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

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

The Washington Examiner [10/27/2025 3:28 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports the Trump administration has begun to purge Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in offices in five major U.S. cities and fill some of those top posts with senior Border Patrol agents who will take over interior immigration enforcement in those regions, according to five sources familiar with the plans. ICE leaders in Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego were relieved of their jobs and moved to other posts within the federal agency last Friday, the Washington Examiner has learned. Over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security quietly started overhauling how it carries out its mass deportation operation in hopes of netting more arrests and ratcheting up its flashy, high-profile deportation campaign. The five cities are believed to be the first of more to come across ICE’s 24 field offices nationwide, according to three officials. One official with firsthand knowledge of the plans, who asked to speak on the condition of anonymity, said the plan goes far beyond the five cities. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem would have the final say in personnel matters at ICE and Border Patrol. CBS News [10/27/2025 8:07 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 39474K] reports that one U.S. official, who requested anonymity to talk about internal matters, said as many as roughly a dozen local ICE leaders could be reassigned, with some expected to be replaced by current or former officials at Customs and Border Protection, its sister Department of Homeland Security agency. Some of those ICE officials have already been informed of their reassignments, the official added. The planned shake-up at ICE would be a major leadership overhaul, affecting roughly half of the agency’s 25 field offices. In most cases, the field office directors won’t be demoted or fired, said two U.S. officials, who described the plan as a way to give certain ICE offices additional support. The Trump administration has increasingly turned to CBP and Border Patrol officials like Commander Gregory Bovino to expand its government-wide crackdown on illegal immigration, deploying them to apprehend unauthorized immigrants far away from the U.S.-Mexico border, in Democratic-led cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. Operations by green-uniformed Border Patrol agents in those cities — including arrests at Home Depot parking lots and worksites like car washes — have triggered significant local backlash, with critics accusing the agents of being heavy-handed and arresting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally but without criminal records. In a statement to CBS News, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, "While we have no personnel changes to announce at this time, the Trump Administration remains laser focused on delivering results and removing violent criminal illegal aliens from this country.” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said, "The President’s entire team is working in lockstep to implement the President’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves.” The Washington Examiner reported on the reassignments earlier Monday. Internally, U.S. officials tell CBS News, some ICE leaders have been frustrated with Border Patrol’s operations in cities — and the opposition they have garnered from local residents. While the Trump administration has made anyone in the U.S. illegally who is encountered by federal officials subject to arrest, ICE says its operations have continued to primarily target immigrants who have committed crimes in addition to being in the country unlawfully. "We’re arresting criminals, while they are going to Home Depots and car washes," one U.S. official told CBS News, referring to Border Patrol agents. Some inside the Trump administration, however, see Border Patrol officials as better equipped to carry out the aggressive and expansive operations needed to reach the ambitious arrest targets set by the White House. Caleb Vitello, the first official tapped to lead ICE under the second Trump administration, was reassigned in February and replaced by longtime agency veteran Todd Lyons, who continues to serve as acting director. Previous heads of ICE’s deportation unit, Enforcement and Removal Operations, and its investigative branch, Homeland Security Investigations, have also been replaced in recent months. ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed director since early 2017, under the Obama administration. ABC News [10/27/2025 10:06 PM, Luke Barr, 30493K] reports that as many as 12 field office directors could be replaced by border patrol officials in the coming days, a law enforcement source told ABC News. The field offices range from Los Angeles to Philadelphia -- and all of this is spearheaded by Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Commander at Large Greg Bovino. Bovino’s tactics have drawn the ire of at least one federal judge who called him to testify about potentially ignoring a court order. Internally at DHS, Bovino has drawn praise from senior DHS leadership. It would also be a shift for ICE -- which typically keeps promotions in-house. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin posted on X on Monday, saying, "This is one team, one fight. President Trump has a brilliant, tenacious team led by @Sec_Noem to deliver on the American people’s mandate to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country.” "As we said, we have no personnel changes to announce right now, but we remain laser focused on RESULTS and we will deliver," McLaughlin added.

Reported similarly:
NBC News [10/27/2025 7:22 PM, Julia Ainsley and Laura Strickler, 43603K]

FOX News [10/27/2025 8:46 PM, Greg Wehner, Bill Melugin, 40621K] reports a mass shakeup of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leadership is underway amid growing friction inside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over deportation tactics and priorities, according to four senior DHS officials. The overhaul affects ICE field offices in at least eight cities and will replace many senior leaders with Border Patrol officials, marking an unprecedented power shift inside DHS and exposing sharp divisions over how far to go in ramping up deportations, the officials told Fox News. The changes are being driven by competing camps inside DHS. On one side are Border Czar Tom Homan and ICE Director Todd Lyons, who have advocated focusing on criminal aliens and those with final deportation orders. On the other side are DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, senior adviser Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, who have pushed for a broader and more aggressive approach, targeting anyone in the U.S. illegally to boost deportation numbers. Two senior officials described the mood inside DHS as "tense" and "combative," with some ICE leaders warning the new approach could erode public support and blur the line between ICE and Border Patrol operations. "ICE started off with the worst of the worst, knowing every target they are hitting, but since Border Patrol came to LA in June, we’ve lost our focus, going too hard, too fast, with limited prioritization," one senior DHS official told Fox. "It’s getting numbers, but at what cost?". Another senior official put it bluntly, "ICE is arresting criminal aliens. They [Border Patrol] are hitting Home Depots and car washes.” Border Patrol agents have defended the new strategy. "What did everyone think mass deportations meant? Only the worst?" one agent told Fox News. "Tom Homan has said it himself — anyone in the U.S. illegally is on the table.” The internal friction comes as deportation totals remain below targets set by the administration earlier this year. Officials told Fox News that the latest round of reassignments impacts ICE field chiefs in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Portland, Philadelphia, El Paso and New Orleans — positions expected to be filled by Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials. A separate DHS official confirmed the personnel changes, describing them as "performance-based" and designed "to move people around for the best results.” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: "While we have no personnel changes to announce at this time, the Trump administration remains laser focused on delivering results and removing violent criminal illegal aliens from this country." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
New York Post [10/28/2025 3:51 AM, Staff, 42219K]
CNN [10/27/2025 10:52 PM, Priscilla Alvarez, 18595K]

The AP [10/27/2025 6:15 PM, Christopher Weber, Matthew Lee, and Rebecca Santana, 31753K] reports that Sami Hamdi, a British political commentator, was being held Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he was detained by ICE officers at San Francisco International Airport, according to federal officials. One senior U.S. official said the detention was related to comments he has made about the Middle East. Hamdi, who is Muslim, was on a speaking tour in the U.S. and on Saturday had addressed the annual gala for the Sacramento, California, chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. "Earlier this morning, ICE agents abducted British Muslim journalist and political commentator Sami Hamdi at San Francisco Airport, apparently in response to his vocal criticism of the Israeli government during his ongoing speaking tour," the group said in a Sunday social media post. It was not immediately clear what specific comments triggered Hamdi’s detention. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin indicated on social media Sunday that Hamdi’s "visa was revoked and he is in ICE custody pending removal." ICE said in a statement that Hamdi entered the U.S. on Oct. 19 on a visitor visa. "The State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs revoked Hamdi’s visa Oct. 24, 2025, effective immediately. ICE detained Hamdi, as he was illegally in the country, and he will be placed in immigration proceedings," ICE said. The Chicago Tribune [10/27/2025 6:55 PM, Rick Hurd, 4829K] reports that in an emailed statement, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin credited Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem with the detainment. "Thanks to the work of (Noem and Rubio) and the men and women of law enforcement, this individual’s visa was revoked and he is in ICE custody pending removal," McLaughlin said. "Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country. It’s common sense." "Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies operate outside the jurisdiction of U.S. airports," San Francisco Airport spokesperson Doug Yakel said via email. "As a result, we are not involved in any decisions about DHS operations, nor are we notified of such operations." The New York Post [10/27/2025 9:32 AM, Patrick Reilly, 42219K] reports that there had already been a widespread push for the Trump administration to kick out Hamdi — who claims to be a journalist — over his past celebration of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that led to years of devastating war. Days after the attack, he reportedly told a crowd at a mosque in London to "celebrate the victory." CNN [10/27/2025 8:44 PM, Christian Edwards, 18595K] reports Hamdi is a journalist and commentator who appears on British TV networks to analyze developments in the Middle East. Recently, he has spoken about the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza and international plans for the post-war governance of the enclave. According to Hamdi’s LinkedIn page, he is the managing director and editor-in-chief of International Interest, an organization which "advises on political environments across the globe.". Hamdi was detained Sunday morning at San Francisco International Airport by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, CAIR said in a statement. On Saturday, Hamdi had spoken at CAIR’s annual gala in Sacramento, California, and had been due to speak at the gala of CAIR Florida the next day. CAIR said its lawyers were "working to address this injustice." and called on ICE to release him. "Abducting a prominent British Muslim journalist and political commentator on a speaking tour in the United States because he dared to criticize the Israeli government’s genocide is a blatant affront to free speech," CAIR said. When asked if Hamdi has had consular assistance or legal representation, a spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it was "in contact with the family of a British man detained in the USA" and "in touch with the local authorities.". The State Department confirmed it had arrested Hamdi, saying the US will continue to revoke the visas of foreigners who "support terrorism" and make Americans unsafe. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the approach showed common sense. The New York Times [10/27/2025 9:59 AM, Claire Moses, 153395K] reports Mr. Hamdi appeared to be the latest person to have an American visa revoked over political speech. Other cases have raised questions about First Amendment protections. Mr. Hamdi is the managing director of the International Interest, an organization that “advises on geopolitical environments and risks across the globe,” according to its website. He has appeared as a commentator on the British television news channel Sky News and other outlets. He had been on a speaking tour in the United States, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. He attended the organization’s annual gala on Friday night in Sacramento and was scheduled to speak at a gala in Florida on Sunday night. Mr. Hamdi was detained at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday morning, according to CAIR, which called for his release. Mr. Hamdi is based in London, according to his LinkedIn account. CAIR said in a statement that Mr. Hamdi had been detained “because he dared to criticize the Israeli government’s genocide” while on his speaking tour. It called the action “a blatant affront to free speech.”

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [10/27/2025 5:35 AM, Staff, 2416K]

CNN US [10/27/2025 3:11 PM, Christian Edwards, 18595K] reports British commentator Sami Hamdi was detained on Sunday by federal immigration officers during a speaking tour in the United States, in what a Muslim advocacy group said was retaliation for his criticism of Israel. The Trump administration said its decision to detain Hamdi and revoke his visa underscores that the US has no obligation to host foreigners "who support terrorism and actively undermine the safety of Americans." But the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called Hamdi’s treatment a "blatant affront to free speech" and called for his release. The State Department confirmed it had arrested Hamdi, saying the US will continue to revoke the visas of foreigners who "support terrorism" and make Americans unsafe. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the approach showed common sense.

USA Today [10/27/2025 12:10 PM, Brie Anna J. Frank, 67103K] reports the Council on American-Islamic Relations is preparing for a legal fight after the Trump administration said it would deport a British Muslim journalist from the country following his detainment in California on Oct. 26. The organization said Sami Hamdi, a political commentator and managing director of the consulting company The International Interest, was detained at the San Francisco International Airport. It attributed the incident to Hamdi’s criticism of Israel, calling it a "blatant affront to free speech.". "Our nation must stop abducting critics of the Israeli government at the behest of unhinged Israel First bigots," the organization said. "This is an Israel First policy, not an America First policy, and it must end." Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Hamdi’s detention in an Oct. 26 X post, saying his "visa was revoked and he is in ICE custody pending removal." "Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country," McLaughlin wrote. "It’s commonsense."

ABC News [10/27/2025 7:34 PM, Luke Barr, 30493K] reports the Department of Homeland Security announced that 1.6 million people who were in the United States illegally have self-deported, and another 500,000 have been deported. The department has been pushing self-deportations, spending millions on advertisements that showcase a $1,000 payment and a plane ticket that people who register to self-deport are given. It’s unclear how much money in total has been given to people who have self-deported. Tricia McLaughlin, DHS’ assistant secretary for public affairs, said the Trump administration is on pace to "shatter" current deportation records. "President Trump and Secretary Noem have jumpstarted an agency that was hamstrung and barred from doing its job for the last four years," she said in a statement. "In the face of a historic number of injunctions from activist judges and threats to law enforcement, DHS, ICE and CBP have not just closed the border, but made historic strides to carry out President Trump’s promise of arresting and deporting illegal aliens who have invaded our country," McLaughlin said. "Illegal aliens are hearing our message to leave now or face the consequence: Migrants are now turning back before they even reach our borders. Migration through Panama’s Darien Gap is down 99.99%," she claimed. President Donald Trump promised to carry out mass deportations during his 2024 campaign. Activists have claimed that immigration enforcement has gone too far.

Breitbart [10/27/2025 9:03 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports more than half a million undocumented immigrants have left the United States since Donald Trump became president again in January, the Department of Homeland Security announced Monday. The agency described the 527,000 departures as "record-breaking" in a news release. That comes out to around 2,000 a day. The agency’s release did not list the number of deportations but said "the Trump administration is on pace to shatter historic records and deport nearly 600,000 illegal aliens by the end of President Donald Trump’s first year since returning to office.” Through November 2024, there were 311,990 removals. "When we send an alien back to their country of citizenship or a third country, it’s called repatriation," DHS said on its website. Through November 2024, there were about 677,800 repatriations after 1.4 million each in 2020 and 2021, then 1.1 million in 2023. Trump left office the first time in January 2021. The departures include those sent back at the border or ports of entry. DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol are involved in the process. Of the 2 million who left the country since Trump took office, 1.6 million have voluntarily deported. "In the face of a historic number of injunctions from activist judges and threats to law enforcement, DHS, ICE and CBP, have not just closed the border, but made historic strides to carry out President Trump’s promise of arresting and deporting illegal aliens who have invaded our country," Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "This is just the beginning," she said. "President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem have jump-started an agency that was hamstrung and barred from doing its job for the last four years. The United States is offering undocumented immigrations $1,000 and a free flight to self-deport now. She said they "are hearing our message to leave now or face the consequence.” McLaughlin also noted, "migrants are now turning back before they even reach our borders. Migration through Panama’s Darien Gap is down 99.99%.” Seventy percent of arrests are charged or convicted of a crime in the United States, the agency added. The number of encounters at the Southwest border, which stretches from Texas to California, fell 84.5%, from 1.53 million in 2024 to 237,538 in fiscal year 2025, which goes from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. It was 2.22 million in 2022 and 2.05 million in 2023. In the United States, ICE is beefing up arrests, including in Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Memphis, Tenn. They have been met with protesters. National Guard troops have been called to Los Angeles and Memphis but they are being temporarily blocked by the federal courts in Chicago and Portland. Gregory Bovino, the BPC commander, told WLS-TV nearly 3,000 people have been arrested in Chicago since the immigration crackdown began last month in Operation Midway Blitz. "When we utilize force in law enforcement … it’s the least amount of force necessary to effect an arrest or to affect the successful outcome of any given mission that we’re on," Bovino said. "Whether it’s the use of tear gas. Or the use of hand techniques or any use of force by law enforcement, that’s that least amount of force necessary to positively affect the outcome of that mission. And that’s what we do here in Chicago.” District Judge Sarah Ellis, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, has called him to testify on Tuesday about the techniques. Her case involves a lawsuit against DHS.

The AP [10/28/2025 12:03 AM, Christine Fernando, 31753K] reports a senior Border Patrol official who has become the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago is due in court Tuesday to take questions about the enforcement operation in the Chicago area, which has produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force. The hearing comes after a judge earlier this month ordered uniformed immigration agents to wear body cameras, the latest step in a lawsuit by news outlets and protesters who say federal agents used excessive force, including using tear gas, during protests against immigration operations. Greg Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, one of nine sectors on the Mexican border, is himself accused of throwing tear gas canisters at protesters. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis initially said agents must wear badges, and she banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists. She later said she was concerned agents were not following her order after seeing footage of street confrontations involving tear gas during the administration’s Operation Midway Blitz, and she modified the order to also require body cameras. Ellis last week extended questioning of Bovino from two hours to five because she wants to hear about agents’ recent use of force in the city’s Mexican enclave of Little Village. During an enforcement operation last week in Little Village and the adjacent suburb of Cicero, at least eight people, including four U.S. citizens, were detained before protesters gathered at the scene, local officials said. CBS Chicago [10/27/2025 10:18 AM, Darius Johnson, 39474K] reports that this past Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis ordered Bovino to attend a hearing in her courtroom after he was accused of violating a temporary restraining order limiting federal agents’ use of certain tactics to suppress protests or prevent media coverage of immigration enforcement operations in Illinois. Ellis ordered the Trump administration to produce Bovino for a hearing in her courtroom on Tuesday. She has repeatedly raised concerns about federal agents’ aggressive tactics while carrying out immigration enforcement operations in Chicago. On Thursday, a group of journalists, protesters, and clergy who had sued the Trump administration accused Bovino of violating a temporary restraining order Ellis had issued limiting such tactics. In their complaint, the plaintiffs cited video showing Bovino throwing at least one canister of tear gas during a confrontation between federal agents and protesters in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. In their filing, the plaintiffs include a screenshot from the same video, and say it shows Bovino throwing "either one or two tear gas canisters over the heads of armed federal agents in front of him and in the direction of a crowd of individuals protesting, including an individual filming the encounter." The plaintiffs argue this violates "multiple paragraphs" of the court’s Oct. 9 order, which prohibits federal agents from arresting, threatening to arrest or using physical force against journalists unless there is probable cause to believe the individual has committed a crime. USA Today [10/27/2025 10:54 PM, Michael Loria, 67103K] reports Homeland Security officials defend the use of chemical weapons and other crowd control tactics in the face of what they have called "rioters." "DHS can think of nobody better to correct Judge Ellis’s deep misconceptions about its mission, and we thank him for his service," a Homeland Security spokesperson said of Bovino being called to testify. The hearing slated for 10 a.m. local time at the Dirksen federal courthouse comes as the Supreme Court weighs whether to let the White House deploy the military to the city. The Trump administration says troops are needed to carry out an immigration enforcement crackdown aimed at the "worst of the worst" criminal immigrants.

Reported similarly:
NBC News [10/28/2025 5:00 AM, Natasha Korecki, 43603K]

Chicago Tribune [10/27/2025 6:11 PM, Jason Meisner, 4829K] reports federal immigration agents have again been accused of violating a judge’s restraining order during a fracas in the Old Irving Park neighborhood over the weekend where residents were tackled and tear gassed as children prepared for a Halloween parade. The incident in the 3700 block of Kildare Avenue, where agents chased a day laborer down the street, prompted a chaotic scene that "ruined what should have been an ordinary Saturday morning," according to a court filing Monday by the plaintiffs in an ongoing federal lawsuit over "Operation Midway Blitz" crowd control tactics. The actions violated U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis’ restraining order in several ways, the filing alleged, including by deploying chemical munitions without the required verbal warnings. Some of the agents also had no identifying information on their uniforms and used "unnecessary force" in tackling residents who posed no physical threat, the filing stated. In a statement over the weekend, DHS said Border Patrol agents were "surrounded and boxed in by a group of agitators" and that multiple lawful commands and verbal warnings were ignored. No assault charges had been filed against anyone arrested as of Monday. The operation also resulted in the arrest of the day laborer, who DHS said was in the country illegally and has a previous arrest for assault. The allegations were just the latest in a string of incidents in neighborhoods across the city and suburbs, and come a day before Border Control Cmdr. Greg Bovino, one of the leaders of the ongoing immigration-enforcement push, is set to appear before Ellis to answer questions about the tactics being used on the streets. A full injunction hearing on the issue of tear gas and other tactics is expected to be held next month.

ABC News [10/27/2025 5:00 PM, Bill Hutchinson, 30493K] reports the U.S. Border Patrol is coming under criticism from Chicago residents who claim federal agents disrupted a children’s Halloween parade over the weekend, allegedly with aggressive tactics and tear gas during an immigration enforcement incident. The latest clash between federal agents and residents came as Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who is leading the "Operation Midway Blitz" immigration enforcement in Chicago, is scheduled to appear before a federal judge on Tuesday. On Saturday, Border Patrol agents converged on the Old Irving Park neighborhood on the city’s Northwest Side to conduct an immigration enforcement raid. Video footage that was verified by ABC News showed agents deploying tear gas and tackling and arresting several people, including U.S. citizens, outside homes decked out in Halloween decorations. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement to ABC News that agents "had to deploy crowd control measures" to protect themselves from a hostile crowd. McLaughlin said agents were conducting an operation that resulted in the arrest of a "criminal illegal alien from Mexico, who has previously been arrested for assault." Construction worker Luis Villegas was identified by his family and a resident of the neighborhood as being among those arrested in Saturday’s Border Patrol enforcement in Old Irving Park. It’s unclear if Villegas is the same man federal agents were targeting in the Old Irving Park incident.

Chicago Tribune [10/27/2025 6:00 AM, Talia Soglin, 4829K] reports five days after armed federal agents descended on the Swap-O-Rama flea market and took more than a dozen people away, some of the market’s vendors were back at work, selling tools, hot sauce and women’s underwear from spaces they rent in the parking lot. But the flea market was mostly barren on Tuesday’s overcast afternoon. Customers and vendors alike, it seemed, were staying away. "It’s a hard decision," to set up shop again at the open-air Back of the Yards market, said one Swap-O-Rama vendor, who gave only her first name, Sylvia. "We don’t like what happened last Thursday, but we have to come." In response to questions about the Swap-O-Rama raid, for instance, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the agency had arrested "13 illegal aliens who have broken our nation’s immigration laws, with criminal histories that include arrests for DUI, battery causing bodily harm, and domestic violence." But Homeland Security didn’t provide the names of those arrested at the flea market after the Tribune asked for them, making it impossible to verify its claims. Meanwhile, advocates say there is more the city and business owners can do to protect workers in the informal economy, even if they don’t employ them directly.

CBS News [10/27/2025 3:34 PM, Nicole Sganga, 39474K] reports two Illinois National Guard members told CBS News they would refuse to obey federal orders to deploy in Chicago as part of President Trump’s controversial immigration enforcement mission — a rare act of open defiance from within the military ranks. Both Palecek and Capt. Dylan Blaha, who is running for Congress in the same district, described growing unease among Guard members after the White House federalized 500 troops – including members of the Illinois and Texas National Guard – to secure federal immigration facilities and personnel in the Chicago area. A federal judge on Wednesday delayed the deployment of the National Guard in Chicago indefinitely, until a final ruling is issued or the Supreme Court rules on the matter. The two guardsmen accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the military against civilians under the guise of public safety.

Washington Examiner [10/27/2025 2:10 PM, Staff, 1394K] reports that while Democratic members of Illinois’ congressional delegation call out President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, an Illinois Republican candidate for the U.S. House is pointing to the immigration policies of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. At a press conference in Chicago Friday, Illinois Democrats discussed the findings of a shadow hearing on the impacts of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. Illinois U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Chicago, thanked members of Congress from other states who attended the unofficial hearing and press conference. "Colleagues of mine from all over the country heard from our community on the ground what we’re experiencing, what we’re living: the violent attacks by this invasion created by Donald Trump and Kristi Noem," Ramirez said. Several lawmakers from Illinois, including U.S. Reps. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, D-Chicago, and Jonathan Jackson, D-Chicago, left the press conference before reporters were allowed to ask questions. When asked if anyone in the state’s congressional delegation tried to set up a meeting with the president to open a dialogue about immigration, Illinois U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson, answered. "He is not going to meet with us. We can’t even get him to meet with us. He and the Republicans are gone. He’s flying out of the country. We can’t even get him to meet with us about the shutdown. He certainly is not meeting with us about this," Kelly said. Trump was scheduled to begin a trip to Asia on Friday.

Washington Examiner [10/27/2025 2:26 PM, Staff, 1394K] reports that a state senator is weighing in on the arrest of a Hanover Park officer, saying House Bill 3751, which allows non-citizens to serve as police officers, is complicating the issue. Federal officials say Radule Bojovic, an immigrant from Montenegro, overstayed a 2015 visa and was later hired as a Hanover Park police officer. "Gov. J.B. Pritzker doesn’t just allow violent illegal aliens to terrorize Illinois’s communities, he allows illegal aliens to work as sworn police officers. Radule Bojovic violated our nation’s laws and was living illegally in the United States for 10 years. What kind of police department gives criminal illegal aliens badges and guns?" said U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a news release. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, explained the case highlights flaws in House Bill 3751, which allows non-citizens with work authorization to serve as officers. "What civilized nation allows the citizens of another nation to arrest their own people on their soil?" Rose told The Center Square. The Hanover Park village said in a written statement that it hired Bojovic "in full compliance with federal and state law.". "Before hiring Officer Bojovic, the village confirmed that he was legally authorized by the federal government to work in the United States," said the village. "At the time of his hire, Officer Bojovic presented the village with a Work Authorization Card, which was issued by the federal government’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The card was valid and recently renewed.". Rose questioned the city’s understanding of federal rules.

Washington Examiner [10/27/2025 3:27 PM, Jack Birle, 1394K] reports federal district courts and appeals courts are at odds over the legality of President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, as a lower court in Oregon prepares to hear arguments this week over whether Trump can send troops to Portland despite an appeals court ruling multiple times that, at least on a temporary basis, he has the power to do so. A three-judge panel in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Portland and Los Angeles that Trump can federalize and deploy state National Guard troops to protect federal assets after two separate district court judges, one in Oregon and one in California, tried to block the deployments while litigation proceeded. The other major legal battle over Trump’s National Guard deployment, in Chicago, has not yielded similar victories for the Trump administration, with both the federal district court and the appeals court ruling against the administration. Because of those adverse rulings, the administration has appealed to the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, where it still waits for the justices to weigh in.

Politico [10/27/2025 8:05 PM, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, 13586K] reports a federal judge took Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to task Monday for their incendiary, out-of-court statements about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran native who was illegally deported from the U.S. to his home country before being brought back to face immigrant-smuggling charges. U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw ruled the Trump Cabinet members violated a local court rule limiting comments by government officials relating to an ongoing criminal case. Crenshaw stopped short of issuing a gag order against future comments about Abrego. However, the judge ordered prosecutors to notify every employee at DOJ and DHS about the existing rule restricting public statements about pending cases. “Government employees have made extrajudicial statements that are troubling, especially where many of them are exaggerated if not simply inaccurate,” wrote Crenshaw, an Obama appointee based in Nashville. “These statements made allegations regarding Abrego’s ‘character or reputation’ and expressed government officials’ views on Abrego’s ‘guilt or innocence.’” Crenshaw said Noem violated the rule by declaring that Abrego is a “MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator.” And the judge said Bondi ran afoul of the rule by stating that Abrego played “a significant role in an alien smuggling ring … [that] this was his full-time job, not a contractor … [that] [h]e was a smuggler of humans and children and women … [and that] [h]e made over 100 trips.” Although many of the statements were drawn from public court filings, the judge said they violated the court’s rule by opining on evidence in the case and future violations could result in sanctions which he did not specify. The ruling adds momentum to Abrego’s contention that top Trump administration officials have targeted him unfairly in the aftermath of his illegal deportation to El Salvador earlier this year, which led to a cascade of legal problems for the White House, DOJ and DHS. Abrego was whisked onto an airplane in March and sent to El Salvador despite a 2019 court order that found he was likely to be targeted for gang violence there. The administration resisted numerous court rulings requiring officials to facilitate Abrego’s return from El Salvador earlier this year, only agreeing to bring him back in June after a grand jury in Tennessee charged him with human smuggling. Crenshaw, who also dinged defense lawyers for publicly disclosing details about plea negotiations, said he was confident that Abrego would receive a fair trial because media coverage of the case appeared to be subsiding, both nationally and in Tennessee. He added that efforts to screen jurors for potential bias would likely identify anyone who had been exposed to the potentially prejudicial comments about Abrego. In a related development Monday, Crenshaw ordered prosecutors to show him copies of various internal government communications related to the case. They include all records that reflect why prosecutors abruptly shifted their stance earlier this year and decided to pursue criminal charges against Abrego in a case stemming from a traffic stop that took place on I-40 near Nashville in 2022. In addition, Crenshaw ordered the prosecution to turn over all documents about Abrego “drafted” by a former senior federal prosecutor in Nashville, Ben Schrader. He quit the office on the same day Abrego was indicted and reportedly wrote a memo saying a criminal prosecution in the case was unwarranted.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [10/27/2025 9:11 PM, Laura Romero, 30493K]

AP [10/27/2025 4:09 PM, Staff] reports a federal judge in Maryland on Monday sought assurances that the government will not deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia before she has lifted an injunction barring his removal from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed a notice late last week of their plan to deport him to the West African nation of Liberia as early as Friday. It’s the latest in a series of African countries the agency has designated as possible destinations for the Salvadoran national. During a status conference on Monday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis questioned why the government does not simply deport Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica — a country he has said he is willing to go to because the government has promised he would welcomed as a legal immigrant and not re-deported to El Salvador. Government attorneys, including Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew C Ensign and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Guynn, didn’t immediately have an answer but suggested it could be part of an upcoming court filing. In the meantime, the attorneys said ICE is preparing to interview Abrego Garcia after he filed an official notice expressing fear of deportation to Liberia. His attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told the judge they have received some confidential documents pertaining to assurances from the Liberian government about how Abrego Garcia would be treated there. However, they are not satisfied by what they have received. He hinted that the Liberian government has only agreed to take Abrego Garcia for a limited time.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [10/27/2025 7:25 PM, Ella Lee, 12595K]

FOX News [10/27/2025 8:15 PM, Ashley Oliver, 40621K] reports the Trump administration signaled to a federal judge on Monday during a hearing that it would rather deport Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Africa than follow through with prosecuting him on charges of transporting illegal migrants. Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland grilled a Department of Justice lawyer over the plans, asking if the administration would remove Abrego Garcia to Liberia this week if it could overcome legal hurdles. Xinis currently has an injunction in place blocking Abrego Garcia from being deported. "I have been told that if there was no prohibition, we would remove him on Friday," DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign said. Xinis pressed Ensign about Abrego Garcia’s criminal case in Tennessee, and Ensign replied that he did not know how deporting Abrego Garcia would affect that case. The judge voiced skepticism about the timing of the administration’s desired deportation date of Friday. Xinis noted that a high-pressure hearing is happening next week over whether the DOJ vindictively brought criminal charges against Abrego Garcia after initially admitting to erroneously deporting him to a prison in El Salvador earlier this year. "I don’t believe a criminal case can go forward if there’s no defendant," Xinis said, adding, "I’m trying to figure out how useful this Friday is, and the reason why I’m asking is because it’s common knowledge there is an evidentiary hearing [in Tennessee] next week.” Liberia is now the fourth African country raised by lawyers for the Trump administration after they previously identified three others, Uganda, Ghana and Eswatini, that could potentially accept Abrego Garcia, pending dissolution of Xinis’ injunction keeping him in the United States. The judge signaled that the Department of Homeland Security’s position of wanting to deport him and the DOJ’s position of wanting to take him to trial did not add up and that she suspected some behind-the-scenes logistical discussions were taking place. "It just doesn’t pass the sniff test that there hasn’t been some coordination," Xinis said. Abrego Garcia’s defense attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told the judge his team was unsatisfied with Liberia, saying they were unclear on whether their client would be detained or free in Liberia and that they currently suspect he could be re-deported to El Salvador, where he has established a credible fear of persecution. Sandoval-Moshenberg reiterated that Abrego Garcia is open to being deported to Costa Rica, the only country that has explicitly agreed to grant him asylum and to not send him back to El Salvador. Xinis questioned Ensign about the administration’s position on deporting him to Costa Rica, after Abrego Garcia’s attorneys previously accused the government of dangling that option in exchange for him pleading guilty in his criminal case in Tennessee. "Any insight you can shed on why we’re continuing this hearing when you could deport him to a third country tomorrow?" Xinis asked, adding, "Now we’re about to burn significant resources … to now talk about a fourth African country." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [10/27/2025 5:49 PM, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, 2100K] reports the Trump administration is preparing to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia as soon as Friday, reversing an earlier commitment to bring him to trial on human smuggling charges federal prosecutors filed against him in June. Justice Department officials revealed the new plan Monday in a hearing convened by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who has blocked Abrego Garcia’s deportation while he attempts to stave it off for good. Abrego Garcia is in the eighth month of a fierce battle with the Trump administration that has drawn the fury of President Donald Trump himself and captured the attention of senior officials across the Trump administration. The Salvadoran native was illegally deported to his native country in March, despite a court order finding he was likely to be targeted by gang violence there. But now the Trump administration appears intent on removing Abrego Garcia from the country before that issue is resolved. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign told Xinis that the administration is prepared to deport Abrego Garcia as soon as there are no more court orders in the way. “If there were no prohibition, we would remove him on Friday,” Ensign said during the hearing. The White House and Justice Department previously insisted Abrego Garcia would face trial before his deportation. Attorney General Pam Bondi also indicated at a June press conference that the criminal prosecution of Abrego Garcia would take priority over deporting him. Despite the pledge to proceed with the prosecution, the administration has also vowed that Abrego Garcia will not live freely in the U.S. That promise seems like the one officials have decided will take precedence. “He will never go free on American soil,” Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X in June.

AP [10/27/2025 7:01 AM, Luis Andres Henao and Tiffany Stanley, 31753K] reports the imposing Shrine of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic church a short drive from the White House, was intended to be a sanctuary for worshippers. Now, its mostly immigrant congregation is steeped in fear. Church leaders say more than 40 members of their parish have been detained, deported or both since federal law enforcement stepped up their deployment in August. Many parishioners are too scared to leave home to attend Mass, buy food or seek medical care, as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown targets their communities. Cardinal Robert McElroy, who leads the Archdiocese of Washington, said the government was using fear to rob immigrants “of any sense of real peace or security.” “It really is an instrument of terror,” he told The Associated Press. Trump’s federal law enforcement surge technically ended on Sept. 10. But National Guard troops and federal agents remain in the nation’s capital. That includes immigration authorities, who continue to prowl near Sacred Heart, which sits in a vibrant Latino community flanked by two neighborhoods — Columbia Heights and Mt. Pleasant — that have been home to successive waves of immigrants. The parish was established more than 100 years ago by Irish, Italian and German immigrants. Today, most of its 5,600 members came from El Salvador, but also from Haiti, Brazil and Vietnam. The immigration raids have upended lives and worship at Sacred Heart. Families grieve for missing loved ones. Attendance at Masses, which are held in several languages, has dropped dramatically, visible in the many empty pews under the domed church’s colorful mosaics. “About half the people are afraid to come,” said the Rev. Emilio Biosca, the church’s pastor. Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, said via email that “DHS law enforcement in Washington, D.C. is targeting the worst of the worst violent criminal aliens.”

FOX News [10/27/2025 5:06 PM, Louis Casiano, Brooke Taylor, 40621K] reports a 12-year-old who was abused and tortured while held captive before her escape entered the United States as an unaccompanied minor from Honduras. A U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) official told Fox News that the girl came into the U.S. under the Obama administration in June 2014. The girl was released to a distant uncle while her mother was living in Honduras. The uncle allegedly began sexually abusing the child before she was taken in by two sisters — Brenda Garcia, 38, and Tania Garcia, 37, Montgomery County residents who allegedly continued the abuse. The sisters face charges including felony injury to a child, unlawful restraint, and invasive visual recording.

NewsNation [10/27/2025 2:13 PM, Kellie Meyer, 8017K] reports that the Trump administration is ramping up its fight with cartels and putting more pressure on Venezuela in its war on drugs. The Pentagon recently launched a strike on an alleged Tren de Aragua boat that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said was involved in "illicit narcotics smuggling" and moving through a "known narco-trafficking route." The strike killed six people on board, according to NewsNation affiliate The Hill. This now marks the 10th boat strike and brings the death toll from these strikes to 40. Now, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, is headed to the region with a strike group. President Donald Trump has said the efforts so far have saved lives, saying that every boat that has been hit has saved 25,000 Americans. A U.S. warship, the USS Gravely, docked in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday for a joint military exercise with the country’s defense forces. Both moves have caused growing concern for the potential of land strikes in Venezuela, which Trump has hinted at. "We’re focused on South America, and we’re getting a real strong handle on South America in a lot of ways, including the fact that we don’t want their drugs," Trump said. Venezuela has reportedly been preparing its own armed forces in case a land strike could happen. The country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has also accused the U.S. government of "fabricating" a war. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Caller [10/27/2025 8:02 PM, Anthony Iafrate, 835K] reports the government of Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro claimed in a Sunday statement that it captured an alleged "mercenary group" with "direct information" from the CIA. The statement from Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez accused the alleged group of planning a "false flag operation" from around nearby Trinidad and Tobago and accused the small island nation of performing ongoing "military exercises" under "the coordination, financing and control of the United States Southern Command." The claim came days after the Trump administration’s Department of War authorized the deployment of the world’s largest aircraft carrier to Latin American waters to target drug cartels. "Venezuela reports that it has captured a mercenary group with direct information from the U.S. intelligence agency, CIA, being able to determine that a false flag attack is underway from waters bordering Trinidad and Tobago, or from Trinidad or Venezuelan territory itself, which generates a complete military confrontation against our country," Rodríguez said in the statement, originally in Spanish. The Venezuelan vice president went on to compare the alleged "planned action" to the sinking of the USS Maine in 1898 and the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 — both widely believed to have been misrepresented — which led, respectively, to the U.S. declaring war on Spain and to the escalation of the Vietnam War. "Venezuela does not accept threats from any U.S. vassal government, We are not intimidated by military exercises of war cries," Rodríguez’s statement added. The Pentagon announced Friday that it had deployed the Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group to waters in the vicinity of South America as an effort to counter transnational cartel activity. The vessel has the capacity of carrying up to 90 aircraft and was, at the time of the announcement, in Mediterranean waters near Croatia, according to BBC. Maduro claimed to state media that the U.S.’ actions amounted to "fabricating a new eternal war," following the Pentagon’s move, BBC reported. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday morning on X that his department, at President Donald Trump’s request the night before, "carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO), trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea.” "If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you," Hegseth added in his X post. Overnight, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO), trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea. "Tren De Aragua, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization from Venezuela, operating under the direct control of the Venezuelan regime, has waged a campaign of rape, torture and murder against Americans, and its members are designated as Alien Enemies of the United States," White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller wrote Friday on the platform in reply to Hegseth.

Breitbart [10/27/2025 8:44 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports Venezuela claimed Monday to have dismantled a CIA-financed cell plotting a false-flag attack on a US warship deployed to the southern Caribbean, as Washington stepped up pressure on Caracas by flying bombers nearby. Venezuelan authorities said they uncovered an operation targeting the USS Gravely, a guided-missile destroyer that docked Sunday in Trinidad and Tobago — within firing distance of the Venezuelan mainland. The ship’s arrival sparked outrage in Caracas, which called it a "provocation" and claimed it was "aimed at provoking a war in the Caribbean.” It also deepened tensions with Trinidad and Tobago, whose Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is a strong critic of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, and a supporter of US President Donald Trump’s military campaign against drug traffickers in the Caribbean. Maduro on Monday evening announced he had suspended a gas agreement with Trinidad and Tobago, accusing Persad-Bissessar of transforming her nation "into an aircraft carrier of the American empire against Venezuela.” As part of Trump’s campaign, the Pentagon has so far deployed seven warships to the Caribbean and one to the Gulf of Mexico. The United States has also announced the imminent arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, and its accompanying fleet. Venezuela and some observers believe Trump’s administration is using the military deployments to build pressure on the government and depose Maduro, whom Washington does not recognize as the legitimate president. Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said Monday that a cell "financed by the CIA" planned to attack the USS Gravely and frame Caracas. Four people were arrested, Cabello said, without providing details of the alleged suspects. Venezuela regularly claims to have arrested US-backed mercenaries working to destabilize Maduro’s administration. Alongside his naval buildup, Trump recently confirmed authorizing CIA operations in Venezuela and considering ground strikes. Since September, US forces have destroyed at least 10 boats they said carried narcotics, killing 43 people in international waters. Experts question the legality of the deadly attacks, and Washington has offered no proof other than aerial videos of the strikes to link the vessels to trafficking.

The Hill [10/27/2025 6:56 PM, Filip Timotija, 12595K] reports the Trump administration is accumulating a massive U.S. military presence in the Caribbean, deploying warships, surveillance planes and fighter aircraft as it continues to blow up alleged drug-trafficking boats in the waters around South America. The main target for the flurry of activity appears to be Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the administration has called an "illegitimate leader." The country’s attorney general said over the weekend there is "no doubt" that Trump wants to topple Maduro’s regime. On Friday, the Department of Defense (DOD) ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its escort ships to head to the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) area of responsibility, significantly expanding the U.S. military presence there, which already counts around 10,000 U.S. forces supporting counternarcotics operations.

FOX News [10/27/2025 1:18 PM, Taylor Penley, 40621K] reports that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., blasted Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., on Monday for calling U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean "sanctioned murder." "To say that we’re engaging in murder is just such an outrage," Graham said on "Fox & Friends." "The president of the United States as commander in chief has the authority to do these strikes. Nobody accused Bush of committing murder when he invaded Panama to take down Noriega. "Nobody accused Reagan of murder when he went into Grenada to stop Cuban influence growing in Grenada, threatening our backyard, so the president has history on his side, he has the Constitution on his side," he added. Graham’s remarks came after Gallego criticized President Donald Trump’s strikes when asked if they were consistent with international law during an appearance on NBC’s "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "If this president feels that they’re doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard. If there’s an act of war, then you use our military, and then you come and talk to us first. But… this is sanctioned murder," Gallego said. "Congress has declared war five times in 250 years, so when I hear that the military can’t be used by the commander in chief, unless Congress declares war, it just shows me how ignorant these people are," he said. "Congress is the only entity to put us in a state of war. But since the War Powers Act of 1973, commanders in chief have used military actions 130 times without any congressional input."

Blaze [10/27/2025 12:10 PM, Julio Rosas, 1442K] reports the Department of Homeland Security fired back at former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after she and other California Democrats laid out plans for the arrest of federal immigration agents for supposed violations of state laws. Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco district attorney, said her office already has plans to arrest federal agents should they use force in her city as they did during violent protests and riots in Los Angeles and Chicago. Jenkins explained the San Francisco Police Department is on board with the idea in cases of "clear, excessive use of force." DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin called the plans "gross" in a statement to Blaze News, adding, "America’s brave ICE and Border Patrol agents put their lives on the line every day to enforce U.S. law and arrest the worst of the worst — including gang members, rapists, and murderers." "From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the vilification of ICE must stop. Nancy Pelosi’s rhetoric is putting a target on the backs of federal law enforcement officers who are already facing a 1,000% increase in assaults against them. Our law enforcement is ENFORCING federal law — if politicians and activists don’t like the law, they should try to change it instead of demonizing our brave men and women in uniform," McLaughlin added. The Department of Justice sent a letter to Pelosi and Jenkins warning them that their plans violate federal law and that there will be consequences should any state or local police arrest federal agents while lawfully carrying out their duties.

New York Times [10/27/2025 2:03 PM, Jack Nicas and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, 135475K] reports the United States is giving Mexico more time to make trade policy changes to avoid an increase in tariffs that had been set to go into effect on Saturday, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said Monday. “For the time being, there is no situation that would lead to a special tariff being imposed on Nov. 1,” Ms. Sheinbaum said. In July, Mr. Trump threatened to put 30 percent tariffs on all goods from Mexico, but then gave the country a 90-day reprieve so it could negotiate with the United States. That reprieve was set to expire on Saturday. When the two presidents spoke Saturday, Ms. Sheinbaum said, they agreed to give Mexico more time to address U.S. demands to lower what it called nontariff barriers to trade. The White House is asking Mexico to remove what it calls 54 barriers to trade that aren’t tariffs, such as disputes about intellectual property. Ms. Sheinbaum said Monday in her daily news conference that she and Mr. Trump agreed to give it “a few more weeks” to finalize that pending issue. Mr. Trump has already placed a 25 percent tariff on Mexican imports that don’t comply with the U.S.-Canada-Mexico free trade agreement. Since he did so, Mexican companies have made changes so their goods comply with the agreement and avoid the tariffs. Mexican officials have said nearly 90 percent of the country’s exports to the United States now comply and thus are not subject to the levies. It is unclear if Mr. Trump’s threatened 30 percent tariffs would constitute an increase of five percentage points on the existing tariffs or an entirely new set of levies.

AP [10/27/2025 2:02 PM, Berenice Garcia, 31753K] reports that Mexico failed to deliver millions of gallons of water to South Texas farmers, in defiance of a 1944 treaty. Now, members of Texas’ congressional delegation are calling on the Trump administration to make Mexico’s failure a part of upcoming trade negotiations — including new sanctions if necessary. Farmers and ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley are facing another year of insufficient water for their crops as the deadline for Mexico to deliver water to the U.S. under the treaty arrived on Friday, turning the country’s water deficit into a debt. After months of lawmakers pressuring Mexico into making good on its obligations, they now see the upcoming review of the U.S. trade agreement with Mexico as an opportunity to compel the state’s southern neighbor to comply. An amendment to the treaty allows the debt to roll into the next five-year cycle under times of "extraordinary drought." It is not the first time Mexico has had to play catch-up. "TCEQ continues to work closely with our federal partners, including the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) to have reliability and consistency under the treaty," the state agency said in a statement. Farmers and ranchers have been strained by the lack of water, and have limited how much they plant.

The Hill [10/27/2025 11:30 AM, Steven Lubet, 12595K] reports he began with an unconstitutional executive order purporting to restrict birthright citizenship for the first time in over 125 years. The administration’s latest move has been revising the naturalization test, making it harder, and perhaps impossible, for the most perceptive immigrants to become citizens. In the past, aspiring citizens had to answer at least six of 10 questions correctly, in an oral examination drawn from a pool of 100. As of last week, however, new applicants will be given 20 questions, from a pool of 128, with a passing score of 12. According to the director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, the old test was "just too easy." As explained by a spokesperson, the new test, in conjunction with "neighborhood investigations," will weed out those who are not "fully assimilated" and cannot "contribute to America’s greatness.". If the test accomplishes anything, it likely will subtly favor Trump-friendly immigrants, and disfavor MAGA skeptics. In theory, tougher new questions have replaced softballs about geography or holidays, which had short, obvious answers. Thus, two questions about the oceans bordering the U.S. have been removed, superseded by supposedly more demanding ones. That claim is belied by the recommended answers in the new USCIS study guide, which provides equally short, easily memorized answers to seemingly complex questions.

Washington Post [10/27/2025 7:00 AM, Max Boot, 24149K] reports the United States has a long record of fomenting regime change in Latin America, whether under the rubric of the Monroe Doctrine in the 19th and early 20th centuries or the fight against communism during the Cold War. This strategy has seldom worked out well, even when successful, and it has led to deep-rooted resentment of “The Colossus of the North.” Yet, for some reason, President Donald Trump seems eager to reprise this ignominious history in Venezuela. U.S. military interventions in Haiti (1915-1934), the Dominican Republic (1916-1924) and Nicaragua (1926-1933) led to the rise not of democracy but of brutal despots: François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, Rafael Trujillo and Anastasio Somoza. The CIA-backed overthrow in 1954 of Guatemala’s elected leftist president Jacobo Arbenz helped lead to a bloody 36-year civil war. It also radicalized many Latin Americans, including a young Argentine doctor named Che Guevara who happened to be in Guatemala when the coup occurred. The CIA’s 1961 Bay of Pigs operation, designed to topple Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, was a notorious fiasco that embarrassed the new president, John F. Kennedy. It also led Castro to agree to the stationing of Soviet nuclear missiles on his soil to protect his regime from further attacks, resulting in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Things sometimes worked out better when Washington was able to mobilize overwhelming military might against small countries for fast, in-and-out operations — e.g., Grenada, 1983, Panama, 1989. But Venezuela is far from small: It has a slightly larger population than Iraq did when U.S. troops invaded that country in 2003. It has also proved resistant to U.S. efforts to overthrow its dictatorial regime. In 2019, the first Trump administration tried and failed to instigate a military coup against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. After purging his military, Maduro is now considered “coup proof” — and, facing drug-trafficking charges in the United States, he is unlikely to leave power voluntarily. Yet Trump recently confirmed that he had authorized the CIA to launch another covert action against Maduro. (Shouldn’t it be called an “overt action”?) It isn’t clear whether the presidential finding authorizes the CIA to overthrow Maduro, but simply making the directive public will turn up “the heat” on Maduro’s regime, as Trump said.

Washington Post [10/27/2025 8:00 AM, Victor Cha, Ellen Kim, and Andy Lim, 24149K] reports it’s been a busy month for Chinese trade weaponization. Last week, Beijing slapped punitive sanctions on five U.S. subsidiaries of a Korean shipping company. This followed its Oct. 9 announcement imposing sweeping export controls on rare earth minerals. Chinese officials cited national security concerns for the moves and this week could agree to pause China’s restrictions for a year, but in truth they were just the latest act in a three-decade-long power play. As President Donald Trump tours Asia, he should consider a way to work with allies and partners to stop the bullying. Individually, the targets of Chinese economic pressure find it difficult, if not impossible, to hold their ground against the second largest economy in the world. But if they act collectively, they can deter China’s coercion once and for all. This is especially vital given how China deploys its economic might to achieve aims beyond the economic sphere. Leveraging its massive market, China uses tariff and nontariff barriers to infringe on the sovereign political choices of others. The goal is not the conventional one of protecting domestic markets; rather, Beijing seeks to change the target’s policies on Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and other areas deemed core interests by the Chinese Communist Party This trade weaponization has increased dramatically under President Xi Jinping. The three of us have compiled a dataset tracking instances of Chinese economic coercion over the past 28 years, and the pattern is clear: Worldwide since 1997, there have been 23 cases of targeted pressure by China against governments and 582 against individual companies..

Washington Examiner [10/27/2025 11:25 AM, Emily Hallas, 1394K] reports the Trump administration vowed on Sunday to continue expanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations targeting illegal immigrants. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said a surge in applicants interested in joining ICE will help the agency carry out larger-scale operations and drive higher arrest numbers. She credited President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which allocated roughly $75 billion in funding toward ICE, with spurring momentum for the mass deportation effort during an interview with Fox News. "We want to really surge those arrest numbers, especially given that One Big Beautiful Bill that we’ve received the funding to do it," McLaughlin said over the weekend. "We’re going to be making great progress," she continued, referencing the number of recruits ICE has embraced, which officials have touted as a record. "We have 175,000 applications to ICE, so we can really surge our workforce and get more brave men and women on the ground to do this great work," McLaughlin said, adding that the administration’s efforts had already resulted in approximately 500,000 deportations. DHS launched a nationwide recruitment campaign after receiving funding to ramp up operations through the bill in July. It has spent $6.5 million on recruitment advertising, running campaigns on television and podcasts, according to the Associated Press. ICE has received 175,000 applications, extended over 18,000 job offers, and hopes to onboard 10,000 deportation officers by January, according to DHS.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [10/27/2025 1:46 PM, Mark Swanson, 4109K]

Politico [10/27/2025 5:23 PM, Kyle Cheney and Myah Ward, 2100K] reports federal immigration authorities say they no longer have to provide on-demand access to detention facilities for members of Congress. The reason? The government shutdown. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who have been fighting a lawsuit brought by Democratic lawmakers over prior denied visit attempts, have informed lawmakers that they simply don’t have the staff or funding to support those visits. Lawmakers have previously been legally allowed to demand them as part of their oversight duties, which includes monitoring conditions and communicating with detainees facing deportation. And in court, ICE has added another explanation: As a result of the shutdown, there’s now no law on the books that requires the Trump administration to accommodate lawmakers’ visits. That requirement had been contained in government funding laws that expired when the shutdown began. Instead, ICE informed U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb that it is now funding its operations with appropriations made in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which does not require congressional access. “ICE is no longer funding the operation of its detention facilities … with any funds that were appropriated subject to [the requirement for lawmaker visits]” Justice Department attorneys indicated. The result has been mounting frustration for congressional Democrats, who had already been suing the Trump administration for curtailing or limiting access to detention facilities prior to the shutdown. They said even when the requirement was on the books, ICE had thrown up roadblocks to their visits. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, acknowledged the shutdown’s impact on lawmaker visits and said the lawmakers themselves were to blame. “While the Democrats may not care about shutting down the government and making millions of public servants go without a paycheck, maybe they will get back to work now that they have lost the precious appropriations rider they rely on to try to storm ICE facilities,” said Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. McLaughlin’s comment appears to reference the scrum that broke out when Rep. LaMonica McIver and two other Democratic lawmakers visited a detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, earlier this year. Federal prosecutors charged McIver with assaulting a security official after she and others intervened to prevent the arrest of Newark’s Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka. McIver has pleaded not guilty and has accused the Trump administration of “political intimidation.”

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [10/27/2025 8:50 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K]

NPR [10/28/2025 4:57 AM, Chiara Eisner, 34837K] reports some federal immigration agents have been using masks to cover their faces when arresting migrants. But an NPR investigation found agents are also disguising their vehicles. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Washington Examiner [10/27/2025 6:00 AM, Jack Birle, 1394K] reports the Justice Department has drawn a red line for Democrats in state and local governments who are threatening to arrest federal immigration officials for enforcing federal law in Democrat-run areas. Prominent Democratic officials, from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL), have threatened to pursue legal action over what they say are abuses by federal immigration officers in their states. But the Justice Department has issued sharp warnings to those who say they plan to interfere with federal operations, telling the officials they could face charges if they attempt to arrest officers. Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in Congress since 1987, and Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-CA) said in a joint statement Wednesday that federal immigration officers could be arrested for violating state laws. "It is important to note that California law protects communities and prevents federal agents from taking certain actions here that we have witnessed in other states. While the President may enjoy absolute immunity courtesy of his rogue Supreme Court, those who operate under his orders do not," their statement said. "Our state and local authorities may arrest federal agents if they break California law — and if they are convicted, the President cannot pardon them.". San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins added to discourse from Bay Area officials, as reports swirled that President Donald Trump would deploy the National Guard to San Francisco, claiming she would prosecute federal agents who violate state law. Trump ultimately opted not to send the National Guard to the city – for now.

FOX News [10/27/2025 7:18 PM, Bonny Chu, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a criminal illegal alien who is accused of assaulting a police officer and has repeatedly re-entered the U.S. after being deported. Officials say Carlos Ramirez-Guzman, an El Salvadoran national, was arrested on Oct. 17 in Arlington, Virginia. He was previously deported in 2006, 2014 and 2016, yet managed to re-enter at an unknown time and place, evading inspection, admission or parole by immigration authorities. In addition to his felony charge of reentering the U.S., officials say Ramirez-Guzman has amassed an "extensive criminal history" over the past two decades. His alleged crimes include aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer and resisting, obstructing or opposing an officer. He also faces charges of domestic battery, exhibition of a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct. "Carlos Ramirez-Guzman racked up an extensive criminal history over the last 21 years he has spent ignoring America’s laws," DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "Not only has this man been removed from our country on THREE previous occasions, but he also has a violent criminal history of assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer, domestic battery, and resisting arrest.” McLaughlin emphasized that Ramirez-Guzman’s long-running crime spree will finally come to an end under the leadership of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. "GOOD RIDDANCE, you are not welcome in this country," she added. Ramirez-Guzman will remain in ICE custody pending his removal from the United States. In a post on social media, ICE also thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service for assisting with the operation.

FOX News [10/27/2025 3:23 PM, Louis Casiano, 40621K] reports a Brazilian boy with a reportedly lengthy criminal history and alleged ties to a gang apologized for his actions and asked a court to forgive him before a judge denied him bond during an immigration proceeding. The unidentified boy, a resident of Everett, appeared last week at a virtual court hearing from Virginia’s Northwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center, where he has been held since his Oct. 9 arrest. Before his request for release was denied, federal prosecutors argued the teen posed a public safety and flight risk, according to the Boston Globe, which spoke with the boy’s attorney. He said the child and his family have a pending asylum case. The teen and his family allegedly entered the US illegally in 2021. Lattarulo noted that self-deportation for the child and family was a possibility, the newspaper reported. The boy was taken into custody after authorities received a tip about a violent threat against another student, Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria told reporters. DeMaria said the teen had a long knife on him when he was arrested but no gun, which contradicts an earlier claim from the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security alleged the boy has ties to a Brazilian criminal ring known as "Gang 33" and "posed a public safety threat with an extensive rap sheet," the Globe reported. DeMaria said the teen "has a criminal history, a criminal past" and is "well known" to local law enforcement, according to Boston.com.

CNN [10/27/2025 11:33 AM, Chris Isidore, Betsy Klein, and Vanessa Yurkevich, 18595K] reports after ICE in September raided a still-under-construction Georgia Hyundai plant – and arrested and deported hundreds of South Korean workers – the automaker’s CEO, José Muñoz, said he hoped for a resolution that could bring crucial foreign-worker expertise back to the United States. President Donald Trump on Monday agreed, saying he was "very much opposed" to the raid carried out by members of his administration. "In fact, before they got out… I said they could stay… and they’re going to be coming back," he said. "When they come in, they’re making very complex machinery, equipment, things. They’re going to have to bring some people in, at least at that initial phase." Trump made his comments on Air Force One while on his way to Asia for a meeting with world leaders, including South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who has expressed concern about the raid. As a result, Lee said he was skeptical about the future of South Korean investment in the United States. On Friday, Lee told Bloomberg that he understood many of the workers didn’t want to return to the United States. "This has also caused severe trauma for the workers as well and I have heard that some workers do not want to go back," he said. "Without taking measures to ensure the safety and rational treatment of these workers, there is a high possibility that factory construction in the US may be significantly postponed." But Lee said he expects a deal with the US "in the not-too-distant future."

Houston Chronicle [10/27/2025 5:46 PM, Julián Aguilar, 2983K] reports a Houston teenager who is a U.S. citizen was beaten, choked and subjected to racial slurs when masked officers chased him and his father in an early-morning immigration-enforcement action, a local immigrant-rights group said Monday. Arnoldo Bazan, 16, was on his way to school Thursday when an unmarked car pulled his father, Arnulfo Bazan, and the teen over. The teenager said during a news conference that he and his dad were pulled over by a car with no clear indication it belonged to law enforcement. The officers who approached did not identify themselves as law enforcement and wore uniforms that bore no official insignia, he added. The father and son tried to flee and were eventually stopped by other vehicles. When they ran from the car, Bazan said, the agents tackled them in a restaurant-supply store. The incident occurred near the intersection of South Gessner Road and Beechnut Street. Bazan said they were taken to a nearby parking lot where agents called him and his dad a racial slur and a "border hopper." Bazan was eventually released after a few hours; his father remains in ICE custody in Conroe.

Univision [10/27/2025 4:31 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports a family experienced moments of anguish when ICE agents arrived at their home in Pasadena and, according to their reports, cut off their electricity, damaged their surveillance cameras, and threatened to spray tear gas if three people didn’t surrender. The deployment occurred Monday morning in the 144th block of West Houston Avenue, when agents from the Department of Homeland Security apparently followed some immigrant men from a gas station to their home to get them to surrender to authorities. Relatives of the detainees said that the agents cut off the electricity to the house and threatened to throw tear gas to force them to leave before making the arrests. According to the family, the men are originally from San Luis, Mexico, and had no prior records or infractions. So far, ICE has not confirmed the reason for the operation or the charges for which the three people were detained. The situation generated concern among residents, who called for more humane treatment in immigration actions and greater transparency from the authorities.

Reported similarly:
Univision [10/28/2025 3:29 AM, Staff, 5004K]

CNN [10/28/2025 1:00 AM, Taylor Romine, 606K] reports a 38-year-old man who has been protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program for the past 12 years was detained by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month, with the agency citing his social media posts as the reason for terminating his DACA status. Yaa’kub Ira Vijandre, whose legal name is Jacob Ira Azurin Vijandre, is a Filipino immigrant, freelance journalist and activist in the Dallas area who was detained October 7, 2025, while leaving his home for work. Vijandre is one of several immigrants who have been detained this year after speaking out against the war in Gaza, including students Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, and British commentator Sami Hamdi, who was detained over the weekend while on a speaking tour. In addition to opposing the war in Gaza, Vijandre also spoke out against human rights abuses at ICE facilities and "the US government’s inhumane and illegal treatment of those it accuses of terrorism," his attorneys said in a statement. His detainment came a day after he recorded and participated in a local city council meeting in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, Texas, where he gave vocal support for a local community leader who was detained by ICE, according to a court filing from his legal team Monday. His attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition Monday, arguing their client is being unlawfully detained and asking the court for his release. Vijandre has DACA status through May 2026 and hasn’t been charged with a crime in the United States or elsewhere, according to the filing. Vijandre came legally to the US in 2001 at age 14 under his father’s H-4 non-immigrant visa, which expired in 2004, the filing says. He was granted DACA status in February 2013, and it was again granted on May 3, 2024, after he reapplied. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement shared with CNN Monday that Vijandre posted content on his social media "glorifying terrorism," and said he supported groups such as the Holy Land Foundation, a former US-based Muslim charity where five members were convicted in a contested series of trials on charges of conspiring to support terrorism and launder money for Hamas. Monday’s filing denies Vijandre has supported terrorism, and argues his First and Fifth amendment rights have been violated and the court should order his release and provide injunctive relief to prevent "further unlawful detention.”

Washington Post [10/27/2025 6:00 AM, Caroline O’Donovan, 24149K] reports for nearly 25 years, prisoners like Mitch Stone moved furniture, mowed lawns and renovated buildings at no cost to residents of this small city in western Nebraska. Stone, 50, spent two years at a local Work Ethic Camp, where he maintained a county fairground for $3.78 a day while serving time after a DUI conviction. “The camp helped me out a lot,” said Stone, who is now a full-time employee at the same facility where he worked as an inmate. By the end of this week, Nebraska’s governor, Jim Pillen (R), says the state will turn the camp into the “Cornhusker Clink” — a Great Plains version of Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz where the state plans to house up to 300 undocumented immigrants awaiting deportation. The closure has McCook officials and local nonprofits that depended on the prison labor scrambling to find a new workforce. (Camp wages were paid by the state.) Nebraska will net about $14 million from the deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the governor’s office. But that money will not go to the town’s coffers, city officials say, and local residents worry they will lose business from people who came to town to visit incarcerated family members. “We didn’t ask for this,” said Nate Schneider, McCook’s city manager. The converted detention facility is part of the Trump administration’s plan to build detainment capacity for 107,000 immigrants this year, an ambitious project supported by a staggering $45 billion budget. “ICE has worked diligently to obtain greater necessary detention space to deliver on the American people’s mandate to remove violent and dangerous criminals from our communities,” said Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, in an email statement. “We look forward to the opening of this new partnership with Nebraska very soon.”

Axios [10/27/2025 9:20 AM, Meira Gebel, 12972K] reports that reports and social media posts suggest an increase in the presence of federal immigration agents and detentions across the Portland metro area over the last few weeks, raising concerns among advocates, community members and local lawmakers. The instances come as the city watches and waits to see if National Guard troops will be sent to quell protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. It also follows the Trump administration tripling ICE’s arrest quota earlier this year. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for information on activity and arrest rates. The Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition (PIRC) hotline received more than 700 calls over the last month — up from 20-40 monthly calls last year — many of them reporting ICE activity, spokesperson Natalie Lerner told the Portland Mercury. U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter condemned the ICE activity and arrests last week: "If you look like you could be from another country, or you speak another language, you run the risk of being kidnapped by unmarked cars, by officers who cover their faces and have no visible ID," Dexter told KOIN.

San Diego Union Tribune [10/27/2025 9:30 PM, Alexandra Mendoza, 1538K] reports for the second time in a week, members of the San Diego Democratic congressional delegation on Monday tried to conduct an oversight inspection of an immigration detention facility inside the Edward J. Schwartz federal building in downtown San Diego, but were denied access. U.S. Reps. Juan Vargas, Scott Peters, Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs said they had received reports of an increased number of people being detained in a basement facility and wanted to know the conditions under which they were being held. Immigration courtrooms, as well as the local office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are also located in the building. "We don’t know if they’re women, children, or who’s held there," Vargas said at a news conference outside the building. "We don’t know because they won’t let us go down and see.". When the group arrived, local federal officials said they could not allow them in. The officials explained that they were following policy procedures, despite the lawmakers’ insistence that they had oversight capacity and the responsibility to conduct an inspection. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that "no staff were available to process such a request during the government shutdown.". In a letter sent Friday, the lawmakers, along with California’s Democratic U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, demanded answers from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and the Acting Director of ICE Todd Lyons. The letter referenced reports that people "were being detained in subpar conditions, without access to attorneys, medical care, or proper nutrition."

Breitbart [10/27/2025 2:24 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested an illegal alien gang member with 25 prior criminal convictions in the sanctuary state of California, officials tell Breitbart News. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: While Americans enjoyed their weekends, the men and women of ICE were hard at work getting the worst of the worst out of our country, including one criminal illegal gang member convicted 25 times for brutal crimes, including arson and harming an elderly person. ICE agents nabbed Thao Van Cao, an illegal alien from Vietnam who is a member of the Asian Cheap Boy criminal gang, this past weekend in California — a sanctuary state that refuses to work with federal immigration officials. Van Cao has been convicted 25 times of crimes such as second-degree robbery, cruelty towards the elderly, arson on a property, and theft. In addition, ICE agents arrested illegal aliens convicted of attempted incest, drug trafficking-related crimes, child rape, child sex crimes, failure to register as a sex offender, burglary, assault causing bodily injury, and assault with a deadly weapon, among other violent crimes.

Univision [10/28/2025 2:44 AM, Carla Farías, 5004K] reports according to reports, most of the detainees had made appointments at the ICE offices in Stockton for routine check-ins. "Many people are afraid and aren’t going to work for the same reason," said a Hispanic resident of San José. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [10/27/2025 1:20 PM, Gabi Hays, 40621K] reports that a course promoting the "Abolish ICE" narrative and examining how concepts of "racial superiority" shape American immigration law will be offered at University of California, Berkeley, in spring 2026. College and education news outlet Campus Reform obtained syllabi from two previous semesters of the undergraduate course, titled "Legal Studies 132AC: Immigration and Citizenship," revealing that the class explored American immigration law through the lens of far-left movements, including anti-ICE, racial justice and LGBTQ activism. "We often hear that America is a ‘nation of immigrants.’ But this representation of the United States does not explain why some are presumed to belong in the United States, and others are not," the spring 2024 syllabus stated. It continued: "Why are non-White Latinos and Asian Americans so often considered ‘alien citizens,’ as American citizens who are nonetheless presumed to be foreign? And why are those of European descent assumed to belong, regardless of their citizenship?". The course can be found on UC Berkeley’s website, which displays a similar description to the one on the syllabus. Class Sixteen focused on the "Abolish ICE" movement, asking, "What does Immigration and Customs Enforcement do? Why was it created, and how was its creation influenced by the post-9/11 political climate? What is the Abolish ICE movement, and what are its goals?" A spokesperson for UC Berkeley did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Breitbart [10/27/2025 1:40 PM, John Binder, 2608K] reports President Donald Trump’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), led by Joseph Edlow, is strengthening the naturalized citizenship test to better assimilate legal immigrants into American society. The modifications are being made to USCIS’s Naturalization Civics Test, administered orally, which requires legal immigrants seeking naturalized citizenship to answer a series of American history-related questions. For years, the test asked immigrants just 10 questions regarding the U.S. Constitution and American history, of which they were only required to answer six questions correctly. Now, adhering to Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” USCIS is expanding the Naturalization Civics Test to 20 questions, requiring immigrants to answer 12 questions correctly. “These changes balance the need of USCIS to ascertain the aliens’ knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of American history, and of the principles and form of government of the United States,” a federal notice of the change states. Implementation of the more rigorous test began for immigrants who filed naturalization applications on or after October 20. In August, as part of an exclusive sit-down with Breitbart News, USCIS Director Joe Edlow hinted at his plans to overhaul the naturalized citizenship test. “It’s important for people to understand English, it’s important for people to understand our history and our government,” Edlow said at the time. “The way the test is written right now and the way it is executed right now, it’s just a little too easy.”

Blaze [10/27/2025 11:25 AM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1442K] reports the Council on American-Islamic Relations is up in arms over the imminent deportation of Sami Hamdi, a radical Islamic agitator from the United Kingdom who allegedly suggested the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel were worth celebrating. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed in a statement to Blaze News that as the result of work undertaken by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, "this individual’s visa was revoked and he is in ICE custody pending removal.". As of Monday morning, the online Immigration and Customs Enforcement database does not presently have a Sami Hamdi from the U.K. listed as being in custody. "Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country," continued McLaughlin. "It’s commonsense." The State Department said in a statement, "We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who support terrorism and actively undermine the safety of Americans.".

FOX News [10/27/2025 10:31 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports as the Trump administration makes moves to change the H-1B visa program to benefit American-born workers, Skillstorm CEO Justin Vianello backed those efforts in an interview with Fox News Digital while offering his expertise on other issues that need to be addressed with work visas. Vianello told Fox News Digital that one of the "biggest challenges" with the current H-1B system is the "impact" on college hiring, particularly with computer science and computer engineering graduates. Vianello explained that the unemployment rate for college graduates with those degrees is significantly higher than the average for all college graduates and there is a "concerning" level of unemployment with college graduates in IT. "So that basically means they didn’t need degrees for the jobs that they’re currently in, being significantly under employed," Vianello said. "How does the H-1B visa program impact that? Well, firstly, rough estimates are that there are about 730,000 H-1B holders in the U.S. and about 550,000 dependents. Most of them, in excess of 70% of them, are in IT.". Vianello went on to explain that data shows H-1B visa holders are paid "significantly less" than their counterparts doing equivalent IT roles, which gives them a leg up with employers who are looking to pay less. "I think it gets a little more broadly than that," Vianello said. "In addition to competing with H-1B visa holders, college graduates, especially in IT, are also competing with OPT visa holders. This is optional practical training, basically an extension of the F-1 visa, which is a student visa, which allows you, if you’re a STEM graduate, to work in the U.S. for three years following your graduation.". Many tech companies have embraced the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, but critics of the program say H-1B holders are often chosen over U.S. citizens for jobs. One of the reasons for this is that foreign workers are tied to their respective employers via the H-1B visa – as a company is required to sponsor the visa – and therefore quitting the job could ultimately see foreign workers losing their visa and their ability to legally remain in the country.

NewsMax [10/27/2025 12:23 PM, Solange Reyner, 4109K] reports two House Republicans are pressing the Justice Department to investigate New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s path to U.S. citizenship. Mamdani, a Democrat and the front-runner in the mayoral race, became a U.S. citizen in 2018 after immigrating to the United States as a child from Uganda. Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., last week demanded the federal government "review every naturalization of the past 30 years – starting with Mamdani." "I just think we need to take a hard look at how these folks became citizens, and if there is any fraud or any violation of the rules we need to denaturalize and deport," Fine told the New York Post. "I know that there’s a lot of us that are very, very concerned about the enemy within – people who have come to this country to become citizens, to destroy it," he said. "If they’re not Americans, they can’t be in office.". Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., has also called for Mamdani to be deported.

Telemundo 48 El Paso [10/27/2025 1:27 PM, Claudia Moreno, 10K] reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection released operational statistics for September 2025 last Friday, under President Trump’s border security policies. The month caps a historic year for a 93 percent decrease in illegal immigration, well below the previous administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported. "The numbers tell the story: enforcement works," said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. "We are delivering the most secure border in U.S. history, thanks to the president’s leadership. Border crossings remain historically low, and those who do cross are being apprehended, detained, processed, and expelled quickly." Illegal crossings in September were historically low: 26,002 total people intercepted nationwide. 8,386 Border Patrol apprehensions along the Southwest border, 95% fewer than the previous administration’s monthly average and fewer than the five-day apprehension rate in September 2024. 279 USBP apprehensions per day, 95% fewer than the daily average under the Biden administration and fewer than the number of apprehensions every two hours under the Biden administration. Zero parole releases, compared to 9,144 released by Border Patrol under the Biden administration along the Southwest border in September 2024. In September, CBP seized 644 pounds of fentanyl.

Cocaine seizures increased 39%. Heroin seizures increased 115% from August to September.

NewsNation [10/27/2025 9:46 PM, Salvador Rivera, 8017K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that all noncitizens will be photographed upon entering and exiting the United States, which signals a fundamental change in border policy and biometric surveillance, according to immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. The biometrics program will begin Dec. 26, and is aimed visa holders, green card holders, temporary workers and children. The rules were published Monday in the Federal Register, whose summary says that "non-exempt aliens" could be required to provide other biometrics. This final rule also allows for the collection of biometrics from people departing from airports, land ports, seaports, or any other authorized point of departure. Lincoln-Goldfinch warn that this expansion raises significant privacy concerns and risks of profiling. "The government cannot treat every noncitizen the same without scrutiny of individual facts and context," she said. "We must ensure this rule comes with clear notice, constitutional safeguards, and minimal disruption to lawful travel.” Lincoln-Golfinch, who is based in Austin, Texas, stated there are many other issues with this pending CBP program. "There are also concerns with the software that at times, does not work properly with people of color. So, people with darker skin tones might suffer difficulties, but the overarching concern is about data privacy and surveillance.” The data gathered by CBP could be held in storage for up to 75 years and shared with a number of unknown agencies, according to Lincoln-Goldfinch. "Families must know what will happen with their data, how long it will be stored, and how to clear misunderstandings.” And with biometrics gathered on the way out of the U.S., some worry people could be detained as they try to leave the county if their visa had expired or for any other reason. "It’s within the realm of possibility that someone planning to leave the United States, it could be a challenge to get out and I think that makes everybody feel a little uncomfortable with what we’ve been seeing the ways things have been heading in last 10 months.” On Friday, CBP said it will be using facial recognition technology to track non-citizens entering and leaving the country in order to combat visa overstays and passport fraud. "I think everyone understands the need for border security and this country should know who is coming and going, but a lot of people are right not to trust the government is making careful decisions in ways they detain people," Lincoln-Goldfinch said. She believes the biometrics gathering program will likely face court challenges, in particular fourth amendment questions about unlawful search and seizure. DHS is requesting comments on the specific collection process as well as costs and benefits for new transportation modalities.

Axios [10/27/2025 7:25 AM, Monica Eng, 12972K] reports a little known border law from the 1950s may be playing a big role in the current surge of controversial immigration actions across Chicago — even though few would consider the city a border town. The statute created what’s known as the "100-mile zone" where Customs and Border Protection agents conduct warrantless searches of vehicles within a "reasonable distance" of an international border. The practice greatly scales back Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless search and eventual arrest in the zone If the Department of Homeland security considers Chicago part of the zone, as many maps suggest, it could explain a lot about recent warrantless CBP searches, arrests and operations from Albany Park to South Shore. "This is unprecedented," Patrick Eddington, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute tells Axios. "I’ve been working on CBP-related issues now for almost 11 years, and I’ve never seen anything like." CBP "is empowered by longstanding federal law to operate within 100 miles of an international border," Asst. DHS Sec. Tricia McLaughlin told Axios by email. "This 100-Mile Border Enforcement Zone also encompasses airports and international entry points into the country." It’s still far from clear if Chicago falls in that zone. DHS officials did not respond to multiple recent requests asking to clarify if and how Chicago would feasibly qualify for the zone.

NBC News [10/27/2025 7:22 PM, Julia Ainsley and Laura Strickler, 34509K] reports the Trump administration is planning to replace some regional leaders at Immigration and Customs Enforcement with Border Patrol officials in an attempt to intensify its mass deportations effort amid growing frustration with the pace of daily arrests, according to two Homeland Security Department officials, one former DHS official and one federal law enforcement official. President Donald Trump’s top aides have welcomed Border Patrol’s more aggressive tactics to secure arrests, such as rappeling into apartment buildings from Black Hawk helicopters and jumping out of rental trucks in Home Depot parking lots, as they’ve become disappointed with ICE, the officials said. "The mentality is CBP does what they’re told, and the administration thinks ICE isn’t getting the job done," one of the DHS officials said. "So CBP will do it.” The White House has signed off on a list of at least a dozen directors of ICE field officers who are set to be reassigned in coming days, the two DHS officials, the former DHS official and the federal law enforcement official said. They said that at least half of them would be replaced with Border Patrol officials. ICE has 25 field offices around the country, so the move could replace nearly half of the agency’s leaders. The list was compiled by Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee at DHS who advises Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief overseeing the agency’s operations in Chicago and previously in Los Angeles, the law enforcement official said. The administration’s shift to leaning more heavily on Border Patrol marks a potential new phase in Trump’s deportation efforts. While ICE has come under criticism for its raids, the agency’s broad approach has been to make targeted arrests of immigrants known to be in the country illegally. Border Patrol’s approach to recent arrests in major U.S. cities has been more aggressive, making large sweeps that have sparked some of the sharpest backlash from protesters and prompted lawsuits. New York Times was first to report that the Trump administration was planning a shake-up of ICE leadership amid frustration over arrest numbers, citing three people familiar with the plans. As of late September, the latest period for which data is available due to the government shutdown, ICE was arresting 1,178 on average per day — well short of the 3,000 per day that the chief architect of Trump’s deportation policy, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, has demanded. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said Monday in a statement to NBC News that Bovino had been hit in the head by a rock. "We look forward to the American people viewing the footage," she said. Some ICE leaders have quietly expressed dismay over Border Patrol’s tactics in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, the law enforcement official and two DHS officials said. Two former ICE officials said ICE does not own some of the resources Border Patrol has, such as Black Hawks.

Washington Examiner [10/27/2025 11:18 AM, Pedro Rodriguez, 1394K] reports by securing the southern border, President Donald Trump saved the lives of countless child trafficking victims, Tim Ballard, a former special agent for the Department of Homeland Security, devout Christian, and founder of anti-child sex trafficking nonprofit organization the Tim Ballard Foundation, told the Washington Examiner. "Nobody will ever give Trump the credit. With one swift move, he saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, and I don’t say that casually," Ballard told the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview. "Just by enforcing the laws on the books, immediately you turn off the spigots of child trafficking." As stated by Ballard, former President Joe Biden’s deliberate open border policy allowed countless child sex traffickers to bring their victims over the border. "In my opinion, Biden and mostly [former Vice President Kamala Harris] knew damn well what they were doing. I know because I briefed Kamala when she was senator, at this judiciary committee. I said that by opening up the gates, you are allowing child trafficking as a byproduct," Ballard said.

CBS Chicago [10/27/2025 5:39 PM, Todd Feurer, 39474K] Video: HERE reports the night manager at the Chicago Laugh Factory has been charged with assaulting U.S. Border Patrol agent during a confrontation outside the Lakeview comedy club last week. Nathan Griffin has been charged with one count of forcibly assaulting, impeding, and interfering with a federal officer. According to the charges, on Friday morning, Border Patrol agents were in an unmarked vehicle near Broadway and Belmont Avenue, looking for a body-worn camera they believed might have been dropped in the area during a prior immigration-related arrest. When one of the agents opened the front passenger door to get out and look, Griffin forcibly tried to close the door, according to the charges. The agent suffered "a small gouge and scrapes on his right leg" when Griffin closed the door on his leg, the complaint states. The agent was able to push the door open, and with the help of another agent, arrested Griffin at the scene. Griffin allegedly refused to let go of the Border Patrol vehicle’s door handle and a nearby scaffolding as he was being arrested, and told agents, "I didn’t assault anybody. . . Shutting a door isn’t a [expletive] crime," according to the charges. Video posted on the club’s Instagram page shows Griffin standing on the street during the incident, holding onto a piece of construction scaffolding with a white SUV belonging to federal agents pulled up next to him, its door open against his body. There were at least four masked federal agents in full camouflage present, as well as at least one Chicago police officer. In the video, bystanders could be heard screaming for help and insisting, "He didn’t do anything!".

Chicago Tribune [10/27/2025 10:00 AM, Richard Requena, 4829K] reports a Skokie resident told the Village Board at its Tuesday meeting that while driving in neighboring Evanston, she was intimidated and threatened with arrest by two U.S. Border Patrol agents when she stopped her car to film their actions on her phone. Kimberly Polka, who has been civically active in Skokie in advocating for voter representation and affordable housing, told the Board during the public comment portion of its meeting Oct. 21 that while she visited a pet store in the 2200 block of Oakton Street in Evanston, she observed individuals she thought were federal immigration officers parked near the Home Depot store. In a prepared statement to Pioneer Press, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote that U.S. Border Patrol arrested four people from Mexico and Venezuela on Tuesday. McLaughlin did not disclose the names and charges against or criminal histories of the four people, but said that individuals in the group had prior convictions of domestic battery and larceny. Evanston Police were aware of two arrests on Tuesday, one of them occurring inside the Home Depot, according to prior reporting. Polka told the Village Board that the two immigration officers she encountered were also seen in a Facebook post detaining and tackling someone in the Home Depot store that day. When Polka began to film the agents’ actions Tuesday morning, two agents approached her, in separate interactions, and both threatened to pull her out of her vehicle and arrest her. Individuals have the right to film law enforcement officers in plain view as long as they do not interfere, according to information from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Chicago Tribune [10/27/2025 5:14 PM, Molly Morrow, 4829K] reports as the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement raids continue across the Chicago area, a Kane County committee is moving forward a resolution expressing support for immigrant rights. Last week, the Kane County Board’s Legislative Committee considered the measure, which was brought forward by District 1 board member Myrna Molina. "I think we’ve heard from our communities, and we know what the county has jurisdiction over," Molina said at Wednesday’s committee meeting. "What we’re seeing isn’t right, and we’re asking for your support in reforming what is currently happening.". On Sept. 8, President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security announced that it had begun a surge of immigration law enforcement in Chicago, calling it "Operation Midway Blitz" and claiming it would target "criminal illegal aliens" who have benefited from the city and state’s sanctuary policies, according to past reporting. The immigration crackdown unfolding since has been felt around Chicago and its suburbs, including in and around Kane County. On Saturday, for example, two protestors were arrested in Aurora after having confronted federal immigration agents at an elementary school in the city. A few weeks prior, protestors outside Aurora City Hall decried the recent immigration enforcement in the city following federal officer sightings in the area. Federal immigration enforcement activity has also been seen in nearby towns like Elgin, Carpentersville and Naperville. The measure considered by the Kane County Board committee last week points to "aggressive" federal immigration enforcement activity in communities in Illinois, saying that those actions "erode public trust, discourage residents from reporting crimes or accessing services, and disproportionately target individuals based on race, ethnicity, or perceived immigration status." It also states that "many detained are workers and community members rather than public safety threats" and that "documented cases in Illinois show that even U.S. citizens have been wrongfully detained under such operations.". The resolution also indicates the Kane County Board’s "commitment to upholding the rights, dignity, and safety of all residents" regardless of immigration status, and states that county departments and offices will "continue to provide services in a fair, equitable, and culturally responsive manner to all residents.". It also calls on the state and federal government to enact "humane, comprehensive immigration reforms.".

Daily Caller [10/27/2025 11:35 AM, Leena Nasir, 835K] reports masked federal agents arrested a manager of Laugh Factory Chicago, Nathan Griffin, Friday while bystanders screamed hysterically for them to stop. Cameras rolled as the wild encounter unfolded on the street just outside the iconic comedy club. Officers slammed Griffin to the ground as onlookers shrieked loudly, demanding the federal agents uncover their faces and show their identities. The crowd of onlookers thickened as the agents struggled before successfully subduing Griffin and putting him in handcuffs. The agents threw the manager into the back of a white SUV as people yelled frantically for them to remove their face masks. Griffin allegedly "attempted to impede and obstruct federal officers," a Border Patrol spokesperson told NBC Chicago in a statement. The spokesperson accused Griffin of trying to close the federal agents’ car door on an agent’s leg, according to the outlet. Griffin’s mother posted a video Sunday on Instagram, claiming her son was "kidnapped" right in front of her eyes.

Reuters [10/27/2025 5:47 AM, Federico Maccioni, 36480K] reports Delta Air Lines is seeing a "small" impact from the U.S. government shutdown, costing it less than $1 million a day, and the shortage of airport security staff is of greater concern, the carrier’s CEO said on Monday. "The more obvious concern is TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and ensuring that those checkpoints are staffed accordingly," Delta CEO Ed Bastian told Reuters on the sidelines of the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh. There is also a shortage of air traffic controllers in the United States. Some 13,000 air traffic controllers and about 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must work without pay during the government shutdown. Controllers will miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday. "Air traffic control is something in the U.S. that is understaffed to begin with. So it’s hard to sometimes identify what is attributable to the shutdown versus just understaffing in general," Bastian said. Delta is locked in a dispute with the U.S. government over its nearly nine-year-old joint venture with Aeromexico, which the U.S. Department of Transportation has ordered must end on January 1, as part of several actions aimed at Mexican aviation, citing competition concerns.

AP [10/27/2025 6:51 PM, Rio Yamat, 2416K] reports a shortage of air traffic controllers caused more flight disruptions Monday around the country as controllers braced for their first full missing paycheck during the federal government shutdown. The Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing-related delays on Monday afternoon averaging about 20 minutes at the airport in Dallas and about 40 minutes at both Newark Liberty International Airport and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The delays in Austin followed a brief ground stop at the airport, meaning flights were held at their originating airports until the FAA lifted the stop around 4:15 p.m. local time. The FAA also warned of staffing issues at a facility in Jacksonville, Florida, that could cause some problems. Just last week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had predicted that travelers would start to see more flights delayed and canceled as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the shutdown, which is nearing the one-month mark. During a weekend appearance on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures,” Duffy said more controllers were calling in sick as money worries compound the stress of an already challenging job. “And that’s a sign that the controllers are wearing thin,” Duffy said. Earlier Monday, flights were also briefly delayed at Los Angeles International Airport, one of the busiest in the world. The disruptions emerged a day after the FAA had issued a temporary ground stop at LAX for about two hours due to a shortage of controllers. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said about 72% of the flights scheduled Sunday at LAX took off within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure times. Most controllers are continuing to work mandatory overtime six days a week during the shutdown without pay, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said Monday. That leaves little time for a side job unless controllers call in sick to the FAA. Union members were expected to gather Tuesday at major airports across the U.S., including in New York City and Atlanta, to pass out leaflets to passengers detailing how the shutdown is negatively impacting the national aviation system and the workers who keep it running safely. The action coincides with controllers’ first full missing paycheck since the shutdown began. Some U.S. airports have stepped in to provide food donations and other support for federal aviation employees working without pay, including controllers and Transportation Security Administration agents. Before the shutdown, the FAA was already dealing with a shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers. Nick Daniels, president of NATCA, has said the agency had reached “the lowest staffing we’ve had in decades of only 10,800.”

The AP [10/27/2025 12:03 PM, John Myers Jr. and Dánica Coto, 31753K] reports Hurricane Melissa strengthened into a Category 5 storm Monday as it drew closer to Jamaica, where forecasters said it would unleash catastrophic flooding, landslides and widespread damage. It would be the strongest hurricane to hit the island since record-keeping began in 1851. Melissa, blamed for six deaths in the northern Caribbean as it headed toward the island, was on track to make landfall Tuesday in Jamaica before coming ashore in Cuba later in the day and then heading toward the Bahamas. It was not expected to affect the United States. On Monday morning, Melissa was centered about 145 miles (230 kilometers) southwest of Kingston and about 330 miles (530 kilometers) southwest of Guantánamo, Cuba, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (270 kph) and was moving west at 3 mph (5 kph), the center said. Some areas in eastern Jamaica could see up to 40 inches (1 meter) of rain while western Haiti could get 16 inches (40 centimeters), according to the hurricane center. “Catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides are likely,” it warned. Mandatory evacuations were ordered in seven flood-prone communities in Jamaica, with buses ferrying people to safe shelter. Reuters [10/27/2025 5:41 PM, Zahra Burton and Dave Sherwood, 36480K] reports that as of 2 p.m. (1800 GMT), Melissa was a "catastrophic" storm, the strongest possible on the Saffir-Simpson scale, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. The NHC expects Melissa to move over Jamaica late Monday or in the early hours of Tuesday, cross eastern Cuba the following night and move over the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos by Wednesday. The storm’s slow movement over unusually tepid Caribbean water had contributed to its ballooning size and strength, NHC forecasters said, threatening Jamaica with days of never-before-seen catastrophic winds and as much as 3 feet of rain. Melissa’s wind-span is currently larger than the length of Jamaica, an island roughly the size of Connecticut and whose main airports sit very close to sea level. Hours after ordering mandatory evacuations for parts of southern Jamaica, including the historic town of Port Royal, Prime Minister Andrew Holness called on foreign support and warned of damage to farmlands, homes and infrastructure such as bridges, roads, ports and airports. NBC News [10/27/2025 9:19 AM, Patrick Smith, Rebecca Cohen, and Kathryn Prociv, 34509K] reports that the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned people in Jamaica to go to shelters and stay there during the storm, with dangerous conditions beginning Monday and lasting through Tuesday. Melissa is set to make landfall in Jamaica early Tuesday, before moving across southeastern Cuba Tuesday night as a Category 3 storm and across the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday as a Category 2. Government officials in Jamaica are set to address the public at 11:30 a.m. Monday, as tropical storm conditions are already plaguing the island. Haiti and the Dominican Republic will also face catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding by midweek, the hurricane center said, while Cuba is facing heavy rain, floods and landslides from Monday. There is also a hurricane watch for the central and southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. So far, the storm has killed at least four people, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic. "Although interaction with Jamaica will lead to some weakening, Melissa is expected to reach southeastern Cuba as a major hurricane, and will also move across the southeastern Bahamas and be near Bermuda as a hurricane," the hurricane center said in an analysis of the latest forecast.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [10/27/2025 12:22 PM, Ben Noll, 24149K]
Bloomberg [10/27/2025 2:03 PM, Lauren Rosenthal, Brian K Sullivan, Joe Wertz, 18207K]
Univision [10/27/2025 8:51 AM, Staff, 5004K]

NPR [10/27/2025 4:04 PM, Rebecca Hersher and Ailsa Chang, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports Hurricane Melissa will hit Jamaica as a massive Category 5 storm, and dump huge amounts of rain. Climate change makes large, rainy storms more likely.

NPR [10/28/2025 4:57 AM, Eyder Peralta and Michel Martin, 34837K] reports Hurricane Melissa is expected to make landfall early Tuesday morning in Jamaica. The Category 5 hurricane is poised to become the strongest storm ever to strike the island. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

AP [10/28/2025 1:37 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports Hurricane Melissa has intensified into a Category 5 storm as it draws closer to Jamaica, where forecasters say it will unleash catastrophic flooding, landslides and widespread damage. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [10/27/2025 8:24 PM, Isabella O’malley, 31753K] reports the U.S. National Hurricane Center warned Monday that Hurricane Melissa could cause catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides in parts of Jamaica, Cuba and Hispaniola. The annual death toll due to landslides in the U.S. is an average of 25-50 people and thousands globally, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Landslides — defined by the USGS as "the movement of a mass of rock, debris or earth down a slope" — are capable of traveling tens of miles (kilometers) per hour and can damage homes and block roads and rail lines. Earthquakes, heavy rain and changes to the soil, such as construction or agricultural practices, can trigger landslides. Melissa’s relatively slow movement, path over mountainous terrain and "tremendous" rainfall amounts up to 40 inches (102 centimeters) in certain localities are ingredients that are contributing to a "worrisome" landslide risk, said Brian Tang, a professor of atmospheric science at University at Albany. "It’s not like an urban area where it just kind of drains slowly. It really runs very quickly down the hillsides," said Tang. The heavy rainfall can cause erosion, exacerbate a slope’s weakness and result in a landslide. According to Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, landslides are the most common natural hazard in the island nation. Hispaniola, which Haiti and the Dominican Republic share, and Cuba are also susceptible to landslides due to mountainous terrain and their locations in a seismically active zone.

New York Times [10/27/2025 3:54 PM, Judson Jones, 135475K] reports the calm, 11-mile-wide eye of Hurricane Melissa is encircled by its most ferocious winds, which are now beginning what forecasters called a “painstakingly slow turn” toward Jamaica — a crawl that will drag the storm over the island at a speed no faster than a person can walk. That punishing pace is why officials predict the storm will deliver rain totals measured not in inches, but in feet. Melissa is now locked onto a path that is certain to strike Jamaica, Cuba, and possibly even the Bahamas, as an intensely destructive force throughout the next few days. Officials in Jamaica have warned residents not to venture outside as catastrophic, life-threatening flash-flooding and numerous landslides are expected from Monday through Tuesday. This torrential rainfall will continue across Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba as the storm makes its slow turn north toward the southern coast of Jamaica. The eye of Melissa is almost certain to make landfall on the south coast of Jamaica on Tuesday morning and pass over the north coast by Tuesday afternoon. While there is still a slight chance the center of the storm will slide around the island, forecasters say this will have little change in the overall threat. Overnight Tuesday or early Wednesday morning, the center of Melissa most likely will make a second landfall in Cuba, passing over the southeastern side of the country as it heads toward the Bahamas. By midday on Wednesday, the storm will be swirling over the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos. A third landfall is possible on one of the islands if the center of Melissa moves directly over land. Either way, the storm will have weakened some, but damaging hurricane conditions are still likely. Flash flooding from four to eight inches of rain could fall Tuesday into Wednesday night across the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, along with a significant storm surge and destructive winds. Melissa’s quickening pace could put it in the vicinity of Bermuda by Thursday night, but this remains the point in the forecast where things are still the most uncertain. The agreement across most computer models — tracing the path over Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas — typically gives forecasters confidence in what to expect. In the latest model runs on Monday, the track has shifted slightly westward, away from Bermuda. Forecasters said that they will not feel 100 percent confident in the hurricane’s ultimate direction until Melissa finally turns north or northeast on Monday.

New York Times [10/27/2025 10:29 AM, Amy Graff, 135475K] reports while many tropical storms move across the Atlantic Ocean at a steady pace, Hurricane Melissa is lumbering over the warm waters of the western Caribbean, coming to a near standstill just southeast of Jamaica as it collects moisture and gains strength. The stalled storm intensified into a hurricane on Saturday and was expected to drift west slowly in the coming days and unleash destructive winds and torrential rain over Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Cuba that will bring a risk of life-threatening, catastrophic flash flooding and landslides. At least three people have died in Haiti where the heavy rain is already falling. “The slower a storm goes, the more time it has to dump a lot of rain in one place,” said Stephen Mullens, a professor at the University of Florida. Tropical cyclones typically move across the Caribbean at an average speed of about 10 to 12 miles per hour, according to Phil Klotzbach, a senior research scientist in the department of atmospheric science at Colorado State University. On Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said the storm’s speed was one m.p.h. “It was moving at maybe 10 m.p.h., and then in the last couple days it basically ground to a halt,” Mr. Klotzbach said. He explained that the system was sandwiched between two separate areas of high pressure that caused the prevailing winds, which typically push storms along, to slacken. “There’s a pebble in the stream, but the stream is stagnant,” he said. “There’s nothing pushing the storm along,” he added. Tropical storms that stall can lead to prolonged rainfall over a confined area, increasing the chances for hazardous flooding. Imagine moving a garden hose quickly across a lawn so all areas receive some water, which is absorbed into the soil. But if you hold the hose over one spot for a long time, a pool of water forms. The situation in Haiti and Jamaica is exacerbated by mountainous terrain that squeezes moisture out of the storm and can intensify rainfall rates. Forecasters predicted 20 or even 30 inches of rain in some isolated areas. Mudslides are possible on the mountainsides. Prolonged winds are also a problem as they batter and weaken structures. Stalling has resulted in some of the most destructive and deadly storms in history. Hurricane Dorian lingered over the Bahamas in 2019, pounding and soaking the islands at a near standstill. The year before, Hurricane Florence drenched the North Carolina coast for more than two days, and when Hurricane Harvey stalled over southeast Texas for days in 2017, it dumped up to 60 inches of rain in some spots

New York Times [10/27/2025 11:22 AM, Carol Rosenberg, 135475K] reports about 3,000 residents remained at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay in southeast Cuba on Monday, days ahead of the projected arrival of Hurricane Melissa on the island. Over the weekend, the military hired four charter flights and dispatched a C-17 cargo plane to the base to evacuate about 1,000 nonessential Defense Department workers and the relatives of military personnel and contractors who live on the base year round. They were being housed in and around a U.S. Navy base in Pensacola, Fla., and had been told they might stay there for two weeks. The Guantánamo base has hurricane shelters and emergency supplies, particularly for those housed in the trailer parks around the facility. Its other vulnerabilities include its infrastructure, which makes its own water and power. If those plants or supply lines are damaged, people will need to rely on generators and bottled water until repaired. There are none of those iconic tents that were set up in January and February in anticipation of a wave of migrants facing deportation. That wave never materialized, and the tents were packed away months ago. Dozens of ICE agents and Homeland Security contractors were evacuated Friday, a week after the last migrants held at Guantánamo were deported to Central America. A group of 15 wartime detainees, including five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, were being housed in a two-story steel and cement prison building that past commanders have described as safe for them and their Army guards. When not on patrol at the prison compound, those guards live in a hurricane-proof barracks and have a hurricane-proof dining facility at a site not far from the coast called Camp America.

NBC News [10/27/2025 4:18 PM, David K. Li and Michael Kosnar, 2218K] reports that a Minnesota man was arrested after allegedly offering $45,000 for the killing of Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to court documents. Tyler Avalos, 29, published the threat on TikTok saying he wanted Bondi "dead or alive" but "preferably dead," according to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Caleb Jurchisin. The investigation into Avalos started Oct. 9 when a tipster from Detroit "submitted a report to the FBI National Threat Operations Center" and flagged the suspect’s TikTok feed, the FBI said. The TikTok post included a picture of Bondi "with a sniper-scope red dot on" her forehead, according to the affidavit. "Additionally, the suspect user posted a comment below the description that reads ‘cough cough’/’when you don’t serve us then what?’" Jurchisin added. TikTok, Google and Comcast helped the FBI trace the suspect, the affidavit says, learning he signed up for the platform on a Samsung Galaxy phone. Avalos was charged with creating "an online post containing a threat to injure," according to a criminal complaint. He appeared in court last Wednesday and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. A judge released him on a personal recognizance but ordered him to wear a GPS monitor. Lawyers for Avalos, who lives in St. Paul, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bondi’s office declined comment on the matter. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

DefenseScoop [10/27/2025 3:40 PM, Jon Harper, 150K] reports President Donald Trump has formally submitted the nomination of Adm. Kevin Lunday for Coast Guard commandant. The nomination was sent to the Senate on Oct. 23 and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for consideration, according to a notice posted on Congress.gov and a congressional source. Lunday has been serving as acting commandant since January, in the wake of the firing of Adm. Linda Fagan shortly after Trump took office for his second term. Prior to that, Lunday was vice commandant. His selection for the top job didn’t come as a surprise. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem indicated in May that the president would nominate him, but the move hadn’t officially been made until recent days. Although the Coast Guard falls under the Department of Homeland Security, it is considered a U.S. military service and part of the joint force. For example, its personnel and platforms often work with the Navy on maritime missions. Lunday is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, the National War College, the Naval War College, and George Washington University Law School, according to his official bio. Notably, he has worked closely with the Defense Department’s cyber community.

San Francisco Chronicle [10/27/2025 6:47 PM, Megan Cassidy, 4722K] reports newly obtained surveillance video captured near a protest of planned San Francisco immigration raids last week shows what happened in the minutes after a U-Haul truck drove in reverse toward a line of Coast Guard personnel at an island base near Alameda, prompting them to open fire. Why the driver of the U-Haul backed toward a checkpoint at the bridge entrance to Coast Guard Base Alameda remains unclear. The incident occurred just before 10 p.m. Thursday, when all but a few protesters opposed to the arrival of U.S. Border Patrol agents there had dispersed. In video of the shooting previously released by KTVU, the truck was seen driving away. Department of Homeland Security officials said the next day that both the U-Haul driver and a bystander were injured. The bystander was struck by a fragment and released from a hospital, while the driver was "wounded in the stomach" and was later held for a mental health evaluation, the DHS statement said. The FBI later said it took the U-Haul driver into custody. The agency, which is investigating the episode, has neither identified the person nor released additional details, and public documents, as of Monday, showed no record of an arrest or court charges. Officials with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to further comment on Monday. The video obtained by the Chronicle raises new questions. It was recorded by a fixed surveillance camera on Dennison Street, about a block east of the Coast Guard Island Bridge. About five minutes after a barrage of gunfire is heard on the footage, a U-Haul truck is seen parking on Dennison Street, apparently unnoticed. In the next minute, a dark-colored car pulls up next to the driver’s side of the U-Haul. A person from the passenger side of the car emerges, and appears to help the U-Haul driver into the back seat of the car before it drives away. The video does not make clear whether the occupants of the car knew the U-Haul driver, or whether they drove the driver to a hospital.

CBS News [10/27/2025 6:30 AM, Staff, 39474K] reports Spanish police said Sunday that they seized 6.5 tons of cocaine and arrested nine people after a U.S. tip-off led them to raid a ship off the Canary Islands a few days ago. In a statement, police said the narcotics were hidden in the hold of the boat, which was flying a Tanzanian flag and had departed from Panama en route to Vigo, in north-west Spain. The cargo ship, which was approximately 177 feet long, had unusual structures on board which concealed the narcotics, officials said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. federal agency responsible for combating drug trafficking, provided key "information" that enabled the operation to succeed, the press release stated. Police release video on social media showing officers on a speed boat intercepting the alleged drug-trafficking ship. Spain is one of the main gateways for cocaine into Europe, due to its links with Latin America, where the drug is produced, and its geographical location in the south-west of the continent. In April, the U.S. Coast Guard seized roughly 10,000 pounds of cocaine from a fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean.

Roll Call [10/27/2025 12:56 PM, Allison Mollenkamp, 548K] reports that Congressional Democrats are continuing to sound the alarm over staffing cuts at the nation’s cybersecurity agency and underscoring the need for the federal government to be prepared for cyberattacks. The Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has laid off some workers and furloughed many others during the partial government shutdown. DHS initially said in a court filing that it was issuing reduction-in-force notices to 176 employees. It later reduced that number to 54, though it did not specify how many CISA employees were affected. According to DHS’ shutdown plan, CISA had just over 2,500 employees at the end of May but will operate with fewer than 900 during the lapse in appropriations, with the rest furloughed. That number was prior to RIFs at DHS. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who serves as ranking member of the House Homeland Security panel’s subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, sent a letter to CISA earlier this month requesting specific information on staffing levels, including RIFs and possible reorganization to move employees away from cybersecurity to other DHS functions. He said in the letter that so far this year, "DHS and CISA have refused to share final numbers on how many employees have left the agency — despite numerous requests from Committee staff." "Amid reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS or the Department) is now forcibly transferring CISA’s cybersecurity employees to other DHS components, it has become apparent that the Department’s exclusive focus on its mass deportation campaign is coming at the expense of our national security." The House Homeland Security Committee’s ranking member, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement that "average Americans" would suffer the consequences of the shutdown and blamed the Trump administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem responded that the cuts were about responding to CISA getting "off mission," though she did not list other areas of CISA that would be cut outside of fighting misinformation.

CyberScoop [10/27/2025 4:20 PM, Matt Kapko] reports attackers are actively exploiting a critical vulnerability in Windows Server Update Services, bypassing a patch Microsoft issued earlier this month that failed to mitigate the issue affecting software versions dating back to 2012. Microsoft released an emergency, out-of-band security update for CVE-2025-59287 on Thursday. Multiple research firms detected in-the-wild exploitation by Friday, yet Microsoft has yet to confirm exploitation occurred as of this article’s publication. The reinvigorated risk posed by a previously disclosed and addressed vulnerability underscores how quickly defenders and attackers amass resources in tight windows. Researchers observed proof-of-concept exploits and active exploitation within hours of Microsoft’s emergency patch release. This vulnerability shows how simple and trivial exploitation is once an attack script is publicly available, John Hammond, principal security researcher at Huntress, told CyberScoop. “It’s always an attack of opportunity — just kind of spray-and-pray, and see whatever access a criminal can get their hands on.” The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency added the remote-code execution defect to its known exploited vulnerabilities catalog Friday and issued an alert urging organizations to apply the patch and follow Microsoft’s mitigation guidance. “We re-released this CVE after identifying that the initial update did not fully mitigate the issue. Customers who have installed the latest updates are already protected,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. The vendor did not say when nor how it determined the previous patch could be bypassed.

CyberScoop [10/27/2025 1:20 PM, Tim Starks] reports Kaspersky researchers said Monday that they’ve unearthed a malware campaign they’re linking to the successor company of the infamous Italy-based surveillance tech firm Hacking Team, and at the same time discovered new commercial malware tied to the same firm. The malware campaign that Kaspersky dubbed Operation ForumTroll targeted government organizations, media outlets, financial institutions, universities, research centers and other organizations in Russia, with an apparent goal of conducting espionage. It identified it as an advanced persistent threat campaign, a term normally applied to nation-state attackers. Hacking Team was active from the early 2000s until 2019, when it was acquired and rebranded as Memento Labs. Kaspersky said in a blog post Monday that it detected a wave of malware infections in March that it traced back to 2022 and tied to Memento Labs. While analyzing that malware, researchers found a previously undiscovered commercial spyware product Memento Labs developed known as “Dante,” according to Kaspersky.

NPR [10/27/2025 5:37 PM, Staff, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports in a public roundtable, President Trump asked his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to apply the designation to Antifa. NPR’s Ryan Lucas reports that it could have enormous consequences, including making it illegal to provide something as meager as a bottle of water to what the Trump administration deems to be Antifa.

NPR [10/28/2025 5:00 AM, Ryan Lucas, 34837K] Audio: HERE reports earlier this month, President Trump hosted a roundtable at the White House about antifa, the far-left movement or ideology opposed to fascism. Some of the right-wing influencers gathered around the table urged him to designate antifa as a foreign terrorist organization. "Would you like to see it done?" the president asked. "You think it would help? I’d be glad to do it. I think it’s the kind of thing I’d like to do. Does everybody agree? If you agree, I agree. Let’s get it done." Trump then turned to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and said, "Marco, we’ll take care of that." Trump has already issued an executive order that labels antifa a domestic terrorist organization, but the impact of that is unclear since there is no federal legal provision to designate domestic terrorism groups. The State Department does have the authority, however, to designate foreign terrorist groups, a move that has real legal teeth. If the Trump administration were to take that step against antifa, it would likely have massive implications. "It would have a legal impact that would have a cascading effect across civil society, including social media organizations, civic organizations and everything in between," said Thomas Brzozowski, the former counsel for domestic terrorism at the Justice Department. "It would effectively criminalize activity that is associated with a diffuse — I hesitate to use the term organization — but more of an ethos or a shared collective dissent to a lot of what the administration is doing." [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

FOX News [10/27/2025 7:45 PM, Greg Wehner, 40621K] reports a transgender high school student in Indiana accused of plotting a Valentine’s Day mass shooting has reached a plea deal, pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit murder. Trinity J. Shockley, 18, was charged in February in Morgan Superior Court with conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of intimidation to commit terrorism. Shockley identifies as a transgender male and often goes by Jamie or Dex, according to authorities. Court records show a plea agreement was filed Friday, with a hearing held Monday where Shockley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, a Level 2 felony. The two intimidation charges were dropped under the deal. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 24 at 10:15 a.m. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Morgan County Prosecutor’s Office for comment on the matter. Under Indiana law, a person convicted of a Level 2 felony faces between 10 and 30 years in prison. The Indianapolis Star reported that Shockley’s attorney requested a sentence of no more than 12.5 years in prison and up to five years of probation. As part of probation, Shockley must meet with mental health professionals, is prohibited from searching for school-shooting content and is barred from entering Morgan County school properties. Authorities said Shockley’s alleged plan to attack Mooresville High School was uncovered when the FBI in Indianapolis received a tip and contacted the Mooresville Metropolitan Police Department. The FBI later said it "swiftly coordinated" with local officials to investigate. The tip indicated that Shockley planned a shooting, had access to an AR-15 rifle and had ordered a bulletproof vest. It also said Shockley was infatuated with Nikolas Cruz, who carried out the 2018 Parkland school shooting on Valentine’s Day. A search of Shockley’s home by the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department revealed a "shrine" to recent mass shooters, including Cruz, Dylann Roof, who killed nine people in a Charleston church, and Ethan Crumbley, who carried out the 2021 Oxford High School shooting in Michigan. Court documents said Shockley also kept a photo album and buttons featuring the shooters’ faces. Investigators found notebooks in which Shockley identified as "Dex… a transgender male [who has] a lot of homicidal thoughts.” "These thoughts never seem to stop, you may believe that I am some edgelord, but in reality, I am just a loser," Shockley wrote in a Dec. 16, 2024 entry, according to court documents. "I am grateful for my chance to live but in reality, I am scared of living. Is it the government you ask? No. It is this sad reality of living with piece(s) of s---… I hope whoever reads this takes acknowledgment and maybe use it for your massacre. :)". In January, Shockley wrote about wanting to harm others and said people needed to be "killed" and "wiped away from humanity.”

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New York Post [10/27/2025 3:08 PM, Alex Oliveira, 42219K]
NewsMax [10/27/2025 9:09 PM, Solange Reyner, 4109K]

FOX News [10/27/2025 8:41 AM, Anders Hagstrom, 40621K] Video: HERE reports President Donald Trump says the U.S. does not suspect foul play in the two separate crashes of U.S. Navy aircraft in the South China Sea this weekend. Trump made the statement during a gaggle with reporters aboard Air Force One, saying he expected to get answers regarding the crashes soon. One possibility he’d been given was that the planes had faulty fuel, the president said. "You’ve been briefed on the incident, on the Nimitz, both a fighter jet and a helicopter?" a reporter asked. "I’ve heard about it, yeah," Trump responded. "Do you know what happened there? What was that?" the reporter asked. "They’re going to let me know pretty soon. I think they should be able to find out. It could be bad fuel. I mean, it’s possible it’s bad fuel. Very unusual that that would happen," Trump said. "You don’t think it was foul play or anything?" the reporter pressed. "No, I don’t," Trump replied. "They think it might be bad fuel.". Two U.S. Navy aircraft from USS Nimitz — a Sea Hawk helicopter and an F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet — crashed during separate "routine operations" over the South China Sea on Sunday. All five crew members aboard the two craft were rescued and remain in stable condition, according to the Navy.

AP [10/27/2025 5:11 AM, Konstantin Toropin, 31753K] reports a fighter jet and a helicopter based off the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz both crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet said. The three crew members of the MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter were rescued on Sunday afternoon, and the two aviators in the F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet ejected and were recovered safely, and all five "are safe and in stable condition," the fleet said in a statement. The causes of the two crashes were under investigation, the statement said. President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Tokyo on Monday, said the incidents could have been caused by "bad fuel." He ruled out foul play and said there was "nothing to hide." The USS Nimitz is returning to its home port in Naval Base Kitsap in Washington state after having been deployed to the Middle East for most of the summer as part of the U.S. response to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial shipping. The carrier is on its final deployment before decommissioning.

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Daily Wire [10/27/2025 6:39 AM, Zach Jewell, 2494K]

CNN [10/27/2025 11:00 AM, Ella Nilsen and René Marsh, 18595K] reports before the federal agency that builds nuclear weapons and safeguards the nation’s nuclear stockpile ran out of funding, officials there made an urgent request to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget: Use money from previously passed spending bills to prevent the agency from having to furlough its staff, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s request has not been fulfilled, the sources said, despite similar funding being used to pay US troops, Customs and Border Protection, US Coast Guard agents and other federal law enforcement officials. Last week, NNSA furloughed most of its full-time staff, about 1,400 people — marking the first time this critical national security agency has ever experienced furloughs during a shutdown. "While the administration was able to identify funds to keep NNSA weapons laboratories, plants, and sites operating with our contractors, legal and budgetary limitations required the administration to begin furloughing NNSA federal employees," a spokesperson for the Department of Energy, which oversees NNSA, said in a statement. That came as a surprise to some within the agency, where roughly $20 billion of its $25 billion budget goes towards manufacturing nuclear weapons, some of which are eventually installed on Navy cruisers and Air Force bombers. "People were hopeful after they saw DoD move money around to pay the troops," one agency source told CNN, referring to the Department of Defense funding reallocation. "We’re doing the same kind of national security work."

Washington Examiner [10/27/2025 4:09 PM, Callie Patteson, 1394K] reports the Energy Department has signed a $1 billion deal to construct multiple supercomputers that will be used to unlock scientific breakthroughs in issues such as nuclear power, national security, and cancer treatment. On Monday afternoon, Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced the deal made between the government and tech giant Advanced Micro Devices to build two supercomputers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to run complex, data-heavy experiments across multiple sectors. “Winning the AI race requires new and creative partnerships that will bring together the brightest minds and industries American technology and science has to offer,” Wright said in a statement. During a joint press briefing, Wright and AMD CEO Lisa Su revealed that the agreement calls for the first computer to be constructed and online within the next six months. This computer, dubbed Lux, will be built around AMD’s MI355X artificial intelligence chips and will also feature central processors and networking chips made by the semiconductor company. “The focus is on speed and action,” Su said, adding that the Lux supercomputer will bring three times the amount of AI performance compared to what is already on site in just a matter of months.

New York Times [10/27/2025 12:10 PM, David M. Halbfinger, 153395K] reports the parade of Trump administration officials to Jerusalem over the past week to ensure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sticks to the cease-fire in Gaza drew a catchy shorthand in the Israeli news media, playing on the prime minister’s nickname: “Bibi-sitting.” Beyond the supposed adult supervision being given to a sovereign ally, however, was a more striking change. A distinct new phase in the U.S.-Israel relationship is being cemented, particularly in the relationship between the two countries’ leaders. In President Trump’s first term, he showered Mr. Netanyahu with political gifts, including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Early in his current term, too, Mr. Trump indulged Mr. Netanyahu, briefly feeding right-wing Israelis’ fantasies of depopulating and developing the Gaza Strip as a Middle Eastern “Riviera.” He then backed Mr. Netanyahu in March when he broke a cease-fire with Hamas. And he delivered an entirely new level of support to Israel by deploying B-2 bombers to strike Iran’s nuclear sites in June. “The term used in Israel was that he works for us,” Reuven Hazan, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said of Mr. Trump. “Everybody thought that Trump was mouthing words that Bibi wrote for him.” That is no longer the case.

Reuters [10/27/2025 4:40 PM, Jasper Ward, 36480K] reports another United Nations staff member has been detained in Yemen, bringing the number of the world body’s employees apprehended in recent days to six, a U.N. spokesperson said on Monday. The latest detention came after Houthi security forces entered several United Nations offices in Sanaa, Yemen, on Sunday, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N. secretary general. He added that the Houthis confiscated IT and communication equipment and assets. At least 59 UN personnel are being held by Houthis, according to Dujarric, who condemned the continued detentions. Some have been held for years, the U.N. said. There are hundreds of U.N. personnel remaining in parts of Houthi-controlled Yemen, including a small number of international staff, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the U.N. secretary general. "Our immediate priority is the safety and well-being of all UN personnel, including securing the release of colleagues who have been arbitrarily detained and those of our local partners who have also been affected, and prevent further detentions," Haq said.

Washington Examiner [10/27/2025 6:04 AM, Staff, 1394K] reports President Donald Trump had strong words for Russian President Vladimir Putin while traveling to Japan on Monday after reports of Russia’s recent tests of a nuclear-powered cruise missile. The Russian president touted the weapon’s capabilities on Sunday, declaring it "invincible" to air defenses. "We need to determine the possible ways of using it and start preparing the infrastructure for deploying this weapon," said Putin. "It is a unique ware which nobody else in the world has.". Trump said he didn’t find Putin’s comments "appropriate." "They’re not playing games with us," Trump said on Air Force One. "We’re not playing games with them either. We test missiles all the time. And I don’t think it’s an appropriate thing for Putin to be saying either, by the way. You ought to get the war ended. The war that should’ve taken one week is now in its, soon, fourth year. That’s what you ought to do instead of testing missiles.". Trump said he would assess the situation during his trip.

New York Post [10/27/2025 9:00 AM, Anthony Blair, 42219K] reports President Trump issued a chilling warning to Vladimir Putin on Monday after the Russian tyrant boasted about testing his country’s new "invincible" nuclear missile. "They know we have a nuclear submarine, the greatest in the world, right off their shore," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday as he prepared to travel to Japan. He was speaking after Putin on Sunday hailed an 8,700-mile, 15-hour test flight for Russia’s "unique" nuclear-powered missile, dubbed a "flying Chernobyl," which the country says could strike targets in the US. "They’re not playing games with us. We’re not playing games with them either," President Trump continued, before repeating his demand that Putin end the war in Ukraine. "I don’t think it’s an appropriate thing for Putin to be saying. By the way, he ought to get the war ended. A war that should have taken one week is now in its, soon, fourth year. That’s what he ought to do instead of testing missiles," Trump said.

AP [10/27/2025 10:37 AM, Staff, 852K] reports Russia’s test of a nuclear-powered missile that it claims can’t be stopped by air defenses reflects Moscow’s determination to look out for its security interests, a Kremlin official said Monday, after the United States and European countries increased pressure on President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the invasion of Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump said Putin should focus on making a peace deal, not testing missiles. Little is known about Russia’s Burevestnik missile, which the NATO military alliance has code-named Skyfall. Putin appeared Sunday in an official video, wearing camouflage fatigues, to hear Russia’s chief of general staff report that the missile had covered 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) in a test. The news came after a week that saw tough new U.S. sanctions prepared for Russia’s key oil and gas sector and new European commitments of military aid to Ukraine. “Russia is consistently working to ensure its own security,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said when asked whether the missile announcement was a response to the sanctions and a signal to the West. “Ensuring security is a vital issue for Russia, especially against the backdrop of the militaristic sentiment that we are currently hearing, primarily from the Europeans,” Peskov told reporters. Trump, speaking to reporters on an official trip from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo, said Putin’s talk about missiles was not “appropriate.” “You’ve got to get the war ended. A war that should have taken one week is now in its soon fourth year,” Trump said. “That’s what you ought to do, instead of testing missiles.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday criticized the Trump administration for changing its approach. After talks with Putin in Alaska in August, Trump said he wanted an agreement on long-term peace and didn’t insist on a prior ceasefire, but now he’s changed his mind, Lavrov told Hungary’s Ultrahang YouTube channel. “Now all they’re talking about is an immediate ceasefire … this is a radical change,” Lavrov said.

NewsMax [10/27/2025 10:46 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump on Monday issued a sharp response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a successful test of the Kremlin’s new "invincible" nuclear-capable cruise missile — a weapon Putin says can strike targets anywhere on Earth and evade any known air defense system. Traveling aboard Air Force One early Monday, Trump was pressed by reporters about the Russian test and responded with a mixture of warning and reassurance. "It’s not appropriate," Trump said, referring to the timing of Moscow’s missile announcement amid escalating global tensions and stalled peace negotiations over the war in Ukraine. "Putin ought to end the war — a war that should’ve taken one week is now in its fourth year. That’s what he ought to do instead of testing missiles." The president, who has often portrayed himself as capable of de-escalating global conflicts through direct diplomacy, warned that the U.S. maintains a powerful deterrent of its own. "They know we have a nuclear submarine, the greatest in the world, right off their shores," Trump said pointedly. "We don’t need to go 8,000 miles. They know that. We are not playing games with them, and they are not playing games with us." The Russian leader personally oversaw the test, appearing in military fatigues in a video released by the Kremlin on Sunday. He directed his top generals to begin preparing the new missile — known as the Burevestnik, or "Storm Petrel" — for operational deployment within Russia’s strategic nuclear forces. "We need to determine the possible uses and begin preparing the infrastructure for deploying these weapons to our armed forces," Putin declared, hailing the long-range missile as a technological breakthrough that solidifies Russia’s deterrence power. According to Russian military officials, the missile covered an astonishing 14,000 kilometers (nearly 8,700 miles) in a multi-hour test flight — though, they stressed, that is not the weapon’s maximum range. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian military’s general staff, said the Burevestnik "successfully performed all designated vertical and horizontal maneuvers, demonstrating its strong ability to evade anti-missile and air defense systems." Trump appeared to temper his comments by acknowledging that missile testing is a routine part of superpower strategy. "We test missiles all the time," he said, implying that the U.S. response would not be one of panic, but of strength and preparedness. The Burevestnik missile — known by NATO as the SSC-X-9 Skyfall — has long been a subject of Western intelligence concern.

New York Post [10/27/2025 5:44 AM, Steven Nelson, 42219K] reports President Trump predicted a "successful transaction" ahead of his Thursday meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping — after negotiators from both countries drafted a framework for a trade agreement to avert Trump’s threatened 100% additional tariff on Chinese goods. "I think we’re gonna have a successful transaction for both countries," Trump, 79, told reporters Monday as he flew to Japan for the second stop on his three nation tour of Asia, which will conclude in South Korea with the Xi summit. Trump said the final details are subject to change and "I don’t want to tell you what the understanding is, because what we understood yesterday or two days ago or even today is not going to be necessarily what it’s going to be in two days.". Trump briefed reporters in the press cabin of the presidential jet with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer standing nearby. The tentative framework addresses core disputes in the US-China relationship, Bessent told reporters, including Beijing’s new export restrictions on products made with rare-earth and critical minerals, which prompted Trump’s threat to ratchet up tariffs on Chinese exports. "We have a framework for President Trump and President Xi to decide on. We discussed a wide range of things from tariffs to trade, fentanyl, a substantial purchase of US agricultural products and rare earths," Bessent said.

Breitbart [10/27/2025 8:30 AM, Frances Martel, 2416K] reports American President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he would "love to meet" communist North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un while on his current tour of Asia, which includes a final stop in South Korea. "I haven’t mentioned it, I haven’t said anything, but I’d love to meet with him if he’d like to meet," the Korea JoongAng Daily quoted Trump as saying on board Air Force One. Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and left on Monday to Japan, where he met with Emperor Naruhito on Monday. "I just have a good relationship with him, I would love to see him," Trump said of Kim, suggesting he could go as far as to extend his itinerary in Asia should Pyongyang indicate Kim would like a meeting. "It’s [South Korea] our last stop, so it’s pretty easy to do," Trump noted about rescheduling.

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The Hill [10/27/2025 7:35 AM, Julia Manchester, 12595K]
FOX News [10/27/2025 6:03 AM, Alex Nitzberg, 40621K]

Politico [10/27/2025 5:04 PM, Sophia Cai and Joe Gould, 2100K] reports President Donald Trump wants more ships made in America. He’s going to need foreign help. Key to this effort, which the administration sees as a national security and economic imperative, is South Korean shipbuilding giant Hanwha Ocean, which acquired the Philly Shipyard in Pennsylvania last year. It’s the linchpin of a broader strategy to counter China’s dominance in the field, which gives the People’s Republic a significant military and economic advantage over the U.S., whose shipbuilding capabilities are anemic in comparison. And shipbuilding could play a critical role in trade negotiations between the Republic of Korea and the United States. “Everybody knows that U.S. shipbuilding has diminished significantly over the last couple of decades,” said a senior administration official granted anonymity to discuss the administration’s thinking. “We welcome their know-how, their capital and the general collaboration.” Trump, during a speech to celebrate the Navy’s 250th birthday in Norfolk, Virginia, touted the new investments from overseas, saying America will “soon revitalize our once great shipyards with hundreds of billions of dollars in new investments and people coming from all around the world, and they’re gonna build ships in America.” Trump arrives in South Korea this week, his third stop on a weeklong Asia trip, where he is expected to meet newly elected President Lee Jae Myung, deliver a speech to business leaders and attend a dinner with other heads of state. The visit comes amid broader tensions between South Korea and the United States over a $350 billion investment that Seoul has pledged, which included $150 billion for shipbuilding cooperation.

Reuters [10/28/2025 4:25 AM, Laila Shahrokhshahi, 36480K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump met Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in Tokyo on Tuesday (October 28) for talks on trade and security, praising her elevation as the country’s first female leader and her pledge to accelerate a military buildup. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [10/28/2025 4:08 AM, Alastair Gale and Jennifer A Dlouhy, 18207K] reports President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pledged to tighten security cooperation and increase defense funding as they visited the aircraft carrier USS George Washington at a US naval base south of Tokyo, an event designed to underscore ties between the countries. “The cherished alliance between the United States and Japan is one of the most remarkable relationships in the entire world, really,” Trump said at the event at the Yokosuka Naval Base, the home of the US Seventh Fleet. The US president said he had just approved the first “batch of missiles” for Japan’s F-35 fighters. Takaichi said her nation was “committed to fundamentally reinforce its defense capabilities, and Japan is ready to contribute even more proactively to peace and stability of the region.” “We are facing an unprecedented severe security environment,” she said. “Peace cannot be preserved by words alone.” Trump’s trade war, which has targeted allies such as Japan as well as rivals, has created some nervousness in Tokyo about its relationship with Washington. Japan still leans heavily on the US for its security under a treaty signed after the two sides fought each other during World War II. The treaty gives the US use of military bases in Japan — key assets in Washington’s ability to project power throughout the Asia-Pacific region. However, Trump has said the agreement is unfair because it obliges the US to defend Japan without a reciprocal commitment from Japan to help protect the US. On Tuesday, Trump said the US and Japan were looking to boost their joint shipbuilding capacity as his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese officials. “Part of our deal with the trade is we’re starting to make ships,” Trump said. “We used to be number one at making ships, and then we lost our way, but now we’re starting to make ships again.” The largest permanent US overseas military presence is in Japan, where roughly 53,000 active duty service members are stationed at bases around the country. Trump has also called for Japan to pay more to support the upkeep of the US bases. Japan makes a commitment every five years to help cover those costs. Under the current deal, which runs through March 2027, Japan pledged to pay the US an average of 211 billion yen ($1.4 billion) each year. Talks over a new deal are expected to begin next year.

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