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

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

Reuters [11/26/2025 2:58 PM, Leah Douglas, Phil Stewart, and Jana Winter, 36480K] reports that two National Guard soldiers were shot on Wednesday near the White House in what officials described as a targeted ambush, and the suspect was in custody after suffering gunshot wounds during the attack. President Donald Trump was in Florida at the time of the attack, which prompted the White House to go into lockdown as law enforcement from multiple federal and city agencies swarmed the area. The Guard soldiers were part of a "high-visibility patrol" around 2:15 p.m. ET (1915 GMT) near the corner of 17th and I streets, a few blocks from the White House, when the suspect came around a corner and "ambushed" them, Metropolitan Police Assistant Chief Jeff Carroll said at a press briefing. After an exchange of gunfire, other Guard members were able to subdue the suspect, he said. The two wounded soldiers were in critical condition at local hospitals, FBI Director Kash Patel said. "This is a targeted attack," Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said at the briefing. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey had initially said in a post on X that both victims were members of his state’s National Guard and had died from their injuries. But he soon posted a second statement that cited "conflicting reports" about their condition.

The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear, but officials said they believe the shooter acted alone. The identities of the suspect and the victims have not been made public. NPR [11/26/2025 5:23 PM, Juliana Kim, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports the shooting erupted a few blocks north of the White House. Emergency responders were sent to the scene at 2:18 p.m. ET. They treated and took three gunshot victims to a hospital, according to D.C. Fire and EMS spokesperson Vito Maggiolo. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was aware that two Guard members were "critically wounded." He added that the attacker was also shot. He also announced plans to send 500 more Guard troops to D.C. at the request of President Trump. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey had earlier said two members of the West Virginia National Guard were killed, but walked back his assertion less than half an hour later. The Metropolitan Police Department said one suspect is in custody. CBS Chicago [11/26/2025 2:56 PM, Kerry Breen and Cara Tabachnick, 39474K] reports that the Metropolitan Police Department said the crime scene was secured and a suspect is in custody. Police said the suspect was wounded and was taken to a hospital. The suspect has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the U.S. in 2021, multiple law enforcement sources confirmed to CBS News. Law enforcement said he is believed to have acted alone. The shooting took place near the Farragut Metro stop, a few blocks from the White House, at 17th and I Street NW. [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

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FOX News [11/27/2025 9:33 PM, Landon Mion, 40621K] reports National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of West Virginia, has died after she and another guardsman were shot in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced. "I heard that Sarah Beckstrom, of West Virginia ... highly respected, young, magnificent person, started service in June of 2023, outstanding in every way, she’s just passed away," Trump said on Thanksgiving. "She’s no longer with us. She’s looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her. It’s just happened. She was savagely attacked. She’s dead now.” The second service member wounded in the attack, Andrew Wolfe, 24, is still "fighting for his life," the president said. "He’s in very bad shape," Trump said. "He’s fighting for his life, and hopefully we’ll get better news with respect to him.” The suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who Trump called a "monster," is also in serious condition. "We won’t even talk about him," Trump said. Officials and lawmakers offered condolences for Beckstrom’s family upon learning of her death on Thanksgiving. "An American hero, at home with the LORD. RIP, Specialist Sarah Beckstrom. May our nation kneel in prayer for her family," Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth wrote on X. "Sarah Beckstrom was a young soldier and patriot with her entire life ahead of her," FBI Director Kash Patel added. "Please join me in praying for Sarah’s family, friends, and fellow soldiers left behind.” D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro wrote: "Our hearts and prayers go out to the family of 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom of the National Guard — a hero who volunteered to serve DC on Thanksgiving for people she never met and gave the ultimate sacrifice. May she rest in peace. It is now time to avenge her death and secure justice.” Attorney General Pam Bondi said she was "devastated.” "Please pray for Sarah’s family. America will never forget her courage. There WILL BE JUSTICE for Sarah. Continue to pray for Andrew," she wrote. Bondi also stated that the Justice Department would pursue the death penalty against the alleged gunman. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added: "May God Bless Sarah’s family during this unimaginably difficult time.” Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, entered the U.S. legally in 2021 under humanitarian parole as part of the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome, following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Lakanwal was vetted by the CIA in Afghanistan for his work with the agency and again for his asylum application in the U.S. A senior U.S. official told Fox News he was "clean on all checks" in his background check. He had his asylum application approved by the Trump administration earlier this year. A report released by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General in June found there were "no systemic failures" in Afghan refugee vetting or subsequent immigration pathways. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Thursday that officials would reexamine green cards issued to immigrants from every "country of concern," including Afghanistan. USCIS also implemented new national security measures to be considered while vetting immigrants from "high risk" countries. The Wall Street Journal [11/28/2025 12:43 AM, Gareth Vipers, Gavin Bade, and Sadie Gurman, 646K] reports that in a post on Truth Social, Trump said he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.” Trump showed a picture of the shooting suspect and displayed another photo of people crammed into an airplane in Afghanistan during the botched U.S. withdrawal from the country. “This is what we had under the Biden administration.” Speaking of the alleged killer, Trump said: “He went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts. And that happens too often with these people.” He blasted the Biden administration for letting Afghans into the country and dismissed a reporter who asked about vetting as a “stupid person.” Trump said he would be speaking tonight or tomorrow with the victim’s family. “She was so outstanding. I mean I just heard outstanding in every single way.” The White House later confirmed that the president had spoken with Beckstrom’s parents Thursday evening. Trump said he would consider attending her funeral, when asked by a reporter. He also said the government is looking into the U.S.-based family of the shooting suspect. Do you blame all Afghans for this one man, a reporter asked. “No, but we’ve had a lot of problems with Afghans because they had a lot of them coming in on these planes,” Trump said. A second victim, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition. USA Today [11/27/2025 8:04 PM, Taylor Ardrey and Thao Nguyen, 67103K] reports Beckstrom, an Army Specialist from Summersville, West Virginia, was assigned to the 863rd Military Police Company, 111th Engineer Brigade, and entered service in June 2023, according to a news release from the West Virginia National Guard. U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Wolfe, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, was assigned to the Force Support Squadron, 167 Airlift Wing. He entered service in February 2019, according to the news release. Both were among the National Guard members deployed to the district in August as part of Trump’s response to crime. The suspect, who officials described as a "lone gunman," is in custody and faces charges in connection with the attack, deemed to be a possible act of terrorism. The AP [11/27/2025 8:39 PM, Ben Finley, Anthony Izaguirre and Alanna Durkin Richer, 14862K] reports that the suspect charged with the shooting is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29. The suspect had worked in a special CIA-backed Afghan Army unit before emigrating from Afghanistan, according to two sources who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, and #AfghanEvac, a group that helps resettle Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the two-decade war. Trump blamed the asylum process in which Afghans who worked with U.S. forces arrived by plane for being ineffective and failing to ensure people were properly vetted. “We have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country,” Trump said. “For the most part, we don’t want them.” Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, declined to provide a motive for Wednesday afternoon’s brazen act of violence which occurred just blocks from the White House. The presence of troops in the nation’s capital and other cities around the country has become a political flashpoint.

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Washington Post [11/28/2025 1:58 AM, Frances Vinall, 24149K] reports one of the National Guard members shot in an ambush near the White House this week died of her injuries, President Donald Trump said Thursday, hours before he posted an anti-immigration screed on social media. The president did not mention Wednesday’s shooting in his posts, but they followed days of heightened rhetoric around immigration and refugees from the Trump administration in the wake of the attack. The suspected shooter is an Afghan national, officials have said. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, an Army specialist from West Virginia, was an “incredible person” who was “outstanding in every single way,” Trump said during a video call with service members. She died in hospital with her parents by her side, the president said. The White House said Trump had spoken with Beckstrom’s parents that evening. Beckstrom and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were critically wounded in what officials called a targeted attack by a suspect who was also wounded and is in custody. Wolfe remains in the hospital. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, entered the U.S. in September 2021 as part of a resettlement program following the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan the previous month, officials said. Federal authorities said Lakanwal, who previously worked with the CIA, is facing multiple criminal charges. In the wake of the shootings, the Trump administration said it would halt processing immigration requests from Afghan nationals indefinitely, and would review Afghan nationals who were admitted to the United States under the Biden administration. On Thursday, Trump ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to reexamine the statuses of green-card holders from 19 countries. The president followed this up with lengthy social media posts Thursday night in which he railed at migrants, took aim at elected Democratic officials and threatened a wide variety of immigration policy changes, without providing specifics. In the posts, Trump said he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries,” end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens and “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility.” The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for clarification about his comments. “These goals will be pursued with the aim of achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations, including those admitted through an unauthorized and illegal Autopen approval process,” he wrote, repeating accusations against his predecessor, President Joe Biden. (Trump has previously said he has no proof that that Biden’s aides used the autopen without his knowledge or otherwise used it illegally.) The suspected shooter first came to the United States through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program created to help resettle Afghan nationals after the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. Lakanwal had been part of one of the CIA’s “Zero Units,” Washington Post has reported, according to several people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation. The units, which have never been publicly acknowledged by the CIA, carried out missions to kill or capture members of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other extremist groups, with intelligence and logistical support provided by the CIA and the U.S. military.

The New York Times [11/27/2025 3:24 PM, Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports the Trump administration said on Thursday that it was reviewing all asylum cases that had been approved under the Biden administration, signaling a broad crackdown in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. Officials said that a 29-year-old Afghan man had shot the Guard members and that he had entered the United States through a Biden-era program that brought tens of thousands of Afghans into the country. The accusation has renewed questions about the vetting process for a variety of entry programs, including asylum. Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman, in announcing the review of asylum cases, accused the previous administration of failing to vet the applicants “on a massive scale.” The man identified as the suspect was said to have worked with the C.I.A. and fled Afghanistan in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a program born after the sudden fall of the Afghan government in 2021, when the United States withdrew its forces and the Taliban took control of the country. The suspect received asylum from the U.S. government in April, according to three people with knowledge of the case who were not authorized to speak publicly. At the time of the collapse of Afghanistan’s government, the Biden administration faced accusations of abandoning allies in the country, as fears grew that those who helped the U.S. military and people involved in civil society, like journalists, would face serious threats. Biden administration officials insisted then that Afghan nationals who came through the program had been properly vetted and screened, but their critics pointed to an inspector general report that later found significant flaws in the process. A more recent audit, focusing on the F.B.I.’s involvement, said the security risks from those earlier flaws had been “largely mitigated” as the F.B.I. continued to investigate and vet Afghan nationals after they were paroled into the United States. According to a 2022 audit of the vetting process, it was supposed to include obtaining biometric information from the Afghans, running the information through databases to ensure there wasn’t any “derogatory” information or potential threats, and another inspection when the Afghans arrived at U.S. airports. But the report, from the Homeland Security Department inspector general’s office, found serious flaws in the process. The inspector general report attributed the missing data to years of violence in Afghanistan that destroyed record-keeping systems, as well as “cultural differences.” Some Afghans do not record their children’s exact date of birth and do not know their own birthdays, the report said. The report found that the Department of Homeland Security had allowed at least two people into the United States who posed security risks and might have admitted more “individuals of concern.” One of the two individuals was deported, and the other was going through the deportation procedures, the report said. Bloomberg [11/27/2025 4:54 PM, Josh Wingrove and María Paula Mijares Torres, 18207K] reports that federal authorities have launched a sprawling, nationwide terrorism investigation into what Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for DC, called a “brazen and targeted” attack. Police scoured the scene of the shooting, while authorities searched homes in Washington state and California. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and others in the administration quickly blamed the Biden administration for letting Lakanwal into the US and seized on the case to push for deeper immigration curbs, including halting reviews of Afghan immigration proceedings and ordering a review of those already in the US. That raises the prospect that settlement rights for Afghan allies of US forces may be curtailed. “We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country,” Trump said in a recorded video address published by the White House Wednesday. On Thursday, Joseph Edlow, the head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a social media post that his agency, under Trump’s orders, is conducting “a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” A White House official pointed to a June proclamation citing 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and Sudan, as facing immigration restrictions. The US immediately suspended processing of immigration requests related to Afghan nationals and is reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration, according to Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary of homeland security. Trump called for reviewing every person who came to the US from Afghanistan under the Biden administration, while Vance said they will “redouble our efforts to deport people with no right to be in our country.”

The New York Post [11/27/2025 9:38 PM, Ryan King, 42219K] reports the Trump administration announced it will pursue a "full-scale, rigorous reexamination" of every green card holder from countries "of concern" in response to the shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, DC. US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow claimed President Trump had requested the gargantuan review, which is expected to encompass green card holders from at least 19 countries. National Guard shooting suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, had entered the US in 2021 from Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal as part of the "Operation Allies Welcome" program. "The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies. American safety is non negotiable," Edlow posted on X. A spokesperson suggested the countries "of concern" include the 19 mentioned in Trump’s June executive order to safeguard Americans from foreign terrorists: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Green cards allow foreign migrants to have permanent residency and the right to work within the US. Over 190,000 Afghans were resettled into the US after the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, per State Department data. Shortly after getting sworn into his second term, Trump moved to halt Afghan refugee resettlement in the US and later restricted travel from the war-torn country. On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced it was immediately suspending "processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.” Lakanwal served in the elite NDS-03 counterterrorism unit in Afghanistan, one of at least five paramilitary "Zero Units" that worked with the CIA, according to the nonprofit group AfghanEvac, a nonprofit run by American veterans helping resettle Afghan allies in the US, but not Lakanwal. CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed that Lakanwal had worked with the intelligence agency, but did not specify the unit. Lakanwal’s service to the US helped him get admittance. Lakanwal had applied for asylum in December 2024 and later got approval under the Trump administration in April of this year. NBC News [11/27/2025 7:42 PM, Katherine Doyle, 34509K] reports “At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said Thursday afternoon in a statement on X. Edlow said that protecting the country “remains paramount” and that “the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies.” Asked for details on which countries are considered “of concern,” USCIS pointed to a June presidential proclamation listing 19 countries "considered deficient with regards to screening and vetting." CBS News [11/27/2025 6:57 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Kerry Breen and Caroline Linton, 39474K] reports that two members of the West Virginia National Guard, Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot Wednesday near the White House in what authorities described as an "ambush-style attack." President Trump on Thursday told reporters that Beckstrom had died from her injuries. Wolfe was in critical condition as of Thursday morning, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was shot Wednesday by a member of the National Guard, ending the attack, authorities said. He faces three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, and he will also be charged with possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, Pirro said Thursday. The charges could still change pending the condition of the guard members. The Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting as Lakanwal, an Afghan national who authorities said was paroled into the U.S. in 2021 under a Biden-era program for Afghan nationals called Operation Allies Welcome. The CIA confirmed Thursday that Lakanwal had worked with the agency in Afghanistan. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CBS News on Thursday that the agency is now reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration. It’s unclear how wide-ranging Homeland Security’s review of the asylum policies will be. The Trump administration ordered an unprecedented review and rescreening of all refugees admitted to the U.S. under the Biden administration earlier this month. Refugees and asylum-seekers have to meet the same legal definition, but arrive in the U.S. under different circumstances.

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CBS News [11/28/2025 12:58 AM, Faris Tanyos, 39474K] reports President Trump said late Thursday night that he would suspend immigration from developing nations to the U.S. In a post to Truth Social, Mr. Trump wrote that he "will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.” The declaration follows Wednesday’s shooting in downtown Washington, D.C., just blocks from the White House, in which a National Guard member was killed and a second Guard member critically wounded. The suspect detained in the shooting has been identified as a 29-year-old Afghan national who was admitted to the U.S. in September 2021, along with thousands of other Afghan refugees, a month after the U.S. withdrew its troops from Afghanistan. Since the shooting, the Trump administration has taken an aggressive stance on U.S. immigration policies it says are to blame for allowing the suspect into the U.S., and has vowed to change them. The president did not clarify when such a move might take effect or how the pause would be implemented. He also did not disclose which countries would fall under such a designation. CBS News has reached out to the White House for clarification. The president also wrote that he would "terminate" the status of millions of migrants admitted under former President Joe Biden’s administration and "remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.” He said he would end "Federal benefits and subsidies" for "noncitizens" and deport foreign nationals who are determined to be a "security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.” Earlier Thursday, the Trump administration said it would be conducting a "full-scale, rigorous reexamination" of all green cards for every immigrant from 19 countries "of concern.” Those countries included Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Venezuela. Also Thursday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to CBS News in a statement that the White House is now reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration. Prior to the shooting, on Nov. 21, the Trump administration, in a memo directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to review the cases of all refugees admitted under Biden. The suspect in the shooting, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan in September 2021, paroled on humanitarian grounds, a DHS official told CBS News. His asylum case was granted earlier this year, during Mr. Trump’s presidency, the DHS official said. The AP [11/28/2025 1:55 AM, Josh Boak, 28013K] reports that "Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. "Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long!". Trump’s threat to stop immigration would be a serious blow to a nation that has long defined itself as welcoming immigrants. Elected on a promise to crack down on illegal migration, Trump’s raids and deportations have disrupted communities across the U.S. as construction sites and schools have been targets. The prospect of more deportations could be economically dangerous as America’s foreign-born workers account for nearly 31 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The president said on Truth Social that "most" foreign-born U.S. residents "are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels" as he blamed them for crime across the country that is predominantly committed by U.S. citizens. The perception that immigration breeds crime "continues to falter under the weight of the evidence," according to a review of academic literature last year in the Annual Review of Criminology. "With few exceptions, studies conducted at both the aggregate and individual levels demonstrate that high concentrations of immigrants are not associated with increased levels of crime and delinquency across neighborhoods and cities in the United States," it said. A study by economists initially released in 2023 found immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the U.S. Immigrants have been imprisoned at lower rates for 150 years, the study found, adding to past research undermining Trump’s claims. But Trump seemed to have little interest in a policy debate in his unusually lengthy social media post, which the White House, on its own rapid response social media account, called "one of the most important messages ever released by President Trump.” Trump claimed immigrants from Somalia are "completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota" as he used a dated slur for intellectually disabled people to demean that state’s governor, Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year, calling him "seriously retarded.” Trump has ramped up his rhetoric since the shooting. On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration. On Thursday, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 "high-risk" countries "to the maximum degree possible.” Edlow didn’t name the countries. But in June, the administration banned travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 countries and restricted access from seven others, citing national security concerns.

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New York Times [11/27/2025 11:16 PM, Shawn McCreesh, 135475K] reports the shooting of two National Guard members the day before in Washington hung over President Trump’s Thanksgiving events at Mar-a-Lago, where he held a call with members of the military to thank them for their service on the holiday. At the beginning of the call, he revealed that one of the Guard members, Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, had died. “It’s just happened,” Mr. Trump said. “She was savagely attacked. She’s dead. Not with us.” The other victim, he said, was “fighting for his life.” After authorities identified the suspect as an Afghan refugee, members of the Trump administration and other Republicans reacted furiously. They cited it as evidence of what they had been warning about immigration, condemned the Biden administration’s refugee policies and said it justified a further crackdown on immigration that the president said was coming. Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced on Thursday that in the wake of the attack, he was implementing new policy guidance on vetting prospective immigrants from 19 high-risk countries using “country-specific factors as significant negative factors.” The change in guidance had been under consideration before the shooting. In his statement, Mr. Edlow blamed the Biden administration for “dismantling basic vetting and screening standards, prioritizing the rapid resettlement of aliens from high-risk countries over the safety of American citizens.” The fierce rhetoric was echoed across the administration. “I remember back in 2021 criticizing the Biden policy of opening the floodgate to unvetted Afghan refugees,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on social media on Wednesday. “Friends sent me messages calling me a racist. It was a clarifying moment. They shouldn’t have been in our country.” And Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, wrote in a post Wednesday night: “We must IMMEDIATELY BAN all ISLAM immigrants and DEPORT every single Islamist who is living among us just waiting to attack.” At Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, Mr. Trump produced a photograph showing Afghans rushing onto a plane leaving their country as its government collapsed in 2021. “This is what we had under the Biden administration,” Mr. Trump said, holding up the photograph of the frenzied evacuation scene for the news cameras in the room. “That whole thing should have never, ever happened.” When a reporter pointed out that, according to officials, the suspect had worked with the C.I.A. and therefore had been vetted, Mr. Trump said, “He went cuckoo, I mean, he went nuts.” Mr. Trump said his administration was “looking at” the possibility of deporting the family of the 29-year-old suspect, who lived in Bellingham, Wash., with a wife and several children.

New York Times [11/27/2025 10:25 PM, Allison McCann and Pooja Salhotra, 153395K] reports tens of thousands of Afghans who resettled in the United States over the past four years could see their immigration statuses in jeopardy following Wednesday’s shooting of two National Guard troops. The person suspected of carrying out the attack was one of the more than 190,000 Afghans who had resettled in the United States since 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome or Enduring Welcome, programs created by the Biden administration for Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover. Hours after the shooting on Wednesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would pause processing all immigration requests from Afghan nationals. More changes were announced on Thursday: The Department of Homeland Security said it had begun a review of asylum cases that were approved under the Biden administration, and Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said on X that the agency will undertake a “rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” meaning the 19 countries from which travel is currently restricted. The sweeping pronouncements on immigration left many recent Afghan immigrants shaken and anxious. “It was very shocking, sad news for us last night,” said Toryalai Takal, 40, who worked with the U.S. government as an air traffic controller at the Kabul International Airport and was evacuated out of the country in September 2021 as part of Operation Allies Welcome, which allowed many Afghan nationals — including some who had assisted the American war effort — temporary legal status in the United States after the Taliban retook control of the country. The program was later extended under the name Enduring Welcome. Mr. Takal resettled in Houston on his own before moving to Bristol, Va., where his wife and children later joined him. His asylum claim was approved but his green-card application is still pending, and his wife and children have not yet been able to apply for legal permanent residency. “Now the actions of one individual are affecting my legal status, and it’s causing anxiety for every family and every individual who left Afghanistan,” he said. “One person, and now an entire community will pay for that?”

NPR [11/27/2025 1:14 PM, Brian Mann, 28013K] reports Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the Afghan man who allegedly shot two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, previously served in one of Afghanistan’s elite counterterrorism units, according to AfghanEvac, a nonprofit run by U.S. veterans and others who served in Afghanistan. The unit was operated by the CIA with direct U.S. intelligence and military support, according to AfghanEvac. Lakanwal’s unit, NDS-03, operated at the direction of the CIA and fought the Taliban on behalf of the U.S. government, the group said. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement earlier Thursday that the shooter involved in the attack, who came to the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021, was admitted into the U.S. "due to his prior work with the U.S. Government, including CIA.” He is likely to have been vetted multiple times during his journey to the United States, according to the group, which works with Afghans who helped the U.S. Lakanwal was evacuated by the U.S. military in August 2021, following the fall of Kabul in the first year of the Biden administration. He arrived in the U.S. under humanitarian parole, the temporary authority used to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghans on special immigrant visas and those Afghans who worked with the U.S. and were at risk from the Taliban. He applied for asylum in the Biden years and was granted asylum in April 2025, under the Trump administration. During a press conference on Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel said Lakanwal’s involvement with U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan would be a central focus of the investigation. "This subject had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces," Patel said. "We are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well, to include any known associates that are either overseas or who are here in the United States of America.” Patel also said, without providing evidence, that Lakanwal was allowed into the U.S. by the Biden administration without proper vetting. Patel blamed "the failure to vet any way, in any way, shape or form, this individual and countless others.” Lakanwal had an active special immigrant visa (SIV) application underway, given to those who worked with the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though he had received chief of mission approval, a mandatory step required for the SIV, he hadn’t yet been granted lawful permanent residence — or a green card. The New York Post [11/27/2025 1:36 PM, Emily Crane, 42219K] reports the Afghan immigrant suspected of carrying out the terror ambush on two National Guard troops in Washington DC was once part of a CIA-backed paramilitary strike force with a reputation for ruthlessness. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, was a member of the so-called "Zero Units" — one of Afghanistan’s elite counterterrorism arms. His unit — NDS-03 — was operated by the CIA and had direct US intelligence and military support. The paramilitary units, which were manned by Afghans, were trained to carry out night raids and covert missions in Afghanistan. Members also served in front-line fighting with CIA paramilitary officers. FOX News [11/27/2025 1:40 PM, Jennifer Griffin and Stephen Sorace, 40621K] reports NDS-03 was one of about five paramilitary groups working with the CIA. They were commonly called "Zero Units" due to the numbers following their National Directorate of Security (NDS) or Afghan intelligence service designation. The Afghan members of the units were highly vetted and trained by the CIA and carried out some of the toughest counterterrorism missions against the Taliban, Al Qaeda and others. They were very trusted and brave, according to those who worked with them. Lakanwal entered the U.S. legally in 2021 under humanitarian parole as part of the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover of the country. NewsMax [11/27/2025 5:59 PM, James Rosen, 4109K] reports that the shooting resulted in the death of Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, who succumbed to her wounds Thursday night, so Lakanwal is likely to face additional charges. The other soldier, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition. Wolfe and Beckstrom had recently joined the West Virginia National Guard and were conducting a "high visibility" patrol just blocks from the White House, pursuant to President Donald Trump’s executive order deploying Guard units to combat crime in the capital. Nearby Guard personnel shot Lakanwal, 29, and took him into custody at the scene. Sources said he remains in stable but critical condition at a nearby hospital, connected to a ventilator and unable to answer investigators’ questions. At a news conference in Washington on Thanksgiving morning, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the charges filed so far include three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and one count of possessing a firearm during a violent crime. If convicted, Lakanwal could face 15 years in prison on the assault charges alone. Pirro added the charges will be upgraded to murder if the soldiers do not survive. The Department of Homeland Security said Lakanwal entered the U.S. in early September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program that resettled 200,000 Afghans who assisted U.S. forces and feared reprisals after the Taliban takeover. "This individual is in this country for one reason and one reason alone," Patel said Thursday. "Because of the disastrous withdrawal from the Biden administration and the failure to vet in any way, shape, or form this individual and countless others."

Reported similarly:
NPR [11/27/2025 4:02 PM, Brian Mann, 28013K] Audio: HERE

Washington Post [11/27/2025 8:14 PM, Dana Hedgpeth, et al., 24149K] reports an Afghan national who previously worked with the CIA will face multiple criminal charges after federal authorities said he drove across the country and shot two National Guard members — one fatally — in an ambush Wednesday afternoon near the White House. The shooting, which came months into the Guard’s deployment in the District at President Donald Trump’s behest, has sparked an intense, international investigation into the motive of the alleged gunman, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal of Bellingham, Washington state, who came to the United States in September 2021 after working for a CIA-organized counterterrorism squad. Lakanwal, who was detained moments after the shooting, was part of one of the CIA’s “Zero Units” that were involved in combat missions to seize or kill suspected terrorists, according to several people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation. Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for D.C., said at a news conference Thursday that Lakanwal came to the nation’s capital to commit what officials called a “targeted attack,” shooting two West Virginia National Guard members — Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24. In a call with service members Thursday night, Trump said Beckstrom had died after being “savagely” attacked. Wolfe, he said, was still fighting for his life. Earlier in the day, Pirro had reported that both members were in critical condition after undergoing surgeries. The victims had been in the nation’s capital since August, when Trump deployed troops alongside federal law enforcement officers to quell violence in the city amid what he called a “crime emergency.” Wolfe, a staff sergeant from Martinsburg, began his service with the West Virginia Air National Guard in 2019, officials said. Beckstrom, a specialist from Summersville, began serving with the West Virginia Army National Guard in 2023. The U.S. attorney’s office said prosecutors had charged Lakanwal with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, though Pirro promised that she would bring first-degree murder charges if either victim died. It was not immediately clear Thursday if authorities had brought additional charges in the wake of Beckstrom’s death. Standing alongside Pirro and D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser at Thursday’s news conference, FBI director Kash Patel said the investigation into Lakanwal is sprawling and involves multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Department of Homeland Security; and D.C. police. The firearm used in the attack was sent to the FBI’s Quantico lab, Patel said, for “immediate analysis.” “We will not stop until we interview anyone and everyone associated with the subject, the house and every piece of his life,” Patel said.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [11/27/2025 12:29 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 2416K]

DailySignal [11/27/2025 4:29 PM, Harold Hutchison, 549K] reports FBI Director Kash Patel said during a Thursday press conference that the agency has searched the Washington state home of a gunman accused of ambushing two National Guardsmen and a location in San Diego, California. West Virginia National Guardsmen Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom were allegedly shot with a Smith and Wesson revolver at the Farragut West Metro Station in Washington, D.C., by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who entered the United States in September 2021. Patel provided reporters an update on how the investigation was proceeding. "Partnering with the D.C. United States attorney’s office, we have also executed multiple, multiple search warrants to include the subject’s last known residence, which is in the state of Washington," Patel said. "The search warrant was executed on that house last night or early this morning and it’s an ongoing process. All the individuals found in the house have been interviewed and some interviews remain ongoing.” "We will not stop until we interview anyone and everyone associated with the subject, the house and every piece of his life," Patel continued. "There’s also subject interviews, relations conducted in San Diego pursuant to our ongoing investigation. So as the judge noted, this is a coast-to-coast investigation being led right here in Washington D.C.”

Reported similarly:
Reuters [11/27/2025 8:13 PM, Rachel Faber, 36480K]
Daily Caller [11/27/2025 12:19 PM, Harold Hutchison, 835K]

Telemundo20 [11/27/2025 7:30 PM, S M.G.Pérez, 57K] reports the man suspected of shooting two members of a West Virginia National Guard unit in Washington D. C. has ties to San Diego, the FBI director said Thursday. FBI Director Kash Patel stated, “We have also executed multiple search warrants across the country, including the subject’s last known residence ... we will not stop until we interview all the people related to the subject, the house and every aspect of their life. Interviews with the subject and his family will also be conducted in San Diego as part of our ongoing investigation.” Patel described the investigation as a “cost-to-coast investigation” and added that, thanks to that research and anyone related to the subject and the house, we arrived in San Diego, where the interviews were conducted and will continue.

NewsMax [11/27/2025 5:01 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K] reports FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday that electronic devices were among the items seized after search warrants were executed in Washington state and San Diego in the investigation of a suspect who allegedly shot two National Guard members in the nation’s capital. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, is accused of carrying out a targeted, ambush-style shooting of Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe and Spc. Sarah Beckstrom of the West Virginia National Guard on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., just blocks from the White House. The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. Both Guard members remain in critical condition. "The firearm and other materials have been sent to our Quantico laboratory already yesterday for immediate analysis," Patel said in a news conference that aired live on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 free online streaming platform. "That work is ongoing. Partnering with the D.C. United States Attorney’s Office, we have also executed multiple search warrants around the country to include the subject’s last known residence, which is in the state of Washington. "The search warrant was executed on that house last night or early this morning. And it is an ongoing process. All the individuals found in the house have been interviewed and some interviews remain ongoing. We will not stop until we interview anyone and everyone associated with the subject, the house and every piece of his life. There [are] also subject interviews conducted in San Diego pursuant to our ongoing investigation.” Patel said the electronic devices were seized at the suspect’s residence in Bellingham, Washington, and information uncovered there led investigators to San Diego. "Thanks to the quick investigation by the interagency and the FBI, we were able to track down his last known residence, working with the United States Attorney’s offices here and at the Department of Justice and prosecutors across the country," Patel said. "We were able to serve search warrants literally overnight and through the night, and we were able to hit the house in Washington state. During that process, we seized numerous electronic devices to include cellphones, laptops, iPads and other material that is being analyzed as we speak.

Washington Examiner [11/27/2025 4:46 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1394K] reports the Afghan national who allegedly shot two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., reportedly came up "clean on all checks" during his immigration vetting. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who served with the CIA, came to the United States under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome. The program allowed Afghan nationals into the U.S., including those who had served with American forces. A senior U.S. official told Fox News that the CIA would have done its own vetting of Lakanwal, including through the National Counterterrorism Center, to see if he had ties to terrorist groups. It’s unclear what the man’s motivations were, but he allegedly said "Allahu akbar" or "God is great" during the attack. "In terms of vetting, nothing came up," the senior U.S. official told Fox News. "He was clean on all checks.” The official added that the government had been conducting continuous annual vetting since the Afghans’ arrival in the country. The FBI declined to comment on this story to the Washington Examiner, citing the ongoing investigation. Lakanwal served in Afghanistan with NDS-03, one of a few paramilitary groups with the CIA. Afghan members of the units are highly vetted and trained by the CIA. His service allowed him to come to the country, and he settled in Washington state. He reportedly drove from his home in Washington state to the nation’s capital, thousands of miles, to commit the attack. He allegedly shot National Guardsmen Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, near the Farragut West metro station in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Both are still in critical condition. ABC News [11/27/2025 2:24 PM, Anne Flaherty, 30493K] reports that the Biden administration brought some 76,000 Afghan refugees to the U.S. in 2021, according to a report at the time by the Department of Homeland Security. It’s likely that the suspect officials have identified, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was one of only 3,300 of those refugees that year who were granted a "special immigrant visa," a document that would have expedited his entry because of his employment with the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. agencies. Officials say Lakanwal came to the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021 during the Biden administration and applied for asylum in 2024. According to three law enforcement sources, Lakanwal was granted asylum in April 2025 under President Donald Trump. FBI Director Kash Patel said in a news conference Thursday morning that the Biden administration did "absolutely zero vetting" of the refugees. That isn’t accurate, though some questions remain around how thorough the vetting process would have been for Lakanwal in 2021 and again this year when the Trump administration granted him asylum. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the suspect had worked with the CIA during the war -- an arrangement that would have almost certainly required him to be vetted by the agency at the time. It’s also likely he was vetted before being granted asylum this year. According to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, there have been 8,000 such individuals since Trump took office. Noem and Patel have both suggested in recent congressional testimony that the administration had carefully scrutinized all of them.

New York Post [11/27/2025 3:14 PM, Ryan King and Emily Crane, 42219K] reports Prosecutors will pursue the death penalty against the cowardly suspect who ambushed and critically wounded two West Virginia National Guard troops in Washington, DC Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed. "I will tell you early, we will do everything in our power to seek the death penalty against that monster who should not have been in our country," Bondi told Fox News’ "Fox & Friends.” Suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, whom the CIA confirmed worked with one of its elite counterterrorism units in Afghanistan, is facing at least three counts of assault with intent to kill and criminal possession of a weapon. Those charges can result in up to 15 years behind bars. US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro noted that the charges against him could be elevated to murder if one of the two critically wounded troops succumbs to their injuries. "If one of them is to pass, and God forbid that happens, this is a murder-one. Period, end of the story," Pirro explained. An enraged Bondi further blasted "progressive left idiots" for fueling hatred towards National Guard troops — as she vowed to probe whether they encouraged the Thanksgiving eve shooting ambush. Bondi tore into the scores of liberal lawmakers and media commentators who have criticized President Trump’s decision to deploy federal troops to Washington, DC, suggesting the "disgusting" and "despicable" rhetoric is to blame for any ensuing violence. "It’s actually sad what our country has come to with these progressive left idiots who are doing this and saying this about our heroes who are keeping them safe," Bondi contended. In response, the Department of Homeland Security announced it will pump the brakes on processing Afghan immigration applications "indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [11/27/2025 11:32 AM, Asher Notheis, 1394K]

Bloomberg [11/27/2025 9:48 AM, Josh Wingrove and María Paula Mijares Torres, 18207K] reports the US government is conducting a terrorism investigation into a suspect who shot two National Guard troops in Washington, DC, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a news conference Thursday. Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for DC, said the suspect, a 29-year-old Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, drove across the country from his home near Bellingham, Washington, to carry out a “brazen and targeted” attack. The suspect was allowed into the US in part because of his work with the US government, including the CIA, in Afghanistan, according to a statement by CIA director John Ratcliffe. Pirro said Lakanwal is currently facing three charges of intent to kill while armed. Attorney General Pam Bondi said separately that the US plans to charge him with terrorism and seek life in prison. Bondi added that the final charges will depend in part on whether either of the Guard soldiers die, in which case the administration would try to seek the death penalty. “The most important thing you can do today is pray,” she said Thursday on Fox News. Patel said the FBI conducted searches overnight at Lakanwal’s house in Washington state, along with an additional site in San Diego.

NewsMax [11/27/2025 5:03 PM, James Morley III, 4109K] reports Republican lawmakers are calling for tighter immigration restrictions after an Afghan national was identified as a suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members Wednesday in Washington, D.C., near the White House. Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot multiple times while on duty near the Farragut West Metro station. Fellow National Guard members quickly subdued the attacker, preventing additional casualties. In a post on X, Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., shared a New York Post headline about the incident and wrote: "Deport them all. Now.” Authorities identified the suspect as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakamal, an Afghan national who entered the U.S. under the Operation Allies Welcome program, the post-withdrawal relocation program for Afghan allies. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., wrote in a post on X: "The Afghan terrorist who shot 2 National Guard heroes in D.C. was welcomed into this country with open arms by Joe Biden. We must IMMEDIATELY BAN all ISLAM immigrants and DEPORT every single Islamist who is living among us just waiting to attack.” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., urged immediate vetting of all individuals who came to the United States during the Biden administration’s effort to resettle Afghan refugees who assisted the U.S. during the 20-year war.

USA Today [11/27/2025 4:49 PM, Phillip M. Bailey, 67103K] reports the ambush of two National Guard members near the White House on Nov. 26 is igniting a new round of criticism towards a Biden-era program that brought the suspected shooter to the U.S. after its 20-year war in Afghanistan. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national from Washington state, has reportedly been identified as the suspect in the shooting, according to Reuters. Lakanwal gained entry into the country through "Operation Allies Welcome," a special visa program originally setup to evacuate vulnerable Afghans, and their families, who had cooperated with U.S. forces during the war as the Taliban took back control during the U.S. withdrawal. At the time there was immense pressure from lawmakers in both parties to act swiftly due to fear Afghans who served alongside American troops would be killed. This led for the Biden administration to fast-track the process compared to previous refugee initiatives. "Our objective is to get individuals who are eligible relocated out of the country in advance of the removal of the withdrawal of troops at the end of August," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in 2021. But the shooting, which has critically injured the two West Virginia guard members, identified as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, has reopened a debate about the program, including previous warnings in Department of Homeland Security reports that outlined how the Biden administration failed to track Afghan evacuees. The DHS inspector general’s report found that some had left military bases in the U.S. that were designated as "safe havens" without officials’ knowledge. That’s because a tracking system was not designed to account for departures. Other data quality issues included contact information for the evacuees. Other Trump administration officials, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, echoed that the program allowed "many unvetted, mass paroled" individuals into America, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Nov. 27 it was pausing all immigration applications from Afghan nationals.

Washington Examiner [11/27/2025 1:08 PM, Asher Notheis, 1394K] reports Republican lawmakers and social media influencers are slamming former Biden administration officials who were adamant that Afghan refugees in 2021 were being properly vetted. In the wake of a shooting in Washington, D.C. involving an Afghan national, FBI Director Kash Patel said "zero" vetting was done. "You miss all the signs when you do absolutely zero vetting — and that’s exactly what happened in this case," Patel said at a Thursday press conference. "When the prior administration made the decision to allow thousands of people in without doing a single background check or vetting, that’s how you miss every single sign.” Two National Guardsmen were critically wounded when a suspected shooter, identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, opened fire on them near the White House. The suspect reportedly arrived in the U.S. under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome, established after the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) reposted footage from Sept. 2021 of then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who assured that no Afghan refugees were coming to the United States without "a thorough screening and background check process.” "Care to ‘circle back’?" Gill said on X, referring to a phrase Psaki would often use as press secretary. Washington Examiner’s homeland security reporter Anna Giaritelli shared a thread on X recalling a 2021 report she wrote. She stated that "almost none of the 82,000 people airlifted from Kabul" had been vetted, and less than 5,000 of these were U.S. citizens. Other X users have shared clips of former President Joe Biden and then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s remarks regarding Operation Allies Welcome, pointing out how their assurances that refugees were being properly vetted contradicted Patel’s assessment that "zero" vetting was done.

Reuters [11/27/2025 2:07 PM, Ted Hesson, Tim Reid and Jana Winter, 36480K] reports the Trump administration on Thursday blamed Biden-era vetting failures for the admission of an Afghan immigrant suspected of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., but the alleged gunman was granted asylum this year under President Donald Trump, according to a U.S. government file seen by Reuters. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, entered the U.S. on September 8, 2021, under Operation Allies Welcome. The resettlement program was set up by former Democratic President Joe Biden after the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 that led to the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the country’s takeover by the Taliban. FBI Director Kash Patel and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, both Trump appointees, said during a press conference on Thursday that the Biden administration had failed to conduct adequate background checks or vetting on Lakanwal before allowing him to enter the U.S. in 2021. Neither official provided any evidence to support their assertion. Patel said Lakanwal, who had worked with U.S. government forces during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, was improperly allowed to enter the U.S. because "the prior administration made the decision to allow thousands of people into this country without doing a single piece of background checking or vetting.” The program, which allowed more than 70,000 Afghan nationals into the U.S., according to a congressional report, was designed with vetting procedures, including by U.S. counter-terrorism and intelligence agencies. But the large-scale and rushed nature of the evacuations led critics to say the background checks were inefficient. Under the Operation Allies Welcome program, Afghans evacuated to the U.S. were granted a two-year "parole" that allowed them to live and work legally and then apply for a more permanent status. "This animal would’ve never been here if not for Joe Biden’s dangerous policies which allowed countless unvetted criminals to invade our country and harm the American people," said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman. Trump called for a "re-examination" of all Afghan nationals who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration. All immigration applications by Afghan nationals were suspended by the Trump administration on Wednesday night. U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the Trump administration would review all Biden-era asylum cases, expanding on a review of Biden-era refugees reported by Reuters earlier this week.

The New York Times [11/27/2025 10:25 AM, Hamed Aleaziz, 153395K] reports a 29-year-old Afghan man suspected of shooting two National Guard members came to the United States in September 2021 through a program known as Operation Allies Welcome, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said Wednesday night. The Biden administration developed the program in the wake of the Taliban’s retaking of power in Afghanistan in August 2021. It allowed for the entry of certain vulnerable Afghan nationals into the United States on two-year grants of parole, which did not confer any form of permanent immigration status. Instead, the Afghans were expected to apply for other means to stay in the country, such as asylum. Afghans enrolled in the program were initially processed and housed at U.S. military bases across the nation before resettling in the country. At the time of the program’s launch, Biden administration officials framed the initiative as an effort to help those who were critical in assisting U.S. troops and the American effort to build civil society in Afghanistan, that became at risk of retribution from the Taliban. They emphasized that the program included vetting and security checks. The Congressional Research Service estimated that around 77,000 Afghans entered the U.S. under the program, which was in place about a year. Operation Allies Welcome came under Republican scrutiny while it was in place, including some who said those who entered were not properly vetted. “It is inconceivable that proper vetting procedures were followed during the chaos and disarray of the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan and questions remain to the nature of persons enrolled in domestic resettlement programs,” Representative James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, said in a statement in 2023 in which he demanded more information from federal agencies about Afghan resettlement efforts. The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General found some flaws with the program, including data inaccuracies in the files of some of the individuals who came through the initiative. NPR [11/27/2025 2:45 PM, Kate Bartlett, 28013K] reports that the U.S. exit from Afghanistan happened during former President Joe Biden’s term, but it was set in motion by the first Trump administration, which signed a deal with the Taliban in 2020 to withdraw after two decades in the country. On announcing the end of the war on Aug. 31, 2021, Biden hailed the U.S. evacuation of Afghans as unprecedented and vowed to continue to assist those under threat. "As for the Afghans, we and our partners have airlifted 100,000 of them," he said in an address. "We will continue to work to help more people leave the country who are at risk. And we’re far from done.” Two days before this address he had instructed the Department of Homeland Security to "lead and coordinate ongoing efforts across the federal government to support vulnerable Afghans, including those who worked alongside us in Afghanistan for the past two decades, as they safely resettle in the United States.” Those efforts were called Operation Allies Welcome (OAW). The program was set up to allow Afghans — especially those who might be targeted by the Taliban for having worked with allied forces in their 20 years in Afghanistan — to enter the U.S. for two years on parole without permanent immigration status. They were expected to then apply for other means to stay in the country, like asylum. About 40% of those who came were eligible for Special Immigrant Visas because of the great risks they took to help the U.S., or were a family member of someone who helped the U.S., according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Reported similarly:
CNN [11/27/2025 2:16 AM, Lex Harvey, 606K]

NewsMax [11/27/2025 11:58 AM, Theodore Bunker, 4109K] reports a federal watchdog report found that former President Joe Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome program, which brought tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees into the United States in 2021, suffered from major breakdowns in recordkeeping and oversight. The findings resurfaced Thursday after authorities confirmed that the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., had entered the country through the program. The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General determined in a report published last year that the systems used to document Afghan arrivals contained widespread data errors. Investigators found that many evacuees were assigned multiple identification numbers or had their names recorded incorrectly. The report warned that the inaccuracies made it difficult for immigration officials to confirm biographical details or check criminal-history information, undermining the integrity of screening procedures. The watchdog also found that once parolees were inside the United States, DHS had no coordinated process to track when their temporary parole terms expired. Officials at Customs and Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement each said they did not believe monitoring parole end dates was their responsibility.

Washington Examiner [11/27/2025 2:25 PM, Asher Notheis, 1394K] reports Trump administration officials directly and forcefully attacked several media personalities who appeared to "blame the victim[s]" in Wednesday’s Washington, D.C., shooting of two National Guardsmen. Ken Dilanian of MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, said Wednesday that there is "so much controversy" happening in the country, noting that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are patrolling the United States and "some Americans might object to that." He added, "apparently this shooting has happened," prompting ire from the White House’s Rapid Response account on X. ".@KDilanianMSNOW, two heroes were just shot protecting our nation’s capital — and this is your takeaway? Democrats have relentlessly demonized these Patriots, calling them "illegal" and even suggesting THEY might start shooting Americans. Get help. You are beyond sick," the White House’s Rapid Response said on X. The account also lobbied criticism toward New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer, who said the National Guard should’ve never been deployed in Washington, D.C., and it was "for political show" despite crime dropping drastically since the deployment. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung issued his own rebuke, telling Mayer to "shut the f*** up for trying to politicize this tragedy.” "They were protecting DC and trying to make the nation’s capital safer. People like you who engage in ghoulish behavior lose all credibility. Not like you had any to begin with," Cheung said. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the criticism of National Guard deployment by "progressive left idiots" and some news anchors is "disgusting" on Thursday morning. She added that she is looking at the comments made by these lawmakers and anchors to see if they incited violence.

Wall Street Journal [11/27/2025 5:34 PM, Michael R. Gordo, 646K] reports it was a pre-Thanksgiving afternoon that few Americans could have imagined: U.S. troops defending themselves in a gunfight in the streets of the American capital. A witness took photos of the ambush of the two National Guard troops that shows the suspect—an Afghan refugee with whom the Central Intelligence Agency had once worked—with a revolver in hand, U.S. National Guardsmen shooting back and fallen Guard members on the ground. The episode was captured on a smartphone by a passerby who was traveling past the Farragut West Metro station, just three blocks north of the White House, when the shooting occurred. The witness shared the photos with The Wall Street Journal. The images of the scene correspond with an account by Jeffery Carroll, the executive assistant chief of the Metropolitan Police Department.

AP [11/26/2025 6:42 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports the two members of the West Virginia National Guard who were shot in Washington on Wednesday were among more than 2,000 troops deployed to the nation’s capital as part of President Donald Trump’s crime-fighting mission that involved taking over the local police department. The president quickly ordered 500 more National Guard members to the city after the shooting. The members were shot about two blocks from the White House. Officials said they were hospitalized in critical condition. Washington’s mayor said they were victims of a “targeted shooting.” Trump launched the deployment on Aug. 11 when he declared a public safety emergency and said his administration also would be removing homeless encampments. He said he aimed to reduce crime. But the city’s attorney general said violent crime in the district reached 30-year lows last year and was down an additional 26% this year. There were 2,188 troops assigned to the joint task force that took over the city’s policing, according to the government’s latest update. As of early November, the D.C. National Guard had the largest number on the ground with 949. West Virginia was next with 416 guardsmen.

The AP [11/27/2025 9:00 PM, Jessica Hill, 4K] reports two brothers in Virginia have been arrested after an off-duty police officer overheard the men allegedly discussing plans to kill immigration officers, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday. John Wilson Bennett and Mark Booth Bennett, both U.S. citizens, were arrested late last week on allegations they were planning to carry out attacks against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the department announcement said. It said the department began an investigation Nov. 17 with the Virginia Beach Police Department after an off-duty Norfolk, Virginia, police officer reported he heard the brothers allegedly discussing plans to “kill police officers and ICE agents.” Mark Bennett also was overheard allegedly saying he was going to Las Vegas to meet with other people to purchase firearms to carry out the attacks, according to the department statement. It said Mark Bennett was arrested Nov. 19 at the Norfolk International Airport, where he was set to fly to Las Vegas. Later that day, it said, John Bennett, an assistant principal at Kempsville High School, was arrested in Virginia Beach. Both of the men were charged with “conspiracy to commit malicious wounding,” according to court records. “It’s chilling that a human being, much less a child educator, would plot to ambush and kill ICE law enforcement officers — offering such specifics as to getting a high caliber rifle that would pierce the law enforcements’ bullet proof vests,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs, in a statement. McLaughlin’s statement highlighted what she described as a sharp increase in assaults and death threats against immigration officers, including cases of bounties being placed on their heads, threats to their families, stalking and online doxxing. NewsMax [11/26/2025 1:49 PM, Brian Freeman, 4109K] reports [McLaughlin] added that "thanks to Homeland Security investigations and our partners, these men are behind bars. Our officers are facing a more than 1,150% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats while they risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members."

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Breitbart [11/26/2025 3:55 PM, John Binder, 2416K]
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Washington Examiner [11/26/2025 3:55 PM, Pedro Rodriguez, 1394K]

FOX News [11/26/2025 5:59 PM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports acting I.C.E Director Todd Lyons speaks out on the threats to law enforcement amid an alleged plot to attack agents and reacts to Democratic lawmakers meeting with an illegal immigrant on ‘America Reports.’

NewsMax [11/27/2025 9:16 PM, Jim Thomas, 4109K] reports ICE director Todd Lyons told Newsmax on Thursday that widespread fraud in asylum and temporary protected status programs undermines lawful immigrants and leaves communities exposed, as President Donald Trump presses for an immediate end to TPS protections for Somali nationals living in Minnesota. Appearing on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Lyons fielded questions about what federal action may follow Trump’s call to immediately terminate TPS for Somali residents once Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem formally initiates the process. Schmitt asked whether agents would enter the Minneapolis neighborhood known as Little Mogadishu if TPS is lifted. Lyons said ICE prepares for any shift in legal status. "Yeah, so, you know, ICE, obviously, you know, we enforce the laws the way they’re written, right? And so if someone’s temporary protective status is lifted, which has happened many times to different countries and nationalities, but we’re ready to take action," he said. "And that’s what we do, right? When someone’s temporary protected status is lifted, they are now illegal aliens. They’re here in the country illegally. And we will go ahead and remove those criminal elements of our neighborhoods."

Breitbart [11/27/2025 11:13 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports US President Donald Trump said Thursday that efforts to halt Venezuelan drug trafficking "by land" would begin "very soon," further ratcheting up tensions with Caracas, which claims the anti-drug campaign aims at regime change. Trump made the remarks while video conferencing with deployed US troops to mark the Thanksgiving holiday. Several of the US military groups that Trump addressed were actively participating in his anti-drug operation, dubbed "Southern Spear," which has seen a large military buildup in the Caribbean. Addressing a Texas-based Air Force bombing unit, Trump, reading from prepared remarks, said: "In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many.” It was not immediately clear what actions Trump was specifically referencing. The US military has carried out a series of airstrikes against boats it claims were trafficking drugs in international waters, without offering evidence to back up its claims. Those strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed at least 83 people, according to an AFP tally of publicly released figures. Washington has also carried out multiple shows of aerial force in the region in recent weeks, with B-52 and B-1B bombers flying near Venezuela’s coast. Elaborating on US efforts to halt drug trafficking, Trump said: "We’ve almost stopped — it’s about 85 percent stopped by sea.” "You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land," he said. "Also the land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon," he added. The remarks come as Trump’s administration continues to pile pressure on Venezuela, despite the US president saying in recent days that he was open to dialogue with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. With an aircraft carrier group and numerous other assets in the Caribbean, Washington on Monday designated an alleged Venezuelan drug cartel a foreign terrorist organization, while top US military officials also traveled to the region this week. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his wife spent the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday with troops aboard the aircraft carrier. The Pentagon released a video showing him serving up turkey dinners in the mess and expressing gratitude to the troops for "interdicting cartels" and "defending the American people.” CNN [11/27/2025 8:59 PM, Alejandra Jaramillo, 18595K] reports that the designation of "Cartel de los Soles," a phrase that experts say is more a description of allegedly corrupt government officials than an organized crime group, as a foreign terrorist organization will authorize Trump to impose fresh sanctions targeting Maduro’s assets and infrastructure. It doesn’t, however, explicitly authorize the use of lethal force, according to legal experts. The US military has amassed more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops in the region as part of what the Pentagon has branded "Operation Southern Spear." The US military has killed more than 80 people in boat strikes as part of the anti-drug-trafficking campaign. CNN reported earlier this month that Trump administration officials told lawmakers in a classified session the US was not planning to launch strikes inside Venezuela and doesn’t have a legal justification that would support attacks against any land targets right now. Lawmakers were told during the session that an opinion produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to justify strikes against suspected drug boats does not permit strikes inside Venezuela itself or any other territories, four sources said. The officials did not rule out any potential future actions, one of the sources said. The administration has largely tried to avoid involving Congress in its military campaign around Latin America. A senior Justice Department official told Congress in November that the US military could continue its lethal strikes on alleged drug traffickers without congressional approval and that the administration is not bound by a decades-old war powers law that would mandate working with lawmakers, CNN has reported.

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New York Post [11/26/2025 10:46 AM, Anthony Blair, 42219K] reports Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro brandished a sword and vowed to defend "every inch" of his country in a theatrical stunt during escalating tensions with President Trump. The socialist despot was filmed wearing a military uniform and wielding the weapon in front of a crowd of thousands in the capital, Caracas, at a ceremony commemorating the 200th anniversary of the presentation of the Sword of Peru to South American independence hero Simon Bolivar. "We must be ready to defend every inch of this blessed land from imperialist threat or aggression, no matter where it comes from. The homeland is sacred, the homeland must be respected," Maduro said, according to a translation by Sky News. He did not mention Trump directly, instead issuing a vague warning of "new imperial threats of the international far right.” However, the address came as Trump has repeatedly targeted Venezuelan drug trafficking operations. So far, at least 80 people have been killed in a series of strikes against boats in international waters accused of bringing drugs to the US, many of which had set off from Venezuela.

Breitbart [11/28/2025 4:10 AM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2416K] reports U.S. law enforcement needs a single, articulated national strategy to counter the Venezuelan terrorist gang Tren de Aragua, José Gustavo Arocha, national security expert at the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS), told Breitbart News. “Such a strategy could bring together the unique strengths of DHS-HSI, FBI, DEA, Treasury/OFAC, the Department of State’s Counterterrorism Bureau, U.S. Southern Command, and the Department of War under common direction from the National Security Council, perhaps through a dedicated TdA Fusion Center,” Arocha told Breitbart News. “A synchronized approach that respectfully leverages America’s full range of diplomatic, financial, intelligence, military, and law-enforcement capabilities would enable the United States to degrade Tren de Aragua’s franchise model faster than the gang can regenerate it,” he explained. Last week, SFS released a report authored by Arocha titled, “Weaponized Chaos: The Rise of Tren de Aragua as Venezuela’s Proxy Force, 2014-2025.” The report contains a comprehensive and detailed account of how Tren de Aragua — a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) — went from a local prison gang in Venezuela to a full blown transnational crime syndicate with an active presence in the United States and at least 11 Latin American countries. Most alarmingly, the report also details how Tren de Aragua became a “paramilitary instrument” of Venezuela’s socialist regime and how it operates under an “insurgent archipelago” system of semiautonomous cells that can rapidly regenerate once law enforcement strikes a cell. “The United States has long demonstrated global leadership in confronting hybrid threats, and Tren de Aragua (TdA) now presents one of the most serious such challenges in the hemisphere. Our report respectfully suggests that the current agency-by-agency approach, while valiant, may benefit from greater unity of effort,” Arocha said. “A single, clearly articulated national strategy, one that views TdA not merely as a transnational criminal organization but as a capable proxy of the Maduro regime, could enable a more effective and coordinated response,” he continued.

Breitbart [11/26/2025 10:15 AM, Randy Clark, 2416K] reports information provided by a law enforcement task force established by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reveals more than 50 confirmed members of the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang were arrested during a raid executed at an illicit nightclub in San Antonio on November 16. The Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year. On Tuesday, the South Texas Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) issued an update to initial reports regarding the early Sunday morning raid that occurred at 5939 San Pedro Avenue at a makeshift nightclub. The HSTF says the raid resulted in the detention of 143 illegal aliens who were taken into ICE custody. Of those, the task force indicated 51 were confirmed Tren de Aragua gang members. Authorities say the operation was conducted to address public safety concerns in an area that had been reported as a gathering point for people suspected of being associated with the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. Reports included possible criminal activity at the location involving narcotics distribution, unlawful weapons possession, and human trafficking, according to the task force. The nationalities of the illegal aliens taken into custody included 98 citizens of Venezuela, 21 Honduran nationals, 14 Mexican citizens, four Cuban citizens, two Ecuadorian nationals, one national from Nicaragua, one citizen from Peru, one from Guatemala, and one Salvadoran. According to the task force, 25 suspects arrested had criminal records in the United States, including 13 felony offenses and 12 misdemeanors. In addition to those arrested for illegal presence in the United States, authorities say three firearms and cocaine were seized during the raid. More than $30,000 in cash was also found during the operation.

FOX News [11/26/2025 12:14 PM, Breanne Deppisch, 40621K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March greenlit the Trump administration’s decision to proceed with deporting more than 200 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador despite an emergency court order, the Justice Department said Tuesday — news that injects fresh friction into a high-profile, politically fraught immigration fight. Noem’s role in the Alien Enemies Act removals was detailed publicly for the first time in a disclosure Tuesday night to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, as part of a newly revived contempt inquiry. According to the declaration, senior Justice Department officials relayed the emergency court order, and a subsequent oral order to Noem, who decided that the migrants that had already been removed from the U.S. could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador. Boasberg said last week he plans to move quickly in determining whether Trump officials willfully defied his March 15 emergency order, which sought to block the Trump administration from immediately using the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan nationals. The flights proceeded, however, and the migrants arrived in El Salvador hours later. The Justice Department’s newly submitted declaration provides new insight into the government’s actions nine months earlier, including Noem’s involvement, and several other administration officials named in the document.

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NewsMax [11/26/2025 8:08 AM, Mark Swanson, 4109K]
Univision [11/26/2025 8:11 AM, Staff, 5004K]
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USA Today [11/28/2025 5:08 AM, Josh Meyer, 67103K] reports President Donald Trump is ramping up lethal strikes on alleged narcoterrorist drug boats as part of a broader pressure campaign against Venezuela, but the administration has not provided the public and Congress with its legal rationale for the attacks. This week, those Senate Democrats escalated their demands that the Trump administration publicly disclose their legal justification for conducting the attacks as U.S. military assets gather in the waters off Venezuela, possibly for strikes on that country’s soil. “Few decisions are more consequential for a democracy than the use of lethal force," the 13 senators, all members of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, wrote in a Nov. 24 letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The 21 strikes have killed at least 83 people in recent months. Specifically, they are demanding that the Trump administration release a classified Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel written opinion from Sept. 5 on the lethal airstrikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The Office of Legal Counsel, also known as OLC, opinion − reportedly drafted over the summer and first reported by The Washington Post on Nov. 12 − argues that U.S. military personnel engaged in lethal action in Latin America, including the boat strikes, cannot be prosecuted for it. What’s unclear, though, is why the administration believes that is the case, and what legal justification it is using to make that determination. "The declassification and public release of this important document would enhance transparency in the use of deadly force by our Nation’s military and is necessary to ensure Congress and the American people are fully informed of the legal justification supporting these strikes," the senators wrote. They noted that such memos have been publicly released before.

New York Times [11/26/2025 6:01 AM, John Ismay, Brent McDonald, and Carol Rosenberg, 153395K] reports the grainy videos released by the Pentagon are just seconds long. Some show boats racing along the water, before they disappear in a ball of fire. In others, hazy figures can be seen moving around on deck before the vessel explodes. Since early September, the U.S. military has killed at least 83 people in strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. After each attack, the Pentagon has released a video clip showing the operation’s final moments, at times from multiple perspectives. The Trump administration says those aboard were smuggling drugs to the United States, but it has offered little evidence to support that claim. Nor has it disclosed the weapons used or information about the people who were killed. The Times closely examined video of all 21 strikes and consulted military aviators and weapons experts, finding that the U.S. military used a variety of munitions delivered through an operation that relied on both drones and manned aircraft in a departure from traditional stop-and-board operations. The clips show some of the boats were already stopped at sea when they were detected, and the people onboard were potentially within reach of U.S. forces before they were blown up. Lawmakers from both parties and legal experts have questioned the legality of the strikes and requested the White House’s legal justification.

The Washington Times [11/26/2025 11:18 AM, Matt Delaney, 852K] reports that an illegal immigrant from Chile has pleaded guilty to stealing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse and now faces possible deportation. Mario Bustamante-Leiva, 50, was convicted Friday for the Easter Sunday theft in which he swiped Ms. Noem’s Gucci handbag at a downtown D.C. restaurant, according to federal court records. He pleaded guilty to a series of purse thefts between April 12 and 20. He faces up to 30 years behind bars on charges of first-degree theft, wire fraud and aiding and abetting. Bustamante-Leiva acknowledged in his plea agreement that he faces potential deportation after he completes his prison sentence, which has yet to be set. Surveillance cameras captured Bustamante-Leiva stealing Ms. Noem’s purse while she dined with her family at the Capital Burger. Charging documents said the thief donned an N95 mask and methodically inched his chair closer to Ms. Noem’s table before pulling the designer bag into his jacket. Investigators said he made off with $3,000 in cash, a DHS badge, a makeup bag and a Louis Vuitton wallet inside Ms. Noem’s purse. Bustamante-Leiva left the eatery, tossed out Ms. Noem’s driver’s license and treated himself to a meal at an Italian restaurant in Georgetown, the filing said. Prosecutors said he used the secretary’s credit card to pay for more than $200 worth of food and drinks. The restaurant’s surveillance cameras caught him with Ms. Noem’s belongings. NewsMax [11/27/2025 4:49 PM, Jim Morley, 4109K] reports that prosecutors say federal guidelines call for between six months and 3½ years in prison, along with fines and restitution, though a sentencing date has not yet been set. Noem reacted to the theft at the time by calling the suspect "a career criminal who has been in our country illegally for years.” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin praised the outcome, saying in a statement, "We’re glad to see justice was served and this criminal illegal alien will no longer be free on America’s streets to victimize more Americans.”

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The New York Times [11/26/2025 3:18 PM, Jack Healy, 135475K] reports a federal judge in Denver on Tuesday ordered federal immigration officers to stop making arrests in Colorado without a warrant, unless the detainee posed a flight risk, the latest in a string of lower-court decisions rebuking President Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics. The ruling by Judge R. Brooke Jackson could be put on hold once the administration appeals, just as earlier rulings in Los Angeles and Illinois limiting immigration agents’ powers were quickly blocked by higher courts. In Colorado, Judge Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, found that immigration agents had acted unlawfully by arresting and detaining immigrants — some for as long as 100 days — without showing the required probable cause that they posed a threat of fleeing. Lawyers who challenged the Trump administration said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have detained people who are not flight risks as they ramp up immigration arrests at traffic stops, apartment complexes and Latino nightclubs. “ICE has been acting in a lawless fashion across the state of Colorado,” Tim Macdonald, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, said in an interview. The Department of Homeland Security did not offer a response immediately. FOX News [11/26/2025 5:32 AM, Landon Mion Fox, 40621K] reports that the lawsuit accuses immigration agents of indiscriminately arresting Latinos to meet the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement goals without evaluating the requirements to legally detain them. The judge said each of the plaintiffs had long-standing ties to their communities and no reasonable agent could have believed they were likely to flee before obtaining a warrant. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin called Jackson’s decision an "activist ruling" and said the department follows the law. "Allegations that DHS law enforcement engages in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE," she said in a statement.

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Washington Examiner [11/27/2025 4:29 PM, Asher Notheis, 1394K] reports the Department of Homeland Security released a Thanksgiving-themed video on Thursday to promote its immigration enforcement plans, saying illegal immigrants in the country won’t get "second helpings.” The video features a compilation of Thanksgiving and Americana aesthetics to the tune of Johnny Cash’s "Thanksgiving Prayer" before shifting gears to Creed’s "Higher." The video concludes with a shot of President Donald Trump in 1992 throwing a football in Buffalo, New York. "Happy Thanksgiving. No second helpings for illegal aliens," the video reads. The video also features shots from Creed’s 2001 performance during the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving game, and a scene from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Creed’s performance at the game is widely heralded, as it was performed just two months after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The DHS and the Trump administration have shared various video edits promoting the administration’s agenda, including deportations. In September, the DHS shared a video parodying the Pokemon franchise, and another video featured comedian and podcast host Theo Von.

FOX News [11/27/2025 8:24 PM, Sophia Compton, 40621K] reports the American Border Story (TABS) has released a powerful new video featuring Angel Families — those who have lost loved ones to crimes tied to the border crisis — expressing gratitude to President Trump for his tough stance on immigration enforcement. The 11-minute video, released on Nov. 22 in honor of Thanksgiving and featuring country music artist Alexis Wilkins, includes more than a dozen messages from Angel Families thanking Trump and his administration. Joe Abraham, whose daughter Katie was killed in a drunken-driving accident caused by an illegal immigrant, thanked the president for prioritizing border security and "keeping our community safe.” "We hope you continue the dedication towards that," Joe Abraham said. "… We really don’t want any other families to have to suffer the pain and despair that we’re going through right now. So keep it up, and we appreciate you. Happy Thanksgiving.” Anne Fundner, who lost her 15-year-old son Weston to fentanyl poisoning, thanked President Trump and called him "the greatest president America has ever had.” "You spoke his name with honor and reminded me that Weston is looking down so proud," Fundner said. "President Trump, you work tirelessly, nonstop to protect Americans and keep our country safe. I am so honored and grateful to call you my president. I thank God for you every single day.” Agnes Gibboney, whose son Ronald Da Silva was murdered by an illegal immigrant in California in 2002, thanked Trump for his "courage, strength, determination, and love for our country.” "Thank you and your administration for securing our borders and deporting criminal illegal aliens and for keeping Americans safe," Gibboney said. "Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.” Debbie Santini, who lost her son Jesse Byrd to fentanyl poisoning in 2022, thanked the president for "everything you’ve done and continue to do for families like mine.” Other messages of gratitude came from Kim Novak, Jacqueline Long, Greg Crews, Lupe Morfin, Angie Morfin, Jane Gray, Laura Wilkerson, Chris Odette, April Babcock, Kathy Hall, Jody Jones, Donald DeQuardo, Wanda DeQuardo, Marie Vega, Javier Vega, Rebecca Elmaksoud, Anatoly Varfolomeev, Uloma Anyanwu, Mary Ann Mendoza and Tena Pruitt. In closing the video, Wilkins thanked the Trump administration for "the leaps and bounds made in infrastructure, in legislation, and in justice for these families and everything that they have been through.” "On behalf of everyone at The American Border Story, thank you, Mr. President. Happy Thanksgiving," Wilkins said.

New York Times [11/26/2025 6:07 PM, Edward Wong and Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered American diplomats in Europe and in Canada, Australia and New Zealand to press their host governments to restrict most immigration and to file reports if the governments appear to be overly supportive of immigrants, according to a document sent to U.S. embassies and consulates. Mr. Rubio told the diplomats to emphasize the effects of criminal acts by immigrants to encourage greater entry restrictions, according to the document, which is a diplomatic cable dated Nov. 21. The text of the cable, which was obtained by The New York Times, has not been previously reported. Diplomats should “regularly engage host governments and their respective authorities to raise U.S. concerns about violent crimes associated with people of a migration background” and “any related human rights abuses,” the cable said. It said that those episodes were “widespread disruptors of social cohesion and public safety.” The diplomats should send reports on crime linked to immigrants to State Department headquarters as well as analysis of how host governments handle the issues, including “policies that unduly favor migrants at the expense of local populations.” The goal of these actions is to build “host government and stakeholder support to address and reform policies related to migrant crime, defending national sovereignty, and ensuring the safety of local communities,” the cable said. The State Department sent out the cable with instructions on immigration diplomacy last Thursday night. Earlier that day, it sent a separate cable to U.S. diplomats telling them that instances of foreign governments supporting illegal or mass migration should be included in the annual country human rights reports being written now, two State Department officials said.

AP [11/26/2025 12:55 PM, Todd Richmond, 1538K] reports that a federal judge said Wednesday that the trial for a Wisconsin judge charged with illegally helping an immigrant evade federal agents will go on as planned next month, brushing past talk of a possible plea agreement. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman told prosecutors and attorneys representing Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan during a hearing to assume the trial will begin as planned on Dec. 11 with jury selection. Federal prosecutors charged Dugan in April with obstruction and concealing an individual to prevent arrest. According to court documents, Dugan was set to hear a state battery case in April against 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an immigrant who was in the country illegally. Federal agents learned he was scheduled to appear in her courtroom and traveled to the Milwaukee County Courthouse to apprehend him. Dugan learned the agents were outside her courtroom and led Flores-Ruiz out through a private door, according to the documents. He found his way outside the courthouse but agents caught him after a foot chase. The Department of Homeland Security announced this month that he has been deported. Dugan faces six years in prison if she’s convicted on both the obstruction and concealment charges. U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel said last week that plea negotiations were underway but Dugan wasn’t interested in a deal.

Washington Examiner [11/26/2025 7:00 AM, Kaelan Deese, 1394K] reports a paperwork error from six years ago is threatening to overshadow rulings in the high-profile case of Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, turning what began as a story about a botched deportation under President Donald Trump into a running test of how well federal courts understand the basic mechanics of immigration law. At a hearing on Nov. 20 in Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis told lawyers she could not find a final order of removal in Abrego Garcia’s file, even though the government insists he was properly ordered removed years ago. “You can’t fake it till you make it,” she said, according to Politico’s account of the hearing. “You have to have the order…memorialized somewhere, and I don’t have it.” That apparent gap has become the centerpiece of a fight over whether the government can keep holding the 30-year-old Salvadoran in immigration detention or try to deport him again, even as he faces separate human-smuggling charges in Tennessee. But to some immigration experts, the dispute only makes sense if you zoom out to an overlooked mistake in 2019, when an immigration judge granted Abrego Garcia limited protection from deportation.

Chicago Tribune [11/26/2025 12:39 PM, Sam Charles, 4829K] reports that a 16-year-old Venezuelan migrant has been charged as an adult in the fatal stabbing of a homeless man in the Loop last weekend, Cook County court records show. Wuinayker Rodriguez-Vasquez is one of three minors charged in the early Sunday killing of a still-unidentified 49-year-old man in the 200 block of South Wabash Avenue. Rodriguez-Vasquez was charged with first-degree murder and mob action, while his two co-defendants — both 14-year-old boys — are charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery, respectively. A Cook County judge on Tuesday ordered Rodriguez-Vasquez detained pending trial, records show. Court information for the other two defendants was not available due in part to their status as juveniles. Prosecutors noted that the arrest was Rodriguez-Vasquez’s first, though he was previously barred entry to the United States in September 2023. Rodriguez-Vasquez was among a group walking downtown about 5:45 a.m. Sunday when, prosecutors allege, they encountered the victim who was lying in a building alcove near his pet cat and other personal effects, including a skeleton mask. Rodriguez-Vasquez is scheduled to appear in court again Dec. 16.

FOX News [11/27/2025 4:11 PM, Jasmine Baehr Fox, 40621K] reports Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley – the South Texas nonprofit long known for its migrant shelter run by Sister Norma Pimentel – has been suspended from receiving federal funds and now faces a rare six-year debarment after a Department of Homeland Security investigation found major grant violations, according to internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents shared exclusively with Fox News Digital. The action, taken by FEMA on behalf of DHS on Nov. 19-20, follows months of warnings and data reviews that auditors say uncovered sweeping inaccuracies, large gaps in migrant records and significant billing outside federally allowed timeframes. The suspension applies only to this South Texas affiliate, not to Catholic Charities USA or any other Catholic Charities chapters nationwide. In a formal Notice of Suspension and Proposed Debarment, DHS officials accused the organization of submitting migrant data so inconsistent the agency could not verify whether many of the people it reported serving had ever appeared in DHS databases. Investigators also alleged at least 248 instances in which the nonprofit billed the government for services outside the 45-day window federal rules allow for migrants released from DHS custody. FEMA concluded the group provided assurances that its spreadsheets were accurate and compliant, statements the agency said were "false" or "not entirely truthful," according to the documents.

Los Angeles Times [11/26/2025 6:00 AM, Melissa Gomez and Karen Garcia, 14862K] reports as the Liberty Van rolled into the Home Depot, its driver slowed, lowered the window and waved at day laborers standing around the parking lot. It had rained all morning and the overcast clouds trapped a chill in the air. Still, on a recent Friday, day laborers milled around even as it began to drizzle again. A pastor, a Navy veteran, an immigration lawyer and cameraman got out of the Liberty Van — camioneta de la libertad in Spanish — and greeted the day laborers while offering them water and snacks. Since June in Los Angeles, federal immigration agents have destabilized daily life by raiding neighborhoods, worksites and Home Depots — popular gathering spots for day laborers who often lack U.S. citizenship. In turn, several "rapid-response" organizations have surged into action to aid those targeted in the raids, and document their treatment. One of these organizations is the Save America Movement, which runs the Liberty Vans and includes a bipartisan leadership that is far more politically connected than that of many grassroots organizations. The group was founded by Steve Schmidt, a former top aide to Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and Mary Corcoran, a longtime public relations specialist, with a steering committee that includes law professors, pastors and strategists. On this particular Friday, Fabian Núñez — a member of that steering committee who previously served as speaker of the California Assembly — was one of those who hopped out of the Liberty Van. He chatted with a day laborer who stopped by to grab a snack, and explained they were there to film any interactions with federal agents, as part of their national rapid-response effort. The day laborer said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have previously detained other workers at the Panorama City Home Depot and have returned frequently. "Many times," he said. "Five or six." Despite the repeated raids, the laborer said workers like himself have little choice but to keep showing up.

Breitbart [11/28/2025 4:20 AM, Neil Munro, 2416K] reports Americans have been very patient while the federal government’s “Immigration Policy has eroded [civic] gains and living conditions for many,” President Donald Trump declared in a Thanksgiving Day statement on Truth Social as he promised to deport many more migrants. “This refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America, something that did not exist after World War II (Failed schools, high crime, urban decay, overcrowded hospitals, housing shortages, and large deficits, etc.),” Trump said a day after a government-approved Afghan migrant shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington, DC. Trump continued: Patriotic American Citizens who, because of their beautiful hearts, do not want to openly complain or cause trouble in any way, shape, or form. They put up with what has happened to our Country, but it’s eating them alive to do so! … As an example, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota. Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for “prey” as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone …Even as we have progressed technologically, Immigration Policy has eroded those gains and living conditions for many. I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions … and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country, end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country, denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization. “These goals will be pursued with the aim of achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations … Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,” Trump wrote.

NPR [11/28/2025 5:00 AM, Joel Rose, 34837K] Audio: HERE reports if the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrant truckers had a face, it would be Harjinder Singh. The Indian-born Singh was behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler in Fort Pierce, Fla. in August when he allegedly made an illegal U-turn, causing a crash that killed three people. The Department of Homeland Security says Singh was in the U.S. illegally, though California Gov. Gavin Newsom contends he had a valid work permit when he applied for a commercial driver’s license. Singh has pleaded not guilty to three counts of vehicular homicide. What’s clear is that Singh’s case has been a big story on conservative TV news, and prompted swift reaction from the Trump administration. Within weeks, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced new regulations that would make it much harder for immigrants — even those in the country legally — to get commercial driver’s licenses. "The process for issuing these licenses is absolutely 100% broken," Duffy said at a press conference in September. "It has become a threat to public safety, and it is a national emergency that requires action right now." There are too many foreign-born truckers who don’t know the rules of the road, Duffy said, and don’t speak English proficiently. "We have people on the roads that aren’t safe, that aren’t qualified, that should never have a driver’s license. And lives are lost," Duffy said at another press conference in October. The Department of Transportation wants tougher regulations for commercial driver’s licenses after a series of deadly crashes involving foreign-born truckers, stating that these are urgently needed to make the nation’s roads safer. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Breitbart [11/26/2025 10:34 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2416K] reports Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) called for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to "immediately locate and vet" all of the Afghan nationals who were let in under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome (OAW). In a post on X, Banks accused former President Joe Biden of having "rushed tens of thousands of Afghans" into the United States. Banks’ post came after three people were shot in Washington, DC, including two West Virginia National Guardsmen. "Joe Biden rushed tens of thousands of Afghans into our nation," Banks wrote. "Today, we faced horrible consequences for this. I call on Secretary Kristi Noem to immediately locate and vet all of the Afghans let in by Joe Biden as part of ‘Operation Allies Welcome.’". Breitbart News’s Paul Bois reported that "multiple law enforcement officials reported confirmed to CBS News" that the suspect behind the shooting in Washington, DC, was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal: Multiple law enforcement officials reported confirmed to CBS News that "The suspect in the shooting of the two National Guard members is 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal.” "The suspect used a handgun to carry out the attack, two law enforcement sources told CBS News," it added. Lakanwal reportedly entered the United States in 2021, most likely as a result of President Joe Biden’s botched pullout of American troops from Afghanistan. In a post on X, Fox News’s Bill Melugin revealed that according to "multiple federal law enforcement sources," Lakanwal reportedly entered the country on September 8, 2021, "as part of the Biden admin’s Operation Allies Welcome in the aftermath of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.” "I’m told his permission to be in the U.S. expired in September of this year, and he is now in the country illegally," Melugin added.

NewsMax [11/27/2025 10:42 PM, Jim Thomas, 4109K] reports the fatal ambush attack near the White House underscored a growing national security threat tied to immigration failures, and the country must move swiftly to remove foreigners who never should have been allowed entry, Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., told Newsmax on Thursday. Fine appeared on Newsmax’s "Greg Kelly Reports" and delivered a sharp warning about what he called the consequences of a failed immigration system, responding to the Washington, D.C., attack that killed National Guard Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, while another National Guard member was severely injured. President Donald Trump announced Thursday night that Beckstrom, 20, died from her injuries. Authorities identified the suspected shooter as Rahmanullah Lakamal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, and Trump described him as a "savage monster.” Fine said the Thanksgiving week attack illustrated what he views as a preventable tragedy tied to federal decisions about who enters and remains in the country. "Well, I wonder how many people, how many Americans have to die because of foreigners who never should have been let into this country, who hate what we stand for, who hate our values, and who seek its destruction before we do something about it," Fine said. He added that he is "sick and tired of political correctness" and argued that American reluctance to confront security risks has produced deadly outcomes. The Trump administration said earlier Thursday that it is reviewing green cards issued to individuals from nineteen countries. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow wrote in a post on X: "At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” The list of nations, drawn from a June presidential proclamation, includes Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Chad, Eritrea, Haiti, Burma, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. Fine quickly dismissed the review as unsatisfactory. "Well, look, I’d prefer to simply deport them all," he said. He said the United States has admitted "tens of millions" of people who he believes pose risks or should never have been granted entry, adding that the national focus on "illegal" immigration overshadowed what he described as an influx of "legal" immigrants whose presence he views as dangerous. He pointed to Somali arrivals and voting patterns in New York as examples of what he believes are deeper structural problems. "How are people gunning down National Guardsmen in our streets?" Fine asked, calling the situation a "self-inflicted wound" and saying the only remedy is "kicking them all out.” When asked whether he believes Islam is compatible with the Constitution, Fine responded, "I think mainstream Islam is not compatible. I think mainstream Islam is a threat to the United States. "What I believe we need to do is we need to deport every single foreigner who is illegal, every single foreigner who believes in this," he said. Fine added that naturalized citizens who "lied" — naming Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — should be denaturalized and deported as well. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [11/26/2025 12:52 PM, Emily Crane, 42219K] reports that the New Yorker has been ripped for peddling a gushing sob story about an illegal migrant and convicted murderer who was recently booted from the United States by the Trump administration. Jamaican Orville Etoria, 62, was one of five illegal migrants shipped off to Africa in September as part of the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program. His case was featured in a lengthy feature in the New Yorker this week, months after the Department of Homeland Security ripped a similar story on him in the New York Times as "disgraceful and disgusting." A teaser for the New Yorker’s story on X quoted Etoria as crying about how being taken "to another land in shackles and chains" helped him "imagine how the slaves might have felt" — without focusing on his violent record for murder and other gun crimes. At the time, DHS slammed the coverage as "disgraceful and disgusting." "If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, you could end up in CECOT, Eswatini, South Sudan, or another third country. President Trump and Secretary Noem are using every tool available to get criminal illegal aliens out of American communities and out of our country. Our message is clear: Criminals are not welcome in the United States," DHS spokesperson said in the wake of the NYT story. "Why does the New York Times continue to peddle sob stories of criminal illegal aliens? When will they finally shed light on their victims? Every single day President Trump and Secretary Noem fight for justice for American victims of illegal alien crime and nearly every single day the media ignores these victims and their families." The Post reached out to DHS over the New Yorker’s article but didn’t hear back immediately.

Daily Wire [11/28/2025 11:30 PM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports Mexican cartels amassed fortunes on par with major corporations, but that has all changed since President Donald Trump closed the border. Under the Biden administration, the Mexican cartels’ profits jumped from $500 million in 2018 to an estimated $13 billion in 2022, according to The New York Times. The massive flow of cash was largely due to their migrant smuggling enterprise, which grew even more profitable than their vast drug empire. Border Patrol agents were instructed to release illegal crossers into the United States as swiftly as possible under then-President Joe Biden, and many likened what the job had become to aiding in the smugglers’ enterprise. But now that’s all changed since Trump’s return to office. For the last six months, the Trump administration hasn’t released a single illegal border crosser into the country, putting an end to the major catch and release pipeline and driving migrant encounters to record lows. Smugglers, however, have grown desperate to maintain their profits, shifting operations to the high seas to move people illegally into the U.S. Along the California coast, the pace of interdictions of boats packed with illegal immigrants has remained constant. Last fiscal year, the Coast Guard encountered “well over” 2,000 illegal immigrants. And traffic has remained “fairly steady” with the Coast Guard seeing an increase in interdictions, Coast Guard Capt. Jason Hagen, who is the southwest district chief of enforcement, told The Daily Wire in a recent interview. “As you lock down the land border, the cartels will need to make their money, so they push to the maritime, to the water side. And, unfortunately, there is no border wall in the ocean; we’re challenged with the tyranny of distance,” Hagen said.

Breitbart [11/26/2025 12:00 PM, Jeff Poor, 2416K] reports Tuesday on FNC’s "The Ingraham Angle," Trump border czar Tom Homan went on the offensive against Democrats for their past failures tied to immigration policy. "House Oversight Dems are defending this ICE tracker that we mentioned earlier, writing that it’s not a live-tracking system," host Laura Ingraham said. "Doesn’t monitor officer movements or reveal private info or put any individual at risk. It just compiles possible misconduct and abuses. So is that OK?". Homan replied, "Bottom line is, if you support illegal immigration, then you support the criminal cartels in Mexico, because no one crosses the border illegally without paying a plaza fee to the criminal cartels. And I’m going to remind everybody, and I’m going to keep reminding these Democrats, where were you the last four years, when we had over 10 million people come to our border, we had a quarter million American that died from fentanyl coming across open border. We had a record number of people in terrorist sponsor countries coming across the border. Sex trafficking, women, children are at historic high.”

Wall Street Journal [11/27/2025 1:43 PM, Staff, 646K] reports he ambush of two West Virginia National Guard members near the White House Wednesday afternoon is horrifying on its own. But it arouses a particular anger because the alleged shooter is an Afghan man who was granted refuge in the U.S. after the Taliban takeover in 2021. The motive of 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal isn’t known at this writing. But U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said he drove from his home in Bellingham, Wash., with a goal of staging an attack in Washington, D.C. Ms. Pirro said he is being charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill, and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. The charges will escalate if either of the young National Guard members dies, and both were in critical condition as we write. Officials are calling it a terror attack, yet the CIA said the man had been part of a CIA-backed Afghan “partner force” in Kandahar province, one of the most dangerous places during the war. As such he was a Taliban target and thus he and his family were candidates for evacuation after the chaotic U.S. retreat from Afghanistan in 2021. The reason for his alleged turn from partner to terrorist, especially as a husband and father of five in the U.S., is an important question to answer. The FBI will be looking for links to a domestic terror cell or international contacts, though he might simply have been disgruntled on his own about his adopted country.

Washington Post [11/27/2025 11:54 AM, Staff, 24149K] reports Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, were ambushed by an Afghan refugee while on patrol near the White House. Beckstrom died Thursday. As Wolfe’s family waits at the hospital, it’s worth considering what the tragedy says about the state of the country. The National Guard’s presence in the capital has been controversial since it began this summer. But blaming the presence for provoking this monstrous act is inappropriate. The Guard has helped reduce and deter violent crime and is far from menacing. At worst, deploying soldiers to pick up trash is a poor use of resources. President Donald Trump’s decision to call up 500 additional Guard members to patrol D.C. is a symbolic gesture, not a prelude to fascism. At the same time, America’s political class has shown little interest in lowering the temperature. Trump used a televised address to the nation to blame his predecessor Joe Biden for the shooting. The alleged shooter came to the United States in 2021 amid America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. He had cooperated with the CIA in his home country and had been vetted by the American intelligence community. He was granted asylum this year and had a pending application for a Special Immigrant Visa but had not yet been granted lawful permanent residence. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services immediately and indefinitely paused all immigration from Afghanistan. The president announced he will “reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden.” As more details emerge, investigating what signs were missed will be essential. It’s been obvious for years that vetting was insufficiently thorough. The Biden team’s failure to prepare for the fall of Kabul inevitably brought some dangerous people into the country. They should be identified and repatriated. Yet threatening the status of all 77,000 Afghan refugees who have made America their home is morally bankrupt. Many are people who put their lives and their family’s lives at risk to help the United States, working as interpreters and fighting alongside U.S. troops during the two-decade war. Helping them secure permanent status in America, which would include further vetting and checks, has been a bipartisan issue in the House and Senate. To punish law-abiding refugees who risked everything to help America is not going to inspire foreign friends in the future. Many deserving Afghans have been waiting for years to get the right paperwork to enter the U.S., and some of their strongest supporters are U.S. veterans. It was also disingenuous for the president to use a moment of national trauma to draw parallels between new Afghan arrivals and the fraud scheme being perpetrated by Somali immigrants in Minnesota. The nearly 80 people charged with pocketing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars intended to feed needy children took advantage of this country’s most vulnerable cohort.

New York Times [11/27/2025 5:59 PM, Staff, 153395K] reports it is yet another national tragedy in 2025 — one made all the sadder by the fact that it happened on the eve of Thanksgiving. Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old U.S. Army specialist, died on Thursday. The condition of her colleague, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, of the U.S. Air Force, remains critical. Both of them were serving their nation in the National Guard on Wednesday when a gunman ambushed them in Washington. The country should unequivocally honor their sacrifice and grieve for their loved ones. We also should not lose sight of the uniquely American nature of the tragedy. Ms. Beckstrom and Mr. Wolfe are the latest victims of a political violence permeating our society. At family Thanksgiving tables this year, the absences of Melissa and Mark Hortman as well as Charlie Kirk were sadly felt. It was the same for too many people whose loved ones have been killed so far in mass shootings in the United States this year, where there are more guns than in any other country. Our knowledge of the suspect and his motives in Wednesday’s shootings remains limited. He was described by a friend as a young man troubled by mental illness, as is so often the case in similar crimes. We also have learned that he came to the United States in 2021, after the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan under the Biden administration. He reportedly had worked alongside the American intelligence services in his country. Vice President JD Vance immediately took to social media in the wake of the tragedy to score political points and cast aspersions on refugees from Afghanistan. In an online post, the director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the Trump administration would review the immigration cases of “every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” without providing any details. The agency announced on Wednesday night that it had paused immigration applications from all Afghan nationals. America, however, is stronger for its long tradition of welcoming immigrants. And as awful as one man’s actions apparently were, a crackdown on people here legally would be a mistake.

Los Angeles Times [11/26/2025 6:00 AM, Ingrid Eagly and Steven Shafer, 14862K] reports earlier this month, a federal judge in Los Angeles ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stop denying immigrants detained in a downtown facility the right and opportunity to consult with their attorneys. The important ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, makes clear that "all individuals — regardless of immigration status — share in the rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.” Los Angeles isn’t the only place where the Constitution is being ignored. In New York City, a federal judge found that ICE was detaining immigrants in crowded and unsanitary lock-ups while interfering with their ability to meet with counsel. In Chicago, a federal judge ordered ICE to cease its unlawful behavior after hearing extensive testimony about the deplorable conditions inside a suburban detention facility, where immigrants are also routinely denied visits and phone calls with representation. The Trump administration’s efforts to block immigrants’ access to counsel continues to push even further, including transferring noncitizens to far-flung detention centers where few lawyers practice. In one case, a Tufts doctoral student was sent from Boston to New Hampshire, then Vermont, and later Georgia and Louisiana. Immigrants have even been shipped to extraterritorial detention sites, such as the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, held hundreds of miles from the nearest attorney. Although immigrants in detention are afforded the right to consult with a lawyer, they are not guaranteed one be appointed to them at the government’s expense if they cannot afford it, as that right applies in criminal cases but doesn’t protect people facing civil deportation proceedings. Instead, immigrants in detention must either pay for their lawyer or rely on pro bono legal aid to defend them. As we presented in a study published by the Iowa Law Review earlier this month, access to counsel for immigrants facing possible deportation has expanded in recent years. A rising number of law school graduates have entered the field, and new sources of government and private funding have emerged.

San Francisco Chronicle [11/26/2025 2:08 PM, Jordan Weiner, 4722K] reports that when five more immigration judges were fired on Friday night, it felt like the death knell for San Francisco’s immigration court. When I first represented an asylum seeker there in 2022, I was stunned. I had just moved from the East Coast, where I had spent years representing people held in immigration detention. In New York, it seemed like asylum hearings were impossible to win. Judges often acted like prosecutors, searching for any excuse to deny a case. Due process violations were common, and I walked into most hearings expecting the worst. At my first asylum hearing in San Francisco, I arrived armed with legal briefs and almost 500 pages of evidence. To my surprise, however, the government attorney opened by agreeing that my client qualified for asylum, and the judge simply applied the law. My client, a 54-year-old Salvadoran woman, was not forced to return to a situation where her husband had threatened to kill her after years of brutal abuse, and the police laughed when she begged them for help. If one only looks at statistics, San Francisco’s immigration judges might seem to grant asylum at disproportionately high rates. But grant rates alone do not tell the whole story. Different courts see different populations. Most of my clients in San Francisco had recently arrived in the U.S. and were fleeing danger. A former immigration judge once explained to me that when she was reassigned from San Francisco to another city, her grant rate dropped because she was hearing different types of cases. In contrast, immigration judges in other jurisdictions have rushed my clients through testimony, missing pivotal details. Many times I’ve seen clients shut down in response to an immigration judge’s hostile comments.

Washington Times [11/26/2025 4:56 PM, Grant Newsham, 852K] reports upon returning from China recently, FBI Director Kash Patel was crowing about success in the fentanyl war. “President Trump has shut off the pipeline that creates fentanyl that kills tens of thousands of Americans. These substances are now banned.” He also said, “This opioid crisis is going to be ‘turned off.’” Does he really believe this? He got a promise from the Chinese to declare 13 fentanyl precursors illegal and to control seven other chemicals. So what? They have done this before. In a 2018 meeting with Mr. Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to restrict all fentanyl-type substances. Mr. Trump declared it a “game-changer.” Yet unsurprisingly, the drugs kept arriving in America. In 2019, more than 37,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses. That’s nearly five times the number of American troops killed in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the deaths have kept coming. Since 2013, around 750,000 Americans have died from fentanyl. Think maybe this time is different? Don’t bet on it. If Chinese leaders wanted to stop the flow of Chinese-origin fentanyl (precursors or otherwise), they could. They have a surveillance state George Orwell couldn’t have imagined. They have no incentive to do so. Besides the dead from fentanyl, maybe 10 times as many people have been injured and often turned into zombies. Many victims are of military service age.

CBS News [11/26/2025 6:00 AM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Julia Ingram, 39474K] reports the number of immigration detainees without criminal records who are held in federal detention centers after getting arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has increased by over 2,000% since the start of the second Trump administration in January, according to official government data. The statistics, published online by ICE as part of a transparency requirement mandated by Congress, illustrate the wide-ranging scope of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign. On Nov. 16, the government figures show, ICE was holding 65,135 people in detention facilities throughout the U.S., the highest level ever publicly reported by the agency, which was created in 2003 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. CBS News first reported the record detention levels earlier this month, citing internal data. The official figures indicate that 30,986 – or 48% — of the ICE detainees in custody as of Nov. 16 lacked any criminal charges or convictions in the U.S. and were being held solely because of civil violations of U.S. immigration law. ICE calls them "immigration violators.” Those with criminal convictions represented about 26%, or 17,171, of all ICE detainees on Nov. 16. The data show 16,978 individuals — another 26% of ICE’s detainee population — had criminal charges. The statistics released by ICE do not specify the severity and nature of the charges or convictions for the detainees with criminal histories. They could range from violent or serious felonies, to misdemeanors and immigration-related crimes, such as illegal re-entry into the U.S. The numbers underscore that while the Trump administration has said its deportation effort would mainly focus on criminals deemed to be "the worst of the worst," a growing share of those swept up under its crackdown are immigrants accused of living in the U.S. illegally but who otherwise lack any criminal history. At the same time, some senior Trump administration officials, including border czar Tom Homan and acting ICE director Todd Lyons, have said anyone encountered by immigration authorities and found to be in the U.S. illegally will be arrested, even if they’re not the intended target of an operation. Those so-called "collateral arrests" had been largely banned under Biden-era rules the Trump administration scrapped. In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the administration is "targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens—including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists." She said 70% of those arrested by ICE had criminal charges or convictions, but did not specify a timeframe or offer a breakdown to support the percentage.

Blaze [11/26/2025 12:15 PM, Cooper Williamson, 1442K] reports the Department of Homeland Security has showed no signs of slowing down its deportation campaign against the "worst of the worst" in the country. However, many of its detractors have tried countless methods of obstructing its mission and undermining public support. On Monday, Cato Institute Director of Immigration Studies David Bier challenged the "worst of the worst" narrative with "new data" regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions. "Most ‘criminals’ had immigration, traffic, and vice offenses. Not the ‘worst of the worst,’" Bier said. The pie chart shows that 73% of ICE detainees within the period of October 1-November 15 had "no conviction" and only 5% were "violent" offenders. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) highlighted the data, saying: "This is the scandal. Trump isn’t targeting dangerous people. He’s targeting peaceful immigrants. Almost exclusively.” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded to Bier via Senator Murphy’s post: "This is so dumb it hurts my soul. This is a made up pie chart with no legitimate data behind it — just propaganda to undermine the brave work of @DHSgov law enforcement and fool Americans.” McLaughlin went on to set the record straight: "~ 70% of illegal aliens arrested have active criminal charges or criminal convictions. That doesn’t even include those wanted in another country for a crime, gang members, known/suspected terrorists, wanted by INTERPOL, human rights abusers. The list goes on.”

FOX News [11/26/2025 6:03 AM, Alex Nitzberg, 40621K] Video: HERE reports as Americans around the nation prepare to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, the Department of Homeland Security posted a video on social media that features a montage of Republican lawmakers expressing their gratitude for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement workers. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa noted that with Thanksgiving approaching, she wanted to provide her "heartfelt thanks to the great men and women of ICE." "This Thanksgiving, I thank you for your service, and for deporting the illegal invaders who’ve flooded our communities," Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee said. The DHS post on X that features the video reads, "This Thanksgiving, we’re grateful to the dedicated men and women of @ICEgov who are working through the holiday to keep our communities safe. From the halls of Congress, thank you for your continued service and commitment." The video, which also includes House Speaker Mike Johnson and various other Republicans, comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has been conducting an illegal immigration crackdown around the country. The Department of Homeland Security has noted a spike in reported assaults against ICE this year compared to last year. "From January 21, 2024, through November 21, 2024, there were only 19 reported assaults against ICE law enforcement, while in the same timeframe in 2025 there were 238 reported assaults. This is a 1,153% increase in assaults," a DHS release noted.

AP [11/26/2025 4:46 PM, Holly Ramer, 31753K] reports a Massachusetts woman who was once engaged to the brother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt remains in ICE custody two weeks after being arrested on her way to pick up the son she shares with her former fiance. Bruna Ferreira, 33, was driving to her son’s school in New Hampshire on Nov. 12 when she was pulled over in Revere, Massachusetts, her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, said Wednesday. “She wasn’t told why she was detained,” he said. “She was bounced from Massachusetts, to New Hampshire, to Vermont, to Louisiana on this unconstitutional merry-go-round.” Pomerleau said Ferreira’s 11-year-old son lives with her former fiance, Michael Leavitt, in New Hampshire, but they have shared custody and maintained a co-parenting relationship for many years since their engagement broke off. He said the boy lived with both parents at one point and later split his time between them, spending numerous nights and weekends with his mother. “She was detained for no reason at all. She’s not dangerous. She’s not a flight risk. She’s not a criminal illegal alien,” he said. “She’s a business owner who pays taxes and has a child who was wondering where mommy was after school two weeks ago.” The Department of Homeland Security said Ferreira entered the U.S. on a tourist visa that required her to leave in 1999. A department spokesperson said Ferreira had a previous arrest for battery, an allegation her attorney denied. An online search of court cases in several Massachusetts locations where she has lived found no record of such a charge. In New Hampshire, court records show, she had two motor vehicle violations in 2020: speeding and driving an unregistered vehicle. The charges were placed on file without a finding on the condition that she enroll in a safe driving course and remain on good behavior for one year. “They’re claiming she has some type of criminal record we’ve seen nowhere. Show us the proof,” Pomerleau said. “She would’ve been deported years ago if that was true. And yet, here she is in the middle of this immigration imbroglio.” A DHS spokesperson confirmed Ferreira is being held in Louisiana. President Donald Trump’s efforts to broadly reshape immigration policy have included changing the approach to DACA recipients. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin recently issued a statement saying that people “who claim to be recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are not automatically protected from deportations. DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country.”

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The Hill [11/26/2025 9:01 AM, Brett Samuels, 12595K]
Breitbart [11/26/2025 2:19 PM, Neil Munro, 2416K]
ABC News [11/26/2025 7:33 AM, Armando Garcia, Jason Volack, and Hannah Demissie, 30493K]
Chicago Tribune [11/26/2025 1:43 PM, Muri Assuncao, 4829K]
Washington Examiner [11/26/2025 9:10 AM, Ross O’Keefe, 1394K]

Washington Examiner [11/27/2025 5:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports that, as the Trump administration wages a full-scale crackdown on illegal immigrants residing in the United States, one population has largely gone overlooked: visa overstayers. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its federal partners have focused on arresting and deporting illegal immigrants with criminal histories, those who have failed to depart the country after being ordered to do so by a judge, and illegal immigrants who entered by way of the U.S.-Mexico border. CNN’s report this week that federal police arrested White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s relative has put the public’s focus on the often-forgotten illegal immigrant population: visa overstayers. Bruna Caroline Ferreira, a Brazilian national and the mother of Leavitt’s nephew, was arrested near Boston on Nov. 12, according to a report. Ferreira had been illegally living in the country since her visa expired in June 1999, over 26 years ago. Ferreira is not an outlier. A deep dive into U.S. Customs and Border Protection data revealed that hundreds of thousands of foreigners admitted to the U.S. each year on various visas choose to stay, sometimes for a matter of days to decades longer than they are supposed to. Federal figures show that in fiscal 2024, more than 1% of all foreigners admitted on a visa failed to leave the country. While 1% may sound small, given that more than 47 million people were issued visas, it is no small figure. Between October 2023 and September 2024, 482,954 foreigners became illegal immigrants for not departing the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security. As of February 2025, the overstay figure for fiscal 2024 had decreased to 427,204, as tens of thousands of individuals chose to depart. But the remainder are still in the country, and the total number of illegal immigrants present in the country as a result of overstaying visas issued through the decades is in the millions. ICE has legal authority to arrest and remove illegal immigrants, including those who become illegal as a result of overstaying a visa. Leavitt herself stated during a White House press briefing on Jan. 28 that any foreign visitor found to have remained in the U.S. past the date of their visa expiration is considered an illegal immigrant and "subject to deportation.” Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow on border security and immigration at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said visa overstays are "serious corollary problems to illegal border crossings.” "Some eventually go home, but many either stay forever in the shadows or lodge asylum claims, most of which have no basis but to draw out the process so the applicant can remain in the U.S.," Hankinson wrote in an email Friday. "We want people from all over the world to visit, but to remain open we have to enforce our own laws however and wherever they come from.” The libertarian Cato Institute argued that 1-in-4 federal immigration arrestees do not have a criminal record and that the focus should be on criminals.

CNN [11/26/2025 6:11 PM, Casey Tolan and Karina Tsui, 18595K] Video: HERE reports Bruna Ferreira came to the US from Brazil as a child, and by all accounts, lived a life like any American: playing on the high school tennis team, getting married and divorced, building a small business and helping raise her son. When she was taken into custody by ICE agents earlier this month as she left her home in a Boston suburb to pick up her son from school, it didn’t make headlines: she was another immigrant caught up in President Donald Trump’s deportation crackdown, despite having developed strong American roots. But during her arrest, Ferreira repeatedly told authorities that her son’s aunt was the White House press secretary, her sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, told the Boston Globe. Her former fiancé – the father of her 11-year-old son – is the brother of Karoline Leavitt. "I’m sure she tried to just use whatever she could come up with in the moment," Dos Santos Rodrigues told the Globe. "However, it didn’t really help very much.” Now, Ferreira’s familial connection to Leavitt – one of the most prominent voices supporting Trump’s deportation push – has transformed her into a symbol of how far the immigration crackdown is reaching. It’s also provoked debate over her background: the administration has described her as a "criminal illegal alien" who had been arrested for battery, but her lawyers say she has no criminal record and previously had protection from deportation as part of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Ferreira, 33, is now detained in an ICE detention center in Louisiana, facing deportation proceedings. She broke up with her son’s father, Leavitt’s brother Michael Leavitt, 35, about a decade ago, her sister told the Globe. A source familiar with the situation told CNN that Ferreira and the White House press secretary have not spoken in many years. Ferreira came to the US at age six with her parents from Brazil, Dos Santos Rodrigues told the Globe, calling her "more American than she is anything else." Ferreira arrived in the US on a tourist visa that required her to leave the country in 1999, according to a DHS spokesperson. Ferreira’s attorney, Todd Pomerleau, told CNN she was a former recipient of DACA, which grants temporary protection from deportation for those brought to the US as children. She was unable to renew her status a few years ago during Trump’s efforts to end the program during his first term, but is currently in the middle of a "lawful immigration process" for US citizenship, Pomerleau said.

New York Post [11/26/2025 5:04 PM, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 42219K] reports a reputed MS-13 gangbanger who had repeatedly snuck into the US illegally was finally nabbed by federal immigration agents — and could be headed to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison. Wilmer Alexi Garcia-Manzanarez, who is wanted on terror and homicide charges in his native country, was picked up by ICE agents near Boston and hauled back home on Nov. 3, the feds said this week. Garcia-Manzarez, who first crossed the US from Canada in 2001, has also amassed a rap sheet here, with convictions for burglary, menacing with a weapon, property damage and drunken driving. The feds said the vicious gang leader has been reported several times after he was initially nabbed at the northern border on March 6, 2001 — and defied an immigration judge’s order the following year. Eventually shipped home, Garcia-Manzanarez snuck into the US at least three times between January 2007 and October 2012 after a series of deportations, the agency said. In January 2020, the international law enforcement agency, Interpol, issued a "Red Notice" for his arrest for a slew of violent crimes, including in El Salvador. ICE agents in Boston caught up with him on Feb. 18, 2024, and began deportation proceedings, which led to his removal from the country on Nov. 3. Although his fate has not been officially revealed, Garcia-Manzarnarez is likely headed to El Salvador’s Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, a controversial mega-prison that is part of the country’s hardline response to rampant gang violence in the region.

Washington Examiner [11/26/2025 5:29 PM, Pedro Rodriguez, 1394K] reports Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) asked New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Tuesday to investigate a Nov. 12 Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation that injured two police officers. The injuries followed a police response to calls from northern Manhattan residents who claimed they saw armed individuals wearing sweatshirts apprehending people in their cars, as stated by an NYPD spokesperson. The reason for the officers’ injuries is unknown. Prior to the injuries, the officers witnessed a group of people who they did not know were ICE officers pursuing an individual on foot in the neighborhood. The officers then realized the men were ICE officers. The letter is under review by the department, NYPD Executive Director of Communications Brad Weeks stated.

Daily Caller [11/26/2025 1:05 PM, Harold Hutchison, 835K] reports that a truck driver from India who pled guilty to vehicular manslaughter in West Virginia is now being held by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to multiple reports from local media. Sukhjinder Singh was arrested Monday and booked in the South Central Regional Jail, according to West Virginia-based WBOY TV. Singh had fled to California after a fatal accident on I-68 on Jan. 19, in which a car driven by Kevin C. Lataille was knocked into Cheat Lake, according to Connect Bridgeport. Lataille’s body was recovered after his car was retrieved from the lake on Jan. 26 following a multi-day search when a missing person report was filed and phone data put Lataille’s last known location at Cheat Lake, Connect Bridgeport reported. Police interviewed Singh on Feb. 28 with the assistance of a translator. Singh was charged with vehicular homicide in March, but had left West Virginia, WBOY reported. Police found that Singh was driving at a speed that was unsafe due to the conditions on the road and accused him of hitting another vehicle and failing to stop, according to Connect Bridgeport. Singh was sentenced to one year in prison on Oct. 27 following his Oct. 20 guilty plea in Monongalia County Circuit Court, WDTV reported. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation that sought to clarify the immigration status of Sukhjinder Singh.

Camden News [11/27/2025 9:00 PM, Brett Barrouquere, 16K] reports selected Arkansas corrections officers will be allowed to question immigration detainees, execute warrants, issue immigration detainers and use the Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement databases under an agreement between the Arkansas Department of Corrections and the federal government. The memorandum of understanding between the Department of Corrections and ICE, obtained Tuesday by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette through a public records request, allows the immigration agency to train corrections employees and gives those officers the power to act as immigration officers. The immigration enforcement powers given are limited to when the officer is on duty. The agreement, approved by the Board of Corrections on Nov. 18 and signed by Corrections Secretary Lindsay Wallace on Nov. 21, is open-ended and subject to review by ICE every three years. The agreement is also signed by Madison Sheahan, deputy director of ICE, although there’s no date on her signature. Along with Arkansas, 13 other state prison systems have signed the 287(g) agreements -- the legal name for the memorandum -- including Tennessee, South Dakota, Louisiana, Virginia, Alaska and West Virginia. ICE has signed 30 similar agreements with jails and law enforcement agencies in Arkansas and 1,160 similar memos with law enforcement agencies in 40 states, including sheriffs, jails and police departments. A spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections did not respond to questions about the agreement Tuesday afternoon.

Daily Wire [11/26/2025 5:24 AM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports an illegal immigrant sex offender was working as a college professor in Michigan before he was swept up in the Trump administration’s mass deportation raids. Sumith Gunasekera of Sri Lanka first entered the United States in February 1998, before leaving for Canada. He returned later that year on a student visa and with a rap sheet, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He told officers during his latest arrest that he was an associate professor at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. When he tried to apply for a different form of immigration status in 2012, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services discovered that he had been convicted of crimes in Canada. Immigration and Customs Enforcement nabbed him in Detroit earlier this month. "It’s sickening that a sex offender was working as a professor on an American college campus and was given access to vulnerable students to potentially victimize them," Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a Tuesday statement. "Thanks to the brave ICE law enforcement officers, this sicko is behind bars and no longer able to prey on Americans. His days of exploiting the immigration system are OVER. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, criminals are not welcome in the U.S.," she said.

Breitbart [11/27/2025 12:48 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2416K] reports Customs and Border Protection forces have left Chicago, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is still taking criminal illegals off the streets of the Windy City. ICE noted that it has not put a halt to its mission of arresting dangerous criminal illegals "despite resistance from activists and sanctuary politicians like Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson," the agency said in a press release. The statement added that "the Department of Homeland Security is conducting Operation Midway Blitz in honor of Katie Abraham, who tragically lost her life to a drunk-driving criminal illegal alien in the sanctuary state of Illinois." The release details the arrests of another six dangerous criminals that are now set to be deported. Those arrested have been convicted of crimes including domestic violence, criminal sexual abuse of children, armed robbery, and DUI, among other dangerous and violent crimes. "These arrests are a drop in the bucket," said ERO Chicago Field Office Director Sam Olson. "ICE Chicago is out doing targeted enforcement every day to protect people where their local leaders have failed, and we’ve arrested thousands of dangerous criminal aliens. Make no mistake: These are criminals, and if local officials had called ICE before releasing them, they’d be in their home countries rather than victimizing innocent people here in the United States."

Breitbart [11/26/2025 12:13 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports that Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan is set to appear in court Wednesday for a final pre-trial hearing for her charges of helping an immigrant evade capture. Dugan, 66, pleaded not guilty to federal charges, including one charge of obstructing an official proceeding and concealing a person from arrest and another of concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest. Her jury trial is scheduled for Dec. 15. The charges stem from April 18, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came to her courtroom and told staff about the planned arrest of Eduardo Flores-Ruiz. Dugan asked the agents questions then sent them to the chief judge’s office. She went back to court and pulled Flores-Ruiz’s case ahead of the others, set it for a future date via Zoom, then directed the man and his lawyer out through a private jury door. Agents soon found him, followed him and arrested him. Since her arrest, Dugan has been suspended with pay. The obstruction charge has a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and the concealing charge has a maximum penalty of one year. FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi both posted on X after her arrest, saying "No one is above the law.” Judge Lynn Adelman, presiding over the case, ruled on Tuesday that Dugan’s lawyers can show evidence of other ICE arrests in the Milwaukee courthouse, but they can’t describe how she was arrested or use comments Bondi and Patel made on the case. The defense wanted to use comments made by Bondi and Patel to show bias in the prosecution. But the prosecution argued that they aren’t testifying, and Adelman agreed.

CBS Miami [11/26/2025 4:04 PM, Frankie McLister, 39474K] Video: HERE reports after being deported from Minnesota last week, a young mother says she’s back in Honduras without her 8-month-old child. Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjivar Aguilar, 22, lived in St. Cloud with her partner. They moved to South Dakota shortly before having a child in March. In a Zoom conversation translated from Spanish to English from her parents’ house in Honduras, Menjivar Aguilar told WCCO about the moment she was detained by federal agents at a September fingerprinting appointment for an approved work permit. "‘Is this your baby?’ I said yes. And soon after they asked if I was breastfeeding. I said no," said Menjivar Aguilar through a translator. "They arrested me in handcuffs behind my back.” Kelly Clark is Menjivar Aguilar’s immigration lawyer. "She signed something that they told her was, ‘If you are removed you can take your baby with you,’ and she signed that document, but at the end she was removed without her baby," Clark said. Menjivar Aguilar explains her two-week journey to the U.S. when she was 17, crossing the Rio Grande with her younger brother, all to escape a gang who was trying to recruit them, and to be with their dad in the U.S. He’s since been deported, too. The assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released this statement: "On September 29, ICE arrested Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjivar Aguilar, an illegal alien from Honduras. She illegally entered the U.S. on April 13, 2021, near Eagle Pass, Texas, and was RELEASED into this country by the Biden administration. She received full due process and was ordered removed by an immigration judge on October 12, 2022. This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.” When Menjivar Aguilar was detained in September, she was approved for a special immigrant juvenile visa. Her attorney is now working with the family to see if they can get her and her baby back together.

NewsMax [11/26/2025 1:49 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday issued a statement defending an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in St. Paul, Minnesota, that led to law enforcement using chemical irritants and less-lethal munitions on protesters. Federal agents took at least two people into custody Tuesday in St. Paul during an operation on Rose Avenue East that quickly drew protesters and escalated into clashes with law enforcement. Video from the area showed officers in gas masks firing less-lethal munitions and chemical irritants at demonstrators after the protest crowd pushed against the perimeter. Sponge rounds and pepper balls were later found on the ground. St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry said his officers responded only after federal agents requested help, adding that protesters had pulled down the perimeter and reportedly carried rocks and sticks. Henry also said a vehicle, possibly with an agent inside, had been hit. A spokesperson for DHS defended the operation in a statement on Wednesday: "On November 25, ICE arrested Victor Molina Rodriguez, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras who was previously removed from the country. This criminal’s rap sheet includes domestic abuse and disorderly conduct. He chose to commit a felony by illegally re-entering the U.S. "Our officers are facing a 1,150% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, abusers, and gang members. Secretary Noem’s message to the rioters is clear: you will not stop us or slow us down. ICE and our federal law enforcement partners will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

FOX News [11/26/2025 6:00 AM, Elizabeth Heckman, 40621K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents say misinformation and misleading videos are putting them at risk, fueling public hostility and attacks on officers. Fox News Digital embedded with ICE teams in Dallas and Houston in September to see their work firsthand and separate fact from fiction about their mission. Acting Assistant Field Office Director in the Houston field office, Tom Persad, told Fox News Digital during the ride-along that it is a "privilege to live in America.” "I don’t think anyone wants to have criminals living in their community breaking in and robbing them, stealing from them, raping them, child predators, gangbangers. And if these people commit their crimes, they should go back to their home country. It’s a privilege to live here," Persad said. A Dallas assistant office field director, who Fox News Digital joined for the ride-along, emphasized that ICE has targeted individuals when conducting arrests. "We want to keep our community safe," he continued. "Stop believing what people are posting as far as like ICE is out there conducting raids, ICE is just arresting anyone they see, or they’re profiling." Persad in Houston emphasized that the theory that ICE is conducting raids against one particular demographic is not true. "It’s just not one specific community. It just depends on their – the criminality," Persad said.

Univision [11/26/2025 5:44 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports Galveston County Sheriff Jimmy Fullen, along with Sheriffs Blake Patton of Precinct 1, Paul Edinburgh of Precinct 2, and Justin West of Precinct 4, announced that their agencies have expanded their collaboration in the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program. In other words, now officers from different precincts will be able to assume the functions of federal immigration agents. According to attorney Ángel Leal, undocumented immigrants can be taken into custody and arrested without a warrant in specific cases. However, Leal clarifies that this must always be done under ICE supervision. This program replaces designated sworn law enforcement personnel as Title 8 United States Code immigration officers and provides specialized training and reimbursement for eligible enforcement activities.

Bloomberg [11/26/2025 12:01 PM, Linda Poon, 18207K] reports that what happens after someone is detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement? In a new video featuring reporting from Rachel Adams-Heard and Fola Akinnibi, Bloomberg traced the journey of one man who spent nearly 130 days in ICE custody after being detained at Miami International Airport earlier this year. Jose Ventura Rubio, a green card holder, was flown across the country and transferred to several detention facilities during that time — including to a privately run center in the rural town of Estancia, New Mexico. Like in many other small towns that the Trump administration relies on to carry out his mass deportation campaign, officials here consider the ICE facility its economic lifeblood — a “necessary evil,” as Estancia’s mayor put it to Bloomberg. Letters from detainees, however, point to deteriorating conditions. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Wire [11/26/2025 7:27 AM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports an illegal immigrant is accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old student at an Arizona elementary school while impersonating a doctor, The Daily Wire has learned. Abel Kai Gblah, 25, who hails from Liberia, allegedly waltzed into Orangewood Elementary School in Phoenix last week and lured the young girl into a classroom where he allegedly violated her, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire. The young girl told police that Gblah claimed to be a doctor and said that he needed to perform tests, according to KTAR News. She was eventually able to push him away before he ran from the school. Police arrested Gblah at his nearby home. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has since lodged a detainer with the Maricopa County Jail, asking the local authorities to hand him over for deportation if he’s to be released, the Department of Homeland Security said. "This monster sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl in her own elementary school. Case in point: if ICE officers were to ever go into an elementary school it would be to arrest a depraved criminal like this," Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire. Gblah entered the United States in 2011 and was granted a green card by the Obama administration. He was arrested in 2021 and later convicted of two counts of sexual conduct with a minor. He was later convicted of smuggling illegal aliens. That should’ve been enough to secure his deportation, said McLaughlin. "The Biden administration failed this innocent little girl. The moment this criminal alien was arrested for child sex crimes in 2021, he should have become a removal priority. The Biden Administration should have never allowed this dangerous creep to roam free and terrorize an innocent child," she said.

Breitbart [11/26/2025 3:49 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports a group of House Democrats met with a previously deported illegal alien – accused of kidnapping and domestic violence – at a detention facility in San Diego, California. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, Reps. Juan Vargas (D-CA), Mike Levin (D-CA), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), and Scott Peters (D-CA) visited the agency’s San Diego Field Office on November 24 and requested to speak to Dennis Mauricio Rojas-Molina — a previously deported illegal alien from Honduras. Rojas-Molina, ICE officials reveal, was arrested by the San Diego Sheriff’s Office in May of this year on kidnapping and battery of a spouse charges. "Democrats once again chose to stand with a criminal illegal alien over American citizens," the Department of Homeland Security’s Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

AP [11/26/2025 1:10 PM, Staff, 30493K] reports that the leader of a major labor union in Southern California who was arrested while protesting an immigration raid earlier this year has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge and will face trial in January. David Huerta is president of the Service Employees International Union California. He was arrested June 6 while joining a large crowd of demonstrators outside a business in Los Angeles where federal agents were investigating suspected immigration violations. Huerta was initially charged with obstruction, resistance or opposition to a federal officer — a class A felony. However, federal prosecutors last month dismissed the original felony charge of conspiracy to impede an officer. On Tuesday, he entered a not guilty plea to misdemeanor obstruction of justice. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 20, 2026, the Los Angeles Times reported. During the June protest, Huerta sat down in front of a vehicular gate and encouraged others to walk in circles to try to prevent law enforcement from going in or out, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote in an earlier federal court filing. Abbe David Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, Huerta’s attorneys, said in a statement that they will seek "the speediest trial" to vindicate him.

San Francisco Chronicle [11/26/2025 2:56 PM, Bob Egelko, 4722K] reports that the Trump administration is violating the rights of detained immigrants in San Francisco by holding them in crowded, freezing, unclean cells with no beds, blankets, soap or clean clothes, and with bright overhead lights on all night, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. "The government makes no effort to explain why depriving detainees held at 630 Sansome of sleep, basic hygiene, and medical care furthers its interest in enforcing the immigration laws," U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts wrote late Tuesday in a ruling ordering substantial improvements in conditions of confinement at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in San Francisco. He noted that the Supreme Court "has long held that the Constitution forbids the government from subjecting even duly convicted criminals, who may be legitimately detained, to inhumane conditions of confinement." A lawsuit by immigrants’ rights groups filed in September challenged both the conditions at 630 Sansome St. and President Donald Trump’s policy, a departure from previous administrations, of ordering ICE officers to arrest migrants at immigration courthouses after they show up for hearings on their requests for political asylum. Pitts has scheduled a hearing Dec. 9 on the legality of the courthouse arrests. "Forcing people to sleep on concrete floors and denying them access to medical care isn’t just inhumane, it’s unconstitutional," Neil Sawhney, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, said in a statement Wednesday. "The Court’s order affirms that the government cannot use detention as a tool of punishment."

NewsMax [11/27/2025 10:09 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K] reports U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Thursday tightened vetting rules and imposed new restrictions on immigrants from 19 high-risk countries, following the shooting of two National Guard members by a suspected Afghan national near the White House. The agency said the updated policy allows officers to factor in security risks tied to an applicant’s home country — including whether that country can produce reliable identity documents — when reviewing refugee, visa, or other immigration requests from the designated nations. Officials said the change is intended to strengthen national security screening and reflects the Trump administration’s broader overhaul of vetting procedures. "My primary responsibility is to ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible," USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a news release. "This includes an assessment of where they are coming from and why. "Yesterday’s horrific events make it abundantly clear the Biden administration spent the last four years dismantling basic vetting and screening standards, prioritizing the rapid resettlement of aliens from high-risk countries over the safety of American citizens. The Trump administration takes the opposite approach.”

Univision [11/27/2025 4:33 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports the United States will review the green cards of immigrants from countries that generate "concern," U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) director Joseph Edlow said Thursday without providing details. The move comes a day after two National Guard members were shot in Washington, D.C., allegedly by an Afghan immigrant who once collaborated with the CIA in Afghanistan. “At the address of @POTUS (the president) I have asked for a large-scale and rigorous examination of every green card for every immigrant from every country that raises concern,” Edlow wrote on the social network X. "The protection of this country and the American people remains paramount, and the American people cannot afford the cost of the resettlement policies of the past administration."

Los Angeles Times [11/26/2025 12:06 PM, Corey Williams, Mike Catalini, and Rebecca Santana, 14862K] reports that the Trump administration is reviewing the nearly 200,000 refugees admitted during Biden’s tenure. Refugees who spent years waiting for resettlement and just began rebuilding their lives face mounting uncertainty as green card approvals are now suspended. Advocacy groups are slamming the plan as a ‘colossal waste’ and warn it will retraumatize refugees and undermine faith in the entire resettlement program. The Trump administration’s plan to review all refugees admitted to the United States under the Biden administration is weighing heavily on people who could be affected by the evaluation, fueling uncertainty and worry among people who believed their status was secured. The review was laid out in a memo obtained by the Associated Press and signed by the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, and dated Friday. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security stood by the memo and reiterated the administration’s claim that the Biden administration prioritized speed and quantity over strict vetting when it came to admitting refugees into the country. "Corrective action is now being taken to ensure those who are present in the United States deserve to be here," Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Homeland Security, said in a statement. For now, details of the review have not been publicly announced, sowing fear beyond just the population of refugees that it applies to.

San Francisco Chronicle [11/26/2025 7:00 AM, Ko Lyn Cheang, 4722K] reports as the H-1B program for skilled foreign workers comes under fire from the Trump administration, data from the last fiscal year shows the nation’s biggest tech companies were the top employers of H-1B workers, displacing Indian consultancies that have historically hired large numbers of these foreign professionals. For the first time since at least 2000, no Indian tech company was in the top four employers that sponsored new H-1B workers in the 2025 fiscal year, according to a new analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy, a pro-immigration public policy nonprofit. Amazon, followed by Meta, Microsoft and Google, had the most H-1B petitions for initial employment in the 2025 fiscal year. Indian multinational tech corporations Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, which historically have been among the top H-1B petitioners, dropped in rankings. California had by far the most approvals for new H-1B workers among all states with about 21,600, almost double that of the second-highest state, Texas, according to the NFAP analysis. Three Bay Area cities were in the top six for most number of new H-1B petitions — San Jose, Santa Clara and San Francisco, the NFAP analysis found. The numbers underscore how disruptive President Donald Trump’s $100,000 visa fee for new H-1B petitions could be for Silicon Valley tech corporations that have historically hired large numbers of these workers.

New York Times [11/26/2025 12:44 PM, Miriam Jordan and Ariana Drehsler, 135475K] reports that the married couples filed into a federal building in San Diego last week for green card interviews that they believed would secure their future together in the United States. Half of each pair was American. Stephen Paul came with his British wife and their 4-month-old baby. Audrey Hestmark arrived with her German husband, days before their first wedding anniversary. Jason Cordero accompanied his Mexican wife. It was supposed to be a celebratory milestone, the final step in the process to obtain U.S. permanent residency. Instead, as each interview with an immigration officer wrapped up, federal agents swooped in, handcuffed the foreign spouse and took him or her away. “I had to take our baby from my crying wife’s arms,” Mr. Paul, 33, said, recalling the moment that agents said they were arresting his wife, Katie. Ms. Paul was sent to an immigration detention center with hundreds of other people swept up in the Trump administration’s crackdown. Her husband had to take a leave from his job at the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to care for their child and try to secure her release. “It’s insane to have them rip our family apart,” Mr. Paul said. “Whoever is directing this has completely lost touch with their mission to the country.” In every case, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the applicants that they had overstayed tourist or business visas. An arrest warrant, reviewed by The New York Times, states that “there is probable cause to believe” that the named spouse is “removable from the United States.” “Apprehensions at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices may occur if individuals are identified as having outstanding warrants; being subject to court-issued removal orders; or having committed fraud, crimes or other violations of immigration law while in the United States,” said Matthew J. Tragesser, an agency spokesman, noting that the arrests were typically carried out by ICE.

Blaze [11/26/2025 1:25 PM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1442K] reports that President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he was "terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota." "Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing," continued Trump. "Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!" The decision to revoke Somalia’s TPS designation has pitted Trump’s America First agenda against Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s apparent Somalia First agenda. If a country has an ongoing armed conflict, has an environmental disaster, or faces other extraordinary conditions, the Department of Homeland Security secretary can designate that country for TPS, thereby shielding its nationals squatting in the U.S. from deportation for a period of six to 18 months. Somalia has been a TPS-designated country since 1991. Former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended Somalia’s designation through March 17, 2026, and redesignated the country, paving the way for thousands of additional Somalis to become eligible for the program. According to a Congressional Research Service report, there were 705 Somali nationals covered by the program as of March 31, 2025. "TPS was a program that was always meant to be temporary," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters in Minneapolis on Sunday. Noem noted that the program needs "to be evaluated to make sure that it comes and is always implemented in the process for which it was intended."

CBS News [11/27/2025 6:55 AM, Marissa Armas, 39474K] reports as families across the country get ready for Thanksgiving, much of what ends up on the table comes from the hard work of local farmers. For five generations, Schronk Custom Ag has farmed land across Hill County, feeding families and fueling agriculture. "Traditionally, our family has grown cotton, and corn, and milo, we grow a lot of wheat now," said owner Rodney Schronk. "It’s our food, it’s our nation’s food supply." The farm is mostly family-operated, but as the workload grows, so does the need for labor. Schronk said finding workers willing to work long hours for a temporary time is tough. "When you work through that heat all day long, and it’s crazy hours, it’s hard work, you’re out in the environment a lot and all of a sudden you don’t have any job at all, so an American doesn’t want to work 20 hour days for three months and then don’t have any job at all," he said. These challenges led his family to turn to migrant labor about 10 years ago. This year, his farm has three immigrant workers from South Africa. The South African migrant workers are in the U.S. legally under the H-2A visa, a federal program that allows foreign nationals to do temporary or seasonal agricultural work. It began in the 1980s and while it’s been updated over the years, it still provides thousands of seasonal workers to American farmers. "We went to the H-2A program out of necessity, because we can’t make enough money if we farm just a very small acre it’s tough to make a living, so we have to have larger acres to survive," he said. While these immigrants do help fill these labor gaps, it comes with many challenges for the farmer. "It’s extremely complicated, so much so that our family cannot handle it, we don’t have the ability, we have to hire agents that help us and guide us through the application process and the whole can take 3-4 months," said Schronk. He added that not only is the program complex and time-consuming, it’s also costly, leaving most fees on the farmer, including airfare, costing him thousands of dollars just to get one migrant to the U.S. Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller agrees the program is complex adding that it needs to be revamped.

AP [11/26/2025 3:54 PM, Ayden Runnels and Alex Nguyen, 31753K] reports the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles is implementing more stringent photo identification requirements for all vehicle registrations and renewals in an abrupt shift that could shut out immigrants from legally owning vehicles. Current photo identification, such as a state driver’s license or passport, must be presented when new vehicle registrations or renewals are made, according to the new policy. The DMV said it informed county tax offices on Nov. 18 of the new requirement, which went into effect immediately. Licensed vehicle dealers in the state also were notified by the DMV on Nov. 19 that a customer’s approved photo identification must be presented during sales. A DMV spokesperson said the new guidance is "intended to ensure the validity of identification documents required as part of the state’s vehicle registration process." The DMV’s list of approved identification sent to dealers and counties includes: a Texas driver’s license; an unexpired U.S. passport; Texas License To Carry identification; and IDs issued by the U.S. military, Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services and Department of State. The move could prevent many immigrants in the country illegally from registering vehicles — and Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, said he hopes that’s what the new policy will do.

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Telemundo [11/26/2025 5:59 PM, Staff, 2218K]

CBS News [11/26/2025 1:23 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 39474K] reports that the Trump administration announced Wednesday a renewed effort to terminate the Temporary Protected Status of more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants, saying they will be eligible for deportation in early February unless they have other legal means to remain in the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the decision after the Trump administration’s initial attempts to end the TPS protections of hundreds of thousands of Haitians earlier this year were stalled in federal court. Noem acknowledged the humanitarian and political problems faced by crisis-stricken Haiti — including what she called "widespread gang violence" — but said extending the TPS policy would be at odds with U.S. interests. "Based on the Department’s review, the Secretary has determined that while the current situation in Haiti is concerning, the United States must prioritize its national interests and permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the U.S. national interest," the official DHS termination notice said. The TPS program for Haiti is now set to expire on Feb. 3, and the termination is expected to affect 352,959 beneficiaries, DHS said in its notice. Trump administration officials have urged TPS holders whose status is set to lapse to self-deport or face the prospect of being detained and forcibly removed from the U.S.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [11/26/2025 10:10 AM, Staff, 4109K]
Bloomberg Law [11/26/2025 9:25 AM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 803K]
Reuters [11/26/2025 10:38 AM, Ted Hesson, 36480K]
Washington Examiner [11/26/2025 5:59 PM, Pedro Rodriguez, 1394K]

Reuters [11/26/2025 4:05 PM, Jasper Ward, 36480K] reports China on Wednesday accused the United States of violating the United Nations Charter after Washington announced a visa policy that targeted people from Central American countries who work with Beijing. The policy, according to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will restrict U.S. visas for Central American nationals, and their immediate family members, who "are intentionally acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party and threatening our region’s stability.” "Turning visas into political leverage runs against the #UN Charter and the principles of sovereign equality and non-interference. Central America is no one’s ‘backyard,’" the Chinese Embassy in Washington wrote on X. It said that China’s cooperation with regional countries has contributed to local economies and livelihoods. The embassy said international relations should be "built on respect and partnership, not pressure.” The department, which routinely notifies of visa restrictions in press releases, has not indicated how many new restrictions have been imposed as a result of the policy, which was announced in September. The president of Panama - one of the countries mentioned in the Chinese embassy’s statement - said last month that someone at the U.S. Embassy in Panama had threatened to cancel the visas of Panamanian officials.

AP [11/26/2025 6:01 PM, Christine Fernando, 31753K] reports newly released transcripts of private interviews with a senior U.S. Border Patrol official and other authorities leading the immigration crackdown in the Chicago area reveal tense exchanges as leaders dodged questions about high-profile uses of force. Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol leader behind the operation that has netted more than 3,000 arrests since September, sat for the sworn deposition over three days in late October and early November. He left Chicago this month to lead a similar operation in North Carolina and is expected to oversee another in New Orleans starting as soon as next week. Hundreds of pages of transcripts from the deposition released Tuesday shed light on key moments noted by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis in a blistering 223-page opinion this month in a lawsuit alleging federal agents used excessive force against protesters, journalists and clergy members. Ellis issued a preliminary injunction earlier this month restricting agents from using physical force and chemical agents like tear gas and pepper balls, unless necessary or to prevent "an immediate threat." A federal appeals court later temporarily halted the order. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, called the appeals court ruling "a win for the rule of law and for the safety of every law enforcement officer.” Deposition transcripts reveal tense clashes between attorneys. The deposition was heated from its first moments as U.S. Department of Justice attorney Sarmad Khojasteh complained about an attorney representing the coalition of protesters, journalists and faith leaders not shaking Bovino’s hand as they arrived. The transcripts also include hours of Bovino giving evasive responses as he defended agents’ use of force and characterized protesters as "violent rioters.”

NewsMax [11/26/2025 11:32 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports Transportation Security Administration officer Jason Ihle said in an interview with Newsmax that an unexpected $10,000 bonus for working through the recent 43-day government shutdown will help stabilize his household ahead of the holidays, calling the award "such a surprise and such a blessing" after weeks of uncertainty. Ihle, a U.S. Air Force veteran who works at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, told "National Report" that he learned about the bonus early one morning when his supervisor called and asked, "Hey, you up?" before delivering the news. "I was just stunned. I was like, no way," he recalled. "It was such a surprise and such a blessing," said Ihle. The payment is part of an initiative supported by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to recognize TSA officers who continued working without pay during the shutdown. Ihle said the money will go toward supporting his fiancée, their 5-year-old daughter, and his fiancée’s mother. "This will be such a blessing. It couldn’t have come at a better time," he said, adding that he plans to use the money responsibly.

Daily Wire [11/26/2025 2:47 PM, Mary Margaret Olohan, 2494K] reports that "We were not going to get to Thanksgiving." That’s the assessment of Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, the man who was in charge of keeping planes in the sky as Democrats kept the government shutdown for the longest period in American history. "Had the shutdown not ended, we were not going to get to Thanksgiving," Duffy told The Daily Wire from the Secretary’s Cup at Fenway Park in Boston. "Would have been not just mass chaos, I think we would have seen airlines actually ground their fleets." "It was getting bad fast," he said. "So what we’ve seen now is our controllers have come back online. We have more normal staffing levels. We’re almost back to staffing levels that we had before the shutdown. So what we’re doing now is analyzing the data to make sure that we have the numbers going in the right direction towards safety." "And when that happens," he added, "we’re going to allow the number of flights to go back up again." The government shutdown, which began on October 1, ended on November 12 when President Donald Trump signed the funding bill passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. It was the longest shutdown in American history, and Duffy, as well as other administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, had warned of significant Thanksgiving travel issues if it had continued.

Reuters [11/26/2025 3:49 PM, Ismail Shakil, 36480K] reports the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday that flights to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were briefly paused following the shooting of two members of the National Guard near the White House. The ground stop temporarily "paused arrivals into Reagan Washington International Airport because of the locations of aircraft involved in responding to today’s shooting incident," the FAA said in a statement. "Normal operations have resumed.” The brief disruption came a day before Thanksgiving, which is among the busiest periods of the year for air travel in the United States.

US News & World Report [11/26/2025 2:17 PM, Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder, 19051K] reports that states should be breathing a sigh of relief as hurricane season ends on Sunday. It was the first season in a decade without a landfall in the continental U.S. Instead, they are wondering if they’ll be on their own when the next natural disaster inevitably strikes. With damage totals regularly topping $1 billion, states rely heavily on funding and logistical aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But FEMA is facing an uncertain future under the Trump administration, which has tried to delay and cancel billions in disaster relief funds as well as grants for mitigation projects. It has also denied at least a dozen state requests for disaster aid. President Donald Trump has floated an array of potential changes, including eliminating the agency entirely. As Trump now awaits recommendations from his review council on what to do with the agency, states have to reckon with the possibility that a previously dependable partner may no longer be able to help in their times of greatest need. Trump created a review council of Cabinet members, governors and emergency management experts to recommend "changes related to FEMA to best serve the national interest." That panel missed the deadline for its recommendations report this month, but a report is expected around Dec. 12. The content of that report has been a source of contention. The latest draft "got nuked," one source told The Associated Press. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s office reportedly slashed and amended the 160-page report down to 20 pages.

ABC News [11/27/2025 8:22 PM, Staff, 30493K] Video: HERE reports the quake’s epicenter was 30 miles outside the capital, Anchorage. No damage or injuries were reported.

ABC News [11/26/2025 10:06 AM, Mason Leath, 30493K] reports that an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.6 struck the southeastern portion of Hawaii’s Big Island Wednesday night just before midnight local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The event was located on the south flank of the Kilauea volcano, according to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. No tsunamis were expected as a result, the agency added. The USGS said in a press release that the earthquake had a depth of about three miles underground, and that the seismic event does not appear to be related to the recent Kilauea volcanic eruptions. "The earthquake had no apparent impact on either Mauna Loa or Kīlauea volcanoes. The event followed the end of episode 37 lava fountaining on Kīlauea by 10 minutes, but does not appear directly related to the eruption. Most earthquakes in this region are caused by movement of the south flank of Kīlauea," the press release read, in part. No damage from the earthquake has been reported.

Washington Examiner [11/26/2025 2:06 PM, Robert Schmad, 1394K] reports that a Washington Examiner review of public LinkedIn profiles identified dozens of alums of Chinese state-controlled or owned media who had been hired under previous presidential administrations for roles at the Census Bureau, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Voice of America, the State Department, the Department of War, the Department of Energy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and even at high levels within Congress. The true number of such individuals within the government is likely higher, given that public LinkedIn accounts are not ubiquitous among federal workers, and some may choose to omit Chinese media operations from their work history for pragmatic reasons. As far as media outlets go, none are closer to the Chinese Communist Party than the People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, and China Daily. The People’s Daily has the distinction of being the official newspaper of the CCP, whereas the Chinese government has designated Xinhua as its official state news agency, and China Daily is owned and operated by the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department. Alums for all three outlets have found their way into the federal government. Former China Daily writers and editors have had particular success in getting congressional offices to hire them.

Washington Post [11/28/2025 5:01 AM, Lori Rozsa, 32099K] reports the best days on Palm Beach used to be when President Donald Trump was far away, at least for those who value the peace, quiet and lifestyle to which the millionaires and billionaires of this island are accustomed. No street or bridge closures. No restrictions on boat or air travel. But a sudden change in Secret Service rules around Mar-a-Lago has extended some of those restrictions, causing an uproar among Palm Beachers and others in nearby historic neighborhoods. The airspace around the president’s estate is now a no-fly zone 24/7, even when Trump isn’t home, which means noise and soot from flights out of Palm Beach International Airport are being diverted to other parts of the neighborhood. The Secret Service said the plan will continue at least until October, even after Mar-a-Lago closes for the season in May. “We want to do everything to make sure we protect our president, and we understand that when he’s there, this is what needs to happen,” Palm Beach County Commissioner Gregg Weiss said about planes being diverted over neighborhoods that were once outside the busy airport flight path. “But when he’s not there, why? What’s the concern at that point?” Local officials said they were blindsided when the U.S. Secret Service issued the new flight restrictions just two days before they took effect on Oct. 20. “There was no lead up to this,” said Nancy Pullum, chair of the Citizens’ Committee on Airport Noise. “It just happened. Literally nobody knew. The flight traffic controllers didn’t know. The airport, they didn’t know. Palm Beach County didn’t know.” The impact on hundreds of homeowners became clear quickly. Pullum lives in the El Cid neighborhood of West Palm Beach, a historic enclave across the water and a few blocks north of Mar-a-Lago.

CBS News [11/26/2025 10:25 AM, Staff, 39474K] reports the United States military said it is taking a "strategic approach" to ramping up its presence in Arctic waters, after a report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called China’s visibility in that area "unprecedented.” "In 2025, an unprecedented number of Chinese military and research vessels operated in or near U.S. Arctic waters, prompting the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to respond decisively in defense of American sovereignty," the report said. "This proactive stance reflects the Administration’s renewed commitment to securing U.S. borders and interests, even in the remote Arctic region. However, China’s continued expansion of its icebreaking fleet poses a potential challenge to U.S. maritime sovereignty if future Chinese operations fall outside legal parameters.” This year, the U.S. Coast Guard commissioned a new icebreaker vessel, which is specially built to navigate waters covered by ice. The ship, called the USCG Cutter Storis, was the first polar icebreaker acquired by the agency in more than 25 years, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Department officials said the Coast Guard "requires additional modern vessels" to achieve national interests in the Arctic in the 21st century. President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocated $8.5 billion for the U.S. to acquire icebreaking ships on an expedited basis, the department said, adding that a "workforce development plan" has been implemented "to support the creation of a skilled workforce capable of designing and constructing complex icebreaking vessels.” Homeland Security emphasized that insufficient polar icebreaking abilities could mean "ceding control" of the Arctic, "leading to heightened security concerns, restricted access to Arctic shipping routes, loss of valuable resources and diminished influence in shaping future Arctic policy.”

NewsMax [11/26/2025 4:40 PM, James Morley III, 4109K] reports the Trump administration is expanding its Arctic icebreaking fleet as competing global powers accelerate their own capabilities in the strategically vital, resource-rich region, with China identified as a primary concern, according to an updated ICE (Icebreaker Collaboration Effort) Plan. Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Robert Law said DHS is prioritizing the domestic construction of Arctic and polar icebreakers as well as the development of a specialized U.S. workforce to support them. The report, titled "The Icebreaker Collaboration Effort U.S. National Workforce Development Plan," notes that an "unprecedented number of Chinese naval and research vessels" have operated in or near U.S. Arctic waters in 2025. The administration says the U.S. Coast Guard must be prepared "to respond decisively in defense of American sovereignty" and adopt a "proactive stance" that reflects President Donald Trump’s "renewed commitment to securing U.S. borders and interests, even in the remote Arctic." To meet what it calls "the growing need for modern icebreaking vessels," the Coast Guard commissioned the cutter Storis this year, described in the report as "the first polar icebreaker acquired in over 25 years." The report stresses that the Coast Guard, which has primary authority over U.S. Arctic waters, requires a larger and more modern fleet to safeguard American interests. The plan also highlights significant workforce shortages in the icebreaker sector. The USCG will receive nearly $9 billion in funding over the coming years to build new ships.

New York Post [11/28/2025 2:24 AM, Kieran Sullivan, 42219K] reports a birthday party they will never forget. Four boaters who were stranded atop a capsized 24-foot sailing vessel for 20 hours when a birthday fishing trip was turned upside down were rescued by the US Coast Guard 26 miles off the coast of Clearwater, Florida on Tuesday. The four relatives embarked on a celebratory fishing trip from the Seminole Street Boat Ramp in Clearwater at about 9:30 a.m. on Monday, and anticipated returning by 4 p.m. after a day on the water, the Clearwater Police Department said. When family members of the fisherman grew concerned that the group hadn’t returned, they contacted the Clearwater Police Department around 8:30 p.m. on Monday night, triggering a massive search effort for the wayward boaters. After 20 hours at sea, a plane from the US Coast Guard Air Station Miami located the capsized vessel at approximately 7:15 a.m. Tuesday morning. Footage from the HC-144 Ocean Sentry plane captured the four distressed boaters on the bottom-side of their capsized vessel, frantically waving to the plane passing above. After locating the wayward boaters, the plane dispatched deployed a life raft and a Mk-58 marine location marker to guide a US Coast Guard boat crew to the capsized vessel, where the four relatives spent the night. The boaters, who ranged in age from 18 to 90, sat atop the 25-foot catamaran called "Money Well Wasted" for roughly 20 hours before being spotted by the Coast Guard plane. Dennis Woods, 70, Clarence Woods, 90, Cris Harding Sr., 42 and Chris Harding Jr., 18, were all taken to Morton Hospital for treatment and are in stable condition following the night spent at sea. Following the successful recovery, Dennis Woods, who captained the vessel, recalled how the ship capsized and how the four remained calm in what could have been a catastrophic situation. "Water filled up on one side of the catamaran, and then it made the back of the boat go down low, and water started coming over the back," Woods said. "It was probably less than five minutes before it rolled, and I didn’t have time to contact the Coast Guard. We (were) more worried about getting the life jacket on the 90-year-old and the 18-year-old.” A memorable 70th birthday to say the least, Woods said the night at sea was extremely tough as the waves grew stronger. On land after the extended celebration at sea, Woods remarked, "It was a good birthday now that I’m back on land.” "Through the efforts of multiple Coast Guard crews and partner agencies, we were able to safely recover the missing boaters and reunite them with their loved ones," said Ensign Gaige Garrett, Operational Unit Controller at Sector St Petersburg Command Center. "We want to remind anyone going out on the water to have all necessary safety equipment to include Coast Guard approved life jackets, VHF radio, signaling devices and an emergency position locator beacon or personal locator beacon.” The substantial search effort included the US Coast Guard, Clearwater Police Department, Clearwater Fire and Rescue, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Reported similarly:
CBS Miami [11/26/2025 11:55 AM, Alyssa Dzikowski, 39474K]
NewsNation [11/26/2025 1:28 PM, Katlyn Fernandez, 8017K]

CBS San Francisco [11/28/2025 2:18 PM, Richard Ramos, 39474K] reports a shelter-in-place order was lifted Thanksgiving night after an investigation into a reported shooting near the U.S. Coast Guard housing complex in Novato, authorities said. The incident began earlier in the evening when a contracted Coast Guard security officer reported an altercation with an unknown suspect in the Coast Guard housing area off South Oakwood Drive. Coast Guard officials said the security officer was not injured, and the shooting occurred in the vicinity of the housing complex. Novato Police, Novato Fire, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, San Rafael Police and the Coast Guard Investigative Service all responded. Residents in several nearby neighborhoods, including Bolling Circle, Smart Station Hamilton, Hathaway Drive and the Marin Valley Mobile Home Park, were instructed to shelter in place as officers searched the area. By 10:25 p.m., Novato police said officers had concluded activity and lifted the shelter-in-place order. Authorities said there is no immediate threat to the public but urged residents to report anything suspicious by calling 415-897-1122. Both the Novato police and the Coast Guard are continuing to investigate.

San Francisco Chronicle [11/26/2025 7:00 AM, Tara Duggan, 4722K] reports the call came in at 1 p.m. A fishing boat had overturned, and three men were clinging to it in the heavy surf. The ranger who called it in, with the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach, had seen the disaster from land. A five-man crew from the Pillar Point Harbor Patrol jumped onto two Jet Skis and a patrol boat and gunned past the jetty, around Mavericks Beach and up the coast. It was Nov. 1, the start of the recreational crabbing season, when boats fan the ocean in pursuit of fresh bounty. The rescue team located the crabbers in the frigid water about a quarter mile from shore. One was grasping the boat’s propeller and barely holding on as his waterlogged jacket and heavy boots threatened to drag him under. Not one wore a life jacket. The Jet Skiers plucked the men out of the breaking surf moments before a wave pushed the capsized boat farther across the reef. "It’s (a) really treacherous reef because there’s deeper spots and shallower spots," said Deputy Harbormaster Cary Smith, a district training officer for the harbor patrol, which handles water rescues on a long stretch of coast between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, areas too far for the Coast Guard to reach. Back at shore, the men went into waiting ambulances and were unharmed, and their boat eventually washed up on the beach. Battalion Chief Chip Pickard of the Coastside Fire Protection District commended the rescuers — Dante Madrigal, Owen Moore, Adam Bloomer, Tyler Finch and Julio Abdallah — later that day. "It is my firm belief that, had it not been for the harbor’s rapid and professional actions, this incident would have resulted in three fatalities," said Pickard in an email.

Los Angeles Times [11/26/2025 4:04 PM, Terry Castleman, 14862K] reports a couple visiting San Diego was treated to a Thanksgiving miracle when San Diego lifeguards located and rescued their missing dog from the ocean Sunday. Using an AirTag on the dog’s collar, the couple tracked Sadie’s location and began walking down the beach. Two miles away in Ocean Beach, a surfer alerted the lifeguard tower that a dog had been swept into a rip current and was drifting out to sea. Lifeguards and the U.S. Coast Guard searched the area but could not find the wayward pup. The search lasted more than an hour, said Garrett Smerdon and Jack Alldredge, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department lifeguards credited with the rescue. A rescue Jet Ski had spotted Sadie half a mile offshore near South Mission Beach. The rescuer loaded Sadie onto a boat and brought her back to shore.

Washington Post [11/28/2025 5:01 AM, Joseph Menn, 32099K] reports the federal government’s ability to counter cyberespionage, destructive hacks and organized criminal scams is declining under the Trump administration just as artificial intelligence supercharges those threats, according to interviews with current and former officials as well as outside cybersecurity experts. “New leadership is needed to protect our nation from increasing cyberthreats,” the Cybersecurity Coalition, a trade group for security companies and tech giants including Microsoft, Google and Cisco wrote in a letter to the White House last week. The group cited the surging use of AI by attackers and asked for more engagement with the private sector. The business group was echoing alarms expressed by career experts and members of both parties in Congress over a retreat that includes a one-third cut in staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The layoffs were driven both by President Donald Trump’s anger over the agency’s past warnings about foreign propaganda and by the White House’s general push to slash government payrolls. “While adversaries are accelerating with AI, the federal cyber posture has been scaled back,” said Chris Krebs, founding CISA director during Trump’s first term before being fired for saying the 2020 election had not been hacked. “The strategy is unclear, headcount is down, and capacity is gutted. Like it or not, we’re not as strong today as we need to be.” The Trump administration denied any diminution of its cyberdefenses. “CISA is steadfastly fulfilling its core mission by demonstrating daily operational collaboration, accelerating intelligence sharing, and strengthening our defense of cybersecurity and critical infrastructure across the nation,” said Marci McCarthy, the agency’s public affairs director, who declined to make an official available for interviews.

Reuters [11/26/2025 5:33 PM, Raphael Satter and A.J. Vicens, 19051K] reports that hackers are hijacking U.S. radio transmission equipment to broadcast bogus emergency messages and obscene language, the Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday. In a public notice, the FCC said a "recent string of cyber intrusions against various radio broadcasters" had occurred, resulting in the issuance of the U.S. Emergency Alert System’s "Attention Signal." The signal is an attention-grabbing sound that is meant to precede official announcements related to tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and other emergencies. The FCC said the hackers appeared to have compromised improperly secured equipment made by the Swiss network audio company Barix and reconfigured it "to receive attacker-controlled audio in lieu of station programming." The agency said affected stations "broadcast to the public an attacker-inserted audio stream that includes an actual or simulated Attention Signal and EAS alert tones, as well as obscene language, and other inappropriate material." The FCC notice cited reporting from the last few days about radio streams in Texas and Virginia being hijacked to broadcast bigoted or offensive material. The agency urged broadcasters to take basic security precautions, such as changing default passwords and regularly installing updates.

Axios [11/26/2025 11:41 AM, Sam Sabin, 12972K] reports that the House Homeland Security Committee has asked Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to testify at a Dec. 17 hearing on how Chinese state actors used Claude Code in a wide-reaching cyber-espionage campaign, according to letters first shared with Axios. Why it matters: It would mark the first time an Anthropic executive appears before Congress about the espionage campaign disclosed earlier this month — the first documented case of an AI-orchestrated cyberattack. Driving the news: House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) sent letters to Amodei, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and Quantum Xchange CEO Eddy Zervigon requesting they testify at a hearing on the future of AI and cybersecurity next month. Reps. Andy Ogles, head of the House Homeland cybersecurity subcommittee, and Josh Brecheen, chair of the panel’s oversight subcommittee, co-signed the letters. The big picture: As AI rapidly intensifies the cyber threat landscape, lawmakers are just starting to wrap their heads around the problem and determine what policy levers they need to change to help Washington keep up. Garbarino has pushed for increased information sharing and stronger public-private coordination to help government and industry prepare for AI-driven attacks. Zoom in: According to the letters sent Wednesday, lawmakers want to hear more about how nation-state hackers could use other AI tools to conduct similar attacks and how AI tools can be used to defend organizations.

Breitbart [11/27/2025 11:22 AM, John Hayward, 2416K] reports terrorist leaders in the Middle East have a tradition of using an alias, pseudonym, or "nom de guerre," even when their true identities and given names are common knowledge. This serves the symbolic purpose of demonstrating commitment to the cause, with the civilian man "reborn" into a second life as a militant leader. It also confuses Western media and helps to preserve the political viability of extremist leaders who adopt conventional political roles. The paramount current example of this is Ahmed al-Sharaa, the interim president of Syria. Sharaa was known for many years by his alias "Abu Mohammad al-Jolani," under which name he became a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda and was tangentially involved in the creation of the Islamic State. Sharaa was born in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but his family comes from the Golan Heights in Syria – an origin alluded to in his choice of "al-Jolani" as an alias. His family was reportedly displaced from the Golan Heights by Israeli occupation after the Six-Day War in 1967 and his father went from owning an olive grove in rural Syria to working as an oil industry economist in Saudi Arabia. The alias of "Abu Mohammad al-Jolani" helped Sharaa stress his familial ties to Syria and his connection to the Palestinian cause when he traveled to Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion, joined al-Qaeda, and became the leader of a terrorist cell. He was captured by U.S. forces in 2005, and by his own account spent much of his captivity rededicating himself to overthrowing Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. This focus on Assad led Sharaa to grow more estranged from al-Qaeda’s agenda. He founded a branch of al-Qaeda called the Nusra Front in Syria, but later renamed it Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and broke with his old terrorist masters. When he finally achieved his goal of knocking Assad off his throne in December 2024, Sharaa dropped the Jolani alias for good, traded his combat fatigues for a three-piece suit, and reinvented himself as a statesman. The U.S. government sportingly decided to drop the $10 million bounty it had placed on the head of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani and embraced the interim president named Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Daily Caller [11/27/2025 1:36 PM, Hudson Crozier, 835K] reports President Donald Trump’s designation of four Antifa groups as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) may threaten the global propaganda networks that publicly back them, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Radical websites for years glorified violence by Antifa Ost, Armed Proletarian Justice, International Revolutionary Front and Revolutionary Class Self Defense before the State Department designated them as FTOs on Nov. 20. Some published messages purportedly written by the terrorists. Posting such content to further the organizations’ goals in the future could spark terrorism charges if the Department of Justice (DOJ) were to push the limits of federal law, counterterrorism experts said. Legislation passed in 1994 and expanded in 1996 allows for up to 20 years in prison for “whoever knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so.” The kinds of “support or resources” that have led to convictions include plotting attacks, conspiring to send money to terrorists and posting Al Qaeda recruitment videos on the internet. Five people pleaded guilty on Nov. 19 to providing material support to domestic Antifa terrorists charged in a July 4 shooting ambush at a Texas immigration facility, marking the first Antifa-related terrorism convictions in U.S. history, CBS 42 reported. Fringe leftist sites often publish anonymous posts taking credit for crimes in the U.S. or elsewhere, sometimes called a “communique” or “claim of responsibility,” using a familiar playbook that leaves out incriminating information. “If you look at the statutes for material support, propaganda, such as publishing communiques would definitely fall under the letter of the law,” said Kyle Shideler, a counterterrorism analyst at the Center for Security Policy who has repeatedly testified to Congress about Antifa. “Historically the DOJ has been [reluctant] to make a material support case just on propaganda services provided, but under the law … it would qualify,” Shideler told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Blaze [11/26/2025 6:40 PM, Steve Baker and Joseph M. Hanneman, 1442K] reports Ashan M. Benedict, the assistant U.S. Capitol Police chief who a congressman alleges prevented two special agents involved in the discovery of a pipe bomb at the Democratic National Committee building from testifying before a U.S. House panel, has retired from the department, Blaze News has learned. Rumors of Benedict’s retirement came one day after Blaze News published an investigation showing unexplained activity by the Capitol Police officers who discovered that bomb, who were overseen by Benedict. The announcement surprised some at the Capitol Police because his contract with the department was set to expire at the end of the month, on Dec. 1. Benedict came to the Capitol Police on Dec. 4, 2023, as assistant chief for protective and intelligence operations, which includes counter-surveillance teams. He later became assistant chief for standards and training operations. Before he joined the USCP, Benedict was the DNC pipe-bomb incident commander for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In that post, he oversaw ATF’s response to the J6 pipe-bomb threat. Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan distributed a bulletin Monday, Nov. 24, announcing Benedict’s retirement after less than two years with the USCP. Word had already circulated around the department on the Wednesday before that Benedict was leaving, two sources told Blaze News.

FOX News [11/26/2025 1:51 PM, Greg Norman, 40621K] reports that the suspect charged with killing three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in 2015 has died in federal custody, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Robert Dear, 67, died of natural causes at a medical center for federal prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, Saturday, the agency told The Associated Press. Dear, who was charged in 2019 in federal court, became entangled in a legal battle over whether he could be medicated for his mental illness, delusional disorder, against his will. He had been repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial, stalling his prosecution for the attack in Colorado Springs. "According to facts contained in the indictment, on Nov. 27, 2015, Dear traveled to the Planned Parenthood clinic intending to wage ‘war’ because the clinic offered abortion services. Dear had with him four SKS rifles, five handguns, two additional rifles, a shotgun, more than 500 rounds of ammunition, as well as propane tanks," the Justice Department said in 2019. Dear was most recently civilly committed with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, according to 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael J. Allen, whose office tried to prosecute Dear in state court. "All three victims, and this community, deserved the full measure of justice in this case, but they are now denied that possibility," Allen was quoted by the AP as saying.

New York Post [11/26/2025 2:51 PM, Dana Sauchelli, 42219K] reports that a California man who went by "Billy Badass" on social media allegedly threatened to bomb every synagogue within a 20-mile radius — then doubled down with more antisemitic rants even after cops threw him in a psychiatric hold. Elijah Alexander King, 36, of San Luis Obispo, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges stemming from his August rampage of hate that has him staring down a decade behind bars. King used his "Billy Badass" X account to spew the hate messages on Aug. 28. "I’m gonna blow up every synagogue in a 20-mile radius," King threatened according to federal prosecutors. "This is a real threat send the police and report me for terrorism," said a second messaged ten minutes later. King then searched for synagogues nearby on his cellphone, prosecutors said. Police found King and had him check into a psychiatric hospital for monitoring where he continued to spew hate from the "Billy Badass" handle, states. "I got arrested and put on a 3 day psych hold for my posts against the jews," King wrote before re-posting, "[w]e don’t need gun control. We need jew control," according to U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli’s office. King is facing a maximum of 10 years in federal prison if convicted. He faces an additional five years for the threats made by interstate communication and false information and hoaxes counts. His trial date is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2026.

Breitbart [11/26/2025 1:32 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2416K] reports that the Department of War detailed that Hegseth will meet in Santo Domingo with Dominican President Luis Abinader, Defense Minister Carlos Antonio Fernádez, and other officials to strengthen defense relationship between both countries and "America’s commitment to defend the homeland, protect our regional partners and ensure stability and security across the Americas." President Abinaner first announced Hegseth’s visit this week during his regular press conference and explained that the visit will serve to continue refining the Caribbean nation’s coordinated drug-fighting actions with the United States. This cooperation would reportedly focus on joint maritime surveillance mechanisms, information exchange, and an evaluation of routes used by criminal organizations. The Dominican presidency stressed in an official statement that the countries have had a "successful" joint drug fighting collaboration, hoping that Hegseth’s visit will strengthen the results obtained so far. Abinader noted in his press conference that Hegseth’s visit marks the first time a War or Defense Secretary has officially visited the country and occurs amid the ongoing U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean to fight against drug trafficking cartels operating in the area. President Abinader has also reportedly insisted that collaboration with the United States is "vital" to contain the increase in maritime drug trafficking surrounding Hispaniola, the island that the Dominican Republic shares with neighbor Haiti.

AP [11/26/2025 6:05 PM, Dánica Coto] reports Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader announced Wednesday that he has authorized the U.S. government to operate inside restricted areas in the Caribbean country to help in its fight against drug trafficking. For a limited time, the U.S. can refuel aircraft and transport equipment and technical personnel at restricted areas within the San Isidro Air Base and Las Américas International Airport, said Abinader, who made the announcement with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at his side. It is the first major public agreement that the U.S. has struck with a Caribbean nation as it seeks friendly allies to support its attacks against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the region and beyond. Since the strikes began in early September, at least 83 people have been killed. Hegseth said the U.S. would respect the Caribbean country’s sovereignty and laws as U.S. service members and aircraft prepare to deploy to the Dominican Republic. He did not provide additional details. Meanwhile, Abinader said the scope of the agreement is “technical, limited, and temporary.”

Bloomberg [11/26/2025 5:52 PM, Eric Martin, 18207K] reports the Trump administration will use a Dominican Republic air base and airport in its campaign against drug cartels, strengthening cooperation in the Caribbean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday alongside the nation’s president. Aircraft will be refueled and logistical tasks will take place at the San Isidro base and Las Americas international airport near Santo Domingo, according to President Luis Abinader. He cautioned, however, that the agreement would be “technical, limited and temporary” to confront the danger narcotics traffickers pose to the island nation, which has a history of unwelcome American interventions. “Our country faces a real threat,” Abinader said, standing beside Hegseth at the national palace in Santo Domingo. “That threat does not recognize borders or flags, it destroys families, and it has used our territory as part of its routes for decades.” The Dominican Republic — known for its beach resorts — has long served as a major transshipment point for drugs on their way to the US and Europe. Hegseth traveled to Santo Domingo as President Donald Trump’s administration mounts the largest deployment in the region in decades to confront alleged traffickers. It comes two days after the US designated Venezuela’s so-called Cartel of the Suns as a foreign terrorist organization. The American government says that the group is operated by senior army officers and led by President Nicolas Maduro himself, accusations that Venezuela rejects.

Bloomberg [11/27/2025 7:46 AM, Leen Al-Rashdan and Kate Duffy, 18207K] reports Venezuela has revoked the operating licenses for several carriers that paused flights to the South American nation following a security warning from the US Federal Aviation Administration. The revocation was due to the airlines’ participation in “acts of state terrorism promoted by the United States government” after they suspended their commercial air operations based on a notice issued by an aviation authority that lacks jurisdiction over Venezuela, the National Institute of Civil Aviation said in a post on Instagram earlier Thursday. The post has since been deleted. The ban affects Turkish Airlines, LATAM Airlines Group, Colombia’s Avianca, Tap - Transportes Aereos Portugueses, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA and Spain’s Iberia Lineas Aereas de España. The airlines canceled flights in and out of Venezuela amid an escalating standoff between the US and President Nicolas Maduro’s regime. Local carriers, which are under tighter government control, have kept flying while the domestic civil aviation authority tries to pressure foreign companies to restore service. TAP, which offers several weekly flights to Caracas, said it wants to continue operating the route but can’t at the moment because it’s considered unsafe. Iberia halted service to the capital after a recommendation by Spain’s aviation authority. The airline’s five weekly flights will resume once the airspace is safe, a spokeswoman said. The FAA issued an advisory Saturday telling operators to take caution at all altitudes due to the “worsening security situation and heightened military activity around Venezuela.” The agency said in a separate statement that interference with navigation systems in the country’s airspace has increased along with Venezuelan military exercises.

NewsMax [11/26/2025 12:41 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4109K] reports that Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that the Trump administration’s recent posture toward Venezuela has more to do with oil than with combating drug trafficking, as the White House has maintained. "[Oil] is at the heart of the matter," Petro told CNN in the interview, which was published Wednesday. "So, that’s a negotiation about oil. I believe that is [President Donald] Trump’s logic. He’s not thinking about the democratization of Venezuela, let alone the narco-trafficking," he added. In recent weeks, the Pentagon has carried out nearly two dozen strikes on vessels accused of carrying drugs in the Caribbean, killing at least 83 people. But Venezuela is not a major producer of fentanyl, and approximately 74% of the cocaine entering the United States comes in through the Pacific, according to a 2020 Drug Enforcement Administration assessment. The New York Times reported that the State Department estimated in 2020 that the majority of Venezuela’s cocaine exports went through Trinidad to Europe or to Brazil. According to the outlet, military officers confirmed earlier this month that no cocaine was discovered aboard the ships attacked by the United States military.

Washington Post [11/26/2025 7:56 AM, Siobhán O’Grady, Robyn Dixon, and Ellen Francis, 24149K] reports President Donald Trump’s demand that Ukraine sign a deal by Thanksgiving appears to have softened as he leaves some of the most important details of the peace plan in the hands of his envoys, one of whom was just embroiled in a high-profile phone leak. A recording of an alleged phone call between Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin from October appears to show the envoy advising the Russians on their negotiating strategy. Trump postponed an expected meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of Thursday’s deadline, when he had initially threatened to cut off all support to Ukraine if it was not met. On Tuesday, Trump said he was not ready to meet with Zelensky or Putin. “I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelenskyy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages,” Trump wrote on social media. In remarks Wednesday, however, several Russian officials said any peace deal was still far off and reiterated hard-line positions that conflict with the latest amendments to the U.S. peace plan. The change in Trump’s stance offered some relief and could give Kyiv time to strengthen its position before an extremely high-stakes meeting with its most important — and most unpredictable — partner. But the delay could also thwart Ukraine’s hopes to hammer out agreeable terms on the most sensitive issues of the deal without Russian influence. Trump’s comments Tuesday also cast doubt on U.S. assessments from earlier that day that the Ukrainians had agreed to a deal, barring some minor details. Zelensky had, in fact, reserved one of the most sensitive points, on potential Ukrainian territorial concessions, as a topic that only he can discuss at the leader level.

New York Times [11/26/2025 10:46 AM, Matthew Mpoke Bigg, 135475K] reports President Trump is defending his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, over the way he has conducted negotiations during the latest American push to end the war in Ukraine and will send him back to Russia to meet again with President Vladimir V. Putin. Mr. Trump’s comments came Tuesday evening after Bloomberg published what it said was a transcript of a phone conversation on Oct. 14 between Mr. Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, a top foreign policy aide to Mr. Putin. In the reported conversation, Mr. Witkoff appeared to offer the Russian official advice on how the Kremlin could win backing from Mr. Trump for its preferred terms to end the conflict. Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Mr. Witkoff had been meeting with Russian and Ukrainian officials, and he cast the conversation as part of negotiations to end the conflict. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and then launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost four years ago. “I haven’t heard it, but it’s a standard thing,” Mr. Trump said of the conversation. “That’s what a deal maker does.” Mr. Trump said that the latest flurry of U.S.-led diplomacy was making “good progress,” but that securing a deal was proving harder than he expected. The president said he thought his relationship with Mr. Putin would have made achieving a peace deal easier, and that reaching an agreement between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders was a “complicated process.” The White House has said that the peace plan was developed by Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and Mr. Witkoff, who met Russian officials several times before details of the plan emerged last week. Mr. Trump last week set a deadline of Thursday for Ukraine to approve a U.S.-backed plan in his latest push to end the conflict, but he has suggested that the timeline is flexible if there are signs that the talks are making headway. “We’ve settled eight wars,” claimed Mr. Trump, who is pursuing a Nobel Peace Prize and has repeatedly taken credit for ending a series of conflicts since taking office in January. “And I thought this would be one of the easier ones because of my relationship with President Putin. But this is probably one of the more difficult ones because there’s a lot of hatred.” Mr. Trump did not say when Mr. Witkoff might return to Russia, but he said that Daniel P. Driscoll, the U.S. Army secretary, would meet with Ukrainian officials at the same time. Mr. Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on social media on Wednesday that Mr. Driscoll was expected in Kyiv later this week.

Reuters [11/27/2025 1:52 PM, Ron Popeski, 36480K] reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukrainian and U.S. delegations are to meet this week to work out a formula discussed at talks in Geneva to bring peace and provide security guarantees for Kyiv. "Our team, together with American representatives, will meet at the end of this week to continue to bring closer the points we have as a result of (talks in) Geneva in a form that will lead us on the path to peace and security guarantees," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. "There will be a meeting of delegations. The Ukrainian delegation will be well prepared and focused on meaningful work." Zelenskiy said there would be further talks next week involving both delegations and himself, though he provided no details. "Next week there will be important talks not with our delegation, but also including me," he said. "And we are preparing firm ground for such talks. Ukraine will stand firmly its feet. It will always be standing."

NewsMax [11/26/2025 8:09 AM, Eric Mack, 4109K] reports a leaked recording of peace envoy Steve Witkoff "dealmaking" was being used to drive a wedge between President Donald Trump and peace talks with Ukraine and Russia, but Trump batted back criticism, calling it "standard negotiation.” "I haven’t heard it, but that’s a standard thing," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on the way back to Florida’s Mar-a-Lago for the Thanksgiving holiday. "He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell, Ukraine to Russia. "That’s what a dealmaker does. "They say, ‘Look, they want this. You’ve got to convince him.’ You know, that’s a very standard form of negotiation." The recording, published as a transcript by Bloomberg, reportedly captures Witkoff coaching Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov on how to frame a potential leaders’ call — including by praising Trump as "a man of peace." "It’s standard negotiation, and I would imagine he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine, because each party has to give and take," Trump added, lamenting the efforts to stand in the way of the "man of peace." "This war could go on for years, and Russia’s got a lot more people, a lot more soldiers," he continued. "If Ukraine can make a deal, I think it’s a good thing. "Frankly, I think it’s great for both."

CNN [11/26/2025 1:43 PM, Betsy Klein, 606K] reports President Donald Trump brushed off concerns about his special envoy Steve Witkoff’s engagements with the Kremlin after a new phone call transcript provided rare insight into how the president’s top negotiator advised his Russian counterpart. In the October 14 audio recording reviewed and transcribed by Bloomberg, Witkoff counsels top Russian foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov on how Russian President Vladimir Putin should approach a call with Trump. The transcript offers key new insight about the behind-the-scenes talks that produced a 28-point peace plan that has been the subject of intense discussions between the Trump administration, Russia and Ukraine in recent days. "He’s gotta sell this to Ukraine, he’s gotta sell Ukraine to Russia. That’s what a deal maker does," Trump told reporters on Air Force One Tuesday evening when asked about the reported transcript of the call. "I haven’t heard it, but I heard it was standard negotiation. And I would imagine he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine, because each party has to give and take," the president added. The transcript generated concern among some GOP Russia hawks on Capitol Hill who asserted that Witkoff was too much under Russia’s spell. Rep. Don Bacon called for him to be fired. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [11/26/2025 10:22 AM, Yuliya Talmazan, 34509K] reports the Kremlin said Wednesday that the leak of a phone call between senior U.S. and Russian officials was intended to disrupt peace talks, and warned it was premature to say a deal to end its war in Ukraine was close. President Donald Trump, whose envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Moscow next week, said his peace plan had been "fine-tuned" and that he had no deadline for an agreement after earlier pressuring Kyiv to endorse a proposal by Thanksgiving. Kyiv and its allies indicated they were broadly happy with changes to the plan, though key sticking points remained. As attention shifted to Russia, which has held to its maximalist demands, the leak added to questions about the Kremlin’s role in negotiations. Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested the leak of his conversation with Witkoff was an attempt to interfere in the peace talks. "It is unlikely that this is done to improve relations," he said. Witkoff advised his Russian counterpart on how to best appeal to Trump about a peace plan and suggested setting up a call with Putin prior to a White House visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to a transcript of the Oct. 14 call published by Bloomberg News. Bloomberg said it had reviewed a recording of the call but did not say how it obtained access to it. Ushakov said Wednesday that he talks to Witkoff regularly, but does not comment on the content of those conversations. "Someone is leaking, someone is listening, but not us," he said when asked about the story. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [11/26/2025 2:24 PM, Duarte Dias, 39474K] reports a Kremlin spokesperson has watered down expectations that a peace deal is close to being struck to end the nearly four-year-long invasion of Ukraine. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said it’s "premature" to say whether the situation in Ukraine was close to a resolution. Peskov also claimed there are people in other countries, including the United States, "who will try to derail these peaceful developments," when asked about leaks from the negotiations. The comments come after a Kremlin aide, Yuri Ushakov, had struck a more positive tone regarding the state of the U.S.-backed proposal. Ushakov told a Russian state TV reporter on Wednesday that "some aspects can be viewed positively, but many require special discussions among experts.” Ushakov also confirmed that Russia had been presented with the revised proposal that resulted from high-level talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials over the weekend, but said Russian officials had not yet met with their American counterparts to discuss it. "We have not discussed it with anyone yet because it really requires serious analysis, serious discussion," Ushakov added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [11/26/2025 9:00 AM, Staff, 39474K] reports President Trump said on Air Force One that the Ukraine peace proposal he’s pushing will be fair to both sides, and that the Russians will be "making concessions - their big concession is they stop fighting and they don’t take any more land." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told European leaders he’s happy with the plan taking shape, but issues remain. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Axios [11/26/2025 6:20 AM, Colin Demarest, 12972K] reports Xi Jinping is attempting to "construct an alternative world order" in which Beijing sits at the center and is propped up by fellow anti-democratic states, such as Russia and North Korea, according to the latest findings of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Such a friends-with-benefits network — as cutthroat as it may be — complicates the calculus of Washington and other capitals across the West. Beijing’s long-term plan transcends sectors, industries and borders. The commission published its annual report this month. It’s a hefty read; the final product is more than 700 pages long, with dozens of recommendations offered. They include: Studying China’s support for the Russian war machine — including economic and technological aid as well as intelligence-sharing and cyber operations — and widely disseminating the findings. "Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have rapidly deepened their cooperation," the study reads. "A Russian collapse would significantly alter the global balance of power, weakening China’s influence and strategic position."

Blaze [11/26/2025 8:00 AM, Nathaniel Mong’are, 1442K] reports the global energy system is buckling under the weight of its own contradictions. Electricity demand keeps rising, yet policymakers insist that renewables alone can carry the load. Artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and a wave of reindustrialization are driving consumption far faster than today’s grid can support. Nowhere is that tension more visible than in the United States, where soaring demand collides with aging infrastructure and unrealistic clean-energy mandates. America stands at a crossroads. One path deepens dependence on foreign supply chains dominated by China. The other rebuilds domestic energy strength, restores industrial capacity, and creates high-wage jobs. The question isn’t whether a green transition will happen — it is who will own the minerals, the infrastructure, and the economic power behind it. Electricity demand jumped nearly 4% in 2024, almost double the decade’s average. Data centers, electrified transport, and manufacturing growth are reshaping the energy landscape. The International Energy Agency projects global data-center power use will more than double by 2030, approaching 1,000 terawatt-hours. In the U.S., these facilities alone could soon account for 10% of national consumption. Without major investment in reliable, affordable energy, this surge will strain the grid and weaken American competitiveness. We have already seen the danger of relying on foreign suppliers. While Western governments debated climate rhetoric, China quietly secured control over the minerals the modern economy runs on — lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and rare-earths. Beijing now refines more than 70% of the global supply. These materials aren’t optional. They are the foundation of EV batteries, grid storage, wind turbines, solar panels, and the defense systems that protect U.S. interests. Allowing China to dominate them puts both the economy and national security in a vulnerable position.

FOX News [11/26/2025 8:36 AM, Staff, 10085K] reports that Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., joins ‘Mornings with Maria’ to weigh in on the Russia-Ukraine stalemate, President Donald Trump’s push for peace and escalating threats from Venezuela, China and Russia across the Western Hemisphere. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [11/26/2025 1:28 PM, John Hayward, 2416K] reports that Taiwanese President William Lai ChinCap Video – No Adsg-te on Wednesday announced a $40 billion boost to defense spending to counter "intensifying" threats from China, which he said is "speeding up military preparations to take Taiwan by force." "Taiwan must not become a weak point in regional security. Among all the possible scenarios for China’s annexation of Taiwan, the biggest threat is not force – it is our own surrender," Lai declared. Lai said his government was prepared to counter any efforts at "repression" by China, and pledged to achieve a "high level of combat preparedness" within two years, including major upgrades to missile, drone, and artificial intelligence capabilities. "China’s threats to Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region are escalating. Recently, various types of military intrusions, maritime gray zones and disinformation campaigns have been occurring in Japan, the Philippines and around the Taiwan Strait," he warned, "causing deep unease and distress to all parties in the region." "Taiwan, as the most important and most critical part of the first island chain, must demonstrate our determination and take on a greater responsibility in self-defense," he said.

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