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 [7/8/2025 8:31 PM, Anumita Kaur, Angie Orellana Hernandez and Patrick Svitek, 32099K] reports more than 160 people are known to be missing after devastating floods swept through Central Texas over the July Fourth weekend, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Tuesday — raising the possibility that the death toll could surpass 200 in what is already one of the deadliest flood events in the past five decades. “Just in the Kerr County area alone, there are 161 people who are known to be missing,” Abbott said at a news conference Tuesday. “We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for.” Torrential downpours caused a surge of river water early Friday, producing a deluge that left 109 people dead. The disaster claimed the lives of more than two dozen children, shaking the region in a scene that Abbott has described as “nothing short of horrific.” The magnitude of the tragedy also exposed gaps in the region’s ability to warn people about catastrophic weather events. Five children and a counselor remain missing from the camp as search-and-rescue efforts continue, Abbott said Tuesday, adding that 13 helicopters would be scouring the region. The last live rescue was made Friday, said Kerrville Community Services Officer Jonathan Lamb. Meteorologists last week had cautioned that there was potential for flooding late Thursday and early Friday across Central Texas, the most flash-flood prone region in the country. But there was little indication of just how torrential and unrelenting the downpours would become. The number of flood deaths has increased in recent years, fueled by heavier rainfall linked to climate change, and the disaster has compelled a renewed emphasis on a years-long push for a comprehensive flood monitoring system in Kerr County. The Hill [7/8/2025 7:27 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 18649K] reports that the governor also confirmed 109 fatalities linked to the floods, including 94 in Kerr County and 15 in other parts of Texas. “There are far more fatalities than there were in Hurricane Harvey. That’s how catastrophic this is,” Abbott said at the news conference. Camp Mystic, which has long been the go-to summer camp for the Christian daughters of the state’s political elite, said on Monday that it was “grieving” the loss of 27 campers and counselors after the flooding. Abbott said on Tuesday that five campers and one counselor remained missing. Abbott said the increase in the number of missing people is a result of greater outreach efforts “to get better information about those who were not registered at a camp, those who were not registered at a hotel, those who may have been down here who no one really had any accounting of.” “Through law enforcement agencies working together, they provided me this number: Just in the Kerr County area alone, there are 161 people who are known to be missing,” Abbott said at the news conference. He pledged to continue searching until everyone is found and urged the public to help. “Know this: We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for,” Abbott said. “Know this also, there are very likely to be more added to that list.” CBS News [7/8/2025 6:12 PM, Emily Mae Czachor, 51860K] reports President Trump has signed a federal disaster declaration at Abbott’s request, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deploy its own teams to support local rescue and recovery efforts as those operations press on. Ongoing storms have made the efforts especially challenging, officials said, but National Weather Service forecasts indicated conditions would begin to abate Tuesday.

The AP [7/8/2025 12:51 PM, Staff, 56000K] Video: HERE reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem provided an emotional account Tuesday of her visit to Texas to lead the federal response to the devastating flooding, telling a Cabinet meeting she had “kind of fallen apart” during the trip.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [7/8/2025 1:39 PM, Staff, 46878K]

NewsMax [7/8/2025 8:03 PM, Michael Katz, 4622K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Newsmax on Tuesday about her "heartbreaking" visit to central Texas on Saturday after flash floods battered the region, claiming more than 100 deaths, with dozens of others still missing. "As soon as the flooding happened and I found out about it, I went there immediately," Noem told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "Got there early [Saturday] afternoon. I knew I would see a lot of devastation and tragedy, but people were just broken. "I had a briefing with all the emergency responders that were there … and the governor [Greg Abbott] was there, and so I had the chance to find out what they were currently doing. We had already deployed our Coast Guard there, and then we had some special teams from Customs and Border Protection that were there. So, we already had federal resources on the ground." Noem said she visited Camp Mystic in Kerr County, an all-girls Christian summer camp where 27 children and counselors were killed by a wall of water from the Guadalupe River, which reportedly swelled more than 26 feet in 45 minutes following a storm that dumped more than 20 inches of rain. At least five girls and a counselor from Camp Mystic are still missing. "I didn’t expect that the parents would be there," Noem said. "When I got there and was walking through the cabin and they were telling me that this was the cabin where all the little girls were lost. "When I walked out, a gentleman said to me, you know, that man could use a hug over there. And so, I walked over to that man and gave him a hug. And I said, do you work here? And he said, no. My little girl was in that cabin. And then he just fell apart. And then I did.” Noem talked about the randomness of the tragedy, where others survived the disaster at the camp in another cabin about 30 yards away. "That cabin was closer to the hill," Noem said. "So, those little girls, their counselors got them up and they could climb up a hill fast and got up quicker because [the other cabin] was across the road and it was right where the water was flowing and it was so strong, it swept them all out of the cabin immediately." Noem said people have been calling her to make sure that their children and family members who perished in the flood are not forgotten.

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Daily Caller [7/8/2025 7:49 PM, Mariane Angela, 1010K]

Houston Chronicle [7/8/2025 1:16 PM, Jeremy Wallace, 1982K] reports President Donald Trump used the first 10 minutes of his cabinet meeting at the White House Tuesday to laud the rescue and recovery efforts in Texas and confirm that he and First Lady Melania Trump will be in the state on Friday to survey the damage. “The response has been incredible,” Trump said. “I think a lot of lives have been saved. As bad as it was, you could have lost double or triple [the casualties].” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she remains in close contact with Texas officials as crews search for more survivors. “We’re still looking for a lot of little girls and other family members that were camping along that river,” Noem told Trump. She recounted that when she arrived on the scene Saturday, she saw parents and grandparents sifting through destroyed cabins and looking for belongings of their missing daughters. “It is heartbreaking to watch these families suffer the way that they are,” Noem said. “So very emotional but also so tragic.” On Monday, the White House pushed back against charges that their budget cuts had impacted the National Weather Service and hindered getting alerts to campers. “Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “Here are the facts: The National Weather Service did its job. Despite unprecedented rainfall, the National Weather Service executed timely and precise forecasts and warnings.”

The Hill [7/8/2025 11:58 AM, Elizabeth Crisp, 18649K] reports Mexican officials are lending a hand to the nation’s neighbor across the border as Texas reels from devastating floods that killed dozens of people over the July 4 holiday weekend. A spokesperson for the Mexican city of Acuña — which is across the Rio Grande from Texas and more than 140 miles from the most devastated flooding areas — said in a social media post on Tuesday that the city has sent a rescue team from its civil protection and firefighting units to Kerr County, Texas, to assist teams from the U.S. with search and rescue efforts. Posts have also circulated on social media of volunteers from Mexico assisting with the disaster response. More than 20 inches of rain fell in and around Texas’s Hill Country overnight Friday, flooding and washing away structures in the area. At least 100 people have been killed, including more than two dozen children and counselors from the all-girls Camp Mystic. Authorities said Tuesday that 19 adult and seven children’s bodies have been recovered but not yet identified. “It’s very tragic whenever you see human life, but to see a child and that loss of life is extremely tragic,” Texas Game Warden Lt. Colonel Ben Baker said during a Tuesday update. Nine members of an Acuña water rescue team and four members of a Mexico-based non-profit called Foundation 911 travelled to Texas on Sunday to assist with rescue and recovery efforts, according to the update on Facebook from the city’s emergency leaders.

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NewsNation [7/8/2025 12:45 PM, Staff, 5801K]

The Hill [7/8/2025 10:00 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K] reports Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) responded Tuesday to backlash for vacationing in Greece while flooding killed more than 100 people in his home state. His communications director told The Daily Beast that Cruz returned “as fast as humanly possible” after learning about the natural disaster’s impact in his district. “The Senator was already in the middle of preplanned family vacation travel overseas when the flooding occurred on July 4. Within hours, he spoke by phone with Governor [Greg] Abbott, Lt. Governor [Dan] Patrick, Texas Emergency Management Director Nim Kidd, and President Trump, working to ensure that the maximum federal assets were available for search and rescue,” Cruz’s office said in a statement to The Hill. “He and his team worked closely with local officials and with families of missing girls throughout that time. He promptly booked a flight back home. Given the time difference, he left Athens on Sunday morning and was back in Texas that night. And he was in Kerrville on the ground early Monday morning,” the statement continued. A fellow tourist photographed Cruz at the Parthenon in Athens on Saturday the day after floods ravaged the area. According to the Houston Chronicle, which spoke with the tourist, the photo was taken around 6 p.m. local time. While Cruz was gone, Texas’s senior senator, Republican John Cornyn, met with Abbott, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha for a briefing Saturday. Cruz said he spoke with leaders to help coordinate rescue efforts while abroad and help a separate press conference upon his return to Kerr County. “The flooding we are seeing in Central Texas is absolutely devastating. Heidi and I send our heartfelt condolences to all those who have been directly impacted by this natural disaster. We thank President Trump for quickly approving Governor Abbott’s disaster declaration, and Secretary Noem for being on the ground and sending additional personnel to support Texans,” Cruz said in a statement Sunday as multiple missing young girls and counselors at Camp Mystic were pronounced dead.

Houston Chronicle [7/8/2025 7:00 AM, Jeremy Wallace, 1982K] reports just like during his first stint in the White House, President Donald Trump’s inaugural visit to Texas in his second term will be amid human tragedy. While Trump said he wanted to get to Texas on Sunday, he opted to stay away as emergency crews were searching the Texas Hill Country for survivors. “I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way,” Trump said as he prepared to board Air Force One on Sunday. Trump said he would likely visit Texas on Friday. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Monday that Trump was still likely to wait until Friday to come to the state. But she also used her daily media briefing to insist the administration was doing everything it could to help the state and pushed back on criticism that the National Weather Service may have been understaffed. “Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” Leavitt said. “Here are the facts: The National Weather Service did its job. Despite unprecedented rainfall, the National Weather Service executed timely and precise forecasts and warnings.” Her comments came after U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called for an investigation into whether staffing vacancies at the National Weather Service’s San Antonio office contributed to “delays, gaps, or diminished accuracy” in forecasting the flooding.

CBS News [7/8/2025 6:34 PM, S.E. Jenkins, Jack Fink, 51860K] reports as search efforts entered their fifth day in the devastating Central Texas floods, Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to find "every single missing person," stressing that the mission will not end until all victims are accounted for amid a death toll that has surpassed 100. At least 109 people are confirmed dead and dozens are still unaccounted for amid ongoing rescue efforts along the swollen Guadalupe River. Abbott said that already, more people have died in this flooding disaster than did during Hurricane Harvey. Kerr County, in Texas’ flood-prone Hill Country region, has suffered the highest death toll with 87 people confirmed dead, Abbott said. In other parts of Texas, 15 people have been confirmed dead; 161 people are known missing from Kerr County, and 12 are missing from other parts of the state. Five Camp Mystic campers are still missing, along with one counselor. President Trump has declared a federal disaster, enabling FEMA assistance as storm conditions challenge recovery operations, which officials say are expected to improve soon. Abbott said the current and future needs of Central Texas will be addressed at the special session that begins July 21.

AP [7/9/2025 1:50 AM, Nadia Lathan and John Seewer, 31733K] reports that, as the search in Texas continued Wednesday for more than 160 people believed to be missing days after a destructive wall of water killed over 100 people, the full extent of the catastrophe had yet to be revealed as officials warned that unaccounted victims could still be found amid the massive piles of debris that stretch for miles. “Know this: We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for. Know this also: There very likely could be more added to that list,” Gov. Greg Abbott said during a news conference Tuesday. Abbot said officials have been seeking more information about those who were in the state’s Hill Country during the Fourth of July holiday but did not register at a camp or a hotel and may have been in the area without many people knowing. The lowlands of Kerr County along the Guadalupe River, where most of the victims of the flash flooding have been recovered so far, are filled with youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died. Officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counselor have still not been found. Crews in airboats, helicopters and on horseback along with hundreds of volunteers are part of one of the largest search operations in Texas history. The flash flood is the deadliest from inland flooding in the U.S. since Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon flood on July 31, 1976, killed 144 people, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections. That flood surged through a narrow canyon packed with people on a holiday weekend, Colorado’s centennial celebration. Public officials in charge of locating the victims are facing intensifying questions about who was in charge of monitoring the weather and warning that floodwaters were barreling toward camps and homes. Abbott promised that the search for victims will not stop until everyone is found. He also said President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover. Trump plans to visit the state Friday.

New York Times [7/8/2025 8:03 PM, Emily Cochrane, 138952K] reports it was supposed to be a regular weekend trip with friends, to the house in Texas’s Hill Country. Aidan Heartfield, a young man his family described as warm and thoughtful, loved these weekends, often bringing his girlfriend, Ella Cahill, with him to his family’s house. Together with Ms. Cahill’s college roommate, Reese Manchaca, and a longtime friend from high school, Joyce Catherine Badon, they drove down to the house, in Hunt, Texas, near the Guadalupe River. The four of them, all in their 20s, grilled, and Mr. Heartfield sent a selfie at around 1 a.m. Friday. Mr. Heartfield and Ms. Cahill had spent part of her sister’s May wedding in Italy talking about what their own ceremony might be like. Sweethearts since sophomore year of high school, they planned to move in together after they graduated from college. Mr. Heartfield was excited about the marketing internship he had secured for his final year of school, while Ms. Cahill had settled on studying business management. But then, at around 4:30 a.m. Friday, Aidan woke up to water in the home. He called his father, who told them to get to higher ground. “All hell broke loose,” said Mackenzie Cahill-Hodulik, Ms. Cahill’s older sister, in an interview, recounting what she had been told. Mr. Heartfield handed the phone to Ms. Badon, saying he needed to help his girlfriend. There was a scream — “Oh my god, they just got swept away” — and Ms. Badon said to tell her parents she loved them. Then the line went dead. In the days since, two bodies — those of Ms. Badon and Ms. Manchaca — have been recovered. Mr. Heartfield and Ms. Cahill have yet to be found.

New York Times [7/8/2025 7:51 PM, Jack Healy, 138952K] reports the question facing Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas at a news conference on Tuesday was whether he would call for an investigation into possible failures surrounding the deadly floods, which include a lack of state and local spending on flood control measures and warning systems. To answer, Mr. Abbott said asking about blame was “the word choice of losers,” and then invoked a beloved Texas tradition — football — as he deflected questions about accountability for a disaster that has left at least 111 people dead and more than 170 missing. “Every square inch of our state cares about football,” Mr. Abbott said, referring to the Friday night lights of high school fields and the state’s college and pro teams. “Every football team makes mistakes,” he added. Extending the metaphor further, the governor said losing teams assigned blame while championship teams responded to mistakes by saying: “We got this. We’re going to make sure that we go score again, that we win this game.” Mr. Abbott, a Republican, said the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature would be investigating the flash floods in Central Texas and discussing how to prevent their recurrence when state lawmakers meet for a special session later this month. But he and other prominent Republicans have pushed back against critics who have called for investigations into unfilled staff positions at National Weather Service offices in Texas, or a lack of emergency warning systems along the Guadalupe River.

AP [7/8/2025 8:03 PM, Jim Mustian, 1982K] reports Texas inspectors signed off on Camp Mystic’s emergency planning just two days before catastrophic flooding killed more than two dozen people at the all-girls Christian summer camp, most of them children. The Department of State Health Services released records Tuesday showing the camp complied with a host of state regulations regarding “procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster.” Among them: instructing campers what to do if they need to evacuate and assigning specific duties to each staff member and counselor. Five years of inspection reports released to The Associated Press do not offer any details of those plans at Mystic, raising new questions about the camp’s preparedness ahead of the torrential July 4 rainfall in flood-prone Texas Hill Country. The National Weather Service had issued a flood watch for the area July 3 at 1:18 p.m. That danger prompted at least one of the roughly 18 camps along the Guadalupe River to move dozens of campers to higher ground. The uncertainty about what happened at Mystic comes as local officials have repeatedly dodged questions about who was monitoring the weather and what measures were taken ahead of the flooding.

New York Post [7/8/2025 7:10 PM, Alex Oliveira, 49956K] reports Texas launched emergency-response operations two days before devastating floods smashed through the state Friday - a move that may have saved hundreds of lives, officials said. The Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) began preparing for a potential crisis Wednesday after some forecast models said the incoming July 4 storm could drop more than the 6 inches of rain that most models predicted. "Heavy rainfall with the potential to cause flash flooding is anticipated across West Texas and the Hill Country," the TDEM said in an advisory issued at noon Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. By Thursday, the TDEM had raised its alert level to an "escalated response" and began deploying units in areas forecast to be hit the hardest. Those efforts included rescue choppers, squadrons of boats, marine units and heavy vehicles capable of reaching stranded cars and people - while mules and horses were dispatched in some places after the storm hit. Some of the early-response teams were deployed in Kerr County - which was the hardest hit in Friday’s flooding - by noon Thursday. Once the storm hit - dropping 15 inches of rain in some places and turning the Guadalupe River into a 26-foot wall of water in under an hour - first responders sprang into action, with agencies from across the country even swooping into Texas to begin saving lives, too. Among them was a US Coast Guard unit based out of Corpus Christi, Texas, which raced by helicopter to Camp Mystic in Kerr County. The camp had nearly 200 kids, staff and other survivors who were trapped after the Guadalupe spilled its banks and swamped the grounds.

The Hill [7/8/2025 2:22 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18649K] reports U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday that the department would no longer allow “Chinese nationals” and other foreign adversaries to purchase farmland in the United States. The USDA has already canceled seven active agreements with foreign countries of concern and removed roughly 70 people affiliated with those contracts, Rollins explained. Her comments came during a press conference alongside Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and GOP Govs. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, Jim Pillen of Nebraska and Bill Lee of Tennessee to announce the Trump administration’s National Farm Security Action Plan. The initiative aims to “claw back” farmland that has already been purchased by those seen as a risk to national security, including Chinese nationals, and to give a “more intentional look” at individuals who seek to buy that land in the future. “Today we are taking this purpose and our American farmland back,” Rollins said Tuesday. “American agriculture is not just about feeding our families but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us.” She added later that the administration would no longer foster “sweetheart deals and secret pacts” with companies. Rollins also noted USDA is in the process of removing 550 other entities for similar reasons. “Agriculture supply chain is essential for our nation’s security in coordination with the White House; the departments of Treasury, Defense, Homeland Security and Justice; as well as state governors, state agriculture commissioners, local tribal and territorial governments,” she said. The Washington Post [7/8/2025 10:37 AM, Cate Cadell, 32099K] reports that in a joint news conference with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, Rollins said the administration would work with state partners and pursue executive actions to halt the purchases. She also announced plans to increase oversight of existing farmland owned by entities from countries including China, Russia and Iran. Chinese investors currently own 265,000 acres of U.S. land, according to USDA data, about half of which is tied to a single company — Smithfield Foods, which was acquired in 2013 by WH Group, a Chinese conglomerate led by tycoon Wan Long. Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland has dropped sharply in recent years, declining from 384,000 acres in 2021. “No longer can foreign adversaries assume we’re not watching,” Hegseth said Tuesday. He added that the Pentagon would move to bar sales of farmland to foreign adversaries near military bases and said the effort would help secure the U.S. food supply for soldiers, “especially in a contingency.” The New York Post [7/8/2025 9:42 AM, Josh Christenson, 49956K] reports "American agriculture is not just about feeding our families, but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us," Rollins said at a Tuesday press conference at her department’s headquarters. The multi-agency effort, which will involve legislative and executive actions at the federal and state level, will strengthen US agricultural research and safeguard it from malign foreign influence, intellectual property theft, and the growing threat of agroterrorism, Rollins told reporters Monday. At least 700 foreign nationals in "countries of concern" like China will be swiftly kicked off of contracts and research agreements with the USDA - and further regulatory actions will remove more than 550 concerning foreign entities. FOX News [7/8/2025 1:05 PM, Cameron Arcand, 46878K] reports Rollins was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. "As someone who’s charged with leading the Defense Department, I want to know who owns the land around our bases and strategic bases and getting an understanding of why foreign entities, foreign companies, foreign individuals might be buying up land around those bases," Hegseth said. "A country who cannot feed itself, cannot take care of itself, and cannot provide for itself, is not secure, and we have to be able to feed ourselves to make sure that no other country ever controls us," Noem said. Noem said that during her time as governor of South Dakota she signed a law that banned the governments of China, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and Russia and entities related to them from buying farmland in the state.

Breitbart [7/8/2025 3:00 PM, Jasmyn Jordan, 3077K] reports the U.S. Department of Agriculture formally announced its National Farm Security Action Plan on Tuesday, rallying top Trump administration officials, Republican governors, and lawmakers around a resolute effort to protect American farmland, food supply chains, and agricultural research from foreign threats, especially Communist China. "American agriculture, in American hands, is a positive good," said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. "Every family, every home, every community, depends upon what our farmers do, and they support and sustain us, not merely by keeping us materially fed, but by keeping us spiritually strong. That’s exactly why it is under threat-from criminals, political adversaries, and hostile regimes." In addition to unveiling the USDA National Farm Security Action Plan, Rollins revealed she is now officially a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who has pushed for her inclusion, described CFIUS as "a group of high-ranking Cabinet members in the White House that determine who buys what" and insisted the agriculture secretary needs to be at the table "to protect our farmland." Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) echoed that support. Attorney General Pam Bondi shared that two Chinese nationals were recently charged in Michigan for attempting to smuggle potential agroterrorism weapons into the country. Soon after, a Chinese citizen was arrested for sending packages of concealed biological materials into the United States. "We will prosecute you. We will hold you accountable," Bondi vowed, adding that the FBI has opened over 100 biosmuggling investigations in recent years. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth underscored the national security stakes of foreign land purchases near U.S. military installations. "As someone who’s charged with leading the Defense Department, I want to know who owns the land around our bases and strategic bases. We would be asleep at the wheel if we were not fully a party to an effort like this to ensure that our nation had the food supply it needs. No longer can foreign adversaries assume we’re not watching and we’re not paying attention and we’re not doing something about it." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a lifelong farmer and rancher, emphasized that her experience shaped her belief that food policy is national security policy. "A country that cannot feed itself, cannot take care of itself, and cannot provide for itself, is not secure, and we have to be able to feed ourselves to make sure that no other country ever controls us," Noem declared. "In South Dakota, China does not own any of our land, nor will they ever own any of our land."

Wall Street Journal [7/8/2025 9:22 PM, Tali Arbel, 646K] reports eleven people have been charged in connection with the Fourth of July shooting of a police officer at a Department of Homeland Security detention center in Texas, as government officials warned of the dangers faced by immigration officials. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas said it was an organized attack with AR-15-style rifles and that anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement graffiti found near or at the scene. “This was not a peaceful protest,” said Nancy Larson, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas. “This was an ambush on federal and local law enforcement officers. This increasing trend of violence against law enforcement will not be tolerated.” A complaint filed Monday charged 10 people, all residents of Texas, with three counts of attempted murder and three counts of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. A separate criminal complaint leveled charges against another man, arrested Monday, for tampering with evidence related to the investigation. The New York Times [7/8/2025 2:37 PM, Amanda Holpuch, 138952K] reports ten people arrested in the shooting of a police officer at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Texas were charged on Monday with attempted murder. The shooting occurred on the Fourth of July after people set off fireworks at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, and vandalized vehicles parked at the center, which is about 28 miles south of Fort Worth. The episode came as nationwide demonstrations, some festive, took place against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and other policies. The 10 people were each charged with three counts of attempted murder of a federal officer, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. They also each faced three counts of discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. The officer, who was wounded in the neck, was discharged from a hospital, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said on Sunday. The officer was not identified. The 10 people identified in the complaint are Cameron Arnold, Savanna Batten, Nathan Baumann, Zachary Evetts, Joy Gibson, Bradford Morris, Maricela Rueda, Seth Sikes, Elizabeth Soto and Ines Soto. Nine of the defendants are from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and one is from College Station, Texas. An 11th person, Daniel Rolando Sanchez, was expected to be charged separately in the case. At a news conference on Monday night, officials said a person tied to the case had been charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy for attempting to conceal and destroy evidence, but it was not clear if that person was Mr. Sanchez. The acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Nancy E. Larson, said in a statement on Tuesday that the events on Friday night were “an ambush on federal and local law enforcement officers.” According to the criminal complaint, the events leading to the charges began on Friday at 10:37 p.m., when about 10 to 12 people shot fireworks toward the detention center. Ten minutes later, one or two people separated from the group and tagged vehicles and a guard structure with graffiti, writing “Ice pig” on one car and “traitor” on another.

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AP [7/8/2025 12:17 PM, Kathy McCormack, 56000K]
Blaze [7/8/2025 4:25 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1805K]
Federalist [7/8/2025 1:48 PM, Jacqueline Annis-Levings, 1142K]

The Hill [7/8/2025 3:46 PM, Tara Suter, 18649K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday that three people were injured in a Monday active shooter incident at a Border Patrol facility. According to a DHS press release, alleged shooter Ryan Louis Mosqueda on Monday directed fire toward the front of a McAllen, Texas United States Border Patrol (USBP) sector annex. DHS said that Mosqueda was killed by officers and that nobody died amid the incident that injured three, among them a Border Patrol officer, Border Patrol employee, and McAllen police officer who was shot in the leg. All three injured individuals went to the hospital in non-critical condition, according to DHS. "Yesterday’s heinous and unprovoked attack in McAllen could have been a bloodbath if not for the fearless actions of Border Patrol and McAllen law enforcement," DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the press release. Police officials said Monday that Mosqueda was killed after he opened fire at the Border Patrol facility. McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said previously that federal agents responded to Mosqueda’s shooting by returning fire at him. Rodriguez also said that he had an assault rifle as well as a utility vest.

Blaze [7/8/2025 10:35 AM, Paul Sacca, 1805K] reports a gunman clad in tactical gear was shot dead after ambushing U.S. Border Patrol agents outside a federal annex facility in Texas - just days after a police officer was shot in the neck while responding to a suspicious person near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Alvarado, Texas. The Department of Homeland Security said an armed man opened fire at the entrance of the U.S. Border Patrol sector annex in McAllen on Monday morning. The gunman was wearing tactical gear and wielding a rifle, according to Fox News. The suspect - identified by authorities as 27-year-old Ryan Luis Mosqueda - engaged in a deadly firefight with Border Patrol agents and local police. McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said at a news conference that Mosqueda was "loaded for bear" and that "another rifle and other assaultive weapons" were discovered in the suspect’s vehicle. Rodriguez noted that the suspect shot dozens of rounds of ammunition at law enforcement officers. Two local police officers and one Border Patrol employee were injured in the firefight, and all three were transported to the hospital. Rodriguez said an officer with the McAllen Police Department was struck in the knee, but the police chief added that the cop was in stable condition and would be "fine." Meanwhile, Mosqueda was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents and local police officers. Monday’s shooting at the Border Patrol sector annex comes only days after a local police officer was shot in the neck near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Alvarado, Texas. The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that officers with the Alvarado Police Department were responding to a call regarding a "suspicious person" near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Prairieland Detention Facility around 10:56 p.m. on July 4. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated last week, "Our heroic ICE law enforcement officers are facing a nearly 700% increase in assaults against them. If you obstruct or assault our law enforcement, this administration will hunt you down and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

FOX News [7/8/2025 12:35 PM, Cameron Arcand, 46878K] reports just days before a gunman ambushed Border Patrol agents in McAllen, Texas, on Monday, congressional Democrats voted nearly uniformly against a resolution condemning the Los Angeles riots and the anti-ICE rhetoric that led to the tensions in June. Michigan resident Ryan Louis Mosqueda, 27, was allegedly armed with tactical gear and a rifle when he opened fire on Border Patrol agents as they arrived at a Border Patrol annex facility in McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley on Monday. The gunman was killed, but a McAllen police officer was shot in the leg, and a Border Patrol agent and a staffer were also hurt, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The department said all three are in "non-critical condition." Law enforcement believes the attack was a purposeful ambush targeting Border Patrol officials, who play a different role than ICE but serve a major role in how the federal government enforces immigration and border policies. All but seven Democrats voted against a resolution, championed by Rep. Young Kim and the California Republican delegation, on June 27, which passed, that "expresses gratitude" toward both local and federal law enforcement, including ICE. "Peaceful protests are a constitutional right, but vandalism, looting, violence, and other crimes are not. Protecting public safety shouldn’t be controversial, which is why I am leading the California Republican delegation in a resolution to support law and order as we continue to see unrest," Kim said in a statement at the time. "I hope Governor Newsom can come together with President Trump to stop the riots, lower the temperature, and keep our communities safe," she continued.

NewsNation [7/8/2025 7:09 PM, Will Conybeare, 5801K] reports a trio of suspects was arrested for allegedly attempting to “impede and obstruct” Border Patrol vehicles in L.A. on Tuesday, an official says. According to a social media post from U.S. Border Patrol El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino, federal immigration officials were conducting enforcement operations in Van Nuys when three subjects used “improvised devices” to try and disable the agents’ vehicles. The incident had occurred “just moments” before Bovino’s 11:30 a.m. post. Photos included in Bovino’s post show the devices, which appeared to be made of metal with nails sticking out and look to function similar to a homemade tire shredder – the device seen in the ground at the entrances and exits of parking lots which would pop the tires of someone who drives the wrong way over them. The three people involved in Tuesday’s incident – who were not identified by name – now face felony charges, Bovino indicated. The post did not elaborate on whether the tires sustained significant damage, although one photo shows the improvised device stuck in one of the vehicle’s tires.

Washington Examiner [7/8/2025 5:35 PM, Brady Knox, 1934K] reports four suspects were arrested for allegedly using "improvised devices" to damage Border Patrol vehicles during operations in Los Angeles. In a post on X, U.S. Border Patrol El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino shared an image of one of the devices in question, which appeared to be a rubber or metal tube with two nails protruding from it. The device had been embedded in an armored vehicle’s wheel. The four suspects now face felony charges. Bovino was the same Border Patrol official involved in a standoff with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Monday. Bass confronted Bovino and other federal officials after a caravan of armored vehicles, National Guard troops, Border Patrol officers, and ICE agents arrived at MacArthur Park, a hub for illegal immigrants in Los Angeles. Bovino remained defiant, pledging that immigration enforcement operations like that on Monday would become a new normal. The operation was one of the first major immigration enforcement operations since last month, when ICE raids triggered widespread riots that prompted a National Guard and Marine deployment to the city.

FOX News [7/8/2025 6:10 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin joins Fox Across America With guest host Todd Piro to share her response to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass confronting federal agents who were conducting an apparent immigration sweep at a local park in her city. “We’re sticking around and she better get used to it. But I would like to ask Karen Bass, who does she want to protect? Is it the MS-13 gang members they’re targeting in that park she spoke of? Is that the child rapists? Is it the drug traffickers? Is the murders? Which of these criminal aliens who are terrorizing Los Angeles is she protecting because it surely isn’t American citizens. And by the way she continues to demonize and attack ICE law enforcement who are only doing their job. DHS is a law enforcement agency so instead of attacking ICE law enforcement likening them to the Gestapo, likening me them to modern-day Nazis, she should rally congress to change the law if she doesn’t like it so much, but it is so spineless and so un-American how she is leading and failing Los Angeles.” [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Washington Examiner [7/8/2025 8:00 AM, Joe Concha, 1934K] reports "We can’t keep following norms of decorum." "Some [voters] have suggested … what we really need to do is be willing to get shot." "Our own base is telling us that what we’re doing is not good enough … [that] there needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public." "It’s like … the Roman coliseum. People just want more and more of this spectacle." "What I have seen is a demand that we get ourselves arrested intentionally or allow ourselves to be victims of violence, and … a lot of times that’s coming from economically very secure white people." What you just read are quotes from a Monday Axios piece on what Democratic lawmakers are hearing from their voters regarding what extremes need to be taken to resist President Donald Trump. And if this strategy sounds crazy, reckless, and potentially fatal, it’s because it is. But words are just that, right? Of course, no one would actually, for example, get themselves shot to draw attention to the Trump resistance. Well, think again. Just hours after that Axios piece went live, a gunman in tactical gear ambushed federal border patrol agents at an annex facility in McAllen, Texas. One officer was struck and rushed to the hospital, where he’s in stable condition and expected to survive. The gunman, whose motives are not yet known, was shot and killed. It’s not just Democrat voters who are thoughtlessly attacking federal agents for the crime of doing their jobs by apprehending and deporting violent criminals who entered the country illegally, but elected officials as well. Here’s a sampling from former Democratic vice presidential candidate and current Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who decided that using terminology reserved for the Nazis against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents was a consequence-free idea. "Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets," Walz said at, of all places, a commencement speech at the University of Minnesota. "They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared." This person actually came close to being one heartbeat away from the presidency. Think about that. He uses the word "Gestapo" to compare ICE agents to Nazi state secret police under Hitler, and not a hint of condemnation came from the editorial boards of New York Times or Washington Post. This gives such rhetoric tacit approval. It’s not just Walz spewing this garbage. "It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye," said former President Joe Biden just days before Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania. ICE agents are also being targeted at an alarming rate. According to the Department of Homeland Security, assaults against ICE officers and federal agents are up a whopping 690% compared to the same time last year. And not one Democrat has come out to say, "Let these men do their jobs. Enough is enough." Instead, these are some lawmakers purposely getting arrested to drum up sympathy while making ICE look like the bad guys.

The Hill [7/8/2025 1:32 PM, Alex Gangitano, 18649K] reports President Trump on Tuesday said he would not provide an “amnesty” program that would offer help to farms and migrant farm workers, but he did announce a new program intended to support the agriculture industry. Trump has heard complaints from the agriculture industry in recent weeks that massive raids have disrupted businesses. Many farms rely upon migrant workers, including workers without legal immigration status. Trump last week discussed a program that might offer workers the ability to get a permit to stay in the country, but on Tuesday he insisted there would be no amnesty for such workers when asked about remarks by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “There’s no amnesty,” Trump said. “What we’re doing is we’re getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program.” He then asked Rollins to further explain the program, which she said would protect farmers and ensure they had the labor they needed but would not provide amnesty. Trump added, “We got to give the farmers the people they need, but we’re not talking amnesty.” Telemundo [7/8/2025 4:50 PM, Staff, 3352K] reports that also present at Trump’s Cabinet meeting was Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who explained that she plans to create "a new office to respond to the needs of our farmers, ranchers, and producers," though she did not provide further details. These statements add to a wave of Trump’s claims about the possibility of exempting undocumented immigrants in sectors such as agriculture and hospitality from his mass deportation plan, which seeks to expel millions of people from the country. The Blaze [7/8/2025 6:50 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1805K] reports "This morning we talked about protecting the farmers and the farmland, but obviously this president’s vision of no amnesty, mass deportation continues," Rollins explained, "but in a strategic way, and then ensuring that our farmers have the labor that they need." "[Labor] Sec. Chavez-DeRemer has been a leader on this. Obviously this comes out of the Labor Department, but moving toward automation, ensuring that our farmers have that workforce, and moving toward an American workforce. So all of the above," she added. "We’ve got to give the farmers the people they need, but we’re not talking amnesty," the president added.

Breitbart [7/9/2025 3:19 AM, Neil Munro, 3077K] reports President Donald Trump is eager to pass the radioactive issue of jobs for illegal migrants to his subordinates - and they are also eager to pass it to someone else. "There’s no amnesty," Trump said during a July 8 cabinet meeting. "What we’re doing is we’re getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program," he said, before asking Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to justify the move. Rollins explained: "We’ve got to give the farmers the people they need," Trump interrupted, adding, "Lori, do you want to say something?" Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer responded: “Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Secretary Rollins. [How important this is to] never displace the American worker. But the Department of Labor … is focusing on what the law entails now, being more modernized, more streamlining, to work through the H [H-2A and H-2B visa] programs. We’re going to have a concierge approach to that. We have developed a new office to answer the need of our farmers and ranchers and producers and not to displace the American worker and fall within the law now, and that does not include the amnesty program, at all, and we’ve seen that working, and will continue to have that roll-out.” The sudden demand for this cheap-labor giveaway "is coming from the usual sources of employers who have built a business model that depends on the constant supply of illegal workers," Jessica Vaughan, policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Breitbart News. But Republicans need to resist the corporate pressure for amnesty if they want to reap the election-day gains from more jobs and higher wages in 2026, she said. Control of "Pennsylvania is within the grasp of the Republicans if they avoid mistakes," she said. Anti-amnesty voters can beat business demands for cheap labor, but they must speak up, Vaughan said.

NewsMax [7/8/2025 12:07 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 4622K] reports illegal migrants who work on U.S. farms will not be given amnesty and could be subjected to mass deportation efforts as the Trump administration strives for "a 100% American workforce," Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said Tuesday. Rollins, though, did say the administration needs to be "strategic in how we are implementing the mass deportation so as not to compromise our food supply." President Donald Trump last week in Iowa said he’s willing to let migrant laborers stay in the U.S. if the farmers they work for will vouch for them. He added he was working with the Homeland Security Department to help farmers who depend on migrant laborers for their seasonal needs. Speaking at a press conference outside her department’s office, Rollins was asked about Trump suggesting some kind of "temporary pass" for illegal migrant farm workers. After saying Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and her team were working on the H-2A visa program as it relates to farm workers, Rollins said she "can’t underscore enough. There will be no amnesty." Earlier, Rollins was asked whether she had concerns over how mass deportations could affect the farm industry. "So, no amnesty under any circumstances," Rollins said. "Mass deportations continue, but in a strategic and intentional way as we move our workforce toward more automation and toward a 100% American workforce. "And ultimately it’s the wonderful members of Congress behind me who are taking this on … fixing the current immigration system." Rollins admitted there has been "a lot of noise in the last few days and a lot of questions about where the president stands and his vision for farm labor." "The first thing I’ll say is the president has been unequivocal that there will be no amnesty, and I think that’s very, very important," she said. "I and the rest of our Cabinet certainly support that, effectuate that, and make sure that happens every single day. "The second thing to your question about mass deportations, the president and I have spoken about that once or twice, and he has always been of the mindset that at the end of the day, the promise to America to ensure that we have a 100% American workforce stands, but we must be strategic in how we are implementing the mass deportation so as not to compromise our food supply." Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, Sens. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were among officials at the press conference announcing the launch of the National Farm Security Action plan to protect farmland and food supply from foreign threats.

Reported similarly:
CNN [7/8/2025 1:53 PM, Casey Gannon and Molly Reinmann, 21433K]
USA Today [7/8/2025 1:55 PM, Phillip M. Bailey, 75552K]

The Hill [7/8/2025 1:18 PM, Elizabeth Crisp, 18649K] reports Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters Tuesday that she thinks Medicaid work requirements and automation will help offset President Trump’s massive immigration crackdown, which has threatened migrant farmworkers. “There’s been a lot of noise in the last few days and a lot of questions about where the president stands and his vision for farm labor,” Rollins said during a news conference with Republican governors. “Ultimately, the answer on this is automation, also some reform within the current governing structure, and then also, when you think about there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program, there are plenty of workers in America.” Trump’s agenda-setting tax and spending bill, which the president signed into law Friday, creates the first federally mandated work requirements for Medicaid recipients. The health care safety net program typically provides coverage for pregnant women, mothers, young children and the disabled, but the federal Affordable Care Act under former President Obama allowed states to expand coverage to more of the working poor. In the 40 states that have expanded coverage (plus Washington, D.C.), people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — about $20,700 for a single person or $43,000 for a family of four — are Medicaid eligible. The new work requirements are set to take effect in states by the end of 2026, but health care advocates argue that many recipients already have jobs or are unable to work.

NewsNation [7/8/2025 4:52 PM, Jeff Arnold, 5801K] reports migrants working on American farms and in other environments will not receive amnesty "under any circumstances," despite President Donald Trump saying immigration enforcement raids would be paused and that farmers would be put in charge of migrant farmworkers rather than face threats of seeing their workforces diminished. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday that Trump’s mass deportation mission will continue, but will need to be strategic to ensure farmers have the laborers they need and to keep the country’s food supply from being compromised. But the continued back and forth on the role of working migrants continues to create confusion for farmers and the migrant farmers they employ, Aaron Lehman, the president of the Iowa Farmers Union, told NewsNation. But during a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump echoed what Rollins and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said that the administration would offer no amnesty to migrants. Chavez-DeRemer said Tuesday that the Department of Labor had developed a new office to work with farmers and ranchers, but did not provide more details.

Politico [7/8/2025 5:42 PM, Aaron Pellish, 16523K] reports President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration is starting to ripple across the U.S. economy. From small farms in California, to meat packing facilities in Nebraska to corporate giants like Disney, businesses are scrambling to replace workers after recent administration actions have taken immigrants, both legal and illegal, out of the labor force, including several hundred thousand people who had been given temporary work permits under President Joe Biden. That’s because foreign-born workers, or their relatives, have become critical in some labor sectors. “Essential isn’t a strong enough word,” said Matt Teagarden, head of the Kansas Livestock Association. “It is some version of an immigrant, maybe not first generation, but second or third generation, that are just critical to that work.” The emerging reports are the first signs of what economists and labor market experts had warned would result from Trump’s signature campaign issue, which has so far included revoking temporary legal status for several hundred thousand people who have been allowed to live and work in the U.S. in recent years without gaining citizenship. Daily operations have been thrown into question for the cattle ranchers in Teagarden’s organization because employers have become reliant on workers who, even if not directly threatened by the administration’s actions, may be related to people who are. “Am I going to have enough crew around tomorrow to get the cows milked and cows fed and everything done?” he said. “What’s my contingency plan to do the essentials, if not?” Trump has said he was working on addressing labor shortages in agriculture, telling supporters at a rally in Iowa on Thursday he wants to “work with the farmers” even if he ends up alienating “serious, radical-right people” who want to curb immigration. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday suggested Medicaid participants who don’t yet meet the work requirements passed in Republicans’ megabill could supplement labor shortages in the agriculture industry. And the administration has taken some incremental actions intended to address concerns over the shortage of foreign-born workers, including creating an Office of Immigration Policy within the Department of Labor.

FOX News [7/8/2025 3:00 PM, Breanne Deppisch, 46878K] reports President Donald Trump praised the billions of dollars in border security and immigration efforts included in the so-called "big, beautiful bill" he signed into law last week - though he suggested Tuesday the administration may not need to spend as much on enforcement efforts there as previously thought. Speaking to reporters at the White House Tuesday afternoon, Trump touted the billions of dollars approved in the Republican-led spending package, including billions in funding to turbocharge the hardline immigration crackdown his administration has prioritized in his second White House term. Among other things, the law includes $45 billion for the construction of new immigration detention centers, and roughly $30 billion in spending to fund Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations - including new spending on transportation, for the maintenance of ICE facilities and to support the hiring of an estimated 10,000 additional deportation officers. Trump told reporters Tuesday that his administration’s border crackdown could allow them to further trim spending at the border, reiterating an earlier claim that "zero" migrants entered the U.S. last month. He touted the spending on border security, though he noted, "I don’t think we’re going to need so much of it [there], because we had zero come in last month," he said, in apparent reference to border crossings. "So I’m not sure how much of it we want to spend." "You may think about that," he said. "You may actually think about saving a lot of money because the wall has been largely built, and it obviously worked." Biden, Trump said Tuesday, allowed people to enter the U.S. "just totally unchecked. Unchecked, unvetted, open borders." "The whole world was dumped into our country from prisons, from gangs, from mental institutions," Trump claimed. It was not immediately clear what country or asylums Trump was referring to, and he did not elaborate further. "We have many people walking the streets, walking in areas that we don’t know anything about that came out of insane asylums," he said. "And it’s amazing the job that you and Tom Homan are doing, by the way," Trump said, turning to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. "But, we have to get them out, and we have no choice. And we are getting them out."

UPI [7/8/2025 9:57 AM, Paul Godfrey, 3077K] reports a lawyer for the Justice Department told a federal court in Mayland that it would deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia again - but not to El Salvador - before he get his day in court Tennessee if he is released from pre-trial custody which could happen next week. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis wrapped up a three-hour hearing Monday by ordering the Justice Department to provide concrete details on what was planned and how the deportation of Abrego Garcia, who is facing people smuggling charges, which he denies, would be carried out. She told the Trump administration it must produce an official to set out in detail the plans in court in Greenbelt at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday. Provided that testimony was credible in showing the government would respect Abrego Garcia’s right to due process, Xinis said she would hold off on issuing an application by his lawyers for an order blocking his deportation. Xinis complained about the lack of a clear plan and the Justice Department lawyers’ vague answers to questions about how Garcia’s deportation would proceed. Abrego Garcia is currently in pretrial detention in Nashville but could be released into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security as early as July 16. Describing the Department of Homeland Security’s recent record on removing people from the United States as "very fast," Xinis asked if the administration planned to dispatch Abrego Garcia with similar haste. Justice Department lawyer Jonathan Guynn said the Home Security Department "would explore its options for removal closer to the time when it would be taking him into custody," but confirmed the Department of Justice did not intend to place him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention pending the outcome of his criminal case. "He will be removed, as would any other illegal alien in that process," said Guynn.

Washington Post [7/8/2025 8:54 AM, Victoria Bisset, 32099K] reports a U.S. magistrate judge on Monday recommended that the case against a Wisconsin judge accused of helping a Mexican immigrant evade arrest by federal agents be allowed to proceed. Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested in April and charged with obstructing an immigration arrest operation, amid a growing standoff between President Donald Trump’s administration and the judiciary over immigration enforcement. Dugan pleaded not guilty to the federal charges against her in May, arguing that, as a judge, she is immune from prosecution for actions taken in her official capacity in and around her courtroom. She also argued that the federal prosecution violated the constitutional separation of powers. In a nonbinding recommendation issued Monday, however, Magistrate Judge Nancy Joseph recommended against dismissing the charges against Dugan, writing that “a judge’s actions, even when done in her official capacity, does not bar criminal prosecution if the actions were done in violation of the criminal law.” Joseph went on to say that questions of whether Dugan broke the law or was “merely performing her judicial duties,” as well as the fact that the two sides dispute the facts of the case, are issues that cannot be resolved within a motion to dismiss. “We are disappointed in the magistrate judge’s non-binding recommendation, and we will appeal it,” Dugan’s attorney, Steven Biskupic, said in a statement. “This is only one step in what we expect will be a long journey to preserve the independence and integrity of our courts.” Dugan’s arrest signaled a major escalation in the administration’s threats to target local officials it sees as defying its plans to carry out mass deportations.

Telemundo [7/8/2025 8:04 PM, Staff, 177K] reports relatives of Cuban immigrants detained in the detention center known as Alligator Alcatra, located in the Everglades, denounce precarious conditions that, according to them, endanger the health and lives of inmates. Concerns come amid mounting public pressure and formal requests for oversight by local authorities. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava sent two official letters expressing concern. In one of them, addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the mayor requested a detailed report on all deaths in ICE custody in Florida this year. In a second letter, sent to state Attorney General James Hutmeier, he asked for weekly reports on the conditions of the facility, remote access to video monitoring, and oversight visits to verify the safety and environmental impact of the center. The mayor’s requests come after a series of testimonies from detainees and their families about alleged inhumane conditions. One of them, Vladimir Miranda, of Cuban origin and without a criminal record, spoke from the center: Right now it seems that they cannot with the electricity they have to generate. The electricity is leaving, it comes, and when it goes, the water doesn’t work. Phones don’t work... air conditioning doesn’t work. "We’re sweating the fat drop," Miranda said. So far, Florida authorities in charge of the center have avoided answering questions about how many migrants have been transferred there and how many of them have criminal records. Meanwhile, a court lawsuit is continuing calling for an emergency order to suspend the operation of the centre, although a decision has not yet been issued. In addition, on Tuesday fences appeared in different parts of Miami-Dade funded by the Florida Immigrant Coalition. The ads call on the public to contact Mayor Levine Cava to ask the county to file its own lawsuit against the center’s operation . Thomas Kennedy, a spokesman for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said: The best positioned entity to file a lawsuit and protect the county’s interests is the county itself, because they owned these lands and these lands were expropriated.

Telemundo [7/8/2025 1:35 PM, Staff, 3352K] reports Cuban reggaeton artist Leamsy Izquierdo, known as La Figura , denounced that immigrants are treated like "dogs" and only receive one meal a day at the new immigration detention center Alcatraz de los Caimanes , located in the middle of the Everglades wetlands in Florida, where he is being held. The artist, detained in Miami last week, called his girlfriend Katia ‘Figura’ Hernandez to describe the conditions at Alligator Alcatraz , where he claims that “there is nothing,” that the place “is not prepared for people,” and “is a kennel.” "They’re keeping us here like we’re dogs. They’re giving us only one meal a day," Izquierdo said in the call her partner shared with local media and influencers on Instagram. His testimony is the first since the Alligator Alcatraz , with a projected capacity of up to 5,000 migrants, opened last week, after the visit of President Donald Trump, at an abandoned airport in the middle of the Everglades, a natural area west of Miami surrounded by alligators, pythons, panthers and swamps. In response to the complaints, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava of Miami-Dade County, where the new detention center is located, demanded Tuesday that the federal and state governments grant them access to monitor the site, where state legislators were denied entry last week. Despite the accusations, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended itself on social media Tuesday by stating that President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are "using every tool available to remove undocumented criminal aliens." “Whether it’s CECOT (El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center), Alligator Alcatraz , Guantanamo Bay, or any other detention center, dangerous undocumented alien criminals will be off American streets,” she posted on X.

Miami Herald [7/8/2025 5:46 PM, Ana Ceballos, Alex Harris and Claire Healy, 3805K] reports the calls from Alligator Alcatraz’s first detainees brought distressing news: Toilets that didn’t flush. Temperatures that went from freezing to sweltering. A hospitalization. Giant bugs. And little or no access to showers or toothbrushes, much less confidential calls with attorneys. The stories, relayed to the Miami Herald by the wives of detainees housed in Florida’s makeshift detention center for migrants in the Everglades, offer the first snapshots of the conditions inside the newly opened facility, which began accepting detainees on July 2. They reveal detainees who are frightened not just about being deported, but also about how they are being treated by the government, which is saying little about what is taking place inside. State officials, however, denied there had been a medical emergency on site.

Federal News Network [7/8/2025 9:50 AM, Michele Sandiford, 2346K] reports agencies will have to wait another three months before they can start hiring employees again. The Trump administration has extended its governmentwide hiring freeze until mid-October. The freeze had previously been expected to lift next week. The hiring freeze doesn’t apply to military members, or civilian positions dealing with immigration enforcement, national security or public safety. It’s the White House’s second extension of the freeze since President Trump’s order on his first day in office. By the time the freeze lifts, agencies will have been barred from hiring for nine months.

The Hill [7/8/2025 11:08 AM, Judy Kurtz, 18649K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is asking for an art curation assist, calling on her social media followers to help choose a Western-themed portrait of her that will be on display in South Dakota’s state Capitol building. “Which one do you like for the official Governor’s portrait to hang in the South Dakota State Capitol?” Noem asked her nearly 500,000 Instagram followers in a Monday post. Noem, the Mount Rushmore State’s former governor, shared a series of three paintings she credited to artist David Uhl. Each of the portraits showed Noem sporting a cowboy hat while riding a horse. Noem, 53, has described horseback riding as a relaxing way to “detox.” “Sometimes, when you’re in this job, you do a lot of talking. And when I’m riding, I don’t have to talk,” she said in a 2020 interview. Noem’s portrait-picking request came on the heels of some artwork-related drama involving an image of President Trump at a state Capitol.

AP [7/8/2025 5:45 PM, Staff, 24051K] reports South Sudanese authorities confirmed on Tuesday that eight men deported from the United States were now in the custody of the government of the African country. Apuk Ayuel, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, told reporters that the eight arrived at Juba International Airport on Saturday following “standard deportation procedures undertaken” by the U.S. government. The men are “under the care of the relevant authorities who are screening them and ensuring their safety and well-being,” she said, without specifying where they are held. U.S. authorities said on Friday that the eight men deported in May and held for weeks at an American military base in Djibouti arrived in South Sudan after the Supreme Court cleared the way for their transfer. The men — from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan are part of a case that had gone to the Supreme Court, which had permitted their removal from the U.S. Administration officials said the men had been convicted of violent crimes in the U.S.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [7/8/2025 5:01 PM, Ammu Kannampilly, 51390K]

CBS News [7/8/2025 8:56 AM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51860K] Video: HERE reports the Trump administration is using the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to detain dozens of foreigners from 26 countries and six different continents, including detainees with serious criminal convictions, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday. CBS News reported last week that, as part of an expansion of the Trump administration’s effort to turn Guantanamo Bay into an immigration detention center, officials had transferred detainees from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe to the naval base. Initially, the base housed mainly Spanish-speaking Latin American migrants awaiting deportation. DHS officials on Tuesday confirmed CBS News’ reporting, sharing the full list of the nationalities of those detained at Guantanamo Bay, as well as the names and criminal histories of more than two dozen detainees. They are being held separately from the remaining prisoners held there as a result of the U.S. war on terror. The list shows Guantanamo Bay is housing detainees from all continents other than Antarctica. The detainees, DHS said, hail from Brazil, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru, Romania, Russia, Somalia, St. Kitts-Nevis, the United Kingdom, Venezuela and Vietnam. In a statement, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said the detention of foreigners with criminal records at Guantanamo Bay shows that President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are using "every tool available to get criminal illegal aliens off our streets and out of our country." "Whether it is CECOT, Alligator Alcatraz, Guantanamo Bay or another detention facility, these dangerous criminals will not be allowed to terrorize U.S. citizens," McLaughlin said, referencing the Salvadoran prison where the U.S. sent more 200 Venezuelan deportees and the facility set up by Florida officials in the Everglades. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [7/8/2025 2:57 PM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4622K]

Breitbart [7/8/2025 1:09 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports President Donald Trump is using Guantanamo prison to detain migrants with "serious" criminal histories, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Trump signaled his plans to open Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to house tens of thousands of migrant early on in his second administration. CBS News is now reporting, per DHS, that Trump is using the Guantanamo Bay detention center, known as Gitmo, to house migrants from "26 countries and six different continents, including detainees with serious criminal convictions." The criminal histories of some of these detainees are extensive and include numerous crimes against children - from sexual offenses to child pornography - as well as kidnapping, robbery, and homicide. DHS released over two dozen examples of what they described as the "high-threat, violent criminal illegal aliens" at the facility, emphasizing that they are "convicted criminals with final orders of removal from an immigration judge." Many of these crimes resemble the rap sheets of illegal migrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Florida ahead of the opening of Alligator Alcatraz. "We’re arresting criminal illegal aliens and getting them off America’s streets. Guantanamo Bay is holding the worst of the worst including child predators, rapists and murderers," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "Whether it is CECOT, Alligator Alcatraz, Guantanamo Bay or another detention facility, these dangerous criminals will not be allowed to terrorize U.S. citizens. President Trump and Secretary Noem are using every tool available to get criminal illegal aliens off our streets and out of our country. Our message is clear: Criminals are not welcome in the United States," she added. The use of Gitmo to detain migrants comes as officials intake migrants at the newly opened Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades, said to hold 3,000 migrants.

Daily Wire [7/8/2025 1:02 PM, Spencer Lindquist, 3816K] reports the Trump administration released the names and criminal history of dozens of criminal illegal aliens currently being detained at Guantanamo Bay, including murderers, pedophiles, and drug smugglers. President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the names and criminal histories of 26 criminal illegal aliens currently held at the military facility, which the administration pledged to use to detain illegal aliens shortly after Trump took office. "We’re arresting criminal illegal aliens and getting them off America’s streets. Guantanamo Bay is holding the worst of the worst including child predators, rapists and murderers," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin charged as the executive agency showcased a list of criminal illegal aliens with final orders of removal who are being held at the facility. Among those held at Guantanamo Bay are an illegal alien and Chinese national, Jin Feng Lu, who was convicted of homicide, and Shubham Singh, an Indian illegal alien convicted of child pornography. The two are joined by Honduran illegal alien Franklin Almendarez-Alvares, and illegal alien Carlos Olivo Orellana of El Salvador, both of whom were convicted of lewd acts with a minor. There’s also Nigel Tomlinson, an illegal alien from the United Kingdom with a conviction for child sexual abuse, and Colombian illegal alien Luis Fernando Ospina Tabarez, who was convicted of smuggling heroin. Guantanamo Bay began being used to hold criminal illegal aliens after Trump signed an executive order, called "Expanding Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Full Capacity," on January 29, which directed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to create detention space at the naval base.

Reported similarly:
Telemundo51 [7/8/2025 5:16 PM, Staff, 177K]

AP [7/9/2025 12:06 AM, Christine Fernando, 31733K] reports a son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” is expected to plead guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges at a Wednesday hearing. He would be the first of El Chapo’s sons facing similar charges in the U.S. to enter a plea deal. Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the Sinaloa cartel. They became known locally as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos, and federal authorities in 2023 described the operation as a massive effort to send “staggering” quantities of fentanyl into the U.S. Ovidio Guzman Lopez previously pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges tied to his leadership role in the cartel. Online court records indicate he is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to change his plea as part of a deal with prosecutors. Speculation about a deal has been percolating for months, as behind-the-scenes negotiations have quietly progressed. Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s father, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years. The brothers allegedly assumed their father’s former role as leaders of the cartel. Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States. He initially pleaded not guilty but has signaled in recent months his intent to change his plea. Joaquin Guzman Lopez and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, were arrested in July 2024 in Texas after they landed in the U.S. on a private plane. Both men have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges. Their dramatic capture prompted a surge in violence in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed. Longtime Chicago mob attorney Joe “The Shark” Lopez, who has represented Chicago mobsters Mario “The Arm” Rainone and Anthony “Tough Tony” Calabrese, said he expects both of El Chapo’s sons to pursue plea deals and avoid trials. He estimated that Ovidio Guzman Lopez still may face about 20 to 25 years in prison based on the charges. “This is an international drug case,” Lopez said. “These cases are usually very solid, almost unbeatable. There is no upside to them going to trial because they can’t win. And he saw what happened when his dad went to trial.”

Washington Post [7/8/2025 6:00 AM, Nancy Gibbs, 32099K] reports the paradox of masks — now being deployed by federal agents in pursuit of undocumented immigrants — is how they reveal as much as they hide. Today, they are acting as both weapon and shield. A chorus of critics across the political spectrum now rejects the practice of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers wearing masks and balaclavas, with no badges, insignia or uniforms as they detain people in parking lots, schoolyards, city streets and courthouses. Anonymity is necessary for officers, says an anonymous Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, “to protect themselves from being targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers.” But what if this effort to protect officers, in addition to shredding rights and alienating the public, increases risk — for everyone? Democratic Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia recently urged the Department of Homeland Security to limit the use of face coverings and clearly identify its officers. Failure to do so, they argue, “put everyone at risk — the targeted individuals, the ICE officers and agents, and bystanders who may misunderstand what is happening and may attempt to intervene.” And that’s the crux of the peril here. How do you tell the difference between an arrest and an abduction? Short answer: You can’t. In April, a Florida woman impersonating a masked ICE agent tried to kidnap her ex-boyfriend’s wife. Imagine that someone walking down the street is suddenly pulled into an unmarked vehicle by armed, masked men. Will witnesses call the police, or try to intercede? Might they hesitate, given ICE’s threats to prosecute two women at a Charlottesville courthouse who tried to make masked ICE officers identify themselves during an arrest? When agents demand the right to be both armed and anonymous, they blur the line between law enforcement and lawlessness. In a country where mistaken identity can now get you deported or killed, and where rights are harder to restore than to erode, this is a slow-motion threat to public safety and democratic legitimacy. And now with an additional $45 billion for immigrant detentions in the new budget bill — three times the current level — ICE will need to rebuild public trust if it is to function safely and effectively. If we don’t know who is enforcing the law, how can we be sure the law is being enforced?

Washington Post [7/8/2025 7:00 AM, Catherine Rampell, 32099K] reports lots of groups will be harmed by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which recently became his One Big Beautiful Law. Among them: the poor, the young, the math-literate. But it’s also worth assessing who will benefit from the GOP’s rearrangement of fiscal priorities. The answer is not only the rich and corporations; it’s also America’s growing immigration industrial complex. Trump’s new mega-law invests $178 billion in additional immigration enforcement over the next decade, primarily through new funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. To be clear, this is not merely about “border security,” which has significant bipartisan appeal. Democrats tried to beef it up last year, though Trump ordered Republican lawmakers not to cooperate. It’s largely for more detention centers and boots on the ground within the U.S. interior. This means spending more dollars to round up gardeners, home health aides, grad students, nannies, construction workers, etc. In other words, the administration is going after your family, neighbors and friends, regardless of how long they’ve been here, whether they present any “safety” threat or how much they’ve contributed to their communities. Trump has some flexibility on when he spends the new money Congress gave him (which comes in addition to the usual annual appropriations that immigration-related agencies receive), but it’s reasonable to assume that this year’s annual budget for ICE alone will be larger than that for most other law enforcement agencies combined. This includes the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ICE spending this year will also be larger than most other countries’ military budgets.

New York Post [7/8/2025 7:46 PM, Staff, 49956K] reports travelers rejoice: The TSA is finally nixing its stupid shoe rule. After forcing us all to remove roughly 100 million pieces of footwear these past 19 years. To no real point, except security theater. The Transportation Security Administration geniuses only imposed the rule years after the "shoe bomber" failed, maybe simply to distract us all from the also-maddening restrictions on liquids. Enforcement has long been inconsistent, with some lines at some airports mysteriously exempted. Travelers under age 12 and over 75 apparently can’t hide explosives in their shoes, as they’ve long been completely exempt. And of course forking over $78 to join TSA Pre-check also lets you stay shoed. Even if TSA higher-ups pretend that tech advances allow the end of this idiocy, we have to suspect it actually reflects the nation’s new political leadership.

The Hill [7/8/2025 12:00 PM, Nolan Rappaport, 18649K] reports on Jan. 20, 2025, newly reelected President Trump issued an executive order ending birthright citizenship. The order, which will affect the children of designated parents who are born more than 30 days after the order was published, declares that the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship provision does not apply to children born in the United States if their mother is an undocumented immigrant and their father is not a citizen or lawful permanent resident, or (2) the mother’s immigration status is lawful but only temporary and the father is not a citizen or a lawful permanent resident. People objecting to that provision have filed lawsuits in U.S. district courts, claiming that it is unconstitutional. Three of the courts issued universal injunctions to prevent Trump from implementing his executive order during the course of the litigation. These injunctions barred federal officials from applying the order to anyone, not just to the plaintiffs in the three suits. Then the Supreme Court granted a request from the Trump administration to stay the injunctions, “but only to the extent that the injunctions are broader than necessary to provide complete relief to each plaintiff with standing to sue.” The high court’s decision did not address the claim that Trump’s order violates the 14th Amendment, leaving it up to the three district courts to make the initial decision on that issue. If the Supreme Court later chooses to render a decision there, will it hold that the provision is unconstitutional? That may depend on whether the justices view the Constitution as “a living document that must adapt to contemporary realities to remain relevant and effective.” The U.S., after all, is a very different place now than it was when the 14th Amendment was first passed.

The Hill [7/8/2025 9:30 AM, Christopher Monroe and Arthur Herman, 18649K] reports a recent poll showed that 88 percent of American voters worry that the rapid pace of Beijing’s technological advancements will give China military superiority over the U.S. One way to make sure that this dire prediction comes true is to ban Chinese and other foreign students and researchers from studying here. Try to imagine the Manhattan Project without German refugee scientists like Hans Bethe, or another refugee from an Axis power, Enrico Fermi. Or try to imagine America’s ballistic missile program, including the moonshot, without German scientists like Wernher von Braun. There are times when scientists and researchers from other countries, even nominally hostile ones, can be crucial to the development and maintenance of America’s technological edge. There are plenty of reasons for America to be concerned about China, including its command-and-control government, its technology theft and its inequitable trading practices. The arrest in June of two Chinese student researchers from the University of Michigan, for allegedly smuggling biological pathogens into the U.S., underlines the importance of making sure that Chinese students and scientists aren’t getting into our country in order to do us harm. Some in the Trump administration have pushed for blanket revocations of Chinese student visas. Fortunately, President Trump has held off on such a draconian policy. The truth is that being too stringent in limiting the work of foreign students and scientists — even Chinese ones — poses as much of a national security threat as being too lax. For example, almost half of the artificial intelligence researchers currently in the U.S. are Chinese immigrants. The situation is even more critical with regard to quantum science, and specifically quantum computing, which is arguably the Manhattan Project of our time.

CBS News [7/8/2025 4:58 PM, Sara Moniuszko, 51860K] reports as the Trump administration continues its push to undocumented immigrants, doctors are hearing that some patients are avoiding getting the health care they need over fears that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids could take place in medical settings. Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, told "CBS Mornings Plus" on Tuesday that she has not seen any official ICE raids in hospitals, but that ICE agents have been seen in hospitals as well as other health care facilities. That’s because detention standards require that ICE detainees be provided medical services, including initial medical and dental screenings, as well as emergency care.

CBS News [7/8/2025 10:34 AM, Staff, 51860K] reports Dr. Celine Gounder joins "CBS Mornings" to discuss how fears of immigration enforcement are impacting public health and forcing hospitals to prepare for possible encounters with ICE. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [7/8/2025 6:33 PM, Tara Suter, 18649K] reports a group of Senate Democrats are pressing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the masking of officers not in uniform during its operations. In the letter, sent to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, the group of Democrats argued the masks and lack of uniforms have led to chaos in Los Angeles as agents have looked to make arrests. The letter also accused ICE of seeking to meet “arbitrary quotas” set by Stephen Miller, a key adviser to President Trump widely seen as demanding huge increases in ICE detentions. “We write regarding the apparent widespread violations of historical norms and traditions in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (“ICE”) operations in Los Angeles and across the country by engaging in law enforcement activities—including arrests—without wearing identifying uniforms and while masked,” the lawmakers wrote. “As ICE engages in unprecedented numbers of immigration raids across the country, reportedly in response to arbitrary quotas set by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, it is crucial that ICE personnel not engage in conduct that is all but guaranteed to sow chaos and confusion and put law enforcement officers in danger,” the group added. The Monday letter is signed by Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla (Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Cory Booker (N.J.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Peter Welch (Vt.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Tina Smith (Minn.), Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Raphael Warnock (Ga.). The Hill has reached out to ICE and the White House for comment. When reached for comment about the letter and the comments in it about Miller, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “heroic ICE officers are simply doing their jobs and enforcing federal immigration law, with the utmost professionalism.” “Dangerous smears and misinformation from elected Democrats radicalize their supporters to violently attack and obstruct federal law enforcement,” Jackson added. “This letter is just another attempt to demonize law enforcement officers. Because of comments from the left, assaults against ICE agents have increased by nearly 700% this year.” The Washington Examiner [7/8/2025 12:54 PM, Emily Hallas, 1934K] reports Sen.Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced a bill on Tuesday seeking to expand identification requirements for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducting sweeps for illegal immigrants. Concerns have been raised, including in Los Angeles, that ICE officers carrying out raids are doing so without identifying themselves and are, on occasion, concealing their identity with masks. The concerns have led to complaints that federal agents are operating in an authoritarian manner without full transparency, sparking a surge of kidnapping calls to police from outraged residents. Although the Trump administration has dismissed unease, arguing that officers need, at times, to conceal their identity due to the steep rise of violence against ICE, Padilla joined forces with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) to introduce a bill that would ban federal immigration officers from wearing most face coverings and require them to wear visible ID during public operations. "When federal immigration agents show up and pull someone off the street in plainclothes with their face obscured and no visible identification, it only escalates tensions and spreads fear while shielding federal agents from basic accountability," Padilla said in a statement pushing Congress to support the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement Act. "Immigration agents should be required to display their agency and name or badge number - just like police and other local law enforcement agencies. The VISIBLE Act’s commonsense requirements will restore transparency and ensure impersonators can’t exploit the panic and confusion caused by unidentifiable federal immigration enforcement agents." The Trump administration has argued that it is necessary for ICE agents to be allowed to conceal their identity for security purposes, citing a 413% increase in assaults against officers attempting to make arrests. Ten suspects were charged this week with attempting to murder ICE agents at a Texas detention facility in Alvarado. The Department of Homeland Security has also pointed to increasing doxxing threats against agents, including from leading Democratic politicians. Doxxing is a typically malicious practice where someone’s personal information, such as their home address, is made public. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees ICE, told CBS News in a recent interview that masks are "for the safety of those individuals or the work that they’re doing as far as protecting their identity so they can continue to do investigative work." Axios [7/8/2025 6:55 AM, Russell Contreras, 13599K] reports that under the proposed bill unveiled Tuesday, Homeland Security agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be required to display a legible ID that includes the agency name or acronym. They’d also have to include information on their names or badge numbers. This requirement would extend to federal agents detailed to immigration operations, and deputized state or local officers. The bill also would prohibit non-medical face coverings (such as masks or balaclavas) that obscure identity or facial visibility, with exceptions for environmental hazards or covert operations. In addition, it would require the Department of Homeland Security to establish disciplinary procedures for violations, report annually to Congress, and investigate complaints through its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, has defended ICE agents’ tactics and the use of face coverings. She told Axios that ICE agents have faced a 700% surge in assaults against them in recent weeks. McLaughlin said DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted and blamed Democrats for "violent rhetoric" against ICE agents.

Breitbart [7/8/2025 8:45 AM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that a San Antonio City Council candidate called for the shooting of ICE agents on the streets of Los Angeles. The threat by the self-described Democrat political consultant comes as ICE agents are increasingly assaulted, and a Border Patrol station in Texas came under attack from a gunman. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on social media that San Antonio City Council Candidate Matthew Gauna called for the killing of ICE agents in Los Angeles. "I wanna see a few dead ICE agents Los Angeles! Don’t let me down." McLaughlin called the threat "depraved." The post by Gauna was subsequently removed, but not before others on X grabbed screenshots of the threat calling for the assassination of ICE agents. Gauna’s post appears to be a reply to a Fox News post by Bill Melugin. Gauna appeared to have been angered by the enforcement action in Los Angeles’s MacArthur Park. During the raid, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass confronted ICE agents and military personnel, as reported by Breitbart News. Many on social media quickly called for the arrest and prosecution of Gauna. Texas Attorney General candidate Aaron Reitz also called for Gauna’s arrest. McLaughlin seemed to be of the same mindset. "We’ll see you soon," she said in her post.

FOX Business [7/8/2025 4:41 PM, Staff, 9940K] Video: HERE reports Trump administration ‘border czar’ Tom Homan calls out violent rhetoric against ICE agents amid ambushes on ‘Kudlow.’

The Hill [7/8/2025 9:36 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 18649K] reports President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, called on Democrats to tone down the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rhetoric, saying they should pass legislation to address their concerns, rather than target the law enforcement officers. In an interview on Tuesday on the “Cats & Cosby Show” with John Catsimatidis & Rita Cosby, Homan expressed concern about the rise in violence against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and suggested that “nuts on the left” were, at least partially, responsible. “I’ve seen this film before, and I said, with this rhetoric, comparing ICE to Nazis and racists and terrorist groups, I said, the nuts on the left, it’s going to embolden them to do something stupid, and we’ve seen it,” Homan said. “So, I don’t think it’s over, unless Democrats, you know, shut the hell up and stop attacking ICE.” “They need to remember ICE is enforcing the laws that they wrote,” Homan continued. “If they don’t like what ICE is doing, then change the law.” The interview comes a day after a man opened fire at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, on Monday. Federal agents returned fire and shot the man. A few days earlier, a police officer was shot outside an ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas. “I said over two months ago, if this rhetoric continues, that someone’s going to lose their life,” Homan said in the interview, “either a protester who is turning criminal or violent or it’s going to be an officer.”

FOX News [7/8/2025 3:50 PM, Anders Hagstrom, 46878K] reports Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., had harsh words for Democratic colleagues employing heated rhetoric against immigration enforcement officers Tuesday following recent attacks on ICE and Border Patrol facilities in Texas. Hawley told Fox News Digital in an interview that lawmakers need to turn their focus back to the needs of their constituents, rather than trying to make flash-in-the-pan headlines. He specifically called out Democrats who have criticized ICE officers for wearing masks during their operations. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., accused officers of acting "like a terrorist force" His words echoed the sentiment expressed by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday, who urged Democrats to cool off their rhetoric. Leavitt urged Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to set up a meeting with ICE and CBP agents. The conversation over Democratic rhetoric erupted in recent days after a pair of attacks on ICE and Border Patrol facilities in Texas.

Breitbart [7/8/2025 11:00 AM, Jeff Poor, 3077K] reports Monday on FNC’s "Jesse Watters Primetime," White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said that Democrat efforts to encourage illegal immigration were part of an "insurrectionist movement." He noted the hostility to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. "All right, Mr. Miller, ICE agents, Border Patrol agents, cops are now getting shot at," host Jesse Watters said. "How is this happening?" "It’s happening because, Jesse, there is an insurrectionist movement in the Democratic Party that is inspiring domestic terrorism against ICE," Miller replied. "When you have the mayor of Los Angeles mobilizing agitators, mobilizing the mob against ICE, saying that federal law enforcement has to leave her city. This is a settled constitutional question, Federal law is the supreme law of the land. You cannot nullify it. You cannot secede from it. It is the law of the United States of America. So these insurrectionist Democrats are every day engaging in rhetoric that is incentivizing, that is encouraging, that is fomenting violent terrorist attacks against ICE and ICE officers, not only in the shootings that you’ve seen recently, but ICE officers are being doxed, their families and children are being threatened, their addresses are being posted online. They’re being subjected to a campaign of terror by these radical Democrats."

Axios [7/9/2025 4:50 AM, Russell Contreras, 13599K] reports a growing number of U.S. citizens — many of them Latinos — are reporting they were detained for various periods by immigration agents in what critics say were instances of racial profiling and overzealous policing. U.S. citizens aren’t supposed to be arrested or detained unless agents allege they’re breaking laws. But reports of citizens of Latino descent being detained — or stopped and asked to prove citizenship — are rippling through Latino communities nationwide. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hasn’t released statistics on such detentions in months. Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, told Axios that recent reports of citizens wrongly being arrested are false — and that "the media is shamefully peddling a false narrative" to demonize ICE agents. But an Axios review of news reports, social media videos and claims by advocacy groups about raids since President Trump took office found several instances in which U.S. citizens alleged they were wrongfully detained — in one case, for 10 days in immigration detention. The allegations come as ICE continues raids in mostly Latino communities in the Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Diego areas, cities in Texas, New Mexico, New York and Florida, and agricultural centers such as Central California. "Any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE," McLaughlin wrote in an email to Axios. She maintained that such rhetoric has led to an increase in assaults on ICE officers.

Telemundo47 [7/8/2025 11:36 AM, Staff, 145K] reports New York City on Tuesday announced its support for a student from one of the city’s public schools who was arrested by ICE agents after attending a routine and mandatory immigration hearing outside the Manhattan courthouse. According to the city, Darlis Snaider, a 19-year-old Ecuadorian, a Grade 11, who attends Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood, Queens, was arrested on June 4. The city claims that the young man has no criminal record in the city and that he and his family sought asylum in the United States as a result of the discrimination they faced as indigenous members of the Panzaleo tribe in Ecuador. In support of Snaider, the city submitted amicus curiae, which is a legal document to provide more information on a case, against William P. Joyce, in his capacity as Acting Director of the Field Office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service of New York; Caleb VITELLO, Acting Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service; Kristi NOEM, in his capacity as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Pamela Bondi, Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice.

CBS New York [7/8/2025 6:14 PM, Allen Devlin, 51860K] Video: HERE reports New York City officials are asking for more people to bear witness to what they claim are detainment traps set up inside federal immigration court. As CBS News New York’s Allen Devlin reports, one man was taken shortly after walking out of the courtroom on Tuesday. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams got emotional as he stood next to a mother in tears who was holding hands with her young daughter moments after city officials say their husband and father, Jefferson Velazquez, was detained following immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza. "Everyone should be terrified about what’s happening in that courtroom, and everyone should be doing everything they can to stop it," Williams said. "This little girl probably doesn’t even know what happened to her father yet. We have someone who’s waiting for her partner, not even knowing they are detained. These are human beings." A pastor who was with the family in court described the moment he had to explain to Velazquez’s wife and daughter that the asylum seeker was in custody. "She was in shock, and Soye, who is 6 years old, asked, ‘Where is my father? Where is my daddy?’ And the mother had to respond, I had to respond. It was very ... it was a fiction movie," Father Fabian Aries said. City Comptroller Brad Lander and Rep. Dan Goldman joined Williams on Tuesday morning to, as they say, "bear witness" to the proceedings inside immigration courts, as city officials report some immigrants who show up for court face immediate detainment regardless of what is decided in the courtroom. "This is an emergency for our democracy," Lander said. "As soon as they leave the courtroom, they are abducted by masked federal agents, many of them not wearing uniforms or badges, with, lets be clear, no legal basis for their abduction."

New York Post [7/8/2025 6:31 PM, Brandon Cruz, 49956K] reports It’s fire and ICE in one Long Island town. Tensions are burning in Brentwood after ICE agents were spotted using the local firehouse parking lot as a makeshift base of operations just weeks after Suffolk County doubled down on its anti-sanctuary stance. Unmarked ICE vehicles and agents were confirmed to be operating out of the lot, according to several Long Island pols representing the immigrant-heavy community where more than 70% of residents are Latino. "In a town built and protected by a Latino majority, ICE was shockingly allowed to use a Brentwood firehouse to launch enforcement operations against that very community," state Assemblyman Phil Ramos raged on Facebook on Monday. Ramos slammed Brentwood’s fire department, but its officials told The Post they had no prior knowledge of ICE using the fire station’s parking lot as a base, adding that as a state entity, it can’t stop a federal agency from using the site, which they also said is public property. "At no time did the Brentwood Fire District or Brentwood Fire Department have any knowledge or allow any Law enforcement Agency to use the fire house parking lot," the fire district told The Post in a statement. "We were never contacted by any federal, state or local law enforcement agency or any other branch of government regarding the use of any parking lot at any fire district location." But Ramos is not convinced, and activists from the group Islip Forward claim to have seen firefighters on the property at the same time.

CBS New York [7/8/2025 5:54 PM, Staff, 51860K] Video: HERE reports there are reports of an immigration raid in Edison, New Jersey.

AP [7/8/2025 3:49 PM, Kate Brumback, 56K] reports a week after an immigration judge granted him bond, a Spanish-language journalist who was arrested while covering a protest last month remains in federal custody. Police just outside Atlanta arrested Mario Guevara while he was covering a protest on June 14, and he was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement several days later. He was being held at an immigration detention center in Folkston — in southeast Georgia, near the Florida border — when an immigration judge last week granted him bond. But when his family tried to pay the $7,500 bond last week, ICE didn’t accept it and he has since been shuffled between three other jails, his lawyer Giovanni Diaz said. “We are of the opinion that there seems to be a concerted effort between different jurisdictions to keep him detained,” Diaz said. Guevara, 47, fled El Salvador two decades ago and drew a loyal audience as a journalist covering immigration in the Atlanta area. He worked for Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language newspaper, for years before starting a digital news outlet called MG News. He was livestreaming video on social media from a DeKalb County rally protesting President Donald Trump’s administration when local police arrested him. Guevara has been authorized to work and remain in the country, Diaz said. A previous immigration case against him was administratively closed more than a decade ago, and he has a pending green card application sponsored by his adult U.S. citizen son, the lawyer said. After Immigration Judge James Ward granted him bond, Guevara’s family tried several times to pay it online but it wouldn’t go through, Diaz said. They then went to pay it in person and ICE refused to accept it, he said. “What we didn’t know was what was going on in the background,” Diaz said, explaining that they have since learned that ICE was challenging his release to the Board of Immigration Appeals and asked to put the bond order on hold while that’s pending.

Breitbart [7/8/2025 1:22 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports an illegal alien is accused of killing 19-year-old Brianna Kelson on the Fourth of July this past weekend in Hillsborough County, Florida, as she was on her way to work. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has arrested 21-year-old Roberto Carlos Meza Rosales, an illegal alien from Honduras who crossed the United States-Mexico border in 2018, and charged him with leaving the scene of a crash involving death. On July 4, Kelson was on her way to work to open Wendy’s around 5:00 a.m. when police say Rosales was speeding, ran a red light, and struck the young girl - leaving her dead at the scene. Rosales then fled the scene on foot before police and first responders arrived, but he was found within hours and admitted to police that he had fled the scene. Rosales, police say, showed signs that he was drunk at the time of the crash. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to law enforcement that Rosales is an illegal alien and has been in the United States since 2018.

AP [7/9/2025 1:46 AM, Jack Brook, 21433K] reports an Iranian mother detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers has been released this week following advocacy from Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Mandonna “Donna” Kashanian, 64, was detained by ICE officers last month as she gardened in the yard of her New Orleans home. She had been living in the United States for 47 years, and her husband and daughter are both U.S. citizens. Kashanian had been allowed to stay in the U.S. as long as she checked in regularly with immigration authorities, as she had done without fail, her family and attorney said. After a surge of community support for Kashanian, Scalise, who represents Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District, including the New Orleans suburbs, told media outlet WDSU that he asked the Department of Homeland Security to give Kashanian “a fair shake.” Scalise said Kashanian should be judged on “her life’s work” and role in her community. “When she was picked up, we looked at it and said, ‘Are they really looking at it the right way, objectively?’” Scalise told WDSU. “And so they took a second look at it.” Scalise’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the AP. Scalise’s intervention was “absolutely crucial” to behind-the-scenes advocacy to secure Kashanian’s release, her attorney Ken Mayeaux told The Associated Press. What happens next for Kashanian’s legal status is still being worked out, he said. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that “the facts of this case have not changed.” “Mandonna Kashanian is in this country illegally,” McLaughlin said. “She exhausted all her legal options.” Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, a Republican who represents Kashanian’s community, said she had been a “devoted mother and wife, a caretaker, neighbor and dedicated volunteer” with Habitat for Humanity, her local school district and other organizations. More than 100 of Kashanian’s neighbors wrote letters of support for her, which Hilferty told the AP she and Scalise had shared with President Donald Trump’s administration. “She’s just been an incredible volunteer and servant to our Lakeview community, everybody knows her because of all she gives and does,” said Connie Uddo, a neighbor of Kashanian’s who leads the NOLA Tree Project where Kashanian and her husband have volunteered for years.

FOX News [7/8/2025 3:56 PM, Alexandra Koch, 46878K] reports federal authorities in Indiana recently nabbed two illegal immigrants accused of murder and strangulation, among other violent crimes. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents detained Honduran national and alleged MS-13 gang member Jonny Handy Martinez-Barillas, according to a statement from ICE posted to X on Tuesday. Martinez-Barillas had previously been charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm, officials said. However, Maryland police allegedly backed out of enforcing an ICE detainer in 2023, allowing him to "endanger American communities… until we finished the job," ICE wrote in the statement. During Martinez-Barillas’ capture, ICE found another illegal immigrant in the passenger seat. Danilo Amilcar-Escobar, who was deported three times since April 2024, had pending charges for strangulation, domestic battery and cocaine possession, according to ICE.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [7/8/2025 5:35 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 3077K]

FOX News [7/8/2025 7:42 PM, Rachel del Guidice, 46878K] reports Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed Tuesday that his city "will not ever cooperate with ICE" "You know, again, it’s unconscionable at a time in which so many working people and poor people need government to show up for them, that this administration, the Trump administration, has caused so much consternation and division," Johnson said Tuesday during a press conference. Johnson was responding to a question about whether the city would "set up local police perimeters around schools to shield students from federal agents without warrants." "Look, we are welcoming city ordinance," Johnson said. "Our local police department will not ever cooperate with ICE, whatever their constitutional authority is. That is obviously relegated to the Trump administration. All of our sister agencies, city departments have been thoroughly briefed by a corporate counsel, and I’ll pass it over to her in a second about what they can and cannot do." Johnson has been vocal about his criticism of ICE. Last month, he urged House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to "speak up" regarding ICE’s immigration enforcement that the mayor characterized as "terrorism,." White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital, "Democrat politicians are desperate to defend violent criminal illegal aliens over American citizens. It’s wrong. And it’s why the American people rejected the Democrats in November and sent President Trump back to the White House." "No matter how much Democrats try to defend criminal illegal aliens, President Trump and his Administration will always fight to protect the American people," Jackson added. "President Trump is committed to carrying out the largest mass deportation operation in history by specifically targeting dangerous sanctuary cities that provide safe harbor to criminal illegals."

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [7/8/2025 3:32 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 1934K]

Breitbart [7/8/2025 6:58 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have arrested 11 illegal aliens, all convicted of sex crimes including some against children, in the Minneapolis, Minnesota region, Breitbart News has exclusively learned. "These pedophiles and sex offenders are the sickos our brave ICE law enforcement are putting their lives on the line to arrest and remove from American communities," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Among the 11 illegal aliens arrested by ICE agents between June 6 and June 11 are Pao Angelo Vang and Thong Lao, two illegal aliens from Laos, who have been convicted of second-degree sexual assault of a child. Likewise, ICE agents arrested Tou Pao Lee and Yee Shae, illegal aliens from Thailand. Lee has been convicted of soliciting a minor and Shae has been convicted of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

FOX News [7/8/2025 12:31 PM, Danielle Wallace and Matt Finn, 46878K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal law enforcement officers conducting immigration enforcement have been targeted in at least two ambushes in Texas in recent days. The Justice Department on Monday named 10 individuals charged with shooting a police officer in the neck and opening fire on other correctional officers outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on the Fourth of July. The group, donning all black, allegedly first began shooting fireworks at the facility, which is being used by the Department of Homeland Security to hold people related to immigration violations or awaiting deportation. The defendants are Cameron Arnold, also known as Autumn Hill; Savannah Batten; Nathan Baumann; Zachary Evetts; Joy Gibson; Bradford Morris, also known as Meagan Morris; Maricela Rueda; Seth Sikes; Elizabeth Soto; and Ines Soto. The complaint charges each of them with three counts of attempted murder of a federal officer and three counts of discharging a firearm during, in relation to and in furtherance of a violent crime. "The shooting was captured by both CCTV and the APD officer’s body-worn camera," the complaint says. The FBI recovered AR-style rifles from the scene. The complaint notes that the defendants were "dressed in black, military-style clothing," some were wearing body armor, some were armed, and some had two-way radios. The complaint was announced the same day that a man in a "utility vest" and armed with an assault rifle fired dozens of rounds at federal agents and a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border, on Monday. A police officer was injured before authorities say they shot and killed the assailant, identified as 27-year-old Ryan Louis Mosqueda.

New York Times [7/8/2025 9:38 PM, Orlando Mayorquín, 138952K] reports city and county officials in Los Angeles sought to join a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration on Tuesday to stop widespread immigration raids that have prompted demonstrations and caused panic in Latino communities across Southern California. The lawsuit, filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and other groups, accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies of using racial profiling tactics, conducting warrantless arrests, denying people access to lawyers and holding those arrested in poor conditions. The City and County of Los Angeles were among nine municipalities that filed a motion to intervene in the case on Tuesday. The others, all in Los Angeles County, were Culver City, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pasadena, Pico Rivera, Santa Monica and West Hollywood. “These unconstitutional roundups and raids cannot be allowed to continue,” Hydee Feldstein Soto, the Los Angeles city attorney, said at a news conference. “They cannot become the new normal.” For weeks, local officials have called for an end to the raids, but asking to join the litigation was the first formal step they have taken to try to halt a federal operation. The request came the day after heavily armed federal agents and National Guard troops marched through MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles in an extraordinary show of force that drew a sharp rebuke from Mayor Karen Bass. The city did not need federal agents “coming through, lined up in military fashion and doing absolutely nothing,” said the mayor, who joined the news conference on Tuesday. Federal officials have denied the accusations outlined in the lawsuit and dismissed complaints about racial profiling. They have described the raids as targeted and effective, and have accused Democratic politicians and activists of demonizing federal agents. In an emailed statement last week, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the accusations were “disgusting and categorically FALSE” and had led to an increase in assaults on officers. Since June 6, immigrant communities in Los Angeles and throughout the region have been disrupted by an aggressive campaign carried out by armed and often masked agents from ICE, Border Patrol and other agencies. Social media videos have shown agents in marked, unmarked and military-style vehicles detaining and questioning immigrants at car washes, shopping-center parking lots, bus stops and other sites and workplaces.

New York Post [7/8/2025 4:50 PM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports immigration agents who flooded a Los Angeles park on Monday said they were there as a "show of force" to protect residents from MS-13 gangbangers and open air drug markets - before they were furiously confronted by Mayor Karen Bass. The grandstanding Democratic mayor tried to banish the ICE and Border Patrol officials, who descended on MacArthur Park Monday, in a chaotic scene, blasting the operation as "un-American." But ICE and Border Patrol sources told The Post that they were there to try and help clean up the park, which has long been plagued by gang activity, homelessness and drug addicts overdosing on fentanyl and animal tranquilizers.

(B) CBS Mornings Plus [7/8/2025 12:13 PM, Staff] reports that an immigration enforcement operation in Los Angeles happened yesterday. Heavily armed agents and about 90 members of the California National Guards were deployed to a neighborhood which has a large immigrant population. Officials were on horseback and moved from one end of the park to another for about an hour. The Department of Homeland Security has not announced that it made any arrests during this operation.

AP [7/8/2025 5:28 PM, Jaimie Ding and Christopher Weber, 56000K] reports federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived, with guns and horses. By then, the park that is normally bustling with vendors was mostly empty. Activists had also spread word about the raid on social media. After sweeping through the park, the convoy that included armored vehicles left as suddenly as it had arrived, Velasquez said. The Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t say what the purpose of the operation was, why it ended abruptly, or whether anyone had been arrested. The agency said in an email that it would not comment on “ongoing enforcement operations.” But local officials said it seemed designed to sow fear. Mayor Karen Bass planned a Tuesday afternoon news conference to outline how Los Angeles will challenge what she says are unlawful immigration raids.

NewsMax [7/8/2025 4:27 PM, Jim Mishler, 4622K] reports increased arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are leading to an unforeseen issue in California. The Los Angeles Times reported that the personal property of those arrested is left unattended. Often, such items are abandoned in public areas. The Orange County Rapid Response Network is trying to help. The community-based organization, known as OCRRN, supports immigrants who face enforcement actions. The group is working with volunteers to report abandoned vehicles, especially those identified during ICE arrests, to make sure family members are aware. The Santa Ana Police Department posted that it was joining the effort to get property returned to family members. The Los Angeles Times [7/8/2025 12:16 PM, Salvador Hernandez, 14672K] reports cars with shattered windows have been left in streets and parking lots, lawn mowers left running on front lawns, and ice cream carts abandoned on sidewalks. A growing inventory of deserted belongings has been scattered across Southern California amid the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration sweeps. In each case, the possessions have been left behind by people nabbed without warning by federal agents. Cars. Vending carts. Work tools. Food trucks. When authorities arrested two gardeners outside an Ontario residence, the homeowner went outside to see the lawn mower still running, the lawn half cut and the workers’ truck in the driveway, he told local reporters. As the raids enter their second month, there is a growing push to see that even after someone is arrested, their belongings are returned to their families. One local police department has announced it will attempt to return abandoned property, such as vehicles and work equipment, to relatives of those detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. "We’re looking out of the box to see how we can help these families," said Santa Ana Police Officer Natalie Garcia, public information officer for the department. There are also growing grassroots efforts across the region to let families know about arrests.

CBS Los Angeles [7/8/2025 5:08 PM, Austin Turner and Tina Patel, 51860K] reports in MacArthur Park on Tuesday, there were no more armored vehicles or armed federal officers in the area, but a once-vibrant neighborhood was tense in the aftermath of a large-scale immigration enforcement operation the day before. On Monday, officers with Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement swept through the 35-acre park in a way that appeared systematic. Officers on horseback entered from one end and trotted toward the other. On the adjacent streets were military Humvees. As the federal authorities arrived, a children’s summer camp was taking place. Some onlookers called the operation a show of force, as it’s not clear if anyone was detained. Local politicians like Mayor Karen Bass condemned the operations, saying it was "provoking fear and terror." City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said the scene resembled the "staging for a TikTok video." Trump administration officials haven’t provided a reason for the operation. In a post to X, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino said federal officers "may well go back to MacArthur Park or other places in and around Los Angeles." CBS News Los Angeles reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to confirm if there were any arrests and for a statement on the operation, but the department declined to comment. Trump has defended the operations by stating that Democrat-run cities like L.A. "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." On Tuesday, neighborhood community leaders gathered at MacArthur Park with more questions surrounding the ongoing push to arrest unauthorized immigrants in L.A. "What’s the plan [for immigration enforcement]," said Raul Claros of the advocacy group California Rising. "Who’s in charge? What’s the timeline?"

CNN [7/8/2025 6:00 AM, Zoe Sottile, 21433K] reports born on a US military base, the son of a US citizen father serving in the Army, Jermaine Thomas never considered he might not be American. A month ago, he found himself shackled at the wrists and ankles and forced aboard a flight for Jamaica, his father’s birthplace and a country Thomas had never been to before. "It’s too hard to put in words," Thomas told CNN. "I just think to myself, this can’t really be happening." He is legally stateless, he told CNN. He is not a citizen of the US, although his father was a US citizen; Germany, where he was born at a US military hospital; Jamaica, his father’s homeland; or Kenya, where his mother was born. Thomas, 39, says he spoke to CNN from a homeless shelter in Kingston, Jamaica, a city where he now finds himself stranded hundreds of miles away from his friends and family after an arrest for criminal trespass led to him being transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Thomas was born in 1986, at a US military hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, to a mother born in Kenya and a US citizen father who eventually spent more than a decade in the military, where he repaired Army helicopters. His father became a naturalized US citizen in 1984, according to documents reviewed by CNN. The family returned to the US from Germany in 1989. A visa form listed the nationality of 3-year-old Thomas as Jamaican, according to court filings, and he entered the country as a legal permanent resident. His father, who died in 2010, would have handled the son’s paperwork, according to the family member, who said the family was unaware he was listed as Jamaican on the form. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described Thomas as "a violent, criminal illegal alien from Jamaica" who "spent nearly two decades posing a significant threat to public safety" in a statement shared with CNN. "Dangerous criminal aliens like Mr. Thomas have no place in American communities," she said.

NBC News [7/8/2025 2:52 PM, Kimmy Yam, 44540K] reports a group of immigrants with temporary legal status in the U.S. is suing the Trump administration after the Department of Homeland Security terminated the legal protections for some 60,000 people from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal. Seven plaintiffs from the affected countries, along with the National TPS Alliance, an advocacy group, have filed the lawsuit against DHS and the agency’s secretary, Kristi Noem, alleging that the terminations were, at least in part, motivated by racial animus and violated the Constitution. The terminations, the lawsuit said, will impose "extraordinary and irreparable harm" on TPS holders if the decisions aren’t reversed. "I work in a hospital, caring for cardiac patients. I’ve been doing it the ‘right way’ the whole time," Jhony Silva, a Honduran TPS holder and a plaintiff in the case, said in a release from the ACLU of Southern California, one of the legal groups representing the plaintiffs. "Now, I am facing losing my job, the ability to care for my family, and the only home I’ve ever known." Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the lawsuit "ignores the President’s constitutionally vested powers." "TPS was never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades," McLaughlin said in a statement. "The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side." The lawsuit alleges that Noem, Trump and other officials made "numerous" statements against non-white, non-European TPS holders based on their perceived race, ethnicity and national origin. In many cases, the suit said, officials disparaged TPS holders as "criminals."

Telemundo [7/8/2025 2:19 PM, Staff, 3352K] reports the National TPS Alliance and seven Temporary Protected Status recipients filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, alleging that its decision to end TPS for nearly 80,000 Nicaraguans and Hondurans is "illegal" and leaves people who have lived in the United States for decades at risk of deportation. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California argues that the decision not to renew TPS—in effect since 1999 and whose last extension expired on July 5—was “arbitrary and capricious,” violated the Administrative Procedure Act, and was not based on “an objective review” of conditions in Nicaragua and Honduras but rather “on a political decision intended to dismantle the program.” The lawsuit—which also includes beneficiaries from Nepal and was filed against the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—claims that those now without TPS protection “face irreparable harm,” including the end of other pathways to permanent residency. On July 8, the Trump administration announced it would not extend the program, and in documents published in the Federal Register, Noem ruled that “the conditions that supported the designation” of both countries for TPS “based on the environmental disaster caused by Hurricane Mitch are no longer valid.” Noem cited the progress made in infrastructure projects over the past 25 years as justification, as well as the collaboration between both governments in the return of their citizens deported from the United States. She also emphasized the temporary nature of the program.

Telemundo [7/8/2025 7:59 PM, Staff, 37K] reports activists at the border foresee an increase in the number of families who decide to return voluntarily to their countries of origin as in the case of the Honduran family that a few weeks ago made the difficult decision to deport from Los Angeles to the border in Tijuana, fearing being separated in the midst of immigration operations in the United States. This situation becomes more complex for the migrant community following the recent announcement by the U.S. government to cancel the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Hondurans and Nicaraguans, which could affect tens of thousands of people. "I think it is a reality that will begin to be seen in the coming weeks, resulting from the strong pressure that the migrant community is experiencing in the United States," José María Lara of the Tijuana Migrant Alliance told Telemundo 20. Ana Margarita, her husband and their six children, left their lives in Los Angeles after years of residency and are now in a shelter in Tijuana, waiting for an opportunity to return to Honduras. "Yes, it’s difficult, because they’re looking for a way to get the people out of America," Ana Margarita Gallardo said. Organizations such as the Migrant Alliance in Tijuana point out that many migrants could turn to Mexican authorities to facilitate their voluntary return or seek refuge in Mexico. Are we going to start seeing cases of people coming out of this border and seeking the attention of the Mexican government to return to their countries. Some may decide to stay and live here, explained José María Laura, representative of the organization. But Margarita all she wants is to return to her country, only that "the stork" made a stopover in Tijuana and gave birth to Janet, so her return to Honduras will take a little longer than expected. Currently, they are in the process of including the newborn in the voluntary return process, supported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

(B) NECN News 3 pm [7/8/2025 3:20 PM, Staff] reports that roughly 80,000 Nicaraguans and Hondurans living in the US will lose their Temporary Protected Status in 60 days. This status was granted after a devastating hurricane hit Central America in 1998. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the conditions in those countries have improved and TPS recipients can now return. Honduras and Nicaragua are the latest countries to be stripped of legal status since Trump’s return to office.

Telemundo51 [7/8/2025 2:30 PM, Staff, 177K] reports on Monday Donald Trump’s government announced the cancellation of the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for about 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans who have resided legally in the country for more than two decades. But what is the TPS or Temporary Protection Status? The Temporary Protection Status, as its name suggests, is a migration benefit that is granted on a temporary basis. According to the Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may appoint a foreign country to the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) due to conditions in that country that prevent citizens from returning temporarily safely. USCIS can grant TPS to eligible nationals of certain countries (or parts of these) that are already in the United States. Eligible persons who do not have nationality and whose last residence was the designated country could also obtain TPS. Among the benefits, which USCIS explains on its website, are that citizens of the designated countries will not be removed from the United States, and can also obtain an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), they can obtain a travel authorization and once they are granted TPS, nor can they be stopped by DHS due to their immigration status in the United States. TPS is a temporary benefit that does not lead to legal permanent resident status or confers any other immigration status, USCIS explains. It is regularly awarded for periods of 18 months that are being renewed. However, registration for the TPS does not prevent you: applying for nonimmigrant status, filing the status adjustment based on an immigrant petition and/or applying for any other immigration benefit or protection for which you may be eligible. Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem said "the Temporary Protection Status was designed to be precisely that: temporary." In his opinion "it is clear that the Government of Honduras has taken all necessary measures to overcome the impacts of Hurricane Mitch, almost 27 years ago, he said in the statement that announced its cancellation. According to Secretary Noem, conditions in Honduras have improved to the point where Hondurans can safely return home. Also, under the presidency of Xiomara Castro.

Daily Caller [7/8/2025 11:33 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports the Biden administration temporarily waved in over half a million foreigners with no concrete strategy on how to keep their stay in the country temporary, a government watchdog found. Between July 2021 to January 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) opened the door to well over 800,000 noncitizens through various parole programs, but had no “defined process” to address their parole expiration, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG). The report also concluded that the Biden administration did not initiate enforcement actions for those whose parole had expired and had no assurances that former parolees were even legally present. “DHS had defined policies, processes, procedures, and roles for certain aspects of the parole processes, such as granting re-parole and adjudicating applications for legal status, but DHS did not have a well-defined process or designate a responsible entity for monitoring and addressing parole expiration,” the OIG report states. “As a result, DHS did not have assurance that the end of the parole process was operating as intended,” the report continues. DHS is authorized to temporarily parole foreign nationals into the U.S. on a case-by-case basis for various humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit, according to the Immigration and Nationality Act. Parole allows eligible noncitizens temporary lawful presence, but does not provide immigration status or a pathway to legal permanent residence. President Joe Biden — who presided over the worst immigration crisis in U.S. history — began initiating various parole programs that allowed migrants to enter the U.S. legally and bypass the southern border altogether. The largest such parole program was CHNV, which brought more than half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans into the country between October 2022 to January 2025. The Biden administration also paroled over 230,000 Ukrainian nationals through Uniting for Ukraine and another 77,000 Afghan nationals through Operation Allies Refuge and Operation Allies Welcome, according to the OIG. However, investigators found that the DHS agencies tasked with managing these hundreds of thousands of parolees — Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — had no designated components to manage the individuals whose time in the U.S. had ended and largely did not take action against them. The Trump administration in March announced the termination of the CHNV program, with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem saying at the time that the program did not serve “a significant public benefit.” Following a legal challenge to the move, the Supreme Court in May ultimately allowed the administration to cancel the legal status of those who entered via CHNV.

Washington Post [7/9/2025 5:01 AM, Sammy Westfall, 32099K] reports students from around the world who hope to study in the United States are winding down much of their online activity, unfollowing celebrities and politicians, asking friends and family to stop sending news links and scouring their own internet presence for posts that carry even the faintest whiff of hot-button politics. International student visa applicants told The Washington Post that the sanitization is driven by fear that a single “like” or meme, if taken the wrong way, could derail years of hard work, should it run afoul of sweeping new visa-vetting procedures under President Donald Trump. Tech companies have also been marketing account-scrubbing and screening tools to foreign visitors. The State Department announced “expanded screening” last month, directing applicants to set their social media accounts to “public.” An internal State Department cable obtained by The Post instructed consular officers to find “any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States.” “Anything that could be seen as having a side, I unfollowed. I unfollowed AOC, Kamala, Biden, Obama, everyone,” said Madeline, a visa applicant. She and other students interviewed for this story spoke on the condition that their surnames or full names be withheld, for fear of derailing their visa eligibility. The new rule applies to visa applicants for academic, vocational and exchange programs in the United States. Last year, more than 1 million international students studied here. “This is a commonsense policy,” a senior State Department official said in response to a request for more details on the vetting system. Officials are looking for evidence of “a potential threat to our national security like expressing support for terrorism and hostility towards Americans and our way of life,” the official said. “Applying for a visa is voluntary, and individuals are free to decide whether to pursue travel to the United States,” the department said.

CBS News [7/8/2025 7:44 PM, Staff, 51860K] Video: HERE reports Freddie the beagle, a Customs and Border Protection canine, was violently kicked by a traveler in June at Virginia’s Dulles Airport. Freddie and his handler, Melissa Snyder, join "The Takeout" to discuss the incident and Freddie’s recovery.

ABC News [7/8/2025 6:15 PM, Ayesha Ali, 31733K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Tuesday that travelers will no longer be required to remove their shoes when going through Transportation Security Administration security checkpoints at all airports across the U.S., ending the nearly two-decade mandate by the agency. Noem said the new policy is going into effect at all airports across the country. Though the equipment installed at each airport might differ, Noem assured that DHS evaluated the equipment at each airport and is "fully confident" that there is adequate security as individuals go through the screening process with their shoes on. Noem said the agency was able to terminate the policy due to the "layered security" in place by the TSA. These layers include additional officers at security checkpoints, new scanners and technology and the recently enforced REAL ID requirement. Those traveling without a REAL ID will not be required to take off their shoes, but individuals could be flagged for other reasons that might require them to go through additional security screening. Despite the new policy, Noem said that TSA PreCheck still holds value for travelers as it allows them to bypass additional security screening measures. Looking ahead, Noem said the agency is working to streamline the process and over the next six to nine months they hope to introduce a security checkpoint pilot program at several airports that will allow individuals to go through the screening process without interacting with an officer, walk through machines or remove any devices like laptops from their bags. She also added that certain airports currently have family lane security points which allows families to get through the screening together separately from others, making it easier for those traveling with babies and children. The New York Times [7/8/2025 7:08 PM, Christine Chung, 138952K] reports Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, confirmed the nationwide policy change during a news conference at Ronald Reagan National Airport, just outside Washington, on Tuesday afternoon. “We’re so excited that we can make the experience for those individuals traveling throughout our airports in the United States much more hospitable, more efficient for them, more timely, and that they can get to their destinations and spend much more time with their loved ones,” Ms. Noem said. Advances in how the T.S.A. screens passengers made the change possible, Ms. Noem said, describing a “layered” approach that includes new technology, improved equipment, additional T.S.A. officers and the recent enforcement of Real ID requirements. “We’ve gone back and looked at our security processes, looked at the efficacy of everything that we do,” Ms. Noem said. “All of that has been evaluated to see what is effective, what should stay in place and what should be removed to streamline the process.” The change comes as air travel booms in the United States. The T.S.A. said it screened more than 900 million people last year, a 5 percent increase over 2023. This summer, T.S.A. security checkpoints have been busier than ever. On July 7, more than three million travelers passed through airports, setting a record for the most screened in a single day. Though the shoes-on policy may usher in faster standard security lines, perhaps on par with expedited screening lines, having T.S.A. PreCheck still comes with perks, said Bobby Laurie, a former flight attendant and a co-host of the TV travel show “The Jet Set.” PreCheck, a trusted traveler program for low-risk passengers, includes “an added background check that allows you more privileges than just leaving your shoes on,” Mr. Laurie said. Ms. Noem alluded to new T.S.A. screening developments in the near future, including a pilot program at select airports that would allow travelers to pass through checkpoints without interacting with officers. “I think over the next six to nine months, you will see, across the country, pilot lanes and security checkpoints that will give us even more advancements and make this security process much more streamlined for the traveler,” Ms. Noem said.

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [7/8/2025 6:27 PM, Allison Pohle and Alison Sider, 646K]
Breitbart [7/8/2025 10:52 AM, Elizabeth Weibel, 3077K]
The Hill [7/8/2025 3:28 PM, Filip Timotija, 18649K]
AP [7/8/2025 12:30 PM, Michelle Chapman, 56000K]
Reuters [7/8/2025 12:53 PM, Staff, 51390K]
NBC News [7/8/2025 7:12 AM, Jay Blackman and Tim Stelloh, 44540K]
(B) NBC News Daily [7/8/2025 3:26 PM, Staff]
CNN [7/8/2025 10:25 AM, Pete Muntean and Alexandra Skores, 875K]
FOX News [7/8/2025 5:33 PM, Ashley J. DiMella, 46878K]
USA Today [7/8/2025 5:21 PM, Zach Wichter, 75552K]
NewsMax [7/8/2025 6:33 PM, Michelle Chapman, 4622K]
Daily Wire [7/8/2025 10:47 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 3816K]
Washington Examiner [7/8/2025 11:27 AM, Ross O’Keefe, 1934K]
Houston Chronicle [7/8/2025 9:53 AM, Sondra Hernandez, 1982K]

Washington Post [7/8/2025 1:40 PM, Andrea Sachs, Hannah Sampson and Ian Duncan, 32099K] reports travelers passing through security in some airports will no longer have to remove their shoes, reversing a rule that has been in effect since 2006. Joe Shuker, an official in the Transportation Security Administration officers union, said the agency stopped requiring passengers to remove shoes at some airports Friday before rolling out the change more widely this week. Agency trainers were working to update officers, said Shuker, a vice president in the American Federation of Government Employees Council 100. The TSA is planning to roll out the change in policy nationwide by the end of the week, according to a person briefed on the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly. There will still be the potential for randomized screening of shoes, but most passengers will no longer have to remove their footwear, the person said. Multiple people who flew on Monday reported on social media that they saw new procedures at checkpoints. Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a TikTok creator who writes the travel newsletter Gate Access, first reported news of the change on Friday. Harmon-Marshall says he is a former TSA officer. TSA officials would not confirm reports Monday that the agency was ending the requirement. A statement that TSA provided to The Washington Post on Monday said it is “always exploring new and innovative ways to enhance the passenger experience and our strong security posture.” The Department of Homeland Security scheduled a news conference for 5 p.m. Tuesday, when it said Secretary Kristi L. Noem will announce “a new policy from the Transportation Security Administration that will make screening easier for passengers, improve traveler satisfaction, and reduce wait times.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to celebrate the change on social media, writing in a post on X that it was “big news.”

CNN [7/8/2025 8:30 PM, Austin Mabeus, 21433K] Video: HERE reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced a new policy stating the Transportation Security Administration will be eliminating the shoe removal security requirement “effective immediately.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [7/8/2025 4:04 PM, David Zimmermann, 1934K]

Axios [7/8/2025 6:54 PM, Ben Geman, 13599K] reports President Trump’s pick to head NOAA — which includes the National Weather Service — will tell Congress on Wednesday that he wants to make the U.S. a weather forecasting leader. Neil Jacobs’ nomination hearing arrives as Democratic critics question whether NWS staffing reductions hampered performance in the deadly Texas flooding — and whether proposed budget cuts will hinder the very forecasting improvements he’s vowing. "If confirmed, one of my top priorities is to return the United States to the world’s leader in global weather forecast modeling capability," he plans to tell the Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee tomorrow, per prepared testimony obtained by Axios. "As a matter of public safety, national security, and national pride, we will restore American technological superiority for this vital service for the country and our military serving around the world," it states. This requires new tech, "novel" approaches, and partnering with industry, it states.

AP [7/9/2025 12:02 AM, Gabriela Aoun Angueira, 31733K] reports that, just weeks ago, President Donald Trump said he wanted to begin “phasing out” the Federal Emergency Management Agency after this hurricane season to “wean off of FEMA” and “bring it down to the state level.” But after months of promises to overhaul or eliminate the federal agency charged with responding to disasters, Trump and his administration are touting a fast and robust federal response to the devastating Texas floods. In doing so, they are aligning more closely with a traditional model of disaster response — and less with the dramatic reform the president has proposed. The president approved Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request for a major disaster declaration just one day after it was submitted, activating FEMA resources and unlocking assistance for survivors and local governments. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Trump in a presidential Cabinet meeting Tuesday morning that FEMA was deploying funding and resources quickly. “We’re cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA, streamlining it, much like your vision of how FEMA should operate,” Noem said. Noem said the rapid delivery of funds to Texas resembled the “state block grants” model Trump has promoted. It’s an idea that would replace FEMA’s current system of reimbursing states for response and recovery expenses at a cost-share of at least 75%. But ex-FEMA officials say it’s unclear how the response differs from FEMA’s typical role in disasters, which is to support states through coordination and funding. Instead, they say, the vigorous federal response underscores how difficult it would be for states to take on FEMA’s responsibilities if it were dismantled. “This is a defining event that can help them realize that a Federal Emergency Management Agency is essential,” said Michael Coen, FEMA chief of staff in the Obama and Biden administrations. “Imagine if an event like this happened a year from now, after FEMA is eliminated. What would the president or secretary (Noem) offer to the governor of Texas if there is no FEMA?” The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA did not immediately respond to questions about Noem’s remarks, including whether FEMA was doing something different in how it moved money to Texas, or why it resembled a block-grant system. While Noem and Trump have emphasized that Texas is leading the response and recovery to the floods, that has always been FEMA’s role, said Justin Knighten, the agency’s director of external affairs during the Biden administration. “The state is in the lead. FEMA is invited into the state to support,” Knighten said. He said that while Texas’ division of emergency management is one of the most experienced in the country, even the most capable states face catastrophes that overwhelm them: “When there’s capacity challenges and resource need, that’s where FEMA steps in.”

New York Times [7/8/2025 9:03 PM, Maxine Joselow, 138952K] reports that, at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Trump said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had swiftly deployed personnel to Central Texas, as catastrophic floods roared through the region. “You had people there as fast as anybody’s ever seen,” Mr. Trump told Kristi Noem, who leads the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA’s parent agency. But FEMA has been slow to activate certain teams that coordinate response and search-and-rescue efforts, according to half a dozen current and former FEMA officials and disaster experts, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. The current and former officials cautioned that every disaster presents unique challenges and that FEMA plays a supporting role to state and local emergency management agencies. Still, the experts said that the extent of the destruction in Texas, the number of missing people and the complexity of the response would normally trigger a bigger, faster deployment. The death toll in Texas from the floods climbed to at least 111 on Tuesday, with at least 173 people still missing, including 161 in Kerr County, which sustained the worst damage, state officials said. In an internal update on Tuesday morning, FEMA said it had sent about 70 search-and-rescue workers to Kerr County and had dispatched to Austin around a dozen others who could help manage responses. Another unit of about 40 personnel was on standby, able to be in place on short notice. That staffing was dwarfed by the response from the state, which had deployed more than 1,750 personnel and more than 975 vehicles and other equipment by late Monday, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management. In remarks on Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, made a point of highlighting state action as well as assistance Texas had received from other states, such as a loan of four Blackhawk helicopters from Arkansas. He thanked “fellow governors, other states” with hardly a mention of the federal government. “Texas has a very robust emergency management program,” said Elizabeth Zimmerman, a former associate administrator at FEMA and now a senior executive adviser at IEM, a consulting firm. She added that W. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, had decades of experience and “a huge staff to support him.”

Bloomberg Government [7/8/2025 1:30 PM, Ellen M. Gilmer, 111K] reports devastating Texas floods are renewing debate over the future of disaster response in the US as the Trump administration works to downsize the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The disaster, which killed more than 100 people over the weekend, has raised questions about whether the Department of Homeland Security should backpedal on efforts to shrink or eliminate FEMA and shift responsibility to the states - and whether initial steps contributed to the scale of destruction in Texas. "We must also determine if any budget cuts or staffing shortages-of any kind-made matters worse," Bennie Thompson (Miss.), the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement. "This is not politics, this is determining what went wrong and preventing it from happening again." Emergency management professionals regularly tout Texas as one of few states with robust capacity to handle disasters without extensive federal support. Yet Gov. Greg Abbott (R) quickly requested a federal disaster declaration and the resources that come with that. President Donald Trump granted the request Sunday. The fact that Texas, with its expansive emergency response infrastructure, needed federal assistance shows how unrealistic it is for any state to manage alone, said one retiring FEMA official in Texas, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem maintained the process worked as intended, with Texas taking the lead and FEMA providing backup. Other DHS agencies, including the Coast Guard and Border Patrol, also helped with rescues and recovery. "Many states do not do what the people of Texas do," she said at a briefing over the weekend. "And you are an example to the nation of getting through these difficult times, but also know that you’re not alone."

NPR [7/9/2025 5:00 AM, Rebecca Hersher, 37958K] reports in the wake of the deadly floods in Central Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott praised President Trump for quickly approving a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, the hardest-hit area. "The swift and very robust action by President Trump is an extraordinary help to our response," Abbott said. The declaration unlocked federal money to assist with the disaster response. That includes paying for debris removal, for search and rescue experts who are working around the clock and for housing, food and other immediate necessities for those who lost homes in the floods. But such assistance may not be available in the future. President Trump has proposed eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides billions of dollars in assistance to communities hit by disasters. He argues that states should take on more responsibility for responding to and preparing for extreme weather and other disasters. Texas leaders are helping Trump realize that goal. "FEMA is slow and clunky and doesn’t solve the needs of those who need it the most," Abbott said at the first meeting of the FEMA Review Council in May. "States have proven that we can move more nimbly, more swiftly, more effectively." Now, as Texas responds to catastrophic floods, the officials leading the state’s efforts will also be considering how to reshape, or even dissolve, the country’s top disaster response agency.

New York Times [7/8/2025 3:24 PM, David Gelles, 138952K] reports the floods that ravaged Texas last week, leaving more than 105 people dead, occurred in a region known as Flash Flood Alley. And while the storm developed quickly, the National Weather Service offered what appears to have been a relatively good forecast in a rapidly developing situation, according to former Weather Service officials. But despite known risks in the area and warnings that were first issued around midnight Thursday, the floods became one of the deadliest weather events in recent American history. It’s too early to say with certainty that the slow-moving thunderstorms were made worse by man-made climate change. But the weather pattern that unleashed more than 10 inches of rain in a matter of hours is precisely the kind of phenomenon that scientists say is becoming more common because of global warming. “The atmosphere is like a giant sponge,” said Arsum Pathak, director of adaptation and coastal resilience at the National Wildlife Federation. “As the air gets warmer, which is what’s been happening because of climate change, the sponge can hold a lot more water. And then when there’s a storm, the same sponge can squeeze out way more water than it used to.” While the National Weather Service delivered what experts said was a pretty accurate forecast of the emerging threat, many people in harm’s way during the Texas floods did not receive any warnings. Part of the problem may have stemmed from staffing shortages at weather offices in Texas, according to former National Weather Service employees who spoke to Christopher Flavelle. On the ground, that meant “the loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after flash flood warnings were issued overnight.”

New York Post [7/8/2025 6:30 PM, Chris Nesi, 49956K] reports a small Texas town recorded no deaths in last weekend’s flood disaster after it recently upgraded its emergency alert system - the kind of equipment that state and county officials repeatedly balked at installing just a few miles away in storm-ravaged Kerr County. The system in Comfort, Texas included a newly installed siren that blared a warning for residents to evacuate well before the Guadalupe River breached its banks. At least 87 people - including 30 children died in the floods in Kerr County. Comfort is right next door to the Kerr County line, and about 22 miles down river from the worst of the flooding. The unincorporated community of around 2,300 residents, lost 10 young campers at the Pot O’ Gold Christian Camp when the Guadalupe River overflowed in July 1987 after a severe rain storm, a tragedy eerily similar to last week’s disaster at Camp Mystic. The Comfort Fire Department announced the improvements to its outdoor warning system in a social media post in March. "We have upgraded our fire station siren and added another siren at the Comfort Park. These sirens enable early warnings for natural disasters or civil defense matters and are substantially louder than our previous siren," the department’s Facebook post read. "When a flood warning is issued, and the USGS censors at Cypress Creek reach a certain water level the sirens will automatically execute a 3-minute steady wail cycle." The first non-test use of the new siren was ahead of the July 4 floods, alerting residents who missed push notification warnings or evacuation announcements made by firefighters who were driving around town. "People knew that if they heard the siren, they gotta get out," said Danny Morales, assistant chief of the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department told NBC. At a Kerr County commissioners’ meeting that year held soon after deadly flooding in neighboring Hays County, then-Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer urged officials to step up their emergency alert apparatus to include sirens. But the estimated $1 million price tag for the proposed system - as well as the possibility of the sirens going off accidentally - didn’t sit well with some officials, including then-commissioner H.A. "Buster" Baldwin, who called the system "a little extravagant for Kerr County, with sirens and such," a meeting transcript reveals. Tom Moser, a former Kerr County commissioner who had pushed for the proposed warning system, said the county lacked the funds to pay for it themselves, and disaster relief grants they were seeking from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help cover the costs never materialized.

FOX Business [7/8/2025 9:00 AM, Daniella Genovese, 9940K] reports in the event of a disaster, a mobile phone may be the first to alert someone. With Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs), customers of telecommunications companies including Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T receive urgent messages from government agencies during critical situations such as tornadoes, flash floods or AMBER Alerts. FEMA said the messages show the type and time of the alert, any action people in the impacted area should take, and the agency issuing the alert. There are different types of alerts, but natural disasters and extreme weather fall under the Imminent Threat Alerts category. On July 3, ahead of the deadly flooding in Central Texas, the NWS offices in Austin and San Antonio conducted forecast briefings for emergency management in the morning and issued a Flood Watch in the early afternoon. Flash Flood Warnings were issued on the morning of July 4, giving preliminary lead times of more than three hours before warning criteria were met. First, the National Water Center Flood Hazard Outlook issued on July 3 indicated an expansion of flash flood potential to include Kerrville, Texas, and surrounding areas. A Flood Watch was then issued by NWS Austin and San Antonio around 1:18 p.m. central time Thursday, in effect through Friday morning. The Weather Prediction Center (WPC) also issued three Mesoscale Precipitation Discussions for the excessive rainfall event as early as 6:10 p.m. Thursday, indicating the potential for flash flooding.

Washington Post [7/9/2025 3:22 AM, Ben Noll, 32099K] reports a week of destructive flooding continued across the United States into Wednesday, with flash floods prompting water rescues in the village of Ruidoso, New Mexico, as well as Chicago. In Ruidoso, three people were missing as of late Tuesday evening, including two children, said Kerry Gladden, a spokesperson for the village. She said search and rescue teams were continuing their efforts, while three other people, all in stable condition, were being treated at the local hospital. A radar-estimated 5 inches of rain fell in the mountains to the west of Ruidoso over the burn scar of the South Fork Fire, which ravaged thousands of acres last year. This water rushed into the Rio Ruidoso, causing it to provisionally reach a new record-high crest of 20.24 feet, according to the National Weather Service in Albuquerque — sending water raging through the town, sweeping away structures and vehicles. The thunderstorm that caused the destruction formed in the same extremely moist air that has been anchored over south-central states from the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry, which caused the deadly flooding in Texas. Then, late Tuesday evening, a slow-moving thunderstorm complex formed over Chicago, dropping a radar-estimated 6 inches on the west side of town in a matter of hours. According to reports sent to the National Weather Service, there were several water rescues as well as flooded basements, viaducts and roads. For parts of the city, the downpour may have surpassed levels usually seen only once every 100 years, with more than 5 inches of rain falling in just 90 minutes. Extremely moist air funneling northward from the Gulf of Mexico — where temperatures are running warmer than average — was harnessed by a thunderstorm complex to cause the deluge. Weak winds in the middle atmosphere prevented the storm from quickly moving away, instead lingering over the city for hours. Since last Friday, there have been more than 275 reports of flooding across the United States.

Reuters [7/9/2025 4:35 AM, Steve Gorman, 51390K] reports torrential rains triggered flash floods in New Mexico that killed at least three people on Tuesday, including two young children, and trapped dozens in homes and vehicles in the resort village of Ruidoso, a state emergency official and a village statement said. The children, aged four and seven years old, and a man were swept downstream and later found dead, the mountain resort village said late Tuesday on its website, adding that rescue operations were underway. Dramatic video footage on social media and various news outlets showed an entire house, ripped from its foundations, careening downstream through the brown, muddy waters of the flood-engorged Rio Ruidoso, side-swiping trees as it went. "I’ve seen the video. We don’t know if anyone was in the house," said Danielle Silva, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Emergency teams organised by local law enforcement and the National Guard conducted at least 85 swift-water rescues in and around Ruidoso, many of them people stranded in cars and homes by elevated flood waters, Silva said. Silva said the river had quickly risen by a provisional record of 20.24 feet (6.2 metres) at the peak of the flood, and as waters began to recede in the evening, authorities began searching for survivors in the debris. The latest floods come just four days after a deadly flash flood triggered by heavy rains along the Guadalupe River killed at least 109 people and left scores missing after ravaging a swath of Texas Hill Country.

CBS News [7/8/2025 9:48 PM, Kiki Intarasuwan, 51860K] Video: HERE reports a father and two children in Lincoln, New Mexico, were washed away in flood waters on Tuesday, the National Weather Service reported after declaring a flash flooding emergency in the area. Multiple rescue missions were underway at Gavilan Trailer Park in Ruidoso, and another person was also trapped in high water, the NWS said in its local storm report at 5:50 p.m. ET. Some people are unaccounted for but the number is unclear, Kerry Gladden, a spokesperson for the village of Ruidoso, told CBS News. Injuries have been reported but the extent is also unclear, Gladden said. A video posted on social media by Ruidoso resident Kaitlyn Carpenter shows fast-moving water sweeping a home down a river. Another video shows flood water carrying a myriad of debris down a river bank before reaching a small bridge and inundating the roadway. Around a dozen roads were closed because of debris, Gladden said, and the cleanup is underway after water receded. Images from the U.S. Geological Survey posted to the NWS Albuquerque’s X account also show a river in Lincoln County, the Rio Ruidoso, rapidly rising 15 feet in about an hour. "Stay away from the river! Seek higher ground NOW!" the weather service wrote. The Rio Ruidoso at Hollywood possibly reached 20.24 feet during the height of the flash flood, NWS Albuquerque said on X. If the provisional number is confirmed, it would be a record high. According to the USGS’s real-time data, water levels at the 30-mile-long river located about 150 miles southeast of Albuquerque were "extremely above" its historic daily averages on Tuesday evening. Gladden said the Hollywood gauge on the Rio Ruidoso hit a record level during the flash flood, illustrating how fast it hit.

USA Today [7/8/2025 6:34 PM, Fernando Cervantes Jr, 75552K] reports a Florida woman was arrested on July 7 for driving to Mar-a-Lago while insisting on speaking with President Donald Trump, despite having a suspended license. Caroline Shaw, 49, from Orlando, allegedly told Secret Service agents outside Trump’s club that she had an "urgent message for the president" and admitted to having firearms inside her van. Shaw is facing charges of driving with a suspended license and failing to register a vehicle, according to an arrest report from the Palm Beach Police Department obtained by USA TODAY. According to a probable cause affidavit, the Palm Beach Police Department said that officers responded to the president’s Florida residence after receiving reports that the United States Secret Service was investigating a suspicious person.

CBS News [7/8/2025 11:22 PM, Jacob Rosen, 51860K] reports the Department of Justice has accused two people of selling a rifle to Ryan Routh, who was charged with trying to kill President Trump at his Florida golf club last year. Two defendants — Tina Brown Cooper and Ronnie Jay Oxendine — have pleaded guilty to gun-related charges in federal court, after being indicted in March and arrested in April. Cooper pleaded guilty to firearm trafficking on Monday, and Oxendine pleaded guilty last month to possessing an unregistered firearm after police found a short-barreled shotgun in his storage building. In court papers filed in both cases as part of the plea agreements, the Justice Department said the two sold Routh a Chinese-made SKS rifle in August, with Cooper allegedly acting as a middleman in a sale between Routh and Oxendine. Law enforcement said Cooper worked for Oxendine at the time of the sale at a roofing company in Greensboro, North Carolina. Federal prosecutors alleged Cooper, Routh and Oxendine met at the roofing company’s headquarters, where Routh paid Oxendine $350 cash for the SKS rifle and $100 to Cooper for helping to arrange the sale. About six weeks later, Routh was allegedly found with an SKS-style rifle outside Mr. Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach — though prosecutors did not specify if it was the same gun as the one Oxendine and Cooper allegedly sold. Neither of the defendants told law enforcement they had any advance knowledge of Routh’s alleged plans. Routh has been charged with attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and unlawful gun possession, with prosecutors saying he was not allowed to own a firearm due to a prior 2002 weapons conviction. Cooper allegedly told the FBI that Routh asked for help buying a gun "for his son to use as protection," and said he couldn’t buy a gun in his real name due to his criminal conviction. In a September interview with FBI agents, Oxendine allegedly said he met Routh in the 1990s when both of them owned roofing companies, adding that they were not friends. Cooper said she was a former employee of Routh at his roofing company in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Court filings from prosecutors say Cooper told "inconsistent stories" and acknowledged to the FBI she deleted files from her phone to "avoid any involvement with the assassination attempt." Oxendine also allegedly told the FBI that after Routh’s assassination attempt, Cooper told him to deny any knowledge and avoid cooperating with authorities. One court filing says in an FBI interview, Cooper "admitted she lied to agents out of fear of criminal consequences for her involvement in the attempted assassination attempt of former President Donald J. Trump." "Additionally, Cooper admitted she was ‘guilty’ of assisting Routh, whom she knew was a prohibited person, in acquiring a firearm," the filing says.

NPR [7/8/2025 6:56 AM, Michel Martin, 37958K] reports NPR’s Michel Martin asks U.S. Coast Guard Air Operations Officer Nathan Shakespeare about his work coordinating rescues in the Texas flood zone from a base in Corpus Christi. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

USA Today [7/8/2025 3:27 PM, Julia Gomez and Manahil Ahmad, 4241K] reports a U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer is being called an American hero by many after he rescued nearly 200 people from the deadly floods that took place in Texas the weekend of July 4th. “This was the first rescue mission of his career, and he was the only triage coordinator at the scene,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Saturday on X. “His selfless courage embodies the spirit and mission of the @USCG.” U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Ruskan, an aviation survival technician 3rd class stationed in Corpus Christi, directly saved 165 people from rising floodwaters in Kerr County, said Noem. While many reports state he is directly responsible for rescuing 165 people, he was left with 230 flood victims in total at the campgrounds, according to the U.S. Coast Guard’s press release. He provided medical assistance and aided in evacuating them.

NewsNation [7/8/2025 9:53 AM, Eileen Lehpamer, 5801K] reports a New Jersey native is being hailed a hero for helping to rescue more than 100 people during the deadly flash floods in Kerr County, Texas. The Department of Homeland Security posted on “X” that “During the first rescue mission of his career, Rescue Swimmer Scott Ruskan directly saved 165 individuals.” Ruskan, who is 26 years old, joined the U.S. Coast Guard in 2021. Ruskan is from Oxford, New Jersey, and attended Rider University. Ruskan’s former Cross Country Track and Field Coach, Bob Hamer, tells NewsNation affiliate WPIX that Ruskan “is a really good person and I hope that also comes through in how he was able to help all those young girls.” Hamer, who is friends with Ruskan, says he spoke to Ruskan directly about the rescue mission on July 4th at Camp Mystic. Hamer said Ruskan’s “sole job was to gather as many of the kids as he could. Some of them, he had to carry across difficult rocks and terrain, some of them didn’t have shoes, they were just in stuff they might have been sleeping in.”

New York Post [7/8/2025 12:23 PM, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 49956K] reports two frightened teenagers trapped on a precarious cliff in Oregon were pulled to safety in a daring Coast Guard chopper rescue - along with a local firefighter stranded trying to reach the pair. The drama unfolded Saturday near Roads End Point in Lincoln County, after the teens found themselves cornered on a cliffside, according to a Coast Guard press release. An MH-60 helicopter was launched from the guard’s Columbia River sector to reach the two. Video of the operation shows a Coast Guard member being lowered down to the cliff high atop the rocky coastline and buckling each one separately and pulling them into the chopper. The crew then plucked a member of the Lincoln County Fire Department who was trapped while trying to reach the teens earlier off the ridge and also pulled him on board. "Our air crews frequently train with our agency partner agencies to conduct these rescues in a variety of conditions and terrain in the Pacific Northwest," Amanda Denning, executive officer of the Coast Guard Air Station Astoria, said in a statement.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [7/8/2025 2:37 PM, Saman Shafiq, 75552K] Video: HERE

CyberScoop [7/8/2025 5:41 PM, Tim Starks] reports a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday revived a lawsuit that El Salvadoran journalists had brought against leading spyware maker NSO Group. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that a district court that dismissed the suit — on the grounds that the California court wasn’t the right forum — abused its discretion. With the dismissal of Dada et al v. NSO Group vacated, the case returns to the Northern District of California to move forward. “We’re pleased with today’s decision and look forward to seeking justice on behalf of El Faro journalists in U.S. court, where the case belongs,” said Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney and legislative adviser at the Knight First Amendment Institute, which argued in the appeals court for the plaintiffs. “Spyware manufacturers that participate in the persecution of journalists shouldn’t be able to operate with impunity, and U.S. courts must ensure that they are held accountable for their actions where those actions violate U.S. law, as they did here.” The lawsuit overcame a legal hurdle that has proven troublesome to those suing spyware makers, namely “forum non conveniens,” which allows a court to dismiss a case if it doesn’t believe it’s the proper venue. Judges Jennifer Sung and Michael Simon wrote in an opinion explaining the decision that the plaintiffs, which include U.S. residents and citizens, were entitled to a strong presumption in their favor of their choice of forum based on their U.S. citizenship.

CyberScoop [7/8/2025 5:40 PM, Matt Kapko] reports Microsoft addressed 130 vulnerabilities across its products and underlying Windows systems, but none have been actively exploited in the wild, the company said in its latest security update Tuesday. A proof-of-concept exploit for a high-severity defect in SQL Server — CVE-2025-49719 — has been shared publicly, researchers said. The information disclosure vulnerability, which has a CVSS score of 7.5, was publicly disclosed before it was patched, but Microsoft said exploitation is less likely. “This vulnerability likely stems from improper input validation in SQL Server’s memory management, allowing access to uninitialized memory. As a result, attackers could retrieve remnants of sensitive data, such as credentials or connection strings,” Mike Walters, president and co-founder of Action1, said in an email. Walters said the defect is especially concerning because authentication isn’t required, databases hold vast amounts of sensitive data and affected versions span releases from 2016 through 2022. “Although rated as ‘exploitation less likely,’ the public disclosure suggests technical details may already be circulating, which could lead to increased exploitation over time,” he added. “This vulnerability can be exploited in advanced attack scenarios.”

CNN [7/8/2025 3:32 PM, Sean Lyngaas and Antonia Mortensen] reports Italian authorities have arrested a Chinese man accused by US prosecutors of being part of a hacking team that stole coveted US research into a coronavirus vaccine on behalf of Chinese intelligence. At the height of the pandemic in early 2020, Xu Zewei worked at the behest of China’s Ministry of State Security, to target US-based universities, virologists and immunologists doing research on Covid-19 vaccines, treatment and testing, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The indictment accuses another person, Zhang Yu, of participating in the activity. Zhang is believed to be in China, a Justice Department spokesperson said. Xu, 33, was detained at the Malpensa Airport northwest of Milan on July 3 and then taken to a nearby prison ahead of his court appearance, according to statements to CNN from Italian authorities. He made his initial court appearance in Milan on Tuesday as the US Justice Department begins to try to extradite Xu to the US District of South Texas, where he faces wire fraud, identity theft and hacking-related charges.

Houston Chronicle [7/8/2025 5:32 PM, John Wayne Ferguson, 1982K] reports Chinese hackers broke into the computers of at least two Houston-area universities in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a state-sponsored effort to steal information about vaccines and medical research, according to the Justice Department and the FBI. The breaches were described in detail for the first time Tuesday, in conjunction with the news that one of the alleged hackers, Xu Zewei, 33, was arrested in Italy last week, and could soon be extradited to the United States. Xu and another man, Zhang Yu, were indicted for the hack in 2023, according to court records. The indictment against them was unsealed Tuesday. “We never lost sight of our goal to bring the perpetrators of these cyber intrusions to justice. Now, at least some of the story can be told,” said Nicholas Ganjei, the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “We eagerly await Mr. Xu’s speedy extradition to the United States, and when he arrives, we look forward to extending him a warm Texas welcome.” The men are accused of working on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security, and of engaging in the hacks that stole COVID-19 vaccine and medical research from Texas and North Carolina research institutions and accessed confidential information at a D.C.-based law firm. They are accused of being part of a state-sponsored hack group, known as HAFNIUM or Silk Typhoon, that targeted U.S. institutions. Both men, who are identified as tech executives – are accused of supervising attacks that targeted vulnerable Microsoft servers by placing “web shells,” a type of malicious code, within them that allowed them to steal usernames, passwords and research data. The indictment alleged that the men were directed by China’s spy agency to target and access the emails of Texas virologists and immunologists. DOJ and FBI officials on Tuesday declined to name the institutions that were hacked, citing their privacy as victims of a crime. The hacks began sometime around February 2020, just a month before the COVID-19 virus became widespread in the United States. By that time the disease was already ravaging China, though the country was publicly denying its spread within its borders. “Xu is one of the first hackers linked to the Chinese intelligence services to be captured by the FBI,” said Doug Williams, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Houston office. “His activities read like a movie script and include secret taskings from spies, overseas front companies, and using state-of-the-art tools to commit cyber espionage.”

AP [7/8/2025 3:11 PM, Steve Karnowski, 56000K] reports Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman, who was shot nine times by a gunman posing as a police officer who authorities say went on to kill another lawmaker, is out of the hospital and is now recovering in a transitional care unit, his family said. “John has been moved to a rehab facility, but still has a long road to recovery ahead,” the family said in a statement Monday night. The family released a photo showing a smiling Hoffman giving a thumbs-up while standing with a suitcase on rollers, ready to leave the hospital. Yvette Hoffman was released from the hospital a few days after the attacks. Former President Joe Biden visited the senator in the hospital when he was in town for the Hortmans’ funeral.

Washington Examiner [7/8/2025 10:53 AM, David Zimmermann, 1934K] reports the Trump administration announced on Monday it revoked the terrorist designation placed on the new Syrian leader’s group that overthrew the country’s former president, Bashar Assad, late last year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio lifted the foreign terrorist organization designation from Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa’s al Nusra Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al Sham. The change took effect Tuesday. The move comes one week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order lifting sanctions on Syria as a way to help the country’s transitional government gain its footing following a civil war that led to Assad’s ouster in December. Under the executive order, Rubio was ordered to review Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham’s designation as a foreign terrorist organization, and the group’s and al Sharaa’s designations as specially designated global terrorists. Rubio decided to revoke the group’s designation on June 23 after consulting with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to an advance notice published by the Federal Register. Trump’s executive order arrived seven days later. The Trump administration seems pleased with the new Syrian government’s efforts to "combat terrorism in all its forms," Rubio said in a statement. "This action also builds on the momentum of the June 30 Executive Order ‘Providing for the Revocation of Syria Sanctions’ and recognizes the positive actions taken by the new Syrian government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa," he added. "This FTO revocation is an important step in fulfilling President Trump’s vision of a stable, unified, and peaceful Syria."

Washington Post [7/8/2025 6:49 AM, John Hudson and Hannah Natanson, 32099K] reports an impostor pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio contacted foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a member of Congress by sending them voice and text messages that mimic Rubio’s voice and writing style using artificial intelligence-powered software, according to a senior U.S. official and a State Department cable obtained by The Washington Post. U.S. authorities do not know who is behind the string of impersonation attempts but they believe the culprit was probably attempting to manipulate powerful government officials “with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts,” according to a cable sent by Rubio’s office to State Department employees. Using both text messaging and the encrypted messaging app Signal, which the Trump administration uses extensively, the impostor “contacted at least five non-Department individuals, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a U.S. member of Congress,” said the cable, dated July 3. The impersonation campaign began in mid-June when the impostor created a Signal account using the display name “Marco.Rubio@state.gov” to contact unsuspecting foreign and domestic diplomats and politicians, said the cable. The display name is not his real email address. “The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal,” said the cable. It also noted that other State Department personnel were impersonated using email. When asked about the cable, the State Department responded that it would “carry out a thorough investigation and continue to implement safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future.” Officials declined to discuss the contents of the messages or the names of the diplomats and officials who were targeted.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [7/8/2025 6:48 PM, Staff, 3077K]

Washington Post [7/8/2025 2:37 PM, Adam Taylor, 32099K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a Southeast Asian summit this week, his first to the region as America’s top diplomat, should be a chance for the Trump administration to showcase its Indo-Pacific policy and for Rubio to emphasize his own hawkish views on China. But the intended diplomatic message of the trip risks being overshadowed by crises in other regions, and disputes over trade and defense spending. Japanese and South Korean media outlets reported this past weekend that the State Department had cut short Rubio’s time in Asia, dropping planned stops in Tokyo and Seoul early this week as he attended meetings focused on the Middle East in Washington on Monday. President Donald Trump compounded the perceived snub on Monday, threatening that multiple Asian nations — including Japan, South Korea and Malaysia — could be hit with new, higher tariffs as he revived his global trade war. Critics say that the moves are emblematic of the contradictory messages being sent to Asian nations that the Trump administration hopes to court to undercut Beijing’s regional ambitions. “The canceling of the two stops followed quickly by Trump’s new, higher tariffs on both undercuts the two pillars of U.S. strategy in Asia: our commitment to Asian security and our centrality to Asia growth and prosperity,” said Evan Medeiros, a former top White House official for Asia during the Obama administration. The brief nature of Rubio’s trip also raises questions about the longer-term viability of his dual-hatted role. Rubio became the second secretary of state to concurrently hold the position of White House national security adviser, after Michael Waltz was removed from the latter position in May. The other was Henry Kissinger half a century ago. The State Department declined to elaborate on why Rubio canceled his stops in South Korea and Japan. However, Rubio joined the president in meetings at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening. The Trump administration is seeking a ceasefire deal that could end the war in Gaza, which has lasted well over a year and a half despite U.S. attempts at mediation.

NBC News [7/8/2025 9:08 AM, Alexander Smith, 44540K] reports President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept alive the idea of relocating people from the shattered Gaza Strip on Monday, despite widespread condemnation from close allies, the United Nations and rights groups, as well as the Palestinians themselves. Trump said during their White House meeting Monday that there was "great cooperation" from countries surrounding Israel to take in Palestinians, while Netanyahu said they were "getting close to finding several countries" willing to do so. Neither provided details of this idea, which Arab nations such as Jordan and Egypt have previously rejected and condemned as forced displacement, which is illegal under international law. Trump made the surprise announcement in February that he planned for the United States to take ownership of the Gaza Strip and develop it into "the Riviera of the Middle East," before later walking back those plans citing a lack of regional support. Asked about his progress on this front Monday, he threw the question to Netanyahu sitting across from him. "It’s called free choice. You know, if people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave," Netanyahu said. "It shouldn’t be a prison. It should be an open place, and give people a free choice." Israel and Egypt maintained a blockade on Gaza since Hamas militants took over the enclave in 2007. Since the most recent war began in 2023, it has been difficult, if not impossible, for people to leave, and food and aid to enter the besieged territory. Many Palestinians, meanwhile, see the suggestion that even some of Gaza’s more than 2 million people be moved as dehumanizing, conjuring painful memories of the "Nakba," or "catastrophe," the forced removal of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians from their homes when Israel was founded in 1948. Today, the resettlement of Palestinians has gone from a fringe idea supported mainly by Netanyahu’s far-right nationalist coalition partners to something openly entertained by the White House. Some Israeli settler leaders have called for the re-occupation of the territory. The idea was condemned by Palestinian leaders. "When they say it would be voluntary, that is so misleading, because when you bomb people every day, when you starve people for 126 days, who can call that a voluntary decision?" Mustafa Barghouti, a senior Palestinian politician and head of the Palestinian National Initiative political party, told NBC News on Tuesday.

New York Times [7/8/2025 9:57 AM, Lydia DePillis, Alexandra Stevenson, River Akira Davis, Choe Sang-Hun, Meaghan Tobin, and Daisuke Wakabayashi, 153395K] reports over the past three months, nations across the world tried to avoid new tariffs that would punish their economies by giving President Trump something he might want. Indonesia offered to buy $34 billion more in U.S. crops and fuels. Thailand proposed lowering many of its own trade barriers, and buying more U.S.-made planes. Japan was ready to buy more liquefied natural gas over the next two decades. But as Mr. Trump’s self-imposed July 9 deadline approached, those entreaties made little difference. The 14 letters he posted online on Monday, mostly aimed at countries in Asia, largely matched the rates set in April, before he backed off and gave dozens of countries 90 days to negotiate agreements that would satisfy the White House’s demand for more balanced trade. “We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with Thailand, and have concluded that we must move away from these long-term, and very persistent, Trade Deficits engendered by Thailand’s Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers,” Mr. Trump wrote, swapping out only each country’s name in otherwise virtually identical missives. That fresh volley has left countries large and small, nearly all of them longstanding allies of the United States, with profound questions about how to move forward with the world’s largest consumer economy when negotiations over trade conflicts are labored and deadlines are extended without warning.

Washington Post [7/8/2025 2:53 PM, Ellen Nakashima, Warren P. Strobel, and Aaron Schaffer, 32099K] reports a special team created by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has expressed a desire to gain access to emails and chat logs of the largest U.S. spy agencies with the aim of using artificial intelligence tools to ferret out what the administration deems as efforts to undermine its agenda, according to several people familiar with the matter. The mission of the Director’s Initiative Group, or DIG, is to enforce President Donald Trump’s executive orders to end “weaponization” of the federal government, declassify documents, and halt diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to Gabbard’s office. So far, none of the U.S. spy agencies approached has transferred the data, several people said. The unprecedented interest in data by officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence startled some senior agency officials, who have expressed concerns about the counterintelligence and privacy risks of aggregating what could be a large amount of sensitive information that may include references to intercepts of electronic communications on overseas targets, said several U.S. officials and others familiar with aspects of the effort. Like most people interviewed for this article, they spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. “They wanted access to everybody’s systems,” one of the people said, adding that the idea seemed “naive.” Some senior intelligence officials are also privately concerned that the effort could be used to pursue perceived disloyalty to the Trump administration, including to identify individuals who implemented the policies of the previous administration. Gabbard’s press secretary, Olivia Coleman, disputed The Washington Post’s reporting. “The truth is, under the leadership of President Trump, DNI Gabbard and her team at ODNI are daring to do what no other has done before — expose the truth and end the politicization and weaponization of intelligence against Americans.”

The Hill [7/8/2025 8:25 AM, Filip Timotija, 18649K] reports the Defense Department is expected to send more defensive weapons to Ukraine, a reversal from the Trump administration’s decision last week to halt shipments of some missiles and munitions to Kyiv. The update comes after President Trump, while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the U.S. must send more weapons to Ukraine so the war-torn country can defend itself against Russia’s ongoing attacks. “Defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess,” the president told reporters. “We’re going to send some more weapons.” “We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves,” he added. “They’re getting hit very hard now.” The Pentagon confirmed the move Monday night, adding that the review of U.S. military stockpiles will continue. “At President Trump’s direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. “Our framework for POTUS to evaluate military shipments across the globe remains in effect and is integral to our America First defense priorities,” Parnell added. The president expressed more frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin after the latest call on Thursday between the two leaders. The mounting irritation comes as Trump has pressed both Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire. “I’m very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin, because I don’t think he’s there. I’m just saying, I don’t think he’s looking to stop, and that’s too bad,” Trump told reporters Thursday, adding earlier in the day that he made “no progress” in brokering a potential ceasefire deal between the two Eastern European countries.

FOX News [7/8/2025 8:16 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 46878K] Video HERE reports President Donald Trump on Monday said that his administration would be sending defensive weapons to Ukraine so the war-torn country could defend itself from Russia’s ongoing invasion, an apparent turnaround after the Pentagon said last week it was pausing such deliveries. His comments came as Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least 11 civilians and injured more than 80 others, including seven children, officials said Monday. "We have to," Trump said when questioned at the start of a dinner he was hosting at the White House for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now. We’re going to send some more weapons - defensive weapons primarily." Russia continues to advance and now currently controls just under a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, all of Luhansk, the lion’s share of three other regions and slivers of three additional regions. Trump’s repeated efforts to broker a ceasefire have not been successful, and the president continued to vent his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who continues to escalate military actions. "I’m not happy with President Putin at all," Trump said. The Defense Department later said it would send additional defensive weapons to Ukraine at Trump’s direction, to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while efforts continue to secure a lasting peace. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [7/8/2025 11:35 AM, Anthony Deutsch, 51390K] reports Ukraine asked the global chemical weapons watchdog in The Hague on Tuesday to investigate the alleged use of banned toxic munitions by Russia against its forces. A request to establish an investigation was submitted by Kyiv to the governing body of the organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). It followed Dutch and German intelligence agencies on Friday saying they had evidence of widespread use of illegal weapons by Russia along the frontline. Agency chief Fernando Arias said in a statement to the OPCW’s Executive Council that in view of the alleged frequent use of dangerous chemical agents his office would step up monitoring of activity along the Russia-Ukraine conflict line. He invited Ukraine to discuss its proposal with member states, a majority of whom may be needed to support such an investigation.

AP [7/9/2025 12:09 AM, Staff, 56000K] reports the Houthis on Sunday attacked the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas with drones, missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, forcing its crew of 22 to abandon the vessel loaded with fertilizer and steel billets for Turkey. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [7/8/2025 7:14 AM, Mithil Aggarwal, 44540K] reports Chinese state media warned the Trump administration Tuesday against striking deals that sideline China, after the president announced that Asian countries would face higher tariffs starting Aug. 1, unless other arrangements are agreed on before then. "If such situations arise, China will not accept them and will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests," the People’s Daily, a state-run newspaper, said in a commentary. President Donald Trump said there would be 25% import tariffs on U.S. allies South Koreaand Japan, 36% on Thailand and Cambodia, 35% on Bangladesh, 32% on Indonesia, 40% on Myanmar and Laos, and 25% on Malaysia. While Trump did not explicitly name China in the tariff announcement, he did issue an overall warning: If the goods are being transshipped - meaning they originate in one country, typically China, and are shipped to a second country before being sent to the U.S. - these middleman countries could even face higher duties. He did not specify what that increase might be. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [7/8/2025 10:40 PM, Staff, 3077K] reports the federal government has sanctioned alleged North Korean hacker Song Kum Hyok for illegal activities related to his participation in the Andariel hacking group. Song has participated in malicious cyber activities, including an illicit information technology worker scheme and an attempted hack of the Department of Treasury, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce announced on Tuesday. North Korea "deploys IT workers who obfuscate their identities, often through identity theft of U.S. persons, to fraudulently obtain employment at unwitting foreign firms," Bruce said. "The North Korea regime uses revenue generated by these workers to support its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs." Treasury Department Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender said the sanctions affirm the importance of staying vigilant of North Korea’s efforts to illicitly fund its ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs. "Treasury remains committed to using all available tools to disrupt the Kim regime’s efforts to circumvent sanctions through its digital asset theft, attempted impersonation of Americans and malicious cyber attacks," Faulkender said. The State Department also announced sanctions on Russia-based facilitator Gayk Asatryan, two Russian entities and two North Korean entities that deploy cyber actors to generate revenue for North Korea through hacking activities and other cyber crimes. "Today’s sanctions are part of the U.S. government’s effort to combat North Korean cyber espionage and revenue generation," Bruce said. "We will continue to take action against malicious cyber actors who attempt to undermine U.S. national security or the U.S. financial sector." The State Department also announced it will pay a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identity or location of anyone who violates the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act at the direction of a foreign government. The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program also will pay up to $5 million for information that enables the disruption of finances for those who help the North Korean government export workers to generate revenue. The United States in July indicted North Korean hacker Rim Jong Hyok and offered a $10 million reward for information about him for allegedly working on behalf of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau. He is accused of conspiring to "hack and extort U.S. hospitals and other healthcare providers, launder the ransom proceeds and then use these proceeds to fund additional computer intrusions," the Department of Justice said in a statement.

CyberScoop [7/8/2025 3:03 PM, Tim Starks] reports the Treasury Department on Tuesday announced it has sanctioned a North Korean man participating in the widespread IT worker scheme, as well as others in a Russia-based IT worker operation that allegedly benefits the government of North Korea. It’s the second time in as many weeks that feds have taken action against people it says are associated with the IT worker scam — which benefits the illicit aims of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — following last week’s arrest, indictments and seizures. “Today’s action underscores the importance of vigilance on the DPRK’s continued efforts to clandestinely fund its WMD and ballistic missile programs,” Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender said in a news release. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control levied the sanctions against Song Kum Hyok, whom it said was associated with the North Korea government-linked hacking group Andariel, also known as Onyx Sleet. That hacker outfit is thought to be a subset of the umbrella Lazarus Group.

AP [7/8/2025 2:43 AM, Staff, 56000K] reports Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Tuesday said US-imposed tariffs on Japanese imports would have an impact on the country, but added that negotiations would continue. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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