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 Washington Post [7/4/2025 2:43 PM, Daniel Wu, 32099K] reports around 200 Marines are heading to Florida to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities, U.S. Northern Command said Thursday, noting that it was the “first wave” of the organization’s planned support for ICE operations in several states. Service members from Marine Wing Support Squadron 272 will “focus on administrative and logistical tasks” and are “specifically prohibited from direct contact with individuals in ICE custody or involvement in any aspect of the custody chain,” the command said in a statement. The service members, who are coming from North Carolina, will perform case management duties, provide logistical support like vehicle maintenance, and help process detainees at ICE facilities, such as inputting biographical and detention data in Department of Homeland Security data systems, according to Becky Farmer, a Northern Command spokeswoman. "They will undergo pre-mission training as required," Farmer said in an email. "I do not have specifics on the training at this time.” The deployment comes after President Donald Trump sent thousands of California National Guardsmen and a battalion of 700 Marines to Los Angeles last month amid anti-ICE protests in the city against the wishes of state and local officials. That sparked a contentious legal battle and led a federal judge to blast Trump’s deployment as unlawful before an appeals court permitted him to keep troops deployed in the city for now. Days after the order, the Pentagon announced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had authorized the mobilization of 700 military personnel to support ICE in Florida, Louisiana and Texas, of which the 200 Marines sent Thursday were the first batch. Like the Marines going to Florida, the 700 troops will not conduct law enforcement but instead will be tasked to handle "administrative and clerical functions associated with the processing of illegal aliens at ICE detention facilities," the Pentagon said. U.S. Northern Command said the federal troops were mobilized under Title 10, the same section of the U.S. code Trump invoked to send the National Guard to Los Angeles. Trump doubled down on his administration’s hard-line immigration enforcement this week in Florida when he visited a new immigration detention center in the Everglades that he dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz." The new detention center has drawn protesters who have raised human rights concerns about the makeshift facilities and concerns about its environmental impact. The first group of immigration detainees have arrived at the facility, the Associated Press reported Thursday. FOX News [7/4/2025 8:44 AM, Christina Shaw, 46878K] reports Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell requested backup in support of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Florida, Louisiana and Texas with critical administrative and logistical capabilities at locations as directed by ICE. Parnell said that a mobilization of 700 in all to include active, National Guard and reserve forces had been approved. The Marines are in the first wave of USNORTHCOM’s support. "Service members participating in this mission will perform strictly non-law enforcement duties within ICE facilities. Their roles will focus on administrative and logistical tasks, and they are specifically prohibited from direct contact with individuals in ICE custody or involvement in any aspect of the custody chain," according to a statement released by USNORTHCOM. Parnell stated in his statement that the support will relieve some of the unnecessary strain on law enforcement. "This support provides critical resources to support ICE’s mission, freeing up law enforcement personnel to focus on law enforcement tasks and missions. The Department remains committed to securing 100% operational control of the border," the statement said. The U.S. Air Force and Navy have also taken over positions on federal land along the southern border, under a directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. CBS News [7/3/2025 6:46 PM, Joe Walsh, 51860K] reports that the military said the Marines "will perform strictly non-law enforcement duties within ICE facilities," focusing primarily on "administrative and logistical tasks." They are "prohibited from direct contact with individuals in ICE custody." Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CBS News that the Marines "will be trained and ready to assist with immigration processing at locations across the state of Florida, consistent with the whole-of-government approach to deliver on President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove public safety threats from American communities.” The Hill [7/3/2025 7:21 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 18649K] reports that the administration has sent 8,500 service members to the U.S.-Mexico border and 5,000 to Los Angeles — including 700 Marines — to protect buildings and ICE agents, who have received pushback due to sweeping immigration raids. And on Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that just fewer than 70 Florida National Guard troops will provide base camp security at the remote migrant detention center in the state’s Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz.”

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NewsMax [7/3/2025 11:03 AM, James Morley III , 4622K] reports President Donald Trump’s authorization of National Guard troops to serve as immigration judges in Florida has been met with praise and backlash as the administration looks to speed up the process of deporting illegal migrants. On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared with Trump as the duo toured a newly renovated detention center for illegal aliens nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," due to its isolated location within the Florida Everglades. The state is in the midst of converting the 17,000-acre Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport just west of Miami into a massive holding facility. Trump was asked by the Washington Examiner if he would support DeSantis’ idea of using National Guard troops to serve as immigration judges as a way of expediting the process of deportation. "Yes, he has my approval," Trump promptly told the outlet. "He didn’t even have to ask me. He has my approval," the president added. DeSantis said the purpose of using the National Guard in such a manner is to cut through the "bureaucracy" of deportation. But while Trump has the support of most Republicans for the order, Democrats are crying foul on both the use of the National Guard and the holding center based in the Everglades. Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigration Coalition decried the president’s maneuver. "National Guard members are being deputized to serve as immigration judges in this Everglades detention camp," Kennedy wrote in a statement on X. "This is intended to strip due process from those detained there." On Wednesday, House Democrats sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons demanding the "callously" named Alligator Alcatraz be shuttered immediately. The letter also labeled the detention center "deliberately cruel."

The New York Times [7/4/2025 8:10 PM, Mattathias Schwartz, 153395K] reports the Trump administration’s plan to deport eight men, all convicted of serious crimes in the United States, to South Sudan appeared to finally be moving forward on Friday evening, after a federal judge rejected a second lawsuit that argued that the administration was using deportation to a dangerous place as an unconstitutional form of punishment. The ruling, from Judge Brian E. Murphy of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts, could mean the end of a saga that saw the eight men shackled for weeks inside an air-conditioned shipping container on a U.S. military base in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa. On Friday, Judge Murphy found that two Supreme Court rulings in favor of the administration also applied to the new lawsuit, which raised “substantially similar claims.” He rejected the migrants’ request that he issue another order blocking their deportation. During a court hearing on Friday, a Justice Department attorney said the flight that would take the men from Djibouti to South Sudan was scheduled for 7 p.m. Eastern time. On Thursday, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, called the detainees “sickos” and said they “will be in South Sudan by Independence Day.” The transfers to South Sudan will mark a victory for the Trump administration, which has made harshness a hallmark of its immigration enforcement agenda and has publicly criticized those federal judges who have tried to rein it in. The White House has called Judge Murphy a “far-left activist.” Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, accused Judge Murphy of engaging in a “judicial coup” for requiring that the men stay in U.S. custody and be given the chance to express a reasonable fear of being tortured in South Sudan. FOX News [7/4/2025 6:57 PM, Louis Casiano, 46878K] reports that the migrants, who are from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Burma, Sudan and Vietnam, filed new claims on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court clarified that Boston federal Judge Brian Murphy couldn’t require the Department of Homeland Security to hold them. Also on Friday, federal Judge Randolph Moss in Washington paused the Trump administration’s efforts to deport the eight migrants to South Sudan, the latest case testing the legality of the Trump administration’s push to ship illegal immigrants to third countries. Moss had briefly halted the deportation after lawyers for the migrants filed the new claims in his court and sent the case to Boston, where Murphy denied the claim. The eight men argued their deportations to South Sudan would violate the Constitution, which prohibits "cruel and unusual" punishment, Reuters reported. They have been convicted of various crimes, with four of them convicted of murder, the Department of Homeland Security has said. They were detained for six weeks on a military base in Djibouti instead of being brought back to the United States. On Thursday, the migrants filed new claims after the Supreme Court said that a federal judge in Boston could no longer require the Department of Homeland Security to hold them. The Washington Post [7/3/2025 7:16 PM, Ann E. Marimow, 32099K] reports that the court’s action clears the way for the deportation of eight men being held in a makeshift detention center at a U.S. naval base in East Africa to conflict-ridden South Sudan. Their fate was unclear after the justices initially gave the go-ahead in late June for Trump officials to deport immigrants to third countries where they have no connection. The administration’s top advocate at the court asked the justices to quickly clarify their earlier ruling that temporarily halted a judge’s order requiring the government to provide migrants more time to raise concerns about being sent to war-torn countries. Solicitor General D. John Sauer accused the lower court judge overseeing the matter of subsequently defying the Supreme Court’s order and suggested he should be removed from the case. The court’s conservative majority has repeatedly sided with the Trump administration in response to its emergency requests to lift or narrow lower court orders blocking its policies. The justices did not provide any reasons for their initial ruling as is typical for emergency orders on what critics call the shadow docket. The lack of an explanation, however, left it open to differing interpretations and prompted dueling follow-up filings from lawyers for the government and the migrants. In its subsequent order Thursday, a majority of justices said its initial ruling applied broadly and essentially did not make an exception for the men being held on the naval base. Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, accusing the conservative majority of allowing the government to hand the men over to authorities in South Sudan "without regard for the likelihood that they will face torture or death." They accused the court of giving the Trump administration special treatment even after it defied a lower court order. "Today’s order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial," Sotomayor wrote. Trina Realmuto, a lawyer with the National Immigration Litigation Alliance representing the men, said Thursday that the court’s clarification "rewards the government for willfully violating" the federal judge’s initial order and "now exposes these men to persecution and torture in South Sudan, which could be imminent.” The Washington Post [7/4/2025 7:57 PM, Maria Sacchetti and Aaron Schaffer, 32099K] reports Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which has helped represent the men in court, called the legal outcome "deeply troubling" and said the Trump administration’s move to send the men to South Sudan is "unconstitutionally punitive". The eight men are not citizens of South Sudan and have no ties to that country, their lawyers said. They said the men come from Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Sudan and Mexico. The men had served criminal sentences in the United States for their crimes and were being deported by the Department of Homeland Security under civil immigration laws. The State Department has urged people not to travel to South Sudan because of the risk of "crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.” "The idea of sending human beings into a place where they may be tortured and harmed … cannot be sustained," said Mary Van Houten Harper, an attorney representing the detainees. "That can’t possibly be the law in this country.” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Thursday that the eight men had been convicted of violent offenses — including homicide, attempted murder and sexual assault. At least one has a lesser conviction of robbery and other offenses. "These sickos will be in South Sudan by Independence Day," McLaughlin said in a statement Thursday. She called it a "win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people.”

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Reuters [7/4/2025 1:12 AM, Staff, 51390K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he is willing to let migrant laborers stay in the United States if the farmers they work for will vouch for them. At a campaign-style speech at the Iowa state fairgrounds, Trump said he is working with the Homeland Security Department to help farmers who depend on migrant laborers for their seasonal needs. He said he will also work with the hotel industry on the issue. Trump has been pursuing a hard-line policy on migration and his U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been leading an effort to deport people who crossed into the United States illegally. This has led to some complaints from farmers that their crops are at risk due to a depleted work force. "If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people in some way, Kristi, I think we’re going to have to just say that’s going to be good, right?". "We don’t want to do it where we take all of the workers off the farms," he added, speaking in a Midwestern state where farming is a dominant industry. USA Today [7/3/2025 10:24 PM, Bart Jansen, 75552K] reports that one of Trump’s top priorities is to improve border security and deport immigrants who are in the country unlawfully. But after hearing concerns that farmers were losing migrant workers they depend on, Trump outlined how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was developing legislation to effectively allow farmers to vouch for their workers to allow them to stay. Trump said similar lenience would be extended to hotel and leisure industries. FOX News [7/4/2025 5:49 AM, Alec Schemmel, 46878K] reports Trump said the new plan will take place in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security and that legislation for the measure is currently being drafted, while speaking Thursday evening from Iowa. "You know, they’ve had people working for them for years. And we’re going to do something … we’re going to sort of put the farmers in charge," Trump told the crowd of people in attendance. "If a farmer has been with one of these people that worked so hard – they bend over all day, we don’t have too many people that can do that, but they work very hard, and they know him very well, and some of the farmers are literally, you know, they cry when they see this happen – if a farmer is willing to vouch for these people, in some way, Kristie, I think we’re going to have to just say that’s going to be good, right?". "We don’t want to do [border security] where we take all of the workers off the farms," Trump added. "We want the farms to do great.” According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Iowa is the nation’s second-largest agricultural exporting state. While announcing the new plan, Trump cited cases he had heard of when migrants who have worked on farms for 15 years "get thrown out pretty viciously.” "We can’t do that," Trump added. "We got to work with the farmers and people that have hotels and leisure properties.” Earlier this week, when Trump previously hinted at the new immigration exemption for farmers, he also suggested the move could be implemented for workers in the hospitality industry, as well. While sharing the new immigration proposal with the crowd at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Thursday night, Trump spoke to potential criticisms of the move by "serious radical-right people" within the GOP, asking the crowd rhetorically if they think these folks "will understand.” After the president first brought up the proposal earlier this week, critics have already started sounding off. The president noted Thursday evening that the move will put farmers "in charge" and ultimately the responsibility for any problems that arise will fall to their feet. "If the farmers don’t do a good job, we’ll throw them the hell out of the country. We’ll let the guys – we’ll let the illegals stay, and we’ll throw the farmers the hell out," Trump said. "Okay, get ready, farmer, I’m telling you.” NewsNation [7/4/2025 12:45 PM, Jeff Arnold, 5801K] reports that the Center for Migration Studies found 86% of workers are foreign-born, and 45% are in the U.S. illegally, often without documentation. Trump credited Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins with bringing the plight of migrant farm workers to his attention. Trump said, Rollins told him, ‘So we have a little problem. The farmers are losing a lot of people.’ “And we figured it out and we have some stuff being written,” Trump added. Trump said that the plan would allow migrants to avoid being deported, but that while being allowed to remain in the country and pay taxes, his protection does not provide a path to U.S. citizenship. Yet, while putting the farmers ultimately in charge of the migrants they employ, Trump said he would hold farmers responsible if trouble arose. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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UPI [7/3/2025 7:27 PM, Mike Heuer, 3077K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested former middleweight world champion boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Wednesday in Studio City, Calif., due to alleged cartel ties. Chavez "has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition and explosives," the Department of Homeland Security said in a news release on Thursday. "It is shocking the previous administration flagged this criminal illegal alien as a public safety threat, but chose not to prioritize his removal and let him leave and come back into our country," said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "Under President Trump, no one is above the law — including world-famous athletes.” DHS accuses Chavez of being a "criminal illegal alien" and said the Biden administration determined he was not an immigration enforcement priority despite knowing he had been "flagged as a public safety threat.” Chavez legally entered the country on a tourist visa in August 2023 and is "believed to be an affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel," which is a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to the DHS. The tourist visa expired in February 2025, and Chavez on April 2, 2024, filed an application to become a lawful permanent resident. His application is based on being married to a U.S. citizen, who DHS says is connected to the Sinaloa Cartel through the now-dead son of cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. DHS officials said Chavez made "multiple fraudulent statements" on the application, determined he illegally was in the United States and was removable as of Friday. Officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in December had notified ICE that Chavez "is an egregious public threat.” Despite the notice, the Biden administration on Jan. 3 allowed Chavez to re-enter and paroled him into the country at the San Ysidro, Calif., port of entry. While in the United States, Chavez was arrested, charged and convicted of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and driving without a license in 2012. A district judge in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Chavez for alleged organized criminal activities involving firearms, ammunition and explosives, according to DHS. NewsMax [7/3/2025 6:33 PM, Jim Thomas, 4622K] reports that the 39-year-old boxer, who recently returned to the ring to face YouTuber-turned-fighter Jake Paul, is at the center of an international criminal investigation. His arrest was confirmed by officials in an X post from the Department of Homeland Security, who said that he will be transferred to Mexican authorities after processing. According to a statement provided to TMZ Sports, DHS officials emphasized the severity of the charges Chavez faces. "This Sinaloa Cartel affiliate with an active arrest warrant for trafficking guns, ammunition, and explosives was arrested by ICE. It is shocking the previous administration flagged this criminal illegal alien as a public safety threat, but chose to not prioritize his removal and let him leave and COME BACK into our country," said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs. She added: "Under President Trump, no one is above the law — including world-famous athletes. Our message to any cartel affiliates in the U.S. is clear: We will find you and you will face consequences. The days of unchecked cartel violence are over." Chavez’s arrest comes just days after his return to boxing, where he suffered a loss to Paul. Before last week’s match, his last fight took place in 2024, where he defeated Uriah Hall by unanimous decision. Once seen as a rising star in the boxing world, Chavez held the WBC middleweight title between 2011 and 2012 but has since struggled both in and out of the ring, facing suspensions and criticism over training discipline. The arrest underscores the Trump administration’s heightened focus on cracking down on cartel activity and deporting people accused of serious crimes. The Department of Homeland Security has emphasized that high-profile figures will not be exempt from prosecution or removal. CBS News [7/4/2025 12:23 PM, Staff, 51860K] reports that in 2012, he was convicted of drunken driving in Los Angeles and sentenced to 13 days in jail. Then in January 2024, he was arrested on gun charges. Police said he possessed two AR-style ghost rifles. He was later freed on a $50,000 bond and on condition he went to a residential drug treatment facility. His arrest comes amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, including a lawsuit against Los Angeles’ "sanctuary city" policies. Federal officials said in a news release that Chávez overstayed a tourist visa that he entered the U.S. with in August 2023. Reuters [7/4/2025 12:12 PM, Staff, 51390K] reports Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday that she expects boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr to be deported to Mexico to serve a sentence for arms trafficking after being detained in Los Angeles by U.S. immigration authorities. Sheinbaum, in her regular morning press conference, said Mexico has had a warrant for his arrest since 2023, stemming from an investigation initiated in 2019. She added that Mexico had failed to bring him into custody over that period as Chavez Jr had spent most of his time in the United States. "So that there is a deportation and that he can serve the sentence, that’s the process the attorney general’s office is working on," Sheinbaum told reporters. A lawyer for him called the allegations "outrageous.” His wife, Frida Munoz Chavez, was previously married to the son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison. The son, Edgar, was assassinated in 2008. Sheinbaum said she did not know if Chavez Jr had links to the Sinaloa Cartel.

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AP [7/4/2025 12:51 PM, Staff, 4622K] reports Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that Mexico hadn’t previously arrested boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. on a 2023 arrest order, because he had been mostly been in the United States since. Sheinbaum spoke a day after U.S. authorities announced the boxer’s arrest in California for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application. He was being processed for expedited removal, according to U.S. authorities. “The hope is that he will be deported and serve the sentence in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said during her daily news briefing Friday, referring to charges that Chávez faces for arms and drug trafficking. The 39-year-old boxer, according to his attorney Michael Goldstein, was picked up Wednesday by a large number of federal agents while he was riding a scooter in front of a home where he resides in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Studio City, near Hollywood. The arrest came only days after the former middleweight champion lost a match against influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Anaheim, California. Chávez split his time between both countries. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Chávez for overstaying a tourist visa that he entered the U.S. with in August 2023 and expired in February 2024, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said. The agency also said Chávez submitted multiple fraudulent statements when he applied for permanent residency on April 2, 2024, based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen, Frida Muñoz. She is the mother of a granddaughter of imprisoned Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. U.S. officials said that he’s believed to have ties to the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which is blamed for a significant portion of Mexico’s drug violence.

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CBS News [7/3/2025 2:02 PM, Nicole Sganga, 51860K] Video HERE reports the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence arm plans to cut nearly three-quarters of its full-time employees, shaving its Office of Intelligence & Analysis down from about 1,000 staff to just 275, according to four sources briefed on the matter. The exact timing of the cuts remains unclear; sources tell CBS News the staff reductions have been in the works for months but were temporarily on hold because of rising tensions overseas after the recent U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. The decision has raised concerns among the nation’s police and intelligence gathering agencies, as the U.S. reckons with a heightened threat environment. DHS’ Office of Intelligence & Analysis — created after the September 11 terrorist attacks — is the only member of the U.S. intelligence community tasked with sharing threat information to state, local, tribal and territorial governments across the country. Last month, the current head of the agency, Daniel Tamburello, informed the intelligence agency’s workforce that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem had signed off on plans to slash the agency by hundreds of employees, with others reassigned to other DHS components, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. This week, House and Senate lawmakers wrote to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, warning them to avoid "this drastic and unilateral step and instead to consult with Congress about alternative ways to make I&A as effective and efficient as possible.” "At a time when DHS is rightly warning about an elevated threat environment from terrorists and cartels, we should be focused on plugging security gaps rather than senselessly creating new ones," Democratic Reps. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Jim Himes of Connecticut wrote Wednesday, along with Michigan Sen. Gary Peters and minority leaders on the House Homeland Security Committee, House Intelligence Committee and Senate Homeland Security Committee. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] ABC News [7/3/2025 1:40 PM, Staff, 31733K] reports that on Wednesday, Noem met with the newly formed Homeland Security Advisory Council a panel selected by her and President Donald Trump to offer advice on matters pertaining to the department, she stressed how critical DHS is to national security. "This is a national security agency, and the decisions that we make and the things that we’ll talk about are highly classified at times, and all of you are entrusted to be my advisers," she said. "To be the ones who give me advice not just on the border and immigration, citizenship, visa waiver programs, work programs, but also on FEMA, how we respond to disasters, how we contract, how we get good people that work for us and how to fire people who don’t like us.” Noem said she receives an intelligence briefing every day and said the country has "vulnerabilities," something the law enforcement groups warn about in their letter.CNN [7/3/2025 8:26 PM, Holmes Lybrand, 21433K] reports that the planned cuts of about 750 at the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which has a staff of around 1,000, are part of the department’s efforts to remove what leadership considers redundant roles or those working on "non-critical programs," DHS said in a statement Thursday. Some Democratic lawmakers asked DHS to pause the cuts, raising concerns over the elevated threat environment intelligence officials have reported. The roughly 275 staffers left after the planned cuts will still be tasked with the mission established in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US –- to provide intelligence related to threats to the homeland to local and state law enforcement as well as other government officials. "Under President Trump’s leadership, we focused on getting the Department of Homeland Security back to its core mission of prioritizing American safety and enforcing our laws," the department said. "DHS component leads have identified redundant positions and non-critical programs within the Office of Intelligence and Analysis." In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Democratic lawmakers on the House and Senate committees on homeland security implored the officials to reconsider the planned cuts.

Bloomberg Government [7/3/2025 3:24 PM, Ellen M. Gilmer] reports law enforcement groups are pushing back on the Department of Homeland Security’s plan to shrink its intelligence unit, saying the move may weaken their ability to coordinate with federal partners to share information and respond to threats. The Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies, Major Cities Chiefs Association, Major Counties Sheriffs of America, and National Fusion Center Association issued the warning Wednesday in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as she eyes cuts to the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. The beleaguered office, which was revamped under President Joe Biden following a series of high-profile missteps, would lose nearly 75% of its 1,000-person team, according to a report from Nextgov/FCW. The department didn’t confirm the precise numbers but said agency leaders identified redundant and non-critical positions within I&A. The planned staff reductions are part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump to shrink the federal workforce. DHS has also made cuts within the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and other units. Senior Democrats also pushed back on the plans, urging Noem to reconsider.

Washington Examiner [7/3/2025 2:31 PM, Rachel Schilke, Zach Halaschak, Lauren Green, 1934K] reports that more dissenters were expected due to several fiscal hawks’ and centrist Republicans’ concerns with the Senate altering language that they think did not comply with the budget framework earlier this year. However, House GOP leadership and Trump spent the last 24 hours muscling holdouts to gain their support as they hold a razor-slim majority. Support for the Senate-passed piece of legislation trickled in Wednesday and continued through the night, where the floor remained open for more than seven hours, where it made history as the longest continuous vote in modern history. Lawmakers passed the legislation through reconciliation, a legislative process that allows bills to bypass the filibuster and pass with only a simple majority in the Senate. The bill now heads to the White House, just in time to meet the Independence Day deadline that Republicans imposed on themselves to try and get a legislative win on the books ahead of the 2026 midterms. The last time Republicans had a trifecta was in 2017, when they passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. At the heart of the multi-trillion-dollar legislation is an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, also known as the Trump tax cuts. The reconciliation bill doesn’t just extend the lower individual tax rates that were part of the 2017 law, but makes them permanent — a key priority for GOP tax writers. The majority of voters, over 60%, would see their taxes go up next year if the legislation isn’t passed. But the reconciliation legislation also contains other new tax provisions, many of which Trump campaigned on during the election. Many target individual subsets of people rather than broad swaths of taxpayers. The now-passed legislation sets a $25,000 limit for deductions for income earned as tips. The deduction also phases out at a 10% rate starting at $150,000 in income for a single filer and $300,000 for a joint filer. The legislation also sets a $10,000 limit on deductions for auto loan interest paid. The deduction phases out starting at $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for joint filers. Also, the break is only available for new cars assembled in the United States. Additionally, the bill provides a $6,000 deduction for seniors over the age of 65, a provision meant to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to end taxes on Social Security benefits. One tax provision, the cap on state and local tax deductions, courted much discussion after a group of Republicans from high-tax states like New York and California banded together to raise the $10,000 SALT cap that was imposed in 2017 as a pay-for for TCJA. SALT caucus members were able to quadruple the cap to $40,000, although that will not be permanent and will only last for five years before snapping back to $10,000, the current limit. The bill also includes funding for Trump’s push to increase border security and curb illegal immigration into the U.S. The legislation allocates nearly $200 billion over the next decade to increase illegal immigration enforcement and funding for the southern border wall, immigration detention centers, and more. "The Big Beautiful Bill will allow ICE to hire 10,000 new officers," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. "ICE currently has 20,000 law-enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices. A larger force will provide ICE agents with the necessary protection so they can continue to carry out removals.” The bill includes healthcare changes as well. The legislation beefs up Medicaid work requirements for single, able-bodied adults and cuts into Planned Parenthood by stopping Medicaid funds from being allowed to reimburse health clinics that provide abortions. It also rolls back former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act with an aggressive phasing out of clean energy tax credits. Additionally, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — food stamps — would be cut through work requirements and other changes. Some deficit hawks have been concerned about the cost of the bill and argue it didn’t go far enough to cut spending, to offset the making the 2017 tax cuts permanent. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the legislation will add some $3.3 trillion to deficits over the next decade. But the CBO also scored the bill using the current policy baseline and found the legislation would reduce the deficit by $508 billion.

Washington Post [7/4/2025 6:00 AM, Douglas MacMillan, 32099K] reports the tax and spending bill passed by Congress on Thursday will triple federal funding for immigrant detention centers, setting the stage for a rapid expansion of these facilities and adding to concerns about the treatment of the growing numbers of immigrant detainees. Congress allocated $45 billion to spend locking up immigrants over the next four years — more than the government spent on detention during the Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations combined, federal data show. The bill also includes $46.5 billion for building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and $6 billion for border technology and surveillance, along with other border security and immigration measures. This is the most "funding we have seen for a border immigration agenda in the history of the country," said Lauren-Brooke Eisen, who researches criminal justice and incarceration in her role as a senior director at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. "We are seeing a wholesale expansion of ICE detention centers.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they plan to use the money to roughly double the nation’s detention capacity to 100,000 beds, giving them more capacity to arrest undocumented immigrants targeted for deportation. The average daily population of ICE detainees rose to 56,000 last month — the highest number since ICE began releasing those figures during the first Trump administration — and administration officials have acknowledged the surge in immigrant detainees has sometimes outpaced their ability to accommodate all of them. "This bill will make our communities safer by making a historic investment in our border security," Rep. Addison McDowell (R-North Carolina) said on the House floor Thursday morning. "No more dangerous illegal aliens parading around with no consequences.” In an emailed statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the money will help ICE pay for 80,000 new detention beds and 10,000 new ICE agents. She said the added resources and staffing are needed "to secure the homeland and keep Americans safe.” The U.S. immigrant detention system — the largest in the world — grew over the past four decades as a way to hold undocumented immigrants while they wait for their asylum claims or deportation cases to be processed. The network, which is largely composed of dozens of detention centers run by private contractors as well as dozens of county jails that contract part of their facilities to ICE, has in the past mostly been populated by border crossers deemed a flight risk or migrants charged with a crime. This week, ICE said it was sending some migrants to live in tents at an airstrip in the Everglades. That facility, initially funded by Florida, will be reimbursed with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said on Instagram.

NPR [7/3/2025 5:12 PM, Juliana Kim, 37958K] reports President Trump’s signature domestic policy bill is headed to his desk, marking a historic federal investment in immigration enforcement. The House cleared Trump’s "big, beautiful bill" on Thursday — meeting the president’s self-imposed deadline of July 4. The massive package sets aside about $170 billion to support the Trump’s administration’s border and immigration goals, which includes detaining and deporting a record number of people from the U.S. Earlier this week, White House border czar Tom Homan told reporters that Congress needed to pass the bill in order for the federal government to buy more detention beds. Both critics and supporters say carrying out Trump’s immigration agenda will depend on how effectively federal agencies implement and deploy those resources. The final bill allocates $45 billion for immigration detention centers, as well as about $30 billion to hire more ICE personnel, for transportation costs, and to maintain ICE facilities, among other spending. It comes as detention centers operate beyond their capacity. The bill provides roughly $46.5 billion to complete Trump’s border wall. It also sets aside $5 billion for Customs and Border Protection facilities and $10 billion for border security initiatives more broadly. About $13.5 billion is put toward reimbursing states and local governments engaging in immigration and border-related enforcement. Republicans also sought to make the immigration process more expensive with increased or new fees. The initial House bill already stripped health coverage under Affordable Care Act marketplaces and Medicare for a range of lawfully present immigrants including refugees, asylees, and those with other humanitarian protections. It also restricted eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The final version maintains those cuts while extending similar limitations to federal funding for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to Shelby Gonzales, the vice president for immigration policy at the left-leaning think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The bill’s changes to the Child Tax Credit will also have an impact on immigrant families. Over $3 billion is allocated to the Justice Department for immigration-related activities. That includes the hiring of more immigration judges to address the growing case backlog, which was at nearly 4 million cases as of April, the latest data available.

Breitbart [7/3/2025 4:14 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons is praising final passage of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, mainly for its "unprecedented funding" toward federal immigration enforcement. On Thursday, the House approved final passage of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill — a piece of landmark legislation that not only covers immigration enforcement but also tax cuts, child tax credits, and no tax on tips or Social Security, among other things. After final passage, Lyons issued a statement thanking Trump for his commitment to expand ICE funding as the agency is equipped with arresting and deporting millions of illegal aliens, many of whom have final deportation orders. The bill includes more than $46 billion for new border wall construction, $45 billion for ICE detention space, nearly $30 billion for ICE to go on a hiring spree and deport more illegal aliens, $10 billion to reimburse states who covered border security costs under former President Joe Biden, and $3.5 billion for the Department of Justice to issue grants to local governments who help locate and arrest illegal aliens, among other funding measures. Perhaps most significantly, the bill establishes a historic remittance tax to effectively fine illegal aliens who earn money in the U.S. and send that money back to their home countries.

Axios [7/3/2025 4:06 PM, April Rubin, 13599K] reports the Big, Beautiful Bill, passed Thursday by Congress, dramatically increases funding for immigration enforcement in accordance with President Trump’s policy priorities. The funding will allow the Trump administration to approximately double immigrant detention capacity, significantly bolster immigration enforcement personnel and potentially exacerbate backlogs in the court system. The bill, which will go to Trump’s desk by his July 4 goal, allocates more than $100 billion to ICE and border enforcement through September 2029. While the funding runs until 2029, federal departments are not required to spend the money evenly each year. The legislation makes ICE the largest federal law enforcement agency, per the Brennan Center. The existing annual budget for ICE was about $8 billion. Trump’s immigration enforcement policies have put ICE under financial strain. As of last month, ICE was $1 billion over budget, by one estimate, with more than three months left in the fiscal year. The funding crisis is exacerbated by Trump’s demands that agents arrest 3,000 immigrants per day — an unprecedented, and still unreached, pace.

Los Angeles Times [7/4/2025 12:00 PM, Andrea Flores, 14672K] reports on Thursday, the GOP-led House approved the Senate’s version of the "Big Beautiful Bill," the Trump administration’s domestic policy measure — and the measures are as drastic as its mammoth title seems to indicate. Nearly 1,000 pages long, the legislation grants tax cuts to the top 1% of U.S. households at the cost of healthcare, food and utilities, while also expanding spending for border security, defense and energy production. The bill will provide roughly $150 billion for President Trump’s border and national security agenda. This includes $46.5 billion toward the continued construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The budget will also allocate $45 billion for immigration detention centers — which is 62% more than the budget for the entire federal prison system — and could result in daily detention numbers of at least 116,000 noncitizens, according to the American Immigration Council. About $32 billion will go toward immigration enforcement, including for the staffing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as $7 billion for hiring Border Patrol agents and other officers. More than $3 billion will be allocated to the Justice Department to hire more judges and support staff, addressing a backlog of nearly 4 million pending cases in immigration court. ICE enforcement and mass sweeps are expected to ramp up under this new legislation, which could affect 1 in 3 Latinos who are at risk for deportation or family separation, according to an analysis by FWD.us. The bill also permits detaining families indefinitely, pending a removal decision.

FOX News [7/4/2025 9:39 AM, Staff, 46878K] Video: HERE reports Fox News’ Griff Jenkins breaks down the impact of the ‘big, beautiful bill’ on securing the southern border. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons also joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the legislation and why he considers it a major win for DHS.

Wall Street Journal [7/4/2025 8:00 AM, Michelle Hackman and Jack Gillum, 646K] reports to help cover the cost of their marquee tax-and-spending package, Republicans have turned to a community President Trump has often targeted: immigrants. The package, which is heading to Trump’s desk, includes new fees on immigrants navigating the legal process, and cutting legal immigrants out of certain federal safety-net programs. The Wall Street Journal estimates that immigrants—including those who are in the U.S. legally—will be paying in some way for at least $64 billion of the package through 2034. That helps fund new tax cuts and Trump’s mass-deportation pledge.

FOX News [7/3/2025 9:46 PM, Emma Colton and Alec Schemmel, 46878K] Video HERE reports President Donald Trump touted "promise[s] kept" during his address at the America250 kickoff event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds Thursday after Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier in the day. "There could be no better birthday present for America than the phenomenal victory we achieved just hours ago when Congress passed the one big, beautiful bill to Make America Great Again," Trump told the crowd shortly after jumping on stage. "With this bill, every major promise I made to the people of Iowa in 2024 became a promise kept." The bill is expected to be signed by the president during an official signing ceremony Friday afternoon on the Fourth of July holiday. Trump’s speech in America’s heartland kicks off a series of events over the next year celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The celebrations are being spearheaded by the America250 commission, a bipartisan cohort of private citizens and lawmakers. "This momentous gathering in the heartland signals the beginning of an extraordinary year ahead, one where America250 will unite our nation through events in every state and territory, culminating in the most monumental celebration our country has ever known," America250 said of Trump’s visit on Thursday. In attendance at the event were members of President Trump’s Cabinet, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Energy Secretary Doug Burgum and numerous members of the GOP’s Iowa congressional delegation. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The AP [7/3/2025 2:08 PM, Curt Anderson and Kate Payne, 56000K] reports the first group of immigrants has arrived at a new detention center deep in the Florida Everglades that officials have dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," a spokesperson for Republican state Attorney General James Uthmeier told The Associated Press. "People are there," Press Secretary Jae Williams said, though he didn’t immediately provide further details on the number of detainees or when they arrived. "Next stop: back to where they came from," Uthmeier said on the X social media platform Wednesday. He’s been credited as the architect behind the Everglades proposal. Requests for additional information from the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is building the site, had not been returned early Thursday afternoon. The Washington Examiner [7/3/2025 10:15 AM, Brady Knox, 1934K] reports the illegal immigration detention facility was built far ahead of schedule, just weeks after being proposed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. The facility is in a remote location in the Florida Everglades, with dangerous wildlife providing natural containment. Its first residents arrived in a motorcade of three white Ford vans. "Alligator Alcatraz will be checking in hundreds of criminal illegal aliens tonight. Next stop: back to where they came from," Uthmeier said in a Wednesday post on X. Construction workers and other contractors were seen entering and exiting the facility right up until the detainees arrived, reflecting the speedy construction. Food trucks serving churros, street corn, and empanadas were also seen by the Miami Herald. Alligator Alcatraz is a welcome development for the Trump administration, which has struggled with the logistics of carrying out Trump’s promise of the largest-ever deportation plan. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers are exceeding capacity, with more than 48,000 people currently in immigration detention, according to the agency. The administration has turned to private companies to handle the overflow, housing 90% of the individuals held by the agency.

Reported similarly:
News Max [7/3/2025 1:27 PM, Staff, 4622K]

The Washington Examiner [7/3/2025 5:52 PM, David Zimmermann, 1934K] reports a group of Florida Democratic lawmakers said Thursday that they were denied access to the new “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention facility due to “safety concerns.” The denied legislative oversight visit came less than one day after the first batch of illegal immigrants arrived at the Everglades facility. The visit was unannounced. The Democratic lawmakers at the facility were Florida state Sens. Shevrin Jones and Carlos Guillermo Smith, as well as Florida state Reps. Anna Eskamani, Angie Nixon, and Michele Rayner. Some of the lawmakers provided statements decrying their denied entry. "Florida law gives legislators the authority to make unannounced visits to state-run facilities — to inspect conditions and check on the wellbeing of the people inside. I’ve served in the Legislature for 13 years, and this has never happened," Jones posted on social media. The Democratic state leaders cited safety concerns as their primary reason for visiting the detention facility, which is still being constructed as hundreds of illegal immigrants arrive. "We asked the question, ‘If it’s unsafe for us, how is it safe for anybody else?’" Rayner told journalist Forrest Saunders. On the question of whether the lawmakers had the authority to visit the site, Saunders reported they were "told their statutory grant is for [Florida Department of Corrections] institutions, county detention facilities, and [Florida Department of Juvenile Justice] facilities. ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is kind of something else, entirely.” Smith said he wanted to "demand answers" and "accountability" from Florida and the Trump administration over the "detention camp," which will cost about $450 million per year to operate. "The corrupt pay-to-play contracts to GOP donors must be exposed," Smith wrote. The "Alligator Alcatraz" facility will house 3,000 migrants but has enough beds for 5,000 detainees, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. In partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, the Florida Division of Emergency Management constructed the site in eight days. Roughly 1,000 staff members manage it, and 20,000 feet of barbed wire surround it. The Washington Examiner contacted DHS and the Florida Division of Emergency Management for comment. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who proposed the "Alligator Alcatraz" idea, jokingly responded ahead of the lawmakers’ visit. "I hope they have an airboat," Uthmeier said Thursday morning, referring to the site’s location in the middle of a Miami swamp. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), and other Republican officials attended the detention facility’s grand opening. Trump boasted its location as ideal for preventing detainees from escaping. "It’s known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ which is very appropriate, because I look outside and it’s not a place I want to go," Trump said during a visit to the site in Ochopee, Florida, on Tuesday afternoon. "We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swamp land, and the only way out is really deportation.” CNN [7/3/2025 3:09 PM, Alisha Ebrahimji, Isabel Rosales, 21433K] reports Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said authorities will "expand facilities and bed space in just days." The expected cost to run the detention center for one year is $450 million, a Department of Homeland Security official told CNN, adding that Florida will front the costs of the facility and then "submit reimbursement requests" through FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security.

NBC News [7/3/2025 3:31 PM, Matt Dixon, 44540K] reports despite assurances from both President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that federal money would be used to operate the controversial Everglades immigrant detention center, the state has so far received “no federal funds,” according to court documents filed Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security. In filings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, DHS officials said that the facility has relied only on state funding so far and that Florida has not yet applied for federal funding. “Florida has received no federal funds, nor has it applied for federal funds related to the temporary detention center,” it reads. “Courts cannot adjudicate hypothetical future funding decisions or render advisory opinions on contingent scenarios that never materialize.” The filing was the agency’s response to a lawsuit filed by two environmental groups asking that the facility be shuttered. DHS argued it has no such authority because the department has not “implemented, authorized, directed, or funded Florida’s temporary detention center.” DHS on Thursday said the federal government will still use the FEMA funds to pay “in large part” for the facility. “These new facilities will in large part be funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which the Biden Administration used as a piggy bank to spend hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to house illegal aliens,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.

AP [7/3/2025 4:13 PM, Kate Payne, Curt Anderson And Mike Schneider] reports in a matter of days, an isolated training airport in the Everglades where endangered Florida panthers roam became a sprawling immigration detention center christened "Alligator Alcatraz," modeled after the state’s frequent responses to hurricanes and built in part by companies whose owners have donated generously to Republicans. It’s been less than two weeks since the state seized the property from Miami-Dade County. Massive tents have been erected and a steady stream of trucks carrying portable toilets, asphalt and construction materials have been driving through the site inside the Big Cypress National Preserve around the clock in what environmentalists fear will have a devastating impact on the wildlife in the protected wetlands. The first detainees arrived Thursday at the facility, which will cost $450 million to operate and consists of tents and trailers surrounded by razor wire on swampland about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. In response to the environmental groups’ lawsuit over the detention center, the federal government said in court papers that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security hadn’t authorized or funded the facility, which the state built and will operate. However, Florida plans to seek payment from the federal government. DeSantis has described it as temporary, with no plans for sewers, and claims there will be "zero impact" on the Everglades. His administration reiterated that stance in court papers responding to the lawsuit.

Washington Examiner [7/3/2025 3:18 PM, Maydeen Merino, 1934K] reports the Justice Department filed in court to block environmental groups from delaying the construction of the immigration detention center in Florida known as "Alligator Alcatraz." The department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to prevent groups like the Friends of the Everglades Inc. and Center for Biological Diversity from preventing the construction of the detention center. In June, the two environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County to block the build-out of the immigration center. The two groups argued that the project has failed to undergo a proper environmental review or a public comment period. The groups added that the detention facility which is being built in Florida’s Everglades is home to endangered species.

AP [7/4/2025 12:26 PM, Carlos Garcia, 56000K] reports the first group of immigrants has arrived at the center in the Florida Everglades. It was built in eight days and could eventually hold 3,000 people. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Post [7/5/2025 7:00 AM, Lori Rozsa and Rachel Hatzipanagos, 32099K] reports the hastily constructed detention camp in the Everglades that began processing immigrant detainees late this week has already flooded once, may not meet hurricane codes and is not officially approved or funded by the federal government. Experts say detainees and staff will face far more common hazards than the swampland terrors gleefully envisioned by state and national Republicans to discourage escapes. Mosquitoes and hurricanes are more likely to harm the expected 3,000-plus detainees and 100-member staff than are alligators and Burmese pythons. “The risk of mosquito-borne disease at this site is significant,” said Durland Fish, a professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale University School of Public Health. And the viruses detected during a mosquitos study he conducted in the Everglades — including at Big Cypress Swamp, where the detention center is located — can cause neurological damage, including encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain. “There’s no treatment for these,” Fish said. The detention camp, named Alligator Alcatraz by state officials, has been enthusiastically endorsed by President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. Trump visited Tuesday, saying the camp soon will have “some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.” The facility, which includes large tents over cells erected with chain-link fencing, portable showers and portable toilets, was put together in eight days. State lawmakers who have spoken about it say that work was done secretly, after they had ended their annual legislative session. A group of Democratic representatives tried to tour Thursday but were denied entry — “despite clear statutory authority” allowing them to inspect prisons and detention facilities, they said in a joint statement. “This is a blatant abuse of power and an attempt to conceal human rights violations from the public eye.” The camp is located on an infrequently used airfield in the heart of the protected Everglades. Before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) commandeered it, the site consisted of a long runway built in the late 1960s as an initial stage in a project intended to create a mega-airport. But environmentalists and Indigenous tribes successfully fought back, and the area, surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve and next door to Everglades National Park, is now part of an ongoing $25 billion Everglades restoration project.

Reuters [7/4/2025 3:07 PM, Nate Raymond, 51390K] reports Texas authorities may not enforce a Republican-backed state law that would let them arrest and prosecute people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, a divided federal appeals court ruled late on Thursday. A 2-1 panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction that blocked enforcement of the disputed law, which former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration had gone to court to challenge. Republican President Donald Trump’s administration dropped the federal government’s case, but the Texas law known as SB4 had continued to be challenged by, among others, the immigrant rights group Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, which argued federal law preempted the state’s. The law, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed in December 2023, would make it a state crime to illegally enter or re-enter Texas from a foreign country and would empower state judges to order that violators leave the United States, with prison sentences up to 20 years for those who refuse to comply. U.S. Circuit Judge Priscilla Richman, writing for the New Orleans-based court’s majority, said that for nearly 150 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the power to control immigration was exclusively a federal power. Relying on a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down parts of an Arizona immigration law, she said the Texas law, if allowed to be enforced by the Texas Department of Public Safety, would interfere with the federal government’s ability to enforce complex U.S. immigration laws. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, vowed to appeal the decision, saying "I will always fight to stop illegal immigration." The ruling upheld a lower-court judge’s February 2024 preliminary injunction. The U.S. Supreme Court a month later briefly allowed the law to take effect, but the 5th Circuit within hours halted it pending further review. The opinion by Richman, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, was joined by U.S. Circuit Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez, a Biden appointee. U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham, a Trump appointee, dissented. He said the majority treated as irrelevant that Trump has been encouraging states to aid his administration’s efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement. "It is a sad day for the millions of Americans who are concerned about illegal immigration and who voiced those concerns at ballot boxes across Texas and the Nation," Oldham wrote. Cody Wofsy, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the American Civil Liberties Union, in a statement welcomed the ruling, saying state immigration laws like the one Texas adopted have been repeatedly rejected by courts and "are deeply harmful to our communities.”

Breitbart [7/4/2025 11:01 AM, Warner Todd Huston, 3077K] reports more than 100,000 patients who visited hospitals in Texas between last November and February of this year admitted they were illegal migrants, according to state data. The data was gathered after Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law last year requiring hospitals to ask registering patients if they are a legal U.S. resident. According to KXAN-TV, by the end of February, 108,581 patients admitted to being illegal aliens — about 2.3 percent of all patients. This number, though, is obviously not complete. The law does not require patients to answer the question, and 12.9 percent — or 617,000 patients — refused to answer. Government officials feel that most of that number are also illegals who simply refused to reveal their citizenship status to hospital registrars. The Lone Star State’s Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) reports that based on the data collected, the state spent $434 million to care for illegals over the reporting period. Again, that number is probably low considering how many patients refused to answer the citizenship question. The requirement is aimed at helping officials put a price tag on the impact illegal aliens have on the state’s healthcare system. "Texans should NOT have to foot the bill for illegal immigrants’ healthcare. I issued an Executive Order directing HHSC to collect & report healthcare costs for illegal immigrants. We’ll fight to ensure the Biden-Harris Admin pays back Texas for their costly open border policies," Abbott wrote about the bill last year. Another factor that makes the data set incomplete is the 140 hospitals that have still not fulfilled their reporting duties as set by the new law. The HHSC notes that 22.9 percent of the state’s hospitals are not in compliance and are still not properly reporting their data. Gov. Abbott’s office still celebrated the results for showing the financial impact of illegals on the state’s healthcare system.

NBC News [7/3/2025 9:34 AM, Marlene Lenthang, Gary Grumbach, and Chloe Atkins, 44540K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia was stripped naked, had his head shaved, was beaten, forced to kneel for hours overnight, and lost over 30 pounds during his time at the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, his attorneys say in a new court filing. Abrego, of Maryland, was deported to El Salvador in March by the Trump administration in an "administrative error" and was returned to the U.S. in June to face federal charges. At the time of his removal from the U.S., Abrego was protected from deportation by a 2019 court order. His high-profile case was pushed into the national spotlight, sparking a heated debate over Trump’s immigration crackdown and the race to deport people, at times without due process. NPR [7/3/2025 3:11 PM, Scott Neuman, 37958K] reports that a document filed Wednesday in federal district court in Maryland says Garcia was "subjected to severe mistreatment" when he arrived at CECOT, a mega-prison located in Tecoluca, El Salvador. The court document says Abrego Garcia’s treatment included "severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture." During his first two weeks at CECOT, the court document says Abrego Garcia’s health deteriorated significantly, and his weight dropped to 184 pounds from roughly 215 pounds. In a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said: "Once again the media is falling all over themselves to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia." McLaughlin reiterated the administration’s claim that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, a charge his family and attorneys strongly deny. She also reiterated the claim that he is a domestic abuser and added that the "media’s sympathetic narrative" about Abrego Garcia "has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story." FOX News [7/3/2025 4:27 PM, Breanne Deppisch, 46878K] reports that in a new court filing submitted to U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers outlined a long list of abuses their client was subjected to at the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a notorious anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador, including sleep deprivation, psychological torture and severe beatings. The filing, in part, appears to undercut administration officials’ repeated assertions that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang – noting that prison officials at CECOT "explicitly acknowledged" his tattoos "were not gang-related," and told him, "your tattoos are fine." The eye-popping conditions at CECOT described in the filing are among several issues expected to come to a head Monday, when Judge Xinis holds a hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland. There, she will consider a flurry of recent motions from both the Trump administration and Abrego Garcia’s legal team – including a government motion to dismiss the case as moot, and a request from plaintiffs to sanction officials for allegedly failing to facilitate his return to the U.S. Adding to the complexity of the matter is the separate criminal case playing out in Tennessee. The federal judge overseeing that case on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to comply with rules prohibiting Justice Department and DHS officials from making any public statements about Abrego Garcia that could potentially prejudice a jury or impact the integrity of the court proceedings. The next steps here remain deeply uncertain, given the complexity of the cases, and the dual nature of the civil and criminal cases. The two parties will appear in court on Monday at 11 a.m.

The Hill [7/4/2025 3:14 PM, Steff Danielle Thomas, 18649K] reports Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Thursday dismissed claims that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistreated during his time in El Salvador’s custody. He also cast blame on the "mainstream media" and "crumbling Western judiciary" for claims he said have been accepted as truth without evidence. "But the man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight. In fact, photos show he gained weight while in detention," Bukele wrote Thursday on the social platform X. "There’s plenty of footage from different days, including his meeting with [Democratic Maryland] Senator Van Hollen, who himself confirmed the man seemed fine.” He added, "If he’d been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture? Why would he gain weight? Why are there no bruises, or even dark circles under his eyes?". The Salvadoran leader paired the post with a video and photos of Abrego Garcia — who made national headlines earlier this year after being mistakenly deported to the Central American country in March amid President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration — in his prison quarters. Bukele’s post comes days after Abrego Garcia, according to court filings late last month, recounted the "psychological torture" and physical abuse he said he suffered while being held in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. The man, who had been living in Maryland under a protective order, also said he suffered from sleep deprivation while detained. The Washington Examiner [7/4/2025 5:36 PM, Maydeen Merino, 1934K] reports that the mistreatment included "severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture," the file reads. Bukele has denied these allegations. On Thursday, he wrote on X, "Apparently, anything a criminal claims is accepted as truth by the mainstream media and the crumbling Western judiciary. But the man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight.” Bukele included a video of Ábrego García in his cell and meeting with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). "In fact, photos show he gained weight while in detention. There’s plenty of footage from different days, including his meeting with Senator Van Hollen, who himself confirmed the man seemed fine. If he’d been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture? Why would he gain weight? Why are there no bruises, or even dark circles under his eyes?" he added. In April, the Supreme Court ordered the administration to return Ábrego García to the U.S. to ensure he undergoes due process. Abrego Garcia is currently facing federal charges for transporting undocumented immigrants and related conspiracy charges. His attorney has requested that he remain in jail while awaiting trial due to fears that he may be deported again.

FOX News [7/4/2025 8:48 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 46878K] reports El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has released a video highlight reel showing Kilmar Abrego Garcia apparently thriving during his imprisonment, in an attempt to refute the migrant’s claims that he was tortured while in custody. Abrego Garcia, who a judge ruled was erroneously deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador and then returned after a court order, is seen in the video gardening, playing soccer, fishing and enjoying other leisurely activities while imprisoned in his home country. The video appears at odds with Abrego Garcia’s claims in legal filings that he was severely beaten, deprived of sleep and psychologically tortured while detained. Abrego Garcia was first held at the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a notorious anti-terrorism prison, in March and then transferred to a lower-security facility in Santa Ana in mid-April. Bukele does not say which prison the footage was taken from. According to court documents, Abrego Garcia’s physical condition deteriorated quickly upon arrival at CECOT and within two weeks, he lost roughly 31 pounds. But Bukele pushed back against those claims on Thursday, claiming he actually put on weight and released video evidence to refute claims of torture. The video shows Abrego Garcia in seemingly good spirits, playing chess and soccer, working out with fellow inmates, doing gardening and relaxing while watching a widescreen television in his cell, among other leisurely activities. "If he’d been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture?" Bukele wrote on X. "Why would he gain weight? Why are there no bruises, or even dark circles under his eyes?". "The man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight. In fact, photos show he gained weight while in detention. There’s plenty of footage from different days, including his meeting with Senator Van Hollen, who himself confirmed the man seemed fine.” Bukele went on to rip the mainstream media for seemingly believing the claims. "Apparently, anything a criminal claims is accepted as truth by the mainstream media and the crumbling Western judiciary," Bukele wrote.

NewsMax [7/3/2025 1:48 PM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4622K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security is accusing the media of continuing to "peddle" a "sob story" in connection with deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s legal complaint concerning his claims of "graphic torture and abuse" he allegedly suffered after he was deported to El Salvador’s CECOT maximum security prison. "Once again the media is falling all over themselves to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia," DHS posted on X Thursday, along with a screen grab from a Politico headline about his claims. "This illegal alien is an MS-13 gang member, alleged human trafficker, and a domestic abuser. The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story," the DHS post added. "We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.” Abrego Garcia was removed from the U.S. and sent to El Salvador, despite a court order in place to block his deportation. His lawyers said that while at the CECOT prison, Abrego Garcia was beaten, deprived of food and sleep, and tortured psychologically for almost a month. He is now back in U.S. custody and has pleaded not guilty to a federal indictment on charges of smuggling migrants. According to the complaint filed by Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his American wife and their children before being deported to El Salvador in March, he was "frogmarched" into the prison, hit with batons, and made to change into his prison garb while being under assault, reports Mediaite. The complaint further describes his cell there as being overcrowded, windowless, and fully lit all day and night. It also says Abrego Garcia was forced to kneel for hours at a time, beaten when he moved, and denied access to a toilet. "Screams from nearby cells would similarly ring out throughout the night," the complaint reads. CECOT officials reportedly acknowledged Abrego Garcia had no gang affiliations but that they kept him locked up with gang members. The complaint states that after Abrego Garcia lost 31 pounds, he was moved to a new unit and that "staged" pictures were taken to suggest that his conditions had improved. He was also kept from speaking to family or lawyers for several weeks before his visit from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., in April.

NBC News [7/3/2025 4:30 PM, Chloe Atkins and Dareh Gregorian, 44540K] reports the judge presiding over the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Tennessee directed both sides Thursday to stop making public statements about the case after defense lawyers argued the government was depriving him of his right to a fair trial by making inflammatory comments. Attorneys for Abrego — who was erroneously deported and later hit with human smuggling charges — had asked U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw to hand down the order, arguing the government had been routinely violating a local rule barring comments that could be prejudicial. The scope of the order was not immediately clear. Abrego’s attorneys had asked that it encompass the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. The judge granted the defense motion in a two-sentence ruling that said, "All counsel are expected to comply with the Local Rules of this Court."

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [7/3/2025 4:28 PM, Kaelan Deese, 1934K]

Reuters [7/4/2025 4:59 AM, Jonathan Allen, 51390K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump’s fight with elite American universities was only a few days old when federal immigration agents arrested the Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil at his Columbia University apartment building in New York in March. Over the more than three months he was held at a jail for immigrants in rural Louisiana, the Trump administration escalated its battle. It arrested other foreign pro-Palestinian students and revoked billions of dollars in research grants to Columbia, Harvard and other private schools whose campuses were roiled by the pro-Palestinian student protest movement, in which Khalil was a prominent figure. "I absolutely don’t regret standing up against a genocide," Khalil, 30, said in an interview at his Manhattan apartment, less than two weeks after U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered him released on bail while he challenges the effort to revoke his U.S. lawful permanent residency green card and deport him. "I don’t regret standing up for what’s right, which is opposing war, which is calling for the end of violence." He believes the government is trying to silence him, but has instead given him a bigger platform. Returning to New York after his release, Khalil was welcomed at the airport by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a political foe of Trump; supporters waved Palestinian flags as he reunited with his wife and infant son, whose birth he missed in jail. Two days later, he was the star of a rally on the steps of a cathedral near Columbia’s Manhattan campus, castigating the university’s leaders. Last week, he appeared before cheering crowds alongside Zohran Mamdani, the pro-Palestinian state lawmaker who won June’s Democratic primary ahead of New York City’s 2025 mayoral election. "I did not choose to be in this position: ICE did," Khalil said, referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who arrested him. "And this of course had a great impact on my life. I’m still, honestly, trying to contemplate my new reality." He missed his May graduation ceremony and emerged from jail unemployed. An international charity withdrew its offer of a job as a policy adviser, he said. The government could win its appeal and jail him again, so Khalil said his priority is spending as much time as possible with his son and wife, a dentist.

Blaze [7/3/2025 9:40 AM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1805K] reports President Donald Trump determined on his first day back in office that the "current situation at the southern border qualifies as an invasion under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution." He then proclaimed, pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act, that migrants stealing into the homeland would henceforth be restricted from claiming asylum until the invasion was over. Those who failed to provide federal officials with sufficient personal information at legal ports of entry would similarly be restricted in making asylum claims. Of course, this proclamation enraged all the usual suspects on the left, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the asylum ban in February on behalf of three radical activist groups and a handful of foreigners denied asylum. According to the activist groups’ complaint, the proclamation was "as unlawful as it is unprecedented," and "immigration — even at elevated levels — is not an ‘invasion.’" On Wednesday, an Obama judge weaseled around the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 27 determination regarding nationwide injunctions in Trump v. CASA Inc. in order to universally bar the administration from expelling asylum seekers from the United States. "To try to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions a marxist judge has declared that all potential FUTURE illegal aliens on foreign soil (eg a large portion of planet earth) are part of a protected global ‘class’ entitled to admission into the United States," wrote White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. Miller added, "The West will not survive if our sovereignty is not restored." Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin similarly underscored the gravity of Moss’ ruling, noting in a statement obtained by CNN, "The President secured the border in historic fashion by using every available legal tool provided by Congress. Today, a rogue district judge took those tools away, threatening the safety and security of Americans and ignoring a Supreme Court decision issued only days earlier admonishing district courts for granting nationwide injunctions.”

FOX News [7/3/2025 11:16 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports Fox News senior national correspondent William La Jeunesse reports on the Department of Homeland Security halting flights of prosecuted migrants to California due to sanctuary city policies. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [7/4/2025 1:00 PM, Bob Brody, 18649K] reports "there is war," Muhammed from Yemen wrote to me. "Everything is chaotic. Schools are closed. People have no food to eat. Everyone is scared. It’s very dangerous. Little kids have guns and other weapons.” "The politics in Bangladesh is corrupt," wrote Tamjid. "Schools are always closed because of strikes. Many students are afraid to go to school.” "We came here because my father was threatened and my family was afraid they would hurt us," Miguel of Colombia wrote. Such were the 81 cards — hand-made, hand-written and colorfully illustrated in crayon — carrying personal messages to me from immigrant children now living in the U.S. Six years ago, I gave a talk in front of some 150 students, teachers and parents at the Academy for New Americans, a public middle school for grades six through eight in New York City. The school educates recently arrived immigrant children who enroll knowing little or no English but who then graduate speaking English fluently. Afterward, one of the students handed me a large manila envelope containing the 81 cards. The other day, provoked by the new deportation policy rolling out so thunderously nationwide, I looked at the cards once more. Those adolescents had migrated to the U.S. from dozens of countries: Albania, Bangladesh, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Paraguay, Pakistan, Peru, Spain, Tibet, Venezuela and Vietnam. Some of the families, the children wrote to me, had fled poverty, violent crime, civil war and other hardships. The cards provided a telling snapshot, a multi-cultural cross-section of immigrant youth in America yearning to breathe free. The students told me where they hoped to go in life here in the U.S. Almost all said they intended to pursue educational and economic opportunities unavailable back home. They declared ambitions to become physicians, lawyers, entrepreneurs, computer scientists, dentists, mechanical engineers and, yes, professional soccer players. "My mother, father and me are so happy to be here in the United States," one student wrote. "Soon we will be citizens." Another told me, "I come to New York to be someone in my life." Yet another said on the back of her card, "Follow your dreams.”

NewsMax [7/3/2025 10:18 AM, Nicholas Chamberas, 4622K] reports Sanctuary’ Cities Only Protect Child Predators, Other Heinous Criminals. The author George Orwell ("Animal Farm," "1984") once made a great observation about reality, "however much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing." Following the recent riots in Los Angeles, California, the horrific (and unintended) truth about "sanctuary" cities is now painfully emergent. It may be helpful to examine the historical context regarding the intended function of so called "sanctuary" municipalities. No rational or sane person wants to discourage someone from calling the police to stop a rape, a murder, or perhaps a robbery in progress. No one in their right mind would want to prevent someone from administering CPR, or the Heimlich maneuver to someone at risk of dying. However, if we fast-forward from the year 1989 to 2025, we’re now witness to a commonsense policy which has been perverted, worse hijacked, into a governmental process offering maximum strength protection for depraved criminals. The only apt descriptor for criminal-sympathizing elected officials is "hoodlum," and they are aided and abetted by a compliant mainstream media industrial complex. As such both pols and media have been able to hide behind the rhetoric of fake compassion for a long time. The specious argument that "sanctuary cities" benefit American municipalities should be considered as seriously as an elementary school teacher receives "the dog ate my homework" excuse. Most sanctuary cities no longer exist to shield good samaritans but to protect violent criminals from being arrested. As a result, the United States is experiencing a tragic explosion of child sex trafficking. As of July 2023, approximately half of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s "most wanted" criminals for child trafficking were from Mexico. Last month, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement joined the Polk County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office in a joint human trafficking operation targeting individuals seeking to sexually abuse children, issuing 30 ICE detainers as a result of the investigation. Unaccompanied children, totaling 370,000, entered the country during the Biden administration. Furthermore, studies claim that 60% of these children are exploited by the cartels for child pornography and drug smuggling. There may have been a time when someone who would proudly lunge at federal agents in order to protest immigration enforcement would be hailed as a hero, but that time is now past.

The Hill [7/4/2025 8:00 AM, Virginia Kase Solomón, 18649K] reports the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses last month have shaken the political world and sparked a response from leaders of both parties. Yet, even as State House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark, were laid to rest in St. Paul this week, the news cycle had already moved on to a new tragedy. We mustn’t let this story fade, and we can’t wait until the next attack. Political violence is absolutely unacceptable, and we have to do more than just condemn it; we must address it head-on now. America has a problem, and the shootings in Minnesota are a stark reminder that divisive rhetoric framing our political opponents as enemies has real consequences. As Minnesotans grieve and State Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette, recover post-surgery, political leaders and voters in both parties must come together, denounce this violence and offer tangible solutions to lower the temperature of our national political discourse. Our country has always had a political violence problem. However, there has been a noticeable spike in public acts of political violence over the last decade. Just this year alone, a conspiracy theorist torched Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D) home, two Israeli diplomats were assassinated in Washington and, now, the tragedy in Minneapolis. If that sounds like a lot, it is. This is not normal. These incidents provide an ominous picture of our current political landscape and underscore how misinformation, hyper-polarization and the televised crackdown on political dissent spark real-life harm — a pattern we’ve seen repeated in communities across the country. Just last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem allowed federal agents to forcibly remove Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) from her press conference and place him in handcuffs after the senator attempted to ask a question about the immigration raids and protests in Los Angeles. This sends a clear message: When you disagree with the administration publicly, you can expect to be manhandled by armed government agents. And President Trump’s pardons of approximately 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, including some who were convicted of violent actions, have created an atmosphere where certain types of violence are praised. Hate speech and violent rhetoric are also violence, as verbal threats significantly impact how someone can engage in the political process. While speaking about the ICE protests around the country, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said on the Rubin Report podcast that drivers could run over protestors, two days before thousands of Floridians were set to join the "No Kings" protests. Robust disagreement is important. The U.S. is full of different values, views, backgrounds and preferences, and still, hundreds of millions agree on the shared value that democracy — and not political violence — is how we resolve our disputes. The good news is that Americans are not as far apart as we think we are, and we have more in common than what divides us. Recent surveys consistently find that the vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum reject political violence. This spans political ideologies, age groups and identities. Americans agree that violence should never be a tool of democracy.

The Hill [7/3/2025 10:30 AM, Jos Joseph, 18649K] reports every night for the last two weeks, I have had explosions go off outside my Southern California home. Was it the invaders that MAGA politicians insist have infiltrated our country with the intent of destroying it? Maybe it was MS-13 or Venezuelan gangs. Perhaps it was a cartel or it was an Islamic terror cell. The reality is that it was the nightly Disneyland fireworks show. Of course, politicians might have told you that Los Angeles and its vast surrounding areas were a war zone that warranted the National Guard, Marines and scores of federal agents who seem to not want to show their badges or their face. And of course, we have seen the arresting of people at immigration hearings, job sites, and off the street which caused Southern California residents to protest in the first place. The justification for these actions started off as benignly as cracking down on illegal immigrants. Then it turned into criminals. And now everyone from Vice President JD Vance to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is using the term "invader." This preposterous descent from immigrant to invader shows just how afraid Republicans are of demographic changes in this country, even if those changes help this country thrive. A lot of invaders have taken up jobs at hotels to clean rooms of guests, clearly nefarious behavior. Of course, the most dastardly of all, are the thousands of invaders who work tirelessly to ensure that millions of Americans have access to fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and other produce. These are the first invaders in history to actually make a country stronger and more profitable. It turns out that President Trump and company ran out of criminals to deport but still need photo ops to look like they are accomplishing something. The running out of criminals part is no joke. About 93 percent of the people arrested in these Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids don’t have any violent convictions.

Washington Post [7/4/2025 5:45 AM, Marian Da Silva Parra, 32099K] reports Trump expanded and reinstated previous nationality-based travel restrictions, defending the policy as a way to counter “terrorism” and other purported national security threats. The order targeted Venezuela as one of the countries subjected to “partial suspension on the entry or admission of nationals,” with nearly all immigrant and nonimmigrant visa holders — including those for tourists, students and exchange visitors — excluded from entry. This policy does not make America safer. It does, however, bolster Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by helping him punish those who flee and ensuring they find no refuge abroad. The authoritarian leader has perfected the art of criminalizing dissent by branding political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists as "terrorists" and "national security threats." Opposition leaders such as Juan Pablo Guanipa, a close associate of María Corina Machado, Maduro’s top political opponent, was recently arrested for allegedly "leading a terrorist plot" just before the parliamentary election. Similarly, human rights defenders such as Javier Tarazona, Rocío San Miguel, Carlos Julio Rojas and Kennedy Tejeda have been arbitrarily detained, disappeared and falsely charged with terrorism or incitement of hatred simply for standing up for basic human rights. The suppression of dissent in Venezuela on the pretext of national security and alleged terrorism has been widely efficient. Following the disputed July 2024 presidential election, more than 2,000 people, including hundreds of children, were arbitrarily arrested under similar criminal provisions, and many of them have also been disappeared. Human rights groups and the U.N.’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission have consistently documented torture in Venezuelan detention centers — including beatings, suffocation, electric shocks and sexual violence — to force self-incrimination. This type of state violence, which has intensified the broader humanitarian crisis, has already driven about 8 million Venezuelans from their country, making them victims of terrorism, not its perpetrators. What once required state propaganda now comes prepackaged from abroad in the language of American law. Venezuela’s "national security threat" label echoes in the halls of U.S. government, not only through a travel ban but also through several state policies. The Trump administration has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, specifically targeting Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang with Venezuelan origins, to deport hundreds of Venezuelans while offering little proof, beyond a few tattoos, of their supposed ties to the gang.

Washington Post [7/4/2025 2:40 PM, Douglas MacMillan, 32099K] reports the tax and spending bill passed by Congress on Thursday will triple federal funding for immigrant detention centers, setting the stage for a rapid expansion of these facilities and adding to concerns about the treatment of the growing numbers of immigrant detainees. Congress allocated $45 billion to spend locking up immigrants over the next four years — more than the government spent on detention during the Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations combined, federal data show. The bill also includes $46.5 billion for building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and $6 billion for border technology and surveillance, along with other border security and immigration measures. This is the most “funding we have seen for a border immigration agenda in the history of the country,” said Lauren-Brooke Eisen, who researches criminal justice and incarceration in her role as a senior director at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. “We are seeing a wholesale expansion of ICE detention centers.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they plan to use the money to roughly double the nation’s detention capacity to 100,000 beds, giving them more capacity to arrest undocumented immigrants targeted for deportation. The average daily population of ICE detainees rose to 56,000 last month — the highest number since ICE began releasing those figures during the first Trump administration — and administration officials have acknowledged the surge in immigrant detainees has sometimes outpaced their ability to accommodate all of them. In an emailed statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the money will help ICE pay for additional detention beds and ICE agents. She said the added resources and staffing are needed “to secure the homeland and keep Americans safe.”

FOX News [7/3/2025 9:36 PM, Peter Pinedo, 46878K] reports Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons is calling out the hypocrisy of progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who said the agency is "acting like a terrorist force," pointing to an earlier attempt by the congresswoman to shift blame away from an actual terrorist. In a social media post this week, Jayapal claimed "ICE is acting like a terrorist force" and that "people across the country of all legal statuses — including U.S. citizens — are being kidnapped and disappeared off the street by masked men.” Jayapal asserted that the federal operations are being carried out with "no oversight, no accountability" and are "completely lawless.” During an interview with Brianna Keilar on "CNN News Central," Jayapal doubled down on her statement, saying, "What is deranged and cruel and outrageous is that, literally, we are seeing ICE agents, I assume they’re ICE agents. They say they are. They don’t have any identification. They’re wearing masks. They’re in plain clothes. They are coming and kidnapping and disappearing people on the streets of the United States. "I never in a million years thought that that is something that I would see here in America," she added. "And so I think it is the administration that has to apologize to U.S. citizens that have been rounded up to legal, permanent residents, to people with legal statuses across the country who are getting swept up, people who have been here for 20 years and committed no crimes, getting swept up by masked men who are kidnaping them and deporting them.” In response, Lyons said after "an actual Antifa terrorist tried to blow up ICE’s Northwest Processing Center in Rep. Jayapal’s home state of Washington in 2019," she "tried to blame the violent attack on rhetoric from the right, in defense of an actual terrorist who tried to murder detainees and employees alike! "Now, she labels ICE officers enforcing immigration law set by Congress ‘terrorists,’" said Lyons. "This, at a time when officers are facing a nearly 700% increase in assaults, is in part due to the type of rhetoric she spews.” The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News earlier this week that assaults against ICE officers and federal agents conducting immigration enforcement are up 690% compared to the same time last year.

Daily Caller [7/4/2025 9:43 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports a growing cohort of Democratic lawmakers want to ban face coverings for deportation officers amid President Donald Trump’s wide-scale crackdown on illegal immigration. Democrats at the national and state level have introduced legislation aiming to keep face masks off Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and using fascistic terminology to describe the current practice. However, federal law enforcement leaders say face coverings — which are optional for agents — help protect them at a time when the agency is being demonized and assaults against agents have risen nearly 700%. “Every day the brave men and women of ICE go out into local communities across the country and put their lives on the line to bolster public safety and national security by apprehending transnational gang members, foreign fugitives and other dangerous criminal aliens who are in the country illegally and preying on law-abiding citizens,” an ICE spokesperson stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The agency supports agents having the option to cover their face, arguing it keeps them and their family members safe. However, many Democrats are moving forward with legislation to take away that choice. The “No Secret Police Act,” introduced on June 26 by New York Democrat Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, would prohibit Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents engaged in border security and civil immigration enforcement from using homemade, non-tactical masks, according to a press release from Goldman’s office. “The United States is not a dictatorship, and I’m proud to introduce this commonsense legislation ensuring that our federal government’s laws are enforced by identifiable human beings, not anonymous, secret agents of the state,” Goldman said about his legislation. More than 40 Democrats are currently listed as cosponsors of the bill. Goldman’s bill is not the only one of its type being pushed in Congress. New York Democrat Rep. Nydia Velazquez introduced the “No Anonymity in Immigration Enforcement Act” on June 12. Her legislation also bans face masks for ICE agents, requires them to display their name and affiliation with the agency, and requires agents to quickly document instances when exceptions to these rules were made, such as if an agent responds to an imminent threat to life or had to wear a mask for medical purposes. ICE argues such proposals can put their agents at risk, as they are constantly arresting gang members and other heinous criminals who are capable of causing them harm. “During enforcement operations , all ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Officers and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agents wear badges designed to be easily identifiable and to signify their authority as law enforcement officials,” an ICE spokesperson stated to the DCNF. “If an ICE officer or agent chooses to wear a mask to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by highly sophisticated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13, criminal rings, murderers, and rapists, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement.” A New York man was arrested and charged in July for allegedly making online posts threatening to kill ICE agents. In one post about an ICE operation, he allegedly said he “can’t wait to put a bullet into this guy’s brain, but first his children” and in another post, he allegedly said “Kill them all, ICE is the new age gestapo, stop them.” Due to threats like these and rise of assaults, ICE is not going to discourage agents from wearing face masks during enforcement operations, according to the agency. Both bills by Goldman and Velazquez were introduced in the wake of violent anti-ICE riots that erupted across the Los Angeles area in early June. “When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by highly sophisticated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13, criminal rings, murderers, and rapists,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated to the DCNF. “Attacks and demonization of our brave law enforcement is contributing to our officers now facing a nearly 700% increase in assaults.”

FOX News [7/3/2025 4:38 PM, Peter Pinedo, 46878K] reports with assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement official surging over 700% and Democrats pushing a bill to require agents to de-mask during immigration enforcement operations, a special agent voiced concern about escalating violence and the effect de-masking could have on agents’ families. In an interview with Fox News Digital, the special agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said immigration enforcement officials "wouldn’t wear masks if they didn’t care" about their families. The agent said increased protests and resistance from politicians have made carrying out their duties difficult. The agent also said attempts to dox agents have made many worry about their families’ safety. The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News this week that assaults against ICE officers and federal agents conducting immigration enforcement are up 690% compared to the same time last year. DHS recorded 10 assault events from Jan. 21, 2024, to June 30, 2024. From the day after President Donald Trump took office earlier this year until Monday, the department recorded 79 assault events. DHS said the true number is likely higher. They are happening at such a fast pace, some assault reports may not be accounted for yet.

Washington Post [7/3/2025 12:17 PM, Emmanuel Martinez, Marianne LeVine, and Álvaro Valiño, 32099K] reports the Trump administration is increasingly targeting unauthorized immigrants with no criminal record as it ramps up arrests, a Washington Post analysis of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data shows. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem often touts that ICE officers are arresting the “worst of the worst.” But more than half of those removed from the country since Jan. 20 do not have a criminal conviction. What’s more, as arrests increase, the share of detained migrants with a criminal conviction has been dropping. DHS’s statistics office has stopped publishing monthly data on arrests and removals. But the Deportation Data Project, a team of lawyers and academics, worked with the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy to file a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against ICE to obtain the new dataset. The dataset offers one of the most detailed snapshots yet of whom ICE is arresting and removing as it attempts to fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. The Post’s examination of the data shows a substantial increase in arrests, but one that is still significantly below what Trump and his advisers are attempting to do. That could change as Congress prepares to infuse DHS with a massive amount of cash. The data does not cover all arrests and removals; U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s numbers were not included. The data shows that ICE officers have made more than twice as many arrests compared with the same period last year. And the number of people taken into custody has shot up over the last month in particular. Since May 20, ICE has averaged nearly 1,000 arrests per day, compared to about 600 in the months prior. That uptick still puts ICE below White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s goal of making a minimum of 3,000 arrests a day. The administration does not appear on track to deport 1 million migrants this year at its current pace. The data, however, offers a limited picture of the administration’s deportation efforts. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said that as of Monday, the Trump administration had made more than 273,000 arrests and deported more than 239,000 people. That data is likely to include CBP figures that were not in the dataset analyzed by The Post.

NPR [7/3/2025 9:04 PM, Jasmine Garsd, 37958K] Audio: HERE President Trump is enacting a mass deportation campaign promised to be the largest in U.S. history. New data is giving a clearer picture of exactly what that looks like: at least 56,000 immigrants are being held in ICE detention. According to the Deportation Data Project, a group that collects immigration numbers, about half the people in detention don’t have criminal convictions. That’s close to 30,000 people in detention, without a criminal record — the group that has grown the most in recent months. "You listen to Tom Homan and Stephen Miller, they’re saying things like they are going after the worst of the worst, the people who are murderers," says UCLA Professor Graeme Blair, referring to President Trump’s ‘Border czar’ Tom Homan and key White House Aide Stephen Miller. "That’s just not what the data says about the people that they are actually arresting.” In the first few months of the Trump administration, the number of detentions was around the same as during the Biden administration. But in recent weeks, there’s been a push to detain more people, spearheaded by the recent goal of 3,000 ICE arrests per day. According to Professor Blair, one of the directors of the Deportation Data Project, the ICE raids in Los Angeles marked a turning point: people without criminal records were increasingly being arrested. In fact, NPR’s review of ICE data found that the number of people without criminal convictions in detention nearly doubled since May — more than any other group of detainees. NPR reached out to the Trump administration for comment and received no response. At a press conference last week, both the president and Attorney General Pam Bondi said the focus is on violent criminals. But there has also been consistent messaging from government officials warning that there will be collateral immigration arrests, and that being in the U.S. without legal status is reason enough for detention and deportation.

The AP [7/3/2025 6:14 PM, Jim Vertuno, 1611K] reports a mother and her two young children from Honduras who had filed what was believed to be the first lawsuit involving children challenging the Trump administration’s policy on immigrant arrests at courthouses have been released from detention, civil rights groups and attorneys for the family said Thursday. The lawsuit filed on behalf of the mother identified as "Ms. Z," her 6-year-old son and her 9-year-old daughter, said they were arrested outside the courtroom after an immigration court hearing in Los Angeles. They had been held for weeks in the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. Their identities have not been released because of concerns for their safety. The lawsuit said that the family entered the U.S. legally using a Biden-era appointment app and that their arrest violated their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizure and their Fifth Amendment right to due process. The family’s lawyers said the boy had also recently undergone chemotherapy treatment for leukemia and his mother feared his health was declining while in detention. The family was released late Wednesday while their lawsuit was still pending, and they went to a shelter in South Texas before they plan to return to their lives in the Los Angeles area, said Columbia Law School professor Elora Mukherjee, one of the lawyers representing the family. "They will go back to their lives, to church, and school, and the family will continue to pursue their asylum case. And hopefully the little boy will get the medical attention he needs," Mukherjee said. "They never should have been arrested and detained in the first place. We are grateful they have been released.” Department of Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. Last week, the agency posted on social media that the boy "has been seen regularly by medical personnel since arriving at the Dilley facility.” Starting in May, the country has seen large-scale arrests in which asylum-seekers appearing at routine hearings have been arrested outside courtrooms as part of the White House’s mass deportation effort. In many cases, a judge will grant a government lawyer’s request to dismiss deportation proceedings and then U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will arrest the person and place them on "expedited removal," a fast track to deportation. Lawyers for the "Z" family said their lawsuit was the first one filed on behalf of children to challenge the ICE courthouse arrest policy. There have been other similar lawsuits, including in New York, where a federal judge ruled last month that federal immigration authorities can’t make civil arrests at the state’s courthouses or arrest anyone going there for a proceeding. "The Z family’s release demonstrates the power we have when we fight back against harmful, un-American policies," said Kate Gibson Kumar, staff attorney for the Beyond Borders Program of the Texas Civil Rights Project. USA Today [7/3/2025 11:26 PM, Eduardo Cuevas, 75552K] reports a 6-year-old Honduran boy with leukemia who had been held in immigration detention with his family since May was released July 2. The boy, his mother and 9-year-old sister entered the country legally last fall seeking asylum. Federal agents arrested them as they left an immigration hearing in Los Angeles on May 29. They were held in a privately run family detention center in South Texas. Their release was made public July 3, but their future remains unclear. Lawyers for the family sued for their release, arguing their detention violated their constitutional rights of due process and unreasonable seizure. The lawyers feared that, since leukemia in children requires consistent treatment, the boy’s care would be disrupted if they were deported to Honduras or detained for too long. The family’s situation is similar to many immigrants who arrived during the Biden administration, following the rules at the time and not violating any laws. Recently, though, the Trump administration has decided that most of them should not be in the United States, and has been detaining a growing number of migrants as they show up to mandatory court hearings. "Can ICE snatch law-abiding people out of their communities at courthouses when those individuals are doing exactly what the government required of them?" said Elora Mukherjee, a lawyer for the family and director of the Columbia Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic.

NBC News [7/4/2025 4:27 PM, Corky Siemaszko, 44540K] reports a 6-year-old Honduran boy with leukemia whose arrest sparked a public outcry after he, his mother and sister were seized by ICE agents and sent to a Texas detention center is back in Los Angeles, one of the family’s lawyers said Friday. The family, which had been held for a month in the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, was released on Wednesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a lawsuit was filed on their behalf in San Antonio federal court. "We were in the process of putting together a reply brief explaining why the government was wrong to hold them when we learned they were being released," Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told NBC News. "ICE released the family without a court order.” The family was dispatched from the detention center to a shelter in south Texas, Mukherjee said. "From there, they were put on a plane today and flown to LAX, where they were reunited with their family in Los Angeles," Mukherjee said. Mukherjee said "public pressure" over the plight of this family and the media coverage "helped free this family.” Their release "demonstrates the power we have when we fight back against harmful, un-American policies," attorney Kate Gibson Kumar of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which also represented the family, said on the group’s Facebook page. "The practice of courthouse arrests is a blatant disregard for those lawfully seeking safety through the government’s own processes, and an even bigger disregard for our Constitution and the protections it provides, including Due Process," wrote Gibson Kumar. NBC News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment and an explanation of whether the agency will continue trying to deport that family back to Honduras. Gibson Kumar’s organization and the Columbia University Immigrants’ Rights Clinic sued ICE seeking to win the family’s release after they were seized following their May 29 asylum hearing in Los Angeles. The mother had been instructed to bring her children, who are out of school, to the hearing, Gibson Kumar said last week. "They arrested the family in the hallway as they were leaving," Gibson Kumar said. "The children were really scared. They were crying.” While in detention, the 6-year-old, identified as N.M.Z. in a habeas corpus complaint, also missed a June 5 medical appointment, according to a court filing. DHS had insisted repeatedly that the boy was examined several times while he and his family were locked up. In a post on X, DHS called allegations of medical neglect "fake news.” "ICE always prioritizes the health, safety and well-being of all detainees in its care," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said last week.

New York Times [7/5/2025 5:00 AM, Jazmine Ulloa and Miriam Jordan, 153395K] reports the call came into the hotline one afternoon in March: A group of officers, masked and in plainclothes, were taking away a young woman in a hijab. “‘Someone is being kidnapped!’” the caller said to Danny Timpona, the operator who answered the phone. His group, the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, had been preparing for such a moment. Within minutes, Mr. Timpona sent out volunteers to verify the report in Somerville, a suburb northwest of Boston. When they arrived to empty streets, they began knocking on doors, looking for anyone who could help them piece together what occurred. One neighbor offered footage from a home security camera. The video, which has since racked up millions of views, captured agents from the Department of Homeland Security surrounding Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and doctoral student at Tufts University who spent the next six weeks in detention. It gave the nation one of the earliest scenes of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. A crop of grass-roots immigrant rights networks like Mr. Timpona’s has been rising across the country to try to halt President Trump’s agenda of mass deportation. They aim to quickly corroborate the presence of immigration officers. They document apprehensions that might otherwise go unnoticed. And they spread the word on social media about people being detained.

The Hill [7/3/2025 1:34 PM, Elizabeth Crisp, 18649K] reports podcaster Joe Rogan continued to knock the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workplace raids that have become a hallmark of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, calling the effort "insane" on Tuesday’s episode of his show. "It’s insane," Rogan, who endorsed President Trump in his reelection bid last fall, said on "The Joe Rogan Experience." "Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers — just construction workers.” "Showing up on construction sites, raiding them," he continued, shaking his head. "Gardeners. Like, really?". Rogan previously blasted the ICE raids last month, calling them "f—ing nuts.” Trump campaigned on more aggressive immigration enforcement, but he has faced some backlash over the raids targeting migrant workers. Mass protests broke out in Los Angeles last month as word spread that ICE was conducting raids in California, and Trump sent thousands of National Guard members and Marines to protect federal workers and property during the demonstrations. The Trump administration briefly paused workplace raids at hotels, restaurants and farms in mid-June, but ICE agents were told to return to targeting those sites June 17 to meet the White House’s ambitious goal of 3,000 migrant arrests per day. The administration has repeatedly defended arresting and deporting migrants without legal status. "Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability," Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement as the raids resumed. The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. By signing up, I agree to the Terms of Use, have reviewed the Privacy Policy, and to receive personalized offers and communications via email, on-site notifications, and targeted advertising using my email address from The Hill, Nexstar Media Inc., and its affiliates. "These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation," she continued.

FOX News [7/3/2025 9:08 PM, Greg Wehner, 46878K] reports an illegal alien on the "Top 10 Most Wanted" list in Honduras has been arrested in New York after evading a 44-year prison sentence in his home country. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Olivin Martinez Coto was arrested on Long Island on Tuesday, where he was reportedly in hiding. Coto had been sentenced in Honduras for aggravated femicide, which ICE said is when someone kills a woman because she is a woman. He was also convicted of attempted homicide and forcible home invasion. "We’ve already deported him TWICE and he’s NEVER entered the country legally," ICE wrote in a social media post. "He has no respect for our nation’s immigration laws and isn’t the least bit pleased about getting caught.” ICE added that it did not know where Coto entered the U.S. the third time, and accused him of sneaking in. "We know only that it was sometime after his second removal on Feb. 27, 2019," ICE wrote. "We will continue to seek out, arrest and deport international fugitives. Let’s set the record straight. THE UNITED STATES IS NOT A SAFE HAVEN FOR CRIMINAL ALIENS.” When President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, he immediately began acting against criminal illegal aliens in the U.S., which has resulted in a drastic drop in illegal entries and daily encounters. White House border czar Tom Homan announced this week that southern border apprehensions in June were incredibly low and that nobody was released into the U.S. after being detained. "Total Border Patrol encounters for the entire month of June 2025 was 6,070. That is less than a single day under Biden," Homan posted to X on Tuesday, touting "the Trump effect.” There were only 8,039 apprehensions on a national scale by Border Patrol, which is lower than the record set in March. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the first three days of June 2024 had over 11,000 apprehensions, with the southern border alone having over 7,000 apprehensions in the first two days of that month.

USA Today [7/3/2025 10:16 AM, Nancy Cutler, 75552K] reports a 20-year-old from Haiti has been held in immigration detention for weeks, missing the end of his junior year of high school, although he is in the country legally and his father is a United States citizen. Spring Valley High School student Alan Junior Pierre was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in early June and is being held at the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey, his lawyer said. The Haitian national, who has no criminal history, had been provided parole by ICE in January, when he sought asylum at the United States-Mexico border, his lawyer Vince Sykes told The Journal News/lohud, part of the USA TODAY Network. The status was based on humanitarian considerations and family support. Pierre is one of a growing number of migrants who entered the United States legally, have broken no laws, but are detained by ICE after showing up at court hearings related to their immigration status. "He applied for admission using the legal procedure that was in place," Sykes said. He followed all the rules, but now, his lawyer said, Pierre sits in an ICE facility; he missed the last weeks of school; he cannot see his family. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [7/3/2025 7:00 AM, Denise Chow, 44540K] reports on a typical weekend, 20,000 people stream through the metal gates at Broadacres Marketplace, thronging the aisles of the outdoor “swap meet” to hunt for the best deals, savor snacks and sip micheladas under the desert sky. Until late June, Broadacres’ familiar bustle had cemented its place as the heart of this city’s Latino community. That has been replaced with an eerie quiet. Hundreds of booths stand barren behind a chain-link fence, mostly stripped to their skeletal remains and covered in fabric or tarp. Broadacres Marketplace announced that it would temporarily close on June 21 because of the threat of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a statement online, the market’s management said the decision to close was made “out of an abundance of caution and concern for our community.” Broadacres’ owner, Greg Danz, is president and CEO of Newport Diversified Inc., a company that also owns two other swap meets in California. “We don’t want any of our customers, vendors, or employees to be detained at our business or for us to be a beacon of shopping and entertainment while our federal government is raiding businesses and detaining its people,” the statement read, adding that management does not yet have a planned date to reopen.

New York Times [7/5/2025 5:00 AM, Campbell Robertson, 138952K] reports the pace of immigration arrests has shot up across the country under the second Trump term, but few places have seen a spike quite as sharp as in Virginia. Arrests in the state by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are up more than 350 percent since 2024, one of the steepest increases in the country. This outpaces the growth in ICE arrests in Democratic-run states like California and New York and Republican-controlled states like Florida and Texas. Nearly 3,000 people were arrested by ICE in Virginia in the first five months of 2025, on par with numbers in a much larger state like New York. It is not entirely clear why Virginia, a politically middle-of-the-road state, has become such a magnet for immigration enforcement. The state’s immigrant population has increased dramatically in recent decades, and Virginia is now home to more than a million immigrants, most of them citizens or legal residents. But compared to some other states where arrests haven’t risen as much, like neighboring Maryland, people born in foreign countries make up a smaller percentage of the population. One difference may be that ICE has the unqualified backing of Virginia’s leaders, as well as sheriff departments across the state. Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican nearing the end of his term, has been full-throated in his support for President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Sounding a constant refrain about the perils of “dangerous criminal illegal immigrants,” Mr. Youngkin has championed the work of a federal-state task force aimed at combating “transnational organized crime.” He has directed his state’s law enforcement agencies to partner with federal immigration authorities and threatened to withhold funding from local governments that do not fully cooperate with ICE. “We just passed over 2,500 arrests through our Virginia Homeland Security Task Force, 2,500 violent criminals who are here illegally,” Mr. Youngkin said at a news conference on Wednesday at the Virginia State Police Headquarters. “This is why today, Virginia is safer.” While some of the thousands of undocumented immigrants arrested in Virginia this year are accused of serious crimes, immigrant advocates say they know plenty who had no such records. “We see people getting detained at 7-Eleven or coming back from stores where they go to buy clothes or food,” said Marilyn Figueroa, a lead organizer for CASA, an immigrant rights group.

FOX News [7/4/2025 2:53 PM, Louis Casiano, 46878K] reports a Florida city commissioner said she was shocked to find herself "standing alone" after her colleagues in the state’s southernmost municipality voted this week to end an agreement between the police department and federal immigration authorities. Key West city Commissioner Lissette Carey told Fox News Digital that she considered the potential consequences of severing the 287(g) agreement, which allows police officers to stop, question and detain illegal immigrants. "I did my research prior to the meeting," Carey said. "I was the only member of the Commission who understood the consequences and respected our state and federal government enough to uphold the law.” In a 5-1 vote, the commission voted to void the agreement, a move that came amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and nationwide mass deportation operations. "I was deeply disturbed by the lack of understanding and the disregard for the safety, security, and long-term well-being of our city," Carey said. "As the first to cast a vote on this matter, I was disheartened—and frankly shocked—to find myself standing alone in recognizing the importance of upholding this agreement.” The move has already met opposition from leaders in the state capital of Tallahassee. In a letter dated Wednesday to the commissioners, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said their vote violates state law and has essentially made Key West a "sanctuary city.” "Florida law unequivocally forbids sanctuary cities," Uthmeier wrote while demanding the city leaders reverse course. "Failure to take corrective action will result in the enforcement of all applicable civil and criminal penalties, including removal from office by the governor.” He added that they could face removal from office if they don’t reverse course. Carey, whose mother and grandparents arrived in Key West from Cuba in the 1950s, said she supports legal immigration. "I am proud of my heritage, and I honor the many contributions immigrants make to our communities," she said. "But I also believe in following the law and ensuring public safety.” "Key West is often seen as a carefree, liberal town, but it’s also home to conservatives like me who support law enforcement," added Carey.

Telemundo51 [7/3/2025 5:54 PM, Ana Cuervo, 177K] reports fearing deportation, many immigrants show up for their immigration appointments. Some have done so for decades. In the following case, a Cuban man is at risk of deportation after 28 years in this country. His wife and daughter are desperate. The husband and father have been detained in three different detention centers for over two weeks, and they occasionally allow him 30-second phone calls. Juan Erles Gonzalez, 56, arrived in the United States in 1995 after spending a year and a half in Guantanamo, but his residency was revoked in 2007. But he remained in the United States because Cuba wouldn’t accept him.

CNN [7/5/2025 6:00 AM, Sol Amaya, 21433K] reports that, every time 2-year-old Noah asks about his mom, Adrian Clouatre can only reply: "Mommy will be back soon." The little one nods with a smile, though his father sees his sadness and tries to be strong – for both Noah and his 3-month-old sister, Lyn, whom his wife was breastfeeding until ICE detained her in May. Clouatre, a 26-year-old who qualifies as a service-disabled US Marine Corps veteran, described how his family’s life was turned upside down when his wife, Paola, went in for a status hearing May 27. They had hoped she could move forward with her green card process, but it turned into a nightmare for the young family. Paola, now 25, was born in Mexico and arrived in the United States in 2014 with her mother. She didn’t speak English and didn’t understand much of what was happening, her husband recounts today. Her mother submitted an asylum application. But mother and daughter did not get along, and soon Paola ended up alone. She spent the rest of her teenage years in homeless shelters. In 2022, Adrian met Paola at a club in Palm Springs, California, during his last year in the military. "We officially started dating a month later. Then we had our first child, Noah, and got married in February 2024," he says. They moved to Louisiana and began the green card process for Paola. A year later, Lyn was born. They thought everything would go well, but Paola and her mother had lost contact after arriving in the United States. That’s why the Clouatres didn’t know there was a deportation order against her until a week before the status hearing that ended in her detention. That order was issued because Paola did not attend an immigration hearing; the notification, apparently, had been sent to her mother, who never told her. "We went to a status adjustment interview where they verified that our marriage was real and, you know, said everything was fine," Adrian says. The interview, on the surface, seemed to have gone well. "We found out about the deportation order about a week before the appointment and tried to reschedule, but USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) said no, so we went anyway," Clouatre explains. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, responded to a CNN inquiry about the case by saying an immigration judge issued a final order of removal in February 2018. Paola is in the country illegally, McLaughlin said, and President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "are not going to ignore the rule of law.” "On May 27, 2025, (Paola) filed emergency motion to reopen her immigration case. We await a decision on this motion," McLaughlin said via email. "Illegal aliens can take control of their departure with the CBP Home App," she added. "The United States is offering aliens illegal aliens $1,000 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live (the) American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”

ABC News [7/3/2025 4:28 PM, Nadine El-Bawab, 31733K] reports Ward Sakeik, a stateless Palestinian who recently married a U.S. citizen, said she lost five months of her life because of her statelessness in her first remarks since being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention earlier this week. Sakeik, 22, was detained by ICE on the way back from her honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands in February. She was released from Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on Tuesday, just days after the government attempted to deport her for the second time -- despite a recent court order prohibiting her removal from the U.S. Sakeik filed her green card application two days after she was detained. The first phase of her application was approved last week. Sakeik described her detention, saying "humanity was stripped away from me." Sakeik and her family, which is from Gaza, travelled to the U.S. on a tourist visa and applied for asylum, according to her husband. While she was issued a deportation order more than a decade ago, Sakeik was permitted to stay in the U.S. under what’s known as an "order of supervision," in which she regularly checked in with federal immigration authorities and is permitted work authorization, according to her lawyer and husband. Asked by ABC News for comment regarding Sakeik’s release, a Department of Homeland Security official said in an email, "Following her American husband and her filing the appropriate legal applications for her to remain in the country and become a legal permanent resident, she was released from ICE custody." Maria Kari, one of Sakeik’s attorneys, pushed back, saying, "That’s not at all true."

CBS News [7/3/2025 7:55 PM, Marissa Armas, 51860K] Video HERE reports for the first time since her release from immigration detention, an Arlington woman described the trauma of her 140-day confinement and the moment she reunited with her husband. Ward Sakeik, 22, spoke Thursday at a press conference held in a familiar setting – a hotel ballroom in Irving where she once photographed wedding memories, now repurposed as the stage for her to share a deeply personal story of confinement and freedom. "I never thought I’d be back in this hotel sharing something extremely personal," Sakeik said. "I was overfilled with joy, and a little shock. It was my first time seeing a tree in five months, so I was with like my potato sacks running to my husband. Yeah, it was amazing. It was freedom.” Sakeik was released Monday from the Prairieland Detention Center. She had been arrested in February while returning from a honeymoon trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands with her husband. Although the islands are a U.S. territory, she was flagged by Customs and Border Protection upon reentry. Sakeik’s attorneys said she had a pending green card application and had recently married a U.S. citizen. Despite this, Immigration and Customs Enforcement attempted to deport her twice — once in violation of a federal court order, according to her legal team. "The people who are running the Department of Homeland Security have no idea what’s in the Constitution," said attorney Eric Lee. "They are brazenly violating the law, and that should cause extreme concern to everyone paying attention to this case." In a statement, an ICE spokesperson said: "The arrest of Ward Sakeik was not part of a targeted operation by ICE. She chose to fly over international waters and outside the U.S. customs zone and was then flagged by CBP trying to reenter the continental U.S. She overstayed her visa and has had a final order by an immigration judge for over a decade.”

Breitbart [7/3/2025 9:09 AM, Randy Clark, 3077K] reports four Houston residents are now in jail facing charges that they exchanged money to lift U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) immigration jail detainers on people being held at the Harris County Jail. The four charged in the scheme include several employees of a bail bond company and a former ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer. According to U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Nicholas J. Ganjei. Houston residents Leopoldo Perrault Benitez, 53, Anthony Benitez, 32, Isaac Sierra, 51, and Jose Angel Muniz, 51, of La Porte, made their initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Bray when their indictment was unsealed. Judge Bray ordered the men into custody pending further criminal proceedings. A federal grand jury returned the indictment of the group on June 24. The indictment alleges Leopoldo Benitez was the owner of the A Way Out Bail Bonds company in Houston. His son, Anthony Benitez, was an employee, while Sierra worked at International Bonding Company, according to the charges. The indictment also states that Jose Angel Muniz was a deportation officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

NewsNation [7/4/2025 10:45 AM, Dylan Brown, 5801K] Video: HERE reports an Oklahoma man is facing deportation after Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials broke into his car and took him away Saturday. "I reach out to my husband, and he’s not there. I just want him to be back with us," Vanessa Chavez told NewsNation affiliate KFOR. She said her husband, Noe Chavez, has lived in Oklahoma for over two decades. They’ve been married for most of that time and have four kids. He has tried for several years to gain legal status. Vanessa said that only this year he was able to get fingerprinted, and in the next month or so, he was facing one of the final steps in the process to obtain his green card. Chavez was headed to a Dollar General near NW 10th and Morgan Rd. Saturday, while his son Andrew was driving. Andrew said that he noticed an unmarked vehicle blocking their car from getting out of the parking lot. "They walked up to our windows, and they had asked me for my ID. I quickly handed them my Chickasaw tribal card," said Andrew. He said that is probably what saved him from being taken away, too. "I just heard the glass shatter and then saw my father and a bunch of the first responders," said Andrew. He said the agents kept saying that they had a warrant for his dad, and that is why they were taking him away. Andrew said the men were ICE agents who were there for his father. This happened on Saturday; however, when News 4 went to the store on Wednesday, there was still shattered glass from their car window. Andrew spoke to News 4 and said it’s going to cost $500 to fix the busted window. Vanessa has been trying nonstop since Saturday to get in contact with her husband. She spoke to him earlier Wednesday, and he told her that he is in Cushing but that he more than likely is being sent to Guatemala eventually. She said agents or officials have told her that he was taken based on a Driving Under the Influence conviction from years ago.

New York Post [7/4/2025 7:00 AM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports immigration agents nabbed an illegal immigrant who sexually assaulted an American woman on Independence Day years earlier — and was let go by local cops thanks to sanctuary laws in Portland, Oregon, The Post has learned. Mexican illegal immigrant Kevin Contreras-Mendoza, 27, followed a woman on the street in Portland on July, 4, 2018, before grabbing her from behind and violently groping her as she cried out for help, according to the Department of Homeland Security. “This Independence Day, Americans are safer with this SICKO off our streets,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Insanely, Oregon authorities failed to honor his detainer to turn him over to ICE. Instead, they released this sex offender into American communities. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem, ICE is empowered to arrest and remove sexual predators like Contreras-Mendoza who threaten the freedoms and safety of Americans,” McLaughlin added. While the Beaver State has tried to stay away from helping ICE, the feds intend to keep making arrests of illegal immigrants in sanctuary states, Homeland Security said. “These … are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens,” Trump said last month, referring to an effort to “flood” sanctuary cities with ICE agents. And with the passage of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act, the mass deportation effort will only be “turbocharged” with new funding to hold up to 100,000 illegal immigrants at a time, according to DHS.

The Hill [7/3/2025 1:15 PM, Josh DuBose, 18649K] reports school surveillance cameras captured nearly a dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents urinating on storage containers near a playground after trespassing on the California school’s property, officials in Pico Rivera said in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The incident, according to members of the El Rancho Unified School District (ERUSD), occurred on June 17 after an estimated 10 marked and unmarked vehicles carrying agents entered and parked on the campus of Ruben Salazar High School. School staff informed the federal agents that they did not have permission to enter or stay on campus grounds and asked them to leave. "Please note that at no time was a legal or legitimate reason offered or provided as to why the ICE agents entered and remained on school grounds, nor did they provide any judicial warrant(s)," states the letter, addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Krist Noem. After the federal officers complied and left, school officials issued an alert informing the community of the agents’ brief presence on the campus. "Immediately after the incident, ERUSD staff advised ERUSD executive management that they observed ICE agents urinating at Salazar in public view," the letter continues. A review of the school’s surveillance cameras appears to back up the claim, with agents seen on the footage walking back and forth between several different storage containers and, presumably, their vehicles. "Any reasonable person, of any profession, entering Salazar where the ICE agents were urinating would clearly recognize the surroundings to be those of a school where minors are taught," the district’s letter states. "ICE agents unlawfully trespassed ERUSD school grounds and did not exercise sound and respectful judgment with the risk of exposing themselves to minors and committing a public offense under California law.”

CNN [7/4/2025 6:00 AM, Veronica Miracle, 875K] reports Santee Alley is known for its bargains and its crowds. Shoppers flock to the heart of Los Angeles’ Fashion District to see what’s on sale and get the latest styles from wholesalers and entrepreneurs, whose colorful goods spread out from the squat, industrial-looking stores. Music assails the senses, as do aromas from food vendors cooking up snacks for the visitors. Or that’s what it used to be like. A visit late last month found a very different Santee Alley. Metal shutters were rolled down and padlocked shut, even on a mild Southern California day. Instead of people jostling around each other in the hubbub, the street was all but empty. Even the mannequins showing off clothes to buy were absent. Santee Alley is one of the places where immigration enforcement action by the Trump administration is having a visible and costly impact — turning parts of the US’s second biggest city into ghost towns. "This is something that’s unprecedented," said Anthony Rodriguez, the president and CEO of the LA Fashion District Business Improvement District. "I personally think that the impact of this is more significant than that of the pandemic when we were in the lockdown phases.” The Fashion District, south of Downtown LA, had some of the first workplace immigration operations by federal agents early in June. CNN affiliate KTLA reported dozens of people were taken away from a clothing store. The raids, the protests that followed, the deployment of the National Guard and now a lawsuit by the Trump administration against Los Angeles for its sanctuary policy have all sent chills through this city of immigrants, documented and undocumented. "The sense of fear is overwhelming," Rodriguez said. "This is largely an immigrant business community here, for the business owners, the consumers and the employees.” Visitors are down 45%, Rodriguez said, meaning 10,000 or 12,000 fewer shoppers a day and massive losses in revenue for what he said was one of the economic drivers of Los Angeles. Even a whisper of a potential operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the neighborhood can have an impact, Rodriguez said. "Even when there isn’t actual activity … someone thinks they hear something and that alone will shut down the entire area," he said. From June 1 through June 10 this year, ICE apprehended 722 people in the Los Angeles area, according to government figures obtained and shared by the Deportation Data Project, a group of academics and lawyers. More than half of the cases — 417 — were classified as immigration violations. Some 221 people — or about 30% of the 722 apprehended — were convicted criminals.

New York Post [7/4/2025 6:59 AM, Emily Crane, 49956K] reports Alaska has joked about setting up a "Bear Alcatraz" to help the Trump administration detain more illegal migrants — as the White House urged Republican states to work with the feds to build similar detention facilities across the country. The state quipped about the plan just days after Florida offered to build a massive new immigration detention center — dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" — to help house hundreds of illegal migrants. "We don’t have alligators, but we have lots of bears," the state of Alaska said in a statement to Fox News’ "The Ingraham Angle.” However, the Last Frontier — which President Trump won in the 2024 election with 55% of the votes — said there were no earnest plans currently in place for "an Alaska version of Alligator Alcatraz.” It came as White House chief of staff Stephen Miller called on the governors of GOP states to offer up similar spaces to help the Trump administration crackdown on illegal immigration. "Every governor of a red state, if you are watching tonight: Pick up the phone, call DHS, work with us to build facilities in your state so we can get the illegals and criminals out," he told the network.

NBC News [7/3/2025 12:21 PM, Alicia Victoria Lozano, 44540K] reports that some Southern California communities are canceling or rescheduling July Fourth events as immigration arrests spread fear across the region. But organizations that oppose President Donald Trump’s immigration policies plan to proceed with protests in downtown Los Angeles, where large demonstrations last month sometimes turned violent, prompting Trump to call in the state National Guard and U.S. Marines over the governor’s objections. The city said it would postpone its annual Fourth of July block party "in light of recent events affecting a portion of Downtown Los Angeles and the ongoing circumstances impacting the region.” The event is held each year in Gloria Molina Grand Park near City Hall and several federal buildings, including one now being used as a detention center that has been a focal point for demonstrations against raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During a "No Kings" march on June 14, protesters fled from tear gas, pepper spray and less-lethal munitions fired by law enforcement officers, and large crowds were pushed away from federal buildings and into Grand Park, where demonstrators scrambled up a small hill to safety. More than 1,618 people in Los Angeles have been arrested by the federal government since it began clamping down on residents without citizenship last month, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Smaller communities throughout Los Angeles County with large immigrant populations are also rethinking Fourth of July celebrations. In East Los Angeles, a historically Latino area, the neighborhoods of Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno have postponed July Fourth festivities after several high-profile immigration arrests. Federal agents last month rammed and trapped a car carrying four U.S. citizens, including a man, woman and two children, in Boyle Heights. The Department of Homeland Security said its target was Christian Damian Cerno-Camacho, who was arrested in connection with punching an immigration officer. A lawyer representing Cerno-Camacho’s family said he is planning to file a lawsuit against the federal government. This week, Boyle Heights activists shut down a bridge that links downtown Los Angeles to the small enclave and marched with mariachis to the site of another recent arrest. Demands for the National Guard to return to normal duties were answered in part this week when 150 members were reassigned to wildfire season preparation. Some 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines remain at federal buildings in Los Angeles while a lawsuit filed by the state against the Trump administration is pending in court. A three-judge appeals court panel has said that the White House likely lawfully exercised its authority when Trump federalized the National Guard without Gov. Gavin Newsom’s consent. The ruling halted a lower court’s decision, which found the Trump administration had illegally activated the troops. Newsom said last month that he will pursue legal action to regain control of the guard. Lawmakers and legal organizations are waging their own court battles ahead of the holiday weekend. On Wednesday, immigrant rights groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking to block an "ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law" during immigration raids in Los Angeles. "Since June 6th, marauding, masked goons have descended upon Los Angeles, terrorizing our brown communities and tearing up the Constitution in the process," said Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. "No matter their status or the color of their skin," he added, "everyone is guaranteed Constitutional rights to protect them from illegal stops. We will hold DHS accountable.” The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the claims are false. This week, county supervisors approved a motion to pursue legal action against the Trump administration. The vote came after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles over its sanctuary city policies, which prevent local police agencies from voluntarily cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. The U.S. government claims sanctuary city ordinances discriminate against federal law enforcement agencies by treating them differently from other policing authorities.

New York Post [7/3/2025 6:13 PM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports when the feds nabbed a Chinese illegal immigrant who was wanted in Monterey Park, California, for assault with a deadly weapon they refused to release him back to the sanctuary Golden State to stand trial. The risk, one Border Patrol leader said, is that he’ll just be released back onto the streets. Instead, they kept him in federal custody so he could be put on a one-way flight back to China, according to the Department of Homeland Security. It’s just one example of a new Trump administration policy in which many illegal migrants in federal custody who have pending criminal charges in California will not be handed back to state authorities. Instead, they’ll be processed for deportation and shipped out the country, according to Fox News.

FOX News [7/5/2025 5:29 AM, Landon Mion, 46878K] reports multiple people were arrested in Los Angeles on Friday as anti-ICE demonstrators clashed with law enforcement and the U.S. military after weeks of protests against deportations and ICE raids, police said. Los Angeles police said there were "multiple arrests today during several different demonstrations" downtown. "Most were peaceful, but once again, as the evening approached, outside agitators began to cause issues," the department wrote on X. Earlier in the night, police wrote that demonstrators were "confronting Federal Protective Security Personnel and National Guard members.” "Less Lethal munitions have been deployed by Federal authorities," police wrote, adding that they may cause pain and discomfort. In response to the anti-ICE protests that began last month, the Trump administration deployed National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles, despite opposition from Gov. Gavin Newsom. Demonstrators met up for the protest on Friday at around 9:30 a.m. outside City Hall on Spring Street and took a 1.5-mile route through downtown, according to local outlet KCAL. Police said the group dispersed shortly after the incident commander authorized a dispersal order for the area on Friday night, according to a post at 7:17 p.m. local time. Officers from the Department of Homeland Security had declared the protest an unlawful assembly, independent journalist Anthony Cabassa wrote on X, adding that Marines and federal agents were using riot gear while ordering the crowd to disperse.

FOX News [7/3/2025 8:33 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 46878K] Video HERE reports the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) demanding an immediate halt to what it describes as unlawful immigration raids across the Los Angeles area targeting migrants with "brown skin.” The non-profit accuses Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of carrying out unconstitutional raids and then keeping migrants in inhumane conditions without beds and deprived of food and legal counsel. Homeland Security has denied all the claims in the lawsuit, saying that any accusations of racial profiling are "disgusting and categorically false.” ICE has carried out sweeping raids since June 6, arresting around 1,500 immigrants, including Latino day laborers, car wash workers, farmworkers and vendors – all in a bid to meet certain arrest quotas, the habeas petition states. The lawsuit accuses the federal government of keeping detainees at an overcrowded holding facility, referred to as "B-18," inside windowless rooms that are extremely cramped. The defendants include Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Attorney General Pam Bondi and multiple regional ICE, CBP, and FBI officials operating in Los Angeles. The lawsuit was filed by a coalition of individual immigrants and immigrant advocacy organizations, led by the ACLU and the non-profit Public Counsel as well as other legal partners. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin refuted the claims made in the lawsuit. "Any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically false," she told Fox 11 via a statement on Wednesday, adding that the lawsuit’s claims were "garbage.” She also denied the claims about poor conditions at ICE facilities. "Any claim that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are false," McLaughlin said. "In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most US prisons that hold actual US citizens. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [7/3/2025 5:56 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K] reports a group of Los Angeles immigrant advocates sued the Trump administration on Wednesday in U.S. District Court, alleging a systemic pattern of racially motivated arrests. Five individual workers and four civil rights groups filed the federal lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, among other officials. Plaintiffs allege masked federal agents have conducted "indiscriminate immigration operations" by flooding street corners, bus stops, parking lots, agricultural sites, day laborer corners and other places with checkpoints to "interrogate," according to the court document. "Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from," the lawsuit says. "If they hesitate, attempt to leave, or do not answer the questions to the satisfaction of the agents, they are detained, sometimes tackled, handcuffed, and/or taken into custody." Large groups recently protested the number of raids in the Los Angeles area and the treatment of illegal immigrants in custody. The lawsuit alleges detainees are being kept in "deplorable" and "dungeon like" conditions without food or clean drinking water. Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, denied those reports and said "enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence" before making arrests, as reported by the AP. "All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members," she added.

Univision [7/3/2025 5:19 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit in federal court against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), accusing its agents of “kidnapping” immigrants. This follows numerous immigration operations, especially in workplaces such as car washes, where hooded and armed federal agents carry out arrests without warrants or official identification. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to immediately freeze these practices, which the organization claims violate multiple constitutional protections, including the right to due process and protection against arbitrary detention. Activists and families have also reported excessive use of force during arrests.

Univision [7/4/2025 2:12 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports Sayda Mariela Ayala Pinto, 35, was arrested Thursday, July 3 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside a courthouse where she was facing a civil hearing on multiple counts of fraud. Ayala is a DACA recipient and is now at risk of deportation. For more than five years she has been accused by dozens of victims, mostly Latino small business owners, of having swindled them through fraudulent transactions related to the purchase and sale of trucks through her company Milestone Truck, located in Whittier. "I always asked God to give us justice. We are too many victims," said Karen Núñez, one of the people affected, who claims to have lost close to one million dollars. Núñez testified during the hearing against Ayala and witnessed the arrest, which she recorded with her cell phone. The arrest occurred during a court recess. According to Núñez, Ayala was leaving the building when several federal agents quickly surrounded her and proceeded to handcuff her, placing chains around her waist. Ayala faces more than 20 criminal charges, including embezzlement, check fraud and identity theft. According to the allegations, he used his clients’ social security numbers to open credit accounts without their consent. Ruben Sandoval, another victim, said Ayala allegedly reported his son to ICE in an apparent act of retaliation, which led to his immigration detention. "Today I feel a little closer to justice," she said. Attorney Adam Dolce, who represents several of the victims, said in a statement that after years of civil and criminal investigations, the arrest represents "some kind of justice finally achieved." With this arrest, Ayala could face not only a lengthy criminal sentence, but also the loss of his immigration protection under DACA. ICE has not confirmed whether removal proceedings have been initiated against him. "I thank God for this. To know that he is no longer going to scam anyone else, that he is no longer going to destroy more families, more lives," concluded Karen Nuñez. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Newsweek [7/4/2025 2:52 PM, Billal Rahman, 52220K] reports Canadian wife of a MAGA voter and mother of three U.S. children was detained by federal authorities during her green card interview. Cynthia Olivera, 45, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chatsworth, California, on June 13, according to a post on Change.org. "The U.S. is my country. That’s where I met my husband. That’s where I went to high school, junior high, elementary. That’s where I had my kids," Olivera told ABC 10News San Diego from a detention center in El Paso, Texas. She and her husband both supported President Donald Trump’s plans to conduct mass deportations. Officials in Canada told Newsweek that it is aware of Cynthia’s detention. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek, in part, "On June 13, 2025, ICE arrested Cynthia Ivanna Olivera, an illegal alien from Canada, who was previously deported and chose to ignore our law and again illegally entered the country. A judge issued her a final order of removal in 1999, and she was deported to Canada. That same year, she reentered the country illegally AGAIN. Reentering the county after being deported is a FELONY. "She will remain in ICE custody pending removal to Canada."

Los Angeles Times [7/4/2025 6:23 PM, Alene Tchekmedyian and Caroline Petrow-Cohen, 14672K] reports Lawrence Herrera started carrying a folded-up copy of his birth certificate in his wallet last week. He also saved a picture of his passport on his phone’s camera roll. For the 67-year-old Atwater Village resident who was born and raised here, the precaution felt silly. But he’s not taking any chances. “I started hearing, ‘He’s taking anyone and everyone,’” Herrera said, referrring to President Trump’s immigration crackdown. “I thought, ‘You know what? That could be me.’” Herrera was one of hundreds of protesters who spent Fourth of July in downtown Los Angeles to rally against the immigration raids that have roiled the region and the surge in federal funding approved this week to keep them going. Many on the street said they were skipping the barbecues and fireworks this year. Instead, they showed up at City Hall, some in costumes or wrapped in flags. A 15-foot balloon of Trump in a Russian military uniform sat in Grand Park. Erica Ortiz, 49, was dressed as Lady Liberty in shackles. Herrera wore a Revolutionary War outfit covered in anti-Trump pins that he said was appropriate for the occasion. “Guess what? We have no independence right now,” he said. “That’s why we’re out here.” They marched through Olvera Street and outside the Federal Building, which houses the immigration court, waving signs. “No more occupation! No more deportation!” the protesters chanted. Around 7 p.m., officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division issued a dispersal order for a crowd of demonstrators on Alameda Street between Aliso and Temple streets. The crowd dispersed less than 30 minutes later after federal authorities deployed “less lethal munitions,” according to a post on X by the Central Division. Officers made “multiple arrests” Friday during several protests in the downtown area, the division said on X. “Most were peaceful but once again, as the evening approached, outside agitators began to cause issues,” one Central Division post said of the demonstrations. An LAPD spokesperson said late Friday that the department did not have additional information about the arrests or police actions at the protests.

NPR [7/4/2025 1:00 PM, Adrian Florido, 37958K] reports Emma de Paz was selling breakfast to day laborers outside a Los Angeles Home Depot on June 19 when immigration agents showed up. Some of them chased workers through the parking lot. Others rounded up the food cart vendors. De Paz was handcuffed, forced onto her knees, and driven to a federal detention center downtown. She called her brother, Carlos Barrera, from the facility. "They didn’t ask if she had papers or not. They just grabbed her and put her into one of the vans," Barrera said, recalling his conversation with his sister, who has since been transferred to a desert detention center 90 miles away. "They had no reason to arrest her. They didn’t have a warrant.” Though his sister is undocumented, Barrera said the agents could not have known that before detaining her or many of the 29 other people they rounded up that morning. "She has dark skin. They assumed she was Hispanic, and they took her," he said. "It’s the racial factor.” Immigrant advocates and civil rights lawyers say evidence is mounting that immigration agents carrying out the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown in southern California are engaging in widespread racial profiling. They’ve raided known hubs for Latino workers almost daily – hardware store parking lots, car washes, and street vendor corners. Videos of many of those operations, filmed by bystanders and posted to social media, have shown agents arresting people who appear to be Latino as they stand on sidewalks or wait at bus stops. On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and other legal groups filed a federal class action lawsuit alleging that immigration agents roving the streets are targeting people based on the color of their skin or their apparent occupation. They want a judge to declare the raids unconstitutional. "There is a real sense that it is open season on anyone who appears to be an immigrant," said Eva Bitran, director of immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Southern California. "They are arriving, corralling people before asking one single question, just based on their location and their appearance. Often they are handcuffing people even before they have asked for their papers, or even after a person has said ‘I am a US citizen, I have a green card, I have every right to be here.’ ". Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs with the Department of Homeland Security, denied that immigration agents are engaging in racial profiling. "Any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE," McLaughlin said in a statement. "DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence," she added. "We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement is trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability.” But some legal experts say the indiscriminate sweeps agents appear to be carrying out likely violate rules governing their authority to arrest people they encounter in public, including Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable seizure. Under federal law, immigration agents can question anyone about their immigration status. But before arresting someone in public without a warrant, "agents have to have a ‘reasonable suspicion’ that someone is in the country illegally," said Jean Reisz, professor of immigration law at the University of Southern California. "That reasonable suspicion has to be based on articulable facts. It can’t just be based on race. It can’t be that this person looks like what I think someone from another country looks like.”

Bloomberg Law News [7/3/2025 11:09 AM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 88K] reports US Customs and Border Protection plans to reissue regulations creating a system for tracking biometric data of people entering and leaving the US, including use of facial recognition technology. The Department of Homeland Security sent the new measure to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (RIN: 1651-AB12) for review Wednesday. It would be issued as an interim final rule, allowing it to take effect immediately. DHS advances the rule as it takes a number of steps to expand the data at its disposal for tracking and detaining immigrants in the US. It’s sought access to individuals’ data from multiple federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services, to aid immigration enforcement. US Citizenship and Immigration Services has also reportedly increased requests for biometric data from H-1B specialty occupation workers when businesses file to renew an employee’s H-1B status or submit petitions to sponsor them for green cards. The new regulation appears to revive a proposal from the first Trump administration that would have mandated that all non-citizens be photographed upon entry or exit.

Washington Post [7/4/2025 6:00 AM, Mark Berman and Jeremy Roebuck, 32099K] reports the Justice Department’s pledge to prioritize stripping citizenship from naturalized U.S. citizens in more cases is fueling apprehension, with some immigration experts and attorneys calling the directive from a department leader ominous and a threat to due process. Federal authorities have sparingly sought to rescind naturalized citizenships in recent decades, a process known as “denaturalization,” with a handful of cases each year. In a memo last month, Brett A. Shumate, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said it would now “prioritize and maximally pursue” court cases aimed at taking citizenship away from people accused of wrongdoing. Shumate wrote that the agency would focus on several categories, including those involving people accused of being threats to national security, committing violent crimes or failing to disclose felonies during their naturalization. Previous administrations have also sought to denaturalize citizens in similar cases. But immigration experts and attorneys expressed concerns that Shumate’s announcement — which involved a wider pool of people who could be targeted, including those allegedly affiliated with drug cartels or gangs — may signal a broader use of denaturalization as a tool. Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, his administration has taken an aggressive approach to immigration and sought to ramp up deportations, cut down on border crossings and eliminate birthright citizenship. “This fits into very hostile attitudes towards people who are foreign-born in the U.S.,” said Jean Reisz, who teaches law at the University of Southern California and co-directs the school’s Immigration Clinic. Denaturalization cases historically have most often been deployed against people accused of hiding their past ties to war crimes, terrorist groups and human rights violations while applying for citizenship, according to experts and data on cases brought by the government. Many of the most prominent cases, for instance, involved people who hid their connections to the Nazis when applying for U.S. citizenship. “It is really about proving there was some misrepresentation, a material misrepresentation or fraud in the process itself,” said David Thronson, a law professor at Michigan State University who has worked on and studied immigration matters. “It’s an error-correcting procedure.” Finding errors in the process is not easy, Thronson said, because officials are “fairly rigorous in vetting people in the front end,” which involves background checks and interviews. “You don’t just walk in and get naturalization,” he said. Naturalized citizens account for a significant portion of the American population. According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2022 there were more than 24 million naturalized citizens living in the United States.

Telemundo20 [7/3/2025 9:18 PM, Karla Gonzalez, 37K] reports dozens of immigrants in Tijuana are hopeful of the possible resumption of application for political asylum to the United States following the ruling of a federal judge. One of them is the Mexican Viridiana Aquino who has a year in the border city waiting to apply for asylum. "I was asking for the CBP, but with this gentleman everything was closed," he said. The situation of her and her family, as well as that of thousands more immigrants, could change. "Let the judge tell him to let us through for me is a great joy, because we are not crossing as illegal we are not doing things wrong," Viridiana added. It was on the first day of his second administration that President Trump blocked applications for political asylum under an executive order. "What this court said is that the section of the law that the president was using was not valid for that purpose," immigration lawyer María Chávez told Telemundo 20. Trump and several officials have pointed to an alleged invasion and abuse of applicants to support the blockade, which has meant several lawsuits for the federal government. We are violating the rights of people, of human beings who come here to seek safety and protection and we are denying it and that is not correct," said lawyer Chavez, who from her office showed all the files of political asylum seekers left in limbo. Tricia McLaughlin, undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said in a statement: "The president historically secured the border and a dishonest district judge removed the tools that Congress had provided, enlivening the security of Americans. We hope a higher court will give us the reason. "I have faith that the courts and the judges will continue to continue to protect the law of the United States and protect the rights of migrants in this country," Chavez added.

NBC News [7/3/2025 12:51 PM, Daniella Silva and Suzanne Gamboa, 44540K] reports two pregnant women, one in North Carolina and one in South Carolina, face potentially fractured paths for their babies after the Supreme Court limited judges’ ability to issue nationwide orders blocking the Trump administration’s plan to end birthright citizenship. Trinidad and Monica, whose babies are due to be born in late July or early August, are Venezuelan asylum-seekers and plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship. The court’s decision did not settle whether Trump’s order restricting birthright citizenship is constitutional. But the recent decision could put Monica and her baby at risk when the child is born, because South Carolina was not among the 22 states that challenged Trump’s order. The ruling allows the order to go into effect on July 27 in the remaining 28 states. Under Trump’s plan, birthright citizenship would be limited to those who have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. The order also denies citizenship to children whose mothers are temporarily in the United States, including those visiting under the Visa Waiver Program or as tourists, or who are students and whose fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents. For now, all children born in the United States are U.S. citizens. Whether that changes on July 27 depends on litigation in the courts, the states where the children are born and how the Trump administration implements, if it is able to, its executive order to keep some newborns from automatically being U.S. citizens. The Supreme Court decision left open the potential for class action lawsuits to block certain policies nationwide. Monica and Trinidad’s attorneys are seeking class action status for the case and want to bring on additional pregnant women from around the country.

Washington Post [7/4/2025 5:25 PM, Sophia Solano, 32099K] reports that, at her naturalization ceremony at Mount Vernon, Randa Alakkad raised her right hand and wiped a tear off her cheek with her left. When she came to study in the United States from Syria 12 years ago, she never expected she would take her oath of allegiance on the country’s 249th birthday, at the home of George Washington. "This is my country now," she said. Her sundress looked breezy next to the suits and ties men wore on the sweltering Bowling Lawn, and atop her head was a tiny Uncle Sam-style hat and an American flag pinned to a headband. "It’s a happy moment. I’m very proud.” She was among more than 100 immigrants from 95 countries who became U.S. citizens at the historic estate in Virginia on Friday morning. Thousands of spectators came to the ceremony, and to watch former California governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger deliver the marquee address. The event, one of several hosted as part of Mount Vernon’s Fourth of July celebration, comes during President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration. For some, becoming a citizen allayed a persistent worry that they could be deported, even among those who entered the country legally. Roxana Alvarado came to the United States 25 years ago from Costa Rica with her husband, a pastor. She has taught Spanish for several years at nearby Woodley Hills Elementary School. "I’ve always been legal since coming to this country, but it’s still bad because of my physical profile," she said, waving down her body. "But at least now that I’m a citizen, it’s going to be safer. I just really worry for people in other situations.” Some of the citizen candidates, like Yung Yoo, have never voted before; he was too young when he immigrated here from South Korea. He and others filled out forms provided by volunteers from the voter registration nonprofit Headcount. They were instructed not to check the box next to "citizen" or return the form before their oath to avoid accidental voter fraud. "I waited so long to vote and I’m finally able to," Yoo said. "That’s the big thing. I always felt like I’m in between because I lived in South Korea for 17 years, but I’ve lived here longer now. There’s a duality in my identity, but I wanted to be a citizen and now, I am.” The loudest cheers came at the end of the naturalization ceremony — and at the start of Schwarzenegger’s address. He recounted tales from his days as a bodybuilder and a story about Washington allegedly laughing when Chief Justice John Marshall ripped his trousers. "You don’t need a cartridge belt across your chest, or a bazooka against your shoulder to be an action hero," he said. "You don’t need the stunts and the special effects and the Hollywood magic to be an action hero. Immigrants are action heroes. … It took action to get here. Laziness did not get you here."

San Diego Union Tribune [7/4/2025 8:05 AM, David J. Bohnet, 1611K] reports thirty members of the U.S. armed forces took an oath and became U.S. citizens at a military naturalization ceremony held just ahead of the Fourth of July holiday. High atop the USS Midway Museum, the ceremony Thursday included music from the San Diego Marine Corp Recruit Depot band and included family and friends who gathered to celebrate the country’s newest citizens, many of whom have been waiting years to complete the naturalization process. Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class, Crystal-Lyn Nguyen, whose family immigrated from the Philippines, reflected on the momentous day with tears in her eyes. “I feel free,” Nguyen said. “I waited 18 years to finally become a United States citizen. My family went through a lot to get here. I’m actually the first one to get my citizenship.” Her husband, Mark Nguyen, who also serves in the Navy, attended with their two sons who waved American flags as they watched the ceremony. “My wife gets to live in this country, be a part of this country, it’s a big deal for her,” he said. “Especially because we serve together.” Retired Navy Cmdr. David Koontz, the USS Midway Museum’s director of marketing, delivered opening remarks and thanked the soon-to-be U.S. citizens for their service to the United States. “I have a little bit in common with you folks here this morning,” Koontz said. “Both my wife and my daughter were born outside the United States, so I spent a number of years going through the process. So, I’d like to thank you guys for your dedication and your courage to be going through this process and serving in the uniform of a nation that you did not come from.” The presentation of the candidates for citizenship was given by the acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services District 44, Joseph J. Hamilton. “Today you take that last great step on your immigration journey,” Hamilton said. “Today, you take the Oath of Allegiance, and when you do, the United States of America officially becomes your country, your home, your future. While your service and sacrifice have already made you a part of our nation’s fabric, today you will be fully embraced as one of us.”

Just the News [7/4/2025 10:46 PM, Charlotte Hazard] reports Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin says President Donald Trump’s "big beautiful bill" will provide her department with material and funding for the border wall and about 3,000 more border patrol agents. "We’re going to with this big, beautiful bill...we’ll get about 3000 new border patrol agents," McLaughlin said. "We’ll get cutting-edge technology, hundreds more miles of wall, which we need. We know a physical barrier matters." The Senate on Tuesday morning passed Trump’s "big beautiful bill" in a 50-50 vote, with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. The House approved the bill Thursday and Trump signed it into law Friday during a festive Fourth of July celebration at the White House. The law includes key components of Trump’s campaigned-upon agenda, such as no taxes on tips, increased border security funding and extending his 2017 tax cuts. "We know a physical barrier matters, and it does prevent people from illegally entering our country," McLaughlin said. McLaughlin pointed out the lower number of illegal immigrants at the U.S. southern border has freed up border patrol agents to be able to focus on deportations. "They’re not stuck at the processing centers," she said.

USA Today [7/5/2025 5:04 AM, Lauren Villagran, 75552K] reports that, tucked into the budget reconciliation bill is a Texas-sized golden nugget: $13.5 billion that could pay back what the state spent on border security during the Biden administration. The bill – which passed Congress on July 3 – doesn’t mention Texas by name. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lobbied hard for the line item’s inclusion, and the state’s Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn fought for the reimbursement. "Under Operation Lone Star, Texas allocated more than $11 billion of Texas taxpayer money for border security, and earlier this year I requested Congress reimburse Texas for these costs in full," Abbott said in a May statement, after an initial version of the bill passed in the House of Representatives. The new "State Border Border Security Reinforcement Fund" earmarks $10 billion for grants to states that paid for border barriers or other security measures beginning Jan. 20, 2021 – President Joe Biden’s inauguration day. Notably, during the Biden administration, no other state spent more than Texas on border security measures. Under Operation Lone Star, the state deployed thousands of Texas National Guard troops to the border, placed controversial buoy barriers in the Rio Grande and paid to bus more than 100,000 migrants to Democrat-led cities around the country. Abbott was one of Biden’s leading critics on the border during a period when the Border Patrol was registering more than 2 million migrant encounters a year – many of them lawful asylum-seekers. The "reinforcement" provision "just says ‘states can apply.’ But what states incurred expenses? Texas and Arizona," said Adam Isacson, director of defense oversight for the Washington Office on Latin America. Early during the Biden administration, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, sought to build a makeshift border barrier out of old shipping containers. But legal challenges forced his administration to remove the barrier, and his Democratic successor, Gov. Katie Hobbs, had previously asked the Biden administration to reimburse the state for border security funding totaling $513 million. The budget reconciliation bill includes an additional $3.5 billion under a fund whose acronym spells BIDEN: "Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide." That money can be disbursed to states that aid the federal government in its immigration crackdown. In an emailed response to questions, Abbott Press Secretary Andrew Mahaleris declined to say how much money Texas will apply for but told USA TODAY the governor "will continue to work closely with the Trump administration to secure the border. ".

AP [7/4/2025 12:14 AM, Morgan Lee, 56000K] reports orange no-entry signs posted by the U.S. military in English and Spanish dot the New Mexico desert, where a border wall cuts past onion fields and parched ranches with tufts of tall grass growing amidst wiry brush and yucca trees. The Army has posted thousands of the warnings in New Mexico and western Texas, declaring a "restricted area by authority of the commander." It’s part of a major shift that has thrust the military into border enforcement with Mexico like never before. The move places long stretches of the border under the supervision of nearby military bases, empowering U.S. troops to detain people who enter the country illegally and sidestep a law prohibiting military involvement in civilian law enforcement. It is done under the authority of the national emergency on the border declared by President Donald Trump on his first day in office. U.S. authorities say the zones are needed to close gaps in border enforcement and help in the wider fight against human smuggling networks and brutal drug cartels. The militarization is being challenged in court, and has been criticized by civil rights advocates, humanitarian aid groups and outdoor enthusiasts who object to being blocked from public lands while troops have free rein. Abbey Carpenter, a leader of a search-and-rescue group for missing migrants, said public access is being denied across sweltering stretches of desert where migrant deaths have surged. "Maybe there are more deaths, but we don’t know," she said. Two militarized zones form a buffer along 230 miles (370 kilometers) of border, from Fort Hancock, Texas, through El Paso and westward across vast New Mexico ranchlands. The Defense Department added an additional 250-mile (400-kilometer) zone last week in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and plans another near Yuma, Arizona. Combined, the zones will cover nearly one-third of the U.S. border with Mexico. They are patrolled by at least 7,600 members of the armed forces, vastly expanding the U.S. government presence on the border.

NewsNation [7/3/2025 6:03 PM, Ali Bradley, 5801K] reports Ali Bradley gets exclusive access to see how border patrol agents train and meets the next generation at an academy graduation ceremony. Agents teach Bradley how to shoot and explain the spike in agent applications they’ve seen since the Trump administration took over the department in January. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/3/2025 10:00 AM, Kurt Knutsson, 46878K] reports at this point, most Americans are aware that their personal information is often up for sale. But few would have expected their domestic flight records to be part of the trade. You might think that when you book a flight, the data stays between you, the airline and perhaps your travel agency, but a new report suggests otherwise. Internal documents reveal that major U.S. airlines have been funneling detailed passenger data to a little-known broker, which then sells that information directly to the Department of Homeland Security. Which airlines shared data and how the travel intelligence program works. At the center of the controversy is the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), a company jointly owned by several of the largest U.S. airlines, including Delta, American Airlines and United. ARC’s core business includes managing ticket settlements between airlines and travel agencies. However, under a lesser-known initiative called the Travel Intelligence Program (TIP), ARC collects and monetizes vast amounts of data from domestic flight bookings. This includes names, complete itineraries and payment details. Internal government records and procurement documents reveal that Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the Department of Homeland Security, has purchased access to ARC’s TIP data to track individuals of interest across the U.S. While CBP maintains that this data supports criminal and administrative investigations, critics argue that the arrangement raises major privacy concerns. The data is shared without travelers’ knowledge or consent, and ARC reportedly requested that the agency keep its identity confidential unless legally required to disclose it. The documents confirm that CBP’s initial contract with ARC began in June 2024. It has already been extended and may continue through 2029. Although the initial amounts seem modest, around $11,000 with a recent $6,800 update, the implications are far-reaching.

FOX News [7/3/2025 1:54 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports that migrant shelters in the United States are closing their doors in large numbers as the border crisis has waned significantly. In January, two shelters shuttered in Pima County, Arizona, according to the Arizona Daily Star. In San Diego, the Jewish Family Service closed its shelter in February, specifically citing policy changes like the CBP One app going away as part of the reason for its closure. In Texas, the San Antonio-based Migrant Resource Center that opened in 2022 closed in February due to the plunge in people crossing into the United States, according to Texas Public Radio. On the East Coast, New York City closed 63 migrant shelters this year, according to PIX11, and Massachusetts is down to four shelters from over 120 in 2024, according to NBC 10 Boston. The outlet reported that 24 of the Massachusetts shelters closed their doors this week. "President Trump ended Joe Biden’s illegal alien invasion and ushered in the most secure border ever. Migrant shelters are shuttering because illegal aliens are no longer being released into our great country – that’s the Trump Effect," White House Assistant Press Secretary Liz Huston said in a statement to Fox News Digital. The White House is also touting that processing facilities along the border have closed, as the United States Customs and Border Protection told Fox News Digital in May that all of its "soft-sided" facilities in Texas, California and Arizona have shut down. "Due to the unprecedented drop in apprehensions of illegal aliens as a result of the President’s recent executive actions, CBP is not operating any temporary, soft-sided processing facilities where illegal aliens have been held in specific locations along the southwest border. CBP no longer has a need for them as illegal aliens are being quickly removed," a CBP spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital at the time. "The U.S. Border Patrol has full capability to manage the detention of apprehended aliens in USBP’s permanent facilities. Manpower and other resources dedicated to temporary processing facilities will be redirected toward other priorities and will speed CBP’s progress in gaining operational control over the southwest border," the spokesperson added. In Mexico, there has also been a reported drop in people seeking to come to the U.S. illegally. The latest border numbers revealed that numbers remain significantly lower than they were compared with the Biden administration, as there were only 6,070 southern border apprehensions in June by Border Patrol, and there were zero releases in May or June. On June 28, there were only 137 encounters at the southern border, according to CBP data. The comments from the White House come as the House is in its closing hours of deciding on the Trump-backed reconciliation bill, which includes major funding for the president’s border and immigration agenda totaling out to roughly $170 billion, according to Reuters. Billions will go toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the agency ramps up its deportation efforts, including a goal of hiring at least 10,000 more agents, according to the White House. In addition, the bill seeks to more than double the detention capacity for those in deportation proceedings and fund further border wall construction, according to Reuters. "Once the One, Big, Beautiful Bill is passed, this historic border security progress will be made permanent and the largest mass deportation campaign in American history will be carried out," Huston added. Unsurprisingly, not everybody is on board with the immigration measures outlined. "A deportation machine will be unleashed on steroids," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies said during his lengthy House floor speech on Thursday.

Houston Chronicle [7/3/2025 6:14 PM, Jeremy Wallace, 1982K] reports Texas stands to get billions in federal reimbursements for money state officials spent trying to secure the border during the Biden administration under the big spending package approved and sent to President Donald Trump on Thursday. In total, the "big, beautiful bill" has $13.5 billion set aside to refund states for money they spent to secure the border during the four years President Joe Biden was in office. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn noted that Texas had asked for only $11 billion, but GOP lawmakers wanted to put enough money aside for other states to seek reimbursements too without diminishing what he said Texas deserves. "We wanted to make sure that number was high enough that Texas would not get shortchanged," Cornyn said in explaining how the fund grew to $13.5 billion. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, has pointed to the once record border crossings in places like Eagle Pass and Del Rio as evidence that Texas was forced to deal with more expenses than other states. Abbott has been pushing President Donald Trump and Congress to reimburse Texas for building border walls, deploying troops to South Texas and busing migrants to other states. According to the legislation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will have states apply for reimbursement grants starting in 90 days. Abbott has not said how Texas will use that reimbursement if it qualifies for all the $11 billion it is seeking.

The Hill [7/3/2025 11:34 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18649K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem signed a waiver allowing 17 miles of "waterborne barrier" to be constructed quicker in Texas as part of a broader effort to erect President Trump’s border wall. "A capability gap has been identified in waterways along the Southwest border where drug smuggling, human trafficking and other dangerous and illegal activity occurs. In response to this gap, CBP has identified the requirement for the construction of waterborne barriers to support the border security mission in waterways," U.S. Customs and Border Protection wrote in a release. "In addition, waterborne barriers are intended to create a safer border environment for patrolling agents, as well as deter illegal aliens from attempting to illegally cross the border through dangerous waterways." The waiver from Noem allows the government to bypass the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires stringent environmental reviews before beginning construction. The barriers will be placed in the Rio Grande, the same river where the state of Texas placed buoys to deter migrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [7/3/2025 2:49 PM, Jim Morley, 4622K]

San Diego Union Tribune [7/3/2025 2:25 PM, Alexandra Mendoza, 1611K] reports passengers traveling northbound into San Diego through the Cross Border Xpress terminal can now make use of recently added technology aimed at streamlining the inspection process. For now, it is only available to U.S. citizens. CBX is among a dozen airports nationwide that have introduced Enhanced Passenger Processing technology from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Although CBX is not an airport, it is a terminal that connects Otay Mesa with the Tijuana International Airport via an enclosed sky bridge for ticketed passengers. The new processing system is now operational, ahead of the busy travel season, including the Fourth of July weekend. CBX CEO Jorge Goytortúa said that the system "makes the entry process much faster and more secure.” Before walking across the border bridge from Tijuana to Otay Mesa, passengers can scan their U.S. passport, in book or card form, at the scanners where they usually check their boarding passes and CBX tickets. The system allows for a customs assessment, including biometric or eligibility confirmation, ahead of time. Passengers will be provided with a card as proof that their documents have been scanned. Once they reach the U.S. side, they can bypass the standard inspection booths. Instead, they will be directed to a dedicated line at the bottom of the escalator, where their photo will be taken to verify that it matches their passport, a CBP spokesperson explained. "Customs and Border Protection remains committed to securing our borders while facilitating lawful travel in the United States," said CBP San Diego Director of Field Operations Sidney Aki in a statement shared by CBX. "By continuing to collaborate with our partners at CBX, we are advancing innovative procedures and technologies that strengthen efficiency and security at this unique port of entry," he added. The result should be shorter border crossing wait times, said Goytortúa. Currently, the average wait time from when passengers pick up their luggage on the Tijuana side until they enter the United States is 20 minutes on non-peak travel days. He estimated that for U.S. citizens using the new system, the wait time could decrease to an average of 12 minutes. Goytortúa said the new systems came online just ahead of one of the busiest travel weekends. He said CBX expects up to 16,000 passengers per day over the Fourth of July weekend, and about 430,000 passengers in total next month. CBX projects 4.7 million passengers by the end of the year. Last month, while announcing upcoming expansion projects, Goytortúa said that it is estimated that more than 38% of California residents who visit Mexico cross the border through CBX.

(B) NBC 5 News at 6am [7/3/2025 7:22 AM, Staff] reports that in recognition of Independence Day and in honor of those who served in the US military, the TSA has announced a new initiative to benefit servicemembers and their loved ones and relatives. Under a new program, Gold Star families can enroll in TSA PreCheck at no cost. Additionally, TSA is offering a $25 discount off the fee for military spouses.

USA Today [7/3/2025 2:52 PM, Kathleen Wong, 75552K] reports that travelers enduring scorching temperatures across the U.S. and Europe – or who tend to perspire profusely – may find their sweat stains triggering body scanner alarms at airport security. In a recent Reddit post, user u/ominous_pan said they couldn’t figure out why they set off the millimeter wave scanner at a TSA checkpoint – the machine that creates 3D images of a traveler’s body using radio waves. They claimed they had empty pockets and no body piercings. "I flew for the first time in 15 years this week and both airports flagged my crotch at the arms up scanner," the user wrote. In the comments, people suggested a potential reason was having sweat stains on her clothing, with several saying this has happened to them. It turns out that sweat can cause a false alarm at airport security, according to Shawna Malvini Redden, an organizational researcher and author of the book "101 Pat-Downs: An Undercover Look at Airport Security and the TSA." "The machine will send up an alarm if there’s anything out of the ordinary," Redden told USA TODAY. "Conceivably, the machines could bounce off the sweat and cause a false alarm." Here’s what travelers should know about sweat stains setting off false alarms. The machines where you enter and lift your arms use what’s called millimeter wave advanced imaging technology, which scans passengers’ bodies with non-ionizing radiation frequency, according to the Transportation Security Administration. The waves reflect off the body to detect weapons hidden underneath clothing, but can also catch water or sweat, according to ProPublica. Thicker or more layers of clothing are also more prone to setting off the alarm. In a statement, a TSA spokesperson confirmed that “added moisture from a person’s body can alter the density of clothing, so it is possible perspiration may cause our advanced imaging technology machines to alarm." False alarms with these scanners are not uncommon, with wigs, turbans and certain hairstyles also being wrongly detected by the machine. (Travelers can deny this type of screening in favor of a physical pat-down, unless their boarding pass states they’ve been selected for an enhanced screening.) Redden added that it’s probably not the sweat itself but the "darker shadow" of the stain that’s causing the false alarm. "Due to privacy software that protects passengers from having naked images of them produced by the scanners, (TSA officers) get a notation about an anomaly’s general location, but no information about exactly where or what the object might be," she continued.

NBC News [7/5/2025 1:11 AM, Rob Wile and Phil Helsel, 44540K] reports the death toll from devastating floods in the Texas Hill Country rose to 24 Friday night, officials said, as the search for more than 20 people missing from a girls summer camp continued through the night. The water from the flooded Guadalupe River swept into Kerr County and other areas around 4 a.m. Friday after heavy rains overnight, authorities said. Bodies were reported to have been found in cars swept away from upstream. Gov. Greg Abbott called it an “extraordinary catastrophe,” and said that search and rescue missions will continue through the night. “They will continue in the darkness of night, they will be taking place when the sun rises in the morning. They will be non-stop,” Abbott said at a press conference Friday night. The missing are from Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, which was hosting 750 children this week. Helicopters ferried dozens to safety Friday. Texas Game Wardens said in the evening that they were able to reach the camp with vehicles to bring out others. Between 23 and 25 people from Camp Mystic are unaccounted for, Kerr County Sheriff Larry L. Leitha Jr. said. Leitha said Friday night that the confirmed deaths in the county were 24, up from the 13 that he reported earlier in the day. A death was also reported in Kendall County, he said. Texas Director of Public Safety Col. Freeman Martin called the disaster "a mass casualty event." Helicopters with hoists were used to rescue survivors, including people from trees, officials said. Adjutant General of Texas Major General Thomas Suelzer said that by Friday night 237 people had been rescued, 167 of whom were brought to safety by helicopter. More than 400 people were on the ground responding to the disaster, Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick said. The Department of Homeland Security said the U.S. Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency had been activated. Patrick said he had been in contact with President Donald Trump. Trump called the floods “terrible” when asked by reporters about the situation Friday night on Air Force One, and he said the U.S. government will help. “We’re working with the governor. It’s a terrible thing,” he said. Helicopters Friday transported children from Camp Mystic to safety Friday, video from NBC affiliate WOAI of San Antonio showed. Texas Game Wardens said on Facebook Friday evening: “Have made entry into Camp Mystic with vehicles and are beginning to bring campers out!” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
New York Post [7/4/2025 6:09 PM, Katherine Donlevy and Caitlin McCormack, 49956K]
NPR [7/5/2025 4:09 AM, Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Vanessa Romo, 37958K]
Breitbart [7/4/2025 7:55 PM, Hannah Fingerhut and Jim Vertuno, 3077K]
NewsMax [7/4/2025 11:06 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4622K]

AP [7/5/2025 12:52 AM, Hannah Fingerhut and Jim Vertuno, 24051K] reports that, at least 24 people were killed and a frantic search continued overnight for many others missing in the Texas Hill Country, including more than 20 from a girls camp, after a storm unleashed nearly a foot of rain and sent floodwaters spilling out of the Guadalupe River. The destructive force of the fast-rising waters just before dawn Friday washed out homes and swept away vehicles. There were hundreds of rescues around Kerr County, including at least 167 by helicopter, authorities said. The total number of missing was not known but the sheriff said between 23 and 25 of them were girls who had been attending Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the river. On social media, parents and families posted desperate pleas for information about loved ones caught in the flood zone. “The camp was completely destroyed,” said Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers at Camp Mystic. “A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary.” She said a raging storm woke up her cabin around 1:30 a.m. Friday, and when rescuers arrived, they tied a rope for the girls to hold as the children in her cabin walked across bridge with floodwaters whipping around the calves and knees. The flooding in the middle of the night on the Fourth of July holiday caught many residents, campers and officials by surprise. Officials defended their preparations for severe weather and their response but said they had not expected such an intense downpour that was, in effect, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area. One National Weather Service forecast this week had called for only between three and six inches (76 to 152 millimeters) of rain, said Nim Kidd, the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. “It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,” he said. At a news conference late Friday Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said 24 people had been confirmed killed. Authorities said 237 people had been recued so far. A river gauge at Hunt recorded a 22 foot rise (6.7 meters) in about two hours, according to Bob Fogarty, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office. The gauge failed after recording a level of 29 and a half feet (9 meters). “The water’s moving so fast, you’re not going to recognize how bad it is until it’s on top of you,” Fogarty said. On the Kerr County sheriff’s office Facebook page, people posted pictures of loved ones and begged for help finding them. At least 400 people were on the ground helping in the response, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said. Nine rescue teams, 14 helicopters and 12 drones were being used, with some people being rescued from trees.

CBS News [7/4/2025 12:18 PM, Staff, 51860K] reports w ater rescues and evacuations are underway in central Texas Friday morning after torrential sent river levels surging and triggering deadly flash flooding. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Houston Chronicle [7/4/2025 11:53 PM, Peter Warren, 1982K] reports Texas officials reported at least 25 people died and 237 people were rescued Friday after major flooding along the Guadalupe River in Central Texas. An official tally of those missing was unable to be counted as of Friday night. "We don’t have an estimate," Kerr County Sheriff Larry L. Leitha said. "The problem was it was a holiday weekend here. We have a lot of campers here, and we do not know that number at this time.” Gov. Greg Abbott said the state won’t rest until every missing person is found. "We remain in a search and rescue posture right now," Abbott said. "It’s been going on over the course of the day ... They will continue in the darkness of night. They will be taking place when the sun rises in the morning. They will be nonstop, seeking to find everybody who is unaccounted for.” Among those unaccounted for are around 23-to-25 people from Camp Mystic, Leitha said. Camp Mystic is a private Christian girls summer camp in Hunt, where earlier Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said 23 girls attending the camp were missing. Officials said they were in contact with about 18 camps during the day. "All the other camps we’ve accounted for everybody," Leitha said. Of the 237 people who were rescued or evacuated, 167 of them were by helicopter. Officials said more than 1,000 state officials and state partners responded to the flooding. Leitha said all issues from the flooding occurred in the 30 miles west of Kerrville on the Guadalupe River. Abbott said he received calls from Sen. Ted Cruz, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who all offered assistance if needed to the state of Texas. "This is a hard day," Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. said, "and there will be hard days to come.”

Houston Chronicle [7/4/2025 5:30 PM, Megan Menchaca and Rebekah F. Ward, 1982K] reports the Houston Fire Department said Friday that it is sending a crew to help with the response to the deadly and "devastating" flooding in the Texas Hill Country. According to the City of Houston, HFD sent an engine and four members from the Tactical Deployment Unit to respond to severe flooding in Kerr County. At least six people are dead and some children attending a local summer camp are missing after heavy rain in the region. "The loss of life and damage to the communities in Central Texas is tragic," Houston Fire Chief Thomas Muñoz said in a statement. "As we so often see help from around the state come to Houston when we face floods, we are proud to be able to support others in their time of need." Three HFD firefighters are also deploying as part of Texas A&M Task Force One, which is a federal team under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Urban Search and Rescue System. Mayor John Whitmire said he was checking in with Houstonians in the Hill Country, including parents with children in summer camps. He said that members of the Houston Fire Department will do "a great job assisting with response and recovery."

CBS News [7/3/2025 8:09 PM, Jared Ochacher, 51860K] reports a wildfire that broke out in California has rapidly spread to burn more than 70,800 acres, making it the largest in the state so far this year, according to officials. The Madre Fire was 10% contained as of Friday afternoon, Cal Fire said. The fire has threatened some 50 structures, but Cal Fire said it wasn’t yet aware of any injuries or damage. The fire began Wednesday in the Los Padres National Forest, federally managed land area in Central California, and has prompted evacuation orders, warnings and highway closures in residential San Luis Obispo County about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. Kern County is also experiencing various levels of evacuations. "As we approach the holiday weekend, the Madre Fire, the largest of 2025, is a stark reminder of potential dangers," the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement.

The New York Times [7/3/2025 3:05 PM, Amanda Holpuch, 138952K] reports a man has been arrested and accused of working with members of a white supremacist group to create a “hit list” of assassination targets, including a U.S. senator and a federal judge, the authorities said. Noah Lamb, 24, was arrested on Tuesday and indicted in the Eastern District of California on eight counts, including soliciting the murder of three federal officials. Prosecutors said Mr. Lamb had suggested people to include on a hit list and found personal information about them that was distributed to members of a group on Telegram, the messaging app. The people on the list were not named in court documents, but they include a sitting U.S. senator, a federal judge and a former U.S. attorney, as well as state and municipal officials and leaders of private companies and nongovernmental organizations.

Mr. Lamb was accused of being a member of the Terrorgram Collective, which operates on Telegram, and of playing a “central role” in the group’s effort to make a list of assassination targets. Mr. Lamb was charged with three counts of soliciting the murder of a federal official, three counts of doxxing a federal official, one count of conspiracy and one count of interstate threatening communications for offenses that court documents said took place from November 2021 through September 2024. NBC News [7/3/2025 10:34 AM, Minyvonne Burke, 44540K] reports that authorities allege that between November 2021 and September 2024, Lamb collaborated with members of the Terrorgram Collective to create a list of targets they viewed as "enemies of the cause of white supremacist accelerationism," the indictment states. The Terrorgram Collective is described as a network of white supremacist, neo-Nazi and accelerationist groups who promote violence and white supremacy, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The group primarily connects through the social networking app Telegram. An attorney for Lamb declined to comment on the case. The indictment does not name any of the targets but says that the list included a U.S. senator, a U.S. district judge, a former U.S. attorney general, as well as state and local officials, nongovernmental groups and business leaders. The targets were allegedly chosen because of race, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity based on the group’s belief that "the white race is superior," the Justice Department said in a Wednesday news release. Each target had a "list card" that allegedly included reasons why the group viewed them as an enemy, according to the indictment. The list allegedly labeled the judge as "an invader" from a foreign country and highlighted the judge’s ruling on an immigration issue, the indictment states. Federal prosecutors say the senator was labeled "an Anti-White, Anti-gun, Jewish senator" and that the former attorney general was called a racial slur. According to the news release, Lamb was responsible for identifying the targets and obtaining their home addresses and other personal information, which other group members could then disseminate. "Transnational criminal networks that promote extremist ideology and seek to commit targeted assassinations and cause terror obviously have no place in our society," Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in a statement.

Federal News Network [7/4/2025 3:25 PM, Justin Doubleday, 2346K] reports House lawmakers have unveiled a bipartisan Coast Guard authorization bill that seeks to address the service’s personnel shortages and aging equipment, while also creating stronger protections for service members from sexual assault and harassment. The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025, introduced this week by leaders of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, would authorize funding for the service through 2029. The bill seeks to bolster many aspects of a reform plan called "Force Design 2028," that was formally unveiled by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in May. The bill would authorize the Coast Guard to increase its end strength to 60,000 by fiscal 2028, aligning with the administration’s plans to increase the service’s workforce by at least 15,000 personnel over the next few years. The House committee’s authorization legislation was introduced shortly before lawmakers passed the major budget and reconciliation bill, which includes an additional $24.5 billion for the Coast Guard to invest in shipbuilding, aircraft, shore facilities and maintenance. The legislation would also create a Coast Guard Service Secretary position, similar to other branches of the military. The Coast Guard commandant, a four-star admiral, is currently tasked with leading the service. The Trump administration has also proposed establishing a civilian Coast Guard secretary position. "The Coast Guard is one of our nation’s six armed services, and Congress must provide these brave men and women the support they need to carry out their many missions. That’s exactly what this bill does," House T&I Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said in a statement. "From protecting our maritime borders, to stemming the tide of illegal migrants and drugs into the country, to ensuring the safety of mariners and much more, this bill supports the important security, safety, and economically critical work of the Coast Guard.” Meanwhile, the Senate passed a two-year Coast Guard reauthorization bill in March. The Senate’s legislation includes many similar provisions as the House committee’s bill, though it does not create a Coast Guard secretary position. The House committee’s legislation would bring parity to parental leave for Coast Guard reservists, aligning with a provision in the fiscal 2025 defense authorization law. The bill would also give the Coast Guard more flexibility to acquire housing for service members. It would require the Coast Guard to update Congress on its implementation of recommendations from a 2024 Government Accountability Office report, "Better Feedback Collection and Information Could Enhance Housing Program.”

Reuters [7/3/2025 5:06 PM, Lisa Baertlein, 51390K] reports President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending bill earmarks more than $8.6 billion to increase the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker fleet in the Arctic, where Washington hopes to counter rising Russian and Chinese dominance. The funding includes $4.3 billion for up to three new heavy Coast Guard Polar Security Cutters, $3.5 billion for medium Arctic Security Cutters, and $816 million for procurement of additional light and medium icebreaking cutters. The cutters will have reinforced hulls and specially angled bows designed for open-water icebreaking. The Coast Guard had been seeking eight to nine Arctic-ready icebreakers. Its current fleet now just includes three.

Breitbart [7/4/2025 10:57 AM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports U.S. Coast Guard crews led a multi-agency, multi-national effort to seize more than 5,500 pounds of drugs from smugglers in the Caribbean Sea. The seizures came during four separate interdictions leading to the seizure of 2,200 pounds of cocaine and 3,320 pounds of marijuana in the days leading up to America’s 249th Independence Day celebration. "Stopping harmful and illicit narcotics from reaching our shores and entering our communities is a team effort," said Cmdr. Brian Gismervik, Coast Guard Cutter Northland’s commanding officer. "In the dynamic maritime environment, it takes the combined efforts of our joint force DoD, DHS, and international partners to combat transnational criminal organizations.” The interdictions came in the days leading up to the July 4th Independence Day weekend. Coast Guard officials sent the following. Coast Guard officials stated: Detecting and interdicting illicit drug traffickers on the high seas involves significant interagency and international coordination. Joint Interagency Task Force-South, in Key West, conducts the detection and monitoring of aerial and maritime transit of illegal drugs. Once an interdiction becomes imminent, the law enforcement phase of the operation begins, and control of the operation shifts to the U.S. Coast Guard for the interdiction and apprehension phases.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [7/3/2025 1:31 PM, Pilar Arias, 46878K]
FOX News [7/3/2025 10:53 AM, Staff, 46878K]
Washington Examiner [7/3/2025 4:02 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1934K]

Washington Times [7/3/2025 10:22 AM, Mike Glenn, 2106K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard this week said deaths linked to recreational boating in 2024 were the fewest since it started collecting such statistics more than 50 years ago. Boating fatalities fell 1.4% to 556 from 564 in 2023, Coast Guard officials said. While the number of deaths decreased in 2024, nonfatal injuries rose 2.1%, from 2,126 in 2023 to 2,170 last year. Alcohol consumption while boating continues to be the leading known contributing factor to fatal accidents. It accounted for 92 deaths, or 20% of total fatalities in 2024, the officials said. "Boating under the influence is not only illegal, but it is also dangerous," said Capt. Robert Compher, the Coast Guard’s director of inspections and compliance. "The effects of alcohol can be magnified when boating in the sun and on a moving vessel. Staying sober protects you and those around you.” Most of the deaths occurred on boats operated by people who hadn’t received boating safety instructions. They accounted for roughly 70% of fatalities. Open motorboats, personal watercraft and cabin cruisers were the kind of vessels most involved in reported incidents, the officials said. The boat-related fatality rate was 4.8 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels, a 2% decrease from the previous year’s rate of 4.9 deaths per 100,000. The fatality rate was 20.6 deaths per 100,000 in 1971, when the Boat Safety Act became law, the officials said.

HS Today [7/4/2025 6:16 AM, Staff, 75K] reports approximately 250 young women and men of the incoming Class of 2029 arrived at the Coast Guard Academy, Monday, June 30, where they will start Day One of their 200 week cadet training program. Day One marks the start of Swab Summer, a seven-week training program designed to transform civilian students into military members. During their first day at the Academy, the Swabs (as the new cadets are called) were issued their uniforms, practiced drill and went through various administrative processing. This year 43 states are represented in this class, and 37 percent are women. Also joining the class are 7 international students from Jordan, Philippines, Tunisia and Ecuador.

HS Today [7/4/2025 3:10 AM, Staff, 75K] reports Coast Guard and local law enforcement crews will increase boating safety patrols in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands during the Fourth of July weekend in support of Operation Dry Water, a nationwide effort to enforce boating under the influence (BUI) laws. Boaters can expect an increased presence from the Coast Guard and local law enforcement crews on the water. The increased presence will include dockside safety equipment inspections along with boating safety boardings. "We look forward to this 4th of July weekend and seeing people out in the water boating responsibly and safely," said Cmdr. Matthew Romano, Coast Guard Sector San Juan chief of response. "Know that our and partner agency crews will be enforcing BUI and safe boating laws and regulations so keep in mind, like you should never be out on the road driving your vehicle under the influence, same goes for operating a vessel in the water, if you do so, you will be endangering your life and the life of others.”

HS Today [7/4/2025 6:59 AM, Staff, 75K] reports the Coast Guard and the National Park Service rescued a mariner after his vessel ran aground near Shackleford Banks, North Carolina, Monday night. Coast Guard Sector North Carolina Command Center watchstanders received a call at approximately 5:30 p.m. from a commercial towing service reporting the 34-foot trawler, Opeechee, had run aground and they were unable to get a towline to the distressed vessel. The watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast (UMIB) and directed the launch of a Coast Guard Station Fort Macon 47-foot Motor Lifeboat boatcrew. Once on scene, the boatcrew determined they were unable to reach the grounded vessel and requested the launch of the 29-foot Response Boat-small. Station Fort Macon launched their 29-foot Response Boat-small boatcrew and were met by a National Parks Service vessel who assisted with a shoreside rescue of the mariner. A surface swimmer swam out to the mariner and brought him safely to shore. There were no reported injuries. The wind speed was 20 mph with gusts of 30 mph and waves approximately 3-feet high. "The shallow water depth and on scene weather made this a dynamic rescue, requiring teamwork and skilled, trained professionals to complete," said Senior Chief Petty Officer Todd Ghormley, the officer in charge of Coast Guard Station Fort Macon. "Teamwork and training is essential to keeping our waterways safe during the busy boating season. As more people take to the water, this rescue serves as a reminder of the importance of preparedness.”

DVIDS [7/4/2025 5:43 AM, Steven Donald Smith, 988K] reports Pirates are not a thing of the past. They are alive and well, and roaming the seas in search of booty. And U.S. Navy and Coast Guard officials are determined to stop them from threatening Americans and American interests. When average Americans think of pirates, they probably conjure up an image of a snarling, rum-drinking, eye-patch wearing, 18th century drunkard with a parrot perched on his shoulder. This perception is in need of an update. Following a century of decline, piracy is increasingly on the rise. "Although piracy has existed almost as long as shipping and trade, it appeared to have been eliminated by the end of the 19th century. But piracy had not disappeared. During the 1970s and 1980s, attacks on merchant ships began to increase, and piracy became a problem that could no longer be ignored," an official from the International Maritime Organization, an agency of the United Nations, said. Incidents of piracy have become even more prevalent over the last two years, especially off the coast of Somalia and in the South China Sea. The U.S. Navy is attacking the issue head-on. In an attempt to make the seas safer for commerce and to thwart terrorist activities, the Navy conducts maritime security operations in various parts of the world, officials said. "The primary focus of (such operations) is preventing terrorists from using the seas as a venue from which to launch an attack or to move people, weapons or other material that support their efforts," Naval Forces Central Command spokesman Cmdr. Jeff Breslau said. But "our maritime task forces are always prepared to respond to mariners in distress, whether they are under attack by pirates, experience engineering causalities, or have medical emergencies." Even though acts of piracy are not common in American waters, the U.S. Coast Guard is vigilant in preventing them from becoming so. Aside from combating drug trafficking and protecting U.S. ports and marine transportation system from terrorism, Coast Guard officials emphasize the importance of stopping the spread of piracy into American waters to protect U.S. citizens and the flow of commerce. "By its very definition, piracy is about stealing. Our job is law enforcement," Dan Tremper, a Coast Guard spokesman, said. "We’re always on patrol -- 24/7. We’ve got sharp eyes on the water with the goal of protecting the American people and our economic interests.”

Yahoo! News [7/4/2025 12:43 PM, Timothy Nazzaro, 47007K] reports jet ski riders are being credited with rescuing boaters after a bizarre incident on the Merrimack River Thursday. According to police, for reasons still under investigation, two boaters were thrown from their 13-foot Boston Whaler, causing the vessel to spiral aimlessly. Video from a police drone shows the unmanned boat circling about. Authorities say quick-thinking jet ski riders safely rescued the two boaters. There were no reports of any injuries. The United States Coast Guard Station Merrimack River responded to help secure the unmanned vessel.

HS Today [7/4/2025 3:47 AM, Staff, 75K] reports the Coast Guard completed the medevac of a mother and her newborn baby from Catalina Island, California, Sunday morning. Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles – Long Beach watchstanders received notification at approximately 3:30 a.m. Sunday, from the Catalina Island Health medical center requesting the transport of a 22-year-old pregnant woman experiencing labor symptoms. The Coast Guard flight surgeon recommended conducting the patient transfer after the mother gave birth. Watchstanders coordinated the launch of an Air Station Ventura MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew. The aircrew arrived on scene, transferred the mother and baby aboard, and transported the pair to Torrance Memorial Medical Center for further medical care.

Yahoo! News [7/4/2025 10:35 AM, Ryan Mense, 47007K] reports two children and an adult were rescued from the San Francisco Bay on Saturday after their sailboat capsized near Redwood City, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Two CDFW wildlife officers were conducting compliance checks on anglers off Alameda in their boat when a distress call reporting a capsized sailboat was relayed by the U.S. Coast Guard, officials said. The wildlife officers, Warden Jacob Gonsalves and Warden Cameron Roth, responded to the USCG and learned that no other rescue boats were nearby. The two wardens piloted 15 miles through rough bay waters to reach the capsized boat with three people in the water, including two children. All three were wearing life jackets and told the rescuers that they had been in the water clinging to the overturned boat for approximately one hour, CDFW said. "They all appeared in relatively good health with some minor injuries, though they were shaken up by the experience," officials said. The rescued sailboaters were eventually transferred to a fire rescue boat for further medical attention and were transported back to Redwood City, according to CDFW. Officials advised all recreational boaters to prioritize safety through the Fourth of July holiday weekend by wearing life jackets and having marine radio devices at the ready.

CBS News [7/3/2025 2:10 PM, Kerry Breen, 51860K] reports Alaskan authorities are searching for a 62-year-old woman who disembarked from a cruise ship for a hike and did not return. Marites Buenafe — who is listed on the University of Kentucky Healthcare system’s website as a doctor — was traveling aboard the Norwegian Bliss, according to a missing persons bulletin issued by the Alaska State Troopers. The ship was on a week-long round-trip tour of Alaska that departed from Seattle, according to ship tracking site CruiseMapper. Around 7:30 a.m. local time on July 1, Buenafe texted family members that she was heading up Mount Roberts Tramway in Juneau and would hike from Gold Ridge to Gastineau Peak, the bulletin said. Security footage showed Buenafe at the top of the tramway around that same time. Hiking website AllTrails describes the hike as a challenging but popular 4.1 mile trek that usually takes about three hours to complete. The cruise ship was scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. departure, according to the security bulletin. At around 3:15, Buenafe was reported missing. Alaska Wildlife Troopers were alerted to her disappearance shortly afterwards, according to a news release from the Alaska Department of Public Safety. Juneau Mountain Rescue conducted a ground search and used thermal drones to scan the area, the agency said. An Alaska Wildlife Troopers helicopter and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter also conducted aerial searches, the department said.

CBS News [7/3/2025 10:16 AM, Staff, 51860K] Video HERE reports the Colombian navy on Wednesday announced its first seizure of an unmanned "narco sub" equipped with a Starlink antenna off its Caribbean coast. The semisubmersible vessel was not carrying drugs, but the Colombian navy and Western security sources based in the region told AFP they believed it was a trial run by a cocaine trafficking cartel. "It was being tested and was empty," a naval spokeswoman confirmed to AFP. Manned semi-submersibles built in clandestine jungle shipyards have been used for decades to ferry cocaine north from Colombia, the world’s biggest cocaine producer, to Central America or Mexico. But in recent years, they have been sailing much further afield, crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Colombian navy said the drone semisubmersible was owned by the Gulf Clan, Colombia’s largest drug trafficking group and had the capacity to transport 1.5 tons of cocaine. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Newsweek [7/4/2025 6:55 AM, Ryan Chan, 54790K] reports a Newsweek map shows the United States conducting Coast Guard missions with allies—the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Australia and India—in waters near China since May. USCGC Stratton, a Legend-class national security cutter, was deployed to the western Pacific to strengthen maritime governance, the U.S. Coast Guard previously told Newsweek. Newsweek has contacted the Chinese defense and foreign ministries for comment via email. China, which possesses both the world’s largest navy and coast guard by hull count, is expanding its presence across the Indo-Pacific through the deployment of ships—asserting its influence and sovereignty claims in disputed waters challenging the U.S. and its allies. While Washington has established collective defense agreements with Manila, Seoul, Tokyo and Canberra, it has formed an informal Indo-Pacific grouping known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, which includes Japan, Australia and India. Last September, the Quad leaders announced joint coast guard operations, bolstering their nations’ maritime cooperation amid China’s growing assertiveness. Beijing has accused the "exclusive club" of fueling tensions and undermining trust and cooperation in the region. The Stratton began its first mission in the Philippines with a port call in Puerto Princesa from May 16 to 19. Following the visit, the ship participated in a series of joint-exercises known as the Maritime Cooperative Activity, alongside Philippine vessels in nearby waters of the South China Sea. Several countries have overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea, often leading to standoffs and clashes between their forces—particularly between the Philippines and China.

Breitbart [7/4/2025 9:34 AM, Lucas Nolan, 3077K] reports a hacker has stolen a vast trove of sensitive data from Columbia University, including personal information and application details of millions of current and former students, according to a Bloomberg News investigation. Bloomberg reports that Columbia University has fallen victim to a massive data breach orchestrated by an alleged "hacktivist" who claims to have stolen 460 gigabytes of sensitive information. The stolen data, spanning decades, includes personal details of students and applicants, their university-issued identification numbers, citizenship status, admissions decisions, academic programs, and even Social Security numbers of employees and family members. The alleged hacker, who spoke to Bloomberg News anonymously via text, provided a sample of 1.6 gigabytes of data, representing 2.5 million applications. Bloomberg was able to verify the accuracy of the information for eight Columbia students and alumni who had applied to the university between 2019 and 2024. The data matched their university-issued ID codes, gender, citizenship status, admissions decisions, and the academic programs they applied to. Columbia University has acknowledged that data was indeed stolen, but the full scope of the breach is yet to be determined. The university is working with cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to investigate the incident, which could take weeks or even months to fully assess. Initial indications suggest that the perpetrator is a hacktivist, motivated by a political agenda rather than financial gain. The alleged hacker claims to have spent over two months building access within Columbia’s servers, ultimately attaining the highest level of privileged access to the university’s data. The stolen information also includes financial aid packages and employee pay details. Based on the hacked data, there have been allegations not yet confirmed by Breitbart News that socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani lied on his application to Columbia by labeling himself "Black Non-Hispanic.” This data breach comes at a sensitive time for Columbia University, as it is currently negotiating a settlement with the Trump administration to unfreeze $400 million in federal research funding. The White House had previously blocked the funds, accusing the university of fostering antisemitism and has since broadened its attack on the Ivy League to include diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

NewsNation [7/4/2025 8:04 PM, Marcus Espinoza, 5801K] reports as millions of Americans prepare to celebrate this Fourth of July holiday weekend, authorities across the country are on alert for potential lone wolf attacks. Ongoing global conflicts, as well as possible copycats, have prompted a notice from federal law enforcement agencies urging the public to stay vigilant. Former FBI agent Jennifer Coffendaffer told NewsNation that lone wolf attacks are the most common type of terrorism in the U.S. "If you look over the past five years, 93% of attacks in the West have been by lone wolves," she said. Federal agencies across the country are telling people to be aware, with the most concern about that lone wolf style of attack during this Fourth of July holiday week. With the holiday falling on a Friday, it’s going to be a busy one and a lot of folks are taking time off already. In a joint bulletin, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies said individuals or small groups motivated by political, racial or personal grievances are most likely to target large gatherings like the Macy’s fireworks show in New York City, or other celebrations across the country. The agency has also warned about potential copycat attacks following the New Year’s Day incident in New Orleans. The Department of Homeland Security told News Nation it’s enhancing security measures right now and coordinating with federal, state and local partners to keep celebrations safe. Coffindaffer said those measures can include things like barricades and removal of things like trash cans, which could be used to conceal an explosive device, as well as monitoring crowds. "You’re looking for everything from backpacks being left to suspicious activity of individuals, sometimes people dressed in inordinately warm clothing," she said. Officials emphasize there are no specific credible threats at this time, and they are just asking people to stay vigilant and if they see something, say something.

(B) WJLA 24/7 News ON YOUR SIDE at 2 [7/3/2025 2:43 PM, Staff]
Law enforcement is warning American to be vigilant as they celebrate the Fourth of July holiday. Multiple bulletins from the FBI and DHS have cited lone wolf attackers as the biggest concern heading into the holiday, potentially inspired by terrorist organizations. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said they were monitoring all threats following US strikes on Iran nuclear facilities. The bulletins reportedly mentioned San Francisco and New York specifically, with large crowds expected to watch fireworks in both places. Authorities are concerned about copycats mirroring other terror attacks that have already happened. A separate warning from the FBI says threats are also coming in the form of cyberattacks.

CNN [7/4/2025 11:57 AM, Mark Morales, 21433K] reports thousands of spectators are expected to flock to Manhattan and Brooklyn to watch fireworks burst through the air from the East River at the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks show, one of the country’s largest fireworks displays. Law enforcement in New York is staying vigilant and the New York Police Department’s security response will also be bigger than in previous years, the NYPD’s counterterrorism chief told CNN, because the mix of large crowds at the high-profile event could make the evening a target for an attack. But conflicts overseas and incidents sparked by domestic extremists, along with a threat assessment from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies warning about lone wolf attacks, have raised the threat level. Despite this, there are no known or credible threats to New York City, even though there are more potential threats to monitor than in years prior, Rebecca Weiner, deputy commissioner of the NYPD’s intelligence and counterterrorism unit, told CNN in an interview on one of the counterterrorism boats the police department has deployed to the East River. "We describe this as the ‘everything everywhere all at once’ threat environment," Weiner said.

New York Post [7/3/2025 1:36 PM, Amanda Woods, Mikella Schuettler, David Propper, 49956K] reports that the NYPD wants the green light from the feds to take down “dangerous” drones hovering over the Big Apple — especially during major events in the city. The department is banned from shooting down or incapacitating drones and has to rely on federal enforcement agencies to deal with them — even as their use has exploded in recent years, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “As we’ve seen in Ukraine, in the Middle East and even along our border, the threats posed by weaponized drones are real and growing,” she said during a Fourth of July security briefing Wednesday.. “However, in 2025 the NYPD still does not have authority to take down nefarious drones ourselves. “We are forced to rely on our federal partners to intercept and mitigate any threats that they pose to our city. Simply put, we need the ability to take down dangerous drones ourselves.” She urged Congress to pass legislation that would give the NYPD the ability to handle drones on its own turf, though Rebecca Weiner, a top NYPD official focused on combating terrorism, said the White House might soon give some local department’s permission through an executive order. “White House executive orders dating back to June 6 that have been published will hopefully, with federal government participation, give certain states and locals we hope, including NYPD this capability,” said the deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism. Authorities can take down drones by jamming their signals, using net guns and even shooting them down when all else fails. But as of now local agencies don’t have the authority to take action on the devices. An executive order from President Trump last month doesn’t approve local departments to mitigate drone threats, but does put together a task force that will review operations and regulatory frameworks to better handle threats from unmanned devices.

CBS Philadelphia [7/5/2025 6:22 AM, Matt Cavallo, 51860K] reports eleven people are recovering in the hospital Saturday morning after a shooting in South Philadelphia, according to police. Police sources tell CBS Philadelphia the shots rang out a little after 4 a.m. on the 1100 block of South 11th Street. Some gunshot victims were rushed to various area hospitals by Philadelphia medics while some arrived in private vehicles. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [7/5/2025 5:36 AM, Landon Mion, 46878K] reports two people were killed in a shooting that injured at least seven in Indianapolis, Indiana, early Saturday morning, according to police. Officers responded to the intersection of West Market Street and North Illinois Street at around 1:30 a.m., the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said. "Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and the officers & first responders who rushed to the scene," police wrote on X. Several roads were closed in the downtown area as officers probed the scene. Drivers and pedestrians were urged to avoid the area. No information on a potential suspect or what led to the shooting has been released as of early Saturday morning. The conditions of the surviving victims are also unknown at this time. The incident remains under investigation.

ABC News [7/3/2025 1:46 PM, Tom Liddy, 31733K] reports four people were killed and 14 others wounded in a "deplorable and cowardly" mass shooting in Chicago on Wednesday night, according to the police superintendent. Around 11 p.m., people were exiting a venue in the River North neighborhood and standing on the sidewalk when a vehicle pulled up and someone in the car opened fire on the crowd, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said at a news conference. "They didn’t care who was struck, and in a matter of seconds, they were able to shoot 18 people," Snelling said. The venue was targeted, but it’s not clear who specifically was the target, police said. Two men and two women were killed, all in their 20s, according to police. Fourteen others were wounded, including several who were hospitalized in critical condition, according to police. The injured victims are all in their 20s and 30s and 11 of the 14 people hurt are women, police said. A second mass shooting also erupted on Chicago’s far South Side on Wednesday night, leaving four people hospitalized, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said. "We are frustrated, but we are also grieving," Johnson said, adding, "We will not rest until there is full accountability." Despite the shootings, murders were down 32% year-to-date in the city as of June 29 and shooting incidents were down 39%, according to Chicago’s crime data.

Just the News [7/4/2025 3:18 PM, Eliyse Apel] reports Mohamed Sabry Soliman has been officially charged with first-degree murder, following the death of 82-year-old Karen Diamond. Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national illegally in the country, wounded Diamond and 14 others on June 1 at what authorities say was a terrorist attack at a pro-Israel demonstration in Boulder, Colorado. Diamond died from her injuries on June 25. “This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia also ruled that Soliman’s wife and five children can be deported, officially dismissing a legal challenge filed by the family to halt their deportations. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials officially detained Soliman’s family just days after the attack. At the time of the arrests, the White House said the family members could be deported immediately. Hours after the announcement of their potential deportations, a federal judge blocked their deportation order, citing due process. They remained in ICE custody at that time. Garcia declared in his ruling that “the court finds that petitioners’ habeas proceeding and their claims in this case must be and hereby are dismissed without prejudice. This case is closed.” The Trump administration applauded that decision, but has not yet announced formal plans to deport the family. “This is a proper end to an absurd legal effort on the plaintiff’s part,” McLaughlin added. “Just like her terrorist husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result.” Breitbart [7/3/2025 5:27 PM, Amy Furr, 3077K] reports Soliman is accused of firebombing a pro-Israel demonstration by lobbing Molotov cocktails and by using a homemade flamethrower. Several people were injured during the incident and one of them, 82-year-old Karen Diamond, has since died. Authorities have slapped Soliman with over 70 charges. including first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and committing a hate crime, per DHS. The agency also said Soliman was in the United States illegally on an expired visa and his family, which includes his wife and five children, is also in the country illegally. After being detained by ICE to undergo removal proceedings, U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Gallagher issued a ruling blocking their deportation on June 4. On July 2, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia dismissed the lawsuit filed by the family in Dvortsin v. Noem, declaring that "the Court finds that Petitioners’ habeas proceeding and their claims in this case must be and hereby are DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE. This case is CLOSED."

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [7/3/2025 5:46 AM, Staff, 3077K]

The Hill [7/3/2025 7:45 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 18649K] reports House Republicans passed the core of Trump’s domestic policy agenda Thursday afternoon — including sweeping tax cuts, a crackdown on immigration, a boost for fossil fuels and huge cuts to Medicaid — overcoming months of bitter infighting on Capitol Hill to deliver what could be the defining legislation of Trump’s second term. The 218-214 vote came together after more than a year of intense planning by GOP lawmakers, weeks of scrambling to reconcile the conflicting visions among House and Senate Republicans, and days of last-minute lobbying to cajole holdouts in both chambers to get on board. The bill gives $150 billion in new defense spending for priorities like shipbuilding, the "Golden Dome" missile defense project and backfilling U.S. precision missiles and munitions. Another $150 billion will go towards a border wall, immigration enforcement and deportations. Of the total dollars for defense, $113 billion is mandatory funding for the military. When combined with the Pentagon’s $848 billion budget request, released last week, that pushes military spending to the highest it’s been in recent history, close to $1 trillion. The vote followed a marathon, historic speech by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who commandeered the chamber for 8 hours and 44 minutes to rail against the GOP’s megabill and delay the final vote — surpassing the previous record of 8 hours and 32 minutes set by then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in 2021 as a way to delay action on the Democrats’ social spending and climate package. In the end, two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), joined all Democrats in voting against the legislation, which was approved by the Senate two days earlier.

Reuters [7/5/2025 3:57 AM, Andrea Shalal, 51390K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump said he had signed letters to 12 countries outlining the various tariff levels they would face on goods they export to the United States, with the "take it or leave it" offers to be sent out on Monday. Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to New Jersey, declined to name the countries involved, saying that would be made public on Monday. Trump had earlier on Thursday told reporters that he expected a first batch of letters to go out on Friday, a national holiday in the United States, though the date has now shifted. In a global trade war that has upended financial markets and set off a scramble among policymakers to guard their economies, Trump in April announced a 10% base tariff rate and additional amounts for most countries, some ranging as high as 50%. However, all but the 10% base rate were subsequently suspended for 90 days to allow more time for negotiations to secure deals. That period ends on July 9, although Trump early on Friday said the tariffs could be even higher - ranging up to 70% - with most set to go into effect August 1. "I signed some letters and they’ll go out on Monday, probably twelve," Trump said, when asked about his plans on the tariff front. "Different amounts of money, different amounts of tariffs." The New York Times [7/5/2025 3:28 AM, Lydia DePillis, 330K] reports “So we’re going to start sending letters out to various countries starting tomorrow,” Mr. Trump said, hours after the House passed his major domestic policy bill. “They’ll range in value from maybe 60 or 70 percent tariffs to 10 and 20 percent tariffs.” He said his administration would then send more letters each day until the end of the 90-day pause, on Wednesday, when he expected they would all be covered. Smaller countries would come toward the end, and duties would begin to be collected on Aug. 1. “It’s a lot of money for the country, but we’re giving them a bargain,” Mr. Trump said. The original round of “reciprocal” tariffs was imposed on trading partners and ranged from 11 percent, for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to 50 percent, for Lesotho. The duties were decided using a formula that incorporated the trade balance between each country and the United States — even for tiny countries that had very little ability to buy goods from America. The reciprocal tariffs came on top of a 10 percent “baseline” tariff imposed on all countries. Days later, after the bond market shuddered on projections that global commerce could seize up, Mr. Trump reversed course. Duties were reduced to 10 percent across the board, except for China, which saw its base tariff rise to 145 percent. Since then, countries have been racing to hash out deals with the White House that would restore some sense of stability to their trade relationships. China negotiated a temporary truce that reduced its tariff to 30 percent. Britain came to an agreement in early May that would leave duties at 10 percent. And Vietnam committed to a framework this week that would set 20 percent tariffs on its products as well as higher duties on goods routed through the country from China. But talks with other world leaders have so far yielded little, despite efforts from Japan, Malaysia, India and the European Union.

Breitbart [7/4/2025 1:22 PM, Amy Furr, 3077K] reports Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard accused Washington Post reporter Ellen Nakashima on Thursday of harassing members of her staff. "It has come to my attention that Washington Post reporter @nakashimae appears to be actively harassing ODNI staff. Instead of reaching out to my press office, she is calling high level Intelligence Officers from a burner phone, refusing to identify herself, lying about the fact that she works for the Washington Post, and then demanding they share sensitive information," Gabbard wrote in a social media post. Apparently, publishing leaked classified material wasn’t enough for the Washington Post, so now they’ve decided to go after the Intelligence professionals charged to protect it. This is a clear political op by the same outlet and the same reporter who harassed and stalked my family in Hawaii. This kind of deranged behavior reflects a media establishment so desperate to sabotage @POTUS’s successful agenda that they’ve abandoned even a facade of journalistic integrity and ethics. The Washington Post should be ashamed, and they should put an end to this immediately.

NBC News [7/4/2025 3:27 PM, Ken Dilanian and Ryan J. Reilly, 44540K] reports the release of formerly classified FBI and CIA documents this week illustrates how President Donald Trump’s appointees at both agencies are trying to use the levers of government to prop up his long-standing assertions that intelligence agencies conspired against him. The FBI released emails on Tuesday that purport to show an effort by the bureau’s leaders in 2020 to cover up a source’s claim that there was a Chinese plot to throw the presidential election to Joe Biden. In a statement to the Daily Mail, Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, said the emails reveal that bureau leaders "chose to play politics and withhold key information from the American people." And CIA Director John Ratcliffe released an internal agency analysis related to the 2020 election that he argued showed that Democratic appointees "manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump." Patel’s and Ratcliffe’s claims went beyond the information contained in the released documents. The documents do not describe definitive evidence that any official acted out of political motive or engaged in anything beyond the good-faith debate that is typical of the intelligence verification and analysis process. The emails do show that at least one FBI official raised the concern that the report conflicted with congressional testimony at the time by Director Christopher Wray, who said the FBI was not aware of any Chinese attempt to interfere in the presidential election. A former FBI official told NBC News that Wray does not recall being made aware of the report.

Daily Wire [7/3/2025 6:07 AM, Mary Margaret Olohan, 3816K] reports federal authorities are investigating allegations of a China-tied, for-profit baby selling operation in California, wherein women are conned into delivering babies for imposter surrogates, The Daily Wire can first report. Federal sources inside California confirmed the investigation into the alleged "rent-a-womb" scheme on Wednesday evening, after The Daily Wire inquired into claims that the California Department of Child and Family Services removed over 20 babies from the home of a Chinese couple running the Marks Surrogacy agency. Surrogate mother Kayla Elliot shared with The Daily Wire that she was one of many women contacted through Facebook by Marks Surrogacy, which is now going by the name "Future Spring Surrogacy," an agency that pairs parents with potential surrogate mothers. She entered into a contract with the agency, carried the baby to term, and gave up the baby to its "intended parents," she told The Daily Wire. Then she learned, to her horror, that the California child services agency had allegedly discovered 21 babies in the home of the "intended parents," and that the baby she had birthed was in the care of the state. Elliot said she has since been contacted by the FBI and questioned thoroughly about the agency, its handling of the baby, its ties to China, and more. The California Department of Child and Family Services and Future Spring Surrogacy did not immediately return The Daily Wire’s requests for comment. A federal source who spoke with The Daily Wire expressed concerns about the number of children who are born at California delivery centers. This official described the situation as "very bizarre," saying: "Babies are being neglected, then transported back to China." And further, the official pondered, the children are born in the United States and thus have citizenship, but how does one prove that each baby is who the parents are saying they are? "It’s a national security threat," he stressed.

Washington Examiner [7/4/2025 12:40 PM, Kaelan Deese, 1934K] reports President Donald Trump confirmed early Friday he would hold discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hours after Russia launched the most massive aerial assault on Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022. Hours later, Zelensky said he and Trump discussed the Russian air raids, and “more broadly, the situation on the front lines,” according to his official X account. “President Trump is very well informed, and I thank him for his attention to Ukraine.” The pair discussed air defense options and agreed to work on increasing airspace protection. They also agreed "on a meeting between our teams," the Ukrainian president said, adding further discussions were over the country’s defense industry potential and cooperation with U.S. partners to bolster drone production and related technologies. This call occurred hours after one of Russia’s largest aerial attacks against Ukraine, which featured more than 500 drones and missiles. Russian forces targeted Kyiv, the Dnipro, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv. The overnight onslaught killed at least one person and wounded at least 23 others across Kyiv, including a child. Ukraine’s military was able to shoot down 270 incoming projectiles, and 208 drones were jammed by electronic warfare, Zelensky added. A top Zelensky adviser, Andriy Yermak, told the Washington Examiner that their conversation was "really very good" and that he’s "very happy that the presidents [are] now talking, understand each other, feel each other, and are on the same page.” Trump confirmed his plans early Friday to call the war-torn country’s president but did not elaborate on the details of the discussion. "Yet again, Russia is showing it has no intention of ending the war and terror. Only around 9 a.m. today did the air raid alert end in Kyiv," Zelensky wrote on X. "It was a brutal, sleepless night.” The Washington Examiner contacted the White House for additional information about Trump’s call with Zelensky. The call came after a tense conversation Trump had with Russian President Vladimir Putin late Thursday. "I’m very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin, because I don’t think he’s there," Trump told reporters early Friday morning. "I don’t think he’s looking to stop [the fighting], and that’s too bad.” Trump’s remarks followed his administration’s decision earlier this week to pause some weapons deliveries to Ukraine, including air defense missiles and precision-guided artillery shells. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters this week that the department’s decision is part of a broader "capability review" to "ensure U.S. military aid aligns with our defense priorities," and he accused the Biden administration of "giving away weapons and munitions without really thinking about how many we have.” Zelensky called on Western allies to intensify pressure on the Kremlin. "All of this is clear evidence that without truly large-scale pressure, Russia will not change its dumb, destructive behavior," Zelensky said. Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Ukraine’s call with Trump was "very important and meaningful," though no further details have been released.

Politico [7/5/2025 1:14 PM, Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing, 16523K] reports President Donald Trump spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Friday, just a day after he talked with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a call that he has described as a disappointment amid his attempts to end the war in Ukraine. According to a broadly positive readout of Friday’s call posted to social media by Zelenskyy, the two leaders had a “very important and fruitful conversation” in which they discussed Ukraine’s air defense, joint defense production and “mutual procurement and investment.” The call came after the U.S. paused weapons shipments to Ukraine, citing concerns that the U.S. stockpiles were running low, a move first reported by POLITICO. The White House has yet to provide a readout of Trump’s Friday call with Zelenskyy. The conversation also followed a call between Trump and Putin on Thursday, which Trump said did not achieve any progress in his goal to end the war. Trump has long sought to end the war in Ukraine, having promised during his campaign to do so within 24 hours. But the war has continued to drag on, with Trump appearing to grow increasingly frustrated with Putin’s refusal to cooperate fully in the negotiations. Trump said he was “very disappointed” with Thursday’s conversation with his Russian counterpart, telling reporters aboard Air Force One early Friday morning, “I don’t think he’s looking to stop” the war. “I was not happy with the conversation,” Trump repeated.

The Hill [7/4/2025 5:01 PM, Steff Danielle Thomas, 18649K] reports Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is pressing the Trump administration to rescind its pause on sending weapons to Ukraine in its war with Russia. "Senior U.S. military officials have concluded that providing these critical weapons to Ukraine will not endanger U.S. readiness, so I urge the administration to quickly get the pipeline back up and running," McCaul, who previously served as chair of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote Friday in a post on the social platform X. "Pentagon officials halting weapons only weakens President Trump’s noble attempts at peace," he added. The Texas lawmaker’s request comes days after the Defense Department announced it would halt the delivery of some air defense missiles and munitions to the war-torn country, citing concerns around military stockpiles being depleted. That decision, according to the White House, was based on an analysis of the U.S.’s military support around the globe. The Biden and Trump administrations have given tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Ukraine hawks on Capitol Hill have criticized the Pentagon’s decision, with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) requesting more transparency on the matter. "I respectfully request an emergency briefing from the White House and the Department of Defense on the Pentagon’s recent review of our nation’s weapons and munitions stockpiles, as well as the decision to withhold urgent, lifesaving military assistance to Ukraine," Fitzpatrick, wrote Wednesday in a letter to the White House. President Trump told reporters a day later on Air Force One that the U.S. has given too many weapons to Ukraine and claimed former President Biden "emptied our whole country giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves.” Trump, who has spoken with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent days, has worked to broker a ceasefire in the more than three-year war, with little results. After a call with Putin earlier Thursday, the president signaled the U.S. would not completely cut Ukraine off from assistance. He also said he was "very disappointed" by his conversation with the Russian leader, adding, "I don’t think he’s looking to stop, and that’s too bad.” Less than a day later, Moscow launched a massive drone attack on Ukraine that hit residential buildings, set cars and ambulances ablaze and left at least one person dead and around two dozen injured, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

AP [7/3/2025 1:30 PM, Vladimir Isachenkov, 56000K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Iran, Ukraine and other issues on Thursday in a “frank and constructive” phone call, the Kremlin said, in their sixth publicly disclosed chat since Trump returned to the White House. While discussing the situation around Iran and in the broader Middle East, Putin emphasized the need to resolve all differences “exclusively by political and diplomatic means,” said Yuri Ushakov, his foreign affairs adviser. The leaders agreed that Russian and U.S. officials will maintain contacts on the issue, he added. The United States struck three sites in Iran on June 22, inserting itself into Israel’s war aimed at destroying Tehran’s nuclear program. On the conflict in Ukraine, Ushakov said Trump emphasized his push for a quick halt to the fighting, and Putin voiced Moscow’s readiness to pursue talks with Kyiv, noting the previous rounds in Turkey yielded humanitarian results. At the same time, the Russian leader emphasized that Moscow will seek to achieve its goals in Ukraine and remove the “root causes” of the conflict, Ushakov said. “Russia will not back down from these goals,” Ushakov told reporters after the call.

Washington Post [7/4/2025 9:47 AM, Victoria Bisset, 32099K] reports Russia formally recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan, becoming the first country to do so since the group seized power amid the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan four years ago. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that it had received the credentials of the Taliban’s ambassador to Moscow, Gul Hassan Hassan, and that its recognition of the Taliban government would enable “productive bilateral cooperation,” including in the fields of trade and counterterrorism. The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry also confirmed the move on X. The Taliban’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, described the recognition as a "significant development," according to the ministry’s readout. Photos taken in Moscow after the announcement showed the white Taliban flag, which features the Muslim declaration of faith, or shahada, written in black, flying at the Afghan Embassy in Moscow. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. During that time, its government was recognized by just three countries: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The group swept back into power in August 2021, felling the Western-backed government in Kabul. Since then, the Taliban has sought international recognition, though the group remains largely isolated amid widespread concerns over its human rights record and increasing restrictions on women. The lack of international recognition also means the Taliban has been unable to access Afghan government funds held abroad, including billions of dollars frozen in U.S. institutions. While some Afghans hoped that the Taliban would be more moderate after returning to power, the group ended education for girls after the sixth grade, banned women from universities and issued strict dress requirements, including for women to cover their faces. Last year, it further expanded the restrictions to include bans on women raising their voices, reciting the Quran in public and looking at men other than their husbands or relatives. In April, Moscow lifted a ban on the Taliban and removed its terrorist status, which it said opened "the way to the establishment of a full-fledged partnership with Kabul in the interests of Russian and Afghan peoples.” In 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the Taliban as "allies in the fight against terrorism." That year, a militant attack claimed by the Islamic State in Moscow killed at least 143 people; according to the United States, the attack was carried out by the Islamist militant group’s Afghanistan and Pakistan branch, known as Islamic State-Khorasan or ISIS-K.

Reuters [7/4/2025 11:07 PM, Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrea Shalal, 51390K] reports President Donald Trump said on Friday it was good that Hamas said it had responded in "a positive spirit" to a U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal. He told reporters aboard Air Force One there could be a deal on a Gaza ceasefire by next week but that he had not been briefed on the current state of negotiations.

AP [7/4/2025 6:49 PM, Wafaa Shurafa, Bassem Mroue and Samya Kullab, 1611K]) reports Hamas said Friday it has given a "positive" response to the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza but said further talks were needed on implementation. It was not clear if Hamas’ statement meant it had accepted the proposal from U.S. President Donald Trump for a 60-day ceasefire. Hamas has been seeking guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war, now nearly 21 months old. Trump has been pushing hard for a deal to be reached, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit the White House next week to discuss a deal. The Hamas statement came as Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while seeking aid. The U.N. human rights office said it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within the span of a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid. Most were killed while trying to reach food distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization, while others were massed waiting for aid trucks connected to the United Nations or other humanitarian organizations, it said. Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, during which the U.S. would "work with all parties to end the war." He urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. In its statement late Friday, Hamas said it "has submitted its positive response" to Egyptian and Qatari mediators. It said it is "fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework." It did not elaborate on what needed to be worked out in implementation. A Hamas official said the ceasefire could start as early as next week but he said talks were needed first to work out how many Palestinian prisoners would be released in return for each freed Israeli hostage and to specify the amount of aid that will enter Gaza during the truce. Hamas has said it wants aid to flow in greater quantities through the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the response with the press.

AP [7/3/2025 11:35 AM, Staff, 56000K] reports hundreds of Palestinians have fled a section of the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank after receiving Israeli demolition orders — joining tens of thousands of people to be displaced by an open-ended military offensive in the area. The residents loaded all of their earthly possessions -- mattresses, blankets, washing machines -- onto vehicles on Wednesday before taking one last glimpse of their homes and speeding off. The new demolition order affects some 104 buildings, and at least 400 families now face homelessness, said Faisal Salama, a local official in the camp. Late Wednesday, Israel’s Supreme Court temporarily froze the planned demolitions in response to a request from Adalah, a Palestinian human rights group in Israel. The order gave the army until Sept. 2 to respond. But as of late Thursday, none of the displaced residents had returned. The Israeli army declined comment on the order. The exodus on Wednesday is the latest triggered by Israeli operations to stamp out militancy in West Bank refugee camps in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been driven out of their homes this year in the largest displacement in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war. The Israeli military justified the planned demolitions in Tulkarem, saying it operates in areas “with high level of terrorism.” It said the decision to demolish buildings in the camp were made based on “operational necessity” to allow Israeli forces to operate freely and move in the area, and was made after other options were considered.

Reuters [7/5/2025 1:56 AM, Andrea Shalal and Jasper Ward, 51390K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium. He told reporters aboard Air Force One that he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently although Iran could restart it at a different location. Trump said he would discuss Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits the White House on Monday.

FOX News [7/4/2025 9:25 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports in the wake of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, the regime appears to be turning inward — escalating repression with chilling speed. According to Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, the Islamic Republic is accelerating toward what he said is a "North Korea-style model of isolation and control.” "We’re witnessing a kind of domestic isolation that will have major consequences for the Iranian people," Aarabi told Fox News Digital. "The regime has always been totalitarian, but the level of suppression now is unprecedented. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.” A source inside Iran confirmed to Fox News Digital that "the repression has become terrifying.” Aarabi, who maintains direct lines of contact in Iran, described a country under siege by its own rulers. In Tehran, he described how citizens are stopped at random, their phones confiscated and searched. "If you have content deemed pro-Israel or mocking the regime, you disappear," he said. "People are now leaving their phones at home or deleting everything before they step outside.” This new wave of paranoia and fear, he explained, mirrors tactics seen in North Korea — where citizens vanish without explanation and information is tightly controlled. During the recent conflict, Iran’s leadership imposed a total internet blackout to isolate the population, blocking Israeli evacuation alerts, and pushed propaganda that framed Israel as targeting civilians indiscriminately. "It was a perverse objective," Aarabi said, adding, "They deliberately cut communications to instill fear and manipulate public perception. For four days, not a single message went through. Even Israeli evacuation alerts didn’t reach their targets.” The regime’s aim, he said, was twofold: to keep people off the streets and erode the surprising bond that had formed between Iranians and Israelis. "At the start of the war, many Iranians welcomed the strikes," Aarabi noted. "They knew Israel was targeting the IRGC — the very forces responsible for suppressing and killing their own people. But once the internet was cut and fear set in, some began to question what was happening.” Dr. Afshon Ostovar, a leading Iran scholar and author of "Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards," said domestic repression remains the regime’s most reliable strategy for survival. "Repressing the people at home is easy. That’s something they can do. So it’s not unlikely that Iran could become more insular, more autocratic, more repressive — and more similar to, let’s say, a North Korea — than what it is today. That might be the only way they see to preserve the regime: by really tightening the screws on the Iranian people, to ensure that the Iranian population doesn’t try to rise up and topple the regime," he told Fox News Digital.

FOX News [7/4/2025 2:57 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on the details behind President Donald Trump’s ‘secret’ meeting with a Saudi defense official. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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