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

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

The New York Times [6/28/2025 12:13 AM, Tim Balk, 138952K] reports the Trump administration said on Friday that it was terminating long-running deportation protections for Haitians in the United States, declaring that the violence-plagued Caribbean nation was now safe enough for the program to end by September. The announcement, by the Department of Homeland Security, continues the administration’s campaign of revoking special protections afforded to migrants from some of the most unstable and desperate places in the world. Hundreds of thousands of other immigrants who had previously been authorized to remain in the country, including Afghans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, could face deportation. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, had foreshadowed that Haiti would be on the list, signing a decision in February revoking an extension of the protection, called Temporary Protected Status, for hundreds of thousands of Haitians. The publication of a notice in the federal register, dated Friday, set the plan in action and underscored the threat of deportation for more than 300,000 Haitians who have been protected under the program. The department said the program would expire on Sept. 2, although the administration’s plan may face challenges in court. The Obama administration first granted the immigration status to Haitians in the United States in 2010, after a catastrophic earthquake rocked the island nation. The program has been repeatedly extended in the years since; an attempt in 2019 by the first Trump administration to end it was blocked by legal challenges. Republicans have argued that the protections for migrants from unstable places have strayed far from their original mission of providing temporary shelter from conflict or disaster. In its statement on Friday, the department said the termination of the program for Haitians “restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary.” Immigrants’ advocates scoffed at the justification the department offered in its statement: The “environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.” Haiti is an impoverished country that has been under a state of emergency since last year after its collapse into criminal anarchy. It is overrun by gangs and wracked with corruption. The State Department places Haiti at the highest threat level in its travel advisory database, citing widespread violent crime and advising Americans not to visit. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, an immigrant rights group, said on social media: “This is NOT a safe place to send people. It’s a death sentence.” Reuters [6/27/2025 1:20 PM, Ted Hesson, 51390K] reports that the Supreme Court ruled on May 19 that the Trump administration could proceed with ending TPS for those Venezuelans, signaling that other terminations also may be permitted to move forward. The court in a separate order on May 30 said that the administration could immediately revoke a separate status known as parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said conditions in Haiti would now allow people to return but did not explain what exactly had changed to lessen the risk. “The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home," the spokesperson said. Advocates argue that the conditions in Haiti warrant extending the relief. The country has not held elections since 2016 and capital city Port-au-Prince is almost entirely controlled by armed gangs. Despite the dire conditions, the Trump administration has frozen some funding earlier pledged to support a U.N.-backed mission in Haiti. The AP [6/27/2025 5:02 PM, Gisela Salomon, 56000K] reports Temporary protected status for Haitians expires on Aug. 3, and the termination will be effective on Sept. 2, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. DHS advised TPS holders to return to Haiti using a mobile application called CBP Home.

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Daily Caller [6/27/2025 1:21 PM, Melissa O’Rourke, 1010K] reports the Trump administration says it’s done warning illegal immigrants who defy deportation orders before issuing steep fines. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a rule on Friday that eliminates the 30-day notice period before fines can be issued to illegal immigrants who fail to comply with removal orders. Under the new rule, penalties of up to $998 per day can begin accumulating immediately for non-compliant illegal immigrants. “The law doesn’t enforce itself; there must be consequences for breaking it,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “President Trump and Secretary Noem are standing up for law and order and making our government more effective and efficient at enforcing the American people’s immigration laws.” The fines range from $100 to $500 per illegal entry or attempted entry, up to $9,970 for failing to depart when ordered, and a maximum of $998 per day for those defying voluntary departure rulings. The fines were implemented under the first Trump administration but were later revoked by the Biden administration, which described the penalties as “unnecessary.” To incentivize illegal immigrants to depart the country voluntarily, the Trump administration also began offering free flights back to their home country, along with $1,000 stipends and forgiveness of any fines related to previous deportation orders. “Financial penalties like these are just one more reason why illegal aliens should use CBP Home to self-deport now before it’s too late,” McLaughlin said. The rule reflects a broader shift by the Trump administration to reinstate tougher immigration enforcement mechanisms that were weakened or dismantled during the Biden administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now averaging over 1,600 daily arrests, though some immigration hardliners in the administration have called for 3,000 arrests per day. Telemundo52 [6/27/2025 5:03 PM, Staff, 103K] reports DHS said ICE has issued nearly 10,000 penalty notices since June 13, 2025. In the announcement, the government once again encouraged the voluntary departure of immigrants, mentioning that those who do so through the CBP Home app will receive a waiver of any fines or civil penalties. USA Today [6/27/2025 4:23 PM, Trevor Hughes, 75552K] reports that a newly issued rule allows federal immigration authorities to fine people up to $500 for illegally crossing the border and $1,000 per day for not leaving the United States if so ordered. The measure also allows a $10,000 fine for people who said they would leave voluntarily but haven’t. Crossing the border illegally or overstaying a visa is typically considered a civil violation, and the White House said the fines reflect the administration’s efforts to reduce illegal immigration.

FOX News [6/26/2025 3:20 PM, Staff, 46878K] Video: HERE reports DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin discusses plans to build a migrant facility in Florida and national security concerns after the U.S. strikes on Iran on ‘America Reports.

FOX News [6/27/2025 10:35 AM, Preston Mizell, 46878K] reports Secretary Kristi Noem and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded a staggering $94.4 million in federal grants through the National Security Supplemental (NSGP-NSS) to 512 Jewish faith-based organizations on Friday. The grants, which are allocated through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, are part of a pre-designated fund to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under DHS with the purpose of providing "support for target hardening and other physical security enhancements.” "DHS is working to put a stop to the deeply disturbing rise in anti-Semitic attacks across the United States," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. "That this money is necessary at all is tragic. Anti-Semitic violence has no place in this country.” "However, under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, we are going to do everything in our power to make sure that Jewish people in the United States can live free of the threat of violence and terrorism.” Sources at DHS tell Fox News Digital that similar grants have been used for improved security measures like cameras, physical barriers, and other enhanced safety initiatives. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Washington Post [6/27/2025 5:35 PM, Ann E. Marimow, 32099K] reports the Supreme Court on Friday backed President Donald Trump’s request to scale back lower-court orders that have for months blocked the administration’s ban on automatic citizenship for the U.S.-born babies of undocumented immigrants and foreign visitors, ruling that those nationwide injunctions went too far. The 6-3 decision, with the liberal justices dissenting, largely strips federal judges of a powerful tool they have used to temporarily halt many of Trump’s policies nationwide while litigation is pending. It will reshape the early stages of the judicial process when it comes to challenging executive action. The ruling did not address the constitutionality of the president’s ban on birthright citizenship, which is a signature part of his immigration crackdown. The United States has long granted automatic citizenship to babies born in the United States when neither parent is a citizen or a permanent legal resident. Opponents of Trump’s ban say it conflicts with the 14th Amendment, past court rulings and the nation’s history. The justices kept Trump’s ban on hold for at least 30 days and sent a set of cases back to the lower courts to determine the practical implications of their ruling. They left open a path for challengers to try to continue to block the president’s policy nationwide through class-action lawsuits but also raised the possibility that birthright citizenship could be cut off in the 28 states that have not joined lawsuits against it. Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said nationwide injunctions probably exceed the power that Congress has granted to the federal courts. Judges, she said, must limit the relief they grant to the individuals and organizations who file lawsuits, in this case the states and pregnant noncitizens who challenged the policy. "Some say that the universal injunction ‘give[s] the Judiciary a powerful tool to check the Executive Branch,’" Barrett wrote. "But federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the Executive Branch; they resolve cases and controversies consistent with the authority Congress has given them. When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.” Roll Call [6/27/2025 7:09 AM, Michael Macagnone, 692K] reports that the 6-3 decision found that most of those broad orders that stop government actions — and there have been dozens issued against the Trump administration this year — exceed the power Congress gave to federal district courts. The decision sends litigation over the legality of President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship effort back to the lower court and is likely to set off an avalanche of litigation in more than 100 lawsuits against Trump’s administrative actions. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, argued that courts did not have the historical power to issue orders that bind the government nationwide. "When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too," Barrett wrote. Barrett differentiated between complete relief for parties before the court and universal relief. She wrote that the question "is not whether an injunction offers complete relief to everyone potentially affected by an allegedly unlawful act; it is whether an injunction will offer complete relief to the plaintiffs before the court.” "Here, prohibiting enforcement of the Executive Order against the child of an individual pregnant plaintiff will give that plaintiff complete relief: Her child will not be denied citizenship," Barrett wrote. "Extending the injunction to cover all other similarly situated individuals would not render her relief any more complete.” The executive order, which Trump signed on the first day of his second term as part of a tough-on-immigration approach, sought to deny citizenship to children born in the United States if their parents were not current citizens or permanent residents. Federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties soon blocked the administration from taking action under that order, finding that it likely violated federal law and the Constitution. The Supreme Court’s decision sends the issue back to district courts that issued nationwide injunctions, which now must limit those only to what will "provide complete relief to each plaintiff" who has a legal right to challenge the policy. The decision also allows the Trump administration to start developing and issuing public guidance about plans to implement the anti-birthright citizenship executive order. That order cannot take effect for 30 days. Barrett wrote that challengers to federal policies may still be able to get broader orders against the government through class action litigation. And she also wrote that several other questions, such as what to do about states’ claimed harms from the anti-birthright citizenship policy, would need to be addressed by lower courts. The Washington Examiner [6/27/2025 10:23 AM, Kaelan Deese and Jack Birle, 1934K] reports that the case was not argued on the merits of the birthright citizenship order, meaning this ruling does not directly resolve the underlying 14th Amendment dispute raised by Democratic-led state plaintiffs and noncitizen parents. "Federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the Executive Branch; they resolve cases and controversies consistent with the authority Congress has given them," Barrett wrote for the majority." When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.” The majority partially blocked the preliminary injunctions, restricting them to only the parties suing the Trump administration. "The Government’s applications to partially stay the preliminary injunctions are granted, but only to the extent that the injunctions are broader than necessary to provide complete relief to each plaintiff with standing to sue," Barrett wrote "The lower courts shall move expeditiously to ensure that, with respect to each plaintiff, the injunctions comport with this rule and otherwise comply with principles of equity.” Barrett wrote in her opinion that universal injunctions are relatively new from district courts, rejecting arguments that the sweeping actions are deeply rooted in the judicial history of the country. "The universal injunction was conspicuously nonexistent for most of our Nation’s history," Barrett wrote. "Its absence from 18th- and 19th-century equity practice settles the question of judicial authority. That the absence continued into the 20th century renders any claim of historical pedigree still more implausible.” "Had federal courts believed themselves to possess the tool, surely they would not have let it lay idle," she added.

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Breitbart [6/27/2025 12:16 PM, Staff, 3077K] reports US President Donald Trump said Friday he can now push through a raft of controversial policies after the Supreme Court handed him a “giant win” by curbing the ability of lone judges to block his powers nationwide. In a 6-3 ruling stemming from Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship, the court said nationwide injunctions issued by individual district court judges likely exceed their authority. “This was a tremendous win,” Trump told reporters in a hastily arranged press conference at the White House. “I want to just thank again the Supreme Court for this ruling.” Trump said he would now proceed with “so many policies” that had been “wrongly” blocked, including his bid to end birthright citizenship, and stopping funding for transgender people and “sanctuary cities” for migrants. US Attorney General Pam Bondi, standing alongside Trump at the podium, said the ruling would stop “rogue judges striking down President Trump’s policies across the entire nation.” Democrats swiftly blasted the decision, saying it would embolden Trump as he pushes the boundaries of presidential power in his second term. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called it a “terrifying step toward authoritarianism.” Trump however rejected concerns about the concentration of power in the White House. “This is really the opposite of that,” Trump said. “This really brings back the Constitution.” NBC News [6/27/2025 12:14 PM, Staff, 44540K] reports President Donald Trump spoke to reporters after a Supreme Court ruling on injunctions that curbed his birthright citizenship plan. The president called the lower court’s ability to issue nationwide injunctions a "grave threat to democracy" and discussed the reasoning behind his planned changes to birthright citizenship. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [6/27/2025 9:31 PM, Miriam Jordan, 138952K] reports that, on his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order intended to end birthright citizenship, a foundational principle that grants U.S. citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil. That right has been enshrined in the Constitution for more than 160 years. Lawsuits challenging the directive were swiftly filed, and judges in several states issued nationwide injunctions to stop the order from going into effect. But on Friday, the Supreme Court sided largely with the Trump administration. Though it did not rule on the constitutionality of the executive order on birthright citizenship, it did reject the nationwide injunctions that had blocked the order — clearing the way for it to be applied, at least temporarily, in a majority of states. That leaves a lot of questions. Will babies born to undocumented immigrants in some states be entitled to citizenship, but not in others? Can children born to such parents in states where the order is in effect be deported? Will a new court challenge start the argument all over again? Nothing is certain. But here’s a look at how the next chapter of the debate is likely to unfold. Do the birthright citizenship restrictions now take immediate effect? No. Immigrant rights groups and 22 states, all with Democratic leadership, had sued over the birthright citizenship order, and three federal district courts vacated the policy. Among those states were Arizona, California, Maryland, New York, North Carolina and Washington. Challengers in those states will most likely try again. In 28 states that had not challenged the order, such as Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota and Texas, the order can go into effect. But the Supreme Court imposed a 30-day delay before that can happen, leaving time for any new legal maneuvers.

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Washington Post [6/28/2025 5:00 AM, Marianne LeVine, Arelis R. Hernández and Silvia Foster-Frau, 32099K] reports President Donald Trump celebrated a Supreme Court ruling Friday that he said “hit hard” at birthright citizenship. But his executive order to prohibit the children of unauthorized immigrants and foreign visitors from obtaining automatic U.S. citizenship still faces a steep challenge in court. Though the justices limited the ability of lower-court judges to issue nationwide injunctions, including those that halted his ban on birthright citizenship, they left open the possibility of granting universal relief through class-action lawsuits. Within hours of the ruling, several civil rights groups filed new class-action lawsuits to block Trump’s birthright ban from taking effect. District court judges could also continue to issue temporary injunctions that apply to newborns in the jurisdiction that has sued. And the Supreme Court could be asked again to weigh in on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, which the justices did not address in their ruling on injunctions. “There’s going to be a flood of lawsuits in district courts all over the country — both individual cases and class actions, trying to fill every gap that could possibly be exposed through this executive order to make sure people are protected,” said Jeff Joseph, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Nonetheless, the uncertainty of what might transpire in the weeks ahead has put immigrant communities on edge. Though several legal experts told Washington Post they expect a federal judge to grant class action relief, if that does not happen, Trump’s executive order could take effect in 30 days anywhere that an injunction has not been issued. Currently 22 states and the District of Columbia are protected from existing orders temporarily halting the ban. “Somebody who is giving birth today, tomorrow, on Monday … their child is a U.S. citizen, they should request the hospital records and then request the birth certificate,” said Efrén C. Olivares, vice president for litigation and legal strategy at the National Immigration Law Center. “Practically though in the time that we’re living … I am concerned that some parents may be scared, may be afraid to request those documents for fear of being reported to immigration authorities.” Trump’s order denies automatic citizenship for the children of unauthorized immigrants and foreigners on temporary work, student and tourist visas. Some studies estimate that population could include more than 150,000 newborns a year. It is based on a reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 and grants citizenship to those born on U.S. soil who are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the federal government. Proponents argue undocumented immigrants and foreigners on temporary visas are not fully under U.S. jurisdiction.

Washington Times [6/27/2025 3:08 PM, Stephen Dinan, 2106K] reports immigrant rights groups moved quickly to try to stop President Trump’s birthright citizenship policy with a class action lawsuit Friday, filed just hours after the Supreme Court dented their previous legal attack. The American Civil Liberties Union, which announced the lawsuit, said it is intended to close the "gaps" that may have been opened up after the high court ruled against universal injunctions on birthright citizenship. The justices, in their 6-3 ruling, limited lower courts’ ability to impose universal injunctions, saying they aren’t part of the powers granted by Congress to the district courts. They applied that new ruling to three lower court cases that had issued injunctions against Mr. Trump’s policy limiting recognition of birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants and temporary visitors. The effect of the ruling was still murky, but advocates said one outcome could be to create a patchwork of rules where a child born in one state would be recognized as an automatic citizen while another child born in a different state would not. If the class action lawsuit succeeds, it could apply across the board. "The Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship, and no procedural ruling will stop us from fighting to uphold that promise," said Tianna Mays, legal director for Democracy Defenders Fund. The high court, in its ruling, said universal injunctions stretched judges’ power too far, granting a single district judge in one corner of the country the power to halt a president’s actions for everyone. That goes well beyond the parties involved in the case. But the justices said challengers have other tools, and named the class action as a key one.

FOX News [6/27/2025 8:33 PM, Jasmine Baehr , Bill Mears , Shannon Bream, 46878K] reports that, hours after the Supreme Court delivered the Trump administration a major victory Friday by ruling lower courts may issue nationwide injunctions only in limited instances, a coalition of liberal legal groups filed a sweeping new class-action lawsuit in New Hampshire federal court. It takes aim at President Donald Trump’s January executive order that redefines who qualifies for U.S. citizenship at birth. While the justices’ 6-3 ruling leaves open the question of how the ruling will apply to the birthright citizenship order at the heart of the case, Friday’s lawsuit accuses the administration of violating the Constitution by denying citizenship to children born on U.S. soil if their mothers are either unlawfully present or temporarily in the country and their fathers are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of New Hampshire, ACLU of Maine, ACLU of Massachusetts, Legal Defense Fund, Asian Law Caucus and Democracy Defenders Fund. It seeks to represent a proposed class of children born under the terms of the executive order and their parents. It is not the first legal challenge to the policy. The same group filed a separate suit in January 2025 in the same court on behalf of advocacy organizations with members expecting children who would be denied citizenship under the order. That case led to a ruling protecting members of those groups and is now pending before the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, with oral arguments scheduled for Aug. 1. Friday’s SCOTUS ruling states that lower courts can no longer block federal policies nationwide unless it’s absolutely necessary to give full relief to the people suing. The decision does not say whether Trump’s birthright citizenship order is legal, but it means the order could take effect in parts of the country while legal challenges continue. The court gave lower courts 30 days to review their existing rulings. "The applications do not raise — and thus we do not address — the question whether the Executive Order violates the Citizenship Clause or Nationality Act," Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, writing for the majority. "The issue before us is one of remedy: whether, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, federal courts have equitable authority to issue universal injunctions.” "A universal injunction can be justified only as an exercise of equitable authority, yet Congress has granted federal courts no such power," she added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [6/27/2025 4:37 PM, Lawrence Hurley and Gary Grumbach, 44540K] reports almost as soon as the Supreme Court released its ruling limiting the ability of judges to block President Donald Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship, challengers brought new legal claims seeking the same result by a different means. While the court on Friday said judges cannot issue sweeping "universal injunctions" that can apply nationwide in many cases, it left open the option of plaintiffs seeking broad relief via class action lawsuits. Under Trump’s plan, birthright citizenship would be limited to those who have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. That is at odds with the widely accepted understanding of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment — that it grants citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., with a few minor exceptions. It remains unclear how the Justice Department will respond to new claims. But at a news conference Friday, Trump made it clear the administration would proactively use the Supreme Court ruling not just to bolster its birthright citizenship proposal but also to push forward on other policies that have been blocked by judges on a nationwide basis.

Roll Call [6/27/2025 2:20 PM, Chris Johnson and Michael Macagnone, 692K] reports while the Trump administration cheered a Supreme Court victory Friday that rolled back the power of federal district court judges to issue the kind of nationwide orders that have paused his presidential orders, signs quickly emerged that court fights are far from settled. In the decision, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the six-justice majority ruled that most courts could not issue the orders, sometimes called "universal" or "nationwide" injunctions, that paused federal administrative action. But experts pointed out that the decision left open other avenues where courts could block Trump administrative actions nationwide, on behalf of states, in class actions and where the suit challenges a federal rule. The decision itself kicked off a race to the courthouse. Unless other courts intervene, the administration after 30 days may be able to move forward with the effort to end birthright citizenship in the 28 states that did not challenge the executive order. At a news conference Friday after the decision, Trump claimed the case ended a "grave threat to democracy" from judges who had ruled against him in the first few months of his term. "I was elected on a historic mandate but in the last few months we have seen a handful of radical left judges effectively try to overrule the rightful powers of the president to stop the American people from getting the policies they voted for," Trump said. Attorney General Pamela Bondi praised the decision during the press conference and said it "indirectly impacts every case in this country, and we’re thrilled with their decision today.” There are more than 100 lawsuits filed against the Trump administration, according to a tracker from the law firm Skadden. However, many of those involve class action claims or challenges based on the Administrative Procedure Act, legal avenues that were explicitly left outside of Friday’s decision. Efforts to change existing litigation already started Friday as the ACLU filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire federal court on behalf of several American parents whose children could lose immigration status through Trump’s order.

The Hill [6/27/2025 12:44 PM, Zach Schonfeld, 18649K] reports a group of plaintiffs challenging President Trump’s birthright citizenship restrictions quickly made a new push to block it nationwide, following the Supreme Court’s decision Friday. In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the high court’s conservative majority curtailed federal judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions. But it left the door open for plaintiffs to try to seek broad relief by filing class action lawsuits. Within hours, a group of plaintiffs suing in Maryland jumped on the suggestion, asking a district judge to issue a new ruling that applies to anyone designated as ineligible for birthright citizenship under Trump’s order. "Without a class-wide injunction, Defendants will deny thousands of babies in the putative class their constitutional and statutory right to United States citizenship, as well as all of the rights and privileges that citizenship entails," the motion reads. "Consistent with the Supreme Court’s most recent instructions, the Court can protect all members of the putative class from irreparable harm that the unlawful Executive Order threatens to inflict," it continues. The motion was filed by CASA Inc., the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project and several expectant mothers who filed one of the original lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive order.

FOX News [6/27/2025 3:31 PM, Peter Pinedo, Chad Pergram, 46878K] reports amid a legal battle between President Donald Trump and several Democratic-run states over birthright citizenship, Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., is introducing a constitutional amendment to "immediately put an end to this debate" by clarifying that children of illegal immigrants are not eligible for citizenship. Barr called the amendment an important step in helping the president "protect America." If passed, Barr’s amendment would clarify the meaning of the 14th Amendment’s clause that persons must be "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States to be citizens. Barr’s amendment would clarify that "a person born in the United States may only be considered ‘subject to the jurisdiction of the United States’ if the person is born in the United States of parents, one of whom is — (1) a national of the United States; (2) an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States whose residence is in the United States; or (3) an alien with lawful status under the immigration laws performing active service in the armed forces." This comes as the Supreme Court on Friday delivered a major victory in President Donald Trump’s quest to block lower courts from issuing universal injunctions that had upended many of his administration’s executive orders and actions, including his order ending birthright citizenship. Justices ruled 6-3 to allow the lower courts to issue injunctions only in limited instances. However, the ruling leaves open the question of how the ruling will apply to the birthright citizenship order at the heart of the case.

The Hill [6/27/2025 12:29 PM, Ella Lee, 18649K] reports Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully butted heads in dueling opinions Friday regarding President Trump’s executive order narrowing birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court’s majority opinion, penned by Barrett and joined by the high court’s other five conservative justices, lets Trump’s order go into effect for now in some parts of the country, by curtailing judges’ ability to issue universal injunctions. Jackson joined her fellow liberal justices in a fiery, joint dissent, but further claimed in a solo dissent that the court’s decision marked an "existential threat to the rule of law.” The Trump administration’s bid to "vanquish" universal injunctions amounts to a request for the high court’s permission to "engage in unlawful behavior," Jackson said, implying that the majority gave Trump just that. "It gives the Executive the go-ahead to sometimes wield the kind of unchecked, arbitrary power the Founders crafted our Constitution to eradicate," she wrote. Barrett sharply rebuked Jackson’s rhetoric as a "startling line of attack" and said she would not dwell on her "extreme" argument, claiming it is at odds with centuries of precedent and the Constitution itself. "We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary," Barrett wrote. "No one disputes that the Executive has a duty to follow the law. But the Judiciary does not have unbridled authority to enforce this obligation—in fact, sometimes the law prohibits the Judiciary from doing so.”

AP [6/27/2025 5:53 PM, Michael Kunzelman and Sudhin Thanawala, 56000K] reports the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday limiting federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions threatens to upend numerous lawsuits that have led to orders blocking Trump administration policies. Between the start of the new administration and mid-May, judges issued roughly 40 nationwide injunctions against the White House on topics including federal funding, elections rules and diversity and equity considerations. Attorneys involved in some of those cases are vowing to keep fighting, noting the high court left open other legal paths that could have broad nationwide effect.

Univision [6/27/2025 2:37 PM, Carlos Chirinos, 4992K] reports the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision is not limited to the executive order with which Donald Trump seeks to restrict the right to birthright citizenship enshrined in the Constitution, but potentially opens the floodgates for the partial or full implementation of other executive orders that have been blocked by lower courts with nationwide effect. At the White House press conference following the Supreme Court’s decision, President Trump asserted that he can now "properly pursue" those policies that were blocked by nationwide court orders. "We have a ton. I have a whole list," Trump said, mentioning the elimination of funding for "sanctuary cities," the suspension of refugee resettlement, the freezing of "unnecessary funding," and the limitation of the use of federal funds for transgender surgeries. Now, with the Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the power of district judges to their jurisdictions, President Trump is free to implement many of those executive orders that have been put on hold, at least in districts where federal judges’ decisions are not available, as he now directs the Supreme Court. The final effect is that the White House, regardless of the president’s party, is given broad powers to rule by decree and exercise its power without restraint, at least while it determines whether its actions are legal or not.

New York Times [6/27/2025 12:57 PM, Adam Liptak, 138952K] reports the birthright citizenship case is unusual, and not only because it is not really about birthright citizenship. At the case’s argument in May, the justices mostly focused on whether injunctions entered by three federal trial judges blocking President Trump’s plan to end the practice were too broad. But when the court set this case down for argument, it did not grant review of a petition. That meant it was hard to know the precise question before the court. That’s because the case lacked the “question presented” that must appear on the first page of petitions seeking Supreme Court review. When the justices agree to hear a case, they do so to resolve the question on the petition. But in this case, the court did something quite unusual: It agreed to hear arguments on three emergency applications seeking partial stays of the injunctions. Such emergency applications do not typically include a “question presented” page, and the three at issue in the birthright citizenship cases did not. Such applications, moreover, are all but uniformly handled by the justices based only on written filings, without oral argument. Not this time. The case was unusual in another way. The justices scheduled arguments at a special session of the court, in May, about two weeks after the last day for argument noted on the court’s annual calendar. Hearing arguments on days other than those on the court’s calendar is rare, though there have been scattered exceptions. The court added a day last year in April, for instance, to consider the case on presidential immunity. Hearing arguments after April is especially uncommon. There were arguments in May 2020, as the coronavirus was raging and the justices questioned lawyers by phone. But even those arguments concluded on May 13.

AP [6/27/2025 1:26 PM, Rebecca Santana, 24051K] reports the Homeland Security secretary is praising Florida for coming forward with an idea that’s been dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" because it would house immigration detainees in a facility being built in a Florida swamp. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the department has been looking to expand immigration detention capacity, and she has been reviewing contracts Immigration and Customs Enforcement has with various vendors for detention beds. "The ones with some of the vendors that we had, I felt were way too expensive, and that those vendors were not giving us fair prices and so I went directly to states and to ask them if they could do a better job providing this service," she said in an interview with The Associated Press as her Latin America trip wound down late Thursday. She said the department has been reaching out to states or companies who aren’t regular ICE contractors to see whether they’re able to provide the detention space the department needs at a better price. "We really are looking for people that want to help drive down the cost but still provide a very high level of detention facility," she said. Noem said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier brought this particular idea to the department. "They were willing to build it and do it much quicker than what some of the other vendors were. And it was a real solution that we’ll be able to utilize if we need to," she said. Noem said they evaluated the contract and it "made sense.” The detention facility is the latest effort by Florida to assist in President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Noem said some of the ICE detention contracts put in place under her predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, were for 10-15 years. The detention contracts were among a range of subjects Noem spoke about with the Associated Press during an interview in Guatemala City on the tail end of her four-country tour through Central America. Noem made stops in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala. Noem said that President Trump "encouraged" her to visit countries in Central America that have historically been points of origin for many migrants to the United States and "get more security agreements or to finalize ones" where discussions had already started — and to "get them across the finish line.”

FOX News [6/27/2025 9:29 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports DHS Secretary Kristi Noem weighs in on Florida’s new migrant detention center on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [6/27/2025 10:22 AM, Nicole Wells, 4622K] reports Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsmax on Friday that the migrant detention facility that Florida is building in the Everglades – nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz" – is a "fantastic idea.” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier came up with the idea to convert the 17,000-acre Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport into a detention center for illegal immigrants earlier this month and shared it with the White House in a video online. On "Wake Up America," McLaughlin said that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has requested the help of state and local governments "since the start of this administration.” "We have a bed space problem," McLaughlin said. "A key operational part of arrests and deportations is the ability to house people somewhere until they face deportation. Every single morning, I have a call, and … they ask, ‘How much bed space do we currently have?’. She said that the new facility would "increase bed space up to 5,000 beds," but that the budget reconciliation bill making its way through Congress would do "even more than that.” "So, we are really encouraging members of Congress, Senate, please vote for that ‘big, beautiful bill’ because that’s going to get us across the finish line and make sure that we have that bed space to turbocharge our arrest and deportation efforts," McLaughlin said. Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis has reportedly taken control of the airport facility, which Uthmeier says is "virtually abandoned," over the objections of environmentalists and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. In his video, Uthmeier said that Florida has "been leading on immigration enforcement," and "supporting the Trump administration and ICE’s [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] efforts to detain and deport criminal aliens."

CBS Miami [6/27/2025 7:42 PM, John MacLauchlan, 51860K] Video: HERE reports a controversial immigration detention center being constructed in the Everglades is just days away from opening. On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis gave Jim Doocy from "Fox and Friends" a tour of the site dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz.” DeSantis said the facility will begin taking in those not in this country legally on Tuesday, the facility can hold 5,000 detainees. The governor shared how this operation will help with the Trump administration’s mandate to crackdown on illegal immigration. He said there are about 50,000 undocumented immigrants in Florida who have been ordered removed by an immigration judge. The detention facility is being set up at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, an aviation training facility with its own runway. DeSantis said the facility will help with intake, processing and deportation. "We’ve got a massive runway right behind us where any of the federal assets, if they want to fly these people back to their own country, they can do it, it’s a one stop shop," DeSantis said. DeSantis said the facility will not impact the training flights at the airport. "Illegals will come in, they will be processed, there are places for them to be housed. You’ll have the ability for food, there will also be the ability for them to consult legal rights if they have that," DeSantis said. "It’s being done right, it’s being done by the book," he added. On Friday, environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday to block the opening of a facility until it undergoes a stringent environmental review as required by federal law.

Breitbart [6/27/2025 3:32 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports Florida is considering setting up another site — in addition to "Alligator Alcatraz" — to hold illegal migrants in an effort to solve capacity issues, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). DeSantis also floated a similar camp in northern Florida. DeSantis spoke about the everglades facility during an interview with Fox News, explaining that "more than 3,000 illegals can be processed" through "Alligator Alcatraz." He described that particular facility as a "one-stop shop." The facility is expected to be up and running next week, per the governor.

The Washington Post [6/27/2025 4:49 PM, Lori Rozsa, 32099K] reports two environmental groups on Friday sued to halt the construction of an immigrant detention center in the middle of the Everglades, arguing the state had ignored required ecological reviews. Florida officials have said that they plan to open the facility, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Republicans, as early next week and that it would hold up to 3,000 detainees. Construction of the site has already begun. The temporary site could house up to 3,000 detainees "mostly from Florida," and will be ready "to have intake" of detainees by Tuesday, DeSantis said during the interview. The state has said it would cost $450 million to build and maintain the site, which would be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But environmentalists argue the facility violates the National Environmental Policy and Endangered Species acts, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami. Construction should stop until an environmental review is complete, they argued. They also requested the court hold an expedited hearing on the lawsuit before Tuesday, when state officials have said it will begin moving people into the detention center. The lawsuit names as defendants Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem; Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management; and Miami Dade County, which owns the land where the detention center is being erected. The AP [6/27/2025 5:29 PM, Kate Payne and Curt Anderson, 56000K] reports that critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while DeSantis and other state officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The center is set to begin processing people who entered the U.S. illegally as soon as next week, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday on "Fox and Friends.” "The state of Florida is all in on President Trump’s mission," DeSantis said on a tour of the facility. "There needs to be more ability to intake, process and deport.” The state is plowing ahead with building a compound of heavy-duty tents, trailers and other temporary buildings at the Miami Dade County-owned airfield in the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. The state Republican Party has even begun selling T-shirts and other merchandise emblazoned with the "Alligator Alcatraz" slogan. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity as well as the Friends of the Everglades, an organization started decades ago by "River of Grass" author and Everglades champion Marjory Stoneman Douglas to battle the original plan to build the airport. They are represented by the Earthjustice law firm and other attorneys including Florida writer Carl Hiassen’s son, Scott Hiassen. "This site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species," said Eve Samples, Friends of the Everglades executive director, in a news release. "This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect.” The lawsuit names several federal and state agencies as defendants, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Florida Division of Emergency Management. DeSantis’s spokesman said they will oppose the lawsuit in court. "Governor Ron DeSantis has insisted that Florida will be a force multiplier for federal immigration enforcement, and this facility is a necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a pre-existing airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment," said spokesman Bryan Griffin in an email. "We look forward to litigating this case.”

Reported similarly:
The Hill [6/27/2025 5:17 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18649K] r

Breitbart [6/27/2025 3:56 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports indigenous leaders in Florida are taking issue with what has been dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades — an existing facility undergoing modifications to house illegal migrants — according to reports. Following approval from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), officials are quickly moving to transform the Miami-Dade Collier Training Facility into a space that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) says will be able to process 3,000 illegal migrants. Officials believe this space is efficient and almost ready to go, touting the natural barrier of the surroundings, as it is, quite literally, surrounded by alligators and pythons. Because of that, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier noted that not much needs to be spent on the perimeter, because "Mother Nature provides it for us." But while officials rush to get the site operational quickly, some indigenous leaders are raising concerns, as they consider the area their ancestral homeland. Miccosukee Chairman Talbert Cypress, for example, released a statement criticizing the government’s plans, opposing it on behalf of the Miccosukee tribe. Indigenous leaders and activists are planning to gather at the site again on Saturday to stage a demonstration highlighting why the area is "sacred" and should be "protected, not destroyed." Despite these pleas, DeSantis said the facility will be able to intake illegal migrants by Tuesday.

AP [6/27/2025 1:51 PM, Sonia Pérez D., 56000K] reports Guatemala President Bernardo Arévalo said Friday he has not signed an agreement with the United States to take asylum seekers from other countries, pushing back against comments from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Noem and Arévalo met Thursday in Guatemala and the two governments publicly signed a joint security agreement that would allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to work in the capital’s airport, training local agents how to screen for terrorism suspects. But Noem said she had also been given a signed document she called a safe third country agreement. She said she reached a similar deal in Honduras and said they were important outcomes of her trip. Asked about Noem’s comments Friday during a news conference, Arévalo said that nothing new was signed related to immigration and that Guatemala was still operating under an agreement reached with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February. That agreement stipulated that Guatemala would continue accepting the deportation of its own citizens, but also citizens of other Central American nations as a transit point on their way home. Arévalo said that when Rubio visited, safe third country was discussed because Guatemala had signed such an agreement during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term in office. But “we made it clear that our path was different,” Arévalo said. He did add that Guatemala was willing to provide asylum to Nicaraguans who have been unable to return to their country because of the political situation there out of “solidarity.” The president’s communications office said Noem had been given the ratification of the agreement reached through diplomatic notes weeks earlier.

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [6/27/2025 2:56 PM, Sonia Pérez D., 14672K]

CBS News [6/27/2025 3:08 PM, Melissa Quinn, 51860K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was mistakenly deported back to his home country and then returned to the U.S. for federal prosecution, may remain in federal custody, after his lawyers and prosecutors sparred over whether he would be deported immediately upon his release while awaiting a criminal trial. His lawyers asked that a magistrate judge’s order granting him pretrial release not be issued until July 16, when he is scheduled to appear in court again for another hearing. In a filing Friday, prosecutors agreed to the delay. The court must still approve the request. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said in a filing with the court that the Justice Department has been giving conflicting statements as to whether the Trump administration will move to deport him before he stands trial. Abrego Garcia is to be tried on human smuggling charges, but the Trump administration had said that if he were to be released pending trial, he would swiftly be taken into custody by immigration authorities and deported. Justice Department prosecutors signaled Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would detain and move to deport Abrego Garcia to a third-country — one that is not his country of origin, El Salvador — if he were to be released from criminal custody, as was expected. But a Justice Department spokesperson then suggested Abrego Garcia would not be deported until after his criminal trial concludes. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw set a hearing for July 16 to consider the government’s bid to revoke the magistrate judge’s release order. NPR [6/27/2025 2:49 PM, Juliana Kim, 37958K] reports a federal judge in Tennessee has ordered a delay in the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia after his legal team raised concerns that the Salvadoran native could be deported upon release. Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador for three months by the Trump administration, then returned to the U.S. where he now faces federal human smuggling charges. On Friday, Robert E. McGuire, acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said the delay will remain in place pending further court orders. Abrego Garcia’s legal team requested the delay, citing conflicting reports from the federal government over whether Abrego Garcia would be allowed to stay in the U.S. while his criminal case moves through the courts. "The irony of this request is not lost on anyone," his attorneys wrote in a motion Friday. His attorneys pointed to an emergency hearing Thursday in Maryland — Abrego Garcia’s home state — where the government said it planned to deport him to a third country as soon as he is released from jail. Later that day, a DOJ spokesperson told the Associated Press that the government intends to bring him to trial first. "Because DOJ has made directly contradictory statements on this issue in the last 18 hours, and because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by the DOJ, we respectfully request to delay the issuance of the release order," his attorneys wrote in the same motion. Abrego Garcia was initially ordered released on bail last Sunday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville. Holmes stated that the government failed to show that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or a danger to the community. In response, the federal government requested a stay of Holmes’ ruling ordering his release. A few days later, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw of Tennessee, appointed to the federal bench by then-President Barack Obama, also found no justification to continue detaining Abrego Garcia. Still, there was concern that Abrego Garcia would be taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement upon his release. ICE has said Abrego Garcia must be deported regardless of the outcome of his criminal trial. In his opinion, Crenshaw also acknowledged that the government "is in control" of where Abrego Garcia resides while he awaits trial. Breitbart [6/27/2025 5:18 PM, Neil Munro, 3077K] reports the expensive lawyers working for El Salvador’s most famous illegal migrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, persuaded a judge to keep him in federal jail. The elite lawyers told the judge that if he were released from jail by the Department of Justice, he would be quickly deported by the Department of Homeland Security. Yesterday, at an emergency hearing before Judge Xinis in the District of Maryland, the government represented that it intends to detain Mr. Abrego and remove him to a "third country" as soon as this Court releases Mr. Abrego from pretrial custody. This is the first time the government has represented, to anyone, that it intended not to deport Mr. Abrego back to El Salvador following a trial on these charges, but to deport him to a third country immediately. On Friday afternoon, the federal judge agreed to keep Abrego Garcia in jail for several more days: "A hearing will be set by separate order to review conditions of release with Abrego and to provide for his release."

Reported similarly:
The Hill [6/27/2025 11:15 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18649K]
Washington Examiner [6/27/2025 11:52 AM, David Zimmermann, 1934K]

New York Times [6/28/2025 3:21 AM, Alan Feuer, 330K] reports that, less than three weeks after Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was brought back from a wrongful deportation to El Salvador to face criminal charges in the United States, the Trump administration indicated on Thursday that it planned to deport him again — this time to a different country. Jonathan Guynn, a Justice Department lawyer, acknowledged to a judge that there were “no imminent plans” to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia. Still, the assertion that the administration intends to re-deport a man who was just returned to the country after being indicted raised questions about the charges the Justice Department filed against him. It was a surprising development when Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on June 6 that officials were bringing Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States after weeks of insisting that the Trump administration was powerless to comply with a series of court orders — including one from the Supreme Court — to “facilitate” his release from Salvadoran custody. The administration’s stated reason for doing so was equally surprising: so that Mr. Abrego Garcia could stand trial, Ms. Bondi said, on serious charges of taking part in a yearslong conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants across the United States. During a news conference in Washington, Ms. Bondi assailed Mr. Abrego Garcia as “a smuggler of humans and children and women,” linking him to even more serious crimes like murder and drug trafficking. “This is what American justice looks like,” Ms. Bondi said. “Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador.” Mr. Guynn’s remarks came as the judges overseeing his separate criminal and civil deportation cases struggled to figure out what the government planned to do with Mr. Abrego Garcia. And shortly after the Justice Department lawyer appeared in court, administration officials sought to clarify his comments. First, a White House spokeswoman posted a message on social media describing news accounts of Mr. Guynn’s statements as “fake news.” Then an administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Justice Department intended to try Mr. Abrego Garcia in the United States before deporting him. On Friday, concerned that their client might soon be deported, Mr. Abrego’s lawyers made an unusual request to the judge overseeing his criminal case in Tennessee. Even though the judge had ruled last week that he should be released from criminal custody, the lawyers asked that he remained locked up for the next couple of weeks to “prevent the government from removing” him and allow more time for the administration “to provide reliable information concerning its intentions.”

FOX News [6/27/2025 4:52 PM, Cameron Arcand, 46878K] reports top Trump administration officials maintain that Kilmar Abrego Garcia will continue to go through the legal system in the United States before he is deported again, as the administration maintains he will not walk free in the U.S. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers successfully asked the judge on Friday to keep him behind bars to avoid any possibility of an immediate deportation, according to NewsNation. However, the plan is to try Abrego Garcia in the U.S. on the Tennessee-based human smuggling charges before deporting him, according to the Department of Justice. And if he is convicted, the White House says he will spend time behind bars in the U.S. before being deported. "This defendant has been charged with horrific crimes including trafficking children and will not walk free in our country again," DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin told Fox News Digital in an email. The White House further clarified the Executive Branch’s stance following an Associated Press report on the comments from federal prosecutors about possibly deporting him to a third country sooner. "This is fake news. Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him. He will face the full force of the American justice system - including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed," White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said in an X post. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the 29-year-old will not be freed in the U.S. at any point. "Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a dangerous criminal illegal alien. We have said it for months and it remains true to this day: he will never go free on American soil," she wrote. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [6/27/2025 11:22 AM, Karissa Waddick, 75552K] reports an Army Veteran and Purple Heart recipient who has lived in the U.S. for more than four decades self-deported to South Korea after immigration officials said he would otherwise be forcefully removed from the country. Sae Joon Park’s removal order was related to drug possession and bail jumping charges he received more than 15 years ago when he was suffering from PTSD, his attorney Danicole Ramos, told USA TODAY. Park, a 55-year-old green-card holder, boarded a plane from Hawaii to South Korea on Monday, June 23, and will wait in the country while his legal team works to reopen his case. Park’s departure is the latest in a series of high-profile deportations of military veterans that have come as the Trump administration escalates immigration enforcement across the country. "I can’t believe that this is happening in America," Park told NPR before he left. "That blows me away, like a country that I fought for.” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Park’s removal was based on his "extensive" criminal background. "President Trump and Secretary Noem have been clear: criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S," McLaughlin said. "If you come to our country and break our laws, we will find you, arrest you, and deport you. That’s a promise.” Since his return to office, Trump has urged ICE officers to deliver "the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History," invoked wartime powers to stymie immigration, and packed detention centers to the brim with immigrants, more than 40% of whom do not have a criminal record. ICE officials have snatched thousands of people off work sites and streets and, in some cases, agents have deported undocumented immigrants during routine court check-ins.

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [6/27/2025 6:14 PM, Seema Mehta, 14672K]

Bloomberg Law News [6/27/2025 4:56 PM, Bob Van Voris, 88K] reports the government is appealing a court order letting Harvard University continue enrolling foreign students despite President Donald Trump’s proclamation barring their entry to the US. US District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston issued a preliminary injunction Monday preventing the government from following through on a June 4 Trump proclamation denying entry to international students planning to attend Harvard. Justice Department lawyers on Friday notified the judge that the government will seek to have the decision reversed by an appeals court, without providing any additional details. Harvard has been the main target of Trump’s efforts to force universities to crack down on antisemitism, remove perceived political bias and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Harvard has separately sued over a $2.6 billion funding freeze, which Burroughs has temporarily blocked. Trump has also threatened to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status.

CBS News [6/27/2025 6:11 PM, Kati Weis, 51860K] reports police on Friday captured one of the New Orleans parish inmates who escaped six weeks ago in a jailbreak Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the worst in recent state history. Law enforcement agencies located and arrested 33-year-old Antoine Massey at a residence in New Orleans on Friday, authorities announced in a press release. The New Orleans Police Department was expected to give a press conference later Friday night. Massey will be taken to a secure state correctional facility, Louisiana State Police said. At the time of his escape, Massey had been facing charges of domestic abuse battery involving strangulation, motor vehicle theft and a parole violation, authorities said, adding that additional charges may follow. The Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigations, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and the New Orleans Police Department located and arrested Massey on Friday, state police said. Nine of the 10 Orleans Parish Prison inmates have now been recaptured following their May 16 jailbreak from the Orleans Justice Center, which went unnoticed for hours. Only one, Derrick Groves, remains on the lam.

USA Today [6/27/2025 7:21 PM, Amanda Lee Myers, 75552K] reports three years ago to the day after 53 immigrants died while trapped in a tractor-trailer in sweltering Texas heat, two of the smugglers responsible learned that their freedom is effectively over. A federal judge sentenced Felipe Orduña-Torres two to life sentences and Armando Gonzales-Ortega to 83 years in prison on Friday, June 27 − the third anniversary of the tragedy in San Antonio, the deadliest known migrant smuggling attempt in U.S. history. "These individuals are effectively going away for the rest of their lives," and that is justice, Justin Simmons, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, said at a news conference after the sentencing. "While the sentences today will never completely fill the void that these men carved into the hearts of these victims’ families, I hope it at least helps them a little bit with the healing process," Simmons said. "I hope they can find solace, ultimately, in the fact that these men will never breathe free air again.” Defense attorneys for Orduña-Torres and Gonzales-Ortega did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. FOX News [6/27/2025 12:18 PM, Michael Dorgan and Sarah Alegre, 46878K] reports that the tragedy became the nation’s deadliest smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border. On Friday, Orduna-Torres, who is in the U.S. illegally, was given two life sentences and an additional 20 years on a third count to be served consecutively. Gonzalez-Ortega was sentenced to 87.5 years in prison, while both defendants were also fined $250,000 by Judge Orlando Garcia on Friday. Gonzalez-Ortega is in the U.S. illegally. "You will never see the light of day, such a shame. You could’ve been doing other things," the judge said to the pair. "To people out there who are smuggling people, if there’s a death and an injury you will get sentenced for a very, very long time.” The pair were sentenced after 66 migrants were packed into the tractor trailer without air conditioning as the temperature soared to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Some of the migrants inside the trailer lost consciousness, while others clawed at the walls, trying to escape. By the time the tractor trailer reached San Antonio, according to the evidence presented at trial, 48 migrants had already died. Another five migrants died after being transported to local hospitals. In total, 53 people died, including six children and a pregnant woman. The migrants were from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Chilling victim statements were read out in court, including from Marcos Antonio Velasco of Mexico, the mother of an 18-year-old victim. "This is the greatest pain of my life… it will never go away… I can’t believe I had to bury my own son. It is like I am dead, even though I am living," she said.

Breitbart [6/27/2025 4:38 PM, Sean Moran, 3077K] reports the Senate parliamentarian on Friday ruled that various immigration enforcement policies cannot be included in the Big Beautiful Bill. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough advised that many immigration enforcement and other provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill would require 60 votes to be included in it. The parliamentarian did advise that a controversial provision that would tie a ten-year moratorium to state-based regulations on artificial intelligence to $500 million in increased funding for the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program could be included in the bill.

NewsMax [6/27/2025 6:30PM, Michael Katz, 4622K] reports the Senate parliamentarian struck again Friday, rejecting a number of immigration-related fees included in the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act because they violated the Byrd Rule. The rule, crafted by the late Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., in the mid-1980s, states that provisions in reconciliation budget legislation considered extraneous to fiscal matters require 60 votes to pass the Senate. The reconciliation package must undergo a "Byrd bath" to eliminate all provisions that the parliamentarian believes are more about making policy changes than adjusting the federal budget. Elizabeth MacDonough, who has been the parliamentarian since 2012, rejected a mandatory $1,000 fee for asylum applications, a $100 fee on migrants who request a continuance in immigration court, and a provision to require the Department of Homeland Security to impose a $250 fee for applying to the diversity visa lottery and a $400 fee to process diversity visa applications, The Hill reported Friday. She also advised against language to require a $5,000 bond to sponsor an unaccompanied child who fails to appear in immigration court, a bond that would be returned if the child does not receive an in-absentia removal order. She also rejected language expanding expedited removal procedures for migrants who are arrested of crimes — removal procedures that were beefed up earlier this year when Congress passed the Laken Riley Act. It is the latest setback for Senate Republicans who are trying to pass the key legislation of President Donald Trump’s second term this weekend and meet a July 4 deadline set by Trump for it to reach his desk for his signature. Earlier this week, MacDonough reportedly removed several Medicaid-related provisions, such as altering how states can tax Medicaid providers, reducing the allowable state provider tax rate from 6% to 3% by 2031, barring Medicaid from covering gender transitions, and denying Medicaid coverage to illegal immigrants. She also voided a provision barring Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for illegal immigrants and shifting some SNAP costs to states, as well as a measure restricting federal courts’ power to issue nationwide injunctions.

New York Times [6/27/2025 6:21 PM, Stephanie Saul, 138952K] reports Harvard University announced contingency plans for some of its thousands of international students, whom the Trump administration is trying to bar from entering the country. Borrowing from lessons learned during the Covid pandemic, both the Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School have said that some of their international students will be able to take advantage of online and remote learning options to finish their Harvard degrees, should they be barred from entering the country. The Kennedy School plans, announced this week on a new website for international students, said that the students may be permitted to study online. Students will engage in online coursework led by Kennedy School faculty, while also attending up to three “in-person convenings in cities across the world,” the website says. The meetings will feature “intensive, credit-bearing sessions taught by HKS faculty.” Returning Kennedy School students can finish their Harvard degrees at the University of Toronto, where the students may be based if they’re unable to enter the United States. More than half of Kennedy School students are international. “We hope to see you on campus in the fall, but if that is not possible, we will bring HKS to you,” Jeremy M. Weinstein, the dean of the Kennedy School, wrote in an email to school affiliates. The plan was first reported by The Harvard Crimson. The dispute over international students at Harvard erupted on May 22, when the Department of Homeland Security said it was rescinding Harvard’s right to participate in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, through which Harvard hosts about 7,000 international students and recent graduates each year. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said the action was necessary because Harvard had failed to comply with requests for information on misconduct by the university’s international students — a charge Harvard denied.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [6/28/2025 2:58 AM, Staff, 49956K]

Los Angeles Times [6/27/2025 4:04 PM, Barry Friedman and Christy Lopez, 14672K] reports the images are jarring. Across the country, federal law enforcement officers in plain clothes and wearing ski masks and balaclavas are seizing and detaining protesters, students and even elected officials. These scenes evoke images of government thugs in violent regimes disappearing opponents. This is not how policing should look in a democratic society. Which is why everyone — regardless of political affiliation or stance on immigration enforcement — should support bills being introduced in Congress to address this growing problem. Three pieces of legislation — under consideration or expected soon — would prohibit masking by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, including one Thursday from Reps. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and one expected soon from Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). These are obvious, common-sense measures that shouldn’t need to be codified into law — but given the reality today, and what’s being done on streets across the country, they clearly do. In the United States, those tasked with enforcing the law are public servants, answerable to the people through their elected representatives. Wearing uniforms and insignia, and publicly identifying themselves, are what make clear an officer’s authority and enable public accountability. That is why U.S. policing agencies generally have policies requiring officers to wear a badge or other identifier that includes their name or another unique mark, like a badge number. That is why — not so long ago — one of us wrote a letter on behalf of the Justice Department to the police chief in Ferguson, Mo., to ensure that officers were readily identifiable during protests. This letter was sent by the federal government, in the middle of the federal civil rights investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, because ensuring this "basic component of transparency and accountability" was deemed too important to hold off raising until the end of the investigation. Exceptions have long been made for scenarios such as undercover work — but it has long been understood that, as a general rule, American law enforcement officers will identify themselves and show their faces. This foundational democratic norm is now at risk. In February, masked ICE officers in riot gear raided an apartment complex in Denver, one of the first times Americans saw agents hide their faces on the job. In March, the practice came to widespread attention when Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk was snatched by plainclothes ICE officers, one of them masked, while walking down a street in Somerville, Mass. Throughout the spring, bystanders captured videos of masked or plainclothes ICE enforcement actions from coast to coast, in small towns and big cities. ICE says it allows this so officers can protect themselves from being recognized and harassed or even assaulted. ICE’s arguments just won’t wash. Its claims about how many officers have been assaulted are subject to serious question. Even if they were not, though, masked law enforcement is simply unacceptable. At the most basic level, masked, anonymous officers present a safety concern for both the individuals being arrested and the agents. People are understandably far more likely to disregard instructions or even fight back when they think they’re being abducted by someone who is not a law enforcement officer. If the goal is to obtain compliance, masks are counterproductive. It’s far safer to encourage cooperation by appealing to one’s authority as a law enforcement officer — which almost always works. When people are seized by masked strangers who do not establish their lawful authority, who could blame them for fighting back?

NBC News [6/27/2025 5:53 PM, Jonathan Allen, 44540K] reports President Donald Trump is on the verge of getting billions of dollars from Congress to recruit and retain agents to carry out the mass deportation campaign that was one of the central promises of his campaign. Trump has been on a roll in his efforts to combat illegal immigration and remove undocumented immigrants from the country, and both advocates and critics of his plans say that bolstering border security and interior enforcement will make it easier for him to execute on his vision. And the Supreme Court ruled Friday in a way that allows him to continue his push to deny the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship to some people born in the U.S. — at least for now. But the heart of his campaign to deport millions of undocumented people has been beating more slowly than he would like. Administration officials say they can kick-start it if Congress delivers on a budget measure Trump nicknamed the "big beautiful bill," which would spend billions of dollars to boost the ranks of border agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Blaze [6/27/2025 3:25 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1805K] reports a foreign-based website referred to as the ICE List is exposing the names and photographs of dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers amid a 413% increase in assaults against agents since President Donald Trump began his second term. The website states that it is a "crowdsourced database of individuals involved in deportations, ICE operations, and associated abuses." It claims to obtain information about ICE agents from public sources, including social media profiles and news coverage, and that it does not publish private data, such as home addresses or personal contact details. In addition to exposing known ICE agents, it also lists unidentified officers whom the site has accused of "assault and kidnapping," presumably referring to the arrests of foreign nationals who are unlawfully in the United States. The database’s stated goal is "transparency and public accountability," and it claims it "does not support harassment, doxxing, or any illegal activity." DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Blaze News, "This is not an ‘independent media group.’ These are thugs." "We will prosecute those who doxx ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law. These criminals are taking the side of vicious cartels and human traffickers. We won’t allow it in America," McLaughlin added.

FOX News [6/27/2025 6:35 PM, Louis Casiano, 46878K] reports federal authorities have arrested more than 2,700 alleged members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), the notorious Venezuelan gang that has come to define the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and mass deportation program, since President Donald Trump took office, officials said Friday. Attorney General Pam Bondi noted the arrests during a White House press briefing when she was asked if an undocumented baby would be an immigration enforcement priority. Bondi responded by saying violent illegal immigrants are prioritized for deportation. "Let me put it in perspective: Today marked the 2,711th arrest in our country of TdA members," she said. "Everyone in this room agrees that they are one of the most violent criminal organizations in the world.” Bondi blamed the large numbers of criminal illegal immigrants in the country, as well as letting TdA gain a foothold in the U.S., on the Biden administration’s lax border policies.

Reported similarly:
Washington Times [6/27/2025 12:31 PM, Stephen Dinan, 2106K]

NBC News [6/27/2025 4:41 PM, David Noriega, 44540K] reports even before her son was summarily locked up in a Salvadoran prison and cut off from contact with the outside world, Mariela Villamizar was worried about his health. Wladimir Vera Villamizar, a 33-year-old welder from western Venezuela, had recovered from a tuberculosis infection that left severe scarring in his right lung, according to his family and medical records reviewed by NBC News. His health was in decline when he arrived in the United States as an asylum-seeker last year and got progressively worse during the months he spent in immigration detention, his mother said. In a statement to NBC News, Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, said that Vera "self-admitted to spending 7 years in prison on murder charges in Venezuela" and is a "member of Tren de Aragua, one of the most violent ruthless terrorist gangs on planet earth." Mariela Villamizar, Vera’s mother, acknowledged that Vera had served a 7-year prison sentence in Venezuela for homicide, but said this sentence was served over a false accusation and denied that her son was ever a member of Tren de Aragua. On the question of Vera’s medical condition, McLaughlin said: "This criminal illegal alien was in good health at the time of his deportation to El Salvador," and referred questions about his current medical care at CECOT to the U.S. State Department. The State Department referred the inquiry back to the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security would not comment on Vera’s case or confirm whether he is, in fact, at CECOT.

NewsMax [6/27/2025 7:38 PM, Jim Thomas, 4622K] reports the death of a Canadian citizen in U.S. immigration custody this week has intensified scrutiny of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, where migrant advocates allege systemic neglect and policy failures, The Hill reported. A Canadian national being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Miami was found unresponsive this week, becoming the 11th person to die in ICE custody since October and the eighth since January, according to officials. ICE said Thursday that Johnny Noviello, 49, died in a Florida detention center. His cause of his death is under investigation. Noviello had become a legal permanent resident of the United States in 1991 but was convicted of racketeering and drug trafficking in Florida in 2023. After serving a year in prison, he was arrested by ICE in May and slated for deportation for violating state law. Noviello’s death prompted Canadian officials to launch an inquiry. We are "urgently seeking" more information from U.S. officials, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said in a statement posted on X. She added that no further details would be released for now, out of respect for Noviello’s family. ICE called the death a "significant cause for concern." The agency said its personnel initiated CPR, used a defibrillator, and called 911 after finding Noviello unresponsive. Officials said that detainees receive comprehensive medical, dental, and mental health screenings within 12 hours of arrival, followed by a thorough health assessment within two weeks. "At no time during detention is a detained illegal alien denied emergent care," ICE said in a statement. Yet advocacy groups assert that such policies are not being followed in practice. A 2024 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, Physicians for Human Rights, and American Oversight found that 95% of deaths in ICE custody between 2017 and 2021 were preventable or possibly preventable. "ICE has failed to provide adequate — even basic — medical and mental health care," said Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. "Abuses in ICE detention should no longer go ignored.” The report examined 52 deaths and found that 88% were tied to inappropriate, delayed, or absent treatment. The findings echoed a 2023 review from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, which found that 1 in 5 deaths in 2021 at ICE and Customs and Border Protection sites were linked to delays or lapses in medical care.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [6/27/2025 4:19 PM, Jeff Arnold, 18649K]

New York Times [6/28/2025 5:02 AM, Miriam Jordan and Jazmine Ulloa, 138952K] reports that, far from public view, the toll of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is unfolding in overcrowded detention facilities across the country. Some immigrants have gone a week or more without showers. Others sleep pressed tightly together on bare floors. Medications for diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic health problems are often going unprovided. In New York and Los Angeles, people have been held for days in cramped rooms designed for brief processing, not prolonged confinement, and their lawyers and family members have remained in the dark about their whereabouts. The nation’s immigration detention system is buckling under the weight of record numbers as the Trump administration intensifies its enforcement agenda with raids on workplaces and arrests at immigration courts. More than 56,000 immigrants were in government custody on June 15, exceeding the current capacity of 41,000. “These are the worst conditions I have seen in my 20-year career,” said Paul Chavez, litigation and advocacy director at Americans for Immigrant Justice in Florida, which represents detainees. “Conditions were never great, but this is horrendous.” At least 10 immigrants have died in ICE custody in the six months since Jan. 1, including two at a facility in Miami, the Krome detention center, where detainees earlier this month formed a human “S.O.S.” sign in the yard. At least two of the deaths were suicides, in Arizona and Georgia. (An average of about seven deaths a year occurred in ICE custody during the four years of the Biden administration.) Immigration detentions have soared since late May, when Stephen Miller, the White House aide overseeing immigration policy, set a goal of 3,000 arrests per day. To accommodate the swelling numbers, the administration has expanded contracts with prison operators and pushed for a substantial funding increase to secure additional capacity. The House version of the budget reconciliation bill proposes $45 billion for immigration detention, more than 10 times the current budget. Many immigrants already have outstanding deportation orders, and others agree to voluntarily leave the country. In those cases, ICE officials are able to swiftly put them on planes or buses out of the country. But many others are entitled to court hearings, which take time, and ICE is either releasing those detainees on bond, which also requires a court hearing, or holding them in custody if they are deemed a flight risk. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, categorically denied all claims of overcrowding and poor conditions at its facilities. A spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement that all detainees “are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.” Ms. McLaughlin added that Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, had called on states and local government to help with beds and detention space, and she noted that multiple court rulings have led to delays in deporting immigrants. “Despite a historic number of injunctions, D.H.S. is working rapidly overtime to remove these aliens from detention centers to their final destination — home,” Ms. McLaughlin said.

USA Today [6/28/2025 6:02 AM, Lauren Villagran and Trevor Hughes, 75552K] reports masked agents. Terrified suspects. Emotions running high as screaming crowds press in, cell phone cameras in hand. Amid surging immigration enforcement across the country, federal agents are being hurt and hospitalized as they make increasingly public – and risky – arrests of people they believe are undocumented. White House officials say there’s been a 500% increase in assaults on agents, as President Donald Trump’s massive deportation campaign ramps up. Administration officials say bold tactics are needed to repel what they call an "invasion" of immigrants. But policing experts say the aggressive approach is provoking unnecessarily dangerous encounters. In a recent incident in Nebraska, a female ICE agent was thrown to the ground and choked by an accused Tren de Aragua gang member who said he was formerly a Venezuelan soldier, according to court documents. The suspect escaped and was later captured with the help of local police. Bystander videos have captured agents wrestling suspects to the ground on crowded streets and chasing them through farm fields. One widely circulated video showed an agent grabbing a U.S. citizen by the neck in a Walmart parking lot as he resisted being taken; federal prosecutors have charged the man with assault after he allegedly punched an agent. "Just this week, an ICE officer was dragged 50 yards by a car while arresting an illegal alien sex offender," Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary, told USA TODAY. "Every day the men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect and defend the lives of American citizens.” Trump, who has promised to deport 1 million immigrants this year, ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest mass deportation program in history.” In a June 15 social media post, he also said: "Every day, the brave men and women of ICE are subjected to violence, harassment and even threats from radical Democrat politicians, but nothing will stop us from executing our mission, and fulfilling our mandate to the American people.” Art Del Cueto, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the union’s 16,000 members welcome Trump’s tough new approach to immigration enforcement. Detainees are increasingly fighting back, he said, because they know there’s no escape: "That’s why you’re seeing attacks on agents.” ‘It’s not about public safety anymore’.

CNN [6/27/2025 6:00 AM, Alisha Ebrahimji, 21433K] reports Elzon Lemus is always on the road for work, traveling from one place to another. But ever since federal immigration officers pulled the electrician over as he was driving to his first job of the day earlier this month in Nassau County, New York, Lemus has been on high alert, limiting his travel around town out of fear, he said - despite being a US citizen. On June 3, Lemus says he was briefly detained during a traffic stop by federal agents because he resembled someone the agents were looking for, they told him and video from the encounter shows.Lemus’ arrest, and other reports of American citizens being detained by immigration officials, highlights growing concerns over racial profiling and constitutional rights - for both the documented and undocumented - as the Trump administration’s broad mass deportation crackdown takes aim at people of all ages from children and families to suspected criminals by detaining people outside courtroom hearings, during traffic stops and in workplace sweeps. Lemus declined to show identification several times. Lemus said he was handcuffed and searched for at least 25 minutes until officers found his identification before he was released. The electrician believes he was pulled over because he and his coworker look Hispanic, a community that has often been targeted by Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement to CNN, denied that Lemus was arrested or detained by ICE, and said he was not "even searched or ever placed in handcuffs." The video made available to CNN cuts off after Lemus exits the vehicle and does not show whether he was searched or handcuffed. "The facts are ICE conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an (sic) criminal illegal alien with a prior conviction of assault. An individual matching the criminal illegal alien’s description exited the surveilled location and got into a vehicle. For public safety, ICE law enforcement pulled over the vehicle and requested identification. Once it was confirmed that the criminal illegal alien was not in the car, Lemus and the driver of the vehicle were thanked for their cooperation and informed they were free to go," the DHS statement reads. In May, acting ICE director Todd Lyons released a statement saying, "obstructing federal law enforcement officers in the performance of their duties is a crime that jeopardizes public safety and national security."

FOX News [6/27/2025 5:37 PM, Louis Casiano, 46878K] reports the city council in Rhode Island’s capital is backing the distribution of "Know Your Rights" mailers to residents instructing them on how to deal with law enforcement amid the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. Households in Providence will receive a card in English and Spanish advising them of their constitutional rights if confronted by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It instructs residents not to open the door unless officers present a valid warrant signed by a judge. The lower portion of the card can be cut, kept in a wallet, and presented to immigration enforcement, a news release announcing the campaign states. The council worked with more than a dozen local immigrant rights and advocacy groups on the mailer. The city has spent $17,000 on the mailers, a spokesperson for the council told Fox News Digital.

USA Today [6/27/2025 10:16 AM, N’dea Yancey-Bragg, 75552K] reports Johnny Noviello, 49, was found unresponsive on June 23 at the Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center in Miami, according to ICE. Noviello is the eighth person to die in ICE custody in 2025. Canadian officials are "urgently seeking more information" after a Canadian citizen died while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a detention center in Florida. Johnny Noviello, 49, was found unresponsive on June 23 at the Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center in Miami, the agency said in a statement. Medical staff administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation, automated external defibrillator shock and called 911, ICE said, but Noviello was pronounced dead by the Miami Fire Rescue Department about half an hour after he was found. The cause of Noviello’s death is still under investigation, according to ICE. "Canadian consular officials are urgently seeking more information from US officials," Foreign Minister Anita Anand said on social media. "I offer my sincere condolences to the family. In order to respect the family’s privacy, further details will not be provided at this time.” Noviello, who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 1991, was convicted of charges including racketeering and drug trafficking in Volusia County, Florida, in 2023, ICE said. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison. On May 15, he was arrested by ICE at a probation office, issued a notice to appear and charged with "removability," because of the controlled substance-related conviction, according to ICE. Noviello’s death comes as the Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement, sparking massive protests across the country. Noviello is the 10th person to die in ICE custody during fiscal year 2025, which runs from October, according to the agency’s data. Those deaths include a Haitian woman who spent more than 10 weeks in immigration custody and was held in allegedly inhumane conditions.

Axios [6/27/2025 9:11 AM, April Rubin, 13599K] reports the Canadian government is demanding answers from the U.S. following the death of a Canadian citizen in immigration custody. The relationship between Canada and the U.S. has crumbled during President Trump’s second term as he’s sought to annex America’s neighbor and started a trade war with a vital economic partner. Johnny Noviello, 49, died on Monday while in custody in Miami pending removal proceedings, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said on Wednesday. He had been in the U.S. for nearly 40 years. "Today, the Government of Canada was notified of the death of a Canadian citizen while in custody in the United States," Anita Anand, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, said Thursday on X. "Canadian consular officials are urgently seeking more information from US officials. I offer my sincere condolences to the family." The cause of Noviello’s death was under investigation as of Friday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. He was found unresponsive. Medical staff administered CPR and automated external defibrillator shock. "Global Affairs Canada is aware of the death of a Canadian citizen in Florida," the office said in a Friday statement. "Consular officials are in contact with U.S. authorities to gather information. Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed."

Univision [6/27/2025 3:50 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports a 64-year-old Iranian woman, Madonna “Donna” Kashanian, was detained by ICE immigration agents while working in her garden in New Orleans. The arrest took place last Sunday morning, lasted less than a minute, and authorities offered no explanation, according to his family. Kashanian, who has lived in the United States for nearly five decades, was arrested by plainclothes officers and first taken to a jail in Mississippi, according to local media. She was subsequently taken to two ICE detention centers in Louisiana, first in Jena and then in Basile. Kashanian arrived in the United States in 1978, has no criminal record, and her family is now seeking legal support while she remains in ICE custody.

CBS News [6/27/2025 4:20 PM, Maeve Molina, 51860K] reports six massage parlors across Texas have been shut down after investigators uncovered alleged links to human trafficking, unlicensed activity, and sexual services, state officials announced. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) issued a six-month emergency closure for these parlors effective June 16. The TDLR’s investigation revealed that the six parlors are owned by the same person, Wanli Peng. Houston P&L Massages Therapy, PLLC, and Dallas Health Care Enterprise, LLC were also ordered to stop operations at the locations. Investigators said they discovered a range of violations, including evidence that employees were living at the locations, employees working without licenses, and sexual paraphernalia and role-playing costumes on site.

FOX News [6/27/2025 6:35 PM, Alexandra Koch, 46878K] reports multiple suspects allegedly involved in a violent South Portland, Oregon, riot near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office appeared in court Thursday for offenses that included assaulting federal officers and creating a hazard while on government property. Julie Winters, 46, of Portland, was charged with felony attempted assault of a federal officer. Aziel Chambers, 20, of Merlin, was charged with misdemeanor assault of a federal officer, creating a hazard on federal property and failing to obey a lawful order. Rachel Jean Pope, 28, of Portland, was charged with misdemeanor assault of a federal officer. According to court documents and information shared in court, several people gathered Tuesday near an ICE office in South Portland, where, for weeks, rioters have repeatedly targeted the building and federal law enforcement officers with threatening statements, discharging pepper spray and throwing rocks, trash and bricks. Officials said the incident started at about 11 p.m. Tuesday, when two people tried to set an American flag on fire in the driveway of the building. To clear the driveway, federal officers used "less-than-lethal" means, including gas canisters, to disperse the crowd, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon. Court documents allege Pope picked up one of the metal canisters and threw it toward the officers, hitting one. At about 11:15 p.m., federal officers saw Winters attempting to light an incendiary device next to the guard shack of the building, according to the release. As Federal Protective Service (FPS) officers engaged with Winters, she allegedly pulled a large knife from her backpack and began waving the blade toward the officers. Officials said Winters then threw the knife at an officer, but it did not hit anyone. She was tased while attempting to flee and was taken to the ground.

Breitbart [6/26/2025 5:18 PM, Neil Munro, 3077K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is displaying more of the criminal migrants that ICE is carefully extracting from the Democrats’ protective "Sanctuary Cities." "As bad-faith politicians attempt to demean and vilify our brave law enforcement, we will only double down and ramp up our enforcement actions against the worst of the worst criminals," said a statement from Tricia McLaughlin, the agency’s assistant secretary for public affairs. Many of the foreign criminals have been living in California for more than a decade with tacit and direct support from city and state governments. During those years, most have likely committed many additional crimes against Americans than the crimes listed by DHS on their rap sheets. Their departure will likely drop the crime rates, much to the benefit of Americans’ neighborhoods: Daniel Offaril, a citizen of Cuba. He violated an immigration judge’s 2004 removal order and remained in the United States for decades. He has been arrested for murder, burglary, armed robbery, battery, driving under the influence, and transporting/selling narcotics. He was also convicted of possessing crack cocaine with the intention to sell. Jesus Zamora-Lopez, a citizen of Mexico. He has been identified as a MS-13 gang member and was convicted for assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 3 years in prison. He was also convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and petty theft. He was ordered removed by an immigration judge in 1997 and has entered the U.S. illegally at least two times since. Pedro D. Barrios-Dominguez is a Guatemalan national who illegally reentered the United States after being ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2011.

FOX News [6/27/2025 9:01 PM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 46878K] reports that, as Los Angeles became a violent battleground against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan, Homeland Security said it was still pulling the worst criminal illegal migrants off the streets to keep law-abiding residents safe. Homeland Security has released criminal records and mugshots of more than 20 illegal migrants it apprehended recently. They have been accused of serious crimes, including murder, pedophilia, fentanyl trafficking, sexual assault and armed robbery, the agency said. The arrests were made when anti-ICE protesters were rioting in the city earlier this month. The wild and ugly scenes saw rioters attack law enforcement with rocks and Molotov cocktails while others burned vehicles and other property. Some of the agitators waved the flags of foreign nations as they carried out their crimes. Some of those arrested by immigration officials for deportation include Mexican national Cesar Zetina-Michua, who was convicted of attempted murder after entering the U.S. illegally, and Cuban national Daniel Ofarril, who was arrested for murder, armed robbery and drug trafficking, including a conviction of possessing crack cocaine with intent to sell. Alleged Salvadorian MS-13 gang member Oscar Juventino Ardon Landaverde, who is on the Terrorist Screening Dataset and reentered the U.S. multiple times, was also arrested, as were several drug traffickers who peddle cocaine and fentanyl. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin slammed those trying to stand in the way of immigration officials carrying out lawful immigration enforcement. "Under the Trump administration, 70% of illegal aliens arrested have been convicted or charged with a crime beyond illegally entering our country," McLaughlin said. "As bad-faith politicians attempt to demean and vilify our brave law enforcement, we will only double down and ramp up our enforcement actions against the worst of the worst criminals.”

FOX News [6/27/2025 3:19 PM, Louis Casiano, 46878K] reports a career criminal accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Los Angeles hotel where federal agents were staying last week during immigration enforcement operations has been charged. Eric Anthony Rodriguez, 39, is charged with the charged with the federal equivalent of having a bomb or explosive device, according to court documents. Rodriguez hurled the Molotov cocktail on June 21 at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport, where 15 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and 12 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents were staying, the Justice Department said. "This coward threw a Molotov cocktail at a hotel in Los Angeles where 27 DHS law enforcement officers were staying," said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. "Thankfully, the attack was unsuccessful, and no one was injured." The device fell into some bushes and was extinguished by a hotel employee. The Los Angeles Police Department was called to investigate the incident and quickly zeroed in on Rodriguez after obtaining surveillance footage from nearby businesses. He was arrested hours later after he was found asleep near a gas station one block away from the hotel, authorities said. McLaughlin blamed the incident, and others in which law enforcement personnel have been assaulted, on sanctuary city politicians who have blamed the Trump administration for targeting illegal immigrants, even those with criminal records, for deportation. The charges against Rodriguez mark the third case of a federal ‘bomb/ or explosive’ charge against a person for throwing a Molotov cocktail in relation to the Los Angeles riots that occurred earlier this month in opposition to immigration enforcement operations. Rodriguez has a lengthy criminal history, with previous convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, second-degree robbery, falsifying checks, theft and vandalism. He also had an outstanding felony warrant for violating parole.

FOX News [6/27/2025 10:41 AM, Cameron Arcand, 46878K] reports nearly 200 House Democrats voted against a resolution condemning the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles earlier this month. The resolution was led by Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., and the rest of the Golden State’s Republican congressional delegation. 215 members of the House of Representatives, which included seven House Democrats, voted in favor of the resolution. "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 stated when introducing the resolution. "I hope Governor Newsom can come together with President Trump to stop the riots, lower the temperature, and keep our communities safe," she added. "Let’s be clear: the riots escalated before the National Guard was sent in and were enabled by California’s soft-on-crime policies – peddled for years by Governor Newsom, Sacramento, and local prosecutors – that have allowed for lawlessness and endangered public safety of hardworking Californians," Kim continued. It was introduced on June 17, and it acknowledges that peaceful protests should be welcomed in the United States, but calls out the criminal elements that unfolded in the area earlier this month. "These protests quickly escalated into violent riots across Los Angeles, where acts of arson, widespread looting, property destruction, and vandalism were committed, blocking streets and highways, lighting streets on fire, throwing rocks at law enforcement vehicles, and assaulting Federal and local peace officers," the resolution states.

San Diego Union Tribune [6/27/2025 2:40 PM, Nathaniel Percy, 1611K] reports without warning — even to local police — masked federal agents have been captured on video descending on Southern California businesses, getting out of unmarked or lightly marked vehicles and, swiftly, detaining who they suspect are immigrants without legal status. The videos show officers, also wearing T-shirts, jeans and hats with the only indication at times of their law enforcement status an olive green vest with "Police" or "Border Patrol" written in small yellow letters on the back. On June 22, more than a dozen agents, mostly in plainclothes, arrived at the Bubble Bath Car Wash in Torrance, California, and quickly put two employees in handcuffs before shoving the owner and questioning a third employee, according to videos posted on social-media and news reports. Police agencies in Southern California say during these immigration raids even they aren’t always getting any warning. Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo said the lack of identifying logos and communication with local officers creates potential problems. "To have federal agents come into our city and not notify our Police Department, draw their weapon for taking a picture and do so without identifying themselves as law enforcement in unmarked vehicles and out of uniform creates a dangerous situation," he said. The mayor was reacting to this: On June 18, cellphone video shows an apparent immigration officer stepping out of an unmarked car and pointing a handgun at a person just for taking pictures. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, posted a video of the confrontation on YouTube. "This is potentially going to cause, and is causing, very dangerous situations for municipal police officers," Gordo said. "It’s unacceptable and must stop. We can’t put the public in danger like that.” ICE director Todd Lyons has defended his agents’ wearing of masks during raids citing safety concerns — primarily the uploading of names and photos online with death threats to agents and their families. "I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks," Lyons said during a press conference in Boston earlier this month, "but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their families on the line because people don’t like their immigration enforcements.” ICE, Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations agents have all carried out raids in Southern California in recent weeks. "When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by highly sophisticated gangs … criminal rings, murderers and rapists," said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary with the Department of Homeland Security. "Attacks and demonization of our brave law enforcement is contributing to our officers now facing a 500% increase in assaults.”

Telemundo [6/27/2025 11:43 PM, Shelby Bremer, 37K] reports plainclothes federal agents detained a woman in a San Diego hotel parking lot as she arrived for her shift Thursday morning in a videotaped immigration arrest that caused confusion and prompted a quick backlash. The arrest took place around 8:30 a.m. outside the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley. The video shows two plainclothes men, one wearing a neon yellow vest, holding a woman who is screaming and crying on the ground. Two other men can be seen standing nearby, sometimes between the woman and bystanders. A badge appears to hang from the neck of one of the men, but that is apparently the only sign that he is a member of law enforcement. A co-worker of one woman, who witnessed the arrest and asked not to be identified, said they initially thought the men were construction workers based on the way they were dressed. In a statement, Homeland Security Investigations said Customs and Border Protection agents and officers detained Brenda Valencia "for being present in the U.S. after entry without inspection." The statement said Immigration and Customs Enforcement served her with a notice to appear and released her with an ankle monitor "due to child care issues." Brigette Browning, president of the San Diego hotel workers union, said one of her members recorded the arrest and sent her the video. "He was screaming. She was sobbing. She was very worried about her 11-year-old son, who was going to be left home alone," Browning said. "It’s traumatic. It’s horrible to see someone who is not a criminal being treated worse than we treat dogs at the Humane Society." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

San Francisco Chronicle [6/27/2025 7:19 PM, Sarah Ravani and Jessica Flores, 4120K] reports on the edge of the parking lot of a Home Depot in Alameda County this past week, a woman sold a warm cup of atole, a traditional masa-based drink from Mexico, to a man and his son. She had just returned to her post after a week of hiding at home with her 12-year-old son after hearing rumors of an ICE raid nearby. "I would rather lose a day of work than risk something happening to me," said the woman, who declined to share her name due to fear of immigration authorities. However, she said she could not afford to stay home any longer. Across from her small stand were nearly a dozen men grappling with the same dilemma — day laborers who are hired for all manner of jobs by customers looking for skilled help at a low price, but who are now fearful that the public way they solicit work might make them targets of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort. Around the Bay Area, some immigrant advocates have reported that fewer day laborers are gathering at their usual spots outside home improvement stores, moving-truck rental shops and gas stations. But on this day in Alameda County, the men rushed toward vehicles that pulled up. They needed the work. "We are a little scared because we don’t come (to the U.S.) to rob, we come here to work, to give our children a better life," said a Guatemalan man who also asked not to be identified by name. This month, as part of a broader series of raids in Los Angeles, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more than 40 laborers in operations outside a Home Depot and at the workplace of a clothing manufacturer. Immigrant advocates worry that similar raids could occur in the Bay Area, though no actions have yet been reported. "We feel like it’s going to happen," said Luis Valentan, the west coast regional director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "The administration is creating a really, really hostile environment and we don’t see workers as we did before.” Trump administration officials have said undocumented workers take jobs that could go to Americans. But advocates say they mostly do jobs no one else wants — a sentiment echoed by Trump himself on social media. Moreover, some advocates say targeting day laborers would amount to racial profiling.

NBC News [6/27/2025 6:50 AM, Patrick Smith, 44540K] reports the family of a 32-year-old U.S. citizen said she was wrongfully detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers and falsely accused of "forcefully obstructing" officers during an immigration raid in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday morning. Andrea Velez appeared in federal court Thursday charged with assaulting a federal officer while he was attempting to arrest a suspect and was released on $5,000 bail. She did not enter a plea and is due back in court on July 17. Velez’s sister, Estrella Rosas, and their mother saw the incident unfold moments after dropping Velez off at 9th and Main Street, where she works as a marketing designer. Rosas said she saw officers throw Velez to the ground and then put her in an unmarked vehicle. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that Velez was arrested for "impeding an arrest after she forcefully obstructed an ICE officer by making physical contact with him.” Luis Hipolito was also arrested at the same time for allegedly assaulting an ICE officer, she said. McLaughlin said both he and Velez "kept ICE law enforcement from arresting the target illegal alien of their operation." "Secretary Noem has been clear: if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," McLaughin said. She added, without citing evidence nor a timeframe, that ICE officers face a 500% increase in assaults. A criminal complaint alleges that Velez "stepped into an officer’s path and and extended one of her arms in an apparent effort to prevent him from apprehending a male suspect he was chasing and that Velez’s outstretched arm struck that officer in the face." But Velez and her family dispute this and are considering launching a civil lawsuit against the federal officers.

Univision [6/27/2025 3:32 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports Andrea Vélez, a 32-year-old marketing designer and U.S. citizen born in South Los Angeles, was released on Thursday, June 26, after being violently arrested two days earlier in an immigration raid in the heart of the city. The young woman had just gotten out of her mother’s car, as they do every morning, at the intersection of 9th and Spring Streets, when a group of men got out of an unmarked SUV, surrounded her, pushed her to the ground, and handcuffed her, without showing their identity or a warrant, she said. According to attorney Luis Carrillo, who represents Vélez, the family called 911 as soon as they saw their daughter being taken down by hooded and armed strangers. “Andrea even ran to the LAPD building for help, but the officers didn’t protect her. On the contrary,” he alleged. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) issued a statement distancing itself from the operation, stating that it does not participate in immigration raids and that its priority at the time was crowd control. According to ICE, Andrea Vélez was arrested for "assaulting a federal agent" and interfering with the detention of another person. However, eyewitnesses and videos recorded by bystanders show the young woman being restrained without visible resistance and without any prior identification or warning. For more than 24 hours, her family was unaware of her whereabouts and unable to contact her. It was thanks to the dissemination of the video on social media and the intervention of community advocates that she was located and subsequently released on $5,000 bail. The family is considering legal action against ICE and LAPD for what they consider an arbitrary detention and a civil rights violation.

Los Angeles Times [6/27/2025 9:04 PM, Karen Garcia, 14672K] reports several communities in Los Angeles County have called off or postponed their previously scheduled Independence Day and July events, citing resident safety amid ongoing immigration enforcement raids. The El Sereno Bicentennial Committee was one of the first organizations to announce the cancellation of its 66th Independence Day Parade in a June 20 statement on Facebook. "We stand with our community. The safety of our participants, spectators and volunteers is always at the forefront," according to the post. The celebration is typically composed of numerous local organizations, schools and entertainment groups along with more than 1,2000 people marching in the parade, according to the committee. However, many groups withdrew their entries from this year’s parade, which ultimately led to the committee’s decision, according to the post. Ongoing raids throughout Los Angeles in Home Depot parking lots, popular food vendor locations and car washes have stoked fear in residents. "You can see the impact of these random raids everywhere in our city — families are scared to go eat at restaurants, kids are scared their parents aren’t going to return from the store — the fear is there because they’ve seen videos of people being shoved into unmarked vans by masked men refusing to identify themselves," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told The Times. Other previously scheduled events that have been postponed or canceled due to immigration enforcement activities include: Fourth of July festivities in Boyle Heights, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights and Northeast Los Angeles sponsored by Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office have been postponed, a decision made after the council member heard from neighborhood advocates and community leaders across her district. A new date for the event is not available at this time. The city of Cudahy has postponed its Independence Day Celebration that was set for Thursday, July 3. The city has yet to offer a new date for the event. The city of Bell Gardens announced on Instagram the cancellation of two movie events, scheduled for June 26 and July 10, that are part of the 2025 Summer Nights series and takes place in Bell Gardens Veterans Park.

San Francisco Chronicle [6/27/2025 7:00 AM, Christian Leonard, 4120K] reports
A Chronicle analysis of ICE arrest data, released last week by the UC-affiliated Deportation Data Project, appears to contradict a persistent claim by the Trump administration that its efforts to deport undocumented immigrants targets "the worst of the worst." ICE arrested about 1,730 people in the San Francisco "area of responsibility" in just over five months from the start of 2025 to June 10, a 70% increase from the final six months of the Biden administration. The area covers a wide swath of California — Kern County and the counties north of it — as well as Hawaii, Guam and Saipan. The Chronicle’s analysis excluded arrests that occurred outside of California. While the number of arrests of convicted criminals did grow, the number of arrests of people suspected only of immigration-related violations — or those whose charges were still pending — grew much faster. In December, about 10% of the people ICE arrested had no criminal convictions. That share jumped to nearly 30% in January, and then about 40% in May. Data from the first 10 days of June showed that more than half of the people arrested didn’t have a criminal conviction. Those convictions ranged broadly, from homicide and sexual assault to marijuana possession and reckless driving. Being in the U.S. without legal documentation is a civil offense rather than a crime, despite Trump administration officials labeling unauthorized migrants as "criminals." Many people arrested by ICE were in the process of seeking asylum or other relief.

Reuters [6/28/2025 6:10 AM, Ted Hesson, 51390K] reports the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling tied to birthright citizenship prompted confusion and phone calls to lawyers as people who could be affected tried to process a convoluted legal decision with major humanitarian implications. The court’s conservative majority on Friday granted President Donald Trump his request to curb federal judges’ power but did not decide the legality of his bid to restrict birthright citizenship. That outcome has raised more questions than answers about a right long understood to be guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution: that anyone born in the United States is considered a citizen at birth, regardless of their parents’ citizenship or legal status. Lorena, a 24-year-old Colombian asylum seeker who lives in Houston and is due to give birth in September, pored over media reports on Friday morning. She was looking for details about how her baby might be affected, but said she was left confused and worried. "There are not many specifics," said Lorena, who like others interviewed by Reuters asked to be identified by her first name out of fear for her safety. "I don’t understand it well.” She is concerned that her baby could end up with no nationality. "I don’t know if I can give her mine," she said. "I also don’t know how it would work, if I can add her to my asylum case. I don’t want her to be adrift with no nationality.” Trump, a Republican, issued an order after taking office in January that directed U.S. agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the U.S. who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident. The order was blocked by three separate U.S. district court judges, sending the case on a path to the Supreme Court. The resulting decision said Trump’s policy could go into effect in 30 days but appeared to leave open the possibility of further proceedings in the lower courts that could keep the policy blocked. On Friday afternoon, plaintiffs filed an amended lawsuit in federal court in Maryland seeking to establish a nationwide class of people whose children could be denied citizenship. If they are not blocked nationwide, the restrictions could be applied in the 28 states that did not contest them in court, creating "an extremely confusing patchwork" across the country, according to Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst for the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute. "Would individual doctors, individual hospitals be having to try to figure out how to determine the citizenship of babies and their parents?" she said. The drive to restrict birthright citizenship is part of Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, and he has framed automatic citizenship as a magnet for people to come to give birth. "Hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into our country under birthright citizenship, and it wasn’t meant for that reason," he said during a White House press briefing on Friday. Immigration advocates and lawyers in some Republican-led states said they received calls from a wide range of pregnant immigrants and their partners following the ruling. They were grappling with how to explain it to clients who could be dramatically affected, given all the unknowns of how future litigation would play out or how the executive order would be implemented state by state. Lynn Tramonte, director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance said she got a call on Friday from an East Asian temporary visa holder with a pregnant wife. He was anxious because Ohio is not one of the plaintiff states and wanted to know how he could protect his child’s rights. "He kept stressing that he was very interested in the rights included in the Constitution," she said.

New York Times [6/27/2025 4:01 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 138952K] reports President Trump on Friday said his administration would move ahead with plans to end birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court limited the ability of judges to pause the president’s executive orders. But even as he celebrated the ruling in a news conference, Mr. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi struggled to provide basic details about how they would carry out a policy that would reshape American citizenship. The court did not address the merits of Mr. Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, which is expected to come back to the court, perhaps as soon as this fall. But the practical effect of Friday’s 6-3 decision is that, in 30 days, birthright citizenship would end in the 28 states that have not challenged Mr. Trump’s order. Ms. Bondi dodged questions over who would be responsible for vetting citizenship under Mr. Trump’s policy and whether medical professionals would be tasked with verifying the citizenship of new parents. “This is all pending litigation,” Ms. Bondi said, predicting it will be decided in the court’s next term. Asked if babies of undocumented parents would be a deportation priority, Ms. Bondi said “the violent criminals in our country are the priority” before pivoting to the Justice Department’s efforts to arrest gang members. Rather than provide details on how the policy would work, Mr. Trump and Ms. Bondi used the decision to take a victory lap and promote their immigration agenda. “We’re very confident in the Supreme Court,” Ms. Bondi said when asked if the administration was concerned the court could find Mr. Trump’s birthright citizenship order unconstitutional. “We’re thrilled with their decision today.” Mr. Trump, meanwhile, made the unsubstantiated claim that the “worst people, some of the cartels” used birthright citizenship “to get people into our country.” “This had to do with the babies of slaves very obviously,” Mr. Trump said, adding that he thought the Supreme Court would rule that his policy was constitutional. “I came along and we looked and said, ‘this is wrong. We’ve been looking at birthright citizenship wrong for years.’”

USA Today [6/27/2025 10:29 AM, Sara Chernikoff, 75552K] reports today’s Supreme Court decision did not weigh in on whether the Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship is constitutional, but the government’s request to lift temporary blocks by district courts in related cases was granted in a 6-3 ruling. For 157 years birthright citizenship has made anyone born in the United States a citizen – whether the child of citizens, foreign nationals living legally in the U.S. or unauthorized immigrants. The matter will return to lower courts, for now. During May 15 oral arguments, none of the justices voiced support for the Trump administration’s theory that the president’s order is consistent with the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause and past Supreme Court decisions about that provision. Changes to birthright laws would impact a large portion of the U.S. population. According to 2023 data from the U.S. Census, 22.8 million foreign-born, non-U.S. citizens live in the country. According to estimates from the Migration Policy Institute and Penn State’s Population Research Institute, ending birthright citizenship would result in an average of 255,000 children being born in the U.S. without citizenship each year, and would increase the amount of unauthorized migrants living in the U.S. by 2.7 million by 2045, and 5.4 million by 2075. Foreign-born residents are anyone who was born outside of the U.S., including naturalized U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, temporary migrants, such as international students, humanitarian migrants such as refugees or asylees and unauthorized migrants. In almost every state, the foreign-born population was larger in 2022 compared to 2010. Delaware,North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia experienced the largest increases of foreign-born populations between 2010 and 2022, with a bump of 40% or more in each state. The foreign-born population in the U.S. has increased over the past five decades. In 1970, 4.7% of the U.S. population was born outside the U.S. By 2022, 13.9% of the U.S. population was foreign-born. More than half of foreign-born residents in the United States immigrated from countries in Latin America, according to the Census Bureau. Close to a third of residents immigrated from Asia.

USA Today [6/27/2025 3:02 PM, Trevor Hughes and Josh Meyer, 75552K] reports the Supreme Court’s reticence to stop President Donald Trump from revoking automatic birthright citizenship to anyone born in the United States has set off shockwaves among migrant communities. The court’s June 27 ruling does not change the status of anyone subject to birthright citizenship, and gives lower courts 30 days to further consider the issue. Advocates immediately filed a class-action lawsuit to block Trump’s plan, which would end automatic citizenship for babies born in the United States unless their parents were also citizens or legal, permanent residents. The measure is not retroactive, meaning it would only apply to babies born after it takes effect, if allowed by the courts. Among those suing to stop Trump’s plan is "Liza," a Texas-based Russian-born graduate student who gave birth after the president issued his executive order. Liza, who has been granted anonymity by the federal courts in recognition of her immigration status, said she fears going to the Russian embassy to register their child’s birth because her husband has applied for asylum in the United States after fleeing their homeland. Liza’s baby is currently protected from losing U.S. citizenship due to a preliminary injunction issued by a lower court, which will now consider the merit’s of Trump’s plan. Liza said she was "sick with worry" that the courts would rule before her baby was born. "Thankfully our baby was born health and happy … we remain worried even now that one day the government would one day take away our baby’s citizenship," she said during a press conference following the June 27 Supreme Court ruling. "I’m sad about what today’s decision means for all the parents whose children are not protected by the current preliminary injunction and who are now even more scared about their children’s future," she said ruling on birthright citizenship changes nothing immediately. In Denver, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition was hurriedly trying to reassure pregnant women that the court’s decision in the Trump v. CASA Inc. case changes nothing immediately. "It is really scary for people who are having children right now … that someone would want to take away this fundamental right," said spokeswoman Raquel Lane-Arellano. "I don’t see a reality where birthright citizenship gets revoked, (but) for people watching the news, that might not be clear.”

The Hill [6/27/2025 4:57 PM, Alexander Bolton, 18649K] reports that the Senate parliamentarian on Friday ruled that a Republican attempt to charge migrants a $1,000 fee when applying for asylum violates the Senate’s Byrd Rule and cannot be included in the GOP megabill to enact President Trump’s legislative agenda. The mandatory $1,000 fee for asylum applications is one of several immigration-related fees the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, rejected in her review of the massive budget reconciliation package set for a vote Saturday. She ruled against a section of the bill to impose a $100 fee on migrants who request a continuance in immigration court and a provision to require the Department of Homeland Security to impose a $250 fee for applying to the diversity visa lottery and a $400 fee to process diversity visa applications. MacDonough advised against language to require a $5,000 bond to sponsor an unaccompanied child who fails to appear in immigration court, a bond that would be returned if the child does not receive an in absentia removal order. She also rejected language expanding expedited removal procedures for migrants who are arrested of crimes — removal procedures that were beefed up earlier this year when Congress signed and Trump signed the Laken Riley Act. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, applauded the parliamentarian’s rulings. "We have been successful in removing parts of this bill that hurt families and workers, but the process is not over, and Democrats are continuing to make the case against every provision in this Big, Beautiful Betrayal of a bill that violates the Senate rules," he said in a statement.

Los Angeles Times [6/27/2025 11:20 PM, Trân Nguyễn, 14672K] reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Friday a budget that pares back a number of progressive priorities, including a landmark healthcare expansion for low-income adult immigrants without legal status, to close a $12-billion deficit. It’s the third year in a row the nation’s most populous state has been forced to slash funding or stop some of the programs championed by Democratic leaders. Lawmakers passed the budget earlier in the day following an agreement of a $321-billion spending plan between Newsom and Democratic leaders. But the whole budget will be void if lawmakers don’t send him legislation to make it easier to build housing by Monday. The budget avoids some of the most devastating cuts to essential safety net programs, state leaders said. They mostly relied on using state savings, borrowing from special funds and delaying payments to plug the budget hole. "It’s balanced, it maintains substantial reserves, and it’s focused on supporting Californians," Newsom said in a statement about the budget. California also faces potential federal cuts to healthcare programs and broad economic uncertainty that could force even deeper cuts. Newsom in May estimated that federal policies — including on tariffs and immigration enforcement — could reduce state tax revenue by $16 billion. "We’ve had to make some tough decisions," Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire said Friday. "I know we’re not going to please everyone, but we’re doing this without any new taxes on everyday Californians.” Republican lawmakers said they were left out of budget negotiations. They also criticized Democrats for not doing enough to address future deficits, which could range between $17 billion to $24 billion annually. "We’re increasing borrowing, we’re taking away from the rainy day fund, and we’re not reducing our spending," said Republican state Sen. Tony Strickland prior to the vote. "And this budget also does nothing about affordability in California.”

Washington Post [6/27/2025 9:43 AM, Silvia Foster-Frau, 32099K] reports that the travel ban also would apply to the more than 12,000 refugees who had flights booked for U.S. travel after Feb. 3 and who a federal judge said must be allowed in on a case-by-case basis, under the appointment of a special master. It is unclear how many of those refugees are affected by the travel ban. Thus far, only one group has been allowed to enter the United States as refugees under Trump: Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch settlers. The president claims they are facing racial discrimination and "genocide," an allegation that lacks any evidence. A document reviewed by The Post states the administration plans to have resettled 1,000 White South Africans in the U.S. before the end of September. That would mark a significant increase; to date, fewer than 100 Afrikaners have arrived since Trump’s executive order admitting Afrikaners as refugees in early February. Refugee resettlement advocates questioned why the government is putting up roadblocks for a group of refugees that had been vetted and ordered by a judge to be admitted into the U.S. while clearing the way for others. "When the administration wants to resume and expedite refugee processing, it creates a way to do that," said Melissa Keaney, a senior attorney for the International Refugee Assistance Project who is representing the group in the court case. "It simply doesn’t want to process other refugee populations other than the White Afrikaner population."

NBC News [6/27/2025 10:20 AM, Kimmy Yam, 44540K] reports that Iranian university students who planned to study in the United States said that their academic careers have been derailed by the Trump administration’s visa ban on people from their country. Mohamad Enayati, a 28-year-old civil engineering student, said he had spent years attempting to obtain a visa to study in the U.S., stressing out his family with every rejection and losing touch with friends along the way. Navigating an already lengthy visa process for Iranian students had been difficult enough, he said, only for his future to be thrown into limbo by the ban and then the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites over the weekend. "My parents are really hurt to see me after what I’ve been through," Enayati said. "My only plan was to study and get a Ph.D. in the United States. If that doesn’t happen after all I’ve struggled, after all I’ve been through — I really can’t imagine." The students said, however, that by blocking their education in the U.S., the Trump administration unfairly paints Iranians with a broad brush, conflating them with the regime they happen to live under. "We cannot be punished because of the place that we came from, the place that we were born," said Hadis Abbasian, an Iranian cancer researcher who has been waiting for her visa for months. "It wasn’t our choice."

FOX News [6/27/2025 10:28 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports that U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss the drop in gotaways under the Trump administration. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Pittsburgh [6/27/2025 7:47 PM, Madeline Bartos, 51860K] reports the U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized than two dozen counterfeit Rolex watches and designer brand sunglasses in Pittsburgh. If the 13 watches and 12 sunglasses had been real, the CBP said they would have been valued at about $573,000. Officers inspected the shipment on April 27 after it arrived from the United Arab Emirates. The CBP said the shipment was destined for a Pittsburgh address and manifested as handbags. Instead, the container had Rolex watches and sunglasses with brand names like Burberry, Chanel and Gucci. Suspecting the goods were knockoffs, the CBP said officers detained them for further review. Trade experts took a look at the products, working with the trademark holders to verify that they were fake. The CBP says the international trade in counterfeit consumer goods is illegal. It takes away money from the trademark holders and steals tax revenue from the government. The CBP also funds transnational criminal organizations, and the unregulated products can threaten the health and safety of American consumers.

The Washington Post [6/27/2025 5:16 PM, Hannah Sampson, 32099K] reports Freddie the Customs and Border Protection beagle spent Tuesday morning doing his typical work: patrolling the international baggage claim area at Washington Dulles International Airport for undeclared agricultural products. Then the morning took an unusual turn. After the dog alerted his handler that a piece of luggage from Cairo was suspicious, the duo approached the suitcase’s owner, a 70-year-old man from Egypt. "He violently kicked Freddie with sufficient force to lift the 25-pound beagle off the ground," a CBP news release says. A veterinarian said the dog suffered contusions to his right rib area and ordered "rest and a mild dose of pain meds," agency spokesman Stephen Sapp said in an email. Customs officers arrested Hamed Ramadan Bayoumy Aly Marie and took him to a local jail. He was charged with willfully and maliciously harming a police animal. Further investigation revealed what Freddie had detected: 55 pounds of beef, 44 pounds of rice, 15 pounds of vegetables, corn seeds and herbs — items that were not allowed into the country and seized, according to the news release. In a quick resolution, Marie pleaded guilty in federal court during his initial appearance Wednesday. He was ordered to pay restitution for Freddie’s vet fee — $840 — and had to report to CPB to be removed from the U.S. He flew to Egypt on Thursday. FOX News [6/27/2025 7:19 PM, Jasmine Baehr, 46878K] reports that the working dog, Freddy, suffered bruising but is expected to make a full recovery. "Thanks to everyone for their concern about Freddy who was injured while performing his duties at Dulles airport," CBP said in a statement posted on X Friday. "He was treated by his veterinarian, and is expected to make a full recovery. Here he is enjoying his favorite comfort treat – a Pup Cup!". The man accused of kicking Freddy, 70-year-old Egyptian national Hamed Ramadan Bayoumy Aly Marie, pleaded guilty this week in federal court to harming a law enforcement animal. He was ordered removed from the U.S. and departed Thursday afternoon on a flight to Egypt, according to CBP. "Kick around and find out," CBP wrote in a repost of Fox News’ Bill Melugin’s post about the incident. The incident occurred Tuesday after Marie arrived at Dulles from Cairo. Freddy, a 5-year-old beagle assigned to CBP’s agriculture detection team, alerted officers to one of Marie’s suitcases. As a CBP officer began questioning him, Marie "violently kicked Freddie with sufficient force to lift the 25-pound beagle off the ground," the agency said. Officers immediately restrained Marie and turned him over to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents. A veterinarian later determined Freddie sustained contusions to his right rib area. Marie pleaded guilty Wednesday during an appearance in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to violating a law that prohibits harming animals used in law enforcement. He was credited with time served, ordered to pay the veterinary bill and directed to report to CBP for removal. CBP officials said the dog was simply doing his job. "Being caught deliberately smuggling well over one hundred pounds of undeclared and prohibited agriculture products does not give one permission to violently assault a defenseless Customs and Border Protection beagle," said Christine Waugh, CBP’s area port director for the Area Port of Washington, D.C.

Reported similarly:
Daily Wire [6/27/2025 1:23 PM, Catherine Maxwell, 3816K]

CBS Los Angeles [6/27/2025 8:35 PM, Julie Sharp, 51860K] Video: HERE reports Huntington Park police arrested a man this week who they say was posing as a federal immigration agent. At a Friday news conference, the Huntington Park police chief and mayor discussed the arrest of 24-year-old Fernando Diaz, who they say was impersonating a federal agent, using it as an example of what they say is a broader issue. Diaz was arrested on June 24 after officers spotted a gray Dodge Durango parked in a handicap spot with no visible handicap placard and without a front license plate. Police Chief Cosme Lozano said officers thought the truck might be an unmarked law enforcement vehicle after spotting several police-like radios and a firearm magazine inside the SUV. Vehicle registration information showed that it was registered to a person in Los Angeles, not law enforcement. "The officers then initiated procedures to impound the vehicle for violations of the California vehicle code, and as they were doing so, a male individual approached, claiming to be the owner of the vehicle," Lozano said. Diaz claimed the items in the truck belonged to a friend, investigators said. Diaz also told officers that he works as a security guard and stated that he had previously worked for Customs and Border Protection; however, police say he was unable to produce any valid credentials to substantiate this claim. A further search of the vehicle revealed a loaded 9mm semi-automatic firearm, two holsters, additional ammunition for the gun, three cell phones, a sheet containing U.S. Customs and Border Protection radio codes, multiple copies of passports, red and blue lights hidden under the vehicles visors … "and other miscellaneous items indicative of possible criminal activity," Lozano said.

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [6/27/2025 5:28 PM, Ruben Vives, 14672K

CBS Los Angeles [6/28/2025 12:46 AM, Matthew Rodriguez and Tom Wait, 51860K] reports federal agents arrested two people at a San Fernando Valley home described as a human smuggling hub tied to national security threats, according to Customs and Border Protection. "The location has been repeatedly used to harbor illegal entrants linked to terrorism," CBP wrote in a post to X. The arrests happened on Friday afternoon while CBP’s Special Response Team served a search warrant at the house located on Napa Street in North Hills. Federal agents arrested seven Iranian nationals at the same address earlier this week, some of whom were on the FBI Terror Watchlist and "associates of an Iranian human trafficking network," according to CBP. "CBP is taking aggressive action to shut down smuggling networks and remove national security threats before they can do harm," CBP wrote in a post to X. Residents in the North Hills neighborhood said someone new had moved into the home about six months ago. "There was a bunch of young people and they would hang out at night, pacing on the phone, sitting on the curb," neighbor Claudio Bonoli said. "Talking to my neighbors, they say they were kind of intimidated by them.” The idea that people on a terror watchlist were living on their street rattled Bonoli and some of his neighbors. "It’s only two houses from my house," he said. "This has been a really great, quiet neighborhood for a long time. So, it’s totally surprising." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Los Angeles Times [6/27/2025 2:51 PM, Gabriel San Román, 14672K] reports the Newport Beach City Council approved a $170,000 grant allowing for its police department to participate in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Stonegarden. Council members voted unanimously in favor of the grant without deliberation during Tuesday’s council meeting. According to a city staff report, Operation Stonegarden’s "main objective is to raise the level of U.S. border and California coastline security amongst law enforcement agencies" while increasing law enforcement’s overall presence against maritime drug and human smuggling crimes. The Newport Beach Police Department, as part of the grant approval, will collaborate and coordinate with federal U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Border Patrol agencies as the agreement describes California’s coastline as a "border-crime target.” Toward that end, Newport Beach police will use $70,000 from the grant to buy two mobile cameras and two handheld thermal imaging devices to monitor "hot-spot" areas, such as parking lots and trailheads, while enhancing nighttime surveillance capabilities. The remaining $100,000 will go toward covering overtime expenses. Operation Stonegarden has raised some concerns as ramped up federal immigration raids have surfaced in Orange County and across Southern California. "In view of the current conflict between state and federal agencies over immigration policy, the public may want additional assurances that the equipment and overtime will not be used to assist in the apprehension of law-abiding persons with long residence in our country," Jim Mosher, a Newport Beach resident, wrote to the City Council. But even before President Donald Trump’s federal immigration crackdown, pro-immigrant activists have kept a close eye on the program. Mai Nguyen Do, research and policy manager for the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice in Orange County, pointed to a number of law enforcement agencies and local governments in Arizona that have withdrawn from Operation Stonegarden in recent years for a variety of reasons, including misaligned missions. "The justification for continuing to participate in Operation Stonegarden among many Southern California law enforcement agencies, is that it’s technically not immigration enforcement," Do said. "But one of the main outcomes that’s tracked for the program is arrests numbers, including immigration-related arrests.” "One of the key elements that erodes trust between local law enforcement and communities, is not the nature of the cooperation, it’s the cooperation itself," Do added.

New York Times [6/27/2025 2:39 AM, Rebecca Dzombak, 138952K] reports that the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration has said that in the next few days it will stop providing data from satellites that have been helping hurricane forecasters do their jobs for decades, citing “recent service changes” as the cause. The satellites are jointly operated by NOAA and the Department of Defense as part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. They are old, dating to the early 2000s, but they have reliably helped improve hurricane forecasting for decades. The data will be halted by Monday, June 30, the agency said, without giving further explanation. “This is an incredibly big hit for hurricane forecasts, and for the tens of millions of Americans who live in hurricane-prone areas,” said Michael Lowry, a hurricane specialist in South Florida who has worked at the National Hurricane Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The satellites orbit the poles and use microwave radiation to peer inside a hurricane to reveal changes in a storm’s structure. This information is critical for accurately predicting the path of storms and detecting hurricane intensification, particularly at night. The satellites are not being decommissioned, but their data will no longer be received, processed or stored. Satellites can’t last forever and are eventually retired, but it is not clear that is the case here, said Andy Hazelton, a hurricane modeling expert at the University of Miami. “We don’t want to have less data for no reason,” he said. There’s not an obvious replacement for the data that will no longer be available although Kim Doster, NOAA communications director, in a statement pointed to a microwave instrument on another NOAA satellite that will still provide readings.

New York Times [6/28/2025 3:21 AM, Rebecca Dzombak, 330K] reports the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration has said that in the next few days it will stop providing data from satellites that have been helping hurricane forecasters do their jobs for decades, citing “recent service changes” as the cause. The satellites are jointly operated by NOAA and the Department of Defense as part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. They are old, dating to the early 2000s, but they have reliably helped improve hurricane forecasting for decades. The data will be halted by Monday, June 30, the agency said, without giving further explanation. “This is an incredibly big hit for hurricane forecasts, and for the tens of millions of Americans who live in hurricane-prone areas,” said Michael Lowry, a hurricane specialist in South Florida who has worked at the National Hurricane Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The satellites orbit the poles and use microwave radiation to peer inside a hurricane to reveal changes in a storm’s structure. This information is critical for accurately predicting the path of storms and detecting hurricane intensification, particularly at night. The satellites are not being decommissioned, but their data will no longer be received, processed or stored. Satellites can’t last forever and are eventually retired, but it is not clear that is the case here, said Andy Hazelton, a hurricane modeling expert at the University of Miami. “We don’t want to have less data for no reason,” he said. Forecasters rely on various satellite-based tools to monitor tropical cyclones and hurricanes and predict their behavior. Observations of cloud tops and precipitation bands help forecasters see how a storm is moving and spreading. Come nightfall, microwave observation satellites work like forecasters’ night-vision goggles. Nighttime observations of storm structure are particularly important because hurricanes tend to intensify, or see increases in wind speed and category, overnight as warm waters leach energy into the atmosphere. “The nightmare scenario is going to bed with a tropical storm and waking up to a hurricane,” Mr. Lowry said. The canceled satellite data streams help avoid that unwelcome “sunrise surprise.” Microwave observations also let forecasters pinpoint the center of a hurricane, which is essential for accurately predicting a storm’s direction. Being off even by a few miles can have “huge ramifications” for that, Mr. Lowry said. A handful of other satellites with microwave observation capabilities will still have their data available to forecasters or researchers who have used that information. But the satellites provide only thin bands of coverage. There’s no guarantee the remaining ones will be able to provide data for a storm. There’s not an obvious replacement for the data that will no longer be available although Kim Doster, NOAA communications director, in a statement pointed to a microwave instrument on another NOAA satellite that will still provide readings. However, experts are still concerned about the data loss. “We already don’t get as much microwave data as we’d like to see operationally,” Dr. Hazelton said. “We’re going to lose about half the microwave images,” said James Franklin, a retired meteorologist who was the previous head of the hurricane team at the National Hurricane Center. With fewer satellite passes over a given part of the ocean, “forecasters will see hourslong delays in the National Hurricane Center recognizing that a storm has begun to strengthen abruptly.”

Los Angeles Times [6/27/2025 5:06 PM, Rebecca Ellis, 14672K] reports Southern California fire chiefs cautioned Friday that a season of devastating wildfires is all but guaranteed, amid parched conditions following a dry winter. The warning, delivered at the L.A. County Fire Department’s headquarters in East Los Angeles, is a stark reminder of how endless fire season can feel these days. "We can never let our guard down," said L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone, who helped lead the region through the January wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes, killed 30 people and cost billions of dollars. He called another season of destructive fires "inevitable.” Ronnie Villanueva, the Los Angeles Fire Department’s interim chief, said his firefighters are yet again on high alert for brush fires after months of light rainfall left heaps of dried vegetation ready to serve as kindling. He encouraged residents to make their homes as fire-resistant as possible, getting out the weed trimmers, clearing roofs of leaves and digging under decks for dead vegetation. "We simply cannot have a fire engine in every driveway," he warned.

Reuters [6/27/2025 4:04 PM, Trevor Hunnicutt, 51390K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday reflected on threats to his life as he celebrated a court ruling that handed his administration sweeping power to pursue his policy agenda. Asked by a reporter about such threats, the Republican suggested that he is occasionally reminded of when he was grazed in the ear by a bullet at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on July 13, 2024. On Friday, the businessman-turned-politician described the presidency as riskier than some of the most perilous professions. There have been several threats on Trump’s life. Law enforcement officials said Trump also survived a September 15, 2024, assassination attempt while he was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida. The suspect in that incident faces five federal charges and has pleaded not guilty. The July shooting suspect was shot to death by Secret Service agents. One person at the Pennsylvania rally was killed; two others were wounded. The United States has also separately said Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at one point attempted to assassinate Trump. Iran, whose nuclear facilities were bombed by U.S. forces last weekend, has denied the allegation.

DVIDS [6/27/2025 3:46 PM, Staff, 988K] reports U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) departed Kagoshima June 20, following in-port and at-sea engagements with Japan Coast Guard (JCG), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), and Japan government officials. This event marks a significant milestone as the first time the trilateral search and rescue exercise with the Philippine Coast Guard, occurred in a region outside the Philippine territorial seas, emphasizing the growing cooperation among the three nations. While in-port, Stratton leadership met with the Japan Coast Guard commander of the 10th Regional Headquarters, chief of Kagoshima Coast Guard Office, mayor of Kagoshima City, and governor of Kagoshima Prefecture. Stratton crewmembers attended facility tours of Nanatsujima Japan Coast Guard Base, hosted reciprocal cutter tours for PCG and JCG members, and participated in dinner receptions hosted by the participating countries. Following the in-port engagements, Stratton, JCG vessel Asanagi, and PCG vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua conducted a trilateral search-and-rescue exercise (SAREX) in Kagoshima Bay. The SAREX focused on maximizing the capabilities of each vessel to enhance interoperability, strengthen the relationships among the three Coast Guards, and promote joint operational readiness. During the exercise, crewmembers participated in crew exchanges to observe operations aboard other cutters. The SAREX consisted of a simulated man overboard, employing Stratton’s ScanEagle unmanned aerial system for search and detection. Additionally, a JCG helicopter deployed a rescue swimmer to recover a live person in the water as part of the exercise. "This joint operation reinforces the close partnership between the United States, Japan, and Philippines," said Stratton Commanding Officer Capt. Brian Krautler. "By operating together, we strengthen our collective forces, ensuring readiness against threats to maritime safety and security. We are honored to have participated in these joint operations to promote the safety and security of the Indo-Pacific region.” The exercise culminated in a joint firefighting exercise, where all vessels worked together to extinguish a simulated fire on a JCG patrol vessel. The conclusion of the successful SAREX demonstrated the ability of the three Coast Guards to collectively respond and effectively operate together in complex maritime emergencies.

FOX News [6/27/2025 4:42 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 46878K] reports a joyous family celebration turned into a harrowing tragedy over the weekend when a boat capsized during a sudden storm on Lake Tahoe, leaving eight people dead and two others hospitalized. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the group had gathered for a 71st birthday celebration for Paula Bozinovich. The department identified the deceased as Bozinovich, 71, and her husband, Terry Pickles, 73, both of Redwood City, California; their son, Joshua Antony Pickles, 37, a San Francisco resident and DoorDash executive; and Peter Bayes, 72, of Lincoln, California, a close family relative. Also killed were four family friends: Timothy O’Leary, 71, of Auburn, California; Theresa Giullari, 66, and James Guck, 69, both of Honeoye, New York; and Stephen Lindsay, 63, of Springwater, New York. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, winds reached 30 knots with swells as high as eight feet. The boat capsized just before 3 p.m., tossing all ten occupants into the frigid waters of Lake Tahoe. Two unidentified individuals survived the accident. Both were wearing life jackets when they were rescued and transported to a local hospital, the department said. Emergency response teams from multiple jurisdictions, including North Tahoe Fire, California State Parks, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, and the United States Coast Guard, mounted a massive search-and-rescue operation. Six bodies were recovered on the day of the incident. The remaining two were found in the days that followed, with the final recovery made on Monday afternoon.

CBS News [6/27/2025 3:02 PM, Staff, 51860K] reports the Mexican navy seized 3.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a semisubmersible vessel off the Pacific coast, authorities said Friday, while releasing video of the "narco sub" being intercepted. The vessel, manned by three people and carrying 180 packages of cocaine, was detected during a maritime patrol in waters off the southern state of Guerrero, the navy said in a statement. Authorities released images of the seized drugs next to a Mexican naval ship as well as video of the craft being intercepted at sea. It is the latest in a series of major drug hauls showcased by the Latin American nation, which is under pressure from President Donald Trump to curb narcotics smuggling. Mexican authorities have seized more than 44.8 tons of cocaine at sea since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office in October, the navy said. That month, the navy announced that it had seized more than 8.3 tons of an unspecified type of drugs found in a semisubmersible and a convoy of other vessels off the Pacific coast — a record for a single operation at sea. In early June, authorities said they had seized nearly 42 tons of methamphetamine worth more than $50 million during raids on illegal drug labs on land. Mr. Trump has cited trafficking of illegal drugs — particularly the synthetic opioid fentanyl — as one of the reasons for the tariffs he has imposed on imports from Mexico.

Federal News Network [6/27/2025 4:05 PM, Justin Doubleday, 2346K] reports House appropriators have advanced a homeland security spending bill that endorses many of the Trump administration’s budget proposals, while rejecting steep cuts to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence personnel. The fiscal 2026 homeland security appropriations measure includes $66.36 billion in discretionary spending. The GOP-led committee passed the bill Tuesday on a 36-27 vote. The bill follows the broad contours of Trump administration policies by prioritizing funding for Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Appropriators are also expecting significant funding for the Department of Homeland Security to be included in the budget reconciliation bill. While the full House — not to mention the Senate — still need to weigh in on 2026 spending levels, the bill contains several key aspects.

NBC News [6/27/2025 4:48 PM, Kevin Collier, 44540K] reports at least two North American airlines have been victims of criminal hackers recently as cybersecurity companies warn that a notorious cybercriminal group has been targeting the aviation industry. Westjet and Hawaii airlines both said in June statements that they are responding to cyberattacks. American Airlines also experienced a tech issue on Friday, though it’s unclear if it was related or caused in any way by hackers. Details on the effects of the attacks on airlines are still sparse. A WestJet spokesperson told NBC News in an email that the company first noticed it had been hacked on June 13 and has made "significant progress" to resolve it. Hawaiian Airlines said in a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it discovered on Monday that it had been hacked and that "Flights are currently operating safely and as scheduled." Neither company responded to questions about whether any flights had been canceled or delayed because of the attacks.

Axios [6/27/2025 1:00 PM, Sam Sabin, 13599K] reports that the notorious Scattered Spider hacking gang is now actively targeting the aviation and transportation sectors, cybersecurity firms warned on Friday. Why it matters: The group of mostly Western, English-speaking hackers has been on a months-long spree that’s prompted operational disruptions at grocery suppliers, major retail storefronts and insurance companies in the U.S. and U.K. Driving the news: Hawaiian Airlines said Thursday it’s addressing a "cybersecurity incident" that affected some of its IT systems. Canadian airline WestJet faced a similar incident last week that caused outages for some of its systems and mobile app. A source familiar with the incidents told Axios that Scattered Spider was likely behind the WestJet incident. Josh Yeats, a WestJet spokesperson, told Axios that the company has made "significant progress" to resolve the incident, but did not answer questions about Scattered Spider’s possible involvement. What they’re saying: Charles Carmakal, the chief technology officer at Google’s Mandiant Consulting, said in an emailed statement that the company is "aware of multiple incidents in the airline and transportation sector which resemble the operations of UNC3944 or Scattered Spider." "We are still working on attribution and analysis, but given the habit of this actor to focus on a single sector we suggest that the industry take steps immediately to harden systems," Carmakal said. Palo Alto Networks also said they saw evidence of these hackers targeting the aviation sector.

CyberScoop [6/27/2025 3:30 PM, Greg Otto] reports the aviation industry has seemingly become the latest target of Scattered Spider, a sophisticated cybercriminal group that has shifted its focus from retail and insurance companies to airlines in what cybersecurity experts describe as a coordinated campaign against the sector. Hawaiian Airlines disclosed a cybersecurity incident Friday affecting some of its IT systems while maintaining that flights continued operating safely and on schedule. The attack, first detected June 23, according to SEC filings, prompted the airline to engage federal authorities and cybersecurity experts for investigation and remediation efforts. Multiple incident responders have attributed the Hawaiian Airlines attack to Scattered Spider, also known as Muddled Libra or UNC3944. The assessment comes as cybersecurity firms Unit 42 and Mandiant issued warnings about the group’s apparent pivot to targeting aviation companies. Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting – Google Cloud, confirmed his company is “aware of multiple incidents in the airline and transportation sector which resemble the operations of UNC3944 or Scattered Spider.” The group has demonstrated a pattern of focusing intensively on single industries before moving to new sectors. “Given the habit of this actor to focus on a single sector we suggest that the industry take steps immediately to harden systems,” Carmakal stated. The FBI released a statement on X Friday saying the bureau is “actively working with aviation and industry partners to address this activity and assist victims.” The bureau also warned that Scatted Spider targets “large corporations and their third-party IT providers, which means anyone in the airline ecosystem, including trusted vendors and contractors, could be at risk.”

CyberScoop [6/27/2025 3:30 PM, Derek B. Johnson] reports when a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike last year caused possibly the largest IT outage in history, Microsoft ended up taking much of the blame. CrowdStrike’s Falcon endpoint detection and response was on millions of Windows devices worldwide, and like most antivirus products that need broad access to different systems to do their job, the software had direct access to the Windows kernel. When CrowdStrike’s update crashed, so did millions of Windows-powered systems and devices around the world. A series of security announcements by Microsoft on Thursday are designed to reduce the possibility of future third-party outages and other security threats that can take an organization’s IT out of commission for extended durations. Among those changes: antivirus software like the kind installed by CrowdStrike and other third-party cybersecurity will no longer have direct access to the Windows kernel. The company will be previewing a new endpoint security platform to vendors next month that requires security updates to go through layers of testing and review before they ship to Windows devices and systems worldwide.

Reuters [6/27/2025 6:07 AM, A.J. Vicens and Raphael Satter, 51390K] reports after Israeli and American forces struck Iranian nuclear targets, officials in both countries sounded the alarm over potentially disruptive cyberattacks carried out by the Islamic Republic’s hackers. But as a fragile ceasefire holds, cyber defenders in the United States and Israel say they have so far seen little out of the ordinary – a potential sign that the threat from Iran’s cyber capabilities, like its battered military, has been overestimated. There has been no indication of the disruptive cyberattacks often invoked during discussions of Iran’s digital capabilities, such as its alleged sabotage of tens of thousands of computers at major oil company Saudi Aramco in 2012, or subsequent break-ins at U.S. casinos or water facilities. "The volume of attacks appears to be relatively low," said Nicole Fishbein, a senior security researcher with the Israeli company Intezer. "The techniques used are not particularly sophisticated." Analysts said the situation is fluid and that more sophisticated cyber espionage activity may be flying under the radar. Both Israeli and U.S. officials have urged industry to be on the lookout. A June 22 Department of Homeland Security bulletin warned that the ongoing conflict was causing a heightened threat environment in the U.S. and that cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against U.S. networks.

New York Post [6/27/2025 3:18 PM, Patrick Reilly, 49956K] reports the college student accused of firebombing a Tesla dealership in Kansas City faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges. Owen McIntire, who has been released to receive gender-affirming care, allegedly hurled Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership, blowing up two cars and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages in March, officials said. The 19-year-old UMass Boston student has pleaded not guilty to malicious destruction of property and unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device. He faces up to 30 years, if convicted on all counts, according to the Kansas City Star. His case was elevated to the Department of Justice’s national security division, which is typically focused on terrorism and espionage, after Attorney General Pam Bondi labeled the incident a case of "domestic terrorism." His trial is set for Aug. 11.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [6/27/2025 4:44 PM, Amy Furr, 3077K]

CBS Chicago [6/27/2025 4:13 PM, Todd Feurer, 51860K] reports a Chicago man has been convicted of using social media to recruit ISIS operatives and try to spread violent jihad, and encourage people to carry out attacks on behalf of the terrorist group. Following a bench trial in federal court in Chicago, Ashraf Al Safoo, 41, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to transmit threats in interstate commerce, one count of conspiracy to intentionally access a protected computer without authorization, four counts of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization, and four counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Al Safoo was arrested in October 2018, following a raid at his home in the Budlong Woods neighborhood. Federal prosecutors said he is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Iraq, and moved to the U.S. in 2008. He was accused of working with ISIS to various social media accounts to spread propaganda supporting violent jihad and recruit operatives to carry out terrorist attacks for the Islamic State. Prosecutors said he is a member of Khattab Media Foundation, an internet group that has sworn allegiance to ISIS, and spread propaganda online promoting violent jihad. Images and videos he created in coordination with ISIS allegedly included include images of violence during Christmas, celebrations of terrorist attacks, and mass shootings in the U.S. In one social media post, Al Safoo allegedly encouraged Khattab members to post pro-ISIS information "to cause confusion and spread terror within the hearts of those who disbelieved.” "Work hard, brothers, edit the issue into short clips, take the pictures out of it and publish the efforts of your brothers in the pages of the apostates. Participate in the war, and spread terror, the [Islamic] State does not want you to watch it only, rather, it incites you, and if you are unable to, use it to incite others," Al Safoo allegedly wrote in another post.

Reported similarly:
Chicago Tribune [6/27/2025 5:59 PM, Jason Meisner, 3987K]

ABC News [6/27/2025 9:51 AM, Staff, 31733K] Video: HERE reports German prosecutors on Friday announced charges against a suspect accused of supporting a foiled plot last year to attack Taylor Swift concerts in neighboring Austria, the Associated Press reports.

AP [6/27/2025 12:09 PM, Maria Cheng, 1611K] reports an expert group charged by the World Health Organization to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic started released its final report Friday, reaching an unsatisfying conclusion: Scientists still aren’t sure how the worst health emergency in a century began. At a press briefing on Friday, Marietjie Venter, the group’s chair, said that most scientific data supports the hypothesis that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals. That was also the conclusion drawn by the first WHO expert group that investigated the pandemic’s origins in 2021, when scientists concluded the virus likely spread from bats to humans, via another intermediary animal. At the time, WHO said a lab leak was "extremely unlikely.” Venter said that after more than three years of work, WHO’s expert group was unable to get the necessary data to evaluate whether or not COVID-19 was the result of a lab accident, despite repeated requests for hundreds of genetic sequences and more detailed biosecurity information that were made to the Chinese government. "Therefore, this hypothesis could not be investigated or excluded," she said. "It was deemed to be very speculative, based on political opinions and not backed up by science." She said that the 27-member group did not reach a consensus; one member resigned earlier this week and three others asked for their names to be removed from the report. Venter said there was no evidence to prove that COVID-19 had been manipulated in a lab, nor was there any indication that the virus had been spreading before December 2019 anywhere outside of China. "Until more scientific data becomes available, the origins of how SARS-CoV-2 entered human populations will remain inconclusive," Venter said, referring to the scientific name for the COVID-19 virus. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was a "moral imperative" to determine how COVID began, noting that the virus killed at least 20 million people, wiped at least $10 trillion from the global economy and upended the lives of billions.

AP [6/27/2025 7:59 PM, Michelle L. Price and Rob Gillies, 56000K] reports President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country.” Trump, in a post on his social media network, said Canada had just informed the U.S. that it was sticking to its plan to impose the digital services tax, which applies to Canadian and foreign businesses that engage with online users in Canada. The tax is set to go into effect Monday. “Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period,” Trump said in his post. Trump’s announcement was the latest swerve in the trade war he’s launched since taking office for a second term in January. Progress with Canada has been a roller coaster, starting with the U.S. president poking at the nation’s northern neighbor and repeatedly suggesting it would be absorbed as a U.S. state. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday that his country would “continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interests of Canadians. It’s a negotiation.” Trump later said he expects that Canada will remove the tax. “Economically we have such power over Canada. We’d rather not use it,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “It’s not going to work out well for Canada. They were foolish to do it.” When asked if Canada could do anything to restart talks, he suggested Canada could remove the tax, predicted it will but said, “It doesn’t matter to me.” Carney visited Trump in May at the White House, where he was polite but firm. Trump last week traveled to Canada for the G7 summit in Alberta, where Carney said that Canada and the U.S. had set a 30-day deadline for trade talks. The digital services tax will hit companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3% levy on revenue from Canadian users. It will apply retroactively, leaving U.S. companies with a $2 billion U.S. bill due at the end of the month. “We appreciate the Administration’s decisive response to Canada’s discriminatory tax on U.S. digital exports,” Matt Schruers, chief executive of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, said in a statement.

FOX News [6/28/2025 3:54 AM, Landon Mion, 46878K] reports the U.S. Virtual Embassy in Iran is insisting that Americans leave the Middle Eastern country amid conflicts in the region after a partial reopening of its airspace. This comes after a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel to end the nearly two-week conflict. "As of June 26, 2025, Iran’s airspace has been partially reopened, although business trips from Tehran and other major centers may be interrupted," the embassy said in an advisory. "US citizens should follow local media and consult with commercial airlines to get more information about flights departing from Iran.” American citizens who wish to leave Iran must travel by land to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey or Turkmenistan if the conditions are safe, the embassy said. The U.S. State Department created a crisis information acceptance form for American citizens in Iran to provide information on consular assistance, the embassy noted. But because of the limitations of consular support in Iran, the embassy said it does not anticipate that withdrawal from Iran will be provided with direct assistance from the U.S. government. U.S. citizens who plan to leave Iran must use the available facilities to leave the country, it said. The embassy encouraged Americans wanting to leave Iran to take several actions, including having a plan to leave immediately without relying on the U.S. government, keeping their phones charged and communicating with loved ones about their situation, preparing an emergency plan for emergency situations and signing up for alerts from the U.S. government such as the Intelligent Passenger Registration Program (STEP) that would make it easier to find their location in an emergency abroad. Americans who cannot leave Iran are advised to find a safe place in their residence or another safe building and to carry food, water, medicine and other essential items with them.

CNN [6/27/2025 7:38 PM, Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, 875K] reports the US military did not use bunker-buster bombs on one of Iran’s largest nuclear sites last weekend because the site is so deep that the bombs likely would not have been effective, the US’ top general told senators during a briefing on Thursday. The comment by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, which was described by three people who heard his remarks and a fourth who was briefed on them, is the first known explanation given for why the US military did not use the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb against the Isfahan site in central Iran. US officials believe Isfahan’s underground structures house nearly 60% of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, which Iran would need in order to ever produce a nuclear weapon. US B2 bombers dropped over a dozen bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites. But Isfahan was only struck by Tomahawk missiles launched from a US submarine. The classified briefing to lawmakers was conducted by Caine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. A spokesperson for Caine declined to comment, noting that he cannot comment on the chairman’s classified briefing to Congress. During the briefing, Ratcliffe told lawmakers that the US intelligence community assesses that the majority of Iran’s enriched nuclear material is buried at Isfahan and Fordow, according to a US official. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told CNN on Thursday night after receiving the briefing that some of Iran’s capabilities “are so far underground that we can never reach them. So they have the ability to move a lot of what has been saved into areas where there’s no American bombing capacity that can reach it.” An early assessment produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency in the day after the US strikes said the attack did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program, including its enriched uranium, and likely only set the program back by months, CNN has reported. It also said Iran may have moved some of the enriched uranium out of the sites before they were attacked. Weapons expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies Jeffrey Lewis told CNN that commercial satellite images show that Iran has accessed the tunnels at Isfahan. “There were a moderate number of vehicles present at Isfahan on June 26 and at least one of the tunnel entrances was cleared of obstructions by mid-morning June 27,” Lewis said. “If Iran’s stockpile of (highly enriched uranium) was still in the tunnel when Iran sealed the entrances, it may be elsewhere now.” Additional satellite imagery captured on June 27 by Planet Labs show the entrance to the tunnels were open at the time, according to Lewis.

Reuters [6/27/2025 12:43 PM, Howard Goller and Jonathan Landay, 51390K] reports Israel killed more than 30 senior security officials and 11 senior nuclear scientists to deliver a major blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a senior Israeli military official said on Friday in summarizing Israel’s 12-day air war with Iran. In the United States, an independent expert said a review of commercial satellite imagery showed only a small number of the approximately 30 Iranian missiles that penetrated Israel’s air defences managed to hit any militarily significant targets. "Iran has yet to produce missiles that demonstrate great accuracy," Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at the CNA Corporation specializing in satellite imagery, told Reuters. In Israel, the senior military official said Israel’s June 13 opening strike on Iran severely damaged its aerial defences and destabilised its ability to respond in the critical early hours of the conflict. `Israel’s air force struck over 900 targets and the military deeply damaged Iran’s missile production during the war that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, the official said. "The Iranian nuclear project suffered a major blow: The regime’s ability to enrich uranium to 90% was neutralized for a prolonged period. Its current ability to produce a nuclear weapon core has been neutralized," the official said. Iran, which denies trying to build nuclear weapons, retaliated against the strikes with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites and cities. Iran said it forced the end of the war by penetrating Israeli defences.

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