with a small emergency management team. “Our cities aren’t equipped to deal with thousands of displaced people overnight,” she told me. “That’s what we were expecting [FEMA] to help with.” That pattern has continued since the start of hurricane season. Disasters happen, governors request federal help when their own capacity and budgets have been overwhelmed, and the disasters get added to a growing queue until the president responds. As of Tuesday, there were 13 open requests from governors, including for landslides and flooding in Oregon that started in February, flash flooding in Maryland in May that trapped hundreds of students in an elementary school, and multiple tornadoes across Oklahoma in mid-June. On Wednesday morning, however, FEMA announced partial approval of a batch of seven declaration requests, including for Oregon. When we visualized disaster response patterns for the period from February to July this year and last year, they show starkly different results. In 2024, the data shows an ongoing cycle of review without the batching effect that defines this year.

The Hill [7/23/2025 11:30 AM, Elizabeth Wilkins and Hannah Garden-Monheit, 18649K] reports that we know the tragic effects of President Trump’s dismantling of the federal government. Social Security service delivery are in crisis. Calls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of disaster go unanswered. Rural hospitals brace for a loss of federal support. And now congressional Republicans are surrendering the power of the purse to further hobble core government services by choking off funding. But the truth is, Trump alone didn’t break the federal government. He is putting the devastating capstone on a decades-long conservative project of undermining its capacity to function: underfunding agencies, outsourcing expertise, layering on procedural hurdles, stacking courts with partisan allies, and eroding public trust. Long before Trump took office, the result was a government that couldn’t move quickly, deliver boldly or meet the needs of the people it was supposed to serve. And when the government is unable to visibly respond to people’s discontent and aspirations within the timeframe of an electoral mandate, the legitimacy of democracy itself erodes. If Democrats truly believe in the power of government to improve people’s lives, they should be cautious about reverting to pre-Trump institutions. Our time in the Biden-Harris administration taught us that the federal government wasn’t meeting the needs of middle- or working-class people long before the 2024 election.

San Diego Union Tribune [7/23/2025 9:00 AM, Jimmy Patino, 1611K] reports on May 23, 1980, around 1,000 people, representing some 200 organizations from every border state, Colorado, Chicago, and nearby Tijuana, assembled in San Diego for the National Chicano Immigration Conference by the Committee on Chicano Rights (CCR), a local grassroots activist group advocating for its community’s self-determination. The historic meeting was a culmination of years of collective rage against increasing violence emanating from the U.S. Border Patrol, police and vigilantes against Mexican migrants. Attendees determined that the current immigration system, built by Republicans and Democrats, could not be reformed, noting that the very category of "illegal alien" was invented to exploit Mexican immigrants’ labor. And so they put forward a call for the "abolishment of the INS/Border Patrol," rejecting militarization as a solution to the U.S. immigration issue. "Abolishment" was not a cynical call to start over. It was a means to imagine a more democratic border policy from the perspective of those most affected by it and to end a system that took advantage of virtually rightless laborers. That framework continues to guide social movements seeking the abolition of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today.

New York Post [7/23/2025 5:24 PM, Staff, 49956K] reports Columbia University’s long-overdue crackdown on the dozens of students who violently took over Butler Library mark significant if belated steps toward accountability. For nearly two years, these students have occupied campus buildings, spread terrorist propaganda, praised convicted terrorists, posted Nazi-style antisemitic flyers, smashed doors, disrupted classes, harassed Jewish students and openly endorsed "liberation by any means necessary" — including the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre. Backed by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of over 90 pro-terror student groups, they have platformed speakers linked to US-designated terrorists, called for the death and expulsion of Jews and Israelis, and urged Hamas to target Jewish Americans. Now they are finally facing consequences. Yet after months of calling for accountability, I take no pleasure in their expulsions and long-term suspensions. Let’s be clear: the students who stormed Butler Library got exactly what they deserved. Any functioning society must mete out penalties for those who break the law, and college campuses, which play a central role in shaping young Americans, must uphold that principle. Still, as I watch the surge of anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-American hate rise on campus, I can’t help but ask: What if the administration had acted sooner? Could earlier intervention — as I have been calling for since Oct. 12, 2023 — have prevented this descent into terror-glorifying chaos? It shouldn’t have taken lawsuits, federal scrutiny and campus-wide chaos for Columbia’s leadership to finally do the right thing. But now that the administration finally seems ready to take antisemitism and support for terrorism seriously, the effort mustn’t stop with students.

New York Post [7/23/2025 6:02 PM, Staff, 49956K] reports Border Czar Tom Homan threw down a welcome warning to illegal-immigrant thugs — and a lifeline to beleaguered New Yorkers: ICE is coming, and it’s going to "flood the zone.” That’s good news: New York City’s crazy "sanctuary" laws let illegal immigrant criminals hide in plain sight. "Sanctuary cities are now our priority," Homan announced, after an off-duty border cop was almost killed by two suspected illegal-immigrant criminals. "Sanctuary cities are unsafe cities.” Indeed, lefty activists who fight ICE agents and back local sanctuary laws share much of the blame for the violence their darling migrants commit. In fact, it’s precisely those laws that force Homan to send more agents than he otherwise would. That’s because the laws ban ICE from prisons and jails, where illegal immigrants can be handed over to ICE, forcing agents to pursue them on the streets. That’s a lot more dangerous — and requires more agents to find and haul them in safely. "If we can’t arrest a bad guy in the safety and security of a jail," notes Homan, "we’ll arrest them in the community.” The irony’s unmistakable: "Sanctuary cities get exactly what they don’t want — more agents in their community," he says.

The Hill [7/23/2025 10:30 AM, Gordon G. Chang, 18649K] reports tn what Bloomberg termed "a dramatic reversal," the Trump administration will grant licenses to Nvidia Corp. so that it can sell its H20 chips to Chinese parties. In April, Trump officials had prohibited the sale of H20s to that country. At the same time, Advanced Micro Devices announced plans to resume sales of its MI308 artificial intelligence chip to China. The sale of advanced microchips to China is a mistake, almost certainly a grave one, but it is a mistake that the industry is determined to make. Not satisfied with exporting just the H20, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said at a press conference in Beijing this month that he wanted to sell even more advanced chips. "The reason for that is because technology is always moving on," he explained. "It’s not like wood." "Today, [the NVIDIA Hopper GPU architecture] is terrific, but some years from now we will have more and more and better and better technology, and I think it’s sensible that whatever we’re allowed to sell in China will continue to get better and better over time as well," Huang said. Nvidia said it will develop for export to China a new chip based on its Blackwell design. The chip will allow users to integrate AI into manufacturing. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick justified the reversal of the export ban by pointing out that the H20 was only Nvidia’s "fourth best" chip. "We don’t sell them our best stuff — not our second-best stuff, not even our third-best," he told CNBC on the 15th. "You want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack.”

Daily Signal [7/23/2025 6:45 PM, Virginia Allen, 558K] reports for four years, hundreds of thousands of minors arrived at the southern border without a parent or legal guardian. The whereabouts of many of those children remain unknown, but immigration authorities are working to confirm their status, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security says. "Among the most vulnerable populations [the Department of Homeland Security] encounters are unaccompanied alien children, referred to as UACs," Joseph Cuffari said Wednesday at a House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement hearing, "Catch and Release, Lose and Forget: Addressing the Crisis of Unaccompanied Alien Children.” Between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, more than 448,000 unaccompanied alien children were transferred from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, Cuffari told members of the committee. Most of those children were placed in the care of a sponsor. A recent audit conducted by the inspector general’s office found "significant gaps in how ICE monitors and manages the cases of UACs once they’re released from federal custody," Cuffari said, also noting that limited ICE staff coupled with a massive influx of illegal immigration contributed to the challenge of monitoring the status of unaccompanied minors. Among the 448,000 minors to enter the U.S. in recent years, ICE failed to issue more than 233,000 notices to appear in immigration court, according to the inspector general. Furthermore, more than 43,000 migrant children who were given a notice to appear in immigration court failed to do so. The inspector general’s audit found that 31,000 of the children released to a sponsor did not have a proper address where immigration officials could reach them. Following the findings from Cuffari’s office, ICE has accepted recommendations on how to better safeguard unaccompanied alien children. Under the leadership of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, a team of ICE agents and DHS investigators was formed in February to "identify, locate, and provide health and welfare checks on unaccompanied alien children who had been transferred from DHS custody to HHS.” Working with other federal law enforcement agencies, the ICE and DHS team has knocked on about 50,000 doors of sponsors who were listed as sponsoring two or more illegal-alien children. "From what we understand, they were able to identify and physically locate 12,000 unaccompanied alien children," Cuffari said, adding that "about 400" sponsors have been arrested following the home visits.

Washington Post [7/24/2025 5:00 AM, Douglas MacMillan and Silvia Foster-Frau, 32099K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has directed personnel to sharply increase the number of immigrants they shackle with GPS-enabled ankle monitors, as the Trump administration widens surveillance of people it is targeting for deportation, according to an internal ICE document reviewed by The Washington Post. In a June 9 memo, ICE ordered staff to place ankle monitors on all people enrolled in the agency’s Alternatives to Detention program “whenever possible.” About 183,000 adult migrants are enrolled in ATD and had previously consented to some form of tracking or mandatory check-ins while they waited for their immigration cases to be resolved. Currently, just 24,000 of these individuals wear ankle monitors. One exception would be pregnant women, who would be required to wear wrist-worn tracking devices, Dawnisha M. Helland, an acting assistant director in the management of non-detained immigrants, wrote in the letter. “If the alien is not being arrested at the time of reporting, escalate their supervision level to GPS ankle monitors whenever possible and increase reporting requirements,” Helland wrote. The new ankle monitor guidance, which has not been previously reported, marks a significant expansion of a 20-year-old surveillance practice steeped in controversy. While tracking devices are cheaper and arguably more humane than detention, immigrants and their advocates have long criticized the government’s use of the bulky black ankle bands, which they say are physically uncomfortable, impose a social stigma and invade the privacy of the people wearing them, many of whom have no criminal record or history of missed court appointments. “This will be a tool used to extend the reach of the government from just the folks it can manage to put in physical detention to an additional hundreds of thousands more that it can surveil,” said Laura Rivera, a senior staff attorney at Just Futures, a nonprofit group that has done research on ICE tracking technologies. “It’s designed to turn their own communities and homes into digital cages.”

FOX News [7/23/2025 12:00 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released numbers on Wednesday showing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has already issued 400% more detainers on illegal immigrants in sanctuary city of New York than former President Joe Biden did during his entire term. The data shows that ICE has issued 6,025 arrest requests to transfer custody or detainers since Trump took office in January. DHS says that during Biden’s entire presidency, he issued just 9,472 detainers in New York City. Despite the surge in ICE detainers, the department says that New York City has honored only a "handful" of the requests. "In just six months, ICE has issued over 6,000 detainers in NYC alone—that’s a more than 400 percent increase in the number of detainers lodged under Biden," Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital in a statement. "When sanctuary politicians like Mayor Eric Adams ignore ICE detainers, they are protecting criminal illegal aliens at the expense of American citizens. These are barbaric criminals with prior convictions for rape, murder, drug trafficking, and instead of holding them for ICE, sanctuary politicians release them back into your communities," she continued." These reckless policies have deadly consequences. Just this week, two illegal aliens who entered our country and were released under President Biden shot and nearly killed a brave off-duty CBP officer. Both criminal illegal aliens had been arrested for violent crimes and released by the NYPD.” The department also pointed to the "record number of assaults" that ICE officers are facing as they continue to carry out Trump’s deportation agenda amid strong pushback from elected Democrats, some of whom have compared agents to Nazis. Assaults on ICE agents are up 830% since Trump took office, according to DHS, and the department said in the press release Wednesday that the violence is "largely driven" by anti-ICE rhetoric and sanctuary policies. "I have nothing to do with the rules that are put in place. I just carry out the rules," Adams said in a Monday press conference in response to criticism from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem about the city’s sanctuary policies in the wake of the shooting.

Axios [7/23/2025 9:20 AM, Kale Williams and Kavya Beheraj, 13599K] reports arrests of people without criminal charges or convictions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surged in the Pacific Northwest in June, newly obtained data shows. The numbers illustrate a major shift that came soon after the Trump administration tripled ICE’s arrest quota. People without criminal charges or convictions made up an average of 53% of daily ICE arrests in the Seattle Area of Responsibility, which covers Oregon, Washington and Alaska, in early June. That’s up from about 28% in April, before the quota increase. The average number of daily arrests for those with charges or convictions also increased in early June, but not to the same degree. That’s according to agency data obtained by the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Deportation Data Project via Freedom of Information Act requests, and based on seven-day trailing averages.

NPR [7/23/2025 6:24 PM, Staff, 37958K] Audio: HERE reports since returning to office, President Trump has moved swiftly to upend decades of federal policy—from education to healthcare to vaccines...but nowhere more aggressively than immigration. Congress just passed tens of billions in funding for immigration enforcement...It’s the largest domestic enforcement funding in U.S. history, fueling Trump’s mass deportation campaign of migrants living in the U.S. illegally. President Trump campaigned for office promising the largest deportation in history. Six months into his second term, how has immigration enforcement changed.

CBS News [7/23/2025 8:27 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51860K] Video HERE reports halfway into President Trump’s first year back in office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency spearheading his crackdown on illegal immigration, is on track to record the most deportations since the Obama administration, according to internal government figures obtained by CBS News. During the first six months of Mr. Trump’s second presidency, ICE recorded nearly 150,000 deportations — or an average of more than 800 per day — putting the agency on a trajectory to carry out more than 300,000 removals in the president’s first year back in office if deportations continue at the same pace, the data indicates. That would be the highest annual tally since fiscal year 2014, when the Obama administration recorded 316,000 ICE deportations, historical agency figures show. The government’s fiscal year begins in October and ends at the end of September. Created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, ICE is charged with deporting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally or whose legal status is revoked, including because of criminal offenses or allegations of immigration fraud. The highest deportation level reported by ICE occurred in fiscal year 2012, when the agency recorded 410,000 removals. While it would be a significant increase, more than 300,000 ICE deportations in a year would still be far short of the target of 1 million annual deportations that Trump administration officials have outlined, highlighting the operational and legal constraints on immigration enforcement that Republican and Democratic presidents alike have confronted. At the same time, it’s possible ICE’s deportation efforts could expand significantly in the next six months, since the agency just received an unprecedented infusion of funding through Mr. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including $45 billion to set up more detention facilities and $30 billion to fund every stage of the deportation process. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [7/23/2025 5:50 PM, Priscilla Alvarez, 21433K] reports that the Trump administration is moving to rapidly deport some migrant children who arrived in the US without a parent or guardian by having federal agents ask teens whether they want to voluntarily depart the country, according to two Homeland Security officials and a source familiar with the discussions. The latest directive, which comes as the administration seeks to ramp up deportations, marks a departure from long-standing protocol which required that federal authorities turn over most unaccompanied children to the Health and Human Services Department, the agency charged with their care. Up until now, federal authorities didn’t ask unaccompanied kids from countries other than Mexico and Canada if they wanted to self deport. This week, US Customs and Border Protection personnel were directed to ask children they encounter in immigration enforcement operations across the country whether they want to voluntarily depart the United States, the officials said. If the child agrees, agents will turn that child over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. But if ICE doesn’t pick them up from CBP custody within 72 hours, agents will refer them to HHS. Two of the sources said the new policy is designed to apply to children ages 14 to 17.

New York Post [7/23/2025 6:57 PM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports ICE is on a hiring spree with the tsunami of new cash from President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill — and some top recruits are getting $50,000 signing bonuses and six-figure salaries as the agency ramps up its mass deportation effort. The most lucrative payouts are going to retired agents — who are returning to work in droves to take advantage of the new incentives, many of them tell The Post. New recruits can expect to make a fair bit less — between $50,000 to $90,000 per year in base salary. The agency is looking to hire 10,000 new agents with the flood of $75 billion in extra funding to carry out Trump’s mass deportation effort. "They’re begging to come back because they believe in securing America, protecting kids, and supporting an undermanned force stretched thin by the prior administration’s border chaos," said Scott Mechkowski, the former assistant ICE chief for New York. One retired agent, who requested anonymity due to his pending application to return to ICE, told The Post he knows "about four or five" other ex-feds "that put in" for the opportunity to return to the force with salaries over $100,000 per year. Homeland Security agents — especially with Border Patrol — quit en mass during the Biden administration because they were so fed up with policies that allowed illegal migrants to pour into the US. Now, many are coming back to work. "It’s a great opportunity to get back into the mix and because a lot of us ended our career and we still felt like we had a lot more left," the ex-agent said. ICE is offering a signing bonus of $10,000 upon returning to service; another $10,000 bonus for those who apply by Aug. 1; and annual $10,000 bonuses, for up to three years, for those who take part in Operation Return to Service. The agency has also said it will offer "dual compensation waivers," allowing former feds to retain pension payments and benefits if they come out of retirement.

FOX News [7/23/2025 4:07 PM, Charles Creitz, 46878K] reports following violent incidents in Los Angeles and other cities targeting ICE officers – including assaults on K9s and mounted units – Rep. Aaron Bean introduced legislation to strengthen penalties for those who harm law enforcement animals and their handlers. The news comes after the Department of Homeland Security released new data showing immigration officers collectively are experiencing a 690% increase in assaults against them, as such data tacitly includes animal officers. The bill, announced late Tuesday at a ceremony outside the Capitol, implements sentences as high as 15 years – and is named for Marion County, Florida, Sheriff’s Deputy K9 Leo, who was killed in the line of duty. Bean’s bill expands federal statutes protecting human officers to apply to local, state or federal police animals assisting federal agencies. It also directs the Department of Transportation to give a "safe harbor" exception to people rushing injured police animals for veterinary care.

FOX News [7/23/2025 9:00 AM, Elizabeth Elkind, Deirdre Heavey, and Olivia Patel, 46878K] reports President Donald Trump’s "big, beautiful bill" was signed into law earlier this month, with Republican lawmakers celebrating a broad range of GOP victories in the massive tax-and-spending legislation. That includes billions of dollars aimed at Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration in the U.S. Nearly $30 billion is marked for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) alone, and $45 billion is going toward building up detention facility capacity. House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital last week hailed that funding boost, even as critics of the Trump administration accuse the White House of taking too heavy a hand on the issue. "Having that money to now be able to work on the wall along the southern border, to be able to hire more agents, to pay them more, to invest in the technology, to patrol and secure the border – it is hugely important," Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital. "If you ask President Trump, that was the most important issue of the 2024 election.”Rep. Michael Guest, R-Tenn., who chairs the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the detention facility funding is particularly significant. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., pointed out that ICE had been asking for that funding for some time. "Tom Homan has done a tremendous job. He’s indicated for a while he needs more money to keep doing his job. And he’s being fought by everybody, particularly the sanctuary cities, to prevent that from happening," Norman said. "The least we can do is provide the funding, and we did it."

FOX News [7/23/2025 9:00 AM, Alexander Hall, 46878K] Video: HERE reports Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., condemned the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics Tuesday, warning that plans to expand Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and allow agents to operate in masks could lead to "vigilantism" and "depravity.” Speaking on "The Bulwark" podcast, Murphy criticized the administration’s push to hire more ICE officers to execute mass deportations—a centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. He argued that such rapid expansion, coupled with the anonymity provided by masks, could attract undesirable candidates and create dangerous conditions for misconduct. Murphy said that officers wearing masks can be "just a cover for illegality and for brutality, because if nobody can identify the law enforcement officer that’s beating the hell out of an immigrant, then everybody can get away with it." The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has raised concerns about the doxxing of ICE agents, claiming attacks have skyrocketed by 830% since January. The DHS has called on the Justice Department to prosecute anyone suspected of "doxxing" ICE agents by posting agents’ photos and personal information online or in public. Murphy said he wants federal agents to be treated with respect but warned that as Trump beefs up ICE by hiring more officers, "There is an element of folks who are going to be drawn to these jobs that see it as a bonus that they can get away with masked vigilantism." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/23/2025 3:09 PM, Cameron Arcand, 46878K] reports a man who entered the country illegally during the Biden administration after being deported three times before was convicted, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced. Santo Beato Aybar-Aybar, 49, was most recently deported on Sept. 21, 2021, but returned without ever being "inspected, admitted or paroled" by federal immigration authorities. The Dominican national was arrested by ICE Boston, and he pleaded guilty in June in federal court. "Santo Beato Aybar-Aybar repeatedly displayed a blatant disregard for U.S. immigration laws, and that resulted in his conviction for illegally reentering the country after deportation," ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde said in a statement on Sunday. "We will not stand idly by as criminals subvert our immigration laws and take refuge in our neighborhoods. ICE Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing illegal alien offenders from our New England communities.” Aybar-Aybar could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of "supervised release" when he is sentenced on Sept. 11. Even after he serves his sentence in prison, he will be deported once again, according to an ICE press release. ICE Boston has been very active under the Trump administration, with federal leaders often going toe to toe with local Democrats. Boston and other cities in Massachusetts are considered sanctuary cities, meaning they have laws that limit local authorities’ ability to comply with federal law enforcement on certain immigration-related matters.

CBS New York [7/23/2025 5:45 PM, Jennifer McLogan, 51860K] reports that some New York state Democrats visited the Nassau County Jail in East Meadow to inspect conditions Wednesday. The federal government is leasing space inside the jail for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees and reimbursing the county $195 per day per detainee. Under the partnership, detainees can’t be jailed for longer than 72 hours. Nassau County says over 1,400 people have been held so far this year under a collaboration with ICE, and the county has set aside 50 jail cells for the agency to use. No showers, outdoor activity for detainees, lawmakers say. Bryan Perez, a Hofstra grad and paralegal, represents immigrants, like his own family, at CARECEN, the Central American Refugee Center. "People are being detained, they’re being taken to the Nassau County Jail, and then afterwards, it’s been very difficult to trace where they have gone to," he said. After saying they were initially denied jail access, lawmakers Michaelle Solages and Julia Salazar toured the ICE cells in East Meadow. "It’s to ensure that there’s transparency and accountability because this is a Nassau County facility," Solages said. "Individuals are in their cells. They were being provided with food." Conditions were good, they said, except there were no showers and detainees had no outdoor activity. The jail says that’s because of the detainees’ brief stays.

The Hill [7/23/2025 1:28 PM, Henry Rosoff, 18649K] reports that a newly released video from inside the holding cells at Manhattan’s immigration court is raising more concern over how federal immigration authorities are treating detainees. Obtained by the New York Immigration Coalition, the video shows dozens of men crammed into a single room, sleeping on the floor with limited basic necessities and hygiene accommodations. The facility, located in Lower Manhattan, was originally intended to hold individuals for less than 24 hours while they awaited transfer to larger detention centers. However, advocates have reported that people are being confined there for up to two weeks. “This is just one room of dozens,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. “The video illustrates what we’ve been saying for months — ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are using 26 Federal Plaza as a detention center in the most inhumane and cruel way possible.” Immigration advocates and elected officials have long expressed concern about the treatment of individuals detained at the courthouse — many of whom were arrested after showing up for legal asylum or green card hearings. Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat who represents Lower Manhattan, has pressed for a congressional oversight visit to the facility. He cited numerous anecdotal accounts of detainees being held for extended periods without access to clean clothing, adequate meals, or medical care. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [7/23/2025 10:37 AM, Annabella Rosciglione, 1934K] reports a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday against a New Jersey law that banned private companies from contracting with the federal government in immigration enforcement. The ruling is the latest win for President Donald Trump’s federal immigration policies. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a private prison company that had argued that the state law, which banned new contracts for civil immigrant detention with private companies, harps on federal authority. In the majority opinion, Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote that while the law’s text is not applicable to the federal government, it still attempts to circumvent federal immigration policy. "Only the federal government has the power to decide whether, how, and why to hold aliens for violating immigration law. It alone has the power to make these contracts in the first place," Bibas wrote. "So this ban is in substance a direct regulation; it destroys the federal government’s marketplace.” The law had prohibited the state and local governments from entering into, renewing, or extending contracts with private companies to detain people for civil immigration violations. It was passed by the New Jersey state legislature and enacted into law by Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) in 2021.

New York Post [7/23/2025 2:03 PM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports that the Trump administration has issued more than 6,000 immigration detainers pushing NYC authorities to hand over illegal immigrant criminals to the feds as part of its mass deportation effort, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday. That’s a 400% increase compared to the Biden administration as the Trump administration surges Immigration and Customs Enforcement to sanctuary cities, DHS said. However, "sanctuary politicians" in the Big Apple have "honored only a handful" of the 6,000 detainers, "sending violent criminals back onto the streets," the agency said in a post on X. "Every New Yorker should know: their sanctuary politicians are working against law enforcement and RELEASING criminal illegal aliens with prior convictions for rape, murder, and drug trafficking back into their communities," DHS said Wednesday. "ICE will continue to enforce the law and protect American neighborhoods," DHS added. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem tore into Mayor Eric Adams on Monday over the city’s sanctuary policies, blaming him for the shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer by an illegal immigrant who has a lengthy rap sheet. Adams has said he wants to change sanctuary laws in New York, but he’s constrained by the city council.

AP [7/23/2025 6:31 PM, Lisa Mascaro, 56000K] reports that a House Republican proposed a resolution Wednesday to censure Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver over an incident with law enforcement during a congressional oversight visit to a new immigration detention facility in her home state of New Jersey. Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana pushed forward the measure, which also calls for removing McIver from her seat on the Homeland Security Committee, as the House was preparing to recess for the August break. As a privileged resolution, it can be considered for swift action as soon as lawmakers return in September. Higgins read from the resolution on the House floor, arguing that McIver violated the chamber rules that require a member “to behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.” He said her continued service on the Homeland Security Committee “would represent a significant conflict of interest.” The GOP action comes as House Republicans in the majority have been quick to punish Democratic lawmakers for transgressions large and small — and in this situation, before McIver’s case has played out in court. She has pleaded not guilty to charges brought by interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, stemming from the May 9 incident. A trial date has been set for November. The congresswoman has vowed not to be intimidated by the legal and political actions against her.

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The Hill [7/23/2025 6:07 PM, Rebecca Beitsch and Mychael Schnell, 18649K]
Axios [7/23/2025 6:38 PM, Andrew Solender, 13599K]

NewsMax [7/23/2025 1:49 PM, Nicole Wells, 4622K] reports that a federal appeals court overturned a law in New Jersey on Tuesday that banned private contractors from running immigration detention centers for the federal government. The divided 2-1 ruling allows CoreCivic to continue running a private immigration detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, which the company has held a federal contract to operate since 1996. "Just as the federal government cannot control a state, so too a state cannot control the federal government," Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote in the court’s opinion. "But sometimes their authorities overlap. In such cases, some state rules may legitimately burden the federal government... Sometimes, though, a state goes further, interfering directly with federal policy or ‘destroy[ing]’ it through ‘hostile legislation.’...And when it crosses that line, it violates the Constitution. "New Jersey is on the wrong side of that line," the judge continued. "It dislikes some of the federal government’s immigration tools, so it passed a law with the ‘intent’ to forbid new contracts for civil immigration detention....That law interferes with the federal government’s core power to enforce immigration laws. Its construction is admittedly clever: It seeks to sidestep the usual two-prong test that courts use to enforce the ‘bedrock principle’ that states may not regulate their federal counterpart... Still, we see the law for what ‘it really is’: a direct regulation on the federal government. "Because New Jersey’s law violates intergovernmental immunity, we will affirm the District Court’s summary judgment for the contractor," Bibas added.

Univision [7/23/2025 4:12 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that a New Jersey law banning private immigration detention centers violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution by interfering with federal immigration enforcement operations. The 2-1 ruling issued Tuesday finds that state law AB 5207, enacted in 2021, contradicts federal law by limiting the federal government’s ability to contract with private companies for detention services. The majority opinion, written by Trump-appointed Judge Stephanos Bibas, emphasizes that "only the federal government has the authority to decide whether, how, and why to detain aliens for violating immigration law." CoreCivic, the company that operates the Elizabeth Detention Center and filed the lawsuit challenging the state law, scores a significant victory with this ruling. The ruling highlights that the law affects Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which considers the Elizabeth Detention Center a "mission-critical" facility near JFK and Newark airports. New Jersey could file a new appeal, possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

New York Post [7/23/2025 6:19 PM, Anthony Blair, 49956K] reports a widely-reported story about a Pennsylvania grandfather being secretly snatched by ICE agents and deported to Guatemala is nothing but a "hoax," according to Homeland Security — as it emerged he may even have died six years ago. Luis Leon’s family told reporters that the 82-year-old Chilean national had been handcuffed and taken away by federal officers when he went to a green card appointment in Philadelphia on June 20. They then claimed they were told he had died in ICE custody — but then he turned up alive at a hospital in Guatemala. The story, which was initially reported by Allentown outlet the Morning Call, before being picked up by lefty outlets including the Daily Beast, the Guardian and the Independent, was shut down by the Department for Homeland Security. "ICE never arrested or deported Luis Leon to Guatemala. Nor does ICE ‘disappear’ people — this is a categorical lie being peddled to demonize ICE agents who are already facing an 830 percent increase in assaults against them," DHS Assistant Press Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "This was a hoax peddled by the media who rushed to press without pausing to corroborate the facts with DHS. This was journalistic malpractice," she said.

Daily Wire [7/23/2025 9:27 AM, Spencer Lindquist, 3816K] reports that Louisville, Kentucky, announced on Tuesday that it would take steps to remove its "sanctuary city" status, a designation imposed by the Trump administration earlier this year. The Louisville Metro Department of Corrections will now honor immigration detainers filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which the federal law enforcement agency uses to ensure it can gain custody over illegal aliens arrested by local authorities. Democrat Mayor Craig Greenberg said the Trump administration informed him that the city was in violation of federal law by refusing to comply with the detainer requests. In a letter, the Justice Department warned that other jurisdictions in violation had been hit with legal action and freezes on federal funding. Greenberg commented on the decision to revive a policy to hold illegal aliens for up to an additional 48 hours, explaining that doing so would remove the "sanctuary city" designation. "I have been assured by the U.S. Department of Justice that, if we reinstate the 48-hour detainers for inmates who’ve been arrested for crimes, Louisville will be taken off the federal sanctuary city list," Greenberg said. He added that the city caved to the Trump administration because "the stakes are too high," referencing the recent deployment of military forces to Los Angeles last month that were triggered by protests over ICE raids.

Daily Caller [7/23/2025 9:40 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports a major American city is changing its sanctuary policy amid escalating pressure from the Trump administration. Louisville will begin complying with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) 48-hour detainer requests and be removed from the list of sanctuary cities, according to an announcement from Democratic Mayor Craig Greenberg. The mayor said the policy change comes amid ongoing immigration raids and after the Department of Justice notified him that Louisville violated federal law. "I have been assured by the U.S. Department of Justice that, if we reinstate the 48-hour detainers for inmates who’ve been arrested for crimes, Louisville will be taken off the federal sanctuary city list," Greenberg stated in a Tuesday press release. "Accordingly, Metro Corrections will begin honoring 48-hour federal detainers as soon as practical because the stakes are too high," he went on. "In turn, Louisville will no longer be considered a ‘sanctuary city’ by the federal government.” While there is no official definition for a "sanctuary city," the label generally describes any state or locality that prohibits its government officials from assisting or otherwise cooperating with federal immigration agents. Common sanctuary city laws prevent local law enforcement from honoring immigration detainer requests, sharing information with ICE or notifying the agency of an impending release of a wanted illegal migrant. When an illegal migrant is taken into local custody on criminal charges, their information is shared on a national database and, ultimately, alerts federal immigration authorities. Immigration detainers are requests to keep that migrant in jail long enough for an ICE agent to arrive on scene and assume custody before that individual is released back into the community. The 48-hour detainer is currently standard practice for Kentucky’s Department of Corrections and was also standard practice for Louisville until 2017, according to Greenberg. Fearing a crackdown in his city and the potential loss of millions in federal funding, the city will now abide by the 48-hour window. "This change in designation is critical," the Democrat said. "Cities on the sanctuary city list right now are experiencing a terrifying increase in raids by ICE, including mass raids.” "In addition, Louisville stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants if we remain classified as a sanctuary city," Greenberg added. The announcement follows the Trump administration’s widespread crackdown against illegal immigration and the sanctuary cities refusing to cooperate with deportation officers.

Daily Wire [7/23/2025 10:46 AM, Spencer Lindquist, 3816K] reports an illegal alien has been arrested in Kentucky in connection with the attempted rape of a woman and the murder of her 15-year-old son, who tried to intervene and rescue his mother. Mexican illegal alien Gildardo Amandor-Martinez, who attempted to illegally enter the United States on three different occasions in 2021 before successfully sneaking across the border, was arrested in connection with the horrific crime in Morehead, Kentucky, Fox News confirmed. The man is believed to have attempted to rape his girlfriend Aleida Lopez in their shared Kentucky apartment when her son, Luis Lopez, intervened in an attempt to save his mother from the illegal alien. Authorities say that Amandor-Martinez shot the 15-year-old boy three times, striking and killing him, before assaulting Lopez’s daughter with the gun. The Mexican national was arrested by local law enforcement in Rowan County, Kentucky. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has now placed a detainer request on Amandor-Martinez and will take custody of the illegal alien. "15-year-old Luis Lopez died trying to save his mother from this criminal illegal alien who was attempting to rape her. Gildardo Amandor-Martinez is a rapist and cold-blooded killer who should have never been in this country," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin charged. "The Biden administration’s open-border policies allowed this monster to walk American streets and commit these evil crimes, including murder, assault, and attempted rape, against a mother and her children," McLaughlin added. "ICE has placed an arrest detainer to ensure Amandor-Martinez will not be released onto America’s streets and allowed to terrorize American families again."

FOX News [7/23/2025 4:04 PM, Cameron Arcand, Bill Melugin, 46878K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer against an illegal immigrant who allegedly murdered a 15-year-old and attempted to rape the child’s mother. Gildardo Amandor-Martinez, 36, attempted to rape his girlfriend, Aleida Lopez, in Morehead, Kentucky, on Sunday, at their apartment, then allegedly bit her left hand, armpit, and hurt her arm. While trying to protect his mother, the 15-year-old, Luis Lopez, was allegedly shot three times by Amandor-Martinez. The suspect then proceeded to assault Lopez’s daughter, also a minor, with a firearm, according to Fox 56. The outlet reported that he’s been charged with murder, first-degree assault, and first-degree attempted rape. He attempted to enter the United States three times before successfully doing so in 2021 at the southern border, but managed to enter the U.S. as a "gotaway" at an unspecified time and location, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Axios [7/23/2025 2:52 PM, Kristal Dixon, 13599K] reports that Katherine Guevara spent years watching her father, Mario Guevara, help others through his work as a reporter. Zoom in: Her father chased stories that mattered to Atlanta’s Hispanic residents, not for recognition, but because journalism was a form of service, she said. "For more than 20 years, I have witnessed his unwavering dedication and selfless commitment to serving the community," she said. But for the last 41 days, Mario Guevara has been unable to pursue leads since his June 14 arrest while covering a protest against immigration enforcement tactics in DeKalb County. Why it matters: Guevara, a native of El Salvador who faces deportation from the country, is the only journalist in the U.S. currently detained after an arrest in connection with his work as a reporter, said Katherine Jacobsen, a program coordinator for Committee to Protect Journalists. "This case... sends a clear, chilling message to reporters, especially those in this country who are not U.S. citizens, that they too could very well find themselves at risk in the same way Mario has," Jacobsen said during a press conference Tuesday. The latest: Guevara’s daughter and son, Oscar, were joined by their father’s attorney, Democratic state lawmakers and other advocacy organizations calling for the reporter’s release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.

Daily Caller [7/23/2025 10:27 AM, Christine Sellers, 1010K] reports authorities in Alabama recently uncovered a child sex trafficking ring involving at least six children, including a three-year-old, in an underground storm shelter in Bibb County, according to WVTM 13. William McElroy, Dalton Terrell and Andres Trejo were indicted in connection with the child sex trafficking ring on July 11, WVTM 13 reported. McElroy and Terrell have been charged with human trafficking and sexually abusing children in an underground bunker, while Trejo has been charged with human trafficking. Officials said a fourth suspect, Timothy St. John, has been arrested for rape, sodomy, kidnapping, beastiality and animal abuse, according to the outlet. Assistant District Attorney (DA) Brian Jones discussed the sex trafficking ring, telling WVTM 13 the children were allegedly tied to beds, chairs, and poles inside the underground storm shelter and drugged before people would allegedly come and pay money to have sex with them. Jones also indicated the underground storm shelter was located near one of McElroy’s relative’s homes, AL.com reported. According to court records, the suspects all lived in mobile homes about a mile from each other when they were arrested, AL.com indicated. The investigation into the case is ongoing, and authorities believe another 12 men might have allegedly paid to have sex with the children. The Bibb County Sheriff’s Department released a statement on July 19 confirming the suspects had been arrested and that an investigation was taking place.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [7/23/2025 7:25 PM, Caitlin McCormack, 49956K]
Breitbart [7/23/2025 8:56 AM, Bob Price, 3077K]

Blaze [7/23/2025 3:20 PM, Julio Rosas, 1805K] reports one of Florida’s most well-known sheriffs is sounding the alarm that as more police officers and sheriff’s deputies are given federal immigration powers to arrest illegal aliens, the federal government will quickly run out of capacity. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told members of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement that part of the problem is while county jails have space for illegal immigrants, they are only supposed to hold them for up to 48 hours. If it is longer than two days, Judd said the national detention standard becomes "onerous" and state officials have "been at loggerheads" with ICE, according to NBC Miami. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made it clear he wants Florida to house people who are set to be deported quickly and not hold people for months at a time: "At the end of the day, the ability to house and process these illegals is the responsibility of the federal government. ... I don’t think that’s what our role is. Our role is to assist with deportation." The vast funds the Department of Homeland Security received in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to carry out mass deportations is supposed to help address the detention space shortage.

Los Angeles Times [7/23/2025 3:18 PM, Carlos De Loera, 14672K] reports the latest report by Human Rights Watch outlines substandard living conditions for detainees at three Florida Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers. The nongovernmental advocacy group that monitors human rights abuses around the world released their findings on Monday, after interviewing 11 currently and recently detained individuals who had been held at the following Florida detention centers: Krome North Service Processing Center, the Broward Transitional Center and the Federal Detention Center. Additionally, family members of seven detainees and 14 immigration lawyers were interviewed as part of the 92-page report. It claimed that the centers "flagrantly violate international human rights standards" and that guards had treated detainees in "a degrading and dehumanizing manner." In a statement to The Times, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin denied the Human Rights Watch’s claims regarding the state of the ICE detention centers. McLaughlin also explicitly addressed the claims about women detained at Krome Detention Center.

FOX News [7/23/2025 6:03 AM, Alex Nitzberg, 46878K] Video: HERE reports Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has invited people to tip off his office if their ex is in the U.S. illegally. "We recently got a tip from someone whose abusive ex overstayed a tourism visa. He is now cued up for deportation. If your ex is in this country illegally, please feel free to reach out to our office. We’d be happy to assist," Uthmeier wrote on X. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security retweeted Uthmeier’s post and shared the phone number for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tip line. "From domestic abuser to deported loser. ICE Tip Line: 866-DHS-2-ICE," the DHS post reads. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Telemundo51.com [7/23/2025 3:11 PM, Staff, 177K] reports Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration has already signed contracts to pay at least $245 million to establish and operate the new immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, known as "Alligator Alcatraz," according to a public database. The amount—which will be contributed by Florida taxpayers—is in line with the $450 million annual cost that officials have estimated for the facility. It’s also a reminder of the public funds the Republican administration of Ron DeSantis is allocating to help implement President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Breitbart [7/23/2025 3:04 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports that the complaints regarding Alligator Alcatraz are becoming increasingly ridiculous, as some are upset that the ham sandwiches are not toasted, Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Tuesday. Deportation processing centers have come under fire by the radical left, who claim that the conditions are unsuitable. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), for instance, graced CNN and stated that the processing center in the Florida Everglades is an "inhumane" place that needs to be "shut the hell down." "The purpose of this, of this setup, is to have the cruelty be the point," she stated, asserting that officials are essentially "warehousing people in cages just for the spectacle and the distraction." "They’re making these claims, and they’re saying, ‘Oh, they’re not — they’re not fed,’" DeSantis said during a press conference Tuesday. "First of all, they’re fed the same that the staff is fed… It’s not a prison. It’s a deportation processing center. So it is different. But like in Florida prisons, do you think the prisoners get the same meals as the guards?" he asked. "No. Of course not. It’s different." DeSantis added that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) required the facility to have certain things, including legal and recreation. DHS has also combatted the narratives of the establishment media, which claims that detainees are not being fed enough. "Any claim that there is a lack of food or subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are categorically false," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers," she continued. "Meals are certified by dieticians. Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. Why does the media continue to push the lies of criminal illegal aliens in detention and villainize ICE law enforcement?"

AP [7/23/2025 5:36 PM, Julie Carr Smyth, 31733K] reports that prosecutors dropped felony charges Wednesday against two journalists arrested at a protest that originated in Cincinnati over the detention of an Egyptian man by immigration authorities. The District Court judge agreed to dismiss with prejudice the felony rioting charges against reporter Madeline Fening and photography intern Lucas Griffith of Citybeat Cincinnati. The two were among at least 13 people arrested Thursday in a demonstration that blocked the Roebling Bridge, which carries traffic over the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Kentucky. Police in Covington, Kentucky, said those who were arrested refused to disperse and threatened officers. The journalists and others also face misdemeanor charges that include failing to disperse, obstructing emergency responders, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. The demonstration was staged in support of Ayman Soliman, an Egyptian immigrant who worked as a chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He was detained last week after he showed up for a routine check-in with ICE officials at their office near Cincinnati. Protesters met in downtown Cincinnati and then walked across the bridge carrying a banner that read, "Build Bridges Not Walls.” The ACLU of Kentucky, which represented the journalists, said they should never have been arrested. "A free press is critical to a functioning democracy, and those members of the press who, like our clients, merely cover a story enjoy the full protection of the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions to do so," staff attorney William Sharp said in a statement. "We look forward to zealously defending them in court."

Axios [7/23/2025 7:20 AM, Monica Eng, 13599K] reports Chicago alders are butting heads over the release of communication data between cops and federal agents during last month’s immigration enforcement action in the South Loop. Ald. Andre Vasquez, who chairs the committee on immigration and refugee rights, believes the data will clarify what happened and help shape guidelines on how CPD should act as immigration apprehensions — of mostly noncriminals — continue across the city. But some conservative alders think it’s a waste of time. State and city laws prohibit CPD cooperation with ICE agents unless they present a signed criminal warrant. Some immigrant advocates say CPD officers violated those laws last month when they performed traffic and crowd control at the South Loop scene But CPD says officers responded to the calls for assistance, assessed the situation and left soon after. The call for more clarity on CPD-ICE interactions happens at a time when the federal agency prepares to "flood the zone" in New York City, and Sen. Dick Durbin says the Trump administration fired Chicago immigration judge Jennifer Peyton for talking to him. Vasquez is calling on Mayor Brandon Johnson to release the data without the need for an ordinance. "Given the urgency of the moment … it is crucial that the administration make this information accessible," Vasquez wrote in his latest newsletter.

The mayor’s office says it’s in the process of sharing the call logs.

AP [7/23/2025 6:21 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports that the U.S. government is building an immense 5,000-person detention camp in west Texas, government contract announcements said, sharply increasing the Trump administration’s ability to hold detained immigrants amid its ever-growing mass deportation efforts. A Defense Department contract announcement on Monday said Acquisition Logistics, a Virginia-based firm, had been awarded $232 million in Army funds to build the facility, which would be used for single immigrant adults. Procurement documents called it a “soft sided facility,” a phrase often used for tent camps. The announcement came just weeks after Florida authorities rushed to construct a new immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” which was built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland in the Florida Everglades. The announcement said the new facility would be built in El Paso, which is home to Ft. Bliss, an Army base that stretches across parts of Texas and New Mexico. President Donald Trump recently signed a law setting aside $170 billion on border and immigration enforcement, including $45 billion for detention, even as the number of illegal border crossings has plunged. ICE will see its funding grow by $76.5 billion over five years, nearly 10 times its current annual budget. Trump has vowed to deport millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S.

New York Post [7/23/2025 5:41 PM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports the Trump administration will open the nation’s largest immigration detention center in Texas thanks to a massive contract worth $1.2 billion, according to a report. The feds will be able to hold up to 5,000 illegal immigrants at a time at Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, to meet the demands of the rapidly expanding Trump administration’s deportation campaign, Bloomberg reported. The Department of Defense awarded the contract, which ends Sept. 30, 2027, to Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC to set up a tent city on the base. The Trump administration has sought to erect temporary facilities to hold migrants as it attempts to make room for the 3,000-person quota it’s seeking to collar each day. The effort has been turbocharged by a new flood of $45 billion for new detention beds from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The massive spending bill will double Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention capacity, with the goal of holding 100,000 illegal immigrants at a time as the Trump administration seeks to carry out 1 million deportations each year.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [7/23/2025 2:05 PM, Linda Poon, 19320K]

Axios [7/23/2025 10:30 PM, Esteban L. Hernandez, 13599K] reports ICE arrested 243 undocumented immigrants with criminal histories in metro Denver during an eight-day operation that ended Sunday, the agency said. The arrests reflect growing pressure on immigration authorities as detentions of noncriminal immigrants spike, prompting public backlash. ICE said the 243 people arrested during the operation have been charged with or convicted of criminal offenses after unlawfully entering the U.S. The July 12–20 operation led to arrests of people wanted for serious crimes, including murder, human trafficking and sexual assault, the agency said in a Wednesday release. Others were cited for DUIs, burglaries and robberies and drug-related offenses. It’s "unclear from the statement if the 243 announced arrests represented all of the immigrants detained in the operation, or just those who had some level of criminal background," the Denver Post reports. Of those arrested, ICE said 50 people are subject to removal orders. Robert Guadian, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Denver Field Office director, in a statement, said many of those arrested had been released from local jails under Colorado’s "sanctuary laws" that limit ICE cooperation. ICE said at least nine of the individuals who were arrested are suspected or confirmed to have gang, criminal organization or drug trafficking ties, including at least four people the agency alleges are affiliated with Tren de Aragua. The gang, founded in Venezuela, has been the subject of intense scrutiny over its operations in Aurora, which President Trump amplified during his campaign last year. The immigrants arrested during the Denver operation came from at least 17 countries, including Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua and Colombia, per the agency. Custom agents through platforms like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini signal a future where every agency and comms team will need AI systems to differentiate themselves. The companies that succeed in this AI generation will look nothing like those that succeeded in the last one.

CBS Colorado [7/23/2025 12:48 PM, Anna Alejo, 51860K] reports that Colorado has been subpoenaed nine times by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this year. The state provided information to DHS for four of those subpoenas - all related to criminal investigations or enforcement, according to Gov. Jared Polis’ office. In one of those four instances, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment erroneously provided information. State law restricts local law enforcement cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "We are implementing procedures to ensure that erroneous sharing does not happen in the future, including elevating any potential responses to DHS subpoenas to the Governor’s Office for review and approval," the Governor’s Office said in a statement. Polis said reducing crime is a top priority of his -- and in releasing the subpoenas, his office is urging the federal government to be more transparent about immigration activities in Colorado. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/23/2025 12:00 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested 243 illegal immigrants around Denver in an operation that ended on Sunday, Fox News has learned. All those arrested are immigrants currently charged with or have been convicted of criminal offenses beyond entering the U.S. illegally, ICE says. The arrests include one immigrant wanted for murder, one wanted for human trafficking, five wanted for or convicted of sex-related offenses, nine charged with or convicted of drug-related offenses, 13 charged with or convicted of assault, eight charged with or convicted of theft charges, and 17 with charges or convictions related to driving under the influence. "This operation highlights our unwavering commitment to ensuring the safety and security of our communities," said Robert Guadian, the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Denver Field Office director. "By partnering with federal agencies, we have successfully apprehended individuals who pose a significant threat to public safety. "We will continue to work diligently to combat crime and uphold the rule of law. Many of the criminal aliens ICE arrested during this operation had been previously released into the Denver metro area by local county jails — directly into the community — because of Colorado’s sanctuary laws that prevent Sheriffs from cooperating with ICE," he added. ICE says the immigrants originated from countries all over the world, including various countries in South America as well as Spain, Romania, China, Jordan and Algeria. Meanwhile, attacks on ICE personnel have increased 830% compared to 2024, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told CBS’ "Face the Nation" in an interview that aired Sunday. "I think the sharp increase in the rhetoric, especially from a lot of elected officials, that are shaming, if you will, or speaking out against [the] ICE law enforcement mission, is what’s really increasing these attacks on officers," he said.

Washington Examiner [7/23/2025 11:33 AM, Annabella Rosciglione, 1934K] reports Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser sued a sheriff’s deputy who shared information with federal immigration officials regarding a 19-year-old Brazilian student whom he had pulled over last month. The lawsuit points to Colorado law that limits the authority of state agencies and employees to cooperate with federal immigration officials. Weiser noted that he is focused on preventing the deputy sheriff from aiding federal immigration enforcement rather than on a monetary settlement. "Colorado law clearly directs that our limited state resources go to enforcing Colorado criminal laws and not be diverted to immigration enforcement," Weiser said at a news conference Tuesday. "The legislature specified that such actions can undermine public trust and also deter people from accessing the services offered by state agencies and political subdivisions.”

USA Today [7/23/2025 1:41 PM, Jake Goldstein-Street, 75552K] reports federal immigration arrests across Washington rose sharply in June as the Trump administration continues its aggressive nationwide push for deportations, according to new data. Arrests in June, more than 275, were at least double any month since President Donald Trump reclaimed the presidency in January. At the same time, the share of arrestees in Washington with criminal records dropped sharply, to less than one-third. The figures come from the Deportation Data Project out of the University of California, Berkeley, where researchers received the information via Freedom of Information Act requests. The data runs through June 26. “I think that every community member in our country who is watching the news and comes from an immigrant family is increasingly concerned about their safety here,” said Caedmon Magboo Cahill, director of policy advocacy at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington chapter. The data provides the most complete look yet at the numbers underpinning the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin defended the administration’s approach. “We are continuing to go after the worst of the worst — including gang members, pedophiles, and rapists,” she said in a statement. “We are delivering on President Trump’s and the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens and make America safe,” McLaughlin added.

Politico [7/23/2025 6:02 PM, Ben Fox and Melanie Mason, 1200K] reports Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown sparked protests across Los Angeles and sent many people into hiding. Some California Republicans are starting to fear they’ll pay a price for the chaos. Amid reports of masked agents sweeping into neighborhoods in tactical gear, public sentiment is shifting nationally against the president’s immigration policies. And some long-suffering Republicans here are scrambling to stake out a middle ground between supporting Trump, but not the raids that are rippling through their communities and threatening key industries. “I don’t dismiss for one second that the fear in our communities is real. It is,” said state Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares, a Republican who was the lead author of a recent letter urging the administration to focus on criminal immigrants. “I’ve had constituents on both sides articulate that it’s heartbreaking, heart-wrenching, what’s going on.” Republican officials publicly expressing their concern, so far, have been limited. Just six of the 29 GOP members of the state Legislature signed the Valladares letter. Two of the nine Republicans in California’s House delegation — Rep. David Valladao and Rep. Young Kim — have signed on to legislation that would combine border security with a path to citizenship for some undocumented migrants. But on Monday, the state Legislature’s Problem Solvers Caucus, composed of 13 Republicans and 13 Democrats, issued a statement to the members of the state’s congressional delegation urging them to work on “bipartisan, common-sense immigration reform” that would include both border security and a path to legal status for undocumented workers who pose no threat to public safety. “Immigrants have long been the backbone of California’s economy and an essential part of our communities — raising families, building businesses, and powering key industries,” it said.

Los Angeles Times [7/23/2025 6:00 AM, Jack Flemming, 14672K] reports in her entire law career, Sarah McCracken has never seen anything like the email she received on June 25. McCracken, a tenants’ rights lawyer at Tobener Ravenscroft, is currently representing a Latino family suing a landlord and real estate agent for illegal eviction after being kicked out of their Baldwin Park home last year. A few weeks after being served, amid a series of ICE raids primarily targeting Latino communities in L.A. County, Rod Fehlman, the lawyer who appeared to be representing the agent at the time, sent McCracken’s team a series of emails disputing the lawsuit and urging them to drop the case. He ended the correspondence with this: "It is also interesting to note that your clients are likely to be picked up by ICE and deported prior to trial thanks to all the good work the Trump administration has done in regards to immigration in California.” "It’s racist," McCracken said. "Not only is it unethical and probably illegal, but it’s just a really wild thing to say — especially since my clients are U.S. citizens." The comment arrived as ICE raises tensions between landlords and Latino tenants. According to California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, ICE has been pressuring some landlords to report their tenants’ immigration status.

Los Angeles Times [7/23/2025 7:25 AM, Houston Mitchell, 14672K] reports from Eric Sondheimer: On the day immigration agents swooped through MacArthur Park in armored vehicles, wearing tactical gear and riding on horseback, Contreras Learning Center football coach Manuel Guevara said more than 20 of his players skipped summer practice. "Kids were messaging me their parents don’t want them to leave their house," Guevara said. The fear among families with students attending three downtown Los Angeles high schools minutes apart — Contreras, Roybal and Belmont— is real. "Everybody’s on edge," Guevara said. Players don’t know if their parents will feel safe enough to watch games from the school bleachers this fall.

Los Angeles Times [7/23/2025 6:00 AM, Rachel Uranga, 14672K] reports posters inside courts offering immigrants legal assistance have been taken down, replaced by ones that encourage them to "self-deport.” The help desk for children that once stood in one of the many hallways of the West Los Angeles Immigration Court no longer operates. And the waiting room is empty where families of children — most who don’t speak English or who had never been in a courtroom — gathered for a rudimentary lesson on the legal system before their first appearance before a judge. "There is no help anywhere," said Moises Morales, a 28-year-old Salvadoran who was appearing Tuesday in the West Los Angeles Immigration Court in the South Bay. The Trump administration ended a $28-million contract with nonprofits that provided an array of legal assistance to thousands of immigrants in California and beyond — just as it infused $150 billion toward immigration and border enforcement. Lawyers who were paid to provide basic legal information are disappearing from courthouses that have become new tools for the administration’s immigration crackdown. Immigrants are terrified that going to court will mean deportation.

Rolling Stone [7/23/2025 2:41 PM, Asawin Suebsaeng, 12682K] reports that in recent years, if you lived in the Queen City metropolitan area and your young child was severely ill, or dying of a terminal condition, chances are good that you encountered Ayman Soliman, who until recently was a Muslim chaplain at the renowned Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Whatever your faith or beliefs, he would have consoled you and your family in your darkest hours, in the kind of moment that every parent lives in abject terror of ever having to face. If you and your family were Muslim, the chaplain may have answered your questions about whether a do-not-resuscitate order for your child was permitted by the Quran. One former colleague of the imam recounts that specifically because of Soliman, there are poor members of the community who did not need to worry about paying for the funerals of their babies who didn’t make it out of the hospital alive. Absolutely none of that matters to President Donald Trump and his administration, which is seeking to deport Soliman back to Egypt, where he and his advocates say he will be marked for death — in part due to his work as a journalist there in the midst of the Arab Spring. Soliman was granted asylum during Trump’s first presidency. Ever since then, he says he’s been working to earn his American citizenship, and to bring his family to the United States to reunite with him. Two weeks ago, Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Soliman away, following a routine check-in at the Homeland Security facility in the Cincinnati suburb of Blue Ash. Since July 9, Soliman has been held at the Butler County jail, with the Trump administration proclaiming him to be an "Egyptian national [who] was flagged on the FBI terror watchlist."

Bloomberg [7/23/2025 1:05 PM, Akayla Gardner, 19320K] reports that the Department of Education said it opened investigations into five universities to determine whether the schools were granting scholarships only for undocumented students as the Trump administration expands its immigration crackdown and efforts to overhaul US higher education. The department on Wednesday said the probe was focused on determining whether the schools were granting scholarships for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on national origin. The targets of the probe include the University of Michigan, University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska Omaha, University of Miami, and Western Michigan University. Other colleges have also been subjected to similar inquiries. Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement that the administration’s policies and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not “permit universities to deny our fellow citizens the opportunity to compete for scholarships because they were born in the United States.” The investigations were based on complaints submitted to its Office for Civil Rights alleging that certain scholarships exclude American students over their national origin, the department said in a statement. The majority of the scholarships under scrutiny include programs that provide support for undocumented students or those with DACA status, but other programs being targeted offer funding for LGBTQ students or people of color. NewsMax [7/23/2025 3:02 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4622K] reports that the Education Department’s investigation comes in response to complaints from the Legal Insurrection Foundation’s Equal Protection Project and involves the University of Louisville, the University of Miami, the University of Michigan, the University of Nebraska Omaha and Western Michigan University. In a statement, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said that neither the Trump administration’s policies nor the national origin discrimination prohibition contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "permit universities to deny our fellow citizens the opportunity to compete for scholarships because they were born in the United States.” "As we mark President Trump’s historic six months back in the White House, we are expanding our enforcement efforts to protect American students and lawful residents from invidious national origin discrimination of the kind alleged here," Trainor said Wednesday. In a statement of his own, William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project, said the organization was "gratified" to see the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights acting on its complaints. "Protecting equal access to education includes protecting the rights of American-born students," Jacobson said. "Discrimination against American-born students must not be tolerated.” Created under former President Barack Obama, DACA allows individuals who entered the United States illegally as children with their parents prior to June 15, 2012, to be granted a two-year period of deferred deportation, which can be renewed. According to the Education Department, the probe will also examine scholarships that seemingly exclude students based on race or skin color.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [7/23/2025 4:53 PM, Katherine Hamilton, 3077K]

CBS News [7/23/2025 8:49 PM, Adam Yamaguchi, Anam Siddiq, 51860K] reports Dewey Yopp, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer, was sent to Afghanistan in 2002 to train up a new Afghan army during the early days of the war in Afghanistan. He met Amir, his then-18-year-old Afghan translator, at the airport on his first day there, and says Amir went on to save his life four times. "Amir dragged me, under fire, to a medevac point," Yopp told CBS News of one of those instances. After the U.S. withdrew from the country in 2021, Yopp scrambled to get Amir a special immigrant visa for Afghan allies. Amir asked CBS News to conceal his real name for safety reasons. "If someone saves your life, your souls are bound together for eternity," Yopp said. "He’s like a son to me, really." Three years later, Amir’s visa was approved, and he and his family were given green cards. They came to the U.S. and settled in Kentucky, reuniting with Yopp 22 years after they first met in Afghanistan. Yopp now spends most days with Amir’s children, who call him "grandfather." Thousands of Afghans living in the U.S. now fear deportation after a federal appeals court late Monday refused to freeze the Trump administration’s efforts to end their legal status. Amir is a Special Immigrant Visa recipient, given to U.S. allies who helped during the war. Despite he and his family having green cards, he still fears being sent back, since the White House has threatened to deport green card holders, too. Amir risked Taliban retaliation to help American soldiers, because work in Afghanistan at the time was scarce and the prospect of safety abroad was enticing. He told CBS News the promise that was made to him in return for risking his life was, "Your family will go to America. This was promised with all who work with U.S." Amir said he went into hiding for years after his service, feeling betrayed by the U.S., until Yopp stepped in to fulfill America’s pledge and helped secure him his visa. Thousands of veterans of the Afghanistan war across the country have taken it upon themselves to help their translators and other Afghan allies come safely to the U.S. and settle here. But Amir says it is not the job of veterans to fulfill the vow of protection the government previously made to them. The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted Afghan refugees, stopping flights with Afghan allies from arriving, freezing resettlement services, putting Afghanistan on the travel ban list, and ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for Afghan refugees. Yopp says it is a "moral injury" to veterans to see this happen to those who helped them during the war. As part of the administration’s efforts to end the TPS program, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has claimed that Afghanistan is now safe for Afghans to return to, a point Amir disputes. "OK, if Afghanistan is safe, why are you saying to your citizens, ‘Do not go to Afghanistan?’" Amir said in reference to the State Department’s "Do Not Travel" advisory for Afghanistan. "For me, [it’s] safe, but for you, [it’s] not safe? I’m not sure."

CBS News [7/23/2025 11:16 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51860K] reports the Trump administration instructed Customs and Border Protection officials this week to offer migrant teenagers the option of voluntarily returning to their home countries, instead of being sent to government-overseen shelters, upending longstanding U.S. immigration policy, two U.S. officials told CBS News Wednesday. For many years, U.S. immigration officials were required to transfer all unaccompanied migrant children — or those who entered the U.S. without permission and without their parents or legal guardians — to the Department of Health and Human Services, if they hailed from countries outside of Mexico and Canada. HHS oversees a network of shelters where these minors are housed until they turn 18 or can be placed with a sponsor, who historically has been a U.S.-based relative. But now, CBP officials have been directed to offer unaccompanied migrant children who are 14 or older the option to self-deport to their countries of origin, the officials said. If the teenagers take that option, U.S. immigration officials would facilitate their prompt return to their native countries. If not, the teens would still be transferred to HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. That voluntary departure policy was previously limited to unaccompanied children from Canada and Mexico. A 2008 anti-trafficking law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, provided special legal protections for migrant children from "noncontiguous" countries, including barring officials from swiftly deporting these minors. The Department of Homeland Security said new authorities in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act spending law allowed the Trump administration to make the policy change. "This is a long-standing practice used to prioritize getting children back to the safety of a parent or legal guardian in their home country and is accredited in the Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022," DHS said in a statement. "The only change pursuant to the Big Beautiful Bill is expanding this option to return home to UACs from additional countries beyond Mexico and Canada," the department added. The policy change was first reported by CNN. It’s unclear how many migrant teenagers will be affected by the recent directive. The number of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border illegally has plunged to levels not seen since the 1960s amid the Trump administration’s crackdown. In June, for example, Border Patrol apprehended 6,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, a record monthly low that included fewer than 700 unaccompanied children.

Bloomberg [7/23/2025 3:43 PM, Ava Benny-Morrison and Chris Strohm] reports federal prosecutors are laying the groundwork to criminally charge companies and individuals that try to evade US tariffs as President Donald Trump readies a fresh round of levies next week. American customs officials have long sought to thwart attempts to avoid duties using relatively common schemes like changing the country of origin on imports or misclassifying goods on forms. However, such issues historically have been handled through fines or civil settlements and seldom by criminal prosecution. But now, the Justice Department says it’s adding "significant personnel" to a new unit to focus on trade fraud and other corporate crimes. Meanwhile, prosecutors at US attorneys offices have been requesting records of transactions involving foreign goods during the Biden administration as they look to build cases — setting up a potential blueprint for moving against those accused of shirking new tariffs. The Justice Department’s effort aligns with Trump’s April promise of "very severe" consequences for cheating on the tariffs he’s imposing across the globe. It’s unclear how much progress has been made on investigating possible evasion of his administration’s levies. Probes can take many months and some of the new duties are just weeks old, with more slated to begin Aug. 1. The effort includes a financial fraud unit that was re-tasked to target companies that skirt customs duties. Prosecutors are looking for potential violations of levies put in place during the Trump administration and those that predate his January inauguration, according to people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors traditionally rely on agencies such as Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection to bring them egregious examples of tariff evasion that could rise to the level of civil or criminal charges. CBP also appears to have ramped up its scrutiny of companies subject to heightened tariffs.

NewsMax [7/23/2025 8:20 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4622K] reports The illegal migrant accused of shooting an off-duty Border Patrol officer in New York City had been released into the U.S. after being vetted only via a Zoom call under the Biden administration, it was reported Wednesday. Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, a 21-year-old Dominican Republic native who was taken into custody Sunday, crossed the southern border in Arizona in April 2023 when the country was enduring a migrant crisis under then-President Joe Biden. With the U.S.-Mexico border at the time being overwhelmed by the number of migrants seeking to enter the country, agents were helped by colleagues working at the U.S.-Canada border. Agents at the northern border interviewed illegal southern border crossers via Zoom to speed up their release, the New York Post reported. The New York Post [7/23/2025 6:30 AM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports the illegal immigrant accused of shooting an off-duty border officer in a Manhattan park was only vetted using Zoom before being released into the US under the Biden administration, The Post has learned. Dominican Republic national Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, 21, waltzed across the US-Mexico border into Arizona in April 2023 — during the raging migrant crisis that saw federal agents take drastic measures in an attempt to free up resources. That month alone, the US saw a wave of more than 183,000 migrants come across the southern border. "The whole system was overwhelmed by what the Biden administration was allowing," Charles Marino, former senior law enforcement advisor to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, told The Post. "The end game was to facilitate the processing of as many illegals into the country as possible," Marino said. Overwhelmed Border Patrol agents recruited support from their colleagues up north at the US-Canada crossing, who interviewed illegal border crossers over Zoom to speed up their release, federal law enforcement sources said. One Homeland Security source fumed that the virtual questioning "was a nightmare" and that it simply "can’t" ensure proper vetting. Mora Nunez was nonetheless released into the US due to a lack of detention space at the border — with a notice to later appear in front of an immigration judge, sources said. He was instructed to report to his local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, too, but doesn’t appear to have done so, according to the sources.

CBS News [7/23/2025 7:29 PM, Staff, 51860K] reports that the sale of counterfeit goods is estimated to cost the global economy hundreds of billions of dollars a year. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is responsible for preventing those products from entering the country. Janet Shamlian got rare access to the screening process. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/23/2025 6:00 AM, Nikolas Lanum and Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi, 46878K] Video: HERE reports residents of southern Arizona report that President Donald Trump’s border crackdown has significantly reduced illegal crossings and fostered a "positive shift" among local communities. "The whole thing has shifted in a positive direction," said Dave, a resident of Tubac, Arizona, during an interview with Fox News Digital. "I think a lot more could be done. I believe that Border Patrol, Customs, and all the other personnel could use a boost in hiring — I’ve always thought that. But yes, you can see a difference, and people are more relaxed," he continued. Dave mentioned that his son, currently working as a Border Patrol agent, has observed a sharp decline in the number of migrants that federal law enforcement has to apprehend, monitor, and release. He also noted a decrease in break-ins at small businesses and incidents of trespassing since Trump assumed office. According to the White House, as of April 28 this year, illegal border crossings are down by 95% compared to numbers under the Biden administration. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Telemundo52 [7/23/2025 3:32 PM, Staff, 103K] reports a Los Angeles man accused of throwing objects at federal agents during protests over immigration enforcement in June was arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border, the FBI announced Wednesday. Elpidio Reyna, 39, had been on the FBI’s wanted list since June 7, when he allegedly threw concrete blocks at federal vehicles traveling on Alondra Boulevard in Paramount. Following his capture at the San Ysidro Port of Entry Wednesday morning, Reyna was returned to the Los Angeles area ahead of his court hearing Wednesday afternoon. Reyna was initially detained by Mexican authorities in the state of Sinaloa. However, after negotiations, the Compton man agreed to surrender to the FBI. The concrete blocks Reyna allegedly threw damaged federal vehicles and injured a federal agent, the FBI added. The alleged assault occurred during clashes between protesters and federal agents on June 7 in Paramount. FOX News [7/23/2025 7:40 PM, Peter Pinedo and Louis Casiano, 46878K] Video: HERE reports video of the attack allegedly shows Reyna, who is wearing what appears to be a motorcycle helmet, picking up several large rocks on the side of the road and lobbing them at Border Patrol vehicles as they pass by. The alleged attack occurred in Paramount, California, on June 7, during the height of the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots. Bill Essayli, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, released video of the alleged violent rioter being picked up at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego. One federal officer was injured as a result of the attack. According to Essayli, Reyna, whom he called a "dangerous felon," surrendered to federal authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border to face a felony charge of assault on a federal officer. He was apprehended by a U.S. Border Patrol officer who was inside of the vehicles damaged by the attack and "could have been killed in last month’s dangerous and reckless attack.” Essayli said that Reyna will make his initial appearance in federal court on Wednesday afternoon. "To anyone who thinks they can attack federal officers and hide behind a mask or helmet, Reyna’s arrest today proves we can find and charge anyone who violates federal law," he said, adding, "Don’t touch our officers.” Commenting on the arrest, FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI "will never tolerate violence against those who serve and protect this country.”

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [7/23/2025 4:22 PM, David Zimmermann, 1934K]

Reuters [7/23/2025 1:58 PM, David Shepardson, 51390K] reports a bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Wednesday proposed new airport baggage screening systems and technology updates at checkpoints to improve security and shorten wait times as air travel hits records. Senator Jerry Moran, Republican chair of a subcommittee on aviation, along with Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen and Michael Bennet and Republican John Boozman, proposed spending $500 million annually on explosive detection systems for checked suitcases and $250 million annually for technology improvements at airport security checkpoints. That money would come from existing fees paid by passengers -- $5.60 per each one-way ticket. Last year the fees raised $4.5 billion. The senators said that more than $13 billion in revenue from the fees has been diverted to non-security uses since 2014. Air travel set a record in 2024 and is expected to set a new one this year as air travel has boomed this summer. "Increased air travel, coupled with lack of investment in security checkpoints and aging systems, has resulted in outdated screening technology and longer security lines," Moran said. Sharing the goal of reducing delays, the Transportation Security Administration said this month it would stop requiring passengers to remove their shoes at checkpoints. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also raised the possibility that passengers may be allowed to bring greater volumes of liquids through security checkpoints.

New York Times [7/23/2025 4:52 PM, Christine Chung, 138952K] reports f flying home to the United States from London requires a connecting flight, your journey may be about to get easier. But starting this month, travelers on several flights from London to Dallas and Atlanta will be able to bypass some of these steps and get to their connecting gates faster. The pilot program, called One Stop Security, will expand to select flights from Heathrow Airport to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport operated by American Airlines and to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport operated by Delta Air Lines. It began last week on one route, Flight 51, from London to Dallas, an American Airlines spokesman said. Delta and American will both offer dedicated customs areas for eligible flights, but each will handle security screening differently. All travelers on those flights will be processed in a dedicated customs area separate from standard immigration and won’t have to claim and recheck their bags, but only Global Entry members or Mobile Passport Control app holders will be able to bypass T.S.A. screening, a Delta spokeswoman said. In all, this can save customers up to 40 minutes, the spokeswoman added. However, Adam Stahl, the T.S.A. deputy administrator, told Fox News in an interview that more international airports would join the program in the coming months. The One Stop Security pilot began in February for travelers going from Dallas-Fort Worth to Heathrow and then connecting to international destinations outside Britain. It’s available on five daily flights operated by American on this route, an airline spokesman said.

The Hill [7/23/2025 9:47 AM, Staff, 18649K] reports David Richardson, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Wednesday morning on ways to improve disaster response. From deadly wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year to the recent record flooding in Texas and hurricane season, the Trump administration has faced criticism over the nation’s federal response efforts. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump had for months been pushing to dismantle FEMA but have since shifted their tone to suggest it needs to be reformed rather than completely axed. Cuts to the federal workforce, including those tasked with predicting weather and natural disasters, have also been under the microscope. Roll Call [7/23/2025 4:42 PM, Chris Johnson, 692K] reports House Republicans and Democrats alike Wednesday offered sharp scrutiny of the federal government’s response to a recent Texas flooding disaster that resulted in the deaths of at least 135 people. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management heard testimony from the top official at FEMA, grilling him on relief efforts in Texas as well as rollbacks within the agency amid President Donald Trump’s stated goal of dismantling the agency. While Republicans largely sided with Trump’s assertions that the agency is fundamentally ineffective and should be shuttered, Democrats argued the Trump administration largely failed in responding to the Texas flooding. David Richardson, acting director of FEMA, defended the federal government’s response to the Texas disaster as well as the Trump administration’s broader approach to the agency. The hearing takes place amid work by the Trump administration through the FEMA Review Council headed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reevaluate FEMA and identify any shortcomings.

New York Times [7/23/2025 2:25 PM, Lisa Friedman, 153395K] reports David Richardson, the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, defended the Trump administration’s handling of the recent catastrophic floods in Texas, insisting to members of Congress on Wednesday that recent policy changes did not slow the government’s response. Under questioning from Democrats on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Mr. Richardson said FEMA’s response to the Texas floods represented a “model” for “how disasters should be handled.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA, has been under fire for the federal government’s response to the flooding in Texas. Several Democrats have called for an investigation amid reports that Ms. Noem waited 72 hours to send urban search and rescue crews to Kerr County because a new policy required her to personally approve every expenditure over $100,000. “This wasn’t just incompetence,” said Representative Greg Stanton, Democrat of Arizona. “It wasn’t just indifference. It was both, and that deadly combination likely cost lives.” Mr. Richardson denied that the new policy caused a bottleneck. He also disputed a report by The New York Times that, on July 6 and 7, thousands of calls to the agency went unanswered because hundreds of contractors had been fired.

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Bloomberg [7/23/2025 1:04 PM, Kellie Lunney and Ellen M. Gilmer, 88K]
The Hill [7/23/2025 1:45 PM, Rachel Frazin, 18649K]
Washington Examiner [7/23/2025 2:05 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1934K]

AP [7/23/2025 5:33 PM, Gabriela Aoun Angueira] reports the acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is pushing back on criticisms of the federal response to the central Texas floods that killed at least 136 people earlier this month. Lawmakers used the hearing about improvements to FEMA disaster response to address reports that FEMA support was impaired by bureaucratic delays that slowed the deployment of urban search and rescue teams and left the agency’s call centers unstaffed, which Richardson denied. The response "brought the maximum amount of capability to bear in Texas at the right time and the right place," he said. Richardson’s appearance came after a wave of criticism and fallout over the response, including the resignation Monday of FEMA’s urban search and rescue leader. President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have touted the robust federal support for Texas despite their past support for eliminating FEMA. The acting administrator denied reports that FEMA urban search-and-rescue teams were delayed over 72 hours because of a new rule imposed by Noem that she must personally approve any contract of $100,000 or more. Richardson said a Texas-based FEMA task force was on the ground on July 4, along with other Homeland Security assets like the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection, and that additional support came within "24 hours" of being requested.

ABC News [7/23/2025 11:52 AM, Staff, 31733K] reports the head of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue branch, Ken Pagurek, resigned on Monday, multiple sources confirmed to ABC News. Pagurek told colleagues he was frustrated by the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to dismantle FEMA and by new hurdles that slowed the agency’s response to the catastrophic flooding in Central Texas earlier this month, according to sources familiar with the matter. Sources said he pointed to a new DHS policy requiring all spending over $100,000 to be personally approved by Secretary Kristi Noem as a key factor behind the delays and, ultimately, his decision to step down. The news was first reported by CNN. Pagurek had worked with FEMA’s search and rescue operations for more than a decade and had served as its chief for the past year. He was previously a Philadelphia firefighter and the head of FEMA’s Pennsylvania Task Force 1 search and rescue operation, and has responded to disasters including the Maui wildfires and the Surfside building collapse. Pagurek did not respond to a request for comment by ABC News. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told ABC News, "The attempt to spin a personal career decision into some big scandal is RIDICULOUS. It is laughable that a career public employee, who claims to serve the American people, would choose to resign over our refusal to hastily approve a six-figure deployment contract without basic financial oversight.” "We’re being responsible with taxpayer dollars, that’s our job," McLaughlin said. "FEMA experienced no delays in deployment of assets, and Texas officials have unequivocally and vocally applauded the federal government and FEMA’s response. If anyone is upset by the end of unchecked, blank-check spending under President Trump’s administration, that says more about them than it does about us.”

NewsNation [7/23/2025 4:07 PM, Meg Hilling, 5801K] reports acting FEMA Director David Richardson testified Wednesday that the response to devastating floods that swept through central Texas was a model for how disaster response should happen in the future. That testimony was met with criticism as the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is unclear. Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) was among those who said Richardson’s response to the disaster was inadequate. "For the first 48 hours, the most critical window for search and rescue, he never visited the national response coordination center. For more than week he stayed away from Texas, and for ten days he made no statement about this tragedy," Stanton said. The comments came as Richardson testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee about FEMA and changes that could be coming. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump have previously said FEMA should be dismantled, but recently have indicated it might be better to reform FEMA than eliminate the agency. In the hearing, Richardson identified three initial steps the agency should take to initiate change. The first, he said, is the removal of bureaucratic "red tape" he argues has delayed "timely and effective delivery of lifesaving or life sustaining assistance." Richardson’s second step focused on the establishment of a disaster response and recovery model that is locally led and state-managed, with federal support available when needed. The third step was geared towards leveraging technology to increase "our partners’ operational readiness." In response to Richardson’s commentary, lawmakers cited concern with previous FEMA restructuring efforts, as well as its leadership.

Detroit Free Press [7/23/2025 5:08 PM, Clara Hendrickson, 4241K] reports Gov. Gretchen Whitmer secured a disaster declaration from President Donald Trump July 23 for ongoing recovery efforts in Northern Michigan following severe ice storms in the winter of 2025. Whitmer had requested a disaster declaration back in May following the storms in March. Trump’s declaration means the Federal Emergency Management Agency can provide reimbursement for local governments, nonprofits and tribal agencies for expenses such as debris removal and infrastructure repairs, according to a news release from Whitmer’s office announcing her request for a disaster declaration. The counties that qualify for support following Trump’s approval of the request include Alcona, Alpena, Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet, Kalkaska, Mackinac, Montmorency, Oscoda, Otsego and Presque Isle along with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, according to Whitmer’s latest news release. But her request for additional support, including assistance for homeowners and renters, is still undergoing federal review, according to the governor’s office.

Reuters [7/23/2025 5:22 PM, Brad Brooks, 51390K] reports Texas state lawmakers met during a special session on Wednesday, to address for the first time the deadly flash floods that hit the Texas Hill Country this month, killing at least 137 people. Senator Charles Perry, chairperson for the joint Senate-House committee investigating the preparation for and response to the flooding, said the committee did not want to assign blame, but sought "constructive policy solutions which will remit future loss of life.” Texas Governor Greg Abbott included the investigation on the agenda of a special legislative session that opened on Monday. Abbott said on social media that the death toll from the July 4 flash flooding ticked up to 137, and a man and a girl remained missing. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, was the first person lawmakers called to testify. He described the vast state’s emergency response system as fragmented. Under the system, each of 254 counties maintains control over ordering evacuations. Such an order was not given in the hardest hit areas earlier this month. Kidd told lawmakers that to improve preparation for natural disasters, he needed better in-house radar systems, better communications systems to warn local leaders and residents, and more resources for evacuations or to assist residents who shelter in place.

AP [7/23/2025 4:23 PM, Nadia Lathan, 56000K] reports Texas lawmakers on Wednesday scrutinized the state’s emergency response to the July 4 floods that killed at least 136 people after a top Republican said legislators had no intention of criticizing or assigning blame. “Our select committee will not armchair quarterback,” said Republican Sen. Charles Perry, adding it sought to draw lessons on flood prevention and preparedness. Nim Kidd, the head of the Texas emergency management department, offered lawmakers suggestions to mitigate a similar catastrophe, including ways to strengthen emergency communications. But some Democrats cast doubt on the agency’s response and whether it was doing enough to boost flood infrastructure in rural towns. “We can mitigate or eliminate the possibility this could happen in the future,” Democratic state Rep. Joe Moody said. “And that’s not a blame game, that’s accountability.” Local officials have faced scrutiny over why more warnings weren’t sent to residents in harm’s way along the hard-hit Guadalupe River. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said assigning blame for the disaster is “the word choice of losers.”

ABC News [7/23/2025 5:39 PM, Julia Jacobo, 31733K] reports the severity of the flash flooding that killed more than 130 people in Texas’s Hill Country was difficult to predict because the science is not yet available, a local meteorologist testified during Wednesday’s special legislative session. The "prolific" flooding was made possible by the moisture leftover from Tropical Storm Barry, which made landfall on the east coast of Mexico on June 29, Pat Cavlin, a meteorologist at Houston CBS affiliate KHOU, said during Wednesday’s session. What made the situation unique was the presence of a mesoscale convective vortex (MCV) -- "basically a mini area of low pressure" -- that was slow-moving and stationary over Central Texas at the time of the torrential rains that caused the flash flooding, according to Calvin. While meteorologists knew that the MCV would be in the area about 12 to 18 hours before the event unfolded, the amount of heavy rain that would be produced was not clear until just hours before Guadalupe River flooded, Calvin said. Calvin noted that scientific and technological limitations make predicting a storm of this magnitude challenging. The deadly flooding over the Fourth of July weekend killed at least 136 people, including dozens of girls at Camp Mystic, situated on the Guadalupe River, Texas officials announced on Wednesday. Four people remain missing -- include one adult male and one girl from Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. Lawmakers filled House Bill 165 on Tuesday, which aims to create a model guide for local officials to follow regarding disaster response and recovery. The bill addresses contracting for debris removal; obtaining federal disaster funding; determining availability and construction of short-term and long-term housing and obtaining assistance from volunteer organizations. Abbott called the special session in the wake of the flooding.

ABC News [7/23/2025 2:34 , Jessica Gorman, 31733K] reports as the recovery operation continues, the body of a woman who went missing in the Texas floods earlier this month was found on Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement. "She was recovered in the Kerrville area," Abbott said in a statement on social media. The deadly flooding over the Fourth of July weekend killed at least 136 people, including dozens of girls at Camp Mystic, along the Guadalupe River, according to officials. Four people remain missing following the floods, according to officials. They include two people in hard-hit Kerr County -- a man and "a little girl from Camp Mystic," according to Abbott. "Our search continues," Abbott said on Tuesday. In Burnet County, Marble Falls Volunteer Fire Department Chief Michael Phillips remains missing. The town held a memorial service for him, even though his body has not been recovered. In Travis County, one person remains missing. A body recovered on July 16 could be that of the missing person, though authorities are still working to identify the body, county officials said.

Houston Chronicle [7/23/2025 7:00 AM, Neena Satija and Keri Blakinger, 1982K] reports in 1988, a year after a devastating flood killed 10 teenagers trying to evacuate from a riverside summer camp in Kerr County, leaders at the local river authority made a difficult decision: They raised their tax rate by nearly 50% to help pay for an early flood warning system. The rate hike was controversial at the time. But the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, which levies property taxes in order to manage the river that flows through Kerr County, decided it was worth the political fallout. "If it saves one life down the road, it will be worth it," Dick Eastland, who was a member of UGRA’s board of directors and also ran the riverside Camp Mystic, told the Associated Press that summer. The river authority initially spent $225,000, about half a million in today’s dollars, on what was then described as a "world-class" warning system. Local officials said it was a crucial way to save motorists from being swept away on low-lying roadways, which is what had happened to the teen campers. Yet nearly three decades later, when an engineering study determined that the system needed a $1 million upgrade, a tax increase was not on the table. That didn’t change in subsequent years, even as local officials failed to secure significant funds from federal and state officials. It held true even after UGRA built up a $3.4 million reserve fund for an unrelated project that later fell through, leaving the river authority with so much extra money that it lowered taxes. And so the region was left without a modern flood warning system on July 4, when flash flooding along the Guadalupe killed more than 100 people in Kerr County alone, including 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic. Eastland was among the dead.

AP [7/23/2025 4:38 PM, Staff, 31733K] reports that at least 20 people had to be rescued as flood waters raced through a New Mexico community near the Texas state line overnight, marking the latest deluge of summer rain to force evacuations and cause damage for the otherwise arid region. Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque and El Paso, Texas, have been busy in recent weeks issuing flood watches and warnings as afternoon thunderstorms crank up across the region. It’s part of the monsoon’s daily ritual. Authorities in Doña Ana County conducted damage assessments Wednesday as they shifted to recovery operations. Initial reports from the county’s emergency management team showed about 110 homes in the Vado area were damaged by flood waters, several hundred homes were without power and some roads remained closed. Emergency crews transported two people to the hospital with minor injuries, county officials said. "All of our flooding protocols were working. It was just too much water," county spokesperson Ariana Parra said of the storm. The flooding in Vado resulted from more than 2 inches (5.08 centimeters) of rain that fell Tuesday, officials said. To the north, the mountain community of Ruidoso is still recovering from deadly flooding that damaged hundreds of homes as storm water rushed off mountainsides that have been scarred over recent years by wildfire. Without trees and other vegetation to hold back the water, the village has been forced to issue almost daily warnings for people to stay clear of creeks and low-lying areas. State officials on Wednesday announced the federal government has issued a major disaster declaration for communities in Lincoln County, including Ruidoso.

Washington Times [7/23/2025 12:39 PM, Brad Matthews, 2106K] reports County investigators found human remains in Altadena, California, Monday, bringing the official death toll of January’s Los Angeles wildfires to 31. The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner called the person “Unidentified Doe #431.” The victim died in the Eaton fire, which killed 19, while 12 died in the Palisades fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. The medical examiner’s office’s discovery Monday is the first new victim found since April, when the body of Kevin Devine, 54, was found elsewhere in Altadena. In addition to the new Doe, another victim, found in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 14 while the fires raged, remains unidentified, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Los Angeles Times [7/23/2025 6:00 AM, Melody Petersen, 14672K] reports damage claims from the Eaton wildfire in Altadena could wipe out the $21-billion fund California created to shield utilities and their customers from the cost of wildfires sparked by electric lines, according to newly released state documents. Investigators are seeking to determine whether Southern California Edison’s equipment sparked the Jan. 7 inferno, which killed 19 people and destroyed 9,000 homes. If Edison is found responsible, "the resulting claims may be substantial enough to fully exhaust the Fund," state officials who administer the wildfire fund wrote in a draft annual report to the Legislature. The seven-member state Catastrophe Response Council, which oversees the fund, is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss how potential damage claims from the Eaton fire could affect it. Concerns are already emerging that, should Edison be found liable, it would have little incentive to keep damage claims from becoming excessive since the utility itself would be spared from covering most of the costs.

AP [7/24/2025 12:05 AM, David Fischer, 31733K] reports a man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump last year at his Florida golf course will return to court Thursday to once again explain why he wants to fire his court-appointed lawyers and represent himself. Ryan Routh previously made the request earlier this month during a hearing in Fort Pierce before U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon. She did not rule during the hearing but said she would issue a written order later. But now Routh, 59, is set to be back in front of Cannon, a day after his court-appointed federal public defenders asked to be taken off the case. Routh is scheduled to stand trial in September, a year after prosecutors say a U.S. Secret Service agent thwarted his attempt to shoot Trump as he played golf. Routh has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations. The judge told Routh earlier this month that she doesn’t intend to delay the Sept. 8 start date of his trial, even if she lets him represent himself. Routh, who has described the extent of his education as two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understood and would be ready. In a June 29 letter to Cannon, Routh said that he and his attorneys were "a million miles apart" and that they were refusing to answer his questions. He also suggested in the same letter that he could be used in a prisoner exchange with Iran, China, North Korea or Russia. "I could die being of some use and save all this court mess, but no one acts; perhaps you have the power to trade me away," Routh wrote. On Wednesday, the federal public defender’s office filed a motion for termination of appointment of counsel, claiming that "the attorney-client relationship is irreconcilably broken." Attorneys said Routh refused to meet with them for a scheduled in-person meeting Tuesday morning at the federal detention center in Miami. They said Routh has refused six attempts to meet with their team. "It is clear that Mr. Routh wishes to represent himself, and he is within his Constitutional rights to make such a demand," the motion said.

AP [7/24/2025 12:05 AM, Staff, 3077K] reports a man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump last year at his Florida golf course will return to court Thursday to once again explain why he wants to fire his court-appointed lawyers and represent himself. Ryan Routh previously made the request earlier this month during a hearing in Fort Pierce before U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon. She did not rule during the hearing but said she would issue a written order later. But now Routh, 59, is set to be back in front of Cannon, a day after his court-appointed federal public defenders asked to be taken off the case. Routh is scheduled to stand trial in September, a year after prosecutors say a U.S. Secret Service agent thwarted his attempt to shoot Trump as he played golf. Routh has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations. The judge told Routh earlier this month that she doesn’t intend to delay the Sept. 8 start date of his trial, even if she lets him represent himself. Routh, who has described the extent of his education as two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understood and would be ready. In a June 29 letter to Cannon, Routh said that he and his attorneys were “a million miles apart” and that they were refusing to answer his questions. He also suggested in the same letter that he could be used in a prisoner exchange with Iran, China, North Korea or Russia. “I could die being of some use and save all this court mess, but no one acts; perhaps you have the power to trade me away,” Routh wrote. On Wednesday, the federal public defender’s office filed a motion for termination of appointment of counsel, claiming that “the attorney-client relationship is irreconcilably broken.” Attorneys said Routh refused to meet with them for a scheduled in-person meeting Tuesday morning at the federal detention center in Miami. They said Routh has refused six attempts to meet with their team. “It is clear that Mr. Routh wishes to represent himself, and he is within his Constitutional rights to make such a demand,” the motion said.

Reuters [7/24/2025 4:54 AM, Staff, 51390K] reports U.S. federal authorities have arrested a man accused of sending dozens of threatening and violent messages to public officials he viewed as hostile to President Donald Trump’s agenda, charging him with threatening a member of Congress. Geoffrey Giglio, a Trump supporter who has previously been questioned by at least four federal law enforcement agencies over similar conduct, was charged this week with threatening a member of U.S. Congress, transmitting interstate threats and making anonymous harassing communications, according to a federal complaint. The charges stem from violent and profane messages Giglio allegedly left for U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and frequent Trump critic. According to the complaint, Giglio left a voicemail for Swalwell in March warning, "If you want to keep fighting, then we will come get you." He referenced a .308 caliber rifle, saying, "I’ll just set up behind my .308 and I’ll do my job," and ended the message with sexually explicit remarks about Swalwell’s wife. In a follow-up call to Swalwell’s office in mid-June, after already being questioned by the FBI, Giglio told a staff intern, "Tell Eric Swalwell that we are coming and that we are going to handle everyone. We are going to hurt everyone," according to the complaint. The complaint also details threats Giglio made to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, and to an FBI agent investigating the matter. In a message to Benson, he said, "We are coming for you," using explicit language and threatening to "put her in a hole." Giglio acknowledged sending the message during a June 3 interview with the FBI, the complaint said. On June 26, the day before his arrest, Giglio sent several hostile messages to the FBI agent, writing, "Now I’m coming for you." the complaint said. Giglio was arrested in California but was not charged over the threats to Benson or the FBI agent, the complaint said. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, which is prosecuting the case, and the FBI declined to comment. A public defender listed in court records as representing Giglio did not respond to requests for comment. The offices of Swalwell and Benson also did not immediately respond.

FOX News [7/23/2025 8:10 AM, Diana Stancy, 46878K] Video HERE reports efforts to overhaul the Coast Guard are gaining traction on Capitol Hill — coinciding with the Trump administration’s endeavor to revamp the service to address illegal migrant crossings and drug seizures. Multiple initiatives to update the Coast Guard are underway in both chambers of Congress, and within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). All seek to elevate the service so it’s on par with the other branches of the military that fall under the Department of Defense, and better equip it to tackle drug and immigration interdiction missions. House legislation authorizing funding for the service through 2029 recently cleared a committee vote and aims to empower the service to conduct these missions, according to Rep. Mike Ezell, R-Miss., a co-sponsor of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025. "The Coast Guard is very similar to law enforcement," Ezell told Fox News Digital July 16. "It’s going to fight the narcotics epidemic that we have coming into the country. Our Coast Guard officers and men and women are going to really be able to go after that." Such missions are only increasing for the Coast Guard. DHS announced July 15 that the service had seized a total of 242,244 pounds of cocaine since President Donald Trump took office in January. That amounts to a more than 100% increase in seizures in comparison to the same timeframe in 2024 during the Biden administration, according to DHS. Ezell, along with Reps. Sam Graves, R-Mo., Rick Larsen, D-Wash., and Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., introduced the Coast Guard Authorization Act July 2, and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed the measure July 15, paving the way for the measure to head to the House floor. "Coming from my background as a sheriff and the chief of police, I know the importance of coordinating with other agencies to get the job done," Ezell said. "When you have one person that’s a point of contact who will put all the information out from the president, from the DHS Secretary, it’ll be so much simpler." The efforts on Capitol Hill also align with initiatives underway at the Department of Homeland Security to reform the service. In April, the Coast Guard unveiled its new Force Design 2028 plan to revamp the service’s organizational structure, personnel, acquisitions, contracting and technology, in keeping with directives from Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/23/2025 8:25 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports Rep. Mike Ezell, R-Miss., explains why establishing a secretary of the Coast Guard will benefit the service and better equip it to face national security threats. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsNation [7/23/2025 2:30 PM, Sierra Rains, 5801K] reports that the U.S. Coast Guard shut down nine illegal charters in Fort Lauderdale waterways over the weekend. The vessels that were stopped included a floating tiki hut, a speedboat and several larger boats meant to carry multiple guests. Many of the stops happened near the New River Triangle. Officials said all nine vessels were cited for multiple safety violations. There were several that did not have enough personal flotation devices for passengers, and many were also lacking a valid Certificate of Inspection, according to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard said anyone paying for a trip on a passenger vessel should make sure their captain has a Merchant Mariner Credential. Larger charter boats with more than six passengers require a Coast Guard-issued Certificate of Inspection. "Ensuring the safety of our maritime community is a shared responsibility," said Chief Warrant Officer Joshua Yanez. "Anyone paying for a trip on a passenger vessel should always verify that their captain can produce the appropriate credentials before embarking on any voyage. Likewise, charter vessel captains must comply with all regulatory standards to maintain the highest levels of safety for their passengers, crew, and the broader maritime community." Anyone caught running an illegal charter can face penalties of $69,000 or more, according to authorities.

New York Times [7/23/2025 7:44 PM, Hannah Ziegler, 153395K] reports the bodies of three men who were believed to have disappeared on Tuesday evening while fishing and swimming in the Mississippi River near Memphis were found on Wednesday, the local authorities said. Three men were reported missing about 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday and were last seen on a sandbar south of a boat ramp in Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park in Shelby County, Tenn., its sheriff’s office said in a statement posted online. Two bodies were found on Wednesday around 11 a.m. south of the Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park boat ramp, the authorities said. A third was found in that same area around 12:45 p.m. The three bodies are “presumably” those of the men reported missing, the sheriff’s office said, and awaited identification by next of kin. Their names have not been released.

Texas Insider [7/23/2025 10:50 PM, Gilbert Rodriguez] reports today, Congressman Tony Gonzales (TX-23) honored United States Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Ruskan with a Congressional Resolution on Capitol Hill. On Petty Officer Ruskan’s first mission, he saved 165 lives during the catastrophic floods in Texas earlier this month. Congressman Gonzales and Petty Officer Ruskan were joined by Senior Advisor to the Secretary for the Coast Guard, Mr. Sean Plankey, Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Kevin E. Lunday, Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard, Vice Admiral Tom Allan, Master Chief Heath Jones, 14th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard, and Master Chief Phillip Waldron, selected to be the 15th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard.

Bloomberg [7/23/2025 1:36 PM, Ryan Gallagher, 19320K] reports the number of companies and organizations compromised by a security vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.’s SharePoint servers is increasing rapidly, with the tally of victims soaring more than six-fold in a few days, according to one research firm. Hackers have breached about 400 government agencies, corporations and other groups, according to estimates from Eye Security, the Dutch cybersecurity company that identified an early wave of the attacks last week. That’s up from roughly 60 based on its previous estimate provided to Bloomberg News on Tuesday. The security firm said that most of the victims are in the US, followed by Mauritius, Jordan, South Africa and the Netherlands. The National Nuclear Security Administration, the US agency responsible for maintaining and designing the nation’s cache of nuclear weapons, was among those breached, Bloomberg reported earlier. The Daily Caller [7/23/2025 11:08 AM, Staff, 1010K] reports that while Microsoft has patched the security gaps, researchers have already confirmed that more than 100 servers tied to approximately 60 organizations have been infiltrated, including the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), according to Bloomberg News. The NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency under the Department of Energy (DOE), is responsible for managing the nation’s nuclear arsenal, supplying nuclear reactors for the U.S. naval fleet and responding to nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation. A source familiar with the breach told Bloomberg News that multiple systems at the DOE were compromised, but no classified or sensitive data is known to have been stolen. DOE did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Other government entities known to have been impacted by the breach include the U.S. Department of Education, Florida’s Department of Revenue and the Rhode Island General Assembly. In total, as many as 10,000 organizations worldwide could be at risk, Silas Cutler, a researcher at the Michigan-based cybersecurity firm Censys, told Bloomberg News. "It’s a dream for ransomware operators, and a lot of attackers are going to be working this weekend as well," Cutler told Bloomberg News.

Reported similarly:
Axios [7/23/2025 1:30 PM, Sam Sabin, 13599K]
FOX News [7/23/2025 4:27 PM, Morgan Phillips, 46878K]

Washington Post [7/23/2025 6:48 PM, Ellen Nakashima, Joseph Menn, and Carolyn Y. Johnson, 32099K] reports the National Institutes of Health and the federal agency responsible for securing the nation’s nuclear weapons were among the victims in a global breach of Microsoft server software over the weekend, according to officials at the agencies. The incident at NIH, which has not been previously reported, involved at least one Microsoft SharePoint server system, said Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, and its scope and severity are being investigated. The compromise at the National Nuclear Security Administration, an arm of the Energy Department, did not affect any classified information, said a person familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic matters. It was first reported by Bloomberg News. The NNSA helps keep 5,000 nuclear warheads secure and ready, guards against radiation leaks, and ensures that weapons do not mistakenly detonate. An NNSA spokesperson said attacks using a “zero-day vulnerability” had begun affecting the Energy Department, including NNSA, on Friday. “The department was minimally impacted due to its widespread use of the Microsoft M365 cloud and very capable cybersecurity systems,” the spokesperson said. Only versions of SharePoint that are hosted by the customer, not those in the cloud, are vulnerable. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which was alerted to the issue on Friday by a cybersecurity firm, warned Sunday that hackers were exploiting a software flaw that could allow them full access to information being exchanged on the SharePoint systems. That information could include file systems and login and password data. Because SharePoint is often used in tandem with other Microsoft programs and databases. Another major concern is that hackers left back doors in some targets that will allow them to return. The New York Times [7/24/2025 3:16 AM, Vivian Wang, 153395K] reports that Microsoft said in a notice on its security blog on Tuesday that it had identified at least two China-based groups linked to the Chinese government that it said had been taking advantage of security flaws in its SharePoint software. Such attacks aim to sneak into the computer systems of users. Those groups, called Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, were ones that Microsoft said it had been tracking for years, and which it said had been targeting organizations and personnel related to government, defense, human rights, higher education, media, and financial and health services in the United States, Europe and East Asia. Microsoft said another actor, which it called Storm-2603, was also involved in the hacking campaign. It said it had “medium confidence” that Storm-2603 was a “China-based threat actor.” The U.S. government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a notice that said it was aware of the hacking attack on SharePoint. It added that it had notified “critical infrastructure organizations” that were affected. “While the scope and impact continue to be assessed,” the agency said, the vulnerabilities would enable “malicious actors to fully access SharePoint content, including file systems and internal configurations and execute code over the network.”

Reuters [7/23/2025 11:29 PM, Raphael Satter, 51390K] reports Microsoft (MSFT.O) said some of the hackers involved in the cyberespionage sweep aimed at the U.S. tech giant’s SharePoint servers are now using ransomware, a potential escalation in the wide-ranging spy campaign. Microsoft made the claim in a blog post issued late Wednesday.

Blaze [7/23/2025 9:30 AM, John Mac Ghlionn, 1805K] reports the absurdity is so staggering it reads like satire. Microsoft, the tech giant entrusted with America’s most sensitive defense data, has been using Chinese engineers to maintain Pentagon computer systems. These foreign contractors work directly on classified networks, handling everything from software updates to system maintenance for the Department of Defense. The disclosure of the arrangement led Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to demand a list of all Department of Defense contractors and subcontractors using "Chinese personnel to provide maintenance or other services on DOD systems," as Cybersecurity Dive reported. "While this arrangement technically meets the requirement that U.S. citizens handle sensitive data, digital escorts often do not have the technical training or expertise needed to catch malicious code or suspicious behavior.” Faced with the specter of massive blowback, Microsoft announced it would halt the practice in a Friday news dump. "In response to concerns raised earlier this week about U.S.-supervised foreign engineers, Microsoft has made changes to our support for U.S. government customers to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DOD government cloud and related services," Microsoft comms lead Frank X. Shaw posted on X. Welcome to the most spectacular security failure in American history, hiding in plain sight for nearly a decade. Now, the rest of the country is left to pick up the pieces. These "digital escorts," earning barely above minimum wage to babysit foreign programmers with access to military secrets, are supposed to monitor the Chinese engineers’ every keystroke, ensuring no sensitive data leaves the building or gets transmitted abroad. Even with Chinese teams snipped out of the loop, Microsoft’s escort program represents corporate negligence elevated to high art. The company recruited former military personnel with minimal coding experience, paid them $18 an hour, and expected them to supervise sophisticated Chinese engineers manipulating Pentagon networks. These "escorts" serve as human shields against espionage, except they lack the technical expertise to recognize an attack if it materialized on their screens. The escorts themselves acknowledge they’re flying blind while potential adversaries have their hands on the controls. They’re tasked with supervising engineers whose technical skills far exceed their own, creating a security theater that satisfies bureaucratic requirements while providing no actual protection.

Federal News Network [7/23/2025 8:22 AM, Justin Doubleday, 2346K] reports cybersecurity experts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are not able to analyze potential cyber threat data on the networks of some critical infrastructure organizations, as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reviews its agreement with the lab. The funding agreement in question involves analysts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory examining data from CISA’s “CyberSentry” program. As part of CyberSentry, critical infrastructure organizations voluntarily allow CISA to place sensors on both their IT and operational technology networks to monitor for cyber threats. Analysts at Lawrence Livermore play a “core” role in CyberSentry by developing advanced analytics to monitor and hunt for threats on the networks for partner organizations, according to Nate Gleason, program leader at LLNL. But Gleason, testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on cybersecurity and infrastructure protection today, said the funding agreement for the lab to participate in CyberSentry lapsed this week. Gleason was asked about the status of the CyberSentry program by subcommittee Ranking Member Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.). “We’ve supported CISA in various aspects of critical infrastructure security for about a decade,” Gleason said. “Currently, we have funding agreements that are making their way through DHS processes. Unfortunately, those are still making their way through DHS processes and our work with CISA expired last Sunday.”

CyberScoop [7/23/2025 1:35 PM, Derek B. Johnson] reports the Trump administration’s new AI Action Plan calls for companies and governments to lean into the technology when protecting critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. But it also recognizes that these systems are themselves vulnerable to hacking and manipulation, and calls for industry adoption of “secure by design” technology design standards to limit their attack surfaces. The White House plan, released Wednesday, calls for critical infrastructure owners — particularly those with “limited financial resources” — to deploy AI tools to protect their information and operational technologies. “Fortunately, AI systems themselves can be excellent defensive tools,” the plan said. “With continued adoption of AI-enabled cyberdefensive tools, providers of critical infrastructure can stay ahead of emerging threats.”

FOX News [7/23/2025 2:54 PM, Taylor Penley, 46878K] reports that Tammy Nobles says she refused to fall into one Democratic lawmaker’s "trap" when a line of questioning during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday turned into a clash over immigration. Sen. Alex Padilla of California pressed a panel of invited speakers that included Nobles, angel mom Marie Vega and others touched by the illegal immigration topic during the hearing, asking them to raise their hand if they believed "all immigrants are criminals." Nobles, whose 20-year-old daughter Kayla Hamilton was murdered by illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang member Walter Martinez in July 2022, fired back with the question, "Are you talking about legal immigrants or are you talking about regular immigrants?" before a back-and-forth proceeded. Nobles told "Fox & Friends First" on Wednesday that she felt the question was designed to "trap" Vega, who was testifying about the murder of her son, Javier "Harvey" Vega Jr., at the hands of an illegal immigrant during former President Barack Obama’s second term in 2014. "I think he was trying to get her trapped, and then I just jumped in and was like, ‘What do you mean? Do you mean illegal immigrants that didn’t come the right way? Or do you mean legal immigrants who did it the right way?’. "I think he was trying to trap us into saying something that [would trip us up]," she alleged. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Wire [7/23/2025 3:59 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 3816K] reports a New York man was indicted on Tuesday for allegedly constructing several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that he intended to detonate in Manhattan. The Justice Department announced charges against Michael Gann, 55, of Inwood, New York, for allegedly placing at least five IEDs and shotgun shells on the rooftops of residential apartment buildings in the SoHo neighborhood and throwing one IED onto subway tracks on the Williamsburg Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to Manhattan. "The safety of New Yorkers is paramount," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "As alleged, Michael Gann built explosive devices, stored them on a rooftop in SoHo, and threw one onto the subway tracks—putting countless lives at risk. Thanks to swift work by our law enforcement partners, no one was harmed. That vigilance assuredly prevented a tragedy in New York." Gann has been charged with attempted destruction of property by explosive means, transportation of explosive devices, and unlawful possession of explosive devices. He could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted on all counts. The investigation was led by the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI, which included members of the New York Police Department, the ATF, and the Nassau County Police Department. "Michael Gann allegedly produced multiple improvised explosive devices intended for use in Manhattan," said FBI agent Christopher Raia. "Due to the successful partnership of law enforcement agencies in New York, Gann was swiftly brought to justice before he could harm innocent civilians shortly after his dangerous actions became known."

The Hill [7/23/2025 12:23 PM, Alexander Bolton, 18649K] reports the Senate voted 51-47 Wednesday to confirm John Hurley, President Trump’s nominee to serve as under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department. Hurley is the managing partner at Cavalry Asset Management and managing member for TGK Ventures and has been a long-time lecturer in finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) applauded the confirmation. "I am thrilled to have John on the team as Treasury’s under secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence," Bessent said in a statement. "John’s extensive private sector experience, military service and previous service on President Trump’s Intelligence Advisory Board make him uniquely qualified to serve the American people in this very important role.” Scott said Hurley would help the administration fight money laundering and terrorist financing.

FOX News [7/23/2025 12:03 PM, Emma Colton Fox, 46878K] reports the Trump administration revealed details of its highly anticipated artificial intelligence plan of action ahead of President Donald Trump’s major speech later on Wednesday, which is expected to also include the president signing at least one executive order related to the U.S.’ artificial intelligence race. Administration leaders, including White House Office of Science and Technology policy director Michael Kratsios and AI and crypto czar David Sacks, held a background call with the media Wednesday morning and outlined a three-pillar plan of action for artificial intelligence focused on American workers, free speech and protecting U.S.-built technologies. "We want to center America’s workers, and make sure they benefit from AI," Sacks said on the call while describing the three pillars. "The second is that we believe that AI systems should be free of ideological bias and not be designed to pursue socially engineered agendas," Sacks said. "And so we have a number of proposals there on how to make sure that AI remains truth-seeking and trustworthy. And then the third principle that cuts across the pillars is that we believe we have to prevent our advanced technologies from being misused or stolen by malicious actors. And we also have to monitor for emerging and unforeseen risks from AI.” Trump is expected to deliver what White House staffers have described as a major address early Wednesday evening outlining his administration’s artificial intelligence efforts, including lifting restrictions on the technology administration officials say will usher in the next "industrial revolution.” Trump ordered his administration in January to develop a plan of action for artificial intelligence in order to "solidify our position as the global leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.” The presidential action ordered administration leaders to craft a plan "to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security" within 180 days, which was Tuesday. Kratsios stressed on the call that by cutting federal red tape surrounding AI, American workers will benefit while the U.S. will avoid going down the same AI path as Europe, which is mired in tech regulations, Kratsios said on the call. "The action plan calls for freeing American AI innovation from unnecessary bureaucratic red tape, ensuring all Americans reap the benefits of AI technologies and leveraging AI to drive new scientific breakthroughs.” Trump rescinded a Biden-era executive order hours after taking office in January that put restrictions on artificial intelligence technologies, including requiring tech companies to keep the federal government appraised of the most powerful technology they were building before the programs are made available to the public. Trump’s signature rescinded the Biden order, with a White House fact sheet at the time arguing the Biden executive order "hinders AI innovation and imposes onerous and unnecessary government control over the development of AI.” "American development of AI systems must be free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas," the White House said. "With the right government policies, the United States can solidify its position as the leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.”

Bloomberg [7/23/2025 11:14 AM, Stephanie Lai and Jackie Davalos, 88K] reports the Trump administration called for boosting artificial intelligence development in the US by loosening regulations and expanding energy supply for data centers under new guidelines that also urged withholding funds from states that put burdensome rules on the emerging technology. The so-called AI Action Plan, released by the White House on Wednesday, recommends revamping the permitting process and streamlining environmental standards to speed AI-related infrastructure projects. The blueprint also seeks to make American technology the foundation for AI worldwide while enacting security measures to keep adversaries like China from gaining an edge. “It is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance,” President Donald Trump said in the report. “To secure our future, we must harness the full power of American innovation.” Mandated by Trump shortly after taking office in January, the 23-page plan marks the administration’s most significant policy directive on a technology that promises to reshape the global economy. The president is scheduled later Wednesday to speak at an AI event hosted by the All-In Podcast and a consortium of tech leaders and lawmakers known as the Hill and Valley Forum. Trump plans to sign a handful of executive orders Wednesday to set in motion elements of his AI plan. The expected directives include a plan to use the US International Development Finance Corporation and the Export-Import Bank to support global deployment of American technology. Another would call for all large language models procured by the government to be neutral and unbiased. Under the recommendations, the federal government would ask businesses and the public about existing regulations that hinder AI adoption, with an eye toward rolling back those rules. The White House’s budget office would also work with federal agencies that have oversee AI-related funding to consider putting limits on those awards “if the state’s AI regulatory regimes may hinder the effectiveness of that funding.”

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/23/2025 11:08 AM, Julia Shapero, 18649K]
CNN [7/23/2025 3:39 PM, Lisa Eadicicco and Clare Duffy, 21433K]

Breitbart [7/23/2025 12:13 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 3077K] reports Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified a House Intelligence Committee report from September 2020 which she says reveals how the Obama administration "manufactured" an intelligence assessment promoting the Russia Collusion Hoax. Gabbard took to X to publish the 46-page report on Wednesday morning, noting, "New evidence has emerged of the most egregious weaponization and politicization of intelligence in American history.” She added: Per President @realDonaldTrump’s directive, I have declassified a @HouseIntel oversight majority staff report that exposes how the Obama Administration manufactured the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that they knew was false, promoting the LIE that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government helped President Trump win the 2016 election. In doing so, they conspired to subvert the will of the American people, working with their partners in the media to promote the lie, in order to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump, essentially enacting a years-long coup against him. Gabbard posted five key findings in the report in subsequent tweets, including that Obama and former CIA Director John Brennan and others allegedly "fabricated the Russia Hoax, suppressed intelligence showing Putin was preparing for a Clinton victory, manufactured findings from shoddy sources, disobeyed IC standards, and knowingly lied to the American people.” The release of the report comes on the heels of a report from Gabbard’s office, published Friday, which showed "overwhelming evidence that demonstrates how, after President Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, President Obama and his national security cabinet members manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump," her office noted in a release. Trump said Tuesday that Obama "is guilty" and "this was treason" when speaking with reporters in the Oval Office. "He’s guilty. It’s not a question. You know, I like to say, ‘Let’s give it time.’ It’s there. He’s guilty… This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election," Trump said.

Washington Examiner [7/23/2025 11:04 AM, Kaelan Deese, 1934K] reports the U.S. intelligence community had no direct evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 election but advanced that claim anyway under the direction of then-President Barack Obama, according to a newly declassified House Intelligence Committee report. The report, kept classified since it was finalized on Sept. 18, 2020, under the leadership of then-California Rep. Devin Nunes, was made public this week by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. It concludes that the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, which claimed Putin sought to help elect Trump, was based on scant, cherry-picked, and, in some cases, dubious intelligence. Only five CIA analysts and a principal drafter produced the final assessment, with little input or oversight from other agencies. The House report says the team was "rushed" and operated under "unusual directives" from Obama and then-CIA Director John Brennan, who personally pushed to include unverified material in the ICA despite objections from other officials in the CIA.

Washington Examiner [7/24/2025 3:12 AM, Staff, 1934K] reports four Russian warplanes were intercepted by U.S. Air Force fighter jets off the coast of Alaska on Tuesday. Two of the planes flying off the Alaskan coast were Russia’s Tu-95 Bear Bomber, an aircraft one hailed as the Soviet Union’s preeminent nuclear bomber. The other planes were two Su-35 Flanker fighter jets, reported Air & Space Forces Magazine. The quartet of Russian warplanes was greeted by 10 U.S. Air Force fighter jets deployed by North American Aerospace Defense Command. "The North American Aerospace Defense Command detected and tracked Russian military aircraft operating in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on 22 July 2025," NORAD announced in a press release. An ADIZ is considered an area where "sovereign airspace ends and is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security," according to NORAD. The Alaskan ADIZ is considered a "buffer for air defense," according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. And while it is regarded as international airspace, any aircraft flying through the Alaska ADIZ is supposed to identify themselves, which the Russian planes apparently did not do. NORAD subsequently deployed fighter jets to "positively identify, monitor, intercept, and escort them out of the Alaskan ADIZ," said an official from the joint U.S.-Canadian command. It included ​​two U.S. Air Force F-35s and four F-16s and several other support aircraft, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.

DefenseScoop [7/23/2025 12:35 PM, Billy Mitchell, 150K] reports Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a directive late last week ordering the Pentagon’s chief information officer to take additional measures to ensure the department’s technology is protected from the influence of top adversaries. The secretary’s order, signed Friday but first made public Tuesday, came after an eye-opening investigation by ProPublica revealed Microsoft had been relying on China-based engineers to support DOD cloud computing systems. Short on specific details, Hegseth’s order enlists the CIO — with the support of the department’s heads of acquisition and sustainment, intelligence and security, and research and engineering — to “take immediate actions to ensure to the maximum extent possible that all information technology capabilities, including cloud services, developed and procured for DoD are reviewed and validated as secure against supply chain attacks by adversaries such as China and Russia.” Hegseth first referenced his order in a video posted to X on Friday, in which he said, “some tech companies have been using cheap Chinese labor to assist with DoD cloud services,” calling for a “two-week review” to make sure that isn’t happening anywhere else in the department’s tech supply chains. The secretary, in both his video and the new memo, stopped short of calling out Microsoft specifically. However, a spokesperson for the company has since stated publicly that it has made changes to “assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DoD Government cloud and related services.”

FOX News [7/23/2025 6:00 AM, Morgan Phillips, 46878K] Video HERE reports in a damning new report, researchers reveal how China came to control over 80% of the critical raw battery materials needed for defense technology — posing an urgent national security threat. Through lax permitting processes, weak environmental standards, and aggressive state-led interventions, China has come to dominate global supplies of graphite, cobalt, manganese, and the battery anode and cathode materials that power advanced defense systems. "Batteries will be one of the bullets of future wars," the report’s authors warn, citing their essential role in drones, handheld radios, autonomous submersibles, and emerging capabilities like lasers and directed energy weapons. According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has weaponized global battery infrastructure through a combination of state subsidies, forced intellectual property transfers, and predatory pricing practices. China didn’t just rely on low-cost tactics — it also used its financial muscle abroad. While American and allied reserves of lithium — both brine and hard rock — are being tapped, with new projects in North and South Carolina targeting domestic spodumene processing, the report claims U.S. mineral mining and refining are not advancing quickly enough to meet national security demands. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [7/24/2025 5:05 AM, Stephen Nellis, 51390K] reports a U.S. lawmaker on Thursday pressed the U.S. Defense Department for further details on what information the U.S. military shared with Chinese engineers as part of a cloud computing services contract with Microsoft. After a report by investigative journalism publication ProPublica, Microsoft last week said it has ended the practice of using China-based engineers to provide technical support to the U.S. military under the supervision of U.S. "digital escorts" who may not have had the expertise to assess whether the work was a cybersecurity threat. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a two-week review to ensure other contractors were not employing the same practices. In a letter seen by Reuters, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, asked Hegseth to provide details to lawmakers on what information Chinese engineers accessed and to disclose "the discovery of potential security incidents or malicious events that have already occurred or are likely to occur." In addition, Cotton asked whether Microsoft had been required to perform self-audits of the program and if so, the results of those audits.

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