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

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

The New York Times [5/16/2025 3:36 AM, Hamed Aleaziz and Eric Schmitt, 330K] reports the Department of Homeland Security has requested more than 20,000 National Guard members to help with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans. The request to the Defense Department came after President Trump asked the Department of Homeland Security last week to increase its ranks by pulling in 20,000 officers from state or federal agencies. Lawyers at the Pentagon were reviewing the request with “interior immigration enforcement,” according to a Defense Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. It was unclear what role state National Guard members would play and whether they would be involved in rounding up people for deportation, the official said. It was not immediately clear if the states would also have to approve the plan. National Guard troops have generally played a supporting role to domestic authorities in enforcing immigration issues at the border, including logistics, security and other assistance. But the Defense Department official said that if the request were approved, it would be the first time National Guard troops were used to help enforce an immigration crackdown in the United States. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed the request in a statement, saying the department would “use every tool and resource available” as the president carried out his “mandate from the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens.” “The safety of American citizens comes first,” she said. The moves to bolster immigration enforcement capacity are part of a wider push to increase deportations and arrests to meet Mr. Trump’s promises of “mass deportations,” which the administration has not met thus far. Immigration arrests require extensive resources, including ample time for surveillance. To help with the effort, the Trump administration has pulled in agents and officers from other federal entities, including from the Justice Department. Just this week, the agency moved to enlist about 2,000 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration to help with arrests. The Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 5:49 PM, Nancy A. Youssef, 646K] reports that in a statement, a Defense Department spokesman said, “Defending the homeland and protecting the U.S. territorial integrity is a fundamental DoD mission. The Department will continue to work and plan with our DHS partners to effectively meet requests for DoD support in safeguarding U.S. sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security.” The Hill [5/15/2025 6:49 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 12829K] reports that a Defense official also told The Hill that the Pentagon "received a request" this week but was not able to share the contents because planning is in the initial stages and predecisional. The plan was quickly bashed by Democratic lawmakers including Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who said she was "deeply disturbed" by Trump’s "abuse and misuse" of the U.S. military. "Trump’s DHS is asking for 20,000 National Guardsmen to assist with immigration enforcement within our nation’s borders—something they’ve never been asked to do before and that is not part of the National Guard’s mission," she said in a statement. "Not only does this undermine readiness and our national security, it also means Trump is testing the limits of how he can misuse our military against the American people," Duckworth added. "No one should believe that he will stop at immigrants if this plan moves forward.” NPR [5/15/2025 4:20 PM, Tom Bowman, 29983K] reports that in February, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gave Texas Guard members the authority to make immigration arrests. This would be the first time Guard troops at the national level have been asked to assist in deportations. President Trump last week ordered DHS to increase its deportation force by 20,000 officers. Using Guard forces would be the quickest way to make that happen. There’s no indication that Trump would act to federalize the National Guard, a move that would effectively take control of the Guard troops from governors. The National Guard was last federalized in 1992 during the Los Angeles riots following the police beating of Rodney King. NewsMax [5/15/2025 6:11 PM, Michael Katz, 4998K] reports that last week, Trump issued a proclamation directing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to "supplement existing enforcement and removal operations by deputizing and contracting with State and local law enforcement officers, former Federal officers, officers and personnel within other Federal agencies, and other individuals to increase the enforcement and removal operations force of the Department of Homeland Security by no less than 20,000 officers in order to conduct an intensive campaign to remove illegal aliens who have failed to depart voluntarily."

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Breitbart [5/15/2025 12:30 PM, Amy Furr, 2923K]
NPR [5/15/2025 4:20 PM, Tom Bowman, 29983K]
CBS News [5/15/2025 6:28 PM, Elanor Watson and Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51661K]

The AP [5/15/2025 8:39 PM, Staff, 2923K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that federal law enforcement is investigating a social media post made by former FBI Director James Comey that she and other Republicans suggest is a call for violence against President Donald Trump. In an Instagram post, Comey wrote "cool shell formation on my beach walk" under a picture of seashells that appeared to form the shapes for "86 47.” Numerous Trump administration officials, including Noem, said Comey was advocating for the assassination of Trump, the 47th president. "DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately," Noem wrote. Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says 86 is slang meaning "to throw out," "to get rid of" or "to refuse service to." It notes: "Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of ‘to kill.’ We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.” The post has since been deleted. Comey subsequently wrote, "I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. "It never occurred to me," Comey added, "but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.” Comey’s original post sparked outrage among conservatives on social media, with Donald Trump Jr. accusing Comey of calling for his father’s killing. Current FBI Director Kash Patel said he was aware of the post and was conferring with the Secret Service and its director. James Blair, White House deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs, noted that the post came at a delicate time given that Trump is traveling in the Middle East. "This is a Clarion Call from Jim Comey to terrorists & hostile regimes to kill the President of the United States as he travels in the Middle East," Blair wrote on X. Comey, who was FBI director from 2013 to 2017, was fired by Trump during the president’s first term amid the bureau’s probe into allegations of ties between Russian officials and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Comey wrote about his career in the best-selling memoir "A Higher Loyalty.” He is now a crime fiction writer and is promoting his latest book, "FDR Drive," which is being released on Tuesday. The Hill [5/15/2025 8:06 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12829K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem accused former FBI Director James Comey of calling for President Trump’s "assassination," saying federal law enforcement authorities are now investigating the "threat.” "Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump," Noem wrote on the social platform X on Thursday evening. "DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately," she added. NewsMax [5/15/2025 8:37 PM, Staff, 4998K] reports that the post has since been deleted. Comey subsequently wrote, "I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down." According to Merriam-Webster, "86" is slang meaning "to throw out," "to get rid of" or "to refuse service to." It noted: "Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of ‘to kill.’ We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use." Comey’s original post sparked outrage on social media, with Donald Trump Jr. accusing Comey of calling for his father’s killing. "Just James Comey causally calling for my dad to be murdered," the president’s oldest son posted on X. "This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!!" The Washington Post [5/16/2025 2:45 AM, Maegan Vazquez and Frances Vinall, 31735K] reports Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July last year. The numbers are apparent slang for the removal of the sitting president, the 47th, and have been written on signs at protests and on T-shirts and other merchandise. The informal verb "86" originated in hospitality, meaning to refuse service to a customer or that a menu item was not available, and its use expanded over time to broadly refer to rejecting, dismissing or removing, according to its dictionary definition. It can also refer to killing something or someone. "Cool shell formation on my beach walk," Comey wrote in the original Instagram post. In a follow-up post, Comey wrote that he assumed the shells he saw "were a political message.” "I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence," Comey continued. "It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.” A spokesperson for the Secret Service, Anthony Guglielmi, said in a social media statement that the agency investigates anything that could be taken as a threat. "We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI Director & we take rhetoric like this very seriously," he added. CBS News [5/16/2025 12:02 AM, Staff, 51661K] reports current FBI Director Kash Patel said in a separate statement that, "We are aware of the recent tweet by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump. We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director (Sean) Curran. Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support.” A Secret Service spokesperson told CBS News in a statement it "vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees. We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI Director and we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters.” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich wrote in his own social media post Comey’s message "can clearly be interpreted as ‘a hit’ on the sitting President of the United States," and said it is "being taken seriously.”

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Washington Examiner [5/15/2025 10:06 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 2296K] reports Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said former FBI Director James Comey should be "put behind bars" for a social media post depicting the numbers "8647.” The numbers have been interpreted to mean that Comey wants President Donald Trump assassinated. Asked by Fox News’s Jesse Watters if she believes Comey should be jailed, Gabbard said, "I do. Any other person with a position of influence that he has, people who take very seriously what a guy of his stature, his experience, and what the propaganda media has built him up to be … I’m very concerned for the president’s life.” "We’ve already seen assassination attempts," she added. "I’m very concerned for his life, and James Comey in my view should be held accountable and put behind bars for this.” Watters: Do you believe Comey should be in jail? Gabbard: I do… Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and put behind bars for this pic.twitter.com/qafhtUJP7a. Comey posted and deleted a picture of shells lined up on a beach to depict the numbers "8647" earlier Thursday, prompting an outraged Republican reaction alleging that he’s calling for the president to be assassinated. Comey said later that he did not mean for the post to provoke violence. The Department of Homeland Security is investigating the alleged threat, while the Secret Service has said it is aware of the posts and "we vigorously investigate anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees." The FBI added it will provide "necessary support.” Merriam-Webster dictionary doesn’t mention the term as slang to assassinate or kill someone but rather to get rid of something. "Eighty-six is slang meaning ‘to throw out,’ ‘to get rid of,’ or ‘to refuse service to.’ It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang meaning that an item was sold out. There is varying anecdotal evidence about why the term eighty-six was used, but the most common theory is that it is rhyming slang for nix," its website says. "President Trump has already survived TWO assassination attempts. Now, former disgraced FBI director James Comey is either threatening to kill Donald Trump or suggesting someone should. This is as outrageous as it is dangerous. Grateful @Sec_Noem and @FBIDirectorKash are looking into this," Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote in a post on X. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) has called for a joint investigation into Comey by the FBI and Secret Service and also wants confirmation as to whether he holds any classified information or has a security clearance. "The American people deserve assurance that threats — whether direct or implied — against elected officials will be taken seriously regardless of the speakers former title or political alignment. Equal justice demands nothing less," Ogles wrote.

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Daily Wire [5/15/2025 10:36 PM, Daniel Chaitin, 4672K]

FOX Business [5/15/2025 11:07 PM, Staff, 10702K] reports Department of Homeland Security public affairs assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin ridicules Democrats on Capitol Hill defending an alleged gang member on ‘The Evening Edit.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Wall Street Journal [5/16/2025 12:54 AM, Michelle Hackman, Elizabeth Findell, and Joe Flint, 646K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is considering being part of a television show in which immigrants would compete for potential U.S. citizenship, an idea the producer pitched as far back as the Obama administration. Department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said she had spoken to the producer of the proposed television reality show and that consideration of the idea was ongoing. It’s “in the very beginning stages of that vetting process,” she said, adding, “Each proposal undergoes a thorough vetting process prior to denial or approval.” The pitch for the proposed citizenship-competition show comes from Rob Worsoff, a producer and writer whose credits include the “Duck Dynasty” reality show. Worsoff, who emigrated from Canada, told the Journal that the show is meant to be hopeful and a celebration of what it means to be an American citizen. “This isn’t ‘The Hunger Games’ for immigrants,” Worsoff said. Immigrants already in the system would compete in various contests including potentially on American history and science. Worsoff stressed that losing contestants wouldn’t face deportation. McLaughlin said the department receives hundreds of pitches a year for potential television shows, ranging from documentaries about border security operations to programs about white-collar investigations. It’s not uncommon for national and local law-enforcement agencies to consult with television producers. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s tenure as the department’s head has been marked by a made-for-TV style that has prioritized publicity—at times at the expense of operations, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. The department has earmarked more than $200 million for an ad campaign featuring Noem telling immigrants in the country illegally to go home. Worsoff said he has had no interaction with Noem and isn’t aware of whether she has knowledge of his show idea. He said the feedback from DHS has been positive and he has already had preliminary discussions with networks.

Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 4:46 PM, Jess Bravin and Mariah Timms, 646K] reports President Trump’s bid to abolish birthright citizenship sparked more than two hours of oral argument Thursday at the Supreme Court, where justices wrestled less with the legality of his decree than with the propriety of federal judges blocking administration policies nationwide. Three federal courts have blocked Trump’s citizenship order, but the administration asked the Supreme Court only to limit the scope of their injunctions to the named litigants in those cases. That procedural issue dominated the arguments, but the real world implications formed the backdrop: potentially granting citizenship to children born to unauthorized migrants in some states, but denying it to those born in others, while litigation over the Constitution’s meaning winds out over months or years. Conservative justices focused on the growing modern-day approach of judges in single federal districts blocking a presidential policy for the entire U.S. Justice Samuel Alito observed there are 680 federal district judges, and said that “sometimes they’re wrong.” Allowing a single one of them to freeze a presidential policy nationwide was a problem, he said, without regard to administration: “It could be President Trump, it could be President Biden, it could be President Obama.” But liberals suggested the danger would be allowing the government to violate rights on a massive scale with no effective judicial remedy. Under the government’s theory, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, a future president could decide to solve the crime problem by seizing every firearm in the county, and federal courts would be powerless to enjoin his violation of the Second Amendment except through individual lawsuits filed by each gun owner. In recent decades, presidents of both parties have fumed over having their policies blocked by federal judges, particularly after litigants filed in courts they expected to be sympathetic to their claims. While federal courts in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state have been venues of choice for Democratic-leaning states challenging Trump policies, Republican-led states were apt to file suits against the Biden administration in Texas and other Southern jurisdictions.

Los Angeles Times [5/15/2025 5:25 PM, David G. Savage, 13342K] reports the Supreme Court gave a skeptical hearing Thursday to a lawyer for President Trump who was appealing rulings that blocked his plan to deny citizenship to newborns whose parents were in this country illegally or temporarily. None of the justices spoke in favor of Trump’s plan to restrict birthright citizenship, and several were openly skeptical. "Every court is ruling against you," said Justice Elena Kagan. "There’s not going to be a lot of disagreement on this.” If his plan were to take effect, "thousands of children will be born and rendered stateless," said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. But Thursday’s hearing was devoted to a procedural question raised by the administration: Can a single federal judge issue a nationwide order to block the president’s plan? Shortly after Trump issued his executive order to limit birthright citizenship, federal judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state declared it unconstitutional and blocked its enforcement nationwide. In response, Trump’s lawyers asked the court to rein in the "epidemic" of nationwide orders handed down by district judges. It’s an issue that has divided the court and bedeviled both Democratic and Republican administrations. Trump’s lawyers argued that on procedural grounds, the judges overstepped their authority. But it is also procedurally unusual for a president to try to revise the Constitution through an executive order. Thursday’s hearing did not appear to yield a consensus on what to do. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said the plaintiffs should be required to bring a class-action claim if they want to win a broad ruling. But others said that would lead to delays and not solve the problem.

Washington Examiner [5/15/2025 12:09 PM, Kaelan Deese, 2296K] reports the justices of the Supreme Court wasted no time Wednesday zeroing in on President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship and his legal team’s push to limit the power of lower courts to block federal policies nationwide. Wednesday’s hearing is one of the most consequential legal fights of Trump’s second term thus far and will examine the practical implications of what happens when a president enforces an illegal policy and no court has the universal power to stop it. "Let’s assume you’re dead wrong," Justice Elena Kagan said to Solicitor General D. John Sauer. "If one thinks that it’s quite clear that the EO is illegal, how does one get to that result and with what time frame?" Sauer, who was confirmed as Trump’s top appellate lawyer last month, offered vague reassurances about emergency litigation and possible class actions. But Kagan wasn’t convinced. "That’s a lot of words," she said bluntly. "I don’t have an answer." Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed during Trump’s first term, then stepped in to challenge Sauer. "Are you really going to answer Justice Kagan by saying there’s no way to answer this expeditiously?" Chief Justice John Roberts ultimately ended the exchange by suggesting courts can resolve such legal challenges swiftly, seeming to undercut Sauer’s premise.

Breitbart [5/15/2025 10:55 AM, Staff, 2923K] reports the US Supreme Court was hearing a case Thursday that could sharply curb the judiciary’s ability to rein in Donald Trump and future American presidents. The case before the top court involves the Republican leader’s bid to end automatic citizenship for children born on American soil. But the immediate question at hand is whether a single federal judge can block a president’s policies with an injunction that applies nationwide. Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship has been paused by district courts in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state who deemed it unconstitutional. Other Trump initiatives have also been frozen by judges around the nation — both Democratic and Republican appointees — leading the Justice Department to make an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, where conservatives make up a 6-3 majority. Arguing before the court for the Trump administration, Solicitor General John Sauer said universal injunctions hamstring the president and "disrupt the Constitution’s careful balancing of the separation of powers.” "They operate asymmetrically, forcing the government to win everywhere, while the plaintiffs can win anywhere," Sauer said, and "create the ongoing risk of conflicting judgments.” Trump, in a post on Truth Social, personally railed against "unlawful" nationwide injunctions by "Radical Left Judges," saying they could "lead to the destruction of our Country!". "These judges want to assume the Powers of the Presidency, without having to attain 80 million votes," he said, in reference to his 2024 election victory.

CBS News [5/15/2025 1:44 PM, Melissa Quinn and Graham Kates, 51661K] reports the Supreme Court on Thursday pressed an attorney for the federal government on how President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship would be implemented amid scores of legal challenges that have gone against the administration. The bid by the Trump administration to narrow three lower court orders blocking Mr. Trump from ending birthright citizenship is a test of district judges’ power to block a president’s policies nationwide. Solicitor General D. John Sauer sought to focus on what he described as a "bipartisan" problem of lower-level judge’s issuing nationwide injunctions, leading to "judge shopping," by plaintiffs seeking a quick win. Justice Elena Kagan questioned whether "judge shopping" applied to the birthright citizenship issue, for which the administration has suffered a string of defeats. "Every court is ruling against you," Kagan said. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by Mr. Trump during his first term, peppered Sauer with questions about how a policy denying citizenship at birth could be implemented as quick as the administration wants. Mr. Trump’s executive order gave the government 30 days to implement his policies.

ABC News [5/15/2025 12:52 PM, Staff, 34586K] reports that the Supreme Court on Thursday heard oral arguments over President Donald Trump’s emergency request to roll back nationwide injunctions blocking his executive order to end birthright citizenship. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [5/15/2025 9:24 AM, Eric Mack, 4998K] reports President Donald Trump prompted the Supreme Court to end the modern-day "scam" of birthright citizenship on "suckers" in our "stupid country," shining light on the Civil War-era intent to help "babies of slaves." "Big case today in the United States Supreme Court," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Thursday morning. "Birthright Citizenship was not meant for people taking vacations to become permanent citizens of the United States of America, and bringing their families with them, all the time laughing at the ‘SUCKERS’ that we are!" The Supreme Court is poised Thursday to consider Trump’s attempt to broadly enforce his executive order to limit birthright citizenship, a move that would affect thousands of babies born each year. "The United States of America is the only country in the world that does this, for what reason, nobody knows — but the drug cartels love it!" Trump continued. "We are, for the sake of being politically correct, a stupid country but, in actuality, this is the exact opposite of being politically correct, and it is yet another point that leads to the dysfunction of America." The justices are scheduled to hear arguments on the administration’s emergency request to scale back injunctions issued by blue state judges in Maryland, Washington, and Massachusetts blocking Trump’s directive nationwide.

(B) CNN News Central [5/15/2025 3:06 PM, Staff] reports that it is unclear how the Supreme Court is going to rule following a hearing today on whether President Trump can enforce his executive order to end birthright citizenship. The court’s conservative justices appeared open to siding with the president on limiting the ability of lower courts to issue nationwide injunctions, which have blocked some of President Trump’s most controversial policies. They did seem wary of the president’s specific order denying citizenship to some people born in the United States.

NPR [5/15/2025 4:19 PM, Michael Levitt, Tinbete Ermyas, Luke Garrett, Ari Shapiro, 29983K] Audio: HERE reports the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on an issue that courts have not questioned in more than a century: birthright citizenship. NPR’s Ari Shapiro discusses the case with law professor Amanda Frost.

NPR [5/15/2025 5:22 PM, Staff, 29983K] Audio: HERE reports President Trump’s order that would end automatic citizenship for the children of many categories of immigrants has been blocked from going into effect by three separate federal judges. Those injunctions have been upheld by three separate appeals courts. So Thursday’s case at the Supreme Court was really about two questions: Whether the constitution guarantees birthright citizenship and whether judges can issue nationwide injunctions against federal policies. University of Virginia law professor Amanda Frost, author of the book You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers, followed the arguments and breaks down clues that point to the Justices’ thinking.

NPR [5/15/2025 12:38 PM, Nina Totenberg, 29983K] reports at the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday, the justices heard a case that challenges the constitutional provision guaranteeing automatic citizenship to all babies born in the United States, but the arguments focused on a separate question: Can federal district court judges rule against the administration on a nationwide basis. The justices appeared divided on the issue. Several seemed skeptical of the Trump administration’s argument that lower courts should not have the right to issue nationwide injunctions.

Bloomberg [5/15/2025 2:10 PM, Greg Stohr, 16228K] reports the US Supreme Court signaled it is wary of letting President Donald Trump start to restrict birthright citizenship as the justices debated how much power federal judges should have to block controversial White House policies nationwide. Hearing oral arguments for the first time on part of Trump’s government overhaul, the court’s conservatives suggested they want to limit the use of so-called nationwide injunctions. But key justices voiced concern about doing so in a way that would let Trump’s planned birthright citizenship restrictions take effect before the high court can rule on their legality. Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order, which would overturn a longstanding constitutional right, was designed to take effect within 30 days. The administration says three federal judges who have blocked the policy nationwide should have limited their orders to the parties involved in the lawsuits. “How is this going to work? What do hospitals do with a newborn? What do states do with a newborn?” Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative, asked a Trump administration lawyer. “They’re only going to have 30 days to do this. You think they can get it together in time?” Trump’s executive order would upend the longstanding constitutional rule that virtually anyone born on US soil automatically becomes a citizen. His approach would restrict birthright citizenship to babies with at least one parent who is a citizen or permanent resident. Newborns who don’t meet the new criteria couldn’t get citizenship-based documents including Social Security cards and passports. The order would mean that as many as 300,000 babies born every year would no longer become citizens, according to court filings. And critics say it would create complications for millions of other families, requiring parents to prove their own citizenship when a baby is born and forcing cities and states to quickly create new systems for issuing birth certificates and verifying citizenship. The court’s liberal justices made clear they saw the executive order as unconstitutional. “As far as I see it, this order violates four Supreme Court precedents,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said.

FOX News [5/15/2025 1:04 PM, Breanne Deppisch, Shannon Bream and Bill Mears, 46189K] reports the Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in a challenge to President Donald Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship, a case that could more broadly call into question the powers of lower courts to block executive branch actions. It’s unclear when the justices will rule, but their decision to fast-track the case means an opinion or order could come within weeks – or even days. Justices across the ideological spectrum appeared to agree Thursday that the use of universal injunctions has surged in recent years – blocking actions by both Democratic and Republican presidents. "In the first Trump administration, it was all done in San Francisco," Justice Elena Kagan said. During the Biden years, "it was all done in Texas," she added, underscoring how both sides have used the tactic to challenge sitting presidents. Kelsi Corkran, representing private plaintiffs and advocacy groups, proposed a middle-ground approach: allowing universal injunctions when government actions violate fundamental constitutional rights. If lower courts do get "ahead of their skis," she said, appeals courts can still rein them in, just as they do now. U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer used the bulk of his opening arguments Thursday to reiterate the government’s view that universal injunctions exceeded lower courts’ Article III powers under the Constitution, noting that the injunctions "transgress the traditional bounds of equitable authority," and "create a host of practical problems.” Universal injunctions "require judges to make rushed, high-stakes, low-information decisions," he said. "They operate asymmetrically, forcing the government to win everywhere," and "invert," in the administration’s view, the ordinary hierarchical hierarchy of appellate review. "They create the ongoing risk of conflicting judgments.” During a five-minute rebuttal period, Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioned Sauer on what authorities the courts, under their argument, would have in this scenario. Justice Elena Kagan, meanwhile, pointed out the practical challenge of expecting the Supreme Court to weigh in on every issue now handled by lower courts, which have already faced hundreds of federal lawsuits during Trump’s second term. Kagan also noted to Sauer that the Trump administration has lost every federal lawsuit challenging the birthright citizenship executive order, including under judges Trump appointed during his first term. "This is not a hypothetical; this is happening out there," she said. "Every court is ruling against you.” "If I were in your shoes there’s no way I’d approach the Supreme Court in this case," said Kagan, who in fact had previously served in Sauer’s exact role as U.S. solicitor general. Oral arguments are expected to focus not only on the lower courts that blocked Trump’s birthright citizenship order – but also on whether federal judges can issue universal injunctions halting executive actions nationwide. The Supreme Court has never ruled directly on the practice, though several conservative justices, including Justice Thomas, have raised concerns

Bloomberg [5/15/2025 11:30 AM, Erik Larson, 16228K] reports President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting the longstanding concept of birthright citizenship is probably illegal, the US Supreme Court’s liberal justices indicated during the first oral arguments in any of the numerous lawsuits challenging the Republican’s agenda. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson on Thursday peppered a government lawyer with questions about the constitutionality of Trump’s order. At the hearing, the Trump administration is asking the court to let the order take effect in some parts of the country while multiple lawsuits proceed. The order is currently being blocked across the country by three nationwide injunctions issued by district court judges. The government seeks to limit those rulings to only the seven pregnant women who sued, along with 11 identified members of two advocacy groups that are also involved. Demonstrators outside the US Supreme Court during oral arguments in Washington on May 15. Much of the sharp questioning — which was also joined by conservative Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh — asked the government to assume for the moment that the executive order was illegal, in order to address the crucial question of whether nationwide injunctions are proper. But the liberal justices hinted at their broader views about the legality of the order itself. "As far as I see it, this order violates four Supreme Court precedents," Sotomayor said to the Trump administration’s top attorney, Solicitor General D. John Sauer. Sauer argued that the use of nationwide injunctions "is a bipartisan problem that has now spanned the last five presidential administrations." Among the problems they create, he said they prevent "percolation of novel and difficult legal questions," encourage so-called forum shopping and require judges to "make rushed, high stakes, low information decisions.” Sauer said that there are currently 40 nationwide injunctions in place blocking some of Trump’s initiatives, many of which test the limits of presidential power under the US Constitution.

FOX News [5/15/2025 1:02 PM, Staff, 46189K] Video: HERE reports Justice Kagan blasted U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer on the birthright citizenship executive order— which she noted has yet to succeed in any federal court, including cases heard by Trump-appointed judges.

New York Times [5/15/2025 12:48 PM, Adam Liptak, 145325K] reports what happens next? While the court will probably not issue a decision until late June or early July, the unusual posture of the case could prompt quicker action. As usual, the justices will cast tentative votes at a private conference in the coming days. In a typical case, the senior justice in the majority would then assign the majority opinion to a colleague or, just as likely, keep it. Draft opinions, almost certainly including concurrences and dissents, would be prepared and exchanged. But this is not quite a typical case. It arrived at the court as an emergency application seeking partial stays of several lower-court rulings. Such applications are usually resolved with unsigned opinions whether they are argued or not, and rulings in them can come fast. That was what happened in 2022, when the court took the unusual step of hearing fast-tracked oral arguments on stay applications concerning two Biden administration vaccine mandates. The majority opinions in the two decisions were unsigned, but they did included signed dissents. Last year, though, the court granted a stay application in an environmental case several months after it was argued, in a signed decision.

New York Times [5/15/2025 3:51 PM, Charlie Savage and Alan Feuer, 145325K] reports the Supreme Court heard arguments on Thursday in a case related to President Trump’s executive order trying to end so-called birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented migrants. But the question before the justices was narrower: whether a single district court judge has the power to block a policy across the country. The justices were not considering the legal merits of Mr. Trump’s order, even though it brought greater attention to the arguments on Thursday. Shortly after being sworn in to his second term, Mr. Trump signed an order that reinterpreted the meaning of the 14th Amendment, which has long been understood to grant automatic citizenship to nearly everyone born on U.S. soil. Multiple courts around the country have blocked the government from obeying that order, ruling that it is most likely illegal. Still, the underlying issue came up several times. Several justices expressed skepticism about the legality of Mr. Trump’s proclamation. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, for example, said that it violated, “by my count, four established Supreme Court precedents.” No justice expressed clear support for the legality of the order. Some of the justices — particularly its longest sitting member, Justice Clarence Thomas — seemed interested in the history of nationwide injunctions, suggesting at times that the practice did not have deep roots in American jurisprudence. The Supreme Court has rejected certain legal practices — most prominently, the constitutional right to abortion — by arguing that they were not traditionally recognized in U.S. law. One of the major themes drawn out by lawyers for the plaintiffs was the practical effect of doing away with nationwide injunctions in a case that touched on an issue affecting all Americans. The lawyers worried that before the Supreme Court issued a final ruling on the question of birthright citizenship, there could be “chaos on the ground” if some states were allowed to keep the practice and others states did not. Justice Elena Kagan, noting that every lower court that has looked at Mr. Trump’s birthright citizenship order so far has ruled that it is illegal, asked Mr. Sauer how such an issue could be definitively resolved without a universal injunction.

New York Times [5/15/2025 3:10 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 145325K] reports President Trump’s executive order to limit birthright citizenship was just one in a blitz of actions in the early days of his second term meant to transform the way the United States treats immigrants. But the order on citizenship is one of the few changes to immigration policy that Mr. Trump has directed that have not taken effect. Mr. Trump’s executive order to end automatic citizenship for undocumented immigrants and foreign residents captured intense public attention amid the flurry of his Day 1 actions. But many of the other policies announced when Mr. Trump returned to the White House immediately upended the U.S. immigration system.

USA Today [5/15/2025 4:20 PM, Maureen Groppe, Bart Jansen, 75858K] reports the Trump administration on May 15 tried to convince the Supreme Court to let it broadly enforce the president’s new rules ending birthright citizenship for some, even though multiple lower courts have said his executive order is probably unconstitutional. John Sauer, President Donald Trump’s solicitor general, told the justices it’s "extremely urgent" that the court limit judges’ ability to pause the president’s policies while they’re being litigated. Several of the justices have expressed concerns about the use of nationwide injunctions, but Sauer faced pushback this week about whether limiting injunctions was appropriate in this case. Trump’s order would end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States unless at least one of their parents is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. While the government said Trump’s policy should be in effect for anyone who doesn’t try to challenge it, some justices questioned the practical effects of that patchwork scenario. And they suggested the administration avoided asking the Supreme Court to rule directly on the policy because they knew they would lose. The justices are expected to rule by the end of June.

New York Times [5/15/2025 10:00 AM, Adam Liptak, 145325K] reports the arguments in the birthright citizenship case are unusual, and not only because they are not really about birthright citizenship. The central question for the justices appears to be whether the injunctions entered by three federal trial judges blocking President Trump’s plan to end the practice were too broad. But it is hard to know what the precise question before the court is, as the case lacks the “question presented” that must appear on the first page of petitions seeking Supreme Court review. “No other information may appear on that page,” the court’s rules say. When the justices agree to hear a case, they do so to resolve that question. But when the court set this case down for argument, it did not grant review of a petition. Instead, it did something quite unusual: It agreed to hear arguments on three emergency applications seeking partial stays of the injunctions. Such applications do not typically include a “question presented” page, and the three in Thursday’s case did not. Emergency applications, moreover, are all but uniformly handled by the justices based only on written filings, without oral argument. Not this time. The case is unusual in another way. The justices scheduled arguments at a special session of the court, in May, about two weeks after the last day for argument noted on the court’s annual calendar. Hearing arguments on days other than those on the court’s calendar is rare, though there have been scattered exceptions. The court added a day last April, for instance, to consider the case on presidential immunity.

NewsMax [5/15/2025 11:13 AM, Sam Barron, 4998K] reports FBI field offices are assigning more agents to immigration enforcement, sources told NBC News. "As you know, we have been actively engaged in immigration enforcement efforts in coordination with our DOJ and DHS partners," according to a memo from a senior FBI official to managers that was obtained by NBC News. "Starting this week, we will need to see an increase in operational tempo in your immigration efforts. DOJ expects a significant increase in the number of agents participating in immigration enforcement operations." An FBI agent told NBC News that FBI agents would be uncomfortable being assigned to immigration operations. "This is not what we do, these are bad ideas," the official said. "If this was a Democrat administration, I’d be saying this is bad, we shouldn’t be doing this."

Axios [5/15/2025 6:56 AM, Sareen Habeshian and Cuneyt Dil, 13163K] reports A Georgetown University scholar was released on a judge’s order yesterday, two months after masked federal agents arrested him outside of his home in Rosslyn, Virginia. Judges have freed several foreign nationals arrested over Palestinian activism under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University graduate student from India, was released from a Texas detention center. Judge Patricia Giles of the Eastern District of Virginia said government prosecutors declined to provide evidence for Suri’s continued detainment, and that he was arrested "for punitive reasons" in violation of the First Amendment, the NY Times reports. Suri was teaching about minority rights in South Asia at Georgetown when he was arrested and informed his student visa was revoked. He was not charged with a crime. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin alleged on X that Suri has connections with Hamas. Suri’s lawyer told the media his client is "innocent" and that he was being "punished" because his U.S. citizen wife is of Palestinian heritage.

AP [5/16/2025 12:13 AM, Ben Finley and Michael Kinzelman, 48304K] reports a federal judge in Maryland will hear arguments Friday over whether the Trump administration can invoke the state secrets privilege to withhold information about bringing Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador in April and has since directed the administration to provide documents and testimony showing what it has done, if anything, to comply. Trump administration lawyers claim many of those details are protected, including sensitive diplomatic negotiations. Revealing the specifics would harm national security because foreign governments “would be less likely to work cooperatively with the United States,” they argued in a brief to the court. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers contend the administration hasn’t shown “the slightest effort” toward retrieving him after his mistaken deportation. And they point to President Donald Trump’s interview last month with ABC News, in which he said he could bring Abrego Garcia back but won’t. “Even as the Government speaks freely about Abrego Garcia in public, in this litigation it insists on secrecy,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers wrote to the court. The focus of Friday’s hearing will be a legal doctrine that is more often used in cases involving the military and spy agencies. Xinis’s ruling could impact the central question looming over the case: Has the Trump administration followed her order to bring back Abrego Garcia?

FOX News [5/15/2025 10:11 AM, Staff, 46189K] Video: HERE reports Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss a heated hearing with Secretary Noem on Capitol Hill and the latest on an altercation between Democrats and ICE agents at a facility in New Jersey.

Breitbart [5/15/2025 12:30 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports former President Joe Biden’s policies were the "biggest facilitator for child abuse" in American history, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says. During a hearing this week, Kennedy told members of Congress that the Biden administration’s policies regarding the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) program — where migrant kids are turned over to HHS for care and resettlement with relatives in the United States — resulted in potentially 500,000 UACs going missing in the U.S. "The estimate from the Office of Inspector General, and it is considered a very low estimate, is 291,000 children missing. The actual numbers are actually much higher than that; they could go up to half a million," Kennedy revealed. As Breitbart News chronicled, former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra reportedly carried out a policy that prioritized the release of UACs to adult sponsors over long-held protocols to protect such children from labor trafficking, sex trafficking, and child abuse. The result, federal watchdogs have found, is that HHS under Biden lost track of hundreds of thousands of UACs who were resettled with adult sponsors who were not their family members. "My predecessor was deliberately employing a policy of speed over safety so they waived all of the identification requirements for sponsors," Kennedy said. "Sponsors were not required to show valid identification, they were never fingerprinted, so we don’t know if there’s a criminal record. There was no DNA testing so the claims that they were taking a family member were … they were dubious. Kennedy detailed one case in which a man in Cleveland, Ohio, took custody of a 16-year-old migrant girl who he then raped, impregnated, and put her in his home where he continued to rape her. The man then sought custody of a teenage migrant boy and another two migrant children. "This was happening again and again. One agency placed 592 children with 120 sponsors. 400 children were shipped to a town with a meatpacking plant in Kansas," Kennedy said. "… the Biden administration knew about it, they saw the same pictures we did, and they did nothing.” Kennedy said that under his direction, HHS has launched a criminal task force and has already opened 500 criminal investigations, 80 of which have been brought to court thus far. "We are going to try to find everything we can, we need DHS to find these children," Kennedy said. "The federal government under the Biden administration became the biggest facilitator for child abuse, certainly in the history of our country.”

Washington Examiner [5/15/2025 9:29 AM, Rep. Lance Gooden, 2296K] reports the Trump administration’s border policies are saving and rescuing the lives of unaccompanied migrant children. Contrary to media-driven narratives, President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are prioritizing safety, security, and humanity for vulnerable minors. The Biden administration’s failed and negligent border policies led to tragic outcomes for migrant children. During former President Joe Biden’s tenure, over 320,000 unaccompanied minors disappeared into the U.S. Many fell prey to human or sex trafficking. Several children were among the 53 migrants who died crossing the border after an abandoned trailer reached lethal temperatures inside. Others drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande. These preventable tragedies highlight a reckless approach to immigration that failed to protect vulnerable children. Trump and Noem have drastically improved our border security, and unaccompanied migrant children encounters have dropped as a result. In March 2021, Border Patrol encountered nearly 19,000 unaccompanied migrant children. This number plummeted to just over 600 in March 2025, a 97% decrease under Trump’s watch. In a commitment to rescue unaccompanied migrant children lost by the Biden administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement this year launched the Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative. The initiative, led by Noem and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has already reunited over 5,000 unaccompanied minors with relatives or safe guardians in less than 100 days. This targeted operation locates children released by the Office of Refugee Resettlement during Biden’s tenure, protecting them from cartels, traffickers, and environmental dangers. The need for a task force such as the Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative stems from the chaos of the Biden era’s open-border policies. Trump and DHS have had to take drastic action to ensure the safety of the hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children missing in the country. These decisive measures are not only protecting children but also making the world safer by dismantling the networks that exploit them.

The Hill [5/15/2025 6:34 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12829K] reports Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) suggested Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could start deporting U.S. citizens with the expanded budget requested for fiscal 2026. During an interview with MSNBC’s "All In with Chris Hayes," Garcia was asked about the Trump administration’s request for "an unprecedented expansion of funding of DHS, particularly on immigration enforcement" and "what it would look like to give this agency three to five times the funding it currently has.” Garcia said that with more funding, DHS "would only expand" its current efforts. "They’re deporting … children with cancer that have been diagnosed to other countries without their permission and the permission of their parents; they are essentially locking away students for expressing their freedom of speech and their political views. They’re deporting people that we give appointments for, for asylum. They are whisking away, literally in the dead of night, people from our communities across the country, without any of them even getting a chance to call a lawyer or their family," Garcia said in the interview. "And they expect us to support giving them more resources to do this?" he continued.

The Hill [5/15/2025 9:43 AM, Lexi Lonas Cochran, 12829K] reports the Trump administration is pulling out all the stops to try to get Harvard University to cave to its demands. After the Ivy League university said it would not change its hiring and admissions policies or eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion, President Trump, who accused the school of failing to act against antisemitism, declared war by hitting multiple avenues of funding and launching investigations seeking to further weaken the institution. Harvard has shown it is ready to fight, already filing at least one lawsuit against the Trump administration’s actions, but has warned in the interim the funding cuts will be devastating to medical and technological advancement. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem threatened to ban Harvard from admitting any more foreign students on April 17. Noem said Harvard had to hand over records about foreign students who have been involved in illegal or violent activity by April 30 to avoid the consequences. There has been no update from the secretary on this issue. The DHS said it will also cancel two grants to the school worth $2.7 million. “Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security,” Noem said. “With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”

CNN [5/15/2025 12:03 PM, Priscilla Alvarez and Michael Williams, 22131K] reports the Department of Homeland Security’s oversight arm opened an investigation into the controversial arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil only days before officials working for that office were placed on administrative leave, according to a whistleblower disclosure exclusively obtained by CNN. It’s an example, according to whistleblowers, of the type of work that is now paused after the department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was dissolved in late March. The elimination of the office, which had about 150 employees, came around the same time that civil rights offices were similarly shuttered or severely reduced within the departments of Defense, Justice and Education. When the DHS office was closed, it had about 550 open investigations — ranging from accusations against FEMA personnel skipping over the homes of Trump supporters during disaster-relief work, poor conditions in immigrant detention, more than two dozen open cases of alleged sexual abuse and the high-profile arrest of Khalil, according to the disclosure sent to key congressional committees on behalf of whistleblowers by the Government Accountability Project, a non-partisan, nonprofit whistleblower support organization. In early March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested and detained Khalil, a negotiator for pro-Palestinian student protestors in talks with Columbia University’s administration over last spring’s contentious campus encampment. He was one of several foreign nationals who were accused by the Trump administration of being a threat to national security due to purported ties to terrorist organizations. His attorneys have disputed that characterization, and they have sparred with the government over whether a warrant was needed to arrest him. "In the days before March 21, 2025, CRCL opened an investigation into due process concerns raised by Khalil’s arrest and his attempted removal from the United States," according to the DHS whistleblower disclosure. That appears to be the extent of the investigation. The disclosure doesn’t suggest that it was the reason for the office’s disbanding. CNN reached out to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS has previously described the office as acting as an internal roadblock to the agency’s immigration-enforcement mission. Brian Hauss, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project and one of Khalil’s lawyers, said the Trump administration’s "unconstitutional retaliation" against the activist is "readily apparent.” "It is unfortunate that DHS’s Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office was dissolved before an investigation could be conducted, but we look forward to vindicating his rights in court," Hauss said. The civil rights office, established by the same post-9/11 law that created DHS, has a broad portfolio. It’s charged with investigating and working to resolve complaints brought by the public against the department, as well as advising on policies and engaging with communities affected by DHS activities.

FOX Business [5/15/2025 9:39 AM, Taylor Penley, 10702K] reports Tom Homan isn’t backing down when it comes to upholding immigration laws on the books – and he’s got a warning for anyone who tries to get in the way: "Don’t cross a line.” The Trump border czar’s words came days after Democratic officials allegedly stormed a Newark, New Jersey, ICE facility in the name of an "oversight" visit, gaining national attention and ire from the Department of Homeland Security. "If you cannot support ICE, shame on you. If you can support sanctuary cities, shame on you, but you can’t cross that line," Homan said Wednesday, railing against the Democrats during an appearance on "Kudlow.” "When you cross a line of impediment, when you cross the line of knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal alien, when you criminally trespass one of our facilities, we will ask the attorney general to prosecute you.” "You can’t cross that line of impediment," he continued. Homan previously responded "yes" when asked by a reporter if the Democratic lawmakers implicated in the situation should face censure or removal of their committee assignments. He also told Kudlow he had been in touch with Trump counselor Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey, regarding the matter. "Squad" Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., recently offered a specific warning to DHS officials, including Homan and Sec. Kristi Noem, regarding Democratic officials entangled in the news. "You lay a finger on [New Jersey Congresswoman] Bonnie Watson Coleman or any of the representatives that were there – you lay a finger on them, and we’re going to have a problem," Ocasio-Cortez said on Instagram. Homan dismissed the rhetoric, saying the New York Democrat "doesn’t know what she’s talking about" and that he has much more knowledge and experience in the border security realm than she does.

The Hill [5/15/2025 8:06 AM, Filip Timotija, 12829K] reports Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, fired back at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who recently warned administration officials they would face a "problem" if they continued to arrest Democratic Party lawmakers. Homan said Tuesday that he cannot be intimidated while claiming Ocasio-Cortez was insufficiently grateful to immigration officials for keeping her district safe. "First of all, you can’t intimidate me. Come on, give me a break. You know, I was enforcing — I was wearing a green uniform, Border Patrol agent for five years before she was even born. I had more than three decades enforcing immigration law before she became a member of Congress," he said in an appearance on CNN’s "The Lead.” "I worked for six presidents. I’ve seen policies. I’ve seen hundreds of policies. Some worked, some didn’t," Homan told host Jake Tapper. "But you can’t deny the success of the Trump Administration when it comes to border security." The border czar defended the administration’s immigration crackdown, arguing Trump’s policies have given the U.S. "the most secure border in the history of this nation.” "And I said from day one, and she knows this, you can not support ICE. Shame on you. You can support sanctuary cities. Shame on you. But you can’t cross the line," he said. "You can’t knowingly impede ICE law enforcement officers. That is a felony.” "You can’t harbor and conceal, knowingly harbor and conceal illegal aliens from ICE," Homan continued. "That is a felony. And you certainly can’t commit criminal trespass.” Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Kristi Noem also threatened actions against the House members, claiming they pushed and shoved others in the crowd, including agents, and has called for them to be censured. Watson Coleman has strongly denied DHS’ claims.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [5/15/2025 7:05 PM, Alexander Hall, 46189K]
NewsMax [5/15/2025 12:01 PM, Mark Swanson, 4998K]

CBS News [5/15/2025 1:02 PM, Allen Devlin and Renee Anderson, 51661K] Video: HERE reports Newark Mayor Ras Baraka appeared in federal court for a status conference Thursday following his arrest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility last week. The procedural hearing lasted about 30 minutes and was mostly rooted in the initial discovery. It’s just the beginning of Baraka’s legal battle, with both sides making it clear they are not backing down. A group of demonstrators rallied in support of the mayor outside the courthouse, and the crowd shouted at federal prosecutors as they entered the building. "We believe I was targeted in this. I was the only person arrested, I was the only person identified, I was the only person they put in a cell," Baraka said after the hearing. "This is wrong, it is unjust, it is undemocratic, it is unpatriotic, it is un-American.” The mayor is among the Democratic candidates running for governor of New Jersey. ICE agents took Baraka into custody on trespassing charges last Friday outside Delaney Hall, a detention center that opened just weeks ago. The mayor, along with other lawmakers and immigration advocates, have said the 1,000-bed facility did not obtain the necessary permits and blocked inspections. The Department of Homeland Security denies those allegations. Baraka told CBS News New York he was not at Delaney Hall that day to protest, but to support members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation who were there to tour the facility. "The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon," U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba wrote on social media after his arrest.

Reuters [5/15/2025 1:53 PM, Karen Freifeld, 41523K] reports lawyers for Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka said on Thursday they would file motions to dismiss a charge that he had trespassed at a privately run federal immigration detention center there last week. Baraka, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor in a crowded field, faces a misdemeanor charge of trespassing at Delaney Hall, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail. During the status conference in New Jersey federal court, the mayor’s counsel said they would seek dismissal on grounds that President Donald Trump’s Republican administration had selectively prosecuted the Democratic mayor. The lawyers also said the mayor was not subject to federal jurisdiction when arrested. The defense plans to file the motions next month. “We believe that the mayor himself was targeted here,” said Rahul Agarwal, one of three lawyers at the defense table. He said videos support the position that Baraka did not commit a crime. “The mayor was invited into the facility on Friday,” Agarwal said, and was “outside the facility when he was ultimately handcuffed and detained.”

Washington Post [5/15/2025 7:42 PM, El Calabrese, Tim Craig and Jeremy Roebuck, 31735K] reports Attorneys for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) accused the Trump administration on Thursday of “selective prosecution” as he made his first court appearance on misdemeanor trespassing charges since his arrest last week amid a tense scene that played out in an immigration detention center. Baraka’s lawyers said they intend to seek dismissal of the case, which has become a flash point in the wider pushback to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda. Prosecutors, meanwhile, maintained they have “clear evidence the mayor was on the property and refused to leave.” They told U.S. Magistrate Judge André M. Espinosa they were prepared, if necessary, to take the case to trial. Baraka, a candidate running for the Democratic nomination to replace New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D), did not enter a plea during the 15-minute proceeding. "They’re trying their best to humiliate and degrade me as much as they possibly can," Baraka told reporters afterward. "I feel like what we did was completely correct. We did not violate any laws. We stood up for the Constitution of this country, the constitution of the state of New Jersey.” The largely perfunctory hearing — a status check on the case — was nearly overshadowed by the scene outside the courthouse, where dozens of Baraka’s supporters gathered, carrying signs and chanting "shame" at Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, as she made her way into court. She said nothing during the hearing and instead conferred quietly with prosecutors from the courtroom’s front row. Baraka was arrested Friday as he and three members of Congress representing New Jersey protested in front of Delaney Hall, a privately run detention center that can hold up to 1,000 people.

NewsMax.com [5/15/2025 3:40 PM, Michael Katz, 4998K] reports the Democrat mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, a candidate for governor, is set to go on trial in mid-July on charges related to a confrontation this month at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka appeared in federal court Thursday for a preliminary hearing, his first court appearance since his May 9 arrest on a trespassing charge at the Delaney Hall Detention Center, multiple media outlets reported. He also has been accused of ignoring warnings to leave the facility. He was released from custody later that night. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 30 days in jail and a $500 fine. U.S. Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa said he will likely set a trial for "mid to late July," while also saying he expects it to be held this summer, according to Bloomberg.

Breitbart [5/15/2025 10:46 PM, Pam Key, 2923K] reports Representative Delia Ramirez (D-IL) said Thursday on MSNBC’s "The Weeknight" that the Trump administration targeted Newark, NJ, Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested at the Delaney Hall Detention Center. Host Michael Steele asked, "Congresswoman, based off of your understanding of what you’ve learned about this case, and certainly what the mayor has offered publicly, do you — have you come to a conclusion, or are you coming to a conclusion, that he was targeted, as the mayor said?". Ramirez said, "He was absolutely targeted. The idea that Secretary Noem would come before our Homeland Security Committee hearing and attempt to turn it around on him and on members of Congress that sit in that committee is despicable.” She continued, "I mean, he came to do oversight on a facility. He was told to leave and otherwise they’d arrest him. He left and they closed the gate and then opened the gate after talking to who knows who, and then came back and arrested him.” Ramirez added, "They’re wanting to make sure that the American people know that they’re willing to go after anyone. This is about fear. This is what authoritarians do, fascists do. They go after judges, members of Congress, and mayors of their own city.”

CBS News [5/15/2025 6:00 AM, Joe Walsh, 51661K] reports President Trump’s push to remove people from the U.S. using the wartime Alien Enemies Act got a rare stamp of approval from a federal judge this week, as one of the more controversial parts of Mr. Trump’s immigration strategy faces a slew of court challenges. U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines of Pennsylvania, a Trump nominee, ruled Tuesday the president is legally allowed to use the 18th-century law to deport Venezuelan migrants accused of belonging to the gang Tren de Aragua. However, Haines also said the administration hasn’t given people facing Alien Enemies Act removal enough notice to bring court challenges. The ruling is fairly narrow: The case only applies to one person, a Venezuelan man who was arrested in central Pennsylvania and moved to Texas. But it further complicates a nationwide battle over the Alien Enemies Act, which Mr. Trump has used to rapidly expel hundreds of migrants and send them to a supermax prison in El Salvador.

The Washington Times [5/15/2025 2:58 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1814K] reports the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that six illegal immigrants — including three juveniles ages 13, 14 and 15 — are charged with murdering a mother in South Carolina. All six are from Honduras. Two adults and a 17-year-old have been identified as Asael Torres-Chirinos, Jarby Ramos-Ardon and Jeyson Salgado-Pineda. The other three juveniles were not identified. Larisha Sharell Thompson, 40, was found shot to death in her vehicle earlier this month. Evidence found at the scene connected it to an attempted break-in at a convenience store late last month. Authorities believe Thompson was slain in a robbery attempt. Homeland Security highlighted the case as evidence for stiffer immigration enforcement. "Larisha Sharell Thompson’s life was tragically taken by criminal illegal aliens. She was a mother who was driving to a friend’s house when her life was brutally taken by these criminal aliens who should have never been in our country," said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at Homeland Security. The department did not reveal details on how the migrants reached the U.S. and whether they came with family or entered as Unaccompanied Alien Children. Breitbart [5/15/2025 6:13 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports six illegal aliens, ranging from 13 to 21 years old, are accused of murdering 40-year-old Larisha Sharell Thompson, a mother of two children, in a random attack in Lancaster County, South Carolina. Illegal aliens Asael Torres-Chirinos, Jarby Ramos-Ardon, Jeyson Salgado-Pineda, as well as three juvenile illegal aliens, ages 13, 14, and 15, have been arrested by the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office and charged with the murder of Larisha Sharell Thompson on May 12. "She was a dedicated employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Home Depot in Lancaster, South Carolina," Thompson’s obituary reads: Larisha was known for her hard work, beautiful spirit, and passion for helping others. She lived life to the fullest — enjoying bowling, traveling with friends, laughter, and making unforgettable memories with her daughters, whom she adored. Larisha’s love, kindness, and strong work ethic ensured that her daughters always had what they needed and wanted. [Emphasis added]. According to police, Thompson was driving on the evening of May 12 when the six illegal aliens pulled up beside her in another vehicle and shot her to death. Thompson was found dead in her car by police hours later, after a search ensued when her family lost contact with her. The six illegal aliens, police allege, had attempted to rob a convenience store earlier that evening. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that all six are illegal aliens and revealed that Torres-Chino was previously arrested in 2023 for domestic violence but never deported. "Larisha Sharell Thompson’s life was tragically taken by criminal illegal aliens," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: “She was a mother who was driving to a friend’s house when her life was brutally taken by these criminal aliens who should have never been in our country. President Trump and Secretary Noem will always fight for the victims of illegal alien crime and their families. The safety of American citizens comes first.”

AP [5/15/2025 11:06 AM, Safiyah Riddle and David A. Lieb, 48304K] reports Alabama lawmakers have passed legislation that would make it a felony to knowingly bring someone into the state who is in the U.S. illegally, echoing similar bills nationwide that could restrict domestic travel for some immigrants. The legislation given final approval Wednesday protects “not only the citizens of Alabama but also the people that are immigrating here legally and doing everything the right way,” said the bill’s Republican sponsor, Sen. Wes Kitchens. The measure carves out exemptions for medical professionals such as ambulance drivers and employees for law firms, educators, churches or charitable organizations carrying out “non-commercial” tasks. The bill also outlines a process for law enforcement to determine whether a person who is arrested is in the country legally. It now goes to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who has 10 days to sign the legislation or else it fails by a pocket veto. Alabama joins at least nine other states that have considered legislation this year that would create crimes of transporting immigrants who are unlawfully in the U.S., according to an Associated Press analysis using the bill-tracking software Plural. It’s one of many recent bills passed by conservative statehouses seeking to aid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration. Activists say Alabama could end up ensnaring people who provide transportation across state lines for essential services, such federal immigration court hearings in New Orleans and Atlanta, mandatory trips to out-of-state consulates and visits to family. Jordan Stallworth, 38, works as a civic engagement coordinator for the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice and lives in Wedowee, Alabama, a rural town of about 800 people that is just a 20-minute drive from Georgia. His wife has relatives living without legal status in both states and he often assists family members and other immigrants in the community with transportation. Recently, he drove a family member lacking legal status to the maternity ward in Carrollton, Georgia, 35 miles (56 kilometers) away, since the local hospital doesn’t have one. Stallworth worries that similar trips will be criminalized. “I’m not gonna sit here and somebody’s dying in front of me just to have a baby — I’m not gonna sit here and just let her die, family or not,” Stallworth said.

The New York Times [5/15/2025 11:35 AM, Mitch Smith and Dan Simmons, 145325K] reports that the Wisconsin state judge accused of impeding immigration agents at a Milwaukee courthouse last month pleaded not guilty on Thursday morning during a brief appearance in federal court. Prosecutors have said that the judge, Hannah C. Dugan, violated federal law when she directed an undocumented defendant who was being sought by immigration agents through an alternate exit from her courtroom. Judge Dugan, who was indicted by a grand jury on Tuesday, is seeking the dismissal of the charges against her and has asserted that her actions were protected by judicial immunity. A lawyer entered the plea on behalf of Judge Dugan, who was seated next to him in the federal courtroom on Thursday. Protesters holding signs and chanting “Hands Off Judge Dugan” were gathered outside the downtown courthouse, and Milwaukee police officers blocked part of a street to accommodate the crowd. “We know this isn’t about one judge,” Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the executive director of Voces de la Frontera, a Milwaukee-based immigrant rights group, told the crowd. “It’s an intimidation tactic.” Judge Dugan has been temporarily suspended from the bench by the Wisconsin Supreme Court while the case against her proceeds. Another state judge is hearing the cases she was handling in the wood-paneled courtroom where she used to preside. A sign on the courtroom door still invites lawyers to arrange meetings by Zoom for defendants who “feel unsafe coming to the courthouse.” NBC News [5/15/2025 11:04 AM, Samira Puskar and Daniella Silva, 44742K] reports a Wisconsin judge pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of obstructing federal agents seeking to detain an undocumented immigrant in her courtroom. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan entered her plea during an arraignment in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Dugan has been accused of confronting members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and falsely telling them they needed a judicial warrant to conduct an operation in her courtroom. She has also been accused of directing an undocumented immigrant and his lawyer to exit through a separate door to sidestep the ICE agents. The judge was indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday. Dugan was arrested by the FBI late last month after a criminal complaint alleged that she had helped Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his attorney exit her courtroom on April 18 when ICE agents showed up to arrest a man they said was an undocumented immigrant.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [5/15/2025 10:41 AM, Patrick Marley, 31735K]
Axios [5/15/2025 10:47 AM, April Rubin, 13163K]
CBS News [5/15/2025 12:33 PM, Jacob Rosen and Scott MacFarlane, 51661K] Video HERE

The Hill [5/15/2025 11:14 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12829K] reports Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sharply criticized President Trump on Thursday following reports that 17 family members of Sinaloa Cartel leaders were allowed into the U.S. last week as part of a deal with the Trump administration. In floor remarks on Thursday, Schumer accused the president of being "soft on crime" and of "rolling out a welcome mat to El Chapo and his family and inviting them into our country.” "If you’re related to El Chapo, Donald Trump says, ‘Come right in. Welcome to America.’ He’ll roll out the red carpet," Schumer said on Thursday. "What message does this send to other drug lords, criminals, and terrorists? Where are our Republican colleagues on this? Where is the outrage from the other side of the aisle, who say they want to prevent criminals from crossing our borders?" Schumer added. Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch confirmed in a radio interview Tuesday that family members of Ovidio Guzmán Lopez, who was extradited to the United States in 2023, had entered the U.S. Guzmán Lopez is one of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán’s brothers, and he was left running a faction of the cartel after the notorious cartel leader was imprisoned in the U.S. Rumors had circulated last week that the younger Guzmán would plead guilty to avoid trial for several drug trafficking charges in the U.S. after being extradited in 2023. García Harfuch said it was clear to Mexican authorities that they were doing so after negotiations between Guzmán López and the U.S. government. "It is evident that his family is going to the U.S. because of a negotiation or an offer that the Department of Justice is giving him," García Harfuch said.

AP [5/15/2025 4:26 PM, Mary Clare Jalonick] reports Senate Republicans have blocked a Democratic resolution to require more transparency from the Trump administration about deportations to El Salvador. The vote Thursday was the latest attempt by minority Democrats to force Senate votes disapproving of Trump administration policy. The Senate rejected, 45-50, the motion to discharge the resolution from committee and consider it immediately on the floor. The resolution blocked by Republicans would force administration officials to report to Congress about what steps it is taking to comply with courts that have ruled on the deportations. Democrats have highlighted the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to the Central American country and who a Maryland judge has said should be returned to the U.S. Democrats want to put Republicans on record on that case and others while also pressuring the government of El Salvador, which is working with the Trump administration. The resolution would also require the Trump administration to reveal more information about money paid to El Salvador and assess the country’s human rights record.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [5/15/2025 5:34 PM, Patricia Zengerle, 41523K]
NewsMax [5/15/2025 4:05 PM, Jim Mishler, 4998K]

Washington Post [5/15/2025 10:08 PM, Silvia Foster-Frau, 31735K] reports a 2-year-old girl who was left in the United States after both her parents were removed from the country, sparking an international custody dispute, has been returned to Venezuela, according to the child’s family and the Venezuelan government. The case of Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal drew condemnation from immigrant rights groups and concern about the potential for family separations as the Trump administration looks to expedite migrant removals. The child’s mother was recently deported to Venezuela without her. Her father, meanwhile, was sent to a megaprison in El Salvador. On Wednesday, Venezuela’s state television showed video of the nation’s first lady, Cilia Flores, holding Maikelys in her arms at the airport. The child’s grandmother said her family was rushing to reunite with her. Venezuela’s leaders were celebrating her arrival. “This has been a battle,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said as the first lady stroked the little girl’s hair. “A battle every day, and today we are victorious.” Yorely Bernal, the toddler’s mother, was deported without her daughter nearly two weeks ago, despite signing paperwork for her child to be deported with her. She had spent months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in South Texas separated from her. The child was returned due to a court order, Tricia McLaughlin, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, said in a statement. The Trump administration said it did not reunite the child with the parents because the child’s father, Maiker Espinoza, was allegedly a lieutenant of the Tren de Aragua gang who purportedly oversaw homicides and other illicit activity. They accused Bernal of recruiting young women for drug smuggling and prostitution. The government said at the time that Maikelys was not deported with her mother for her “safety and welfare.”

AP [5/16/2025 3:34 AM, Staff, 48304K] reports Maikelys Espinoza arrived at an airport on Wednesday outside the capital, Caracas, along with more than 220 deported migrants. U.S. authorities allege that both parents are linked to the Tren de Aragua gang, which was designated a terrorist organization under President Donald Trump. Venezuela denounced the case as kidnapping. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [5/15/2025 6:30 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2923K] reports Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro celebrated on Wednesday the scheduled return of two-year-old Venezuelan Maikelys Espinoza as a "victory" for his regime after spending weeks falsely claiming that the child had been "kidnapped" by the United States. Maikelys Espinoza is a Venezuelan child the Maduro regime accused the United States of "kidnapping" after her parents, both Tren de Aragua members who illegally entered the United States, were deported in recent weeks. Maduro and members of his authoritarian socialist regime have pursued a new anti-U.S. narrative that the deportations of illegal Venezuelan migrants are "kidnappings," placing the child’s circumstances at the forefront of the narrative. Similarly, the Maduro regime has claimed that the deportation of Tren de Aragua members to El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act is comparable to the persecution of the Jewish people in Nazi Germany and their imprisonment and mass murder in concentration camps. Roughly 250 Venezuelan illegal migrants suspected of being Tren de Aragua members are presently detained in El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison as per the terms of an agreement between Presidents Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele. Contrary to the Maduro regime’s "kidnapping" claims, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained in late April that the child was placed under foster care in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after DHS found evidence that both her parents were members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) foreign terrorist organization. Both parents had final orders of removal from a judge. The child’s mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal, is accused of overseeing the recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution, and was deported to Venezuela. The father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona, is a suspected Tren De Aragua lieutenant accused of overseeing homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, and sex trafficking and operating a torture house. Espinoza-Escalona is presently detained in El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison alongside some 250 suspected Tren de Aragua members. DHS further explained on Wednesday that the two-year-old was in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement for 302 days and was not deported alongside her TdA-affiliated mother for her own safety. "The child in question was repatriated to Venezuela pursuant to a court order. ICE defers to the government of Venezuela to advise if the child is with the mother or in government custody," DHS explained, "but at least we know the child will not be with her TDA father who operated a torture house and oversaw homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, and sex trafficking for the criminal gang.” "Thanks to President Trump, this terrorist gang member is locked up in CECOT," the agency stated.

Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 5:43 PM, Staff, 646K] reports the Supreme Court heard two hours of arguments Thursday on whether to stay the “universal” injunctions that lower judges have issued to block President Trump’s order reinterpreting birthright citizenship. Echoing through the debate was uneasiness that Mr. Trump might try to game the legal system. After the Abrego Garcia fiasco, it’s hard to blame the Justices for wondering. The federal government is asking the High Court to pare the injunctions so they protect only the parties who sued. But the Administration reserves the right to deny birthright citizenship to other U.S.-born children of aliens covered by Mr. Trump’s policy. If an appeals court rules the order illegal, Justice Elena Kagan asked, would Mr. Trump keep enforcing it against everyone else in the same circuit? “I can’t answer, because it would depend on what the lower decision said,” replied Solicitor General John Sauer. “There are circumstances, as I was suggesting, where we think that we want to continue to litigate that in other district courts in the same circuit.” What if the government keeps losing all the individual cases but refuses to appeal the merits of the birthright citizenship question to the Supreme Court, which could settle it for good? Justice Kagan suggested that would still let Mr. Trump enforce his order against everyone who can’t get to court personally. Mr. Sauer responded that a class-action lawsuit could protect such people—but he also resisted the idea that the case at hand might meet what he called “the rigorous criteria of class certification.”

Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 1:28 PM, Tevi Troy, 646K] reprots Eric Edelman and Franklin Miller are correct that FEMA does more than hurricane response and that continuity of government is an important need that must be maintained (“FEMA Prepares for Disasters Worse Than Hurricanes,” op-ed, May 14). But most of what FEMA does is in the form of response to local disasters that constitutionally and historically were long handled at the state level. If Congress were to reform FEMA and give its disaster-response functions and funding back to the states, the continuation-of-government functions that Messrs. Edelman and Miller mention could be moved elsewhere—most likely to the Defense Department.

USA Today [5/16/2025 4:30 AM, Dace Potas, 75858K] reports on May 15, the Supreme Court heard a rare May oral arguments session concerning challenges to President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking an end to birthright citizenship – at least as it is currently known. However, the Supreme Court’s oral arguments did not evaluate Trump’s birthright citizenship case on the merits. Instead, the question central to this debate concerned universal injunctions. The Supreme Court is tackling an extremely important question about whether district courts can issue universal injunctions, which block the federal government from enforcing a policy against anybody anywhere in the country while the courts sort out the merits of the case. In the end, Trump could be dealt an ultimately winning hand. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [5/15/2025 5:00 AM, Sen. Chris Coons, 46189K] reports you could be arrested, detained, and deported by the Trump administration. Yes, you, reading this. "But," you might say, "I’m a U.S. citizen. My parents were, too. I haven’t done anything wrong." It may not matter. As this administration ramps up mass deportations, you too could be detained and deported – purely by mistake. All because you never got a fair day in court. We all know the administration is making mistakes. After all, they’ve told us. You’ve probably heard of Kilmar Abrego Garcia – the Maryland resident deported to El Salvador earlier this year. The administration’s own lawyers said removing him from the country was "an administrative error." He’s certainly not the only mistake. The Trump administration is reportedly paying millions to the El Salvadoran government to keep him and 287 other men imprisoned. The administration says they’re violent gang members, but most of them have no criminal record in the United States or in any other country. The evidence the government says it relied on? They have tattoos of their favorite soccer team, or a Chicago Bulls hat. This administration has even mistakenly detained U.S. citizens. Unfortunately, these mistakes are likely to become more frequent as mass deportations ramp up. According to the administration, reaching President Trump’s stated goal of 1 million deportations a year will require them to more than double their current pace. More haste and a higher frequency means more mistakes.

The Hill [5/15/2025 9:30 AM, Arturo McFields, 12829K] reports China has allegedly installed four spy bases in Cuba, 90 miles from the Florida coast. In Mexico, China operates telecommunications systems banned in the U.S. for being linked to the ruling Communist Party, which have the capacity to spy on and disrupt other countries’ communications. During a recent hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee, it was reported that China is increasing its cooperation with Cuba to allegedly spy on America. Beijing is strengthening its espionage capabilities by building surveillance infrastructure in Cuba. In this strategy, Florida is a key target due to its military resources and ecosystems, and China wants to listen in and leverage its intelligence information. Although Huawei has managed to position itself as a leader in 5G technology, it remains under a shadow of distrust due to allegations of control and collection of private and highly sensitive information. In 2019, the Trump administration instructed all government agencies to eliminate the use of equipment made by Huawei because the technology presented a serious threat to national security. Despite its suspicious background, Huawei has increased its growth five-fold in Mexico since 2022, investing millions of dollars and developing a technical support data center that covers Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Washington Examiner [5/15/2025 11:19 AM, Kaelan Deese, 2296K] reports the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday pushed back against claims that the agency is underfunded or falling behind on deportations, telling lawmakers that ICE is operating "daily" removal flights and remains on track to meet its aggressive enforcement targets. Todd Lyons, testifying before the House Appropriations Committee, said ICE conducted more than 55 international missions just a day earlier and is "swiftly and humanely" removing people with final deportation orders as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. "ICE daily is doing flights," Lyons said, adding he is "ensuring that we do not have a bottleneck on our attention that we are not clogging up detention space.” Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) — whose district includes Fort Bliss, a key hub for ICE operations — praised the agency’s coordination with the Defense Department and pushed Lyons to confirm that enforcement remains robust. "It’s working," Gonzales said. "I want to make sure ICE and [Enforcement and Removal Operations] have all the resources, personnel, and policy they need," he said. When asked about specific flight numbers, Lyons promised to get back to Gonzales’s office.

NewsNation [5/15/2025 12:29 PM, Ali Bradley and Jeff Arnold, 6866K] reports immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking to build a “robust volunteer cadre” of border agents and processing coordinators to temporarily shift responsibilities in the apprehension of criminal migrants in cities and communities around the United States, NewsNation has confirmed. ICE plans to send volunteers to large and small cities across the U.S., according to an email sent to Customs and Border Protection agents and managers and obtained by NewsNation. Duties of the operation will be “enforcement-centric”, the email said. The email indicated that deployment locations and the length of time required for the assignment are currently being decided. A request to CBP seeking more details about the operation, including how many volunteers would be required, was not immediately returned. The shift to the nation’s interior comes after Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House border czar Tom Homan, have said the southern border is the most secure it has been in the country’s history. Border encounters and illegal crossings have reportedly dropped significantly since President Donald Trump took office in January. Noem has boasted that encounters have dropped by 95% since last spring as part of Trump’s focus on closing the border to immigrants looking to enter the country illegally. ICE has also ramped up efforts to arrest migrants with criminal backgrounds who were previously ordered to leave the U.S., or who have not yet been taken into federal custody. Noem and Homan have repeated that the administration’s focus remains on arresting and detaining “the worst of the worst”.

Tampa Free Press [5/15/2025 10:00 AM, Danielle Shockey, 76K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reminded Congressional offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility visitation guidelines following a contentious incident at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey. The incident involved Democratic Representatives Rob Menendez Jr., LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested during the confrontation. According to a DHS statement, several members of Congress resorted to breaking into the facility and allegedly assaulting ICE agents, actions the department says were unnecessary, as established procedures for facility tours exist. “Members of Congress cannot break the law in the name of ‘oversight,’” stated Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Secretary Noem respects Congress’s oversight authority and is always willing to accommodate Members seeking to visit ICE detention facilities. However, they are not above the law. All members and staff need to comply with facility rules, procedures, and instructions from ICE personnel on site for their own safety, the safety of the detainees, and the safety of ICE employees.” McLaughlin said that if the involved congressional members had followed the proper channels, they would have been readily granted access to Delaney Hall. “If these three members had simply asked for a tour, these three congressional members would have been easily allowed into Delaney Hall and would not have had to resort to assaulting law enforcement to enter the facility,” she added. Despite the alleged actions of the Congressional members, the DHS confirmed that they were subsequently given a tour of the facility.

Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 10:00 AM, Elizabeth Findell and Mariah Timms, 646K] reports El Paso immigration judge Michael S. Pleters was incredulous. He had expected to hear a request from Henrry Albornoz Quintero for political asylum in the U.S., but though the Venezuelan had been held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was absent the day of his April hearing. “He’s disappeared? What happened?” the judge asked. “All I can disclose at the moment is that he’s no longer in ICE custody,” a U.S. government attorney said. What the lawyer didn’t say was that Albornoz was among hundreds of men accused of being gang members and shipped to a superprison in El Salvador. He had never been charged with a crime, nor ordered deported, but officials contend that under an 18th-century law he could be shipped to a foreign prison without a hearing. “They need to read the Alien Enemies Act,” Border Czar Tom Homan said in an interview, referring to the 1798 law that permits extrajudicial removal of citizens of a country at war with the U.S. “They don’t have the level of due process.” “I can’t have a trial, a major trial, for every person that came in illegally,” President Trump told ABC News this month, saying that the men sent to the prison, known as Cecot, were violent gang members. White House adviser Stephen Miller said last week that the administration is looking at suspending habeas corpus, which protects individuals from unlawful detention, as part of its immigration crackdown. The government’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to sidestep even the limited due process provided by regular immigration court is now rippling through the U.S. court system, where several judges have ruled its use this way is unlawful, in a series of cases testing the extent of the administration’s power. Legal experts say the administration may be sweeping innocent men into its immigration crackdown by denying them due process. U.S. officials haven’t presented evidence against the men or even named them.

Reuters [5/15/2025 3:41 PM, Rajesh Kumar Singh, 41523K] reports Avelo Airlines, a Texas-based budget carrier, is facing backlash from both customers and employees over its decision to operate deportation flights under a new contract with the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has launched a hardline crackdown on illegal immigration, including the deportation of Venezuelan migrants he accuses of being gang members to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, and has also detained and moved to deport some legal permanent U.S. residents. Trump’s policies have triggered a rash of lawsuits and protests. Avelo, which has been struggling financially, signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last month to transport migrants to detention centers inside and outside the U.S., according to an internal company memo reviewed by Reuters. On Monday, the airline flew its first flight under the deal, from Arizona to Louisiana, data from flight-tracking services FlightAware and Flightradar24 showed. The union representing Avelo’s flight attendants called the contract "bad for the airline," and one customer has helped organize a petition urging travelers to boycott the airline. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, said ICE was deporting illegal aliens who broke the country’s laws. She called the protests "nothing more than a tired tactic to abolish ICE by proxy." "Avelo Airlines is a sub-carrier on a government contract to assist with deportation flights," McLaughlin said in a statement. "Attacks and demonization of ICE and our partners is wrong." Avelo is defending its decision.

New York Times [5/15/2025 1:22 PM, Julia Moskin, 153395K] reports more than 100 restaurants in Washington, D.C., were visited last week by agents from several federal agencies, in a sweep led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They arrived unannounced, some wearing tactical gear, to serve papers that notified the businesses that their employees’ immigration status was being audited. The targets included high-profile restaurants like José Andrés’s Jaleo, Chang Chang and Chef Geoff’s, whose owner, Geoff Tracy, is married to the CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell. The action was part of a broader sweep in the district that led to nearly 200 arrests, according to ICE. In a statement, the agency said it had “targeted the most dangerous illegal offenders” in the capital. “These arrests make clear that violating our nation’s immigration laws will not be ignored.” None of the arrests resulted from the agents’ visits to restaurants, an ICE spokesman said. Still, the broad scope and unusual nature of the action (such audits are usually conducted by mail or email) has sent fear throughout the restaurant business, which relies heavily on the labor of undocumented workers. Lawyers from the National Immigration Law Center, private firms and local and national restaurant associations have been producing “Know Your Rights” documents, and contacting clients with guidelines on how to respond. All said that they expect these actions to increase nationally as the Homeland Security Department, which includes ICE, increases enforcement. (ICE declined to say whether similar actions were planned around the country, citing the safety of its employees.) The lawyers offered these basics about federal laws and guidelines. ICE did not respond to requests for comment on that information.

(B) FOX 17 This Morning [5/15/2025 8:49 AM, Staff] reports that as the ICE crackdown continues with illegal immigration, federal lawmakers are debating the push to expand funding and services that could support the president’s agenda. Some border agents and National Guard troops stationed along the southern border reportedly may soon be called to help with interior enforcement to find and arrest those already living inside the country. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told Congress his agency is still short on resources, a concern echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, insisting more money is needed to find and deport the millions who entered the country during the Biden administration. The Trump administration has already asked for about $45 billion for ICE to expand its detention capabilities int eh country.

CBS Austin [5/15/2025 5:37 PM, Jessica James, 602K] reports the Washington Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced Thursday that it arrested 17 people in connection with firearms and narcotics trafficking. The investigation spanned over five states, including D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Texas. 122 firearms and 10,000 fentanyl pills are now off the streets and in the hands of authorities as a result of the operation. The 17 people arrested were allegedly in the U.S. illegally, according to the ATF. "They will be in the process of being deported back to the country where they were originally from and they will no longer commit violent crimes in the United States of America," said Anthony Spotswood, ATF’s special agent in charge.

Politico [5/15/2025 12:00 PM, Myah Ward and Kyle Cheney, 11599K] reports immigrant families separated during President Donald Trump’s first term, once a potent symbol of harsh government overreach, are facing new legal obstacles from an emboldened second-term Trump administration. It’s an unusual predicament: The same administration that has been trying to deport them is now trying to take over the responsibility for guiding them through complex legal proceedings in immigration court. The Justice Department says it’s about efficiency. Advocates and independent lawyers who have worked with the families call it an obvious conflict of interest. The issue will come to a head in a hearing scheduled Friday. The latest clash stems from a 2023 court-approved settlement aimed at supporting the families separated by Trump’s immigration policies in 2017 and 2018. The settlement required the administration to provide a wide range of benefits, including government-funded legal services. Until May 1, the families had been receiving legal support from outside groups, led by the Acacia Center for Justice, a nonprofit immigrant legal defense organization. These independent lawyers have helped them navigate the byzantine process of reunifying, applying for temporary legal status and deciphering immigration court — until the Justice Department abruptly declined to renew the contract with Acacia. That decision to move the legal services in-house has left advocates for these separated families alarmed, baffled and warning of an inherent conflict. Not only was the cutoff of Acacia’s services abrupt, they say, the administration provided no roadmap for how it will take over the legal cases for up to 8,000 people, some of whom are facing urgent court deadlines and imminent deportation or separation once again. This time, the world isn’t watching.

NBC News [5/15/2025 10:57 PM, Staff, 44742K] reports Essex County Sheriff Kevin Coppinger is calling for restraint from all parties amid ICE operations. The Trump administration is warning Massachusetts communities to stay clear of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations or else. But one local law enforcement leader is urging calm from all parties. Essex County Sheriff Kevin Coppinger is calling for restraint after recent encounters between federal law enforcement and the public that have become more confrontational, including last week in Worcester and Tuesday in Waltham. "Everybody just needs to take a step back," said Coppinger, who formerly served as chief of the Lynn Police Department. Recent ICE arrests in the Bay State have been met with resistance from members of the public. "We have to maintain the peace — not take sides, but maintain the peace so nobody gets hurt," Coppinger said. He deals with ICE on a regular basis at the county jail. He said his involvement with the federal agency is limited by state law, unable to hold inmates for them who post bail. He said the lack of collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement shouldn’t limit their communication, especially when agents are out in the streets. "My request to ICE in general would be notify local police and the district attorneys or any local law enforcement that may be involved, especially in light of all the chaos and all the tension that’s in our communities now over this," he said. "You’re separating families. These are hard working people. They’re not criminals," yelled one woman who confronted ICE agents on Moody Street in Waltham Tuesday morning. "I hope when you die, you know you did the right thing!". Retired ICE San Antonio Deputy Field Director Julian Calderas said he’s noticed a lot more hostility recently. He warned that a situation can easily turn violent, especially if agents feel threatened. "If [the public] have a problem with what they’re seeing or observing, there is many different ways that they could express that dissatisfaction, but I certainly would not get involved," he said. Calderas added that ICE can arrest people without presenting a warrant.

FOX News [5/15/2025 11:58 AM, Greg Norman, 46189K] reports the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts is threatening arrests for those who obstruct Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, calling recent interference in her state "disturbing." The warning from Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, comes days after a tense video emerged of a crowd reacting to an ICE operation in Worcester. "The interference with ICE operations around Massachusetts has been disturbing, to say the least. This conduct poses significant public and officer safety risks. It is conduct that should be vilified rather than glorified," Foley said in a statement. "I will not stand idly by if any public official, public safety officer, organization or private citizen acts in a manner that criminally obstructs or impedes ICE operations. The United States Attorney’s Office, along with our federal partners, will investigate any violations of federal law and pursue charges that are warranted by such activity," she added. Footage captured last week showed the ICE arrest in Worcester being disrupted by a crowd of about 25 people in what police said was a "chaotic incident." "District Councilor for the City of Worcester [Etel] Haxhiaj pulled a political stunt and incited chaos by trying to obstruct law enforcement. ICE officers and local police regained control of the situation and ICE arrested Ferreira de Oliveira," said Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary. "The previous administration’s open border policies allowed this criminal to illegally enter our country in August of 2022. Thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem this criminal is off our streets." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS New York [5/15/2025 6:41 PM, Carolyn Gusoff, 51661K] Video: HERE reports two young men deported to El Salvador after living on Long Island for nearly a decade are pleading for a second chance. Their lives were abruptly upended during a routine check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Brothers Jose and Josue Trejo Lopez were born in El Salvador, but they hardly know the country and have no family there. Their mother brought them to the U.S. nine years ago in an effort to escape gang violence. Asylum was repeatedly denied, but during appeals to legalize their status, the brothers went to U.S. schools, earned diplomas and had dreams of careers as mechanics. Earlier this year, their mother took them to a routine ICE check-in appointment, where the brothers said they were shackled and detained. "I think it is inhumane to have somebody in shackles sitting down for hours, not letting them use the bathroom, not letting them eat," Jose Trejo Lopez, 20, said. Weeks later, they landed in El Salvador, where they didn’t know anyone. "We are not a threat to the country. We are not criminals. We are Christians," Jose Trejo Lopez said. "We have basically respect every single law.” "We always followed the law, and I don’t understand why it happened," Josue Trejo Lopez, 19, said. Their attorney said an appeal for special status was pending as children who came to the U.S. through no fault of their own. "This is the only home that they know. They have absolutely no family in El Salvador, not even extended family, so to take these children and to treat them in such an inhumane and cruel manner and then to remove them while they have relief pending is really a disgrace to our country," attorney Ala Amoachi said.

Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 12:00 PM, Liyan Qi, 646K] reports Ah Sahm Dawson came to New York in 1995 from Myanmar, then called Burma, and applied for political asylum from its military regime. After a hearing the following year, his application was denied. He lost an appeal in 1997 but wasn’t deported while he pursued ways to stay. Until now. Dawson is among 1.4 million noncitizens under removal orders in the U.S., according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They include tens of thousands of people denied asylum each year. Deportation isn’t automatic and many, like Dawson, explore options to remain such as a stay on deportation or a visa. Some have lived here for decades. As the Trump administration has sought to increase deportations, people who have lived here for years without securing a right to stay are becoming frequent targets, immigration lawyers said. “They are the low-hanging fruit,” said Margaret Wong, an immigration lawyer who has represented Dawson’s family since 2009. The following decades were a marathon of appeals and check-ins with immigration authorities. Dawson worked in garment factories and acquired a Social Security number. He got married to a woman from China, started filing his taxes and had two children. After his son and daughter became adults, Dawson hoped to achieve legal status through them. His son, who had enlisted in the U.S. Navy, applied for his father to obtain a green card. Dawson was detained last June over his immigration status and sent to a detention facility in upstate New York. It was the first time he had left New York City since he arrived. He was there for three months. He was detained again in January and taken to an immigration jail in the city. Speaking no English, he wasn’t sure why he was there. He was only held for one night, but he feared deportation was next. Lawyers and community advocates in New York’s Chinatowns are on high alert as immigration authorities have stepped up raids. Some migrants in Flushing said they briefly stopped showing up for work, fearing immigration raids. They obsessively track the Chinese social-media platform WeChat for warnings on such raids. Community centers have posted fliers in Chinese listing the rights of undocumented immigrants in encounters with authorities.

NewsNation [5/15/2025 10:37 AM, Jessica Barker, 6866K] Video HERE reports Tennessee Congressperson Andy Ogles said he would formally request an investigation into Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell and “Nashville city officials” for their alleged “repeated obstruction of ICE operations.” In a post to X, formerly Twitter, Ogles shared a video of an exchange with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem during a meeting of the U.S. Homeland Security Committee Wednesday morning. “I will be asking the Committee of Homeland Security and Judiciary to be looking into the mayor of Nashville and any collusion or impeding of federal authorities and conducting their work in the city of Nashville,” Ogles said in the exchange. “I would also encourage this committee and judiciary to look at other leaders — municipal leaders across the country — as they obstruct this administration, this Madame Secretary and her employees in doing their constitutional job, which is [to] uphold the rule of law.” As of publication, it is unclear if any committee will actually launch an investigation into O’Connell. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security issued a press release detailing an operation in Nashville that led to the arrest of 196 “criminal illegal aliens.” Within the same press release, the DHS claimed that O’Connell “stands by pro-illegal policies.” In response, O’Connell said that leaders have “been delivering safety to this community by reducing crime multiple years in a row.” O’Connell has criticized the “joint safety operation” conducted by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

(B) FOX 17 This Morning [5/15/2025 9:05 AM, Staff] reports Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles called out local leaders for the way they have been responding to illegal immigration enforcement. Today, he says he wants a federal investigation into the Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, claiming that the mayor is obstructing the immigration enforcement. The announcement came after a briefing in Washington, DC, about whether or not local officials who interfere with ICE are breaking the law. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s answer was yes.

CBS Austin [5/15/2025 1:33 PM, Ray Lewis, 602K] reports law enforcement authorities conducted a Florida worksite enforcement operation Tuesday that resulted in the arrests of 33 people who were in the U.S. illegally, a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced. The people who were arrested were at construction sites in Wildwood, Fla. but are from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, according to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Tampa, which carried out the operation with help from the U.S. Marshals Service, the Florida Highway Patrol and a federal prison. Four people were charged with entering the U.S. after having been previously removed from the country, a felony, HSI Tampa said. The law enforcement authorities noted that they interviewed more than 360 people and saw over 30 fleeing the construction sites as workers were encountered. "Worksite enforcement investigations are integral to uncovering many crimes, including unauthorized employment, document fraud, human smuggling, and sometimes human trafficking," HSI Tampa Assistant Special Agent in Charge Micah McCombs said in a press release. "Following the president’s executive order, HSI Tampa will continue enforcing the immigration laws throughout the state of Florida to the fullest extent of the law.” It’s unclear which executive order McCombs was referring to, but President Donald Trump issued one less than three weeks ago titled, "Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens." In it, Trump said his administration would, among other actions, "surge" resources to officers in need and ensure they are focused on "ending crime.” "The result will be a law-abiding society in which tenacious law enforcement officers protect the innocent, violations of law are not tolerated, and American communities are safely enjoyed by all their citizens again," the president said. Breitbart [5/15/2025 10:32 AM, Hannah Knudsen, 2923K] reports that the announcement came shortly after HSI Tampa announced that it was working to "determine if construction companies in the fastest growing region in the U.S. is employing illegal aliens & violating federal immigration law!". It also follows DeSantis announcing this week that Florida is ready to do more on the immigration front. A May 12 press release notes that Florida has "more deputized state law enforcement officers under 287(g) task force deputizations than any other state in the nation," adding that over 100 Florida Highway Patrol Troopers have been sworn in as Special Deputy U.S. Marshals as well. The Trump administration has continued to prioritize deportations, making its case in the form of mugshots infamously displayed on the White House lawn, showcasing arrested illegal aliens and their corresponding criminal history, which includes murder, rape of a child, distribution of fentanyl, and much, much more. The Trump administration has also opened the door for illegal immigrants to voluntarily self-deport, offering assistance with commercial flights for illegal aliens who leave willingly. They will receive a $1,000 stipend upon proof of exit, according to the plan unveiled by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

CBS News [5/16/2025 12:41 AM, Nidia Cavazos, 51661K] reports an undocumented immigrant who resides in Florida is facing a more than $1.82 million fine for failing to leave the country after receiving a removal order 20 years ago, CBS News has learned. According to the notice sent May 9 by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s civil fines department and provided to CBS News, the 41-year-old Florida woman and mother of three, who CBS News has chosen not to name, was charged $500 for every day she has remained in the U.S. since the removal order was issued in April 2005, running up a total of $1,821,350. CBS News has reached out to ICE for comment. This case represents an enforcement of the civil fines listed under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which also requires undocumented immigrants to register with the U.S. government, according to Michelle Sanchez, the Florida-based immigration attorney representing the Honduran immigrant. In February, the Trump administration announced its plans to penalize those living in the U.S. illegally under that immigration act. It encompasses a range of regulations but has historically rarely been enforced since its implementation. According to Sanchez, the removal order was issued after the woman failed to show up to a court hearing in 2005. In 2024, Sanchez filed a motion to reopen her client’s case and have the removal order lifted, arguing the Honduran woman was eligible to apply for U.S. residency because she had resided in the U.S. for more than 10 years with no criminal record. Sanchez said her client is also a mother of three U.S. citizen children who would be qualifying relatives as they would suffer extreme and exceptionally unusual hardships if she were deported. Under the Biden administration, ICE attorneys were given discretion to reopen cases to lift removal orders. Hundreds of thousands of these requests were left pending, however, according to Sanchez. In March, ICE notified the Florida immigration lawyer they could not reopen her client’s case because the Trump administration did not offer guidance on such prosecutorial discretion. Sanchez told CBS News she has seen an uptick in ICE issuing fines to her clients who remain in the country illegally, but the million dollar civil fine marks a first. "ICE is terrorizing individuals without even having to go pick them up," Sanchez said. "They are terrorizing them by sending these notices where they are fining individuals an exorbitant amount of money that a person sometimes doesn’t even make that amount in their lifetime.”

New York Post [5/15/2025 6:13 PM, Ronny Reyes, 54903K] reports the Wisconsin judge who allegedly helped an illegal migrant evade immigration authorities pleaded not guilty through her attorney on Thursday. Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan flashed a smile to the swarm of protesters outside the federal courthouse as they roared in support of the judge, who has become a symbol of resistance against the Trump administration’s immigration policy. Dugan’s defense has called on the charges levied against her to be dismissed as they argued that she is entitled to judicial immunity, citing the very case that gave President Trump presidential immunity.

Univision [5/15/2025 6:04 PM, Staff, 5325K] reports a Wisconsin judge pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges accusing her of helping an undocumented immigrant evade U.S. immigration authorities who were attempting to arrest him in her courthouse. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan entered her plea during a brief arraignment hearing in federal court. Judge Stephen Dries scheduled the trial to begin on July 21. Dugan’s lead attorney, Steven Biskupic, told the judge he expects the trial to last a week. The judge is charged with harboring a person to avoid arrest and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors allege she escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out of her courtroom through a back door on April 18 after learning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were in the courthouse seeking to arrest him for being in the country illegally. She could face up to six years in prison if convicted on both charges.

Federalist [5/15/2025 7:31 AM, M.D. Kittle, 1033K] reports the accused scofflaw judge that the left has adopted as its latest martyr — a modern-day Harriet Tubman, even — is now a federally-indicted judge facing up to six years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines on charges she helped an allegedly violent illegal immigrant evade federal officials. A federal grand jury this week handed down a two-page indictment accusing Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan of knowingly concealing an illegal alien from arrest and obstructing federal law enforcement proceedings. The Milwaukee grand jury did not seem to view the liberal activist judge as a 21st century Harriet Tubman. The judge is scheduled to appear in federal court on Thursday to enter a plea. The Federalist could not reach Dugan for comment. One of her attorneys, Craig Mastantuono, said in a statement that the judge "asserts her innocence and looks forward to being vindicated in court."‘ Dugan’s high-priced legal team moved on Wednesday to have the federal charges against her tossed out, according to the leftist Wisconsin Examiner. "This is no ordinary criminal case, and Dugan is no ordinary criminal defendant," states the motion to dismiss, obtained by the publication. "Dugan is a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge. She was arrested and indicted for actions allegedly taken in and in the immediate vicinity of her courtroom, involving a person appearing before her as a party.”

FOX News [5/15/2025 12:59 PM, Greg Norman, 46189K] reports that a Minnesota federal judge ordered immigration officials to immediately release an Indonesian man who was taken into custody in late March after allegedly overstaying his student visa, reports say. Aditya Harsono, 34, has been held at the Kandiyohi County Jail in Willmar since being arrested by ICE agents at his workplace in Marshall on March 27, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. "The Court finds that [Harsono] has shown that he is in custody in violation of the First Amendment and is entitled to a writ of habeas corpus for his immediate release," the newspaper cited U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez as saying in her ruling Wednesday. "The Court finds it is more reasonable to infer that Respondents have detained [Harsono] in retaliation for his speech than because of any professed public safety concern," Menendez reportedly added. Menendez ordered that Harsono be released within 48 hours, with his attorney Sarah Gad telling MPR News that his family posted a $5,000 bond. Harsono previously said he thought his arrest on March 27 was in retaliation for his participation in protests following the 2021 police-involved killing of Daunte Wright, according to the outlet. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Aditya Wahyu Harsono of Indonesia March 27 at his place of work. Harsono entered the United States legally on Jan. 7, 2015. Harsono was arrested by Lyon County Sheriff’s Office Oct. 18, 2022, for damage to property and convicted on Feb. 7, 2023. US law enforcement determined he poses a public safety threat," a senior Homeland Security official told Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul.

NewsMax [5/15/2025 10:24 PM, Michael Katz, 4998K] reports federal law enforcement agents arrested an illegal immigrant wanted by Venezuela in connection to four contract killings who crossed the border in 2022 and was given a work permit by the Biden administration. Anthony Fabian Marin La Torre, 42, was caught by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the U.S. Marshals Service on May 2 in Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, ICE said in a news release. Marin La Torre was wanted by Interpol for four contract murders, a fatal shooting, and for being a lieutenant of the "El Chamu" gang, the New York Post reported Wednesday. He is being held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. ICE said it wasn’t until Feb. 18 that Venezuelan authorities notified the U.S. that Marin La Torre was wanted for the contract killings in his home country. "This fugitive stands accused of some horrific crimes, further representing a threat in the communities of Texas that we will not tolerate," Josh Johnson, acting director of the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations field office in Dallas, said in the news release. "ICE Dallas will never relent in our priority of enhancing public safety and arresting and removing criminal alien threats from our streets." ICE said Marin La Torre illegally entered the U.S. at or near the San Luis, Arizona, port of entry on Sept. 26, 2022, as part of a family unit, and was charged as an inadmissible alien. A month later, he appeared at the ICE office in Dallas for a required check-in and was given a notice to appear in immigration court on July 23, 2025, the Post reported. He then applied for a federal work permit, which was issued in June 2023, and for asylum and protected status, with those applications still pending. It is likely Border Patrol agents didn’t learn of Marin La Torre’s criminal history when he crossed into the U.S. from Mexico because the regime of Venezuela dictator Nicolas Maduro wasn’t disclosing its citizens’ records to the Biden administration, the Post reported. After President Donald Trump returned to office, the Maduro regime reopened law enforcement communication channels and began accepting deportation flights from the U.S.

Breitbart [5/15/2025 11:25 AM, Randy Clark, 2923K] reports United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rounded up 239 criminal illegal aliens in Los Angeles during targeted enforcement operations last week. Some of the illegal aliens arrested had been convicted or accused of manslaughter, theft offenses, and aggravated rape of a minor. ICE made the arrests during a weeklong operation from May 4 to May 10 focused on bolstering public safety in the greater Los Angeles area. According to the agency, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and interagency partners identified, detained, and removed dangerous criminals throughout Los Angeles and surrounding cities. In an announcement on Wednesday highlighting the arrests, ICE warned criminal aliens in the United States illegally to self-deport and avoid arrest by ICE. Several federal law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the ATF, and the U.S. Marshals Service, along with state and local law enforcement partners, assisted ICE during the operation.

Breitbart [5/15/2025 12:50 PM, Bob Price, 2923K] reports that federal agents arrested a South Los Angeles couple this week on charges relating to a February incident where the couple allegedly tried to ram an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicle. The couple reportedly drove into oncoming traffic to stop the ICE agents from executing an immigration arrest warrant. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced the arrests and charges this week following the arrest of Gustavo Torres, 28, and Kiara Jaime-Flores, 34. The South LA couple are charged with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer. "These defendants are charged with knowingly and recklessly putting federal agents’ lives in danger," United States Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said in a written statement. "Anyone who deliberately gets in the way of immigration officers doing their job will face criminal prosecution and the prospect of doing time in a federal prison cell." The incident occurred on February 28 as special agents with ICE Homeland Security Investigations attempted to serve four search warrants at multiple residences in Los Angeles. As agents approached a home in South Los Angeles, prosecutors say a small crowd of protesters gathered and directed "hostile remarks at the agents." The driver allegedly slammed on the brakes in front of the police unit in an apparent attempt to cause a collision. Prosecutors said Torres and Flores aggressively pursued the police vehicles for two miles and crossed multiple lanes of traffic while attempting to chase the ICE agents. Each defendant could face up to six years in federal prison if convicted.

Reported similarly:
Univision [5/15/2025 9:32 PM, Staff, 5325K]

Telemundo [5/15/2025 6:58 PM, Joshua Bran and Rafael Colorado, 41K] reports Alida López says that she emigrated to the United States in 2003 to escape violence in her home country, Guatemala, where her husband was taken his life: In 2002 they had killed my husband, in 2003 I came, I left my three children well for me who hurt me too much to leave them. "I sought help to be able to bring my children because I knew my family was in danger too," Alida said. He noted that the Trump administration’s current immigration laws surprised two of his family members when ICE knocked on his door at his home in Oceansi. In a security camera video from Alida’s house, it is observed how the officers arrived at his apartment dressed in civilian clothes, but at that time she was not at home and had to be alerted by a relative. Alida currently has an open case after suffering domestic violence in 2014, but despite his immigration status, he armed himself with courage and arrived at his home regardless of whether immigration agents were there: When I arrived there were two officers already taking care of the laundry side and on the other side of the other alley they were several around the apartment so that no one would escape, he mentioned. It was at that time that the Guatemalan woman confronted the federal agents asking them key questions: Did I ask you to come in? And they said no, but do you bring the order? No. Then I told him why you need to go in? Alida also showed them a card, created by his lawyer, containing valuable information about the migration case that he has to resolve. I showed them the document and told them that my lawyers are representing me I want you to look, there’s the case number and their phone number and they can talk to them. The creator of this card is the lawyer.

Los Angeles Times [5/15/2025 6:00 AM, Rachel Uranga, 13342K] reports a Los Angeles construction worker from Vietnam was among 13 immigrants roused by guards in full combat gear around 2:30 a.m. one day last week in a Texas detention facility, shackled, forced onto a bus and told they would be deported to Libya, two of the detainees’ lawyers said. "It was very aggressive. They weren’t allowed to do anything," said Tin Thanh Nguyen, an attorney for the Los Angeles man, whom he did not identify for fear of retaliation. Libya, the politically unstable country in North Africa, is beset by "terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict," according to the U.S. State Department. Human rights groups have documented inhumane conditions at detention facilities and migrant camps, including torture, forced labor and rape. The construction worker, who has a criminal conviction on his record, had lived in the U.S. for decades and has a wife and teenage daughter. He was arrested after appearing at an annual immigration check-in at a Los Angeles office two months ago and then shuffled around to various detention facilities before arriving at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall.

AP [5/15/2025 5:08 PM, Gene Johnson, 24727K] reports a judge on Thursday rescinded an order that would have required the Trump administration to admit some 12,000 refugees into the United States. U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle issued the order earlier this month, following instructions from a federal appeals court that said the government must process refugees who before Jan. 20 already had "arranged and confirmable" travel plans to enter the U.S. That’s the day President Donald Trump took office and suspended the nation’s refugee admissions program. But last Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clarified the order: Refugees should be admitted on a case-by-case basis, if they could show they had relied on promises from the U.S. before Jan. 20 that they would be able to travel to America. As an example of who should be admitted, the appeals court noted the case of one plaintiff, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who sold his family’s belongings and gave up the lease on their home because he, his wife and their child were supposed to fly to the U.S. on Jan. 22 before the administration canceled their travel. In his order Thursday, Whitehead said the government should admit 160 refugees who had plans to come to the U.S. within two weeks of Jan. 20. "The Government must process, admit, and provide statutorily mandated resettlement support services to these Injunction Protected Refugees immediately," he wrote.

Bloomberg [5/15/2025 8:41 AM, Emmanuel Elone, 1085K] reports E-Verify+ is a new tool that streamlines the employment eligibility verification process for employers and new hires, an analyst for US Citizenship and Immigration Services said May 14. E-Verify+ combines aspects of the current E-Verify service with Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, creating a new method of employment eligibility verification that is almost entirely electronic, said Michelle Martin Vivian, a management and program analyst for USCIS. Employers using the service can create cases through their E-Verify account for new hires, and employees will receive an email containing a link to electronically complete Form I-9. “It will be more efficient for your company, saving you time in the process,” Vivian said at PayrollOrg’s 43rd Payroll Congress in Kissimmee, Florida. “It reduces your time burden by having your new employees enter their own data online and notifying them directly of any of those tentative nonconfirmations or mismatches.” In the event that an employee’s supporting Form I-9 documents result in a tentative nonconfirmation or mismatch, E-Verify + will notify the employee, and the employer will see the employee’s online case status changed to “Needs More Time,” she said. It is the employee’s choice whether to take action and address the issue, Vivian added. If the employee chooses to take action, the employee will have eight federal working days to contact the Department of Homeland Security or visit a Social Security office to rectify the matter. If the issue is not resolved, the employer may receive a “Final Nonconfirmation” case result in E-Verify+, which means that the system cannot confirm the employee’s employment eligibility status. At that point, the employer can terminate the employee without being subject to civil or criminal liabilities, she said.

Telemundo [5/15/2025 6:58 PM, Alexis Boentes, 171K] reports a recent decision by the Immigration Appeals Board is causing an unexpected turn in the cases of thousands of Cuban migrants who arrived in the United States across the southern border and received an I-220A form. Although the case in question does not directly involve those who own that document, the legal arguments put forward in the resolution could radically change their immigration future. The ruling states that asylum seekers, as was the case of a Cuban migrant analyzed by the Board, should have been prosecuted under section 235 of the Immigration Act, implying that their release could only be legally made through a strike. This technical detail, apparently lower, is of great relevance to immigration lawyers who have been looking for a way for their clients to qualify under the Cuban Adjustment Act. "This argument is no longer just an interpretation of ours as lawyers but is now supported by the interpretation of a federal court," explained Rosaly Chaviano, an immigration lawyer based in Miami. The parole is a migration figure that allows certain foreigners to enter and stay legally in the United States for humanitarian or public interest reasons. For Cubans, having a parole can be the key requirement to benefit from the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows them to apply for permanent residence a year and one day of entering the country But those who arrived with an I-220A - a release form under supervision - have had difficulty demonstrating their eligibility, as that document is not considered parole. Now, with this new decision, lawyers see an opportunity to argue that this form of release was incorrect from the beginning. "This decision opens a door for us to tell a judge: "My client should have received a parole and therefore qualifies for the residence," Chaviano said. This legal precedent allows migrant advocates to request corrections in entry records, appeal previous residence rejections, and present the case of their clients with greater legal support. Also, according to Chaviano, it could be used to amend already scheduled residence interviews and strengthen the file with USCIS (Citizenship and Immigration Service).

CNN [5/15/2025 6:00 AM, Staff, 22131K] reports since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has made several moves to crack down on immigration, and one of his efforts will be considered by the Supreme Court on Thursday. The justices are expected to hear arguments in a case around Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for those born in the United States to parents who are either unlawfully present in the US or on a temporary visa. Though the court could focus more specifically at this hearing on a procedural question around lower court judges’ methods for blocking Trump orders, CNN’s Joan Biskupic writes. Several of the Trump administration’s actions on immigration have faced legal challenges, such as Trump’s use of wartime authority for deportations and a data-sharing agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service aimed at finding undocumented migrants.

Breitbart.com [5/15/2025 5:31 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2923K] reports an Indian migrant living in the U.S. illegally committed marriage fraud with a U.S. citizen when his low-skill J-1 work visa expired, say federal officials. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of West Virginia, announced that Indian national Aakash Prakash Makwana, 29, pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft. Makwana entered the U.S. in 2019 and settled in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Authorities say he had overstayed his low-skill, J-1, non-immigrant visa deadline, which allowed him into the U.S. for culinary and hospitality work. Prosecutors say that in 2021 Makwana married Kalee Ann Huff, a U.S. citizen, for a fee of $10,000 in an attempt to gain a green card. He then added the citizen’s name to bank accounts, utility bills, a false apartment lease agreement, and other documents, and submitted them to immigration authorities. But later, Makwana reportedly filed a petition alleging that his American spouse emotionally abused him. Immigration officials, though, determined that his filing was false and that set them to investigating his status. Sentencing for Makwana is scheduled for September 26. He faces two years in prison, a year of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. He may also be required to leave the U.S.

Washington Post [5/15/2025 8:17 PM, Teo Armus, 31735K] reports that, just two days after arriving in the United States as a refugee from South Africa, Charl Kleinhaus found himself at the center of a very American media firestorm. Kleinhaus, 46, drew widespread criticism this week over his social media posts over the past two years about Jewish people and Israel — criticism that came while he and his family are being aided by a Jewish-affiliated resettlement group in Buffalo. In one post, he responded to video of a scuffle between Israeli police and Christians by writing that "Jews are untrustworthy and a dangerous group.” But Kleinhaus, one of the 59 Afrikaners who was welcomed under an executive order by President Donald Trump, says his posts on X were taken out of context. In an interview Thursday, he denied the allegations spreading across the internet that he is antisemitic. "You get angry. You get irrational. You say stupid things," Kleinhaus told Washington Post. "It was completely misinterpreted. It’s not against everybody. I was speaking about the people there.” "I was very, very angry with the video, and I will protect my Christian heritage and my Christian faith all the way," he continued. "I probably should have worded it better.” The controversy over his posts has emerged as the identities and backgrounds of the Afrikaners granted refugee status comes into clearer focus. All are members of a White minority that Trump has said faces "genocide" in South Africa stemming from a land redistribution law signed earlier this year that is meant to correct disparities caused during more than four decades of apartheid rule. It also comes amid a broader effort by federal officials to screen immigrants for allegedly antisemitic statements, including several prominent cases of university students or researchers who were detained and had their visas revoked over their involvement in protesting the war in Gaza. The Department of Homeland Security said last month that it would consider "antisemitic activity on social media" as grounds to deny visas and citizenship applications. On Thursday, a DHS spokesperson said in a statement that the department "vets all refugee applicants. Any claims of misconduct are thoroughly investigated, and appropriate action will be taken as necessary.” Kleinhaus and the others who traveled on a State Department-chartered plane Monday are the first refugees to arrive after the White House suspended admissions for all others who have been granted that humanitarian status.

Washington Examiner [5/15/2025 9:09 AM, Paul Bedard, 2296K] reports President Donald Trump’s border crackdown has resulted in a 99% reduction of crossings and sent such a strong stay away message to possible illegal migrants that the main passage way to the United States has seen traffic drop 99.5%. Pete Flores, the acting commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, revealed on Thursday that the administration is also working at lightning speed to construct new barriers to illegal immigration that surged to historic highs under former President Joe Biden. At an appropriations hearing on Thursday, Flores plans to tell members that the processing of immigrants is down 99% compared to Biden’s record a year ago. And the crisis of the crime gang "coyotes" pushing children across the border has essentially ended. "Starting January 21, 2025, immigration processing actions at ports of entry decreased by 99% compared to the same time frame in 2024. Office of Field Operations saw a 93% decrease in inadmissibility encounters at Southwest Border ports of entry, including a 94% decrease in unaccompanied alien children," according to his statement provided to the Homeland Security subcommittee. The main passageway that migrants from as far away as China use to funnel into Central America for their march to America’s southern border has seen an even bigger decrease, according to Flores. That suggests that illegal migrants have received the message from Trump’s team that the border is closed. It is also a sign of the diplomatic success the administration has had in getting Latin American allies to help with the migrant crisis. Drug trafficking across the border is also down, though still happening, according to Flores.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [5/15/2025 11:54 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4998K]

New York Times [5/15/2025 9:52 PM, Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper, and Adriana Zehbrauskas, 145325K] reports that in the past four months, the Pentagon has sent thousands of active-duty combat troops and armored Stryker combat vehicles to the southwestern border to confront what President Trump declared on his first day in office was an “invasion” of migrants, drug cartels and smugglers. That’s not all. The military has also dispatched U-2 spy planes, surveillance drones, helicopters and even two Navy warships to surveil the borders and coasts round the clock. The buildup of forces underscores how Mr. Trump is breaking with his predecessors’ practice of mostly limiting deployments along the U.S.-Mexico border to small numbers of active-duty soldiers and reservists. About 2,500 active-duty troops were on the border at the end of the Biden administration. Now there are about 8,600. In a recent visit with troops in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, the border was fairly calm. Crossings, which decreased sharply in the waning months of the Biden administration, have plummeted even further since the Trump administration declared its goal to obtain “100 percent” operational control of the boundary with Mexico. In April, about 8,000 people were arrested after crossing the border illegally, down from about 128,000 people a year earlier, according to U.S. government statistics. Even so, there is no end in sight for the military mission on the border, which the Pentagon says has cost $525 million so far.

ABC News [5/15/2025 8:05 PM, Luis Martinez, 34586K] reports a federal magistrate judge has dismissed trespassing charges against 98 people who were arrested along the Southwest border for entering the newly created National Defense Area in New Mexico that the Trump administration considers an extension of an Arizona military base. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory B. Wormuth ruled Wednesday, in 98 separate filings, that the federal government had failed to demonstrate that the individuals, who were undocumented migrants, knew they were entering the New Mexico National Defense Area that stretches along 170 miles of public land in New Mexico and is considered a part of the Fort Huachuca Army base in Arizona. A separate zone, stretching along 50-60 miles of public land in Texas, was recently set up a few weeks ago. The new buffer zone spanning Arizona and New Mexico mostly stretches 60 feet deep into U.S. territory though in some locations the zone stretches much deeper due to the terrain. According to the original criminal complaint, the military had posted signs in the zones stating in both English and Spanish that it was a restricted area and that unauthorized entry is prohibited. However, the judge said there was no evidence, given the often difficult and mountainous terrain, that the defendants had actually seen the signs. "Beyond the reference to signage, the United States provides no facts from which one could reasonably conclude that the Defendant knew he was entering the NMNDA (New Mexico National Defense Area)," the judge wrote in a 16-page ruling dismissing the case against one of the 98 people charged. "Consequently, the Criminal Complaint fails to establish probable cause to believe that Defendant knew he/she was entering the NMNDA.” The judge’s decision dismisses two charges faced by the 98 migrants arrested -- violation of a security regulation and entering military property for an unlawful purpose -- both misdemeanors. A third misdemeanor charge of entering the U.S. illegally remains. The same language in the judge’s decision is used in individual filings for the 98 people who had been charged. New York Times first reported the dropped charges.

Washington Post [5/15/2025 7:35 PM, Amy B Wang, Reyes Mata III and Maegan Vazquez, 31735K] reports that a federal judge has ordered criminal charges dismissed for dozens of migrants accused of trespassing on military property after the Trump administration turned much of the southern border of New Mexico into a military zone. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory B. Wormuth found no probable cause to believe that the migrants knew they were entering a military zone and thus “willfully” trespassed. Wormuth dismissed trespassing charges against 22 migrants who made their initial court appearances on Thursday, but they still face illegal entry charges. The judge has dismissed charges related to trespassing against more than 100 migrants so far. "Requiring an intentional entry means that the defendant must know they were entering the military property," Wormuth wrote in one such order issued on Wednesday, dismissing charges without prejudice. "Indeed, not requiring knowledge of entry would again lead to absurd and unfair results. For example, an individual, knowing they were prohibited from entering a military base, who steps on land he does not know is part of that base would be guilty without having any culpable intent.” The Pentagon declined to comment and referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department. "We acknowledge and respect the judge’s authority to determine probable cause," Amanda Skinner, an assistant federal public defender, said in a statement to Washington Post. "This was the right result under the law.” Wormuth’s sweeping dismissal of trespassing charges is the latest development in a legal battle that has ensued since the Defense Department earlier this month transformed a 60-foot-wide strip of borderland along most of the southern boundary of New Mexico, as well as parts of the border in West Texas, into "national defense areas." The designation enabled U.S. troops to detain migrants and for officials to be able to charge them with trespassing on military property. More than 200 migrants were subsequently charged with at least two crimes, for unauthorized entry into the United States and onto a military installation. Some also faced an additional charge.

Washington Examiner [5/15/2025 12:23 PM, Staff, 2296K] reports that of the 14 northern border states that share a land or water border with Canada, the greatest number of apprehensions of illegal border crossers were reported in New York, Washington and Vermont during the Biden administration, according to the latest data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. When releasing the latest apprehension data for April, the Trump administration also released data by state for the last administration through the fiscal year to date. The federal fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. Published charts include monthly data for fiscal years 2022-2025 to date. Fiscal 2021 and 2020 data was published separately. Biden administration data includes the first three months of fiscal 2025, nine months of fiscal 2021, and all of fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024. Combined, illegal northern border crosser apprehensions totaled nearly one million under the Biden administration, according to CBP data and gotaway data exclusively reported by The Center Square for the busiest northern border sector of Swanton. According to the data, northern border apprehensions increased each year despite Biden administration claims that the border was closed or its policies were facilitating a "safe, orderly migration." The majority of northern border states saw the greatest number of illegal entries in 2024, the last year of the administration, according to CBP data. The greatest numbers ever reported in recorded history in Montana, Maine, North Dakota and Washington were reported in 2024, according to the data.

Federal News Network [5/15/2025 3:05 PM, Michele Sandiford, 1089K] reports Customs and Border Protection is looking to expand its use of facial recognition. In a new request for information, CBP said it’s seeking solutions for capturing facial images of occupants in vehicles. The technology would be used at ports of entry to compare biometrics in CBP’s Traveler Verification Service. CBP and other Homeland Security agencies have been expanding their use of facial recognition to expedite traveler screening in recent years.

Washington Examiner [5/15/2025 4:34 PM, Annabella Rosciglione, 2296K] reports Devarjaye "DJ" Daniel, whom President Donald Trump previously made an honorary Secret Service agent, is now an honorary Border Patrol agent. Daniel, a 13-year-old who survived brain cancer after having dozens of surgeries and originally being given a terminal diagnosis, was sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer at more than 1,000 police agencies across the nation. "Welcome our new honorary Border Patrol Agent Devarjaye ‘DJ’ Daniel. DJ is an unstoppable force and a true inspiration. We know he will exemplify our motto of ‘Honor First,’" Border Police Chief Michael W. Banks said in a post on X.

NewsMax [5/16/2025 1:01 AM, Tim Sullivan, 4998K] reports they arrive at the U.S. border from around the world: Eritrea, Guatemala, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ghana, Uzbekistan and so many other countries. They come for asylum, insisting they face persecution for their religion, or sexuality or for supporting the wrong politicians. For generations, they had been given the chance to make their case to U.S. authorities. "They didn’t give us an ICE officer to talk to. They didn’t give us an interview. No one asked me what happened," said a Russian election worker who sought asylum in the U.S. after he said he was caught with video recordings he made of vote rigging. On Feb. 26, he was deported to Costa Rica with his wife and young son. On Jan. 20, just after being sworn in for a second term, President Donald Trump suspended the asylum system as part of his wide-ranging crackdown on illegal immigration, issuing a series of executive orders designed to stop what he called the "invasion" of the United States. What asylum-seekers now find, according to lawyers, activists and immigrants, is a murky, ever-changing situation with few obvious rules, where people can be deported to countries they know nothing about after fleeting conversations with immigration officials while others languish in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Attorneys who work frequently with asylum-seekers at the border say their phones have gone quiet since Trump took office. They suspect many who cross are immediately expelled without a chance at asylum or are detained to wait for screening under the U.N.’s convention against torture, which is harder to qualify for than asylum. "I don’t think it’s completely clear to anyone what happens when people show up and ask for asylum," said Bella Mosselmans, director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council. A thicket of lawsuits, appeals and countersuits have filled the courts as the Trump administration faces off against activists who argue the sweeping restrictions illegally put people fleeing persecution in harm’s way. In a key legal battle, a federal judge is expected to rule on whether courts can review the administration’s use of invasion claims to justify suspending asylum. There is no date set for that ruling. The government says its declaration of an invasion is not subject to judicial oversight, at one point calling it "an unreviewable political question.” But rights groups fighting the asylum proclamation, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, called it "as unlawful as it is unprecedented" in the complaint filed in a Washington, D.C., federal court.

New York Post [5/15/2025 7:09 AM, Emily Crane, 54903K] reports a Russian scientist working at Harvard Medical School who was nabbed by ICE three months ago has been charged with trying to smuggle frog embryos into the US, federal prosecutors said. Kseniia Petrova, a research associate at the Ivy League school, has been held at an ICE facility ever since she was nabbed after flying into Boston’s international airport with the stash of embryos back in February. The 31-year-old Russian, who had just come back from a vacation in Paris, initially denied having to declare anything when probed by Customs and Border Protection, the feds allege. A search of her duffle bag allegedly uncovered a foam box containing clawed frog embryos in microcentrifuges, as well as embryonic samples in paraffin well stages and on mounted dyed slides, prosecutors said. Petrova later allegedly admitted to carrying biological material but claimed she didn’t know she was required to declare it. Text messages recovered from her phone showed that a colleague had told her she’d need to declare the goods, according to prosecutors. Her research visa was immediately revoked after she was detained. She has been held at an immigration detention facility in Louisiana ever since. In additional to deportation, Petrova faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of smuggling goods into the US.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [5/15/2025 3:19 PM, Amy Furr, 2923K]

FOX News [5/15/2025 9:34 PM, Sophia Compton, 46189K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Baltimore seized $875,000 in marijuana after it was discovered in a shipment disguised as men’s overalls. Officers found more than 200 pounds of the psychoactive drug concealed inside 155 vacuum-sealed packages April 29, according to a press release from CBP. The drug-filled packages were being shipped via air cargo to Belgium and were labeled as "brace overalls for men / heavy duty workwear bib.” The marijuana, which has a street value of around $875,000 in the U.S., could have a value of two to three times that amount in Europe, depending on its potency, CBP said. CBP officers noted in the release there’s an ongoing trend of transnational criminal organizations trying to ship U.S.-based marijuana overseas to Europe and Africa, where "high-quality weed can fetch huge profits.” "Smugglers, including transnational criminal organizations, based in oversaturated marijuana markets, attempt to generate revenue by illegally exporting bulk shipments to markets across the globe," Jason Kropiewnicki, CBP’s acting area port director for the Area Port of Baltimore, said in a statement. The incident is being investigated by special agents with Homeland Security Investigation’s Border Enforcement Security Task Force, CBP said. Every day last year, CBP officers seized an average of 1,571 pounds of drugs at different ports of entry across the U.S., according to the release. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [5/15/2025 11:30 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 46189K] reports a drummer and green card holder for a Texas-based band was removed from a flight by federal immigration officials on Monday before the band was set to depart for a European tour. Yamal Said, a member of the heavy Americana band Lord Buffalo, was detained at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents who said they had a warrant for his arrest after he allegedly violated a restraining order at least twice, the Department of Homeland Security said on X. Violating a protective order two or more times can lead to it becoming a felony in Texas, based on the circumstances
"Yamal Said is a Mexican national and lawful U.S. permanent resident," the agency wrote on X sharing a news headline about the incident. "Said had a warrant for his arrest after violating a restraining order at least TWICE. If you come to our country and break our laws, you will be arrested. When he was attempting to leave the U.S., he was apprehended by CBP and has been turned over to local law enforcement.” The exact nature of the protective order has not been made public. Said is currently being held at the Tarrant County Corrections Center.

Yahoo News [5/15/2025 7:07 PM, Steven Ardary, 59943K] reports Sen. John Cornyn has introduced a bill to repay the state of Texas more than $11 billion for money spent on border security. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz and will be pushed in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Chip Roy. The bill would require the Department of Justice and Homeland Security to reimburse states for border security actions taken after Jan. 20, 2021, including construction of a border wall, surveillance of the border and arrests of those entering the country illegally. Money not spent after reimbursement would be returned to the Treasury at the end of President Donald Trump’s term. "For four years, Governor Abbott and Texas taxpayers were forced to bear the brunt of the Biden-Harris border crisis. Today, I am proud to introduce my legislation to reimburse Texas for its historic efforts to secure the southern border. My bill will ensure the Lone Star State is repaid for stepping up to protect and defend our nation’s southern border while the Biden-Harris administration abdicated its federal duty," Cornyn said. "Thanks to the strong leadership of President Trump, Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Czar Tom Homan, and Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, our country is finally back to enforcing the immigration laws that have been on the books for years, and I will continue to work with the Trump administration to ensure Texas never again has to endure an open-border disaster like we saw under Joe Biden."

Univision [5/15/2025 7:26 PM, Jorge Cancino, 5325K] reports that from now on, any foreigner detained at the border without a warrant, either at an entrance port or between ports of entry, and then subject to deportation proceedings, shall not be entitled to bail. This is what the Immigration Appeals Board (BIA) ruled on Thursday. The six-page ruling explains that foreigners detained under section 235 (b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) may not be released on bail under article 236 (a) of the INA and remain on U.S. territory. Section 235 (10)b of the INA authorizes the Department of National Security (DHS) to immediately deport certain foreigners who have determined to be ineligible after being arrested at the border. For its part, section 212(d) of the INA contains a provision that allows the DHS to grant parole (parole) to certain foreigners so that they can enter the country on a temporary basis, even if they do not meet the usual admission requirements. The DHS reiterates that this permit or parole is used in specific cases - and should not be considered as an -admission to the United States.

USA Today [5/15/2025 11:18 AM, Nathan Diller, 75858K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized nearly 750 cartons of illegally imported cigarettes from two cruise passengers in Long Beach, California. Officers found the cigarettes, including Newport 100s, Marlboro Red, Marlboro Silver and other varieties, in 10 pieces of luggage during an April 17 inspection, according to a May 14 news release. The couple had arrived from Ensenada, Mexico on a cruise. The agency did not identify the travelers or the cruise line they were sailing with. “Large quantities of cigarettes are considered ‘commercial’ not personal use; therefore, an importer permit from the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is required,” CBP said in the release. “In addition, tobacco product labels must meet FDA standards, such as including nicotine warnings and accurate product descriptions.” The two women had receipts for the cigarettes but could not show the required permits. CBP estimated the cartons – which will be destroyed under the agency’s supervision – to be valued at $59,920.

AP [5/15/2025 7:22 PM, Gabriela Aoun Angueira, 24727K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s acting chief plans to shift responsibility for disaster recovery to states during the upcoming hurricane season, he said during a staff town hall on Thursday. David Richardson said his intention was to "return primacy to the states" as part of an agencywide transformation. In comments that cemented the Trump administration’s intent to bring about a major shift in the agency’s mission, Richardson said FEMA’s intent for the 2025 "disaster season" will be to strengthen states’ abilities for response and recovery while coordinating federal assistance "when deemed necessary.” The comments dovetail with a broad-based effort by the Trump administration to overhaul and downsize the federal government. They come just 17 days before the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, which scientists predict will see an above-average 17 named storms and four major hurricanes. Richardson said FEMA was "to some degree, to a great degree, ready for disaster season ‘25," and that he would be submitting a plan for the season to Noem by next Friday. The agency is in a period of upheaval as the Trump administration weighs its future. President Donald Trump has floated "getting rid of" FEMA altogether, an idea Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has echoed. Richardson replaced former acting chief Cameron Hamilton last week, one day after Hamilton told a congressional committee that he did not think FEMA should be eliminated. While Richardson downplayed the likelihood that FEMA would disappear altogether, he said his role was to realize Trump’s vision of how disasters are managed, which he said means pushing a "large part" of response and recovery to the states. Some states, including Florida and Texas, are already adequately prepared for disasters, according to the acting chief. Others should prepare to shoulder more of the financial burden, he said, warning that the typical federal 75% cost share for things like repairing public infrastructure could change as soon as this summer. "There should be some budgeting things that they have," said Richardson. "I bet (Texas) Governor Abbott has a rainy-day fund for fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and he doesn’t spend it on something else.” FEMA assistance is made available to states when a governor requests and the president approves a major disaster declaration. Those decisions are typically based on whether the event’s impact exceeds the state’s capacity to respond. Trump has also established a 13-member FEMA review council, chaired by Secretary Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to recommend changes to the agency.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [5/15/2025 11:01 PM, Staff, 2923K]

NewsMax [5/15/2025 7:59 PM, Staff, 4998K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s acting chief plans to shift responsibility for disaster recovery to states in the coming hurricane season, he said at a staff town hall on Thursday. David Richardson said he intends to "return primacy to the states" as part of an agency transformation. In comments that cemented the Trump administration’s intent to bring about a major shift in the agency’s mission, Richardson said FEMA’s intent for the 2025 "disaster season" will be to strengthen states’ abilities for response and recovery while coordinating federal assistance "when deemed necessary.” The comments dovetail with a broad effort by the Trump administration to overhaul and downsize the federal government. They come just 17 days before the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, which scientists predict will see an above-average 17 named storms and four major hurricanes. Richardson said FEMA was "to some degree, to a great degree, ready for disaster season ‘25," and that he would be submitting a plan for the season to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem by next Friday. The agency is in a period of upheaval as the Trump administration weighs its future. President Donald Trump has floated "getting rid of" FEMA altogether, an idea Noem has echoed. Richardson replaced former acting chief Cameron Hamilton last week, one day after Hamilton told a congressional committee that he did not think FEMA should be eliminated. While Richardson downplayed the likelihood that FEMA would disappear altogether, he said his role was to realize Trump’s vision of how disasters are managed, which he said means pushing a "large part" of response and recovery to the states. Some states, including Florida and Texas, are already adequately prepared for disasters, according to the acting chief. Others should prepare to shoulder more of the financial burden, he said, warning that the typical federal 75% cost share for things such as repairing public infrastructure could change as soon as this summer. "There should be some budgeting things that they have," Richardson said. "I bet [Texas] Governor [Greg] Abbott has a rainy-day fund for fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and he doesn’t spend it on something else.” FEMA assistance is made available to states when a governor requests and the president approves a major disaster declaration. Those decisions are typically based on whether the event’s impact exceeds the state’s capacity to respond. Trump has already signaled a departure from typical decision-making around disaster declarations. He has denied requests from Washington and West Virginia. Just this week, he approved a major disaster declaration for storms that struck Arkansas in March after initially denying the request.

Reuters [5/15/2025 4:29 PM, Leah Douglas and Nathan Layne, 41523K] reports David Richardson, the new head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Thursday that states would in the future bear half the costs for responding to natural disasters, up from 25% under current cost-sharing levels. Richardson, who took the helm at FEMA one week ago in an abrupt change of leadership, said he believed the agency would likely cut its financial outlay to half of what a state needs to respond to a disaster as part of future reforms. He also vowed to narrow the agency’s operations to only what is spelled out in law and to push more of the cost burden for disaster response down to the states, in line with the wishes of the Trump administration. "FEMA 2 will look different than FEMA 1. There will be much more emphasis on the states to do response and recovery, to some degree preparedness as well," Richardson told a staff town hall. He said he had advised staff to alert governors to the possibility of an increased cost-share in disaster response. Richardson also said there would be instances in which states needed more help financially and that FEMA would provide it.

CNN [5/15/2025 11:14 AM, Gabe Cohen, 22131K] reports hurricane preparations at Federal Emergency Management Agency have slowed to a crawl, and the disaster relief agency “is not ready” for the June 1 start to the season, according to an internal agency review obtained by CNN. Prepared at the direction of new acting Administrator David Richardson as part of a problem-solving exercise at FEMA, the document outlines the agency’s struggles in recent months and raises a number of red flags ahead of hurricane season, including a general uncertainty around its mission, lack of coordination with states and other federal agencies, low morale and new red tape that will likely slow responses. “As FEMA transforms to a smaller footprint, the intent for this hurricane season is not well understood,” the document states. “Thus FEMA is not ready.” President Donald Trump and his allies have criticized FEMA for months as ineffective and unnecessary. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, has vowed to “eliminate” the agency. FEMA’s previous acting administrator, former Navy SEAL Cameron Hamilton, was fired last week after telling Congress he did not believe the agency should be eliminated. Richardson – a Department of Homeland Security official, former Marine combat veteran and martial-arts instructor – is now in charge and vowing to enforce President Trump’s agenda. In an all-hands meeting on his first day at FEMA, Richardson told agency staff that he will “run right over” anyone who tries to prevent him from carrying out the president’s mission. “FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, and don’t forget that,” Richardson told agency staff. “I, and I alone, speak for FEMA. I am the president’s representative at FEMA, and I am here to carry out President Trump’s intent.” Like Hamilton, Richardson appears to have no prior experience managing natural disasters. As he takes the helm, he will continue to serve in his other role in the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office at DHS, according to multiple sources briefed on the decision.

Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 7:47 PM, Scott Patterson, Tarnini Parti, and Josh Dawsey, 646K] reports the newly appointed head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency acknowledged in private meetings that with two weeks to go until hurricane season, the agency doesn’t yet have a fully formed disaster-response plan. David Richardson, who previously served as a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security and doesn’t have a background in emergency management, told staff he would share a hurricane plan with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after he completes it late next week. He said Thursday he’s 80% to 85% done with the plan. The agency is already months behind schedule in its preparations for the hurricane season starting June 1, which is expected to have above-normal activity, according to FEMA employees. Richardson said in a recent meeting with FEMA staff that “clarifying the intent of the president,” who has called for terminating the agency, was a challenge in preparing a strategy for hurricane season, according to a video recording of the meeting viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Richardson has been drafting the plan for hurricane preparedness without the expertise of FEMA staff who are usually responsible for putting it together every year, some of those agency employees said. Agency staff warned Richardson this week in a document viewed by the Journal that FEMA was ill-prepared for hurricane season. Routine FEMA processes such as assessing current capabilities have “been derailed this year” because of staffing and other issues, the document said. “It has not been normal hurricane season preparedness yet.” As the agency transitions to a “smaller footprint, the intent for this hurricane season is not well understood, thus FEMA is not ready,” the document said. CNN earlier reported on the document. In a statement, a spokesperson for Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, said the assessment was the “unsubstantiated opinion of one official inside the agency.” The spokesperson said the presentation was part of a daily hurricane readiness meeting that Richardson has been convening, which is “exactly what the head of an emergency-management agency should be doing before hurricane season.”

ABC News [5/15/2025 12:15 PM, Staff, 34586K] reports as the Federal Emergency Management Agency prepares for the approaching hurricane season, the agency is ill-prepared, according to an internal document obtained by ABC News. The document was prepared for acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson as he takes the helm of the agency responsible for managing federal disasters. "As FEMA transforms to a smaller footprint, the intent for this hurricane season is not well understood, thus FEMA is not ready," according to the document. The document says that FEMA is uncertain about its future, while planning for hurricane season, which starts on June 1. Staffing limitations and hiring will also impact FEMA’s operations, according to the document, as well as a lack of coordination with states. Richardson was placed at FEMA by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after former acting Administrator Cam Hamilton was fired last week because of his testimony in front of a House panel, according to a source familiar with the matter, which went against the shuttering of the agency. Richardson told employees during his first all hands meeting last week to not get in his way when he is trying to achieve the president’s objectives, a source told ABC News. Noem was pressed during a House panel on Wednesday about whether she has a plan to eliminate FEMA. She said she didn’t have a plan, but said the White House would be coming forward with a plan. "There is no formalized final plan for how this goes forward, because the input of Congress is critically important," she told Rep. Bennie Thompson.

CBS News [5/15/2025 9:29 PM, Michael Kaplan and Nicole Sganga, 51661K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency is "not ready" for hurricane season in June, according to an internal review obtained by CBS News— as FEMA contends with staff cuts and a push by President Trump to eliminate the nation’s disaster relief agency. The powerpoint presentation was created after FEMA’s new acting leader, David Richardson, ordered the agency to review hurricane preparedness, with storm season roughly two weeks away. In a series of slides, dated May 12, FEMA identified apparent problems at the disaster relief agency, including a need to "refocus on its core mission while preparing for the 2025 Hurricane Season." "As FEMA transforms to a smaller footprint, the intent for this hurricane season is not well understood, thus FEMA is not ready," said one of the slides. Elsewhere in the presentation, it says most of FEMA’s readiness process for hurricane season "has been derailed this year due to other activities like staffing and contracts" — an apparent reference to layoffs of probationary workers and sweeping changes to FEMA’s contract workforce. "It has not been normal hurricane season preparedness yet," the slides read. In a statement to CBS News, an official at the Department of Homeland Security — which oversees FEMA — called the story "grossly out of context" and said FEMA is "fully activated in preparation for Hurricane Season." The DHS official described the review’s comments on hurricane season as "one line in a nineteen-page slide deck and the unsubstantiated opinion of one official inside the agency." "The slide was used during a daily meeting Acting Administrator David Richardson has held every day titled Hurricane Readiness Complex Problem Solving. In other words, exactly what the head of an emergency management agency should be doing before Hurricane Season," the statement read. In a 30-minute town hall meeting with staff Thursday, Richardson would not say whether the agency is ready for hurricane season when asked, according to multiple FEMA employees. Richardson, who has been on the job for less than a week, responded that he’s still working on it and should have a better idea within a couple of weeks.

Reuters [5/15/2025 7:11 PM, Leah Douglas and Nathan Layne, 41523K] reports the loss of key staff and low morale at the Federal Emergency Management Agency have derailed the agency’s planning for the June 1 start of hurricane season, according to an internal document seen by Reuters, though the agency chief said on Thursday that FEMA is well prepared. The agency has lost 2,000 full-time staff, or roughly one third of its total, to terminations and voluntary incentives as part of an effort by President Donald Trump to slash the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy. The internal document underscores the potential challenges facing the agency, including possible issues with morale, a lack of coordination with states and resource constraints as it prepares for the start of hurricane season. Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have called for the disaster relief agency to turn over much of its work to the states while also floating the idea of abolishing it. FEMA is part of DHS. The concerns about morale and staffing were included in a 19-page slide deck titled "Hurricane Readiness Complex Problem Solving" and prepared for acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson to use in a meeting with agency leaders, according to a person with knowledge of the matter and a statement from a DHS official. Preparation at FEMA "has not been normal" for what forecasters are predicting to be a busier-than-average Atlantic hurricane season, according to one of the slides seen by Reuters. "Most of that process has been derailed this year due to other activities like staffing and contracts," another line in the slide deck reads in an apparent reference to the staff cuts. "If an organization hears it should be eliminated or abolished, the resources and cooperation are not there," one line in the presentation says. Another reads: "Quality of people lost that cannot be replaced right away."

New York Times [5/15/2025 7:02 PM, Amy Graff, 145325K] reports a strong storm system coming out of the Great Plains was bringing severe thunderstorms to the Midwest on Thursday, putting emergency officials on alert and delaying the start of a Beyoncé concert at Soldier Field in Chicago. “Due to weather in the area, the Cowboy Carter Tour show at Soldier Field tonight will not begin before 9 p.m.,” the venue announced about two hours before the show was to begin. Thursday was the first of three shows Beyoncé was scheduled to perform through Sunday in the city. From Thursday afternoon and into the evening, there is the potential for thunderstorms across portions of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin — and more generally in states that make up the Great Lakes region and upper Midwest. A rolling series of tornado watches and warnings were issued across the region on Thursday as storms moved through, including a short-lived warning in St. Paul, Minn., around 2:30 p.m. local time. The National Weather Service warned that “all hazards will be possible,” including large hail, intense wind gusts and a few tornadoes, even strong ones. “Be ready to move if and when the sky starts to darken or if warnings start to come out,” said Richard Bann, a meteorologist with the Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center. A smaller area in the heart of the Midwest — stretched between the cities of St. Paul, Minn.; Madison, Wis.; and Chicago — is under an enhanced risk. In Chicago, the threat of thunderstorms is predicted to be highest from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time on Thursday, the Weather Service office in the city said. While there is a possibility that no storms will occur, there’s also a chance (30 to 40 percent) they could, with large hail being the biggest threat and damaging winds and tornadoes less likely ones. “Some hail could be greater than two inches today,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center. While the Thursday thunderstorms could bring some localized heavy downpours, widespread rain isn’t expected. On Friday, the potential for thunderstorm activity will shift and broaden, generally stretching from East Texas into the Northeast, and concentrated over the middle Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley. Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville and St. Louis are all within an area at an enhanced risk of severe weather.

Washington Post [5/15/2025 11:54 AM, Ian Livingston and Matthew Cappucci, 31735K] reports following a relatively quiet start to peak tornado season in May, a stretch of daily severe thunderstorm risk is getting underway. For at least a week, large hail, damaging winds and strong tornadoes are all possible for large swaths of the central United States. Beginning Wednesday, there were more than 100 reports of strong or damaging wind centered on the central High Plains, in addition to several landspout tornadoes and large hail. For Thursday, a strengthening low-pressure area moving into the Upper Midwest will shift the thunderstorm threat east. An enhanced (Level 3 of 5) severe weather risk is in place Thursday from eastern Minnesota to northern Indiana and again on Friday from Missouri and Arkansas to southern Ohio. Areas including Minneapolis; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Chicago; and Fort Wayne, Indiana, are in Thursday’s highest risk zone, while on Friday, there will be potential threats for St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville and Nashville. The strong tornado threat Thursday includes Chicago, Milwaukee and a big chunk of central Wisconsin. Evansville, Indiana, is at the heart of Friday’s tornado threat. By Saturday, a cold front stretches from the Mid-Atlantic and Carolinas to the southern Plains, where scattered zones of powerful thunderstorms remain probable. By Sunday, the next significant storm system will affect the western Plains.

CNN [5/15/2025 12:22 PM, Mary Gilbert, Taylor Ward, 22131K] reports a busy stretch of severe thunderstorms is underway due to record heat and now the threats are ramping up, putting major metro areas from Chicago to Nashville under threat as the country hits the peak of tornado season. Severe thunderstorms rocked parts of the central US on Wednesday, and Thursday’s storm threat spells trouble for tens of millions of people in the Midwest, where some areas have already been hit by damaging wind gusts, hail and tornadoes. It’s part of what will likely be a week-long stretch of fierce weather—with an increasing chance of a severe storm outbreak on Friday—after a recent lull. It’s already been an incredibly busy year for tornadoes in the United States, but May is typically the busiest month of them all. This year is the third most active to date, only trailing the record-breaking 2011 season and last year’s hyperactive season. A storm churning over the north-central US Thursday morning fueled feisty storms later in the afternoon and evening in the Midwest. More than 20 million people from Minnesota to Michigan and Indiana – including Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Chicago – are under a level 3-of-5 risk of severe thunderstorms, according to the Storm Prediction Center. At least nine tornadoes were reported in Minnesota and Wisconsin as thunderstorms rumbled to life Thursday afternoon. Significant damage was reported in Dodge County, Wisconsin as a cluster of storms around the county prompted shelter-in-place alerts and displaced residents, according to Sheriff Dale Schmidt. One person was transported to the hospital with injuries in Juneau, said the sheriff, adding there "may have been another minor injury or two that occurred.” Many streets and highways in the county are closed due to downed power lines and trees, Schmidt said. In Juneau, multiple homes were damaged and at least one house suffered a roof collapse. Everyone inside was able to get out safely, he added. A line of storms moving across Lake Michigan started to move into Michigan and far northern Indiana Thursday evening. Strong winds were the main threat overnight with the potential of embedded tornadoes. The storms were expected to weaken after midnight. As of early Friday, more than 280,000 customers were without power in Michigan, according to tracking site PowerOutage.us. Utility company Consumers Energy said assessments on power restoration are still waiting to be made, according to CNN affiliate WNEM. Record-breaking, July-like heat has baked these locales this week, allowing the atmosphere to stock up plenty of fuel for explosive storms. Damaging winds are likely in any storm from the afternoon on, but parts of Michigan and Indiana could feel gusts up to 75 mph late in the evening. A vast area from Minnesota and Wisconsin to parts of Missouri and Kentucky could receive hail larger than hen eggs. Storms with damaging wind gusts, hail and possibly a tornado are most likely in central Virginia, but a few stronger storms might hit parts of North Carolina and Maryland, too. All hazards are on the table Friday, with a severe storm outbreak possible.

CNN [5/15/2025 12:22 PM, Mary Gilbert, 908K] reports a busy stretch of severe thunderstorms is underway due to record heat and now the threats are ramping up, putting major metro areas from Chicago to Nashville under threat as the country hits the peak of tornado season. Severe thunderstorms rocked parts of the central US on Wednesday, and Thursday’s storm threat spells trouble for tens of millions of people in the Midwest, where damaging wind gusts, hail and tornadoes - some of which could be strong - are possible. It’s part of what will likely be a week-long stretch of fierce weather across the country after a recent lull in spring storms. It’s already been an incredibly busy year for tornadoes in the United States, but May is typically the busiest month of them all. This year is the third most active to date, only trailing the record-breaking 2011 season and last year’s hyperactive season. A storm churning over the north-central US Thursday morning will fuel feisty storms later in the afternoon and evening in the Midwest. More than 20 million people from Minnesota to Michigan and Indiana - including Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Chicago - are under a level 3-of-5 risk of severe thunderstorms, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Potent thunderstorms will first develop in the afternoon in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin and expand into Illinois a few hours later. These storms could become very strong, very quickly, with the SPC warning of supercells - powerful, long-lived thunderstorms able to produce strong tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds.

USA Today [5/15/2025 2:19 AM, Josh Meyer, 75858K] reports U.S. law enforcement officials said on May 15 that they were looking into a social media post by former FBI Director James Comey depicting an image of "8647," which some Trump supporters interpreted as a threat against President Donald Trump. Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, later took down the post, according to Reuters, saying he was unaware the apparent political message could have been associated with violence. In U.S. parlance, the number 86 can be used as a verb, meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly, and 47 is code for Trump, the 47th president. Some Trump supporters interpreted the message as one to violently remove Trump from office, including by assassination, Reuters reported. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says on its website that one recent meaning of the term was "to kill" but that it had not adopted that "due to its relative recency and sparseness of use." The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the president, said it was aware of Comey’s post but did not assess its meaning. "The Secret Service vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees. We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI director and we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters," Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement. A federal law enforcement official told USA TODAY that the Secret Service was sending agents to question Comey about his post, saying that it would do the same for anyone posting a potential threat about a former or current president. The official said that on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing investigative matters. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, said on X that DHS and the Secret Service were "investigating this threat and will respond appropriately." Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard went further, saying she believes Comey should be put behind bars for the post. Asked by Fox News anchor Jesse Watters if she believed the former FBI director "should be in jail," Gabbard said, "I do.” “Any other person with the position of influence that he has, people who take very seriously what a guy of his stature, his experience and what the propaganda media has built him up to be, I’m very concerned for the President’s life," Gabbard said. "We’ve already seen assassination attempts. I’m very concerned for his life and James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and put behind bars for this." FOX News [5/15/2025 7:58 PM, Alec Schemmel and David Spunt, 46189K] reports Comey later deleted the post after online backlash from government officials, lawmakers and President Donald Trump’s son. Trump has faced two assassination attempts in the past year, one of which resulted in him being shot and a bystander being killed. The post including the alleged "hit" showed the numbers in question etched into the sand at a beach using seashells. "Cool shell formation on my beach walk…," Comey captioned the post Thursday. While to some people the numbers may appear innocuous, "86" is frequently used as a call sign for murdering or getting rid of someone, while "47" has been interpreted as denoting the 47th president of the United States. After backlash on social media over the post, including from at least one lawmaker who called for Comey to be arrested, the ex-FBI chief deleted the Instagram post and posted a message addressing it. "I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message," the subsequent post from Comey said. "I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down." Shortly after Comey removed the post, Fox News Digital learned from a source in the Secret Service that the agency was aware of the matter and will be sending agents to investigate and interview Comey. The FBI, where Comey used to work before he was fired by Trump during his first term, had no comment on the matter, but it was also apparent that people at the top levels of the agency were aware of the post. Trump’s new FBI director, Kash Patel, acknowledged on X that agency personnel were "aware" of Comey’s post in his own statement shared on X. "We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran," Patel said. "Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support."

CBS News [5/15/2025 6:31 PM, Doug Myers, 51661K] reports a former Brite Divinity School theology professor has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after sexually explicit images of young children were found on his work computer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas announced Thursday. Authorities said the federal investigation began after Texas Christian University’s IT staff discovered pornographic images with file names such as "infant" and "toddler" on 63-year-old Charles Kilby Bellinger’s computer. Brite Divinity School is located on the TCU campus but is not a unit of the university. Bellinger pleaded guilty in January to possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 121 months in prison — equivalent to 10 years and one month — according to Acting U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham. He was also ordered to pay $6,000 in restitution to victims and was taken into custody immediately after sentencing. Bellinger, who served as a theological librarian and professor of theology and ethics, was terminated from his position shortly after his arrest on Oct. 4. "The behavior outlined in the criminal complaint against Charles Bellinger, a former faculty member, is repugnant and the antithesis of our values and mission," Brite Divinity School spokesperson Vanessa A. Daley said following his arrest. "When Brite administration was made aware of these allegations, we immediately initiated our own investigation, cooperated with law enforcement, shut down his access to school technology, personnel, and facilities, and placed him on immediate administrative leave before terminating his employment shortly thereafter," Daley said.

AP [5/15/2025 3:11 PM, Susan Haigh, 48304K] reports the Department of Homeland Security wants to spend about $50 million to buy a new long-range Gulfstream jet to replace an aging one used by Secretary Kristi Noem and top Coast Guard and DHS officials. The request for funding, to come from the Coast Guard’s 2025 fiscal year budget, came up during a House appropriations subcommittee meeting on Wednesday. Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois said she was “horrified” to receive a “last-minute addition” to the service’s budget proposal for the jet, noting Noem has another Gulfstream to use. “We should be investing in our national security and improving the lives of our Coasties — not wasting taxpayer dollars on luxury travel and political stunts,” Underwood, the ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations, said in a social media post. The Coast Guard is overseen by DHS. The request for a new jet comes as President Donald Trump considers accepting a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar. Adm. Kevin Lunday, the acting commandant, said the Coast Guard, like the other military services, operates two military “long-range command and control aircraft” and the one being replaced is more than 20 years old. Lunday, who became acting commandant on Jan. 21 after Trump, a Republican, fired Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, said the jet is needed to provide the DHS secretary, deputy secretary, himself, the acting vice commandant and two area commanders with “secure, reliable, on-demand communications and movement to go forward.” The current plane is also “outside the Gulfstream’s service life, and well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a written statement, calling its replacement “a matter of safety.” The agency did not immediately respond to questions about Noem’s use of the plane or other details about the agency’s request.

The Hill [5/15/2025 1:24 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12829K] reports President Trump isn’t the only administration official eyeing a new jet: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is also set to get one under a last-minute addition to the Coast Guard budget. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, blasted the agency for the $50 million line item that “had never been requested or even mentioned before.” “I was horrified last Friday when we received a last minute addition to your spend plan for fiscal ‘25, a new $50 million Gulfstream 5 for Secretary Noem’s personal travel coming from the Coast Guard budget. She already has a Gulfstream 5, by the way, this is a new one,” Underwood said during a Wednesday hearing. The Department of Homeland Security has defended the request. “The current CG-101 G550 is over twenty years old, outside of Gulfstream’s service life, and well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs, said in a statement. “This is a matter of safety. Much like the Coast Guard’s ships that are well beyond their service life and safe operational usage, Coast Guard’s aircraft are too,” she added. “This Administration is taking action to restore our Nation’s finest maritime Armed Service to a capable fighting force.” Coast Guard Adm. Kevin Lunday did not respond to a direct question from Underwood about whether he had been asked by higher ups at the DHS to add a request for the plane, but he did defend the need for it.

Reuters [5/15/2025 5:32 PM, A.J. Vicens, 41523K] reports that malicious actors are using text messages and AI-generated voice messages to impersonate senior U.S. officials in a scheme to gain access to the personal accounts of state and federal government officials, the FBI said on Thursday. Access to targets’ accounts could be used to go after additional government officials or their associates and contacts, and could also be used to elicit information or funds, the FBI said in a public service announcement. It did not immediately respond to a request for additional details on how many people had received messages as part of the campaign, or whether the activities are the work of financially motivated cybercriminals or state-aligned actors. Many of the targeted officials are current or former senior U.S. federal or state government officials and their contacts, according to the announcement. The messages are used to establish rapport with targets before sending them a link under the guise of moving the conversation to a separate messaging platform, according to the FBI. The separate platform is in some cases a hacker-controlled website that steals login credentials such as usernames and passwords. The FBI warned in a December 2024 public service announcement that criminals were using artificial intelligence to generate text, images, audio and video to facilitate crimes such as fraud and extortion.

Reported similarly:
CNN [5/15/2025 4:36 PM, Sean Lyngaas]

NewsMax [5/15/2025 7:27 PM, Solange Reyner, 4998K] reports Cyberattacks exposed over 276 million patient records in 2024, with 8 in 10 Americans having some form of medical data stolen, according to a report published this week by Check Point. Ninety-two percent of healthcare organizations dealt with at least one cyber-attack in 2024, including a particularly sophisticated phishing campaign that has been active since at least March 20, 2024, that impersonates medical service providers, such as Zocdoc, and involves allusions to fabricated medical clinics. The parties behind the attacks aim to steal sensitive employee and customer data, according to Check Point, as healthcare data can independently command premium prices on the dark web. Healthcare organizations are advised to take action by implementing advanced filtering systems, educating employees about healthcare organization impersonation attempts, establishing phishing monitoring and response protocols and ensuring that employees’ mobile devices are protected with cyber security software that can block phishing attempts.

CyberScoop [5/15/2025 3:15 PM, Derek B. Johnson] reports the FBI said Thursday that malicious actors have been impersonating senior U.S. government officials in a text and voice messaging campaign, using phishing texts and AI-generated audio to trick other government officials into giving up access to their personal accounts. The warning provided few details about the campaign, which started in April and appears to be ongoing. The messages have come in the form of either texts or deepfaked audio messages of senior U.S. officials and were primarily sent to “current or former senior U.S. federal or state government officials and their contacts” to gain access to their accounts. The FBI is now advising the public that “if you receive a message claiming to be from a senior U.S. official, do not assume it is authentic.” It is the latest example of malicious actors using AI and deepfake techniques to realistically mimic the voice and likeness of others. As large language models have proliferated and improved their abilities to create lifelike video and audio images, their use in phishing schemes and scam campaigns has exploded.

CyberScoop [5/15/2025 2:15 PM, Tim Starks] reports hundreds of victims are surfacing across the world from zero-day cyberattacks on Europe’s biggest software manufacturer and company, in a campaign that one leading cyber expert is comparing to the vast Chinese government-linked Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon breaches of critical infrastructure. The zero-days — vulnerabilities previously unknown to researchers or companies, but that malicious hackers have discovered — got patches this month and last month, but there are signs it could be getting worse before it gets better, according to Dave DeWalt, CEO of NightDragon, a venture capital and advisory firm. Ransomware gangs are now reported to be exploiting it, beyond the original Chinese government-connected attackers. “The net of it is this is like the Typhoon size, so much like we saw [with] Volt Typhoon and then Salt Typhoon,” DeWalt told CyberScoop. “Once these exploits get into the wild, it’s a race to see who can get more access to it. So initially it looks like three Chinese actors all used it, and now we’re going to see more.” A number of companies have been tracking the vulnerability and its consequences, including one, Onapsis, that DeWalt’s company invests in, along with EclecticIQ, ReliaQuest and Google’s Mandiant. Onapsis has collaborated with Mandiant to develop an open-source tool to help organizations detect the attack, which is particularly stealthy, according to Mariano Nunez, CEO of Onapsis, who believes there are likely thousands of victims. “We’ve discovered that attackers could actually deploy these attacks without even touching or without even creating web shells,” Nunez told CyberScoop. “They could execute commands in a way that they would not be detected through looking for web shells in the systems or artifacts.”

FedScoop [5/15/2025 3:15 PM, Rebecca Heilweil, 56K] reports the National Labor Relations Board’s inspector general is conducting an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency’s work at the agency. In April, an IT staffer named Daniel Berulis filed an official whistleblower disclosure with Congress highlighting concerns over DOGE’s practices at the NLRB and data that may have been removed from the agency. In response to the disclosure, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, requested an investigation in a letter to Luiz A. Santos, acting inspector general of the Labor Department, and Ruth Blevins, inspector general at the NLRB. Timothy Bearese, an attorney at the NLRB currently serving as its acting director of congressional and public affairs, told FedScoop that the agency has no comment but “can confirm that the OIG is conducting an investigation, as requested by Ranking Member Connolly.” Back In April, Bearese told NPR that the NLRB had not granted DOGE access to agency systems. At that time, he also said that there had been a past investigation based on Berulis’ concerns that “determined that no breach of agency systems occurred.” A spokesperson for House Oversight Committee Democrats told FedScoop on Thursday that “there are multiple investigations into Elon Musk’s violations of sensitive investigatory information at the NLRB.” “Committee Democrats can confirm that NLRB’s Office of Inspector General, following a request from the Committee, has launched a formal investigation related to the Committee’s concerns about whistleblower allegations against DOGE’s technological malfeasance at the NLRB,” the spokesperson continued. “Committee Democrats are leading the charge to force DOGE’s dark dealings out of the shadows — and it’s working.”

Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 11:38 AM, Angus Loten, 646K] reports a Republican-led effort to block state artificial-intelligence regulations is raising alarms among cybersecurity experts. Laws regulating AI tend to include a range of cybersecurity measures aimed at safeguarding privacy and preventing the misuse of data. The move, included in House Energy and Commerce Committee draft legislation, comes as the Trump administration is pushing many cyber responsibilities to state governments. The legislation’s AI measure would put a 10-year moratorium on states enforcing “any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems or automated decision systems.” By restricting states from enacting AI laws, the measure seeks to streamline the development of a federal framework governing AI that fosters tech innovation, which would be hampered by a patchwork of state regulations, Rep. Jay Obernolte (R., Calif.) said at a lengthy committee hearing that began Tuesday and stretched past midnight. The moratorium, he said, “allows us a bit of runway to get the job done,” referring to enacting federal AI regulations. A Democrat-backed amendment to remove the measure from the budget bill was struck down. “States should have the ability and right to develop their own AI and privacy laws,” said Colin Ahern, chief cyber officer for New York state. To restrict that now, without federal privacy legislation and other protections in place, “would harm states’ abilities to spur innovation and strengthen consumer protections,” Ahern said. States have largely taken the lead in regulating AI, as national efforts have made little progress in Washington.

Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 4:16 PM, Colin Kellaher and Vicky Ge Huang, 646K] reports Coinbase Global aid Thursday that it has refused to pay a $20 million ransom demand from cybercriminals who bribed the company’s overseas customer support agents to steal sensitive user data. The cryptocurrency exchange estimated that the incident could cost from $180 million to $400 million, between fixing the underlying issues and reimbursing customers, according to a regulatory filing. The disclosure sent the company’s stock down more than 7% on Thursday. The data breach is a setback for the largest U.S. crypto exchange, which has cultivated a reputation for safety and largely avoided the type of attacks and thefts that have crippled many overseas exchanges. The company said it received an email on Sunday from an unknown party who claimed to have obtained information about certain customer accounts, adding that the threat actor appears to have obtained the information by paying multiple contractors or employees working in support roles outside the U.S. Coinbase said it determined that the email was credible, and that while customer funds weren’t accessed, the stolen data included personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses; masked Social Security and bank-account numbers; government‑ID images such as driver’s licenses and passports; and account data such as balance snapshots and transaction histories. Tens of thousands of users were potentially affected. The company said less than 1% of Coinbase’s monthly transacting users had their data pulled. That could be as many as 97,000 customers, based on Coinbase’s latest usage disclosures. Coinbase said it is working with law enforcement to investigate the incident, adding that it is opening a new support hub in the U.S. and taking other measures to harden its defenses. It pledged to reimburse users who were tricked into sending funds to the attackers. The company also said it fired the insiders who cooperated with the hackers and will press criminal charges against them.

Bloomberg [5/15/2025 5:36AM, Margi Murphy, 16228K] reports on the long list of crypto companies that have been hacked, there are plenty of examples of financial losses that are much more painful than what Coinbase Global Inc. appears to be facing from the attack it disclosed on Thursday. Yet this one stands out for significance far beyond the $400 million the company expects it will cost: This time, the victim was arguably the most influential US company in the industry. Coinbase is the firm that led the digital-asset industry’s march into the mainstream financial system as the first publicly traded crypto exchange. It’s the company that safeguards the lion’s share of the $122 billion worth of tokens owned by spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. And it’s the firm that did much of the heavy lifting when it came to the industry’s campaign spending spree to send a platoon of pro-crypto lawmakers to Washington this year. Indeed, the revelation of the hack comes just three days after the company’s crowning achievement in mainstreaming the digital asset class with its addition to the S&P 500 Index, a development that will land its shares into trillions of dollars worth of retirement plans and other investment products that track the benchmark gauge. The hack, plus subsequent news of a lingering Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into how the company reported its user numbers, sent the shares down more than 7% on Thursday. While the company says the Coinbase Prime service that custodies crypto for ETF issuers and services other institutional investors was not affected, the hackers did have near-constant access to some of Coinbase Global Inc.’s most valuable customer data since January, according to a person familiar with the incident who asked not to be named discussing company matters. The hackers’ scheme was brazen, if not especially impressive from a technology standpoint: They bribed customer representatives to steal client data and then demanded a $20 million ransom to delete it. Coinbase began noticing unusual activity from some of these representatives as far back as January, the company confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Breitbart [5/15/2025 7:16 AM, Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby, 2923K] reports federal prosecutors filed narco-terrorism charges against leading members of the Sinaloa Cartel. The move is the first of its kind following the February designation by the U.S. State Department of six Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel, as foreign terrorist organizations. In a new unsealed indictment, federal prosecutors named two of the primary leaders of the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO) – Pedro “Sagitario” Inzunza Noriega and Pedro “Pichon” Inzunza Coronel. The DOJ asserts that BLO is part of the Sinaloa Cartel. The father and son, and five other men, face seven different counts, all connected to their roles in the organization. The charges include narco-terrorism, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and various drug trafficking, conspiracy, and money laundering charges. “The Sinaloa Cartel is a complex, dangerous terrorist organization and dismantling them demands a novel, powerful legal response,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a prepared statement. “Their days of brutalizing the American people without consequence are over — we will seek life in prison for these terrorists.” Federal prosecutors allege that, under the Inzunzas’ leadership, the BLO and the Sinaloa Cartel have been responsible for moving large quantities of fentanyl into the United States. The narco-terrorism charges against the Inzunzas are tied to the fentanyl trafficking. Authorities claim that the father and son duo are behind a series of raids in Sinaloa in December 2024 that led to the world’s largest fentanyl seizure, totaling more than 1,500 kilograms. Russian state media said on Thursday that a delegation from Moscow had arrived in Turkey but that President Putin had not travelled and would not be participating.

San Francisco Chronicle [5/15/2025 6:09 PM, Aidin Vaziri, 5046K] reports a teenage gamer from Tennessee was hailed as a hero after alerting authorities to an apparent mass casualty plot at a school more than 2,000 miles away, possibly averting a mass tragedy in Northern California, officials said. Tehama County Sheriff Dave Kain said Tuesday that the unnamed teen was participating in an online gaming chat when he overheard two other teenagers discussing plans for a mass casualty event at Evergreen Institute of Excellence, a charter school located on the Evergreen Middle School campus in Cottonwood (Shasta County). The 14- and 15-year-old suspects reportedly intended to carry out the attack last Friday, with the plan also allegedly including the murder of one set of their parents. "It was determined the juveniles had built and tested two improvised explosive devices in preparation to use in the attack on the school," Kain said. "The suspects were hopeful to amass a casualty count in excess of 100 individuals.” The attack was aborted after one of the boys backed out, Kain said. Authorities acted on the tip provided by the Tennessee gamer, which included chat transcripts, a gamer tag, and a photo showing one suspect mimicking the Columbine shooters. Search warrants executed at the teens’ homes allegedly uncovered weapons, bomb-making materials and further evidence supporting the plot. The two suspects were arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats, possessing and manufacturing explosive devices, and conspiring to commit a felony, Kain said. "I’d like to celebrate this particular young man out of Tennessee — this young hero — who had the courage and heroic instincts to call our agency and notify us in order to mitigate any possible threat to our citizens and particularly our young people," Kain said. The sheriff invited the Tennessee teen and his family to visit the community. "I hope he takes me up on it," Kain said.

The AP [5/15/2025 7:47 PM, Juan A. Lozano, 48304K] reports a Texas mother has been charged with a terrorism-related crime after being accused of buying her 13-year-old son ammunition and tactical gear as he allegedly planned mass violence at his middle school, authorities said Thursday. The boy, who was also charged with terrorism, had shown up to the school this week wearing a mask and tactical gear but left shortly after, according to San Antonio police. He was later detained off campus. In recent years, parents of children who committed school shootings around the U.S. have been taken to court, though in this case no attack happened. The gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety said it had not found a similar case in which a parent was charged when violence did not occur. Authorities in San Antonio said the boy’s mother had previously been contacted by police, her son’s school and Child Protective Services with concerns about her son. “She appeared to be dismissive and unconcerned with her son’s behavior,” San Antonio police Chief William P. McManus said at a news conference. “Her behavior is not only dangerous, it’s abhorrent, especially as a parent.” The mother has been charged with aiding in the commission of terrorism. She is free on a $75,000 bond. The Washington Post [5/15/2025 5:26 PM, Justine McDaniel, 31735K] reports Ashley Pardo, 33, was arrested Monday on a felony charge of aiding in the commission of terrorism. The 13-year-old, who was placed in a juvenile detention facility, was also charged with having an improvised explosive device, which police said they found at his house. The arrests came after the boy’s grandmother found the ammunition and tipped off police Monday. The same morning, the boy showed up to school in camouflage and tactical-style clothing but then left campus. As police searched for him, authorities arrested Pardo. Police then took the 13-year-old into custody on the belief he may have been "planning some act of violence," San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told reporters Thursday. He said it was unknown whether the boy was armed when he went to school Monday. Pardo’s case could also set a new example for the prosecution of parents as a tool for preventing violence. Pardo’s arrest appeared to be the culmination of weeks of concern from authorities and school officials about her son’s behavior.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [5/15/2025 4:45 PM, Ali Watkins and Christine Hauser, 145325K]

Bloomberg [5/15/2025 10:16 AM, Mackenzie Hawkins and Jenny Leonard, 16228K] reports President Donald Trump’s flurry of artificial intelligence deals during his tour of the Middle East is opening a rift within his own administration as China hawks grow increasingly concerned the projects are putting US national security and economic interests at risk. The Trump team has worked out agreements for parties in Saudi Arabia to acquire tens of thousands of semiconductors from Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., while shipments to the United Arab Emirates could top a million accelerators — mostly for projects involving or owned by US companies. Such chips are used to develop and train models that can mimic human intelligence, and they’re the most coveted technology of the AI age. Some senior administration officials are seeking to slow down the deals over concerns the US hasn’t imposed sufficient guardrails to prevent American chips shipped to the Gulf from ultimately benefiting China, which has deep ties in the region, according to people familiar with the matter. While the UAE and Saudi accords include high-level language barring Chinese firms from accessing those chips, these officials argue too many details are still unresolved and the deals shouldn’t be announced without legally binding provisions, the people said. China hawks also have grown alarmed over what they see as a willingness by White House AI Adviser David Sacks, who’s helping lead the talks, to entertain proposals from Gulf leaders that they view as clear national security risks. None of those proposals are included in the current bilateral accords in the Middle East. Beyond those security issues, some senior Trump officials question the wisdom of shipping such large quantities of chips to any location outside the US, given the administration’s focus on maintaining American dominance in AI, said the people. As Vice President JD Vance put it at a Paris AI summit in February, “the Trump administration will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the US with American designed and manufactured chips.” If the announced and planned Middle East deals all come to fruition, the US would still hold the vast majority of the world’s computing power — but Gulf countries would for the first time have significant capabilities powered by best-in-class US hardware. A representative for the White House didn’t provide official comment for this story, which is based on interviews with nearly a dozen people who spoke about internal administration discussions on condition of anonymity. Nvidia and a spokesperson for the UAE declined to comment, while Sacks, AMD and the Saudi Arabian government didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The Hill [5/15/2025 12:09 PM, Sophia Vento, 12829K] reports several Democratic senators are questioning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over President Trump’s acceptance of a jet from Qatar, stressing in a letter the national security risks and counterintelligence concerns inherent in such a transaction. “The American people deserve to understand this administration’s plans for securing this aircraft, the vulnerabilities its use will present to our national security and the price tag they will be asked to pay for President Trump’s decision to integrate this aircraft into our most sensitive fleet,” the group of lawmakers, led by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) wrote in the letter dated Wednesday. Earlier this week, Trump said he would accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jet from the Qatari government. The aircraft would be received by the Defense Department in what the president described as a “very public and transparent transaction.” But the move has been met with criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats, in the letter, deemed it “unconstitutional” and expressed concerns about threats to the president’s safety. The group of lawmakers argued it “provides a dangerous opportunity to exploit for foreign intelligence agencies and adversaries seeking to do harm to the United States.”

Bloomberg [5/15/2025 8:44 AM, Staff, 16228K] reports Qatar’s offer to give President Trump a luxury 747 as a temporary Air Force One is a nightmare for US spy agencies. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [5/15/2025 12:58 PM, Robbie Gramer and Joe Gould, 11599K] reports Democratic lawmakers are trying to block billions of dollars in arms sales to two Middle Eastern countries to protest investments in President Donald Trump’s personal business and a jet offered to him. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) plans to force a vote on five major arms sales to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar valued at $3.5 billion following Qatar’s offer to gift a luxury Boeing aircraft to use as Air Force One and the UAE’s move to invest $2 billion in Trump’s cryptocurrency venture. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) plans to co-lead the measures to block UAE arms sales. The vote offers Democrats — who have struggled to form a message in opposition to Trump’s agenda — a line of attack that could resonate with voters. And it deals a tough vote to Republicans, who will have to choose between their allegiance to the president and their ethical and logistical concerns. The resolutions target the sale to Qatar of MQ-9 Reaper drones and joint direct attack munitions, as well as other munitions and radar systems worth $1.9 billion. “This isn’t a gift out of the goodness of their hearts — it’s an illegal bribe that the president of the United States is chomping at the bit to accept,” Murphy said in an interview. Unless Qatar revoked its offer to give Trump the plane, he said, he would move to block the arms sale. The lawmakers are trying to introduce similar resolutions to block sales to the UAE of around $1.6 billion, including Chinook helicopters, munitions and support for the UAE’s fleet of Apache and Black Hawk helicopters. The measures will be introduced as so-called joint resolutions of disapproval, which would force a floor vote. It’s unclear whether the resolutions will pass, but they could gain the support of a few Republican lawmakers uncomfortable with the arrangements. Administration officials and some Republican allies in Congress have dismissed the criticism leveled by Murphy and others against the president. “Chris Murphy is running for president,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, said Tuesday on Fox News, in response to Murphy’s criticism of the potential deals. “The Middle East is, like I said, changing every day. The more President Trump can convince those people that they should have an investment in the United States, the closer we get the less likely we are to have problems.” The White House National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment.

Daily Wire [5/15/2025 10:48 AM, Aidin Panahi, 4672K] reports an Iranian regime insider who once operated at the heart of Tehran’s global assassination network is now collecting a paycheck at Princeton and walking freely on American soil. His name is Hossein Mousavian — and his presence is a direct insult to every American and Israeli who has lost a loved one to Iranian terror. His past affiliations and statements pose direct threats to national security and the moral consistency of American immigration policy. Today, Mousavian is a Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist at the Princeton Program on Science and Global Security. But from 1990 to 1997, Mousavian served as Iran’s ambassador to Germany. During this period, the infamous 1992 Mykonos restaurant assassinations occurred in Berlin, where four Iranian dissidents were murdered. A German court later concluded that the killings were ordered by Iran’s Special Affairs Committee, implicating the highest levels of the Iranian government. While Mousavian was not formally charged, the court found that the Iranian embassy in Bonn, which Mousavian led at the time, was identified by the court as a hub for intelligence operations. Testimony from former Iranian intelligence operative Abolghasem Mesbahi asserted that Mousavian was allegedly involved in "most of the crimes that took place in Europe" during his tenure. More recently, Mohsen Rafighdoost — a founding figure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — stated in an interview that the regime was directly involved in the Mykonos killings and suggested Mousavian likely had knowledge of, or was possibly connected to, the broader Iranian assassination program in Europe. These public confessions don’t just implicate Mousavian in past crimes: they raise alarms about who American institutions are empowering today. The question is no longer what he did, but why he still has access to American students, media platforms, and policy circles. Mousavian’s presence demands immediate investigation by the Department of Homeland Security and revocation of any visa or green card under anti-terrorism provisions. The Trump administration has the tools — and the moral duty — to act. The safety of Americans and the integrity of our immigration system depend on it.

Breitbart [5/15/2025 7:16 AM, Oliver JJ Lane, 2923K] reports Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky decried a Potemkin delegation sent by Russia to peace talks in Istanbul on Thursday after it transpired President Vladimir Putin won’t be attending after all. President Zelensky threw doubt on whether Ukraine would meet with the Russian delegation for peace talks at all on Thursday, after it became clear that his Russian counterpart, President Putin, had not come to Istanbul. Ukraine spokesmen had previously said Putin being personally present was a requirement because in the Russian system only Putin is capable of making decisions, as no real power is delegated, making high-level talks without him pointless. Russian state media said on Thursday that a delegation from Moscow had arrived in Turkey but that President Putin had not travelled and would not be participating. Pushing talks back to this afternoon, Zelensky said that: "We need to understand what the level of the Russian delegation is, what their mandate is, and whether they are capable of making decisions on their own… Because we all know who makes decisions in Russia". Addressing President Putin, Zelensky said in English: "I’m here. I think this is a very clear message".

New York Times [5/16/2025 3:36 AM, Paul Sonne, 153395K] reports Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were poised to meet Friday for the first direct peace talks between their nations since the beginning of the war, after days of confusion and theatrics. The negotiations are not expected, even by foreign leaders like President Trump who called for them, to yield significant results. But the meeting itself is a win for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who refused to agree to a battlefield cease-fire that Ukraine and almost all of its Western backers had sought as a precondition for talks. Last weekend, Mr. Putin announced that he would send a delegation to Istanbul for negotiations. Mr. Trump chimed in that he supported the idea. The Russians arrived in the Turkish city and announced on Thursday that they were ready to talk. The situation put pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who had tried to get Mr. Putin to meet him personally in Turkey for negotiations and also attempted to get Mr. Trump to come. Mr. Zelensky questioned Russia’s seriousness and the way the talks were being organized. But he agreed to send a Ukrainian delegation led by his defense minister, saying he was doing so out of respect for Mr. Trump and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “There is no time of the meeting, there is no agenda of the meeting, there is no high-level delegation,” Mr. Zelensky said Thursday after meeting with Mr. Erdogan. “I think Russia’s attitude is unserious.” Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, responded to Mr. Zelensky’s criticism by calling him a “clown,” a “loser” and a “person with no education at all in relation to people.” Mr. Zelensky underscored that the United States and Turkey would be involved in the talks. A Turkish official said that Keith Kellogg, Mr. Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, was in Istanbul on Thursday and that Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy for the Middle East and Russia, was expected to arrive on Friday.

AP [5/16/2025 5:34 AM, Hanna Arhirova and Andrew Wilks, 48304K] reports Russia and Ukraine are due to hold their first direct peace talks in three years Friday, gathering in Istanbul for Turkish-brokered negotiations, but officials and observers expect them to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than 3-year war. A Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was due to meet with a low-level Russian team headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky. The latest push to end the fighting got off to a rocky start on Thursday, when Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned an offer by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face. Delegations from the two countries also flew to different Turkish cities and put together teams of significantly different diplomatic heft for possible talks. Although expectations for a possible Putin-Zelenskyy meeting were low, the apparent lack of traction in peace efforts frustrated hopes of bold steps being taken in Turkey toward reaching a settlement. The two sides are far apart in their conditions for ending the war, and U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday during a trip to the Middle East that a meeting between himself and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.

Breitbart [5/16/2025 12:43 AM, Staff, 2923K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday became the first American president to meet with his Syrian counterpart in a quarter of a century, holding informal talks with the country’s transitional leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Riyadh. The meeting which was reported by the BBC, CNN and New York Times, came after Trump announced he was lifting "crippling" U.S. sanctions on Syria originally imposed to block flows of money into Syria, including aid, to put pressure on the brutal regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad. In a post on X the White House said Trump told al-Sharaa he had "a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country.” Trump also called on al-Sharaa to normalize relations with Israel by signing onto the route-map for regional peace provided by the Abraham Accords, order "foreign terrorists" out of Syria, including Palestinian militants, assist U.S. efforts to prevent ISIS reforming and take responsibility for ISIS detention camps in northeast Syria. For his part, al-Sharaa acknowledged the "significant opportunity presented by the Iranians leaving Syria, as well as shared U.S.-Syrian interests in countering terrorism and eliminating chemical weapons. He did not respond regarding Israel, but said he was committed to the 1974 Israel-Syria "Agreement on Disengagement" cease-fire which has been enforced by a U.N. Peaekeeping Force for the past 50 years. However, al-Sharaa invited American companies to invest in Syria’s oil and gas sector, which has been crippled by the country’s 13-year civil war, and expressed the ambition for his country to become an important trading axis between east and west. Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is hosting Trump on a two-day state visit to the kingdom, sat in on the meeting which was also attended Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the phone. Trump agreed to lift the sanctions on Syria at the urging of Prince Mohammed and Erdogan. The United States had a $10 million bounty on offer for the arrest of the former Al-Qaida commander as recently as December but canceled it after the rebel leader helped topple the decades-long dictatorship of the Assad family and pledged a moderate administration that would restore stability and rebuild, rid the country of Iran’s presence and re-engage with its neighbors and the wider world. Al-Sharaa, who was appointed president in January, has promised to hold elections once a new constitution is in place in around four years. The last time a U.S. president met with a Syrian President was in 2000 when President Bill Clinton met the late President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s father.

Roll Call [5/15/2025 3:05 PM, Rachel Oswald, 503K] reports the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday offered rare bipartisan support for an executive action this week by President Donald Trump — the lifting of longstanding U.S. sanctions on Syria in a bid to offer the Arab country’s new government a chance after 14 years of civil war. Trump made the sanctions announcement Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the start of the first major foreign trip of his second administration. He followed that up with a meeting with Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the rebel coalition that toppled the regime of longtime dictator Bashar Assad. Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho said he was initially unnerved by the emergence of al-Sharaa as Syria’s new leader given his past as the head of an al-Qaeda offshoot before he severed ties and adopted less-extremist stances. "Obviously the new administration has a checkered past," Risch said of the new Syrian government. "Having said that, it is a way in the past.” The chairman said the new government in Damascus has been sending mostly positive signals since coming to power late last year. He and Foreign Relations ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., met with Syria’s new foreign minister in February on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Risch said Trump had lifted sanctions "a little more robustly" than what he and Shaheen had previously had in mind. "We’re still in a wait-and-see. Those sanctions have been taken off; they can be put back on and we’re going to continue to watch this. We really hope this works out," he said. "Syria is a proud country. They have a long history. They have the ability to do this.” Shaheen said she appreciated some of the initial steps taken by the Syrian government, including working to eliminate the Assad regime’s chemical weapon stockpile and clamping down on the Captagon drug trade, a key source of revenue under the old government. "The collapse of the Assad regime created a once-in-a-generation opportunity, a chance to deny our adversaries — Iran, Russia, China, not to mention ISIS — a base of operations," she said. "Too many Syrians have lost their lives fighting oppression to let this window of opportunity pass.” Many of the multilayered U.S. sanctions were imposed during the Obama administration and strengthened by Congress over the years in response to Assad’s brutal military campaign to suppress a popular uprising by the Syrian people.

Reuters [5/15/2025 5:38 PM, Federico Maccioni, Manya Saini and Yousef Saba, 54903K] reports the United Arab Emirates and the United States have signed an agreement for the Gulf country to build the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the United States, a type of deal that previously faced restrictions over Washington’s concerns that China could access the technology. The countries did not say which AI chips from Nvidia or other companies could be included in UAE data centers, but sources had said a deal would give the Gulf country expanded access to advanced AI chips. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang was seen in televised footage conversing with President Trump and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at a palace in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Such a long-coveted deal, finalized during Trump’s visit to Abu Dhabi on Thursday, is a major win for the UAE, which has been trying to balance its relations with its longtime ally the US and its largest trading partner China. It reflects the Trump administration’s confidence that the chips can be managed securely, in part by requiring data centers be managed by US companies. The UAE, a major oil producer, has been spending billions of dollars in a push to become a global AI player. But its ties to China had limited access to US chips under former President Joe Biden. The AI agreement "includes the UAE committing to invest in, build, or finance US data centers that are at least as large and as powerful as those in the UAE," the White House said. "The agreement also contains historic commitments by the UAE to further align their national security regulations with the United States, including strong protections to prevent the diversion of US-origin technology.” Reuters had earlier reported that the two countries had finalized a technology framework agreement and that it would require commitments on both sides to the security of the technology. The UAE could be allowed to import 500,000 of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips per year starting in 2025, sources have told Reuters. Nvidia declined to comment. The UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 3:49 PM, Stephen Kalin, Eliot Brown, and Joel Schectman, 646K] reports Qatar’s potential plan to provide a $400 million jumbo jet to the U.S. to use as Air Force One underscores how the tiny Gulf state has managed to diplomatically punch above its weight for years: It has a lot of money and is willing to spend it. The country’s ruling monarchy has showered billions of dollars derived from its vast natural-gas reserves on U.S. institutions, mainly the military and universities, while ramping up spending on lobbyists to tilt policy in its favor. A growing chorus of Republicans and Democrats have criticized President Trump’s pursuit of the plane, arguing it presents national-security concerns. Trump has defended the plane offer, saying he would be stupid not to accept it. A senior administration official said Wednesday that Trump hopes to have the plane ready to use by the end of the year, and isn’t considering abandoning the plan. “The choice is accepting a gift and saving the American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. There are no strings attached either contractually or implicitly,” the official said, adding: “It’s a beautiful plane for a beautiful price and what’s wrong with that?” A spokesman for the Qatari Embassy in Washington said lawyers from both countries’ militaries were reviewing the plane’s possible transfer. “Qatar doesn’t stand to receive anything in return for the possible government-to-government transfer,” said Ali Al Ansari, calling it “a reflection of the strong security relationship” with the U.S.

Wall Street Journal [5/15/2025 2:27 PM, Laurence Norman and Benoit Faucon, 646K] reports American negotiators for the first time pitched a nuclear proposal to their Iranian counterparts, according to people briefed on the matter, days before President Trump said the U.S. was close to an agreement on the matter on Thursday. The U.S. issued its proposal last weekend during the fourth round of nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran since April 12. After those talks, the U.S. said it was encouraged by Iran’s openness to Washington’s approach. The Iranians said the talks were “difficult but useful” in clarifying the differences. The Iranians said they would take the U.S. proposal back to Tehran for discussion, one of the people said. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran hadn’t received a proposal in writing from Washington yet but was expecting one. The U.S. negotiating team didn’t comment. “I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this,” Trump said at a business event in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday, alluding to military strikes on Iran. “There’s two steps. There’s a very, very nice step, and there’s a violent step, violence like people haven’t seen before.”

Reuters [5/15/2025 10:48 AM, Staff, 41523K] reports the United States targeted two senior Hezbollah officials and two financial facilitators with new sanctions on Thursday for their role in coordinating financial transfers to the Iran-backed group, the Treasury Department said. The latest sanctions come as President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States was getting very close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran, and Tehran had "sort of" agreed to the terms. The people targeted were based in Lebanon and Iran and worked to get money to Hezbollah from overseas donors, the department said in a statement. Treasury said overseas donations make up a significant portion of the group’s budget.

Thursday’s action highlights Hezbollah’s "extensive global reach through its network of terrorist donors and supporters, particularly in Tehran," said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender. "As part of our ongoing efforts to address Iran’s support for terrorism, Treasury will continue to intensify economic pressure on the key individuals in the Iranian regime and its proxies who enable these deadly activities."

AP [5/15/2025 6:18 PM, Staff, 48304K] Video: HERE reports China took aim at US steel and aluminum tariffs on Thursday, after import fees on the raw materials remain omitted during the 90-day pause of tariffs in the ongoing US-China trade war.

AP [5/15/2025 8:16 AM, Elaine Kurtenbach, 48304K] reports China has blasted a new U.S. rule against use of Ascend computer chips made by Huawei Technologies anywhere in the world, chafing Thursday against the limitations of a temporary truce in the trade war between the two biggest economies. Beijing moved ahead, however, with fulfilling its promise to lift retaliatory measures it imposed after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his trade war, raising tariffs on Chinese products to as high as 145%. One key action was to remove a ban on exports to the United States of minerals known as rare earths that are used in many high-tech products. Despite the deal struck last weekend in Geneva, frictions remain. Earlier this week, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security issued guidance saying that Huawei’s Ascend semiconductors are subject to U.S. export controls, on the basis that they are thought to employ U.S. technology. “These chips were likely developed or produced in violation of U.S. export controls,” it said in a statement on its website, adding that “the use of such PRC advanced computing ICs risks violating U.S. export controls and may subject companies to BIS enforcement action.” China’s Commerce Ministry responded that the move was “not conducive to long-term, mutually beneficial, and sustainable cooperation and development between the two countries. The Chinese side urges the U.S. side to immediately correct its erroneous practices,” said ministry spokesperson He Yongqian.

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