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.

Reuters [5/5/2025 10:17 PM, Nate Raymond, 41523K] reports a federal appeals court rejected on Monday a request by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to allow it to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans living in the United States. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put on hold a judge’s order halting the Department of Homeland Security’s move to cut short a two-year "parole" granted to the migrants under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. The administration’s action marked an expansion of the Republican president’s hardline crackdown on immigration and push to ramp up deportations, including of noncitizens previously granted a legal right to live and work in the United States. The administration argued Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had discretion to categorically end the migrants’ status and that the judge’s order was forcing the U.S. government to "retain hundreds of thousands of aliens in the country against its will." But a three-judge panel comprised entirely of appointees of Democratic presidents said Noem "has not at this point made a ‘strong showing’ that her categorical termination of plaintiffs’ parole is likely to be sustained on appeal." The administration could now ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, "The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law to our immigration system," Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "No lawsuit, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that." Newsweek [5/5/2025 6:44 PM, Gabe Whisnant, 52220K] reports that the administration’s move signaled a significant escalation of the Republican president’s hardline immigration agenda, expanding efforts to increase deportations—including of noncitizens who had previously been granted legal permission to live and work in the United States. The court ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by immigrant rights advocates, who challenged a Department of Homeland Security decision to suspend several Biden-era parole programs. These programs had allowed migrants from countries such as Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the U.S. legally on a temporary basis. The Blaze [5/5/2025 6:52 PM, Staff, 1668K] reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had terminated a TPS extension for 600,000 Venezuelans in January that had been issued under the former Biden administration. In April, San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Edward Chen blocked the termination of TPS and suggested that the action was motivated by racism. "The secretary made sweeping negative generalizations about Venezuelan TPS beneficiaries," said Chen of DHS Sec. Kristi Noem. "Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism.” The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Boston, Massachusetts, denied Trump’s appeal of a separate and similar order from the U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama. "The early termination, without any case-by-case justification, of legal status for noncitizens who have complied with DHS programs and entered the country lawfully undermines the rule of law," said Talwani in her ruling. Telemundo [5/5/2025 5:53 PM, Staff, 2454K] reports “The district court determined that 8 USC § 1182(d)(5)(A) does not grant the Secretary of Homeland Security unreviewable discretion to terminate parole except on a case-by-case basis,” the three judges of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals wrote, as confirmed by Noticias Telemundo. The decision means that, for now, nothing changes: a judge’s order blocking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s decision to shorten the two-year parole granted to migrants under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, remains in place.

The Wall Street Journal [5/5/2025 2:56 PM, Michelle Hackman, 646K] reports the Trump administration plans to begin paying immigrants in the country illegally a stipend of $1,000 to self-deport, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday. The administration has set up a mobile app that migrants can use to make departure plans. The app provides assistance in booking flights whose costs the government would cover in addition to facilitating payment of the stipend. Migrants would receive their $1,000 payments once they confirm that they have arrived in their home country, DHS said. One migrant has already received payment after self-deporting from Chicago to Honduras, the agency said. Even after covering migrants’ flights and paying out stipends, the self deportation program would still save the government money, according to the administration. “If you are here illegally, self deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X. It couldn’t be determined where DHS is finding the money in the government’s budget to pay stipends, or how much money it has allotted for them. Representatives for the department didn’t respond to requests for additional comment. Politico [5/5/2025 12:00 PM, Amanda Friedman, 2100K] reports migrants are expected to receive the stipend once it’s confirmed through the app that they’ve arrived in their country of origin. The initiative comes as Trump administration officials repeatedly urge migrants to self-deport, threatening to prosecute those who seek to evade immigration law enforcement. CBS News [5/5/2025 6:05 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 52225K] Video HERE reports that those interested in participating in the self-deportation initiative are being instructed to use a government smartphone app now known as CBP Home — which the Biden administration previously used to allow certain migrants to enter the U.S. legally — to tell officials they plan to leave the country. Eligible immigrants will receive both travel assistance and the $1,000 stipend, which DHS officials said will be paid after the U.S. government confirms the individual has left the country. The Trump administration said those who sign up for self-deportation using the CBP Home app will be de prioritized for arrest and detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "as long as they demonstrate they are making meaningful strides in completing that departure." In its announcement Monday, the Trump administration portrayed self-deportation as a "dignified way" to leave the U.S., given that the alternative could be a forced deportation after being detained by ICE agents. DHS officials argued on Monday that the travel assistance and stipend would also save the U.S. government money, saying that arresting, detaining and deporting a migrant costs $17,121, on average. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the Trump administration has tracked "thousands" of self-deportations so far. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] NBC News [5/5/2025 1:33 PM, Nicole Acevedo and Laura Strickler, 44742K] reports DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in late March that those who are self-deporting can use biographical data, documents, facial images and geo location in the app to prove that they have left the country. “The alien must be at least three miles outside of the United States to successfully utilize this feature,” she said. “While the use of the verify departure functionality is optional, if the alien chooses to use it, they must submit a facial image. It’s required.” The Los Angeles Times [5/5/2025 5:17 PM, Jenny Jarvie, 13342K] reports that in an interview with Fox News on Monday, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said immigrants who took advantage of the deal could "potentially come back the legal, right way and come back to live the American dream.” "This might put you in a better position," she added, "because there’s documentation that you have decided to self deport.” Asked why immigrants should trust the Trump administration’s offer, McLaughlin said: "We’re giving you our word that we will give you this money and that you can leave today. It’s the safest way. You will not be arrested, you will not be detained, and we will give you that free flight.” The AP [5/5/2025 5:41 PM, Rebecca Santana, 48304K] reports that while the Republican administration is asking Congress for a massive increase in resources for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department responsible for removing people from the country, it’s also pushing people in the country illegally to “self-deport.” The Trump administration has often portrayed self-deportation as a way for migrants to preserve their ability to return to the U.S. someday. But Aaron Reichlen-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, which advocates for immigrants, said there’s a lot for migrants to be cautious about in the latest offer from Homeland Security. And Homeland Security is not indicating that it is closely coordinating with the immigration courts so that there are no repercussions for people in immigration court if they leave, he said. He questioned where Homeland Security would get the money and the authorization to make the payments — and he suggested they are necessary because the administration can’t arrest and remove as many people as it has promised so it has to encourage people to do it on their own. “They’re not getting their numbers,” he said. The New York Post [5/5/2025 11:55 AM, Jennie Taer, 54903K] reports that in Trump’s first 100 days back in the White House, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers already deported nearly 66,000 illegal immigrants, the agency said last week. “We’re just 100 days into this administration and thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is using every tool at its disposal to enforce our country’s immigration laws and protect our communities,” acting ICE director Todd Lyons said.

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [5/5/2025 4:46 PM, Staff, 646K]
New York Times [5/5/2025 7:39 PM, Hamed Aleaziz, 153395K]
Washington Post [5/5/2025 2:56 PM, Amy B. Wang, 31735K]
Politico [5/5/2025 12:00 PM, Amanda Friedman, 2100K]
Breitbart [5/5/2025 12:06 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 2923K]
Breitbart [5/5/2025 12:22 PM, Staff, 2923K]
The Hill [5/5/2025 11:09 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12829K] Video HERE
Reuters [5/5/2025 4:37 PM, Ted Hesson, 41523K]
Axios [5/5/2025 12:34 PM, April Rubin, 13163K]
(B) NBC News Daily [5/5/2025 3:14 PM, Staff]
FOX News [5/5/2025 10:44 AM, Cameron Arcand and Bill Melugin, 46189K] Video: HERE
USA Today [5/5/2025 7:19 PM, Bart Jansen, 75858K]
Blaze [5/5/2025 1:45 PM, Julio Rosas, 1668K]
NewsNation [5/5/2025 6:29 PM, Kevin Bohn, 6866K]
DailySignal [5/5/2025 2:05 PM, Jacob Adams, 495K]
Washington Examiner [5/5/2025 11:16 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K]
Univision [5/5/2025 2:57 PM, Staff, 5325K]

Daily Wire [5/5/2025 8:00 AM, Zach Jewell, 4672K] reports illegal immigrants who self-deport will receive a $1,000 stipend under a plan that the Trump administration says will protect law enforcement and save American tax dollars, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday. Along with giving illegal immigrants a $1,000 stipend, Fox News reported that the Trump administration would also pay for the cost of airfare. The total cost for the stipend and airfare would be around $4,500 on average, a significant reduction from the estimated $17,000 it costs the federal government to detain and deport an illegal immigrant, according to DHS, which added that illegal immigrants would not receive the stipend until it was verified that they had left the United States. "If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest," Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X. "DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.” "This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70% savings for US taxpayers," Noem added. "Download the CBP Home App TODAY and self-deport.” If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest. DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App. The CBP Home App, initially launched as the CBP One App under the first Trump administration to help with truck inspections at the border, was repurposed by the Biden administration to help migrants claim asylum in the United States. Under the new Trump administration, the app is being used mainly to help illegal immigrants return to their home countries as President Donald Trump focuses on his deportation operation. According to Fox News, DHS acknowledged the concerns of some critics who argue that the $1,000 stipends reward those who illegally entered the country. The DHS, however, argued that the initiative’s cost-cutting function and the overall goal of mass deportations are justifiable reasons to pay illegal immigrants to leave the United States. Last month, the department said it would fine illegal immigrants nearly $1,000 a day if they remain in the United States beyond their removal date. The fines would also be retroactive, stretching back up to five years and hitting some illegal immigrants with more than $1 million in fines. Trump wants Customs and Border Protection to administer the penalties and seize the property of those who cannot pay. At the end of March, the Trump administration said it had deported more than 100,000 illegal immigrants since Trump was sworn in on January 20. The administration has said it is focused on going after illegal immigrants who are accused of being violent gang members, sending them to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Trump has been celebrating his action on deportations, placing mug shots of arrested illegal immigrants along the White House driveway last week.

Breitbart [5/5/2025 3:38 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports illegal aliens will get a "beautiful flight" out of the United States if they voluntarily self-deport under a new program spearheaded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), President Donald Trump says. On Monday, as Breitbart News reported, DHS announced a financial incentive program that will provide illegal aliens with $1,000 only after they verify that they have self-deported to their home country using the CBP Home mobile app. "What we thought we’d do is a self-deport where we’re going to pay each one a certain amount of money and we’re going to get them a beautiful flight back to where they came from … it’s called self-deportation," Trump said of his program Monday in the Oval Office. He also praised the work of border czar Tom Homan and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem while slamming district court judges for their attempts to block his crackdown on illegal immigration. Breitbart [5/5/2025 5:44 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 2923K] reports that if they register to self-deport through the CBP Home App, they will be entitled to a $1,000 stipend following their exit. "If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. "DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App," she continued. "This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70% savings for US taxpayers. Download the CBP Home App TODAY and self-deport."

FOX News [5/5/2025 10:11 PM, Staff, 46189K] reports DHS Secretary Kristi Noem explains how the Trump administration is incentivizing self-deportation and why it is cost-effective on ‘Hannity.’[Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [5/5/2025 9:18 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2900K] Video HERE that, on Monday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin discussed the Trump administration’s self-deportation offer and responded to Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) suggesting that we make those in the country illegally pay a fine, undergo a background check, and then have a work visa for a few years that would be renewed for good behavior by stating that “Gallego is exactly right. Because the alternative to self-deportation is that you are going to be fined, you will be arrested, you will be imprisoned, and you will never be allowed to return.” Host Blake Burman asked, “Here’s what Ruben Gallego, who’s a Senator, Democrat, in Arizona, said, he said, ‘Why don’t we make them pay a $5,000 fine, go through a background check[,] and give them a work visa for a few years, renewable with good behavior[?]’ That was the Senator today. What would you say?” McLaughlin responded, “Well, Ruben Gallego is exactly right. Because the alternative to self-deportation is that you are going to be fined, you will be arrested, you will be imprisoned, and you will never be allowed to return. So, I’m glad Ruben Gallego must have been reading some of our posts out there, because we will find those who are in this country illegally.” Earlier, McLaughlin said that those who self-deport will “potentially be able to come back the right, legal way and potentially come back to live the American Dream.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [5/5/2025 9:47 PM, Nick Koutsobinas, 4998K] reports Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told Newsmax on Monday that the illegal migrants who take the $1,000 offered by the Trump administration to self-deport would save taxpayers the $17,000 it costs to deport a migrant through DHS. Speaking with "Finnerty," McLaughlin said that "15 to 20 million migrants" are in the United States illegally. "And we’re going to use every incentive that we can to get them out. So yes, we are offering a $1,000 stipend as well as financial assistance to self-deport and leave this country. That’s a 70% savings that the American taxpayer will get, considering it costs around $17,000 to arrest, detain, and deport an individual as is.” On the DHS website, under its CBP Home App webpage, the agency wrote that illegal migrants who register to self-deport "may be eligible to receive financial assistance for their departure. If requested, the U.S. Government will assist in booking tickets and/or with obtaining necessary travel documentation.” The webpage also noted that a $1,000 stipend "will be provided upon confirmation through the app that return has been completed.” "I think the choice is crystal clear for these illegal aliens," McLaughlin added. "Take the 1,000 bucks and self-deport, or we will find you; we will arrest you; we will detain you, and you will never return again. So the choice is theirs, and we’re making it pretty easy for them.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX Business [5/5/2025 9:14 PM, Staff, 10702K] reports DHS assistant public affairs secretary Tricia McLaughlin weighs in on judges blocking President Donald Trump’s deportations of violent criminals and ‘due process’ concerns on ‘The Evening Edit.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [5/5/2025 10:44 AM, Cameron Arcand and Bill Melugin, 46189K] reports the Department of Homeland Security will front the cost of commercial flights and provide a $1,000 stipend to illegal aliens who opt to self-deport from the United States in a move DHS says will save thousands of dollars. The department says this will be 70% cheaper for American taxpayers, as it currently costs DHS, on average, over $17,000 to arrest, detain, and deport someone. DHS told Fox News that paying for aliens to remove themselves, even with the stipend, is anticipated to cost only around $4,500 on average. The stipend would not be paid until it was verified that an individual self-deported. Aliens will use the CBP Home self-deportation app to access this assistance, and DHS expects self-removals, already in the thousands, to ramp up significantly with this announcement. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [5/5/2025 1:03 PM, Staff, 46189K] reports Fox News’ Bill Melugin reports the latest on the new policy. The ‘Outnumbered’ panel also weighs in on how DHS is incentivizing illegal immigrants to self-deport. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Latin Times [5/5/2025 3:08 PM, Morgan Music, 1500K] reports the Department of Homeland Security promoted its program offering a free flight and $1,000 stipend to migrants who sign up to self-deport, sparking interest from U.S. citizens who shared the wouldn’t mind relocating. In an interview with Fox News, DHS official Tricia McLaughlin explained the effort, directing migrants to the CBP Home App, where they can reportedly book a DHS-funded flight and receive a financial incentive for self-deporting. "We will give you a $1,000 stipend. That’s a 77% savings for the American taxpayer," McLaughlin said, adding that migrants would not be arrested or detained if they chose to participate.

Breitbart [5/5/2025 8:13 PM, Neil Munro, 2923K] reports pro-migration advocates are denouncing and urging illegal migrants to reject President Donald Trump’s offer of $1,ooo and free airline tickets to leave the country. "This option might be WORSE for people who take advantage of it," claimed Aaron Reichlin, a pro-migration advocate for the Immigration Council advocacy group. "For people [illegal migrants] in immigration court, it would likely mean a deportation order. For others [not detained for deportation], it would abandon clear options for staying.” The economic payoff from subsidized re-migration home could be a huge economic windfall for ordinary Americans who will see better wages, more workplace investment, and cheaper housing. They will also gain less chaotic diversity in their communities, less crime, fewer road accidents, less competition for community resources, and more recognition from state and local politicians, teachers, and employers. "The [taxpayer] savings are as much as $1 million per illegal alien family given the long-term costs of free welfare and public support," Homeland Security Advisor and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted to X on May 5. Reichlin-Melnick also suggested that paying migrants to leave — instead of going through the greater expense of forcing them to leave — "raises VERY serious questions about statutory authority and funding sources.” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) suggested that illegal migrants could remain with a lower-caste status that would allow them to legally work for his wealthy donors but not be treated as legally or socially equal to American citizens. "Why don’t we make them pay a $5k fine, go through a background check and give them a work visa for a few years, renewable with good behavior," Gallego posted to X. David Bier at the investor-funded, pro-migration Cato Institute says the federal government cannot incentivize migrants to exit, even after years of supporting the mass inflow accelerated by the administration of former President Joe Biden: But the pro-migration advocates did not make a fuss when Biden’s administration diverted more than $1 billion allocated by Congress for the border wall. Unfortunately for Cato, Reichlin-Melnick admitted that "[t]he closest legal authority which might apply here is 8 U.S.C. § 1260, which authorizes using funding to deport "aliens falling into distress" who are "desirous of being so removed.” Trump’s administration talked up the program, which offers illegal migrants some hope of returning if they exit via the legal program.

Washington Examiner [5/5/2025 8:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K] reports the Trump administration has its flashy mass deportation campaign underway, but beneath the surface, the strategy includes convincing millions of immigrants to choose to leave without government assistance by making their lives too uncomfortable to stay in the United States. While the White House has touted its intentions to remove immigrants who illegally entered the U.S., it has faced significant logistical, legal, and financial constraints over the past 2 1/2 months. Running parallel to the government’s deportation effort is a more subtle one that immigrant rights advocates and those who advocate restrictions to immigration both agreed in comments to the Washington Examiner is being waged to pressure immigrants to depart on their own accord. Mark Krikorian, executive director at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said it will take time for immigrants to come to terms with the fact that they cannot wait out his four years and that things may only become more difficult for that population in the coming days. "What you’re trying to do is change people’s expectations. In three months, it’s hard to do," said Krikorian, whose organization advocates reducing immigration. "The longer it persists, the more plausible it will be to illegal immigrants that this is the new normal. That is the key. … It’s not just a flurry of activity upfront that peters out over time.” President Donald Trump celebrated his accomplishments, including those on immigration, with supporters at a rally in Michigan on Tuesday, his 100th day in office. "We are delivering mass deportation, and it’s happening very fast, and the worst of the worst are being sent to a no-nonsense prison in El Salvador," Trump told attendees. The White House is attempting to deport at least 1 million illegal immigrants in the first year of Trump’s second term, a figure higher than the number of removals undertaken during any of his first four years in office. Since Jan. 20, the government has removed 61,000 illegal immigrants from the U.S., as opposed to immigrants encountered at the border. The Trump administration is also in talks with roughly 30 countries about their willingness to accept immigrants who are not originally from there. Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua will not take back their deported citizens, causing delays with the removal of those citizens. Nearly 50 of the Department of Justice’s immigration judges were fired or resigned shortly after Trump took office, resulting in a roughly 10% cut in total immigration judges nationwide, further delaying the millions of cases before them. Federal authorities at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement do not always have the cooperation of local jurisdictions, some of which have explicit "sanctuary" policies that prevent cooperation with federal officials. It means suspected criminal illegal immigrants in sanctuary city jails will not be turned over to ICE.

The Hill [5/5/2025 6:17 PM, Tara Suter, 12829K] reports Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) on Monday proposed an alternative to a $1,000 offer from the Trump administration to migrants if they "self-deport" via an app. "Why don’t we make them pay a $5k fine, go through a background check and give them a work visa for a few years, renewable with good behavior," Gallego said in a post on the social platform X in response to another post from The Associated Press about the offer. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the $1,000 offer on Monday, describing the funds as a way to "facilitate travel back to their home country," which will be paid upon confirmation via the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home app that they have returned. "Self-deportation is a dignified way to leave the U.S. and will allow illegal aliens to avoid being encountered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)," the department said in a previous press release. "Illegal aliens submitting their intent to voluntarily self-deport in CBP Home will also be deprioritized for detention and removal ahead of their departure as long as they demonstrate they are making meaningful strides in completing that departure," the DHS continued. Gallego on Monday replied to some X users who commented on his alternative proposal. "Let me get this straight: you’re telling people who are following the legal path to citizenship that you want illegal immigrants to pay $5,000 to skip the line—even though they broke the law. Got it," one user said in response to the proposal. "Work visa is not [citizenship]," Gallego replied.

Breitbart [5/5/2025 3:55 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is pushing amnesty for millions of illegal aliens in the United States in response to President Donald Trump’s newly announced self-deportation program. On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the launch of a program that will provide illegal aliens with a $1,000 stipend after they have proven to federal officials that they self-deported from the United States using the CBP Home mobile app. In response, Gallego suggested he opposed self-deportations and instead offered an amnesty plan that would keep eligible illegal aliens on renewable work visas indefinitely — flooding the American labor market with millions of newly legalized foreign workers.

Breitbart [5/5/2025 1:42 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports a plan from President Donald Trump to pay illegal aliens to self-deport from the United States is a policy that has proven successful in cutting illegal immigration in countries such as Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. On Monday, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a plan that will provide illegal aliens who self-deport from the United States using the CBP Home mobile app a $1,000 stipend only after they have returned to their home country. “Even with the cost of the stipend, it is projected that the use of CBP Home will decrease the costs of a deportation by around 70 percent,” a DHS press release stated. “Currently, the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien is $17,121.” Such a policy is already in place in several European countries, including Germany, which was inundated by illegal immigration under former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Late last year, the German government revealed that the policy had ensured that more than 8,000 migrants had returned to their home countries in 10 months.

The Wall Street Journal [5/5/2025 5:23 PM, Robert Barba and Natalie Andrews, 646K] reports President Trump is calling for Alcatraz, one of the most storied prisons in American history and a top tourist attraction in San Francisco, to start a new chapter of detention. The president directed the Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security to reopen Alcatraz “to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders,” he said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday night. In calling for the prison’s return, Trump said the U.S. has been plagued by vicious and violent crime, evoking much of the criticism he has aimed at California and San Francisco, specifically. “When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm,” Trump said in the social-media post. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be.” Speaking in the Oval Office Monday, Trump said that reopening the former prison ties to his campaign promise to lower violent crime in the country. “Our country needs law and order and Alcatraz is, I would say, the ultimate,” Trump said. The Blaze [5/5/2025 9:09 AM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1668K] reports Trump announced Sunday evening that he would direct the Bureau of Prisons, along with the FBI and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, to "reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.” "For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.” "No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets," added the president. Although first the home of an Army fort — boasting 11 cannons in 1854 and 100 more by the following decade — Alcatraz Island was recognized early on as an ideal place to lock up unsavory characters. It was surrounded by cold water and swift currents and out of earshot of polite society. Alcatraz’s days as a prison island effectively began in December 1859 with the arrival of the first permanent garrison. The National Park Service indicated that 11 soldiers were initially imprisoned in the basement of the fortified gateway blocking the entrance road. This basement and other structures were soon filled to capacity, warranting the construction of additional prison facilities. A Bureau of Prisons spokesman said in a statement to the Associated Press that the agency will "comply with all presidential orders.” Trump has been trying in recent months to offshore criminals, both foreign and domestic. Shortly after taking office, the president directed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to accommodate roughly 30,000 inmates "for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs identified by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.” Federal judges have so far hindered these efforts, ruling that the administration must grant deportees due process. Restoring the prison on Alcatraz might be one way to get criminal noncitizens offshore without having to deal with activist district court judges. Telemundo [5/5/2025 3:01 PM, Staff, 2454K] reports border czar Tom Homan said of President Donald Trump’s plan to reopen Alcatraz prison that the United States needs more "detention beds" for undocumented immigrants. On Sunday, Trump wrote on social media that he wanted federal law enforcement agencies to work on restoring Alcatraz, now a museum, into a functioning maximum-security prison. Homan also said that “there are ongoing discussions with countries” other than El Salvador that could take migrants deported from the United States, but declined to say how many other nations might be interested. When asked about the Trump administration’s announcement to give migrants $1,000 plus travel assistance to self-deport and return to their home countries, Homan said, "I think we’ll see some movement." He also stated that migrants were "starting to get the message" that self-deportation may be a good option. For his part, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons said he has ordered an "immediate assessment" to determine how to renovate Alcatraz, the infamous former maximum-security penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco that has not been a prison since 1963.

ABC News [5/5/2025 1:46 PM, Luke Barr, 34586K] Video HERE reports the new director of the federal Bureau of Prisons said the agency will "vigorously" pursue "all avenues to support and implement" the president’s agenda after President Donald Trump said he was wanted to reopen Alcatraz as a "substantially enlarged and rebuilt" prison. Over the weekend, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was directing the Bureau of Prisons, along with the Department of Justice, FBI and DHS to reopen the facility. "The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the President’s agenda," said BOP Director William K. Marshall III, who was sworn in last month. "I have ordered an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps. USP Alcatraz has a rich history. We look forward to restoring this powerful symbol of law, order, and justice. We will be actively working with our law enforcement and other federal partners to reinstate this very important mission. "Just an idea I had,” Trump told reporters Sunday night when asked what prompted his proposal. “And I guess because so many of these radicalized judges, they want to have trials for every single, think of it, every single person that’s in our country illegally, they came in illegally. That would mean millions of trials, and it’s just so ridiculous what’s happening." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [5/5/2025 5:00 PM, Brett Samuels, 12829K] reports President Trump’s idea to reopen Alcatraz as a functioning prison is a reflection of his political instincts and personal tastes, even as it is a long shot to come to fruition. Alcatraz, the island located off the coast of San Francisco, was closed as a prison in 1963 and has since been turned into a public museum. The excessive cost to operate Alcatraz was the driving factor in its closure as a prison, according to the Bureau of Prisons. Trump’s suggestion that it could once again be a penitentiary for hardened criminals highlights both his efforts to project a tough on crime image and his fondness for cultural symbols of past generations. "Well, I guess I was supposed to be a moviemaker," Trump quipped when asked Monday how he came up with the idea to reopen Alcatraz as a prison. "I think it represents something," Trump told reporters. "Right now, it’s a big hulk that’s sitting there rusting and rotting. … It sort of represents something that’s both horrible and beautiful, and strong and miserable. Weak. It’s got a lot of qualities that are interesting.” The president first raised the idea in a Truth Social post Sunday, saying he was directing the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice and other agencies to "reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt" prison at Alcatraz. The facility, he mused, would house "America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders." Trump has also indicated the expanded space would be needed if all the individuals his administration is attempting to deport require a trial. William Marshall III, the director of the Bureau of Prisons, said in a statement Monday that he had ordered "an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps" as it related to Trump’s proposal. "USP Alcatraz has a rich history. We look forward to restoring this powerful symbol of law, order, and justice," Marshall said in a statement. "We will be actively working with our law enforcement and other federal partners to reinstate this very important mission.” But experts and local officials said such a project is unrealistic for a variety of reasons. "I think that this is a great idea from President Trump," Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said on Fox News. "He also mentioned … that this is symbolism, just like Guantanamo Bay. Historically, Alcatraz was used to house the worst of the worst, and that’s exactly what we’re doing at Guantanamo Bay and could potentially do at Alcatraz as well.”

DailySignal [5/5/2025 4:36 PM, Virginia Allen, 495K] reports President Donald Trump wants to reopen Alcatraz, a long-closed former prison on a small island off the coast of San Francisco. As the Trump administration steps up its efforts to secure the border and deport illegal aliens, especially criminal illegal aliens, the president has ordered the Bureau of Prisons and several other departments to work together to reopen the famed prison. "Well, we need detention beds," border czar Tom Homan said Monday when asked about Trump’s plan for the prison, adding that the use of Alcatraz to detain arrested illegal aliens "should be on the table."

Wall Street Journal [5/5/2025 11:00 PM, Jim Carlton and Sara Randazzo, 646K] reports to some in this city, turning Alcatraz back into a prison would be a crime. “The Rock” closed 62 years ago, and San Francisco has channeled the public’s macabre fascination with life inside the notorious prison to turn it into one of the city’s top tourist attractions. Visitors can wander through the Gardens of Alcatraz, peruse the Big Lockup Exhibit, or take a night tour where one can “enjoy the beauty of a sunset silhouetting the Golden Gate Bridge” as well as “experience a cell door demonstration.” Over the years, Boy Scouts have clamored to hold overnight campouts in the infamous isolation cells of D Block. Athletes compete in prison-themed events, including a canoe race circling the island and the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. Calling the prison a “symbol of law and order,” Trump on Sunday said he is directing the Bureau of Prisons and other federal agencies to rebuild Alcatraz to house “America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.” San Francisco boosters aren’t keen on the idea and visitors aren’t so sure, either. Trump said reopening Alcatraz ties to his campaign promise to lower violent crime. His pitch harks back to the prison’s 1930s origins, when it opened to deal with “the most incorrigible inmates in federal prisons,” according to a government history. It operated as a maximum-security facility for nearly three decades, closing in 1963 because of millions of dollars in needed repairs and the expense of hauling all supplies, including fresh water, to the facility by boat.

Los Angeles Times [5/5/2025 1:28 PM, Anita Chabria, 13342K] reports President Trump posted Sunday on his Truth Social platform that he’s ordered various government agencies to reopen Alcatraz to serve as a symbol of law, order and justice. "For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering," he wrote. As he is a 34-count felon himself, it’s strange that the president does not seem to believe in rehabilitation or second chances. And it’s easy, as many quickly did, to write off this push to spruce up and fill up America’s most notorious prison-turned-national park as just bloviating or distraction. But like the sharks that circle that island in the Bay, the real danger of the idea lurks beneath the surface. Trump in recent weeks has moved to undo years of criminal justice reform. He is making changes that increase police power, signaling a push to refill federal prisons and detention centers with Black and brown people and curbing the ability of those impacted to seek redress in courts. None of that is about justice or safety — most violent crime rates are actually declining, despite what the president would like us to believe. It’s about empowering authorities to act without fear of consequence, and undoing the changes in culture and law set in motion by the killing of George Floyd. The real-time results of those moves can already be seen in Los Angeles. My colleagues Brittny Mejia , James Queally and Keri Blakinger reported last week that the office of Trump’s newly appointed U.S. attorney for Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, made the extraordinary move of offering a plea deal to a sheriff’s deputy — who had already been found guilty by a jury of using excessive force. Yes, he is asking a judge to throw out a jury’s decision. The idea that the new U.S. attorney would basically tell a jury to stuff it isn’t just arrogant. It’s alarming. It sends the message that if the people want to hold local authorities accountable for brutality, the federal authorities will simply override them. This is what Trump promised law enforcement during his campaign, and he is delivering. Do you remember in 2017 when, to cheers, he requested officers "don’t be too nice" when making arrests? The case in question feels spot-on for Trump’s plea. The incident that landed former Deputy Trevor Kirk in court stemmed from an arrest at a Lancaster grocery store in June 2023. Responding to a possible robbery call, Kirk grabbed a Black woman who matched the description of a suspect, threw her face-first to the ground while she filmed him and pepper-sprayed her. The woman was later treated for blunt force trauma to her head, and was never charged with a crime. The case was investigated by the FBI, and in April, Kirk was convicted of one felony count of deprivation of rights under color of law. The judge has yet to sentence him, but Kirk could face up to 10 years in prison. Unless the judge accepts the dubious plea deal, in which case Kirk would plead guilty to a misdemeanor, which could result in probation rather than time behind bars. It would also mean Kirk would not be prevented from working in law enforcement again.

NewsMax [5/5/2025 2:04 PM, Theodore Bunker, 4998K] reports the Trump administration has begun diplomatic talks with several nations asking them to accept deported migrants who are not citizens of their countries — similar to the deal the U.S. made with El Salvador. Multiple South and Central American countries have reached agreements with the U.S. to accept and detain deportees who are not citizens of their countries, including El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama. CBS News reports that the administration is looking outside the Americas for additional partnerships, entering into discussions with several European nations and some in Africa, including Angola, Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Libya, and Rwanda. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a recent Cabinet meeting that the administration is "actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries." "We are working with other countries to say, ‘We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries,’" he said. "‘Would you do that, as a favor to us? And the farther away from America, the better.’” The report comes after news broke that the Department of Homeland Security plans to offer immigrants up to $1,000 to leave the U.S. voluntarily. "If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest," said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a statement.

Breitbart [5/5/2025 6:34 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2923K] reports the Department of Justice (DOJ) is pressuring sanctuary cities and states to end their obstruction of federal immigration law. As the administration of President Donald Trump continues to ramp up its policy of mass deportations of criminal illegals, the DOJ is also moving to pressure sanctuary cities in deep-blue Democrat states to stop their obstruction of immigration enforcement. On May 1, for instance, the DOJ filed a complaint against Illinois for encroaching on federal immigration authority. "This Department of Justice is committed to protecting American workers, employers, and enforcing federal immigration law," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. "Any state that incentivizes illegal immigration and makes it harder for federal authorities to do their job will face legal consequences from this Administration.” The DOJ also launched a probe into Minnesota’s Hennepin County Attorney’s Office for its policy of taking race into consideration when striking plea deals with criminal defendants. In a letter dated May 2, Attorney General Bondi and Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon told Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty they will investigate if her office "engaged in a pattern of practice of depriving persons of rights, privileges or immunities secured or protect by the Constitution or laws of the United States.” The Soros-backed Moriarty has fostered a policy urging prosecutors to consider race when formulating plea offers, stating that "racial identity… should be part of the overall analysis" and that prosecutors "should be identifying and addressing racial disparities at decision points, as appropriate.”

CNN [5/5/2025 6:31 PM, Katelyn Polantz, 22131K] reports the Trump administration doubled down Monday on how it is viewing Venezuelan detainees in the US that could be subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act, telling a federal judge in Pennsylvania one detainee isn’t designated to be sent to a brutal Salvadoran prison under the wartime authority at this time but the administration could move quickly if it wanted. Justice Department lawyer Michael Velchik argued the detainee’s status should be enough to keep a judge out of the matter at a hearing Monday in the federal court in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Yet he refused to say whether the detainee’s status could change if the administration believes that they are affiliated with the gang Tren de Aragua. The hearing highlighted how quickly the Trump administration has moved in its hardline approach to undocumented immigrants, and how little time it has given detainees it believes are members of Tren de Aragua before moving them to other detention centers and putting them on planes. Court cases challenging the practices, including the hearing on Monday, have slowed down some deportations to the Salvadoran prison CECOT, and raised doubts over the Trump administration’s willingness to give migrants due process. "Is there any possibility even in the future, even in the slightest," that the federal authorities wouldn’t change the detainee’s designation to make him what they say is an alien enemy who could be sent to the Salvadoran prison, federal Judge Stephanie Haines of the Western District of Pennsylvania asked. "I’m not aware of any intent to do so," Velchik said in the hourlong court hearing Monday. "I wouldn’t want to concrete that.” The argument is the latest attempt by the Justice Department to defend Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, which had never before been used outside of major wars. The Pennsylvania court hearing on Monday adds to a list of eight cases where judges are considering challenges from detained Venezuelan men who argue they shouldn’t be sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador, especially without immigration proceedings before they are loaded onto planes. How Haines rules is likely to be notable, because she is both a Trump appointee to the federal bench, and she agreed to look at the Alien Enemies Act for a detainee who was held in Pennsylvania last month as well as others who pass through an immigration detention hub in central Pennsylvania.

CBS News [5/5/2025 10:50 AM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51661K] reports the Trump administration has approached far-flung countries to aid its mass deportation effort, asking nations like Angola and Equatorial Guinea to accept migrants who are not their citizens, according to internal federal government documents obtained by CBS News. The talks are part of an intense diplomatic campaign by the Trump administration to convince as many nations as possible — including those with controversial human rights records — to receive deportees from the U.S., such as migrants whose home countries won’t take them back. The administration has already brokered agreements with several Latin American countries willing to accept migrants who are not their own. In February, the U.S. deported hundreds of African and Asian migrants to Costa Rica and Panama. In March, the Trump administration sent nearly 300 Venezuelans accused of being gang members to El Salvador, which imprisoned them at an infamous mega-prison. Guatemala has also agreed to take in third country deportees from the U.S. The Mexican government, under a deal that preceded Mr. Trump’s second term, has been receiving migrants from other Latin American countries, like Venezuela, caught crossing the U.S. southern border illegally. But behind the scenes, the Trump administration has been negotiating with countries outside of the Western Hemisphere to send migrants thousands of miles away, across the Atlantic Ocean, to places in Africa and Europe. The Eastern Hemisphere countries that the Trump administration has identified as places that could potentially accept deportations of third country nationals include Angola, Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Libya, Moldova and Rwanda, according to the internal government documents and officials. The U.S. has yet to announce any formal deals with these nations. Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security referred questions about the deportation negotiations, and how the potential agreements would work, to the Department of State, which did not immediately comment on CBS News’ reporting. The embassies of Angola, Benin, Eswatini, Libya, Moldova and Rwanda did not respond to requests for comment. A representative for the embassy of Equatorial Guinea said the "Embassy is not aware of any such conversations going on between the two governments.”

Daily Caller [5/5/2025 11:10 PM, Hailey Gomez, 1082K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday on “Hannity” that it’s “entirely appropriate” for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her comments to illegal migrants. During a Friday town hall in Jackson Heights, Queens, Ocasio-Cortez taunted border czar Tom Homan to “come” for her, escalating public tensions that began in February. Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Noem whether the congresswoman’s prior remarks could be considered “aiding and abetting” and whether the DOJ should “look into this situation.” “I think the Department of Justice absolutely should look into this situation,” Noem said. “We’ve seen not just those that serve in public office be willing to break the law to facilitate the invasion that has happened and allow criminals to stay here. We’ve also seen judges take radical action to help protect these criminals. It’s time that we stand for what’s right.” On Feb. 12, Ocasio-Cortez hosted a virtual event on her Facebook page titled “Know Your Rights With ICE,” where she advised illegal migrants how to respond to encounters with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at home or in the workplace. Days after the event, Homan issued a warning to Ocasio-Cortez, telling Fox News he had begun working with the DOJ to determine whether her webinar obstructed the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. Since the initial exchange in February, the two have called out one another publicly, with Ocasio-Cortez eventually asking the DOJ if she was under investigation. “The American people are sick of these people abusing our system to try to promote an agenda. Remember, the Democrats are using fear to control people. They’re out there motivating people by fear, and they’re standing alongside known terrorists in order to endanger our future,” Noem said. “So I think it’s entirely appropriate that the Department of Justice look into these situations.” Democrats have repeatedly pushed back against Noem’s and Homan’s efforts to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportations. Amid the ongoing legal battle surrounding Kilmar Armando Abrego-Garcia—an illegal migrant allegedly tied to MS-13 — some Democrats have even taken taxpayer-funded trips to El Salvador to advocate for his return to the U.S. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze [5/5/2025 2:30 PM, Staff, 1668K] reports rogue judges and politicians have been hindering the Trump administration from deporting illegal aliens, and in a recent conversation with a reporter, border czar Tom Homan wasn’t shy about how they may be planning to fight back. “The president signed an executive order just this week threatening to defund sanctuary cities for their policies. Why not just arrest the leaders who are harboring and shielding illegal aliens, actually, terrorists, from deportation?” the reporter asked Homan. “Wait till you see what’s coming,” Homan responded, as a smug smile broke out across his face. BlazeTV contributor Jaco Booyens can attest to the very real trouble these judges and politicians are now in. “Exactly 24 hours ago today, I was sitting in front of Secretary Kristi Noem in a conference room, where she said something very similar, where you have to read between the lines,” Booyens explains. “Remember, Tom answers up to Secretary Noem.”

Daily Signal [5/5/2025 8:00 AM, Rachel Greszler, 495K] reports that, between 2022 and 2024, the U.S. saw a record 43% rise in "sheltered homelessness"—staying in some sort of emergency shelter, as opposed to living on the street. That is shocking enough on its own, but according to a new study, a contemporaneous spike in asylum seekers accounted for a stunning 60% of that increase. "Asylum seekers"—as referenced in the study—are all recent immigrants seeking residence in the U.S., regardless of their legal status. Unsheltered homelessness has been on the rise since 2015, but sheltered homelessness had declined by 12% from 2007 to 2022 before its sudden 43% spike between 2022 and 2024. The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now. According to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the total homeless population in the U.S. increased by about 189,000 from 2022 to 2024 (from about 582,000 to about 771,000). Most of that increase came from a 149,000 spike in the sheltered homeless population (from about 348,000 to about 497,000). Of that roughly 149,000 increase, almost 93,000 were asylum seekers. Three-quarters of that rise in sheltered homelessness occurred in four "sanctuary" areas representing just 5% of the population—New York City, Chicago, Denver, and Massachusetts (primarily suburban Boston). This concentration of the sheltered homeless population increase suggests that the surge was due both to changes in federal immigration policies and to differences in state and local governments’ accommodations for those populations. New York City, which has a right-to-shelter law regardless of immigration status, experienced the largest number of newly sheltered homeless individuals, including an estimated 67,000 asylum seekers. HUD’s study points to anecdotal evidence of migrants’ preferences to live in New York City, as well as to media reports finding that most asylum seekers initially bused to New Jersey promptly relocated to New York City. Chicago experienced a similar increase. While it initially housed a comparatively small number of homeless individuals, its sheltered homeless population increased more than sixfold over just two years, from about 2,600 in 2022 to 17,200 in 2024. Fully 94% of that increase came from asylum seekers. Chicago advertises itself as a "Welcoming City"—what’s more commonly known as a "sanctuary city." It doesn’t allow its police department to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and it makes "all services and benefits provided by the city… available to all Chicagoans, regardless of immigration status." Those services and benefits include a "CityKey" government-issued ID card to unlock access to city services and special discounts, as well as extended housing in city shelters.

New York Post [5/5/2025 6:43 AM, Emily Crane, 54903K] reports CNN is being mocked for sympathetically asking a Mexican cartel gangbanger how he felt about President Trump branding them as terrorists — just for him to say he respects the commander in chief. The lefty outlet aired the stunning interview with the masked Sinaloa Cartel gangster on Saturday after Trump vowed to clamp down on the murderous drug trafficking group and the stream of fentanyl currently pouring into the US. "According to the Trump Administration, you are a terrorist … What do you make of that?" CNN’s Isobel Yeung asked the cartel member. The gangster — who heavily shielded his identity with a face covering, sunglasses and even latex gloves — responded: "Well, the situation is ugly but we have to eat.” The reporter, who noted the segment was filmed in a secret Mexican hideout, then pressed the gangster on what he would say to Trump — with an unexpected response. "My respect. According to him, he’s looking out for his people.," the cartel member replied. "But the problem is the consumers are in the United States If there weren’t any consumers we would stop.” The outlet was immediately ridiculed on social media with many accusing the reporter of trying to bait the gangbanger into giving a Trump-bashing answer. "CNN is in full meltdown mode. All their usual smear tactics have failed—again. So what’s their next brilliant move? Interviewing the freaking Sinaloa Cartel," one person posted on X. "They were clearly hoping for a "Trump is evil" soundbite. Instead? Total backfire.” "Not the answer the Communist News Network wanted," another X user said mockingly. Others, meanwhile, brutally ripped the network for trying to paint the cartel in a sympathetic light. "So CNN is concerned about hurting the cartel’s feelings? This isn’t the flex they think it is. It’s offensive to Americans," one person tweeted. "Unbelievably, CNN gives Sinaloa cartel member a chance to throw a pity party about being labeled a terrorist, but the cartel member tells them President Trump is just rightly ‘looking after his people’," one user wrote.

Roll Call [5/5/2025 6:26 AM, Niels Lesniewski, 503K] reports lawmakers will be discussing and debating budgets, appropriations and reconciliation this week — and the Senate may open a debate on regulating digital assets known as stablecoins. When it comes to the budgeting matters, it’s going to be a complicated week on Capitol Hill. Friday’s release of a "skinny"version of President Donald Trump’s budget request serves a prelude to fiscal 2026 appropriations hearings this week, all while House Republicans are continuing markups of a fiscal 2025 budget reconciliation bill. And some of the funding outlined in Trump’s budget blueprint would actually come through that reconciliation process. That’s especially true for the Department of Homeland Security. House Appropriations subcommittees are scheduled to hear testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Tuesday morning. Noem is also scheduled to appear before Senate appropriators on Thursday. Some of the recommended terminations and reductions in the budget request drew skepticism even from Republicans, including Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins of Maine. For instance, the budget proposes eliminating the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Education Department’s outreach programs collectively known as TRIO. "Based on my initial review … I have serious objections to the proposed freeze in our defense funding given the security challenges we face and to the proposed funding cuts to — and in some cases elimination of — programs like LIHEAP, TRIO, and those that support biomedical research," Collins said in a statement. "Ultimately, it is Congress that holds the power of the purse.” Appropriators have other budget review hearings scheduled this week, including with the secretaries of Agriculture and Energy. Meanwhile, House authorizing committees are continuing to hold markups of legislation that they intend to combine into the sweeping reconciliation bill that would implement much of the shared Republican agenda. The House Natural Resources Committee meets Tuesday to begin marking up its legislative recommendations. "We know the stakes are incredibly high, and we are committed to getting this done," Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures." "And this one ‘big, beautiful bill,’ it includes so many important provisions, unleashing American energy independence, continuation of the historic Trump tax cuts, and also adding no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, as well as lifting the state and local tax, the SALT deduction for high-tax states like New York … these are commitments President Trump and Republicans made, and we are committed to getting it done.” Stefanik, whose name was withdrawn from consideration to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has returned to the House leadership table as chair of leadership.

NewsNation [5/5/2025 5:35 PM, Julian Resendiz, 6866K] reports migrant services nonprofits are resorting to donations and litigation as federal funding cuts force them to furlough workers and find alternative sources of funding. The cuts come as the Trump administration prioritizes border security and deportations over asylum. The tactic has dramatically cut down on new arrivals at the Southwest border but leaves millions of people with cases pending in U.S. immigration court in need of legal assistance. That doesn’t just translate to lawyers or social workers not getting a paycheck, but also to migrants with legitimate asylum claims or with cause to avoid deportation having to navigate alone an immigration system Lopez says can be as complicated as the U.S. Tax Code. Pleas from advocates and protests against the Trump administration’s immigration policies from activists are on the rise, as evidenced by marches on May 1 and May 3 in many U.S. cities.

Reuters [5/5/2025 8:56 PM, Blake Brittain, 41523K] reports a lawyer who represented a government whistleblower in a case that led to U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment during his first term sued the Trump administration on Monday for revoking his U.S. security clearance, calling it "unconstitutional retaliation.” Lawyer Mark Zaid said in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., that the administration’s March decision to pull his clearance, which allows access to certain classified U.S. government information, was retribution for representing former U.S. Department of Homeland Security intelligence chief Brian Murphy. Murphy filed a whistleblower complaint in 2019 over Trump’s alleged pressuring of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate then-U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s activities in Ukraine. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump later that year for allegedly misusing his power against Biden, his political rival, in pressuring Ukraine. Trump was later acquitted of the impeachment charges by the Senate. Zaid’s lawsuit called the Trump administration’s decision to rescind his security clearance a "dangerous, unconstitutional retaliation by the President of the United States against his perceived political enemies" that "eschews any semblance of due process.” Trump called Zaid a "sleazeball" at a Louisiana rally in 2019 and told reporters that he was a "disgrace" who "should be sued," according to the lawsuit. Trump rescinded Zaid’s security clearance along with the security clearances of former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other political foes. The lawsuit called the revocation "a bald-faced attack on a sacred constitutional guarantee: the right to petition the court or federal agencies on behalf of clients.”

Reported similarly:
The Hill [5/5/2025 6:10 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12829K]

Federal News Network [5/5/2025 6:38 PM, Justin Doubleday, 1089K] reports the National Labor Relations Board whistleblower who flagged a possible data breach by DOGE is encouraging federal workers to speak up if they notice something suspicious or untoward. Daniel Berulis, an IT specialist at the NLRB, submitted a protected whistleblower disclosure to Congress last month. Berulis documented evidence that Department of Government Efficiency engineers may have compromised sensitive data at the NLRB. He also submitted documentation showing users in Russia were attempting to use newly created DOGE accounts to access NLRB data. Andrew Bakaj, Berulis’s lawyer, said the matter is now being reviewed. "We have been in touch with the relevant oversight authorities, and I do understand that there is an investigation, at least one, but I can’t get into the specifics of that," Bakaj told Federal News Network. "But we’re looking to cooperate with whoever wants to get to the bottom of what may or may not have happened.” In addition to shining a light on what happened at the NLRB, Berulis wanted to go public with his story to encourage other federal employees to blow the whistle on potential wrongdoing. In a recent Reddit post, Berulis laid out his reasoning to "remind every public servant that speaking up matters and you’re not alone.” Federal IT workers like Berulis are in a particularly unique position, as DOGE’s access to internal data at multiple agencies has sparked concerns and calls for oversight. Berulis documented multiple anomalies, such as missing log records and spikes in outgoing data, that occurred after DOGE engineers arrived at NLRB headquarters in March. He and leadership at the NLRB chief information officer’s office decided to seek assistance in investigating the data breach from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. But they were advised to "drop" the request to CISA, according to Berulis’s disclosure. He then moved forward with a protected disclosure to Congress. House Democrats are now demanding answers from the NLRB about the potential data breach. Democrats on the Oversight and Accountability Committee say the incident may have violated both privacy law and federal cybersecurity statutes. Bakaj noted whistleblowers do not have to conduct their own, extensive investigation. He pointed to how Berulis documented potential red flags in the course of his normal duties. He only moved forward with a disclosure to Congress after his concerns were not addressed internally.

Bloomberg [5/5/2025 1:37 PM, Jason Leopold, 27782K]
reports the Trump administration is “decommissioning” a Department of Justice unit that has long been at the center of dismantling transnational organized crime networks, drug cartels and human trafficking rings. Leaders of the unit, called the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, or OCDETF, were told they had until Sept. 30 to shut down operations, people familiar with the matter said. The people asked not to be identified, citing concerns over potential retribution. An email sent last Monday by a DOJ budget analyst to a counterpart at OCDETF said that the unit’s fiscal year 2026 budget would be “zeroed out” and the independent office dissolved, according to records obtained by Bloomberg News in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and the people familiar with the matter. A reason wasn’t specified in the documents and it’s unclear who was responsible for making the decision. In response to questions, a DOJ official provided a one-sentence statement: “This Department of Justice will continue our law enforcement efforts against transnational criminal organizations in order to make America safe again.” The news comes as the Trump administration is issuing broad cuts across the entire federal government, with many departments from the Environmental Protection Agency to Housing and Urban Development seeing their budgets dramatically reduced. On Friday, the White House released the administration’s budget request for 2026. It proposed cuts across the federal government totaling $163 billion. The decision to unwind the unit completely came as a shock to the prosecutors, agents and staff who work for the task forces, the people familiar with the matter said. There are thousands of active investigations, and it is unclear whether those probes will be shut down or handed over to other agencies.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [5/5/2025 1:49 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 4998K]

CBS News [5/5/2025 10:14 PM, Lilia Luciano, Joe Walsh, 51661K] reports a Columbia student activist and green card holder who was detained when he went for a citizenship interview last month said President Trump "will not silence me," in an interview with CBS News from Vermont on Monday. Mohsen Mahdawi’s comments marked his first network interview since a judge ordered his release last week — a move Mahdawi called a "light of hope" to other student activists who have been detained, like Columbia’s Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University’s Rumeysa Ozturk Shortly after Mahdawi’s release, he addressed a group of supporters, saying of Mr. Trump and his Cabinet, "I am not afraid of you." Mahdawi told CBS News he addressed Mr. Trump directly because "there is this philosophy of intimidation, of punitive justice … so I wanted to share to them that you can do whatever you want. You will not silence me." "I am a peacemaker. And when they arrested me, that is a red flag to everybody," Mahdawi also said. Mahdawi was in custody for about two weeks. He told CBS News he arrived for his citizenship appointment in Vermont in mid-April, took a citizenship test and signed a document that said he is willing to pledge allegiance to the Constitution. Toward the end of that process, he said immigration agents entered the office and detained him. Mahdawi said he does not know why they waited, instead of taking him into custody as soon as he arrived. "What I know is this is a betrayal to the Constitution of this country and to the process," Mahdawi said. "I’ve done everything the right way. I’ve gone through the process. … I’ve applied the right way. I showed up for my interview. I shared and answered all of the questions honestly. And I said I am willing to defend and protect the Constitution of this country." Mahdawi, who helped lead Columbia’s protests against the Israel-Hamas war starting in 2023, was detained under a rarely used law allowing the government to revoke visas for people the Secretary of State believes could pose "adverse foreign policy consequences." Mahdawi said he found the Trump administration’s rationale for detaining him "laughable." "A person who has been vocally advocating for justice and peace is undermining U.S. policy?," he said to CBS News on Monday.

Politico [5/5/2025 10:00 AM, Bianca Quilantan, 2100K] reports President Donald Trump on Friday more definitively said his administration would yank Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, adding more fuel to escalate his fight with the nation’s oldest institution of higher education. “We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “It’s what they deserve!” “In our response, the University reiterated our steadfast commitment to sponsor the visas that facilitate our international students’ study at Harvard,” Weenick wrote. “Additionally, we made clear that Harvard does not seek to withdraw from SEVP.”

New York Times [5/5/2025 6:50 PM, Michael C. Bender and Alan Blinder, 145325K] reports the Trump administration on Monday sought to force Harvard University back to the negotiating table by informing the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college that it would not be eligible for any new federal grants. That decision was relayed in a contentious letter to Alan M. Garber, the president of Harvard, from Linda McMahon, the education secretary, who blasted the school for “disastrous mismanagement.” “This letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek grants from the federal government, since none will be provided,” Ms. McMahon wrote in the letter. It was the first significant response from the administration since Harvard sued to challenge the government’s decision to cut billions of dollars in research funding after the university defied demands for intrusive oversight. An Education Department official who briefed reporters about the letter before it was released said that Harvard’s eligibility for research grants depended on its ability to first address concerns about antisemitism on campus, policies that consider a student’s race, and complaints from the administration that the university has abandoned its pursuit of “academic excellence” while employing relatively few conservative faculty members. In a statement on Monday night, a Harvard spokesperson said the letter showed the administration “doubling down on demands that would impose unprecedented and improper control over Harvard University and would have chilling implications for higher education.” The statement suggested it would be illegal to withhold funds in the manner Ms. McMahon described. “Harvard will continue to comply with the law, promote and encourage respect for viewpoint diversity, and combat antisemitism in our community,” the statement said. “Harvard will also continue to defend against illegal government overreach aimed at stifling research and innovation that make Americans safer and more secure.” The statement maintained Harvard’s toughened posture toward the administration and came days after the university said there was “no legal basis” behind President Trump’s threat to revoke its tax-exempt status.

Wall Street Journal [5/5/2025 5:22 PM, Liz Essley Whyte and Douglas Belkin, 646K] reports the Trump administration has presented Columbia University with a proposal for a consent decree, a form of federal oversight that would give a judge responsibility for ensuring Columbia complies with the agreement, according to people familiar with the matter. Columbia leaders are negotiating with the government and weighing what to do, the people said. The university’s board is undecided on whether to accept a consent decree, they said. For a consent decree to take effect, Columbia would have to agree to enter it. The government has told the school that it can either negotiate and accept a consent decree, or face a court battle that could end up with the school facing more public scrutiny and in the end the same kind of legal agreement to make changes, perhaps with worse terms, they said. With a consent decree, the government is seeking viewpoint diversity among Columbia’s faculty and that the school not consider race in admissions, the people said. A Columbia spokesperson said: “This story is based entirely on hearsay and does not hold merit.” She pointed to a statement issued last month from acting university president Claire Shipman, who said that Columbia would reject any agreement that would require relinquishing its independence. A consent decree would be a major escalation of how the federal government normally resolves education-related civil-rights issues. Typically after federal lawyers investigate and find evidence that civil rights were violated, schools enter voluntary agreements to change their practices. The federal government has little ability to enforce such agreements. The Biden administration entered into such voluntary agreements over antisemitism concerns with Brown University and Rutgers.

Blaze [5/5/2025 10:15 AM, Cortney Weil, 1668K] reports a group of violent inmates, most of whom are in the U.S. illegally, reportedly went on a stabbing spree inside a Virginia prison, leaving multiple corrections officers injured. Around 9:45 Friday morning, six inmates at Wallens Ridge State Prison, a super-max facility in Big Stone Gap in the southwestern region of the state, unleashed the attack on three prison guards, the Virginia Department of Corrections said. The agency described the incident as "premeditated.” ‘ In all, five guards are believed to have been injured in the attack: three stabbing victims and two who sustained minor injuries while attempting to intervene. All were taken to an outside medical facility for treatment, but three of them were released the same day. Two others were admitted into the hospital and listed in stable condition. Whether they remain in the hospital as of Monday is unclear. All of the suspects have been locked up for violent offenses, including murder and rape. Five of the six are illegal aliens from El Salvador and confirmed members of MS-13, VADOC said. The sixth suspect is also a confirmed gangster and a murderer but is nevertheless a U.S. citizen and a member of a different gang, Sureño 13. Officials declined to provide further details, citing an ongoing investigation. The Department of Homeland Security and the Virginia Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment from the New York Post.

Axios [5/5/2025 5:19 PM, Nate Rau, 13163K] reports Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said state and federal law enforcement had caused "deep community harm" with a weekend operation that centered on neighborhoods with large Hispanic populations. O’Connell said he spoke briefly over the phone with Gov. Bill Lee following the state and federal operation. He said he "flagged that this seems like a moment of significant tension increase." O’Connell emphasized that Metro Nashville Police Department officers were not involved in the series of about 150 traffic stops in South Nashville neighborhoods with heavy Hispanic populations. Metro legal director Wally Dietz sent a letter to state and federal officials seeking the names and charges against those arrested in the raids. Cato announced a new fund to help Nashville’s immigrant community, especially those affected by the federal operation. The mayor’s office is working to determine whether money in O’Connell’s recently proposed budget could be earmarked for the fund. Metro’s ability to respond to federal sweeps is limited. President Trump has made immigration enforcement a cornerstone of his term, and Republican state leaders have vowed to help.

Axios [5/5/2025 12:19 PM, Staff, 13163K] reports Nashville progressive leaders and immigrant advocacy groups decried a large-scale traffic stop operation over the weekend targeting a heavily Hispanic neighborhood. The coordinated operation between federal and state officers in South Nashville came amid President Trump’s hardline stance on immigration. Nashville leaders have worked to cultivate the city’s reputation as being welcoming to immigrants. Last year, activists and politicians gathered to celebrate the 15th anniversary of voters rejecting a ballot measure to make English the city government’s official language. "Arbitrarily rounding up parents on their way home and workers traveling to their jobs does not make Nashville safer or stronger," Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition executive director Lisa Sherman Luna said in a statement. "Instead it shatters families, erodes trust in law enforcement, and leads to fear, trauma and isolation that weakens the collective fabric of our community." Following the raids, protesters gathered Sunday at the Nashville Department of Homeland Security facility. Nashville police officers were on hand for crowd control during the protest, Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office said in a statement. The Tennessee Highway Patrol collaborated with officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to make about 150 traffic stops in the early morning hours on Sunday, according to a state spokesperson.

The Center Square [5/5/2025 9:25 PM, Kim Jarrett, 473K] reports Tennessee is more than 1,000 miles from the Mexican border yet now in the crosshairs of the immigration debate. Over the weekend, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement participated in a Nashville operation in what they called areas of reported gang activity. “Protecting the safety and security of our communities remains a top priority for ICE," said Mellissa Harper, director of the Enforcement and Removal Operations field office in New Orleans, in a statement to The Center Square. "As part of our ongoing mission to uphold U.S. immigration laws, our targeted enforcement operations are specifically focused on individuals who threaten public safety or national security. These efforts help ensure that our neighborhoods remain safe and that immigration laws are enforced." The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition said the operation "reeks of racial profiling and unconstitutional discrimination." Last week, the Tennessee Highway Patrol released a video of a traffic stop involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He’s from El Salvador and was deported in March. The Trump administration has said Garcia’s deportation was an administrative error and said Garcia was an MS-13 gang member. Democrats have said Garcia was denied due process. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that the Trump administration should "facilitate" Garcia’s return, siding with a lower court ruling.”The facts are clear: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a violent illegal alien who abuses women and children,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “He had no business being in our country and we are proud to have deported this violent thug. We have now found two petitions for protection against him, in addition to the fact that he entered the country illegally and is a confirmed member of MS-13. Our country is safer with him gone.”

Blaze [5/5/2025 5:30 PM, Staff, 1668K] reports Tennessee state law enforcement has released bodycam footage from a November 2022 traffic stop involving the left’s darling, illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia. While the traffic stop report doesn’t mention anything about human trafficking, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Trisha McLaughlin believes otherwise. "This is textbook human trafficking," McLaughlin said in a segment on Fox News. "I’ll remind viewers that there were eight other individuals in this car that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was driving. They were driving allegedly from Texas to Maryland. That’s a three-day journey, not a single piece of luggage in that vehicle." According to McLaughlin, Abrego Garcia allegedly had "drugs and rolls of cash on him" and in the past was accused by his wife of detaining and abusing her, as well as psychologically abusing her and her children.

Reported similarly:
NewsNation [5/5/2025 1:48 AM, Colleen Guerry and Andy Cordan, 6866K]

Federalist [5/5/2025 7:26 AM, M.D. Kittle, 1033K] reports Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ advice to state workers on how to slow-walk ICE has raised some serious questions about his conduct. But will the far-left governor face criminal charges for his questionable memo putting him at odds with the Trump administration and possibly the enforcement of federal immigration law? Asked about the memo last week, Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan warned state leaders like Evers not to "cross the line.” "I meant what I said. You cannot support what we’re doing, and you can support sanctuary cities if that’s what you want to do. But if you cross that line of impediment or knowingly harboring [and] concealing an illegal alien, that is a felony, and we’ll treat it as such," Homan told a reporter from Gateway Pundit. When asked why federal law enforcement isn’t arresting leaders of sanctuary cities and states shielding violent illegal immigrants, including those on the terrorist watch list, Homan said, "Wait ‘till you see what’s coming." He said the same when asked about Evers’ memo. President Trump last week signed an executive order directing the attorney general and secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions obstructing federal immigration law enforcement and notify each sanctuary jurisdiction of its non-compliance. Sanctuary jurisdictions that do not comply with federal law may lose federal funding. Evers, a two-term Democrat, released a video statement on Friday, calling Homan’s statement a "chilling" threat that "should be of concern to every Wisconsinite and every American who cares about this country and the values [we] hold here.” "These threats represent a concerning trajectory in this country," the governor said. "We now have a federal government that will threaten or arrest an elected official or even everyday American citizens who have broken no laws, committed no crimes and done nothing wrong," the governor said. Actually, we now have a federal government willing to arrest and hold accountable state and local elected officials who, based on evidence, appear to have broken the law — including thumbing their noses at or interfering with federal law enforcement activities. Such is the case of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, who was arrested late last month on charges of interference with a federal law enforcement operation and unlawful concealment of an individual subject to arrest. The leftist judge is accused of helping an illegal immigrant facing battery charges temporarily elude apprehension by federal agents who showed up at the courthouse to arrest the previously-deported man.

Houston Chronicle [5/5/2025 1:39 PM, Jeremy Wallace, 1769K] reports Congress is considering opening up nearly $800 million in reimbursements that could go to Texas for Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security tactics during the Biden administration. While it is a fraction of the $11 billion that Abbott and Republicans from Texas in Congress have been seeking, the money would be a significant boost to the state. The nearly $800 million was worked into the massive spending bill that the U.S. House is building, which would also include tax cuts that President Donald Trump has been pushing Congress to pass as part of what he calls “one big, beautiful bill.” While the language in the legislation allows any state to seek reimbursement for immigration enforcement activities along the border, Texas is the only southern border state with a Republican governor that has spent billions on border enforcement as Abbott has under his Operation Lone Star. Among other things, Abbott used state funding to pay for busing migrants to northern cities, deployed state troopers to the border, put down miles of razor wire and built about 60 miles of non-continuous border wall after Biden had halted federal border wall construction. “It’s time to pay Texas back,” U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Houston Republican who filed legislation earlier this year to pay Texas back for all $11 billion, said in summing up the new version of the GOP spending bill.

AP [5/5/2025 11:48 AM, Sarah Raza, 5269K] reports Dakota State University hasn’t experienced the student protests taking place at other U.S. colleges. Nestled in rural South Dakota, most of the nearly 4,000 students have been focused on their studies or job hunts, avoiding politics and partisan groups. Until now. The university administration decided to award an honorary doctorate to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and invited her to give a commencement speech May 10, bringing politics to the campus. In response, students have planned a rally on graduation day opposing the former South Dakota governor and the Trump administration and expect protestors from across southeast South Dakota to join them. They want to speak out against the federal government’s immigration policies, which are being implemented with Noem’s oversight, on behalf of peers who fear for their legal status. They also are expected to protest Noem’s anti-LGBT actions during her time as governor. Some students and faculty also said they thought the honorary degree was too high an honor to bestow upon her. Among DSU students, many are unsure if they should join the objections or stay quiet to avoid the kind of punishments suffered by students at more outspoken colleges. “The atmosphere is tense,” humanities instructor Daniel Spencer said. “Students are afraid of making their voices heard.” Students studying in its renowned cybersecurity program have traditionally been hesitant to take political stances because they fear potential blowback when they later seek government and private sector jobs. “Many of our students are from rural South Dakota, and there’s a bit of an unwillingness to confront authority,” Professor Emeritus Dale Droge said. “We don’t have very many students in the political sciences or history where they might be thinking about these more civil rights kind of actions.” DSU selected Noem because she was an “unwavering champion of Dakota State” during her time as governor, university spokesperson Andrew Sogn said in a written statement to The Associated Press. Noem, who received a political science degree from South Dakota State University, supported Dakota State’s cybersecurity initiatives and helped secure millions of dollars in funding, cementing the school’s standing as a national cybersecurity leader, Sogn said. “She was asked to share remarks with DSU’s graduates based on her distinguished and ground-breaking career in public service, and her many efforts to support the citizens of the state of South Dakota and the nation,” Sogn said.

Bloomberg Law [5/5/2025 9:33 AM, Bernie Pazanowski, 1085K] reports the Trump administration sued Colorado and several state localities to prevent their sanctuary city laws from being enforced. State and local laws that prevent enforcement of federal immigration law are preempted, the complaint filed Friday in the US District Court for the District of Colorado says. The suit is the latest salvo in President Donald Trump’s campaign against illegal immigration. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order declaring a crisis on the country’s borders.

Axios [5/5/2025 3:15 PM, John Frank, 13163K] reports Colorado is expanding safeguards for people living in the country illegally in what amounts to a poke in the eye for the Trump administration. The new protections will limit the federal authorities’ ability to deport people living in the country unlawfully and likely reinforce the administration’s view that Colorado is a "sanctuary state." The Democratic-led General Assembly sent Colorado Gov. Jared Polis a bill Monday to further shield immigrants from being detained, just days after the Department of Justice sued Colorado and Denver for their immigration policies. The legislation prohibits local authorities and other officials from collecting and sharing data about a person’s immigration status, allowing cooperation only in criminal matters. It blocks arrests in courthouses, jails and prisons, and prevents local officials from detaining a person on behalf of federal immigration authorities. Other language eliminates affidavits regarding citizenship previously needed to obtain a driver’s license and in-state tuition, and allows immigrants to challenge low-level criminal charges if they could make them eligible for deportation. Polis has not committed to signing the legislation, particularly after he took a hard line on immigration in his State of the State address in January.

Telemundo Washington DC [5/5/2025 7:03 AM, Doha Madani, Dennis Romero, 38K] reports a Guatemalan woman who gave birth to a U.S. baby less than a week ago is being held in detention along with her newborn baby as she faces deportation, U.S. officials said. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Sunday that the woman was detained by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents and hospitalized after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border during her eighth month of pregnancy. She gave birth in the hospital under supervision, according to the spokesperson. Medical personnel released her and transferred her to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody while she awaits her court date, the spokesman added. A CBP spokesman said in a separate statement Saturday that the woman "illegally crossed into the United States from Mexico between ports of entry near Tres Bellotas Ranch" in Arizona last week. The site is on federal land just north of the U.S.-Mexico border along a desolate area of the Sonoran Desert, about 116 miles south-southwest of Tucson. Following her hospitalization, the CBP spokesperson indicated that the paperwork was completed and the mother, whose name was not released, was issued a summons to appear before an immigration judge. Once the paperwork was completed, she was given the opportunity to contact an attorney. "This morning, custody of the woman was transferred to ICE’s Office of Enforcement and Removal with an appearance date before an immigration judge," the CBP spokeswoman said Saturday. "The child remains with the mother." An attorney for the woman, Luis Campos, told NBC affiliate KVOA, a Tucson network, on Friday that his client gave birth Wednesday and had been denied access to her during her hospital stay at Tucson Medical Center. A spokesman for the medical center did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday. Reuters reported Saturday that the mother "avoided expedited deportation after the intervention of Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, who the publication said had intervened." "While Governor Hobbs supports border security, she has been clear in her opposition to inhumane immigration enforcement practices," Hobbs spokeswoman Liliana Soto told X on Friday. "The governor will continue to fight to protect the constitutional rights of all Arizonans and keep our communities safe." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [5/5/2025 5:51 AM, Landon Mion, 46189K] reports President Donald Trump said Sunday that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected his offer to send U.S. troops to Mexico to help fight against cartels because she is afraid of them. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said he floated the idea of sending American troops to deal with the Mexican cartels facilitating drug trafficking, and criticized Sheinbaum for refusing his offer. "She’s so afraid of the cartels she can’t walk … And I think she’s a lovely woman. The president of Mexico is a lovely woman, but she is so afraid of the cartels that she can’t even think straight," Trump said. His reaction came after Sheinbaum confirmed that Trump pressured her in a call last month to allow the U.S. military to play a larger role in tackling drug cartels in Mexico. Sheinbaum said she told Trump at the time that Mexico would "never accept" a U.S. military presence. "No, President Trump, our territory is inalienable, sovereignty is inalienable," Sheinbaum claimed to have said. "We can collaborate. We can work together, but with you in your territory and us in ours. We can share information, but we will never accept the presence of the United States Army on our territory.” There has been a larger American military presence at the U.S.-Mexico border after Trump issued an order in January to increase the army’s role in slowing the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. In addition to fighting illegal immigration, Trump said American troops are needed to slow the amount of fentanyl being brought into the U.S. by drug cartels. "They are bad news," Trump said Sunday, referring to the cartels. "If Mexico wanted help with the cartels, we would be honored to go in and do it. I told her that I would be honored to go in and do it. The cartels are trying to destroy our country. They’re evil.” U.S. Northern Command has deployed troops and equipment to the southern border, increased manned surveillance flights to monitor fentanyl trafficking along the border and requested expanded authority for U.S. Special Forces to work closely with Mexican forces conducting operations against cartels. In February, Trump designated many gangs and cartels smuggling drugs into the U.S. as "foreign terrorist organizations," giving law enforcement more resources to take action against the groups.

FOX Business [5/5/2025 10:34 AM, Staff, 10702K] Video: HERE reports National Border Patrol Council VP Art Del Cueto discusses the state of the border under President Donald Trump, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s leadership and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rejecting Trump’s offer to aid against cartels.

New York Times [5/5/2025 4:30 PM, Carol Rosenberg, 145325K] reports American military forces have taken down some of the tents they hurriedly set up on an empty corner of the U.S. naval station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, three months after President Trump ordered preparations to house up to 30,000 migrants at the base. No migrants were ever held in the tents, and no migrant surge has ever occurred. On Monday, the operation was housing just 32 migrants, in buildings that were established years ago. A total of 497 migrants have been held there for just days or weeks, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses the base as a way station to hold small numbers of detainees designated for deportation. Instead, the Homeland Security and Defense Departments have reached an agreement to house dozens, not thousands, of ICE detainees at the base on any given day. Full costs of the operation have not been disclosed. The military says it can pivot and expand migrant operations at Guantánamo, depending on need. But the decision to dismantle at least some of the tents demonstrates that the Defense and Homeland Security Departments do not currently plan to house tens of thousands of migrants on the base, as the president envisioned. The tents and cots that served as a backdrop of the high-profile Feb. 7 visit by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, have been inventoried and stashed for future possible use, according to a Defense Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the president’s migrant mission is considered politically sensitive. Over the weekend, the task force in charge of migrant detention at Guantánamo Bay was holding 32 migrants awaiting deportation and had about 725 staff members, mostly uniformed Army and Marine forces, with 100 employed by ICE as security officers or contractors.

Center Square [5/5/2025 11:54 AM, Bethany Blankley, 495K] reports U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has designated two Haitian gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, adding to a list of transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican cartels and the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua. Rubio designated the violent Haitian gangs, Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif, as FTOs and Specially Designated Global Terrorists, saying they "are the primary source of instability and violence in Haiti" and pose "a direct threat to U.S. national security interests in our region.” Gang members, known for killing and attacking Haitians, Haitian security forces, and Multinational Security Support mission personnel, have vowed to overthrow the Haitian government. "Their ultimate goal is creating a gang-controlled state where illicit trafficking and other criminal activities operate freely and terrorize Haitian citizens," Rubio said. Foreign terrorist organization designations play a critical role in U.S. foreign policy, he said, including the U.S.’s fight against terrorism. He also said anyone providing material support or resources to Viv Ansanm or Gran Grif gang members "could face criminal charges and inadmissibility or removal from the United States.” The U.S. government supports the Haitian National Police and Multinational Security Support mission to provide stability in Haiti and urges "all of Haiti’s political leaders to prioritize the security of the Haitian people, find solutions to stop the violence, and make progress toward the restoration of democracy through free and fair elections," he said. He made the announcement after a record number of Haitians were released into the U.S. and were reported illegally entering the U.S. under the Biden administration. At least 211,000 Haitians were released into the U.S. through a CHNV parole program created by the Biden administration to release Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationals into the country who were deemed inadmissible under federal immigration law. The parole program was among more than a dozen identified by House Republicans as illegal and used as evidence to impeach former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. After the Biden administration reversed Trump-era policies and Mayorkas directed federal employees to not enforce some aspects of federal immigration law, record numbers of foreign nationals began illegally entering the country, totaling more than 14 million, The Center Square exclusively reported, including two million who evaded capture. Mayorkas claimed the parole process would lower illegal border crossings but more than three million illegally entered the U.S. or attempted illegal entry from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, The Center Square exclusively reported. They totaled more than the population of 20 individual U.S. states.

NPR [5/5/2025 5:50 PM, Manuel Rueda, 29983K] Audio: HERE reports two months ago, the U.S. deported almost 300 asylum seekers and flew them to Panama under a deal that has been widely criticized by human rights groups.

Daily Caller [5/5/2025 5:53 PM, Audrey Streb, 1082K] reports crowds of illegal immigrants who trekked through the vast jungle region between Colombia and Panama known as the Darien Gap while making their way to the U.S. southern border left behind heaps of garbage, gasoline and fecal matter, which South American officials say has resulted in an environmental crisis in the region. Up to 3,000 migrants would routinely cross the dangerous region every day until illegal immigration plummeted by 94% following President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, according to February 2025 data from Panama’s National Migration Service. The 2,500 tons of trash left behind in the region by migrants traveling to the U.S. southern border during former President Joe Biden’s term has amassed a $12 million cleanup cost, according to the Associated Press. Panama’s scarce finances make it unable to pay the cost, Navarro told the outlet, noting that the country has not received the money he claimed the U.S. promised it under Biden. While no official U.S. announcement was made regarding this funding, the Biden administration did provide aid to South America several times. Beyond the trash, gasoline and dead bodies floating down the river, officials told the AP that tests show critical contamination levels due to copious amounts of fecal coliform bacteria in the water, which is typically associated with human excrement.

New York Post [5/5/2025 10:51 PM, Miranda Devine, 54903K] reports a newly released intelligence assessment has found that some Venezuelan government officials "facilitated" the illegal migration of members of the brutal Venezuelan criminal gang Tren De Aragua into the United States "to advance what they see as the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing governments and undermining public safety.” However, while Venezuela’s "permissive environment enables TDA to operate… the Maduro regime probably is not systematically directing Venezuelan outflows, such as to sow chaos in receiving countries," says the April memo from the National Intelligence Council, released Monday by the ODNI. The memo waters down an earlier FBI assessment that the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is specifically directing TdA activities in the U.S. But an ODNI source says that the bureau’s intelligence is the most "robust and accurate given their focus on domestic security and crimes, versus limited intelligence assessments from other intelligence elements who by law focus solely on foreign intelligence collection, and who until President Trump took office, had very limited resources focused on TdA.” The Department of Homeland Security has identified more than 600 Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. with likely ties to TdA who crossed the border illegally during Joe Biden’s presidency. "From 2021 to 2024 there was a spike in Venezuelan encounters at the US-Mexico border, in which some TDA members could have been present as they have generally moved with Venezuelan migrant communities and profit from human trafficking and migrant smuggling," says the IC assessment. The Venezuelan government gives sanctuary to TdA, "aiding and abetting their crimes and terrorist activities against the United States by enabling them to thrive.” Two Tren de Aragua illegal aliens have been charged with the rape and murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Texas in June 2024. In Colorado, in August 2024, armed Tren de Aragua gang members were caught on surveillance video violently taking over an apartment complex. The IC assessment cites US law enforcement reports that members of the Maduro regime, including Diosdado Cabello, Minister of the Interior, and former Venezuelan Minister of Penitentiaries Iris Varela, "have cooperated with TDA by providing financial or materiel support, but we cannot verify the sources’ access.”

ABC News [5/5/2025 2:08 PM, Laura Romero, 34586K] reports that Yorley Inciarte, the Venezuelan mother who was deported last week to her home country without her 2-year-old daughter and whose partner was sent to El Salvador, is accusing the U.S. government of "kidnapping" her child. "My daughter was born in Venezuela, not in the United States," Inciarte told ABC News in Spanish. "They are criminals, because they are kidnapping Venezuelans, a 2-year-old girl.” After being in detention for nearly 10 months, Inciarte was deported last week to Venezuela without her daughter Maikelys Antonella Espinoza, who is not a U.S. citizen. Her partner, Maiker Espinoza Escalona, was sent to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador on March 30 under Title 8, which covers the deportation of migrants deemed to be removable. The Department of Homeland Security has labeled Inciarte and Escalona as "Tren de Aragua parents," alleging the two are members of the Venezuelan criminal gang. "The child’s father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona is a lieutenant of Tren De Aragua who oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house," DHS said in a statement last week. "The child’s mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.” The statement by DHS was posted online in response to claims from Venezuelan government officials also accusing the Trump administration of kidnapping the 2-year old. "Everything is false," Inciarte told ABC News in response to DHS characterizations. "Here I am waiting for the evidence they have because if they are accusing me, it’s because they have proof of what they are saying -- but here I am waiting.” DHS officials did not provide any evidence of the allegations against Inciarte and Escalona. When asked for comment, the agency sent ABC News a statement they published last week listing the allegations against the couple. Inciarte and Escalona were placed in separate detention centers in Texas and their daughter was placed in government custody, said Inciarte, who told ABC News that she was able to speak with her daughter on video calls and with Escalona over the phone. The two adults were placed in asylum proceedings but they eventually asked for a deportation order so they could be reunited with their child, one of their attorneys told ABC News. Since arriving back in Venezuela, Inciarte said she has received support from her country’s government, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. "Her husband was unjustly sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador," Maduro said on Thursday during a speech alongside Inciarte. "There he has no contact with lawyers, or a judge and he has committed no crime in that country.” "Sooner rather than later, we are going to rescue our girl Maikelys Espinoza and the 253 kidnapped in El Salvador safe and sound," Maduro said, referring to more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members who were send to CECOT by the Trump administration under the Alien Enemies Act.

NBC News [5/5/2025 5:35 AM, Patrick Smith and Peter Guo, 44742K] reports the central African nation of Rwanda is in discussions with President Donald Trump’s administration on a possible deal to accept deported migrants from the United States, the country’s foreign minister said late Sunday. Olivier Nduhungirehe told state broadcaster Rwanda TV that early talks were under way, according to Reuters news agency. The news followed multiple news reports that the U.S. was seeking an international partnership to deport people, amid an ongoing crackdown on foreign visa holders, student activists and suspected criminal gang members. "We are in discussions with the United States," Nduhungirehe said in the interview, according to Reuters. "It has not yet reached a stage where we can say exactly how things will proceed, but the talks are ongoing .... still in the early stages.” NBC News contacted the Rwandan government in the capital, Kigali, for comment. The White House was also asked for comment overnight. On the campaign trail Trump promised to carry out the "largest deportation operation" in U.S. history and in office he has deported many to El Salvador and elsewhere, with ongoing legal action questioning the legality of some ICE arrests, detentions and removals. Trump told NBC News’ "Meet the Press" on Sunday that he didn’t know whether he needed to uphold the U.S. Constitution in pursuing his goal of deporting what he called "some of the worst people on Earth." The Supreme Court has said in three recent rulings that the government has to allow basic due process rights for immigrants, such as appearing before an immigration, before they can be deported. Despite the huge publicity his migrant crackdown has generated, Trump deported fewer immigrants in February than President Joe Biden’s administration did in the same month last year. Rwanda has long offered to be a place for western nations to send deported criminals and failed asylum seekers, despite concerns from human rights groups about the 30-year rule of President Paul Kagame and his backing of a violent rebellion in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda signed a deal with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022 to accept deported foreign nationals — but Johnson and two more prime ministers after him failed to make the deal work, as British and European courts stopped scheduled flights of deported migrants on human rights grounds.

Reported similarly:
CNN [5/5/2025 5:54 AM, Staff, 22131K]
FOX News [5/5/2025 12:27 PM, Greg Norman, 46189K]

Washington Post [5/5/2025 1:59 PM, Staff, 31735K] reports each F-35 Lightning II aircraft contains more than 900 pounds of rare earth elements. Each Virginia-class submarine has 9,200 pounds. Permanent magnets made from these materials are used to make Tomahawk missiles, Predator drones and the Joint Direct Attack Munition series of smart bombs. Almost all of this material comes from China. The country accounts for nearly all of the world’s processing of heavy rare earths — whose critical magnetic and optical properties are vital for defense systems. It also produces about 90 percent of rare earth magnets, used in everything from electric motors to turbines and electronics, for civilian and military use. After President Donald Trump raised a wall of tariffs against Chinese imports on April 2, China used this formidable source of leverage to retaliate: It suspended exports of six heavy rare earth elements as well as rare earth magnets. Thus, Trump’s trade war against China has come to endanger America’s national security. Trump seems to have miscalculated the balance of forces in his trade war. When China is America’s only source for so many things — iPhones and minerals are only two examples — it can retaliate against tariffs in ways that hurt. This is probably why Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, has not petitioned Trump for relief. Xi apparently would prefer that the U.S. president come to him. But the miscalculation over rare earths is particularly problematic because it puts America’s military’s edge at risk. The White House must either ratchet down its hostility toward Beijing or quickly find an alternative supply. Given China’s control over the industry and the Trump administration’s evident distaste for stepping back when it comes to China, both options look to be long shots. This quandary is not entirely of Trump’s making. The supply risk became obvious nearly 15 years ago, when Beijing imposed a seven-week embargo on exports of rare earth elements to Japan in a dispute over a Chinese fishing trawler caught in contested waters. Since 2023, China has restricted exports of strategic materials such as gallium, germanium and graphite to the United States. Despite official warnings about the danger of depending on China for such critical materials and the need to diversify supplies, there has been limited U.S. government support for the rare earths industry. Domestic capacity to produce rare earths is extremely limited. One mine in California is active. And the company that runs it, MP Materials, plans to ramp up domestic refining and has a magnet production facility coming online in Texas. But the trade war with China has put it in a bind, as it shipped most of its concentrates to China for processing. Another firm, Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths, is building a refinery for heavy rare earths in Texas, but it is struggling under high costs. USA Rare Earth has big plans but still nothing in production. It’s hard to predict how China will play its hand. Its shipments of rare earths and magnets have been suspended while it puts in place an export licensing system for the materials. It is unclear how long this will take or how the licensing will operate.

The Hill [5/5/2025 10:00 AM, William S. Becker, 12829K] reports it is a strange time in America. Our military — the most powerful in the history of civilization — is led by people unfit for command. The man we have installed as president openly discusses turning it against our people. He claims he has “brought back free speech,” but people and institutions who speak too freely find themselves deprived of federal funds, under federal investigation, being sued or even deported without cause, perhaps to a hellish prison in El Salvador. When he isn’t taking mulligans on one of his 17 golf courses, Trump engages in conflicts of interest and schemes to make himself and his family richer. There used to be rules against this, but they apparently don’t apply now. Trump is flooding the zone with so much undemocratic behavior that watchdog groups are springing up to track his lawsuits, executive orders, appointments, deregulation efforts and campaign promises. It is indeed a time of exceptional strangeness in America. If it continues, we may soon not recognize ourselves or remember who we are supposed to be.

Breitbart [5/5/2025 8:55 PM, Paul Bois, 2923K] reports some cities have canceled or severely downplayed Cinco de Mayo events for fear of ICE raids and deportations. Speaking with CNN on Monday, Chicago resident Hector Escobar, president of the Casa Puebla and Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce, said that people in his community are "very scared" of gathering in public with some even considering going back to Mexico. "Our people are very scared," he said. "Honestly, they’re saying they don’t want to go to work. They have to go to work because they have to feed their families. So, if they both were working, now one person is working.” As to why he canceled the Cinco de Mayo parade in Chicago’s Little Village, which attracts up to 300,000 people annually, Escobar said that too many people are afraid. "How about the parade? How about the festivities? And they say, ‘Well, if we’re scared to go to work, I don’t think it’s nothing to celebrate.’ So, that took us to the decision over money," he said. "We see all over the country this picking up of people with no criminal records. And honestly, it’s a horrible way. We have seen, in my 45 years I’ve been living here in the United States.” "Believe me, some people are already thinking about going back to Mexico," he added. "The governor of Puebla, Alejandro Armenta, is going to open an office here in Chicago to help people who want to go back to Mexico and try to do some business or try to put the kids back to school in Mexico.” Chicago declared itself a "Sanctuary City," which bars local law enforcement from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on federal immigration laws. According to CNN, UnidosUs, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, "found that 43% of Latino voters fear immigration authorities will arrest people, even if they are US citizens.” "The city of Philadelphia also canceled its El Carnaval de Puebla festival this year, an annual event in April that celebrates Mexican culture," added CNN. Olga Renteria, the festival organizer, said that people are being cautious. In Oregon, organizers also canceled the annual Latino Fest scheduled for December in Madras. "It’s a celebration of joy, and when people are experiencing anxiety around possible fear of deportation, then we feel it’s more responsible and ethical to not celebrate this year," said Catalina Sánchez Frank, executive director of the Latino Community Association.

Breitbart [5/6/2025 4:04 AM, Neil Munro, 2923K] reports a pro-migration reporter is loudly warning illegal migrants in D.C. that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be checking their workplaces on Tuesday and Wednesday. "Hey everybody, listen, ICE is coming to Washington D.C. this week, according to multiple sources who have told us that Subway restaurants, Door Dashers and Uber Eats drivers, plus other restaurants are going to be targeted," said Pablo Manriquez, the Chilean-born founder of MigrantInsider.com. The site is funded by subscriptions and migration lawyers, including Charles Kuck, who sell access to American society. The leak was denounced by Tricia McLaughlin, the spokeswoman for ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security. It is "sickening that this ‘reporter’ is putting law enforcement lives at risk and doing the bidding of violent criminal aliens and gang members," she told Breitbart News. Manriquez continued: “We are told that they’re going to show up at these restaurants to do I-9 [employment eligibility documents] inspections and then station officers in the back of restaurant for anybody who tries to flee out the back. Another place they’re going to be targeting are bilingual public charter schools, including the Mundo Verde [Green World] public [charter] school system right here in Washington, D.C. So be aware, know your rights, and the Amica Center [for Immigrant Rights] right here in Washington tells us that they are standing by to receive your calls if you are detained . Share this video, share this information. We will be posting about it on migrantinsider.com where we broke the story early today… and if you are detained, call the Amica Center right here in DC.” Manriquez describes himself as an immigrant outsider. For example, he recently wrote a touching article about the March death of Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, where he praised the Arizona representative as the "voice of migrants, workers, Tribes, Latinos, [and] a scrapper with a heart for the long shots." But Manriquez’s leak about the pending ICE raid also leaves him in bed with the insider elites, including the corporate lawyers at Acacia. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [5/5/2025 9:12 PM, Stepheny Price, 46189K] reports an illegally present Honduran national was nabbed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after they said local authorities dropped a series of his charges, which included child abduction and home invasion. Agents with ICE in Washington, D.C., arrested Hyrum Baquedano-Rodriguez, 26, in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 2, officials said in a news release. "Though the court saw fit to drop his most recent charges, Hyrum Baquedano-Rodriguez has been convicted of numerous crimes in Virginia and represents a calamitous hazard to our Virginia residents," said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Washington, D.C., Field Office Director Russell Hott. Officials said his charges include abduction of a person with intent to defile and burglary, entering a house to murder, rape, etc. "Every one of his convictions represents another one of our neighbors that Baquedano-Rodriguez has victimized. ICE Washington D.C. will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing criminal alien offenders from our Washington, D.C. and Virginia communities," Hott said. ICE officials said Baquedano-Rodriguez was first arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents on Aug. 25, 2018, after he illegally entered the United States near Yuma, Arizona. Baquedano-Rodriguez was then released on an immigration bond by a DOJ immigration judge in Eloy, Arizona, on Jan. 22, 2019. Fairfax County police arrested Baquedano-Rodriguez on Nov. 9, 2021, and charged him with three counts of indecent liberties, including exposing genitals to child and indecent exposure. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said his administration’s top priority is "protecting Virginians.” "Protecting Virginians has been a top priority of our administration since day one, and it should be a priority for every leader at the federal, state and local level," Youngkin said. "That’s exactly why the Virginia Homeland Security Task Force is so important. I’m grateful to our law enforcement officers at every level for working hard to keep Virginians and Americans safe, and I’ll always stand with them.” Homeland Security also confirmed the arrest and said Baquedano-Rodriguez remains in ICE custody. "MAKING AMERICA SAFE AGAIN: @ICEgov arrested Hyrum Baquedano-Rodriguez, an illegal alien, after a Fairfax County court dropped charges for abduction of a person with intent to defile and burglary. This child sexual predator will remain in ICE custody pending his removal," the department shared in a post on X. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vowed to continue to "keep fighting every day" to secure the border. "100 days ago, I took an oath to serve this country as Secretary of Homeland Security. I will continue fighting every day alongside President Donald Trump to secure our border and keep American communities safe. This is just the beginning of the Golden Age of America. God bless this great country," Noem wrote in a post on X.

Politico [5/5/2025 4:37 PM, Daniel Han, 2100K] reports Newark (N.J.) Mayor Ras Baraka on Monday said that an immigrant detention facility in his city is open and housing migrants as his administration is trying to block it from operating. The Democratic mayor said he learned of Delaney Hall opening by “word of mouth” and that fire inspectors were not allowed into the building on Monday. A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the facility, run by the private prison company GEO Group, but ICE told the New Jersey Globe that it started housing detainees on Thursday. The Baraka administration is suing the GEO Group, alleging the detention center does not have the proper inspections and permits — a claim the group denies. “They’re following the pattern of the president of the United States, who believes that he can just do whatever he wants to do and obscure the laws … and they think they can do the same thing in the state of New Jersey,” Baraka said at a press conference. Baraka, who is running for governor, said he would double down on the legal fight.

AP [5/5/2025 3:34 PM, Sudhin Thanawala] reports the man charged in a slaying in suburban Atlanta that the Trump administration highlighted in support of its tough immigration stance pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of murder and rape, according to a court filing. Hector David Sagastume Rivas was scheduled to appear in a Cobb County courtroom on Tuesday. But in the filing signed by his attorney, A. Lee Fudger, he waived formal arraignment and entered the plea. Rivas also pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault, aggravated sexual battery and necrophilia in the attack on 52-year-old Camillia Williams, who was strangled in Marietta some time late on the night of March 11 or in the early morning hours of March 12. Marietta is about 20 miles (32 km) north of Atlanta. Authorities have not disclosed any motive. Rivas, a 21-year-old from Honduras, entered the U.S. illegally in March 2021 and was arrested by border patrol agents before being released with a notice to appear in court, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The agency said a judge had ordered his removal in 2025. In a statement on X in March, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Rivas "should have never been in our country in the first place," and she and President Donald Trump were "putting the safety of Americans FIRST."

Reported similarly:
FOX News [5/5/2025 2:09 PM, Pilar Arias, 46189K]

CBS Miami [5/5/2025 7:01 PM, Mauricio Maldonado, 51661K] Video: HERE reports U.S. Reps. Frederica Wilson and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick are firing back after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) dismissed their concerns about conditions at the Broward Transitional Center as "categorically false," calling the agency’s statement a distraction from what they described as troubling findings during a recent visit. Lawmakers say ICE trying to distract from real issues. Wilson and Cherfilus-McCormick toured the facility in Pompano Beach on Friday, one week after the death of 44-year-old Haitian detainee Marie Ange Blaise. Both lawmakers described the visit as contentious, alleging they were met with hostility and evasiveness from ICE staff. ICE, in turn, accused the lawmakers of making "deliberate attempts to discredit ICE" and approaching the visit with "hostile intentions.” In her statement, Wilson said, "My goal in questioning ICE officials was simple: to get the answers the American people deserve. ICE didn’t appreciate that we weren’t here to take a casual tour and nod our heads at everything they said. We ask tough questions because there are real concerns about these facilities that are funded through taxpayer dollars.” "There are real concerns about the lack of oversight of detention facilities across the country, especially following the recent death of a 44-year-old detainee at the Broward Transitional Center," Wilson said. "And this isn’t my first rodeo. I know ICE officials clean up the facility beforehand and present a polished narrative of the facility to us, hoping I won’t see the full story. But I’m here to uncover the truth.” Wilson added, "As a member of Congress, I cannot and will not sit idly as reports keep coming out of inhumane conditions at different ICE facilities. Nothing will stop me from speaking out and showing up for the American people. ICE must stop wasting its time attacking members of Congress for simply conducting oversight. Instead, they should be worried about following the law, treating immigrants with dignity, and providing honest answers to the American people.” "This was not my first visit and something had changed". Cherfilus-McCormick echoed Wilson’s concerns, citing a stark contrast from a previous visit to the same facility. "From the beginning of the visit, we were met with open hostility and evasiveness by staff. This tour was a complete departure from my visit to the facility in March 2022, in which personnel talked with me and were transparent. You have to ask yourself why," she said. Cherfilus-McCormick closed her statement by invoking the detainee whose death brought renewed scrutiny to the Broward Transitional Center: "Marie Blaise should be alive today. I will not stop until her loved ones get the justice they deserve, and all those in ICE custody are treated with basic dignity.” In a statement attributed to Juan Agudelo, interim Field Office Director for ICE in Miami, the agency called the lawmakers’ allegations "offensive" and said their conduct during the visit was "unprofessional.”

CBS Miami [5/5/2025 8:09 AM, Staff, 51661K] Video: HERE
reports that, Heidy Sánchez, who is married and has a 17-month-old daughter, was deported in late April. Both her husband and daughter are U.S. citizens. The reason she was on the deportation list was because she missed an immigration hearing in 2019.

AP [5/5/2025 3:41 PM, Kimberlee Kruesi, 1682K] reports a Turkish Tufts University student says her asthma attacks continue to worsen since she was taken into custody, arguing ahead of her latest court hearing that her health has suffered while being held in crowded conditions. Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was detained by immigration officials as she walked along a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville on March 25. She is currently being held in a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. A federal three-judge panel will hear arguments Tuesday over whether to grant a federal judge’s order to transfer Ozturk to Vermont. "Since my arrest, in the span of five weeks, I have had at least eight asthma attacks where I have felt unable to control my coughing," Ozturk wrote in court documents released Monday. "Prior to my arrest, in the span of 2-3 years, I had approximately 9 such asthma attacks in which I felt unable to control my coughing.” A district court judge in Vermont had earlier ordered that the 30-year-old doctoral student be brought to the state for hearings to determine whether she was illegally detained. Ozturk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process. The U.S. Justice Department, which is appealing that ruling, said that an immigration court in Louisiana has jurisdiction over her case. In court filings, Ozturk says she’s had trouble receiving proper medical care while at the Louisiana detention center, noting that her asthma attacks can last up to 45 minutes and that she’s rarely given opportunities for fresh air. "I do not have control over the exposure to potential triggers," Ozturk added. "The dorm rooms in detention are very crowded, and the other women have reported seeing mice in the dorm rooms. Additionally, the air conditioning is running most of the day, and I do not have immediate access to fresh air.” A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Telemundo Amarillo [5/5/2025 7:04 PM, Christian Del Rio, 2K] Video: HERE reports the Texas Department of Safety and Security arrested a woman for being linked in a human trafficking case. The events were recorded on May 1, when the authorities received a report that a driver of a Chevrolet Malibu model vehicle did not stop for a traffic point, which began a chase on Highway 83 and the road to Mangana Hein, in Laredo, Texas. The vehicle managed to stop along Cielito Lindo Avenue, causing several people to leave and flee the authorities. DPS officers say the driver identified as Ruby Martinez, and a woman without documents were arrested. However, this is not the first time Martinez has been arrested for this crime. The DPS says she was arrested on human trafficking charges on December 11, 2024. The 28-year-old woman also received additional charges in the face of her crime that leads to possession of marijuana, forgery of evidence, evasion of arrest and inappropriate driving. This last charge is due to the fact that the vehicle used in this chase crashed into a DPS vehicle unit.

Axios [5/5/2025 8:20 AM, Esteban L. Hernandez, 13163K] reports a proposal expanding the contract duration for Denver police’s license plate reader system is raising concerns about the surveillance tool’s potential misuse. In other jurisdictions, similar systems that provide law enforcement with real-time data have already been exploited by federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Denver police want to add $666,000 to an existing contract with Flock Group Inc. that would expand its services two more years to continue operating the 111 cameras already installed at 70 locations citywide. This would bring the contract’s total to just over $1 million. Denver police commander Jacob Herrera last month said any agency requesting department data must "sign and attest" they won’t give information to ICE. However, the ACLU, which opposes using such tech to share data, says a records request completed in Northern California this year from a similar ALPR system operated by a different company showed ICE gained access to a database to monitor more than 5 billion data points. ACLU Colorado senior policy strategist Anaya Robinson tells us the public’s right to privacy should be considered: "The community should have a say in whether or not they are willing to give that up." The devices, called automated license plate readers (ALPR), photograph car plates and feed them into a searchable database owned by DPD. DPD credited the tech with helping reduce car thefts after a spike in 2022, and it says ALPRs helped investigations of more serious crimes, including two homicide cases. 81 law enforcement agencies throughout Colorado have access to data gathered by DPD. The cameras photograph license plates, then compare them to those of cars flagged by other agencies in the state and across the country, Herrera said last month. The devices can alert police in real time to the location of stolen vehicles, Herrera said. Data is retained for 30 days, but search records — basically, who conducts a query — are kept indefinitely.

CBS Los Angeles [5/6/2025 12:01 AM, Dean Fioresi, 51661K] reports a 23-year-old man from Hawthorne has been arrested and charged with human trafficking after he was found with a 17-year-old girl who was reported missing from Orange County in April. Investigators received information regarding the missing teen from the Irvine Police Department on April 28, according to a press release from the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, which works in coordination with several Orange County law enforcement agencies. Police said that the unidentified girl was reported missing from her home in Irvine and that she was "possibly being exploited for purposes of commercialized sex," the OCHTTF statement said. They found her the next day with Alex Polidore, the 23-year-old Hawthorne man, in Los Angeles. He was arrested and booked into the Anaheim Police Department’s Detention Facility for a parole violation and several human-trafficking-related offenses. On Thursday, Polidore was charged with human trafficking of a minor by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the release said. He remains behind bars and is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Los Angeles Times [5/5/2025 1:55 PM, Staff, 13342K] reports Rep. Dave Min said Sunday he’s seeking more details from federal authorities about a raid conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Turtle Rock neighborhood of Irvine. “I am deeply concerned about reports that ICE agents raided a home in Irvine. My office and I are reaching out to the relevant federal authorities and seeking more information about the circumstances of this raid,” Min, D-Irvine, said in a statement. Agents with ICE, assisted by the Secret Service, executed a search warrant at the home on Thursday as part of a criminal investigation into an alleged “doxxing” attack targeting federal immigration officials, NBC4 reported. The raid was not related to ICE’s stepped-up deportation efforts under the Trump administration, according to the report. There was no immediate reply to an email sent to ICE Sunday night seeking a response to Min’s comment.

NPR [5/5/2025 4:08 PM, Joel Rose, 29983K] Audio: HERE reports thousands of international students found their lives thrown into chaos in recent weeks by a Trump administration effort to flag their past brushes with law enforcement that left them unable to work or study in the U.S. Under President Trump’s immigration crackdown, any contact with law enforcement— no matter how small— can have big consequences for immigrants. That’s especially true for international students. After weeks of confusion, the Trump administration was compelled to confirm in court on April 29 that it terminated immigration records for thousands of international students because of past encounters with law enforcement, many of them minor. As the records were terminated, many colleges and universities were unsure how to proceed. They turned to public guidance on a Department of Homeland Security website titled "Study in the States" that says students whose records are terminated lose their authorization to work, and either "apply for reinstatement" or "must leave the United States immediately." At least 60 of these lawsuits were filed across the country by international students, some just weeks from graduation.

FOX News [5/5/2025 9:00 AM, Diana Stancy, 46189K] reports the federal government’s push to finally execute REAL ID travel requirements will take effect Wednesday, amid a push from some Republicans to crack down on voter registration to ensure that those registered to vote are U.S. citizens. While voters may use REAL ID as an additional acceptable form of identification when heading to the polls, REAL ID goes into effect as legislation makes its way through Congress to verify that only U.S. citizens are casting their ballot in U.S. elections. The implementation of REAL ID coincides with the House’s passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act in April, which demands that states require in-person proof of citizenship from those seeking to vote in federal elections. The measure, known as the SAVE Act, is now headed to the Senate. Among the documents used to prove U.S. citizenship, as outlined in the SAVE Act, is a REAL ID, a form of identification that meets higher security standards up to par with those the federal government has established. Those that are REAL ID compliant have a star on them. Other documents that may be used as proof of citizenship under the SAVE Act include a U.S. passport, a military ID with a U.S. birthplace listed, a valid government-issued photo ID that either lists a U.S. birthplace, or is coupled with a birth certificate indicating a U.S. birthplace. Still, having a REAL ID does not necessarily prove U.S. citizenship, since there is a REAL ID option available for legal residents as well. However, some states, including Michigan, Minnesota and Vermont, do provide a REAL ID option only for U.S. citizens that does comply with the SAVE Act. As a result, lawmakers who have backed the SAVE Act are hopeful that more states will start implementing citizen-only REAL IDs to comply with SAVE Act requirements. "The structure is put in place now to — I think there’s at least five states that do have the citizenship status as part of the REAL ID — encourage more states to do so," said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, according to The Associated Press. "That would be part of the goal here.” REAL ID will take effect Wednesday, decades after Congress passed the legislation establishing REAL ID in 2005 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks to create enhanced security standards for driver’s licenses.

TheStreet [5/5/2025 6:17 PM, Veronika Bondarenko, 11051K] reports even with the current administration putting the strictness of United States border rules under the international spotlight, residents of over 40 countries can come to the states as tourists without applying for a visa. In July 1988, the United Kingdom became the first nation to be added to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (WVP), while Japan was the second a few months later. Six European countries including France, Germany, and Italy were added in 1989. Over the decades, the program was periodically reworked and expanded to include more countries — at one point as many as 43 — based on factors like their GDP and Human Development Index. In the last days of former President Joseph Biden’s administration, Romania became the latest nation admitted to the program, granting citizens the ability to stay in the U.S. for up to 90 days as tourists. While the new rule took effect on March 31, the Trump administration once again revoked visa-free entry for Romanians on May 2. "Given this Administration’s focus on border and immigration security, DHS decided that Romania’s designation should be rescinded in order to protect the integrity of the VWP and to ensure border and immigration security," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wrote in a statement. The inclusion of the country into the program had been under review since March 25, so in total, Romanians were able to come to the U.S. visa-free for just over one month. As of May 3, they now need to once again apply for a visa at the U.S. embassy in Bucharest. The revocation also comes at a time when Romania is conducting a new round of presidential elections after the country’s constitutional court annulled December voting results over concerns of political interference and election integrity. "We are grateful for Romania’s close partnership over the years to enhance security cooperation," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, while adding that "Romania may be reconsidered for VWP admission in the future." In a statement on the DHS announcement, the Romanian Foreign Ministry said that it has "regretfully noted" the decision and "regrets [it], given that Romania has fulfilled all the elements that American law stipulates for accession."

CBS Miami [5/5/2025 5:43 PM, Tania Francois, 51661K] Video: HERE reports as Real ID enforcement takes effect, another South Florida woman said she is stuck in bureaucratic limbo, unable to obtain a valid state identification card because she was never issued a birth certificate. Jessie Lovette of Miami Gardens has been trying for years to renew her Florida state ID, but without a birth certificate, she can’t meet the stricter documentation requirements imposed by the Real ID Act. Lovette was born in Marion County, Georgia in the late 1940s, during segregation and Jim Crow. She said her mother gave birth at home with the help of a midwife, but no official birth certificate was ever filed. Lovette said the lack of documentation has haunted her throughout her life. "It’s like I’m nobody. That’s how I feel. I was embarrassed to tell my children.” She added, "The midwives couldn’t read or write, but they know how to deliver the babies," explaining why she believes the paperwork was never submitted. Despite the missing certificate, Lovette was previously able to get Florida state IDs without issue. "I used to go over there by the stadium. They didn’t ask for no birth certificate or nothing. You just tell them your age and where you was born at and they give you an ID.” Lovette’s state ID expired in July 2020 and since then she’s been trying to get a Real ID-compliant replacement. Her son Derrick has been working with a Georgia attorney to obtain a delayed birth certificate, but they’ve been denied repeatedly. The family has collected multiple documents proving her U.S. birth, including a marriage license that lists Georgia as her birthplace. Lovette also has a Social Security number and receives Medicaid and other public assistance. Still, the lack of valid ID has impacted her ability to get medical care. "Sometimes I go to doctors and I be turned down," Lovette said.

NewsNation [5/5/2025 7:50 PM, Ali Bradley, 6866K] reports in an exclusive interview with NewsNation, Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks says the agency will not take its foot off the gas regarding border security. It comes as the Border Patrol continues to battle against criminal cartels who are currently fighting each other for territory to traffic drugs and people through Mexico and into the United States. Banks says that as the U.S. puts greater pressure on the cartels, it is becoming more dangerous for law enforcement. As such, Banks says he supports the U.S. using any available resources to go after the cartels. At least 82 migrants are now facing criminal charges for trespassing on a U.S. military installation, as the administration is creating what it calls “national defense areas” along the southern border. There is also a planned expansion of national defense areas. Moreover, the federal government announced Monday it is financially incentivizing self-deportation. “This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens, and is a 70% savings for US taxpayers,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in the release.

NPR [5/6/2025 5:00 AM, Juliana Kim, 29983K] reports that, as President Trump expands the use of the military in immigration enforcement, this nearly 150-year-old law has come into sharp focus. The Posse Comitatus Act was designed to limit the use of federal troops in law enforcement activities on American soil. The rule has its exceptions and loopholes, but Trump’s second term and his crackdown on immigration are shaping up to be a major test of the law. Today, thousands of active-duty troops are deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border. What the military is allowed to do there has also dramatically shifted — going beyond the typical roles of supporting the Border Patrol. Among the most significant developments came last month, when Trump designated a 170-mile stretch of federal land along the southern border — which spans through California, Arizona, and New Mexico — as a military installation, or a national defense area. On Thursday, the Department of Defense announced that a second section in Texas will be marked as a military installation. At least 82 people have been federally charged for "unauthorized entry" into the newly created National Defense Area in New Mexico as a result. The federal law was enacted in 1878 following the Civil War, when former Confederate states were either unwilling or unable to enforce civil laws. In response, the federal government stepped in and deployed active-duty troops to maintain order. That led to concerns of potential military overreach. While the law came after the Civil War, it’s rooted in one of the country’s founding principals — which is the rejection of military involvement in civilian affairs. The ideal was a key grievance in the Declaration of Independence, which was later reflected in the Articles of Confederation and the Bill of Rights. In practice, the law prohibits federal armed forces from taking part in civilian law enforcement, like conducting searches, seizures and arrests on American streets, except when "expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.” This restriction applies to the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force. On the other hand, the Coast Guard is exempt. The same goes for the National Guard, as it typically operates under state authority. However, Guard units become bound to the Posse Comitatus Act when they are called into federal service. In some cases, the National Guard have served federal interests on state orders. For instance, in 2020, 11 states sent their National Guard troops to Washington D.C. to help respond to the protests over George Floyd’s murder.

New York Post [5/5/2025 12:30 PM, Josh Christenson, 54903K] reports the Trump administration is elevating three Customs and Border Protection whistleblowers who sounded the alarm more than seven years ago about their agency not collecting fingerprints from detainees, potentially letting thousands of criminals loose into the US. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Monday that CBP agents Fred Wynn, Mike Taylor and Mark Jones will now hold supervisory roles and receive seven years of backpay and retirement benefits after paying an “unjust price” for flagging that collection practices had run afoul of federal law since 2009. “These men had the courage and patriotism to speak up against the Biden Administration’s deliberate efforts to destroy our national security. They paid an unjust price for doing so — betrayed by an administration that protected lawbreakers and punished law enforcement,” Noem said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are restoring what is right and true and getting these patriots back to doing the work they love.”

Washington Examiner [5/5/2025 10:38 PM, Brady Knox, 2296K] reports police arrested 48 illegal immigrants over the course of a week in the Southeast as part of a larger operation. U.S. Customs and Border Protection partnered with the Homeland Security Investigations and local law enforcement for "Operation Magnolia," a highway interdiction operation which resulted in the apprehension of migrants from Mexico, Nicaragua, Kazakhstan, Honduras, Colombia, and Guatemala in the last week of April. Three U.S. citizens were also arrested. "If you attempt to smuggle narcotics, contraband, or illegal aliens through Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana, you will be caught, prosecuted, and put in jail," Adam Calderson, New Orleans Sector acting chief patrol agent, said in a statement. "The U.S. Border Patrol is committed to enforcing our nation’s laws.” The operation was overseen by the Border Patrol’s New Orleans Sector, which encompasses areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida. The arrests were made along the Interstate 10 corridor in Mississippi, with the nearest Mexico border crossing over 700 miles away from the closest section of I-10 in Mississippi. Law enforcement seized $104,000, firearms and ammunition, and other contraband. Eight of those arrested will be prosecuted for reentering the United States after being previously deported, while all will be subject to deportation, Border Patrol said.

(B) Today With Jenna & Friends [5/5/2025 1:31 PM, Staff] repots that with Mother’s Day under a week away, the Customs and Border Protection is warning travelers about bringing flowers from Mexico. Certain flowers, like roses and carnations, are allowed across the border after inspection. Chrysanthemums, which carry harmful fungi, are banned. Bouquet fillers and soil from Mexico are also prohibited. Plants meant for growing must have the proper permits or they will be confiscated. CBP says all flowers must be declared.

Telemundo 48 El Paso [5/5/2025 6:35 PM, Staff, 11K] reports members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Mobile Enforcement Team seized 4,030 rounds of ammunition, $1,203 in U.S. currency, and $906 in Mexican pesos. As such, on May 1, a 33-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested at the Bridge of the Americas international crossing and handed over to Homeland Security Investigations to face charges associated with the failed smuggling attempt. The seizure occurred just before 9:00 PM when a 2017 Mercedes-Benz CT300 with a single male driver approached the exit inspection area. CBP MET members instructed the driver to turn off the engine so the inspection could be safely conducted. The driver ignored the request and continued driving, so a tire deflation device was deployed to prevent the vehicle from running away. CBP officers deployed a Taser to control the non-compliant driver after he attempted to roll up his windows and reach for an unknown object in the vehicle.

NewsNation [5/5/2025 8:36 AM, Dave Burge, 6866K] reports a man is facing charges of migrant smuggling after he allegedly led Border Patrol agents on a chase in east El Paso County, according to court documents obtained by NewsNation affiliate KTSM. Eddie Gonzalez Jr. is facing federal charges of migrant smuggling after he allegedly led agents on a chase on April 28 that started west of the Tornillo port of entry. According to court documents, Border Patrol agents from the Clint Station were alerted to three people that were attempting to illegally enter the country on April 28 about five miles from the Tornillo port of entry in the eastern part of El Paso County. The suspect and the driver, a juvenile, were both identified as U.S. citizens, according to court documents. Both Gonzalez and the juvenile were placed under arrest and transported to the Clint Border Patrol station.

Breitbart [5/5/2025 9:00 AM, Randy Clark, 2923K] reports illegal border crossers in New Mexico are now facing criminal charges under a section of U.S. law that protects military installations from unauthorized entry. On Thursday, New United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico Ryan Ellison announced the filing of 82 new Title 50 charges for unauthorized entry into the newly designated National Defense Area along New Mexico’s southern border. The announcement followed a high-level visit by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks. As reported by Breitbart Texas, in early April, President Trump ordered the United States Armed Forces to seal the southern border from unlawful entry within the Roosevelt Reservation along the southwest border. The area covers a more than 170-mile stretch of the U.S./Mexico border. President Trump said the purpose of the mission was to "maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States. The order brought the strip of land under Department of Defense control, making incursions a federal offense under Title 50 of the United States Code, a section of federal law governing war and national defense. The new designation of the territory makes unauthorized entry into the area a crime in addition to the criminal statutes under Title 8 of the United States Code, which covers the illegal entry violation under immigration law. The U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of New Mexico announced the filing of the criminal cases on Thursday, marking the first large-scale use of the novel criminal statute. The New Mexico corridor, now treated as an extension of U.S. Army Garrison Fort Huachuca, is subject to enhanced military patrols and surveillance, with U.S. troops authorized to temporarily detain and transfer individuals to federal law enforcement for prosecution. According to the United States Attorney for New Mexico, the newly filed Title 50 charges carry potential penalties of up to one year in prison, supplementing any penalties for existing immigration-related offenses. In a statement indicating the Department of Justice intends to enforce the statute in a manner than reflects a zero-tolerance posture, U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison emphasized, "The Department of Justice will work hand in glove with the Department of Defense and Border Patrol to gain 100% operational control of New Mexico’s 170-mile border with Mexico. Trespassers into the National Defense Area will be Federally prosecuted—no exceptions.”

Breitbart [5/5/2025 11:55 AM, Bob Price, 2923K] reports Border Patrol agents at a New Mexico interior immigration checkpoint arrested a Cuban illegal alien with what officials called a "disturbing criminal history." The Cuban national’s criminal history includes murder and other violent crimes, Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks reported on social media. Chief Banks posted a report on social media that New Mexico Border Patrol agents encountered a Cuban migrant illegally present in the United States on April 29. During a records check, the agents discovered an extensive criminal history and took the man into custody. Banks stated that agents arrested the Cuban national for a violation of 8 USC 1253 relating to a final order of removal. Banks emphasized the importance that the interior Border Patrol checkpoints play in "keeping our community safe from violent criminals.”

Bloomberg [5/5/2025 8:00 AM, Thomas Seal, 16228K] reports Canada’s boycott of all things American has caused the US measurable pain. Airline bookings from Canada to its southern neighbor have dipped significantly from last year, and the Federal Reserve’s latest snapshot of the US economy noted widespread declines in Canadian spending. But few places in the US are hurting more than the border towns of Washington state, where local economies are almost entirely dependent on the other side. “We do not survive without Canada. We just don’t,” Ali Hayton, owner of the main grocery store in Point Roberts, Washington, said at a roundtable meeting about the crisis on April 24. Less than 20 miles south of Vancouver, Point Roberts is nestled at the bottom of a peninsula intersected by the 49th parallel, severing it from the rest of the contiguous US. Unless you have a boat or aircraft, the only way in or out is through Canada. Many of Point Roberts’ businesses are owned by dual US-Canadian citizens and cater almost exclusively to people traveling from Vancouver’s densely populated exurbs. Now Canadians are staying away, plunging the town into an economic depression. Hayton’s sales are down 30% from a year earlier, leading her to slash stock orders and lower her store’s exchange rate to entice foreigners back. She says she worries it won’t be enough to keep her 17 employees on the payroll, noting that 80% of her business comes from Canadians visiting in the summer months. When British Columbia residents can’t get something delivered to Canada, they can order goods to parcel pickup shops near the border, then drive over and collect them. While Point Roberts has fewer than 1,300 residents, it has several such services because it’s so close to Vancouver. Now one has already closed after its business plummeted 75% in March from the same period last year because of Canadians retaliating against President Donald Trump’s imperialist designs on their country. The situation is worse than when the border was closed during Covid-19, many residents say, because this time there are no government loans, and locals are free to spend their dollars elsewhere. Tamra Hansen, a dual citizen originally from Kelowna, British Columbia, says the future of the two restaurants she runs in Point Roberts is in jeopardy. “It’s like a mining town,” she says. “And when the mine shuts down, what happens to that town?” Another Point Roberts attraction, the Rubber Duck Museum, is relocating just over the border to the town of Tsawwassen. That’s because of the decline in tourism and because most of the rubber ducks sold in the gift shop come from China and would be subject to US tariffs that would have more than tripled their price, according to co-owner Neil King. Fourteen miles east, Blaine, Washington, is home to the Peace Arch, a 67-foot structure with an iron gate that symbolically marks the third-busiest border crossing between the US and Canada. “Children of a common mother. Brethren dwelling together in unity. May these gates never be closed,” reads its inscription. The gate is open, but Canadian southbound traffic in the first two weeks of April was down 52% from a year earlier.

New York Post [5/5/2025 4:31 PM, Taylor Herzlich, 54903K] reports enraged Canadians are boycotting American goods in the face of President Trump’s trade war – and small US businesses along the northern border are feeling the brunt of the financial pain, according to a report. Trump’s 25% tariff on Canadian imports and threats to annex the nation have shut the spigot of regular visits over the border to patronize US restaurants and grocery stores, Bloomberg reported. Border crossings from Canada into the US plunged more than 22% in March compared to the year before, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.

Washington Examiner [5/5/2025 12:24 PM, Emily Hallas, 2296K] reports Temu, a popular China-based e-tailer, halted shipments to the United States after President Donald Trump ended a trade loophole exempting low-value goods from tariffs. Temu has historically benefited from a provision called the "de minimis rule" that exempted goods worth $800 or less from tariffs. The company’s operating model allows it to work closely with Chinese suppliers to ship ultra-low-priced apparel, electronics, and other items directly from China to U.S. consumers. However, in April, Trump signed an executive order ending the exemption effective May 2. On Friday, Temu announced it would no longer ship products directly from Chinese factories to U.S. consumers. Instead, it will rely on domestic local sellers in the U.S. to distribute its products. The U.S. version of Temu’s website now only displays products warehoused domestically, identified as "local," while goods shipped from China are listed as out of stock. In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Temu confirmed it is "transitioning to a local fulfillment model" and "actively recruiting U.S. sellers to join the platform." Trump said last month that the import duty exemption for parcels worth $800 or less amounted to "a big scam going on against our country, against really small businesses." His words come after Customs and Border Protection said it processed more than 1.3 billion de minimis shipments in 2024, up from over 1 billion shipments the previous year. Now that the trade exemption has expired, Temu and Shein will be among the China-based companies subject to Trump’s steep tariffs against Beijing. The president has placed duties of up to 145% on the country to push it to the negotiating table and draw up a new trade deal.

NewsNation [5/5/2025 3:09 PM, Alex Caprariello, 6866K] reports starting Wednesday, people in the U.S. will be required by law to have a REAL ID in order to board a domestic flight at the airport. The deadline has created long lines at different DMV facilities across the country, with the REAL ID Supercenter in Chicago having a long line wrapped around the building Monday morning. Some people waiting in line told NewsNation they were waiting for several hours. Long lines at DMV facilities have been seen nationwide, with people in the South reportedly fainting while waiting in line due to the heat. For others in the Midwest, the process to get a REAL ID before the Wednesday deadline was made difficult because of a scam asking people to purchase the ID online before May 7. The Transportation Security Administration says it will be lenient in the airports if people do not have enough time to get their ID ahead of an upcoming flight. The TSA advises people who don’t have it to bring multiple forms of identification to make up for it.

FOX News [5/5/2025 9:51 AM, Staff, 46189K] Video: HERE reports TSA announces a phased approach to the REAL ID enforcement.

CBS News [5/5/2025 6:00 AM, Mary Cunningham, 51661K] reports the Real ID deadline is rapidly approaching. Americans will be required to switch to the enhanced form of identification by Wednesday, May 7, if they want to travel by plane domestically. If you still need to update your ID you’re not alone: CBS data shows that dozens of states are behind on compliance. An analysis conducted from April 7-18 found that 30 states are less than 70% compliant. Out of all states, New Jersey had the lowest compliance rate in the nation at 17%. Here’s what you need to know to make sure you’re ready for the May 7 Real ID deadline. The Real ID is a federally compliant license, learner permit or nondriver ID card issued by state driver’s license agencies. You can tell if a state-issued license or ID card is a Real ID if it has a black or gold star in the upper right corner. The symbol might look slightly different depending on the state from where it’s issued: California, for example, puts its star symbol inside a golden bear. Americans over the age of 18 who plan to fly domestically or visit certain federal facilities and do not have a valid U.S. passport will need to get a Real ID-compliant driver’s license or nondriver ID. Americans will need to show Real IDs to access certain federal facilities — including TSA checkpoints — enter nuclear power plants and board commercial aircraft, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Real or Enhanced IDs are only required for those over 18 without a valid U.S. passport who plan on flying domestically or entering a federal building that requires identification. That’s said, Real IDs are considered a more secure form of identification than a classic driver’s license. The requirement for Real IDs was established by Congress in 2005, following the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that the Federal Government "set standards for the issuance of sources of identification, such as driver’s licenses," according to the Department of Homeland Security. The deadline for implementation has been delayed several times, although some states started issuing Real IDs as far back as 2009. You can find more details on Real ID on the DHS’ website. Five states – Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Vermont — issue what is called an Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL), or Enhanced ID. This is considered an acceptable alternative to a Real ID card. Whereas Real IDs have a star emblem, Enhanced IDs have an image of the U.S. flag in the top right corner or the word "Enhanced" at the top of the card. Both Real IDs and Enhanced IDs are federal documents that allow holders to fly domestically. Enhanced IDs also allow you to travel from the U.S. to Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean through a land or sea port of entry, without a passport — something you can’t do with a regular Real ID.

CBS Boston [5/5/2025 6:51 PM, Logan Hall, 51661K] Video: HERE reports starting May 7, travelers flying within the United States will need a REAL ID-compliant identification to pass through TSA airport checkpoints, marking a significant shift in airport security requirements. At Boston Logan International Airport, many passengers are already prepared for the new rule. Mary Atwell, who’s headed to South Carolina, says she got her REAL ID a couple of years ago in anticipation of the change. "I think it would be very stressful," Atwell said of not having a REAL ID. "Although I do have a passport at home. I almost brought it just to be on the safe side.” A REAL ID-compliant license is marked by a star in the top right corner. As of the deadline, this ID-or an acceptable alternative-will be required for domestic air travel and access to certain federal facilities. TSA officials emphasize that travelers without a REAL ID won’t necessarily be turned away, if they are carrying another form of valid identification. "You may not have that star on your driver’s license, but you may already have a passport, a passport card, a military DOD card, a DHS Trusted Traveler card," said TSA representative Dan Velez. According to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, 58% of state residents are already REAL ID compliant. TSA says if you don’t have the REAL ID, you will still be able to travel, but it will take significantly more time to get through the security checkpoint.

USA Today [5/5/2025 3:37 PM, Eve Chen, 75858K] reports after years of reminders, the REAL ID requirement is upon us, well most of us. Starting this Wednesday, May 7, most U.S. adults will need a REAL ID to board federally regulated commercial aircraft, access select federal facilities, and enter nuclear power plants. A REAL ID is a state-issued driver’s license or identification card that meets the minimum security standards set by the federal government in the REAL ID Act, which was enacted by Congress in 2005, upon the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation. There are a few exceptions. Travelers may also use a U.S. passport, permanent resident card, Enhanced Tribal Card, foreign-government issued passport, and several other forms of identification accepted by the TSA for air travel. Additionally, five states issue an Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) and Enhanced ID (EID), which the Department of Homeland Security accepts as REAL ID alternatives.

Telemundo [5/5/2025 10:52 PM, Mirna Alsharif and Maya Eaglin, 2454K] reports that, last week, air traffic controllers temporarily lost communication with aircraft flying in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, an incident that has continued to cause significant delays at the air terminal, a major hub. Earlier Monday, a ground suspension of flights was ordered at Newark Airport due to an equipment failure by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has not yet clarified the cause of the problem. During the incident, air traffic controllers at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, a traffic control facility that guides flights in and out of Newark, lost communication with aircraft traveling to and from the airport, preventing them from seeing, hearing or speaking to them, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). Air traffic controllers are responsible for "separating and sequencing aircraft entering and departing Newark Airport," the organization says. It is unknown how long the controllers were without communication with the aircraft. The incident prompted air traffic controllers to take time off from work under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, which covers officers who sustain physical injuries or suffer traumatic events on the job, according to NATCA, a union representing about 20,000 aviation professionals. While the union did not elaborate on the cause of the loss of communication, it said it supports Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s efforts to "improve and modernize our nation’s air traffic control systems and infrastructure." Since the incident, delays and cancellations of flights to and from Newark Airport have been constant. Airlines, including United, have had to cancel hundreds of flights, and dozens more have been diverted to other airports.

E&E News [5/5/2025 4:15 PM, Thomas Frank] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is backing off a statement she made in March about eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saying instead that the Trump administration is “reorienting” the agency. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are reorienting the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s responsibilities and [eliminating] the dysfunction of the current agency as it exists today,” Noem said in written testimony for a Tuesday hearing of a House Appropriations subcommittee. “This alignment seeks to empower State and local jurisdictions and individuals to engage more actively in national resilience and preparedness.” At a televised Cabinet meeting in late March led by President Donald Trump, Noem made the seemingly impromptu comment, “We are eliminating FEMA.” She did not elaborate at the meeting or afterward, leaving many people including FEMA staffers confused.

The Guardian [5/5/2025 7:09 PM, Nina Lakhani, 78900K] reports the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to disaster management will cost lives in the US, with hollowed-out agencies unable to accurately predict, prepare for or respond to extreme weather events, earthquakes and pandemics, a leading expert has warned. Samantha Montano, professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and author of Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis, said the death toll from disasters including hurricanes, tornadoes and water pollution will rise in the US unless Trump backtracks on mass layoffs and funding cuts to key agencies. That includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), whose work relies heavily on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), which is also being dismantled. “The overall risk of threats and hazards occurring in the US has increased since this administration took over, while the capacity of our emergency management system is being diminished,” said Montano in an interview. “Emergency managers will be operating blindly without the data that we have become accustomed to from Noaa and other science agencies. It’s what we rely on to issue warnings and evacuation orders, and pre-position resources. It is really scary because we used to not have good weather data – and death tolls were remarkably higher.

USA Today [5/5/2025 8:54 AM, John Bacon, 75858K] reports a pair of storm systems could fuel heavy rain and flooding across sections of the nation from the Desert Southwest to the East Coast this week, and some areas are bracing for the possibility of tornadoes or hail the size of tennis balls, forecasters said. “A slow-moving storm over the Central United States this week will act as the catalyst for a risk of severe thunderstorms and flooding rainfall,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said. The National Weather Service, citing a "blocky pattern," said moderate to heavy rainfall and flash flooding were possible from the Ohio Valley to the East Coast as well as over the Northern Rockies, Great Basin and Southwest. A congested atmospheric pattern known as an omega block could be to blame. The pattern produces a jet stream, shaped like the Greek letter omega − Ω − and can bring havoc to weather conditions. Some of the areas facing storms are already sodden from days of rain, adding to the risk, Buckingham said. The storms could tap into moisture out of the Gulf, prompting a risk for flooding and severe thunderstorms from Texas to the central Gulf Coast, he said. Portions of West Texas and far eastern New Mexico could see large hailstones and possibly isolated tornadoes late on Monday, AccuWeather warned. Travelers along interstates 10 and 20 in Texas could face travel delays as storms ignite across the region. By Tuesday, a heavy rain and thunderstorm pattern will sweep across eastern Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Intense winds, hail, isolated tornadoes and flash flooding are possible Tuesday and Tuesday night, AccuWeather said. Residents in Western Pennsylvania were bracing for a line of powerful storms forecast to move through the region later Monday. Over 20,000 homes and businesses in Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, remained without power from brutal storm’s last week that left three people dead and more than 400,000 power customers in the dark. "The main threats will be damaging winds and large hail," the weather service office in Pittsburgh posted on X. "With the heavy rainfall over the past few days, flooding is also a possibility."

Wilmington StarNews [5/5/2025 4:23 PM, Savanna Tenenoff, 258K] reports as a Brunswick County wildfire continues to impact the area, the federal government is sending some relief. On May 5, 2025, the Federal Emergency Management Agency authorized federal funds to reimburse costs to North Carolina to fight the Sunset Drive Wildfire in Boiling Spring Lakes. According to a FEMA news release on May 5, the state of North Carolina submitted a request for a Fire Management Assistance Grant for the Sunset Drive Wildfire on May 3, 2025. FEMA Region 4 Regional Administrator Robert Samaan approved the request on May 3 due to the wildfire’s threat of a major disaster, the news release states. The grants provide federal funding for up to 75% of eligible firefighting costs. Eligible costs can include expenses for field camps, equipment use, materials, supplies and mobilization, and demobilization activities attributed to fighting the fire.

Los Angeles Times [5/5/2025 9:30 AM, Corinne Purtill, 13342K] reports L.A.’s January firestorms incinerated more than 16,000 structures across nearly 37,500 acres and unleashed tons of toxic material into the air, water and soil. Many homeowners who lost everything in the Eaton and Palisades fires hoped that the federal debris-removal process would at least offer a fresh start for the land where their houses once stood. That peace of mind may prove elusive. Soil testing commissioned and led by The Times found lead levels up to three times higher than the state health standard on several properties cleaned by the Army Corps of Engineers. It’s the first evidence that the federal government’s decision to skip comprehensive soil sampling — a step carried out after every major wildfire in California since 2007 — is leaving potentially dangerous levels of contamination behind. As Times reporter Tony Briscoe revealed back in February, FEMA is abandoning a long-held practice of testing soil for lingering contaminants after debris and the first 6 inches of topsoil have been cleared away. In the absence of data from the federal government, The Times launched its own soil-testing initiative modeled after the state’s sampling methodology used in previous wildfires.

Washington Times [5/5/2025 2:40 PM, Susan Ferrechio, 1814K] reports federal buildings will no longer need to convert from fossil fuels to electric, the Trump administration announced Monday. Before leaving office, President Biden left a trail of green energy policies aimed at achieving "net zero" carbon emissions by 2045. One of his green dictates would have required more than 300,000 new and renovated federal buildings to phase out and ultimately eliminate fossil fuel use by 2030. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said he’ll delay the rule for a year and review it "to ensure alignment with the current administration’s energy policies, particularly those relating to energy security and reliability.” The move is another blow to the Biden administration’s regulatory policies that were meant to extinguish fossil fuel use in the U.S. and replace it with renewables such as wind and solar. The rule would have required a 90% reduction in fossil fuel use in new federal building projects started between 2025 and 2029, and would have required the complete elimination of fossil fuels in new projects beginning in 2030. The Biden administration said the rule would have reduced carbon emissions from federal buildings by 2 million metric tons and methane emissions by 16,000 tons over the next 30 years. Mr. Wright said pausing the rule "will ensure that our federal buildings are able to utilize the most efficient power available, lowering costs and reducing regulatory overreach.” The Trump administration has acted quickly to revive fossil fuels by re-opening coal plants, expanding drilling for oil and natural gas and increasing liquified natural gas exports.

NewsMax [5/5/2025 3:16 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 4998K] reports former Vice President Kamala Harris took a security detail of more than a dozen bodyguards, including taxpayer-funded Secret Service agents, to a bar while on a date night in New York City with her husband, it was reported. Harris and husband Doug Emhoff were seen leaving The Polo Bar in Manhattan on Sunday night, the New York Post reported. Photos showed at least 25 bodyguards and New York Police Department officers flanking the couple or waiting outside, the Post said. Four bulletproof cars and three additional SUVs were stationed outside the bar on East 55th Street. As a former vice president, Harris and her family are entitled to federally funded protection for roughly six months after leaving office, the newspaper said.

New York Post [5/5/2025 5:10 PM, Anthony Blair, 54903K] reports make way for the Kamala convoy! Former Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff swooped into one of the most exclusive bars in New York City on Sunday night — with her taxpayer-funded Secret Service detail and up to seven SUVs in tow. The failed Democrat presidential candidate and her hubby were spotted leaving celeb hotspot The Polo Bar on East 55th Street ahead of her expected appearance at the Met Gala on Monday. Footage from outside the bar shows several Secret Service agents flanking the couple and waiting outside, where up to seven SUVs were stationed. A former veep usually gets a handful of agents for personal protection, law enforcement sources said.

New York Post [5/5/2025 2:34 PM, Anthony Blair, 54903K] reports Ivanka Trump’s bodyguard forcefully shoved a man after he repeatedly tried to approach the president’s daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, following a night out in Miami. The First Daughter, 43, was leaving the swanky Carbone Beach venue in Miami on Saturday night with her hubby when a man in tan shorts and a black T-shirt approached them, according to a video shared on TikTok. The unidentified man was carrying a Manila folder and tried to sidle up to the couple as they were walking to a car. A security guard in black trousers and a purple shirt then swiftly steps in between the pair and the man and gently pushes the stranger away, the clip shows. Undeterred, the man swats away the security guard and tries to approach the couple again — prompting the guard to turn around and shove the man firmly in the chest, sending him flying backwards off camera.

NBC News [5/5/2025 11:32 PM, Jesse Kirsch and Dennis Romero, 44742K] reports a sleek, 63-foot yacht that nearly sank off Miami Beach on Saturday was packed with social media influencers and had 32 people on board when it started taking on water, officials said. The U.S. Coast Guard said the boat started taking on water near Monument Island in Biscayne Bay on Saturday afternoon, prompting a search-and-rescue response from its Sector Miami unit. All 32 people on board were rescued or evacuated without any reported injuries, Petty Officer 3rd Class Nicholas Strasburg said. "We were able to get on scene and thankfully get all these people, these 32 individuals, off this vessel taking on water, with no medical concerns reported," he said. The boat apparently didn’t hit bottom. The Coast Guard responders used air bags to raise it and keep it afloat outside boat lanes until its owner makes a decision on its destiny with the help of a salvage company, Strasburg said. Because multiple social media influencers were on board, the aftermath included plenty of videos. One video shows some of those on the boat maintaining a nonchalant attitude, with one man joking the vessel had hit an iceberg, Titanic-style. Onlookers on other vessels also captured video of the struggling yacht, which appeared to be sinking stern-first as some of those aboard grabbed onto it bow. The passenger capacity for the model in question, the Tecnomar Lamborghini 63, varies because it is highly configurable for each buyer: One for sale in the area has a listed capacity of 12; a new one at a dealer in North Miami Beach lists a capacity of 16. Passenger capacity can also depend on layout, comfort considerations, and whether the boat’s owners prioritize speed. All, however, have 24 tons of capacity, which experts say is generally a better guide for a boat’s ability to handle weight. The Miami Herald reported on Monday that the boat is the same as a 2023 model listed for sale for $4.7 million and featuring a seating capacity of 12. The listing states the boat is not for sale in U.S. waters to a U.S. resident. It’s not clear why. A contact for the listing said he had no information about the incident and didn’t want to speak. The publication said the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating the cause of the incident. A spokesperson for the agency did not immediately respond to a request for more information Monday night.

Reported similarly:
AP [5/5/2025 7:59 AM, Staff, 5046K]
Breitbart [5/5/2025 12:36 PM, Alana Mastrangelo, 2923K]
NewsNation [5/5/2025 11:21 AM, Staff, 6866K]

(B) CNN News Central [5/5/2025 2:29 PM, Staff] reports 32 people were safely rescued from a sinking yacht near Miami Beach over the weekend. Coast Guard officials say the 63-foot vessel began sinking and at one point was seen sticking straight up out of the water. No injuries were reported. The Coast Guard thanked nearby Good Samaritan boaters who assisted with the rescue.

AP [5/5/2025 5:50 PM, Jack Brook] reports federal authorities are seeking to contain and clean up the damage from a decades-old oil well in southeast Louisiana that spewed crude and natural gas for more than a week. Upwards of 79,000 gallons (299,047 liters) of "oily water mixture" have been recovered near Garden Island Bay in Plaquemines Parish at the edge of the Mississippi River Delta Basin, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday. The region is still recovering from the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill 15 years ago. "Gaining control of the discharge is a vital milestone, but it marks only the beginning of our work," U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Greg Callaghan, who is coordinating the federal response, said in an emailed statement. Authorities say they have deployed more than 20,000 feet (6 kilometers) of containment booms. The cause of the leak remains under investigation, officials said. The U.S. Coast Guard said it has "successfully secured" the well that’s responsible for the leakage, owned by the firm Spectrum OpCo, LLC. But the total amount of discharged oil remained "unknown." So far, only one bird covered in oil has been reported by federal authorities. Plaquemines Parish has 20 pending lawsuits against oil and gas companies for failing to clean up infrastructure and surrounding coastal wetlands. Last month, a jury ordered Chevron to pay more than $740 million in damages to the parish. Louisiana U.S. Rep. Troy Carter said that the spill called attention to the "clear and present danger" posed by cutting federal employees at agencies like NOAA who have experience handling oil spills.

Louisiana Radio Network [5/5/2025 3:14 PM, Andrew Greenstein, 6K] reports the Coast Guard says it has gained the upper hand on an oil spill off Plaquemines Parish. “At approximately noon (Sunday), our well intervention team — they were successful in their attempt to cut the flange on the discharging wellhead, which allowed them to install a system that would allow us to regain control of the source,” says Coast Guard Lt. Phillip VanderWeit. “And then yesterday afternoon, we successfully secured the source of discharge.” Well 59, located near Garden Island Bay, sprung a leak more than a week ago, spewing tens of thousands of gallons of oil into gulf waters. “We’ve got teams on site. We were able to bring more assets in over the weekend to continue the very important work to clean up as much oil as possible as quickly as possible and as safely as possible,” says Lt. VanderWeit. “As of this morning, we have collected a total of 79,212 gallons of oily water mixture. And it’s a lengthy but important process to separate the oil out of that mixture.” Exactly how long the remainder of the cleanup will last is anyone’s guess at this point.

New York Times [5/5/2025 5:44 PM, Amanda Holpuch and Johnny Diaz, 145325K] reports at least three people died after a boat that appeared to be carrying migrants overturned near San Diego on Monday, and there were indications that others might still be unaccounted for, officials said. The authorities received a report of a capsized panga boat at Torrey Pines State Beach just before 7 a.m. on Monday, according to Jorge Moreno, a California State Parks spokesman. Crews found 17 life jackets, he said. A survivor told members of the Encinitas Fire Department, which also responded, that there had been 18 people on the boat, though the department said that only seven people were found at the beach. The U.S. Coast Guard said earlier on Monday that it was searching for nine people who were missing after it received a report of an overturned vessel. Three people were found dead at the beach, Mr. Moreno said. Four other people — three females and one male — were taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla with respiratory-related issues, the hospital said on Monday. Three of the patients were in their 30s and one was a teenager, it said. The Encinitas Fire Department described three of the patients as having mild to moderate injuries and said that one person was in critical condition. The parks department said that search and rescue efforts ended just before 9 a.m. local time.

The New York Times [5/5/2025 5:44 PM, Amanda Holpuch and Johnny Diaz, 145325K] reports at least three people died after a boat that appeared to be carrying migrants overturned near San Diego on Monday, and there were indications that others might still be unaccounted for, officials said. The authorities received a report of a capsized panga boat at Torrey Pines State Beach just before 7 a.m. on Monday, according to Jorge Moreno, a California State Parks spokesman. Crews found 17 life jackets, he said. A survivor told members of the Encinitas Fire Department, which also responded, that there had been 18 people on the boat, though the department said that only seven people were found at the beach. The U.S. Coast Guard said earlier on Monday that it was searching for nine people who were missing after it received a report of an overturned vessel. Three people were found dead at the beach, Mr. Moreno said. Four other people — three females and one male — were taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla with respiratory-related issues, the hospital said on Monday. Three of the patients were in their 30s and one was a teenager, it said. The Encinitas Fire Department described three of the patients as having mild to moderate injuries and said that one person was in critical condition. The parks department said that search and rescue efforts ended just before 9 a.m. local time. CBS News [5/5/2025 7:30 PM, Emily Mae Czachor, 51661K] reports a small boat believed to be carrying migrants capsized early Monday off the coast of San Diego, leaving at least three people dead and four others injured. The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday afternoon that crews were searching for at least seven others after earlier saying nine people were missing. The panga-style boat — a small, open, outboard-powered fishing vessel — overturned near Torrey Pines State Beach with at least 16 people on board, a U.S. Coast Guard official told CBS News. Among them were at least two children, according to San Diego CBS affiliate KFMB, which also reported that four people were hospitalized in the aftermath of the incident. The Coast Guard official told CBS News that it is treating it as a suspected human smuggling incident. U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Chris Sappey told The Associated Press that it was unclear where the boat was coming from before it flipped about 35 miles north of the Mexico border. He said similar vessels were commonly used by smugglers. "They were not tourists," Sappey said. "They are believed to be migrants." Officials had no other details about those on board, including the three people who died. It was also unclear if anyone made it to shore on their own and left the area, The AP reported. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said its deputies were assisting. The sheriff told KFMB that no one had been detained in connection with the incident. Video published by the station showed the empty boat near the shoreline at Torrey Pines State Beach, while lifeguards patrolled the water and law enforcement vehicles parked on the sand. A Coast Guard helicopter surveyed the area from above. Witnesses reported seeing a boat capsize near the shore at about 6:30 a.m. local time, Lt. Nick Backouris of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department told The Associated Press. "A doctor hiking nearby called in and said, ‘I see people doing CPR on the beach, I’m running that way,’" Backouris said. The wooden boat was more than 20 feet long, and had scuffed blue paint and wooden planks for seats, The AP reported. Inside the boat were a pair of running shoes, more than a dozen life vests, an empty waterproof cellphone bag and various water bottles. In addition to sheriff’s deputies and Coast Guard, officials with the Encinitas Fire Department and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol were also at the scene, KFMB reported. The immigration status of those on board was "not known at the moment," Jorge Sanchez, the deputy fire chief, said during an interview at the scene. Sanchez said multiple people were found on the beach after the boat overturned, and confirmed it was considered a "mass casualty incident." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [5/5/2025 1:41 PM, Hannah Fry, 13342K]
Reuters [5/5/2025 3:03 PM, Karen Freifeld, 41523K]
ABC News [5/5/2025 12:06 PM, Staff, 34586K] Video: HERE
NBC News [5/5/2025 4:13 PM, David K. Li and Andrew Blankstein, 44742K]
CNN [5/5/2025 9:46 PM, Zoe Sottile, 22131K]
San Diego Union Tribune [5/5/2025 12:41 PM, Karen Kucher and Alexandra Mendoza, 1682K]

(B) CBS Mornings [5/5/2025 11:55 AM, Staff] reports that in the Torrey Pines area, a panga has overturned and sheriff’s deputies say multiple people are dead. The sheriff’s department, fire department, Border Patrol, and the US Coast Guard are on scene. At around 6:00 am, there were reports of a white boat capsized north of Torrey Pines State Beach. There were 18 people including two children on the boat. The battalion chief has confirmed three people have died and four others are currently in the hospital.

CBS News [5/5/2025 8:37 PM, Elise Preston, 51661K] Video: HERE reports at least three people were killed and four others injured when a small boat capsized Monday morning off the coast of San Diego, officials said. At least seven others were missing.

Telemundo [5/5/2025 9:40 PM, Daniel Andrade, 41K] reports according to pro-migrant activists, the closure of CBP One and the strengthening of security in the border wall areas can force undocumented people to seek riskier ways to cross into the United States, how to seek to cross through the sea. "It is very regrettable this that has not been corroborated but that usually happens, there have been migrants who have wanted to cross the sea here through Playas de Tijuana and some have died in the attempt and have drowned. Following the dumpling of a panga on the San Diego coast that left dead and missing, a representative of the migrant community in Tijuana believes that if confirmed that they are undocumented, would be some of the effects of the current rigid migration policy. The removal of legal avenues such as CBP One, the placement of barbed wire on the wall and its strict surveillance means that some migrants can look for other options. I think this is a precedent for what may be happening or will continue to happen more strongly on the basis that the security measures implemented in the border strip with the National Guard taking care of its border and on this side also with the Mexican National Guard. This believes that the community is looking for other places even further away from the urban area where their lives are at risk, Garcia Lara added.

Yahoo News [5/5/2025 10:25 PM, Anna Ashcraft, 59943K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a boat carrying suspected undocumented migrants off the coast of San Diego on Friday. The Coast Guard reported on Monday crews in San Diego intercepted a 15-foot center console-style boat carrying four men, all who claimed Mexican nationality, near the Quivira Basin by Mission Bay and Mission Beach in San Diego at 12:10 p.m. on Friday. All four men were taken into custody by the Coast Guard and transferred to U.S. Border Patrol custody.

Reuters [5/5/2025 5:51 PM, Staff, 41523K] reports hackers defaced one of the websites of the airline at the center of President Donald Trump’s campaign of deportations to an offshore detention center in El Salvador, a Reuters viewing of the site showed on Monday. A message posted to a subdomain of GlobalX said the site had been hijacked by hackers operating under the banner of "Anonymous," a label often chosen to evoke rebellious cyber activism. GlobalX’s fleet of aircraft played a key role in the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in March despite a judge’s order that the planes be turned around. The deportations have recently been ruled unlawful, but the Trump administration has so far refused to back off the campaign. The website showed white text on a black background, accompanied by an illustration of a Guy Fawkes mask, a symbol commonly used to symbolize Anonymous. In their message, the hackers said that "Anonymous has decided to enforce the Judge’s order since you and your sycophant staff ignore lawful orders that go against your fascist plans.”

Reuters [5/5/2025 7:10 PM, Raphael Satter, 41523K] reports the communications app used by U.S. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said Monday that it had suspended services following a reported hack that exposed some of its messages. The Department of Homeland Security separately said that customs officials had disabled the app on their devices. Portland, Oregon-based Smarsh, which runs the TeleMessage app, said in an email it was "investigating a potential security incident" and was suspending all its services "out of an abundance of caution." Smarsh did not immediately respond to a request for more detail about the breach. DHS said in an email the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency had "immediately disabled TeleMessage as a precautionary measure." "The investigation into the scope of the breach is ongoing," it said. A Reuters photograph showed Waltz using TeleMessage, an unofficial version of the popular encrypted messaging app Signal, on his phone during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

New York Times [5/5/2025 9:07 PM, Julian E. Barnes, 145325K] reports the application that the Trump White House has been using to collect and securely store messages sent on popular commercial encrypted apps has temporarily suspended service in the wake of a security breach, the application’s owner said on Monday. The application, TeleMessage, is owned by Smarsh, a company based in Portland, Ore., which provides tools for governments to comply with record-keeping regulations and laws. Last week, a Reuters photograph of Mike Waltz, then the national security adviser, showed that he was using the application to read Signal messages on his phone. On Sunday, 404 Media reported that a hacker had breached the Israeli company that makes TeleMessage and stolen the contents of some direct messages and group chats sent using its Signal clone, as well as modified versions of WhatsApp, Telegram and WeChat. Smarsh declined to answer questions, but in a statement, a spokeswoman said that it was investigating “a recent security incident” and that, “Out of an abundance of caution, all TeleMessage services have been temporarily suspended.” The use of Signal by Trump administration officials came to light after Mr. Waltz created a chat on the platform to discuss strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen, but inadvertently added a journalist from The Atlantic to the group. It is not clear when Mr. Waltz started using TeleMessage. A federal judge ordered the messages from the original Signal chat be preserved, but government lawyers later told a court in a different case that messages from the original Signal chat had been deleted from one participant’s phone, that of John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director. Security experts have raised concerns about the service, noting that installing such an application to archive encrypted messages creates numerous security vulnerabilities. WhatsApp and other messaging companies are actively attempting to ban TeleMessage.

CNN [5/5/2025 7:55 PM, Sean Lyngaas, 908K] reports a phone app that Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, apparently used to save his text messages has temporarily suspended its services as it investigates a cybersecurity incident, a spokesperson for the app’s parent company told CNN on Monday. TeleMessage, which makes software for preserving and organizing messages sent via Signal and other mobile apps, is responding to a "recent security incident" and has hired an external cybersecurity firm to help investigate, a spokesperson for Oregon-based digital communications firm Smarsh told CNN. "Out of an abundance of caution, all TeleMessage services have been temporarily suspended. All other Smarsh products and services remain fully operational," the Smarsh spokesperson said. The extent of the hack is unclear. A Smarsh spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about what data, if any, the hackers took. Smarsh acquired Israel-based TeleMessage last year. 404 Media, a tech-focused news outlet, first reported on the hack affecting TeleMessage. Waltz had been under intense pressure since news broke in March that he had inadvertently added the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to a Signal chat in which senior members of the Trump administration disclosed sensitive information on a US military strike in Yemen. A photograph taken by Reuters of Waltz on his phone during a Cabinet meeting Wednesday appeared to show Waltz using TeleMessage. The photo appeared to show chat logs on Waltz’s phone with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others. All three men were in the now-infamous Signal group chat. CNN has requested comment from the National Security Council on Waltz’s use of TeleMessage. Trump announced on Thursday that Waltz would be leaving his post as national security adviser to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, pending Senate confirmation. Joshua Steinman, who served as a top cyber official at the National Security Council in the first Trump term, said the use of TeleMessage, if confirmed, could serve as a "juicy intel target" for foreign powers. "**If true**, why was the U.S. Government using a foreign built technology (I don’t care which foreign) to capture these messages?" Steinman posted on X on Monday. "Would literally be such a juicy intel target that I just straight up assume it’s being exploited.”

CyberScoop [5/5/2025 1:59 PM, Matt Kapko] reports federal prosecutors indicted a man believed to be living in Yemen with deploying ransomware against multiple U.S. and global organizations. Rami Khaled Ahmed, 36, allegedly infected businesses, schools and hospitals with “Black Kingdom” ransomware, U.S. prosecutors said Thursday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California charged Ahmed, also known as “Black Kingdom,” with conspiracy, intentional damage to a protected computer and threatening damage to a protected computer. Prosecutors said Ahmed and unnamed co-conspirators transmitted Black Kingdom ransomware to about 1,500 computer systems in the United States and elsewhere. Ahmed allegedly developed and deployed Black Kingdom ransomware to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange. Victims of the Black Kingdom ransomware spree include a medical billing services company in California, a ski resort in Oregon, a school district in Pennsylvania and a health clinic in Wisconsin between March 2021 and June 2023, according to the Justice Department.

CyberScoop [5/5/2025 6:00 PM, Matt Kapko] reports Google addressed 47 vulnerabilities affecting Android devices in its May security update, including an actively exploited software defect that was first disclosed in March. Google said the high-severity vulnerability, CVE-2025-27363, “may be under limited, targeted exploitation.” The out-of-bounds write defect in FreeType versions 2.13.0 and below may result in arbitrary code execution, Facebook said in March when it disclosed the vulnerability in a security advisory acting in its capacity as a CVE numbering authority. The vulnerability has a base score of 8.1 on the CVSS scale and is still awaiting further assessment by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Vulnerability Database program. Google’s security update includes 15 high-severity vulnerabilities affecting the Android framework and nine high-severity software defects affecting the Android system. The vulnerabilities, if exploited, could allow attackers to achieve escalation of privileges, remote code execution, local code execution, information disclosure and denial of service.

CNN [5/5/2025 9:02 AM, Hanna Park and Lauren Mascarenhas, 908K] reports three people were killed and five others were injured in a mass shooting Sunday evening at a restaurant near Phoenix, Glendale police said. Officers responding around 7:45 p.m. to calls of a shooting found an "enormous scene," said police in Glendale, Arizona. The city is about 10 miles northwest of downtown Phoenix. "We’ve got multiple calls of a shooting that happened at an establishment," police spokesperson Moroni Mendez said. "It was very chaotic.” Police believe multiple shooters were involved. Several people have been detained for questioning, but no suspects have been taken into custody, Mendez said. No officers or security personnel fired their guns, Mendez said. Police do not believe there is an ongoing threat to the public, he said. It was among 97 mass shootings so far this year in the United States, with four or more people wounded or killed, not including shooters, according to Gun Violence Archive. The events leading up to the Glendale shooting remain unclear, and police are asking people with information to come forward. The five people injured were wounded by gunshots or shrapnel, Mendez noted. It’s unclear whether the victims knew one another, he added. "We want to make sure we do a complete and thorough investigation and do right by the victims," Mendez said. "Obviously, they were involved because they were here tonight. Whether they know each other, whether they’re related, whether their allies or opponents – we don’t know yet, and that’s what we’re trying to solve and figure out," Mendez said. Bystander Lupe Rodriguez described the scene to CNN affiliate KPHO/KTVK. "I heard people yelling out names. There was a man on the ground and it didn’t look like he made it," Rodriguez said. "His father was yelling out his name. It was pretty bad.” "It’s going to be several hours before this whole thing is cleared up," Mendez said. "We’ll probably be working well into the daytime hours.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
ABC News [5/5/2025 5:08 AM, Staff, 34586K]

Bloomberg [5/5/2025 8:20 AM, Jason Leopold, 16228K] reports the Trump administration is “decommissioning” a Department of Justice unit that has long been at the center of dismantling transnational organized crime networks, drug cartels and human trafficking rings. Leaders of the unit, called the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, or OCDETF, were told they had until Sept. 30 to shut down operations, people familiar with the matter said. The people asked not to be identified, citing concerns over potential retribution. An email sent last Monday by a DOJ budget analyst to a counterpart at OCDETF said that the unit’s fiscal year 2026 budget would be “zeroed out” and the independent office dissolved, according to records obtained by Bloomberg News in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and the people familiar with the matter. A reason wasn’t specified in the documents and it’s unclear who was responsible for making the decision. A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The news comes as the Trump administration is issuing broad cuts across the entire federal government, with many departments from the Environmental Protection Agency to Housing and Urban Development seeing their budgets dramatically reduced. On Friday, the White House released the administration’s budget request for 2026. It proposed cuts across the federal government totaling $163 billion. The DOJ is one agency facing steep cuts. The administration recommended slashing its budget by nearly 8% to $33.2 billion, including eliminating $1 billion in grants to some programs the White House called “woke” and “radical.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms would see a combined $1 billion in cuts. Draining OCDETF’s budget was not included in the White House proposal sent to Congress. Over the past two fiscal years, the unit’s investigations and prosecutions have netted more than $2 billion in proceeds seized and forfeited from criminal networks, according to the Government Accountability Office. But its 2025 budget was just $550 million, a $17 million increase over 2024. Established in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan, the unit’s task forces are made up of hundreds of prosecutors and thousands of intelligence and law enforcement personnel from across the federal government. They work jointly on investigations that seek to combat illicit finance and take down international drug trafficking organizations. The task forces played a role in the 2019 capture of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The program’s crown jewel is its sprawling fusion center located in Virginia. The multimillion dollar classified facility houses reams of intelligence and financial data that investigators and prosecutors use to build mosaics on individuals and criminal networks they’ve targeted. The DOJ budget analyst’s April 28 email said the fusion center would be closed. Between it and the task forces’ main office, the operation employs about 40 people whose jobs are now in jeopardy.

The Hill [5/5/2025 8:00 AM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12829K] reports President Trump confirmed late Sunday that deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller is at the top of his list of possible contenders to permanently fill the role of national security adviser. "Stephen Miller is at the top of the totem pole. I think he sort of indirectly already has that job," Trump told NewsNation’s Libbey Dean aboard Air Force One when asked whether Miller was under consideration for the post. "He’s a very valued person in the administration," Trump said. Trump added that his timeline to pick a replacement is "within six months.” Trump last week reassigned former national security adviser Mike Waltz to be his new nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. At the same time, he tapped Secretary of State Marco Rubio to serve as national security adviser on an interim basis. Axios reported Friday that Miller was "gathering buzz" in Washington amid the search for Waltz’s replacement. Miller has been a leading force in Trump’s immigration crackdown, as the president’s homeland security adviser, and is often a public face of the administration’s most divisive deportation actions. The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. By signing up, I agree to the Terms of Use, have reviewed the Privacy Policy, and to receive personalized offers and communications via email, on-site notifications, and targeted advertising using my email address from The Hill, Nexstar Media Inc., and its affiliates. Becoming national security adviser would mark a significant shift for Miller within Trump’s inner circle. Miller was part of a Signal group that accidentally included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. In that discussion, Miller effectively shut down debate among top officials over Trump’s plans to attack Houthi rebels threatening Red Sea shipping lanes.

FOX News [5/5/2025 10:16 AM, Greg Norman, 46189K] reports Senate Democrats are warning that Mike Waltz is going to have a very difficult time during his confirmation hearing for the role of United Nations ambassador. "It will be a brutal, brutal hearing. He’s not qualified for the job, just by nature of the fact that he participated in this Signal chain," Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois told CBS News’ "Face the Nation.” "Mike Waltz is doing what we call – he is failing up," added Duckworth, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "He is failing in his job and getting promoted to be ambassador. That’s not what our nation needs at the United Nations.” "I think it will be a brutal confirmation hearing," Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia also said to CNN’s "State of the Union." "I think he’s going to have tough questions, not only from Democrats but from Republicans.” Waltz has been facing scrutiny after The Atlantic magazine exposed a Signal group chat that his team had set up to discuss strikes against the Houthis in March. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he plans to appoint a new national security adviser in about six months, telling reporters Waltz did not resign, but was instead tapped for an upgraded position as the administration’s ambassador to the United Nations. Democrats appear hungry to use Waltz’s nomination as a forum to air grievances against other foreign policy leaders in the Trump administration – particularly Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Washington Post [5/5/2025 10:00 PM, Dan Lamothe, 31735K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday directed significant cuts to the U.S. military’s senior-most ranks, saying the elimination of positions held by about 100 generals and admirals is necessary to slash “redundant force structure” and streamline the Pentagon’s sprawling bureaucracy. The plan was announced with scant detail in a one-page memo signed by the defense secretary. It calls for a “minimum” 20 percent cut to the number of four-star generals and admirals — the military’s top rank — on active duty and a corresponding number of generals in the National Guard. There also will be another 10 percent reduction, at least, to the total number of generals and admirals across the force. It was unclear whether Hegseth intends to gradually phase out the targeted positions, which his memo does not identify, or move quickly to force out the men and women who now fill those roles. Officials on Hegseth’s staff did not respond to questions about how quickly they may adopt the cuts, in keeping with the Pentagon’s recent efforts to limit communication with the public via the news media. The move follows a purge of top military leaders that occurred in the opening weeks of President Donald Trump’s return to office. In his memo, Hegseth said the measures would safeguard the United States’ status as “the most lethal fighting force in the world” by promoting “greater efficiency, innovation, and preparedness for any challenge that lies ahead.” There are more than 800 generals and admirals across the U.S. military, according to a study released last year by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which notes there is an enduring argument about how many the military should have. The number of four-star generals and admirals, in particular, has swelled significantly over the past few decades, the study found. Those in four-star positions typically have roles overseeing large organizations as well as extensive education. They also have broad military experience, often in combat. In a video posted to social media Monday, Hegseth described the effort as the most comprehensive review of military leadership structure since Congress passed the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, landmark legislation that made the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff the president’s top military adviser and enhanced the roles of both the defense secretary and four-star generals and admirals overseeing major headquarters known as combatant commands.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [5/5/2025 7:36 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 12829K]

Federal News Network [5/5/2025 2:35 PM, Michele Sandiford, 1089K] reports Defense Secretary Hegseth has launched the development of a new National Defense Strategy — a major policy document that sets the Pentagon’s strategic goals and priorities. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, who played a key role in crafting the 2018 National Defense Strategy during Trump’s first term, will lead the new NDS effort. Hegseth said, “The NDS is the single most important document to ensure the Department is operating in accordance with the President’s and my intent."

Wall Street Journal [5/5/2025 5:52 PM, Alexander Ward and Nancy A. Youssef, 646K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used Signal more extensively for official Pentagon business than previously disclosed, engaging in at least a dozen separate chats, people familiar with his management practices said. In one case, he told aides on the encrypted app to inform foreign governments about an unfolding military operation, the people said. He also used the nongovernmental message service to discuss media appearances, foreign travel, his schedule, and other unclassified but sensitive information, two people said. The former Fox News host set up many of the chats himself, sending texts from an unsecured line in his Pentagon office and from his personal phone, the two said. Some of Hegseth’s messages were posted by his military aide, Marine Col. Ricky Buria, who was given access to the secretary’s personal phone, the people said. It was Buria who posted information in March about an imminent U.S. attack on Houthi militants in Yemen into a Signal chat group that included the secretary’s wife, brother, and private lawyer, the people said. Hegseth’s frequent use of the app in his daily duties and Buria’s role in posting information on his behalf haven’t been previously reported. The Pentagon and Buria didn’t respond to requests for comment.

New York Times [5/6/2025 4:20 AM, Brooks Barnes, 330K] reports President Trump said he would impose a 100 percent tariff on movies “produced” outside the United States, proclaiming in a social media post on Sunday that the issue posed a national security threat. Mr. Trump said he had authorized Jamieson Greer, the United States trade representative, to begin the process of taxing “any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.” Mr. Trump added, “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat.” The Motion Picture Association, which represents the biggest Hollywood studios in Washington, declined to comment. The association’s latest economic impact report, based primarily on government data and released in 2023, showed that the film industry generated a positive U.S. balance of trade for every major market in the world. As is often the case with Mr. Trump’s declarations on social media, it was not entirely clear what he was talking about. Did he mean any movie, including independent foreign-language films destined for art house cinemas and movies that play exclusively on streaming services? Would such a tariff apply only to movies receiving tax incentives from foreign countries — or to any movie with scenes shot overseas? What about postproduction visual effects work? A single superhero movie can often involve a half-dozen or more specialized firms scattered around the world. On Monday, a spokesman for the White House said that “no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made.” Technically speaking, the vast majority of movies shown in American cinemas are produced in the United States — scripts written, preproduction planning handled, principal actors cast, footage edited and sound added. But Hollywood has increasingly turned to foreign locales for the cameras-rolling part of the moviemaking process because, as with so much traditional manufacturing, it is much cheaper. Britain, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other countries offer tax incentives that Disney, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and other major movie companies, including Netflix and Amazon, have used. International locales also often come with lower labor costs. As a result, thousands of middle-class film workers in the United States — camera operators, set decorators, lighting technicians, makeup artists, caterers, electricians — have seen work evaporate. According to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, roughly 18,000 full-time jobs have been eliminated in the past three years, primarily in California.

FOX News [5/5/2025 2:24 PM, Danielle Wallace, 46189K] reports the White House said Monday "no final decisions" have been made regarding the Trump administration’s planned tariffs on foreign moviemaking, as one expert welcomed the potential action as a reprieve for the American film industry. "Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the Administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement to Fox News Digital. President Donald Trump first announced in a Truth Social post on Sunday that he was authorizing the Department of Commerce and the U.S. trade representative "to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands." Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick responded on X, "We’re on it.” "The elite in Hollywood will largely hate this because they’ve sold out their workers in favor of maximum profits while shooting in insanely cheap labor environments," Robby Starbuck, a former Hollywood producer and conservative activist, told Fox News Digital. "American workers who are referred to as ‘below the line’ in filmmaking are over the moon about getting more jobs back here and rental houses couldn’t be happier.” "Overall, while there will be short-term pain for studios, in the long run this will strengthen the American film business," Starbuck said. "Also, communist China’s propaganda efforts take a major hit with this move.” On-location production in the greater Los Angeles area dropped by 22.4% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same time last year, according to FilmLA, a nonprofit that organizes film permits for the city and county. One movie producer told New York Times last month that the Hollywood film industry is undergoing an "existential crisis," as the newspaper noted that reality shows, indie films and even blockbuster films are increasingly making business decisions to film overseas to the detriment of the middle-class workers in the Los Angeles-area, such as camera operators, set decorators and lighting technicians. In his Truth Social post, Trump said the movie industry in America is "DYING a very fast death," arguing that other countries "are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States.” "This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!" Trump wrote. "WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!".

Washington Examiner [5/5/2025 6:56 PM, Christian Datoc, 2296K] reports Trump placed a temporary 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariff rates he announced in early April, allowing his administration months to seek out new, bilateral trade deals, but he’d also previously teased additional sectoral tariffs on pharmaceuticals and other goods to be announced in the near future. And, when asked Monday evening, the president confirmed that it would be a matter of days before the pharmaceutical tariffs would be announced. "I’ll announce it over the next two weeks," he told reporters. Trump’s comments came during a health-focused executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office. During that ceremony, the president took a slate of new executive actions, including signing separate orders blocking gain-of-function research in U.S. labs and directing the Food and Drug Administration to incentivize drugmakers to manufacture their products in the U.S. by streamlining federal regulations, in addition to hinting at additional healthcare actions next week. "I think we’re going to have another conference next week, which will be very important, having to do with the world of medical, and I think we’ll be very productive," Trump concluded.

Reuters [5/5/2025 3:43 PM, Kanishka Singh, 41523K] reports the governors of six U.S. states said on Monday they have invited Canadian provincial leaders to discuss the impact of tariffs imposed by Donald Trump while being critical of the measures taken by the U.S. president. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Maine Governor Janet Mills, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee and Vermont Governor Phil Scott extended the invitation to the premiers of six Canadian provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Quebec, the statement shared by the office of the Massachusetts governor added. The governor of Vermont is from Trump’s Republican Party. The other five governors are Democrats. Trump, who muses about annexing Canada, has imposed tariffs on some Canadian goods after taking office in January. His actions and remarks have not gone down well in Canada, where Prime Minister Mark Carney has said Trump wanted to break the country. Carney, who won the recent Canadian elections, has regularly termed the U.S. actions as a betrayal and says Canada must reduce its reliance on the United States, which takes 75% of all Canadian exports. The invitation to the Canadian premiers by the six northeastern U.S. states was for a discussion in Boston that would include talks about "the impacts of President Trump’s tariffs and how American and Canadian leaders can continue to work together to maintain strong trade relations," the statement from the U.S. states added. The Massachusetts governor said Trump’s tariffs were "undermining" U.S.-Canada ties while the governor of Maine called Trump’s tariffs "haphazard" and his rhetoric "harmful.” "As I have said in the past, I don’t believe increasing tariffs on our friends and close allies is in the best interest of Vermont or the United States," Vermont’s Republican governor said.

NewsMax [5/5/2025 6:22 AM, Mark John, 4998K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are increasingly clogging up the wheels of a world economy which for decades were greased by predictable and relatively free trade. Big-name multinationals right down to niche e-commerce players last week cut sales targets, warned of job cuts and reviewed their business plans, while major economies revised down growth prospects amid bleak data read-outs. While financial markets are betting the U.S. and China will pull back from an all-out trade war and that Trump will cut deals to avert higher tariffs on others, the sheer uncertainty of where this ends has become a major drag factor in itself. "U.S. tariff policy is a serious negative shock for the world in the near term," said Isabelle Mateos y Lago, group chief economist at French bank BNP Paribas. "The US tariffs end-game may be further away and at a higher level than previously thought," she said of blanket US tariffs currently set at a baseline of 10% alongside higher, sector-specific charges on products such as steel, aluminum and autos. Beijing said on Friday it was evaluating an offer from Washington to hold talks over 145% U.S. tariffs, to which it has responded with 125% levies. Trump’s administration has also suggested it is close to deals with countries including India, South Korea and Japan to avert more tariffs in weeks to come. In the meantime companies such as Swedish appliances maker Electrolux slashed its outlook while Volvo Cars, computer gadget maker Logitech and drinks giant Diageo abandoned their targets on the uncertainty. Last week’s removal of the "de minimis" duty-free treatment of e-commerce packages worth less than $800 for products from China is a hammer-blow for many smaller players. "We’re going from zero to 145%, which is really untenable for companies and untenable for customers," said Cindy Allen, CEO of Trade Force Multiplier, a global trade consultancy. "I’ve seen a lot of small to medium-sized businesses just choose to exit the market altogether.” The tariff outlook prompted the Bank of Japan to cut its growth forecasts last week, while trade tensions were cited by forecasters in growth outlook downgrades for the Netherlands and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. While the official measures of activity in top economies are still catching up with the downbeat mood, it is surfacing in the closely-watched surveys of purchasing managers at factories around the world. China’s factory activity contracted at the fastest pace in 16 months in April, one such survey showed last week, while a similar UK readout showed British factory exports last month shrinking at their sharpest pace in almost five years. Economists were quick to caution that a stronger-looking read-out from export-focused Germany might largely be due to factories front-loading business to get it out of the door before the tariffs took effect. "(This) means that there might be a backlash in the coming months," warned Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank AG. However, while front-loading may also have helped India to a 10-month high in manufacturing growth in April, analysts noted the country — which faces lower tariffs than China and towards which Apple has shifted some output — could end up a genuine winner. "India is well positioned to be an alternative to China as a supplier of goods to the US in the immediate term," emerging markets economist Shilan Shah at Capital Economics said, predicting punitive tariffs on China were "here to stay.”

Reuters [5/5/2025 7:18 AM, Sabine Siebold and Elizabeth Piper, 24727K] reports Ukraine’s western allies are in discussions about supplying additional Patriot air defence systems to Kyiv and are aiming to reach an agreement before a NATO summit at the end of June, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The U.S. and Greece are among the potential suppliers of these systems, according to the source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Ukraine is increasingly desperate to get more Patriots, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy telling CBS news last month his government was ready to buy 10 of the U.S.-made air defence systems that are vital for shooting down Russian ballistic missiles. According to Ukrainian Defence Express military analysts, as of April this year, Ukraine had seven fully operational Patriot systems. Quoting U.S. officials, New York Times reported on Sunday that Washington was planning to send a Patriot system that was based in Israel to Ukraine after it is refurbished. It added that allies were talking about "the logistics of Germany or Greece" giving another one. Zelenskiy said he had discussed air defence systems with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral in the Vatican, in what he called the best meeting the two ever had.

New York Times [5/5/2025 7:20 PM, Matthew Cullen, 145325K] reports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared today that Israel was “on the eve of a forceful entry to Gaza.” Israel’s security cabinet voted last night to approve a new plan for tens of thousands of additional soldiers to seize and hold territory in Gaza and relocate Palestinians to the south. Netanyahu said Israel’s military leaders told him that “it’s time to launch the concluding moves.” The escalation followed more than two months in which Israel continued to blockade and bombard the enclave as cease-fire talks to free the remaining hostages ground to a near standstill. Israel has barred any humanitarian aid to Gaza in an effort to press Hamas to surrender, leading to “catastrophic” shortages of food, water and medicine, the U.N. said. An Israeli spokesman said the offensive would aim to increase pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and to destroy all of the group’s infrastructure. Officials said it would start slowly ahead of President Trump’s trip next week to the region. Cease-fire negotiations are ongoing, but the officials said that if a deal is not reached soon, the expanded ground operation would commence in earnest.

AP [5/5/2025 4:09 PM, Julia Frankel, 48304K] reports Israeli military bulldozers demolished most of a Palestinian Bedouin village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday, taking out the hamlet’s infrastructure and leaving residents wandering amid the rubble of their homes. The bulldozers rolled into Khalet Al-Dab in the morning, taking down most of the village’s structures, said Basel Adra, a filmmaker, journalist and activist from the area. Nine homes, five tents and five animal pens were demolished, said Mohammed Rabia, head of the village council in the area. COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for administrative affairs in the occupied West Bank, said it demolished the buildings because they were built illegally in an area designated as a closed firing zone. Palestinians have long said that securing Israeli permission to build in the West Bank is nearly impossible. Ali Dababsa, 87, a shepherd who watched the forces demolish his home, looked aghast. “We want to die under this soil, this land is precious to us and we are the owners of this land,” he said, as he and other villagers gathered on a hilltop. The demolitions took place in an area of the West Bank known as Masafer Yatta, where radical Israeli settlers are expanding a network of outposts in the area. Palestinians say the settlers operate with the tacit consent of the Israeli state, which carries out home demolitions and rarely prosecutes settlers for instances of violence against Palestinians.

Breitbart [5/5/2025 1:36 PM, Frances Martel, 2923K] reports Tehran welcomed the deputy science minister of Venezuela on Sunday for a meeting to discuss how to “enhance cooperation between the two countries in the nuclear industry,” the Iranian regime news agency Mehr reported. Iran’s top nuclear official, Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) chief Mohammad Eslami, reportedly said during the meeting that nuclear cooperation with the rogue Venezuelan regime was a healthy way to combat the “ambitious conduct of the hegemonic and arrogant system to dominate the resources of the countries,” an apparent reference to the United States. Iran is believed to possess an illicit nuclear weapons development program and is currently in talks with the government of President Donald Trump to establish an agreement that allows Iran to possess peaceful nuclear energy without developing bombs. Those talks were recently postponed as the White House expressed frustration with the intransigence of Iranian negotiators. The U.S. nuclear talks did not appear to be a topic of conversation when Venezuelan Deputy Minister for Science and Technology Alberto Quintero met with Eslami on Sunday, outside of vague references to America as a global power. Eslami instead emphasized the importance of nuclear development alongside Venezuela.

Reuters [5/5/2025 6:20 AM, Stephen Nellis and Max A. Cherney, 41523K] reports a U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce legislation in coming weeks to verify the location of artificial-intelligence chips like those made by Nvidia after they are sold. The effort to keep tabs on the chips, which drew bipartisan support from U.S. lawmakers, aims to address reports of widespread smuggling of Nvidia’s chips into China in violation of U.S. export control laws. Nvidia’s chips are a critical ingredient for creating AI systems such as chatbots, image generators and more specialized ones that can help craft biological weapons. Both President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, have implemented progressively tighter export controls of Nvidia’s chips to China. But Reuters and other news organizations have documented how some of those chips have continued to flow , and Nvidia has publicly claimed it cannot track its products after they are sold. U.S. Representative Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois who once worked as a particle physicist, said the technology to track chips after they are sold is readily available, with much of it already built in to Nvidia’s chips. Independent technical experts interviewed by Reuters agreed. Foster, who successfully designed multiple computer chips during his scientific career, plans to introduce in coming weeks a bill that would direct U.S. regulators to come up with rules in two key areas: Tracking chips to ensure they are where they are authorized to be under export control licenses, and preventing those chips from booting up if they are not properly licensed under export controls. But Reuters and other news organizations have documented how some of those chips have continued to flow , and Nvidia has publicly claimed it cannot track its products after they are sold. U.S. Representative Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois who once worked as a particle physicist, said the technology to track chips after they are sold is readily available, with much of it already built in to Nvidia’s chips. Independent technical experts interviewed by Reuters agreed. Foster, who successfully designed multiple computer chips during his scientific career, plans to introduce in coming weeks a bill that would direct U.S. regulators to come up with rules in two key areas: Tracking chips to ensure they are where they are authorized to be under export control licenses, and preventing those chips from booting up if they are not properly licensed under export controls. Foster told Reuters that there are already credible reports - some of which have not been publicly disclosed - of chip smuggling occurring on a large scale. "This is not an imaginary future problem," Foster told Reuters. "It is a problem now, and at some point we’re going to discover that the Chinese Communist Party, or their military, is busy designing weapons using large arrays of chips, or even just working on (artificial general intelligence), which is as immediate as nuclear technology." Nvidia declined to comment for this story.

USA Today [5/5/2025 9:27 PM, Bart Jansen and Joey Garrison, 75858K] reports President Donald Trump signed an executive order to halt federal funding for a type of biomedical research in China and Iran, aiming to prevent development of another pandemic like COVID-19. Trump and some federal agencies have long theorized that the pandemic began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which the Chinese deny. "It can leak out innocently, stupidly and incompetently, and half destroy the world," Trump told reporters at the White House. His executive order targeted the elimination of what is called gain-of-function, which studies how viruses become more powerful. The U.S. funded that sort of research at the Wuhan lab, in the city where the initial outbreak was reported. But a competing theory is that a person somehow came into contact with an infected animal. According to a White House, Trump’s order signed May 5 aims to: End any present and all future federal funding of gain-of-function research in countries of concern like China and Iran, which Trump deemed to have insufficient research oversight. Reduce the potential for lab-related incidents such as with bat coronaviruses in China. Protect Americans from lab accidents and other biosecurity incidents.

New York Post [5/5/2025 6:11 PM, Josh Christenson, 54903K] reports President Trump signed an executive order Monday to ban all federal funding of risky gain-of-function research in China, Iran and other countries without proper oversight of the experiments — more than five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that US intel agencies have since said most likely resulted from a lab accident. The order will yank funding from “any present and all future” gain-of-function research — money which federal agencies have had difficulty tracking — as well as deputize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies to identify biological research harmful to public health or threatening to national security. “These measures will drastically reduce the potential for lab-related incidents involving gain-of-function research, like that conducted on bat coronaviruses in China by the EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology,” according to a White House fact sheet reviewed by The Post.

Federalist [5/5/2025 7:32 AM, Chuck DeVore, 1033K] reports that, on April 24, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report on China’s naval modernization, noting that, "China’s navy is, by far, the largest of any country in East Asia, and sometime between 2015 and 2020 it surpassed the U.S. Navy in numbers of battle force ships …" The CRS report then quotes the DOD, that China’s navy "is the largest navy in the world …". As an Asian land power, why would China be rapidly expanding its navy? A benign view of China’s naval buildup is that it is driven by its economic and security needs. As the world’s second-largest economy, it relies on maritime trade routes for energy and raw materials imports and exports of finished goods, making sea lane security paramount. Though, one might ask, security against what threat? Of note, even though China has a base in Djibouti on the Red Sea, its navy has been wholly absent in keeping the vital waterway and path to the Suez Canal open in the face of piratical Houthi attacks on shipping. In fact, the U.S. government has credibly accused a Chinese satellite company of providing real-time intelligence to the Houthis to aid in their targeting of shipping, including the U.S. Navy. That China’s naval buildup and China’s increasing bellicosity align with paramount leader Xi Jinping’s vision of national rejuvenation linked to maritime command of the seas — far beyond Taiwan’s rocky shores. Xi’s vision may be one of world domination, but can one nation truly dominate the world? Can a nation accumulate enough power, military and economic might, and allies or vassal states, to threaten America’s way of life or present an undeterred existential threat to our nation? And what nature might that threat take, for instance, a land power dominating the Eurasian landmass, or a maritime power controlling the oceans? This last question, land or sea, is the heart of understanding the rapidly growing threat from China and how America must respond, or else everything we’ve enjoyed for more than 100 years comes to an end. The geostrategic theory that land power can dominate the world was best expressed by the British geographer and statesman Halford Mackinder in his 1904 article, "The Geographical Pivot of History." By 1919, Mackinder boiled his theory down to this, "Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island; who rules the World-Island commands the world.” Both Napoleon and Hitler resorted to war to make Mackinder’s theory a reality, parleying an invasion of Russia into world domination. But both failed the test of Russia’s harsh vastness and seemingly endless manpower reserves. The Soviet empire made a run of proving Mackinder right during the Cold War, but it was held in check by NATO, a U.S. marriage of convenience with China, and the utter economic failure of its Marxist ideology.

Bloomberg [5/5/2025 6:17 AM, Kok Leong Chan, 16228K] reports Malaysia is negotiating with the US to bring its tariffs on the Southeast Asian nation down to zero, from the 24% that President Donald Trump pledged to impose, according to Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Zafrul Aziz. In return, Washington wants Malaysia to address trade imbalances, non-tariff barriers, and safeguard US technology from being channeled to other parties and investment, Zafrul said at a press briefing in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. The nation’s state-linked investment companies hold about $45 billion in US bonds, he added. “During the discussions, we said our objective is to reduce the tariff to zero. If possible, no tariff,” Zafrul said. “If we can’t do that, we hope to reduce the tariffs on important sectors.” Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said earlier Monday that there was a possibility the US may lower its duties on Malaysian goods, but added that no agreement has been finalized and talks are ongoing. Zafrul led the country’s negotiations with US trade representatives last month. Going forward, Malaysia’s trade figures are unlikely to be as strong as in March, when companies were rushing to ship out goods before the tariff hit, Zafrul said. The country’s exports rose 6.8% in March from a year earlier, with outbound shipments to the US jumping 50.8%, the highest in four months. Trump in April mandated a 90-day pause on higher tariffs, while imposing a 10% levy on goods from Malaysia and many other trading partners.

Reuters [5/5/2025 6:23 AM, Staff, 41523K] reports the Philippines has deployed a coast guard vessel and an aircraft to challenge and escort a Chinese research ship it said was conducting illegal marine scientific research activities within the country’s exclusive economic zone. The Chinese Research Vessel (CRV) Tan Suo 3 was detected entering the country’s EEZ on May 1, 2025, around 92 nautical miles off the Philippines’ northern Ilocos coast, the PCG said in a statement on Monday. "Their irregular movements were deemed inconsistent with the freedom of navigation and indicative of marine scientific research activities, which violate the sovereign rights of the Philippines," the PCG said. It said it launched a maritime law enforcement operation to challenge the Chinese vessel’s presence, and had prevented the vessel from continuing its "unlawful activities.” During the operation, the PCG reported spotting a manned deep-sea submersible, named the Shenhai Yongshi or Deep-Sea Warrior, which was retrieved by the Chinese vessel. The submersible is capable of diving to 4,500 metres (2.8 miles) and is typically deployed for deep-sea exploration and scientific missions, the PCG said. It said it also observed a Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat recovering a yellow-coloured, unidentified piece of equipment potentially linked to marine research. "These actions of the CRV serves as clear evidence that the People’s Republic of China are conducting illegal marine scientific research activities within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, lacking the legal authority to undertake such activities in this area," the PCG said. The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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