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

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

The New York Times [7/25/2025 4:50 PM, Patricia Mazzei, 153395K] reports the first deportation flights from Florida’s new immigration detention center in the Everglades began departing this week, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Friday, about three weeks after federal detainees started to arrive at what appears to be the nation’s only state-run migrant detention facility. About 100 of those detainees were deported directly from the center, which Florida officials have named “Alligator Alcatraz,” the governor said, though he did not specify where they were taken. Hundreds more had been flown to federal deportation hubs in other states, such as Louisiana, he added at a news conference. He said the flights were operated by the Department of Homeland Security. The detention facility in the Everglades, which immigration experts have described as the only one of its kind, is essentially a cluster of hastily erected tents and trailers on an old airfield. Mr. DeSantis said it had been equipped with ground-to-air communications, radar and runway lighting, with 5,000 gallons of jet fuel on site. “This airport is able to accept commercial flight aircraft and conduct both day and nighttime operations,” he said. State officials have said the detainees at the facility have final deportation orders from the federal government, but immigration lawyers say they have not had adequate access to clients being held there. The American Civil Liberties Union sued last week over detainees’ lack of access to legal counsel and violations of due process. “The U.S. Constitution does not allow the government to simply lock people away without any ability to communicate with counsel or to petition the court for release from custody,” Eunice Cho, senior counsel with the A.C.L.U.’s National Prison Project and the lead lawyers in the case, said in a statement. CNN [7/25/2025 11:11 AM, Devon M. Sayers and Isabel Rosales, 875K] reports "Alligator Alcatraz" have begun as a "surge" of immigration arrests is on the horizon, state officials said. "What has been done here has been remarkable," Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday at the controversial tent city the state built quickly to support the sweeping deportation agenda that helped propel President Donald Trump to a second term but is largely opposed by Americans as it threatens to backfire on the US economy. "We have already had a number of flights in the last few days" out of the Everglades facility, DeSantis said. "We’ve had two or three removal flights, and we’ll continue to have those removal flights. Up to 100 individuals who were illegally present in the state of Florida have already been removed from the United States," Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Garrett J. Ripa said. It is unclear where the flights ended up. "We now have capacity for a couple of thousand. We can expand that as demand is there," added Ripa, ICE’s acting executive associate director. "There is not a person here (at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’) that is not on a final removal order.” Asked whether ICE is operating the flights, how many have been completed and how many people were on board, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN: “Fire up the deportation planes.”

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Los Angeles Times [7/25/2025 3:10 PM, Staff, 14672K]
New York Post [7/25/2025 1:27 PM, Victor Nava, 49956K]
The Hill [7/25/2025 1:14 PM, Amalia Huot-Marchand, 18649K]
AP [7/25/2025 11:35 AM, John Seewer, 56000K]
Breitbart [7/25/2025 10:04 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 3077K]
CBS News [7/25/2025 12:09 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51860K] r
NewsNation [7/25/2025 12:32 PM, Anna Kutz, 5801K]
Washington Examiner [7/25/2025 11:16 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1934K]

FOX News [7/25/2025 9:02 PM, Jasmine Baehr, 46878K] reports the Trump administration is offering $608 million to states willing to expand migrant detention efforts. The money, announced through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) new Detention Support Grant Program (DEP), is aimed at helping states build or enlarge temporary detention facilities modeled after Florida’s Everglades compound known as "Alligator Alcatraz," according to FEMA documents. "[Department of Homeland Security] Secretary Kristi Noem has been very clear that Alligator Alcatraz can be a blueprint for other states and local governments to assist with detention," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday. The funding is part of FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program and is open for applications through Aug. 8, per FEMA’s announcement. The program is intended to fast-track construction of secure, temporary detention sites on state or local land, sidestepping long procurement delays. Noem has criticized federal contractors as costly and slow, and has encouraged governors to take a more direct role. "They were willing to build it and do it much quicker than some of the other vendors," Noem said of Florida. "And it was a real solution we’ll be able to utilize if we need to.” Florida’s facility was built in just eight days on remote Everglades land at the Dade-Collier Airport. It holds up to 3,000 migrants and is surrounded by fencing, swamp, and natural barriers. During a July 1 visit, President Donald Trump praised it as "so professional, so well done," calling it "a model we’d like to see in many states.” "We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland, and the only way out is really deportation," he added. Florida officials confirmed they are seeking FEMA reimbursement to help cover the camp’s estimated $450 million annual operating cost. State officials say the site qualifies for federal funding under the new grant guidelines. According to Noem, five states are currently in talks with DHS about building similar detention facilities. "We’ve had several other states that are actually using Alligator Alcatraz as a model for how they can partner with us," she said during a recent news briefing. "I hope my phone rings off the hook from governors calling and saying, ‘How can we do what Florida just did?’". The new funding comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aims to double detention capacity. ICE reported more than 56,000 migrants in custody as of June, the highest since 2019, and is targeting 100,000 beds by the end of the year, according to DHS planning materials. Funds will be distributed by FEMA in partnership with Customs and Border Protection, according to DHS’ posting. FEMA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/25/2025 7:34 PM, Miriam Waldvogel, 18649K]
NewsMax [7/25/2025 9:41 PM, James Morley III, 4622K]
Washington Examiner [7/25/2025 11:06 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1934K]
Telemundo [7/25/2025 5:54 PM, Staff, 3352K]

Reuters [7/25/2025 10:24 PM, Ismail Shakil and Bhargav Acharya, 51390K] reports the Trump administration has brought some 1,700 military personnel under the command of state governors to help with the administration’s immigration law enforcement mission, the Pentagon said on Friday. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the service status of 1,200 personnel, who were already assisting with the mission, was changed to Title 32 from Title 10 and an additional 500 personnel were authorized to help with the immigration effort. "Through active planning and collaboration with our ICE partners, the Department determined that specific operational needs may require direct interaction with individuals in ICE custody," leading to this reevaluation of military personnel duty status, Parnell said in a statement.

The DailySignal [7/25/2025 6:19 PM, Virginia Allen, 558K] reports the Trump administration has located 13,000 children who crossed the border unaccompanied under President Joe Biden, the Department of Homeland Security announced Friday. Under the Biden administration, about 300,000 unaccompanied alien children were either "lost" or placed with sponsors that were not adequately vetted, and some were "allowed to be placed with sponsors who were actually smugglers and sex traffickers," according to DHS. "The evil of human trafficking cannot be overstated. It’s modern-day slavery," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. "By leaving our borders open and even encouraging people to come here illegally, Biden enabled the largest human trafficking operation in modern history.” In March, the Department of Health and Human Services found 65,000 reports of unaccompanied alien children that had gone unaddressed under the previous administration, according to DHS. Now, HHS is digging into these reports, which has resulted "in more than 4,000 investigative leads, including fraud, human trafficking, and other criminal activity," DHS reports. "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to eradicate human trafficking operations targeting the United States," Noem says. "Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, and working together at every level of government, we can win this fight. And we will.” DHS has found and rescued multiple unaccompanied migrant children since the start of the Trump administration, including a pregnant 14-year-old girl in Texas who was residing with an adult male sponsor who she was not related to. The man was later determined to be the father of the unborn child. 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. 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. "President Trump and Secretary Noem take the responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to reunite children with their families," according to DHS. The New York Post [7/25/2025 4:28 PM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports that the tough-on-immigration admin has also collared hundreds of migrant sponsors who are accused of committing disturbing crimes or abusing the children in their care. A shocking report released in August found that the Biden-Harris administration lost track of more than 320,000 migrant children who crossed the US-Mexico border alone. The unaccompanied migrants were released into the US without future immigration court dates — meaning there is no way to track their whereabouts — or they failed to show up to court. Thousands of the kids were also released to sponsors who were poorly vetted, meaning the vulnerable minors were put at risk of sex trafficking, forced labor, and other forms of exploitation, the Homeland Security Inspector General’s report said. In February, President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services announced it was launching an investigation into the troubling number of cases of unaccompanied migrant children who may have ended up in the hands of sexual predators and human traffickers because of lax vetting policies.

FOX News [7/25/2025 12:47 PM, Brooke Taylor, 46878K] reports ICE reveals some of the worst of the worst illegal migrants arrested Thursday in cities across the country, including convicted child rapists, arsonists and human smugglers. "Yesterday, ICE arrested pedophiles, arsonists and human smugglers. Thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem, these dirtbags are off our streets," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "ICE law enforcement is doing what sanctuary politicians refuse to do: protect the American people. Every single day, our brave ICE law enforcement puts their lives on the line to remove the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from American communities.” Among the most egregious arrests: ICE Buffalo arrested Jacobo Argueta-Fuentes, a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador. Argueta-Fuentes has been convicted of multiple sex crimes against children in Suffolk County, New York, including rape, promoting prostitution, use of a child less than 17 years of age in a sexual performance, sexual abuse, criminal sexual acts and acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17. ICE Houston arrested Rafael Manriquez-Mancia, a 45-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico. Manriquez has a conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Smith County, Texas.

Los Angeles Times [7/26/2025 6:00 AM, Jenny Jarvie and Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee, 14672K] reports they called them the "worst of the worst." For more than a month and a half, the Trump administration has posted a barrage of mugshots of L.A. undocumented immigrants with long rap sheets. Officials have spotlighted Cuong Chanh Phan, a 49-year-old Vietnamese man convicted in 1997 of second-degree murder for his role in slaying two teens at a high school graduation party. They have shared blurry photos on Instagram of a slew of convicted criminals such as Rolando Veneracion-Enriquez, a 55-year-old Filipino man convicted in 1996 of sexual penetration with a foreign object with force and assault with intent to commit a felony. And Eswin Uriel Castro, a Mexican convicted in 2002 of child molestation and in 2021 of assault with a deadly weapon. But the immigrants that the Department of Homeland Security showcase in X posts and news releases do not represent the majority of immigrants swept up across Los Angeles. As the number of immigration arrests in the L.A. region quadrupled from 540 in April to 2,185 in June, seven out of 10 immigrants arrested in June had no criminal conviction — a trend that immigrant advocates say belies administration claims that they are targeting "heinous illegal alien criminals" who represent a threat to public safety. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis of ICE data from the Deportation Data Project, the proportion of immigrants without criminal convictions arrested in seven counties in and around L.A. has skyrocketed from 35% in April, to 46% in May, and to 69% from June 1 to June 26. ICE data shows that about 31% of the immigrants arrested across the L.A. region from June 1 to June 26 had criminal convictions, 11% had pending criminal charges and 58% were classified as "other immigration violator," which ICE defines as "individuals without any known criminal convictions or pending charges in ICE’s system of record at the time of the enforcement action." The L.A. region’s surge in arrests of noncriminals has been more dramatic than the U.S. as a whole: Arrests of immigrants with no criminal convictions climbed nationally from 57% in April to 69% in June. As White House chief advisor on border policy Tom Homan put it: "If you’re in the country illegally, you got a problem." "It is sickening that Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass continue to protect violent criminal illegal aliens at the expense of the safety of American citizens and communities," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

The New York Post [7/25/2025 6:49 PM, Mikella Schuettler and Matt Troutman, 49956K] reports an illegal immigrant allegedly involved in the shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer dramatically found himself face-to-face with the agent’s angry comrades in a packed Manhattan federal courtroom Friday. Nearly three dozen CBP officers waited hours for Christhian Aybar-Berroa — dressed in ripped jeans and a $200 T-shirt — to be arraigned on an accessory-after-the-fact charge and ordered held behind bars until at least a preliminary hearing Aug. 8. Many officers seemed frustrated, with The Post overhearing one complain they’d been waiting since 7 a.m. for the hearing, which finally kicked off at 2:30 p.m. Aybar-Berroa, 22, had a blank expression and matted hair and was wearing the pricey tee with a baseball-playing skeleton reading "Godspeed.” He is accused of being the getaway driver in the July 19 botched robbery inside Fort Washington Park. His alleged accomplice and fellow Dominican Republic national — Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, 21 — shot the off-duty CBP officer during the robbery, prosecutors said. The officer, who remains hospitalized after being shot in the face and arm, managed to fire off shots that clipped Mora Nunez twice, authorities said. NewsNation [7/25/2025 7:35 PM, Laura Ingle, 5801K] reports Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, 21, who was the alleged shooter and was shot by the officer, remains in the hospital. The getaway driver, Christhian Aybar-Berroa, 22, arrested Thursday, appeared in court and was charged with illegal entry, possession of ammunition and accessory after the fact. Outside the courthouse, CBP officers showed strong support for the injured officer. The gallery of the court was filled with six rows of law enforcement officers. A bail hearing for Aybar-Berroa is scheduled for Aug. 8. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem identified Nunez as an immigrant from the Dominican Republic with what she called an extensive criminal past. Mora was taken into custody after arriving at a Bronx hospital with gunshot wounds to the groin and leg, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. ICE arrested Aybar-Berroa on Monday. Noem said he entered the U.S. illegally from the Dominican Republic in 2022 and has a criminal record in New York City. The Daily Caller [7/25/2025 10:20 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports the Trump administration slapped federal charges on two illegal migrants accused of shooting an off-duty border officer in the face in New York City. Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez with one count of possession of ammunition by an illegal migrant and Christhian Aybar-Berroa with accessory after the fact, according to an announcement from the Department of Justice (DOJ). The two men, both of whom are Dominican nationals living in the U.S. unlawfully, allegedly attacked a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer earlier in July in a robbery gone wrong. "As alleged, Miguel Mora Nunez and Christhian Aybar-Berroa came to a New York City park and Mora Nunez opened fire — hitting a federal officer in the face," U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a public statement. "Gun violence will not go unanswered," Clayton continued. "Our office will relentlessly pursue anyone who threatens the safety of New Yorkers and the federal officers sworn to protect them.” Mora Nunez and Aybar-Berro allegedly drove through Washington Park in Manhattan, New York, on a moped on July 19 and ambushed the CBP officer, who was with a friend, according to prosecutors. Mora Nunez attempted to rob the officer, shooting him in the face and right arm, but the officer returned fire, resulting in Mora Nunez being hit twice. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released security camera footage of the incident. The pair were taken into law enforcement custody on Monday, DHS confirmed. Both men have extensive criminal histories in New York City. The New York Police Department (NYPD) arrested Mora Nunez for felony grand larceny, petit larceny and reckless driving in October 2023, according to DHS. He was also arrested for second and third degree assault in October 2024, criminal contempt in November 2024 and again in January 2025. The Leominster Police Department in Massachusetts issued a criminal warrant for him for armed robbery in February 2025.

Wall Street Journal [7/25/2025 9:23 AM, Jack Morphet, 646K] reports New York City’s sanctuary-city policies are unconstitutional and limit local police and correction officers from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, the Justice Department said in a federal lawsuit Thursday. The suit, filed in a federal court in Brooklyn, lists several local policies that the DOJ said violate the federal government’s authority to regulate immigration. The federal government said it wants access to information about detained migrants in New York who are in the country illegally, including release dates, court-appearance dates and custodial status. The lawsuit is the Trump administration’s latest move in its campaign to pressure Democratic-led cities to help it achieve its aggressive deportation goals. The government sent marines and the National Guard into Los Angeles last month after the city erupted in protests against ICE raids. The suit argued that criminal migrants should be transferred directly into federal custody by local law enforcement, eliminating the need for Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in New York City. Under New York City’s sanctuary laws, city employees are prohibited from sharing migrants’ identifying information with immigration officials, and ICE agents can’t enter shelters or asylum centers without a warrant from a judge. The New York City Police Department and the Department of Correction are only authorized to detain some violent criminals and people on the federal terror watchlist for future deportation. Mayor Eric Adams, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and other city officials and agencies, including the NYPD, are named as defendants. The suit accuses them of intentionally sabotaging federal immigration enforcement by releasing criminals from custody instead of holding them for deportation.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [7/25/2025 6:20 AM, Staff, 3077K]
CBS New York [7/25/2025 7:30 AM, Staff, 51860K]
(B) NBC News Daily [7/25/2025 12:24 PM, Staff]

NewsMax [7/25/2025 7:43 PM, James Morley III, 4622K] reports Mayor Eric Adams pushed back against the Justice Department’s lawsuit over New York City’s "sanctuary city" policies, saying that his hands are tied, the New York Post reported. "You can’t do that," he told FOX5 on Friday. "Any modification in the law must come through the City Council.” Sanctuary policies have been adopted by many Democrat-run cities and are designed to limit cooperation between federal immigration authorities and local officials when it comes to deportation and prosecution of illegal aliens. The Trump administration on Thursday sued New York City over its "sanctuary city" policies, arguing they are obstructing the government from enforcing immigration law and contributed to the recent shooting of an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. The federal lawsuit is the latest in a series of suits brought by the Justice Department targeting state or city policies seen as interfering with immigration enforcement. "New York City has released thousands of criminals on the streets to commit violent crimes against law-abiding citizens due to sanctuary city policies," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a news release. "If New York City won’t stand up for the safety of its citizens, we will.” The lawsuit — which also names Adams, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and numerous other city officials and departments — targets policies that include barring city law enforcement from honoring civil immigration detainers by holding people in custody past their release date. The lawsuit says New York City’s policies violate the supremacy clause of the Constitution by interfering with the enforcement of federal law. Similar lawsuits have been filed in recent months against New York state; Colorado; Rochester, New York; Los Angeles; and elsewhere. The mayor’s office issued a statement this week saying that he while "supports the essence" of the sanctuary city policies, modifications need to be make it easier for law enforcement to target criminal illegal aliens.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [7/25/2025 5:29 PM, Craig McCarthy, Peter Senzamici and Matt Troutman, 49956K]

Breitbart [7/26/2025 5:03 AM, Ian Hanchett, 3077K] reports that, on Friday’s broadcast of Fox 5 New York’s “Good Day New York,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) discussed the federal lawsuit filed over the city’s sanctuary policy and said that the law should be adjusted to allow for greater coordination with the federal government when it comes to violent criminals, but for people “who are going about following their next step on the American Dream that are undocumented. We should not be harming them at all” by denying them taxpayer benefits because they “are innocent people who are just trying to pursue the American Dream.” Adams said that “when people use the term of sanctuary city, what we’re saying is that you have the right with your tax dollars to get the resources you deserve.” After the discussion turned to the shooting of an off-duty Border Patrol agent, Adams stated, “I called for a modification in our existing laws, because if someone commits a violent act like that, and these guys were repeated offenders, we should be able to coordinate with the federal authorities to address those situations, not legal — people who are going about following their next step on the American Dream that are undocumented. We should not be harming them at all. These are innocent people who are just trying to pursue the American Dream.”

Breitbart [7/26/2025 5:03 AM, Ian Hanchett, 3077K] reports that, on Friday’s broadcast of Fox 5 New York’s "Good Day New York," New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) discussed the federal lawsuit filed over the city’s sanctuary policy and stated that the policy is because "we must make sure that citizens or non-documents or whomevers that’s in the city get the services they deserve." And if you buy something, you pay taxes and "when people use the term of sanctuary city, what we’re saying is that you have the right with your tax dollars to get the resources you deserve.” Adams said, "I always said — the lawsuit was something that was put in place that we’re always going to make sure — we don’t control who come[s] across the border, but we must make sure that citizens or non-documents or whomevers that’s in the city get the services they deserve. And I’d say all the time, I use it as an example, if you buy a loaf of bread, you pay taxes. Those tax dollars go to pay for goods and services, for police, educating children, a hospital if you need it. That’s what it’s about.” He continued, "And so, when people use the term of sanctuary city, what we’re saying is that you have the right with your tax dollars to get the resources you deserve. Now, it doesn’t mean we will ever protect those who commit crimes like who shot the Customs and Border Patrol officer.” Adams further stated that he wants to modify sanctuary laws to work with the feds on people like those who shot the off-duty Border Patrol agents.

The New York Post [7/26/2025 12:38 AM, Victor Nava, 49956K] reports a federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden on Friday dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit challenging sanctuary city policies in Chicago and the state of Illinois. The Justice Department sued Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago — along with several state and local officials, including Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson — in February, arguing their sanctuary laws "interfere" with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) ability to arrest and deport illegal migrants. District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins concluded that sanctuary policies — which prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal authorities on immigration enforcement — are protected by the 10th Amendment. "[T]he Sanctuary Policies reflect Defendants’ decision to not participate in enforcing civil immigration law — a decision protected by the Tenth Amendment and not preempted by [federal immigration laws]," Jenkins wrote in her 64-page ruling. "Finding that these same Policy provisions constitute discrimination or impermissible regulation would provide an end-run around the Tenth Amendment," the judge continued. "It would allow the federal government to commandeer States under the guise of intergovernmental immunity — the exact type of direct regulation of states barred by the Tenth Amendment.” Jenkins also determined that the Trump administration lacked standing to sue the "individual defendants" named in the case, such as Pritzker and Cook. She dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning the Trump administration may amend its complaint if it wishes to continue litigating the issue. In their lawsuit, the Trump administration singled out the Illinois Trust Act and Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance. The Trust Act declares that "State law does not currently grant State or local law enforcement the authority to enforce federal civil immigration laws," while the Welcoming City ordinance emphatically states, "No agency or agent shall: arrest, detain or continue to detain a person solely on the belief that the person is not present legally in the United States.” Pritzker and Johnson celebrated the judge’s ruling. "Illinois just beat the Trump Administration in federal court," the governor wrote on X. "Their case challenging the bipartisan TRUST Act was dismissed — unlike the President, we follow the law and listen to the courts.” Meanwhile, Johnson tweeted that the ruling "affirms what we have long known: that Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance is lawful and supports public safety.” "Chicago cannot be compelled to cooperate with the Trump Administration’s reckless and inhumane immigration agenda," the mayor added. "Our city is safer when local law enforcement can focus on the needs of Chicagoans.” The AP [7/25/2025 7:37 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was pleased with the decision and the city is safer when police focus on the needs of Chicagoans. "This ruling affirms what we have long known: that Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance is lawful and supports public safety. The City cannot be compelled to cooperate with the Trump Administration’s reckless and inhumane immigration agenda," he said in a statement. Gov. JB Pritzker welcomed the ruling, saying in a social media post, "Illinois just beat the Trump Administration in federal court.” The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security and did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The administration has filed a series of lawsuits targeting state or city policies seen as interfering with immigration enforcement, including those in Los Angeles, New York City, Denver and Rochester, New York. It sued four New Jersey cities in May. The Washington Examiner [7/25/2025 9:21 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1934K] reports that several large cities run by Democrats have refused to assist the federal government in their immigration efforts in the past, earning the moniker "sanctuary cities" for harboring illegal immigrants. Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are among the "sanctuary" cities. The Trump administration has targeted cities for their sanctuary policies, hoping to force them to relent and assist with their mass deportation effort. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Thursday that the Department of Justice would sue New York City Mayor Eric Adams over the city’s sanctuary policies after an off-duty Border Patrol officer was shot during an attempted robbery. "The Department of Justice is suing New York City and Mayor Eric Adams for continuing to obstruct law enforcement with sanctuary city policies. If New York’s leaders won’t step up to protect their citizens, we will," she wrote in a post on X. The DOJ tried to include Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) in their case against Illinois, but the judge dismissed him as she found no legal basis for his inclusion. Pritzker has been antagonistic to the Trump administration’s immigration efforts. "I’m aware that the president and Tom Homan have been targeting the city of Chicago in particular," he said this week. "When you’re attacking the people who live here — many people who have been here for decades, paying taxes, law-abiding, raising their children, good members of their community — when you’re attacking those people in my state, I don’t want you here," he added.

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Wall Street Journal [7/25/2025 7:52 PM, Ginger Adams Otis, 646K]
Bloomberg [7/25/2025 6:01 PM, Madlin Mekelburg, 19320K]
NBC News [7/25/2025 8:14 PM, Nnamdi Egwuonwu and Gary Grumbach, 44540K]
Telemundo [7/25/2025 9:43 PM, Nnamdi Egwuonwu and Gary Grumbach, 3352K]
Chicago Tribune [7/25/2025 8:04 PM, Jeremy Gorner, 3987K]

CBS News [7/25/2025 9:18 AM, Staff, 51860K] reports Tom Homan, President Trump’s "border czar," is laying out the administration’s plans to combat sanctuary cities. CBS News’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

(B) NBC News Daily [7/25/2025 2:23 PM, Staff] reports Centre County administrators still have questions as to why the county was listed as a sanctuary jurisdiction by the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year. Administrators are also worried if it is going to impact federal funding for the county. Centre County administrators say despite reaching out to Homeland Security and three federal lawmakers, there still has not been any further explanation why the county was listed.

FOX News [7/25/2025 12:00 PM, Lindsay Kornick Fox, 46878K] reports Albuquerque, New Mexico Democratic Mayor Tim Keller signed an executive order on Monday to push back on President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement throughout the country. "From day one, I made it clear that we will not be intimidated by harmful federal policies—and we’ve never wavered from our commitment to civil rights and public safety," Keller said in a statement on the order. "This Executive Order makes it clear that we will not stand by silently as our neighbors and friends are living in fear, and we will protect due process for all people living in our City.” A press release explained how the new order buildings on the city’s "immigrant-friendly policies" and "expands citywide protocols to counteract the harmful impacts of federal immigration actions, including proposals like H.R.1 (‘One Big Beautiful Bill’).” The order "reaffirms that no City department, agency, or employee shall use City resources to assist in federal civil immigration enforcement, including raids, detentions, or information-sharing, unless legally required.” This includes requiring departments to report any ICE activity at city facilities, prohibiting staff members from supporting secret ICE activities and requiring ICE to "clearly identify its officers" in public areas. In addition to barring cooperation with ICE agents unless legally necessary, Keller’s order requires city departments to "identify services and assistance for families impacted by federal actions, particularly related to housing, healthcare, employment, and education" and expand "virtual access to services to support safe interaction with government systems.” Keller claimed in the order that immigrants generate $12 billion annually for New Mexico and that 16% of Albuquerque small businesses are immigrant-owned. He did not distinguish between legal or illegal immigrants but instead said it was the city’s duty to "serve all residents with dignity—regardless of immigration status.” Keller added that city councilors are planning to introduce legislation to codify his order into law once they return from recess. In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Keller added, "The City actively partners with community organizations to ensure that services, including housing, healthcare, employment, and education assistance are accessible to those impacted by federal immigration actions. These services are provided to all residents and neighbors, regardless of immigration status. We do not inquire about immigration status when offering assistance.” "Albuquerque is proud to welcome immigrants and values the rich diversity of our community. Our focus remains on fostering safety, inclusion, and support for everyone who calls our city home," the spokesperson said.

Houston Chronicle [7/25/2025 7:00 PM, Staff, 1982K] reports as Republican President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up its efforts to deport a record number of immigrants, Houston immigration attorneys are seeing an increase in government efforts to revive cases that have been on hold, sometimes for several years. The legal maneuver of adding an old case to a current case file is not new. But lawyers now believe it will become common as the Trump administration moves forward with its plans for mass deportations. Paul Pirela, a Houston immigration attorney, said the government used to reopen old immigration cases once or twice a year. In 2023, it had one, maybe two. Now, “I think it’s probably four or five in the last two weeks,” he said. Adding the case to a judge’s calendar increases the risk that the judge will issue a deportation order, Pirela said. These cases have been administratively closed by immigration judges. This does not mean they have been fully adjudicated or dismissed. Instead, the cases are suspended, sometimes indefinitely, so judges can manage their workload while attempting to resolve an ever-increasing backlog. Low-priority cases are often closed administratively. Adriel O. Orozco, senior policy advisor at the Washington, D.C.-based American Immigration Council, said that according to data from the Department of Homeland Security, nearly 80% of undocumented immigrants have been in the country for more than 10 years. Orozco added that once a case is rescheduled, immigration judges can issue a deportation order if they believe it’s taking too long for the immigrant to learn whether they’ve been granted another type of immigration status through an application to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The AP [7/25/2025 5:12 PM, Michael Casey] reports a federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the U.S. illegally, issuing the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide since a key Supreme Court decision in June. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, joining another district court as well as an appellate panel of judges, found that a nationwide injunction granted to more than a dozen states remains in force under an exception to the Supreme Court ruling. That decision restricted the power of lower-court judges to issue nationwide injunctions. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation’s highest court. Lawyers for the government had argued Sorokin should narrow the reach of his earlier ruling granting a preliminary injunction, saying it should be “tailored to the States’ purported financial injuries.” Sorokin said a patchwork approach to the birthright order would not protect the states in part because a substantial number of people move between states. He also blasted the Trump administration, saying it had failed to explain how a narrower injunction would work. Sorokin acknowledged his order would not be the last word on birthright citizenship. The administration has not yet appealed any of the recent court rulings. Trump’s efforts to deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily will remain blocked unless and until the Supreme Court says otherwise. Reuters [7/25/2025 6:20 PM, Jan Wolfe, 51390K] reports White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement that "courts are misinterpreting the purpose and the text" of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. But the ruling contained exceptions allowing courts to potentially still block it across the country again.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [7/25/2025 5:49 PM, Erik Larson, 19320K]
The Hill [7/25/2025 4:57 PM, Ella Lee, 18649K]

Daily Caller [7/25/2025 5:19 PM, Jason Cohen, 1010K] reports border czar Tom Homan explained to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on a Friday episode of "The Stephen A. Smith Show" why President Donald Trump’s administration cannot limit deportations to only illegal immigrants who commit additional crimes. While Homan has emphasized a focus on targeting "public safety threats" and "national security threats" for deportation, he has also noted that authorities would make collateral arrests of illegal immigrants who do not pose such threats. When Smith asked Homan on "The Stephen A. Smith Show" to respond to public backlash about the Trump administration not sufficiently working on deporting "the worst of the worst," the border czar pushed back on the public perception, adding that only deporting threats "sends a bad message to the world." Homan asserted widespread reports of immigration raids at schools and churches are false. Homan argued that not enforcing immigration law for illegal migrants who have not committed crimes would be unfair to people who are putting in the time and money to become citizens legally. Border Patrol agents released a total of zero illegal migrants into the United States in May. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed on July 15 that this trend persisted in June, a stark contrast to former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Daily Caller [7/25/2025 3:38 PM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports House Republicans are launching an investigation into the migrant children rescued at a California marijuana farm during an immigration raid. A joint Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operation executed search warrants at two marijuana grow sites in the California towns of Camarillo and Carpinteria on July 10, resulting in the arrest of hundreds of illegal migrants. Among those located by ICE and CBP agents were at least 10 juvenile illegal migrants, eight of whom were Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), migrant children who entered the country unlawfully without a parent or guardian. In light of the discovery of UACs at these marijuana sites, working alongside potentially dangerous individuals and in alleged violation of labor laws, GOP leaders of the House Judiciary Committee are pressing the Trump administration for more information.

New York Times [7/25/2025 5:49 PM, Robert Jimison, 138952K] reports a bipartisan pair of congressmen is set to travel to Mexico next week to meet with President Claudia Sheinbaum and other top government officials as President Trump stokes tension between the United States and its southern neighbor. Representatives Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, and Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, are planning one of the first formal trips by members of Congress to meet with Ms. Sheinbaum. With Mr. Trump’s tariffs driving up prices and his immigration crackdown affecting the region, Mr. Khanna and Mr. Bacon said they hoped to use their visit to figure out how policymakers in Washington could pursue a more constructive approach. “This is one of our closest allies — one of the nations that most impacts life here in terms of the economy, in terms of the culture, in terms of immigration,” Mr. Khanna said in an interview ahead of the trip. “And Trump, I think, has really put strains on that relationship with these tariffs.” Mr. Bacon said he was hoping the trip would help him “understand our neighbors better.” “I know what we feel about the border,” Mr. Bacon said. “I think it’s going to be fascinating to hear the Mexican leadership perspective on trade, border, cyber, national security.” Mexico has been at the center of the president’s trade war and his often whipsawing pronouncements about slapping financial penalties on nations that do not bow to his wishes. Mr. Trump has imposed a 25 percent tariff on a wide range of Mexican goods, and just last week threatened to increase the penalty to 30 percent on Aug. 1 if the country failed to stop drug cartels and the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Mr. Bacon, who represents a swing district that includes Omaha and recently announced he would not seek re-election, is among the few Republicans who has pressed for more congressional oversight of tariff decisions, including those that would apply to Mexico. The pair, who also serve as their respective parties’ top members of a panel focused on military cyber issues, said they were keenly interested in the cybersecurity priorities of the Mexican government and the growing use of drones in the region. U.S. officials have increasingly deployed unmanned aircraft into Mexican airspace to monitor cartel activity, a practice that began under the Biden administration and was intensified when Mr. Trump returned to office. At the same time, the United States is warning that drug cartels are using drones to launch attacks against each other and worry that the threat could soon be directed toward American interests.

New York Times [7/25/2025 6:57 PM, Alan Feuer, 138952K] reports a federal judge on Friday ordered the Justice Department to tell her more about a deal struck between the Trump administration and President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador to imprison immigrants deported from the United States in a Salvadoran maximum-security facility in exchange for the return of top leaders of the MS-13 gang who are in U.S. custody. The order by the judge, Joan M. Azrack, came as she was considering a request by federal prosecutors on Long Island to dismiss sprawling narco-terrorism charges against Vladimir Arévalo Chávez, who is alleged to be one of those leaders, in preparation for sending him back to El Salvador. It remains unclear how the Justice Department will respond to Judge Azrack’s demand for information, but her order could help pierce the veil of secrecy around the arrangement between Mr. Bukele and the Trump administration. That deal is at the heart of one of the White House’s most controversial deportation efforts, which involved the expulsion in March of more than 200 Venezuelans to a prison built for terrorists in El Salvador. The Trump administration deported some of them by invoking a rarely used wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act. In exchange for taking the deportees, the Bukele government received millions of dollars from the United States, as well as the Trump administration’s pledge to return top MS-13 leaders who are facing charges in federal court. An investigation by The New York Times found that the returning of the gang leaders to El Salvador was threatening a long-running federal investigation into the upper echelons of MS-13. Prosecutors had amassed substantial evidence of ties between the gang and the Bukele administration — and had been scrutinizing Mr. Bukele himself, The Times found. Judge Azrack recently said that U.S. government had detailed in court filings allegations of “extraordinary and corrupt arrangements between MS-13 and the Salvadoran government.” Prosecutors have offered little explanation for why they suddenly want to drop the charges against Mr. Arévalo, citing only “important foreign policy considerations” and “national security concerns.” In her brief order, Judge Azrack gave prosecutors until Aug. 8 to explain in writing what role the deal with Mr. Bukele might have played in their request to throw out Mr. Arévalo’s case.

Breitbart [7/25/2025 4:02 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports Vice President JD Vance is calling out economic analysts and their allies in the corporate media for claiming that mass deportations of illegal aliens would spur an economic collapse across the United States, a claim he says has now been proven entirely false. During a Hill & Valley Forum with hosts of the All-In podcast, Vance said thanks to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, the U.S. is likely to see net negative immigration for the first time in half a century. In particular, Vance called out economic analysts who repeatedly claimed before Trump’s election that his mass deportation agenda would drive up housing costs and spike inflation while perpetuating a labor shortage. Vance said the data shows otherwise, with housing costs peaking and inflation cooling. Most notably, the Trump administration has reversed former President Joe Biden’s migrant economy in less than six months. According to the Labor Department, native-born Americans account for all net job gains since Trump and Vance took office. While foreign-born employment is down by over half a million, thanks to strict federal immigration enforcement, native-born American employment is up by over two million.

Reuters [7/25/2025 6:57 PM, Staff, 51390K] reports the United States on Friday designated a group it said is tied to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for allegedly supporting the Tren de Aragua gang and Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, which the U.S. has named so-called foreign terrorist organizations. U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said in a post on X, which it later deleted, that it would use "all the resources at our disposal to prevent Maduro from continuing to profit from destroying American lives and destabilizing our hemisphere.” The U.S. has alleged that the group, known as the Cartel de Los Soles, is made up of high-ranking Venezuelan officials, including Maduro. The U.S. in 2020 had already charged Maduro and his allies with drug trafficking. Venezuela’s communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Maduro has repeatedly rejected the U.S. allegations as a smear campaign and said the U.S. must do more to reduce drug consumption. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the post, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs accused Maduro, whom the office called a "dictator," of leading the group to traffic narcotics into the U.S.

Daily Caller [7/25/2025 3:55 PM, Jaryn Crouson, 1010K] reports the Trump administration will return several education grants it revoked in July for allegedly funding illegal immigrants and other "radical leftwing" priorities, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned. The grants, used to fund several after-school and adult education programs, including a program specifically for migrant education, were meant to be released to states and schools on July 1 but were halted by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on June 30. On July 14, 24 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the administration to return the nearly $7 billion in federal funding. When announcing the withheld funding, the Trump administration reportedly said it was reviewing whether or not to cancel the grants entirely after it found several states were specifically funneling the money towards organizations that advocate for illegal immigrants or were allowing illegals to access scholarships that were "intended for American students." OMB also accused the funds of being used to fuel "a radical leftwing agenda."

(B) CBS Mornings [7/25/2025 11:55 AM, Staff] reports Representative Ken Calvert has introduced the BOWOW Act. It is aimed at protecting animals used by federal law enforcement. The bill comes after an Egyptian immigrant injured a Customs and Border Patrol dog named Freddie during a baggage inspection last month. It happened at Dulles International Airport. The bill would make assaulting animals used by federal agencies a deportable offense.

The Hill [7/25/2025 10:18 AM, Amalia Huot-Marchand, 18649K] reports a Venezuelan migrant who was in the U.S. legally when he was deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador, filed an administrative claim to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday over what he describes as his illegal removal from U.S. territory. Neiyerver Andrián Leon Rengel was sent in March to the infamous CECOT prison under the Alien Enemies Act, along with 17 other alleged Tren de Aragua gang members. He said he suffered "physical, verbal and emotional abuse" during his time in the prison. He was deported two days after a federal judge issued an order prohibiting deportation to third countries, which has since has been reversed by the Supreme Court. It was found in May that the majority of the immigrants sent to El Salvador were in the U.S. legally. A federal judge ruled June 4 that the deportees must be given a legal avenue to challenge their gang-affiliation accusations. Rengel’s claim, filed to Office of the General Counsel for the DHS, states that he suffers psychological and emotional distress and that he did not receive due process. "As a result of White House, DHS, ICE, DOJ, and State Department officials’ negligent and unlawful acts, Rengel suffered a loss of his liberty, removal from the United States, and months-long detention at the notoriously inhumane CECOT, all of which has caused substantial and continuing emotional distress," the claim reads. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told The Hill in a statement that Rengel entered the U.S. illegally in 2023 and is associated with the Tren de Aragua gang. "Tren de Aragua is a vicious gang that rapes, maims, and murders for sport," McLaughlin said. "This illegal alien was deemed a public safety threat as a confirmed associate of the Tren de Aragua gang and processed for removal from the U.S."

ABC News [7/25/2025 5:13 AM, Laura Romero, 31733K] reports Mervin Jose Yamarte Fernandez believed he had arrived in Venezuela when he looked out the window of his deportation plane. After he read a sign that said "San Salvador," he heard screams. "We held onto the seats, we didn’t want to let go," he told ABC News in Spanish. Yamarte Fernandez, who was one of more than 250 Venezuelan migrants deported from the U.S. to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison in March, is one of three Venezuelans who recounted what they say was their experience at CECOT to ABC News. The Venezuelans were subsequently released to their home country in a prisoner swap last week. Yamarte Fernandez and his two countrymen, speaking to ABC News from Venezuela, allege that they were beaten and denied access to lawyers while detained at CECOT. They deny being members of Tren de Aragua. The alleged beatings began as soon as the Venezuelans arrived in El Salvador, Yamarte Fernandez said. The men, who were in handcuffs and chains, were immediately removed from the plane and taken to CECOT, where they say they were kicked, beaten and shaved. "You’re going to see real hell," Yamarte Fernandez said a CECOT officer told him. At times, Garcia Casique said, he and the other men couldn’t drink water because their bodies had "taken such a beating." He denies allegations of being a member of Tren de Aragua and said he doesn’t know why he was sent to CECOT. "They linked me to a gang, but they never showed me any crimes that proved I was a criminal, you know?" Garcia Casique said. "I never thought I would end up in a terrorist prison." In a statement to ABC News, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the agency sent the men to CECOT "where they no longer pose a threat to the American people." "Tren de Aragua and MS-13 are some of the most violent and ruthless terrorist gangs on planet earth," said McLaughlin. "They rape, maim, and murder for sport. President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow criminal gangs to terrorize American citizens." DHS didn’t comment on the allegations of abuse.

ABC News [7/25/2025 6:21 PM, Armando Garcia, 31733K] reports on Wednesday, more than a dozen children in lime green soccer uniform surrounded Jerce Reyes Barrios, hugging and jumping on their former coach as onlookers cheered. Earlier in the week, hundreds of residents of the Venezuelan town of Machiques de Perija lined the street and cheered as a Venezuelan National Guard truck pulled into town to drop Reyes Barrios off at his home. The crowd threw confetti, jumped up and down, and joyfully roared as he exited the vehicle. The exuberant homecoming was in stark contrast to the welcome he received in March at El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, where he says he and over 200 other Venezuelan nationals, accused by the Trump administration of being members of the gang Tren de Aragua, were violently ushered into the facility. "Welcome to hell on earth, where you will be condemned and spend the rest of your life, where I will make sure you never eat chicken or meat again," Reyes Barrios recalled one prison guard allegedly telling the men. "That was when I shed my first tear and thought, wow -- my first time being psychologically abused," he told ABC News in an interview Friday, speaking in Spanish from his home in Venezuela, after being released from CECOT in a prisoner swap last week. Reyes Barrios and his fellow detainees were deported from the U.S. when the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act -- an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process -- by arguing that Tren de Aragua is a "hybrid criminal state" that is invading the United States. In March, ABC News reported about Reyes Barrios’ imprisonment after his attorney, Linette Tobin, submitted a sworn declaration and documents in court she said backed up her claim that her client had no criminal record in Venezuela or the United States, was employed as a professional soccer player and youth coach, and was falsely accused of being a gang member because of his tattoo which showed a crown on top of a soccer ball with a rosary and the word "Dios," meaning "God.” "I got the tattoo because my favorite team is Real Madrid, which has a crown on top of a circle symbolizing the ball, that’s why I got it," Reyes Barrios told ABC News. "For me, soccer is the king of sports so it correlates with the soccer ball with the crown.” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement to ABC News, said, "DHS intelligence assessments go beyond tattoos, and we are confident in our findings. We aren’t going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one. That would be insane.”

Reuters [7/26/2025 6:02 AM, Diego Oré, 51390K] reports as broadcasters declared Donald Trump the next President of the United States, Sonia Coria turned to her husband and asked if they should go home. For seven months they had been living in Glendale, Arizona, sharing a two-bedroom apartment with Coria’s aunt and slowly building a life far from the threats and cartel violence that made them flee Mexico. Coria, 25, took odd jobs as a cleaner and her husband, Carlos Leon, also 25, worked as a gardener. Their eldest child Naomi, eight, was going to a local charter school, making friends and picking up English. In the small kidney-shaped pool of the condominium building where they lived, she had learned to swim. Little Carlos, five, was learning to ride a bike. Trump’s campaign, and his victory, changed how they felt about living in the United States. They had followed the law, entering the United States at a border crossing and applying for asylum. The application was in process. But they now worried they could lose everything. "We run the risk of them taking away the little we’ve managed to scrape together," Coria remembers telling her husband that night as election coverage played on the television. In the end, fear led them to leave before Trump had even been sworn in. "Self-deportation is safe," reads a DHS flyer on display at immigration courts in the U.S. "Leave on your own terms by picking your departure flight." The Trump administration in March launched an app called CBP Home designed to help people relocate and in May, Trump unveiled "Project Homecoming," a sweeping initiative that offers "illegal aliens" $1,000 and a free flight to leave. Since then, "tens of thousands of illegal aliens" self-deported through CBP Home app, a Department of Homeland Security official told Reuters, without giving further details. As they passed Mexican customs, the Mexican National Guard stopped their vehicle and asked for papers, the family said. Leon didn’t have the car title, just a temporary permit issued that day, so officials confiscated the truck and threatened to arrest him for vehicle smuggling. The officials also took $5,000, the family’s entire savings, for what they called a fine before Leon could go free. With no car and no money, Coria, Leon, Naomi and Carlos sat on the ground outside customs, surrounded by their remaining possessions - 100 kilos of clothing, tools, kitchen utensils, a television, refrigerator, and children’s toys. "We lost everything," Coria recalled, in tears. "We left with nothing and came back worse off."

Washington Post [7/26/2025 6:00 AM, Laura Meckler, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, and Justine McDaniel, 32099K] reports Columbia University agreed to pay more than $200 million to settle allegations of civil rights violations from the Trump administration. It agreed to a long list of changes on campus. But one concession struck some observers as particularly troubling: an outside monitor to assure the school complies. To critics, the deal represents an unprecedented governmental intrusion into the affairs of a private university that could erode the independence of universities across the country. The White House has said it sees this agreement as a template for other schools that it is investigating for allegations of antisemitism and racial discrimination. Much of the oversight will relate to diversity, equity and inclusion, as the Trump administration seeks to stamp out any effort by Columbia to increase racial diversity in its student body, faculty or staff. The monitor will also be charged with assuring that university programs do not promote “unlawful DEI goals” — a term that is not defined. Under the agreement, Columbia is required to provide the monitor with detailed information about the race of students who are admitted and rejected, including grade point averages and standardized test scores broken down by race. All data related to faculty and administrative staff hiring and promotion practices must be provided to the monitor annually, and hiring data will be subject to a “comprehensive audit.” The monitor is also charged with assuring that the university establishes processes to guarantee “civil discourse, free inquiry, open debate, and the fundamental values of equality and respect.” And the monitor will review data to assure Columbia is meting out discipline without regard to a student’s immigration status.

Washington Examiner [7/25/2025 5:00 AM, Mia Cathell, 1934K] reports the Obama-appointed federal judge who this week authorized the release of suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia donated money dozens of times to Democrats, spending sizable sums totaling approximately $43,000, according to a Washington Examiner review of campaign finance records. Federal Election Commission filings show that Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., the United States district court judge overseeing Abrego Garcia’s criminal case in Tennessee, has given generously to a host of Democratic causes over the course of his legal career. This week, Crenshaw issued a court order freeing Abrego Garcia, an alleged wife-beater and gangbanger facing federal human smuggling charges, from pretrial detention. Abrego Garcia, who was in the custody of the U.S. Marshals pending a criminal trial, allegedly transported hordes of illegal immigrants within the United States. Crenshaw’s decision came around the same time Judge Paula Xinis, a district court judge from Maryland who is presiding over Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation case, ordered the Trump administration to return him, upon release in Tennessee, to out-of-jail Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision in Maryland, where he was unlawfully living. Such supervised release consists of periodic check-ins with immigration authorities. Xinis, another Obama appointee, also ordered that Abrego Garcia be given 72 hours’ notice if the Trump administration intends to initiate removal proceedings against him, meaning he cannot be immediately deported. She specified in an accompanying opinion that the delay is "so that Abrego Garcia may assert claims of credible fear or seek any other relief available."

Washington Post [7/25/2025 8:57 AM, Victoria Bisset, 32099K] reports a prosecutor who handled some of the most high-profile cases against Jan. 6, 2021 rioters is suing the government over his dismissal last month, arguing that the decision was politically motivated. Former assistant U.S. attorney Michael Gordon is one of dozens of federal prosecutors the Justice Department has fired since President Donald Trump returned to office, despite such measures generally only being used in cases of misconduct, as The Washington Post reported last month. On Thursday, Gordon and two other former DOJ employees — Patricia A. Hartman, who was a public affairs specialist in the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, and Joseph W. Tirrell, who led the department’s ethics office — filed a lawsuit Thursday over their terminations, which they said disregarded “long-standing statutory and regulatory protections that govern how and when members of the civil service can be terminated, and the limits thereof.” They said they were informed of their removal from their posts in a one-page letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi, without being offered any “cause, let alone a proper merit-based one, or required due process.” The attorney general, the lawsuit argues, “does not have absolute authority to simply remove DOJ employees,” who are protected from being arbitrarily or unlawfully dismissed.

DailySignal [7/25/2025 11:00 AM, Brandy Perez, 558K] reports these three tragedies had one thing in common: They were the actions of foreign nationals present in the United States illegally. These crimes, and hundreds more, were preventable. The government has not only the ability, but the obligation to use deportation to fix the illegal migration crisis orchestrated by the Biden administration. Illegal immigration is a clear and present daily threat to the American people. The national security risk created by four long years of open borders is not over simply because CBP has reported record-low encounters at the Southwest land border. As Shakespeare said in "The Tempest," "Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.” One of these individuals is Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, who is the purported assailant of a heinous crime against one of CBP’s own officers. The victim was off duty, enjoying a Sunday night by the Hudson River with a female companion, when two illegal aliens driving a moped ambushed them and shot the officer in the face in an attempted robbery. Nunez is only one of many criminals who slipped into our country under President Joe Biden’s immigration agenda that prioritized "compassion" over public safety. The Department of Homeland Security reported an estimated 11 million inadmissible alien encounters from fiscal years 2021 to 2024. Most of these aliens were military-aged men, and among them are cartel affiliates, human traffickers, and gang members who saturated border checkpoints and exploited unauthorized and loophole-ridden short-term migration programs to gain access into American communities at the taxpayer’s expense. Illegal aliens dispersed into cities across the country, none of which have the will, much less the means, to screen, supervise, or support their detention. The Biden wave of illegal arrivals have now spent four years establishing complex organized crime networks within our country. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lengthy indictment in April detailing gruesome charges against 27 alleged affiliates of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, a foreign terrorist organization. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports routinely show how sanctuary policies shield illegal aliens who go on to commit crimes that were preventable—because every murder, assault, rape, or robbery an illegal alien commits is an avoidable tragedy. A year ago, The Heritage Foundation started recording just some of these preventable crimes on a map of the country. What started as a few dots expanded, with each dot representing a victim.

Federalist [7/25/2025 7:43 AM, Casey Chalk, 1142K] reports "For a Haitian family in Springfield, Ohio, the house on Chestnut Avenue represented their future in this country. They’re now wondering what can be salvaged," a recent feature in Washington Post described. The article — one of several of its kind — attempts to elicit empathy for hard-working, religious Haitian immigrants, trying to grasp their slice of the American dream. In that respect, the WaPo largely achieves its goal. The pro-immigration rhetoric, however, is not only about celebrating diligent émigrés — it’s about maligning the blue-collar Americans they’ve come to replace. That diabolical motive hides behind the story of Fernande and Rocher Vital, an automotive plant worker and evangelical pastor, respectively. In 2024, they bought a "century-old Folk Victorian" in Springfield, Ohio — the same town that served as an epicenter of political rhetoric regarding Haitian immigrants in last year’s presidential election. With the surrounding anti-immigrant sentiments, the family contemplated leaving.

San Diego Union Tribune [7/25/2025 9:22 PM, Staff, 1611K] reports Thursday’s announcement by U.S. EPA chief Lee Zeldin that the Trump administration had reached a “100% permanent solution” to the Tijuana River Valley sewage ordeal in negotiations with Mexico is great news. For years, leaders in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento have treated closed beaches and health risks to residents, tourists, Navy SEALs and border agents in San Diego County as mostly a local issue. In so doing, former President Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom failed 3 million-plus San Diegans — and, in his first term, so did President Donald Trump. Now, however, Zeldin has finally gotten the U.S. government to use the many ways it can bring pressure on Mexico to force concessions on funding and construction timelines for sewage improvements in the Tijuana area. Per a joint statement from Zeldin and Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Mexico’s secretary of the environment and natural resources, infrastructure fixes on both sides of the border are supposed to be done by Dec. 31, 2027 — far earlier than previous assumptions. Reflecting a point long made by the U-T Editorial Board — that all it took for quick improvements on the U.S. side of the border was decisive leadership — the EPA thinks it is realistic for the treatment capacity of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Ysidro to be increased from 25 million to 35 million gallons per day by late August — of this year. Yes, of course, there are reasons to worry this all sounds too good to be true. The announcement comes against a backdrop of Trump conflicts with California over immigration enforcement, environmental rules and much more. It’s also striking that Zeldin’s plan comes at a time when the EPA seems less interested in problem-solving than at any time since its 1970 founding — including asserting that states should take over many federal environmental responsibilities. So perhaps the Zeldin initiative will wither or be abandoned. But for now, it is clearly the most promising development yet in our long local nightmare.

Detroit Free Press [7/26/2025 6:03 AM, Amir Makled, 4241K] reports that, we have seen, once again, the guardrails that protect the American constitution gradually being compromised by the U.S. Supreme Court in its June ruling that gave way for President Donald Trump to attempt to eliminate birthright citizenship in the United States. That right has been enshrined into American life and law since enactment of the 14th Amendment in 1868, with these words: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States…". Legal consensus holds that this clause includes nearly all children born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status, and was furthermore upheld by the 1898 Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark that a child born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents is still a U.S. citizen under the 14th Amendment. In late January of this year, Trump issued an executive order to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. ― a right that he said was permitted nowhere else in the world and was enacted to solely cover children of former slaves. Both statements were, not surprisingly, false. Since the issuance of Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, the ACLU and nearly two dozen states have filed suit against the presidential order, arguing that it violates the 14th Amendment. The lawsuit sought to protect babies who would be denied birthright citizenship by the Trump administration, and also asked a judge to grant a temporary block of the president’s order restricting birthright citizenship from going into effect throughout the country. U.S. District Judge Joseph LaPlante of New Hampshire granted the suit’s class-action status on July 10, particularly because the Supreme Court has also limited the ability of judges to block orders nationwide through injunctions. In so doing, LaPlante also ordered a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking Trump’s order from going into effect. LaPlante said during the court hearing that depriving a person of the longstanding right of birthright citizenship was creating "irreparable harm" and that birthright citizenship was "the greatest privilege that exists in the world.” As we have become accustomed with so many Trump executive orders, as well as with decisions of this Supreme Court, much more is at stake than meets the eye. This executive order and subsequent ruling by the Supreme Court represent the continued and gradual undoing of constitutional rights enjoyed by Americans for decades ― and, in the case of birthright citizenship, for more than 150 years. If that isn’t indicative of rolling back the clock on our rights, then nothing is. Sadly, the authoritarianism bull’s eye has sought and is seeking other constitutional targets as well: reproductive rights, marriage equality, voting rights, the separation of powers, due process and more. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Los Angeles Times [7/26/2025 6:00 AM, Gustavo Arellano, 14672K] reports since the start of President Trump’s second term, the Department of Homeland Security’s social media team has published a stream of content worthy of a meme-slinging basement dweller on 4chan. Grainy, distorted mug shots of immigrants. Links to butt-kissing Fox News stories about MAGA anything. Whiny slams against politicians who call out la migra for treating the Constitution like a pee pad. Paeans to "heritage" and "homeland" worthy of Goebbels. A Thomas Kinkade painting of 1950s-era white picket fence suburbia straight out of "Leave It to Beaver," with the caption "Protect the Homeland.” All of this is gag-inducing, but it has a purpose — it’s revealing the racist id of this administration in real time, in case anyone was still doubtful. In June, DHS shared a poster, originally created by the white-power scene, of a grim-faced Uncle Sam urging Americans to "report all foreign invaders" by calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On July 14, the DHS X account featured a painting of a young white couple cradling a baby in a covered wagon on the Great Plains with the caption, "Remember your Homeland’s Heritage." When my colleague Hailey Branson-Potts asked about the pioneer painting and the Trump administration’s trollish social media strategy, a White House spokesperson asked her to "explain how deporting illegal aliens is racist," adding that haters should "stay mad.”

FOX News [7/25/2025 5:13 PM, Alexandra Koch, 46878K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently arrested a criminal illegal immigrant who is accused of stalking a mother and U.S. government official despite being ordered to leave the country in 2022, Fox News Digital has learned. Jose Madrid Reyes, a Salvadoran national, was arrested July 12 and remains in ICE custody pending his deportation, which is expected within the coming days, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) began investigating after a U.S. government official contacted the agency and said she feared she was being stalked. The government official, whose name has not been released for her protection, was worried about her family’s safety, including her child, according to DHS. During the investigation, HSI identified Reyes as the suspected stalker. His criminal record stretches back nearly two decades, with a history of assault and driving while intoxicated. "Day in and day out, our brave ICE agents are nabbing creeps who shouldn’t be in our country in the first place," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "On July 12, ICE arrested Jose Madrid Reyes, a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador, who was suspected of stalking a U.S. federal official. "We will not allow these predators to terrorize American citizens. Despite facing an 830% increase in assaults against them, ICE law enforcement is keeping Americans safe from criminal illegal aliens and sending these slimeballs back to their home countries."

CNN [7/26/2025 6:00 AM, Holmes Lybrand, 21433K] reports that, on the night of July 4, a group of assailants mounted a coordinated attack on an immigration detention facility near Fort Worth, Texas, using vandalism and fireworks to draw officers out and into the sights of two shooters positioned in a line of trees across the street, authorities allege. Barely three days later, a Michigan man opened fire at a Border Patrol facility nearly 500 miles to the south in McAllen, near the US-Mexico border. The man was able to fire dozens of rounds at officers, one of whom was struck in the knee, before being quickly killed by returning gunfire. The attacks don’t appear to be directly connected. But amid the continued backlash the agency faces in the wake of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, they have put officials on edge, prompting them to increase the presence of security officers at the front of Department of Homeland Security facilities, federal officials told CNN. The administration points to the violent incidents as part of a broader trend of immigration enforcement personnel under siege and a growing anger that officials say has been stoked by critics of Trump’s policies. Some of the administration’s critics, while not condoning violence, contend the ramp-up in immigration raids, masked agents and use of the National Guard have served to spark fear and increase tensions. The DHS has warned of dramatic spikes in assaults on its officers, saying earlier this year incidents had risen over 400% in May and now, just two months later, to over 800% when compared to the previous year. As of mid-July there had been 93 assaults on officers this year. During the same period in 2024, that number was 10, an ICE official told CNN. The attack on the immigration detention facility outside of Fort Worth is markedly different, however, than incidents during arrests and raids by ICE officers — an environment primed for confrontation — and shows a level of coordination not often seen in attacks on federal agencies in the US. "It makes me really upset," ICE’s Acting Director Todd Lyons told CNN of the attacks, noting that he started his career in nearby Dallas. "It makes me very mad. It makes me scared.” Lyons said his biggest fear in the job was losing an officer. "Right now, that’s the thing that keeps me up at night the most," the acting director said, "I’m very scared because of all the threats and the rhetoric that I’m going to lose an ICE agent or officer because of this craziness that’s going on.” John Sandweg, who served as an acting director for ICE during former President Barack Obama’s second term, told CNN that previously, DHS officials were concerned about general officer safety when executing an arrest or search warrant, not necessarily with targeted attacks. "I haven’t seen anything like this, and I don’t know how to explain it. There’s certainly no justification for it," Sandweg told CNN, adding: "This is different. This is political violence.” A DHS spokesperson has blamed the increased attacks on "crazed rhetoric from gutter politicians" while Democrats have said the department is not allowing them to access detention facilities and are subjecting immigrants to extremely poor conditions. Prosecutors in New Jersey filed charges against a Democratic lawmaker after a brief melee outside a detention center there when ICE officers arrested the mayor of Newark for entering a gated area of the facility. Critics of the agency say the tactics of many ICE agents, wearing masks and plain clothes when arresting people, paired with constant raids – at one point sweeping through a public park – and, at times, mistakenly detaining US citizens have created an explosive and fear-laden environment that the Trump administration has spearheaded. "This role can shape an individual’s actions and how they respond, particularly when they’re scared," Missouri Rep. Wesley Bell said of ICE during a congressional hearing Wednesday on unaccompanied immigrant minors in the US.

NPR [7/25/2025 4:07 PM, Martin Kaste, Ailsa Chang, 37958K] Audio: HERE reports Democrats push for immigration enforcement officers to unmask Democrats have introduced legislation in California and New York, as well as in Congress, requiring officers to show their faces as anger mounts about the "secret police" vibe of ICE officers.

NPR [7/25/2025 4:20 PM, Martin Kaste, 37958K] Audio: HERE reports since President Trump’s return to office, images of masked federal agents carrying out immigration arrests have become a familiar — and for many Americans, deeply disturbing — sight. The Department of Homeland Security has endorsed the agents’ right to wear masks, but some Democrats want to make it illegal. In Congress, Democrats have introduced several bills, including the No Secret Police Act, which would bar federal agents from concealing their faces with "home-made, non-tactical masks." As long as Republicans are in the majority, Congressional action is unlikely. At the state level, though, legislation is advancing. In California, lawmakers are considering a bill that would limit the ability of all law enforcement officers — federal, state and local — to wear masks that aren’t required for medical or tactical reasons, or undercover work. Other Democratic-majority legislatures may follow suit. In New York, Manhattan Assemblyman Tony Simone is one of the supporters of the "Mandating End of Lawless Tactics" Act. If states pass such measures, it’s unclear whether they would apply to federal agents. Generally speaking, states may not regulate federal law enforcement.

Axios [7/25/2025 12:03 PM, Josephine Walker, 13599K] reports immigrants are finding it increasingly hard to find legal representation as the Trump administration ramps up deportation proceedings. An expected surge in new federal funding could supercharge both arrests and deportations at a time when immigration attorneys are already struggling to keep up with their day-to-day casework. Deportation is a civil sanction, not criminal, so immigrants are not automatically entitled to a government-appointed attorney if they can’t afford representation. Roughly 49% of people facing deportation nationwide have no attorney to advise them of their rights, according to the June data from Vera Institute for Justice. In the top three states with the most immigration cases pending, Florida, California and Texas, representation rates vary wildly. In Florida and Texas, 25.1% and 24.5% of all pending cases are likely to have legal representation, where as in California, there’s a 63.9% chance of retaining an attorney, according to nationwide released data by Syracuse University in June.

The Washington Post [7/25/2025 3:52 PM, Vivian Ho and Angie Orellana Hernandez, 32099K] reports at least 10 children between the ages of 3 and 15 were held in an underground bunker in central Alabama and sexually exploited, tortured and trafficked, according to the local sheriff’s department. Authorities have arrested seven individuals — including the parents and family members of the some of the victims — on several charges ranging from human trafficking, rape, sodomy, sexual torture and bestiality, Bibb County Sheriff Jody Wade said at a news conference Wednesday. “We anticipate more arrests, and unfortunately, more victims,” Wade said, adding that both male and female children were among the victims, and that it appeared the abuse began in 2022. Criminal complaints filed by prosecutors and obtained by The Washington Post describe horrific conditions in which the young children were allegedly kept and say children were sold to people who sexually abused them. The investigation began in February after the state Department of Human Services alerted the sheriff’s office of the possible sexual abuse of children, Wade said. Two of the victims had been found performing sex acts on each other and told investigators that McElroy had taught them how to perform these acts and had done them to them as well, Bibb County Assistant District Attorney Bryan Jones told AL.com. The sheriff’s office waited to announce the arrests and charges until investigators could ensure that all the victims were safe, Wade said. They are now in the custody of the state Department of Human Services and are receiving counseling and medical attention, he said. Blaze [7/25/2025 5:30 AM, Carlos Garcia, 1805K] reports law enforcement authorities are releasing more terrifying details from horrific child rape allegations involving an underground bunker in Alabama. Police were tipped off about the possible abuse at a storm shelter used as a bunker in the small city of Brent in February, as Blaze Media previously reported. What they discovered has led to dozens upon dozens of charges against seven individuals, and police believe there may be more victims as well as perpetrators. "I’ve been in law enforcement for 33 years, and this is absolutely the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen when it comes to the victimization of children," Bibb County Sheriff Jody Wade said about the case. "I know God’s forgiveness is boundless, but if there was a limit to it, I think we’ve reached it." Some of those arrested were parents of children that were abused. Wade said that the Department of Homeland Security was involved in the investigation because it believed there’s a link to the Mexican gang Sureños, based on the human trafficking involved. NBC News [7/25/2025 9:49 PM, Dennis Romero, 44540K] reports seven people have been charged in connection with an alleged sex trafficking operation that Alabama officials say was run out of a concrete bunker and involved children as young as 3. The case includes charges of rape, sexual torture, kidnapping, and human trafficking, and officials allege the abuse took place in a cinder block building in Brent, Alabama, 50 miles southwest of Birmingham, Bibb County Sheriff Jody Wade said at a news conference Wednesday. He called the alleged abuse and torture "the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen" perpetrated against children. "I know god’s forgiveness is boundless," Wade said. "But if there was a limit to it, I think we’ve reached it.” He said the operators of the sex abuse ring charged people to come to the bunker and abuse the children, adding that the operation may have made $1,000 a night. "Sometimes, the children would be there, tied to a pole that was there, bound to a bed that was there, or in a chair that was there," Wade said. "Sometimes, there would be multiple people that would come by and victimize these children on a nightly basis.” An image of the inside of the bunker, released by the sheriff’s office, showed a filthy mattress in a corner, a folding chair and a fan. The sheriff also alleged the children were sometimes drugged "to make them a little bit more drowsy and a little bit more compliant.” An animal shock collar was used to punish the children, according to complaints obtained by NBC News affiliate WVTM of Birmingham. Wade said the suspects include relatives of some of the 10 alleged victims, who range in age from 3 to 15. The children are in the custody of the state, said Robert H. Turner, Jr., the district attorney for the 4th Judicial Circuit of Alabama. The sheriff said the operation appears to have come together about 2022, and that officials began investigating in February after state child welfare officials alerted Bibb County authorities to the possibility of abuse at a home near the bunker. The children did not live in the bunker, the sheriff said. Wade said a drug trafficking investigation at the location may have delayed the sex trafficking case. "We had a little bit of a hold on until we could rescue these children," the sheriff said. The New York Post [7/25/2025 7:28 AM, Emily Crane, 49956K] reports Rebecca Brewer, 29, Sara Louise Terrell, 41, and Ricky Terrell, 44, all waived their right to a bond hearing in Bibb County on Thursday — opting instead to remain in custody as they try to fight the disturbing charges. "I didn’t do this. I love my babies," a shackled Brewer, the mother of four of the 10 victims, told ABC 3340 as she shuffled into the courthouse. The three suspects, who all had their wrists and ankles cuffed, were spotted trying to dodge cameras as they were hauled in for their hearings. They are among the seven suspects arrested so far on a laundry list of charges ranging from sodomy and rape to sexual torture and human trafficking in the sick case.

Telemundo [7/25/2025 8:50 AM, Staff, 4K] reports a chaotic scene was captured on video as federal agents surrounded the construction site of an elementary school in southern Alabama during an immigration raid. The FBI in Mobile reported that 11 undocumented workers were arrested at what will be the new Loxley Elementary School in the town near the Gulf Coast of Mobile. A witness, who identified himself as Irv Ballonoff, told our sister station FOX10 News that he quickly pulled out his phone and started recording. He saw officers surround the scene with four-wheelers and even use a helicopter. “One of them fell from the roof after making a wrong step during the chase,” he said. This is the second time in a month that a school under construction has been the target of an immigration raid in Baldwin County. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [7/26/2025 6:02 AM, Lauren Villagran, 75552K] reports Sam Zeidan pulled onto the grassy shoulder at the airport, hoping to see his brother among the shackled men boarding a deportation flight. A jet roared on the sweaty tarmac. The site, known as the Alexandria Staging Facility in rural Louisiana, is the nation’s only ICE jail-combo-airport and is the top hub for the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights climbed to a five-year high in June, and Alexandria ranked first among the nation’s five busiest deportation hubs, according analyst Tom Cartwright, who tracks ICE flights for the nonprofit Witness at the Border. The record pace has continued in July, with the Trump administration leaning heavily on the Louisiana ICE detention centers that feed Alexandria.

Breitbart [7/25/2025 11:08 AM, Lowell Cauffiel, 3077K] reports Michigan has joined four other states who have introduced legislation to ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from wearing masks, with the Wolverine state calling for jail time for violators. Democrats in California, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania also have introduced similar bills as part of an attempt by those lawmakers to "increase transparency and limit the agency’s expanded powers" under President Donald Trump, Newsweek reported this week. As Breitbart News has reported, federal authorities say ICE officers have been wearing plain clothes and using masks during raids to hinder their identification they or their families won’t be targeted off the job by open boarder advocates. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) also introduced a bill at the federal level banning the practice. Michigan House Democrats compared masking to "secret police" tactics, MLive, reported. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City) told the news website: For the average person, these incidents look like violent kidnappings. With this new federal tactic of wearing masks with no identification, there is no way for the public, the people being accosted or grabbed or even local law enforcement and local, state elected leaders to know who these folks are. The Michigan bill not only bans ICE and Border Patrol from wearing "non-medical" face coverings, it requires officers to display their agency, their name and their badge number.

CNN [7/25/2025 6:00 AM, Lex Harvey, 21433K] reports Ma Yang arrived at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in late February with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Several days earlier, she had received a call from ICE asking her to report to her local field office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – more than six months before she was due for her annual check-in. President Donald Trump had been inaugurated for a second time and his administration had already moved ahead with its promise to deport millions of immigrants from the US. Yang, a 37-year-old mother of five, was detained that day and deported two weeks later to Laos – a small country in Southeast Asia that her parents had fled four decades earlier. Yang had never been to Laos, is not a Laos citizen and does not speak Lao. Born in a refugee camp in Thailand, Yang resettled in the US with her parents and older siblings when she was 8 months old. She is Hmong, an ethnic minority group in Southeast Asia who helped the CIA during its so-called Secret War which ran parallel to the Vietnam War. Yang lived for decades in the US legally as a permanent resident until she pleaded guilty to marijuana-related charges in 2022. Under US law, non-citizens can lose their visas if convicted of certain crimes. After serving her sentence, Yang was transferred to an ICE detention facility and released in 2023 with a removal order from the US. Yang said her lawyer at the time assured her the removal order would not be acted upon – deportations to Southeast Asia were exceedingly rare. But that appears to be changing. Months into Trump’s second term, as his administration ramps up its immigration crackdown, hundreds of people have been quietly deported to Laos and Vietnam, immigrant rights advocates say, in a stark departure from decades of US immigration policy in the region. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed Yang’s deportation in a statement to CNN. "Under President Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences," McLaughlin said.

NewsNation [7/25/2025 7:00 AM, Xavier Walton, 5801K] reports following the fast-tracked launch of Florida’s "Alligator Alcatraz" migrant detention facility, multiple states have expressed interest in creating their own. A newly announced center in West Texas is shaping up to be the nation’s largest, with the U.S. Department of Defense on Monday allocating more than $230 million to the construction of a 5,000-bed camp at Fort Bliss. The DOD predicts the facility, built by Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC, will be up and running near the U.S.-Mexico border by Sept. 30, 2027. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed his so-called "big, beautiful bill" into law, effectively setting aside $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement — with $45 billion allocated for detention. Gil Barndollar, defense priorities foundation senior fellow, said hosting a detention center at a military installment is a "slippery slope." "Are we repurposing the U.S. military – and especially the land forces, primarily the Army and to a secondary extent the Marine Corps – as a border security force?" Barndollar said. "We haven’t done that in any meaningful way in well over a century." Other migrant detention centers are expected to pop up nationwide amid pushes from Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said she wants Florida’s Everglades-based camp to serve as a blueprint for others.

NBC 5 Dallas [7/25/2025 11:40 PM, Allie Spillyards] reports somewhere inside of Dallas’s ICE field office, North Texas families say loved ones are being held. Two women told NBC5 that their husbands were detained during routine ICE check-ins within the last week and held at the field office for days. Speaking anonymously to protect their spouses, the women detailed conditions that they say are inhumane. “He told me they were crowded, that there were around 30 people in a single cell, that they couldn’t bathe, that they were only given frozen food,” said one woman. “There are no beds or chairs. It’s a room with a toilet seat where everyone has to turn around when someone wants to relieve themselves,” said the other. Both women said their husbands do not have criminal records. "If the stories are true, there are people being held there for multiple days and even longer than a week in conditions that are not intended to be where people are housed, and this gave us great concern,” said Kessler Park United Methodist Senior Pastor Eric Folkerth. Late Friday, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement disputing the claims: “ICE has legal authority to temporarily house illegal aliens while they are being processed after their arrest. Any allegations that these processing centers do not have beds, running water, or other basic essentials are FALSE. ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously. It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. ICE is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure that all ICE facilities comply with performance-based national detention standards.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Univision [7/25/2025 4:37 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports the mobilization of ICE agents in a construction zone caused alarm among workers and residents in south San Antonio. The events occurred on Thursday, July 24, between Zarzamora Street and Loop 410, very close to Texas A&M University. The operation came to light after a video went viral on social networks. In the video, dozens of ICE agents can be seen arriving in a neighborhood under construction and detaining several men, workers at the site. Several workers managed to escape from the officers by hiding in bushes or running through the area. According to witnesses, agents arrived in vans and even helicopters to make some arrests. A statement from ICE had this to say about the operation: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirms the presence of law enforcement agents who conducted an operation in South San Antonio. This is part of an investigation led by the Department of Homeland Security Investigations. No details will be released at this time." It is not known at this time how many arrests were made or to which detention centers the individuals were taken. On Friday, construction continued to operate normally.

Houston Chronicle [7/25/2025 9:00 AM, Kevin Johnson, 1982K] reports all modern U.S. presidents, both Republican and Democratic, have attempted to reduce the population of millions of undocumented immigrants. But their various strategies have not had significant results, with the population hovering around 11 million from 2005 to 2022. President Donald Trump seeks to change that. With harsh rhetoric that has sowed fear in immigrant communities, and policies that ignore immigrants’ due process rights, Trump has pursued deportation tactics that differ dramatically from those of any other modern U.S. president. As a scholar who examines the history of U.S. immigration law and enforcement, I believe that it remains far from clear whether the Trump White House will significantly reduce the undocumented population. But even if the administration’s efforts fail, the fear and damage to the U.S. immigrant community will remain.

ABC 15 Phoenix [7/25/2025 11:42 PM, Jane Caffrey] reports there is growing criticism against the Eloy Detention Center as some community members and local lawmakers question the conditions for individuals being held. Access to medical care, legal services, and proper air conditioning and cooling are some of the things citizens are concerned about at the ICE facility. The Department of Homeland Security is reiterating, there is nothing to be worried about. When U.S. Rep Yassamin Ansari (D, District 3) visited the facility in May, she claims 20 detainees reported substandard conditions, which she outlined in a letter to DHS and ICE. Those included a decline in legal services, overcrowded cells, air conditioning manipulation, and one instance where a guard allegedly ordered detainees to walk laps in the heat until some got sick. “I had detailed my deep concerns about the inhumane conditions of the Eloy ICE Detention Center and demanded answers and independent oversight,” Rep. Ansari said. ABC15 brought all these allegations to DHS, who wrote to us repeatedly that they are “false.” According to Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, Rodriguez Marquez has seen medics at least 13 times since being detained in February, who found no medical issues. “ICE provides comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” Assistant Secretary McLaughlin said in a statement. “This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility; a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arriving at an ICE facility; and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. At no time is a detained alien ever denied emergent care by ICE.” A DHS spokesperson adds that ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold U.S. citizens. “All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers. Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

NewsMax [7/25/2025 4:16 PM, Mark Swanson, 4622K] reports two medical staffers in California are facing federal charges after obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents trying to arrest an illegal migrant who had run into a surgery center in Ontario to evade capture, the Department of Justice announced Friday. Jose de Jesus Ortega, 38, was arrested Friday morning while police continue to look for Danielle Nadine Davila, 33. Ortega and Davila, part of the medical staff at the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center, are charged with assaulting a federal officer and conspiracy to prevent by force and intimidation a federal officer from discharging his duties. The incident occurred July 8 when ICE agents approached Denis Guillen-Solis, an illegal migrant from Honduras, who was outside the medical center landscaping. Guillen-Solis attempted to flee from the agents, running into the medical center where Ortega and Davila stepped between Guillen-Solis and agents, yelling at the federal agents to leave and shouting "Let him go!" according to the DOJ. Ortega and Davila grabbed the agent during the struggle, the DOJ said. The medical staff called local police claiming a kidnapping, according to KTLA5. However, the ICE agents were wearing clearly marked ICE bulletproof vests, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said then. Ortega and Davila face up to eight years for assaulting federal agents and up to six years on the conspiracy charge, if convicted. FOX News [7/25/2025 12:37 PM, Cameron Arcand and Bill Melugin, 46878K] reports "This story is another example of a false narrative peddled by irresponsible members of the media in furtherance of a political agenda to delegitimize federal agents. The illegal alien arrested inside the medical center was not a patient and was not in any way affiliated with that location. He ran inside for cover and these medical workers attempted to block his apprehension by assaulting our agents," U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli told Fox News in a statement. "To be very clear, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you work, if you assault our agents or otherwise interfere with our operations, you will be arrested and charged with a federal crime," Essayli continued. The criminal warrants were signed off by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym for two of the staffers, Jose De Jesus Ortega and Danielle Nadine Davila, for allegedly "forcibility assaulting, impeding, and interfering with a federal officer involving physical contact" and "conspiring to prevent, by force and intimidation, a federal officer from discharging his duties.” "ICE officers conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest two illegal aliens. Officers in clearly marked ICE bulletproof vests approached the illegal alien targets as they exited a vehicle," the Department of Homeland Security posted to X on July 9. "One of the illegal aliens, Denis Guillen-Solis who is from Honduras, fled on foot to evade law enforcement. He ended up near the Ontario Advanced Surgical Center where hospital staff assaulted law enforcement and drug the officer and illegal alien into the facility. Then, the staff attempted to obstruct the arrest by locking the door, blocking law enforcement vehicles from moving, and even called the cops claiming there was a ‘kidnapping,’" the post added.

Los Angeles Times [7/26/2025 6:00 AM, Jessica Garrison and Melissa Gomez, 14672K] reports ever since federal immigration agents raided one of the largest licensed cannabis operators in the state this month, the phones of cannabis industry insiders have been blazing with messages of fear, sadness and confusion. "It sent shock waves through the community," said Hirsh Jain, the founder of Ananda Strategy, which advises cannabis businesses. "Everyone is on text threads." Glass House Brands, whose cannabis operations have helped make Santa Barbara and Ventura counties the new cannabis capitals of California, has long been among the most prominent companies in the state’s wild frontier of legal cannabis. For Glass House, the aftermath has been devastating. Some workers disappeared into Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention or bolted, too fearful to return. Others were so traumatized that Glass House brought in grief counselors, according to a source close to the company. Across the wider world of legal California cannabis — where many growers and entrepreneurs have hoped the Trump administration would legalize the drug — people were also shaken. Did the action against Glass House signal an end to federal law enforcement’s ceasefire against legal cannabis in California and dozens of other states? Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this month that Glass House had been targeted because "we knew, specifically from casework we had built for weeks and weeks and weeks, that there was children there that could be trafficked, being exploited, that there was individuals there involved in criminal activity."

Univision [7/25/2025 4:51 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports police in Ontario, California, denied involvement in Monday’s immigration operation, which left three people detained, including U.S. citizen Ángel Piña. However, his wife, Maria, rejects the official version and claims that her husband was arrested and transported by federal immigration agents, not local police. In a video posted on social media, Officer Joe Estrada stated that his agents’ involvement was limited to responding to an ICE call requesting support following alleged assaults. Although the police insist their only role was to provide support during an emergency call , Maria criticized the content of the video shared by the department, which shows an officer holding her husband by the head and shoulders while he was on the ground. When contacted by the Ontario Police Department for comment on Maria’s statements, the press office responded that everything they had to say had already been published on social media.

Los Angeles Times [7/25/2025 6:00 AM, Marcos Magaña, 14672K] reports for the last 16 years, Isabel has worked harvesting carrots, lemons and grapes in the Coachella Valley. The undocumented mother of three — who, like others The Times spoke with, declined to give her last name out of fear for her family’s safety — says the heat in recent summers has been increasingly difficult to manage. And now, with fewer workers showing up due to fears of ongoing immigration enforcement raids across California, Isabel says she and those who remain have to endure fewer breaks and more physical strain. Crews that once numbered five groups of 18 workers each are down to three groups of 18. The demands, however, haven’t changed. "You have to pack so many boxes in a day," Isabel said in Spanish. "If it takes you a while to get water, you’ll neglect the boxes you’re packing. You have to put in more effort." Across Southern California, from fields to homes, parks to markets, the fear of immigration enforcement is making it harder for individuals and families to stay safe as temperatures rise. Anticipating a raid by Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the reaction was immediate. Workers — many undocumented — fled, some going into the fields, hiding beneath grapevines or climbing up date palm trees. Local organizers began to get calls from frightened workers and their families.

San Diego Union Tribune [7/25/2025 12:04 PM, Teri Figueroa, 1611K] reports reacting to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement playing out across San Diego, Mayor Todd Gloria this week issued an executive order calling for measures to support the community that include know-your-rights outreach, interagency planning for response to “disruptive” enforcement actions and requests to the federal government for data on immigration operations in the city. The order reaffirms that San Diego police follow state law barring local law enforcement from assisting with immigration enforcement, and clarifies that when police do show up at such scenes, they are there solely for public safety reasons. Community advocates have criticized San Diego police in recent weeks for showing up at federal immigration operations, arguing that their mere presence erodes trust with migrant communities. The order calls for the San Diego Police Department to notify Gloria’s office when its officers respond to an incident involving a federal agency conducting immigration enforcement. “The sad reality is that we are likely to see this administration continue their cruel, excessive and aggressive tactics, and our job is to stay vigilant, informed and prepared,” Gloria said in a video statement discussing the executive order. The order directs the city to share “know your rights” information in several languages through outreach campaigns and the city’s website. “While cities cannot lawfully interfere with or stop federal operations, we can help ensure that everyone knows their rights and that city employees and our vendors know the same,” Gloria said in the nearly three-minute video.

San Francisco Chronicle [7/25/2025 7:00 AM, Ko Lyn Cheang, 4120K] reports as Miguel Silvestre stared at the government document he’d been emailed, he couldn’t believe what he was reading. His full name was atop the "Record of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien" form from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but just about everything else on the page was false. Silvestre, a 47-year-old construction worker, was born in Stockton, but the document listed his birthplace and country of citizenship as Mexico. At the bottom were words that Silvestre didn’t understand completely, though well enough: "Received … on June 26, 2025 at 11:31. Disposition: Expedited Removal." No, he thought, this could not be happening again. "Now I have to be looking over my shoulder," he said in a recent interview. "It’s hurtful." Despite being a U.S. citizen by birth, Silvestre had reason to be paranoid about his status. Remarkably, this was not the first time the government had targeted him for deportation. After Stockton police arrested him for public drunkenness in 1999, Silvestre, then 21, was deported to Nogales, Mexico — twice — under an erroneous removal order. U.S. citizens cannot legally be deported. An immigration judge finally overturned the removal order in 2004, ruling Silvestre was indeed an American. It remains unclear why federal authorities created the new expedited removal paperwork. Known as an I-213, it’s an internal record of people believed to be deportable created before the government initiates the deportation process. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said Silvestre was deported in 1999, under President Bill Clinton’s administration, because he "claimed to be a Mexican citizen without any legal status to remain in the U.S.," an assertion Silvestre denies. "This individual has no active immigration case and is not a target of ICE," McLaughlin said. She did not deny that the agency had created the new expedited removal paperwork. Asked if it was created by mistake and whether it had been withdrawn, she did not immediately respond. "ICE does NOT deport U.S. citizens," McLaughlin said. "We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement are trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability." When the Chronicle told Silvestre on Thursday about DHS’ statement, he said he was relieved to learn he is not an ICE target. But he said he wanted to be certain that the removal paperwork had been or will be withdrawn.

New York Times [7/26/2025 2:53 AM, By Hamed Aleaziz, 330K] reports the Trump administration is planning to change the visa system for skilled foreign workers, a program at the center of a dispute between immigration hard-liners and tech industry leaders, said the new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In an interview with New York Times, Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S.C.I.S., also said the test to become a U.S. citizen was too easy and should change. “The test as it’s laid out right now, it’s not very difficult,” Mr. Edlow said on Thursday. “It’s very easy to kind of memorize the answers. I don’t think we’re really comporting with the spirit of the law.” Mr. Edlow illuminated how the agency at the heart of the country’s immigration system would operate in President Trump’s second term, at a moment when the president has ordered a sweeping crackdown on immigration and a mass deportation campaign. The H-1B visa program for foreign workers has been the subject of a fierce debate within the Republican Party. Mr. Edlow said it should favor companies that plan to pay foreign workers higher wages. The proposed changes to the system could help alleviate criticism from those in the right wing of the Republican party who say the program brings in workers who are willing to accept lower salaries than American workers. This week, Vice President JD Vance criticized companies who lay off their own employees and then hire foreign workers. But some of Mr. Trump’s most prominent backers in the tech industry have said they rely on the program because they can’t find enough qualified American workers. “I really do think that the way H-1B needs to be used, and this is one of my favorite phrases, is to, along with a lot of other parts of immigration, supplement, not supplant, U.S. economy and U.S. businesses and U.S. workers,” Mr. Edlow said. Historically, 85,000 visas are provided to hire so-called high-skilled foreign workers at companies through a lottery process. Mr. Edlow’s proposed changes would have to be approved through the federal government’s rule-making process. Doug Rand, a former Biden administration official, said changing the H1-B process to favor higher-wage earners was misguided. “Like it or not, the H-1B program is the main way that U.S. companies can hire the best and brightest international graduates of U.S. universities, and Congress never allowed D.H.S. to put its thumb on the scale based on salary,” he said. Mr. Edlow also said the administration wanted to change the naturalization test required by prospective U.S. citizens. As of now, immigrants study 100 civics questions and then must respond correctly to six out of 10 questions to pass that portion of the test. During the first Trump administration, the agency increased the number of questions and required applicants to respond correctly to 12 out of 20 questions.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [7/25/2025 5:30 PM, Miriam Waldvogel, 18649K] r

Breitbart [7/25/2025 6:00 PM, Lowell Cauffiel, 3077K] reports a program intended to provide legal status for young migrant children suffering from abuse or neglect was used by the Biden administration to legalize older illegal aliens, many of whom had criminal records, according to a federal report released this week. The report, published by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), found among the petitioners to the program: More than half of the petitioners filing in 2024 were over 18; Many entered the U.S. without inspection; Many came from countries identified as "posing national security concerns" through lax vetting and screening; Some "engaged in age and identity fraud, including falsifying their name, date of birth, and country of citizenship." "Criminal aliens are infiltrating the U.S. through a program meant to protect abused, neglected, or abandoned alien children," said USCIS Spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser. "This report exposes how the open border lobby and activist judges are exploiting loopholes in the name of aiding helpless children." Misuse of the program didn’t just occur under the Biden administration, Fox News Digital reported. Since 2013, more than 600 MS-13 gang members applied for the special immigrant juvenile visa, according to Fox’s reading of the 35-page report, and more than 500 of them were approved.

NewsMax [7/25/2025 6:52 PM, Jim Mishler, 4622K] reports the Trump administration is moving toward stricter guidelines for the visa program that is directed toward skilled foreign workers. Joseph Edlow, the new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told The New York Times in an interview that he was also looking at the test to become a citizen of the U.S. because it might be too easy. The agency, known as USCIS, oversees immigration programs in the United States. Edlow was confirmed to his position on July 15. The foreign worker visa program referenced as H-1B is designed to facilitate the entry of foreign nationals who have job offers from U.S. companies. But there has been criticism that the program has been used to bring in workers at lower-than-normal wages to circumvent hiring Americans. Vice President JD Vance criticized Microsoft on Thursday for its use of H-1B visas to hire foreign staff while laying off thousands of American workers. Vance said the practice creates a combination of financial and ethical issues. Edlow told the Times, "I really do think that the way H-1B needs to be used, and this is one of my favorite phrases, is to, along with a lot of other parts of immigration, supplement, not supplant, U.S. economy and U.S. businesses and U.S. workers.” USCIS issued a notice to the Office of Management and Budget last week that it was proposing a rule change involving the visa program in order to use a "weighted selection process," but the notice did not include specifics.

Blaze.com [7/25/2025 4:30 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1805K] reports a statement from the Department of Homeland Security revealed the administration’s stance on amnesty for some illegal aliens that was instituted by former President Barack Obama. In a statement given to Blaze News, the DHS said that the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program did not grant legal status and that recipients could be deported. "DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country. Any illegal alien who is a DACA recipient may be subject to arrest and deportation," the DHS said in a statement about a migrant who claimed he lost amnesty status after accidentally driving into Mexico. President Donald Trump has previously suggested that he might not deport the "Dreamers," the name given to DACA recipients, but this latest statement from the DHS likely means they are up for deportation.

NewsMax [7/25/2025 3:12 PM, Jim Mishler, 4622K] reports a 34-year-old California resident is being detained in preparation for deportation by the Department of Homeland Security after he said he just made a wrong turn. Eric Hernandez Rodriguez does not have legal status to be in America, though he has lived in the U.S. for 20 years. He’d most recently been working as a ride-share driver. In early June, he was driving two clients from Los Angeles to the border at San Diego. Rodriguez claimed he made a wrong turn and drove into Mexico. When he tried to reenter the U.S., Customs and Border Protection agents arrested him. An attorney representing Rodriguez told NBC San Diego that agents wanted cash to let him back in, and since he could not pay the requested $800, he was arrested and detained. DHS told Newsmax in a statement that it was investigating the payoff claim. But since Rodriguez, "an illegal alien," had left the U.S., he had "self-deported and then tried to illegally re-enter the U.S." His attorney has claimed he is a DACA recipient and therefore has legal standing in the U.S. as a legal immigrant and should be released. DHS said that’s not accurate. "DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country. Any illegal alien who is a DACA recipient may be subject to arrest and deportation."

Los Angeles Times [7/25/2025 12:35 PM, Rachel Uranga, 14672K] reports John Manley is sick of people telling immigrants to "stand in line" and "do it the right way." An immigration attorney for almost three decades in Los Angeles, he said what most don’t understand is that trying to legally come into the United States is nearly impossible for people from certain nations like Mexico. "People are dying in line," he said. In some cases, "it’s literally a 150-year wait.” Manley said one of his clients, a U.S. citizen originally from Mexico who petitioned his two brothers to become legal residents, waited more than 15 years and wound up burying them instead of giving them the good news. "They’re trying their best. They’re waiting in line," he said. "But when you have a system that was essentially designed to fail from the beginning it’s difficult to have faith in that system." Immigration laws have not seen a wholesale reform in nearly 40 years, but as the Trump administration cracks down on undocumented migrants, politicians are seeing a window of opportunity. Economists, immigration attorneys and scholars say that without another relief valve, it is not just the immigrants who will suffer but people in a wide swath of the economy. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) on Monday plans to introduce legislation that could potentially provide a path to citizenship to 11 million immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least seven years. With a Republican led House and Senate, the legislation, which died last year, is unlikely to pass, but Padilla said he wanted to reintroduce the bill because he sensed a "mood shift" in Congress and across the country. He’s not the only one. Earlier this month in the House, Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) dusted off their legislation, the Dignity Act, which would give qualified undocumented immigrants living here prior 2021 up to seven years of legal status with work authorization. For decades, both Republicans and Democrats have tried and failed to bring reforms to what is widely viewed as an outdated system, which in the last fiscal year approved 3% of the 34.7 million pending green card applications, according to David Bier, a researcher at the Cato Institute.

Los Angeles Times [7/26/2025 6:00 AM, Melissa Gomez and Suhauna Hussain, 14672K] reports Afghans who relocated to California have been reeling over the past few months and weeks as the Trump administration has moved to end deportation protections amid increasing efforts to further restrict Afghan nationals from coming to the U.S. This week, despite efforts by an organization suing to maintain the protections, the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for Afghans, which the U.S. granted in May 2022 after it withdrew military forces from Afghanistan. The status allowed Afghans to come to the U.S. and obtain work authorization, but it did not provide a pathway to citizenship. "People are desperate," said Shawn VanDiver, the founder and president of AfghanEvac, a nonprofit that supports the safe relocation of Afghan allies. "They’ve followed all the rules. They’ve done everything the U.S. asked them to do, and at every corner, the Trump administration has been blocking them." The Department of Homeland Security announced in May that it would terminate Temporary Protected Status for Afghans. Secretary Kristi Noem said conditions in Afghanistan "do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation.” In a press release, the department said: "The Secretary determined that, overall, there are notable improvements in the security and economic situation such that requiring the return of Afghan nationals to Afghanistan does not pose a threat to their personal safety due to ongoing-armed conflict or extraordinary and temporary conditions.” In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said individuals who arrived on TPS can still apply for asylum and other protections. She said the end of TPS "furthers the national interest and the statutory provision that TPS is in fact designed to be temporary.”

Breitbart [7/25/2025 7:31 PM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports Trump officials trumpeted, yet another record for the lowest number of migrants apprehended in a single day after illegally crossing the border between ports of entry. On July 20, Border Patrol agents encountered only 88 migrants — a new record low. This is down from the record of 112 set less than a month ago. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials posted a graphic on social media reporting the arrest of 88 illegal aliens on July 20. Officials called it a "HISTORIC LOW." The report shatters the previous low of 112, set on June 29 — a drop of 24 percent from the previous record low. "Deterrence works," officials wrote, "the world now knows that the U.S. is taking illegal immigration seriously.” Earlier this week, Breitbart Texas reported that the Trump administration set a record-low month for the lowest number of migrants apprehended after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The June apprehension report showed that agents arrested 6,072 migrants (202 per day). On June 29, agents set the record-low for a single day apprehension report with the arrest of 112 migrants. Friday’s report from CBP shatters that record by 24 percent with the apprehension of 88 migrants on July 20. In a written statement, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said, "From shutting down illegal crossings to seizing fentanyl and enforcing billions in tariffs, CBP is delivering results on every front. Under this administration, we are protecting this country with relentless focus, and the numbers prove it.”

Breitbart [7/25/2025 7:44 AM, Diego Cervantes and Cartel Chronicles, 3077K] reports the Trump administration is asking recently retired Border Patrol agents to "answer the call once more" and return to active service. The call from the administration followed several years of retirements as agents were frustrated with the Biden-era catch-and-release policies. According to the official U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, retired Border Patrol agents are asked to reapply and return to the agency as agents. The returning agents are expected to assist the expanded deportation mission currently underway across the United States and elsewhere. The job solicitation for Border Patrol Agents follows just days after ICE also solicited for retirees to reenlist, as reported by Breitbart. The roles and responsibilities of the rehires are left unclear in the solicitation. Still, retired Border Patrol Agent Frank Silva of the Sonoita Station in Arizona believes that they will likely serve in lighter administrative and support roles, which can free up regular agents to focus on physically demanding enforcement duties.

Breitbart [7/25/2025 12:27 PM, Bradley Jaye, 3077K] reports Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) wants the servicemen and women who’ve labored through the border crisis and subsequent turnaround during President Donald Trump’s second term to receive proper recognition. The freshman congressman introduced the Faithful Patriot Campaign Medal Act on Friday, Breitbart News learned exclusively. The new legislation requires the Secretary of Defense to design and award a new medal to members of the armed forces who have served on the Southern Border since 2018. Moore traveled to Arizona in March with a group of congressmen to tour the Southern Border and meet with officials on the ground. While there, he had a chance meeting with several members of the West Virginia National Guard who were deployed to that sector. That meeting helped inspire Moore to introduce his legislation. "When I toured the Southern Border earlier this year, I saw firsthand our service members’ contributions in the fight against drug smuggling and human trafficking," Moore said in a statement to Breitbart News. "While there, I met several West Virginia National Guardsmen — deployed thousands of miles from home — working on the front lines to protect our country from the border invasion.” Just a few months later, Moore’s legislation is crafted and introduced. His proposal follows a historic success record at the border. Since President Trump’s inauguration, illegal border crossings have dropped 99% — their lowest level in decades. Additionally, zero aliens have been released into the U.S. interior each of the last two months.

AP [7/25/2025 7:19 AM, Jae C. Hong, 56000K] reports U.S. troops from all branches of the military are sharing command stations and vehicles with civilian immigration authorities at the U.S. border with Mexico under an emergency declaration from President Donald Trump. Army Maj. Gen. Scott Naumann, who is leading 7,600 troops and an assortment of helicopters and drones, says the military has been freed from menial work to help apprehend immigrants, protect newly designated militarized turf and disrupt smuggling cartels. In some cases those deployed are immigrants themselves. [Editorial note: consult photos at source link]

NewsNation [7/25/2025 8:03 AM, Mills Hayes, 5801K] reports suspected cartel drones are breaching restricted United States airspace daily, with more than 60,000 detected between July and December of last year, according to the Department of Homeland Security. An average of 328 Mexican drones are coming within 500 meters of the U.S. border every day. To counter the threat, some law enforcement agencies are turning to surveillance blimps, known as aerostats, equipped with radar and high-altitude cameras. U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the devices are currently deployed along the Texas border in Zapata, Eagle Pass and Rio Grande City as part of the Tethered Aerostat Radar System, which has been recently expanded. Though the program has existed for years, it now includes increased cooperation with Mexican authorities to fight transnational criminal organizations’ use of drones.

Daily Caller [7/25/2025 12:35 PM, Hudson Crozier, 1010K] reports an American leftist activist who traveled to Iran and declared "death to America" at a state-backed event says she was detained for hours by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) upon her return to the U.S. Calla Walsh, co-founder of radical pro-Hamas group Unity of Fields, made the claim in a Wednesday X post after videos showed her participating in an event that Iranian media described as a "festival organized by Iran’s U.S.-sanctioned [state] broadcaster." Walsh said "a Gestapo agent was waiting at the gate" for her at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York when she returned. "I got detained/questioned by CBP for a few hours, nothing that I didn’t expect," Walsh said. "I had no phone for them to seize.” Walsh was seen on video on Sunday in Iran declaring "death to America" and "death to Israel" in Persian, drawing applause. "Glory to all the martyrs. Glory to the Axis of Resistance," Walsh said in English in her speech, using a common name for the alliance between Iran and terrorist groups it sponsors, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. "May we see victory in our lifetimes.” Footage showed Walsh covering her hair with headwear, which the Iranian government requires for women under threat of possible prison time or execution. Walsh did not respond to a request for comment. Unity of Fields, formerly Palestine Action U.S., also did not respond to an inquiry. "For the safety and security of the American people, all individuals, including U.S. Citizens, are subject to inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection upon entry into the United States to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the DCNF regarding Walsh’s trip to Iran.

Detroit Free Press [7/25/2025 1:45 PM, Natalie Davies, 4241K] reports five pounds of fresh cherries infested with live European cherry fruit fly maggots and pupae were intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Local customs and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials identified the specimens found on June 19 as European cherry fruit fly, and a specialist at the Systemic Entomology Laboratory confirmed identification in July, according to a CBP news release. The traveler was arriving from Romania and destined for Fish Creek, Wisconsin, which is recognized as a major tart cherry-producing region, according to CBP. "This was an excellent interception by our agriculture specialists," Port Director Fadia Pastilong said in the news release. "This pest can pose a major threat to cherry orchards in the Midwest.” Michigan is known for its cherries and grows 70% of the United States’ supply of tart cherries. The fly is found throughout Europe and in parts of West and Central Asia, and it can spread to new areas through the transport of infested fresh cherries, soil or fruit from host plants, according to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "Larvae rasp at fruit with their hook-like mandibles as they feed, and this causes damage and rot that renders the fruit unmarketable," according to the CBP news release.

AP [7/25/2025 4:23 PM, Morgan Lee, 56000K] reports inside an armored vehicle, an Army scout uses a joystick to direct a long-range optical scope toward a man perched atop the U.S.-Mexico border wall cutting across the hills of this Arizona frontier community. The man lowers himself toward U.S. soil between coils of concertina wire. Shouts ring out, an alert is sounded and a U.S. Border Patrol SUV races toward the wall — warning enough to send the man scrambling back over it, disappearing into Mexico. The sighting Tuesday was one of only two for the Army infantry unit patrolling this sector of the southern border, where an emergency declaration by President Donald Trump has thrust the military into a central role in deterring migrant crossings between U.S. ports of entry. “Deterrence is actually boring,” said 24-year-old Army Sgt. Ana Harker-Molina, voicing the tedium felt by some soldiers over the sporadic sightings during two days in which The Associated Press embedded with the military on the border.

ABC News [7/25/2025 7:30 PM, Ely Brown and Meredith Deliso, 31733K] reports an undocumented father of three Marines who was forcibly detained by federal immigration agents while at his landscaping job in California last month spoke out for the first time on Friday in emotional, tearful remarks. Customs and Border Patrol agents arrested Narciso Barranco in Santa Ana on June 21, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Video of him being forcibly detained showed masked agents holding him down on the street and repeatedly punching him after he ran from agents. He is currently out on bond after being released from federal custody on July 15 and has an immigration status hearing in August, according to Orange City Council officials. During a press conference in Santa Ana surrounded by local officials and leaders, Barranco thanked the community and his family for their support. "I love you all and I am very proud of you," he said to his children in Spanish. To his wife, Marta, he said, "Thank you for your strength, love, and for never stopping believing in me.” Barranco also spoke to the families of other detainees he met while in custody. "I want to tell their families they have faith, they miss you all, and even in that place, they have hope," he said. The Department of Homeland Security said following the arrest that Narciso Barranco is in the country illegally and that he tried to evade law enforcement, "swung a weed whacker directly at an agent’s face" and resisted commands. "The agents took appropriate action and followed their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve the situation in a manner that prioritizes the safety of the public and our officers," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement at the time.

CBS News [7/25/2025 5:39 AM, Staff, 51860K] Video HERE reports the United States and Mexico have signed an agreement outlining specific steps and a new timetable to clean up the longstanding problem of the Tijuana River pouring sewage across the border and polluting California beaches, officials from both countries announced Thursday. Billions of gallons of sewage and toxic chemicals from Tijuana have polluted the Pacific Ocean off neighboring Southern California, closing beaches and sickening Navy SEALs who train in the water. That’s despite multiple efforts and millions of dollars that have been poured into addressing the problem over decades, including under the first Trump administration. "There is a great commitment by the two countries to strengthen cooperation," Mexico’s Environmental Secretary Alicia Bárcena said Thursday after meeting with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in Mexico City for the signing of the memorandum of understanding.

FOX News [7/25/2025 7:47 AM, Greg Norman, 46878K] reports a new deal between the United States and Mexico aimed at resolving the Tijuana River sewage crisis is "massive" win for Americans living in the San Diego area, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced this week. The memorandum of understanding was signed Thursday as the EPA said "For many decades, untreated raw sewage has flowed into Southern California from Mexico, polluting the Tijuana River Valley, closing beaches, fouling the air, harming the region’s economy, and sickening people on both sides of the border." "The Trump Administration is proud to deliver this massive environmental and national security win for Americans in the San Diego area who have been living with this disgusting raw sewage flowing into their communities for far too long," Zeldin said in a statement. The EPA said the deal meets multiple "top Trump Administration priorities and milestones critical to ensuring a 100% solution to this issue" -- including expediting already-existing critical infrastructure projects.

Breitbart [7/25/2025 9:32 AM, Frances Martel, 3077K] reports the American embassy in Brazil published a Portuguese-language announcement on Wednesday urging Brazilians in the United States illegally to leave the country, comparing them to the classic movie alien E.T. "Even E.T. knew when to come home," a poster showing the iconic image of the alien on a flying bicycle in front of the moon read. "Assume control of your departure with CBP Home.” The message, posted on the social media site Twitter, uses imagery from the 1982 film E.T. directed by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg has not at press time responded to the use of the images. "If you are in the U.S. illegally, do like E.T.: it’s time to go home," the message reads in Portuguese. "Use the CBP Home app and leave now, with support and dignity. You will receive assistance for your travel and a stipend to return to your country of origin.” CBP Home is a mobile phone application that the administration of President Donald Trump has revamped to include steps allowing illegal immigrants in the United States to willingly leave the country, offering them resources such as travel expenses and stipends for the journey. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have stated that using CBP Home and voluntarily leaving the country leaves open the opportunity for these individuals to one day apply to enter the United States legally. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has apparently adopted E.T. as a mascot for the application, publishing a similar message in English last week on its official Facebook page. The American embassy in Brasilia has been enthusiastically promoting the use of the CBP Home application, publishing educational videos and reminding individuals illegally present in America that the application "offers you the chance to return home with dignity and at no cost" — and with a chance to apply for legal entry. CBP Home is the Trump administration’s version of CBP One, an application the U.S. government first debuted under former President Joe Biden. The Biden version of the application, rather than offering aid in returning home, allowed immigrants to more efficiently register with the U.S. government to stay in the country as their cases were processed. President Trump explained in March, following the launch of CBP Home, that the revamp was necessary in the face of "exploitation" of the U.S. immigration system under Biden. By January 2025, the U.S. government had documented over 970,000 individuals who had used CBP One to enter the United States.

USA Today [7/25/2025 7:37 PM, Amaris Encinas, 75552K] reports a woman at Miami International Airport was caught attempting to smuggle two live turtles in her bra. This incident follows a similar one earlier this year where a man attempted to smuggle a turtle in his pants at Newark Liberty International Airport. The TSA advises passengers to check with their airlines regarding pet travel policies and to carry small pets through security checkpoints, not conceal them. Transportation Security Administration officials in Florida were "shell-shocked" to discover a pair of turtles in a passenger’s undergarments. The woman, who was traveling out of Miami International Airport in April, was caught trying to sneak two turtles past the security checkpoint by stuffing them in her bra, the TSA said in a July 24 LinkedIn post. TSA’s advanced imaging technology alerted officers to a possible item hidden in the passenger’s chest area, according to a statement from the agency. The woman was taken aside for a private screening, during which two live turtles from an "alarming area" were discovered. Multiple agencies, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, were called in to assist. "OK friends, please - and we cannot emphasize this enough - stop hiding animals in weird places on your body and then trying to sneak them through airport security," the post says. "No, really.” One of the turtles that was stuffed in the woman’s bra did not survive the ordeal, and the other was confiscated and turned over to the Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife. As a result of this incident, the second one in the last few months, TSA reminded travelers that they "want you to be able to travel with your pets, and you turtle-ly can, but please travel with them safely."

Bloomberg Law [7/25/2025 7:16 PM, Kartikay Mehrotra, 1707K] reports Washington state sued the Trump administration Friday accusing officials of unlawfully terminating more than $4 million in federal funding designated to provide shelter and aid for migrants released from government custody. The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, challenges the government’s decision to slash the Shelter and Services Program under the Federal Emergency Management Agency designated by Congress to reimburse local entities for migrant support costs. Along with FEMA and its director David Richardson, the complaint targets the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem for terminating the state’s.

The Hill [7/25/2025 6:50 PM, Rachel Frazin, 18649K] reports after the deadly Independence Day floods, the administration declined to provide Texas with access to a tranche of FEMA funds aimed at heading off the next disaster — money intended to pay for things such as warning systems, tornado shelters and anti-flood measures. In May, children in a Missouri elementary school sheltered from a tornado that shattered windows and ripped gutters off the building inside a safe room purchased with hazard mitigation money issued after the deadly 2011 Joplin tornado. Though the Trump administration approved Missouri’s disaster declaration, it refused the hazard mitigation funds the state requested to buy generators and more outdoor warning sirens, state officials told The Hill. Missouri is appealing that decision. In neighboring Oklahoma, the Biden administration had in November approved hazard mitigation funding for wildfires and straight-line winds. But even as those funds went out, more wildfires, driven by straight-line winds, were raging across the Sooner State. President Trump issued a disaster declaration on the last day of the weeklong emergency — but denied hazard mitigation funding. It was the first time in at least 15 years that Oklahoma wasn’t approved for requested hazard mitigation, according to state emergency management officials.

The Hill [7/25/2025 6:00 AM, Saul Elbein, 18649K] reports the Trump administration appears to be drastically reducing the federal funds it offers to help states head off future natural disasters, a decision that could come under fire as the White House faces scrutiny over its response to Texas’s deadly flooding. The administration has responded to criticism of its handling of the Texas floods with claims that it is "remaking" the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to better help states. But after the deadly Independence Day floods, the administration declined to provide Texas with access to a tranche of FEMA funds aimed at heading off the next disaster — money intended to pay for things such as warning systems, tornado shelters and anti-flood measures. A review of federal documents by The Hill shows that the administration denied such "hazard mitigation" funds to states after 16 out of 18 flood disasters during the Trump presidency, with both of the approvals coming before mid-March. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has said the administration is "leading a historic, first-of-its-kind approach to disaster funding." That approach, she said, means "providing upfront recovery support — moving money faster than ever and jump starting recovery," while pivoting away from "bloated, D.C.-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force" that shifts responsibility to the states.

(B) CNN News Central [7/25/2025 8:42 AM, Staff] reports FEMA is proposing nearly $1 billion in cuts to disaster preparedness and security grants, according to internal memos and to FEMA officials familiar with these plans. In these memos, the agency acknowledges the potential risks of eliminating some of these programs. One of the memos from FEMA warns that this would create a less secure nation.

ABC News [7/26/2025 6:08 AM, Matthew Glasser, 31733K] reports that, to better understand how small changes in the Earth’s land and ice surfaces can lead to catastrophic events and natural disasters, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is collaborating with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on a space mission to launch a first-of-its-kind satellite into orbit that’s capable of monitoring the planet in an unprecedented way. The NISAR mission, which stands for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, is scheduled to lift off at 8:10 a.m. ET on July 30 aboard an ISRO GSLV-F16 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India’s southeastern coast. Built by NASA JPL and the ISRO, the satellite features a unique radar system that utilizes two different frequencies -- L-band and S-band --making it capable of measuring small changes (less than half an inch) on the Earth’s surface. Using that data, it will then produce highly detailed 3D images that should help researchers better understand and predict natural disasters, such as wildfires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides. "NISAR truly is a first-of-its-kind dual radar satellite that will change the way we study our home planet and better predict a natural disaster before it strikes. NISAR will scan and take imagery of nearly all the Earth’s land and ice surface twice every 12 days in unprecedented detail, literally down to a centimeter," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, during a pre-launch press conference. The $1.3 billion mission will not only help scientists better understand the causes of natural disasters but also enable climate researchers to monitor melting glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica and track the health of the world’s rainforests with more precision. It can also identify human-produced changes to the land, including those from farming and ranching, water projects, housing and commercial development and infrastructure projects. "We’ll put NISAR science and observations to work, making it available to inform decisions where and when they’re needed, helping to ensure that as a nation, we can abundantly feed ourselves, build resilient housing and transportation systems, and better prepare and respond to natural hazards," explained Karen St. Germain, director of the Earth Science Division at NASA.

The Hill [7/25/2025 4:23 PM, Rachel Frazin, 18649K] reports Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said this week the Trump administration denied disaster assistance to his state after May flooding. A statement issued by his office Wednesday said the administration did not approve assistance to the state for flooding that occurred in May, even though the state’s estimated damage put it above the threshold it would need to reach to get assistance. "The devastating floods that hit Western Maryland in May clearly met disaster assistance criteria established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These communities demonstrated a clear need through FEMA’s own process, and Maryland will appeal the decision to seek all available resources to support the recovery efforts," Moore said in the statement. He noted that May rainfall caused Georges Creek in Western Maryland to overflow into several towns. The denial is one of several requests that has been turned down by the administration in recent months as it seeks to overhaul FEMA. Asked why aid to Maryland was denied, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson on Friday did not give a specific reason.

NewsMax [7/25/2025 5:32 PM, Jim Morley, 4622K] reports Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is alleging the Trump administration denied his state disaster assistance funding following the intense flooding that occurred in May. Several Democrat-led states have accused the Trump administration of denying them federal assistance and on Wednesday, Moore accused the White House of taking a "you’re on your own" approach. In a written response to The Hill, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson noted that states are required to do more of their own relief funding under the new administration.

Houston Chronicle [7/25/2025 4:06 PM, James Osborne, 1982K] reports after the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s delayed response to Hurricane Katrina brought national scrutiny, Congress passed a law requiring the agency to be ready to provide emergency assistance at a moment’s notice, even before a state asks for help. But it took 24 hours for FEMA search and rescue teams to arrive in Texas after state officials requested their help responding to the devastating flooding in the Hill Country earlier this month, according to timelines provided by state and federal officials. At a hearing in Washington this week, Republicans and Democrats questioned acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson why he hadn’t immediately deployed search and rescue teams to Texas in anticipation of a request from the state. The scrutiny on the agency comes as President Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned the necessity of FEMA and called for states to take a greater role in disaster response. Since taking office, Trump’s administration has reduced FEMA staff by 20% and established a new rule that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sign off on any agency expenditure over $100,000. Noem and Trump officials have pushed back on allegations that there were delays in the federal response to floods that devastated Central Texas on July 4 and 5 and killed at least 136 people. Richardson described the agency’s response as a "model."

HS Today [7/25/2025 6:00 AM, Staff, 38K] reports David Richardson, the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), on Wednesday defended his agency’s handling of recent deadly floods in Texas, claiming the response was a “model” for “how disasters should be handled”. The comment came as Richardson faced accusations that the response to the floods was botched, characterized by ignorance and carelessness. “This wasn’t just incompetence. It wasn’t just indifference. It was both,” Greg Stanton, a Democratic representative from Arizona, told Richardson at the House transportation and infrastructure committee hearing. “And that deadly combination likely cost lives.”

Univision [7/25/2025 5:36 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports Mike Richards has found ten bodies on his property following the July 4 flooding in Kerr, Texas. The rains leave at least 137 dead, and new questions are being raised today about the authorities’ response as the search for victims continues. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

HS Today [7/25/2025 6:00 AM, Staff, 38K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for the Burdoin Fire burning in Klickitat County, Washington, and on land of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The state of Washington’s request for a declaration under FEMA’s Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) program was approved by FEMA Region 10 Acting Administrator Vincent J. Maykovich on Saturday, July 19, 2025, at 5:15 p.m. PT. He determined that the Burdoin Fire threatened to cause such destruction as would constitute a major disaster. This is the first FMAG declaration in 2025 to help fight Washington wildfires. At the time of the state’s request, the wildfire threatened homes in and around the communities of White Salmon, Bingen, Straight Point and Lyle. The fire also threatened roadways, railways and local powerlines. It was also impacting the Columbia River Scenic Area and turtle habitat in the area.

Los Angeles Times [7/25/2025 10:55 AM, Grace Toohey, 14672K] reports while Katherine Alcantara was evacuating from her smoke-filled west Altadena home during January’s firestorm, she remembered seeing her longtime neighbor returning home across the street. In the chaos, she assumed he had come back to rescue his pets and grab some important belongings before heading to safety. She never imagined he wouldn’t make it out. Officials this week confirmed the presence of human remains in the only uncleared lot on La Venezia Court, a small residential block where neighbors said 74-year-old Juan Francisco Espinoza had lived alone with his dogs. The confirmation of another fatality brings the Eaton fire death toll to 19 and the overall death toll from the Jan. 7 firestorm, including the Palisades fire, to 31. All but one of the Eaton fire deaths occurred in west Altadena, where evacuation orders for residents came hours after the fire had already arrived, according to a Times investigation.

Washington Post [7/25/2025 6:09 PM, Noah Robertson, 32099K] reports the U.S. government and Qatar are expected to finalize an agreement next week involving a jet for use as Air Force One, months after the Pentagon first said that such a deal was complete, multiple people familiar with the matter said. According to official communication reviewed by The Washington Post, Qatar will send the Boeing 747-8 aircraft as an unconditional “donation” to the Department of Defense, which will then be responsible for its maintenance. The agreement, dated July 7, is signed by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defense Affairs Soud bin Abulrahaman Al-Thani. Still, a person familiar with the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said the deal is still awaiting final approval after the Defense Department requested small updates to the text. Spokespeople for the White House and Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The donation has been a political maelstrom ever since the Trump administration announced it this spring. Democrats — and even some Republican commentators — have derided the gift as impractical and potentially illegal if used by the president after leaving office. Hegseth was evasive during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in June when pressed by Democrats on how the jet could be used once accepted by the U.S. government. Democratic lawmakers are especially incensed by plans that the plane is expected eventually to be transferred to Trump’s presidential library, something Hegseth confirmed.

Blaze [7/25/2025 11:39 AM, Joseph M. Hanneman, 1805K] reports a day after suspected would-be presidential assassin Ryan Wesley Routh refused to meet with his court-appointed defense attorney at a federal lockup in Miami, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon approved Routh’s motion to proceed to trial as a pro se defendant representing himself. Routh, 59, of Greensboro, N.C., faces Sept. 8 jury selection in his trial on five federal counts charging him with aiming a sniper rifle through a fence and trying to kill President Donald J. Trump on Sept. 15, 2024, at Trump’s West Palm Beach, Fla., golf resort. Routh wrote a letter to Judge Cannon, entered on the court docket July 11, complaining bitterly about his federal public defenders and stating that it’s "best I walk alone." The judge held Faretta hearings on July 10 and July 24 before ruling in an eight-page order that Routh can proceed as his own attorney. The judge ordered federal public defenders Kristy Militello and Renee Sihvola to serve on the case as standby counsel. Militello filed a motion with the court to withdraw from the case after she said Routh repeatedly refused to meet with her for their scheduled July 22 consultation at the Federal Correctional Institution-Miami. "While undersigned counsel was on the train to Miami, BOP [Bureau of Prisons] legal staff emailed to advise that Mr. Routh refused our scheduled, in-person legal visit," Militello wrote. "Undersigned counsel continued our trip to the detention center in Miami and upon arrival asked BOP staff to inform Mr. Routh that his counsel was present, in person, and wished to meet with him.” "Mr. Routh has now refused six attempts from members of our office/the defense team to meet with Mr. Routh," Militello wrote. "As a result, undersigned counsel submits that the attorney-client relationship is irreconcilably broken. It is clear that Mr. Routh wishes to represent himself, and he is within his Constitutional rights to make such a demand.” Judge Cannon issued a four-page order warning Routh that he will be required to follow Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Evidence, and local rules for the federal Southern District of Florida. "A pro-se defendant bears responsibility for actively preparing the case for trial and exercising control over his defense, and must obtain any essential discovery, file all necessary pleadings and motions, and comply with all scheduling orders and Court instructions," Judge Cannon wrote.

(B) NBC News Daily [7/25/2025 12:05 PM, Staff] reports that the man accused of trying to assassinate President Trump at his West Palm Beach country club in south Florida last year will represent himself. The judge ruled in favor of his request ahead of the trial that is expected to get underway in September. Prosecutors say he spent weeks plotting to kill the president but was stopped after a Secret Service agent spotted the man aiming a rifle through bushes.

San Diego Union Tribune [7/25/2025 5:47 PM, Caleb Lunetta, 1611K] reports volunteers with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary rescued an 11-year-old boy whose sailboat had taken on water — and eventually capsized — in San Diego Bay on Wednesday, officials said. Around 2:15 p.m., an auxiliary member on a Coast Guard ship in the bay heard the boy calling out to his father to say the sailboat he was on was sinking, Lt. Jo Green-Hart said. The boy and his father were on separate trainer sailboats, which are small and typically only have one person onboard. After hearing the boy, the volunteer reported it to her crew members onboard the Coast Guard’s Aids-to-Navigation boat, and they sprang into action, Green-Hart said. Although their boat is typically not used for search and rescue, the crew pulled alongside the sailboat, deployed a life ring, brought the child onboard, Green-Hart said. The Coast Guard crew then gained control of the sinking sailboat and towed it to a nearby pier on Shelter Island. No injuries were reported.

Yahoo! News [7/25/2025 11:41 AM, Sam Gillette, 47007K] reports that a woman is dead and a man has been rescued after a boating accident involving a kayak and skiff near Sitka, Alaska. On Sunday, July 20, at around 5 p.m. local time, Air Station Sitka, a U.S. Coast Guard station in Sitka, learned of a capsized skiff and a kayak that had turned over in the area of Redoubt Bay, local radio station KCAW reported. Each vessel had one person on board. The emergency response team included a helicopter crew from the Coast Guard, a boat from the Sitka Fire Department and locals on boats, who heard the call on the radio, according to the outlet. The man, who was on board the Boston Whaler skiff, was rescued by a citizen on a nearby vessel, who took him to emergency responders waiting on the shoreline, John Hightower, a public affairs officer from the Coast Guard, told KCAW. Another concerned local saved the 35-year-old unresponsive woman from the bay. She was then put on the fire department’s vessel and a Coast Guard swimmer was lowered to the boat to assist with treatment, the outlet reported. The woman was given medical assistance during the journey back to shore and transported immediately to a local hospital. Once there, she was pronounced dead, Hightower told KCAW. The U.S. Coast Guard, Sitka Fire Department and Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment. An investigation into the fatal boating accident is ongoing, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported.

FOX News [7/25/2025 9:17 AM, Benjamin Weinthal, 46878K] reports the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is under growing pressure to extradite the self-confessed female Hamas terrorist Ahlam Aref Ahmad al-Tamimi, who engineered the terrorist bombing at a Jerusalem pizzeria in 2001 that murdered three Americans among 16 people, half of whom were children. Frimet and Arnold Roth, the parents of Malki Roth, a 15-year-old U.S. citizen murdered in the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing, held a virtual meeting on July 17, 2025 with Jeanine F. Pirro, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. The U.S. State Department has a $5 million reward for information leading to al-Tamimi’s capture, even as reports claim Jordan’s King Abdullah II has played hardball, refusing to extradite the accused mass murderer. "You have the capacity to push for her extradition, to ensure that the 1995 treaty is honored, to show Jordan and its population along with the watching world that harboring terrorists has consequences," Arnold Roth told Pirro during the meeting, according to a family press release following the meeting.

Reuters [7/25/2025 7:53 PM, Jonathan Stempel, 51390K] reports several social media companies should not be held liable for helping an avowed white supremacist who killed 10 Black people in 2022 at a Buffalo, New York grocery store, a divided New York state appeals court ruled on Friday. Reversing a lower court ruling, the state Appellate Division in Rochester said defendants including Meta Platforms’ (META.O), Facebook and Instagram, Google’s (GOOGL.O), YouTube, and Reddit were entitled to immunity under a federal law that protects online platforms from liability over user content. The case arose from Payton Gendron’s racially motivated mass shooting at Tops Friendly Markets on May 14, 2022. Relatives and representatives of victims, as well as store employees and customers who witnessed the attack, claimed the defendants’ platforms were defective because they were designed to addict and radicalize users like Gendron. Other defendants included Alphabet, Amazon.com (AMZN.O), Discord, 4chan, Snap (SNAP.N), and Twitch, all of which Gendron used, the mid-level state appeals court said. Writing for a 3-2 majority, Justice Stephen Lindley said holding social media companies liable would undermine the intent behind Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, to promote development of and competition on the internet while keeping government interference to a minimum.

Daily Caller [7/25/2025 2:09 PM, Melanie Wilcox, 1010K] reports that a fatal shooting early Friday morning has left one person dead and another injured at the University of New Mexico’s central campus, authorities confirmed. According to the UNM Police Department, gunshots were reported around 5 a.m. on Friday the at Casas del Rio (Gila) apartments, located at 420 Redondo Dr NE in Albuquerque. Responding officers found two individuals had been shot. One victim died at the scene, while the other sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Campus remains closed during this time. When further updates are available, we will share them here. Continue to monitor your UNM email, text messages, and LoboGuardian for real-time updates. Further updates will be shared as they become available. The suspect remains at large and is believed still be on or near the campus, prompting officials to order a shelter-in-place and advise students and staff to avoid the central campus area. The university has closed its central campus facilities out of an abundance of caution. However, the Health Sciences Center and all clinical components remain open. Multiple law enforcement agencies are currently on-scene conducting an active investigation. The campus remains closed as the investigation continues.

Breitbart [7/25/2025 12:51 PM, Frances Martel, 3077K] reports the government of South Korea confirmed on Friday that officials in the administration of President Donald Trump canceled talks scheduled for Friday intended to negotiate a new bilateral trade agreement, hours before Finance Minister Koo Yun-Cheol was set to board a plane to Washington. The Trump administration cited a scheduling conflict for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to multiple South Korean news agencies, and reportedly canceled the talks via email. The cancellation occurs about a week before an August 1 deadline to come to an agreement or the United States will impose a 25-percent tariff on all South Korean goods entering the United States. It also follows an unfruitful visit to America by National Security Office Director Wi Sung-rak, who sought a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio but reportedly only managed a phone call. Seoul is attempting to tie the trade deal to President Trump’s concerns that the South Korean government does not pay enough for its own defense, relying on American taxpayers to foot much of the bill. President Trump began renegotiating trade arrangements with every nation on the planet that does business with America in April. Most have been given an August 1 deadline to come to an agreement more favorable to the American people; President Trump made the trade changes in response to what he described as years of unfair trade imbalances for Americans. Only five countries – the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, and Vietnam – have completed trade negotiations and agreed upon new deals with Washington at press time. The South Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo reported on Friday that the Trump administration canceled "all high-level meetings between South Korean economic and security officials and their American counterparts." It was not immediately clear if all meetings were expected to be rescheduled. The newspaper quoted an unnamed Finance Ministry official as confirming, "The U.S. side sent an email apologizing multiple times and said they hoped to reschedule the meeting as soon as possible.” Chief of staff for policy Kim Yong-beom moved to reassure the country that the Lee administration was working to meet the August 1 deadline to avoid the 25-percent tariff, insisting that the government was focusing on investment and agriculture in the talks. "Both sides reaffirmed the importance of collaboration in strategic sectors like shipbuilding and semiconductors and agreed to work out concrete measures," the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. "They also reiterated their commitment to reaching a mutually beneficial agreement before Aug. 1.

FedScoop [7/25/2025 5:35 PM, Rebecca Heilweil] reports an outage this week of Starlink, the satellite internet service run by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, did have an impact on some services in the federal government. While several civilian federal agencies told FedScoop that the service interruption didn’t disrupt operations, the U.S. Space Force confirmed that Starshield, the military-focused communications service on the Starlink network, was taken offline during the outage. “The Space Systems Command Commercial SATCOM Communications Office procures Starshield Global Access services over the Starlink Satellites/network,” a spokesperson for Space Systems Command told FedScoop. The spokesperson continued: “As such, the global outage did affect CSCO customers for the entire duration of the outage (~2.5hrs for most users). Services had a partial restoration midway through the outage and a complete restoration by the stated end time.” Defense customers are currently able to access Starshield through the Space Force, among other procurement mechanisms, SpaceX’s website states. SpaceX says Starshield is for “national defense use cases” while Starlink “is not intended for any military end-uses or end-users.” Several branches of the U.S. military are currently testing or using Starshield, including the Air Force and the Navy. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard told FedScoop earlier this month that the agency began installing both Starlink and Starshield back in 2023. Meanwhile, several other civilian agencies said they weren’t affected heavily by the Starlink outage. Others didn’t respond by publication time.

USA Today [7/25/2025 3:11 PM, Zac Anderson, 75552K] reports Donald Trump has been intensely focused on Barack Obama in recent days, accusing his Democratic predecessor of "treason." Now the current president is saying the former president "owes" him. "He owes me, Obama owes me big," Trump said July 25 while speaking to reporters outside the White House before departing on a trip to Scotland. Obama’s debt to Trump in the current president’s mind? The fact that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts in office. The ruling came in a case involving Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard alleged in a press briefing that the Obama administration promoted a "contrived narrative" that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump. Gabbard released declassified documents she said support her claims of Obama’s "treasonous conspiracy" to undermine Trump. The Justice Department also announced the formation of a "Strike Force" that would "investigate potential next legal steps" stemming from Gabbard’s disclosures. Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump, according to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 final report and a 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee assessment.

Bloomberg [7/26/2025 6:00 AM, Ott Tammik, 19320K] reports that, as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues just east of NATO’s border, tensions in the Baltic countries remain high. This week a man was sentenced to more than six years in prison for spying for Russia. Pavel Kapustin, a Russian citizen living in Estonia, was found guilty of providing intelligence to Moscow’s FSB security agency between 2022 and 2024. He’s not the first to be apprehended — Estonia holds the notable record of convicting more Russian spies than any other NATO or EU country. The most high profile cases involved a mole in Estonia’s own intelligence agency; another case involved an official with access to NATO secrets. The continuing drip of convictions and deportations captures the apprehensive mood in the frontline country where tensions with neighboring Russia have increased following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Estonia is one of the staunchest supporters of Kyiv and isrearming rapidly to deter future aggression from Moscow. Estonia, which broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991, has a complex history with its eastern neighbor. While many of Estonia’s Russian-speaking residents have friends and family in Russia, the authorities in Tallinn discourage travel across the eastern border, citing a risk of recruitment by the Kremlin’s intelligence agencies. That risk was reinforced this week when Estonia’s national security agency said it had learned of recent attempts by Moscow to recruit locals. Among the charges leveled at Kapustin was that he had ferried information about the political views of Estonia’s substantial Russian-speaking community back to Russia. Estonian authorities say Moscow has sought to manipulate that community over the years. In a similar vein, fellow Baltic nation Lithuania this week said its large Belarusian community is being targeted by Alexander Lukashenko’s intelligence services through a combination of intimidation and the offer of rewards. Lithuania is particularly on edge ahead of a major military exercise scheduled in neighboring Belarus this September which will see thousands of Belarusian and Russian troops amass near the border. As the summer season settles in, those living on the EU’s eastern flank find that the war just beyond their border is hard to escape.

Washington Times [7/25/2025 6:20 AM, Vaughn Cockayne, 2106K] reports as the U.S. gears up to host massive events in the next few years, lawmakers and security officials want to ensure defense from next-generation threats while keeping the experience pleasant for attendees. Rep. Michael McCaul joined the Threat Status podcast this week to discuss some of the lessons U.S. security officials have learned from past incidents at major events. According to the Texas Republican, intel is king when it comes to defending attendees at soccer’s 2026 World Cup in North America and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. “It’s a nuisance to some of the fans. Although I would say each of these events presents a target for those who wish us harm, and we have to be prepared,” he told Threat Status. “You have to have the information, and you have to have the information shared. You have to have good intelligence on what the threats are and who the threats are. And then secondly, you have to have a way to rapidly respond to an immediate threat to stop the killing of people.” Mr. McCaul, chairman emeritus of both the Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees, now leads a House task force that studied incidents at previous large events, specifically the 1972 Olympic hostage crisis, in which Palestinian terrorists precipitated the death of 11 Israelis. The congressman said the lessons learned from historical tragedies are invaluable, but emerging threats like drone attacks are what U.S. security officials are focused on.

Daily Caller [7/25/2025 8:56 AM, Philip Lenczycki, 1010K] reports Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ transition advisory team enlisted two Chinese intelligence-tied bankers who have fundraised for her and a nonprofit she helps lead, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered. Bass appointed Dominic Ng, CEO of East West Bank, and Simon Pang, co-founder of Royal Business Bank, to her mayoral transition advisory team in December 2022, according to the City of Los Angeles. In total, Ng, East West Bank and Pang have donated upwards of $1 million to Bass’ mayoral campaign and the Mayor’s Fund For Los Angeles, where Bass serves as an advisor to the board of directors, according to the nonprofit. While it is unclear what Ng and Pang did while serving on Bass’ mayoral transition advisory team, both have extensive ties to the Chinese government and have also been listed as holding positions within arms of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence and intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD). Bass’ office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Pang could not be reached for comment. A Royal Business Bank spokesperson declined to comment.

Reuters [7/25/2025 7:00 AM, Joey Roulette, Cassell Bryan-Low, and Tom Balmforth, 51390K] reports during a pivotal push by Ukraine to retake territory from Russia in late September 2022, Elon Musk gave an order that disrupted the counteroffensive and dented Kyiv’s trust in Starlink, the satellite internet service the billionaire provided early in the war to help Ukraine’s military maintain battlefield connectivity. According to three people familiar with the command, Musk told a senior engineer at the California offices of SpaceX, the Musk venture that controls Starlink, to cut coverage in areas including Kherson, a strategic region north of the Black Sea that Ukraine was trying to reclaim. "We have to do this," Michael Nicolls, the Starlink engineer, told colleagues upon receiving the order, one of these people said. Staffers complied, the three people told Reuters, deactivating at least a hundred Starlink terminals, their hexagon-shaped cells going dark on an internal map of the company’s coverage. The move also affected other areas seized by Russia, including some of Donetsk province further east. Upon Musk’s order, Ukrainian troops suddenly faced a communications blackout, according to a Ukrainian military official, an advisor to the armed forces, and two others who experienced Starlink failure near the front lines. Ultimately, Ukraine’s counteroffensive succeeded in reclaiming Beryslav, the city of Kherson and some additional territory Russia had occupied. But Musk’s order, which hasn’t previously been reported, is the first known instance of the billionaire actively shutting off Starlink coverage over a battlefield during the conflict. The decision shocked some Starlink employees and effectively reshaped the front line of the fighting, enabling Musk to take "the outcome of a war into his own hands," another one of the three people said.

FOX News [7/25/2025 9:14 PM, Brie Stimson, 46878K] reports European diplomats met with Iranians on Friday face-to-face for the first time since Israel and the U.S. bombed the country last month. The "serious, frank and detailed" meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, lasted for around four hours and the officials all agreed to meet again for continued negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. Sanctions that were lifted on Iran in 2015 after it agreed to restrictions and monitoring of its nuclear program could be reimposed if Iran doesn’t comply with requirements. One of Europe’s E3 nations – Britain, France and Germany, who held the talks with Iran – could bring back sanctions under the "snapback" mechanism, which allows one of the European countries to bring back U.N. sanctions if Iran violates the conditions. European leaders have also said that sanctions will start being reinstated by the end of August if there is no progress on reining in Iran’s nuclear program. "A possible delay in triggering snapback has been floated to the Iranians on the condition that there is credible diplomatic engagement by Iran, that they resume full cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), and that they address concerns about their highly-enriched uranium stockpile," a European diplomat said on condition of anonymity before the talks on Friday. The diplomat added that the snapback mechanism "remains on the table.” Iran said that the U.S. needs to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal – after President Trump pulled America out of it in 2018 – saying Iran has "absolutely no trust in the United States.” The U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear sites on June 22, a little over a week after Israel had bombed the country over national security concerns about its nuclear program. Iran responded by attacking Israel and a U.S. Army base in Qatar. Isreal and Iran agreed to a ceasefire on June 24. The IAEA issued a concerning report in May that said that Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium had grown by nearly 50% in three months. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Federalist [7/25/2025 7:42 AM, Helen Raleigh, 1142K] reports China imposed exit bans on two U.S. citizens: a senior executive of U.S.-based Wells Fargo Bank and a federal employee of the U.S. Commerce Department. These incidents underscore the significant risks of conducting business or traveling in China. Very little personal information is public regarding the federal employee affected by the exit ban, likely due to his affiliation with the U.S. government and concerns for his safety. According to the South China Morning Post, he is a naturalized U.S. citizen who originally came from China and is a veteran of the U.S. Army. He traveled to China in April to visit family but has been unable to leave since then. The reason for the exit ban is unclear, but Washington Post suggests it may be related to his alleged failure to disclose his U.S. government employment on his visa application to Chinese authorities.

CyberScoop [7/25/2025 10:35 AM, Greg Otto] reports the State Department announced Thursday it will pay up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of seven North Korean nationals accused of operating criminal schemes that generate revenue for Pyongyang’s weapons programs, marking the latest effort to disrupt financing networks that have funneled money around sanctions. The coordinated action that also involved the Justice and Treasury departments targets what officials describe as an extensive network involving cryptocurrency theft, fraudulent remote IT work, tobacco smuggling and other illicit activities that primarily target U.S. companies and citizens. The largest reward, $7 million, is offered for Sim Hyon-sop, who prosecutors say led tobacco smuggling operations designed to generate U.S. dollars for North Korea. Six co-conspirators carry bounties ranging from $500,000 to $3 million each. The announcement comes as U.S. officials increasingly focus on North Korea’s ability to circumvent international sanctions through criminal enterprises that have grown more sophisticated in recent years. Intelligence assessments indicate revenue from these schemes directly funds North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, which have expanded significantly under Kim Jong Un’s leadership.

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