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.

ABC News [11/11/2025 11:09 AM, Luke Barr, 30493K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection commander-at-large Greg Bovino is expected to be leaving the city of Chicago in the coming days, multiple sources tell ABC News. The Department of Homeland Security will continue to maintain a presence in the city, according to the sources. Bovino’s departure could mean he is set to go to another city, or return to the El Centro sector in Southern California, according to a source. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said on social media the agency isn’t leaving the city. "We aren’t leaving Chicago," she posted on X Tuesday. The post cited crime statistics from "Operation Midway Blitz," the surge of federal immigration enforcement in the city. Bovino has come under fire after video from a protest last month showed the Border Patrol official throwing a gas canister at demonstrators in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood without giving a verbal warning, a violation of a U.S. district judge’s earlier temporary restraining order limiting the use of force. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis admonished Bovino last week, saying he admitted to lying about the rock-throwing incident used to justify the deployment of tear gas against protesters. She then issued a preliminary injunction limiting the use of force during immigration arrests and protests. The Oct. 23 incident involving Bovino has been a key part of the court proceedings challenging the tactics of immigration agents during the Trump administration’s operation in Chicago, which began in September. At the time of the incident, DHS defended Bovino’s actions saying that a Border Patrol transport van transporting undocumented immigrants was attacked by demonstrators. CNN [11/11/2025 9:56 AM, Priscilla Alvarez, Andy Rose, 18595K] reports Bovino and his officers are expected to head to Charlotte, North Carolina, then continue to New Orleans, according to two of the officials, who stressed plans are still being finalized. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to continue operations in Chicago. The discussion of Bovino moving on from Chicago comes shortly after he was personally called out by a federal judge. US District Court Judge Sara Ellis was angered that Bovino initially said he had lobbed tear gas at a group of protesters only after being hit in the head with a rock, but later acknowledged the assault against him came after his use of force. "Defendant Bovino admitted that he lied," Ellis said in a hearing on November 6, the same day she issued a preliminary injunction blocking the use of force against protesters and journalists, "unless such force is objectively necessary to stop an immediate threat of the person causing serious bodily injury or death to another person.” That order also requires agents to warn protesters at least twice before deploying tear gas and less-lethal munitions like pepper balls. The Trump administration is appealing the injunction and asking for its enforcement to be delayed while an appeals court panel considers the case. The injunction from Judge Ellis came after Bovino sat for hours of videotaped testimony, clips of which were played in court. Those excerpts showed Bovino frequently butting heads with an attorney for the plaintiffs, arguing that protesters on the receiving end of riot control munitions were "violent rioters and assaultive subjects.” Bovino also denied tackling one protester, Scott Blackburn, saying the incident captured on camera did not count as a "reportable use of force" because he was in the process of arresting Blackburn. The Chicago Tribune [11/10/2025 3:34 PM, Jason Meisner, 4829K] reports that CBS and CNN have both reported that Bovino will head to North Carolina next. "If the reports are true, it could not have come soon enough," Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters at an unrelated Veterans Day event at Soldier Field on Tuesday. He said Border Patrol agents are leaving behind "trails of tears and chaos" in their wake. President Donald Trump’s administration has touted the mission as a resounding success, highlighting convicted murderers, sex abusers and other violent criminals it says were able to avoid deportation due to Illinois’ sanctuary policies. At the two-month mark of the operation last week, DHS said agents had surpassed 3,000 total immigration arrests since the surge began. "President Trump and DHS Secretary (Kristi) Noem have a clear message: No city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens," the agency said in a statement on Nov. 5. "If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return.” CBS News [11/10/2025 11:16 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Nicole Sganga, 39474K] reports that the Trump administration deployed more than 200 Border Patrol agents to Chicago, internal government documents show, directing them to play a major role in a highly visible and contentious crackdown in the Windy City known as Operation Midway Blitz. While the administration has argued the operation was designed to curtail crime and illegal immigration, Border Patrol’s actions and presence in Chicago and its suburbs have been strongly decried by local leaders as heavy-handed and unjustified. Some of the Border Patrol teams dispatched to Chicago could be diverted to Charlotte, North Carolina for an operation that is expected to start there this month, the U.S. officials said. Immigration and Custom Enforcement, which has a field office in Chicago, is expected to continue carrying out immigration arrests in the region. Asked for comment, the Department of Homeland Security told CBS News, "Every day DHS enforces the laws of this country, including in Chicago. We do not comment or telegraph future operations.” Bovino, who once led a Border Patrol sector along the California-Mexico border, has become one of the most well-known figures enforcing President Trump’s clampdown on illegal immigration. Earlier this year, he led sweeping Border Patrol operations in the Los Angeles region that generated significant backlash, including arrests at Home Depot parking lots and car washes. Bovino personally participated in some of those sweeps. In Chicago and surrounding communities, Bovino has followed a similar playbook, joining Border Patrol agents in arrest operations that have often sparked tense confrontations with local residents. He’s also joined federal agents when they’ve repelled protesters using tear gas, pepper balls, pepper spray and other tactics that have come under scrutiny. Agents have also been captured on video pointing guns at civilians. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis castigated the use of force employed by federal agents during the Chicago crackdown, questioning the justifications cited by Bovino during courtroom testimony. Ellis extended restrictions she first imposed last month that severely limit when federal officers can use tear gas and other crowd control tactics and weapons, and ordered Bovino and his agents to generally display identifiers and wear body-worn cameras.

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The New York Times [11/11/2025 7:49 PM, Dana Goldstein and Hamed Aleaziz, 153395K] reports the Trump administration plans to further expand the presence of immigration agents in American cities, deploying the U.S. Border Patrol to Charlotte, N.C., and New Orleans, according to a government document and a federal official with knowledge of the plan. Plans for the operations were still being finalized, the official said, and federal agents will maintain a presence in the Chicago area. A two-month enforcement blitz there has led to thousands of arrests and frequent confrontations between residents and federal agents. Border Patrol agents at times used force, including tear gas and pepper spray. On Saturday, some were shot at by an unknown assailant, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Last week, a federal judge in Illinois, Sara L. Ellis, restricted the Border Patrol’s use of crowd-control weapons, saying, “The use of force shocks the conscience.” She also ordered agents to wear body cameras. In response to questions on Tuesday about the planning for operations in Charlotte and New Orleans, Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at the agency, said she could not discuss “future or potential operations.” She added, “Every day, D.H.S. enforces the laws of the nation across the country.” On Tuesday, officials in New Orleans and Charlotte did not respond to requests for comment on the potential deployments. President Trump has repeatedly indicated that he plans to establish a federal presence in New Orleans, citing “a crime problem,” and Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, has asked him to deploy the National Guard in the state. The Washington Examiner [11/11/2025 3:34 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports Border Patrol agents who deployed to Chicago to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest illegal immigrants in the sanctuary city are headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, as soon as this week, the Washington Examiner has learned. Three sources familiar with the Border Patrol’s plans disclosed in text messages on Tuesday that a large swath of agents will head to Charlotte by the week’s end, as will Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol’s chief of the El Centro, California, region, and commander of the ICE operations in Los Angeles and Chicago. The shift comes as the Trump administration continues its aggressive crackdown on illegal immigrants nationwide following growing tensions between federal law enforcement and community members in Chicago who strongly opposed the presence of federal police. Border Patrol agents were assisting ICE in fewer numbers across nearly 20 cities as of late October, Customs and Border Protection told the Washington Examiner. However, agents had been deployed in far larger numbers to cities with large illegal immigrant populations where Democratic leaders have refused to hand over people in local jails. The Department of Homeland Security has hoped to send a message to state and local officials who refuse to work with the federal government in addressing crime and enforcing immigration laws. Border Patrol made a very public entrance to Chicago in early October, parading down Michigan Avenue in tactical gear. Its pending arrival in Charlotte, a blue city in a red state, is expected to make waves given the city’s Democratic elected leaders and sanctuary status. Charlotte is a sanctuary city that has declined to work with ICE under Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, a Democrat in his second term. McFadden spoke with the Washington Examiner earlier this year and said he and other sheriffs in the state do not partner with ICE due to legal concerns. McFadden maintains that he will turn over anyone in custody to ICE if officers can submit a warrant signed by a federal judge. ICE has maintained that such a document is not required, leading to the stand-off between both parties. The result is that most illegal immigrants who are arrested locally are allowed to be released from jail if they make bail, rather than being handed over to ICE. "Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country," DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement Tuesday afternoon. "We do not discuss future or potential operations.” The San Diego Union Tribune [11/11/2025 4:52 PM, Jason Meisner, 1538K] reports that in a statement on X, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin posted, "We aren’t leaving Chicago," but did not directly address the issue of Bovino’s departure. "If the reports are true, it could not have come soon enough," Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters at an unrelated Veterans Day event at Soldier Field on Tuesday. He said Border Patrol agents are leaving behind "trails of tears and chaos" in their wake. President Donald Trump’s administration has touted the mission as a resounding success, highlighting convicted murderers, sex abusers and other violent criminals it says were able to avoid deportation due to Illinois’ sanctuary policies. At the two-month mark of the operation last week, DHS said agents had surpassed 3,000 total immigration arrests since the surge began. "President Trump and DHS Secretary (Kristi) Noem have a clear message: No city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens," the agency said in a statement on Nov. 5. "If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return.”

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Breitbart [11/11/2025 8:18 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2416K] reports Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Tricia McLaughlin has debunked rumors that the Trump administration is shutting down immigration enforcement actions in Chicago. On Monday, CBS News posted a story that claimed U.S. Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino and his agents are set to leave Chicago after leading the charge in Trump’s "Operation Midway Blitz" immigration enforcement campaign. But by Tuesday, McLaughlin took to her X account to shut down the rumor. "We aren’t leaving Chicago," she wrote in her post. She went on to note that crime has plummeted in Chicago since Operation Midway Blitz. "Since start of Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago," she wrote, "homicides are down 16%, shootings down 35%, robberies down 41%, carjackings down 48%, transit crime down 20%.” The assistant secretary’s message comes on the heels of weeks of efforts by Democrat-appointed federal judges to micromanage the administration’s immigration policies in Chicago. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis was slapped down by the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after she attempted to force Customs and Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino to report to her every single morning about his actions. Despite the rebuke, Ellis continues to issue orders restricting ICE and CBP operations. This week, another Democrat-appointed federal judge has signaled that he intends to order ICE to release thousands of criminal illegals arrested during Operation Midway Blitz.

CBS Chicago [11/10/2025 7:32 PM, Todd Feurer, 39474K] reports the Trump administration is asking an appeals court to halt a judge’s order limiting federal agents’ use of force during the ongoing immigration enforcement operation in Chicago. In seeking an emergency stay of a preliminary injunction issued last week by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis while they appeal her ruling to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Trump administration attorneys argued her order is "overbroad and unworkable," will put agents’ safety at risk, and violates the separation of powers between the courts and the executive branch. "This Court’s prompt intervention is once more required to stay this untenable injunction, protect the safety of the public and law-enforcement officers, and restore the balance of power between the Executive and Judicial Branches," attorneys wrote. On Thursday, Ellis issued a preliminary injunction placing permanent restrictions on federal immigration agents’ use of force during "Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago, saying that agents’ repeated aggressive use of force against peaceful protesters "shocks the conscience" and "shows no sign of stopping.” Ellis said she found the Trump administration’s testimony about agents’ use of force "to be simply not credible," saying Border Patrol Commander at Large Gregory Bovino had lied in testimony about the threats protesters posed before he personally used force in certain instances. Pointing specifically to a clash between agents and protesters last month in Little Village during which Bovino personally threw a tear gas canister into the crowd, Ellis said "Defendant Bovino admitted that he lied. He admitted that he lied that a rock hit him before he deployed tear gas in Little Village.” Ellis criticized the government for how they have characterized civilian opposition to immigration enforcement, saying, "Describing rapid response networks and neighborhood moms as professional agitators [shows] just how out of touch agents are.” The injunction Ellis ordered stems from a lawsuit filed by a group of protesters and journalists over immigration agents’ aggressive tactics in Chicago. Ellis had already issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting agents from using tear gas and other riot control weapons against people who do not pose an immediate threat. Agents are also required to issue two warnings before deploying tear gas or using other riot control weapons.

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ABC News [11/10/2025 6:47 PM, Devin Dwyer, 30493K] reports the Trump administration is imploring the Supreme Court to show "extraordinary deference" to the president as commander-in-chief and affirm the lawfulness of his National Guard deployment to Illinois, arguing in a new court filing that federal agents conducting immigration enforcement are unable to do the work on their own. A letter from Solicitor General John Sauer to the justices on Monday addresses their request that both parties in the case explain the meaning of a key part of federal law governing when a president can send in troops. Section 12406 of the federal code says a president may call up the National Guard when he is "unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.” The Supreme Court said it was interested in finding out what exactly the term "regular forces" means. Sauer argued in the letter that it does not refer to the standing military -- which Trump has not attempted to deploy in Illinois -- but instead refers to the "civilian forces that regularly ‘execute the laws’ at issue but are ‘unable’ to do so in present circumstances," or the ICE and DHS agents on the ground. "Given the nature of the problem in Illinois, it was a reasonable exercise of the President’s discretion to deploy National Guardsmen, who are civilians temporarily called up to serve with deep experience in deescalating domestic disturbances among their fellow citizens, rather than the standing military, whose primary function is to win wars by deploying lethal force against foreign enemies," Sauer told the Supreme Court. "It would turn Section 12406(3) on its head to insist that the President must nevertheless instead use the standing military to protect DHS agents while they execute federal immigration laws," he wrote. Illinois and the city of Chicago, which are challenging the legality of Trump’s deployment, have accused the administration of contorting the law. They are expected to file a response letter with the Supreme Court by next week. The Trump administration last month filed an emergency stay request with the Supreme Court to undo a lower court order blocking the deployment of the National Guard in Illinois. Lower federal courts have kept the president’s troop deployment on hold in Illinois, finding his stated justification does not meet the criteria under the law. Trump has said Guard troops are needed for crime prevention in Chicago, which he has described as a "war zone.” In addition, the Trump administration has said troops are needed to protect federal immigration facilities, which have been the site of clashes between protesters and federal immigration agents as the administration carries out its stepped-up immigration enforcement.

Chicago Tribune [11/11/2025 2:19 PM, Jason Meisner, 4829K] reports dueling legal interpretations of what constitutes "regular forces" are at the heart of briefings now positioned before the U.S. Supreme Court as the high court prepares to rule on President Donald Trump’s authority to deploy National Guard troops to Illinois. While considering a motion to stay a lower court’s order blocking the deployment, the Supreme Court last month asked both sides — the Trump administration and the state of Illinois — to submit supplemental briefs dealing with a provision in federal law that Trump says allows him to dispatch National Guard troops in cases where there is an invasion, a rebellion or a time and when the president "is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.” The key issue the high court sought briefings on was whether the term "regular forces" means "the regular forces of the United States military," and if so, how that fits into existing law involving the president’s power to order up the National Guard. In his 15-page filing Monday, Trump’s U.S Solicitor General John Sauer doubled down on the administration’s argument that the term "regular forces" refers to civilian law enforcement — including immigration-enforcement agents such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers and — and that the president was well within his authority to call up National Guard troops to assist them if they were unable to execute laws due to "present circumstances.” "Given the nature of the problem in Illinois, it was a reasonable exercise of the President’s discretion to deploy National Guardsmen, who are civilians temporarily called to serve with deep experience in deescalating domestic disturbances among their fellow citizens," the filing stated. The standing military, whose primary function is to win wars against foreign enemies, was never intended for such a role, the filing noted. But lawyers for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a filing late Monday that "regular forces" refers to the full-time, professional military, and that both history and the law make it clear the president "may federalize and deploy the National Guard only in rare circumstances where he is unable to execute federal law with the military.” "These circumstances are not met here," Raoul’s 15-page filing stated. The court gave both sides until Nov. 17 to submit reply briefs. The legal battle is one of several playing out across the country concerning Trump’s desire to deploy National Guard troops in Democrat-led cities that have long been a political target for the president. In a similar case in Oregon, a federal judge last week ruled after a three-day trial that Trump "exceeded the President’s authority" when he sent federalized National Guard troops into Portland. That ruling will surely be appealed and is likely to land ultimately before the Supreme Court.

NewsMax [11/11/2025 4:11 PM, Jim Thomas, 4109K] reports the U.S. Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court of the United States to grant "extraordinary deference" to Donald Trump’s decision to federalize the Illinois National Guard amid federal immigration enforcement in Chicago. The move marks a significant escalation in the debate over the president’s domestic military authority and the scope of civil military intervention in U.S. cities. The Justice Department, representing the Trump administration, filed a supplemental brief in the Supreme Court urging justices to lift a legal block on the president’s effort to deploy National Guard troops to the Chicago area. At issue is the interpretation of 10 U.S. Code §12406, a federal statute that allows the president to federalize the National Guard when he is "unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.” Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the filing that the term "regular forces" should not be read to include the standing military. Instead, he wrote, it "refers to the civilian law-enforcement officials that regularly ‘execute the laws’ currently being obstructed.” Sauer added that it "would be unprecedented and profoundly ahistorical to require the President to treat the standing military as the first line of defense for ensuring that federal laws can be executed, with the National Guard relegated only to a secondary role despite their comparative advantage.” He emphasized that the president’s judgment should receive "a great level of deference" because of separation-of-powers and national-security concerns. Illinois and Chicago contend that "regular forces" does include the standing military, meaning the president must demonstrate that even the active-duty military cannot execute the laws before calling up the National Guard.

Breitbart [11/11/2025 5:05 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2416K] reports a Biden-appointed federal judge in Chicago says he is considering forcing immigration officers to release thousands of the illegal migrants that Immigration and Customs Enforcement have arrested during its "Operation Midway Blitz." U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings claims he intends to provide "equitable relief" by ordering the Department of Homeland Security to release any criminal already on ankle monitors or other court-ordered monitoring programs, WLS-TV reported. Pro-migrant activists claim that ICE and DHS are violating a so-called "Consent Decree" that limits how agents can make warrantless arrests of criminal illegal migrants. The decree was signed in 2022 when President Joe Biden’s deputies agreed to accept curbs drafted by the ACLU. Judges allow consent decrees to bind future administrations. Judge Cummings, who was appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by Joe Biden, is now reportedly set to speak out on those supposed violations after he ruled that agents had gone against the decree known as the 2022 Castañon Nava settlement. ICE reportedly agreed to the conditions of the decree, including a pre-determination if a targeted individual is in the country illegally and whether they are a flight risk. Activist lawyers say that federal officers have violated their agreement. "Our initial analysis is that it’s over 3,000 arrests," Fleming told ABC 7. "We’ve started to dig into the case file that they produced to us, and the vast majority are violations. If they did not have a prior order of removal, in almost all circumstances, they’ve been uniformly violating the consent decree." The attorneys argue that "Congress has vested the authority to grant parole solely with the Secretary of Homeland Security… Federal courts cannot order the Department of Homeland Security to release any aliens on parole because Congress has stripped them of that authority."

NewsMax [11/11/2025 7:49 AM, Eric Mack, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump lamented the American carnage afflicting Chicago’s Democrat-run city, repeating his "call in the troops" to help restore American greatness to America’s Second City. The closing signature was an homage to a pro-Trump Just the News website, which covered Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin debunking media narratives about Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts in Democrat-run Los Angeles and Chicago – two long targets for the Trump administration to clean up the city to make it great again.

FOX News [11/11/2025 8:36 PM, Peter Pinedo, 40621K] reports President Donald Trump declared victory in Chicago after a weeks-long showdown with pro-sanctuary Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson over immigration enforcement operations in the city. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday night, Trump wrote, "I am proud to announce that Chicago, Illinois, despite all of the radical opposition and obstruction we have from the Mayor and the Governor, has seen Car Theft, Shootings, Robberies, Violent Crime, and everything else, drop dramatically.” Trump said that since the launch of the immigration enforcement push, dubbed "Operation Midway Blitz," by the Department of Homeland Security, "shootings are down 35%, Robberies are down 41%, and Carjackings are down almost 50%.” He noted that these numbers follow "just a small initial Federal Force, not the full ‘surge’" of federal resources. "As we ramp up more assets, these numbers will continue to drop," he added. All this, Trump said, "has been achieved despite the extraordinary resistance from Chicago and Illinois Radical Democrat ‘Leadership,’ and the constant Violent Leftwing Terrorism against ICE Officers and Federal Agents that Insurrectionist Democrat Officials refuse to stop or prosecute, including constant physical assault and attempted assassination.” Launched on Sept. 8, Operation Midway Blitz has seen federal law enforcement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and others flood the Chicago area, resulting in thousands of illegals being arrested, including violent criminals and gang members. The operation, however, has simultaneously been met with fierce resistance from Pritzker, Johnson and members of the public. There have been several instances of violent confrontations with members of the public attempting to interfere with operations, including people blocking ICE vehicles, ramming federal officials and shooting at Border Patrol agents. The shooting happened Saturday in the city’s Little Village neighborhood as federal agents were conducting immigration enforcement operations. An illegal immigrant with a criminal history has since been arrested in connection with the shooting. The unidentified suspect, a Mexican citizen, was in a Jeep that drove up near the agents and fired shots before driving away, federal sources told Fox News. At the time of his arrest, he was found with a firearm, sources said. "This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of violence and obstruction," a Department of Homeland Security statement said. "Over the past two months, we’ve seen an increase in assaults and obstruction targeting federal law enforcement during operations. These confrontations highlight the dangers our agents face daily and the escalating aggression toward law enforcement." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [11/11/2025 7:14 PM, Natasha Korecki, 34509K] reports President Donald Trump mocked local officials last month, calling the city a "war zone" after they touted a drop in crime that brought the safest summer the city had seen since 1965. Now, his administration wants to take credit. On Tuesday, a Department of Homeland Security official cited a drop in crime in Chicago, when asked for comments on reports that Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was sunsetting Operation Midway Blitz, as the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge in Chicago is called. "We aren’t leaving Chicago," DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin posted on X. She then listed percentages related to a drop in murders, shootings, robberies and tied it to the arrival of immigration agents. "It is great to hear that the Trump administration acknowledges, as we have been saying for months, that crime is significantly down in Chicago," Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement Tuesday. "However, they have nothing to do with that work. While CBP agents have been here, they have tear-gassed our police officers on two separate occasions, bragged about shooting a U.S. citizen five times, and, over the weekend, they pepper-sprayed a one-year-old child.” In August, the month before Operation Midway Blitz started, numbers were down across the board. Compared to the same month in 2024, homicides were down 24%, shootings were down 24%, robberies were down 41% and car thefts were down 28%, according to Chicago Police Department data. DHS arrived in September — after July and August, which are traditionally the months that see the highest criminal activity. "That strains credibility to make such a claim," Alderman Brian Hopkins said of DHS attributing a decrease in crime to its immigration operations. But Hopkins, who heads the Chicago City Council’s public safety committee and said public safety officials briefed him on the downscaling of the Chicago operation, added that the mayor shouldn’t take credit for crime dropping either, pointing instead to Chicago following a national downward trend. "Having Storm Troopers come in, kicking doors down and arresting nannies and construction workers can do nothing but set back the cause of promoting support for law enforcement in general. And that’s exactly what’s happened," Hopkins said. "So whatever the end result of this is, it nets out in a negative fashion.” McLaughlin, who did not respond to follow-up questions about the status of the operation, on Monday was quoted in a USA Today article saying: "Thanks to DHS law enforcement, Chicago has experienced the fewest summer murders since 1965!". The 1965 statistic McLaughlin cited was the same one that the city and state officials have repeatedly held up as they said there was no emergency situation necessitating the deployment of National Guard troops in the city. Trump is currently asking the Supreme Court to allow the deployment of those troops there. "Why are they calling for troops in our cities? Why?" Gov. JB Pritzker said in a recent interview with NBC News. "It doesn’t make any sense. Literally, crime has gone down everywhere, seemingly, and certainly by a whole lot in Chicago, more than most places.”

FOX News [11/11/2025 10:23 PM, Jasmine Baehr, 40621K] reports President Donald Trump said Tuesday that violent crime in Chicago has fallen sharply since the start of a federal crackdown known as "Operation Midway Blitz," crediting the Department of Homeland Security-led effort with driving shootings and robberies down across the Windy City. The president’s Truth Social post claimed that shootings are down 35%, robberies down 41% and carjackings nearly 50% since the operation began several weeks ago. "This has been achieved despite the extraordinary resistance from Chicago and Illinois Radical Democrat leadership," Trump wrote. The post marks the president’s first public update on the initiative since late October, when DHS confirmed nine arrests, including three illegal immigrants, following what officials described as "one of the most violent days" of the operation. According to DHS statements obtained by Fox News Digital, agents faced multiple assaults and vehicle rammings during coordinated Oct. 22 raids in the Chicago suburbs of Cicero and Glendale Heights. DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin called it "one of the most violent days we’ve had," confirming that one agent was injured and several patrol units were damaged. The raids targeted violent offenders and previously deported foreign nationals with criminal records. The operation’s namesake honors Katie Abraham, a Chicago-area resident killed in September in a hit-and-run involving a suspected illegal immigrant. "Midway Blitz," launched in September, is part of a broader DHS initiative aimed at "criminal illegal aliens terrorizing Americans in sanctuary Illinois," according to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who said suspects who attacked agents "will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” Trump’s post also reignited tensions with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both of whom have previously opposed large-scale immigration raids. The president accused them of obstructing enforcement and "encouraging violent resistance against ICE officers.” Trump said the next phase of "Midway Blitz" will include a "full surge" of federal agents in Chicago and Memphis, claiming the first wave has already delivered measurable results. "As we ramp up more assets, these numbers will continue to drop," he wrote Tuesday. The Illinois governor’s office and the Chicago mayor’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. The White House directed Fox News Digital back to the President’s comments on Truth Social. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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FOX News [11/10/2025 11:52 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss the growing threats against ICE agents in Chicago and how Illinois leaders’ rhetoric on immigration enforcement is adding to the tensions. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [11/11/2025 5:01 PM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin joins ‘America Reports’ to discuss the Little Village shooting suspect and respond to Democratic leaders’ rhetoric toward ICE agents.

FOX News [11/11/2025 1:39 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports acting ICE Director Todd Lyons joins ‘The Faulkner Focus’ after an illegal immigrant was taken into custody for allegedly shooting at a Border Patrol agent in Chicago. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Caller [11/10/2025 2:11 PM, Harold Hutchison, 835K] reports that Acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Director Todd Lyons told "Fox and Friends" co-host Lawrence Jones Monday that a manhunt was on for a gunman who fired shots at ICE agents in Chicago, warning that he would be found and prosecuted. Federal authorities are looking for a person who fired shots at ICE agents during a Saturday operation in Chicago’s Little Village section, during which rioters threw rocks, bricks and paint cans at the agents while also carrying out at least four ramming attacks with vehicles, according to Fox News. Lyons vowed to track down the gunman, saying that law enforcement agencies were searching for the gunman. "Obviously, for, you know, law enforcement reasons, I can’t get into it, but they are out there scouring all leads, surveillance footage, things like that," Lyons told Jones, who asked about the progress in the manhunt. "We’re going to find them. We’ve made it clear that if you put your hands on an ICE agent or a Border Patrol agent, or if you threaten them, shoot at them, throw rocks, we’re going to find you and we’re going to prosecute you." ICE facilities and operations in Chicago have been the scene of several riots as opposition to the agency’s efforts to apprehend illegal immigrants has intensified. Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh of Illinois was one of six people indicted for interfering with an ICE operation.

CNN [11/10/2025 2:53 PM, Zoe Sottile and Sarah Dewberry, 18595K] reports that Department of Homeland Security agents were shot at during an immigration enforcement operation in Chicago Saturday, the agency said — as federal agents were also accused of using pepper spray and flash-bang grenades against protesters across the Chicago area. The incidents come as Chicago has emerged as the center of tense standoffs between federal agents carrying out immigration enforcement operations and frustrated and angry community members protesting the Trump administration’s wide-ranging deportation campaign. A federal judge issued a ruling Friday limiting federal agents’ use of force in Chicago, after they repeatedly used tear gas and other forms of force against protesters. The shooting took place in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood Saturday morning, according to DHS. A male driving a "black Jeep" opened fire at Border Patrol agents, then fled the scene, said the agency. A suspect from Mexico was arrested in connection with the shooting, DHS said in a post on X Monday. DHS has framed the incidents as part of a series of attacks they say target federal agents. "The violence in Chicago against law enforcement is unprecedented," said Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement shared with CNN. "These attacks are the consequence of vitriolic smears from sanctuary politicians and the media." But immigrant advocates, local politicians, and legal groups said it is federal agents who are driving violence and chaos against angry but peaceful protesters and bystanders. DHS has not responded to CNN’s repeated questions about Bovino’s presence in Little Village and his role on Saturday.

(B) NBC News Daily [11/10/2025 2:31 PM, Staff] reports that there was a new round of violent clashes in Chicago over the weekend between federal agents and community members who are outraged by the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. Video appears to show federal agents deploying flash grenades and tear gas on a crowd of people Saturday in the city’s predominantly Mexican Little Village neighborhood. The Department of Homeland Security announced today a suspect has been arrested in connection with a shooting in that same neighborhood targeting Border Patrol agents. DHS says deploying tear gas in this case was necessary as they were fired at in this incident. In a new report, DHS says ICE is considering retrofitting large warehouses for detention centers. A DHS official said this is to streamline the deportation process and they are looking at locations near airports where immigrants who are arrested could be easily deported. They would be run and operated by ICE, not private contractors.

FOX News [11/10/2025 9:24 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the manhunt for a gunman who fired at Border Patrol agents in Chicago amid the rise in attacks on agents. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze [11/10/2025 5:10 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1442K] reports leftist activists in Chicago engaged in a series of violent attacks against federal agents who were conducting immigration enforcement operations over the weekend, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday in a neighborhood of Little Village, a "hostile crowd" allegedly boxed Border Patrol agents into a street and alleyway. An individual driving a black Jeep Wrangler fired multiple rounds at the agents while they were apprehending a suspect, the DHS reported. The shooter fled the scene. Some in the crowd reportedly hurled objects, including bricks, at the officers’ vehicles. The DHS credited the Chicago Police Department for helping agents evacuate the area. As agents left the scene, another driver allegedly attempted to ram into the agents’ convoy, but the attack was thwarted when federal officials deployed a controlled tire deflation device. The DHS explained that the convoy proceeded to an FBI facility, where agents encountered two additional drivers who tried to "impede operations." When agents issued a warning, one of the drivers allegedly attempted to ram the convoy. That driver was arrested. Border Patrol agents left the FBI facility but again encountered a group of protesters who were attempting to obstruct traffic by lying in the street. Agents deployed crowd-control measures after the activists began throwing objects, the DHS said. Once the road was cleared, agents proceeded to a Sam’s Club parking lot where they were allegedly "stalked and followed" by protesters. Another driver allegedly rammed a federal vehicle. Officials arrested three individuals for assault. A fourth vehicle ramming occurred when agents attempted to leave the grocery store parking lot. The suspect driving the vehicle fled the scene and remains at large. While no Border Patrol agents were harmed, photographs shared by the DHS show damage to two federal vehicles. The series of attacks resulted in the arrest of eight U.S. citizens and one illegal alien. The DHS blamed the incidents on "sanctuary politicians and the media."

The New York Post [11/10/2025 6:10 PM, Caitlin McCormack, 42219K] reports an illegal immigrant from Mexico was arrested after he allegedly opened fire at Border Patrol agents during a weekend raid in Chicago — which also saw protesters lobbing bricks at the feds. The man, who was not identified, allegedly drove up alongside agents during an immigration raid in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood and fired a few rounds before speeding off in a Jeep. At the same time, a swarm of protesters was trying to physically block authorities, with some chucking bricks and a bucket of paint at their vehicles. No injuries were reported as cops pivoted to track down the gunman. The Department of Homeland Security announced that it had taken the "criminal illegal alien from Mexico" into custody on Monday, and revealed he had prior convictions for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon or vehicle, felony possession of a weapon and illegal entry, on X. The agency added that the man was "marked as a violator of the Laken Riley Act, pending charges relating to assaulting officers." DHS Secretary Kristi Noem doubled down and pinned blame on Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who previously likened Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s operations in Chicago to World War II-era raids in Nazi Germany. The Washington Times [11/11/2025 3:11 PM, Matt Delaney, 852K] reports that the suspect faces charges of assaulting federal law enforcement officers. He is being detained as a Laken Riley Act violator, which requires authorities to jail illegal immigrants who shoplift, burglarize or attack police officers. The DHS said the man has prior convictions for felony gun possession, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon/vehicle and illegal entry. The agency did not say when or for how long he’s been in the country following his arrest on Monday. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blamed Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker for the shooting due to a statewide “sanctuary” law that prevents police from assisting immigration agents under most circumstances. “Gov. Pritzker is protecting violent criminal illegal aliens who want American law enforcement officers dead,” Ms. Noem posted Monday on X. “This is a battle between law and order, good and evil — and we will prevail.” Officials said a group of “agitators” threw a paint can and bricks at Border Patrol vehicles following the shooting. FOX News [11/10/2025 1:40 PM, Louis Casiano, 40621K] reports “This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of violence and obstruction," a Department of Homeland Security statement said. "Over the past two months, we’ve seen an increase in assaults and obstruction targeting federal law enforcement during operations. These confrontations highlight the dangers our agents face daily and the escalating aggression toward law enforcement. The suspect has previously been convicted of crimes including aggravated unlawful use of a weapon/vehicle, felony possession of a weapon, and illegal entry, DHS said. "He is currently marked as a violator of the Laken Riley Act, pending charges related to assaulting officers," the agency added. The weapon allegedly used in the shooting has not been matched to shell casings found at the scene of the shooting. Following the shooting, a group of people threw a paint can and bricks at Border Patrol vehicles, according to the agency.

Reported similarly:
CNN [11/10/2025 2:53 PM, Zoe Sottile and Sarah Dewberry, 606K]
CBS Chicago [11/10/2025 6:21 PM, Sara Tenenbaum, 39474K] Video: HERE
Chicago Tribune [11/10/2025 1:07 PM, Caroline Kubzansky, 4829K]
NewsMax [11/10/2025 3:04 PM, Staff, 4109K]
Univision [11/11/2025 12:03 PM, Staff, 5004K]

FOX Business [11/11/2025 6:10 PM, Staff, 10085K] Video: HERE reports CBP senior advisor Rob Vitiello discusses a gunman allegedly opening fire on Border Patrol agents during a Chicago immigration raid on ‘The Evening Edit.’

FOX News [11/10/2025 6:37 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin has the latest on threats against Border Patrol agents in Chicago on ‘Special Report.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [11/10/2025 11:56 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports a ‘Fox News @ Night’ panel discusses an illegal immigrant being arrested after allegedly attacking CBP agents and more. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsNation [11/11/2025 2:37 PM, Josh DuBose, 8017K] reports a day after video captured a federal immigration officer pointing his firearm at a female motorist in Orange County, federal officials are now claiming the woman attempted to cause a collision after screaming at federal officers. In video footage of the incident posted to Instagram, the agent is seen wielding his firearm up near his chest, pointing it in the direction of the female motorist behind the wheel of a white Nissan, who, according to the Instagram user @izzmirez, is a community watch member. Officials with the Fullerton Police Department released a statement saying one of their officers was returning to the station after dropping off an inmate at the Orange County Jail when he witnessed a man exit his vehicle while pointing a firearm at the driver of the vehicle behind him. After identifying himself as an ICE agent and showing his credentials, the armed federal agent told the police officer that the female driver had been following and recording him. After the alleged attempt to cause a collision, according to Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the agent followed his training, activated his emergency lights, identified himself as law enforcement and ordered the "aggressive" driver to stop.

NewsMax [11/10/2025 12:42 PM, Solange Reyner, 4109K] reports that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday said the Trump administration has removed Nevada from the sanctuary jurisdiction list following a commitment from the Nevada Sheriffs’ & Chiefs’ Association and Gov. Joe Lombardo to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to "protect American citizens from dangerous criminal illegal aliens." "When others cower, real leaders step up," Noem said in a post on X. "I applaud the Nevada Sheriffs’ & Chiefs’ Association and Governor @JosephMLombardo for their commitment to working with @ICEgov to protect American citizens from dangerous criminal illegal aliens. "Because of their efforts, Nevada has been removed from the Trump Administration’s sanctuary jurisdiction list. I encourage every leader across our nation to follow their example so that all Americans can live in peace and safety," she added. In August, Lombardo authorized "a small contingent" of the Nevada National Guard to support DHS in immigration enforcement. Under President Donald Trump, ICE has received increased funding and expanded authority to carry out the president’s promise of the "largest deportation program in American history." The number of detainees in ICE custody increased to 66,000 last week, a new high, according to CBS News. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said 70% of immigrants arrested "have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges just in the U.S. "And this statistic doesn’t even account for those wanted for violent crimes in their country of origin or another country, INTERPOL notices, human rights abusers, gang members, terrorists," she added.

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Daily Caller [11/10/2025 12:43 PM, Jason Hopkins, 835K]

The Washington Post [11/11/2025 6:28 PM, Tara Copp, 24149K] reports the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier has entered waters near Latin America, joining a massive naval buildup that has fueled speculation the Trump administration intends to dramatically escalate its deadly counternarcotics campaign there, possibly through direct attacks on Venezuela. The Ford and its three accompanying warships arrived in the region Tuesday, the Navy said in a news release. The ships were not yet in the Caribbean Sea but had crossed into the U.S. Southern Command’s jurisdiction, a vast area that also includes part of the Atlantic Ocean and drug smuggling routes in the Pacific used by cartels based in Colombia and neighboring Ecuador. “These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. The development, though forecast weeks ago, appeared certain to deepen the sense of unease felt in some corners of Congress since President Donald Trump began to ruminate about a potential regime change in Venezuela. Last week, administration officials hoping to quash bipartisan legislation aimed at restraining the president’s ability to unleash military force there told lawmakers no active preparations were underway for such an attack — a declaration that persuaded enough Republicans to vote down the measure. The breadth of firepower inherent to an aircraft carrier strike group — the Ford typically travels with dozens of fighter jets and an assortment of other lethal capabilities — would seem excessive for the type of strikes that U.S. forces have carried out on alleged drug boats since early September, experts said. NewsMax [11/11/2025 8:08 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports that the carrier group’s assignment to the SOUTHCOM region marks a significant expansion of naval power in the Caribbean and South American region. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered the carrier from the Mediterranean to Latin American waters on Oct. 24, citing the need to strengthen counternarcotics efforts and dismantle transnational criminal organizations. Once in the SOUTHCOM theater, the carrier strike group will join U.S. naval assets already deployed in the region, creating one of the largest concentrations of maritime force in SOUTHCOM’s waters. While the mission’s official focus is drug interdiction and maritime security, defense analysts say the deployment sends a broader message of deterrence to adversarial states and criminal networks. One expert noted that such a high-end naval asset projects deterrence as much as it conducts interdiction. ABC News [11/11/2025 1:45 PM, Luis Martinez, 30493K] reports the strike group includes three destroyers that will augment the eight Navy surface ships already in the SOUTHCOM region. The sizable U.S. military presence in the region also includes a submarine, reconnaissance aircraft, 10 F-35 fighters and Reaper drones. It was disclosed last week through imagery that an AC-130J gunship and two other reconnaissance aircraft have been operating from an El Salvador military base co-located at the country’s international airport, presumably as part of operations against the cartels. The Ford carries more than 60 aircraft that could be used against the drug cartels. The Trump administration says it has killed 76 people in 19 strikes against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean since it began its campaign in September. The 4,000 sailors and Marines aboard ships in the Ford strike group join the 10,000 troops already deployed to the Caribbean. The Pentagon has said that the carrier’s deployment is tied to the operations targeting the drug cartels, but critics have asked if it is intended to be a show of force or potential operations targeting Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro regime. Experts say that while Maduro is complicit in the drug trade, many of the drugs coming into the U.S. come via Mexico and sea routes in the Pacific, not the Caribbean, which is known more for shipping drugs to Europe. The administration has flown B-52 bombers near the coast of Venezuela and B-1 bombers over the Caribbean in what appears to be a major show of force by President Donald Trump. In addition, a special operations aviation unit conducted training exercises in international waters near Venezuela in October, a U.S. official said.

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New York Times [11/11/2025 4:46 PM, Eric Schmitt, 153395K]
New York Post [11/11/2025 1:30 PM, Samuel Chamberlain, 42219K]
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Breitbart [11/11/2025 1:07 PM, Staff, 2416K]
Washington Examiner [11/11/2025 1:39 PM, Mike Brest, 1394K]
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CNN [11/11/2025 3:17 PM, Staff, 606K] reports Venezuela says it is launching a "massive mobilization" of military personnel, weapons and equipment in response to the build-up of US warships and troops in the Caribbean Sea. Land, air, naval and reserve forces will carry out exercises through Wednesday, according to Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, who described the deployment as a response to the "imperialist threat" posed by the US build-up. In addition to regular military units, the exercises will involve the Bolivarian Militia – a reserve force made up of civilians that was created by the late President Hugo Chávez and is named after Simon Bolivar, the revolutionary who secured the independence of numerous Latin American countries from Spain. Padrino López, who attributed the order directly to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, said the objective of the exercise was to "optimize command, control and communications" and ensure the defense of the country. The move comes amid increasing tension between the two countries as the US build-up continues. On Tuesday, the US Navy announced the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford – America’s largest warship – had arrived in the US Southern Command area of operations, which includes most of Latin America. The US has framed its build-up of forces in the region as aimed at combating drug trafficking and the flow of drugs into the United States, and has carried out strikes on numerous alleged drug boats in recent weeks. However, Caracas believes the US is really trying to force regime change and some Trump administration officials have privately conceded their strategy is aimed at removing Maduro. Last month, Trump said he had authorized the CIA to operate in Venezuela and he has previously suggested he was weighing the possibility of strikes inside the country – though administration officials have since said the US is not currently planning such action. In his statement Tuesday, Padrino López framed the deployment of the Venezuelan forces as part of Maduro’s wider "Independence Plan 200" – a civic-military strategy aimed at mobilizing conventional military forces alongside militia and police forces to defend the country. Venezuela’s conventional military, the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, has some 123,000 members. Maduro has also claimed that his volunteer militias now have more than 8 million reservists, though experts have called into question that number as well as the quality of the troops’ training.

FOX News [11/11/2025 8:37 PM, Louis Casiano, 40621K] reports Venezuela has deployed military units and began amassing weapons and equipment in response to the Trump administration’s mobilization of U.S. warships in the Caribbean. The buildup, which the government has termed "prolonged resistance," involves small military units at more than 280 locations carrying out acts of sabotage and other guerrilla tactics, according to sources and several-years-old planning documents for the tactic seen by Reuters. "We don’t discuss intelligence matters," a War Department official told Fox News. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused the Trump administration of seeking to oust him from power. He has pledged that Venezuelan citizens will defend the South American nation from American aggression. Meanwhile, the administration has ordered a series of deadly strikes targeting suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean in an effort to curb the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States. President Donald Trump has suggested the possibility of ground operations in Venezuela, saying "the land is going to be next.” On Tuesday, the U.S. Navy said the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group had entered the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility as part of an American presence to support the growing naval buildup in the region. "The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere," said Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell. "These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations.” Aside from the significant resource disparities between the U.S. and Venezuelan militaries, some Venezuelan unit commanders have even been forced to negotiate with local food producers to feed their troops because government supplies fall short, Reuters reported. Part of Venezuela’s defense strategy includes a guerrilla-style response, according to reports. "We wouldn’t last two hours in a conventional war," a source close to the government told the news outlet. Russia’s foreign ministry said last week it was prepared to respond to Venezuela’s requests for assistance, while urging against an escalation in tensions. Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

Telemundo [11/11/2025 9:39 PM, Staff, 57K] reports Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered the creation of comprehensive defense commands on Tuesday - which will bring together citizens, military personnel and public officials - to "be prepared" in case of an "armed struggle", in a context marked by the "threat" that, according to the president, is represented by the US military deployment in waters of the Caribbean Sea near his country. The head of state gave the order by signing the ‘Law of the Command for the Integral Defense of the Nation’, approved this Tuesday by the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), controlled by Chavismo, which establishes the objectives, characteristics and functions of these bodies. "The order must be activated so that the comprehensive defense commands are established, structured, and put to work to be prepared, if it comes to us as a republic, as a people, to go into armed struggle to defend this sacred heritage of the liberators and liberators, to be ready to win, to triumph, through the path of patriotism and courage," Maduro expressed. In an event at Miraflores Palace - the seat of the Executive branch in Caracas - broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), the leader of Chavismo pointed out that, in these last "fourteen weeks of imperial criminal madness" and "permanent psychological warfare", the South American country has "taken steps" in the military and institutional spheres. In response to "these threats," according to Maduro, the capacity of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) has been strengthened for "any scenario" and the "entire country, in perfect popular-military-police fusion," has been prepared, with the objective, he maintained, of "being ready, willing and prepared" to "move from non-armed struggle to liberating and victorious armed struggle."

CNN [11/11/2025 10:03 AM, Natasha Bertrand, 606K] Video: HERE reports the United Kingdom is no longer sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in US military strikes and believes the attacks are illegal, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The UK’s decision marks a significant break from its closest ally and intelligence sharing partner and underscores the growing skepticism over the legality of the US military’s campaign around Latin America. For years, the UK, which controls a number of territories in the Caribbean where it bases intelligence assets, has helped the US locate vessels suspected of carrying drugs so that the US Coast Guard could interdict them, the sources said. That meant the ships would be stopped, boarded, its crew detained, and drugs seized. The intelligence was typically sent to Joint Interagency Task Force South, a task force stationed in Florida that includes representatives from a number of partner nations and works to reduce the illicit drug trade. But shortly after the US began launching lethal strikes against the boats in September, however, the UK grew concerned that the US might use intelligence provided by the British to select targets. British officials believe the US military strikes, which have killed 76 people, violate international law, the sources said. The intelligence pause began over a month ago, they said. The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, said last month that the strikes violate international law and amount to "extrajudicial killing." The UK agrees with that assessment, the sources told CNN. The British embassy in Washington and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. A Pentagon official told CNN that the department "doesn’t talk about intelligence matters.” Before the US military began blowing up boats in September, countering illicit drug trafficking was handled by law enforcement and the US Coast Guard, Cartel members and drug smugglers were treated as criminals with due process rights — something the UK was happy to help with, the sources said. But the Trump administration has argued that the US military can legally kill suspected traffickers because they pose an imminent threat to Americans and are "enemy combatants" who are in an "armed conflict" with the US, according to a memo sent by the administration to Congress. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion, which is still classified, reinforcing that argument, CNN has reported, and Trump has designated a number of drug cartels as "foreign terrorist groups." The White House has said repeatedly that the administration’s actions "comply fully with the Law of Armed Conflict," the area of international law that is designed to prevent attacks on civilians.

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Washington Examiner [11/11/2025 5:14 PM, Pedro Rodriguez, 1394K]

The Hill [11/10/2025 10:03 AM, Filip Timotija, 12595K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday morning that the U.S. military conducted strikes against two alleged drug trafficking boats in the Eastern Pacific, killing six "narco-terrorists.” Hegseth said both strikes, which took place Sunday, were conducted in international waters against vessels operated by a designated terrorist organization. He did not specify which organization the boats were related to. Both boats were carrying narcotics and were transiting along a "known narco-trafficking transit route" in the Eastern Pacific, according to Hegseth. Three alleged "narco-terrorists" were on each boat and no U.S. forces were injured in the operations, he added. "Under President Trump, we are protecting the homeland and killing these cartel terrorists who wish to harm our country and its people," Hegseth wrote in a post on the social platform X. The Pentagon chief attached a 30-second video of both strikes, showing the vessels being struck and engulfed in flames. The U.S. military has conducted at least 19 strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in both the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific since the campaign kicked off in early September, killing a minimum of 76 people. The Washington Post [11/10/2025 12:48 PM, Andrew deGrandpre, 24149K] reports U.S. intelligence had determined that the vessels were “associated” with drug smuggling, Hegseth said, describing their positions as a “known narco-trafficking transit route in the Eastern Pacific.” Colombia and Ecuador, which share a border along the Pacific Ocean, are known hubs for the Latin American drug trade. Sunday’s attacks marked the 18th and 19th time since early September that U.S. military personnel have killed people in the waters off Latin America, according to public disclosures by the Trump administration. Several of those strikes occurred off Venezuela, in the Caribbean Sea, where a sprawling U.S. naval presence has been assembled.

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CNN [11/11/2025 7:00 AM, Natasha Bertrand, Avery Schmitz, Zachary Cohen, 18595K] reports the US military has undertaken a campaign against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea using a variety of drones, gunships, and fighter jets, according to people familiar with the assets being deployed. Most of the strikes have been carried out using MQ-9 Reaper drones, the sources said, which are remotely piloted aircraft used by the military and are typically armed with Hellfire missiles. Other strikes have been conducted by manned aircraft, including AC-130J gunships and fighter jets, the sources said. To date the Pentagon has not publicly acknowledged what aircraft or hardware the military is using to conduct the strikes. Since early September, the US military has killed 76 people in 19 strikes that have destroyed 20 boats as part of a campaign that Washington says is aimed at curtailing the flow of drugs into the United States. The US military has concentrated many of its assets in Puerto Rico, including the MQ-9 drones, F-35 fighter jets, and at least one AC-130J gunship. All have limited ranges and are likely being used for the strikes in the Caribbean. The gunship was spotted on October 9 armed with precision-guided missiles for striking ground targets, CNN has reported. Last week, an AC-130J gunship operated by the US Air Force surfaced in El Salvador, at US Cooperative Security Location (CSL) Comalapa, according to photos and satellite imagery obtained by CNN. The facilities in both Puerto Rico and El Savador are seeing highly unusual US military activity. Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico, a US military installation that had been shuttered since 2004, is now back up and running, according to satellite imagery and photos taken at the base. And while the US facility at El Salvador International Airport has regularly hosted surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft since it was set up in 2000, the outpost had until recently been used almost exclusively for unarmed aircraft, according to the United States Southern Command. The position of the facility near El Salvador’s coast makes it uniquely positioned to play a role in the US campaign in the Pacific Ocean. Previously, most potential smuggling vessels transiting the Pacific would have been too far from the types of attack aircraft sources said have been used for the campaign, all of which have limited range and were based either in Puerto Rico or the continental US. "Operating out of Comalapa provides more options and permits a much wider swath of the Pacific Ocean — through which much of the cocaine trafficked toward the United States passes — to be surveilled and defended," explained Dr. Ryan Berg, the director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Before the US began striking alleged drug boats in September, CSL Comalapa played a different role in fighting narcotics trafficking, historically hosting maritime surveillance aircraft, including a Navy P-8A and P-3 Orion operated by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

NPR [11/12/2025 5:00 AM, Anusha Mathur, 34837K] reports for over three months, the U.S. military has repeatedly struck boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, claiming that the vessels were intending to carry drugs into the United States. Since the first attack was announced on Sept. 2, these strikes have occurred nearly every week, killing dozens of people. NPR compiled a list of these boat attacks using posts on Truth Social and X by President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. These posts show grainy video footage of vessels being blown up. The administration has not publicly released further evidence that the boats were actually carrying drugs and who was on board. Select lawmakers have been briefed about the U.S. attacks, though some of them, including the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have requested additional information. The strikes are part of a larger Trump administration strategy to target what officials call "narco-terrorists." In a post on X on Nov. 4, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to "find and and terminate EVERY vessel with the intention of trafficking drugs to America to poison our citizens," adding that "NO cartel terrorist stands a chance against the American military."

Washington Examiner [11/11/2025 5:00 AM, Mike Brest, 1394K] reports the U.S. military has conducted nearly 20 strikes on alleged drug smuggling vessels in the Western Hemisphere that have killed approximately 75 people to date. Under President Donald Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth, the military in September began targeting alleged drug boats with deadly force, a change from a tradition of having the Coast Guard interdict the ships and making arrests if needed. The strikes have prompted questions and consternation on Capitol Hill regarding the legalities of blowing the vessels up. Over the last couple of months, Hegseth has ordered what amounts to the largest military buildup in the Caribbean in decades, leading experts to believe there could be a bigger strategy at play. The focus, many experts believe, is on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the United States has designated as an illegitimate leader due to the widespread international stance that he lost his last election but remained in power. Both Trump and Hegseth have said intelligence proves the boats were involved in the transportation of narcotics, but they have not publicly explained what that intelligence was or shown evidence that there were drugs aboard the targeted vessels. The administration has not released the names of the people killed in the strikes, and it is unclear if they knew the identities of the people aboard before killing them.

Daily Caller [11/11/2025 9:44 AM, Jason Hopkins, 835K] reports a pair of Democrat-appointed judges temporarily paused the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal migrant truck drivers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Monday issued an administrative stay against the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) emergency rules against non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs), with two judges voting for the stay and one judge voting against it, according to court documents. The ruling will, for now, allow many illegal migrant CDL holders to remain on American highways. "The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motions for stay pending review and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of those motions," the order stated. Judge Florence Pan, appointed to the bench by the Biden administration, and Judge Robert Wilkins, appointed to the bench by the Obama administration, voted for the administrative stay. Judge Karen Henderson, appointed by President George H. W. Bush, voted against the pause. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued sweeping restrictions in September against commercial drivers after discovering "catastrophic patterns" of state officials illegally handing out licenses to foreign drivers. Under the emergency rules, non-citizens wishing to earn a non-domiciled CDL had to undergo a mandatory federal immigration status check and have an employment-based visa, according to the DOT. The new requirements — which largely did not apply to lawful permanent residents — aimed to crack down on illegal migrants who managed to obtain CDLs while knowing little to no English, posing serious danger to American roadways. The DOT’s rule affects the roughly 200,000 individuals who carry a non-domiciled CDL in the U.S., many of them being commercial truck drivers who did not enter the country lawfully. "This is not a ruling on the merits of the case. Secretary Duffy will continue working to keep unqualified, foreign drivers off American roads," a DOT spokesperson stated Tuesday to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Regulations around the trucking industry became the focus of national media attention and the Trump administration following a string of fatal accidents, allegedly caused by illegal migrant truckers who scored non-domiciled CDLs.

AP [11/10/2025 4:51 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports U.S. government attorneys say they have cleared all the hurdles needed to send Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia and are asking a federal judge to dissolve an order blocking his deportation. Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation to his home country of El Salvador earlier this year has helped galvanize opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. His attorneys claim the administration is now manipulating the immigration system in order to punish him for successfully challenging that deportation. A motion from the government filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland late on Friday says officials have received assurances from Liberia that Abrego Garcia would not face persecution or torture there. Further, it says an immigration officer heard Abrego Garcia’s claims that he feared deportation to the West African nation, but ruled against him. His attorneys argue in a separate Friday filing that Abrego Garcia has already designated Costa Rica as a country where he is willing to be deported. They claim the government now must send him there. The fact that officials continue to pursue deportation to other countries is evidence that the process is retaliatory and violates due process protections, they argue. Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally from El Salvador as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to his home country, finding he faced danger there. But in March, he was deported to El Salvador anyway in what a government attorney later said was an administrative error. Facing pressure from the courts, the administration brought him back to the U.S. in June but has since been pursuing his deportation to a third country. Much of Abrego Garcia’s argument against his deportation to Liberia hinges on due process claims. The government tries to tear down those claims, arguing that his due process rights are not the same as a U.S. citizen’s. Because he entered the country illegally, he should be treated the same as someone who just crossed the border, they argue. Meanwhile, his attorneys argue that "‘aliens who have established connections in this country’ have greater due process rights than ‘an alien at the threshold of initial entry’," citing a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case.

New York Times [11/11/2025 7:05 PM, Edward Wong, 135475K] reports a Democratic senator has criticized Secretary of State Marco Rubio for paying $7.5 million to the government of Equatorial Guinea to agree to take deportees from the United States who are not its citizens. The senator, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Mr. Rubio on Monday saying that the “highly unusual payment — to one of the most corrupt governments in the world — raises serious concerns over the responsible, transparent use of American taxpayer dollars.” The $7.5 million is by far the largest payment the Trump administration is known to have made to another government to take deportees who are not its citizens. Ms. Shaheen noted that Transparency International, a research group, ranked Equatorial Guinea 173 out of 180 countries for corruption. And the State Department itself said in its 2023 human rights report that the country’s “president and members of his inner circle continued to amass personal fortunes from the revenues associated with monopolies on all domestic commercial ventures” and that “corruption at all levels of government was a severe problem.” A State Department report from 2025 on human trafficking pointed to multiple “credible sources” who had said government officials were involved in trafficking, including for sex. “I have serious concerns over whether, without appropriate oversight mechanisms and guardrails, a direct payment to Equatorial Guinea’s government could be used to facilitate human trafficking,” Ms. Shaheen wrote. “I am also concerned about what protections are in place to ensure that third-country nationals removed to Equatorial Guinea are themselves not vulnerable to human trafficking, smuggling or human rights abuses.” When asked about Ms. Shaheen’s statements, the State Department declined to comment on its arrangement with Equatorial Guinea, saying it did not want to reveal details of “diplomatic communications with other governments.” “Implementing the Trump administration’s immigration policies is a top priority for the Department of State,” it said in a statement. “As Secretary Rubio has said, we remain unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security.” In one of its most contentious policies, the Trump administration has aggressively tried to deport a wide range of immigrants from the United States. Mr. Rubio has ordered diplomats to try to forge agreements with other nations to take deportees who are not their citizens. A New York Times investigation that was based mostly on reviews of U.S. diplomatic cables and other federal documents found that, as of June, American officials had approached at least 58 governments about this effort. Many of the nations that were asked to take deportees had records of persistent human rights abuses and torture. Equatorial Guinea was one of them.

CBS News [11/11/2025 6:00 AM, Nicole Sganga, Madeleine May, Layla Ferris, Maddie Kornfeld, 39474K] reports you’ve seen the videos in newscasts and social feeds: Federal agents employing chokeholds, firing pepper spray at close range, and even using vehicle maneuvers to control immigration protests. These videos have spurred debate over whether agents have violated federal policies on use of force, which is authorized "only when no reasonably effective, safe, and feasible alternative appears to exist," according to Department of Homeland Security policies. A review of hundreds of videos, most recorded on cellphones by protesters and posted online, shows repeated instances that don’t appear to meet that standard. We asked Eric Balliet, a career federal agent who worked under both Democratic and Republican administrations for more than two decades, to review some of the tactics used in these videos. Balliet led internal investigations into use of force misconduct for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement until last year. "This isn’t policing and law enforcement as I practiced it for 25 years," he said. Customs and Border Protection commander Gregory Bovino, who is leading the federal agents responding to protests in Chicago, disagrees. "If someone strays into a pepper ball, then that’s on them," Bovino said in an interview with CBS News. "Don’t protest and don’t trespass.” Protesters and media organizations in Chicago have filed a complaint in federal court about the tactics employed under Bovino’s command, as well as those captured on video recordings in Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles and other cities. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Sara L. Ellis issued an order blocking federal agents from deploying chemical spray, tear gas or any other less-lethal weapon "unless such force is necessary to stop the immediate threat of physical harm to another." The Trump administration has filed an appeal. DHS is now racing to file its implementation guidance in response to the judge’s order. Revised directives informing DHS personnel of banned use-of-force tactics must be issued by the end of the day Tuesday. "I see little reason for the use of force that the federal agents are currently using," Ellis said in her ruling from the bench. "The use of force shocks the conscience," Ellis said. But President Trump said in an interview with CBS News’ "60 Minutes" earlier this month that the tactics employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement "haven’t gone far enough." . "I don’t know where the leadership is here," said Balliet. "It seems to be non-existent. Any oversight and justification for the use of force seems to be absent across the board.” Balliet reviewed dozens of videos at the request of CBS News, and he identified several clear areas of concern with the tactics he saw in use against demonstrators. Firing less-than-lethal munitions at protesters’ heads and torsos. Videos taken outside the ICE facilities show federal agents standing several stories above protesters and shooting less-than-lethal munitions towards their heads and torsos. In a statement to CBS News, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said federal agents are "trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations to prioritize the safety of the public and themselves.” The agency argued that protesters have "thrown rocks, bottles, and fireworks" at agents, "slashed the tires of their vehicles, rammed them, ambushed them, and …destroyed multiple law enforcement vehicles.” "Despite these real dangers, our law enforcement shows incredible restraint in exhausting all options before force is escalated," the agency statement said.

CBS News [11/11/2025 8:49 AM, Nicole Sganga, 39474K] reports CBS News reviewed hundreds of videos that appear to show federal agents using tactics during protests that may not keep up with Department of Homeland Security policies. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [11/11/2025 6:16 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports a CBS News review of hundreds of videos of federal agents confronting protesters found several instances in which agents appeared to violate federal policies on use of force. Nicole Sganga discussed the footage with both a former federal agent and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino as part of the exclusive investigation.

NPR [11/10/2025 5:00 AM, Kat Lonsdorf, 28013K] reports as President Trump calls for National Guard deployments across the U.S., a small contingent of Ohio guard members has been quietly expressing concern in an encrypted group chat. The administration started sending troops into several Democratic-led cities this summer, citing the need to crack down on violent crime and protect federal immigration facilities. The Ohio guard members now say they’re alarmed at the turn the country is taking. They’re even questioning their potential role in it. "I really went to a dark place when they sent the troops to [Los Angeles], and then eventually [Washington, D.C.], and now, Chicago. This is just not what any of us signed up for, and it’s so out of the scope of normal operations," says J, a member of the Ohio National Guard who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity.

Washington Post [11/11/2025 6:00 AM, Ben Strauss and María Luisa Paúl, 24149K] reports as the Trump administration intensifies a nationwide mass deportation campaign, immigrant parents are scrambling to secure emergency caretakers for their children — flooding legal clinics and naming friends, acquaintances or teachers as temporary guardians. A Chicago volunteer worker agreed to become a guardian for nine children, using an obscure state law that dates to the AIDS epidemic. A teacher in Maine recently agreed to be an emergency guardian for one of her students if his parents, both of whom are undocumented, are deported. And a business owner in Oregon ended up with temporary custody of her friend’s children for four months when the parents were both detained. Fear of being separated from her son recently led Rosa, an Ecuadorian asylum seeker and single mom in Chicago, to search online for help with a question she never thought she’d face: What happens to my child if I get deported? The search led her to information about short-term guardianship, or tutela temporal in Spanish, which allows parents to designate a trusted adult to temporarily care for their children under certain conditions without giving up parental rights. In Illinois, the four-page legal document is free and requires no lawyer or notary. It gives people the authority to make decisions about education and medical needs if parents are unable to care for their children. “I don’t know if I will come home from work any day; this is my plan,” Rosa said of the short-term guardianship agreement. (Like several others interviewed for this article, she spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation from the federal government.) Across the country, the effects of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign have had a chilling effect on immigrant communities — both the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and those here legally. Perhaps nowhere has it been more pronounced than in Chicago, where law firms advertise services on Spanish language radio for parents in need of a plan for their kids if they get detained.

FOX News [11/10/2025 9:30 PM, Gabriel Hays, 40621K] reports pop star Olivia Rodrigo slammed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security last Thursday for using her music on a social media post promoting its deportation agenda. Rodrigo left a comment on an Instagram post shared by DHS and the White House that encouraged illegal immigrants to self-deport from the United States. Rodrigo’s 2023 song, "All-American b----", was used as the clip’s background music. The post, originally shared by DHS on Nov. 4, featured clips of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting alleged illegal immigrants and sending them back to their countries while in chains. Over the images, the words, "If ICE finds you." A second series of clips featured immigrants voluntarily getting on planes and going back to their original countries looking happier and more comparable. The words, "If you self-deport" flashed on the screen. The video concluded with instructions on how illegal immigrants could access the Customs and Border Patrol website and find government assistance in self-deporting. A graphic showed that illegal immigrants could "receive a $1,000 exit bonus." The post’s caption read, "LEAVE NOW and self-deport using the CBP Home app. If you don’t, you will face the consequences." Following Rodrigo’s condemnation of the post and the DHS using her music, the audio of "all-American b----" was no longer available on the post, fueling speculation that Rodrigo had the song removed from the post.

Free Beacon [11/11/2025 5:37 PM, Alana Goodman, 411K] reports Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s open Senate seat in 2026, called border agents "white supremacists" and blamed the United States for illegal immigration from Central America and in a since-deleted post on X. In a Sept. 24, 2021, post on X, El-Sayed sounded off on a debunked claim alleging that a photograph depicted a border agent on horseback holding a whip while intercepting illegal immigrants. The agent was in fact holding the horse’s rein, and subsequent investigations cleared the border officials of wrongdoing. "Blaming horses for the dudes riding them to whip Haitian refugees is like blaming Haiti for the fact they’re coming," El-Sayed wrote. "How about asking how our policies decimate Caribbean & Central American (and so many other) countries—and why we allow white supremacists to police our borders?". The revelation of El-Sayed’s post comes after the longtime left-wing activist received scrutiny for deleting other social media posts promoting the "defund the police" movement, CNN reported Monday. The anti-police activism championed by the Left in 2020 and 2021 has become increasingly toxic with the U.S. electorate, and El-Sayed’s radical position on immigration also puts him at odds with voters. El-Sayed has said Trump’s immigration policies are "destroy[ing] the rule of law" and accused the administration of using ICE to "terrorize neighborhoods," but his claim that border agents are "white supremacists" is more extreme than the positions he has voiced since declaring his Senate candidacy. The Senate candidate’s anti-ICE statements are similar to now-deleted X posts that he wrote against police. In one June 2020 post, he said police "have become standing armies we deploy against our own people," CNN reported. He wrote in another that U.S. cities "spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments to police poverty" and "Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about.” El-Sayed’s spokesman declined to address the post in a comment to CNN, saying instead that the candidate "is challenging government choices that defund food, healthcare, and social services while militarizing agencies like ICE in sharp contrast to Donald Trump’s presidency because real safety comes from investing in people—not in tanks and tear gas.”

Bloomberg [11/11/2025 1:41 PM, Mallory Culhane, 803K] reports Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is suing the Harris County Commissioners Court over its decision to allocate roughly $1.34 million in taxpayer funds to nonprofits that provide legal aid to immigrants in deportation proceedings. “Harris County has made a politically charged decision to spend taxpayer dollars to subsidize noncitizens contesting federal immigration enforcement, a purpose that serves no public benefit,” Paxton said in a petition for injunctive relief filed Monday in Texas District Court, Harris County. The Harris County Commissioners Court, which governs the county that contains most of the city of Houston, voted Oct. 16 to allocate $1.34 million in county funds to nonprofits to provide legal representation for individuals who are detained by immigration authorities or are facing deportation proceedings. The funds will be available Jan. 1. The commissioners also approved an additional $100,000 on Oct. 30 to set up an immigrant resource hotline to connect individuals to those same legal aid groups. “These expenditures serve no public purpose,” Paxton said, and are unconstitutional grants of taxpayer funds to subsidize private deportation defenses. The county “exercises no meaningful oversight” of how the organizations select or represent clients, nor has the county adopted any eligibility standards or review process to ensure the funds are used for a public purpose, Paxton said. The expenditures also don’t provide any reciprocal public benefit or consideration to Harris County, the petition says. Public statements made by Harris County commissioners show the move was motivated by opposition to the Trump administration’s federal immigration enforcement actions, he added, rather than a legitimate public purpose. The county and commissioners court didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The case is State of Tex. v. Harris Cnty., Tex. Dist. Ct., No. 202585662, petition filed 11/10/25.

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UPI [11/11/2025 2:21 PM, Mike Heuer, 2416K]
Univision [11/11/2025 8:31 PM, Staff, 5004K]

New York Times [11/11/2025 5:37 AM, Farnaz Fassihi and Hamed Aleaziz, 153395K] reports in the hours before dawn one day in early October, Mehrdad Dalir found himself stranded at a bus station in Iran. He recalls feeling the heavy gaze of passers-by and shivering. He looked out of place, dressed in a prison outfit of sorts: gray sweatpants and sweatshirt, and a pair of blue plastic slippers. About two days earlier, U.S. immigration authorities had taken Mr. Dalir from a detention facility inside an airport in Alexandria, La., and forced him aboard a plane to Iran as part of an unusual mass deportation to a country with a poor human rights record that the United States had bombed earlier this year in an effort to set back its nuclear program. Mr. Dalir, 34, says he was shackled and handcuffed, and not given the chance to change out of the prison clothes he had worn during his time in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. Once in Iran, he made his way by metro and bus from Tehran’s international airport to his hometown, Mashhad, in northeast Iran. After borrowing a cellphone, Mr. Dalir delivered the news to family members still in Mashhad: The United States had sent him back to Iran. “Maman, come and get me,” he told his mother, and broke into a sob. A blue backpack contained all his belongings — a few clothing items, his passport, immigration cards, a cellphone with a dead battery and a $20 bill. “It feels like I’m in a nightmare,” Mr. Dalir said in a three-hour telephone interview from Iran. He acknowledged he had entered the United States illegally in April but said he thought he would have a powerful case for asylum because he has been critical of Islamic Shariah law and a political activist. He didn’t expect to be sent back to Iran.

New York Times [11/11/2025 2:45 PM, Elizabeth Dias, 153395K] reports as the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign continues, and Pope Leo XIV urges support for migrant families, America’s Roman Catholic bishops redoubled their focus on immigration while electing new leaders at their annual meeting on Tuesday. In a hotel ballroom in Baltimore addressing the first major gathering of American bishops in the Leo pontificate, the outgoing bishops’ conference president opened with pointed remarks. Bible teaching, he noted, is to have “special care for strangers, aliens and sojourners.” “It is not rocket science, but the Word of God,” Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio said. The bishops elected Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City to be their next president, to serve for a three-year term. An institutionalist with ties to the church’s right wing, Archbishop Coakley issued a statement two days after President Trump’s inauguration calling on Catholics to remember that Jesus was once a refugee, and to support immigrant families. The leadership team in the U.S. will be the first new slate under Pope Leo’s tenure. It will also span the remainder of President Trump’s presidential term. The bishops are also set to consider a “Special Message” on immigration, a rare statement issued only at their annual meeting, to address the circumstances of the day. The last one was in 2013, and was expressed in opposition to the contraceptive coverage mandate of the Affordable Care Act. The bishops so far have stopped short of a statement directly targeting the Trump administration, unlike a conservative push in 2021 to deny communion to Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights, including Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was president at the time. But the annual meeting, and the intensity of the moment, put the U.S. bishops in the spotlight in a way that they haven’t been in years. For the first time, the conference is being held while a pope from the United States sits in Rome. The intense focus on immigration is a shift from the bishops’ last presidential election three years ago, when they made their efforts to end abortion a priority after the backlash to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Washington Examiner [11/10/2025 3:23 PM, Pedro Rodriguez, 1394K] reports Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Jolt Initiative after an investigation from his office found that the nonprofit organization handed out instructions on how to register to vote to noncitizens outside of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. According to Paxton, the instructions provided by the organization directly violated provisions of the Texas Election Code, which states that "voter registration agencies should only provide voter registration applications to United States citizens." Paxton’s lawsuit aims to dismantle the organization’s chapter and confiscate its corporate privileges, as well as pay back the state’s legal costs.

AP [11/10/2025 5:16 PM and Kate Payne, David Fischer, 31753K] Video: HERE reports a small turboprop plane on a hurricane relief mission to Jamaica crashed Monday morning into a pond in a gated residential neighborhood of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs, killing two people shortly after takeoff and narrowly missing homes, authorities and a local resident said. The Coral Springs Police Department confirmed the deaths in a statement Monday afternoon. But police did not provide further details about the occupants of the plane and did not immediately return messages seeking more details. Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department Deputy Chief Mike Moser said emergency crews responded within minutes of a call reporting the crash. Initially, no victims were located during rescue efforts and they shifted to a recovery operation. Moser said no homes were damaged, but crews spotted some debris near the retention pond. Local aerial televised footage showed a broken fence in the backyard of one home bordering the pond where the plane went down. “There was no actual plane to be seen,” Moser said. “They followed the debris trail to the water. We had divers that entered the water and tried to search for any victims and didn’t find any.” Kenneth DeTrolio told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he and his wife were in their home when the plane crashed through their backyard, destroying his fence and toppling palm trees before hitting the water. He said the impact left debris scattered across his yard and that his pool and back porch were “contaminated” with spilled fuel. The fuel smell was so strong inside his home that it took a few hours to dissipate, he added. “We heard the strangest sound. I never heard anything like it before, and apparently that was when this plane must have flown between my home and my neighbor’s house,” DeTrolio told the newspaper. Officials cautioned residents that police would maintain a significant presence in the area throughout Monday and Tuesday as investigators continue collecting evidence.

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ABC News [11/10/2025 3:36 PM, Victoria Arancio, 30493K]

AP [11/11/2025 3:57 PM, David Bauder, 2416K] reports in the space of a few months, one of the more straightforward journalistic tasks — editing tape for broadcast — has been behind a $16 million legal settlement, a network’s change in how it offers interviews on a news show and, now, the resignation of two top leaders at the BBC. The other common denominator: President Donald Trump. Britain’s BBC is reeling this week following the resignations of its director-general, Tim Davie, and news chief Deborah Turness amid accusations of bias in the editing of last year’s documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance.” The BBC admitted filmmakers spliced together quotes from different sections of the speech Trump made before the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol to make it seem like he was directly urging violence. Trump sued CBS’ parent company over a “60 Minutes” edit of Kamala Harris’ interview, resulting in this summer’s settlement, and the complaints of his Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, about her “Face the Nation” interview in August caused a policy change. In a different time, the BBC episode would likely have led to a quick admission of a mistake, a correction, apology and everyone would have moved on, said Mark Lukasiewicz, a former NBC News executive and now dean of Hofstra University’s School of Communication. “But in an era where every editing decision taken in a newsroom is now under a microscope and can be weaponized for political purposes,” he said, “it’s got to be something that is causing real caution in newsrooms all over the world now.” At the root of Trump’s complaint about “60 Minutes” was an exchange between correspondent Bill Whitaker and Kamala Harris, the president’s opponent in last year’s election. CBS aired two different reports — on “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation” — depicting Harris giving two different answers to a Whitaker question about the war in the Mideast. In Noem’s pretaped talk with “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan this summer, the Homeland Security secretary complained CBS News had “shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth.” The network had shortened the interview, removing some accusations Noem had made about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the immigrant deported by the Trump administration. More often, networks are defusing potential editing controversies by posting online full, unedited transcripts of key interviews, Lukasiewicz said. CBS News did that immediately when it aired a pre-taped edited interview with Trump on Nov. 2, along with video. The network didn’t release a transcript of its Harris interview for more than three months — not until Trump had sued and the FCC launched an investigation of the news division. The Trump transcript release created its own issues, with dozens of amateur editors comparing the transcript to the shorter, edited interview that aired on “60 Minutes” to see what producers had decided to leave out. This time, though, Trump had no complaints.

Washington Post [11/11/2025 6:12 PM, Staff, 24149K] reports for decades, the United Kingdom’s leaders have bear-hugged their American counterparts, and it’s been no different with President Donald Trump. Lately, the courtship has been great for the special relationship, with Trump saying, “special does not begin to do it justice.” Yet even allies as eager as the Brits are starting to worry. London recently discontinued some intelligence sharing with the United States regarding suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean, CNN reported Tuesday. The normally chummy government fears becoming complicit in the administration’s illegal military strikes against vessels off the coast of Venezuela. It’s a notable break between the two countries in the region, where the British still control multiple territories. The Trump administration maintains that its attacks are essential to combatting Latin American drug cartels, which Trump has labeled “foreign terrorist organizations.” Yet the continuing campaign — which has killed at least 75 people — will do little to stem the flow of fentanyl. Moreover, the administration has admitted in briefings to Congress it does not necessarily know the identities of the people it is targeting. The policy change serves as an important reminder that these strikes aren’t happening in a vacuum. For decades, British intelligence has assisted the United States in identifying suspected drug traffickers in the region, where traditionally the U.S. Coast Guard stops the vessels and detains their crew and drugs. Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly angered his counterparts at MI5. He had promised to protect a key FBI agent who was working with the British agency on surveillance technology. Yet that job was slashed by the White House’s budget cuts anyway, the New York Times reported on Monday.

Bloomberg [11/10/2025 7:30 AM, Beth Kowitt, 18207K] reports there is no company in the US that has become more closely associated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids than Home Depot Inc. In and around the retailer’s parking lots, masked and armed ICE agents chase and tackle and detain the day laborers who gather there to look for work. Store employees who are upset by witnessing the grim scenes are allowed to go home for the day with pay — a tacit acknowledgement by Home Depot that the raids are violent and traumatic to watch. You won’t find the company saying as much publicly. Instead, it’s consistently offered the same answer after each episode, attempting to distance itself from not only the raids but also the workers who are getting hauled off in unmarked vans from its property. When I reached out for this column, I got the usual stock response: “We aren’t notified that immigration enforcement activities are going to happen, and we aren’t involved in the operations. We’re required to follow all federal and local rules and regulations in every market where we operate.” The sweeps have put the company in the middle of one of the most polarizing issues in American politics, forcing it to weigh whether to defend the rights of the undocumented immigrants who serve its customer base or to stay quiet to avoid the ire of the Trump administration. It’s an all but impossible position, so it’s perhaps no surprise that, so far, the company has chosen the latter path. But that’s a mistake. And not just a moral mistake, but also a business one.

Washington Examiner [11/11/2025 1:52 PM, John Knox, 1394K] reports as we reflect on the impact that Hurricane Melissa had on islands in the Caribbean, there must be a continued investment in preparedness, and that’s just what the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is doing: standing ready, able, and fully equipped to support humanitarian efforts. At the heart of ASPR’s mission is a sacred charge: to save lives and protect Americans from public health and medical threats. From pandemics to bioterrorism, from chemical attacks to natural disasters, ASPR leads the entire federal government in preparedness because waiting is not an option. The administration’s trust in ASPR’s abilities has transformed that mission into a living, breathing reality. ASPR might not have a high profile, but it always stands at the ready, prepping the United States for potential disasters and ready to answer the call when they strike. Since Hurricane Helene made landfall in the U.S. in the fall of 2024, ASPR’s new, highly experienced leadership has moved rapidly to improve its responses, strengthening baseline capabilities and programs sluggish to respond during the Biden administration. That devastating storm illuminated the need for better, more proactive leadership at ASPR. Thanks to the bold vision of the second Trump administration and the steadfast guidance of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ASPR has not merely responded to crises; it has built a shield of readiness that protects every American, every day.

New York Times [11/10/2025 5:02 AM, Cecilia Muñoz, David Leonhardt, and Jillian Weinberger, 153395K] reports immigration has always been central to the American story, yet many Americans remain dissatisfied with the Trump administration’s aggressive approach. So how does the country move forward on this issue? In this “America’s Next Story” series episode of “The Opinions,” David Leonhardt, an editorial director in Times Opinion, speaks with Cecilia Muñoz, who helped shape immigration policy under President Barack Obama. Ms. Muñoz explains that the openness of Mr. Biden’s immigration policy was an opportunity for Trump, and one he fully exploited. She urges the Democratic Party to find inspiration in her Obama-era immigration policy, to balance avenues for legal immigration with enforcement at the border.

Bloomberg [11/10/2025 7:00 AM, Patricia Lopez, 18207K] reports the Department of Homeland Security appears to be considering a terrifying new escalation of its mass deportation campaign. The Intercept, a nonprofit investigative media outlet, has reported on and obtained DHS documents showing that the department is considering the use of bounty hunters, who would be paid to track and verify the locations of people the department seeks to arrest. The department has not confirmed whether it is going ahead, but the idea is fraught with legal and moral problems that should prompt it to reconsider. Using bounty hunters to help deport people would only further break down the transparency expected in a democracy. And it would create additional fear and confusion at a time when many immigration agents — wearing neck buffs and civilian clothes — are already too hard to identify. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told me that the Trump administration’s tactics “have already been shown as inhuman, abusive, generally unfair and offensive to standards of basic decency.” The possibility of introducing private bounty hunters into the mix, he said, “raises real legal questions about due process.” In Minnesota, Ellison noted, bounty hunters are specifically prohibited from passing themselves off as law enforcement, or dressing like them. But what do you do, he said “when ICE agents already cover their faces, drag people into unmarked vans and are indistinguishable from street bandits?”

Washington Post [11/10/2025 5:45 AM, Jared McClain, 24149K] reports like most Americans, Leonardo Garcia Venegas wants to earn an honest living in peace. Unfortunately, he lives in fear that he’ll be arrested just for showing up to work. Garcia is Latino and works in construction. Twice since May, masked federal agents have gone onto private sites where he was working and detained him along with every other Latino worker — and only the Latino workers. Both times, officers ignored clear signs that they were intruding on private property without a warrant. Both times, Garcia told the officers that he was an American citizen and showed them his Real ID. Both times, the officers detained him anyway because, they said, they couldn’t be sure his Real ID was real. After video of the first arrest went viral, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that officers arrested Garcia for obstruction because he “physically got in between agents and the subject they were attempting to arrest and refused to comply with numerous verbal commands.” Garcia’s first-person video of the incident shows that is not true. He was about 25 feet away from where law enforcement was detaining someone when an officer tackled him without giving any verbal commands — let alone asking any questions. Garcia was kept in handcuffs for an hour after showing evidence of citizenship. Once officers confirmed he was a citizen, they released him. He has never been charged with a crime and DHS has never attempted to explain his second arrest, which lasted roughly half an hour. Garcia’s experience shows how these raids are unconstitutional.

The Hill [11/10/2025 11:30 AM, Steven Lubet, 12595K] reports while municipalities across the country struggle to cope with the invasion of armed immigration agents, who disregard due process to detain migrants, citizens and even lawful workers, one small Illinois city — where I happen to live— has developed what Rachel Maddow calls the "Evanston Handbook" for community responsiveness. Evanston, Illinois, is an exceptionally blue dot in a seriously blue state. Sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan, just north of Chicago, it is the home of Northwestern University’s main campus. With a racially and economically diverse population of about 76,000, Evanston has long been known for its liberal politics, high level of education and commitment to civic engagement. More recently, Evanstonians have drawn national attention for vigorously, but peacefully, confronting the militarized border patrol troopers who have been pulling people out of parking lots and off of streets. Throughout the Chicago area, President Donald Trump’s "Midway Blitz" has been using helicopters and unmarked SUVs to detain migrants and U.S. citizens alike, including children, often for the seeming offense of "gardening while brown.” If that sounds like an exaggeration, just read Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurrence in Noem v. Perdomo. Without evident embarrassment or self-awareness, Kavanaugh opined that "apparent ethnicity" is a "relevant factor" for an immigration stop, especially in conjunction with working in "certain kinds of jobs" such as landscaping or agriculture, and speaking Spanish or accented English.

The Hill [11/11/2025 11:00 AM, Daniel H. Weiss, 12595K] reports when Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux rejected an invitation to join the federal 287(g) immigration enforcement program, he made the right call, and the timing could not be more consequential. At the very moment local law enforcement across Texas is being asked to wield federal immigration authority, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the nation’s most powerful guardian of equal justice, is being systematically dismantled. That retreat from police reform oversight means that when things go wrong in programs like 287(g), there is increasingly no federal watchdog left to step in. The division has withdrawn from major police reform cases and abandoned consent decrees designed to correct "patterns and practices" of unconstitutional policing in cities such as Minneapolis, Louisville and Phoenix. Its attorney ranks have been gutted, its litigation paused and one of its central missions — enforcing constitutional limits on law enforcement and correctional agencies — has been effectively neutered. This is not "streamlining." It is the deliberate evisceration of the federal government’s capacity to protect citizens from systemic civil rights violations. That retreat should alarm every Texan, because its impact extends far beyond the cities that once had consent decrees. It reaches directly into the roughly 150 sheriff’s offices across Texas that now operate under 287(g) agreements, where local deputies exercise federal power.

FOX News [11/11/2025 12:53 PM, Charles Creitz, 40621K] reports on Veterans Day, the Department of Homeland Security honored the thousands of veterans who have transitioned from defending the U.S. in uniform to safeguarding the nation’s borders and communities. "DHS honors the patriotism and heroism of Americans who served our country and continue to protect our homeland and freedoms by arresting the worst of the worst criminals across the U.S.," a department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin added that there are more than 7,500 veterans serving as ICE agents – a job where videos and reports in recent months show similarly dangerous situations and confrontations with armed civilian adversaries and violent protesters. Veterans-turned-ICE agents took part in several Veterans Day eve operations targeting sex offenders and child predators across locations ranging from Pennsylvania’s Coal Region to the Utah desert.

Breitbart [11/11/2025 11:22 AM, John Binder, 2416K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested an illegal alien, whom the establishment media would classify as a "non-criminal," who is on El Salvador’s most wanted gang members list. ICE agents arrested Antonio Israel Lazo-Quintanilla of El Salvador last month after he had been convicted of driving without a license. In addition, though, Lazo-Quintanilla is a member of the 18th Street Gang, a foreign terrorist organization, and is wanted in El Salvador for aggravated homicide, extortion, and drug possession, among other felonies. Lazo-Quintanilla is on El Salvador’s most wanted gang members list as well. "Seventy percent of ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the United States," the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: “This gang member on El Salvador’s most wanted list is a perfect example of ICE targeting the worst of the worst. He may lack a violent rap sheet in the U.S. but this criminal illegal alien is clearly a public safety threat. The media’s false claims that ICE is not arresting the worst of the worst simply has no grounding. In reality, ICE is arresting criminal illegal aliens BEFORE they can victimize Americans.” Indeed, as of late October, DHS has arrested almost half a million illegal aliens across the U.S. — 7-in-10 of whom have been charged or convicted of crimes. NewsMax [11/11/2025 3:20 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports federal authorities said the arrest took place Oct. 24 in Maryland after Lazo-Quintanilla was convicted of driving without a license. A background check revealed he is wanted in El Salvador for aggravated homicide, extortion, and drug possession, along with other felony charges. The 18th Street Gang, known in Spanish as Barrio 18, is listed by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization. Homeland Security officials described the group as one of Central America’s largest and most violent criminal networks. The press release said about 70% of ICE arrests involve illegal aliens who have been charged or convicted of a U.S. crime. That figure, according to DHS, does not include gang members, terrorists, or fugitives whose offenses occurred outside the country. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Lazo-Quintanilla’s arrest demonstrates ICE’s focus on removing "the worst of the worst." She said the case proves the agency is targeting violent offenders "before they can victimize Americans.” McLaughlin added that ICE agents have arrested nearly 500,000 illegal aliens nationwide this year, with most facing criminal charges or prior convictions.

Bloomberg [11/11/2025 12:04 PM, Tristan Navera, 803K] reports the IRS, saying it was acting "in the spirit of transparency and cooperation," has handed over to groups suing it a pair of previously withheld documents related to its taxpayer information sharing agreement with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The disclosures, were filed Monday at the the US District Court for the District of Columbia, One involves a communication from the then-acting IRS chief counsel concerning some deficiencies in an ICE information request. The other, an information technology memorandum, addresses the progress of service’s response to ICE’s mass data request just more than a week.

DailySignal [11/10/2025 4:59 PM, Virginia Allen, 549K] reports immigration officials in Boston have taken a convicted child rapist into custody according to the Department of Homeland Security. "Unlike the Democrats— who perpetuated the longest government shutdown in American history—ICE law enforcement officers are hard at work for the American people," Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, told The Daily Signal. In 2018, Manuel Emilio Lora-Troncoso was convicted of two counts of rape of a child with force. He was also convicted of two counts of battery and assault on a child under the age of 14 in Woburn, Mass., 12 miles north of Boston. He was sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison. Emilio came to America from the Dominican Republic in 1985 as a legal permanent resident. Just one year after he arrived in America, Emilio was convicted of larceny in Massachusetts. A few years later in 1990, the Department of Homeland Security reports he was convicted of a compulsory insurance violation and then of trafficking cocaine the following year. In 2000, another court in Massachusetts convicted Emilio on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and attempt to commit the crime of murder. And later that same year, he was convicted of operating a motor vehicle after his license was suspended. In addition to Emilio, ICE made arrests over the weekend of men and women convicted of murder, sexual abuse, kidnapping, and felony battery.

Blaze [11/11/2025 2:33 PM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1442K] reports a poll conducted ahead of the New York City mayoral election found that 9% of residents would "definitely" leave the city and another 25% would "consider" relocating if Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani proved victorious on Nov. 4. It is yet to be seen whether NYC will ultimately hemorrhage millions of residents in the coming months. It appears, however, that Mamdani’s rise to power has already prompted departures at the New York Police Department. Citing sources familiar with the situation and Police Pension Fund data, the New York Post indicated that a surge of police officers quit in the weeks leading up to the mayoral election, when Mamdani was a clear favorite to win. In October, the NYPD reportedly saw a 35% spike in police of all ranks leaving the force. Whereas 181 left the force in October 2024, this year 245 officers left during the same stretch. Detectives Endowment Association president Scott Munro told the Post, "Morale is down because everyone is concerned about the policies Mamdani wants to put in place.” "You have a person who is supposed to be running New York City that does not believe in law enforcement," continued Munro. "What’s coming out of everyone’s mouth is, ‘We’re in trouble.’". Mamdani, who takes office on Jan. 1, has made no secret in recent years of his antipathy toward the NYPD. The mayor-elect suggested, for instance, in a June 28, 2020, tweet that the NYPD "is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety" and stressed that it was necessary to "defund the police.” "How do you work for somebody who considers you racist and anti-queer and wants to defund the police?" said one retired cop. "Things are hard enough already. If you’re eligible to leave, why would you want to stay in that situation?". Mamdani now claims that he doesn’t want to defund the police; however, he has indicated that he’s not interested in hiring more police to address the NYPD’s near-record-low numbers and appears keen to replace police in certain circumstances with social workers. On the campaign trail, Mamdani proposed the creation of an agency aimed at preventing "violence before it happens by taking a public health approach to safety." The so-called Department of Community Safety would have a budget of over $1 billion — drawing $605 million from existing programs — and would appropriate some of the responsibilities of police, including responding to mental health calls and dealing with erratic homeless individuals. Some individuals with actual experience dealing with the city’s mentally ill and homeless have suggested that Mamdani’s proposal is disaster waiting to happen.

Washington Examiner [11/12/2025 4:30 AM, Amy DeLaura, 1394K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement called out the Arlington County Police Department for not cooperating with the department’s initiative to apprehend illegal immigrants. In a response exclusively received by the Washington Examiner, the local police are simply saying, "That’s not our job." ICE announced the arrest of a Guatemalan male, who entered the country illegally, for breaking into a home in Arlington, Virginia. Edgar Bernabe Estrada has been arrested several times by local law enforcement and has a criminal record dating back to 2000. The 45-year-old has racked up larceny charges, the act of manufacturing, selling, or possessing a fictitious operator’s license, and breaking and entering with the intention to commit a felony, a charge for which the now 45-year-old was convicted and sentenced to serve more than two and a half years in prison. "ICE Washington, D.C. will continue our efforts to prioritize public safety of our communities by arresting and removing criminal alien offenders from our streets." ICE ERO Washington, D.C., Field Office Director Russ Hott said. "We remain absolutely committed to our mission of enforcing U.S. immigration laws throughout Virginia and the District, even in jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with ICE."

ABC News [11/10/2025 6:00 AM, Selina Wang and Hakyung Kate Lee, 30493K] Video: HERE reports Mr. Kim is one of hundreds of skilled engineers brought to the nearly 3,000-acre Hyundai-LG Energy Solution factory in southeastern Georgia. He came to share his expertise and train Americans to get the new electric-vehicle battery plant up and running -- a multi-billion dollar project expected to create thousands of new jobs. Kim, who asked to be identified by only his surname, thought he was playing a part in fueling the manufacturing boom President Donald Trump had promised. But on Sept. 4, that mission was abruptly halted. That morning, as engineers were testing equipment, Kim said he heard murmurs that armed law enforcement officers were entering the factory. They were told to go outside, where immigration officers started dividing workers based on their visa status. Hours later, Kim says ICE agents started issuing arrest warrants. But since many of the engineers couldn’t read English, they didn’t know what the paperwork was. Scores of federal agents had swarmed the site, detaining more than 500 workers, including more than 300 from South Korea who were contractors for Hyundai and LG, like Kim. Federal officials called it the "largest, single site enforcement operation in the history of homeland security investigations." Hours later, they arrived at an ICE detention center. When they arrived, he said workers were held in "pods" with 60 to 80 people. He described the facility as cold and unsanitary -- with moldy mattresses, water that smelled bad and toilets with no privacy. Kim said the detainees were in a complete state of panic, fearful they could be locked up indefinitely. The Korean workers were detained for a week, until the U.S. and South Korea governments negotiated for them to return home. The workplace raid was the result of Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown -- a policy that at times clashed with his economic ambitions. It shattered the perception of the U.S among many South Koreans, coming just weeks after their government pledged to invest $350 billion in the U.S. Hyundai’s CEO José Muñoz said the factory’s opening would be delayed by at least two to three months. Other South Korean companies grew nervous. James Kim, the CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, estimates thousands of workers left the U.S. to return to Korea in the immediate aftermath of the raid. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the historic raid sent "a clear and unequivocal message that those who exploit our workforce, undermine our economy and violate federal laws will be held accountable.” Days after the raid, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan warned that there would be more worksite enforcement operations to come.

Chicago Tribune [11/11/2025 4:36 PM, Joshua Irvine, 4829K] reports federal immigration agents pointed rifles at bystanders and tried to break down doors as they took over an apartment complex in unincorporated Northbrook on Wednesday. The immigration enforcement action, which took place over the course of around 50 minutes Wednesday morning, Nov. 5, led to the arrest of a man living in the Salem Walk apartments and involved more than a dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and an armored car, according to eyewitness accounts and photos and videos shared with the Tribune. "ICE basically held… 90 apartments hostage while they’re trying to get to one man," said Bobbie Montgomery, a Salem Walk resident. ICE said in communications with the 911 Communications Center around 9:20 a.m. that they had a warrant to arrest an "armed and barricaded subject" at the Salem Walk apartments, according to a Cook County sheriff’s spokesperson. The events of Wednesday Nov. 5 were the second time in a three day-period that immigration agents arrested someone in unincorporated Northbrook, following the Monday arrest of a man in the Glenbrook Countryside neighborhood. ICE agents on Wednesday eventually detained Alan Eduardo Garcia, and said Thursday in a news release he has had previous arrests and convictions for domestic battery, disorderly conduct, battery causing bodily injury, aggravated battery against a handicapped or pregnant woman, felony strangulation and unlawful use of a firearm. A check of Cook County court records found that Garcia pleaded guilty in December 2022 to a charge of aggravated battery to a pregnant and/or handicapped person, and served two years of probation with conditions, such as having no contact with his victim. He completed that sentence in December 2024, and was also fined $1,074. The Cook County court records give Garcia’s age as 31 and his race as Black, which Montgomery’s husband Kendrick Smith said is not the case. He knew his neighbor by sight and identified him as Hispanic. An online check of court records for nearby Lake County, the 19th Judicial Circuit, did not turn up any cases related to Garcia, though a court representative noted the spelling of his middle name could have been inputted differently in their records. The apartment complex sits along Milwaukee Avenue near the eastern border of Mount Prospect.

The Washington Post [11/11/2025 8:53 AM, Andrew Jeong, 24149K] reports a father, his 1-year-old daughter and other family members were pepper-sprayed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when they were going grocery shopping in a Chicago suburb last week, the family and supporters said Sunday at a news conference. The episode unfolded on Saturday in the parking lot of a Sam’s Club in Cicero, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, said Rafael Veraza, the father. The family — who are all U.S. citizens, according to their supporters — canceled plans to buy groceries and was trying to drive out of the area after seeing a helicopter and hearing sirens that suggested a protest nearby. Veraza, who was driving, said he noticed ICE trucks entering the parking lot as he was leaving with his windows rolled down. As his car and the ICE truck passed each other, a person in the truck sprayed Veraza’s vehicle, Veraza said. “Basically, I got sprayed all over my face,” Veraza told reporters. He soon noticed that the rest of his family had also been doused, including his daughter, who appeared to struggle to breathe. The family subsequently received medical treatment, he said. “I didn’t really have to go through this,” Veraza said. “My daughter neither had to go through this.” The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said on X that its agents do not pepper-spray children and that the alleged event did not occur in a Sam’s Club parking lot. The department added that “rioters” had thrown objects at agents and blocked the road during an operation. ICE referred to the DHS statement in response to an overnight request for comment. The AP [11/10/2025 4:29 PM, Sophia Tareen, 31753K] reports Rafael Veraza said the incident happened in a Sam’s Club parking lot in Cicero on Saturday, amid escalating clashes that day between immigration agents and frustrated area residents. The suburb shares a border with the Chicago neighborhood of Little Village, a largely Mexican enclave that has frequently been at the center of a federal immigration crackdown that began two months ago in the nation’s third-largest city. Veraza said the family was in their car when they heard a helicopter and honking, common signals in the Chicago area these days that federal agents are nearby. They decided to leave. That’s when a masked agent pointed a pepper-spray gun through their vehicle’s open window and fired. A cloudy substance hit Veraza in the face, which also affected his daughter, according to a video taken by the family. "My daughter was trying to open her eyes," Veraza told reporters Sunday, as his wife held their daughter nearby. "She was struggling to breathe.” He said they were not protesting, honking their horns to warn others or trying to interfere. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security flatly rejected the family’s account. "There was no crowd control or pepper spray deployed in a Sam’s Club parking lot," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement sent to the Associated Press Monday. DHS said agents were conducting enforcement operations when they encountered a "hostile crowd" and someone fired at federal officers. Federal officials alleged protesters threw paint cans and bricks at agents’ vehicles. Chicago police were called to respond to a call of gunshots fired at federal agents. No one was injured. "Make no mistake: Our mission will continue despite the violence," McLaughlin said.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [11/11/2025 1:03 PM, Ryan Mancini, 12595K]
Blaze [11/10/2025 5:44 PM, Staff, 1442K]

Daily Wire [11/11/2025 7:42 AM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports a federal judge will soon decide whether to release hundreds of illegal immigrants nabbed in Chicago immigration raids. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings is expected to hold a hearing Wednesday that could result in an order forcing federal immigration agents to release the detainees with ankle monitors or other tracking devices, according to ABC7. Immigration advocates at the National Immigrant Justice Center have argued that the feds violated a consent decree in Illinois when they arrested the targets. Cummings ruled last month that agents violated a previous consent decree when making warrantless arrests in Chicago.

Chicago Tribune [11/10/2025 5:29 PM, R. Christian Smith, 4829K] reports a committee of the Aurora City Council has again recommended for approval a measure banning civil immigration enforcement efforts on city property, which is set to go before the full City Council for a potential final vote on Wednesday. The proposed ordinance, if passed by City Council, would restrict any city-owned or controlled property — including buildings, parking lots or city parks — from being used as a staging area, a processing location or a base of operations for civil immigration enforcement efforts. The restriction would not stop criminal enforcement efforts or federal agents with a judicial warrant. The ban would also not cover city-owned property that is being leased out to a separate organization. Schools and libraries, as well as private businesses and residences, are not owned by the city and so would not be covered by the proposed ordinance. City officials have acknowledged, even within the ordinance itself, that the restrictions offer residents no real safety from federal immigration enforcement efforts. However, it will give the city a way to document what federal immigration agents do on city property, which can then be passed along to the recently-established Illinois Accountability Commission, officials have said. The proposal comes during what President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has called "Operation Midway Blitz," a surge of immigration enforcement in the Chicago region that started in September. Locally and across the Chicago region, U.S. residents and others have said they’ve been detained, protestors have said they were met with pepper-spray and other harmful tactics, and some businesses have said they are seeing significantly fewer customers, The Beacon-News and Chicago Tribune have reported.

Chicago Tribune [11/11/2025 5:10 PM, Richard Requena, 4829K] reports an Evanston woman spoke publicly last week about her experience being detained by U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials in an altercation gone awry on Halloween in the northern suburb. Jennifer Moriarty told her story to Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss in a livestream on Biss’s campaign website on Wednesday. Moriarty, who said she was a U.S. citizen, was one of three people who were handcuffed and loaded by federal agents into their vehicle after a civilian woman in a red car and a federal vehicle were involved in a car crash. Moriarty said she tried to film the aftermath of the car crash and federal agents detained her. Video of the crash’s aftermath shows an agent wrestled and pinned a young man to the ground, with the agent’s knee on the young man’s back, beating him and dragging his face on the pavement. Agents loaded him into the vehicle along with Moriarty and the woman in the red car who had been in the crash. Moriarty said the young man badly needed medical attention, but that agents gave none, even after one agent identified himself as a trained paramedic. Since Oct. 31, the day of the crash, Evanston residents who witnessed the crash and violence at Asbury Avenue and Oakton Street have formally accused the federal government of excessive force, and the Evanston Police Department has launched an investigation into the violence and traffic accident. After the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents put Moriarty and the two others into the back seat of their vehicle, they drove them for hours between Evanston and Rogers Park before driving to FBI offices on Chicago’s West Side, over 11 miles from Asbury and Oakton in Evanston. The three were never charged with a crime or read their Miranda rights, according to Moriarty, who called the detainment an abduction. A DHS spokesperson, however, told Pioneer Press that the three were arrested due to the violence against federal law enforcement. DHS did not respond to further inquiries, directing questions to the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment. DHS and witnesses to the traffic accident have conflicting accounts as to who caused the accident at the Evanston intersection of Oakton and Asbury. A DHS spokesperson said that a red vehicle was tailgating federal agents, and when agents tried to make a U-turn, the red car crashed into the Border Patrol vehicle.

Chicago Tribune [11/11/2025 7:44 PM, Cam’ron Hardy, 4829K] reports that, after 30 years with the Department of Defense, retiree David Steckel didn’t think he would be spending his Veterans Day protesting the U.S. government. "This is a Veterans Day like no other that I’ve participated in," Steckel said. "This is not how I expected to spend my retirement, but right now, I see no other better way to spend my time.” On a day typically spent honoring the efforts of those who fought to protect their country, Steckel and hundreds more gathered Tuesday afternoon at a "Vets Say No" rally to not only march in honor of veterans but also against President Donald Trump’s administration. In particular, the veterans said they were opposed to the ongoing federal immigration raids and issues surrounding the federal government shutdown. The veterans’ march from the Chicago Riverwalk to Federal Plaza was organized by the groups About Face Veterans Against the War and May Day Strong. As the group headed south, chants of "No ICE, no cuts, no fascism," echoed throughout the Loop. People in restaurants gazed out onto the streets and gym-goers paused their workouts to cheer for those marching. Steckel, 68, took a train from downstate Homer, a town about 30 minutes east of Champaign, to be a part of the march. He said he was in the Army and that it was important for him to go to the rally and support his fellow veterans. Politicians who addressed the crowd, including U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez of Chicago, criticized the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security over the last two months, amid Trump’s immigration crackdown, Operation Midway Blitz. "I’m proud to stand with a community who understands how interconnected our struggles are," said Ramirez, a Democrat. "Republicans moved a Trump budget that would lead to starvation, to displacement and to deaths at home for so many Americans while infusing $150 billion in the Department of Terror called the Department of Homeland Security.” Shortly before the march in Little Village, Gov. JB Pritzker spoke at the American Legion Veterans Day ceremony. During his speech, Pritzker discussed the importance of honoring veterans before gradually drifting in his remarks to the current conditions in neighborhoods such as Little Village, which have seen aggressive federal immigration enforcement activity. "You all served to defend the ideals that our country was founded upon: freedom and equality for every American, regardless of where they come from or what they look like or even what their parents’ native language may have been," Pritzker said. "Unfortunately, our American values, the very values that compelled you to enlist, are today under attack here at home. Masked federal agents are currently terrorizing our neighbors and tear-gassing innocent civilians, including children.”

Chicago Tribune [11/11/2025 5:14 PM, Maya Wilkins, 4829K] reports a Monday Facebook video showed an attempted arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Gary. The arrest attempt occurred at a CITGO gas station on Grand Boulevard in the city’s Miller neighborhood. The individual involved and gas station management declined to comment Tuesday. ICE and the city of Gary both did not immediately respond to a request for comment, including about whether city officials assisted federal agents. Gary City Hall was closed Tuesday for Veterans Day, according to the city’s Facebook page. Officials have said that "Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs also includes Lake County, Indiana, and federal agents have made their presence known on numerous occasions here, particularly in Gary, East Chicago and Hammond. The Facebook video - which is about 45 seconds long - shows a woman yelling at ICE officers for their presence at the gas station, telling them to get off private property and that if they return, she will call the police. The woman also told officers to let her brother go, who was allegedly the person they attempted to arrest. Multiple white, gray and black vehicles are seen in the video. A man is also seen yelling in the video, but his dialogue is incoherent. The Facebook user who posted the video was unable to immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

USA Today [11/11/2025 11:08 PM, Michael Loria, 67103K] reports when asked about nights at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility outside the city, Pablo Moreno Gonzalez hits his fists against his head and cries "it was too much, it was too much.” Among issues the former detainee and others cited in courtroom testimony about conditions at the facility were overflowing toilets, no way to clean themselves and nothing to eat beyond half-frozen Subway sandwiches. A federal judge out of the Northern District of Illinois responded on Nov. 5 by ordering the Department of Homeland Security to improve conditions. Now, on Nov. 13, another judge is set to visit the facility in Broadview, Illinois, a suburb 12 miles west of the city, to ensure court orders are being followed. On Nov. 7, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura K. McNally authorized attorneys who filed a lawsuit to visit the site. McNally also plans to visit, according to court filings. "No one should be subjected to the treatment and conditions that individuals at Broadview are currently experiencing," civil rights attorney Alexa Van Brunt said in a statement. The MacArthur Justice Center Illinois office director is representing Moreno Gonzalez and other detainees. "These are urgent and necessary measures to protect these detainees and preserve their basic human rights. Our democracy is no place for inhumane, unsafe detention conditions." Van Brunt, attorneys with the ACLU of Illinois and others filed a lawsuit over conditions on behalf of Moreno Gonzalez and former detainee Felipe Agustin Zamacona. In response to testimony and court filings, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman issued a temporary restraining order compelling immigration authorities to make improvements. Homeland Security says reports of poor conditions are ‘FALSE’. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin has said over "3,000 illegal aliens, including rapists, murderers, and gang members" have been arrested in connection with the blitz. USA TODAY has not been able to independently verify the criminal background or immigration status of detainees.

Reuters [11/11/2025 5:20 PM, Andrew Hay, 36480K] reports detainees at the largest U.S. migrant detention camp endure foul-tasting drinking water, rotten food and inadequate healthcare, according to a U.S. congresswoman who called the tent facility in El Paso, Texas, "inhumane." U.S. Representative Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat, made the allegations in a letter last week to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem based on complaints from migrants at the new $1.2 billion facility, called Camp East Montana. “Conditions at Camp East Montana are dangerous and inhumane,” Escobar wrote. “It is increasingly clear that it is not a safe nor professionally managed facility.” Asked for comment on the letter, the Department of Homeland Security gave a statement, opens new tab issued in September that denied the center violated federal standards for immigrant detention, such as restricting access to legal representation, or was inhumane. "All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members," DHS said.

Washington Post [11/10/2025 4:02 PM, Douglas MacMillan, 24149K] reports one of the largest private companies profiting from President Donald Trump’s rapid expansion of immigrant detention centers says it should be immune from a legal challenge to its $1-a-day detainee work program because it was acting on behalf of the federal government. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in the case, in which a plaintiff representing a class of more than 30,000 former detainees of a Colorado Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center says they were coerced into participating in the “voluntary” work program at unfairly low wages. The government is protected from some lawsuits through a concept known as “sovereign immunity,” and some government contractors have attempted to claim that this immunity applies to them as well. Geo Group, which derived more than half of its $2.4 billion annual revenue last year from federal contracts, is seeking to reverse lower-court rulings that denied its ability to benefit from the government’s immunity from lawsuits. A district court ruled in 2022 that Geo wasn’t legally shielded, partly because the government never instructed it how much to pay detainees for work. The Trump administration has filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing Geo’s attempt to claim immunity, arguing that a trial would have to establish that the federal government directed the action. Several Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of Geo’s position during Monday’s hearing. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said Geo was likely to face a “big hurdle” to overcome the administration’s opposition to its case, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson questioned why the company should be granted such broad protections.

Washington Examiner [11/11/2025 2:09 AM, Staff, 1394K] reports two schools in the Portland Public School District implemented emergency security measures last week to supposedly protect staff and students from raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. However, it was later revealed that no ICE operations were planned for the area. Cesar Chavez School and George Middle School in Portland, Oregon, initiated a "secure the perimeter" protocol last week due to supposed reports of ICE activity in North Portland, KATU 2, an ABC affiliate in Portland, reported. The enhanced measures included locking exterior doors to prevent entrance into the schools while "maintaining normal teaching activities." Following those schools’ lead, and believing ICE was in the area, other Portland schools remained vigilant and stayed on "heightened alert," according to KATU 2. "We recognize that news of ICE presence in the community can cause fear and uncertainty for some of our students and families," the district said in a message. "We want you to know that PPS is committed to providing an environment where students can learn, grow, and feel supported regardless of their immigration status." It turned out there were no ICE raids at the schools, and the Department of Homeland Security was not involved in any operations at the schools. There were never any plans to do so, the agency announced on Monday. DHS also emphasized it would not target any school children and that the beliefs that they do so are inherently false. DHS criticized such rumors and slammed them as contributing to building a "climate of fear" and the "smearing" of law enforcement. "The media is sadly attempting to create a climate of fear and smear law enforcement," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "These smears are contributing to our ICE law enforcement officers facing 1,000% increase in assaults against them."

Breitbart [11/10/2025 4:26 PM, Amy Furr, 2416K] reports a leftist is accused of disrupting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Portland, Oregon, as President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on illegal alien crime. When ICE officers were working on making targeted arrests of illegals with foreign gang affiliations in the North Portland area on Thursday, they noticed a woman driving recklessly, the Post Millennial (PM) reported Saturday. She allegedly ran a red light, nearly hit a school bus, and followed the federal officials. She is also accused of trying to box them in with her vehicle. A reporter with the outlet was on a ride-along with ICE when the incident occurred, and video footage taken from inside the federal vehicle showed them pulling the woman over. The PM report said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has launched an investigation into the woman, and ICE Deputy Field Officer Director Julio Hernandez told the outlet, "She placed our officers in danger. She blocked in our vehicles several times. We gave her multiple warnings to leave the area. This time, enough was enough." He added that agitators throughout the area were considered "spotters" who used vehicles, whistles, and horns to warn illegals to the presence of ICE officers.

FOX News [11/10/2025 11:37 AM, Charles Creitz, 40621K] reports as the Trump administration adds federal law enforcement focus to Portland, Oregon, local officials in neighboring areas are pushing back on the Department of Homeland Security and investigating their own police forces for alleged collaboration. Unrest in the Portland area grabbed President Donald Trump’s attention over the summer – and by late September – he announced deployment of troops to the "war-ravaged" city – an effort that Trump-appointed Judge Karin Immergut blocked in October. Washington County, an area home to about 600,000 people immediately west of Portland, declared a state of emergency last week in response to DHS’ increased enforcement in the area. The move opens up $200,000 in emergency funding to help community organizations that serve impacted residents, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). An immigrations rights group official was one of several residents to complain about ICE ramping up enforcement, telling OPB that her organization was receiving 100 phone calls on the matter daily and that broken glass is "everywhere" from ICE officers breaking car windows to detain occupants.

CNN [11/10/2025 6:40 PM, Hira Humayun, Zoe Sottile, 606K] reports British Muslim journalist Sami Hamdi, who has been held by US federal immigration for over two weeks, is set to be released and allowed to return to the UK. The London-based journalist and commentator, who was visiting the United States on a speaking tour, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last month as he went through San Francisco International Airport. Authorities told Hamdi he was being held after overstaying his US visa. But Muslim advocacy groups say that his visa was revoked during his trip without cause or prior notice. Hamdi’s family believe his public criticism of Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories was the real reason behind the decision. On Monday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Hamdi had opted to accept a US government offer to leave the country voluntarily. "The government has agreed to release Sami," Hamdi’s family said in a statement posted on social media Monday. "He will be able to return home soon insha’Allah.” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told CNN that Hamdi had voluntarily requested removal from the US and ICE was "happily arranging his removal from this country" in a statement Monday. McLaughlin characterized Hamdi as "an illegal alien and terrorist sympathizer" and said "Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country.” ICE records show Hamdi was still in custody in California Monday afternoon. He was detained on October 26, a day after speaking at CAIR’s annual gala in California. CAIR’s California chapter and Hamdi’s lawyer on Monday welcomed the US decision to release the British national. "This agreement establishes that the government does not consider Hamdi a danger to the community or to national security," the statement read. Hamdi’s wife Soumaya said she was optimistic her husband would be home before the end of the week. "We as a family are enormously relieved that our beloved Sami will soon be returning home, after the US government agreed to release him voluntarily, with no order of deportation and no allegations," she told CNN on Tuesday. Hamdi is known for his analysis on developments in the Middle East and appearances on British TV. He had recently spoken about the US-brokered ceasefire deal in Gaza and international plans for the enclave’s post-war governance. At an event in London in 2023 following Hamas’ October 7 attack, Hamdi called on the audience to "celebrate the victory." However, in a speech the following year hosted by the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council, he said that "no one is saying October 7 was right.” "People are saying October 7 was a natural consequence of the oppression that is being put on the Palestinians," he said. "It is this simple: Sami never should have spent a single night in an ICE cell," CAIR-CA CEO Hussam Ayloush said on Monday. "His only real ‘offense’ was speaking clearly about Israel’s genocidal war crimes against Palestinians.” Hamdi is one of the latest pro-Palestinian foreign nationals whose visas were revoked by the Trump administration. Earlier this year, Cornell graduate student Momodou Taal had his visa revoked and was targeted for deportation. The dual UK-Gambian citizen has accused the Trump administration of targeting him for participating in pro-Palestinian protests amid the Israel-Hamas war. In late March, Taal announced he would voluntarily leave the US.

Reported similarly:
AP [11/11/2025 3:34 PM, Rebecca Santana, 31753K]
Reuters [11/10/2025 5:35 PM, Muvija M and Christian Martinez, 36480K]
CBS News [11/10/2025 6:28 PM, Kiki Intarasuwan, 39474K]
San Francisco Chronicle [11/10/2025 5:02 PM, Aidin Vaziri, 4722K]

The Daily Caller [11/11/2025 12:01 AM, Jason Hopkins, 835K] reports an illegal migrant released into the country by the Obama administration allegedly killed a senior citizen in a hit-and-run accident in the sanctuary state of California. The Santa Ana Sheriff’s Office arrested Humberto Munoz-Gatica after he allegedly struck 71-year-old Barry William Tutt on Friday and drove off, according to local reports. The Trump administration has since revealed that Munoz-Gatica is a Mexican national who has been living unlawfully in the U.S for nearly two decades. "On November 8, ICE lodged an arrest detainer for Humberto Munoz-Gatica, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, after he was arrested by Santa Ana Sheriff’s Office and charged with driving under the influence and hit and run," U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. "Unfortunately, Gavin Newsom’s California is a sanctuary state and does not cooperate with ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement].” "This illegal alien’s rap sheet also includes a conviction for grand theft," McLaughlin said, adding that Munoz-Gatica first entered the U.S. on a tourist visa that expired in August 2008. "ICE arrested him for overstaying his visa on January 18, 2011. The Obama administration then RELEASED him into the country.” Local law enforcement responded Friday to reports of a collision involving a vehicle and a pedestrian in Dana Point, Calif., according to the Orange County Register. Deputies rushed the pedestrian, Tutt, to the hospital, where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries. Witnesses said that a silver Ford sedan hit Tutt and then fled the scene, leading law enforcement to Munoz-Gatica. "This is yet another example of sanctuary and open border policies putting American lives at risk," McLaughlin said. The DHS statement marks the latest back-and-forth between California and the Trump administration, which have increasingly sparred over immigration enforcement. The Department of Justice (DOJ) includes the Golden State in its running list of sanctuary jurisdictions and over the summer filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles for its purported sanctuary policies. Los Angeles became the epicenter of wide-scale anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement riots that sparked unrest across the country. "The practical upshot of Los Angeles’ refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities has, since June 6, 2025, been lawlessness, rioting, looting, and vandalism," the DOJ’s lawsuit said. "The situation became so dire that the Federal Government deployed the California National Guard and United States Marines to quell the chaos.” In October, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he would pull $160 million from California for allegedly continuing to hand out commercial driver’s licenses to illegal migrants. Duffy had previously said California’s non-compliance contributed to the death of three in a crash allegedly caused by an illegal migrant truck driver. The New York Post [11/10/2025 2:07 PM, Anthony Blair, 42219K] reports Mexican national Humberto Munoz Gatica, 57, was first arrested by ICE in 2011, but released the following year under the Obama administration, federal law enforcement sources told Fox News. He has now been accused of being the driver who knocked down and killed pedestrian Barry William Tutt in Dana Point on Friday, the Orange County Register reported. Witnesses reported seeing a silver Ford sedan hitting Tutt before speeding off. Gatica, of Laguna Niguel, was arrested the next day and booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of DUI and charges related to the hit-and-run. Gatica has been living illegally in the US since at least 2011, when he was arrested by ICE while accused of robbery, the federal law enforcement sources told Fox News. He was released under the Obama administration but ignored his notice to appear in court, the sources said. A federal immigration judge ordered his deportation in absentia in 2012. But Gatica remianed in the US thanks to California’s sanctuary state status, the sources said. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Major Accident Investigation Team is handling the case. NewsMax [11/11/2025 1:26 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4109K] reports ICE said Munoz-Gatica’s criminal history includes a prior conviction for grand theft. Records show he originally entered the United States on a tourist visa that expired Aug. 1, 2008. Munoz-Gatica was arrested in 2011 for overstaying his visa, but the Obama administration released him back into the country.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [11/11/2025 1:51 PM, John Binder, 2416K]

FOX News [11/11/2025 2:14 PM, Michael Dorgan and Bill Melugin, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced the arrest of a Moldovan illegal immigrant and convicted killer who tortured and threw a victim out of a ninth-floor window. Victoria Sorocean was taken into custody in Los Angeles on Nov. 4 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after authorities learned she had been convicted of premeditated murder with exceptional cruelty in 2013, ICE told Fox News on Tuesday. According to DHS, Sorocean and an accomplice tortured their victim inside an apartment in Chisinau, Moldova, beating the person with a stick and electrical cable before throwing the victim out a ninth-floor window. She was sentenced to 17 years in prison but fled the country to avoid serving her sentence. Sorocean was first arrested by ICE on Jan. 10, 2020, under the first Trump administration, but she later filed multiple legal appeals and asylum claims to delay removal, DHS said. DHS said the case highlights the failures of the previous administration, which it said allowed millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals and murderers like Sorocean, to roam free in American neighborhoods. "It shocks the conscience that the Biden administration released into America a cruel, violent illegal alien who tortured a human being, beat them with an electrical cable and a stick and then threw her victim from a ninth-floor window," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "These are the types of barbaric criminal illegal aliens ICE is targeting every single day," she added. "Seventy percent of all ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.” "This does not even include foreign fugitives like this convicted murderer. Under President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem, the world’s criminals are no longer welcome in the U.S.," McLaughlin said. Sorocean will remain in ICE custody pending deportation proceedings, DHS said.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [11/11/2025 4:32 PM, John Binder, 2416K]
NewsMax [11/11/2025 3:20 PM, Staff, 4109K]

Telemundo 48 - Area de la Bahia [11/10/2025 6:14 PM, Fatima Navarrete, 20K] reports in a district court in Northern California, in the city of San Jose, lawyers presented arguments on Monday in a lawsuit seeking to halt the practice of detaining immigrants for several days at this processing office located at 630 Samsome Street in San Francisco. Attorney Nisha Kashyap, with the San Francisco Civil Rights Committee, along with the ACLU of Northern California and CARECEN San Francisco, are leading this legal action. They also allege that ICE has ignored its own policy of not keeping an immigrant for more than 12 hours in a processing center, as these are intended only for short-term stays. However, Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, stated the following in a press release: “We are not a medieval kingdom; there are no legal sanctuaries where one can hide and evade the consequences of breaking the law. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits arresting a criminal wherever they may be.”

The Los Angeles Times [11/10/2025 2:26 PM, Brittny Mejia and Rahcel Uranga, 14862K] reports that a Fullerton police officer intervened when he saw a man in plain clothes pointing a gun at a female driver on a busy street in Santa Ana. The man later identified himself as an immigration agent and accused the driver of "following him" during an "operation," a refrain increasingly heard as agents push back on people recording their movements. The brief, but tense encounter Sunday, caught partially on video, raises concerns as it joins a growing list of cases of masked and plainclothes agents being mistaken for criminals and vice versa. The officer had just dropped off an inmate at the Orange County Jail and was returning to Fullerton when he noticed a man exit a vehicle at an intersection and draw his weapon on the driver behind him, according to a statement from the Fullerton Police Department. "The officer immediately stopped to assist, not knowing the identify of the armed male or the circumstances unfolding in front of him," according to the statement. After the agent identified himself, the officer told him "he could not assist with someone following or recording him if no crime had occurred, and that local law enforcement was en route.” The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond for comment. The FBI recently issued a memo suggesting agents clearly identify themselves while they’re in the field after a string of incidents in which masked criminals posing as immigration officers robbed and kidnapped victims. Univision [11/11/2025 3:44 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports that the Fullerton Police Department confirmed that one of its officers witnessed the scene around 12:18 p.m. on Sunday, at the intersection of Santa Ana Boulevard and Shelton Street, and stopped to help without initially knowing the identity of the gunman. According to the police report, the federal officer identified himself as a member of ICE and showed his credential, claiming that the woman had been following and recording him while driving. The Department of Homeland Security said the woman had tried to cause a collision, prompting the officer to draw her weapon “to defend herself.” “The driver refused to comply with the authorities’ orders, so our agent acted in accordance with her training,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. However, local police clarified that there was no evidence of a crime, so Fullerton’s officer informed the ICE agent that he could not intervene. Both withdrew from the scene without arrests. In the face of the release of the video, the Fullerton Police released an official statement in which it specified that it did not provide operational support to the federal agent. The institution emphasized that its intervention was solely to ensure public safety in a situation involving a firearm. “ICE is a federal law enforcement agency, and Fullerton Police officers will assist them in situations involving immediate risk,” the statement said.

Univision [11/11/2025 3:09 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports on the flight carrying the largest number of Cubans deported from the United States, an immigrant was expelled who had two pending appeals and a petition to halt his deportation , as well as a pending application for residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act. However, according to his lawyer, none of this prevented his return to Cuba. The case of Yuniel Abreu Campos was reported by Noticias 23 in June, when he was arrested after attending his court hearing and having his case dismissed. Now, after several months in detention and with a parole and his application for residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act pending, he has been deported. “ They committed many injustices , because they didn’t let me follow due process,” said Yuniel, from Cuba.

CNN [11/12/2025 12:01 AM, Rocio Muñoz-Ledo, Michael Rios, 18595K] reports a report by Human Rights Watch and Central American rights group Cristosal alleges that dozens of Venezuelans deported from the United States to a Salvadoran prison earlier this year were subjected to torture and other serious abuses including sexual violence. The report released Wednesday includes interviews with 40 of the 252 Venezuelans who were sent to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot). They describe being beaten by guards, with some being taken to solitary confinement as punishment for protesting, and others being driven to the brink of suicide. The report accuses El Salvador’s prison system of systematic human rights violations and the Trump administration of complicity in torture, enforced disappearances and other violations. In response to a CNN inquiry, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended the administration’s decision to send the migrants to Cecot. "At President (Donald) Trump’s direction, DHS deported nearly 300 Tren de Aragua and MS-13 terrorists to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) Prison in El Salvador, where they no longer pose a threat to the American people," said a statement attributed to Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. CNN also reached out to the Salvadoran presidency and the Salvadoran prisons directorate for comment. In the past, El Salvador’s government has said that it respects the human rights of people in its custody, "regardless of their nationality," and that its prison system complies with safety and order standards. "The nightmare began the moment they took me off the plane," the report quotes Gonzalo, a 26-year-old from Zulia, Venezuela, as saying. Gonzalo claims the migrants were beaten upon landing in El Salvador and that the mistreatment continued when they were transferred to Cecot. He said a prison official told them, "You have arrived in hell.” He and others interviewed by HRW and Cristosal alleged that guards periodically assaulted them with kicks, punches and batons during daily cell searches. Three of the people interviewed said they were subjected to sexual violence, according to the report. Some of the inmates reported being humiliated by the guards, who allegedly told them they "would never get out alive," that "nobody knew they were there," and that "their families had abandoned them.” Several inmates reported having suicidal thoughts, and at least one said he attempted suicide. "I fell into depression. I wanted to kill myself because I thought I would be better off dead. In the end, the only thing that gave me strength was God … and my family, my wife, my daughter, and my mother," another detainee, Nelson, says in the report. Many of the findings in the report match what several former detainees told CNN in late July, days after being released from Cecot and repatriated to Venezuela. "Welcome to the hell of Cecot," Venezuelan makeup artist Andry Hernández recalled in a CNN interview about his arrival at the Salvadoran prison.

AP [11/10/2025 2:25 PM, Matias Delacroix, 31753K] reports more than a decade after Venezuela’s economic collapse sent millions to flee abroad, U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is driving many to return home, often to worse conditions than those they left. Some have made the long, dangerous journey on their own, while others have been flown back after President Nicolás Maduro, under U.S. pressure, agreed earlier this year to accept deportees following years of refusal. Those returning face runaway inflation, low wages and mounting uncertainty over Venezuela’s political future as the U.S. intensified a military campaign in the Caribbean and offered a $50 million reward for Maduro’s arrest, accusing him of drug trafficking. [Editorial note: consult photos at source link]

AP [11/11/2025 2:51 PM, Matthew Lee, Gisela Salomon and Ali Swenson, 31753K] reports a new directive by President Donald Trump’s administration could make it more difficult for foreigners to visit or live in the United States if they have certain medical conditions such as diabetes or obesity or lack the economic resources and assets to support themselves. The guidance, issued last week in a cable from the State Department and obtained by The Associated Press, directs embassy and consular officials to comprehensively and thoroughly vet visa applicants to demonstrate that they will not need to rely on public benefits from the government any time after their admission in the U.S. Experts say it could further limit who gets to enter the country at a time when the Republican administration is already tightening those rules. The directive reveals how the Trump administration interprets public charge, the concept in immigration law that foreigners can be refused entry or permanent residency status if they are likely to rely on U.S. government resources, such as certain types of cash and food aid. While federal law already required those seeking permanent residency or legal status to prove they wouldn’t be a public charge, Trump in his first term widened the range of benefit programs that could disqualify applicants, and the guidelines in the cable appear to go further in scope. “This could lead to a substantial narrowing of immigration,” said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute. “The Trump administration is trying to go back to the policies that it worked to implement in its first term related to public charge.” Since returning to office in January, Trump has pursued a government-wide immigration crackdown that has involved tightening rules on foreigners being let into the country and those already in it. Immigration policy experts say the latest guidance could reduce the number of immigrant and non-immigrant visas granted and could disproportionately affect some groups of foreigners seeking access to the U.S., such as older adults and people with low incomes. The cable was sent from State Department headquarters to every U.S. Embassy and U.S. Consulate around the world. “The Trump Administration is putting the interests of the American people first,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Tuesday. “This includes enforcing policies that ensure our immigration system is not a burden on the American taxpayer.” Immigrants seeking entry into the U.S. already undergo a medical exam by a physician who’s been approved by a U.S. Embassy. They are screened for communicable diseases, like tuberculosis, and asked to disclose any history of drug or alcohol use, mental health conditions or violence. They’re also required to have a number of vaccinations.

FOX News [11/11/2025 3:58 PM, Ashley J. DiMella, 40621K] reports a new directive to U.S. embassies and consulates instructs officials to consider denying visas for people who suffer from chronic health issues. The guidelines sent by the U.S. State Department reportedly state that "certain medical conditions — including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, cancers, diabetes, metabolic diseases, neurological diseases and mental-health conditions — can require hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of care," according to KFF Health News, which said it reviewed a copy of the cable. It also reportedly encourages visa officers to consider conditions such as obesity. "Does the applicant have adequate financial resources to cover the costs of such care over his entire expected lifespan without seeking public cash assistance or long-term institutionalization at government expense?" the cable allegedly says. "Self-sufficiency has been a long-standing principle of US immigration policy … and the public-charge ground of inadmissibility has been a part of our immigration law for more than 100 years," it continues. Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson, confirmed the directive to Fox News Digital on Tuesday. "It’s no secret the Trump administration is putting the interests of the American people first," said Pigott in a statement. "This includes enforcing policies that ensure our immigration system is not a burden on the American taxpayer.” Non-citizen immigrants are significantly more likely to be uninsured compared to U.S. citizens, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). There is no federal insurance mandate for work visas such as H-1B, while coverage typically depends on the employer or individual. The cable comes after Fox News Digital first reported the administration’s visa crackdown in January on reviving the "public charge" provision of immigration law from President Donald Trump’s first term.

Univision [11/11/2025 10:00 AM, Jorge Cancino, 5004K] reports in ‘Let’s Talk About Immigration’, Univision News’ senior immigration editor, Jorge Cancino, along with attorney Armando Olmedo, and guest attorney Jaime Barrón, discuss the new directive sent by the State Department (DOS) to embassies and consulates, granting its officers new discretion to deny visas to immigrants for health reasons. A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) revealed the issuance of a new directive by the State Department (DOS), which grants new discretionary powers to embassy and consulate officials to deny visas due to health problems. The report indicates that foreigners applying for visas to enter and/or live in the United States could be rejected if they suffer from certain medical conditions, such as diabetes or obesity, among others. The guideline also includes the applicant’s age, which is added to the list of illnesses or conditions that could lead to dependence on public benefits. "These individuals could become a ‘public charge,’ meaning they could represent a potential drain on the country’s resources due to their health problems or age," the memo states. It should be noted that the submission of medical reports is not new. Until now, the visa application process has included demonstrating that the applicant does not have any transmissible (or contagious) diseases, in addition to providing proof of vaccination history. But the new guidelines add to the list of tests conditions that were not previously required, nor were they considered contagious or dangerous to other people. The new rule adds to the zero-tolerance immigration policies of President Donald Trump’s administration, which not only target undocumented immigration but also legal immigration. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Axios [11/12/2025 1:18 AM, Rebecca Falconer, 12972K] reports President Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday evening H-1B skilled worker visas are necessary because "you don’t have certain talents" in the U.S. H-1B visas have divided MAGA world, with business leaders like Elon Musk saying they’re vital to U.S. tech dominance, but Fox News’ Laura Ingraham raised with Trump the concern that the scheme risks displacing American employees with foreign workers. Trump signed an executive order in September requiring highly skilled workers hoping to obtain an H-1B visa to work in the U.S. to pay a $100,000 fee. Trump said on "The Ingraham Angle" that the U.S. is "leading China by a lot on AI" and "we have potentially the greatest economy — already it is. ... there is never going to be a country like what we have right now." Ingraham asked Trump if that meant "the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority" for his administration. "If you want to raise wages for American workers, you can’t flood the country with with tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of foreign workers," she said. "I agree, but you also do have to bring in talent," Trump said. Ingraham countered: "We have plenty of talented people" in the U.S. "No, you don’t, no you don’t … you don’t have certain talents, and people have to learn," Trump said. Trump noted that ICE raided a Hyundai manufacturing campus in Georgia in September and arrested hundreds of South Korean workers who were building a battery plant. He said they "raided" the facility "because they wanted illegal immigrants out," but these workers had "made batteries all their life." Making batteries is a "very complicated" process, Trump said. "It’s not an easy thing and very dangerous — a lot of explosions, a lot of problems. "They had like 500 or 600 people, early stages to make batteries and to teach people how to do it. Well, they wanted them to get out of the country. You’re going to need that," he added. "You can’t just say a country is coming in, going to invest $10 billion to build a plant and take people off an unemployment line who haven’t worked in five years and they’re going to start making their missiles. It doesn’t work that way."

Bloomberg [11/10/2025 5:10 AM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 803K] reports a Trump plan to shake up the annual H-1B visa lottery would undermine the administration’s goal of favoring the most economically valuable foreign workers to the US, industry groups caution. A Department of Homeland Security proposal would replace the random selection process for the specialty occupation visas with one that Trump officials say will prioritize the most-skilled and highest-earning workers. It’s pursuing that plan as it also imposes a new $100,000 entry fee on H-1B workers from outside the US that critics say will block hiring by all but the biggest employers. Even if the lottery proposal survives legal challenges expected after it’s finalized, employer groups and policy advocates say its use of four wage bands to set odds of selection would favor older, less skilled workers over recent graduates in high-demand fields. “We don’t think this rule gets them to at least where their stated purpose is,” said Julia Massimino, executive vice president of government affairs at the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade association that represents tech and communications companies.

FOX News [11/11/2025 10:38 AM, Morgan Phillips, 40621K] reports President Donald Trump on Monday defended his administration’s plan to offer 600,000 visas to Chinese students — a move that has drawn criticism from within conservative circles. Fox News’ Laura Ingraham pressed Trump during an interview on "The Ingraham Angle," questioning how the proposal was "pro-MAGA" if it crowded out spots for American students and whether universities were "getting rich" from Chinese money. Trump argued that foreign students — particularly from China — are vital to keeping U.S. universities financially stable, adding that cutting the number of Chinese students in half would cripple the system. Trump continued to frame the issue in economic terms, saying Chinese students pay far more in tuition than Americans and help sustain the system. Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea last week, saying the two leaders reached agreement on "almost everything." Following the meeting, China reportedly held off on some of its toughest export restrictions for critical minerals, while the U.S. delayed plans to impose triple-digit tariffs. The remarks mark a reversal from earlier this year, when the Trump administration said it would "aggressively revoke" Chinese student visas amid espionage concerns. In August, Trump changed course and announced plans to expand the program dramatically.

Daily Caller [11/11/2025 10:10 AM, Nicole Silverio, 835K] reports Fox News’ Laura Ingraham did not let President Donald Trump off the hook on Monday as she pressed him on allowing a flood of Chinese students to study in the U.S. Trump confirmed in August that the administration will allow 600,000 Chinese students to attend U.S. colleges and universities to continue the nation’s "very important relationship" with China. Ingraham, on "The Ingraham Angle," continued to ask the president how allowing this many Chinese students to be admitted into U.S. schools is a "pro-MAGA position.” "Why, sir, is that a pro-MAGA position when so many American kids want to go to school and there are places not for them and these universities are getting rich off Chinese. "[I] never said about China, but we do have a lot of people coming in from China. We always have China and other countries. We also have a massive system of colleges and universities. And if we were to cut that in half, which perhaps makes some people happy, you would have half the colleges in the United States go out of business," Trump said, prompting Ingraham to doubt that the U.S. relies on China to keep universities open. Ingraham reminded Trump that the Chinese government spies on Americans and steals intellectual property from the U.S. Trump stated that he views his policy as a business transaction in order to have a good relationship with China and to ensure that American universities continue thriving. "I know you and I disagree. We’re never going to agree on it, but that’s OK. And it’s not that I want them, but I view it as a business. We have millions and millions of people. Also, I want to get along with countries if possible … of the people, half of the students from all over the world that are coming into our country, destroy our entire university and college system nd don’t forget, MAGA was my idea. MAGA was nobody else’s idea,. The U.S. and China reached an agreement in June to allow Chinese students to attend U.S. colleges and universities, which came after the administration suspended Harvard University’s ability to admit foreign nationals on June 5. The administration cited national security concerns and allegations of antisemitism on college campuses in its efforts to restrict foreign students from entering the U.S. Trump previously acknowledged the potential national security risk of allowing Chinese students into U.S. colleges and universities, stating in June that "you have to watch" students from the nation governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Analysts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that this policy could help the CCP take advantage of higher education in America and pose serious national security risks.

Washington Times [11/11/2025 2:30 PM, Stephen Dinan, 852K] reports the Department of Homeland Security closed out the 2025 fiscal year with the best border numbers in five decades, showing significant drops in every major category except one: the number of terrorism suspects detected crossing. The number increased nearly thirtyfold, from several dozen a month at the northern and southern borders to more than 950 in September alone. That’s good news, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott told The Washington Times. It’s not that more terrorism suspects are crossing into the U.S., but more are being flagged in the Terrorist Screening Data Set, better known as the terrorism watch list, since the Trump administration classified Mexico’s biggest smuggling cartels and several international gangs as terrorist organizations. “The elevated number of TSDS matches is not a surge in new threats — it’s the result of properly identifying the dangerous actors who were always there and our ability to actually identify who is crossing the border after four years of an invasion,” Mr. Scott said in a statement to The Times. The watch list is maintained by the FBI but used by other agencies, including those responsible for guarding the borders. It holds biographical data — names, birth dates, fingerprints and photographs — of known or suspected terrorists. That means the government has information suggesting involvement in or planning of terrorist activities, or they associate with those who do. Most of the arrests in fiscal 2025, which started Oct. 1, were in the first four months, largely during the Biden administration. Taking those out of the equation, the Border Patrol snared fewer than 58,000 illegal immigrants over the final eight months of the fiscal year, or about 250 daily. In December 2023, the worst of the Biden months, agents averaged more than 8,000 arrests daily. Search and rescue operations, another yardstick of chaos, fell from a record of more than 37,000 in 2023 to 2,255 in fiscal 2025. Adding in numbers for October, the first month of fiscal 2026, the Border Patrol has gone six straight months without a single catch-and-release at the southern border. Immigrant rights groups say the stiffer security comes at the price of human rights. They say deserving asylum cases are being blocked at the border while others are not even making the journey. Trump officials say they have solved what had been an intractable problem for decades. “This is the most secure border ever,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Detroit Free Press [11/10/2025 1:39 PM, Christina Hall, 4030K] reports that a truck driver accused of having about $1 million worth of suspected methamphetamine in a truck in St. Clair County will be sentenced in February after pleading guilty in federal court in Detroit. Syed Shah pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine during a plea hearing Nov. 4 in U.S. District Court in Detroit, according to court records. He is to be sentenced Feb. 24. There is a mandatory minimum sentence of 120 months, or 10 years, in prison, according to the plea agreement. It also lists penalties of up to a $10 million fine and a term of supervised release of at least five years and up to life. Messages were left for Shah’s attorney, who could not be reached for comment Nov. 7. Shah and Navjot Singh were accused of conspiring to smuggle 425 kilograms of suspected methamphetamine out of the United States into Canada. A Homeland Security Investigations special agent in Port Huron saw an Ontario-plated commercial vehicle parked next to a truck with a California license plate in the back of a gas station parking lot in Memphis, which straddles the Macomb and St. Clair county border, on Sept. 11. A law enforcement dog hit on the rear doors of the trailer. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers inspected and found numerous resealable plastic bags containing opaque-color crystals that tested positive for methamphetamine, according to the plea agreement. Singh is on a $10,000 unsecured bond with restrictions. A preliminary exam is set for Dec. 5 in his case in federal court, according to court records.

Chicago Tribune [11/11/2025 11:25 AM, Steve Sadin, 4829K] reports that, before several U.S. Border Patrol agents pointed their guns at Waukegan Ald. Juan Martinez, 3rd Ward, after he unknowingly sounded his car horn at two of them last week, federal agents had already apprehended a landscaper, two construction workers and two others in the city. Joining the agents on Friday in Waukegan was U.S. Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino, though he was not present during the incident with Martinez. After stopping Martinez, the officers let him go as neighbors shouted, "He’s the alderman. He’s the alderman.” Dulce Ortiz, the executive director of Mano a Mano Family Resource Center and a Waukegan Township trustee, encountered Bovino at a Waukegan gas station with five agents while other officers were with Martinez. Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham had his own message for Bovino in a statement issued Monday afternoon. Cunningham said Boviono’s actions in Waukegan, Chicago and elsewhere in the country are the opposite of what law enforcement officers should do. "Let me be absolutely clear: Greg Bovino did not come to Waukegan to serve, to protect, or to help. As he has in other cities, Mr. Bovino came here to escalate chaos, to provoke confrontation and to spread fear," the mayor said in the statement. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested six people, including a U.S. citizen, at different locations in Waukegan on Friday, detaining all but the citizen for allegedly being in the country illegally, local officials said. Agents arrested two people at around 10:15 a.m. near the intersection of 9th and Adams streets, according to a report provided by Ortiz. Approximately 45 minutes later, a landscaper was apprehended at his job in the 1800 block of North Avenue. "Our rapid response team contacted the family to let them know their loved one had been kidnapped, " she said in the report. While Martinez was being questioned by Border Patrol agents, another team of officers apprehended two construction workers at approximately 12:45 p.m. in the 400 block of Frolic Avenue, according to the report. Edgar Ramirez, a U.S. citizen, was also apprehended by federal agents at approximately 2 p.m. near the intersection of Fulton and Catalpa avenues, the report said. He was released a few hours later. While the construction workers were being arrested and Martinez was stopped on Baldwin Avenue as he returned to work after lunch, Ortiz encountered Bovino at a gas station at the intersection of Glen Rock Avenue and Belvidere Road. "I heard he was in the area and went there to record him," she said. "I asked him, ‘Why do you terrorize our community? We’re not used to seeing people in masks dressed in military-like uniforms.’ He said, ‘I’m just buying snacks.’". Ortiz, who has overseen the work of rapid response teams since before Operation Midway Blitz started in early September, said she was not surprised by anything that happened Friday in Waukegan. "These agents are reckless and lawless," she said.

The Hill [11/10/2025 1:28 PM, Rob Taub and Ali Bradley, 12595K] reports that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials said Latin Kings street gang leaders have issued a "shoot on sight" order targeting agents involved in immigration operations in Chicago, NewsNation has learned. "Officer/agents are reminded to maintain heightened situational awareness and exercise extreme caution when conducting enforcement activities," the agency’s internal warning said. News of the alert comes after shots were reportedly fired at federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation in the city’s Little Village neighborhood on Saturday. The Department of Homeland Security says a group of people also threw a paint can and bricks at a Border Patrol vehicle. A DHS spokesperson wouldn’t comment on the reported Latin Kings threat but said, "Our law enforcement is now facing an 8,000% increase in death threats against them while they risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst." "Nearly every day, we have seen violence, assaults, or smears against our officers in Chicago, including yesterday when agents vehicles were rammed multiple times and shots fired at them." Tensions remain high two months into Operation Midway Blitz. Residents who oppose the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have protested and even followed and confronted heavily armed agents.

Washington Examiner [11/10/2025 4:50 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports Texas will soon begin looking into whether Mexican cartels have attempted to build tunnels under the U.S.-Mexico border to facilitate drug and human smuggling into state-owned land, the Washington Examiner has learned. Texas General Land Office Commissioner Dawn Buckingham directed her office on Monday to work with Customs and Border Protection to learn about signs of underground tunneling between the United States and Mexico, and to determine if there are signs of this activity. In a memo sent on Monday to the Texas GLO’s Chief Clerk Jennifer Jones and General Counsel Jeff Gordon, Buckingham called for the state to begin surveilling state land along the 1,250-mile boundary with Mexico for evidence that it has been targeted for tunneling. Buckingham anticipated that the massive downturn in illegal immigrant arrests at the southern border since President Donald Trump took office may prompt criminal organizations that smuggle people and drugs to turn to covert ways to smuggle, including by going underground.

AP [11/11/2025 10:34 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports that, in Southern California, where police pursuits are common, this was one for the books. A suspect in an allegedly stolen minivan on Monday led authorities on a two-hour, 170-mile (274-kilometer) chase through four counties that ended with her escaping into Mexico, officials said. It began around 11 a.m. when deputies responded to reports of a Toyota Sienna taken from outside a sober living home in Thousand Oaks, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office. The deputies chased the vehicle at speeds reaching 90 mph (145 kph). The California Highway Patrol took over the pursuit as the minivan headed south on Interstate 405 into Los Angeles County. TV news helicopters followed as the minivan swerved to avoid a spike strip that the CHP placed in its path. A second spike strip attempt also failed, and by noon the suspect had sped into Orange County on Interstate 5. After the chase reached San Diego County, the CHP notified U.S. Customs and Border Protection just after 1 p.m. that the vehicle was nearing the border with Mexico. CHP units were called off from the pursuit on State Route 905 around 1:20 p.m. because of public safety concerns, a common practice for chases near the border to protect officers and motorists. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. "We don’t want this car forcing its way through the entry, hurting other people," CHP Sgt. Esteban Hernandez told the Los Angeles Times. Shortly before 1:30 p.m., CHP officers were notified that the minivan had made its way through the San Ysidro crossing into Mexico, Hernandez said. Officials at Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for additional details. The suspect was identified as a 29-year-old woman who lived at the sober living facility in Ventura County.

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [11/10/2025 6:27 PM, Salvador Hernandez, 14862K]

Telemundo [11/11/2025 10:11 PM, Elizabeth Chavolla, 76K] reports a woman who led a high-speed chase through several Southern California counties was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the San Ysidro border crossing, authorities said Tuesday. The chase began Monday around 11:00 a.m. after the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department received a tip about a stolen vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The CHP took over the pursuit and followed the suspected driver of the stolen gray Toyota Sienna, identified as 29-year-old Alyssa Wilson, for more than two hours. The chase extended through Ventura, Los Angeles, and Orange counties before reaching San Diego. Wilson was seen driving at speeds exceeding 80 mph. According to the officers, the car was stolen from a recovery center located in the 1900 block of Hillcrest Drive in the city of Thousand Oaks at 10:35 am. Several attempts were made to stop the vehicle, but without success. The CHP suspended the pursuit around 1:19 p.m. when the driver was traveling southbound on I-805, near State Route 905. Wilson managed to cross into Mexico, according to Captain Reggie Williams of the San Diego Border Division. Border officials at the San Ysidro port of entry were alerted to the pursuit. Wilson was apprehended by agents shortly after 1 p.m. as she attempted to re-enter the United States through San Ysidro. The San Diego Union Tribune [11/11/2025 8:06 PM, Caleb Lunetta, 1538K] reports that the driver was heading toward the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Interstate 805 when law enforcement officers notified U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials that the pursuit was inbound. CHP called off their pursuit around 1:20 p.m. on southbound Interstate 805 at state Route 905. The minivan continued into Mexico. Almost 24 hours later, the suspect attempted to re-enter the United States in the minivan at the border crossing. She was detained by border officials and will be taken into custody by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, Wessendorf said.

Telemundo20 [11/10/2025 11:09 PM, Cinthya Gómez, 57K] reports a crime that occurred in the United States crossed the border this weekend, after a man was arrested in Tijuana after crossing with the lifeless body of his partner in a car, local authorities confirmed. According to the State Attorney General’s Office, the detainee was identified as Erick "N.", 44 years old. He was arrested by municipal police officers in the 10 de Mayo neighborhood after his mother reported the incident. Initial investigations indicate that the homicide occurred in Long Beach, California, before the suspect returned to Mexico with the body of his partner, identified as Araceli “N.”, who was in the passenger seat. State authorities reported that they are coordinating with the FBI and local police in San Diego to determine the exact location where the crime occurred in California. Despite increased security at border crossings, cases like this continue to highlight vulnerabilities. Roberto Quijano, president of the Baja California Citizens’ Council for Public Safety, questioned the effectiveness of the additional border control devices deployed at Mexican border crossings, which randomly check those entering Mexico. The prosecution confirmed that Erick “N.” resided illegally in the United States for more than 20 years. He is currently in Mexican custody, charged with homicide.

Telemundo [11/11/2025 6:46 PM, Daniel Andrade, 57K] reports a new alert from the U.S. consulate general in Tijuana warns that on TikTok, they show alleged crossings to that country remotely guided by coyotes, so they ask not to believe and put life at risk. They indicated that the so-called "coyotes" say they have new technologies like drones to make believe that the crossing is safe and easy, but they say that the reality is very different. For their part, migrant activists are asking the community not to get carried away and recall some of the measures that have been imposed to prevent illegal crossings. “From putting the National Guard of their country, taking care of the border strip, Mexico also put the National Guard, to avoid irregular crossings, also intelligence measures, cameras, sensitivity apparatuses to detect the movement of the community that wants to enter their country,” said José María García Lara, of Movimiento Juventud 2000. In turn, it asks that legal options such as work visas be more widely available from the US government. They say that could bring minor attempts at illegal crossings. “And also on the part of the government to make it known, to make it public, so that this community has another alternative, and may not enter irregularly, having a fine, so that it can regularly enter the United States.” Edna Janeth Pérez, consul of Honduras in Tijuana, says that the number of migrants of that nationality in this Mexican region has fallen considerably, after it became a majority in the shelters.

CBS News [11/11/2025 4:51 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports as the government shutdown drags on, TSA agents are going without pay while still expected to show up to work. Rebecca Wolf, president of AFGE TSA Local 1127, joins CBS News to discuss.

NBC News [11/11/2025 3:58 PM, Rebecca Cohen, 34509K] reports airlines are expected to cancel 6% of their flights at 40 high-traffic airports on Tuesday in compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration mandate, despite the Senate passing a preliminary agreement to end the government shutdown. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1,200 flights within the U.S. had been canceled, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware, and more than 2,000 flights had been delayed. United Airlines posted a list of its canceled flights for Tuesday and Wednesday on its website. The lengthy list covers flights all day and across the entire country, starting at 6 a.m. and lasting until almost 9 p.m. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy will provide updates on air travel from Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Monday afternoon. It remains unclear how many cancellations and delays were caused by inclement weather and how many by staffing shortages or FAA mandates. The FAA last week announced its plan to predetermine the percentage of daily flights to be canceled to accommodate air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration employees who have been working 42 days without pay. On Thursday, the cancellation reduction is supposed to increase to 8% and to 10% by Friday, according to the agency.

Reuters [11/11/2025 1:53 PM, David Shepardson, 36480K] reports airlines canceled 1,200 flights on Tuesday, the fifth straight day they have topped 1,000 since the government imposed mandatory flight reductions to address safety concerns. Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration instructed airlines to cut 4% of daily flights starting on Friday, November 7, at 40 major airports because of air traffic control staffing issues. Reductions in flights rose to 6% on Tuesday. Flight reductions were set to hit 8% on Thursday and 10% on Friday, November 14. Airlines and the FAA are in discussions about when and how the cuts will be reduced and eventually eliminated as a record-setting 42-day government shutdown nears an end. A number of different options are being discussed for how the FAA might end or shrink the flight cuts, sources told Reuters. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters in Wisconsin that the FAA has not made any decisions on flight cuts. "We’ll alleviate that only when the data says we should," Duffy said. "We’re going to analyze it."

AP [11/11/2025 4:40 PM, Claire Savage, 31753K] reports a Virginia transportation security officer is accusing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of sex discrimination over a policy that bars transgender officers from performing security screening pat-downs, according to a federal lawsuit. The Transportation Security Administration, which operates under DHS, enacted the policy in February to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring two unchangeable sexes: male and female. According to internal documents explaining the policy change that The Associated Press obtained from four independent sources, including one current and two former TSA workers, "transgender officers will no longer engage in pat-down duties, which are conducted based on both the traveler’s and officer’s biological sex. In addition, transgender officers will no longer serve as a TSA-required witness when a traveler elects to have a pat-down conducted in a private screening area." Until February, TSA assigned work consistent with officers’ gender identity under a 2021 management directive. The agency told the AP it rescinded that directive to comply with Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order. Although transgender officers "shall continue to be eligible to perform all other security screening functions consistent with their certifications," and must attend all required training, they will not be allowed to demonstrate how to conduct pat-downs as part of their training or while training others, according to the internal documents. DHS pushed back on assertions by some legal experts that its policy is discriminatory. "Does the AP want female travelers to be subjected to pat-downs by male TSA officers?" Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin asked in a written response to questions by the AP. "What a useless and fundamentally dangerous idea, to prioritize mental delusion over the comfort and safety of American travelers.”

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [11/11/2025 4:29 PM, Claire Savage, 4109K]

CBS News [11/10/2025 6:52 PM, Marissa Armas, 39474K] reports that, as the government shutdown enters its 41st day, flight delays and cancellations are mounting at DFW and Love Field, where new FAA flight reductions are stranding travelers and stretching air traffic controllers who continue to work without pay. On Monday, dozens more flights were reduced under the FAA’s new mandate, requiring airlines to cut schedules by 10% because of air traffic controller shortages amid the shutdown. "Once I got in on Friday, I knew I was flying out Monday. It was going to be a little worse, and now I got here and 10 minutes before I was supposed to board, they cancelled my plane," said Teddy Starnes, who was traveling to Boston for work. These shortages come as controllers and TSA agents continue working without pay. Many federal employees have not been paid in over a month, despite, in some cases, continuing to work overtime just like they had been prior to the shutdown. "It’s frustrating, I feel bad for the people caught in the middle," said Heather Moore, who lives in DFW but was in New Orleans for work. "The TSA workers, it’s nice that they’re still here, still working for us even though they’re not getting paid to do so, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll get back pay, but I just appreciate them.” Air traffic was cut by 4% on Friday, but the FAA’s order will require that number to jump to 6% by Tuesday and 10% by Friday, if the government shutdown continues. "The trouble is it’s going to get worse," said aviation expert Kit Darby. "Ten percent is a fair amount, but as long as we don’t have anything else, like weather or communication outages, all the things that we’ve dealt with, but if you combine anything like weather with this, it’s going to be significant.” FAA halts most non-commercial flights at DFW amid shutdown. Monday, the FAA also closed most non-commercial air traffic at 12 major airports, including DFW. Darby said that this, on top of flight reductions, is going to have a large impact on the country. "People don’t realize how many small airplanes are involved in our economy daily, so it’ll affect everything nationwide. You won’t realize it for a while, but these are responsible for a huge portion of our national business," he said.

The Hill [11/11/2025 11:34 AM, Max Rego, 12595K] reports the families of 15 victims who died in July amid the flooding at Camp Mystic in Central Texas sued the camp on Monday, accusing it of gross negligence. One lawsuit, filed by the parents of campers Margaret Bellows, Lila Bonner, Molly DeWitt, Lainey Landry and Blakely McCrory and counselors Chloe Childress and Katherine Ferruzzo in District Court in Travis County, Texas, accuses the Eastland family — the owners of the camp — of protecting camp property over the safety of campers and counselors. The complaint alleges that the owners, who have helmed the camp since 1939, knew that flash flooding posed a risk to the camp based on its proximity to the Guadalupe River and prior floods in 1932, 1978, 1985 and 1987. It also says that the camp’s owners did not adequately respond to the National Weather Service’s flash flooding warnings at 1:14 a.m. local time and secured camp equipment instead of warning all campers and counselors to evacuate their cabins. The families of campers Virginia Naylor, Hadley Hanna, Virginia Hollis, Jane Hunt, Lucy Dillon and Kellyanne Lytal have also filed a lawsuit against the camp in Travis County. Lawyers for the families confirmed the Monday filing in an email to The Hill. The families of campers Eloise Peck and Ellen Getten also filed two separate challenges in Travis County. The lawsuit filed by Peck’s family alleges that the camp received warnings from family members about flood risks and notes that several hard-hit cabins at Camp Mystic were located in a high-risk area, as designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The suit, calling the tragedy "predictable and preventable," said the camp has failed to take responsibility for victims’ death, instead protecting its "reputation and financial interests." The New York Times [11/10/2025 5:30 PM, Ruth Graham, 135475K] reports that the suit, filed in a state court in Austin, Texas, names Camp Mystic and individual members of the Eastland family, who have owned and operated the Hill Country camp for generations, among the defendants. It portrays the family as overconfident and woefully underprepared for serious flooding, despite decades of experience and ample warnings. The suit claims that Dick Eastland, the camp’s executive director, and his son Edward, a director, squandered a crucial window of time following the National Weather Service’s warning about “life threatening flash flooding” at 1:14 a.m. The leadership dismissed camp counselors’ early pleas for help, and then “made a hopeless ‘rescue’ effort from its self-created disaster” only when it was too late, the lawsuit says. Two counselors and 25 young campers died at Camp Mystic that night, most of them from two cabins that housed the youngest girls. Dick Eastland, 70, also died. Other camps along the Guadalupe River had to evacuate and rescue campers from the flooding, but Camp Mystic was the only sleepaway camp where campers died. Another lawsuit filed in the same court on Monday by the parents of Eloise Peck, 8, presents a similar description of inadequate emergency planning.

Reported similarly:
CNN [11/10/2025 5:42 PM, Pamela Brown, et al., 18595K]
Houston Chronicle [11/11/2025 11:23 AM, Katey Psencik, 2983K]

Washington Examiner [11/10/2025 5:02 PM, Emily Hallas, 1394K] reports a congressional committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, on Monday requested more information surrounding Secret Service agents who appeared to miss a pipe bomb planted in Washington, D.C., during their security sweep of the area. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), who heads the House select subcommittee on Jan. 6, asked to examine transcripts of government interviews that the committee conducted following Jan. 6 with Secret Service agents on then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s security detail. In his letter to Secret Service Director Sean Curran, Loudermilk also requested that seven individuals, whose names were redacted, be made available for transcribed interviews with the committee. On Monday, the Jan. 6 committee chairman requested the Secret Service turn over all documents and communications relating "to a cell phone migration, system upgrade, or any other process or act by which employees of the United States Secret Service had their phones wiped of all electronic communications in the January–April 2021 timeframe." The FBI has been investigating the pipe bomb planter’s identity for years. The agency has blamed its inability to trace the suspect on several issues, including what it described as inferior surveillance cameras in the areas around the Capitol. At the time, the FBI said it was unable to locate the suspect after reviewing 39,000 video files, conducting 1,000 interviews, and investigating over 600 tips.

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NewsMax [11/10/2025 3:25 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K]

Military Times [11/11/2025 1:27 PM, Riley Ceder, 1138K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard recruited the most new active-duty enlisted service members in fiscal 2025 since 1991, according to a release from the service. The military brought in 5,204 active-duty enlisted personnel, far exceeding its goal of 4,300. "More Americans want to serve in the Coast Guard than ever before," said Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard. "We aren’t just growing – we are bringing in the best talent from across the United States and building the workforce of the future," he said. The Coast Guard met its recruitment goals for the second consecutive year, after the service brought in 4,422 new active-duty enlisted service members in 2024. In fiscal 2025, the service also commissioned 371 new officers, fulfilling the highest officer target achieved in recorded history, the release said. The Coast Guard also recruited 777 reservists, exceeding its goal of 750, marking the third year in a row the service met its reserve goals. To continue its hot streak of bringing in new service members, the Coast Guard opened seven new recruiting offices in fiscal 2025, including offices in Miami, Los Angeles and Cincinnati, as well as on New York’s Long Island and in Austin, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Davenport, Iowa. The Coast Guard is currently in the midst of an overall facelift as part of Force Design 2028, a plan introduced by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in May to transform the service into a "stronger, more ready, and capable fighting force."

Reported similarly:
Federalist [11/11/2025 11:36 AM, Shawn Fleetwood, 785K]

Military.com [11/10/2025 10:58 AM, Nick Mordowanec, 2681K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard is piggybacking on the news of its highest recruiting numbers in decades by soliciting a new potential location for a training center, Military.com has learned. The service announced Friday that its Fiscal Year 2025 accession numbers were the highest since 1991, with 5,204 active-duty enlisted service members–equivalent to hitting 121% of its target of 4,300 members for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2024, and concluded Sept. 30, 2025. It exceeded USCG expectations. USCG, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), today announced a Request for Information (RFI) and market research to identify prospective locations nationwide for the training facility aimed to be used to support projected service growth of up to 15,000 personnel. "As the Coast Guard continues its historic growth, we’re outpacing the capacity of our existing training and workforce support facility," Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard, said in remarks as part of a USCG video. "To grow and train our force, we need more space." When reached for comment by Military.com, USCG referred to Lunday’s remarks in the aforementioned video. Such expansion “will be a critical piece of the Coast Guard’s long-term force structure,” Lunday added, calling it a vital investment for national security. “This is more than buildings,” he said. “It’s where we will forge the next generation of Coast Guard heroes.”

Houston Chronicle [11/11/2025 7:00 AM, Andrea Ball, Samantha Ketterer, 2983K] reports three months before hackers dumped more than 630,000 University of St. Thomas files onto the dark web, the university’s chief information officer raised red flags about the school’s cybersecurity. Emails and documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle show the warnings came as the university switched IT providers, from Ellucian to Oculus IT. But, in May 2025, administrators were warned that the process was not going smoothly. Ellucian’s contract ended with the university on July 31. Twelve days later, under OculusIT’s watch, a hacker stole hundreds of thousands of documents from UST and posted them on the dark web. The breach appears to have exposed expunged staff criminal records, investigations into complaints against teachers and administrators, bank and credit card numbers along with grades, vaccinations records and personal information for hundreds of students. It’s not yet known whether the changeover from one IT company to another had anything to do with the cyberattack. However, it’s not uncommon for these kinds of things to happen during such transitions because important security measures can fall through the cracks, said Bob Turner, a former chief information security officer at Penn State University and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Bloomberg [11/11/2025 2:15 PM, Muyao Shen, 18207K] reports China’s cybersecurity agency accused the American government of orchestrating the theft about $13 billion worth of Bitcoin, representing China’s most recent attempt to attribute major cyberattacks to the US. The theft of the 127,272 Bitcoin tokens from the LuBian Bitcoin mining pool that took place in December 2020 marks as one of the largest crypto heists in history. The hack, according to the Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, is likely a "state-level hacker operation" led by US, citing the quiet and delayed movement of the stolen Bitcoin fits a government-level action rather than a typical criminal behavior.

Washington Examiner [11/10/2025 7:11 PM, Emily Hallas, 1394K] reports Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is questioning the Trump administration’s silence on allegations that U.S. Capitol Police was implicated in the unsolved pipe bomb discovery the day before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Massie weighed in on the report Monday, claiming the FBI, CIA, and Capitol Police “are implicated in this story.” He continued to denounce leading figures in the Trump administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, as well as CIA Director John Ratcliffe, for their approach to the report, saying, “It’s been out three days and still no response.” Questions have long been raised about the identity of the person seen in surveillance footage planting the two bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee the evening before Jan. 6. A plainclothes Capitol Police officer was the person who first found the undetonated bomb near the DNC on the afternoon of Jan. 6, Massie revealed last year. A new twist in the case developed late last week, due to new allegations that forensic evidence suggests a Capitol Police officer planted the bombs before resigning from her job months later to work for the CIA. When pressed on the report, the FBI did not address the allegations in a statement to the Washington Examiner. The investigation into who placed pipe bombs on Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, 2021, "remains a high priority for the FBI and our law enforcement partners," the Bureau said.

Daily Wire [11/11/2025 10:34 AM, Zach Jewell, 2494K] reports the Department of Justice launched a "full investigation" into the leftist demonstrations that took place outside of a Turning Point USA event at the University of California, Berkeley, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Tuesday. Bondi said that Antifa was behind "violent riots" at UC Berkeley on Monday after leftist agitators showed up at the venue hours before the TPUSA event began on campus, harassing conservative attendees as they lined up for the event. The investigation is being led by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which focuses on international and domestic terrorism. "Antifa is an existential threat to our nation. The violent riots at UC Berkeley last night are under full investigation by the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force. We will continue to spare no expense unmasking all who commit and orchestrate acts of political violence," Bondi wrote in a post on X. "Under President Trump’s leadership, and pursuant to his Executive Order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, the Department of Justice and our law-enforcement partners are dismantling violent networks that seek to intimidate Americans and suppress their free expression and First Amendment rights.” Two people were arrested after a fistfight broke out between one of the agitators and a man wearing a red Turning Point USA t-shirt. One person was charged with battery, but it’s unclear if the person who was charged was one of the two men who were seen fighting. Two more people were arrested for attempting to get past a barrier police had set up to separate protesters from attendees. Some of the agitators lit flares and shouted at the conservative attendees as they waited to enter the building, and when they left after the TPUSA event ended. The event, which was the last stop on the "This is the Turning Point" tour, went on as planned, capping off a tour that was started by TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk on September 10 at Utah Valley University, when he was assassinated while speaking to college students.

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Breitbart [11/11/2025 11:43 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2416K]
CBS News [11/11/2025 8:53 PM, Jacob Rosen, Daniel Ruetenik, 39474K]
Washington Examiner [11/11/2025 5:41 PM, Mia Cathell, 1394K]

FOX News [11/11/2025 4:14 PM, Louis Casiano, 40621K] reports five MS-13 members were all found guilty Tuesday of participating in a string of gangland killings to advance their standing in the gang in which the victims were beaten, strangled and sometimes had their bodies thrown off a cliff in remote and mountainous locations near Los Angeles. A Los Angeles County jury convicted Walter Chavez Larin, 26; Roberto Alejandro Corado Ortiz, 30; and Edwin Martinez, 28, of one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act following a nine-week trial, the Justice Department said. Chavez and Corado also were found guilty of two counts of violent crimes in aid of racketeering (VICAR) murder. Martinez was found guilty of three counts of VICAR murder. Bryan Alexander Rosales Arias, 28, was also found guilty of one count of VICAR murder. Erick Eduardo Rosales Arias, 27, who is Bryan Rosales’s brother, was found guilty of one count of VICAR murder. "We thank the jury for returning swift guilty verdicts against these MS-13 criminals who engaged in horrific acts of violence and murder," said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. "I thank and commend our law enforcement partners for their work in removing members of this terrorist organization from our streets. MS-13 is a violent brutal gang that must be eliminated from the United States, and we will not stop until we succeed in our mission.” The defendants committed at least six murders of members of the rival 18th Street gang or MS-13 members who had violated the gang’s rules, federal prosecutors said. Many of the victims were beaten and killed with baseball bats, machetes and knives in or near the Angeles National Forest.

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Telemundo52 [11/11/2025 4:10 PM, Clara Ramirez, 76K]

Daily Caller [11/10/2025 12:35 PM, Philip Lenczycki, 835K] reports the top secret June 2025 B-2 Bomber strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities was launched from Whiteman Air Force base, which shares a fence with a foreign-owned trailer park linked to a convicted fraudster with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence ties. The Knob Noster Trailer Park in rural Missouri is located less than a mile from the runway of "the world’s only nuclear-capable stealth bomber." Business filings and social media posts reveal the RV park is one of several properties near U.S. military interests acquired by a web of shell companies, which are ultimately owned by a couple who live in Canada and belong to organizations controlled by disgraced Chinese tycoon and self-described former CCP intelligence "affiliate," Miles Guo, The New Yorker wrote in a 2022 profile. Guo did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Knob Noster Trailer Park’s manager declined to comment.

ABC News [11/10/2025 5:13 AM, Anne Flaherty, 30493K] Video: HERE reports for the first time in more than two decades, the Pentagon has begun sending conventional ground forces to Panama to train in the jungle there, returning U.S. soldiers and Marines to a three-week course once called the "Green Hell" because of its similarities to Vietnam. The training program at Base Aeronaval Cristóbal Colón, formerly known as Fort Sherman, is relatively small in scope but is expected to ramp up over the next year, according to one defense official. The program began earlier this year and is not intended to prepare troops for a potential mission, including inside Venezuela, the official said. Still, the military’s interest in jungle warfare in Latin America is noteworthy given Trump’s heightened focus there. Since taking office, Trump has vowed to "take back" the Panama Canal and repeatedly threatened to attack Venezuela because of its alleged role in transiting illegal narcotics. "If you can train and fight in one of the most difficult and challenging locations in the world, you build a really lethal, effective force," the defense official said of the rationale behind the new training program. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [11/11/2025 9:33 PM, Staff, 34509K] reports Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered his nation’s security forces Tuesday to stop sharing intelligence with the United States, until the Trump administration stops its strikes on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean, as relations deteriorate between the nations that were once close partners in the fight against drug trafficking. In a message on X, Petro wrote that Colombia’s military must immediately end "communications and other agreements with U.S. security agencies" until the U.S. ceases its attacks on speedboats suspected of carrying drugs, that critics have likened to extrajudicial executions. Petro wrote that "the fight against drugs must be subordinated to the human rights of the Caribbean people." It wasn’t immediately clear what kind of information Colombia will stop sharing with the United States. The White House had no immediate response to Petro’s latest statements. At least 75 people have been killed by the U.S. military in strikes in international waters since August, according to figures supplied by the Trump administration. The strikes began in the southern Caribbean, near Venezuela’s shores, but have shifted recently to the eastern Pacific, where the U.S. has targeted boats off Mexico. Petro has called for U.S. President Donald Trump to be investigated for war crimes over the strikes, which have affected citizens of Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago. The leftist leader has long been a critic of U.S. drug policy, and has accused the Trump administration of going after peasants growing coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, instead of targeting major drug traffickers and money launderers. On Sunday, Petro said that he met with the family of a Colombian fisherman who was allegedly killed in one of the strikes. "He may have been carrying fish, or he may have been carrying cocaine, but he had not been sentenced to death" Petro said during a summit between Latin American and European Union leaders hosted by Colombia on Sunday. "There was no need to murder him.” The Trump administration has accused Petro of being soft on traffickers, and has criticized the Colombian president’s decision to spare Colombian rebel leaders involved in the drug trade form extradition to the United States.

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Reuters [11/11/2025 7:07 PM, Staff, 36480K]

NBC News [11/11/2025 3:06 PM, Allan Smith and Raquel Coronell Uribe, 2218K] reports when President Donald Trump hosted Republican senators for lunch at the White House on Oct. 21, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, came prepared. Moreno, who was born in Colombia, has become a key voice on policy involving the Latin American nation — and one that’s deeply critical of the current left-wing president, Gustavo Petro. Two days before the lunch, Trump, at odds with Petro for months, posted on social media that Petro was “an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs” in Colombia. Trump said he was stopping all U.S. aid to the country and told reporters he would soon announce new tariffs on Colombia. Moreno wanted to encourage Trump to take a more targeted approach — directly aimed at Petro. To do so, the senator brought along a document titled “The Trump Doctrine For Colombia and the Western Hemisphere.” In addition to five policy ideas, the one-page outline featured large images of Petro and Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, in orange prison jumpsuits. The images appear to be generated by artificial intelligence. NBC News obtained the memo from a person familiar with the episode. Now that document is at the center of an even further strain in diplomatic relationships between Colombia and the U.S. On Sunday, the publication Cambio Colombia first reported on the existence of the document when it discovered that the White House had posted a photo from the Oct. 21 event showing James Blair, a deputy chief of staff, holding Moreno’s memo. Petro posted on X that he was recalling the Colombian ambassador to the U.S. for the second time in a month and demanding to know why he is being portrayed “as if I were a prisoner,” calling the print-out “a brutal disrespect” to his supporters and nation. And on Monday, Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio told journalists in Santa Marta that her government had "sent verbal notes to the United States through our diplomatic representation" to "request clarification regarding" Moreno’s memo.

The Hill [11/10/2025 7:25 PM, Laura Kelly, 12595K] reports President Trump on Monday kept a historic meeting with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa behind closed doors, an unusual move for a president who frequently opens up the Oval Office to cameras and reporters when meeting with foreign leaders. It was the first visit by a Syrian leader to the White House, but al-Sharaa did not walk the route typically reserved for visiting dignitaries, through the West Wing entrance along the North Drive. Instead, he was seen walking through the West Executive entrance, which is off-limits to reporters, and footage of the Syrian leader was captured behind the steel bars of the dividing fence. That order of operations lent a cloak of secrecy to the high-profile visit. Trump has taken a leading role in backing al-Sharaa’s stated desire to make Syria a friendly country after decades of war, terrorism, and drug trafficking under the ousted regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

Bloomberg [11/10/2025 4:38 PM, Josh Wingrove and Kate Sullivan, 18207K] reports Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa secured additional sanctions relief and pledged to join a US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State as he met with US President Donald Trump at the White House. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suspended comprehensive sanctions on Syria for 180 days as of Monday, according to a multi-agency statement. Earlier, a US official confirmed that Syria had agreed to join the fight against the Islamic State, detailing plans on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement. Sharaa’s visit capped a remarkable diplomatic transformation for a former jihadist who just one year ago had a $10 million US bounty on his head. It also marked the first time a Syrian president has visited the White House since the country’s independence in 1946. “We want to see Syria be successful along with the rest of the Middle East,” Trump told reporters at the White House later on Monday. He called Sharaa a “very strong leader” who comes from a “tough place” and said “I have confidence he’ll be able to do the job.” Trump said further announcements regarding Syria were forthcoming, without providing details. Sharaa’s rapid rehabilitation from designated terrorist to White House guest reflects the Trump administration’s strategic pivot toward engaging with the new government in Damascus and Sharaa’s efforts to court international support as he looks to rebuild a country shattered by a brutal civil war. Rubio’s move bolsters US efforts to stabilize the new government in Syria as it looks to rebuild the war-torn nation. The six-month relief from sanctions under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, however, is only a temporary measure. The law, which targets the country’s energy, construction and finance sectors, can only be repealed by Congress, with efforts to do so on Capitol Hill underway.

CBS News [11/10/2025 2:51 PM, Ramy Inocencio, Olivia Rinaldi, and Tucker Reals, 39474K] reports Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa met President Trump at the White House on Monday, continuing a stunning reversal of fortunes for a man branded until three days ago as an international terrorist by the U.S. government with a $10 million bounty on his head. The former leader of an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria disavowed Islamic extremism after rising to lead his war-torn country. Nearly a year ago, he led his rebel militia to force long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad out of office and into exile in Russia. Syria was crippled for decades under sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other nations against Assad, and Al-Sharaa is now seeking to normalize relations. A senior administration official confirmed to CBS News on Monday that Syria will be joining the U.S.-led Global Coalition To Defeat ISIS, marking a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy. Al-Sharaa’s own former militia, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, opposed ISIS during the latter years of Syria’s 14-year civil war, when he went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani. He was expected to possibly sign a formal agreement with President Trump during their in person meeting on Monday — which will be their third to date — to cooperate on counterterrorism. That would be a highly symbolic moment, indicating a 180-degree turnaround in how Syria is viewed by the U.S. government.

Reuters [11/10/2025 7:29 AM, Timour Azhari and Mahmoud Hassano, 36480K] reports Syria has foiled two separate Islamic State plots to assassinate President Ahmed al-Sharaa, two senior officials said, adding a personal dimension to the leader’s plans to join a U.S.-led coalition to fight the militant group that he has long battled. The sources, a senior Syrian security official and a senior Middle Eastern official, said the plots on Sharaa’s life were foiled over the last few months and underlined the direct threat he faces as he tries to consolidate power in a country ruined by 14 years of civil war. The sources said that, in one case, the IS plot was centered around a pre-announced official engagement involving Sharaa, declining to provide further details due to the sensitivity of the matter. The Syrian information ministry declined to comment on specific plots, citing security reasons, but said IS continues to pose "a real security threat to Syria and the region" and added that authorities had in the past 10 months foiled a number of IS attacks on various sites, including places of worship. "Syria affirms its commitment to protecting its people and continuing to fight terrorism in all its forms," the ministry told Reuters in a statement.

Washington Post [11/11/2025 4:29 PM, Susannah George and Tobi Raji, 24149K] reports after a historic first trip to the White House, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa sat down Monday for an interview with The Washington Post. In an hour-long conversation, the onetime militant, who spoke through an interpreter, discussed the importance of rebuilding Syria’s relationship with the United States. He also offered frank assessments of ongoing talks with Israel, postwar sectarian violence and his own improbable journey from Iraq-based insurgent and rebel leader in Syria to the first Syrian head of state to meet a U.S. president in Washington. This interview has been edited for length and clarity: You met today with President Donald Trump and with members of Congress. I wonder if you could talk to us about what your objectives were for the trip and whether you come away from it having met them? The most important objective is starting on — building the relationship between Syria [and the] United States, because in the past 100 years, it wasn’t a very good relationship. We were looking for common interest between the United States and Syria, and we found that we have a lot of common interests that we can build on, [such as] security interests and economic interests. The stability of Syria will impact the entire region, and the instability of Syria, as well, will impact the region. Stability is linked with the economy, and the economy, or economic development, is linked with the lifting of sanctions. This discussion has been going on for months now, and I believe that we reached good results. But we are still waiting for the final decision. [Editorial note: consult full interview at source link]

AP [11/10/2025 12:32 PM, Abby Sewell, 31753K] reports that a high-ranking U.S. Treasury official said during a visit to Beirut Monday that Washington is pushing Lebanese officials to crack down on the flow of funding to Hezbollah before next year’s parliamentary elections and to prosecute people involved in a quasi-bank affiliated with the group. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley, who came with a delegation of Treasury and the National Security Council officials, said the U.S. believes that the Lebanese militant group is trying to bring $1 billion into the country by the end of the year, but "exactly how many dollars they have brought in, we don’t know." Hurley said that Lebanese authorities have made "great progress" in cracking down on illicit flows of funds but that the U.S. wants them to do more. He denied that Washington had imposed any deadlines, but said, "We were very frank with the president, the prime minister and the other senior officials that there’s a window right now, particularly the window between now and the election." The parliamentary election is scheduled for May 2026, although some are pushing to postpone it amid a debate over the voting system for the large Lebanese diaspora. Hezbollah and its allies made a strong showing in municipal elections earlier this year in the group’s traditional political strongholds, which the group is hoping to translate into gains in the parliamentary polling.

New York Times [11/10/2025 6:57 AM, Meaghan Tobin and Xinyun Wu, 153395K] reports China has tightened controls on fentanyl precursor chemicals that the United States has said contributed to the flow of the powerful synthetic opioid to American shores. On Monday, China’s Ministry of Commerce and four other government agencies added 13 chemicals to a list that require a license in order to be exported to the United States, Mexico and Canada. The announcement appeared to be the latest step by Beijing to fulfill agreements made between the two countries when China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, met with President Trump in South Korea last month. Since the two leaders met on Oct. 30, the Chinese government also said it would suspend for one year export controls on critical minerals needed to make some semiconductors, explosives, armor-piercing ammunition, batteries and nuclear reactors. Also on Monday, the Ministry of Commerce said it would suspend for one year sanctions against five American subsidiaries of the South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, while the Ministry of Transport said it would suspend measures it had imposed in response to moves made by the United States against its shipping sector, including port fees. The U.S. Trade Representative had announced on Sunday that it was suspending its measures for one year. Both countries are starting to implement what they agreed to at the summit, said Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. “We are moving from talking to implementation,” Mr. Wu said. “This will generate more momentum for the two sides to work on other issues on the bilateral agenda.”

AP [11/10/2025 4:06 PM, Didi Tang, 31753K] reports China said Monday it is making good on its pledge to crack down on chemicals that can be used to make fentanyl, a key issue for President Donald Trump during recent talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as they aimed to take steps to ease a trade war. Beijing announced new export restrictions on 13 "drug-making" chemicals to the United States, Canada and Mexico, including those that are used to produce the synthetic opioid blamed for tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the U.S. every year. After meeting Xi in South Korea last month, Trump said China would help end the fentanyl crisis and he would ease a related tariff from 20% to 10%. It shows the back-and-forth nature of U.S.-Chinese cooperation on fentanyl over the years and lessens the recent tensions after Trump launched his campaign of tariffs, including those against the country that is the top exporter of pharmaceutical ingredients, such as the chemicals used to make fentanyl. "What the Trump administration has essentially agreed with Beijing is for Beijing to restart what it had been doing during the second part of 2024," before Trump returned to the White House, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow focusing on the opioid crisis at the Brookings Institution. Asked for the White House’s response to the Chinese export restrictions and whether the deal essentially resumes the cooperation from China that was disrupted by Trump’s tariffs, deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said the president "has taken every possible action to stop the flow of illicit narcotics into our country, from securing the border to striking drug boats to curbing fentanyl precursors.”

Daily Caller [11/10/2025 10:39 AM, Hudson Crozier, 835K] reports Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel visited China over the weekend to discuss fentanyl trafficking before the country unveiled new steps it is taking against the problem, according to Reuters. The director arrived in Beijing on Friday and met with Chinese officials the next day amid the Trump administration’s efforts to stop deadly drugs from flowing into the U.S., the outlet reported, citing two people familiar with the trip. China will now tighten regulation and oversight of drug-related chemicals to protect the United States and other countries, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Monday. The FBI’s press office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment amid an ongoing government shutdown.

Daily Caller [11/11/2025 12:00 PM, Emily Kopp, 835K] reports a close collaborator of virologists who studied coronaviruses in Wuhan frequently advised America’s top spy agency in the lead-up to the pandemic, and that same agency suppressed intelligence on the parallels between COVID-19 and their research. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) hub for foreign biological threats dismissed the intelligence pointing to a lab accident in Wuhan as "misinformation" in January 2021, two former government sources who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive internal meetings told the Daily Caller News Foundation. New documents show that intelligence risked implicating ODNI’s own bioengineering advisor — University of North Carolina professor Ralph Baric. Paul is seeking more documents from ODNI on potential ties between U.S. intelligence and the research in Wuhan as part of an ongoing investigation by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and has promised public hearings in the coming months.

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