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 Daily Caller [7/26/2025 11:30 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports a federal judge on Friday tossed out a Trump administration lawsuit seeking to strike down sanctuary policies in Chicago and the entire state of Illinois. Judge Lindsay Jenkins of the Northern District of Illinois, appointed to the bench by former President Joe Biden, dismissed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit against Chicago, Cook County and Illinois, according to court documents. The Trump administration was seeking to block policies that prohibited cooperation between local government officials and federal immigration authorities. In her ruling, Jenkins claimed that the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution — which protects individuals from government overreach — also protects government officials’ right to refuse to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other federal immigration authorities. The DOJ’s lawsuit in Illinois — filed in February — took specific aim at the Illinois Way Forward Act and TRUST Act which impedes the federal government’s ability to perform immigration enforcement actions. Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance and Cook County’s Policy for Responding to ICE Detainers were also singled out in the lawsuit. Breitbart [7/26/2025 4:34 PM, Staff, 3077K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security has increased deportation raids, particularly in big cities with sanctuary laws. "The Sanctuary Policies reflect Defendants’ decision to not participate in enforcing civil immigration law – a decision protected by the Tenth Amendment and not preempted by [the federal Immigration and Nationality Act]," Jenkins wrote in the 64-page ruling. "Finding that these same Policy provisions constitute discrimination or impermissible regulation would provide an end-run around the Tenth Amendment. 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." In their lawsuit, DOJ lawyers said sanctuary cities violate the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [7/26/2025 8:25 AM, Michael Dorgan, 46878K]

CNN [7/27/2025 6:30 AM, Devan Cole, 21433K] reports a Supreme Court decision last month limiting the use of nationwide injunctions appeared to pave the way for President Donald Trump to begin enforcing his plan to end birthright citizenship on Sunday — until lower courts stalled the effort. The president could have begun enforcement if lower courts had significantly modified a series of injunctions ahead of a 30-day deadline given by the justices. But that hasn’t happened. In fact, lower court judges have gone in a different direction, preventing Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship from taking effect now — and possibly ever — through three new adverse rulings. And more lower court decisions against the administration may be coming. A federal judge in New Hampshire earlier this month blocked Trump’s order nationwide via a class action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. Such lawsuits are one of the ways the Supreme Court suggested challengers could try to jam up enforcement of the policy for those who would be impacted by it. The Justice Department has not appealed that ruling from US District Judge Joseph LaPlante, who was appointed to the bench by former President George W. Bush. The administration was further stymied last week, after a federal appeals court decided that a nationwide injunction issued by a judge in Seattle earlier this year against Trump’s order did not represent a judicial overreach that needed to be curbed in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling. The Supreme Court ordered lower courts that issued or kept intact such broad injunctions to reconsider those rulings to see whether they comply with the justices’ decision that such injunctions may not be needed to provide litigants with the "complete relief" they’re seeking. "We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing a universal injunction in order to give the states complete relief," the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 decision in a case brought by several Democratic-led states against Trump’s order. The administration has not yet appealed that ruling. The 9th Circuit’s decision may soon bring the birthright issue back before the Supreme Court, since the appeals court had also reviewed the merits of the executive order and found that it was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court’s June 27 decision did not address the legality of the policy, only the use of nationwide injunctions.

AP [7/26/2025 9:10 AM, Sophia Tareen, 31733K] reports federal immigration judges fired by the Trump administration are filing appeals, pursuing legal action and speaking out in an unusually public campaign to fight back. More than 50 immigration judges — from senior leaders to new appointees — have been fired since Donald Trump assumed the presidency for the second time. Normally bound by courtroom decorum, many are now unrestrained in describing terminations they consider unlawful and why they believe they were targeted. Their suspected reasons include gender discrimination, decisions on immigration cases played up by the Trump administration and a courthouse tour with the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat. "I cared about my job and was really good at it," Jennifer Peyton, a former supervising judge told The Associated Press this week. "That letter that I received, the three sentences, explained no reason why I was fired.” Peyton, who received the notice while on a July Fourth family vacation, was appointed judge in 2016. She considered it her dream job. Peyton was later named assistant chief immigration judge in Chicago, helping to train, mentor and oversee judges. She was a visible presence in the busy downtown court, greeting outside observers. She cited top-notch performance reviews and said she faced no disciplinary action. Peyton said she’ll appeal through the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent government agency Trump has also targeted. Carla Espinoza, a Chicago immigration judge since 2023, was fired as she was delivering a verdict this month. Her notice said she’d be dismissed at the end of her two-year probationary period with the Executive Office for Immigration Review. "I am personally committed to my career. We’re not political appointees," she told AP. "I’m entitled to a reason.” She believes the firings have disproportionately affected women and ethnic minorities, including people with Hispanic-sounding surnames like hers. She plans to take legal action before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has also shifted focus under Trump. "There’s a very strong pattern of discriminatory factors," she said. Espinoza thinks another reason could be her decision to release a Mexican immigrant falsely accused of threatening to assassinate Trump. Ramón Morales Reyes was accused of a writing a threatening letter by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. But the claims quickly fell apart as Wisconsin authorities determined that Morales Reyes was actually framed by a man who had previously attacked him.

FOX News [7/26/2025 12:00 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports Fox News’ Madison Scarpino reports on migrant deportation flights departing from ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ The Heritage Foundation’s Lora Ries joins ‘Fox News Live’ to discuss the Trump administration’s lawsuit against a sanctuary city. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Telemundo [7/26/2025 11:21 PM, Staff, 3352K] reports the Texas government is looking to build "the BIGGEST immigration detention center" in the country near El Paso, Republican Greg Abbott announced this weekend. Abbott said the site will be erected at the Fort Bliss military base and when construction is completed will hold up to 5,000 detainees inside. A makeshift tent facility is already operating at the base, where migrants are being held; it was also used in January to move people by bus to facilitate deportation flights from Texas and in past years served as a shelter for migrant children. The U.S. Army’s projected contract for the construction of the final project at Fort Bliss is for more than $231 million up front, with the goal of completion by September 2027. Abbott’s announcement of the center also comes after federal officials from Donald Trump’s administration celebrated the opening of a similar site in Florida, which authorities in that state are dubbing the "Alcatraz of the Alligators" or Alligator Alcatraz because it is located in a part of the Everglades where these reptiles abound, as well as snakes and swamp. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said while visiting the Florida site that she would like to see more such places, despite allegations of inhumane conditions at the site, which Noem has dismissed. "They are secure facilities and they abstain at the highest levels of what the federal government is looking for in terms of detention centers," she said in an interview with our sister network NBC News in mid-July. Other sites such as Alligator Alcatraz have been denounced in recent weeks for extreme overcrowding. People who are held in these facilities simply because they do not have regular immigration status - which is a civil infraction just like a traffic ticket, not a crime - have reported that they are given no food at all or already rotten food, and that dozens of people are crammed into a single cell. Abbott’s announcement comes days after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said it will open a new grant program to help pay for migrant detention centers. So far, however, it is unclear whether FEMA grants would be used for the Fort Bliss center in addition to the Army-funded contract. This agency, which Trump said just a few weeks ago he wanted to dismantle, was originally created to help states affected by issues such as natural disasters. It will now use part of its funds to build immigration prisons, in part with new funding for immigration measures through Trump’s fiscal megillah, which on the other hand will implement deep cuts to services that many people in the United States depend on, such as Medicaid and the SNAP food stamp program.

New York Post [7/26/2025 11:21 AM, Kathianne Boniello, 49956K] reports a convicted terrorist and boss of the Irish Republican Army in North America may finally be getting booted from the United States. Gabriel Megahey, 82, lived in New York for decades but a June 20 letter from the US Department of Homeland Security warned his "parole" was being terminated, nearly 30 years after he and other IRA members were given dispensation to stay in the country. The Belfast native was convicted in 1983 in Brooklyn Federal Court for conspiring to buy missiles to shoot down British helicopters amid the violent clashes in Northern Ireland known as "The Troubles." The married father of six served five years in federal prison for conspiracy and arms shipments. He was released from prison in 1988 — but never deported. Now the grandfather of 14 and great-grandfather of five, who records show moved to Delaware in 2019, is reeling after DHS warned he would be fined and criminally prosecuted if he stays in the United States.

Washington Examiner [7/26/2025 8:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1934K] reports "It is a marijuana operation, illegally operated by a transnational Chinese criminal organization, and likely with the knowledge of the Chinese Communist Party," Collins told the Washington Examiner. Until recently, rural Central Maine was a hub for the grow houses, and Maine itself was a national leader for states affected by this type of crime. Trouble first appeared on Collins’s radar in June 2022, when she was contacted by a constituent about suspicious activity at a nearby home. Collins began working with the DEA around that time to get federal law enforcement involved. Collins said that Sheriff Dale Lancaster of Somerset County also received a high volume of public reports of heavy traffic going in and out of homes in the countryside. In August 2023, Collins and other Maine lawmakers took action and sent then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland a letter calling on the Justice Department to shut down what had been confirmed to be illegally run marijuana grow operations. Collins wanted federal assistance because local and state law enforcement could not adequately address the problem. Earlier this year, FBI Director Kash Patel and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem both committed to working with Maine to shut down the grow operations.

Telemundo [7/26/2025 1:45 PM, Eric Leonard, 103K] reports U.S. Representative Jimmy Gomez introduced a bill to attempt to limit the use of military-grade drones by federal law enforcement to monitor public demonstrations, following revelations that DHS used "Predator"-style drones to record some of the protests stemming from the government’s aggressive immigration enforcement last month. Gomez, who represents District 34, which encompasses downtown Los Angeles and many surrounding communities, and has opposed recent immigration enforcement measures, said the use of such drones to monitor protests is inappropriate and should not be allowed. "This is intended to intimidate. This is intended to monitor people participating in protests," he told NBCLA this week. "It’s not like they’re being used in a manhunt. Their objective is strictly to observe and monitor those participating in these protests, which could have a chilling effect on the right to free expression and the right to assembly," he said. The DHS drones were initially spotted by aviation enthusiasts and trackers in early June after they flew over Arizona airspace on their way to and from Los Angeles, using callsigns reserved for DHS aircraft. The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which operates the drones and other surveillance aircraft, did not immediately comment but said their legislative analysts would review the bill next week.

Univision [7/26/2025 5:53 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports the remains of Mexican immigrant Jaime Alanís García, who died after suffering a severe fall during an intense ICE raid on a marijuana farm in Ventura, California, have been repatriated to Mexico, the Mexican Foreign Ministry announced. Roberto Velasco, head of the North American unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Friday afternoon that the remains arrived in Guadalajara, Jalisco, and were then transferred to the municipality of Huajúmbaro, Michoacán. There, García’s remains will be delivered to his wife and daughter, the Mexican official said in a post on X. According to Velasco, funeral services were held in the United States on Monday, July 21. Velasco added that, upon attending the funeral services, representatives of the Mexican government pledged to "follow up with federal and local authorities on the outcome of the investigations into the incident." Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), told the media that the immigrant "was not being pursued by law enforcement; he climbed onto the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30 feet." "This man was not and has not been in CBP or ICE custody," McLaughlin said. "CBP immediately requested a medical evacuation vehicle to the scene so he could receive medical attention as quickly as possible." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [7/26/2025 11:10 PM, Staff, 3077K] reports that, Lisa Tate, whose family has been farming in Ventura County since 1876, cannot recall a threat to crops like the one emanating from Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant onslaught. Tate fears that the crackdown on illegal workers, far from addressing the problems of this vital agricultural region north of Los Angeles, could "dismantle the whole economy" and put the country’s food security at risk. "I began to get really concerned when we saw a group of border control agents come up to the Central Valley and just start going onto farms and just kind of trying to chase people down, evading the property owner," the 46-year-old farmer, who grows avocados, citrus and coffee, told AFP in an interview. "That’s not something we’re used to happening in agriculture," she added. The impact goes beyond harvesters, she said. "There’s a whole food chain involved," from field workers to truck drivers to people working in packing houses and in sales. "It’s just, everybody’s scared," she said — even a multi-generational American like her. "I’m nervous and I’m scared, because we’re feeling like we’re being attacked.” Other farmers contacted by AFP declined to speak to the media, saying they feared potential reprisals from the Trump administration. The agricultural sector has for years been trying to find permanent solutions for its perennial labor shortages, beyond issuing temporary permits for migrant workers. "Some of the work we have is seasonal. But really, around here, we need workers that are year-round," Tate says. The number of government certified positions for temporary agricultural workers practically tripled between 2014 and 2024, Department of Labor statistics show, underlining just how much American agriculture depends on foreign workers. On top of that, some 42 percent of farm workers are not authorized to work in the United States, according to a 2022 study by the Department of Agriculture. Those numbers line up with the struggles many farmers go through to find labor. They say US citizens are not interested in the physically demanding work, with its long days under extreme temperatures, rain and sun. Against that backdrop, Tate warns that removing people who are actually doing the work will cause immeasurable damage. Not only will it harm farms and ranches, which could take years to recover, it will also send food prices soaring, and even endanger US food security, possibly requiring the country to start importing provisions that may previously have been grown at home, she says. "What we really need is some legislation that has the type of program that we need, and that works for both the workers, that ensures their safety, it ensures a fair playing field when it comes to international trade, as well as as domestic needs," Tate said.

New York Times [7/27/2025 5:00 AM, Eli Saslow, 153395K] reports they gathered in a conference room for the weekly management meeting, even though there was hardly anyone left to manage. Chad Hartmann, the president of Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, pushed a few empty chairs to the side of the room and then passed around a sheet totaling the latest production numbers. “Take a deep breath and brace yourselves,” he said. For more than a decade, Glenn Valley’s production reports had told a story of steady ascendance — new hires, new manufacturing lines, new sales records for one of the fastest-growing meatpacking companies in the Midwest. But, in a matter of weeks, production had plummeted by almost 70 percent. Most of the work force was gone. Half of the maintenance crew was in the process of being deported, the director of human resources had stopped coming to work, and more than 50 employees were being held at a detention facility in rural Nebraska. Hartmann, 52, folded the printed sheet into tiny squares and waited out the silence. “So, this gives you a pretty good sense of the work we have ahead of us,” he said. “It’s a wipeout,” said Gary Rohwer, the owner. “We’re building back up from ground zero.” It had been almost three weeks since dozens of federal agents arrived at the factory’s door with a battering ram and a warrant for 107 workers who they said were undocumented immigrants using false identification — part of a wave of workplace raids carried out by the Trump administration this summer. Rohwer, 84, had always used a federal online system called E-Verify to check whether his employees were eligible to work, and Glenn Valley Foods itself had not been accused of any violations. Rohwer was a registered Republican in a conservative state, but he’d voted for a Democrat for the first time in the 2024 election, in part because of Trump’s treatment of immigrants. Rohwer couldn’t square the government’s accusations of “criminal dishonesty” with the employees he’d known for decades as “salt-of-the-earth, incredible people who helped build this company,” he said. Most of them had no criminal history, aside from a handful of traffic violations. Many were working mothers, and now they were calling the office from detention and asking for legal advice. Their children, U.S. citizens, were struggling at home and in some cases subsisting on donations of the company’s frozen steak. The Homeland Security Department had accused many of the company’s former employees of working under stolen IDs, which E-Verify didn’t always catch if the ID number itself was valid. Rohwer had met with officials after the raid to ask for a better system, and they told him to keep using E-Verify. One agent gave the company a hotline number to call for hiring questions. Hartmann tried it once and waited on hold for 57 minutes before giving up. “They said the only thing we can do is verify, verify, verify,” Rohwer said. “But we’re already doing that,” Hartmann said. “How do we avoid ending up in the same situation?”

Breitbart [7/26/2025 10:12 PM, Staff, 3077K] reports Mervin Yamarte left Venezuela with his younger brother, hoping for a better life. But after a perilous jungle march, US detention, and long months in a Salvadoran jail surviving riots, beatings and fear, he has returned home a wounded and changed man. On entering the sweltering Caribbean port of Maracaibo, the first thing Yamarte did after hugging his mother and six-year-old daughter was to burn the baggy white prison shorts he wore during four months of "hell.” "The suffering is over now," said the 29-year-old, enjoying a longed-for moment of catharsis. Yamarte was one of 252 Venezuelans detained in US President Donald Trump’s March immigration crackdown, accused without evidence of gang activity, and deported to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. According to four ex-detainees interviewed by AFP, the months were marked by abuse, violence, spoiled food and legal limbo. "You are going to die here!" heavily armed guards taunted them on arrival to the maximum security facility east of the capital San Salvador. "Welcome to hell!". The men had their heads shaved and were issued with prison clothes: a T-shirt, shorts, socks, and white plastic clogs. Yamarte said a small tuft of hair was left at the nape of his neck, which the guards tugged at. The Venezuelans were held separately from the local prison population in "Pavilion 8" — a building with 32 cells, each measuring about 100 square meters (1,076 square feet). Each cell — roughly the size of an average two-bedroom apartment — was designed to hold 80 prisoners. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele built the prison to house the country’s most dangerous gang members in deliberately brutal conditions, drawing constant criticism from rights groups. Trump’s administration paid Bukele $6 million to keep the Venezuelans behind bars. AFP has unsuccessfully requested a tour of the facility and interviews with CECOT authorities.

Washington Examiner [7/27/2025 5:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1934K] reports a Republican senator who is pushing legislation to tax remittances that Mexican citizens in the United States send to Mexico described Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s campaign to guide Mexicans from paying the taxes as a "desperate" move. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) blasted first-term Sheinbaum in a statement to the Washington Examiner for how she vowed to fight back against a 1% tax that Congress had authorized to be imposed on money sent to people outside the U.S. under the One Big, Beautiful Bill. "Mass migration is not only a bad policy choice, it’s also a booming industry, and Mexico is one of its top beneficiaries. That’s why Claudia Sheinbaum is desperate to help her fellow countrymen here in the U.S. avoid our new tax on remittances," Schmitt said. Schmitt added that Sheinbaum’s opposition to the remittance tax was the very reason why the U.S. needed to take action to address the underlying issue and the remittances. Sheinbaum proposed last week that Mexicans living in the U.S. use a new government bank card to avoid paying the U.S. a tax on money sent back to people in Mexico. The card is generated by the Mexican government’s Financial Institution for Well-Being, known as Finabien. "Mexico refuses to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into our nation because they have a huge financial incentive to maximize mass migration into the U.S.," Schmitt said. "It’s time for Congress to pass my REMIT Act to increase the tax on remittances and end the financial incentives for mass migration.” Last month, Schmitt proposed the Requiring Excise for Migrant Income Transfers (REMIT) Act, which would go significantly further than the recently passed bill and increase the remittance tax to 15%. A newly released study by the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, an immigration organization that advocates restricting immigration, concluded that people working in the U.S. send more than $200 billion to their home countries annually. The majority of that money was sent to recipients in Mexico, followed by India, Guatemala, the Philippines, and China. "In some cases, remittances intentionally or unintentionally support cartels, human smugglers, terrorists, and organized crime," according to a preview of the analysis obtained by the Washington Examiner. "Approximately $4.4 billion out of the $58.5 billion in total remittances sent to Mexico in 2022 were potentially linked to cartels," it added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [7/26/2025 8:00 AM, Carol Merna, 18649K] reports Crystal was newly 21. Her life was about to change forever. Her situation was unremarkable — what you might expect in America’s heartland. Awkward, insecure and lonely, she met a man online who said she was beautiful and smart. He was attentive, messaging her frequently and filling her need for companionship. Crystal was smitten. Her trust in this man was growing. Without realizing it, she was being manipulated and groomed. This man encouraged Crystal to travel to Chicago, about 3 hours away, to meet him for a night out. As soon as Crystal arrived, this man attacked her physically, sexually and emotionally. He targeted her vulnerabilities and threatened her family’s safety. Over five weeks, he forced Crystal to perform sex acts for money with many men, all while continuing the fraudulent relationship. Eventually, law enforcement discovered Crystal. She willingly came to the Center for Prevention of Abuse for safe emergency housing and trauma-informed care. While she was there, a caseworker asked Crystal if she knew the name of her abuser. She replied, "Yes, but I don’t know how to spell it, so you’ll have to look." Crystal lifted her long bangs to reveal a homemade tattoo of his full name across her forehead. She had been branded as his property. Crystal’s true story offers insight into the brutal realities of human trafficking in the U.S. — an underworld that has destroyed tens of thousands of lives.

Los Angeles Times [7/27/2025 6:00 AM, Ezra Claytan Daniels, 14672K] reports that, a few years ago I came across a profoundly unnerving historical photo: A lineup of terrified, naked Black babies cowered over the title "Alligator Bait." As it turned out, the idea of Black babies being used as alligator bait was a beloved trope dating back to the antebellum South, though it didn’t really take off until after the Civil War. The image I saw was created in 1897, just one year after Plessy vs. Ferguson established "separate but equal" as the foundational doublespeak of segregation. With formerly enslaved people striking out and settling their own homesteads, the prevailing stereotypes deployed to justify violence against Black people were forced to evolve. We were no longer simple and primitive, in desperate need of the civilizing stewardship of white Christian slave owners. After emancipation, we became dangerous, lazy and worthless. Worth less, in fact, than the chickens more commonly used to bait alligators. White Floridians in particular so fell in love with the concept of alligators hungry for Black babies that it birthed an entire industry. Visitors to the Sunshine State could purchase souvenir postcards featuring illustrations of googly-eyed alligators chasing crying Black children. There was a popular brand of licorice called "Little African," with packaging that featured a cartoon alligator tugging playfully at a Black infant’s rag diaper. The tagline read: "A Dainty Morsel." Anglers could buy fishing lures molded in the shape of a Black baby protruding from an alligator’s mouth. You get the idea. When I first learned of all this, naturally, I was unmoored. I was also surprised that I’d never heard of the alligator bait slur. Why doesn’t it sit alongside the minstrel, the mammy and the golliwog in our cultural memory of racist archetypes? Did it cross some unspoken line with the vulgarity of its violence? Perhaps this particular dog whistle was a tad too audible? Or was it the plausible deniability? Did people (including historians) wave it away because babies were never "really" used as alligator bait? It’s true that beyond the cultural ephemera — which includes songs (such as the ragtime tune "Mammy’s Little Alligator Bait") and mechanical alligator toys that swallow Black babies whole, over and over again — there are apparently no surviving records of Black babies sacrificed in this way. No autopsy reports, no court records proving that anyone was apprehended and convicted of said crime. But of course, why would there be? The thing I found so unnerving about the alligator bait phenomenon wasn’t its literal veracity. There’s no question human beings are capable of that and far worse. Without a doubt, "civilized" people could find satisfaction — or comfort, or justice, or opportunity — in the violent slaughter of babies. Donald Trump’s recently posted AI clip "Trump Gaza," which suggests the real world annihilation of Palestinians will give way to luxury beachfront resorts, is a shining example. The thing that haunted me about alligator bait was the glee with which the idea was embraced. It was funny. Cute. Harmless. Can’t you take a joke?

Washington Examiner [7/26/2025 2:21 PM, Christina Lengyel, 1934K] reports Pennsylvania on Friday became the latest state to consider legislation that would unmask agents from U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Joining state lawmakers from California, New York, Massachusetts, and Tennessee, the "Unmask ICE" effort is a reaction to officers concealing their identities to evade public attacks and retaliation for the agency’s operations, which have led to widespread fear, anger, and protest. Senate sponsors Nikil Saval, D-Philadelphia, and Amanda Cappelletti, D-Norristown emphasized the safety risks and confusion created by masked law enforcement. Though the bill’s specific language is not yet published, a memo from its sponsors says that agents working within the commonwealth would be required to wear a uniform and badge that identifies their number and department. Along with the requirements would come civil and criminal penalties for failing to properly identify oneself. "This legislative initiative is deeply important for the safety of our Commonwealth, and I believe people from across the political spectrum understand how critical it is for our community members to be able to trust our law enforcement officers," said Cappelletti in an email to The Center Square. "Unfortunately, we have already seen troubling incidents in Pennsylvania where individuals impersonated law enforcement officers to commit crimes." The Department of Homeland Security says that attacks toward its agents have gone up 500%, just as the agency’s unprecedented raids have. Many communities, including Philadelphia, are considered sanctuary cities and limit local police cooperation with ICE. Across the country, it has often put cities and states at odds with the federal government. "Local police departments and other law enforcement agencies already have protocols in place to ensure their agents and officers are identifiable," said Cappelletti. "It’s common sense to make that a standard practice for every law enforcement officer carrying out official duties in Pennsylvania." In a conversation with CBS News, ICE Director Todd Lyons said he would continue to allow agents to wear masks. "I’m not a proponent of the masks, however, if that’s a tool that the men and women of ICE to keep their families safe, then I’ll allow it," said Lyons.

Breitbart [7/26/2025 3:17 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports most Americans across the political spectrum support the Trump administration’s efforts to deport criminal illegal aliens, a recent Harvard-Harris survey revealed. Overall, the survey found that majorities across the board support Trump’s immigration policies — from the way he is handling the border to his decision to target criminal illegal aliens. When asked, "Do you support or oppose the administration’s efforts to deport criminals who are here illegally," a massive 75 percent said yes, they support it — up from 74 percent in June. Only 25 percent said they do not. Further, there is broad support across party lines, as 93 percent of Republicans, 70 percent of independents, and 59 percent of Democrats support deporting criminals who are here illegally. Further, the survey found that a majority — 60 percent — support the Trump administration’s actions to close the southern border. However, while a majority of Republicans and independents support it — 89 percent and 55 percent, respectively — most Democrats, 66 percent, oppose the actions on the southern border. It should be noted that the Trump administration’s actions resulted in zero illegals being released into the U.S. interior for the month of May and June. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) noted that "many illegal aliens categorized as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gang members, and more — they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S." "This deceptive ‘non-criminal’ categorization is devoid of reality and misleads the American public," it emphasized.

FOX News [7/26/2025 11:26 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports former Acting ICE Director Ron Vitiello discusses the surge in attacks on immigration agents, California medical workers being charged for impeding an arrest and a federal judge blocking ICE’s arrest of Kilmar Abrego Garcia once released. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [7/26/2025 7:26 AM, Tim Padgett and Scott Simon, 37958K] Audio HERE reports
Detainees at an ICE facility in the Florida Everglades referred to Alligator Alcatraz allege harsh punishments from guards. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Breitbart [7/26/2025 11:23 AM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports three illegal aliens from El Salvador were arrested by Houston Police Department investigators after they allegedly attempted to meet up with underage girls. The arrests are part of an ongoing sting operation targeting dating apps, officials stated. Houston Police Department detectives arrested Abner Ruiz, Carlos Gomez, and Erick Menjivar for online solicitation of a minor earlier this week, according to Fox 26 Houston. The three illegal aliens from El Salvador allegedly used a dating app, Jaumo, to communicate with who they believed were girls ranging in age from 14 to 16 years. One of the men is also facing charges of fleeing in a vehicle and failure to stop and render aid after he crashed into a gate, injuring a pedestrian, the District Court judge said in court. Houston Field Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers who work in the Harris County jail placed immigration detainers on the three Salvadoran nationals.

The Hill [7/26/2025 10:35 AM, Meg Hilling, 18649K] reports a former member of the National Guard has been convicted of conspiring to smuggle migrants into the country by a U.S. District Court in Texas. According to a press release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Mario Sandoval began smuggling people into the country in July 2024 after a deployment with the Texas National Guard as part of Operation Lone Star. During the one-day trial July 21, agents with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) presented text messages from Sandoval’s phone in which he expressed needing drivers for trips from the Rio Grande Valley to destinations north of immigration checkpoints. Footage was also presented during the trial that showed him at an immigration checkpoint while sending texts about "law enforcement and K-9 presence." Investigators allege that Sandoval’s actions were motivated by money. Sandoval was discharged from the Texas National Guard in October 2024. The 27-year-old’s defense argued that there was no conspiracy and that his text messages were taken out of context. His sentencing is scheduled for October 22, and he faces up to 10 years in federal prison.

CNN [7/26/2025 11:59 AM, Staff, 21433K] reports facing constant threats of deportation, undocumented farmworkers in California must decide whether to show up to work the busy harvest season or stay safe from ICE. CNN’s Julia Vargas Jones heads to Ventura County where she speaks to worried farmers and their increasingly fearful laborers. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [7/27/2025 2:27 AM, Shane Galvin, 49956K] reports three illegal migrants from El Salvador who were allegedly using a dating app to prey on teen girls more than half their age instead found themselves snagged in a sting operation in Texas, authorities said. Houston Police Department officers posed as underage girls on the dating app Jaumo and arrested three adult men who are now being held on immigration detainer at the Harris County Jail, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said earlier this week, according to Fox 26. Abner Ruiz, 37; Erick Menjivar, 30; and Carlos Gomez, 33, were arrested in separate incidents within the past 10 days, and each is charged with online solicitation of a minor, the station reported, citing court records. Two of the sickos believed they were meeting a 14-year-old girl while the third attempted to meet up with a 16-year-old, according to those records. Cops said the ongoing sting did not specifically target illegal immigrants. Gomez first entered the country illegally on Oct. 19, 2012, and was removed to El Salvador in 2020, ICE told Fox 26. He returned to the US illegally at an unknown time and remained undetected until he was busted in HPD’s covert operation on July 17. He fled in his vehicle after realizing the supposed teenager he was meeting was a cop — running stop signs, crashing into a gate and injuring a pedestrian in his failed dash for freedom, the report stated. Gomez, the father of a child under 18, also faces charges of failure to stop and render aid. He was convicted of violently assaulting a family member in 2015, per Fox 26. Immigration officials do not know when Martinez Ruiz crossed into the US illegally, so the sting operation on July 17 was his first run-in with law enforcement, Fox 26 reported, citing ICE. Menjivar entered the US illegally near San Ysidro, Calif., on July 25, 2018, and was arrested that same day by immigration officials who released him into the country three days later. He had his immigration case dismissed in 2024 after the federal government exercised prosecutorial discretion, according to ICE. He was nabbed on July 18, officials said. Jaumo bills itself as “the first community-based dating app” and allows users to match with people in their area, according to its website. Children under the age of 18 are not permitted on the platform. Unlike more popular dating apps, users can message each other without previously matching, according to Fox 29.

NBC News [7/26/2025 8:00 AM, Alicia Victoria Lozano, 44540K] reports immigration officials have been repeatedly spotted outside a Hollywood homeless shelter since May, leading staff to accompany residents from war-torn countries to work, errands and court. An executive at the shelter that serves people ages 18 to 24 said she saw two Venezuelan men handcuffed and arrested by ICE agents after they returned to the shelter from work. Homeless shelters appear to be another target in the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown, which has resulted in nearly 3,000 arrests in the Los Angeles area. They now join Home Depots, 7-Elevens and cannabis farms as locations where the federal government is carrying out its mass deportation effort. In addition to the Hollywood shelter, service providers have reported seeing immigration enforcement at shelters in North Hollywood and San Diego, according to local media. Service providers in Los Angeles said the stepped-up enforcement effort has made their work more difficult because their clients are consumed by fears of deportation. The highest concentrations of ICE arrests in Los Angeles have occurred in the predominantly Latino neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley, according to the nonprofit Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order that encourages cities to remove homeless people from their streets. Whitehead said the order could trigger more arrests of homeless people and further heighten their fears.

Los Angeles Times [7/26/2025 3:27 PM, Jasmine Mendez, 14672K] reports a Tunisian man is enduring "inhumane conditions" inside the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles after U.S. immigration authorities arrested him this month, his family says. Rami Othmane was held July 13 while driving to the grocery store. His wife, Dr. Wafaa Alrashid, said agents blocked Othmane’s car and did not identify themselves or present a warrant before detaining him. Alrashid, chief of medical staff at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, was on FaceTime with her husband during the incident. The couple married on March 5, 2024, and filed an I-130 petition last month to qualify their relationship status to obtain Orthmane’s green card. Alrashid said Othmane, whose Instagram account says he is a singer and music producer, was in the country legally, adding that he suffers from chronic pain and an untreated tumor. Since his arrest, Othmane has been kept in the Federal Building — sleeping on a cold floor with no bedding, hygiene supplies or privacy, his wife said. "This is not just an immigration issue — this is a human rights crisis," Alrashid said in a statement. "My husband has been subjected to 12 days of inhumane treatment in a federal building. He is not a criminal. He is a kind, peaceful man with an open immigration petition."

Breitbart [7/26/2025 12:30 PM, Amy Furr, 3077K] reports two staffers at a surgery clinic have been charged with allegedly interfering with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest on July 8 in Ontario, California. The incident occurred at the Ontario Advanced Surgical Center, and the two workers have been identified as Jose De Jesus Ortega and Danielle Nadine Davila, Fox News reported. The story centers around Denis Guillen-Solis, an illegal alien from Honduras who is accused of evading ICE officers when they were conducting a targeted enforcement operation. The Fox article noted the illegal alien was not a patient at the medical facility. When ICE officers were performing their duties, they approached Guillen-Solis as he and other purported illegals exited a vehicle, per the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). However, Guillen-Solis took off running and made it to a spot near the medical facility. Staffers are accused of assaulting the officers and dragging one of them and Guillen-Solis into the building. “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,’” DHS said. In regard to the recent Ontario case, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “The media attempted to demonize ICE agents by saying that our agents were arresting individuals inside a medical center—but that is completely FALSE.” “On July 8, ICE officers conducted a targeted enforcement operation where one of the illegal aliens fled on foot to evade law enforcement and ended up near the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center in San Bernadino County,” she explained. “Surgical Center staff members Jose de Jesus Ortega and Danielle Nadine Davila obstructed and assaulted ICE agents. Today, these individuals are being charged for their crime.” “Anyone who actively obstructs or assaults law enforcement, including U.S. citizens, will face consequences which include arrest,” McLaughlin concluded.

Breitbart [7/26/2025 1:20 PM, Staff, 3077K] reports Donald Trump’s promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history has appalled some Americans. But others are cashing in on the boom in demand for private detention centers. Migrants captured by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents need to be temporarily housed in places like the facility being readied in California City, prior to deportation. "When you talk to the majority of residents here, they have a favorable perspective on it," said Marquette Hawkins, mayor of the hardscrabble settlement of 15,000 people, 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Los Angeles. California City is to be home to a sprawling detention center that will be operated by CoreCivic, one of the largest companies in the private detention sector. The company, which declined AFP requests for an interview, says the facility would generate around 500 jobs, and funnel $2 million in tax revenue to the city. More than 80 percent of detainees are in facilities run by the private sector, according to the TRAC project at Syracuse University. "Private prison companies are profiting from human suffering, and Republicans are allowing them to get away with it," Congresswoman Norma Torres told reporters outside a detention center in the southern California city of Adelanto. Both GEO and ICE have denied allegations of mistreatment at the detention centers. "Claims there is overcrowding or subprime conditions in ICE facilities are categorically FALSE," said Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. "All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers." But some relatives of detainees tell a different story.

Los Angeles Times [7/26/2025 4:34 PM, Wendy Fry, 14672K] reports a deaf Mongolian man who uses sign language to communicate has been released from immigration custody in Southern California after spending months in detention without access to an interpreter, a family member confirmed Saturday. CalMatters reported earlier this month on the man’s detention. His family requested he be identified only by the name Avirmed because of their fear that he could be harmed by the Mongolian government if he is eventually returned to his home country. U.S. Southern District of California Judge Dana Sabraw on July 9 ordered officials at the Otay Mesa Detention Center to provide Avirmed with a Mongolian Sign Language interpreter. So far, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not provided him access to anyone who spoke his language, which his attorney equated to holding him in solitary confinement. Immigration agents tried using Google Translate to ask Avirmed if he feared returning to Mongolia, according to court records. They badly misunderstood him, identifying his sponsor as a daughter named Virginia Washington, but he does not have a daughter, according to a legal complaint filed on his behalf. His sponsor is his sister, who lives in Virginia. Avirmed’s attorneys with the Disability Rights Legal Center and Disability Law United argued that holding immigration court proceedings without allowing him access to an interpreter violated Avirmed’s legal civil rights. They drew on federal disability laws prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities by any federal program, including the immigration court system.

USA Today [7/27/2025 5:01 AM, Kayla Jimenez, 75552K] reports an empty seat. Martir Garcia Lara’s fourth-grade teacher and classmates went on with the school day in Torrance, California without him on May 29. About 20 miles north of his fourth grade classroom, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested and detained the boy and his father at their scheduled immigration hearing in Downtown Los Angeles. The federal immigration enforcement agency, which under President Donald Trump has more aggressively deported undocumented immigrants, separated the young boy and his father for a time and took them to an immigration detention facility in Texas. Garcia Lara and his father were reunited and deported to Honduras this summer. Garcia Lara is one of at least five young children and teens who have been rounded up by ICE and deported from the United States with their parents since the start of Trump’s second presidential term. Many won’t return to their school campuses in the fall. "Martir’s absence rippled beyond the school walls, touching the hearts of neighbors and strangers alike, who united in a shared hope for his safe return," Sara Myers, a spokesperson for the Torrance Unified School District, told USA TODAY. Trisha McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said his father Martir Garcia-Banegas, 50, illegally entered the United States in 2021 with his son from the Central American country and an immigration judge ordered them to "removed to Honduras" in Sept. 2022. "They exhausted due process and had no legal remedies left to pursue," McLaughlin wrote USA TODAY in an email. The young boy is now in Honduras without his teacher, classmates and a brother who lives in Torrance. "I was scared to come here," Lara told a reporter at the California-based news station ABC7 in Spanish. "I want to see my friends again. All of my friends are there. I miss all my friends very much.” Although no reported ICE deportations have taken place on school grounds, school administrators, teachers and students told USA TODAY that fear lingers for many immigrant students in anticipation of the new school year.

Washington Post [7/26/2025 10:05 AM, Andrea Sachs, 32099K] reports for many foreign nationals, a new visa fee will increase the cost of traveling to the United States by $250. The “visa integrity fee,” included in the sweeping policy legislation that President Donald Trump signed into law this month, will require visitors traveling on a nonimmigrant visa to pay an additional $250. This group includes leisure and business travelers as well as international students from a wide range of countries such as India, China, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and the Philippines. Applicants must pay this amount on top of other visa fees that often total nearly $200. The Department of Homeland Security can adjust the fee based on inflation, starting in October. The bill does not specify when the fee will go into effect. In a statement, DHS said the new law “provides the necessary policies and resources to restore integrity in our nation’s immigration system. The visa integrity fee requires cross-agency coordination before implementation.” The fee could be refundable once the visitor visa expires, typically in 10 years for business and tourist visas, according to Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, a nonprofit that advocates for the travel industry. The fee does not apply to travelers from more than 40 countries covered by the Visa Waiver Program, such as Australia, Chile, France, Qatar and Singapore. These visitors, however, will also feel a new financial pinch. Under the law, the application fee for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization will increase from $21 to $40. Freeman said the ESTA fee will be split among a travel promotion fund, Customs and Border Protection, and a general Treasury fund. According to the new law, travelers may receive a refund if they comply with several stipulations, such as leaving within five days of the preapproved departure date and not accepting unauthorized employment. The provision does not provide details on how a traveler would receive a refund. Brown said DHS and the State Department will oversee the refund process.

The Hill [7/26/2025 1:22 PM, Filip Timotija, 18649K] reports a Venezuelan Little League baseball team will miss the Senior Baseball World Series held in South Carolina after it was was denied entry into the U.S. because the players were unable to obtain visas. Cacique Mara Little League team, from Maracaibo, Venezuela, qualified for the World Series after winning the Latin American championship in Mexico, but will not be able to compete in Easley, S.C. because they were unable to "obtain the appropriate visas" to travel, according to Little League International. Little League International said in a statement to The Hill that while this is "extremely disappointing, especially to these young athletes," the tournament committee has decided to advance the second-place team from the Latin American championship, Santa María de Aguayo from Tamaulipas, Mexico. The league said the replacement will ensure the "Latin America Region is represented in the tournament and that the players, coaches and families from Mexico are able to have a memorable World Series experience." A senior State Department official told The Hill on Saturday that U.S. consular officers are currently "working to review the case to confirm proper procedures were followed and necessary appeals were submitted by the visa applicants."

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [7/26/2025 4:58 PM, Vivian Ho, 32099K]
AP [7/26/2025 1:11 PM, Staff, 56000K]
USA Today [7/26/2025 3:04 PM, Jason Anderson, 75552K]

Reuters [7/26/2025 12:53 PM, Staff, 51390K] reports the United States is reviewing a decision to deny entry to a Venezuelan Little League team that had been due to compete in an international baseball tournament in South Carolina, the State Department said on Saturday. Cacique Mara Little League is now out of contention for this year’s 2025 Senior League Baseball World Series, which begins on Saturday in Easley, South Carolina, Little League International said in a statement. The team was unable to obtain the necessary entry visas, a development that was "extremely disappointing, especially to these young athletes," the organization said, adding that a Mexican team would compete in its place so that the tournament could go forward. U.S. President Donald Trump last month issued a proclamation barring entry to people from 12 countries and restricting entry by nationals of seven others, including Venezuela. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. The State Department, however, said it was reviewing the matter. "Our consular officers are currently working to review the case to confirm proper procedures were followed and necessary appeals were submitted by the visa applicants," a spokesperson said.

Reuters [7/26/2025 4:16 PM, Humeyra Pamuk, 51390K] reports the United States is pausing all routine visa services at U.S. embassy in Nigerien capital Niamey until further notice, according to a State Department spokesperson and an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Saturday. The July 25-dated cable did not provide a reason for the move but a State Department spokesperson said the pause, which would cover all immigrant and non-immigrant visa categories, was in place until Washington addressed "concerns with the Government of Niger." The spokesperson did not provide further details on the reason, but said that most diplomatic and official visas were excepted from the pause. "The Trump Administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process," the Department spokesperson said.

Los Angeles Times [7/27/2025 6:00 AM, Kate Linthicum, 14672K] reports Juan Ortíz trudged through 100-degree heat along the U.S.-Mexico border, weighed down by a backpack full of water bottles that he planned to leave for migrants trying to cross this rugged terrain. Only there hadn’t been many migrants of late. When Ortíz started water drops in this especially dangerous stretch of desert near El Paso nearly two years ago, he sometimes encountered dozens of people trying to reach the U.S. in a single afternoon. Now he rarely sees any. Border crossings began falling during the final months of President Biden’s term, and have plunged to their lowest levels in decades under President Trump. "It’s dramatically different," Ortíz said, the desert silent except for the crunch of his footsteps in the sand and the whir of a Border Patrol helicopter overhead. "Migrants no longer have any hope.” These borderlands surrounding El Paso were long a place of risk but also opportunity. Migrants chasing the American dream crossed by the tens of thousands annually, sometimes dodging federal agents and often seeking them out to ask for asylum. But Trump’s immigration crackdown — a total ban on asylum, a mass deportation campaign and the unprecedented militarization of the border — has altered life here in myriad ways. Across the Rio Grande from El Paso in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, shelters once hummed with life, rich with the smell of cooked stews and the chatter of people plotting their passage to the U.S. Today those shelters are largely empty, populated by migrants stranded in Mexico when Trump took office, and others who were in the United States but decided to leave, spooked by policies designed to instill fear. Maikold Zapata, 22, had been one of the lucky ones. He entered the U.S. last year via CBP One, a government app that helped more than 900,000 migrants make asylum appointments at ports of entry. Zapata worked as a landscaper in El Paso, sending most of his earnings to his family back in Venezuela but occasionally splurging on a steak dinner or a visit to a water park with friends. What kept Zapata up at night was a looming court date for his immigration case. Since Trump took office, Zapata had heard about federal agents showing up even at routine immigration hearings and taking migrants away in handcuffs. He was afraid of being arrested and sent to a detention facility like the so-called Alligator Alcatraz in Florida, or to a far-away country — perhaps El Salvador or South Sudan, where authorities have shipped U.S. deportees in recent months. "Imagine arriving in Africa with no documents and no money," Zapata said. "No.”

New York Post [7/26/2025 12:16 PM, Gabrielle Fahmy, 49956K] reports a Border Patrol dog named Milan is retiring after an impressive career where he stopped more than 400 pounds of illegal drugs from entering the US. The 8-year-old German Shepherd sniffed out more than 122 pounds of marijuana, 253 pounds of cocaine, 45 pounds of ecstasy and 5 pounds of meth at the ports of Miami during his six-year career. Milan had to retire from USCBP when he started showing signs of intervertebral disc disease, a common condition in dogs where one or more of the discs between vertebrae in the spine become damaged. Schwank couldn’t adopt Milan, he said, because he’s got his hands full with two young children at home. Paws of War, who pairs animals with veterans and first responders, is paying for Milan’s medical bills, now and in the future. It’s trying to find him a home with a current or former canine handler.

Breitbart [7/26/2025 3:11 PM, Alana Mastrangelo, 3077K] reports two Border Patrol agents posted a humorous video about illegal aliens using now-infamous concert footage from the Coldplay kiss cam scandal. "When Border Patrol shows up and illegal aliens try to disappear! We will find you, you will be arrested and removed from the country!" the agents wrote in the caption of their Instagram post, sharing a video in which they superimposed themselves over the Coldplay concert footage. In the video, the two superimposed Border Patrol agents are seen standing in front of the kiss cam, looking around and as if in search of illegal aliens, before shrugging their shoulders.

USA Today [7/26/2025 1:37 PM, Valentina Palm, 75552K] reports Kenny Laynez’s cellphone camera captured every undocumented immigrant’s nightmare on video when he was arrested. One problem: He is a U.S. citizen. The video, shot May 2, showed Florida Highway Patrol officers and Border Patrol agents stopping the 18-year-old landscaper and his three coworkers ‒ one of them his mother ‒ as they drove past luxury buildings to a job. The camera captured officers dragging his coworkers out of their van by their necks and twisting Laynez’s arms and pushing him face down to the pavement. The video also recorded an officer shooting one of Laynez’s coworkers with a Taser, saying he had resisted arrest. “I have rights. I was born and raised here," Laynez told the officers, according to a copy of the video shared by the Guatemalan-Maya Center of Lake Worth Beach. "You don’t have any rights here. You are a ‘Migo,’ brother,” the officer said, referring to his ethnicity. He hurried the 18-year-old into a van. Laynez was released from a Riviera Beach federal facility six hours later, with the video still on his cellphone. His coworkers, including the one who was tased, were undocumented and weren’t as fortunate. They were transferred to the Krome Detention Center in Miami. Laynez said they are free on bail but fear they will be arrested if they show up in court. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [7/26/2025 10:33 AM, Kerry Breen, 51860K] Video HERE reports a Florida woman was caught hiding two turtles in her bra while passing through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at the Miami International Airport, the TSA said Thursday. The woman, who was not identified, had the turtles wrapped in what appeared to be gauze and plastic wrap, according to photos posted on social media by the agency. The TSA did not identify the breed of turtles. One turtle died, the agency said. The surviving reptile was turned over to the Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife. "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 TSA said on social media. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Washington Times [7/26/2025 2:43 PM, Brad Matthews, 2106K]

New York Times [7/26/2025 9:36 AM, Eileen Sullivan, Eileen Sullivan] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s ousted chief operating officer sued the Trump administration on Thursday in federal court, making a legal argument that could set a course for other fired government workers seeking reinstatement. The former FEMA official, Mary Comans, argues that the administrative body designated to hear such cases, called the Merit System Protections Board, has become so dysfunctional under the Trump administration that it is not a viable option for her to make her case. As a result, her lawyers say, a federal judge should hear her argument that President Trump fired her unlawfully and in violation of longstanding civil service protections. Fired employees have struggled to get a judge to hear their cases because Congress set up a separate system to referee such employment disputes. Ms. Comans first filed a complaint with the Merit System Protections Board in March after she was dismissed. But now that board is unable to make decisions because it lacks a quorum since Mr. Trump fired one of the members. The system established by Congress for federal employment disputes “has been thwarted,” the lawyers said in the complaint filed in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Washington Post [7/27/2025 6:00 AM, Katie Shepherd, 32099K] reports that, as water rushed down Church Street, Theresa Boal hurried to save the antique furniture and knickknacks inside the funeral home her family has owned and operated in Allegany County, Maryland, for more than a century. A downpour had caused Georges Creek, which runs through the middle of town, to surge and flood the streets of Westernport in an hour. Her 10-year-old son was at school a short walk down the street, and she couldn’t get to him because of the rising water. Her three pit bulls were locked away in a room on the second floor of her brick home next door. But Boal didn’t have time to save anything else before water filled with muck forced its way inside. “It was so fast, you can’t even think to do anything,” Boal, 38, said. More than two months after the devastating flood swept through Westernport, its mark remains on the small town of about 1,800 residents. Cars inundated with water during the flood sit abandoned along Maryland Avenue, their doors and trunks left open to reveal interiors splattered with mud. One of the town’s emergency access roads is blocked by piles of gravel at both ends of the street, placed there after a resident’s truck fell into a crater under the pavement. Many residents lost their washers, dryers, water heaters and furnaces when their basements filled with water, and they can’t afford to replace the expensive appliances — especially not all at once. Westernport town administrator Laura Freeman Legge said she estimated the town’s damages at $10 million, not including the damage to peoples’ homes and personal property. For a town with an annual budget of about $2 million, many repairs will need to be put on hold, potentially for years. On Wednesday, the town suffered another hit. The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied a request for $15.8 million to make repairs across Allegany and Garrett counties. The decision came as a shock to local leaders, who said that even after the agency disqualified millions of dollars in damage from the request, the county and state still met thresholds to qualify for assistance. “We met the criteria,” Westernport Mayor Judy Hamilton said. “So, we’re confused, and we don’t understand why we were not given the FEMA assistance.” Many people in the area affected by the flood said they felt like the FEMA denial was politically motivated, because Maryland is a Democratic-run state. But Allegany County, which sustained the lion’s share of damage from the Georges Creek flood in May, is one of Maryland’s most conservative communities. Republican voters outnumber Democrats more than 2 to 1 in the county, and the region’s elected representatives in state government — Sen. Mike McKay and Del. Jim Hinebaugh Jr. — are both members of the GOP. “Even though Maryland is a Democratic state, up here they’re not. They voted red. And I think that’s where the frustration for the residents is,” Hamilton said. “Now they feel like the president has turned his back on them.” Federal funds from FEMA would have helped pay for repairs to critical infrastructure. Since the flood the Allegany County-managed sewage system has been leaking into Georges Creek, which feeds into the Potomac River. Asphalt roads in Lonaconing and Westernport were washed away, gas lines ripped up and storm drains blocked by debris. In Westernport, the town’s fire station, town hall, elementary school and library were all severely damaged. The town hall has reopened and fire station repairs are underway, but the library, which lost all of its books when a wave of water buckled a door and window, is still boarded up. Legge, Westernport’s town administrator, said that although aid from FEMA wouldn’t go directly to residents, it would free up town and county dollars that right now must be allocated to fixing infrastructure. That leaves residents with nowhere to turn while facing expensive repairs. “Then we could use our resources to do something,” she said, “but we can’t.”

Wall Street Journal [7/26/2025 7:00 AM, Olivia Beavers, 646K] reports eight miles from where Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz lives in Florida, local authorities arrested a felon last year who was allegedly shooting an illicit gun as part of target practice in his yard. After a search inside the man’s dwelling, police said they found several firearms, body armor, silencers and ammunition, as well as a target list with synagogues and the Jewish lawmaker’s name written on it, according to a case document filed on behalf of the government. The man, Moskowitz said, was a “ghost”—he had never posted on social media and wasn’t on the radar of the U.S. Capitol Police, which keeps tabs on threats. “Someone’s gonna get killed here. It almost was me,” Moskowitz said in an interview. “We got lucky. There was no intel on him. There was no threat. He just was dumb enough to target practice in his backyard. That’s it.” The man, John Lapinski, pleaded guilty to a four-count indictment, and prosecutors are seeking 20 years in prison. Lapinski’s lawyer didn’t respond to requests for comment. Lawmakers and the Capitol Police said such scary episodes are becoming more common as they struggle to contend with a far more dangerous backdrop than they did a decade ago. They are now pushing congressional leaders to find ways to boost security, including through appropriating more funds, arguing that the current level of resources to protect lawmakers is falling short.

NPR [7/26/2025 7:27 AM, Scott Simon and Scott Maucione, 37958K] Audio: HERE reports a transcript reveals what was happening aboard a cargo ship in the moments before it crashed into the Key Bridge in Baltimore last year, collapsing the bridge and killing six workers. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Telemundo [7/26/2025 7:14 PM, Daniela Cado, 177K] reports a Royal Caribbean cruise ship returned to the Port of Miami Saturday morning, days after a crew member jumped overboard in the middle of the ocean and died moments after stabbing an employee, authorities said. NBC 6 spoke with several passengers aboard the Icon of the Seas during its week-long trip to the Bahamas. A Royal Caribbean spokesperson confirmed the incident in a statement Friday and issued the following statement: “Our onboard safety team responded to an incident involving two crew members in a personal dispute. One crew member was injured and treated by the onboard medical team and is in stable condition,” the statement read. Unfortunately, the other crew member died after falling overboard and was recovered during a search and rescue operation. The identities of the employees involved have not yet been revealed. Police said an autopsy will confirm the exact cause of the 35-year-old man’s death. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [7/26/2025 5:35 PM, Faris Tanyos, 51860K] reports a China-flagged research vessel was detected Friday off the coast of Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard reported Saturday that the Xue Long 2, an icebreaker, was detected about 290 nautical miles north of Utqiagvik, Alaska, in the U.S. Arctic. The Xue Long 2 is operated by China’s Polar Research Institute. The ship was in the U.S.’s Extended Continental Shelf, or ECS, which is a portion of the continental shelf that goes beyond 200 miles nautical miles off the coast, according to the State Department. The ship was determined to be 130 nautical miles inside the ECS. "The U.S. has exclusive rights to conserve and manage the living and non-living resources of its ECS," the Coast Guard said in its news release. A Coast Guard C-130J Hercules, a long-range surveillance aircraft, responded to the ship. The Coast Guard also released a photo of the vessel.

FOX News [7/26/2025 10:00 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports a phishing scam posing as a Microsoft security alert is targeting users with emails that claim an alert has been triggered on their account. The link appears safe at first glance, often pointing to a Google Docs or SharePoint page. But that’s part of the trap. Once clicked, it redirects to a fake Microsoft login page designed to steal your credentials.

FOX Business [7/26/2025 9:38 PM, Sophia Compton, 9940K] reports that, Tea, an app that allows women to anonymously discuss the men they are dating, became the victim of a major data breach that resulted in about 72,000 photos being compromised. The company discovered Friday morning that hackers had gained access to one of its data storage systems. Around 13,000 selfies and identification photos, used to verify accounts, were leaked, as well as around 59,000 images that were publicly viewable on the app, according to a statement from Tea. The cyberattack only affects those who signed up for the app before February 2024. Users’ phone numbers and email addresses were not accessed, according to Tea. Tea, which has since begun a full investigation, said it is working with cybersecurity experts to secure its systems and has since put in place additional security measures. "Protecting our users’ privacy and data is our highest priority," the company said in the statement. "We are taking every necessary step to ensure the security of our platform and prevent further exposure." The breach happened because hackers gained access to an identifier link where data from before Feb. 24, 2024, was stored, according to Tea. The company previously made users submit photo identification as a safety measure to make sure only women were joining the app. However, the company got rid of that requirement in 2023, as noted in the statement. Tea, which announced in an Instagram post earlier this week that it had reached 4 million users, is a platform that helps women "find verified green flag men," according to its website. The company touts that it is anonymous, features verified women and that no screenshots are allowed. "Share experiences and seek advice within a secure, anonymous platform," Tea says on its website.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [7/26/2025 4:10 PM, Staff, 51390K]
Detroit Free Press [7/26/2025 2:41 PM, Mike Snider, 4241K]

CNN [7/26/2025 6:41 PM, Auzinea Bacon, 875K] reports the company behind the popular app Tea Dating Advice, which allows women to anonymously share information about the men they date for safety purposes, confirmed on Friday that 72,000 images — including about 13,000 user images submitted during account verification — were accessed in a data storage breach. When creating an account on the Tea app, users are asked to submit a selfie to "verify that you are a woman." The app says photos are deleted following account approval. Another 59,000 images that were accessed were "publicly viewable in the app from posts, comments and direct messages." Tea said the breach impacted users who registered before February 2024. The breach raises privacy and safety questions about sharing selfies on apps and how users can protect themselves. Rachel Tobac, CEO and co-founder of SocialProof Security, told CNN that while a selfie "by itself is seemingly innocuous," it could be used to hack bank accounts and other programs when coupled with government-issued identification. She recommended that Tea users consider freezing their credit, using data brokerage site removal tools, making social media accounts private, using a password manager and multifactor authentication. Tobac said identity verification or age verification has become increasingly popular but is a risky choice for companies. "Any information that you collect, you have to protect. And the more information you collect, the more interesting of a target you are for cyber criminals," Tobac said. And accepting facial recognition as the norm can also add to the risk of how law enforcement agencies or hackers can use information against consumers, said Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. "We all know online dating can be toxic, but the solution isn’t more surveillance," Cahn said. Cahn recommended that consumers think twice about sharing data with companies because "opting out is really the best protection we have.”

Los Angeles Times [7/26/2025 12:40 PM, Mariam Fam, 14672K] reports after a spate of vandalism reports involving graffiti at mosques in Texas and California, Muslim leaders there have stepped up efforts to keep their sacred spaces and community members safe. The incidents and subsequent hyper-vigilance add to what many American Muslims say has already been a charged climate amid the fallout in the U.S. from the Israel-Hamas war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the Gaza Strip. The war started in October 2023 with a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel. "The past two years have been extremely difficult for American Muslims," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. A steady stream of images showing the death, destruction and ongoing starvation in Gaza has taken a toll, said Mitchell, as has a rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bigotry in the United States.

Telemundo [7/26/2025 3:31 PM, Staff, 3352K] reports the United States on Friday designated the Cartel of the Suns, a group that Washington claims is linked to the Venezuelan regime, as a terrorist organization. The Trump administration also asserted that this group supports the Sinaloa Cartel and the transnational gang Tren de Aragua, two organizations that have also recently been designated as "terrorists" by the United States. “Managed by dictator Nicolás Maduro, this group supports terrorists who invade our country to traffic narcotics, enrich themselves, and inflict violence against communities,” the State Department’s Latin America Office said on its X account. According to the social media post, the decision to include the Cartel of the Suns on the list of terrorist organizations will allow the United States to use "every resource at its disposal to prevent Maduro from continuing to profit from the destruction of American lives and destabilizing the hemisphere."

CNN [7/27/2025 5:24 AM, Hanna Park, 875K] reports nearly a dozen people were stabbed at a Walmart in Traverse City, Michigan, Saturday afternoon, in what police are calling a “random” act by a lone attacker. Six of the injured were still in critical condition hours later. “It appears that these were all random acts,” Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea said at a news conference. “The victims were not predetermined,” and there’s no indication of additional suspects, the sheriff added. Bystanders scrambled to help capture the suspect and treat the stabbing victims as police and emergency responders rushed to the scene, officials said. The suspect, a 42-year-old Michigan resident, was taken into custody by police within minutes of the attack, the sheriff’s office said. Residents of Traverse City, a small community on the shore of Lake Michigan, are now left grappling with what the sheriff called a “very uncommon” act of violence in the area. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she has been in contact with law enforcement about the “horrible news” and commended first responders for their swift action. About 4:45 p.m., a 42-year-old man entered the Walmart in Garfield Township and, armed with a “folding knife,” stabbed 11 people in the store’s checkout area, according to the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office. “I was just at register, and all I hear is ‘someone’s got a knife’,” Anna Luke, a 20-year-old Walmart employee, told CNN affiliate WXYZ. “I heard just people crying and calling their family, their loved ones,” she said, telling WXYZ she and others ran from the scene. Outside the Walmart, part of a larger shopping complex, emergency vehicles lined the parking lot as first responders secured the scene, according to video footage obtained by the Associated Press. Authorities were seen speaking with employees, many still clad in their blue vests and name tags, as the response shifted into an active investigation. Tiffany DeFell, 36, told the AP she was in the parking lot when the chaos around the stabbing attack erupted. “It was really scary. Me and my sister were just freaking out … This is something you see out of the movies. It’s not what you expect to see where you’re living,” she said. A sheriff’s deputy arrived at the scene “within minutes” and took the suspect into custody, the sheriff said. “Citizens in Walmart also assisted in the apprehension and treatment of victims,” the sheriff said, without providing details. The suspect was not injured, he said. A video obtained by CNN appears to show several people confronting a man in the Walmart parking lot, yelling at him to “throw the knife” away and lay on the ground. It’s unclear in the video, taken from a distance, whether the man is holding anything or throws the alleged knife away. The video also appears to show several people attending to a victim nearby. Munson Healthcare, a hospital system in northern Michigan, was treating the 11 victims from the stabbing attack, according to a statement on their Facebook page. Six victims were in critical condition, and five in serious condition as of Saturday night, the statement said. Three of the victims underwent surgery after the attack, according to the sheriff, who said the 11 injured include six men and five women. The ages of the victims were not immediately disclosed. All of the victims were stabbed, Munson spokesperson Megan Brown told the Associated Press.

Houston Chronicle [7/26/2025 2:00 PM, John Wayne Ferguson, 1982K] reports a new indictment handed up by a federal grand jury on Wednesday linked a man accused of committing a mass shooting at a Houston club to another group of men accused of conspiring to sell weapons and transport drugs in the city. The indictment formally ties together a group of cases that the Justice Department called a major crackdown on Anti-Tren, a gang made up of former members of the Tren de Aragua gang who defected and formed their own rival group. Still, prosecutors have yet to lay out specific evidence of how the accused shooter, Jose Miguel Briceno, was connected to the gang and the department’s allegations of illegal gun sales and drug conspiracies.

NewsMax [7/26/2025 1:37 PM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4622K] reports Oklahoma has a "real problem" because of the Chinese purchases of farmland, particularly near its military installations, China expert Gordon Chang agreed on Newsmax Saturday. "Oklahoma has been thoroughly penetrated by illegal Chinese buys of land," said Chang, appearing with Oklahoma GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei, on Newsmax’s "Saturday Report." He said reports of illegal activities are going on with Chinese-owned land in Oklahoma, including illegal marijuana farms and human trafficking, "and I’m sure those allegations are correct.” Mazzei, meanwhile, told Newsmax that the Chinese Communist Party owns land in all of his state’s 77 counties, most of which is farmland. "We have five major military installations," he said. "From the CCP-controlled land, they could launch weapons strikes like Israel did to Iran. They could poison our water. They could introduce diseases to humans and livestock." However, he said, the state’s attorney general is refusing to enforce a state law banning foreign ownership of land. "And to make matters worse, the Oklahoma speaker of the House has proclaimed publicly that he got some new laws passed that ban foreign ownership of land, when in actuality it codified a crazy loophole that literally allows illegal immigrants to buy land in the state of Oklahoma," said Mazzei. "As Oklahoma’s next governor, I will enforce the law and evict the Chinese Communists from the state of Oklahoma."

Washington Examiner [7/27/2025 5:00 AM, Maydeen Merino, 1934K] reports the Department of Defense’s multibillion-dollar investment in a United States rare earths producer is unconventional, but industry analysts say it is necessary to compete with China. MP Materials, a rare earth producer, entered into an unusual agreement with the Department of Defense earlier this month to help create a rare earth magnet supply chain by constructing the company’s second U.S. magnet facility. The company said it would also add heavy rare earth separation capabilities to its Mountain Pass facility in California. The deal will give the federal government a 15% stake in MP Materials, an uncommon arrangement. "We haven’t used equity as a tool before, so it’s the use of a new tool and it’s really a strategic alignment of economic support to what is a very crucial national security imperative," Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Washington Examiner. Rare earth magnets are essential for advanced defense technologies, including those used in missile guidance, radars, and aircraft. The administration has taken steps to reduce reliance on foreign adversaries, such as China, for rare earth and critical minerals. The agreement includes various commitments that extend for at least 10 years, such as convertible preferred equity, warrants, loans, and a price floor, MP Materials said. The DoD’s agreement resembles strategies that the Chinese government uses to boost its supply chains, Baskaran noted, adding that "China has long provided substantial financial support to its mining industry.” For instance, Baskaran said, between 2009 and 2023, China provided $230 billion in subsidies to the Chinese electric vehicle company BYD. China has created a cohesive mine-to-market supply chain, making it difficult for American firms to compete with that model because it operates outside of free-market practices. "For U.S. companies and Western companies, they’re going to need a counter level of price support or they’re always going to be less competitive than Chinese firms," Baskaran said. China currently produces about 90% of the world’s rare earth magnets. Many have raised concerns that the U.S. reliance on China for key defense sector components could pose a national security issue. Arnab Datta, managing director of policy implementation at Employ America, told the Washington Examiner that the package expands the government toolkit in a "really good way.” The equity stake in the company and the provisions of the deal meant to ensure a price floor "are all tools that we need in our toolkit to compete and reduce our vulnerability to China," he said. But Datta said the agreement presents a high level of risk. "The one thing that worries me is a lot of money being put into one company," Datta said. "This is over a billion dollars of investment one way or another," added that the Defense Production Act, which allowed the Pentagon to enter into the deal, does not provide unlimited funds. "It’s a positive step. But it’s a serious commitment," Datta said, adding that time will tell how the collaboration develops.

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