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.

Bloomberg [10/22/2025 6:05 PM, Myles Miller, Lauren Dezenski, and Eliyahu Kamisher, 803K] reports the Trump administration is sending more than 100 federal officers to a Coast Guard base outside of San Francisco, a person familiar said, days after President Donald Trump singled out the city as the next target of his federal crime crackdown. The agents, drawn from US Customs and Border Protection, are expected to begin arriving Thursday at the Coast Guard Base Alameda, on an island just across San Francisco Bay from the city, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Border Patrol, did not respond to requests for comment. The deployment marks an escalation for Trump. After sending border agents to Chicago and Portland in recent months, Trump said at an event last week he would “strongly recommend” that federal authorities “start looking at San Francisco.” The remarks drew fiery rebukes from California politicians, with Governor Gavin Newsom saying he would sue the Trump administration “immediately” if troops were deployed. On Wednesday, Newsom said the move “is right out of the dictator’s handbook.” “He creates anxiety and fear in the community so he can lay claim to solving for that by sending in the Guard in the first place,” Newsom said on X. “This is no different than the arsonist putting out the fire.” In San Francisco, Trump is targeting a city that has long been a bastion of liberal politics, home to prominent progressive voices who have opposed his policies. The city and its politics have long been a bogeyman for conservatives, with Republicans casting San Francisco as an embodiment of far-left policies plagued by crime, homelessness and drug use. NewsMax [10/22/2025 6:27 PM, Mark Swanson, 4109K] reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie condemned the move as political theater that could inflame tensions and violate state sanctuary laws. "California has seen enough. President Trump and Stephen Miller’s authoritarian playbook is coming for another of our cities, and violence and vandalism are exactly what they’re looking for to invoke chaos," Newsom said in a post on X. Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez said her department would not cooperate with federal enforcement actions, citing California’s Values Act, which limits local involvement in immigration operations. The San Francisco Chronicle [10/22/2025 8:01 PM, Matthias Gafni, Michael Barba, and St. John Barned-Smith, 4722K] reports that on Sunday, Trump told Fox News: "We’re going to San Francisco and we’ll make it great. It’ll be great again. San Francisco is a great city. It won’t be great if it keeps going like this. We’re gonna go to San Francisco. The difference is they want us in San Francisco." Earlier this week, Mayor Daniel Lurie said sending troops would not help make San Francisco safer nor help stem its drug crisis, and that soldiers could not legally arrest drug dealers. City Attorney David Chiu warned that his office would sue to keep soldiers from being deployed to San Francisco’s streets. The source spoke to the Chronicle on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security, the same agency as ICE and CBP, which oversees the U.S. Border Patrol. CBS News [10/22/2025 9:32 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 39474K] Video: HERE reports that the U.S. officials said Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, one of the most visible faces of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, is expected to be involved in the operation. Bovino is currently leading Border Patrol arrests in Chicago, where a judge on Monday ordered him to answer questions about agents’ use of force during those operations. He also oversaw the agency’s controversial immigration raids in the Los Angeles area this summer. In a response to CBS News’ request for comment, a spokesperson for DHS said, "DHS is targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens-including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists-in cities such as Portland, Chicago, Memphis and San Francisco. As it does every day, DHS law enforcement will enforce the laws of our nation.” In a video posted on social media Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, denounced the Trump administration’s plans, accusing the president of seeking to create "conditions for anxiety" in American cities. "He sends out masked men, he sends out Border Patrol. He sends out ICE, creates anxiety and fear in the community, so that he can lay claim to solving for that by sending in the Guard in the first place," Newsom said.

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The Hill [10/22/2025 11:13 PM, Ryan Mancini, 12595K] reports Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could soon be headed to San Francisco. McLaughlin said in an interview with NewsNation’s "The Hill," there would be "no safe haven in the United States, whether that be Los Angeles, Chicago, New York or San Francisco." "We do have ICE officers on the ground in San Francisco," she said. "That’s not a change in posture." McLaughlin added that a "stepped-up presence" can be expected in San Francisco "and in any of these sanctuary cities.” When asked about ICE operations in the Bay Area city, she said she "can’t get too ahead of ICE operations or [President Trump]." McLaughlin added that California Gov. Gavin Newsom "electorally has to be very careful.” "In Los Angeles and San Francisco, a lot of those citizens aren’t happy with his governance, whether it be over those wildfires or the crime we’re seeing out of San Francisco," McLaughlin said. On Wednesday night, Newsom said he would sue the Trump administration should it send federal agents to San Francisco. The Trump administration had already announced that it would send 100 agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Coast Guard Base Alameda.

The Hill [10/22/2025 9:38 PM, Ryan Mancini, 12595K] reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Wednesday night that he will sue the Trump administration for sending immigration agents to San Francisco. "Send troops to San Francisco and we will sue you, @realDonaldTrump," Newsom wrote in a post on X, which included a video of the governor at a press conference. "We’re going to be fierce, we’re going to be focused in terms of our response," Newsom said before he raised a stack of papers. "Quite literally, this is the lawsuit that I will file within a nanosecond of any effort to send the military to one of America’s great cities, San Francisco." Newsom praised the city’s drop in homicide and economic success, and that "only Donald Trump can wreck that." "And we will push back with clarity and conviction," the governor said. "We’ll continue to win in court." The administration dispatched 100 agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and from Coast Guard Base Alameda, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. They are expected to arrive on Thursday.

San Francisco Chronicle [10/22/2025 8:28 PM, Sophia Bollag, 4722K] reports President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s traded insults and threats Wednesday after the Chronicle reported the federal government is planning a Bay Area immigration enforcement surge. Newsom accused Trump of trying to suppress Californians’ vote by sending more than 100 immigration agents to the region this week, describing the move as part of the "authoritarian playbook." Newsom said he sees the crackdown as a pretext for sending the National Guard to San Francisco, something Trump has repeatedly threatened to do in recent days. "You send masked men to the cities you want to militarize," he told reporters at a news conference. "You dial it up around election time. … You suppress the vote." Newsom recently signed a law restricting when law enforcement officers, including federal agents, can wear masks in response to immigration enforcement agents doing so as part of Trump’s mass deportation push. But that law doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1. Trump, for his part, warned Newsom on Wednesday not to encourage Californians to resist immigration enforcement. "Gavin has to be careful," he told reporters at the White House.

The Wall Street Journal [10/22/2025 5:22 PM, Victoria Albert, 646K] reports nine immigrants were arrested Tuesday in New York City in one of the highest-profile federal interventions in the city since President Trump took office. The arrests in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood were part of an operation targeting criminal activity related to the selling of counterfeit goods, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday. It centered on Canal Street, a busy thoroughfare in lower Manhattan often packed with sidewalk vendors selling counterfeit designer products. The immigrants, from countries including Mali, Senegal and Guinea, were all in the country illegally, and many had previous arrests, according to the department. “NEW YORK’S CANAL STREET IS SAFER,” the department said on social media. New York City has largely been spared from the high-profile immigration raids that have taken place in Chicago and Los Angeles in recent months. The Trump administration has warned, however, that New York City and several other cities led by elected Democrats could be the next targets in the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The Canal Street operation drew widespread public attention. Photos appeared to show agents on the street being trailed by a large, armored SWAT-style vehicle. Video showed demonstrators chanting “Shame,” and agents attempting to clear streets crowded with protesters so vehicles could move through. Homeland Security said four additional people were arrested for assaulting law- enforcement officers, and one other was arrested for obstruction. Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons told Fox News that the operation was based on intelligence and that people should expect more ICE arrests in cities including New York. Univision [10/22/2025 3:38 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in Manhattan’s Chinatown on Tuesday afternoon resulted in the arrest of nine African migrants and sparked clashes with protesters and criticism from politicians. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the detainees, originally from Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, and Guinea, have criminal records related to theft, domestic violence, assaulting police, forgery, and drug offenses. During the operation, several protesters attempted to block the officers’ path and were dispersed after brief clashes. Four people were arrested for allegedly throwing objects at officers, according to federal sources. DHS Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that five of the nine detainees had entered the country illegally and that all face deportation proceedings. The New York Post [10/22/2025 3:52 PM, Amanda Woods, Georgett Roberts and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 42219K] reports "ICE conducted a targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation on Canal Street in New York City, focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods," Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement Wednesday. "ICE arrested nine illegal aliens with criminal histories including robbery, burglary, domestic violence, assaulting law enforcement, counterfeiting, drug trafficking, drug possession and forgery," she added. While all nine were in the country illegally, six of the immigrants have criminal records, including Ndiaye, who has been busted for robbery, domestic violence, drugs and forgery, federal officials said. Breitbart [10/22/2025 4:02 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 2416K] reports that multiple federal agencies were involved, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the FBI. While the chaotic scenes captured on video enraged leftists — as well as onlookers — DHS announced on Wednesday that agents arrested nine illegal aliens as part of that operation, some of whom have "violent rap sheets including robbery, burglary, domestic violence, assaulting law enforcement, counterfeiting, drug trafficking, drug possession, and forgery." DHS’s Tricia McLaughlin noted on social media that more than half of the illegals arrested in the Canal Street operation "entered illegally & were released into the country by the Biden Administration." DHS added that four "violent" rioters were also arrested for assaulting law enforcement, and another was arrested for obstruction. FOX News [10/22/2025 1:29 PM, Greg Norman, Alexis McAdams, and Alexandra Koch, 40621K] reports Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News that ICE and federal partners conducted a "targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation" on Canal Street focused on criminal activity related to the sale of alleged counterfeit goods. "During this law enforcement operation, rioters who were shouting obscenities, became violent and obstructed law enforcement duties, including blocking vehicles and assaulting law enforcement," McLaughlin wrote in a statement. "Already, one rioter has been arrested for assault on a federal officer.”

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NewsMax [10/22/2025 6:34 PM, Solange Reyner, 4109K] reports nine migrants from West Africa arrested in New York City on Tuesday were "all illegal," Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told Newsmax. Federal authorities said 14 people, including immigrants and demonstrators, were arrested in Tuesday’s New York City sweep. The Department of Homeland Security said it was a targeted operation focused on the alleged sale of counterfeit goods. "But as well, five of those nine entered the United States illegally under the Biden administration," McLaughlin said Wednesday during an appearance on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "They were processed and then released into the interior of our country. "But even more staggering than just the selling of counterfeit goods was the fact that their rap sheets were horrendous. "We’re talking about burglary, drug trafficking, domestic violence, assaulting law enforcement — these are criminals who have been walking around New York with impunity." Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said it was "definitely intelligence-driven." Law enforcement raids aimed at combating counterfeiting are relatively frequent on Canal Street, which is known for its stalls and shops where some vendors hawk knock-off designer goods and bootlegged wares. Federal authorities often team up with the New York Police Department and luxury brand companies on crackdowns aimed at shutting down illicit trade. Nine people were arrested in the initial immigration sweep, McLaughlin said. Four more people were arrested on charges of assaulting federal law enforcement officers, she said, adding that a fifth was arrested and accused of obstructing law enforcement by blocking a driveway. The sweep came after at least two conservative influencers shared video on X of men selling handbags on Canal Street’s sidewalks. While clashes between immigration authorities and protesters have played out in Los Angeles and other cities, such scenes have been rare on New York City streets, which Mayor Eric Adams has attributed in part to his working relationship with President Donald Trump’s administration.

NewsMax [10/22/2025 11:03 AM, Eric Mack, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump warned Democrat-run sanctuary cities will see stepped-up federal scrutiny. And New York City is next for heightened Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to acting Director Todd Lyons. "You will see an increase in ICE arrests because there are so many criminal illegal aliens that have been released in New York specifically, and especially have been harbored in New York for the lack of cooperation there in New York City," Lyons said in a televised interview Wednesday morning, as highlighted by the Republican National Committee’s rapid response X account. "So you will see us making those criminal arrests, making New York safe again," Lyons said. "But I will tell you it’s definitely intelligence driven. It’s not random. We’re not just pulling people off the street. There was specific reason, based on criminal intelligence and criminal activity, that we showed up on Canal Street.” Lyons’ warning comes as Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., is decrying the Trump administration moves.

AP [10/22/2025 4:14 PM, Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz, 2416K] reports that a day after a mass of federal agents questioned street vendors and sparked protests on Manhattan’s Canal Street, sellers were scarce on the busy strip. Some who did venture out Wednesday, though, were disheartened or riled up by a sweep in which they said people, including U.S. citizens, were pressed to show their papers. Federal authorities said 14 people, including immigrants and demonstrators, were arrested in Tuesday’s sweep. The Department of Homeland Security said it was a targeted operation focused on the alleged sale of counterfeit goods, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons said it was “definitely intelligence-driven.” “It’s not random. We’re just not pulling people off the street,” he told Fox News on Wednesday. But some vendors saw it as an indiscriminate and heavy-handed crackdown by masked agents who queried a wide swath of sellers. Some other sellers decried the sweep as harassment. Others were keeping a low-profile and shied from speaking with journalists. Separately, state Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, asked New Yorkers to send in photos or videos of Tuesday’s immigration sweep so that her office can assess whether any laws were broken. Nine people were arrested in the initial immigration sweep, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. Four more people were arrested on charges of assaulting federal law enforcement officers, she said, adding that a fifth was arrested and accused of obstructing law enforcement by blocking a driveway.

New York Times [10/23/2025 3:00 AM, Ana Ley and Olivia Bensimon, 153395K] reports on a normal day, Canal Street in Lower Manhattan brims with licensed and unlicensed street vendors peddling purses, watches, sweatshirts and all manner of tchotchkes. Wednesday was not a normal day. The strip had turned quiet. Most of the vendors were gone. Tourists had been asking where they were, some shopkeepers said. A day earlier, more than 50 federal agents had descended on a stretch of the street that is famous for the African men and Chinese women who illegally sell bootleg luxury merchandise to tourists. The Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday that its agents had arrested nine men accused of living in the United States illegally. The men, mostly from West Africa and some with prior arrests, were targeted in an operation “focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods,” the department said. The agents also arrested four protesters. People across New York City appeared on edge after the raid, seemingly bracing for the activation of President Trump’s threat to deploy military personnel and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to New York City, which he often casts as lawless and dangerous. Mr. Trump has already moved to send troops to other Democratic-led cities — Chicago, Washington, Memphis, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. On Wednesday evening, the depth of the anger over the raid was evident as several hundred demonstrators rallied at 26 Federal Plaza, the New York City headquarters of ICE. Lifting placards and their voices, the demonstrators chanted, “Vendor power!” The demonstrators marched north from Foley Square to Canal Street, filling about five blocks as they walked, before turning onto Broadway. One woman climbed on a police car in front of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse. “It’s important to be here,” said Philip Clay, 45, an English tutor and visual artist from Queens who was demonstrating. “No ICE.”

ABC News [10/22/2025 5:43 PM, Luke Barr and Megan Forrester, 30493K] reports four U.S. citizens were arrested and held for "nearly 24 hours" without any federal charges following a joint Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown in New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood on Tuesday, according to Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman, who called the actions "lawless terror.” "ICE is not allowed to arrest American citizens," Goldman, accompanied by Murah Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said during a press conference on Wednesday. The four Americans were held at 26 Federal Plaza for nearly 24 hours, but were released approximately 30 minutes after the announcement of Goldman’s press conference, he said.The families of the arrested U.S. citizens had filed missing persons reports with the New York City Police Department before they were released, Awawdeh said. The four Americans were released without any charges, Goldman said, while nine undocumented immigrants detained by ICE have been moved to Delaney Hall in New York, Awawdeh said. The immigration operation Tuesday took place on Canal Street, a prominent hub for shopping in Lower Manhattan, with ICE and federal partners from multiple agencies conducting a "targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation" that was "focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods," Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement on Tuesday. Vendors were seen packing up their tables and attempting to flee the area, which is known for merchants selling designer knockoffs, New York ABC station WABC reported. On Wednesday morning, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told Fox News that New York City will see an "increase in ICE arrests" because there are "so many criminal illegal" immigrants. "You will see us making those criminal arrests to make New York safe again. It’s definitely intelligence driven, it’s not random. We aren’t pulling people off the street. There was a specific reason based on criminal intelligence and criminal activity that we showed up on Canal Street," Lyons said.

Reuters [10/22/2025 8:02 PM, Ted Hesson and David Dee Delgado, 36480K] reports New York State’s attorney general on Wednesday urged the public to submit photos, videos and other documentation of federal immigration operations to her office for review, a day after a high-profile raid targeted Manhattan street vendors. Attorney General Letitia James said her office would review footage and other information from operations shared through a "Federal Action Reporting Form," saying in a statement that "every New Yorker has the right to live without fear or intimidation.” President Donald Trump, a Republican, has launched an aggressive immigration crackdown in major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration would send more than 100 federal agents to the city to ramp up enforcement, citing an unnamed source. Protesters in the cities have used phones to record ICE operations, which critics say have employed racial profiling and swept up many immigrants with no criminal records. The immigration raid on New York City’s Canal Street, a prominent shopping area known for bargain prices and imitation goods, triggered pushback in the street from residents in the vicinity. When asked for comment on James’ oversight effort, U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said it "looks like obstruction of justice.” The new effort to record possible abuses by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and other federal agents is part of a broader resistance by Democrats. U.S. Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat representing a district in Los Angeles, said on Monday that he and other Democrats would launch an online site to track the agency’s operations and urged the public to record ICE activity.

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FOX News [10/22/2025 4:30 PM, Staff, 40019K] reports DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin joins ‘The Story’ to discuss a Democratic lawmaker’s push for a ‘master I.C.E. tracker’ and the rioters who attacked officers during a New York City raid. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [10/22/2025 10:18 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports that Fox News correspondent Alexis McAdams reports on ICE’s raid targeting counterfeit goods in New York City’s Chinatown. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss the arrests and city officials’ response. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsNation [10/22/2025 4:16 PM, Jessica Kartalija, 8017K] reports immigration officers and protesters clashed outside a federal building after an ICE operation in Lower Manhattan. Federal authorities later said they made 14 arrests following the unrest Tuesday, including several demonstrators who were accused of assaulting agents or obstructing them from carrying out their duties. The agents were questioning and detaining street vendors on Canal Street, a spot in New York City known for shops that sell knock-off designer items. In a post on social media platform X, the Department of Homeland Security said nine people who were in the U.S. illegally from West Africa were arrested and had "violent rap sheets" for crimes including robbery, burglary, domestic violence, drug possession and assaulting law enforcement. Protesters also blocked traffic during that sweep to prevent ICE agents from leaving the area, and one told NewsNation they did not want federal agents in the city.

Breitbart [10/22/2025 4:20 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are arresting what officials call "the worst of the worst" illegal aliens throughout the United States despite a continuing government shutdown. "Our brave ICE law enforcement officers are heroes who risk their lives to remove the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from American communities," the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

The Washington Post [10/22/2025 7:11 PM, Alex Horton, Dan Lamothe, and Noah Robertson, 24149K] reports that U.S. forces killed two people allegedly hauling illicit drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean off South America, officials said Wednesday, marking an expansion of the Trump administration’s deadly counternarcotics campaign that until now focused on suspected trafficking in the Caribbean Sea. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, writing on social media, said the attack took place sometime Tuesday in international waters “along a known narco-trafficking transit route.” He did not specify where the attack occurred or identify the victims, saying only that they were “terrorists” and their boat was “known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling.” Both Colombia and Ecuador, which share a border along the Pacific Ocean, are home to sizable narcotics operations. Neither country’s embassy in Washington responded immediately to requests for comment. Trump, while speaking later to reporters at the White House, repeated his previous assertion that he has a national security imperative to protect Americans from harmful illicit drugs. He suggested, too, that his administration is preparing to expand the campaign further to also encompass targets on land, though he did not specify when or where that could occur. “They’ll be coming in by land a little bit more because they’re not coming in by boat anymore,” the president said. “… And we will hit them very hard when they come in by land. And they haven’t experienced that yet. But now we’re totally prepared to do that.” The AP [10/22/2025 8:55 PM, Konstantin Toropin, 4109K] reports that the attack Tuesday night was a departure from the seven previous U.S. strikes that had targeted vessels in the Caribbean. Hegseth said on social media that the latest strike killed two people, bringing the death toll to at least 34 from attacks that began last month. The strike represents an expansion of the military’s targeting area as well as a shift to the waters off South America where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled. Hegseth’s post also drew a direct comparison between the war on terrorism that the U.S. declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Trump administration’s crackdown. “Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Hegseth said, adding “there will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.” Republican President Donald Trump has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and proclaiming the criminal organizations unlawful combatants, relying on the same legal authority used by President George W. Bush’s administration for the war on terrorism. Asked about the latest boat attack, Trump insisted that “we have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that.” He said similar strikes could eventually come on land. CBS News [10/22/2025 10:13 PM, Eleanor Watson, 39474K] reports that a defense official confirmed the vessel was in international waters off of Colombia. A second strike took place on Wednesday, according to Hegseth, killing three more. In a pair of nearly identical X posts announcing the strikes Wednesday, Hegseth said the boats were operated by a "Designated Terrorist Organization" and were "transiting along a known narco-trafficking route" in international waters. He said they were "known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling." He did not specify the organization that allegedly operated the boats. Hegseth said no U.S. forces were harmed in the strikes. He also shared videos of the strikes, both of which show vessels moving in the water before they are seemingly hit and engulfed in flames. In the video from Wednesday’s strike, bags or parcels appear to be floating in the water after the boat was struck. Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," "We want to keep fentanyl out of the United States, ... but those routes through the Caribbean on boats are predominantly used to bring cocaine to Europe," not to the U.S. And fentanyl tends to be transported to to the U.S. "from a different way," Kelly added. The Pentagon has not yet responded to a request for information about the nationalities of the individuals on the boat that was struck Tuesday. Kelly also told "Face the Nation" that when administration officials briefed Congress on the drug vessel strikes, they "had a very hard time explaining to us the rationale, the legal rationale for doing this and the constitutionality of doing it." He said lawmakers were told there is "a secret list of over 20 narco organizations, drug trafficking cartels," but U.S. officials did not share the list with Congress. The Trump administration has told Congress the U.S. is in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels, arguing that the narcotics they smuggle kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, and this constitutes an "armed attack."

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Politico [10/22/2025 6:17 PM, Jack Detsch and Eric Bazail-Eimil, 2100K] reports the Trump administration significantly expanded its campaign against alleged drug traffickers this week, opening a new front by launching an attack in the Pacific — and targeting a new country of origin — Colombia. According to a defense official, who was granted anonymity to speak about military operations, the U.S. launched its eighth strike against suspected drug traffickers on Tuesday, killing two people somewhere off the western coast of Colombia. The administration provided no details to back up its assertions that the people killed were involved in narcotics trafficking. The Trump administration has said it is mostly targeting the Venezuelan group Tren de Aragua, which the U.S. labeled as a terror group earlier this year, but did not immediately indicate that a cartel group was involved in the Colombia strike. It has also accused Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro of leading a cartel known as the “Cartel de los Soles,” which has ties to Venezuelan elites and is seen as a significant partner of global drug trafficking networks. The use of lethal force in the eastern Pacific marks a dramatic shift in the way the U.S. military has allocated resources towards the fight against illicit drugs. The Coast Guard, which typically does not use lethal force, had been principally involved with anti-narcotics efforts in that region and had mostly been performing traditional drug seizures and interdictions. Recent figures indicate that the Coast Guard has collected over 100,000 pounds of cocaine and other narcotics in the past two months.

Daily Wire [10/22/2025 4:10 PM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports President Donald Trump hit back at the Colombian president Wednesday after the Latin American leader called to "get rid" of him. Colombian President Gustavo Petro told Univision Monday that it may be necessary to "get rid of" Trump as the United States escalates counternarcotics operations in the region. "Humanity has a first offramp, it is to choose to change Trump in various ways," Petro told Univision’s Daniel Coronell. "The easiest way may be through Trump himself. If not, get rid of Trump," he said while snapping his fingers. But Trump wasn’t having any of Petro’s threats. "He’s a thug and bad guy. He’s a guy that is making a lot of drugs," Trump said in response to The Daily Wire’s White House Correspondent, Mary Margaret Olohan. "He better watch it or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country," he added. Trump also said he’d pulled "all payments" from the U.S. to Colombia as part of an ongoing campaign to pressure Petro to combat drug trafficking in the region. Trump earlier called Petro an "illegal drug dealer" with "a fresh mouth toward America." Wes Tabor, who led the Drug Enforcement Administration’s office in Caracas in 2012, recently told The Daily Wire that Petro has slowly pulled away from the U.S., while embracing the socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. "His background is steeped in these freedom fighting, kind[s] of guerrilla warfare … socialism, Marxism, and things like that. And we have seen in the last year more aggressively coming out of Colombia, they are saying, ‘listen, we are going to side with Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela," said Tabor. "When we look historically, the relationship has been really good," he added. The Department of War has taken out seven drug cartel vessels in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing more than two dozen suspected narco traffickers. Petro claimed the U.S. killed a fisherman rather than narcoterrorists in one of the strikes, prompting Trump to threaten to hit Colombia with new tariffs. "U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters," Petro wrote on social media at the time, according to New York Times.

CNN [10/22/2025 7:01 PM, Rick Ferguson, 18595K] Video: HERE reports the US military conducted a lethal strike against an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Pacific on Tuesday. It’s the 8th known strike by the US since the start of September and the first known strike in the Pacific.

The Hill [10/22/2025 6:22 PM, Filip Timotija, 12595K] reports President Trump said Wednesday the administration may go to Congress for authorization to strike drug cartels that are smuggling narcotics on land. "We will hit them very hard when they come in by land. And they haven’t experienced that yet, but now we’re totally prepared to do that. We’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when [they] come to the land," the president said at the White House, sitting alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Since early September, the U.S. military has been striking alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea, killing at least 32 people. The campaign is part of the administration’s pressure against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, whom the president and his allies view as an "illegitimate" leader. Trump has raised the prospect of striking Venezuela on land and has recently confirmed that he has authorized the CIA to conduct operations in the Latin American country. The administration has beefed up its military presence near Venezuela, deploying Navy ships and Marines in the region. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier Wednesday that two "narco-terrorists" were killed in a strike against an alleged drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, the first such strike on that side of the continent. The strike, which took place late Tuesday, is at least the eighth blow against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in Latin America since early September.

FOX News [10/22/2025 8:25 PM, Peter Pinedo, 40621K] reports that, speaking from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump said the U.S. will "hit" drug smugglers attempting to enter the U.S. by land after a series of lethal strikes on cartel boats at sea. The president was questioned about his use of military force to crack down on drug smugglers in the Caribbean and Pacific following the eighth such strike in recent weeks. Trump acknowledged "it is violent" but said that "every one of those boats that gets knocked out is saving 25,000 American lives." "We have the greatest military in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And you see a little bit of it there, one shot, every one dead center. And the only way you can’t feel bad about it is you realize … that every time you see that happen, you’re saving 25,000 American lives. "Whenever I see that, I say to myself, I just saved 25,000 lives." Trump said, after these strikes, "there are very few boats traveling on the water, so now they’ll come in by land to a lesser extent. "And they will be hit on land also." Pressed on whether he has legal authority to unleash strikes on drug smugglers on U.S. territory, Trump answered confidently, "Yes, we do." "We have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that," he said, noting that "if we do it by land, we may go back to Congress. "We’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land. We don’t have to do that. "This is a national security problem," Trump added. "They killed 300,000 Americans last year, and that gives you legal authority. "We will hit them very hard when they come in by land. They haven’t experienced that yet, but now we’re totally prepared to do that. "Something very serious is going to happen. The equivalent of what’s happening by sea. And we’re going to Congress just to tell them what we’re doing, just to keep them informed. But we have to do it for national security. We have to do it to save lives." Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that, at Trump’s direction, the military carried out its first kinetic strike on "narco-terrorists" in the Eastern Pacific. This was the eighth such strike in recent weeks. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Univision [10/22/2025 4:20 PM, Mariana Rambaldi, 5004K] reports as the U.S. military continues a campaign of lethal strikes against suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean, Virginia Democratic Senator and former vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine said the Trump administration is lacking transparency and legal justification for the offensive at sea, which has resulted in the deaths of at least 34 people, according to media accounts. Senator Kaine, ranking member of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee on Transnational Crime and Security, stated during a conference call with Hispanic journalists attended by Univision News that the White House has not shared "essential information" with Congress regarding the decision-making chain and the legal basis that allows the president to attack vessels. Referring to the lack of transparency regarding how these deadly operations are carried out, the senator indicated that the White House has not responded to key questions from a letter sent by 25 senators on September 10 requesting information about these attacks at sea. The president has justified the use of military force by claiming the US is engaged in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels, relying on the legal authority successive administrations have used after the September 11 attacks to declare war on terrorism.

Telemundo [10/22/2025 9:30 PM, Yuniesky Ramírez, 182K] reports the U.S. Secretary of War released images of a new attack on a suspected drug boat, this time in the Eastern Pacific. The operation comes amid a period of diplomatic tension between Washington and Colombia, with drug trafficking at the center of attention. As has become customary, the operation was confirmed by Pete Hegseth through his X account. He indicated that it occurred this Tuesday and that two alleged narcoterrorists on board were killed. This is the first operation in the Pacific about which the Pentagon has revealed information since the declaration of a "non-international armed conflict against the cartels." "It’s a typical ‘go-fast’ configuration... This isn’t for fishing," said Commander Jesús Daniel Romero, a former U.S. intelligence officer, referring to the boat’s characteristics. Romero maintains that it is the typical artisanal vessel used by drug traffickers that departs from the Ecuadorian and Colombian Pacific. “Twelve hundred miles at the speed they’re going—as that video showed—they can make that trip in 66 hours from leaving the coast of Colombia or Ecuador to arriving at the coast of Guatemala,” Romero explained. Romero estimated the cargo: “It seems to me that, given the way they tried to cover the cargo—because what’s under the tarp is the cargo—there must be at least 1,200 kilos of cocaine.”

CBS News [10/22/2025 7:16 AM, Staff, 39474K] reports Alejandro Carranza’s loved ones say he left home on Colombia’s Caribbean coast to fish in open waters. Days later, he was dead — one of at least 32 alleged drug traffickers killed in U.S. military strikes. From Santa Marta, northern Colombia, Carranza’s family is questioning White House claims that he was carrying narcotics aboard a small vessel targeted last month. For his wife Katerine Hernandez, the 40-year-old was "a good man" devoted to fishing. "Why did they just take his life like that?" she asked during an interview Monday with AFP. She denied he had any link to drug trafficking.

CNN [10/22/2025 7:55 PM, David Culver, Abel Alvarado, Michael Rios, Avery Schmitz, 18595K] reports the last time Andrés Fernando Tufiño Chila’s sister heard from him was about a year ago when he told her he was heading out to fish for work, she said. Last week, she was shocked to learn that her brother was aboard an alleged drug vessel that was struck by the US military. Tufiño Chila, 41, was one of two people who survived last week’s strike in the Caribbean, which President Donald Trump said was carried out against a "drug-carrying submarine" navigating toward the United States. Two others were killed. Tufiño Chila and the other survivor were later returned by the US to their countries of origin, Trump said, describing them as "terrorists." "No, no … He’s not. He’s not a criminal," Tufiño Chila’s sister, who asked for her name to not be published out of fear for her safety, told CNN from a small coastal town two hours from the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil. She claims to know nothing of her brother’s alleged involvement with drug trafficking and instead portrayed him as a desperate father trying to provide for his six kids. Tufiño Chila’s wife left him and took the children, but he still sent them money, his sister said. "He’s very happy, fun," she said of her brother. "He’s everything I loved most." She still hasn’t heard from her brother since he was released by Ecuadorian authorities this week after returning home. Ecuador’s Attorney General’s Office said Monday that authorities have no information that Tufiño Chila committed a crime in Ecuadorian territory. But he has a criminal record in the US: Court documents show that he was arrested, convicted and jailed in 2020 for smuggling drugs off Mexico’s coast before being deported. Tufiño Chila’s sister said two other brothers were arrested months earlier, also on drug smuggling charges. Both are in custody: one is in the US, the other is in Ecuador. The family’s experience illustrates how Ecuador has become a critical route in the cocaine trade. About 70% of the world’s cocaine supply passes from Colombia and Peru through its shores, Ecuador’s president says. Drug runners often transport narcotics through a large stretch of water on the Pacific Ocean and drop them off in Mexico, where they’re subsequently smuggled into the US or Europe. The drug trafficking trade is hard to escape in Tufiño Chila’s town, according to those who live there. "Life is complicated. It’s hard," one man tells CNN of fishermen’s financial struggles, where monthly wages can be as little as $100.

New York Times [10/22/2025 6:31 PM, Maria Abi-Habib and Daniele Volpe, 135475K] reports the commander of Ecuador’s coast guard gazed at the submarine that had been used to carry drugs with a defeated look in his eyes, exhausted from endless interdiction efforts that seem to go nowhere, his sailors risking their lives while the cocaine keeps flowing. Drug smugglers, he said, were always many steps ahead. The Ecuadorean Navy has two submarines in its fleet. And the cartels? No one really knows, but definitely many more. Over the past 15 years, Ecuador has captured about a dozen fully and semi-submersible vessels. The American authorities say they believe just a tiny fraction of such vessels have been intercepted worldwide. We were in the sprawling naval base along waterfront of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s most populous city, looking at drug-trafficking ships seized by the navy, some with the help of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. It was a graveyard of sun-baked fishing boats, semi-submersible vessels and one hulking metal submarine. The array of vessels was a testament to the savviness of the cartels as they come up with ways to transport drugs around the world. The U.S. military last week attacked a semi-submersible vessel in the Caribbean that it claimed was ferrying cocaine. Two people were killed, but there were two survivors, including an Ecuadorean man who was repatriated. The strike is part of the Trump administration’s campaign to destroy vessels it claims are smuggling drugs. (On Wednesday, it said it had struck a boat off the coast of Colombia, the first time such an attack had taken place in the Pacific.) Many experts say the U.S. strikes violate international law.

Axios [10/22/2025 7:43 PM, Julianna Bragg, 12972K] reports designating illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) should "at least be a discussion," President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday during Axios’ Future of Defense Summit. Homan emphasized fentanyl is a dangerous drug, citing U.S. death tolls he said are around 73,000 annually and noted the number was higher during the Biden administration. Homan said he attended a Department of Homeland Security briefing six months ago to discuss classifying the drug as a WMD. "When I left that briefing, it was my understanding that they would push that recommendation up to the Secretary, but I’ve been out of it ever since," he said. "They’re really trying to make money on their customers, and we’re not going to do that by killing them, right?" Homan said, referencing the goals of drug manufacturers. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confiscated more than 380 million lethal doses of fentanyl in 2024. This year’s numbers, updated in late September, found the DEA seized more than 262 million deadly doses of fentanyl. Preliminary data from the CDC earlier this year showed 2024 drug overdose deaths dropped to their lowest annual level since 2019, a 26.9% drop from the estimated 110,037 deaths in 2023. DHS began considering fentanyl’s WMD designation in specific scenarios in 2019. Various bills and resolutions have tried to address the fentanyl crisis by reclassifying the drug but none have been successful. The Fentanyl is a WMD Act, introduced by Rep Lauren Boebert (R-CO) earlier this year, would require DHS’ Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office to classify the drug as such.

NBC News [10/22/2025 10:11 PM, Rich Schapiro and Morgan Chesky, 34509K] reports the first video "Richard LA" posted to TikTok appeared on Aug. 21, 2024. "Accident at 27th and San Pedro," he wrote in Spanish under video clips showing two damaged cars and paramedics pushing a man on a gurney into an ambulance. "2 people were taken to the hospital." "Richard LA" was actually Carlitos Ricardo Parias, 44, a father of two living in southern Los Angeles. His TikTok feed soon filled with similar clips. A fire at a home on 36th and Trinity streets. A car crash on 29th Street and Maple Avenue. His audience grew steadily over the ensuing months. And his clips were consumed even more widely when he began to focus his camera on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids roiling Los Angeles. Multiple videos he posted this month got more than 50,000 views. "He has risen to become this very credible, respected and admired citizen journalist," said Angelina Dumarot, a spokesperson for Los Angeles City Council member Curren Price. "He did it with a lot of love and a lot of passion and in a very courageous way." But there was something many didn’t know: Parias was an undocumented immigrant himself, according to federal authorities. And on Tuesday, he was targeted by federal agents trying to arrest him in an immigration proceeding, leading to a chaotic confrontation in downtown Los Angeles. "Parias was the subject of an administrative immigration arrest warrant and had avoided capture before," prosecutors said. After having watched Parias walk out of his home and drive off around 8:45 a.m., agents boxed in his Toyota Camry, federal prosecutors say. The agents left their vehicles and ordered Parias out of his car. But he instead drove forward and backward, striking two of the law enforcement vehicles, according to prosecutors. When an agent tried to break the Camry’s driver’s side window, prosecutors said, Parias drove "more aggressively." Plumes of smoke began to billow from the vehicles, apparently because of the spinning tires, prosecutors said. With the agents fearing Parias could hit them with his Camry or dislodge it from between their vehicles, one opened fire, prosecutors said. Parias was struck in the elbow, and a deputy marshal was hit in the hand, according to prosecutors. A witness who arrived as the agents were wrestling Parias out of his car said it felt like a "little war zone." "The man was clearly in a lot of pain," said the witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said she wasn’t privy to Parias’ medical condition and doesn’t know when his first appearance will be. An ICE spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The AP [10/22/2025 5:50 PM, Jaimie Ding and Amy Taxin] reports that federal agents were surveilling Parias’ neighborhood Tuesday morning because they had an administrative immigration arrest warrant for him, according to a criminal complaint released by acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli’s office. When Parias left his home and got in the car, agents followed him and boxed him in with their vehicles. Parias drove his car forward and back, hitting law enforcement vehicles, the complaint said. An agent attempted to break the driver’s side window of the car, and eventually at least one officer opened fire. A deputy U.S. marshal assisting with the arrest was hit in the hand by a ricochet bullet. It was federal authorities’ second time attempting to arrest Parias, said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. She did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether there was a removal order for Parias or whether he’d previously been deported.

Reported similarly:
Blaze [10/22/2025 1:35 PM, Julio Rosas, 1442K]

Los Angeles Times [10/22/2025 5:46 PM, Ruben Vives and Brittny Mejia, 14862K] reports the Times has obtained videos showing the incident Tuesday in South Los Angeles that left a deputy U.S. marshal and a TikTok streamer wounded during an immigration enforcement operation and its aftermath. Authorities say the deputy marshal was hit by a ricochet bullet fired by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer at the streamer, Carlitos Ricardo Parias, who was charged Tuesday night with assault on a federal officer. Both suffer non-life-threatening injuries. Parias remained in the hospital Wednesday, pushing back his arraignment on a charge of assaulting a federal officer to an undetermined date. In a federal criminal complaint, authorities accused Parias, 44, of ramming his car into agents’ vehicles after they boxed him in and tried to arrest him during an immigration enforcement operation. An agent then opened fire, wounding Parias and a deputy U.S. marshal, who authorities said was hit with a ricochet bullet. Both are expected to recover, Essayli said. In an affidavit, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations said that ICE and the United States Marshals Service had set up surveillance on Tuesday in the neighborhood around a home located on the 400 block of 20th Street, where they believed Parias could be found. They had set up surveillance because Parias "was the subject of an administrative arrest warrant issued in conjunction with a federal immigration proceeding." Federal agents had previously tried to arrest Parias, according to the complaint, but he evaded capture.

Washington Examiner [10/22/2025 12:57 PM, Byron York, 1394K] reports that the anti-Trump world celebrated earlier this month when a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from federalizing National Guard troops in Portland, Oregon. In ruling against the president, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut complained that Trump’s descriptions of anti-government agitation and violence in Portland were so exaggerated that they were “simply untethered to the facts.” Of course, the White House appealed. And now the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned Immergut, giving the president another victory in the courts. The new ruling rests on very clear reasoning. There have been extensive and frequent attacks on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland. The president of the United States has the authority to protect federal installations. So Trump can order National Guard troops to protect a federal installation that is under attack. It’s a ruling so based in common sense that it should be noncontroversial. "Since June 2025, there have been regular protests at the Lindquist Federal Building, an ICE facility in Portland," the judges wrote. "Some of these protests have been peaceful, but many have turned violent, and protesters have threatened federal law enforcement officers and the building." "Indeed, ‘as a result of the destruction caused by protesters’ and threats to the building," the opinion continued, "the Department of Homeland Security was forced to close the facility for more than three weeks, from June 13 to July 7." That, of course, "significantly impeded" the work of the federal government.

Breitbart [10/22/2025 4:41 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports an illegal alien child rapist received thousands in taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits, Health and Human Services (HHS) reveals, as Democrats and the establishment media claim that illegal aliens cannot receive such healthcare benefits. United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill on Wednesday posted the case of 38-year-old illegal alien Jose Trinidad Arreola-Ortega of Mexico, who was convicted of raping a young child in Kentucky. Despite the conviction, Arreola-Ortega was able to secure nearly $7,300 in taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits. Arreola-Ortega was arrested in Jessamine County, Kentucky, in June of this year by Immigration and Customs (ICE) agents after having been convicted of child rape.

DailySignal [10/22/2025 5:00 PM, Fred Lucas, 549K] reports unions are suing the Trump administration to prevent the potential deportation of noncitizens who express support for Hamas terrorists or who celebrated the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, among other sentiments. In response to two executive orders by President Donald Trump, the State Department and Department of Homeland Security are using an artificial intelligence-driven social media monitoring program to identify potentially dangerous rhetoric coming from some visa holders. The plaintiffs want a declaratory judgment and injunction to prevent the government from continuing what the lawsuit characterizes as "surveillance." In a public statement, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Friday after the lawsuit was filed, "The United States is under no obligation to allow foreign aliens to come to our country; commit acts of anti-American, pro-terrorist, and antisemitic hate; or incite violence. We will continue to revoke the visas of those who put the safety of our citizens at risk."

New York Times [10/22/2025 6:42 PM, Clyde McGrady, 135475K] reports when President Trump said last month that he was “going in” to Chicago, he claimed his actions were motivated by the crime-afflicted Black Chicagoans who had been begging him to intervene. Many were skeptical of his claim at the outset, and six weeks into his “Operation Midway Blitz,” people in neighborhoods most affected by violent crime have concluded the president is not focused on protecting them. Instead, they worry that the military-style federal operations used to crack down on immigrants will be used against them.

Agents of ICE and the Border Patrol have popped up in largely white areas of the North Side and suburbs. Melees have broken out in working-class Hispanic areas. But the neighborhoods with the highest crime rates — Austin, North Lawndale and others — have largely been bypassed. Interviews with residents on the South Side indicated that some Black Chicagoans may have a growing sense of solidarity with immigrant communities, including African and Caribbean migrants who they say are being quietly snatched up in ways that mirror their own experiences with racial profiling and policing. To be sure, even with crime rates falling in Chicago, violent crime is still a scourge in many Black parts of the city.

CNN [10/22/2025 9:40 AM, Staff, 18595K] reports CNN’s Omar Jimenez breaks down what the Department of Homeland Security puts out publicly via social media or press releases, versus what the agency is arguing through court documents in several recent cases involving Chicago citizens clashing with federal agents. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [10/22/2025 6:07 PM, Mike Schneider, 31753K] reports a federal lawsuit that temporarily had interrupted operations at an immigration detention in the Florida Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" was paused Wednesday by an appellate court because of the government shutdown. Earlier this month, U.S. government attorneys had asked the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to stay proceedings in the case because funding for the Justice Department, as well as the Department of Homeland Security which is a defendant, had expired because of the government shutdown. They requested the pause until appropriations were restored by Congress. The appellate court on Wednesday granted the request. While the facility was built and operated by the state of Florida and its private contractors, federal officials have approved reimbursing the state for $608 million. Attorneys for the environmental groups that had sued the federal and state governments over environmental concerns about the facility said that the administration of President Donald Trump had been litigating hundreds of cases around the country during the shutdown. "Apparently, the government has sufficient money and manpower to operate a detention center in the heart of the Everglades to detain foreign born workers, but not enough to file a brief in court to justify its conduct, which the trial court held unlawful," said Paul Schwiep, one of the attorneys.

AP [10/22/2025 3:08 PM, Gerald Imray, 182K] reports that a Cuban man deported by the United States to the African nation of Eswatini is on a hunger strike at a maximum-security prison having been held there for more than three months without charge or access to legal counsel under the Trump administration’s third-country program, his U.S.-based lawyer said Wednesday. Roberto Mosquera del Peral was one of five men sent to the small kingdom in southern Africa in mid-July as part of the U.S. deportation program to Africa. It has been criticized by rights groups and lawyers, who say deportees are being denied due process and exposed to rights abuses. Mosquera’s lawyer, Alma David, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that he had been on a hunger strike for a week, and there were serious concerns over his health. “My client is arbitrarily detained, and now his life is on the line,” David said. “I urge the Eswatini Correctional Services to provide Mr. Mosquera’s family and me with an immediate update on his condition and to ensure that he is receiving adequate medical attention. I demand that Mr. Mosquera be permitted to meet with his lawyer in Eswatini.” The men sent to Eswatini were criminals convicted of serious offenses, including murder and rape, and were in the U.S. illegally, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said. It said that Mosquera had been convicted of murder and other charges and was a gang member. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has cast the third-country deportation program as a means to remove “illegal aliens” from American soil as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, saying they have a choice to self-deport or be sent to a country like Eswatini.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [10/22/2025 7:06 AM, Nellie Peyton, 36480K]

Newsweek [10/22/2025 2:13 PM, Ellie Cook, 53955K] reports that Colombia’s recalled ambassador, Daniel García-Peña, had a "frank and constructive discussion" with America’s chargé d’affaires, John McNamara, Bogotá’s embassy in Washington has said after days of escalating tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and Colombian leader Gustavo Petro. "Both sides agreed to continue dialogue in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect," the embassy said. The tone of this statement jars with the very public interactions between Trump and the leftist leader, whom Trump branded a "lunatic" over the weekend as Bogotá became more deeply embroiled in the U.S. administration’s campaign against drug trafficking from Latin America. Trump, taking to his Truth Social platform, called Petro an "illegal drug dealer" and accused the Colombian leader of "strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields." Petro had accused Washington of "murder" after the U.S. military struck an alleged drug-trafficking vessel in what Washington said were international waters in mid-September. Petro said the White House had violated Colombian sovereignty and killed a Colombian fisherman, named by the president as Alejandro Carranza. The administration has bolstered U.S. military presence in the southern Caribbean and authorized covert CIA operations on land in Venezuela, much to the anxiety of Caracas, and multiple strikes in the past seven weeks have killed at least 32 people, according to official statements. Experts and lawmakers have raised serious concerns over whether the strikes break international law.

Breitbart [10/22/2025 10:48 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2416K] reports that, on Wednesday’s “CNN News Central,” Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) stated that President Donald Trump “passed $175 billion in his one big, beautiful bill, which is basically a slush fund that he’s going to use to build up ICE and CBP across the country. That’s not acceptable. And we’re going to fight back and try to take that money away from him.” Co-host Sara Sidner asked, “How much immigration enforcement do you want to see? How should ICE operate, in your view?” Gomez answered, “Well, I think that the national — the federalization of the National Guard, basically, this national police force that Trump’s trying to put all over the country, is unacceptable. One of the things that we want to basically see is an ICE, as well as a Custom[s] and Border Patrol, that respects the rule of law. They’re not respecting the rule of law, as we see. And then, at the same time, we also understand that he create — he passed $175 billion in his one big, beautiful bill, which is basically a slush fund that he’s going to use to build up ICE and CBP across the country. That’s not acceptable. And we’re going to fight back and try to take that money away from him.”

The Hill [10/22/2025 1:41 PM, Tara Suter, 12595K] reports that Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) is pushing for President Trump to fire staffer Paul Ingrassia, who on Tuesday withdrew his nomination to be head of the Office of Special Counsel. "Reminder that Mr. ‘Nazi streak’ still works for the White House," Kim said in a post on the social platform X that featured a screenshot of Ingrassia’s account on X. "Withdrawing his nomination is not good enough. Ingrassia should be removed from the White House and government service altogether.” The biography portion of Ingrassia’s account states that he is a White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security. Ingrassia withdrew his nomination Tuesday after he reportedly said he had a "Nazi streak," among other racist comments, in a private text chain. "I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s [Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee] hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time," Ingrassia said on Truth Social. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Monday told reporters that he thought the White House would reconsider Ingrassia’s nomination. "He’s not going to pass," Thune said.

Daily Wire [10/22/2025 1:10 PM, Mary Margaret Olohan, 2494K] reports the Federal Bureau of Investigation is "aware of multiple instances" of "No Kings" protestors explicitly calling for violence, The Daily Wire has learned. The FBI does not historically confirm active investigations, typically waiting until charges are filed or an arrest is imminent. While FBI spokesman Ben Williamson said that he could not comment on the "existence of specific investigations," the FBI is "committed to investigating and pursuing all those who threaten and perpetrate acts of violence.” During the "No Kings" protests that took place over the weekend across the United States, independent journalists and conservative reporters captured viral video footage showing demonstrators explicitly threatening violence against President Donald Trump, Republicans, and top officials in the Trump administration. Many of these individuals referenced the death of Charlie Kirk. The Bureau told The Daily Wire that it is "aware of multiple instances" of these individuals explicitly calling for acts of violence at the No Kings protests. In Chicago, footage captured by Christopher Sweat depicts a man screaming into a bullhorn about how ICE agents should be killed.

Washington Times [10/22/2025 3:45 PM, Staff, 852K] reports the left’s ability to perpetrate mayhem is meeting resistance. President Trump designated antifa a terrorist organization last month, freeing federal law enforcement to pursue the black-clad agitators who advance their vision of a Marxist utopia with rocks, spray paint and Molotov cocktails. Among the first to feel the new weight of justice are Cameron Arnold, a man who pretends to be a woman, and Zachary Evetts. Both are suspected members of the group that opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility outside Dallas on July 4. “We have charged these two individuals with material support to terrorism for their involvement in antifa,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Fox Business. “This was a coordinated, planned attack by dozens of individuals to murder police officers.” A bullet struck one lawman in the neck during the ambush. According to the federal indictment, the crew that planned the raid privately texted sentiments such as: “I’m done with peaceful protests” and “Blue lives don’t matter.” The Democratic messaging machine denies antifa’s existence, saying, like President Biden did, it’s “an idea, not an organization.” The man who murdered Charlie Kirk carved antifa slogans onto his rifle rounds. Antifa thugs torched the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon. These deeds are tangible. Administration officials have good reason to believe the conduct of antifa devotees is more than just a concept because it is funded and coordinated. “We have opened up multiple field investigations across the country looking at the banking and financial facilitation. We are looking at them as terrorists, just like al Qaeda. People pay for this destructive act of violence, and those people are going to be brought to justice now that we have the authorities to go after them,” Mr. Patel said. A terrorism designation also brings enhanced penalties. Providing material support to such groups carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

AP [10/22/2025 10:05 PM, Fabiola Sánchez, 30493K] reports a Chinese national who United States authorities accuse of trafficking large quantities of cocaine and fentanyl into the U.S. before being arrested and then escaping custody in Mexico was recaptured in Cuba, Mexican authorities said Wednesday. Zhi Dong Zhang, alias "Brother Wang," was indicted in federal court in Atlanta in 2022 on drug trafficking and money laundering charges. Mexican authorities captured him in Mexico City in October 2024 at the request of the U.S. government. But a judge granted him house arrest and last July he escaped the home he was being held in under military guard. On Wednesday, Mexico’s Security Cabinet said in a statement that the alleged trafficker, who had escaped Mexican authorities in July, was arrested in Cuba, but did not identify him by name. A federal official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, confirmed that it was Zhi Dong Zhang. After escaping in Mexico, Zhang had travelled to Cuba and then to Russia where he was detained for illegal entry and returned to Cuba, according to another Mexican federal agent, who also requested anonymity to discuss the case. The agent said Zhang could be deported to Mexico. Cuban authorities did not respond to a request for comment about Zhang Wednesday. Zhang’s escape in July came at a sensitive moment for the administration of Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum, who was trying to hold off crushing tariffs threatened by the Trump administration, which accused Mexico of not doing enough to stop fentanyl smuggling into the U.S. Government documents filed in the Atlanta case describe a drug trafficking network led by Zhang that imported cocaine and fentanyl into the U.S. and then distributed it through hubs in the Atlanta and Los Angeles metro areas. Zhang called the drugs "coffee" and "food," respectively, in coded language, the court documents said. Millions of dollars from the drug sales were allegedly collected at stash houses in Georgia and California and deposited into accounts that Zhang could access from Mexico, the documents said.

The Hill [10/22/2025 10:30 AM, Kimberly Wehle, 12595K] reports the approximately seven million people who came out across the U.S. to participate in Saturday’s "No Kings" protests are a testament to the fact that more Americans are waking up to the sobering reality that the presidency no longer operates pursuant to the rule of law. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a deep swell of resistance. A day or two of mass protests is hardly sufficient to stall the country’s dangerous trajectory into the burgeoning arms of an unlimited dictatorship. To understand why, consider two disturbing questions that appear to have no good answers. First, what are Trump’s plans for the $75 billion in ICE funding that congressional Republicans gifted him this summer? Second, what has the Trump administration done with ICE detainees, who seem to have literally disappeared from public records and cannot be found by their families? On the first question, an ICE "roadmap," updated July 30, showed plans to use the $75 billion to double the number of detention beds by January 2026, to more than 107,000, through the creation of "mega-facilities," "quick-build tent complexes," and whole-family detentions. It reportedly plans to use parts of military bases and shuttered prisons as well. On the second question, a crowd-sourced website called the United States Disappeared Record uses stories reported in the media to trace the whereabouts of 5,784 individuals the site claims were "disappeared by ICE" beginning on January 20, 2025. The data identifies individuals taken into custody by ICE or affiliated law enforcement organizations, those who were deported to their home countries or other places, those who remain in hiding, those who "self-deported," and those who have died while in federal custody. Finally, the site lists individuals whose location remains "unknown" or "null." Of these, there are many. Although U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hosts an "Online Detainee Locator System" that supposedly tracks the location of detainees in ICE custody for more than 48 hours, the Miami Herald reported in September that 800 of the nearly 1,800 men detained at the "Alligator Alcratraz" facility in Florida were missing from the federal database.

Breitbart [10/22/2025 11:54 AM, Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC), 2416K] reports as a conservative, I believe in the rule of law, national security, and the safety of the American people, which is why I introduced the Non-Domiciled CDL Integrity Act. This bill will remove foreign truck drivers (nearly 97 percent of them) from our roadways — drivers that have no business being behind the wheel. Many of these drivers cannot even speak or read English, a necessity for any driver to safely operate a big rig. It is hardly believable this could be the case, but unfortunately it is true. These non-English speaking, untrained, and unfit drivers who put Americans on the road at risk, are being enabled by negligent state enforcement. In a nationwide-audit conducted by the Department of Transportation, at least six states were found to be out of compliance with Federal non-domiciled commercial driver’s license (CDL) standards, which are intended to keep our nation’s roads safe and protect American trucking jobs. For too long, liberal states like California have turned a blind eye to the rampant abuse of their CDL issuance processes, choosing illegal immigrants over American truckers. These states have handed out licenses to individuals who don’t have proper legal status, have expired documents, or fail to meet federal immigration requirements. Some of the drivers’ licenses distributed don’t even have a name printed on them. This recklessness puts the lives of Americans at risk every single day.

Los Angeles Times [10/22/2025 6:00 AM, Subini Annamma and David Stovall, 14862K] reports the scenes have been all over the news. In Colorado, ICE smashes the window of a car with a 1-month-old inside, his mother crying out, "There’s a baby in here!" A family of four in Chicago is surrounded at Millennium Park by heavily armed and masked immigration agents, while the 8-year-old daughter clutches her doll and sobs. The mother holds her 3-year-old son while all of them are detained. A 6-year-old, her 19-year-old brother and mother are stopped at a immigration check-in in New York and detained. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a 13-year-old recently in Massachusetts and whisked him away to Virginia. These incidents are not exceptions, but a common story. In the New York City area, for example, ICE has detained at least 50 children. Though immigrant youth have been targeted, U.S.-born Black children have not been spared. About 300 federal agents executed an immigration raid, resulting in shocking and heartbreaking scenes in a South Side apartment building in Chicago. Crying children being led out of their apartment as it was tossed. When community members in Chicago denounced the zip-tying of children, who were also separated from their family members, an ICE officer was overheard saying "f— those kids."

The Hill [10/22/2025 8:30 AM, Artem Kolisnichenko, 12595K] reports Houston police have referred more than a hundred detainees to ICE for immigration status checks this year — a surge of more than 1,000 percent, according to the Houston Chronicle. This has not happened because of a spike in arrests or crime in Houston or anything like that. In fact, violent crime is down overall, according to Houston Police Department reports. But trust within Latino neighborhoods continues to erode. More residents now avoid even minor police contact, out of fear of triggering immigration inquiries, as highlighted in community reports. Officials describe this spike in immigration status checks as a "technical data exchange." In practice, it echoes the old pattern, whereby local police departments quietly turn themselves into immigration enforcement outposts. The rise in data-sharing reflects less a law enforcement need and more a political message — another way to signal a tough stance on immigration while setting aside both state law and community priorities. Texas has expanded its border operations at a staggering scale, effectively building a parallel immigration system and testing the limits of state authority. Operation Lone Star’s cost has already surpassed $11 billion since 2021, according to a Texas Tribune analysis, with more than $3 billion allocated this year alone, amid requests for up to $13.5 billion in federal reimbursements — an amount greater than many states’ public health budgets. Although border crossings have reached their lowest levels in five decades, according to Customs and Border Protection data, the state continues duplicating federal efforts, even deploying National Guard troops. According to the Houston Chronicle, only 24 percent of ICE referrals from local police led to actual detentions — the rest were bureaucratic exercises, each requiring significant resources and time, based on Houston Police Department operations. These practices raise serious constitutional questions and expose the state to potential lawsuits and financial penalties, as the ACLU has argued.

Blaze [10/22/2025 3:55 PM, Sebastian Pestritto, 1442K] reports at a press conference on October 20, Democrat lawmakers announced their intention to create "a master ICE tracker" to track and document immigration enforcement operations by ICE, CBP, and other law enforcement entities. House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said the tracker will be located on the Oversight Committee "website," though whether he meant the Democrats’ site or the general site is unclear. Speaking about the upcoming ICE tracker, Garcia said, "We are going to be tracking every single instance that we can verify, that the community will be able to send us information on." He said the tracker will launch "over the next couple of weeks." Garcia, along with Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), wrote to the Department of Homeland Security to demand detailed information on the "disturbing and increasingly frequent reports of unconstitutional detentions of U.S. citizens." The letter went on to say that President Trump "has embraced the use of federal immigration agents to terrorize communities nationwide."

DailySignal [10/22/2025 4:30 PM, Virginia Allen, 549K] reports the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee is pushing back on Democrats’ plan to track the activity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are preparing to launch a platform that they say will track the activity of some ICE agents. Speaking alongside Los Angeles Democrat Mayor Karen Bass at a Tuesday press conference, Garcia said the committee is "going to record and create an investigative unit here to ensure that in Los Angeles, we look into every single brutal misconduct that ICE is committing." In response to the news, the Republican-controlled Oversight Committee called the move "weaponization." Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the plan to launch the ICE tracker "looks like obstruction of justice." In response to the announcement, Attorney General Pam Bondi castigated Garcia for "trying to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs."

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [10/22/2025 5:52 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2416K]

NPR [10/23/2025 4:58 AM, Leila Fadel, 34837K] reports ICEBlock, an app that could track ICE operations, has been pulled from Apple’s App Store. Its creator Joshua Aaron tells NPR’s Leila Fadel that government pressure led to the decision. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

NewsMax [10/22/2025 8:53 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports Todd Lyons, acting director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, blasted a proposal by Democrats to develop tracking apps that would identify and monitor federal immigration officers, telling Newsmax on Wednesday that such technology could endanger lives. Appearing on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Lyons said the idea of elected officials calling for tools that track ICE personnel is reckless and dangerous. Lyons was reacting to Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who announced Monday that a tracker app by House Democrats would be coming online in the coming weeks. "Just to hear an elected official get up there and say they’re going to create a tracking mechanism to keep track of law enforcement officers — I’ve said it many times, and unfortunately, I have to keep saying it: These tracking apps are like putting a map in a hitman’s hands," Lyons told host Rob Schmitt. Lyons said violence against federal officers has escalated by "way more" than 1,000% this year, citing sniper-style attacks and armed assaults on ICE and Border Patrol facilities. "We’ve already seen a sniper attack, we’ve already seen a military-style ambush at an ICE facility. A Border Patrol facility got shot up in Brownsville," he said. "It is getting worse and worse." The veteran ICE official said he’s alarmed that some public officials are fueling hostility toward law enforcement through their rhetoric. "Elected officials are the ones stoking the fire," Lyons said. "ICE officers — 99% of our arrests before never had any incidents like this. "But they’re the ones calling for arms, calling for people to stand up, come resist the men and women that work for me, when all they’re trying to do is their sworn law enforcement duty." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [10/22/2025 1:19 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports that Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., slammed a House Democrat’s proposal to create a public "ICE tracker" as "outrageous" and "illegal," telling Newsmax on Wednesday that it would put federal immigration officers at risk and aid criminal illegal aliens. The plan, pushed by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., would reportedly make the locations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations publicly accessible through a House government website. Lawler said such a move would effectively "dox ICE officers" and obstruct law enforcement. "It is seeking to inform criminal illegal aliens of where ICE is so they can avoid detainment," Lawler told Newsmax’s "Newsline" host Bianca de la Garza. "It’s also seeking to inform protesters so they can interfere with their ability to enforce the law. It is fundamentally wrong. It is illegal, and we will not stand for it." Lawler said he had spoken directly with House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, assuring that the proposal would not see the light of day on the House Oversight Committee website, where Garcia had promised it would appear. "It will not happen," he said. "We will not allow that.” "These ICE agents are doing their job," Lawler said. "They’re enforcing federal immigration and customs law to get illegal immigrants off our streets.” He added, "And then you have Dan Goldman saying that the NYPD should arrest them? It’s insane. It’s complete insanity."

NewsNation [10/23/2025 12:03 AM, Staff, 8017K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is hiring for more than 40 positions in medical positions in its immigration detention centers across the nation. Politico first reported the Trump administration’s plans to expand its workforce with doctors, psychologists, nurses, dentists and medical administrators, among others. As of Wednesday night, there were 48 open job listings in the ICE Health Service Corps on the ICE USA Jobs portal. Some of the listings include positions located at various ICE detention centers across the country, including in locales where migrant deaths have been reported. In June, NewsNation reported that a Canadian man who was being held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Miami became the 13th person to die in an ICE facility since October after he was found unresponsive. An additional seven deaths have been announced by the federal agency since, taking the total to 20 deaths in that time. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a member of the subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, wrote in a social media post that 20 individuals have died under such circumstances since President Trump began his second term. "Trump’s ICE is detaining people in private prisons that put profit over health. There must be accountability and oversight NOW," she wrote Friday.

Roll Call [10/22/2025 4:50 PM, Michael Macagnone and Chris Johnson, 548K] reports the Trump administration has claimed the partial government shutdown also means the end of a requirement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement give congressional access to detention facilities for oversight visits. The government made the argument in a legal clash with Democratic lawmakers, who had filed a lawsuit against ICE over access to real-time inspections of the facilities and new department guidance that requires at least seven days’ advance notice of a visit. The lawmakers based that lawsuit on Section 527, a provision included in the fiscal 2024 spending law and applied to funding in the continuing resolution for fiscal 2025, which states that no funds can be used to prevent members or their staffs from entering immigration detention facilities for oversight. But now the Trump administration says the provision expired on Oct. 1 along with the spending law, and ongoing spending is "not subject to the expired general provision known as Section 527," according to a notice and declaration from ICE official Ralph Ferguson. The government’s stance that the section has expired, if applied more broadly, could extend to some of the dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of provisions in spending bills that define how the federal government can use funds, commonly known as "riders." The government filed the notice in the lawsuit as Judge Jia M. Cobb of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was deciding whether to grant a request for her to temporarily halt the new DHS guidance on lawmaker visits based on Section 527. At a hearing on that request, Cobb asked if the case would be moot if there was a government lapse.

NBC News [10/22/2025 4:00 PM, Julia Ainsley and Didi Martinez, 43603K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed new recruits into its training program before they have completed the agency’s vetting process, an unusual sequence of events as it rushes to hire federal immigration officers to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy, a current and two former Homeland Security Department officials told NBC News. ICE officials only later discovered that some of the recruits failed drug testing, have disqualifying criminal backgrounds or don’t meet the physical or academic requirements to serve, the sources said. Staff members at ICE’s training academy in Brunswick, Georgia, recently discovered one recruit had previously been charged with strong-arm robbery and battery stemming from a domestic violence incident, the current DHS official said. They’ve also found as recently as this month that some recruits going through the six-week training course hadn’t submitted fingerprints for background checks, as ICE’s hiring process requires, the current and former DHS officials said. Since the surge began, ICE has dismissed more than 200 new recruits while they were in training for falling short of its hiring requirements, according to recently collected internal ICE data reviewed by NBC News. The majority of them failed to meet ICE’s physical or academic standards, according to the data. Just under 10 recruits were dismissed for criminal charges, failing to pass drug tests or safety concerns that should have been flagged in background checks before they arrived at training, the data indicated and the current and former DHS officials confirmed. The officials said there is growing concern that in the Trump administration’s race to expand the number of ICE agents to 10,000 by the end of the year, the agency could miss red flags in the backgrounds of some new recruits and inadvertently hire them. The Department of Homeland Security told NBC News in a statement that most of its new recruits are former law enforcement officers and former ICE officers who go through a different process. “The figures you reference are not accurate and reflect a subset of candidates in initial basic academy classes,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. “The vast majority of new officers brought on during the hiring surge are experienced law enforcement officers who have already successfully completed a law enforcement academy. This population is expected to account for greater than 85% of new hires. Prior-service hires follow streamlined validation but remain subject to medical, fitness, and background requirements.”

Axios [10/22/2025 4:55 PM, Julianna Bragg, 12972K] reports ICE expects to deport more than 600,000 undocumented immigrants by the end of the year, President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said at Axios’ Future of Defense Summit on Wednesday. The estimate comes as the Trump administration touted that approximately 1.6 million undocumented immigrants have "voluntarily" self-deported, and another 400,000 were deported in the first 250 days of Trump’s second term. "If you’re in the United States illegally, you’re not off the table," Homan told Axios’ Brittany Gibson in Washington D.C. "If we find you, we’re going to arrest you." Homan said 70% of individuals arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are classified as criminals, while the other 30 to 35% are identified as national security threats without criminal pasts. When Gibson flagged those numbers, saying they didn’t’ match the bi-monthly report ICE shares with Congress, Homan told her, that the data lawmakers receive is "behind" and "it’s how you read the raw data." Homan added that a significant number of those considered national security threats have final orders of removal and were already given due process, but he didn’t confirm how many people fit that designation.

FOX News [10/22/2025 4:18 PM, Elizabeth Elkind, 40621K] reports House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., attacked the Trump administration’s immigration efforts on Wednesday, which he claimed were opposed by Americans. Jeffries’ comments came during his near-daily government shutdown press conference in response to a reporter asking an unrelated question about whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) needed scaling back. "We’ve all been very outspoken as it relates to the out-of-control behavior unleashed on law-abiding immigrant communities by masked agents hiding their identity and far too often violating the rule of law, often directed at people who are American citizens," the top House Democrat answered. "It’s all unacceptable, and it’s one of the reasons why the American people have turned on Donald Trump and Republicans with respect to their extreme immigration policies," he said. He then demanded the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) be held "accountable for the overreach and the extremism that they’re being subjected to in terms of what the American people are experiencing.” "And yet we’re seeing none of that accountability coming from Republicans," Jeffries continued. "That’s unfortunate, but Democrats will continue to make the case to the American people that this is all abnormal. So much of it is unlawful, and it’s got to stop.” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital in response, "ICE officers are facing a 1,000% increase in assaults because of unhinged rhetoric from activists and Democrat politicians smearing heroic ICE officers. Anyone who assaults or otherwise harms law enforcement officers will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

AP [10/22/2025 4:20 PM, Sara Cline and Valerie Gonzalez, 31753K] reports women taken into custody by U.S. immigration agents while pregnant say they received inadequate care in a letter Wednesday that calls on the Trump administration to stop holding expectant mothers in federal detention facilities. The letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is part of a broader campaign in recent months by Democrats and immigrant rights groups to draw attention to what they say is the mistreatment of pregnant detainees. The Department of Homeland Security has defended its care, saying pregnant detainees get regular prenatal visits, mental health services, nutritional support and accommodations “aligned with community standards of care.” In addition, Homeland Security Department Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a written statement Wednesday that such detentions are “rare” and involve “elevated oversight and review.” The agency didn’t provide figures on the number of pregnant women in detention, a number Democrats have sought for months. The letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union cites accounts from pregnant women who say they were shackled while being transported, placed in solitary confinement for multiple days and given insufficient food and water while detained in Louisiana and Georgia. The ACLU’s letter is the latest call for an investigation into the arrests and treatment of pregnant detainees. Senate Democrats wrote Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in September, expressing concerns about the “prevalence and treatment” of pregnant, postpartum and nursing women in ICE custody. They demanded that the agency stop detaining such people unless there are “exceptional circumstances.” “Proper care for pregnancy is a basic human right, regardless of whether you are incarcerated or not and regardless of your immigration status,” said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a California Democrat. She signed onto a Democratic Women’s Caucus letter to DHS officials in July sharing concerns about the “treatment of women” and demanding answers — including how many have given birth while detained.

NBC News [10/22/2025 10:23 AM, Daniella Silva, 34509K] reports over a dozen women told advocates and their attorneys that they suffered mistreatment and neglect while they were pregnant and held in immigration custody, including “medical neglect” and substandard care during pregnancy and miscarriage, such as being shackled, placed in solitary confinement and fed with poor-quality food, according to a letter sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and Senate committees Wednesday. “The stories that are represented in this letter are just the tip of the iceberg,” said the author of the letter, Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project. “You have women who are talking about being shackled and restrained while they’re actively miscarrying; you have women begging and pleading for things as basic as prenatal vitamins and being denied.” In addition to the ACLU and its Louisiana chapter, the National Immigration Project, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the Sanctuary of the South and the Sanctuary Now Abolition Project signed the letter. They are pressing for ICE to identify and release all pregnant women in custody and to refrain from detaining anyone known to be pregnant, postpartum or nursing. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to request for comment about the letter. In August, a DHS spokesperson denied allegations of mistreatment of pregnant detainees in a statement to NBC News after a report by the office of Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., found 14 credible alleged reports of mistreatment of pregnant women in ICE custody.

Univision [10/22/2025 6:20 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports a group of pregnant immigrant women reported receiving inadequate care in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers and suffering bleeding, miscarriages, chaining and other alleged medical malpractice cases. A letter released Wednesday by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) cites testimonies of pregnant women who claim to have been handcuffed during their transfer to immigration facilities, held in solitary confinement for several days and without enough food or water during their detention in Basile, Louisiana, and Lumpkin, Georgia. The letter is part of a broader campaign that has been carried out in recent months by Democrats and immigrant rights groups to draw attention to what they denounce is mistreatment of pregnant detainees. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has defended their treatment of pregnant detainees, stating that they receive regular prenatal visits, mental health services, nutritional support and adaptations “aligned with community care standards.” In addition, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Wednesday that such detentions are "unusual" and involve "strict supervision and review." However, the agency did not provide figures on the number of pregnant women detained, even though Democrats have requested this information for months. The ACLU letter is the latest request for an investigation into the arrests and treatment of pregnant detainees by immigration authorities. Senate Democrats in September wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to voice concern about the “prevalence and treatment” of pregnant women, in postpartum and infants in ICE custody.

FOX News [10/22/2025 12:11 PM, Elizabeth Elkind, 40621K] reports a new House GOP bill would establish a registry of illegal immigrants with deportation orders in the United States. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., is leading legislation to establish public record-keeping of people set to be sent out of the country, complete with their full names, photo, and last known state of residence. "At the end of 2024, more than a million illegal aliens, including Ian Roberts, had final orders of removal against them but were roaming freely in the United States," Biggs told Fox News Digital, referencing the former Des Moines Public Schools superintendent who was recently arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being accused of falsifying citizenship documents. Biggs said, "Instead of enforcing our immigration laws and deporting illegal aliens who had due process in our immigration courts, the Biden administration focused on making it as easy as possible for illegal aliens of any and every criminal background to enter and stay in our nation.” He argued that making final deportation orders publicly accessible "will only increase public safety and ensure incidents like this one don’t happen again."

NewsMax [10/22/2025 3:52 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports New York Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday unveiled an online portal for residents to tattle on Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities, one day after federal agents raided Manhattan’s Canal Street — a hotbed of counterfeit goods — and arrested nine illegal aliens from Africa. James is encouraging residents to submit evidence of "federal government action in New York State," adding in her release, "Every New Yorker has the right to live without fear or intimidation. If you witnessed and documented ICE activity yesterday, I urge you to share that footage with my office. We are committed to reviewing these reports and assessing any violations of law." The new "Federal Action Reporting Form" requests details such as the location, date, and time of the alleged action and whether the individual filing the report was present. The form also lets users upload up to five photos and five videos or link to videos posted on social media. The attorney general’s office notes that any submissions may be used in "a public document, legal proceeding, or report."

San Diego Union Tribune [10/22/2025 2:11 PM, Staff, 1538K] reports that the Trump administration is quietly sending hundreds of Cubans and other immigrants with significant criminal records in buses across the border to Mexico, in an expansion of third-country deportations. Although Cuba accepts deportation flights from the U.S., its longtime practice has been to reject deportees who have been convicted of certain crimes. That has left many of the island’s immigrants in limbo for years — unable to return to the island but stripped of their legal status to stay in the United States. But without legal documentation in Mexico, they are now in a new limbo, and it is unclear what future awaits them. The men have serious criminal convictions in the U.S. including drug dealing, domestic violence, theft, armed robbery, child abuse and battery. Some had additional charges for which they weren’t convicted — including in one case attempted murder. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to specific questions about what agreement or policy governed these deportations, or if a new agreement had been reached with Mexico. "If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, you could end up in CECOT, Eswatini, Ghana, South Sudan, or another third country," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to the Herald. "President Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem are not going to allow criminal illegal aliens to remain indefinitely in the U.S."

NewsMax [10/22/2025 11:01 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports an Indiana man was killed after an illegal alien driving a semi-truck without a valid commercial license crossed into oncoming traffic and slammed into the victim’s car, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Federal officials say the suspect, Borko Stankovic, a native of Serbia and Montenegro, has been living in the U.S. illegally for more than a decade. Stankovic’s semi-truck veered into the wrong lane on U.S. 20 in Portage, Indiana, hitting a Subaru Crosstrek driven by 54-year-old Jeffrey Eberly, who was killed instantly. The DHS said Stankovic has been in the country illegally since 2011, when his nonimmigrant visa expired. Despite a prior arrest in New York for resisting arrest and obstructing government administration, he was never deported. "This senseless tragedy should NEVER have happened, and this man should still be alive today," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "Stankovic has been in this country ILLEGALLY since 2011 and has a history of violating the law, yet he remained free to continue engaging in dangerous behavior that ultimately resulted in the death of Jeffrey Eberly." McLaughlin blasted sanctuary policies that prevented his earlier removal.

Daily Wire [10/22/2025 7:36 AM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports that the Trump administration is seeking to capture an illegal immigrant accused of raping a woman he knocked unconscious in the sanctuary city of Chicago, The Daily Wire has learned. Nicaraguan illegal immigrant Leyter Jeferson Arauz-Medina was waved across the border by the Biden administration in 2024, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told The Daily Wire. He received a deportation order just weeks before he allegedly brutally raped a 54-year-old woman on August 31, 2025. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately lodged an arrest detainer with local authorities in Chicago for Arauz-Medina following the sexual assault. Arauz-Medina allegedly dragged the screaming woman across a street and into an alley, where he threw her to the ground, strangled her, and stripped her naked, authorities said. The illegal immigrant then repeatedly slammed the woman’s head into the concrete, causing her to lose consciousness. The woman eventually regained consciousness and began fighting back while Arauz-Medina continued to sexually assault her, according to DHS. "A real-life nightmare: This criminal, who JB Pritzker continues to protect, VICIOUSLY ATTACKED an innocent woman who was walking the streets of Chicago," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire. "This monster was released into our country by the Biden Administration. Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies protect criminal illegal alien rapists over American citizens. We will do everything in our power to ensure this wicked criminal NEVER walks our streets again," she added.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [10/22/2025 4:59 PM, John Binder, 2416K]

USA Today [10/22/2025 9:48 PM, Michael Loria, 67103K] reports federal immigration enforcement agents raided the city’s longtime historic Mexican neighborhood on Oct. 22, removing several people, causing car accidents and brandishing weapons, according to residents, local leaders and advocates. The raids come as Chicago awaits the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on whether Trump can deploy the National Guard to the city or not. White House lawyers have argued immigration agents cannot enforce federal law without the help of the military. Also on Oct. 22, administration lawyers agreed to leave in place a lower court judge’s decision barring troop deployments until the higher court rules. Agents in the morning descended on the commercial corridor of Little Village, a South Side neighborhood and heart of Chicago’s Mexican community. Photos and video from the scene show masked U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents sprinting after people and local business owners locking their doors ahead of agents. "A reign of terror was brought upon our neighborhood," local Ald. Mike Rodriguez told USA TODAY. "They took at least eight people, of those eight, four were U.S. citizens, and two were members of my staff." The raids on the city’s most prominent Mexican neighborhood come as part of President Donald Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz, his Chicago-area immigration enforcement crackdown. Trump launched the blitz on Sept. 8, saying it was needed to catch "the worst of the worst" criminal immigrants. Many local critics say instead innocent people are being left terrorized. Federal judges in the Northern District of Illinois handling cases related to the blitz have begun issuing rulings against the president over Homeland Security’s aggressive tactics and barring the White House from deploying the National Guard. But the rulings out of the federal courthouse in downtown Chicago have not slowed the pace of immigration enforcement raids throughout the region. On Oct. 22, agents raided the historic South Side Mexican community and a neighboring suburb; on Oct. 21, an Illinois state house representative says federal agents stopped him at gunpoint for documenting raids on the North Side; and a Chicago alderwoman says she was also stopped by agents for documenting their activities. Homeland Security officials did not respond to requests for comments on the raids.

NBC News [10/22/2025 5:03 PM, Natasha Korecki, 34509K] reports Illinois is attempting to crack down on federal officers who try to disguise their vehicles in pursuit of undocumented individuals. Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias on Wednesday launched "Plate Watch," a hotline urging the public to report instances where law enforcement vehicles are not carrying valid license plates, including when the plate IDs are partially shrouded or entirely missing. A Giannoulias aide said that, as this intensified enforcement has played out in recent weeks, the secretary of state’s office received reports from anonymous callers complaining of varying violations: a different license plate on the front of the vehicle than in the back, no license plates on either the front or the back, plates that are partially masked, or the same vehicle carrying a different license plate from one day to the next. The reports illustrate the intensifying confrontations between a public that’s already complained that immigration enforcement agents are attempting to deflect accountability by wearing masks and a federal agency that says it must protect its officers.

Chicago Tribune [10/22/2025 10:38 AM, Richard Requena, 4829K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested two people in Evanston in separate incidents Tuesday, according to Evanston police Commander Ryan Glew. One person was detained at Home Depot, located at 2201 Oakton St., and another person was picked up in the 800 block of Monroe Street. Their identities and the reason they were arrested are unknown to the police department, Glew said. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the immigration agencies, did not immediately respond to questions from Pioneer Press. Glew said in both incidents, Evanston officers arrived on the scenes after the federal immigration enforcement agents had left the area.

Chicago Tribune [10/22/2025 3:58 PM, Gregory Royal Pratt, 4829K] reports that U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez and other Illinois elected officials and community leaders called on the Department of Homeland Security to release an immigrant currently in federal custody whose daughter is sick with Stage 4 cancer. Ramirez asked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release Ruben Torres Maldonado, a Portage Park man detained by federal immigration agents Saturday while his 16-year-old daughter, Ofelia, is undergoing cancer treatment. "They should be together right now but instead Ruben became another person taken by this rogue agency," Ramirez said. An attorney for Torres is currently petitioning in federal court for his release. Holding Torres in custody is "not making anyone safer," Ramirez said. In a statement Tuesday night, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused Maldonado of "habitual driving offenses" and said he backed into a government vehicle while attempting to flee. She called his legal filing "nothing more than a desperate Hail Mary attempt" to keep him in the country. Ramirez made her remarks at a news conference Wednesday morning alongside other Democrats, including state Sen. Graciela Guzman, state Reps. Will Guzzardi and Laura Faver Dias, and Chicago Aldermen Felix Cardona and Matt Martin.

Daily Caller [10/22/2025 12:10 PM, Hudson Crozier, 835K] reports a Los Angeles public school teacher and activist praised rioters on Tuesday for throwing bricks at federal agents in California, crediting them with reducing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Ron Gochez, a history teacher at Dr. Maya Angelou Community Senior High, highlighted recent brick-throwing incidents as an example of how "the people will fight back" against ICE during a recorded press conference for his activist group, Unión del Barrio (UDB). Residents "cannot depend on" legal institutions to hold ICE accountable and should remember that federal officials "are not the only ones with guns," the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) employee told his audience. "The people will organize to defend themselves. And so if the repression escalates, the resistance will escalate," Gochez said. "There’s a reason why the raids went down in Los Angeles: ‘cause the people were organizing and kicking them out of the barrios all over the city … They caught some bricks. Y’all remember Paramount? They caught those bricks. This is Los Angeles and this is South Central. The people will fight back.” "We cannot depend on the police. We cannot depend on politicians," Gochez said. "We cannot depend on anybody but the people.”

CBS News [10/22/2025 2:47 PM, Julia Falcon, 39474K] reports that a North Texas woman has been arrested in connection with a violent July 4 attack on a federal immigration detention center in Alvarado where masked assailants opened fire on police and vandalized vehicles, according to arrest records. Janette Goering was arrested at her home in Carrollton on Oct. 21, according to the DFW Support Committee, a group formed by friends, family members and supporters of those arrested in connection with the incident at the Prairieland U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Center. She is in the Johnson County Jail and is being charged with aiding in the commission of terrorism. Goering is being held on a $5 million bond. She is the 18th person arrested in connection with the attack that left one Alvarado police officer injured. On Oct. 16, federal prosecutors charged two North Texas men accused of helping orchestrate the violent July 4 attack, alleging the pair were part of an "Antifa cell" that plotted to target law enforcement officers with gunfire and explosives. Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts were federally charged with providing material support to terrorists, attempted murder of officers and employees of the U.S., and discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, according to the indictment from the Department of Justice. The night of July 4, several masked individuals dressed in black, some of them armed, arrived at the Prairieland ICE detention facility, vandalizing vehicles and security cameras in the parking lot, according to authorities.

FOX News [10/22/2025 2:44 PM, Bonny Chu, 40621K] reports that Dallas leaders are at odds over whether to assist federal immigration authorities, with Mayor Eric Johnson sharply criticizing Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux’s decision to reject a $25 million offer to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Johnson, who previously told Fox News that he would support efforts by President Donald Trump to deport undocumented migrants accused of violent crimes, sent a letter to city council committee chairs in which he condemned Comeaux’s move as "unilateral," and said the decision should be reviewed publicly, Fox 4 News reported. He reportedly argued that any deal involving $25 million in federal funds should come before the City Council for accountability and transparency. The mayor also suggested that such a partnership could have provided much-needed revenue for both the city and the police department, according to the local station. Comeaux revealed last Tuesday that he has declined a $25 million offer from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a stunning reversal from his previous pledge to strengthen cooperation with federal agencies. Comeaux, who took over the Dallas Police Department (DPD) in April, had initially signaled a break from his predecessor by suggesting he would shift from the city’s sanctuary-style policies and align more closely with the state’s tougher stance on immigration.

(B) CBS Mornings [10/22/2025 9:26 AM, Staff] reports that over 100 people were arrested by ICE agents in a raid in Wilder this past weekend. The Department of Homeland noted most are immigrants. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin says ICE dismantled an illegal horse racing, animal fighting, and gambling ring and arrested 105 immigrants. The Salt Lake City department alluded to this operating being an FBI-led investigation and ICE was invited to arrest anyone with outstanding immigration status issues. The FBI affidavit does not mention animal fight. The FBI arrested five people who are facing gambling charges. It is not clear where the other 105 people taking into ICE custody are now. Officials say they were sent to facilities across multiple states as the legal process for extradition begins.

Axios [10/22/2025 5:27 PM, John Frank, 12972K] reports months after a Denver judge blocked the Polis administration from disclosing documents to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the governor is still pursuing the release of the sensitive records. Gov. Jared Polis’ actions, first reported Wednesday by the Denver Post, may violate state laws prohibiting cooperation with ICE on most immigration matters, and if the documents were released, they could lead to more deportations. In response, Polis continued to suggest the subpoenas are connected to a criminal matter even though a judge rejected that premise. David Seligman, an attorney general candidate who is critical of Polis’ move, argued that ICE only wants the information to deport the children’s sponsors, who are typically family members.

CBS Colorado [10/22/2025 6:06 PM, Christa Swanson, 39474K] Video: HERE reports Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced on Wednesday that the city will extend the contract for the Flock Safety camera program, but it will come with extra safeguards to prevent the data from being shared widely. The potential use of the Flock camera system has been a point of debate in the Denver City Council for some time. Cameras installed at 70 intersections across Denver capture images of vehicles and their license plates as they pass through, a tool that police say has been instrumental in reducing auto theft and solving other crimes. But the potential for invasion of privacy has continued to be a concern to members of the council. Johnston says the city will offer a no-cost contract extension to Flock Safety for five months as it evaluates the new security measures. The mayor’s office stated that Denver license plate reader data is no longer accessible to outside agencies, and sharing the data with the federal government would result in a $100,000 fine and possible termination of the contract. In a similar move to several other cities, Johnston said the city requested that Flock switch off access to Denver’s data by the nationwide lookup system in the spring of 2025. From there, it was only allowed to be used by Colorado law enforcement agencies. Now, access is restricted to only DPD and law enforcement agencies that have signed a memorandum of understanding with the City and County of Denver. Sharing the data with the federal government for immigration enforcement will result in losing access to the data and a referral to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office for prosecution. As part of the contract, Johnston says federal agents assigned to a Denver task force will not be given access to search through Denver’s license plate reader data. "In Denver, we believe you can be a city that is just as tough on fighting crime as it is protecting someone’s civil liberties," said Johnston. "That’s why we’re taking steps not seen anywhere else in the country to ensure this technology is wielded responsibly and that our data stays out of the federal government’s hands. I’ve made clear to Flock’s leadership that I expect total transparency and that anything less will result in an end to our relationship. To their credit, they have agreed to our terms and will build a Denver-specific package that will lead the way in using this technology for the public good.”

The Hill [10/22/2025 10:40 AM, Ariel Salk, 12595K] reports recently released video shows a blind man being violently detained by federal agents at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in South Portland, Ore. These videos, each taken from different sides of the building on Saturday, show Quinn Haberl wearing a neon vest and sitting on the side of the driveway to the facility. Next to him on the ground is a thick blue line, which federal agents made to indicate when protesters are crossing onto the federal property — effectively allowing them to arrest people for trespassing. The videos show several federal agents circling Haberl before grabbing him by his arms and legs and carrying him toward the ICE building before dropping him on his head. They can then be seen dragging him past the gate with more agents getting involved, cuffing him as the man wiggles on the ground. One agent could be seen picking up Haberl’s white cane. Two men who saw the incident Saturday night said Haberl is usually joyful, dancing and having a good time while protesting outside of ICE. Nexstar’s KOIN reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which sent the following statement: "This rioter was arrested after he blatantly disobeyed law enforcement orders to remain off federal property, obstructed law enforcement, and continued to block the driveway so vehicles could not enter or exit the ICE facility." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [10/23/2025 12:16 AM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2416K] reports the suspected semi-truck driver behind an eight-car accident in Ontario, California, has been identified as Jashanpreet Singh, an illegal alien from India, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. Fox News’s Bill Melugin revealed in a post on X that "multiple ICE sources" said Singh, 21, the semi-truck driver allegedly behind the accident that left three people dead in an alleged DUI-related crash, had been "caught & released" at the California border under the Biden administration in March 2022. "Per multiple ICE sources, Jashanpreet Singh, the semi-truck driver suspected of killing three people in a DUI crash on the 10 freeway in Ontario, CA yesterday, is an Indian illegal alien who was caught & released at the CA border by the Biden admin in March 2022," Melugin wrote in his post. Melugin added that he had been informed ICE was "placing a detainer request on Singh with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department," where he was reported to be in custody "on suspicion of DUI causing great bodily injury and gross vehicular manslaughter." "He has not been formally charged yet," Melugin added. "Police say Singh was speeding and under the influence, never hitting his breaks, when he crashed into slow moving traffic on the freeway," Melugin continued. The accident, which involved "four semi-trucks, two pick-up trucks and two cars," led to three people being killed and four people being injured, according to NBC Los Angeles. One witness explained to the outlet that the accident "sounded like a big explosion as he recalled a red truck," which Singh was reportedly driving, was "barreling down the freeway." "It didn’t stop," the witness, Jason Calmelat, told the outlet, adding that the truck also "didn’t make any kind of maneuvers." Dash-cam video footage from ABC7 News, shared on X, appeared to show the semi-truck driver barreling down the highway and plowing into several other vehicles. In a Department of Transportation press release from October 15, it was revealed that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) was going to "withhold over $40 million from California" after an investigation found the state "failed to comply with the Department’s English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards." "I put states on notice this summer: enforce the Trump Administration’s English language requirements or the checks stop coming," Duffy said. "California is the only state in the nation that refuses to ensure big rig drivers can read our road signs and communicate with law enforcement."

FOX News [10/22/2025 10:44 PM, Jasmine Baehr, Bill Melugin, 40621K] reports a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from India who crossed the southern border in 2022 and was released by the Biden administration is now accused of causing a fiery semi-truck crash that killed three people in Southern California, multiple federal law enforcement sources tell Fox News. According to federal sources, the suspect, identified as Jashanpreet Singh, was first encountered by Border Patrol agents in California’s El Centro Sector in March 2022, and released into the interior of the country pending an immigration hearing. Singh has now been arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated after plowing his big rig into slow-moving traffic on the I-10 Freeway in San Bernardino County. The crash, caught on dashcam video, left at least three people dead and several injured. Police say Singh never hit the brakes before slamming into the traffic jam, citing toxicology tests that confirmed impairment. DHS sources confirm he is not in lawful immigration status, and that ICE has lodged an immigration detainer following his arrest. Singh was released under the Biden administration’s 2022 "alternatives to detention" policy, one of several instances Fox News has documented where illegal immigrants released pending hearings went on to commit a crime. The incident is the latest involving illegal immigrant truck drivers in the U.S. Harjinder Singh, who crossed the southern border illegally in 2018, obtained a commercial driver’s license in California, and is accused of causing a crash in August in Fort Pierce, Florida, that killed three people. Officials investigating the wreck said he failed English and road sign tests. A statement released by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Oct. 15 points to a widespread issue among big rig drivers: inability to pass English language requirements. "I put states on notice this summer: enforce the Trump Administration’s English language requirements or the checks stop coming," Duffy said. "California is the only state in the nation that refuses to ensure big rig drivers can read our road signs and communicate with law enforcement. This is a fundamental safety issue that impacts you and your family on America’s road." The crash comes as the Trump administration announced last week that it would be withholding more than $40 million in federal highway safety funding from California for failing to comply with federal English language proficiency standards for truck drivers. The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC 7 San Diego [10/22/2025 5:42 PM, Dana Williams, 43603K] reports on Wednesday, U.S. Representatives Mike Levin, Sara Jacobs, Juan Vargas and Scott Peters co-authored a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding answers about immigrants being detained at the federal courthouse building in downtown San Diego. “We write regarding recent reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is arresting and detaining immigrants at the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building in San Diego, California, and transferring these individuals to the facility’s basement,” the letter began. Levin told NBC 7 it was inspired by reporting in which volunteers, who observe the detentions each day, said they counted 44 people who were taken by ICE personnel throughout a four-day period starting Oct. 9. The letter asked why those people were detained, if they were held for more than 24 hours and where, exactly, they were in the building. It also asked why the federal building was chosen and if the facility meets “national detention standards (NDS).” “If the options are sending a letter that the administration doesn’t respond to or not doing anything, then there’s really no choice,” Levin said. “We’ve got to hold the administration to account.” While NBC 7 did not receive a statement in direct response to the letter from DHS and ICE, it NBC 7 did receive statements in the past week that address some of the concerns mentioned by Levin, including that the building is not set up to be a detention facility. On Monday, Representatives Peters and Vargas, both Democrats, sought to investigate these reports, but they said the Trump administration denied them access to the building. NBC 7 was sent a video from the inside of the building by Arturo Gonzalez, an activist, which appeared to show the moments they were being denied after explaining they had the right to “congressional oversight.” That day, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of public affairs for DHS, sent an emailed statement in response that read, “Democrats should get back to Washington, do their jobs and reopen the government.” It continued: “Contrary to claims made by these politicians, the facility was NOT over capacity and was actually empty after all individuals were transferred to a long-term detention center for their safety because of the ‘No Kings’ protest nearby.”

FOX News [10/22/2025 3:35 PM, Louis Casiano, 40621K] reports a Los Angeles high school history teacher who serves as a spokesperson for a local anti-ICE activist group appeared to welcome armed resistance against immigration authorities after a federal agent and an illegal immigrant were shot hours earlier. Ron Gochez, a teacher at Dr. Maya Angelou Community High School and a spokesperson for Unión del Barrio, spoke during a news conference Tuesday, criticizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. "Don’t forget where you’re standing. This is South Central Los Angeles," he said. "They [ICE] are not the only ones with guns in this city. Don’t forget that. And I don’t say that because I’m calling for violence; I’m saying that because the people have every right to defend themselves against masked, unidentified gunmen. The people have every right to defend themselves," he added. "That’s not violent. That’s intelligent."

Los Angeles Times [10/22/2025 6:00 AM, Melissa Gomez, 14862K] reports family members greeted Emma De Paz with tears, hugs, signs and bouquets of flowers on Monday when federal immigration agents freed her after four months of detention. As she stepped out of the SUV that had ferried her to her home in East Hollywood from the Adelanto Detention Center, she already was holding her arms wide to hug loved ones welcoming her back. The emotional return of this 58-year-old street vendor and grandmother was the result of many people working for months to secure her release. Her months in detention were painful, but they did not dampen her spirit. "They’re violating our rights. It’s an injustice," De Paz said, wearing a carnation yellow blouse and surrounded by more than 50 family members and friends. "We’re hard workers, not criminals." De Paz, who is undocumented, arrived from Guatemala 25 years ago and had for years worked as a street vendor, selling tamales, soup and roasted chicken to day laborers. On the morning of June 19, De Paz had been among the vendors who were selling breakfasts to day laborers outside of the Home Depot in Hollywood, when federal immigration agents swept through and began arresting them and other workers. At the time, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Customs and Border Protection "arrested 30 illegal aliens in Hollywood, California.”

USA Today [10/22/2025 6:09 PM, Fernando Cervantes Jr, 67103K] reports America’s largest private employer, Walmart, is pausing job offers to foreign candidates in need of H-1B visas to work in the United States, according to reports from Bloomberg and CNN. The move comes about a month after President Donald Trump introduced a $100,000 annual application fee for special visas that are widely used by technology companies to bring in foreign workers. Walmart, which has a rapidly growing online marketplace similar to the one run by Amazon, currently employs more than 2,000 H-1B visa holders, according to government data obtained by USA TODAY. "Walmart is committed to hiring and investing in the best talent to serve our customers, while remaining thoughtful about our H-1B hiring approach," the mega-retailer told USA TODAY. The H-1B visa program is reserved for people who are employed in specialty occupations, frequently in technology, such as software engineers, tech program managers and other IT professionals. The visas are approved for a period of three to six years.

Bloomberg Law News [10/22/2025 5:03 PM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 91K] reports immigrant investors would pay reduced application fees for EB-5 visas in a proposed rule released by the Department of Homeland Security. Participants in the program would pay $9,625, or 14% less than current fees, to submit the I-526 form that allows foreign investors to obtain a visa, under Wednesday’s proposal. Investors participating in large enterprises known as regional centers would pay $9,530, or 15% less than current fees. The EB-5 program has seen steady growth since a 2022 reauthorization of the regional center program that tightened reporting requirements among other provisions to address fraud and abuse. For immigrants with the financial resources from India and China, EB-5 allows them the chance to avoid decades-long backlogs for employment-based green cards.

NewsMax [10/22/2025 10:28 PM, Mark Swanson, 4109K] reports Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has called for a Department of Homeland Security review of every visa approved by the Biden administration for applicants from high-risk countries. Cotton made the request in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday in the wake of the arrest of a "Gazan citizen" living in Louisiana who allegedly took part in Hamas’ massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 251 more on Oct. 7, 2023. Federal prosecutors in Louisiana charged Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi earlier this month with participating in the Hamas-led attack on Israel and with entering the United States on a fraudulent visa. "I urge DHS to conduct an audit of all visas issued through high-risk countries since 2021, prioritizing potential affiliations with Hamas or other designated terrorist groups," Cotton wrote in the letter. Cotton noted that "thousands of visa applications from Palestinians have been processed through Egypt, often without adequate review of digital footprints or terrorist watchlist cross-checks." Cotton said Al-Muhtadi "applied for a visa through the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, falsely denying his paramilitary training and terrorist affiliations." "Despite blatant evidence of these activities on his social media," Cotton added, "the Biden administration approved his application, granting him legal permanent resident status and entry into the United States." Prosecutors contend the acts violate federal laws governing terrorist activity, visa fraud, and providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations. The complaint also documents a careful trail of travel and aliases. Prosecutors say al-Muhtadi moved through third countries before arriving in the United States, seeking to conceal his identity and militant background. Records indicate he arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Sept. 12, 2024, later settling in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before moving to Lafayette, Louisiana, where he was eventually arrested. Investigators traced communications and financial links tying him to Hamas operatives abroad, and they say that at times he used alternative names to evade detection. The complaint calls him a "high-value target" whose presence in the U.S. posed "a grave threat to national security."

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [10/22/2025 8:49 PM, Joshua Klein, 2416K]
Daily Wire [10/22/2025 1:36 PM, Hank Berrien, 2494K]
Free Beacon [10/22/2025 1:43 PM, Adam Kredo, 411K]

Houston Chronicle [10/22/2025 4:34 PM, John C. Moritz, 2983K] reports Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced this week that a new review of Texas’ voter registration rolls matched against a federal citizenship database identified that more than 2,700 possible non-citizens among the 18.6 million people eligible to vote. The finding by Nelson’s office, which under the state constitution maintains statewide voter registration records, are not conclusive. Instead, the names will be sent to elections officials at the county level, who are tasked with determining if any are non-citizens and whether to remove them from the rolls. Nelson said the data released by her office matched voter registration rolls with data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for the first time. She said the Trump administration has given states "free and direct access" to the federal agency’s records, which she said is more reliable than state data. The number of potential non-citizens on the registration rolls is hardly indicative of widespread abuse. The 2,724 names account for just 0.01% of all the Texans who were registered to vote in the November 2024 election. Counties must give the voters 30 days to show proof of citizenship before they can be removed from the rolls. However, names of any non-citizens who have been showed to have cast ballots will be turned over the Texas Attorney General’s office for prosecution.

Bloomberg [10/22/2025 8:03 PM, Erik Hertzberg, 18207K] reports Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government’s upcoming budget will introduce an immigration plan that includes a talent attraction strategy. Carney made the announcement in a speech Wednesday night, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg News. The live prime-time address was unusual for a Canadian prime minister and aimed to lay out his economic vision for the country. “To match immigration levels with our needs and our capacity to welcome them, this budget will include Canada’s new immigration plan to do better — for newcomers, for everyone,” he said, adding it will also have a “talent strategy,” skills training and apprenticeships for scientists and innovators. The prime minister has previously said he wants to attract employees from the technology sector who might have otherwise gone to the US if not for President Donald Trump’s new visa charges. Trump signed an executive order in September imposing $100,000 fees on new H-1B visas. The US recently exempted some workers from paying the fee, but the move has still caused confusion and frustration for companies that rely on the program to bring in global talent in computer programming, engineering and other roles. Carney’s government has maintained immigration curbs brought in by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who restricted the flow of foreign students and temporary workers after the country’s population growth rate spiked to among the world’s fastest. The new leader faces a challenge in restoring public support for immigration, which has hit multi-decade lows.

San Francisco Chronicle [10/22/2025 5:30 PM, Rachel Swan, 4722K] reports air travelers with a gender-neutral "X" on their passports may now be asked to assign themselves "male" or "female," under a Trump Administration executive order that took effect this month. The rule stems from a suite of hard-line gender prescriptions that President Donald Trump issued shortly after taking office in January, with the sweeping title of "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government." It pertained to everything from prisons, to passports, to allocating federal funds for medical procedures. To comply with Executive Order 14168, U.S. Customs and Border Protection created new protocols for the advanced passenger information system it uses to communicate with individual airlines when they cross international borders. These guidelines were set to launch in July, but came with a 90 day grace period. In deference to Trump’s order, Customs and Border Protection will no longer accept these expansive definitions of sex and gender. Travelers with a "sex indicator" that is not specifically male or female should just pick one, or allow the airline to choose. No airline will be penalized for arbitrarily selecting a sex that does not match what’s on the passenger’s passport, the guidelines say. As of Wednesday morning, it was unclear to what extent airlines throughout the country were enforcing Trump’s sex-assignment directive.

CBS News [10/22/2025 7:20 AM, Zachary Bynum, 39474K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers say they seized more than 160 pounds of ketamine over two days at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. On Oct. 11, officers found five large plastic bags of ketamine in the luggage of Daijanae Mitchell, a U.S. citizen arriving from Paris, France. The next day, officers say they discovered seven large bags of the same drug in the luggage of Ryan Mamboula Bokomba, a British citizen who had also flown in from Paris. Altogether, CBP reported confiscating 160.9 pounds of ketamine. The suspects and the drugs were turned over to local authorities for prosecution. The Clayton County Sheriff’s Office is handling Mitchell’s case, while the Atlanta Police Department is investigating Bokomba’s.

Univision Chicago WGBO [10/22/2025 3:20 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports several immigration raids were reported in the Little Village neighborhood on Wednesday, October 22, led by Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, at the intersection of 26th Street and Ogden Avenue, in front of a Sam’s Club supermarket parking lot. Witnesses and volunteer groups reported seeing officers chase a vehicle, which ended in a crash on 26th Street and Ogden Avenue, where several arrests were later made. In addition, at the press conference, they also reported the presence of federal agents in a public parking lot belonging to the Water Department as a point of operation. At least 11 federal agents were counted during the operation. So far, federal authorities have not issued an official statement regarding the number of arrests or the motives for the raids.

The Hill [10/22/2025 5:13 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12595K] reports the Trump administration dispatched 100 immigration agents to San Francisco with groups expected to begin arriving on Thursday, making it the second city in California to face federal intervention. Agents will be dispersed from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Coast Guard Base Alameda, one source told the San Francisco Chronicle. Over the weekend, President Trump announced plans to bring a federal presence to San Francisco, alleging residents would be welcoming of his plans to solve crime in the area. Lurie and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) have both said federal agents are not needed in California.

Reuters [10/22/2025 12:55 PM, Doyinsola Oladipo and David Shepardson, 36480K] reports the 60,000 men and women responsible for keeping American skies safe have gone unpaid throughout the government shutdown. Without a funding agreement soon, many will be forced to dip into savings, rack up credit-card debt, or take on part-time jobs to make ends meet, several federal employees said. The shutdown is now three weeks old, and rapidly approaching the time when the tens of thousands of government employees who keep security lines moving and air traffic safe will miss a full paycheck. Those workers last received paychecks in mid-October, and those checks were missing up to two days’ worth of pay. "People are saying, ‘Well, when I get off work, I’m going to do Uber or DoorDash or Lyft or something like that because I need to put food on the table and I got a kid at home’," said Neal Gosman, treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 899 in Minnesota, a union representing Transportation Security Administration workers. Gosman, who also works part time as a transportation security officer in addition to his union duties, said he received about 60% of his normal TSA pay in the last paycheck but that a co-worker received only $6.34. On Thursday, many air-traffic controllers will be notified how much they will be paid on Tuesday of next week. Many expect no payment at all.

CNN [10/23/2025 5:01 AM, Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju, and Morgan Rimmer, 18595K] reports Senate GOP leaders are again shaking up their strategy as they look for more ways to pressure Democrats to end a three-week stalemate over government funding — this time, with a vote that would keep paychecks flowing to “essential” workers. Democrats, however, are expected to widely reject the measure, leaving Congress no closer to resolving what is now the second longest government shutdown in history. The Senate will vote Thursday on a bill that would require the government to pay workers deemed essential and required to work during the lapse — including those in the US military, border patrol and Transportation Security Administration — from the Treasury Department’s coffers during a shutdown. That vote comes a day before millions of federal workers miss their first full paycheck, and is intended to cause maximum political pain for Democrats on day 23 of the political standoff. But Democrats say they oppose any bill that does not pay all federal workers and will instead propose a countermeasure on Thursday that would ensure furloughed workers, too, would be paid. It’s not clear that the measure will receive a vote, though even if it does, it would fail because it needs 60 votes to advance. The GOP’s measure, too, is likely to fall short of that 60-vote threshold. “I don’t like the bill because it gives the president the ability to decide who’s essential and who’s not. And what we see is he is using this in a political and punitive way,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, who represents a large contingent of federal workers living in Virginia. “‘We’re going to cancel Democratic programs. We’re going to send troops to Democratic cities.’ He would use this discretionary power to punish some and reward others.” “We want to pay all federal workers,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN this week. Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey, a former civilian advisor at the State Department, said he also has “deep concerns” about the bill.

CNN [10/23/2025 4:00 AM, Cindy Von Quednow, 18595K] reports that, moments after receiving a report of a man who threatened to shoot up the world’s busiest airport while livestreaming, Atlanta Police Officer Myesha Banks spotted a man matching his description in the crowd. His eyes scanned the ticketing area and the security checkpoint. Banks’ training kicked in. She approached the 350-pound man who towered over her and arrested him – thwarting what police said was a planned attack at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, police said. Banks on Monday apprehended Billy Joe Cagle, whose family alerted law enforcement that he was armed and headed to the airport to "shoot it up," police said. The quick and thoughtful actions of the suspect’s family and authorities were lauded by experts and officials alike. Still, the incident highlights vulnerabilities in airport security, especially in crowded areas not overseen by TSA officers. Cagle is facing charges of terroristic threats, criminal attempt to commit aggravated assaults, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was also charged with several federal counts: attempted violence at an international airport, interstate communications containing threats to injure and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said on Tuesday. Cagle is from Cartersville, about an hour away from Atlanta, and a family member then drove to the police department and alerted authorities that he was armed and on his way to the airport. After receiving a description of Cagle and his vehicle, Atlanta Police Sgt. Tywana Jones communicated the details to the team at the airport. Inside his vehicle parked in the departure area of the airport, police found an "AR-15 assault rifle" and a magazine with more than two dozen rounds, police said. "My heart was beating fast. I’m like, OK, I haven’t heard any gunshots, anything go off. So, you know, we’re good right now. Let’s just get that information out to prevent that," said Jones, who is six months away from retiring from the Atlanta Police Department with 30 years under her belt. "The tragedies that we’ve seen play out across our nation didn’t happen here," Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said Tuesday. With more than 108 million people flying through in 2024, Hartsfield-Jackson is the world’s busiest airport. "Public areas of airports are still vulnerable; they’re still at risk. And if someone is looking for large groups of people, ticket counters, the lobby areas, the garages, the bag claims, they are not defended by the TSA," said Mary Schiavo, CNN transportation analyst and former inspector general for the US Department of Transportation. Enhanced security, like vehicle inspections, were in place after September 11, Schiavo said. Those strict security measures slowed down traffic and travelers and likely would not be welcome again. "Nobody liked it, but it certainly added security," Schiavo said.

The Hill [10/22/2025 3:57 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12595K] reports the Trump administration has sent a referral to the Department of Justice recommending Biden-era Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff face criminal charges, alleging politicization of emergency funding. However, the effort to claim officials at the disaster agency considered politics when performing their duties has apparently turned up only a handful of instances of FEMA employees mentioning political figures during former President Biden’s time in office. A press release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday accuses FEMA officials under the prior administration of having "systematically refused aid to disaster survivors on purely political discrimination." It also raises the specter of charges for former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, arguing she was wrong when she testified under oath that one FEMA employee’s instruction not to canvas houses hit by Hurricane Milton if they had a Trump sign was simply an isolated incident. However, their review of four years of data from FEMA employees and contractors found just 15 incidents in which personnel referenced President Trump in their work canvassing properties to let owners know they could apply for assistance. In just two cases, someone referenced Biden. Those figures are drawn from tens of thousands of instances where FEMA staff knocked on someone’s door over several years. The canvassing team, while encouraging hurricane victims to register for aid, does not determine who receives it. Any people they assist in the initial registration are then forwarded to another team, which reviews whether someone is eligible. The guidance, however, was a direct violation of FEMA policy, which mandates that canvassers work to inform all residents of potential aid. While the exact nature of the referral and what materials were sent to the Justice Department remain unclear, the Office of Privacy report makes various references to Criswell. But the report also noted that FEMA staff have not been given clear guidance on how to approach homes where there may be weapons or they fear for their safety. The Blaze [10/22/2025 6:25 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1442K] reports that a whistleblower report surfaced in late 2024 that FEMA relief workers had been ordered not to provide aid to people displaying Trump signs on their property, eventually prompting several firings at the agency. ‘They deliberately avoided houses displaying support for President Trump and the Second Amendment, illegally collected and stored information about survivors’ political beliefs, and failed to report their malicious behavior.’. Then-FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell told Congress that it was an isolated incident, blaming the misstep on a since-terminated employee. However, a Department of Homeland Security report released Tuesday revealed that the "abuses were widespread, systematic, and occurred during multiple disasters dating back to Hurricane Ida in 2021.” "The federal government was withholding aid against Americans in crisis based on their political beliefs — this should horrify every American, regardless of political persuasion," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stated. "For years, FEMA employees under the Biden administration intentionally delayed much-needed aid to Americans suffering from natural disasters on purely political grounds," Noem continued. "They deliberately avoided houses displaying support for President Trump and the Second Amendment, illegally collected and stored information about survivors’ political beliefs, and failed to report their malicious behavior. We will not let this stand.”

Washington Times [10/22/2025 6:16 PM, Stephen Dinan, 852K] reports political targeting at the government’s emergency management agency went deeper than Biden officials acknowledged, according to a new report that said FEMA employees not only skipped over pro-Trump homes but also avoided homes with pro-gun messages. Indeed, the pro-gun avoidance was ever more prevalent than the Trump avoidance, Homeland Security’s Privacy Office concluded after an extensive review of Federal Emergency Management Agency files. They found that FEMA employees and contractors canvassing neighborhoods in the wake of a disaster repeatedly noted homes’ gun, anti-Biden and pro-Trump signage — all of that in breach of the federal Privacy Act, the report said. Eventually, someone else did visit the homes, but Secretary Kristi Noem said the initial targeting “should horrify every American, regardless of political persuasion.” She referred the matter to the Justice Department to see if anyone should face charges, and she ordered changes at FEMA to prevent repeats.

CNN [10/23/2025 4:45 AM, Briana Waxman, 18595K] reports Tropical Storm Melissa is barely moving through the Caribbean, and that’s exactly what makes it so dangerous. The longer it lingers, the more rain it dumps. Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic could face days of relentless downpours and landslides. As of Thursday morning, Melissa was about 300 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, with sustained winds near 50 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. It’s drifting west at just 2 mph, slower than the average person on a leisurely stroll. The storm is stalled over water that’s record-hot – perfect fuel for a storm to explode in strength. Melissa is forecast to reach hurricane strength by the weekend and could intensify rapidly into a major hurricane – Category 3 or greater – by early next week. If it does, it would be the fourth of the first five Atlantic hurricanes this season to reach Category 4 or stronger, something seen only three other times on record: 1932, 1999 and 2010, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. The storm is already bringing heavy rain to parts of the Caribbean. Forecasters warn of up to 10 inches of rainfall, with isolated totals topping a foot across southern Haiti, southern Dominican Republic and eastern Jamaica through Saturday. The hurricane center says life-threatening flash flooding and numerous landslides are likely in mountainous areas. It’s barely moving. When a storm crawls like this, rainfall piles up over the same towns for days. A similar setup produced catastrophic floods in 2017 with Harvey, which dumped over four feet of rain on parts of Texas, and in 2019 with Dorian, which dropped nearly 2 feet of rain in the Bahamas and over a foot in parts of South Carolina. Mountains magnify the flood threat. Haiti and the Dominican Republic’s steep terrain will force air upward, wringing out moisture from the storm, just like squeezing a wet sponge, turning tropical humidity into torrents racing downhill. Mudslides are all but guaranteed in this scenario. We saw this play out when Helene devastated western North Carolina last year. Helene was moving more quickly than Melissa, which will pack even more of a punch as it stalls out over similar steep terrain. The Caribbean Sea heat runs deep. The Caribbean’s record-warm waters extend far below the surface, preventing the usual "stirring up" of cooler water that can weaken hurricanes. Melissa is expected to strengthen as it meanders, feasting on that deep reservoir of heat. It’s a dangerous mix of worst scenarios. Melissa combines the worst features of past catastrophic storms: slow movement, mountains enhancing rainfall and potential for 130+ mph sustained winds. This type of storm can drench and destroy everything in its path. Also, it’s targeting islands, not open coastline. That means storm surge, destructive winds and days of unrelenting rain could all hit at once. Melissa’s exact track remains uncertain, but the range of possibilities is narrowing and no potential outcome looks good. The storm is trapped between competing weather systems that are locking it in place over the north-central Caribbean. That leaves Jamaica and Hispaniola squarely in the danger zone.

Bloomberg [10/22/2025 7:28 PM, Hadriana Lowenkron and Zahra Hirji, 18207K] reports that, as the US government shutdown hurtles through a fourth week, the main source of federal funding for disaster relief efforts is running critically low, according to people familiar with the matter and an internal report reviewed by Bloomberg. The Disaster Relief Fund, which finances federal assistance to disaster survivors and the deployment of federal staff to disaster zones, has reached a precarious level, current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency staff warn, threatening to curb crucial government disaster relief assistance in the middle of hurricane season. Last October, FEMA officials began ringing alarm bells when the relief fund balance dipped to $11 billion. The agency was stretched thin at the time responding to hurricanes Helene and Milton, which struck the US within days of each other. The current funding level is now more than a billion dollars below that. A report of the Disaster Relief Fund spending level through the end of September showed the agency with about $8.4 billion remaining for staff deployment, aid and other efforts tied to presidential major disaster declarations, alongside $1.1 billion to respond to unexpected future events, such as earthquakes. The agency is attempting to manage the remaining funds to ensure there are enough should a natural disaster occur. But the agency would likely need to prioritize immediate response efforts while postponing longer-term recovery efforts, according to one of the people. If this funding completely dries up, the situation could become even more dire, with calls to FEMA’s help line going unanswered. Staffing shortages could also hinder disaster survivors from registering for assistance. “All recovery operations will be on hold,” said Michael Coen, who served as FEMA chief of staff under President Joe Biden and signed an open letter in August criticizing the Trump administration’s cuts to federal disaster work. There’s little indication that the shutdown will soon end, with both sides locked in a standoff over expiring health-care subsidies. The funding lapse is now the second longest on record, and may stretch into November. President Donald Trump is due to head for meetings in Asia at the end of the week, and no talks are scheduled before then. While a House-passed stopgap spending bill under consideration in the Senate would replenish funding to the agency, Democrats have insisted on health-care funding to prevent Obamacare premiums from spiking in the new year. Civilian federal workers are set to miss their first full paycheck on Friday.

Daily Caller [10/22/2025 5:57 PM, Reagan Reese, 835K] reports a female agent formerly on the Secret Service detail for Vice President Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff moonlighted as a model and never passed her physical fitness test, sources told RealClearPolitics. Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle emphasized Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) during her tenure before she was forced to resign in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life, RealClearPolitics reported. Under Cheatle’s leadership, one agent on Emhoff’s detail was retained after she failed to pass her physical fitness test multiple times, sources in the Secret Service community told the outlet. After the agent had failed her physical fitness test multiple times, she was placed in the Special Services Division, which handles support functions for the agency, sources in the Secret Service community told the outlet. Her new job handles the maintenance of the armored vehicle fleet and screens mail and packages coming into the White House complex, the sources added.

Washington Times [10/22/2025 10:23 AM, Brad Matthews, 852K] reports that a man crashed his car into a security gate at the White House Tuesday night, after which the Secret Service took him into custody and searched the car. “At approximately 10:37 p.m., an individual drove a vehicle into the Secret Service vehicle gate located at [17th Street and E Street NW in the District]. The individual was arrested & the vehicle was assessed and deemed safe. Our investigation into the cause of this collision is ongoing,” the Secret Service said in a statement. The agency didn’t say whether the driver intended to crash or had a motive, nor did it provide his identity. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told Axios on Wednesday that after the crash, the driver received a mental health assessment at a local hospital. The Secret Service also said the crash posed no threat to President Trump, who was in the White House, according to The New York Times.

Reported similarly:
Blaze [10/22/2025 11:55 AM, Cooper Williamson, 1442K]

(B) NBC News Daily [10/22/2025 3:24 PM, Staff] reports that the Secret Service has arrested a driver who crashed into a security gate outside the White House last night. It happened about 10:30. The Secret Service says officers immediately arrested the drive. Secret Service also looked over the car to make sure there was not anything dangerous in it. So far, there have been no suggestions of any motive or the collision being intentional.

Breitbart [10/22/2025 10:29 AM, Nick Gilbertson, 2416K] reports the United States Secret Service (USSS) announced that an individual rammed a vehicle into a White House gate late Tuesday night and was reportedly sent "to a hospital for mental health services" following an arrest. In a statement released on X, the USSS said the person, whose sex was not specified, drove a vehicle into the gate situated on the West side of the President’s Park at 17th & E St, NW, at approximately 10:37 p.m. ET. "The individual was arrested & the vehicle was assessed and deemed safe. Our investigation into the cause of this collision is ongoing," the statement concluded. NewsNation White House correspondent Libby Dean reported Wednesday morning, citing an anonymous law enforcement source, that the individual "was taken to a hospital for mental health services.”

NewsMax [10/22/2025 6:12 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K] reports the Federal Aviation Administration has imposed yearlong flight restrictions prohibiting aircraft from operating within a mile of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, regardless of his presence there. The new restrictions took effect at 8 a.m. Monday and will remain in place 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until at least 8 a.m. Oct. 20, 2026, according to an FAA notice issued Saturday. The FAA warned that unauthorized aircraft or drone operators face civil fines, loss of certification, or criminal prosecution under federal law. The restrictions include a 1-nautical-mile radius from the surface up to 2,000 feet in the airspace over Mar-a-Lago. The new restrictions came after the Secret Service found an elevated hunting stand with a clear line of sight to where Air Force One typically parks at Palm Beach International Airport.

AP [10/22/2025 6:38 PM, Staff, 30493K] reports a family was rescued Wednesday by the Coast Guard off Cape Cod after their 30-foot pleasure boat caught fire and they were forced to swim to a small island where they sheltered in a barn for almost two days. When the mother, father and their son didn’t return as expected Tuesday night, a relative contacted authorities. The Coast Guard, along with the Falmouth police and Falmouth Harbormaster, began a search throughout the night. Calls to the family went to voicemail. On Wednesday, the son was able to use the boat’s marine radio, which washed up on the island, to make a mayday call to the Coast Guard. Soon after, the family was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter from Naushon Island and flown to an area hospital. "Quick thinking and having quality equipment allowed the family to survive and call for help," Scott Backholm, a search and rescue mission coordinator from Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England said in a statement. The Coast Guard said the family had planned to remain anchored between Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard throughout the weekend before returning Tuesday afternoon. The Coast Guard said they were awakened by the fire but did not say how far they had to swim to the island or the nature of their injuries. Naushon Island is the largest of the Elizabeth Islands, a chain of islands between southeastern Massachusetts and Martha’s Vineyard. Hyannis Fire Deputy Chief Jeff Lamothe told Boston 25 News that his crew had rushed the family to Cape Cod Hospital. One family member was in critical condition and two were stable condition, he said. No one answered the phone at the Hyannis Fire Department on Wednesday night to find out more information.

The Hill [10/22/2025 12:17 PM, Katlyn Fernandez, 12595K] reports documents released this week revealed what led to a 5-year-old girl falling off a Disney cruise ship and her father jumping off to rescue her in June. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office said the family was aboard the Disney Dream on June 29 when the incident occurred. According to documents, the family stopped to take a photo on Deck 4. The 5-year-old climbed onto a porthole and sat down on a railing while facing her mom. The documents said the girl lost her balance and fell backward into the water, about 49 feet below. The girl’s father told investigators that he did not see his daughter fall; however, he heard her scream and saw her in the water. Investigators said the girl did not trigger the ship’s man overboard sensors when she fell into the water because she was so small. Video surveillance footage showed the girl’s parents panicking and attempting to get assistance from crew members. Shortly after, the girl’s father jumped overboard in an attempt to rescue her, the documents said. The ship’s "man overboard" protocol was then initiated, and the United States Coast Guard was notified. A rescue boat was launched and recovered the girl and her father from the water after about 20 minutes.

FOX News [10/22/2025 9:22 AM, Diana Stancy, 49624K] Video: HERE reports that the Coast Guard is bolstering its forces along western Texas’ Rio Grande to support President Donald Trump’s border security mission as part of a "surge operation," according to the service. Trump declared a national emergency at the border in January, and his administration stood up Joint Task Force Southern Border in March to allow troops under the Department of War to assist with the Department of Homeland Security’s border mission. Dubbed Operation River Wall, the Coast Guard deployment aims to counter the influx of drugs into the U.S., and to deter and interdict illegal immigrants along the 260-mile stretch of the river that is part of the U.S. border, the service announced Monday. The Coast Guard said it is dispatching additional response boats, shallow watercraft, command and control assets, and tactical teams to the area to support the operation. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, right, pilots a U.S. Coast Guard response boat-small with the Maritime Security Response Team in San Diego, March 16, 2025. The service said it is leading operations it is conducting alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of War under U.S. Northern Command to advance Trump’s border priorities. "U.S. Coast Guard is the best in the world at tactical boat operations and maritime interdiction at sea, along our coasts, and in riverine environments," Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard, said in a Monday statement. "Through Operation River Wall, the Coast Guard is controlling the U.S. southern border along the Rio Grande River in eastern Texas." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [10/22/2025 10:39 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports Spencer Coursen, a threat management specialist and former U.S. Army Ranger and Special Deputy Marshal, spoke to Fox News Digital about the U.S. Coast Guard’s Operation Pacific Viper. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [10/22/2025 2:21 PM, Julian E. Barnes, 135475K] reports cyberattacks by the nation’s adversaries have increasingly targeted broader swaths of American communications and public infrastructure. But even as more sophisticated threats emerge, the Trump administration’s cuts to federal programs have eroded U.S. cyberspace defenses, according to a senator and a nonprofit organization that advocates improved security. Mr. King said the Trump administration had slashed the size of the Cyberspace and Infrastructure Security Agency by a third, from 3,300 people to 2,200. Those cuts came as the cyberspace security agency continued to warn about significant network breaches, including a hack of a prominent provider of virtual private networks, F5, and vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. President Trump also fired the head of U.S. Cyber Command, Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, after a far-right activist pushed for his ouster. His replacement, who is serving in an acting capacity, is not expected to be nominated for the job, creating uncertainty at the command that conducts cyberoperations overseas.

Bloomberg [10/22/2025 12:15 PM, Cassandre Coyer, 803K] reports that companies are on guard for a potential spike in cyberattacks as the lingering government shutdown exacerbates weaknesses in security defenses and further disrupts coordination. Since the US government ran out of funding on Oct. 1, businesses say key security guidance from agencies is missing and they lack guarantees that federal workers will pick up the phone in the event of a cyberattack. One of their main points of contact, the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency, has been nearly stripped of its workforce since the Trump administration took office, with swaths of workers transferred to other roles and more layoffs announced since the shutdown began. Partnerships between the private and public sectors were canceled. Visibility into threats across industry sectors is limited. Businesses are also operating without the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, a law that enabled them to safely share cyber intelligence with other companies and the government, which expired on Sept. 30. Now with much of a federal safety net peeled away, some companies are aiming to compensate by upping their cybersecurity, swapping updates from the government for industry sources, and mitigating legal risks. In interviews, companies and cyber professionals said government shutdowns open the door for increased attacks against the private sector, which includes a majority of US critical infrastructure, such as water systems or health-care entities.

MeriTalk [10/22/2025 11:23 AM, Weslan Hansen] reports five House Democrats are leading the latest congressional effort to demand answers from the Department of Homeland Security about the reassignment of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) employees to immigration enforcement roles during the government shutdown, calling the efforts “a political maneuver.” Led by Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., the letter sent Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was also signed by Reps. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., Eugene Simon Vindman, D-Va., and Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and urged the secretary to reassign CISA staff to their former roles. “These actions endanger the American public in service of the Trump Administration’s radical, nationwide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agenda. We urge you to immediately rehire and reclassify DHS personnel who have been separated or reassigned from CISA,” the lawmakers wrote. Reported reassignments specifically violate the Antideficiency Act, lawmakers said, which prohibits federal agencies from spending money or committing to obligations without congressional approval – or in this case, prevents agencies from reassigning or directing unpaid staff to new duties unless they are explicitly tied to excepted activities. Reductions in force – or layoffs – also carried out at CISA are illegal under the Antideficiency Act, lawmakers added, saying that the moves “raise serious concerns about the Administration’s motives.” Those layoffs, which have occurred at multiple federal agencies, have been deemed likely “a way to punish the opposing political party,” according to a federal judge who recently ruled to temporarily block thousands of federal layoffs.

CyberScoop [10/22/2025 7:25 AM, Tim Starks] reports the Trump administration should reverse cyber personnel and budget cuts, strengthen the Office of the National Cyber Director and expand federal workforce initiatives, the successor organization to the Cyberspace Solarium Commission recommended in a report published Wednesday. The annual implementation report from CSC 2.0 is the first of five iterations to actually determine that the nation has gone backward on enacting the agenda of the landmark bipartisan commission, whose suggestions led to the creation of major new federal organizations and policies, including the national cyber director’s office. In grading the degree to which its 2020 report had been enacted — whether they’re “implemented,” “nearing implementation,” “on track,” “progress limited” or facing “significant barriers” — the percentages dropped in every category, after years of rising or staying steady. “Our nation’s ability to protect itself and its allies from cyber threats is stalling and, in several areas, slipping,” states the report, in a passage written by former chairman Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and executive director Mark Montgomery. “This year’s assessment makes clear that technology is evolving faster than federal efforts to secure it. Meanwhile, cuts to cyber diplomacy and science programs and the absence of stable leadership at key agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the State Department, and the Department of Commerce have further eroded momentum.” The Trump administration’s federal budget cuts haven’t spared cyber agencies and missions. President Donald Trump has restructured State Department cyber work and eliminated a public-private panel devoted to critical infrastructure information sharing. Meanwhile, his nominee to lead CISA is still awaiting Senate confirmation. The first recommendation in Wednesday’s report is to enhance the power of the national cyber director, who “still lacks the positional authority and interagency relationships needed to enforce decisions across the government,” the report observes.

New York Times [10/22/2025 5:20 AM, Alexandra Berzon and Nick Corasaniti, 153395K] reports election officials from nearly all 50 states gathered on a call last month with the Homeland Security Department’s point person on “election integrity,” eager to hear how the woman filling a newly created Trump administration position might help safeguard the vote ahead of next year’s midterms. But many of them left alarmed. Rather than offering assurances that the federal government’s election protection programs would continue uninterrupted, the new official, Heather Honey, instead used portions of the meeting to echo rhetoric that has infused the right-wing election activist movement that emerged since President Trump falsely claimed that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud, according to five people with knowledge of the call. Ms. Honey, a leader in that movement until her appointment in August as deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, complained that her department’s cybersecurity experts tasked with combating misinformation about elections had “strayed from their mission.” The remark echoed a widespread view on the right that the agency had sought to silence supporters of Mr. Trump’s fraud claims. Ms. Honey also repeatedly mentioned a report often cited by election conspiracists to support their claims that voting machines were rigged to favor Democrats, according to the people familiar with the call. The ascent of Ms. Honey reflects how Mr. Trump and his allies, despite a clear victory last year, remain consumed with the belief that the 2020 election was stolen — and how the president is using the powers of the government to upend an electoral system that he insists helped Joseph R. Biden Jr. take the White House. In the past few months, Mr. Trump has elevated multiple proponents of his fraud claims into high-level administration jobs. Now, as government insiders, these activists could wield their newfound power to discredit future results or rekindle old claims to argue for a federal intrusion into locally administered voting systems. In response to questions from The Times, the Homeland Security Department declined to give specifics about the department’s election work. A homeland security spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement that CISA’s “mission is ensuring state and local election officials are cognizant of and utilize the most capable and timely threat intelligence, expertise, resources they need to defend against risks, and identify critical infrastructure security needs to maintain electoral functions.” She also said that the agency’s new hires “go through a rigorous vetting process.”

NPR [10/22/2025 5:09 PM, Staff, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports for many years, the far right has been the most lethal and persistent source of domestic terrorism in the U.S. But the assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk last month and attacks against immigration enforcement efforts have fueled a talking point for Republicans about concerns over left-wing political violence. The political motivations behind these attacks are still unclear, but one study says that violence from the left has been the greater threat so far this year. NPR’s domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef looks into whether this claim is correct.

NPR [10/22/2025 4:28 PM, Odette Yousef, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk has reanimated claims that the left is increasingly responsible for terrorist activity in the U.S. But the data paints a more complicated picture.

AP [10/22/2025 6:58 PM, Mead Gruver, 31753K] reports investigators in Wyoming sought to identify two men they believe left a homemade bomb in front of the state Capitol, causing the building’s evacuation after a passerby found the object and brought it inside. The bomb, at a time of heightened political angst in the U.S., put the sleepy capital of the least-populated state on edge for awhile, with drones overhead and officers with bomb-sniffing dogs combing the Capitol grounds. But a day later, things appeared back to normal. No security was visible at the 135-year-old, sandstone building where visitors have always been able to more or less wander among the state’s most powerful elected officials at will. "It’s a fantastic reflection of almost a happiness to trust people. Which is positive and should be retained," observed English tourist Jaume Vilar, who was visiting the building with his teenage son. The device was left sometime early Tuesday. Described by Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Commander Ryan Cox on Wednesday as a "deconstructed live firework munition with a fuse" measuring less than a foot (30 centimeters) long, it was not rigged to explode remotely. "It would’ve had to been lit with a lighter, or similar-type fashion," Cox said. It was not in a bag or other container when put on the state seal, a round, 10-foot-wide (3-meter-wide) decoration of inlaid stone midway between the Capitol front steps and the street, sometime between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m.. The seal is cordoned off behind a chain. The unidentified passerby, whom authorities soon ruled out as a suspect, brought the object into the building. An evacuation ensued at 9:45 a.m. and lasted all day. Those evacuated included Gov. Mark Gordon, who along with the state treasurer and state auditor was in a committee meeting in a nearby basement-level conference room. Workers in two nearby state office buildings sheltered in place until being allowed to leave in the afternoon.

Breitbart [10/22/2025 8:01 AM, Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby, 2416K] reports authorities in Mexico arrested a suspected member of the Gulf Cartel who had 151 drone explosives, 18 drones, three IEDs, and various other weapons. The seizure also included state-of-the-art anti-drone weapons. The arrest took place in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, a region that continues to see high levels of violence as the Gulf Cartel continues to use terrorist tactics even against innocent victims in its areas of operation. The Gulf Cartel is one of six Mexican drug cartels that have been labelled as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. Authorities raided a house in an undisclosed neighborhood in Reynosa, where they arrested a Gulf Cartel gunman who was guarding the explosives arsenal. A list of the seized items revealed that the gunman had 151 pieces of plastic explosives that had been packed to be dropped by drones. Authorities also found 18 drones, three improvised explosive devices, and three state-of-the-art anti-drone devices. The gunman also had a rifle, a handgun, and a stolen sedan. The seizure of the arsenal comes at a time when the Metros faction of the Gulf Cartel has been waging a turf war with the rival faction, Escorpiones, based out of neighboring Matamoros, for control of lucrative smuggling territories. As part of their fighting strategies, both sides have been using drones to drop explosives on armored vehicles used by their rivals.

Daily Caller [10/22/2025 10:36 AM, Derek VanBuskirk, 835K] reports intelligence gathered by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) led to the capture of notorious Sinaloa Cartel Plaza Boss Leonardo Daniel Martinez Vera, or "El Pato," on Oct. 15, officials announced Tuesday. The NCTC, operating under the direction of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), provided information to Mexican authorities regarding the location of El Pato, according to a Tuesday statement from ODNI. Authorities raided two houses of interest and captured three additional cartel money launderers, along with El Pato as he fled the scene, the press release stated. El Pato is allegedly responsible for heading operations involving drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and murder, according to ODNI. "We will pursue every terrorist who traffics deadly drugs into the United States to keep our homeland secure," NCTC Director Joe Kent said on social media. "We will not allow cartel gangs who target Americans to roam freely, whether in the U.S. or across the border in Mexico. Our team at NCTC is on the watch, preparing for the moment to strike," ODNI Director Tulsi Gabbard stated in the press release. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joint Task Force-North, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Texas Department of Public Safety Aircraft Operations Division, Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations and the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense all contributed to the arrest, the press release stated.

Reuters [10/22/2025 6:00 AM, Stefanie Eschenbacher, Shariq Khan, and Stephen Eisenhammer, 36480K] reports on the afternoon of March 8, a petroleum tanker named Torm Agnes entered the Port of Ensenada on Mexico’s Pacific coast carrying almost 120,000 barrels of diesel. Such a vessel was a rare sight in that port, which mainly hosts cruise liners, luxury yachts and container ships. Ensenada lacks the infrastructure needed to unload cargos of flammable hydrocarbons safely – making what happened later that day odder still. Waves of fuel-hauling trucks rolled up to the dock to cart away much of the Torm Agnes’ load. Workers scurried about filling the vehicles’ cavernous tanks, up to six at a time, using hoses springing from a larger hosepipe affixed to the vessel. The operation, while risky, ran like clockwork, according to an eyewitness and a photo and video from the scene shared with Reuters. "They had a team, they were very thorough on what to do, and they were very fast," the person said. "They worked insane hours, like through the night.” The audacious maneuver was the work of cartel-linked smugglers, according to three Mexican security sources and three people familiar with the operation – part of a wave of bootleggers upending Mexico’s fuel market with a flood of cut-rate fuel procured mainly from the United States that’s disguised in customs declarations as something else. The Mexican crooks didn’t act alone. A Houston company named Ikon Midstream played a key role in the multi-million-dollar Ensenada operation, Reuters has found. It purchased the diesel in Canada, claimed in paperwork it was lubricants, and chartered the tanker to deliver it to a customer that Mexican authorities allege is a front for one of the country’s largest and most violent cartels.

CNN [10/23/2025 2:28 AM, Germán Padinger, Rocío Muñoz-Ledo, Kit Maher and Lex Harvey, 606K] reports Venezuela has 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles in "key air defense positions," its President Nicolás Maduro claimed on Wednesday, amid growing tension over the United States’ military deployment in the Caribbean. US President Donald Trump has said he is weighing military action inside Venezuela as part of a counter-drug trafficking campaign and a broader effort to weaken Maduro, a longtime foe of Washington. "Any military force in the world knows the power of the Igla-S and Venezuela has no less than 5,000" of them, Maduro said during an event with military personnel broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión (VTV). The Russian Igla-S missiles are short-range, low-altitude systems similar to American Stingers. They can shoot down small aerial targets such as cruise missiles and drones, as well as helicopters and low-flying planes. Maduro said the missiles, light enough to be carried by a single soldier, had been deployed "even in the last mountain, the last town, and the last city of the territory." The US has deployed 4,500 Marines and sailors to the Caribbean to strengthen operations against cartels and demonstrate military power. It has carried out several lethal strikes on boats off the Caribbean coast that it alleges were trafficking narcotics. Lawmakers from both parties in the US have questioned the legality of the strikes on the alleged "narco boats." Last week, Trump said he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela and said the US was considering expanding its military campaign to land, as part of an intensifying US pressure campaign that officials say is aimed at ousting Maduro. "We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control," the president told reporters. The Trump administration has been quietly laying the groundwork for potential military action inside Venezuela for months, by tying Maduro to drug traffickers and cartels that officials have designated as terror groups who pose an imminent threat to the US. But to date, there is no indication that Trump has decided to take that step or target the Venezuelan leader directly. Instead, the goal has been to pressure Maduro to step down on his own, sources told CNN, in part by establishing a credible threat of US military action if he does not. Maduro has been responding by repositioning troops, mobilizing "millions" of militia members and denouncing US activity in the region. The people of Venezuela are "clear, united, and aware," Maduro said in a televised speech last week. "They have the means to once again defeat this open conspiracy against the peace and stability of Venezuela."

NewsMax [10/22/2025 10:10 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump authorized the CIA to take steps that could lead to the overthrow of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. According to the report, Trump signed a covert "finding" authorizing the CIA to conduct aggressive operations targeting the Maduro regime and its alleged narcotics network. The document, while not explicitly ordering regime change, empowers the agency to take actions that could "lead to that outcome," U.S. officials told the Post. Newsmax reached out to the White House for comment on the report. "We would never comment on matters on intelligence, but President Trump has been clear that he is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding in to our country and to bring those responsible to justice," White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Newsmax in an email.

Reuters [10/23/2025 3:37 AM, Simon Lewis and Alexander Cornwell, 36480K] reports U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the Israeli Knesset’s move towards the annexation of the West Bank would threaten President Donald Trump’s plan to end the conflict in Gaza, which has produced a shaky ceasefire so far. "I mean, that’s a vote in the – yeah, that’s a vote in the Knesset, but obviously I think the president’s made clear that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now, and we think it’s potentially threatening to the peace deal," Rubio told reporters late on Wednesday before leaving for Israel. Rubio’s visit to Israel, announced by the State Department on Wednesday, is the latest by a senior U.S. official seeking to keep alive a fragile truce between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel this week and met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. He is due to meet Defense Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Thursday before departing. The State Department said Rubio was visiting Israel to support the implementation of Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza war. A bill applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of land that Palestinians want for a state, won preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament on Wednesday.

Washington Examiner [10/22/2025 7:26 AM, Jamie McIntyre, 1394K] reports after Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with his Russian counterpart and reported back that Russia has flatly rejected President Donald Trump’s proposal to freeze the battle lines in Ukraine, and “let history decide,” who won, Trump abruptly pulled the plug on a peace summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that was to be held in Budapest in the coming weeks. “I don’t want to have a wasted meeting, I don’t want to have a waste of time,” Trump said at an afternoon White House event. “You never know what’s going to happen. But, a lot of things are happening on the war front, with Ukraine and Russia. And we’ll be notifying you over the next two days as to what we’re doing.” Asked specifically if Putin’s intransigence would prompt him to reconsider allowing NATO to buy Tomahawk Cruise missiles for Ukraine, Trump said, "We’ll see what happens. We haven’t made a determination." Despite Russia’s unequivocal rejection of his call for an immediate ceasefire, Trump still seems to think he can reach a peace deal. "Look, it’s a vicious war," he said. "They’re shooting and they’re killing people. And I think Putin wants it to end, and I think Zelensky wants it to end, and I think it’s going to end." "I said go to the line, go to the line of battle, or the battlefield lines, and, I mean, you pull back and you go home and everybody takes some time off, because you have two countries that are killing each other, two countries that are losing five to 7,000 soldiers a week," he said. "But, a lot of things are happening. I think we could get it."

FOX News [10/22/2025 5:55 PM, Diana Stancy Fox, 40621K] reports President Donald Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte Wednesday — days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House and after calling off a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "We canceled the meeting with President Putin," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office with Rutte Wednesday. "It just it didn’t feel right to me. It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I canceled it. But we’ll do it in the future.” Trump also shed insight into why he isn’t interested in arming Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, after indicating earlier in October he might do so. "There is a tremendous learning curve with the Tomahawk. It’s a very powerful weapon, very accurate weapon," Trump said. "And maybe that’s what makes it so complex. But it will take a year. It takes a year of intense training to learn how to use it, and we know how to use it. And we’re not going to be teaching other people. It will be just too far out into the future.” Rutte said he visited the White House to discuss ways to end the war, although he said "no peace plan is on the table.” "That’s why I’m here — to dialog again with the president … how NATO, my colleagues and other colleagues in NATO can be of maximum support to get that," Rutte said. NATO announced Tuesday that Rutte would visit Washington Wednesday, as Trump has said he wants to direct his focus on ending the conflict between Russia and Ukraine following the ceasefire deal in the Middle East. Ahead of his arrival at the White House, Rutte said that Wednesday’s White House visit aimed to build on the momentum after securing the peace agreement in the Middle East. "I was texting with the president after an enormous success in Gaza, and we said, ‘Hey, let’s have a meeting in Washington to discuss how we now can deliver his vision of peace in Ukraine,’" Rutte told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday after meeting with lawmakers, according to New York Times. "I have total confidence in President Trump. He’s the only one who can get this done," Rutte said.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [10/22/2025 6:22 PM, Mabinty Quarshie, Christian Datoc and David Sivak, 1394K]

Washington Times [10/22/2025 4:12 PM, Mallory Wilson, 852K] reports NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Wednesday that President Trump is “the only one” who can get a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Mr. Rutte met with senators on Capitol Hill ahead of his meeting with Mr. Trump at the White House and he said the two will discuss how NATO can “be helpful in delivering his vision of getting a full scale peace in Ukraine.” “I have total confidence in President Trump. He’s the only one who can get this done,” Mr. Rutte told reporters. He said his visit to the White House should not be seen as a signal that Mr. Trump’s meeting last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a disaster. “This was already planned before,” he said. “I was texting with the president after an enormous success in Gaza, and we said, ‘Hey, let’s have a meeting in Washington to discuss how we now can deliver his vision of peace in Ukraine.’” Mr. Rutte said he thought Friday’s meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy, who came to Washington to request U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles, but left empty-handed, was a “good [and] successful meeting.” Mr. Trump had spoken on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day before he met with the Ukrainian leader. “It’s exactly what we need,” he said. “The American president, who broke the deadlock with Putin in February, took that leadership role which only he can and he is delivering and I’m really commending him for that.” Mr. Rutte said “we will build” on the meeting Mr. Trump had with Mr. Zelenskyy. After the meeting Friday, Mr. Trump said it was time to “stop the killing, and make a DEAL.” “Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts. They should stop where they are,” he wrote on social media.

New York Post [10/22/2025 6:41 PM, Zoe Hussain, 42219K] reports Russian dictator Vladimir Putin supervised what he said was a planned test of Russia’s nuclear forces on land, sea and in the air to assess his nation’s readiness on Wednesday. "Today, we are conducting a planned — I want to emphasize, planned — nuclear forces command and control exercise," Putin said in a video conference with the Kremlin’s top military brass, CNN reported. As part of the test, a land-based "Yars" intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from a cosmodrome while a "Sineva" ballistic missile was launched from a nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea. Russia also deployed nuclear-capable cruise missiles from strategic bombers. Moscow typically carries out nuclear drills to rehearse its command structure and flex the world’s largest nuclear arsenal to its adversaries — and Wednesday’s came one day after President Trump revealed he nixed a second in-person summit with Putin over his war in Ukraine. "The exercise tested the level of preparedness of the military command and the practical skills of the operational personnel in organizing the control of subordinate forces," the Kremlin said in a statement. "All exercise tasks were completed". The readiness test comes on the heels of NATO conducting nuclear exercises earlier this month, dispatching F-35 fighter jets and B-52 bombers in a horde of more than 70 aircraft from 14 allied nations for its Steadfast Noon exercise in Belgium and the Netherlands. "We need to do this because it helps us to make sure that our nuclear deterrent remains as credible, and as safe, and as secure, and as effective as possible," NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte previously said in a video statement.

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