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 AP [3/5/2025 6:23 PM, Will Weissert and Valerie Gonzalez, 24727K] reports that Vice President JD Vance visited the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday and said that arrests for illegal crossings had fallen sharply because President Donald Trump is demanding that all of government prioritize the issue in ways his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, never did. Vance was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, as he took a helicopter tour of the area around Eagle Pass, Texas, around 150 miles southwest of San Antonio. They also visited a Border Patrol facility and sat for a roundtable with Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and national, state and local officials. Vance pointed to arrests for illegal border crossings plummeting 39% in January from a month earlier. The numbers have actually been falling sharply since well before Republican Trump took office for his second term on Jan. 20, coming down from an all-time high of 250,000 in December 2023. After that, Mexican authorities increased enforcement within their own borders and Biden introduced severe asylum restrictions early last summer. “President Trump has empowered — and in fact demanded — that his whole government take the task of border control seriously,” Vance said. In an effort to impose harder-line immigration policies, the Trump administration has put shackled immigrants on U.S. military planes for deportation fights and sent some to the U.S. lockup at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. It has also expanded federal agents’ arrests of people in the U.S. illegally and abandoned programs that gave some permission to stay. VOA News [3/5/2025 9:26 PM, Staff, 2913K] reports that [Vance’s] trip to the small border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, comes on the heels of Trump’s defiant Tuesday night address before Congress, where Trump described his program of arrests and deportations as "getting them out and getting them out fast.” Vance’s words also follow Trump’s move to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. "I’m not going to make any announcements about any invasions of Mexico here today," Vance said. "The president has a megaphone and of course, he’ll speak to these issues as he feels necessary. But what designating cartel organizations allows us to do is deploy the full resources of the United States military to engage in serious border enforcement.” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who accompanied Vance, echoed him, saying, "Our objective is to keep the American people safe.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, also in Texas with Vance and Gabbard, emphasized that he thinks "border security is national security," and clarified what role troops might serve, as they are legally prohibited from performing civilian law enforcement actions. "The Defense Department has assets that we can bring to bear, not just troops, not just surveillance, not just equipment, but actual planning and capabilities that enhance what Border Patrol is already doing," he said. Immigration advocates told VOA that the current lull in border crossings, which Vance also touted, might be misleading and criticized Trump’s enforcement-based strategy. The Houston Chronicle [3/5/2025 5:06 PM, Jeremy Wallace, 1769K] reports that since taking office in January, border crossings in Texas have plummeted even more than they had in the final months of President Joe Biden’s administration. Vance said while the border is beginning to become more secure, cartels in Mexico have become more advanced and better fighters, necessitating more use of U.S. military capabilities. He said that is why he wanted Hegseth on his first official trip to the border since taking office. But Trump made clear on Tuesday that he wants more funding from Congress to support what he has vowed will be the "largest deportation operation" in U.S. history. CBS Austin [3/5/2025 2:52 PM, Cory Smith, 602K] reports Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border on Day 1 of his administration. True to his campaign promises, Trump has taken on a more enforcement-based approach to immigration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it’s no longer catching and releasing illegal immigrants. People who cross the border without permission are arrested, detained and then rapidly removed, CBP said. In the 10 days of January after Trump took office, CBP said the number of Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border dropped 85% from the same period a year ago. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said illegal crossings at the southern border are at an "all-time-low.”

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CBS News [3/5/2025 8:14 PM, Staff, 51661K] Video: HERE
FOX News [3/5/2025 5:55 PM, Adam Shaw, 46189K]
Dallas Morning News [3/5/2025 7:22 PM, Aarón Torres, 2778K]

CBS News [3/5/2025 8:27 PM, Kathryn Watson and Eleanor Watson, 51661K] reports Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard are at the southern border Wednesday to highlight the Trump administration’s efforts to combat illegal crossings and drug trafficking, the day following President Trump’s joint address to Congress in which immigration played a prominent role. The top administration officials are in the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, roughly 100 miles west of San Antonio. Vance and Hegseth represent the highest-ranking administration officials to visit the southern border since Mr. Trump’s inauguration. They arrived one day after the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on nearly all imported goods from Mexico, citing Mexico’s handling of the situation at the border, a move that sent stocks tumbling. "We need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they’ve done, and they have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the USA," the president said Tuesday night. "They’re going to stop it. I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history." Two U.S. officials say there are no Department of Defense flights scheduled to take migrants in the U.S. illegally to Guantanamo or to other foreign countries, after the Pentagon has been supplying costly deportation flights. One of the officials said the Department of Homeland Security is currently going with other options, but the Pentagon is standing by in case they are asked to provide more flights. The 28,000-person town of Eagle Pass, where Vance and top officials are heading, is in Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales’ district. His district spans the majority of the length of Texas’ portion of the border with Mexico. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Gonzales are present for the visit. The Washington Examiner [3/5/2025 5:35 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K] reports that the trip was his first to the southern border since becoming vice president and signified a broader role in public policy matters that Trump has entrusted him with since taking office in January. In a secure outdoor setting, Vance spoke in front of two armored military vehicles with his back to the Mexico border, just a few dozen feet behind him. Secret Service agents stood atop cargo ship containers that surrounded an enclosed area in a large field neighboring the Rio Grande. Six mounted Border Patrol agents stood at the entrance and watched over the event.

Politico [3/5/2025 5:55 PM, Hailey Fuchs and Shia Kapos] reports Democratic mayors, summoned to Washington to answer for their handling of the immigration crisis, struggled on Wednesday to combat Republican allegations their cities are rife with violent crime and in need of rescuing by the GOP administration. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee grilled the chief executives of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City on the heels of Trump’s victory lap in his joint address to Congress Tuesday evening. There, he proclaimed that his administration had begun "the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history." Mirroring the administration’s language, Republicans in Congress pulled out isolated incidents of violence by undocumented immigrants to make their case that cities with sanctuary status should open their jails to federal authorities — despite the mayors saying there’s no law requiring local authorities to coordinate with U.S. immigration officials. Democrats countered with nuanced, at times convoluted, legal arguments about where the authority, and responsibility, to deal with the immigration issue lies. Roll Call [3/5/2025 1:19 PM, Chris Johnson, 503K] reports Chairman James R. Comer, R-Ky., in his opening statement, lauded the Trump administration for actions against illegal immigration, then criticized the mayors for policies he said only create "sanctuaries for criminals." "These reckless sanctuary policies also force federal immigration officers to go into local communities to apprehend criminal illegal aliens," Comer said. Federal immigration agents could make arrests in a secure environment such as a state or local jail if sanctuary cities were to simply communicate and work with them, Comer said. "Instead, they have to risk their own safety and public safety by having to go into uncertain, dangerous circumstances just to make arrests," Comer said. The AP [3/5/2025 7:31 PM, Rebecca Santana and Tim Sullivan, 24727K] reports that the comments came in an often fiery hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where Republicans said the mayors were undermining President Donald Trump’s immigration and mass deportation efforts. Republicans repeatedly highlighted a handful of brutal crimes committed by immigrants who crossed illegally into the U.S., with Rep. James Comer opening the hearings by saying the policies “only create sanctuary for criminals.” But the Democratic mayors — Michelle Wu of Boston, Brandon Johnson of Chicago, Mike Johnston of Denver and Eric Adams of New York — defended their policies as legal, even as they seemed to carefully avoid using the term “sanctuary.” Republicans, they said, were trying to paint their cities as overrun by criminal immigrants even as crime was falling. Reuters [3/5/2025 1:28 PM, Jonathan Allen, 41523K] reports "These reckless sanctuary policies also force federal immigration officers to go into local communities to apprehend criminal illegal aliens," Comer said. "If sanctuary cities were to simply communicate and work with federal immigration authorities, then federal agents could arrest criminal illegal aliens in a secure environment like a state or local jail." The mayors defended the laws as making all their residents safer, even as lawmakers on the committee, which is known for its sometimes combative hearings, interrupted some answers that went beyond a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. State and municipal officials have said the U.S. Constitution’s Tenth Amendment prevents the U.S. government from commandeering local officials to enforce federal law. The New York Times [3/5/2025 7:04 PM, Patricia Mazzei, 145325K] reports that from the start of the hearing, the committee chairman, Representative James Comer of Kentucky, and many other Republicans, referred to cases of rape or murder involving unauthorized immigrants and asked each mayor if he or she would have handed the suspect over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The mayors responded that they did not harbor criminals and said they would turn over any suspect if presented with a criminal warrant. They said their policies did not prevent cooperation with federal agents — but also argued that federal law did not require local officials to enforce national immigration policies. The mayors seemed prepared for the barrage of hostile questions. They tried to explain the details of immigration enforcement policy and what, exactly, cities and states are required to do under federal and state laws — which is not everything Republicans were demanding of them. They rejected criticism that their cities had devolved into dangerous places because of growing immigrant populations, and cited declining crime rates. They said their policies engendered trust with people in migrant communities, allowing them to feel comfortable cooperating with the local police. “We do not harbor criminals,” Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago said. “We arrest them.”

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AP [3/5/2025 12:50 PM, Staff, 48304K]
Axios [3/5/2025 4:36 PM, Monica Eng, 13163K]
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Newsweek [3/5/2025 1:49 PM, Dan Gooding, 52220K] reports Republican Representative James Comer claimed Wednesday during a hearing on sanctuary city policies that he did not think "anyone is calling for mass deportations". The Kentucky lawmaker was responding to Boston’s Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu, who said at a House of Representatives committee hearing she supported immigration reform but not mass deportations. "I must add I don’t think anyone’s calling for mass deportations," Comer said, with another participant heard saying: "Wait, what?". President Donald Trump has openly called for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, touting figures upward of 11 million people who could be removed from the country during his presidential election campaign and after his return to office. As chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Comer invited four Democratic mayors to Capitol Hill for a hearing on their so-called sanctuary policies, which the GOP sees as blocking federal immigration enforcement. During the hearing Wednesday morning, Republicans on the committee quizzed Wu, alongside New York City’s Eric Adams, Denver’s Mike Johnston, and Chicago’s Brandon Johnson, on how their policies had impacted the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Wisconsin Representative Glenn Grothman asked each mayor whether they believed the U.S. "should have an immigration law" and that if this was broken, immigrants should be deported. "May I answer fully?" she responded, before telling the committee she believed the U.S. needed immigration law that included "secure borders, comprehensive and consistent compassionate pathways to residency and citizenship, resources to adjudicate complexities in the law.” "At the same time, I do not support mass deportation. That would be devastating for our economy, and there are millions of people who are running our small businesses, going to our schools," Wu added before being cut short. At this point, Comer claimed that no one was calling for mass deportations. President Donald Trump in executive order "Protecting The American People Against Invasion" on January 20: "...the Secretary of Homeland Security shall promptly take appropriate action to use all other provisions of the immigration laws or any other Federal law...to ensure the efficient and expedited removal of aliens from the United States.” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, in a statement following Trump’s address to Congress Tuesday: "Congress must answer the President’s call to pass more funding to finish the construction of the border wall and to carry out mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens.”

FOX News [3/5/2025 9:57 PM, Staff, 46189K] Video: HERE reports DHS Secretary Kristi Noem discusses Democrats disrespecting President Donald Trump’s address and issues a warning to leakers of ICE raids on ‘Hannity.’

USA Today [3/5/2025 6:11 PM, Francesca Chambers, Lauren Villagran, Bart Jansen, 75858K] reports President Donald Trump launched a full court press this week to get Congress to provide his administration with the resources it needs to carry out mass deportations. The administration is seeking money for detention beds and repatriation flights as it ramps up an effort to remove migrants who are in the country without legal permission. The president met with House Freedom Caucus members about his budget request on Wednesday. The administration has not said how much money it needs to carry out Trump’s directives. But part of the money would go toward family residential centers. Trump officials have said they want to conduct DNA testing to ensure children brought to the country by adults are blood relatives. The administration has also indicated it intends to deport families together.

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Univision [3/5/2025 12:48 PM, Staff, 5325K]

Roll Call [3/5/2025 5:16 PM, John M. Donnelly, 503K] reports President Donald Trump’s use of thousands of U.S. troops to aid in immigration enforcement is set to cost the Defense Department from $1 billion to $2 billion this year, Pentagon officials recently told lawmakers. The money will support a bolstered U.S. military force along the U.S.-Mexico border and the transport of immigrants to the U.S. military’s prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., in little-noticed remarks at a Tuesday hearing of the Armed Services Committee. Reed, the committee’s top Democrat, said the immigration tasks are mostly best left to the Department of Homeland Security. They are expensive, he said, and are hurting U.S. military readiness. "At best, the [Defense] Department estimates that it will spend $1 billion to $2 billion for unplanned border missions this year, even as illegal migrant encounters are at the lowest level since August of 2020," Reed said at Tuesday’s hearing. "The Government Accountability Office has assessed these missions in recent years and found: ‘Separating units in order to assign a portion of them to the southwest border mission was a consistent trend in degrading readiness ratings.’". At issue is the deployment of more than 12,000 troops to the southwest border and the costly transportation of deported immigrants on military aircraft to Guantánamo Bay, where another roughly 1,000 troops are working to hastily prepare a camp there for the possible arrival of up to 30,000 immigrants on Trump’s orders. Concerns about the costs have grown inside the administration. The Pentagon said Wednesday it was suspending the use of military aircraft to deport immigrants amid the fiscal concerns, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Reuters [3/5/2025 6:04 PM, Ted Hesson, 41523K] reports that the top Trump administration official overseeing the care of unaccompanied migrant children was abruptly removed on Tuesday, an email reviewed by Reuters showed. Mellissa Harper, the acting director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, told staff in the email that she was informed on Tuesday that her detail to the agency had been terminated. Harper’s message did not explain the decision. Harper and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ORR’s parent agency, did not respond to requests for comment. The sudden change in leadership comes as President Donald Trump’s administration directs immigration officers to track down migrant children who entered the United States without their parents, expanding Trump’s mass deportation effort. Harper, who had held a senior role at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, brought a small team from ICE to the refugee office, two sources familiar with the matter said. After Trump took office, Harper told staff the agency planned to target smuggling, which could potentially sweep in parents who paid smugglers to bring their children to the United States, one of the sources said. She also said ORR planned to use DNA tests to establish familial relationships, but it was unclear how often the tests would be used, Reuters reported last month. Angie Salazar, a special agent in charge of ICE’s investigative unit in Detroit, is expected to become ORR’s acting director, one of the sources and another person said.

The Hill [3/5/2025 10:12 AM, Lauren Irwin, 12829K] reports that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he thinks President Trump might consider tariff relief for Canada and Mexico in a compromise, and that an announcement may come Wednesday afternoon. "The president is listening to the offers from Mexico and Canada. He’s thinking about trying to do something in the middle," Lutnick said Wednesday on Bloomberg TV. He added that he would be speaking with Trump about scaling back the 25 percent tariff on the neighboring countries and thinks "early this afternoon, or this afternoon, we expect to make an announcement." Lutnick’s comments come just a day after the tariff plan was implemented, igniting a trade war with the U.S. allies and sparking concern that prices will rise for Americans. His comments walk back Trump’s confirmation that the tariffs would be in place to curb the flow of migration and fentanyl into the country. Lutnick said he doesn’t believe the next plan will be the full 25 percent, but rather "somewhere in the middle because I think Mexico and Canada are trying their best.” Lutnick said international officials are "working hard" with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to aid the situation but reiterated a previous point he made that it’s not a trade war, but rather a "drug war." "So, what’s happened is, they’re showing us even more ways to stop the flow of fentanyl. The president is open-minded," he said, adding. "There are going to be tariffs, let’s be clear."

NPR [3/5/2025 1:32 PM, Rachel Treisman, 37K] reports twenty-five Canadians have been charged with swindling hundreds of American seniors out of more than $21 million through what’s known as a "grandparent scam," federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont said in a statement that the alleged perpetrators were indicted by a federal grand jury in late February. They range in age from their late-20s to mid-40s and all but one are based in Quebec province, which is home to Montreal. The announcement lists their names as well as the aliases they used, including Muscles, Elvis, Blondie, Happy, Honda and Toast. All 25 are charged with conspiracy to defraud, while five of them are also accused of conspiring to commit money laundering. Information about the defendants’ lawyers and court appearances was not immediately available, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont declined to elaborate as the case is ongoing. Prosecutors say the scheme, which started in the summer of 2021, targeted elderly victims in 46 states. "These individuals are accused of an elaborate scheme using fear to extort millions of dollars from victims who believed they were helping loved ones in trouble," said Michael Krol, special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in New England. A 14-page indictment unsealed on Tuesday accuses the group of operating an elaborate scheme based out of a network of call centers in the Montreal area, using technological means to make their calls look like they were coming from the U.S. The participants would allegedly call elderly Americans — culled from spreadsheets with their personal information, including age and household income — and pretend to be a relative, typically a grandchild, who needed money for bail after a car crash. They would falsely claim that a "gag order" prevented their concerned victim from telling any other family members. They would then pass the call to another suspect, who posed as an attorney representing the relative in distress. USA Today [3/5/2025 1:39 PM, Marc Ramirez, 75858K] reports Homeland Security Investigations New England and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with assistance from Sûreté du Québec and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Axios [3/5/2025 6:09 PM, Steph Solis, 13163K] reports a congresswoman says she plans to make criminal referrals to the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and three other mayors of so-called sanctuary cities. Boston leaders view the city’s policy restricting police from helping with civil — not criminal — immigration enforcement as a stance welcoming people of all backgrounds and fostering trust between residents and police. But to GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill, it’s an act of obstruction against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. When they weren’t fighting among themselves, congressional members Wednesday grilled the mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York over policies restricting how police interact with ICE agents on civil immigration violations. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican congresswoman from Florida, accused the mayors of "harming the American people" and said she planned to refer them to the DOJ for investigation. The biggest question raised around the legality of sanctuary policies pointed to the U.S. Code.

CBS Boston [3/5/2025 2:06 PM, Victoria D, 51661K] Video: HERE reports Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley had a heated exchange with Republican Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, during a hearing with "sanctuary city" mayors, including Boston’s Michelle Wu, on Wednesday. Pressley initially interjected to say she had unanimous consent to enter an article into the record. Comer attempted to stop Pressley from speaking and tried to call on the next lawmaker. Pressley’s article she was trying to enter was from 2018 and claimed U.S.-born Americans commit more rapes and murders than immigrants. Comer objected to her proposal and started talking over her. "This trend of you all trying to get thrown out of committee so you can get on MSNBC is gonna end, we’re not going to put up with it," Comer said as Pressley continued to talk. The clash continued for nearly two minutes as the pair spoke over each other.

Reuters [3/5/2025 2:55 PM, Luc Cohen, Jack Queen, 41523K] reports a U.S. judge on Wednesday declined to order the Trump administration to immediately return to New York City $80.5 million of grants intended to cover part of the city’s cost of housing migrants. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rearden said the city failed to show irreparable harm, and could still recover the money if it eventually prevailed in the lawsuit. She ruled after an approximately two-hour hearing in Manhattan federal court. The White House and New York City’s law department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. City officials sued after the funds paid on February 4 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, went missing from a bank account, having been clawed back by the agency. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said on February 12 the money represented "the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.” But the city called the clawback a "money grab" that thwarted Congress’ purpose in appropriating the money. It urged Rearden to order the $80.5 million returned and bar Republican President Donald Trump’s administration from similar further takings. The dispute stemmed from grants FEMA gave the most populous U.S. city to defray the cost of sheltering migrants in hotels.

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AP [3/5/2025 3:17 PM, Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister]
Washington Examiner [3/5/2025 5:55 PM, Kaelan Deese, 2296K]

ABC News [3/5/2025 3:07 PM, Olivia Rubin] reports a former top FEMA official who was removed as part of the political blowback over payments to New York City for housing migrants in what critics called "luxury hotels" has sued the Trump administration, alleging she was "unlawfully terminated from her position" without due process. Mary Comans, who served as the FEMA’s chief financial officer since 2017, claims in the suit that her firing led to her being "falsely condemned online" by prominent individuals including tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been overseeing government cost-cutting measures as the head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. Comans has asked a judge for a declaration that DHS and FEMA’s actions were illegal, and has requested monetary damages.

CBS New York [3/5/2025 8:35 PM, Staff, 51661K] Video: HERE reports New York City Mayor Eric Adams testified Wednesday before a House Oversight Committee about immigration policies. He joined the Democratic mayors of Denver, Boston and Chicago, facing questions about their willingness to cooperate with federal authorities. CBS News New York’s Alice Gainer reports.

CBS New York [3/5/2025 11:12 PM, Staff, 51661K] Video: HERE reports New York City Mayor Eric Adams – along with the mayors of Denver, Chicago and Boston – testified Wednesday before a House Committee on immigration. As CBS News New York’s Dick Brennan reports, Adams was grilled about whether he made a deal with the Trump administration. Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 11:23 AM, Josephine Stratman, 52868K] reports “Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?” Rep. Robert Garcia of California asked. “There’s no deal, there’s no quid pro quo,” Adams replied after conferring with his lawyer. “I did nothing wrong.” During the five-hour meeting, members of the GOP-led committee took turns grilling Adams, as well as the mayors of Boston, Chicago and Denver, on sanctuary city laws, which block local law enforcement in certain circumstances from cooperating with federal immigration authorities on immigration matters. Republicans argued that the Democratic mayors are creating safe havens for dangerous criminals and violating federal law with their sanctuary city status – with Rep. Nancy Mace going as far to tell the mayors “you all have blood on your hands” because of crimes by undocumented immigrants. The mayors largely defended the policies under questioning from GOP leaders, and Adams said sanctuary laws are necessary in order to ensure residents can access necessary resources. But he also made clear he wants to cooperate with feds to go after migrants who have committed crimes. CBS New York [3/5/2025 5:20 PM, Christina Fan, Alice Gainer, Jessica Moore, and Jesse Zanger, 51661K] reports Adams was joined by the Democratic mayors of three other sanctuary cities -- Boston, Chicago and Denver. The four were summoned by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to defend their cities’ policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. "Let’s be clear, these policies only create sanctuaries for criminals," House Oversight and Government Reform chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said. The hearing is part of a federal investigation into sanctuary cities, as the White House threatens to pull federal funding if they don’t comply. "Sanctuary cities make us all less safe and are a public safety nightmare," Comer said. "We cannot let pro-criminal alien policies and obstructionist sanctuary cities continue to endanger American communities and the safety of federal immigration enforcement officers." "Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself?". Later on during the hearing, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) leaned into the case against Adams and the DOJ’s move to dismiss the charges, as well as Adams’ meeting with "border czar" Tom Homan and his decision to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents back onto Rikers Island.

The Hill [3/5/2025 12:43 PM, Julia Manchester, 12829K] reports that Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) called on New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) to resign on Wednesday following the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) move to drop federal corruption charges against him. "I personally agree with the majority of New Yorkers and think Mr. Mayor that you should resign," Garcia told Adams, who was testifying along with other Democratic mayors before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "We have a right to know if the Trump administration has coerced you into agreeing to anything," Garcia said. "Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?" Adams denied taking part in any quid pro quo. "There’s no deal. There’s no quid pro quo. I did nothing wrong," Adams told the committee. Adams was originally set to stand trial in April on charges of bribery, wire fraud and soliciting illegal campaign contributions, but a federal judge overseeing the criminal case indefinitely delayed the trial as he considers the effort by the DOJ to drop the charges. The hearing where the exchange took place also included Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D), Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D). Former U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said it amounted to a "quid pro quo" in which the case would be ended in exchange for the mayor helping the Trump administration with its immigration priorities.

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 9:06 AM, John Clark, 52868K] reports that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson defended the city’s “sanctuary city” policies toward noncitizen migrants in Washington on Wednesday. Johnson, along with mayors from Boston, Denver, and New York testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “Every violent crime is devastating, but scapegoating entire communities is not only misleading, it is unjust, and it is beneath us. So, let me be clear. Chicago’s welcoming city ordinance and our other laws and policies do not lead to more crime. They do not prevent cooperation with federal law enforcement on criminal matters. And we do not harbor criminals. We arrest them,” Johnson said. “Sanctuary” policies describe those that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforces U.S. immigration laws nationwide but asks that local police alert them to people who should be deported, and hold them until federal officers take them into custody. Trump administration officials have also argued that if communities work with them on immigration enforcement, “collateral arrests” — when ICE detains people other than those targeted — are less likely. “Sanctuary cities want to keep locking us out of jails,” President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told reporters. “They force us into the neighborhood to find the bad guys. When we find the bad guy, many times they’re with others.” Some cities, like Chicago, say cooperating with ICE has a negative effect on migrant populations, creating fear so those who are victims of or witnesses to a crime won’t come forward.

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New York Times [3/5/2025 4:59 PM, Mitch Smith, 145325K]

Chicago Tribune [3/5/2025 4:51 PM, Jason Meisner, 5269K] reports a reputed high-ranking Mexican cartel figure pleaded not guilty in Chicago on Wednesday to an indictment alleging he conspired to traffic massive quantities of cocaine into the U.S. and launder drug proceeds shipped back to Mexico. Norberto Valencia-González, also known as "Socialitos" or "Socialite," was extradited to Chicago last week as part of a historic prisoner transfer with Mexico as the administration of President Donald Trump turned up the pressure on drug-trafficking organizations. Valencia-González, an alleged financial guru affiliated with the once-powerful and notoriously violent Beltrán-Leyva cartel, was accused in a seven-page indictment with trafficking activity that took place between 2013 and 2017 in Chicago and nearby areas, including Arlington Heights, Morris and Plainfield. He pleaded not guilty in a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Weisman and was ordered held in custody pending a bond request, which his attorney, Michael Leonard, said he would file before the district judge at a later date.

Telemundo Amarillo [3/5/2025 5:21 PM, Staff, 2K] reports testimony began Tuesday in the trial of two men accused of playing key roles in what federal officials have called the deadliest human trafficking incident in U.S. history. On June 27, 2022, authorities discovered 67 migrants inside a semi-trailer in southwest San Antonio. The victims, who were from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, were trapped in extreme heat. The initial death toll, 48, later rose to 53 as more victims succumbed to heat-related injuries. Homero Zamorano Jr., identified as the semi-trailer driver, was arrested shortly afterward. A year later, four Mexican citizens were also arrested in connection with the smuggling organization. The trial is expected to last four weeks and if convicted, both men could face life in prison.

Dallas Morning News [3/5/2025 10:25 AM, Joseph Morton, 2778K] reports that President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he had renamed a national wildlife refuge in Texas after a Houston girl who was murdered in June — one of several Texans whose stories played a role in the president’s address to Congress. Trump has highlighted the death of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray to support his policy of tougher border enforcement after two Venezuelan men who were not legally in the country were charged with her murder. Speaking to Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, who was in the House Gallery as a guest of first lady Melania Trump, Trump promised her daughter will always be remembered as he announced an executive order renaming Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge after Jocelyn. "One thing I have learned about Jocelyn is that she loved animals so much, she loved nature," Trump said. "Across Galveston Bay from where Jocelyn lived in Houston, you’ll find a magnificent national wildlife refuge, a pristine, peaceful 34,000-acre sanctuary for all of God’s creatures on the edge of the Gulf of America." "Arrested and charged with this heinous crime are two illegal alien monsters from Venezuela, released into America by the last administration through their ridiculous open border," Trump said. "The death of this beautiful 12-year-old girl and the agony of her mother and family touched our entire nation, greatly."

Axios [3/5/2025 5:18 PM, Alayna Alvarez, 13163K] reports Mayor Mike Johnston rejected the notion of Denver being a sanctuary city as he battled a barrage of GOP attacks Wednesday during a combative U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on immigration. A "sanctuary city" label could have major consequences for Denver, with Republicans threatening to pull federal funding and pursue criminal charges against Johnston. Johnston, alongside the mayors of Boston, Chicago, and New York, faced a nearly six-hour grilling from 60 lawmakers — many demanding a yes-or-no answer on whether their cities shield undocumented immigrants and violate federal law. He cited the city’s coordination over the past seven years with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 1,226 "detainer requests," which ask for notification as early as possible before releasing what the agency calls "a removable alien."

New York Times [3/5/2025 5:41 PM, Jack Healy, 145325K] reports Mayor Mike Johnston of Denver struck a defiant tone after President Trump was re-elected, vowing to risk jail time to prevent unlawful mass deportations. He was more measured on Wednesday, at a hearing of the House Oversight Committee, as he and three other big-city mayors took criticism and barbed questions from a panel of hostile Republican lawmakers about whether their policies had made their cities havens for migrant criminals. Introducing himself at the session as “a man of faith,” the mayor, a Democrat, defended his 715,000-person city’s welcoming posture toward migrants, whom he referred to as “newcomers.” But he also insisted that local law enforcement officers had cooperated with the Trump administration by providing immigration authorities with information that allowed them to arrest migrants being held in Denver jails. Republicans were not buying Mr. Johnston’s portrayal. Some of his fiercest critics came from his own state, reflecting the growing gulf between Colorado’s urban liberal politicians and its suburban and rural Republicans.

San Francisco Chronicle [3/5/2025 8:59 PM, Ko Lyn Cheang, 5046K] reports Oroville, a town of almost 20,000 in Butte County, declared itself a "non-sanctuary city" this week in a City Council resolution that pledged "full cooperation" with federal law enforcement but that officials said stopped short of flouting the state’s sanctuary law. The symbolic move is another indication of how California towns and cities that supported President Donald Trump in his November victory have been increasingly empowered to challenge California’s pro-immigration laws that residents in those areas perceive as anti-public safety. Butte County supported Trump in the recent election, with 50% of votes going to him compared with 47% for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Oroville’s seven-member council approved the resolution unanimously Tuesday. It declares the town "a non-sanctuary city for all criminals," states the city’s opposition to sanctuary policies that "may place our citizens at unnecessary risk" and "reaffirms (Oroville’s) commitment to work in full cooperation with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, for the apprehension and prosecution of criminals.” "We’re not wanting to harbor or be a refuge for anybody who has conducted criminal activities, whatever it may be," Oroville Mayor David Pittman told the Chronicle. Pittman said the city has virtually no unauthorized immigrant population that he is aware of but that fear of crimes committed by such migrants is "more people’s perception.” Sanctuary laws do not prohibit local law enforcement from enforcing criminal law, nor do they stop cooperation with federal criminal law enforcement. Pittman said the city would still follow the California Values Act and that the resolution was amended during Tuesday’s meeting to remove a line that directed the city administrator and chief of police to implement "non-sanctuary" status for fear it would put city staff in a "precarious" position. The resolution states the city will comply with California’s sanctuary law.

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 11:47 AM, Kate Linthicum and Cecillia Sanchez Vidal, 52868K] reports that one day after President Trump’s sweeping tariffs took effect, ending decades of free trade across North America, Mexicans reacted with a mix of fear and defiance. "There will not be submission," President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her daily news conference Wednesday. "Mexicans are valiant and strong." Sheinbaum reiterated her plan to announce counter measures — including taxes on U.S. imports — during a public event in Mexico City on Sunday. But she also appeared to be holding out hope that Trump might reverse course before then, highlighting comments from U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that Trump might reverse at least some of the tariffs as soon as Wednesday. Sheinbaum also said she hoped to speak on the phone with Trump this week. At the border, business leaders reported an immediate drop in the quantity of goods crossing north to the U.S. as companies on both sides sought to avoid the new taxes. In the streets of the nation’s capital, there was a palpable sense of unease. While the peso has largely held strong against the dollar, there are real fears about what a trade war would mean for Mexico, whose economy depends heavily on trade with the United States, sending 80% of its exports there.

NBC News [3/5/2025 7:00 AM, Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee, Julie Tsirkin, and Julia Ainsley, 44742K] reports that President Donald Trump’s plan to use the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to detain 30,000 immigrants has been hitting major legal, logistical and financial hurdles ever since he surprised many in his own administration by announcing it. Now, as agencies spar over responsibility for operations there and over blame for what has gone wrong, there is a growing recognition within the administration that it was a political decision that is just not working. Among the major issues, especially as the Trump administration works to slash spending throughout the government, is the cost. Taking detained immigrants to Guantánamo means flying them there, and the administration has sometimes chosen to use military planes that are expensive to operate. On Tuesday of last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was on hand at Guantánamo when a military C-130 carrying nine immigrants landed at the base. The Defense Department calculates the cost per flight hour to operate a C-130 at $20,756, so for a trip of five to six hours, it cost the Pentagon $207,000 to $249,000 round trip, or $23,000 to $27,000 per detainee. Costs for those flights are lower when charter planes that Immigration and Customs Enforcement typically uses for deportation flights are employed in place of the military aircraft.

USA Today [3/5/2025 4:23 PM, Riley Beggin, Lauren Villagran, Trevor Hughes, 75858K] reports a bipartisan delegation from Congress plans to inspect President Donald Trump’s migrant detention center at Guantanamo Bay as soon as Friday, according to three lawmakers invited on the trip. The visit from members of the House Armed Services Committee would be the first congressional delegation to examine the facility since Trump ordered ICE to detain migrants at the U.S. Naval base in Cuba in early February. There are currently fewer than 24 migrants being detained at facility, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Miami Herald [3/5/2025 10:23 PM, Jacqueline Charles, 3973K] reports JetBlue Airways is extending its suspension of flights into Haiti’s main international airport in Port-au-Prince. Flights will remain suspended until at least June 11, a spokesman told the Miami Herald. The U.S. carrier operates the only direct flights between Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince and South Florida and New York. Citing Haiti’s ongoing civil unrest, the airline previously announced that all of its flights into Haiti would remain suspended through at least April 30. "Our top priority remains the safety and well-being of our customers and crew members," the spokesman said. "Due to the ongoing civil unrest in Haiti, we have made the decision to suspend all flights to and from the country through at least June 11, 2025. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and update our plans as necessary.” The suspension announcement comes exactly one week before the Federal Aviation Administration ban on U.S. commercial and cargo airlines is set to expire on March 12, and on the same day that Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council announced that the domestic airport in the southwestern city of Les Cayes is now capable of receiving international flights. The runway was extended to 5,905 feet from the original 4,265. The opening, along with the recent inauguration of a major port in Les Cayes, is being hailed as a major step forward for the development of the South, which remains cut off from the capital by criminal gangs that are in control of all the major highways out of Port-au-Prince. Haitian authorities have spent weeks completing renovations on the runway at the Antoine Simon Airport in the coastal city in order to be able to receive international jetliners. A similar renovation effort was also done at the smaller airport in the southeastern city of Jacmel in January ahead of a visit by Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

New York Times [3/5/2025 1:00 PM, Hamed Aleaziz and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 3973K] reports that just about every week since taking office, President Donald Trump has called Thomas D. Homan, the enforcer of his immigration agenda, looking for an update on mass deportations. How is it going at the border? What do the arrest numbers look like? Are sanctuary cities still standing in the way of the crackdown? Homan’s typical response serves as something of a reality check for the president, whose campaign promise to deport millions of people is colliding with the practical difficulties of detaining immigrants and then transporting them across the globe. "We need to increase the arrests," Homan said he has told Trump, recounting their conversations in an interview with The New York Times. "They’re not high enough." Inside the administration, there is growing frustration about the pace of arrests and deportations, even as Trump mobilizes the full weight of the federal government behind his mission to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. Homan acknowledged he could not predict the number of people the administration would deport this year, citing financial shortfalls at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "The more money you have, the more successful we’re going to be," he said. "So people always ask me, ‘How many you think you can arrest?’ I say I have no idea."

Newsweek [3/5/2025 11:33 AM, Billal Rahman, 52220K] reports that in a powerful moment during a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on sanctuary cities, Democrats shared a letter from a young migrant boy writing to his friend about his fear of being taken by ICE agents. "If ICE takes me don’t forget about me I will be in El Salvador. You’re my best friend, the brother I never had. I cry every night thinking that they will come for me at school," the letter from the unidentified child read. The letter was an emotional appeal from a party trying to find its footing on its opposition to Trump, particularly when it comes to immigration and mass deportations — policies that are largely supported by voters. The appeal took place as four Democratic mayors from "sanctuary cities" were testifying Wednesday before Congress, as Republicans scrutinize their immigration policies, arguing they hinder federal agents. New York City’s Eric Adams, Boston’s Michelle Wu, Denver’s Mike Johnson, and Chicago’s Brandon Johnson have been called to appear before the House Oversight Committee to defend their positions on not permitting local police and other agencies to assist with immigration enforcement. Congressman Gerry Connolly, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, shared the letter during his opening remarks at the hearing.

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 1:47 PM, Katie Mulvaney, 52868K] reports civil liberties advocates are raising alarms over the arrest of a Venezuelan national by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Rhode Island courthouse, warning that it could chill victims and witnesses in immigrant communities from coming forward. Federal authorities on Tuesday announced the arrest of Edward Antonio Reyes Calderon, 22, a Venezuelan national alleged to be in the United States illegally, on charges that he assaulted ICE officers Feb.13 as they moved to take him into custody in the sally port at Garrahy Judicial Complex. Reyes Calderon had just been released on bail after an appearance in District Court on a domestic violence charge. He also faces a grand larceny charge in New York, prosecutors said. "The actions of ICE in arresting a person at the courthouse is extremely troubling. While they may have detained an immigrant facing a domestic violence charge, let there be no mistake: this action will have a chilling effect on victims of domestic violence who will now be fearful of coming to court," Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, said. The state judiciary, which stressed the importance of open court access during President Donald Trump’s first administration in 2017, declined to weigh in on Reyes Calderon’s arrest. "The Judiciary has no comment on this matter," Lexi Kriss, spokeswoman, said.

CBS Austin [3/5/2025 10:51 AM, Staff, 602K] reports that Immigrant advocacy groups and community allies across Arlington, Virginia joined in protest Tuesday afternoon to stand against recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the area. According to a post on X, Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem joined agents as they carried out arrests earlier Tuesday morning. FBI Director Kash Patel says 32 more arrests were made also targeting illegal immigrants. On the streets of Arlington, protestors chanted "What do we want? ICE out. When do we want it? Now." "To this administration, scaring communities and tearing apart families and terrorizing communities is a game," Amy Fischer, director of refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA, said. "The Trump agenda and the Youngkin agenda are enforcing racist attacks against our communities," Danny Cendejas, an organizer with La ColectiVA, said. That comment comes days after Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order instructing state police and prison officers to cooperate with federal immigration agents.

Washington Post [3/5/2025 3:48 PM, Teo Armus, Salvador Rizzo and Rachel Weiner, 31735K] reports the rumors about large-scale immigration arrests in Northern Virginia had been circulating for days. Multiple news outlets reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had obtained between 75 and 100 judicial warrants to conduct arrests in the area. Advocacy groups blasted out an alert on social media asking people to report sightings of federal agents. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem brought an ABC News television news crew to shadow her and immigration agents overnight. Then, on Tuesday, she celebrated “a successful operation” targeting “criminal aliens and gang members” that, per the ABC News report, appeared to net two undocumented immigrants — including one man who officials told the network had been convicted of sexual battery. By Wednesday, it was unclear how many people had been detained in the operation — or if those figures represented a significant jump in arrests. Court records showed that federal prosecutors in Alexandria had charged nine men Sunday for illegally reentering the country, a typical immigration case load for that court, though it’s unclear if those were related to the ICE activity this week. ICE does not always obtain judicial warrants before detaining an individual, but such a document allows agents to enter private property. The agency’s Washington field office — which covers D.C. and Virginia — arrested an average of 156 people each month from fall 2020 through summer 2024, according to ICE data. Nearly two-thirds of those arrested in the most recent fiscal year had existing criminal convictions..

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 1:47 PM, Christine Zhu, 52868K] reports women living in Winston-Salem whose husbands were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement visited the state Legislative Building in Raleigh on Wednesday to share their stories with lawmakers. The visit comes a day after the state Senate approved and sent to the House a bill dubbed the North Carolina "Border Protection Act." The legislation would require state agencies like the Department of Public Safety and Highway Patrol to enter agreements with ICE to assist with immigration enforcement. Immigrant rights advocacy groups like Siembra NC, which organized Wednesday’s meeting between the Winston-Salem residents and members of the House Progressive Caucus, refer to the legislation as the "Family Separation Act.” "We care about you, your family, your loved ones, and we will do everything we can," Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover) told the women and their children. Cynthia, 34, said in Spanish that her husband Juan Rosa Meza and four other men were heading home from a residential construction job in Sarasota, Florida when they were stopped by Florida Highway Patrol. Officers told the men they were stopped because they hadn’t entered a weigh station, although they were traveling in a nine-passenger work van, not a semi-trailer. The men were transferred into ICE custody and all but one — who was deported on March 3 — are currently held at the Krome detention center in Miami. Meza does not have a criminal record.

Miami Herald [3/5/2025 4:58 PM, Jay Weaver, 3973K] reports a mother and her son pretended to be in the construction business, the feds say. But they were really running a mini-bank out of a Homestead residence that catered to local contractors that hired illegal immigrants as workers and paid them cash under the table, according to authorities. Over the past eight years, the mother-son team operated an illegal $37 million check-cashing business while providing employee payroll services for numerous Miami-Dade construction firms and charging them huge fees, according to a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors in Miami. Anneri Sagrario Izurieta, 60, a lawful U.S. resident from Honduras, was ordered detained on Tuesday after a Miami federal magistrate judge found she was a flight risk to her native country — although assistant federal public defender Christian Dunham argued she should be given a bond like her son and released before trial. Her son, Joseph Abdel Navarro Verde, 33, a U.S. citizen, was granted a $200,000 personal surety bond and released from detention under an agreement last week between federal prosecutor Ana Martinez and his defense lawyer, Juan Berrio. Both the mother and son face arraignment this month on an indictment expected to charge them with conspiring to conduct an unlicensed money transmitting business and related offenses. Izurieta and Navarro operated a couple of illicit check-cashing businesses out of the mother’s Homestead residence, according to a Homeland Security Investigations complaint and affidavit.

Daytona Beach News-Journal [3/5/2025 5:25 PM, Frank Fernandez] reports a 70-year-old man living in a tent behind a gas station in Palm Coast has been charged with human trafficking after performing sexual acts on a 16-year-old girl, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office stated. Jose Valerio-Rodriguez was arrested Monday and charged with human trafficking and unlawful sexual activity with certain minors, according to the charging affidavit. The sheriff’s office also stated Valerio-Rodriguez, a Cuban citizen, was in the United States illegally and will be deported. The sheriff’s office contacted the Department of Homeland Security, which placed a detainer on him and found probable cause to deport him. A Flagler County detention deputy, who was also a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Warrant Service Officer, served the detainer on Valerio-Rodriguez. Valerio-Rodriguez will be transferred into DHS custody and deported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection when the local arrest is resolved through the courts.

USA Today [3/5/2025 11:11 PM, Michael Loria, 75858K] reports an Illinois judge ordered a pair of landlords to pay $80,000 to former tenants after threatening to report them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after a dispute in 2020. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Catherine A. Schneider ordered Marco Antonio Contreras and Denise Contreras to pay the sum to former tenants, Maria Maltos Escutia and Gabriel Valdez Garcia, according to court filings. The pair of tenants filed the lawsuit in 2022 against the Contrerases under the Illinois Immigrant Tenant Protection Act, a law Governor J.B. Pritzker signed in 2019 that prohibits landlords from evicting or retaliating against their tenants based on their immigration status. "We decided not to stay silent because our landlords threatened us with calling immigration, and we do not believe that anyone has a right to threaten us," the tenant couple said in a statement this week announcing the judgment from February. "No one should feel or act superior to others. We are all equals and deserve respect. Just because someone is your landlord does not mean that they get to do whatever they want to you.” Marco Antonio Contreras had threatened to call immigration agents on the family over a rent dispute in June 2020, according to the lawsuit. The dispute with the landlords originated when Maltos Escutia and Valdez Garcia were in the process of moving out and it was unclear if they would remain in the apartment for the entire month.

Reported similarly:
Miami Herald [3/5/2025 10:44 AM, Laura Rodríguez Presa and Rebecca Johnson, 3973K]

Minnesota Public Radio [3/5/2025 6:17 PM, Sarah Thamer, 60K] reports the ACLU of Minnesota announced Wednesday that it is suing the Carver County Sheriff for illegally holding a non-citizen in custody for pick up from Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. According to the suit, Maikol Javier Suarez Varela was arrested on Jan. 5, 2025 in Chanhassen. Sheriff Jason Kamerud or others at the jail, reads the complaint, contacted ICE about Suarez Varela’s presence. The ACLU alleges that even though a bail payment was made for Suarez Varela, Carver County continued to hold him based on a detainer request from ICE, which is not the same as a court issued warrant. Suarez Varela’s attorney, Ian Bratlie, says Suarez Varela is an asylum applicant from Venezuela. The ACLU-MN says Suarez Varela is currently being held by ICE at the Freeborn County jail.

Houston Chronicle [3/5/2025 3:13 PM, Matt deGrood, Sam González Kelly, John Wayne Ferguson, 1769K] reports federal agents detained 20 people late Tuesday while investigating alleged employment paperwork violations at an industrial manufacturer in Spring, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Wednesday. Those detained were taken to a Conroe facility for administrative immigration violations, according to an ICE spokesperson. He did not identify any criminal charges facing those taken into custody. Investigators visited Texas Couplings LLC Tuesday after an I-9 audit found discrepancies with the business, the spokesperson said. An I-9 form is a document to verify employment eligibility. The raid is the first known in Houston not targeting those charged with crimes.

Reported similarly:
Telemundo 48 El Paso [3/5/2025 6:12 PM, Oliver Lara, 11K]

AP [3/5/2025 9:57 PM, Morgan Lee, 34586K] reports a private prison company has signed an agreement to reopen an immigrant detention facility in Texas that previously held families with children for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the business said Wednesday. Nashville-based CoreCivic announced the contract with ICE and the city of Dilley regarding the 2,400-bed South Texas Family Residential Center, located about 85 miles (135 kilometers) north of Laredo and the Mexico border. The center was used during the administration of President Barack Obama and Donald Trump’s first presidency. But President Joe Biden phased out family detention in 2021, and CoreCivic said the facility was idled in 2024. “We do acknowledge that we anticipate housing families” at Dilley, CoreCivic spokesman Ryan Gustin told The Associated Press. CoreCivic said in a statement that the facility “was purpose-built for ICE in 2014 to provide an appropriate setting for a family population.” The new contract runs through at least March 2030. ICE officials did not immediately respond to messages seeking information about who will be held at Dilley and how soon. The agency — which mostly detains immigrants at privately operated detention facilities, its own processing centers and local prisons and jails — entered this year with zero facilities geared toward families, who last year accounted for about one-third of arrivals on the southern border.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [3/5/2025 5:21 PM, Maria Sacchetti, Arelis R. Hernández and Douglas MacMillan, 31735K]

Houston Chronicle [3/5/2025 1:00 PM, Matt deGrood, 1769K] reports that more than nine days after Gov. Greg Abbott first announced state and federal authorities were descending on Colony Ridge as part of a deportation operation, federal officials released information highlighting charges against nine of the more than 118 detained in February. For each of the nine, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said they listed the person’s age and nation of origin along with when they were arrested and what crimes led to their being targeted. Officials did not release the names of any of the people charged or the charges of the other 100 or so people detained. Tim Oberle, a spokesman for the federal agency, said it was against policy to release a list of names of those arrested because of privacy issues. But the agency did previously provide the name of one person arrested as part of the operation — Florentin Chevez-Luna, 39, who matches up with one of the nine arrests in the list, as he was also listed as being from El Salvador and was wanted on a warrant for sexual abuse of a minor. The charges were released a day after an ICE raid of a workplace in Spring.

Telemundo Amarillo [3/5/2025 4:04 PM, Staff, 2K] reports a foreign fugitive from Mexico was arrested in Carson City, Nevada, by U.S. Marshals in an operation that included the assistance of the local sheriff. In February 2020, an arrest warrant was issued in Mexico for Guillermo Verano-Cruz, charging him with aggravated sexual assault. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Verano-Cruz has a significant criminal history and has been deported from the United States three times. More than five years after the order was issued, on February 28, 2025, Mexican authorities requested the assistance of U.S. Marshals in locating Verano-Cruz, who was also wanted on an active administrative removal order held by ICE. On Tuesday, the Nevada Violent Offender Task Force and ICE detained Verano without incident after his car was spotted on Highway 50 in Carson City. Another person in his car was identified and determined to be in violation of U.S. immigration laws. Both are now in ICE custody.

FOX News [3/5/2025 5:06 PM, Louis Casiano, 46189K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said a mother and son living in the United States illegally both have criminal histories amid backlash over their arrests in California last month. The family of Yolanda Perez and her son, Jonathan Tejeda-Perez, said the pair were arrested near their home in the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte on Feb. 24. The family said that ICE agents claimed to have had a warrant but never showed them one, Fox Los Angeles reported. An ICE spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Yolanda Perez entered the U.S. illegally at an unknown time and date. She was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in July 2005 for theft. Jonathan Tejeda-Perez, who also entered the U.S. illegally at some point, has multiple arrests, ICE said. He was arrested by the sheriff’s department for possession of a controlled substance, possession of unlawful paraphernalia, driving without a license in 2014, possession of a controlled substance in 2015, possession of unlawful paraphernalia, and driving without a license in 2016, ICE said. Tejeda-Perez was also arrested in 2017 by the Arcadia Police Department for possession of a controlled substance, the Los Angeles Police Department for property theft, and the United States Postal Inspection Service in Los Angeles for theft or receipt of stolen mail. In that case, he was convicted for theft or receipt of stolen mail. Both mother and son are being detained pending immigration proceedings.

The Hill [3/5/2025 2:08 PM, Filip Timotija, 12829K] reports the State Department unveiled visa restrictions on foreign government officials who are thought to be responsible for aiding illegal immigration into the U.S., part of a wider effort by President Trump’s administration to crackdown on immigration. The new visa-restriction policy, which was released on Wednesday, will apply to foreign officials, including customs and immigration officials, and port authority and airports officials who are deemed culpable for bolstering illegal immigration into the U.S., according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The visa bans would be imposed on foreign officials for "failure to enforce immigration laws or establishing and implementing policies and practices that knowingly facilitate the transit of aliens intending to illegally immigrate into the United States via the U.S. southwest border.” "Securing our nation’s borders is critically important to making America safer, stronger, and more prosperous," Rubio said in a statement on Wednesday. "Countries along migratory routes must do their part to prevent and deter the transit of aliens seeking to illegally enter the United States.” Rubio said this measure will be enforced "until those officials take responsibility for ensuring there are policies in place and existing laws are enforced to prevent the transit of such individuals.” "America will not back down when it comes to defending our national security interests," he added.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [3/5/2025 10:35 AM, Patrick Jones, 41523K]
UPI [3/5/2025 10:57 PM, Darryl Coote, 1890K]

Reuters [3/5/2025 10:02 PM, Jonathan Landay, Ted Hesson and Humeyra Pamuk, 41523K] reports a new travel ban by President Donald Trump could bar people from Afghanistan and Pakistan from entering the U.S. as soon as next week based on a government review of countries’ security and vetting risks, three sources familiar with the matter said. The three sources, who requested anonymity, said other countries could also be on the list but did not know which ones. The move harkens back to the Republican president’s first term ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. Former President Joe Biden, a Democrat who succeeded Trump, repealed the ban in 2021, calling it “a stain on our national conscience.” The new ban could affect tens of thousands of Afghans who have been cleared for resettlement in the U.S. as refugees or on Special Immigrant Visas because they are at risk of Taliban retribution for working for the U.S. during a 20-year war in their home country. Trump issued an executive order on January 20 requiring intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the U.S. to detect national security threats. That order directed several cabinet members to submit by March 12 a list of countries from which travel should be partly or fully suspended because their "vetting and screening information is so deficient." Afghanistan will be included in the recommended list of countries for a complete travel ban, said the three sources and one other who also asked not to be identified. The three sources said Pakistan also would be recommended for inclusion. The departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security and the Office of the Director for National Intelligence, whose leaders are overseeing the initiative, did not respond immediately to requests for comment. One source pointed out that Afghans cleared for resettlement in the U.S. as refugees or on the special visas first undergo intense screening that makes them "more highly vetted than any population" in the world. The State Department office that oversees their resettlement is seeking an exemption for Special Immigrant Visa holders from the travel ban "but it’s not assumed likely to be granted," the source said.

Newsweek [3/5/2025 4:14 PM, Dan Gooding, 52220K] reports the agency managing visa and citizenship applications wants to collect information on all applicants’ social media accounts in the name of national security. A 60-day public-comment period opened Wednesday for the change to application forms, which the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) told Newsweek will help it comply with one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on border security. Gathering more personal information on immigrants could be crucial in identifying national security risks, but civil rights experts are warning that a misinterpretation of a post could lead to detention or denial of an application. A USCIS spokesperson told Newsweek that reviewing social media accounts would strengthen fraud detection and ensure applicants were not a threat to public safety or national security.

Border Report [3/5/2025 10:37 AM, Jorge Vela, 117K] reports that the Trump administration has announced it will enforce an immigration registration requirement for people living illegally in the country. Similar programs have existed off and on in the United States for decades. However, local immigration attorneys are confused and worry that this could be a way to target immigrant communities. Immigration attorney Abdiel Echevarria Caban views this as pinpointing a certain group of people. "This is a way to target immigrant communities, let’s be honest about it because it is adding punitive and criminal requirements that are not established in the law or under the discretion of the attorney general and this is a delegated power," Echevarria Caban said. The plan is to enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act’s (INA) registration requirements for undocumented migrants. Everyone 14 years and older who does not have legal status in the country must comply by registering and getting fingerprinted. Parents must also ensure minors are registered and failure may result in fines and prosecution. Echevarria Caban views this as unconstitutional. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Newsweek [3/5/2025 1:23 PM, Nick Mordowanec, 52220K] reports Canadian "snowbirds" who travel south to warmer climates during winter months are being warned about new immigration provisions put into effect by the U.S. government. The new requirements implemented by the Trump administration and published on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website include new legal guidance for anyone entering the United States. As of February 25, foreign nationals who enter the country U.S. via a land border and did not receive a document from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are required to register with the U.S. government if their stay exceeds 30 days. Immigration attorneys tell Newsweek that potentially millions of Canadians could be affected by the shift. The provision is part of Trump’s executive order titled "Protecting the American People Against Invasion" that directed the Department of Homeland Security to ensure compliance by all aliens under the Immigration and Nationality Act. "It is my opinion that this policy is part-in-parcel with the 51st state threat and the tariffs on Canada," Rosanna Berardi, an immigration lawyer from Buffalo, New York, told Newsweek. "For the last 28 years of my practice, Canadian citizens would generally be exempt from these types of requirements. It is certainly a shift in policy.” Berardi said that "dozens" of Canadians have already contacted her firm for help. Under the new provision, all "aliens" 14 years of age or older who were not fingerprinted or registered when applying for a U.S. visa and who remain in the U.S. for 30 days or longer must apply for registration and fingerprinting. Parents and guardians must ensure that children under age 14 are registered, and within 30 days of reaching his or her 14th birthday, the previously registered child must apply for re-registration and to be fingerprinted. Historically, Canadian citizens have enjoyed visa exemption and verbal inspection at land borders without formal documentation. One of the new requirements involves obtaining an I-94 admission record that acts as proof of legal visitor status, complete with arrival and departure dates and intended length of stay. "In general, Canadian citizens are ‘visa exempt’ and do not require and/or obtain an I-94 card, which is a record of admission," Berardi said. "I-94s can only be issued by CBP upon entry to the United States. It is a fairly simple process but requires crossing the border and providing a passport/biographical data to CBP.

WFTV [3/5/2025 5:17 PM, Staff] reports Acting United States Attorney Sara Sweeney says there has been a guilty plea in a federal firearms trafficking case. Jose G. Medina, 49, of Leesburg, pleaded guilty to three counts of knowingly making a materially false statement in connection with the acquisition of a firearm and three counts of causing a federal firearm licensee to maintain false information in its official records. The Justice Department says Medina faces up to 10 years in federal prison for each false statement offense and up to five years for each record-keeping offense. His sentencing date has not yet been set. The announcement states that Medina "straw-purchased" multiple firearms for other people in 2023. Some of these firearms were intercepted by the United States Custom and Border Patrol when others tried to get them across the border into Mexico. A record check by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives showed that Medina had purchased 82 firearms for a total of $42,085.61 in 2023. This amount exceeded his reported annual income.

New York Times [3/5/2025 7:28 PM, Alexandra E. Petri, 145325K] reports strong winds dislodged a U.S. Customs and Border Protection surveillance blimp in South Padre Island, Texas, this week, sending it on an unplanned journey of nearly 600 miles across the state until it crashed into power lines outside Dallas, the authorities said. The blimp, which was about 200 feet long, broke free from its tether just after 3 p.m. Monday during a “severe wind event,” the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations division said in a statement. Maximum wind gusts were around 30 miles per hour that day, slightly stronger than normal, said Ben Ellzey, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Brownsville. Operators lost contact with the white blimp shortly after it became loose, according to the statement. The agency asked residents to report any sighting of it. According to the Air and Marine Operations division, Quinlan Texas Fire and Rescue found the blimp on Tuesday in Hunt County, about 30 miles east of Dallas. Chief Ryan Biggers of the South Hunt County Fire Rescue said he was puzzled when the department received a “weird” call about 6:40 a.m. Wednesday from Border Patrol seeking help with recovering the blimp. “I was kind of unsure what they meant,” Chief Biggers said. When he responded, he saw white material hanging over trees and power lines, as if a white tarp had been laid out, he said. “I couldn’t even tell it was a blimp,” Chief Biggers said. The balloon was too tangled for fire equipment, he said, adding that a heavy rotator wrecker was needed to lift the debris and what remained of the blimp off the power lines it had crashed into. Jake Cunningham, operations manager at Benson Bros. Wrecker Service, a professional towing company that was called in for assistance with recovering the blimp, said, “Fortunately, we are a little more experienced in some of the stranger calls.” Mr. Cunningham said that two operators had extracted the balloon using a 60-ton rotator, a crane with a long arm that spins, in a process that took about two hours. “It was a delicate situation,” he said.

Reported similarly:
Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 3:49 PM, Amber Kite, 52868K] Video: HERE

El Paso Times [3/5/2025 4:17 PM, Daniel Borunda] reports three U.S. Army soldiers from Fort Cavazos have pleaded guilty to a migrant smuggling attempt following a high-speed U.S. Border Patrol chase in West Texas last fall, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said. The soldiers were to be paid an unspecified amount of money on Nov. 27 after picking up undocumented migrants along the Rio Grande near Presidio and transporting them to Odessa, Texas, according to federal criminal complaint documents. Army Pfc. Enrique Jauregui and Spc. Angel Palma pleaded guilty in a federal court in Alpine to one count of aiding and abetting the transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said on Tuesday, March 4. Pfc. Emilio Mendoza Lopez pleaded guilty to the same charge on Jan. 27. All three face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Mendoza Lopez is scheduled to be sentenced April 25, while Jauregui and Palma are set to be sentenced May 23. The case was investigated by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Border Patrol, and the Department of the Army Criminal Investigations Division.

AP [3/5/2025 8:57 AM, Staff, 48304K] reports that as spring break approaches, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is providing essential tips to help travelers have a smooth experience at security checkpoints across the country. TSA is expecting high passenger volumes during the peak spring break travel period running from March 6-24, when air travel numbers are anticipated to increase by more than 5%. "Spring break is one of the busiest travel times of the year," said Adam Stahl, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator. "While we are focused on spring break, which is quickly approaching, TSA is also closely tracking and preparing for the summer travel season. With REAL ID’s May 7 deadline looming, it’s important to prioritize REAL ID registration now. By doing so, travelers can ensure a smooth and secure journey through the airport for both spring and summer travels."

CBS Miami [3/5/2025 12:16 PM, Staff, 51661K] reports that CBS News Miami’s Ted Scouten was at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to report on what the agency says is allowed on planes. [Editorial note: consult video at source link for video]

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 6:38 PM, David Knowles, Kate Murphy, 52868K] reports a massive winter storm impacting large swaths of the country — bringing blizzard conditions to the Midwest, hurricane-force winds to Texas, tornadoes in Oklahoma and Texas and increased wildfire risks for the mid-Atlantic region — has been blamed for the deaths of three people in Mississippi. High winds toppled power lines and trees in many counties in Mississippi on Tuesday, WAPT News reported, leaving three people dead and knocking out power to 38,000 residents. Meanwhile, widespread power outages in Texas left tens of thousands of customers without power this week. Hurricane-force winds battered the state throughout much of the day. High-wind warnings were posted by the NWS in 20 states on Wednesday. Blizzard conditions are expected Wednesday in Iowa, the NWS office in Des Moines said. On Wednesday morning, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz authorized the Minnesota National Guard to help with emergency storm operations, after several inches of snow fell Tuesday night into the morning hours.

Newsweek [3/5/2025 11:24 AM, Joe Edwards, 52220K] reports that severe thunderstorm and tornado alerts have been issued across multiple states on Wednesday. The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued tornado watches for a number of counties in North and South Carolina. Meanwhile, severe thunderstorm warnings and watches are in effect in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Severe thunderstorms may cause power lines and trees to be blown down, and mobile homes and other buildings to be damaged, the NWS said. The agency added that flying debris from deadly winds can be deadly, and urged people to stay away from windows. "Seek shelter in a sturdy structure until the storm has passed," the NWS said. A tornado watch is in effect across large parts of central and eastern North and South Carolina until 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Major cities covered by the tornado watch include Charleston and Wilmington. Severe thunderstorm warnings are also in effect until 12.15 pm E.T. across a central band of North Carolina, including the city of Durham. The storm is moving in a northeast direction at speeds of 35 mph, with wind gusts of up to 60 mph, the NWS said. The severe thunderstorm warning is also in effect until 11.45 am ET across the following counties in Virginia: Mecklenburg, Prince Edward, Lunenburg, Western Nottoway. [Editorial note: consult video at source link for video]

ABC News [3/5/2025 12:06 PM, Peter Charalambous, 34586K] reports that a federal judge is weighing whether to compel the Trump administration to unfreeze millions of dollars in previously allocated FEMA funds. A coalition of 22 Democratic attorneys general says the administration is illegally withholding the funds despite a court order requiring their payment. The attorneys general have asked the judge to compel the Trump administration to unfreeze the payments, alleging that at least 16 states have been unable to access money from 140 FEMA grants. According to their motion filed in federal court on Friday, programs whose funds have been frozen include wildfire prevention, emergency management, terrorism prevention, cybersecurity, and flood mitigation. "The safety of our residents is not a game and should not be subject to partisan politics and retribution from the President and his appointees," said New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, one of the 22 attorneys general who filed the motion. In January, a federal judge in Rhode Island prohibited the Trump administration from unilaterally freezing federal funding. While the Trump administration unfroze some of the funds, the attorneys general allege that the federal government continues to withhold millions in FEMA funding. Their court filing included multiple examples of FEMA’s payment system showing the grants continuing to be frozen. The dispute about the FEMA funds comes as the Trump administration is considering reshaping or abolishing FEMA. In January, Trump signed an executive order to begin the process to reform or consider "getting rid of" the agency tasked with disaster relief.

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 7:55 PM, Phelicity Robinson, 52868K] reports a FEMA disaster area is set up in Mercer County. The center is stationed at Lifeline Church of God in Princeton. Survivors can visit the center as a one-stop shop. They can apply for FEMA assistance, as well as getting help with appeal letters and documentation. The center is staffed by FEMA staff and will be the location to start the claim process for loss. Another way for applicants to discuss their FEMA assistance is by phone at 800-621-3362.

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 5:13 AM, Jacob Biba, 52868K] reports that while nearly 1,800 North Carolina households impacted by Tropical Storm Helene are still living in hotels paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, many in the agency’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program are scheduled to check out soon. Without program assistance, some participants told the Citizen Times that they’re unsure what they will do next for shelter. According to FEMA, more than 1,200 households from across the state are slated to leave March 7, including 332 of the nearly 500 Buncombe County households currently sheltering in hotels. In January, around 5,700 in North Carolina were staying in hotels paid for by FEMA, the Citizen Times previously reported. The rapid dispersal of those in the program has led to frustration, with many claiming they have no alternative shelter or housing options. On multiple occasions, the agency has extended eligibility to participants after outcry from elected leaders like Gov. Josh Stein and Rep. Chuck Edwards. As a result, the program will continue until May 26 for eligible households. In February, the Citizen Times reported that the agency extended program eligibility for some participants after a "system error" altered check-out dates and created widespread confusion and fear among participants. Buncombe County has coordinated outreach efforts to contact program participants.

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 4:48 AM, Staff, 52868K] reports that a Talbot County man is facing felony arson charges after authorities have accused him of intentionally setting a 108-acre wildfire. The Georgia Forestry Commission and the Talbot County Sheriff’s Office arrested William Shane Harvey, 52, of Box Springs, Georgia on Sunday. Officers took him into custody Harvey near the location of the wildfire. No injuries were reported, but the fire destroyed two buildings, two homes were damaged, and 11 victims reported property damage. If convicted of arson, Harvey could face a fine of up to $50,000 or one to 20 years in prison. The GFC says arson is one of the leading causes of wildfires in Georgia.

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 6:32 PM, Grace Velez, 52868K] reports FEMA representatives, congressional representatives, and Panama City officials finally made some progress toward funding some road improvement projects. "Last week, we had a great and very productive phone call with representatives from FEMA, both here in Florida, as well as up in D.C., along with a representative from Congressman Dunn’s office and Senator Scott’s office. So we’re very grateful to our congressional representatives for fighting hard for Panama City and working to hold the federal agencies accountable," City Manager Johnathan Hayes said. FEMA is giving the city an estimated $10 million to repair 26 miles of road, consisting of 351 road segments. The funding will be a reimbursement. "Five or six of those segments are going to be completely rebuilt like completely down to the new base and new sub-base. We’re working kind of through that, some of those details as well. But if it comes in maybe a little bit over that or a little bit under that, that’s fine. FEMA will pay exactly what it costs. And so we’re really excited about this," Hayes said. Hayes hopes the projects will begin by summer.

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 8:18 PM, Wesley Muller, 52868K] reports Blue tarps cover the roof of Paula Bermudez’s storm-damaged house in Galliano on Oct. 5, 2021 — six weeks after Hurricane Ida. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator). Since President Donald Trump first suggested "maybe getting rid of FEMA" and letting states manage federal disaster funding, emergency preparedness experts have expressed mixed feelings about the idea. Those wary of Trump’s direction point to Louisiana’s Road Home program as a cautionary tale, citing tens of thousands of homeowners left without adequate resources to repair or rebuild. Trump floated the elimination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during a visit to North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, criticizing it for being too slow and inefficient. Proponents of the idea are frustrated with disaster management bureaucracy and invite changes to the current system, but some believe a complete dismantling of the agency would invite even more problems. The president ultimately convened a committee to review FEMA and file a report later this year with recommendations on how to improve it. Disaster experts who spoke with the Illuminator agree the underlying problem is not so much with FEMA itself but with the public’s misconceptions about its role. "I think there’s some misunderstanding about how FEMA works," said Andrea Davis, a former FEMA external affairs director in Louisiana. She worked for the agency after Hurricane Katrina and now does emergency preparedness consulting. Many people mistakenly confuse FEMA’s role with that of first responders and local emergency operations officials, Davis said. Jacques Thibodeaux, director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP), explained that disaster response is generally organized into three stages – each with a different level of oversight.

CBS Minnesota [3/5/2025 4:08 PM, Cole Premo, 51661K] reports that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has declared a peacetime emergency following a spring snowstorm that brought heavy snowfall and blizzard conditions to the state Wednesday. Walz’s executive order, which is effective immediately, authorizes the Minnesota National Guard to provide support for emergency storm operations. "Minnesota is no stranger to winter weather, but conditions can quickly become unpredictable and dangerous," Walz said. "As we work to alleviate the dangerous road conditions, the National Guard is stepping up to provide life-saving support." Walz’s office says the state has received a request for National Guard assistance from the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office to "provide the personnel, equipment, facilities, and resources necessary to respond to the severe weather and rescue stranded motorists." Between midnight and 7 a.m., the Minnesota State Patrol says there have been 111 vehicles off the road, 25 spinouts, 70 property damage crashes and seven jackknifed semis. Numerous cities, including Minneapolis and St. Paul, have declared snow emergencies. Hundreds of school closings or virtual learning days have also been called due to weather conditions. Thousands of homes and businesses in the Twin Cities are without power Wednesday morning, according to Xcel Energy. The energy company says it is working on restoring power. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Austin [3/5/2025 5:16 PM, Tara Brolley, Stephanie Becerra, 602K] reports emergency services are responding to a new wildfire in northwest Wimberley Wednesday, the third fire to hit Hays County this week. Hays County Office of Emergency Management reported the Longhorn Fire has burned 5 acres and is 50% contained in the area of Longhorn Trail. Officials are asking residents to avoid the area while firefighters work to contain the blaze. This latest incident follows two other fires that broke out in Hays County on Tuesday. The 150-acre Onion Creek fire is now 75% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. Crews are continuing mop-up operations at the Onion Creek fire to ensure the containment lines hold. A separate fire in the 800 block of Engelke Road in Kyle also prompted evacuations Tuesday, but those orders were lifted by 5 p.m. as firefighters brought that blaze under control.

New York Times [3/5/2025 5:19 PM, Ivan Penn, 145325K] reports Los Angeles County sued Southern California Edison and its parent company on Wednesday, blaming the utility’s equipment for causing the deadly Eaton fire in January. The county’s lawsuit is the most prominent case brought against Edison, which is also facing scores of lawsuits filed by victims of the fire that killed 17 people and destroyed more than 9,400 buildings near Altadena and Pasadena, Calif. The cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre are also filing suits against Edison for damages that include the use of taxpayer resources and destruction of public infrastructure during the fire, the county said. The official cause of the Eaton fire remains under investigation by the State Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. In its lawsuit, Los Angeles County said videos, eyewitness accounts and other evidence made clear that Edison equipment caused the Eaton fire on Jan. 7. Preliminary reviews by fire investigators placed the origin of the fire in Eaton Canyon, where Edison maintains four active and three inactive transmission lines.

Reported similarly:
AP [3/5/2025 6:25 PM, Christopher Weber, 34586K]

FOX News [3/5/2025 11:08 AM, Taylor Penley, 46189K] reports that Chants of "DJ" erupted from the House chamber Tuesday night as President Donald Trump gave 13-year-old cancer survivor and aspiring police officer Devarjaye "DJ" Daniel the "biggest honor of them all" by swearing him in as an honorary Secret Service agent. The Texas teen, who defied the odds after doctors gave him five months at most to live when he received a brain cancer diagnosis in 2018, reacted to the honor, thanking President Trump on "Fox & Friends" early Wednesday. "I was not expecting it. Nobody even told us [it was going to happen]," DJ told co-host Steve Doocy. As the majority of the crowd at Trump’s joint congressional address offered DJ a standing ovation, his father, Theodis, hoisted him up as he waved. Trump said the father-son duo have been on a "quest" to make DJ’s dream of becoming a police officer come true and explained that he has been made an honorary member of several local police departments. Trump then directed Secret Service Director Sean Curran to officially make DJ an "agent of the United States." He was then presented his very own customized Secret Service badge. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:

CBS Austin [3/5/2025 8:20 AM, Alexx Altman-Devilbiss, 602K]

Newsweek [3/5/2025 1:02 PM, Kate Plummer, 52220K] reports that the U.S. Secret Service spent more than $1.4 million on security contracts for the perimeter of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida over a period of six months, according to federal procurement data analyzed by Newsweek. Providing security for U.S. presidents is always costly and Trump survived two assassination attempts during his campaign, while a man with a firearm was arrested outside one of his campaign rallies. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate poses a challenge with its 62,000-square-foot perimeter, which makes it the 22nd largest house in the U.S.—larger than the White House. The president splits his time between there and the White House and his property portfolio in New York City. According to federal procurement data, the Secret Service spent more than $1.4 million on security contracts for the perimeter of Mar-a-Lago between August 2024 and February 2025. This period spanned Trump’s presidential campaign up to his first two months in office. One contract was worth $478,000 in February 2025. "The U.S. Secret Service’s protective responsibilities are critical to ensuring the safety and security of our nation’s leadership and safeguarding continuity of government," a Secret Service spokesperson told Newsweek. All spending was in accordance with federal spending and procurement regulations, but details could not be discussed for security reasons, the spokesperson said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Newsweek [3/5/2025 5:30 AM, Ryan Chan, 3973K] reports that a United States warship was deployed in the South Pacific Ocean as a Chinese naval flotilla continued its circumnavigation of Australia, a major American ally in the region. The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a Newsweek request for comment. China is expanding its global military reach and presence, including in the South Pacific Ocean, where it and the U.S. are jostling for influence, with the largest navy in the world by hull count. The Pentagon assessed that the Chinese military has over 370 vessels. Australia is part of the U.S.-led informal grouping Quad, which includes India and Japan. A U.S. Navy missile-armed cruiser, USS Shiloh, visited French Polynesia’s capital city, Papeete, on February 27. It was expected the warship would leave the French overseas territory on Monday, according to a local ships- and aircraft-spotting Facebook page. The U.S. Third Fleet told Newsweek in an email on Monday: "[Oceania Maritime Security Initiative] is a U.S. Secretary of Defense program that leverages Department of Defense assets to increase U.S. Coast Guard maritime security and maritime domain awareness support in Oceania through operations in remote U.S. Exclusive Economic Zones and bilateral shiprider agreements with Pacific Island nations."

FOX News [3/5/2025 3:48 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 46189K] reports a group of Russian nationals and migrants from the Dominican Republic were intercepted in U.S. waters and handed over to federal immigration and border patrol authorities, according to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard said that Puerto Rico law enforcement spotted the 20-foot "panga-style" boat about three nautical miles off the coast of Aguadilla, a town on Puerto Rico’s northwestern tip, on Friday, Feb. 28 and alerted the maritime agency. The small vessel had five individuals onboard – three men who claimed to be Dominican Republic nationals, and a man and a woman who claimed to be Russian nationals. The Coast Guard noted that one of the migrants had a previous criminal record in the United States and was charged with attempted illegal re-entry into the country. The two Russians, a man and a woman, were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "for investigation and removal" in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Monday. Two of the three migrants from the Dominican Republic were repatriated back to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on Saturday. The third migrant, with a previous criminal history, was transferred to U.S. Border Patrol agents in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico on Saturday to face charges, the agency said.

Federal News Network [3/5/2025 6:24 PM, Anastasia Obis, 1089K] reports the Coast Guard’s infrastructure maintenance backlog costs have surged to at least $7 billion, rising by nearly $4.5 billion in just three years. Almost half of the service’s shore infrastructure is already beyond its service life. These findings come from the Government Accountability Office, which first assessed the Coast Guard’s shore infrastructure in 2019. The cost more than doubled after several years of deferred maintenance and inadequate planning, but the watchdog says the $7 billion backlog estimate is likely understated as hundreds of infrastructure projects still lack cost estimates, and some existing estimates have not been adjusted for inflation. "Coast Guard estimated that it would take hundreds of years to address this backlog, and current funding levels are only adequate to address the most pressing needs, which tend to be unplanned repairs," Heather MacLeod, the director of homeland security and justice programs at GAO, said during the House Transportation Committee hearing on Wednesday. "This is particularly concerning, not only because of the estimated funding needed to address the backlogs, but because of other potential impacts. For example, we have identified that deferring maintenance can lead to higher costs in the long term, while also posing risks to safety, security, readiness and mission execution.” The backlog includes a wide range of critical infrastructure issues, from deteriorating housing conditions for service members and their families to aging facilities at the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey. Under Adm. Linda Fagan’s leadership, the service’s former commandant, the Coast Guard advocated for $20 billion in funding by 2030 — the service requested $12.3 billion in discretionary funding for fiscal 2025. President Donald Trump ousted Fagan on his second day in office.

WAVY [3/5/2025 3:41 PM, Chrysnel Banzouzi] reports five men were prosecuted for trafficking 580kg of cocaine in February. Ramon Antonio Mercedes, Dani Severino, Edward Alesander Duran, Julio Ludi Abrera and Abel Antonio Cruzado were charged for manufacture, distribution or possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance on a vessel. Court documents state the United States Coast Guard Cutter Valiant located a go-fast vessel (GFV) occupied by five individuals approximately 45 nautical miles north of Carbon, Dominican Republic on Feb. 17. U.S. Coast Guard personnel observed several packages as well as fuel barrels on the deck of the GFV. The personnel subsequently launched an over the horizon small boat with a boarding team. The US. Coast Guard small boat boarding team attempted to make contact with the GFV, but the GFV sped away and the individuals in it began to jettison packages into the ocean. Upon obtaining control of the GFV, the personnel recovered 16 bales around the GFV containing approximately 580kg of cocaine. The crew members claimed that the vessel was from the Dominican Republic. All five men aboard the GFV were detained and are being transferred to the Eastern District of Virginia for prosecution.

CBS Miami [3/5/2025 7:06 AM, Staff, 51661K] reports that the Coast Guard is warning spring breakers that captains sometimes rent vessels that aren’t seaworthy or may not have the proper equipment on board. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Miami [3/5/2025 8:20 AM, Staff, 51661K] reports that the Coast Guard said the mariner’s vessel capsized after encountering unexpected weather. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [3/5/2025 9:11 AM, Kevin Collier, 44742K] reports that state and local election officials who have grown to rely on the federal government’s cybersecurity assistance fear that the Trump administration may permanently block that aid by Thursday. Such funding, which began in President Donald Trump’s first term and is funnelled through the country’s top domestic security body, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), stopped in February. Those programs include free on-site and remote security testing of election machines and the websites that report election results, and ad hoc "situation rooms" where election officials can virtually gather and discuss security tactics in real time. "Taking away that funding would be a very, very bad idea," said Howie Knapp, the executive director of South Carolina’s State Election Commission," told NBC News. "We all know as taxpayers there is government bloat enough, but this is protecting the core function of democracy," Knapp said. "If there’s government cuts to be made, I would recommend they don’t start with securing our nation’s elections.” CISA, which is under the Department of Homeland Security, plans to make a decision on the future of federal election security assistance by Thursday, according to a Feb. 14 agency memo obtained by NBC News. The memo was first reported by Wired. In an emailed statement, a DHS spokesperson confirmed CISA has "strategically paused all elections security activities."

Reuters [3/5/2025 5:19 PM, A.J. Vicens, 41523K] reports the mass culling of workers from federal payrolls will have a "devastating" impact on cybersecurity and national security, a top former National Security Agency official said on Wednesday. Rob Joyce, former NSA director of cybersecurity, told the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party of the harm from aggressive threats to cut U.S. government employees. It is unclear how many workers have left the NSA, which handles foreign signals intelligence operations. More than 130 positions have been cut from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as of Feb. 14, a CISA spokesperson said.

CNBC [3/5/2025 7:50 PM, Julie Coleman, 35355K] Video: HERE reports CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday that the cyber threat environment is only getting worse. "Whenever there’s geopolitical tensions, and I would argue there’s a lot of them right now, this actually drives more activity in a threat environment," he said. "Adversaries get more active, nation state adversaries get more active, and certainly, in the confusion of that, you have the e-criminals that come out.” Kurtz said CrowdStrike is seeing "break out times," or how quickly a hacker is able to enter a system and then move somewhere else in the network, of 51 seconds, a speed the company hasn’t seen in the past. He also warned of hacking efforts by North Korean adversaries, describing a maneuver where they applied to remote jobs at well-known companies. Once hired and sent laptops, the hackers would then send them to "a laptop farm where it’s then controlled by operatives in North Korea," he said. The development and application of agentic AI creates the need for new cybersecurity technology, Kurtz continued, which will lead to growth for the whole industry. He explained that each "technology cycle" in the past – like the mainframe, PCs, mobile, the cloud – has required new security measures, and AI is no different.

The Hill [3/5/2025 12:04 PM, Miranda Nazzaro, 12829K] reports that the Department of Defense is denying reports Secretary Pete Hegseth halted offensive cyber operations against Russia. "TO BE CLEAR: @SecDef has neither canceled nor delayed any cyber operations directed against malicious Russian targets and there has been no stand-down order whatsoever from that priority," the Pentagon’s rapid response team posted Tuesday on the social platform X. The statement follows multiple media reports that Hegseth ordered the U.S. Cyber Command to pause offensive operations last week. The reports came amid an apparent broader shift in relations between the United States and Russia under the Trump administration. The Pentagon previously declined to comment on the matter, citing "operational security concerns," when reached by The Hill on Monday. "There is no greater priority to Secretary Hegseth than the safety of the Warfighter in all operations to include the cyber domain," the official added. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a civilian cyber defense agency that is separate from Cyber Command, emphasized Sunday that there "has been no change in our posture."

Bloomberg [3/5/2025 2:04 PM, Jake Bleiberg and Jamie Tarabay, 3973K] reports U.S. prosecutors charged 10 Chinese citizens and two government agents for computer hacks that targeted dissidents, religious groups, news outlets and American government agencies. The Chinese government paid Anxun Information Technology Co., a cybersecurity firm also known as i-Soon, to hack and steal information in a manner that obscured its involvement, the U.S. alleges. Eight iSoon employees and two Chinese Ministry of Public Security officials were accused with various crimes for their alleged hacking of email accounts, mobile phones, servers and websites between 2016 and 2023, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday. Separate charges were also made public against two other Chinese citizens, who prosecutors said in a statement were linked to a recent breach of the U.S. Treasury Department. "We will continue to fight to dismantle this ecosystem of cyber mercenaries and protect our national security," Sue J. Bai, head of the Justice Department’s national security division, said in a statement. Representatives for i-Soon, which is based in Shanghai, didn’t respond to requests for comment. A Chinese government official said the indictments were based on "groundless speculation and accusations.” "We urge the U.S. to stop using cybersecurity issues to smear China," said Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington. The individual defendants didn’t have lawyers listed for them in court records and couldn’t be immediately contacted for comment. They have not been arrested and the U.S. State Department is offering a reward for information leading to their locations, according to a statement from the Justice Department i-Soon drew notice last year when files attributed to the company were posted on the code-sharing site GitHub, revealing how cybersecurity firms, researchers and the government in China were intricately intertwined. According to U.S. prosecutors, i-Soon staff sometimes acted at the direction of the Chinese government, and on other occasions chose their own hacking targets and then sold stolen material to various Chinese government agencies. These campaigns allegedly earned the firm tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

The Washington Post [3/5/2025 6:36 PM, Jeremy Roebuck, 31735K] reports Justice Department officials described the charges — laid out in indictments unsealed in New York and Washington — as part of a broader effort to crack down on what they’ve portrayed as an extensive marketplace of hackers-for-hire often working at the behest of Beijing. The announcement of the indictments Wednesday came amid a Trump administration push to roll back efforts by the FBI and other agencies to counter digital and cyber threats. The 12 Chinese citizens newly named as defendants are still believed to be in China and are unlikely to face extradition. But authorities said identifying them in legal documents and detailing the alleged links between them and the Chinese government would expose their operations to broader public scrutiny. CNN [3/5/2025 2:19 PM, Sean Lyngaas, 908K] reports that victims of the hackers include US-based critics of the Chinese government, Asian government foreign ministries, and US federal and state agencies, the Justice Department said. Some of them were hacked as recently as last year. The charges are the first major hacking-related national security case brought under President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, though the investigation began long before Trump took office. Separate indictments out of the US District for the District of Columbia and the Southern District of New York accused China’s security services of exploiting a sprawling hacker-for-hire network to feed Chinese transnational repression and conduct surveillance. None of the 12 defendants are in US custody. Taken together, the indictments showcase the Chinese government’s alleged voracious appetite for data on American citizens and Chinese dissidents. China’s hacker-for-hire ecosystem "by any measure, has gotten out of control," a Justice Department official told reporters on Wednesday. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The New York Times [3/5/2025 1:30 PM, Devlin Barrett, 145325K] reports that the 12 indicted people are highly unlikely to appear in an American courtroom to face charges. But their cases are part of the U.S. government’s long-running “name and shame” policy to impose some costs on the Chinese government and its hackers for what it describes as an ambitious and unrelenting campaign against targets in the United States. The charges come at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries after President Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, which have led to a trade war not only between the two countries but also with Mexico and Canada. The New York indictment is largely focused on hacking work that employees of a company called i-Soon are accused of doing for China. “A core part of i-Soon’s business was conducting hacking to steal data on behalf of the P.R.C. government,” the indictment said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. The company charged the government “between approximately $10,000 and $75,000 for each email inbox it successfully hacked.”

The New York Times [3/5/2025 3:01 PM, Adam Goldman, 145325K] reports the F.B.I. arrested an Afghan national charged with playing a role in the deadly 2021 attack on U.S. service members as they carried out a tumultuous evacuation of civilians at Afghanistan’s main airport, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday. The man, Mohammad Sharifullah, is accused of helping a suicide bomber approach the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul that August without being detected. The horrific attack killed 13 U.S. military service members and injured approximately 160 civilians. Mr. Sharifullah was flown back to the United States early Wednesday and charged with violating terrorism statutes. He was expected to appear in federal court in Alexandria, Va. If convicted, he faces the possibility of life in prison. Officials said the United States had provided intelligence to Pakistan that led to Mr. Sharifullah’s capture. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan said that Mr. Sharifullah had been arrested by Pakistani security forces in the border region with Afghanistan. In an interview on Sunday with F.B.I. agents from the Washington field office, Mr. Sharifullah admitted he was a member of the Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. The attack took place at what was known as the Abbey Gate, the entry point to the airport for thousands of civilians hoping to flee Afghanistan as the Taliban took hold of the country. The bloody attack became a symbol of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in the opening months of the Biden administration. The military had been warned about the possibility of terror attacks at the airport, which had fueled intense criticisms of the Biden administration and the pell-mell withdrawal. The Washington Examiner [3/5/2025 12:39 PM, Mike Brest, 2296K] reports that the U.S. charged Mohammad Sharifullah, the ISIS-K terrorist, on Sunday with providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, which resulted in death. Sharifullah is expected to appear in court on Thursday, and if convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. A Department of Justice affidavit revealed that he admitted to "supporting and conducting activities on behalf of ISIS-K in support of multiple lethal attacks" in conversations with U.S. law enforcement, and it said he acknowledged getting recruited to the terrorist organization in or around 2016. The affidavit spells out his ties to three specific ISIS-K attacks that, in totality, killed hundreds of civilians. The CIA has been monitoring Sharifullah for some time but received specific intelligence about his location recently, according to a U.S. official. The CIA provided the intelligence to Pakistani intelligence, which sent an elite unit to track him down, and he was found and captured near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The president praised the Pakistanis for their quick apprehension of Sharifullah.

USA Today [3/5/2025 4:05 PM, Jeanine Santucci, 75858K] reports parents, children and spectators at a cheerleading competition in Dallas fled in a chaotic scene over the weekend as fears of a gunman set off a panic, with at least 10 injured trying to get away. But there was no shooter. Police in Dallas said a fight that broke out between two people on Saturday set off the false alarm. Word that there was a shooter quickly spread at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, which was evacuated while people were told to head to a family reunification center. Attendees told local news outlets they ran because in the moment, they believed their lives were in danger. "That was the scariest moment of my life that I thought, like, this was it," Ashley Ryan, a Tulsa resident whose daughters competed at the event, told KWTV-DT. It’s the latest active shooter false alarm in a nation awash with guns and perpetually on-edge about the potential for the next mass shooting, said Kelly Sampson, senior policy counsel at the gun violence prevention group Brady. "If you’re in a big, crowded area, if you see one person panicking, you’re going to panic too," she said. "It’s not like it’s unreasonable to think that someone would have a gun, because that’s sort of the country and the culture that we’ve created.” Police responded to reports of an active shooter that came in starting at about 1 p.m., the Dallas Police Department said. After investigating, they found no shots had been fired, but that crowd had been startled by the sound of poles being knocked down in the fight. The fight was between parents, according to Brian Bianco, a spokesperson for Varsity Brands, which runs the National Cheerleaders Association All-Star Championship.

Reuters [3/5/2025 9:37 PM, Lisa Baertlein and Andrea Shalal, 41523K] reports the U.S. plans to levy fees on imports arriving on Chinese-made ships and offer tax credits to resuscitate domestic shipbuilding and reduce China’s grip on the $150 billion global ocean shipping industry, a White House document seen by Reuters shows. President Donald Trump is drafting an executive order that would also establish a Maritime Security Trust Fund as a dedicated funding source and create shipbuilding incentives through the use of tax credits, grants and loans, according to a draft fact sheet of the 18-point plan. "The White House is standing up an office at the National Security Council to lead a whole-of-government effort to strengthen the maritime industrial base," the document said, following Trump’s announcement of the plans during an address to Congress on Tuesday. The Republican president’s initiative won rare praise from Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to former President Joe Biden, who said decades of unfair trade practices by China had negatively affected U.S. commercial and military shipbuilding. "American shipbuilding is critical to protecting our national and economic security. Now is the time to act — to address the impact of China’s policies and to replenish American maritime capacity and power," Sullivan told Reuters. Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers for years have warned about China’s growing dominance on the seas and diminishing U.S. naval readiness. The pending executive order appears to be influenced by existing proposals, including legislation with bipartisan backing. Trump’s initiative comes two months after the Biden administration concluded a nearly year-long probe requested by the United Steelworkers and other unions, which found that China uses unfair policies and practices to dominate the sector.

VOA News [3/5/2025 6:22 PM, Ken Bredemeier, 2913K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday delayed a new 25% tariff on vehicle imports from Mexico and Canada for a month, amid fears that a trade war between the neighboring countries could hurt the "Big 3" U.S. automakers. The U.S. leader spoke with top officials at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis before announcing the tariff delay, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. She said Trump urged the automakers to move their Mexican and Canadian production to the United States to avoid the tariffs altogether. But Trump’s stiff new levies on the U.S.’ two biggest trading partners remain in place for other products, although Leavitt said the president is open to hearing the case for other possible exemptions. Continuing tariffs threaten jobs in Canada, says official. Trump announced the vehicle tariff delay in a statement after speaking earlier in the day with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who, according to The Associated Press, is not willing to lift Canada’s retaliatory tariffs if Trump leaves any tariffs on Canada. "Both countries will continue to be in contact today," Trudeau’s office said. Doug Ford, the Ontario provincial premier, said earlier that if the U.S. tariff on Canadian vehicle exports to the U.S. remained in place, production at Canadian auto plants would start to shut down in about 10 days. "People are going to lose their jobs," he said.

AP [3/5/2025 12:23 PM, Danica Kirka and Stefanie Dazio, 10355K] reports that Greenland’s prime minister has a message for President Donald Trump: “Greenland is ours.” Múte Bourup Egede made the statement on Facebook Wednesday, just hours after Trump declared in his speech to a joint session of Congress that he intends to gain control of Greenland “one way or the other.” “Kalaallit Nunaat is ours,” Egede said in the post, using the Greenlandic name for his country. “We don’t want to be Americans, nor Danes; We are Kalaallit. The Americans and their leader must understand that. We are not for sale and cannot simply be taken. Our future will be decided by us in Greenland,” he said. The post ended with a clenched fist emoji and a Greenlandic flag. On the streets of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, where the temperature was 4 degrees blow zero (minus 20 Celsius) at midday Wednesday and the bright sunshine reflected blindingly off a layer of fresh-fallen snow, people are taking Trump’s designs on their country seriously. Since taking office six weeks ago, Trump has repeatedly expressed his interest in Greenland, a huge mineral-rich island that sits along strategic sea lanes in the North Atlantic. Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark with a population of about 56,000 people, lies off the northeastern coast of Canada, closer to Washington, D.C., than to Copenhagen. Trump made a direct appeal to Greenlanders in his speech to Congress, just a week before the country’s voters cast their ballots in parliamentary elections. “We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” Trump said.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [3/5/2025 7:53 AM, David Brennan, 34586K]

Reuters [3/5/2025 1:00 PM, Staff, 41523K] reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday there had been "positive movement" in cooperation with the United States that could lead to another meeting between the two sides soon. Kyiv is eager to repair ties with its top military supporter against Russia’s invasion after Zelenskiy publicly clashed with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House last week over how to end the war in Ukraine. "Today our Ukrainian and U.S. teams began working on a meeting. Andriy Yermak and Mike Waltz spoke," Zelenskiy said in his evening address, referring to his chief of staff and the U.S. national security adviser. "There is positive movement. We hope for the first results next week." Yermak said on X he had "exchanged views on security issues and the alignment of positions" with Waltz, and that they had scheduled a meeting of Ukrainian and U.S. officials "in the near future to continue this important work". Both statements came just hours after CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the U.S. had paused intelligence-sharing with Ukraine.

Bloomberg [3/5/2025 12:03 PM, Aliaksandr Kudrytski, 16228K] reports that Officials from Ukraine and the US will soon meet to resume discussions about peace and security, said top Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak on Telegram following his call with US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Wednesday. The conversation between Yermak and Waltz took place after the US paused the sharing of some military intelligence with Kyiv. The two sides discussed the location, date and the negotiating teams for the next round of talks between Kyiv and Washington, Waltz earlier told reporters on Wednesday.

The New York Times [3/5/2025 9:59 AM, Julian E. Barnes, et al., 145325K] reports the Trump administration has paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine alongside a military aid freeze, officials said on Wednesday, part of a pressure campaign to force its government to cooperate with the White House’s plans to end the country’s war with Russia. A U.S. official said that military targeting information was no longer being shared with Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official said that the pause would make it more difficult to strike Russian forces but that Kyiv’s military had access to other satellite imagery. The C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, and the national security adviser, Michael Waltz, both confirmed the pause in intelligence support but suggested it could be short-lived if Ukraine quickly came back to the negotiating table. Speaking on Fox Business, Mr. Ratcliffe applauded a statement on Tuesday by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, which praised President Trump and insisted that he support peace with Russia. “President Zelensky put out a statement that said, ‘I am ready for peace, and I want President Donald Trump’s leadership to bring about that peace,’” Mr. Ratcliffe said. “And so I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away, and I think we’ll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, as we have, to push back on the aggression that’s there.” Mr. Waltz told reporters at the White House that the United States had “taken a step back” and was “pausing and reviewing all aspects of this relationship.” In addition to the targeting information, the pause also affected some intelligence about advance warning of drone and missile strikes that Russia has been carrying out against military and civilian targets, according to a person briefed on the pause. Mr. Trump suspended the delivery of U.S. military aid to Ukraine on Monday, just days after he and Mr. Zelensky had a confrontation at the White House. Then on Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Zelensky and his statement in his address to Congress. But some Trump administration officials want the Ukrainian president to remove officials from his government whom the White House sees as hostile to negotiations with the Russians. The Trump administration also wants Mr. Zelensky to sign a deal giving the United States access to mineral rights in Ukraine. While the Trump administration has steadily increased pressure on Ukraine, it has not done so to Russia to halt its attacks. The Russian military has continued to bombard Ukrainian cities daily. CNN [3/5/2025 12:59 PM, Katie Bo Lillis, Jim Sciutto, Zachary Cohen, and Natasha Bertrand, 908K] reports that statements from national security adviser Mike Waltz and CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Wednesday morning indicated that a pause in intelligence sharing is in place but the extent of the limitations was not clear. Both officials also suggested that the pause may be short-lived if the president can be satisfied that Ukraine has taken steps towards negotiations to end the war – a controversial effort that appeared to be derailed after Friday’s fiery Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "We are pausing, assessing, looking at everything across our security relationship," national security adviser Mike Waltz told CBS News, asked directly about intelligence-sharing with Kyiv. The Trump administration had already announced a freeze in weapons deliveries to Ukraine, part of the White House effort to attempt to pressure Kyiv into a swift end to a war it didn’t start.

Reported similarly:
AP [3/5/2025 11:55 AM, David Klepper and Darlene Superville, 24727K]
AP [3/5/2025 11:32 AM, Staff, 48304K]
Washington Examiner [3/5/2025 11:08 AM, Mike Brest, 2296K]
Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 10:55 AM, Daryna Krasnolutska, Andra Timu, and Natalia Drozdiak, 52868K]

NBC News [3/5/2025 6:00 PM, Rebecca Shabad and Zoë Richards, 44742K] reports President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to have members of Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza killed if hostages are not immediately released. "‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye — You can choose. Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you," Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I have just met with your former Hostages whose lives you have destroyed. This is your last warning! For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance,” he added. “Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!” The White House said in a statement that Trump met Wednesday with eight hostages released from Gaza: Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher and Noa Argamani. The administration is engaging in direct talks with Hamas over the release of U.S. hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Wednesday. Trump believes the dialogue is part of a "good-faith effort to do what’s right for the American people," Leavitt said at a White House news briefing. "There are American lives at stake," she added, saying Israel had been consulted. The six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended Saturday with no extension of peace negotiations in sight. It is the first time the United States has held direct talks with the group, which it has designated a terrorist organization.

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 12:20 PM, Ahmed Shawkat, 52868K] reports that Arab nations, led by Egypt, that have strongly rejected President Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to "take over" the Gaza Strip and displace its more than 2 million Palestinian residents so the enclave can be turned into a luxury real estate development have offered an alternative plan. Leaders from the 22-nation Arab League attended a summit in Cairo Tuesday and unanimously adopted the Egyptian proposal, which does not foresee any of Gaza’s residents being forced to leave during reconstruction. The Trump administration, along with its close allies in Israel, quickly rejected the plan, with the White House reiterating the president’s contention that the destruction wrought on Gaza during Israel’s 15-month war with Hamas has made the enclave uninhabitable. Palestinians who have spoken with CBS News in Gaza have all vehemently rejected any bid to force them from the territory, and the head of the United Nations and some others have suggested that making them leave would amount to ethnic cleansing. Hamas backed the Arab plan, but has consistently refused to disarm as part of any ceasefire agreement, something Israel considers essential. Israel was quick to dismiss the Egyptian-made plan, with the Foreign Ministry in Tel Aviv saying in a statement that the proposal, "continues to rely on the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA — Both have repeatedly demonstrated corruption, support for terrorism, and failure in resolving the issue."

Bloomberg [3/5/2025 11:42 AM, Jake Bleiberg and Jamie Tarabay, 16228K] reports that US prosecutors charged eight employees of a Chinese cybersecurity firm and two government officials with hacking American targets including federal government agencies, news outlets, a university, religious groups and the New York legislature, court records show. The staff of i-Soon, a Shanghai-based firm, and two Chinese Ministry of Public Security officials were charged with various crimes for their alleged hacking of numerous of email accounts, mobile phones, servers and websites between 2016 and 2023, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday. Representatives for i-Soon, a Shanghai-based cybersecurity company, and for the Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Separate charges against two other Chinese citizens were also unsealed Wednesday accusing them of a years-long scheme of hacking and selling stolen data for profit. The individual defendants didn’t have lawyers listed for them in court records and couldn’t be located for comment. The victims of the hacking campaigns include at least three news outlets, the US Department of Commerce, the International Trade Administration, the Defense Intelligence Agency, a religious group with thousands of churches and staff of the New York State Assembly, according to the indictment, which doesn’t identify the news outlets or religious group by name.

Yahoo! News [3/5/2025 4:30 AM, Staff, 52868K] reports that US President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, outlining his administration’s latest trade measures against China, including new tariffs and a push for economic decoupling. The speech, which lasted around 1 hour and 40 minutes, was the longest ever by a president before a joint session of Congress and his first since returning to the White House in January. Trump said his administration was implementing "reciprocal tariffs" to counter China’s trade practices, arguing that Beijing had long taken advantage of weak US policies. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. "On April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in, and whatever they tariff us, we will tariff them," he said, adding that China’s tariffs on US goods were, on average, twice as high as those Washington imposed on Chinese imports. The president also criticized the Chips and Science Act. Passed in 2022, the US law aimed at boosting domestic semiconductor production and reducing the country’s dependence on foreign suppliers, particularly China.

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