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 AP [10/28/2025 3:07 PM, Konstantin Toropin, 31753K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that the U.S. military has carried out strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean on four boats accused of carrying drugs, killing 14 people and leaving one survivor in the deadliest single day since the Trump administration began its divisive campaign against drug trafficking in the waters off South America. It was the first time multiple strikes were announced in a single day as the pace of the attacks has escalated. The nearly two-month campaign and U.S. military buildup have strained ties with allies in the region and opened speculation that the moves are aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. has accused of narcoterrorism. A statement provided by a Pentagon official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the operation, said the strikes were conducted Monday off the coast of Colombia. Following one attack on a boat, the military spotted a person in the water clinging to some wreckage. The military passed the survivor’s precise location to the U.S. Coast Guard and a Mexican military aircraft that was operating in the area, the official said. However, the Mexican navy says it is searching about 400 miles southwest of the Pacific city of Acapulco, suggesting the possibility that the strike may have taken place far away from Colombia and closer to Mexico’s coast. It wasn’t immediately clear exactly where the strike took place, and the Pentagon did not give more details. The Washington Post [10/28/2025 5:46 PM, Alex Horton and Dan Lamothe, 24149K] reports fourteen alleged traffickers were killed in the strikes, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media, bringing the total to nearly 60 killed in more than a dozen strikes since early September. The latest operation, carried out Monday, included a rescue mission of one survivor launched by Mexican authorities, Hegseth said. Hegseth posted an announcement with video of three strikes showing the vessels exploding or bursting into flames. In one of the strikes, two boats were pulled alongside each other and seemingly stationary when they were hit. U.S. military forces have surged into the Caribbean Sea to support the military campaign, including roughly 10,000 troops, a fleet of eight warships, and an aircraft carrier and associated warships on their way from Europe. Mexican officials said in social media posts Tuesday afternoon that the Mexican navy was conducting a search-and-rescue operation 400 miles southwest of the resort city of Acapulco using both a patrol vessel and a maritime patrol aircraft. The operation was undertaken after a request from the U.S. Coast Guard, Mexican officials said, linking it to a survivor of one of the vessels hit by the U.S. military. The Hill [10/28/2025 10:22 AM, Filip Timotija, 12595K] reports that Hegseth said all of the vessels were operated by a designated terrorist organization (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific. It is unclear which DTO Hegseth was referring to. The defense secretary said U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) initiated a search-and-rescue standard protocol regarding the lone survivor and, Mexican search and rescue authorities "accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue.” "The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own. These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same," Hegseth said in his post. "We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them."

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Washington Examiner [10/28/2025 11:04 AM, Mike Brest, 1394K]

Washington Examiner [10/28/2025 4:00 PM, Mike Brest, 1394K] reports the U.S. military has thousands of troops currently in the Caribbean with thousands more on the way, and experts largely agree the buildup of firepower far exceeds what’s required for the missions they’re currently conducting. Since the beginning of last month, the military has targeted more than a dozen alleged drug smuggling vessels, killing more than 50 people, but hasn’t publicly released any evidence to prove the people aboard were in fact carrying illegal narcotics. President Donald Trump has approved CIA operations within Venezuela. He has also mused about the military carrying out strikes on Venezuelan soil. The president and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth say these strikes are meant to stop the illegal flow of drugs from Central America into the country. The U.S. military is undergoing one of its largest build-ups of force in the Western Hemisphere in decades, and more troops are on their way.

FOX News [10/28/2025 4:21 PM, Diana Stancy, 40621K] reports the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford may be the Navy’s newest carrier, but it hasn’t shied away from conflict since its first full-length deployment in 2023. Now, the Navy’s most advanced carrier finds itself at the foreground of yet another critical conflict as it heads to the Caribbean amid President Donald Trump’s crusade against drugs, which is exerting even more pressure on Venezuela. The Trump administration has enhanced its naval assets in the Caribbean in recent months, and sent several U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers to boost its counter-narcotics efforts there starting in August. And on Friday, the Pentagon announced it would send the Ford from Europe to the Caribbean as operations there heat up in U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). To date, the U.S. has conducted more than a dozen strikes against alleged drug boats in the region. The deployment signifies a massive step for the Trump administration as it claims it is engaged in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug smugglers, and brings a host of new capabilities and firepower to deter any aggression at Latin America’s doorstep.

New York Times [10/28/2025 5:00 PM, Anushka Patil, 135475K] reports since September, President Trump has authorized a series of military strikes on boats he has said were being used to smuggle drugs from South America, summarily killing at least 57 people. The latest strikes, on four boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday, killed 14 people, according to the Trump administration. The military campaign has raised regional tensions and represents a major shift in U.S. policy, which long treated maritime drug smuggling as a law enforcement matter. A broad range of experts in laws governing the use of armed force have said the strikes are illegal, and the administration has offered tenuous legal rationales while releasing little evidence to support its smuggling allegations. Sept. 2: The United States military carried out its first strike on a Venezuelan boat in international waters, killing 11 people who Mr. Trump said were “terrorists” transporting narcotics to the United States. He claimed that the individuals were members of Tren de Aragua, a gang the Trump administration has designated a terrorist organization. On Sept. 15, President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela called the strike a “heinous crime,” saying that it was a “military attack on civilians” and that, if the United States believed the boat’s passengers were drug traffickers, they should have been captured, not killed. Mr. Maduro, an authoritarian leader who was indicted on drug trafficking charges in the United States during Mr. Trump’s first term, said the United States was trying to goad Venezuela into war. Sept. 19: A third strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea killed three men, Mr. Trump said. He accused them of trafficking narcotics but did not provide further details. Days later, the Dominican Republic said it had recovered cocaine from a boat that was recently destroyed in a U.S. airstrike but did not specify when the strike had occurred. Dominican officials said it was the country’s first joint operation in the Caribbean Sea with the United States against “narco-terrorism.” Oct. 3: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that a U.S. military strike had killed four men on a boat in international waters near Venezuela. He said that the men had been “affiliated” with one of the cartels and gangs that the Trump administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations, but did not offer further details. Oct. 14: Mr. Trump announced a fifth strike that killed six men who he said had been transporting narcotics. One of those killed was Chad Joseph, a 26-year-old from Trinidad and Tobago, according to his family. Oct. 16: The U.S. military struck a semisubmersible vessel suspected of being used to smuggle drugs, killing two people. Two survivors were detained aboard a Navy ship, the first time the United States found itself holding prisoners in what Mr. Trump has treated as a military campaign. Oct. 17: The Trump administration killed three people in a seventh strike on a boat, according to Mr. Hegseth. He said the boat had been affiliated with the National Liberation Army, a Colombian rebel group known as the E.L.N., which the United States designated as a terrorist organization in 1997. He did not provide evidence for his assertion. Oct. 21: The Trump administration expanded its campaign for the first time beyond the Caribbean Sea, with a strike that killed two people in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Mr. Hegseth said the boat was “known by our intelligence” to have been involved in drug smuggling and had been carrying narcotics, although he did not provide any details. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the strike had taken place off the coast of Colombia. Oct. 22: Hours after announcing the Oct. 21 strike, Mr. Hegseth said the military had struck another vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing three men. Again, Mr. Hegseth said the boat had been “known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling” but did not provide further evidence. “These strikes will continue, day after day,” he posted on social media. Oct. 24: Mr. Hegseth announced that overnight in the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. military killed six people on a boat that he claimed was operated by Tren de Aragua and carrying narcotics. He cited American intelligence but offered no other evidence. “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,” he wrote on social media. Oct. 27: The U.S. military killed 14 people in three strikes on four boats in the eastern Pacific, Mr. Hegseth said, bringing the total number of known strikes to 13. It was the deadliest day since the campaign started. Mr. Hegseth said that Mexican authorities had “assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue” of one survivor, but did not release further details. He said the vessels had been moving along “known narco-trafficking routes and carrying narcotics,” but did not release any evidence.

FOX Business [10/28/2025 6:35 PM, Staff, 10085K] reports DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin says driver’s licenses given to illegal immigrants unable to speak or read English are creating ‘deadly consequences’ on ‘The Evening Edit.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The AP [10/28/2025 4:41 PM, Christine Fernando, 31753K] Video: HERE reports a judge in Chicago took the rare step Tuesday of ordering a senior U.S. Border Patrol official to brief her every night, an unprecedented bid to impose real-time oversight on the government’s immigration crackdown in the city after weeks of tense encounters and tear gas thrown by officers. Greg Bovino, who has become the public face of the Trump administration’s city-by-city immigration sweeps, must sit for a daily 6 p.m. briefing to report how his agents are enforcing the law and whether they are staying within constitutional bounds, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said. Ellis also demanded full use-of-force reports from agents involved in a blitz that has netted over 1,800 arrests since September. “Yes, ma’am,” Bovino responded to each request. Phillip Turner, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago, said the judge’s order is extremely unusual. “I’ve been a lawyer for almost 50 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Turner told The Associated Press. Bovino got an earful from Ellis as soon as he settled into the witness chair in his green uniform. The judge quickly expressed concerns about video and other images from the campaign against illegal immigration. The hearing was the latest in a lawsuit by news outlets and protesters who say agents have used too much force, including tear gas, during demonstrations. The Washington Examiner [10/28/2025 6:26 PM, Jack Birle, 1394K] reports Ellis issued the order while Bovino was questioned by the judge over officers’ use of force during “Operation Midway Blitz.” The federal judge’s unusual request came weeks after she ordered federal immigration officers in Chicago to wear body cameras and issued multiple temporary restraining orders aimed at restricting the use of certain riot control tactics, including the use of tear gas. Ellis grilled Bovino on his officers’ compliance with those orders in the courtroom Tuesday. "My role is not to tell you that you can or cannot enforce validly passed laws by Congress," Ellis said during the hearing. "My role is simply to see that in the enforcement of those laws, the agents are acting in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution.” While conservative legal experts questioned Ellis’s order requiring body cameras, they were outraged over her order mandating daily briefings on immigration operations. Mike Davis, founder of the conservative legal Article III Project, called the order "outrageous" and said the judge overstepped her authority over Bovino. "This is a clear violation of the separation of powers for this Obama judge in Chicago to order a senior immigration official to report to her courtroom like this. The Trump Justice Department must immediately appeal this clearly lawless and dangerous order," Davis said. Axios [10/28/2025 3:35 PM, Monica Eng, 12972K] reports that the orders mark the latest escalation in requirements for federal officials amid controversial CBP operations that Ellis suspects violate her temporary restraining order (TRO) on how agents can interact with the public, especially regarding tear gas, tackling and identification. Ellis issued the TRO in response to an Oct. 6 lawsuit several Chicago news outlets filed against Department of Homeland Security officials, claiming "extreme brutality" against journalists outside the Broadview ICE processing facility. Later in the month, Ellis expressed concerns, based on new incidents, that her order was being violated and expanded the order to require DHS agents to wear body cams. More incidents, including immigration agents’ use of tear gas in Old Irving Saturday before a scheduled Halloween parade, prompted Ellis to call Bovino in for testimony on Tuesday. Ellis is also requiring DHS to hand over all use-of-force incident reports and accompanying video from Sept. 2 to Oct. 25 by Friday. Bovino must start meeting every weekday with Ellis this week, and government lawyers say they will get back to her on whether they can deliver the reports and video by her Friday deadline.

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CNN [10/28/2025 6:17 PM, Devan Cole, et al., 18595K] reports top Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, who oversees the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Chicago area, came under the microscope of a federal judge Tuesday after she received reports federal agents were not following her order to limit aggressive tactics and warn protesters and journalists before using tear gas and less-lethal munitions. US District Judge Sara Ellis told Bovino she wants to see him in person every evening for the next week so he can update her on "Operation Midway Blitz" and whether his agents are complying with her order. The controversial immigration operation has resulted in more than 3,000 arrests since it began in September, according to the Department of Homeland Security. But it has also drawn legal challenges from plaintiffs that include protesters, local journalists and clergy members who accuse federal agents of shooting pepper balls and tear gas at demonstrators and unlawfully restricting the press. Ellis summoned Bovino to testify Tuesday after plaintiffs accused him of throwing a tear gas canister into a crowd of demonstrators without justification or warning – a characterization DHS has refuted. Judge allows limited tear gas use, despite concerns of overuse. Even as she expressed concern that agents may not be complying with her order, Ellis declined to fully restrict their use of tear gas, as the plaintiffs had asked her to do. "I’m not going to tie the agents’ hands because I’m not out there, and that’s not my job," Ellis said. "But I am going to expect that they know and understand their responsibilities on the use of force.” Ellis’ order, which applies to the entire Northern District of Illinois, blocks federal agents from using tear gas and less-lethal munitions on protesters unless there is an "immediate threat to safety." It also requires clear warnings before these methods are used. During the hearing, the judge went through her order line by line and detailed how agents should comply, including clearly identifying themselves and providing ample warning before deploying gas. "The warning has to include what it is that you’re going to do, what you’re going to do before you do it, and allow people to comply," Ellis said. The judge cited videos that she said appeared to show agents firing gas without notice and with no immediate threat. Bovino declined to comment on specific instances, saying, "Each situation is dependent on the situation." But Ellis noted he’s likely to be asked about recent alleged violations of her order during a deposition she’s allowing plaintiff’s attorneys to conduct of him in the coming days.

New York Times [10/28/2025 3:01 PM, Julie Bosman, 153395K] reports in a courtroom in downtown Chicago on Tuesday, a federal judge admonished Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official who has become a face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, for his agency’s use of force and tear gas in Chicago in recent weeks. For more than an hour, the judge, Sara L. Ellis of Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, read Mr. Bovino restrictions she had previously set as part of a lawsuit over tactics that agents are using and cited examples of times his agents appeared to violate those restrictions. They used tear gas in a neighborhood where children were about to march in a Halloween parade, Judge Ellis said. They failed to warn residents before tossing tear gas canisters at them, she said, noting an incident in which an agent threw a canister out of a car as it drove away. The judge then ordered Mr. Bovino, who took the stand in his usual green fatigues and Border Patrol insignia, to appear at the federal courthouse at the end of every weekday to personally provide her with a report on the day’s arrests and incidents. “I’ll see you tomorrow at 6,” she said, before telling Mr. Bovino that he could get back to work. The hearing offered Mr. Bovino few opportunities to broadly defend the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Chicago, which began in early September and has resulted in at least 3,000 arrests, according to the administration. Judge Ellis asked Mr. Bovino few detailed questions and did nearly all of the talking throughout the hearing, reminding Mr. Bovino of the particulars of the temporary restraining order she issued early this month limiting the use of tear gas.

Reuters [10/28/2025 4:28 PM, Diana Novak Jones, Renee Hickman, and Ted Hesson, 36480K] reports a U.S. judge on Tuesday intensified her monitoring of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Chicago, requiring a top official to appear daily in court and ordering his agency to detail the use of force by its agents including firing tear gas at protesters and bystanders and to hand over body-camera video. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis during a hearing chastised Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino over his agency’s actions in the third-largest U.S. city and told him to get a body camera to wear himself. Ellis had summoned him to appear at the hearing after he was seen on video last week tossing a tear gas canister at protesters during an enforcement action in a neighborhood with many immigrants from Mexico. The judge is presiding over a lawsuit challenging the legality of the tactics used by officials carrying out Trump’s Chicago crackdown called "Operation Midway Blitz."

(B) CNN News Central [10/28/2025 1:25 PM, Staff] reports the top Border Patrol official in Chicago testified about aggressive tactics allegedly used by his agents and by him, including an incident where he was personally seen throwing what appears to be a tear gas cannister into a crowd of protesters in a neighborhood. The judge has ordered daily updates from Greg Bovino on immigration operations. She has also order that body cameras be worn. The Department of Homeland Security released their own video showing objects being thrown at Bovino.

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CNN [10/28/2025 6:30 PM, Samantha Lindell, 18595K]

Washington Post [10/28/2025 1:11 PM, Kim Bellware, David Nakamura, and Robert Klemko, 24149K] reports that a federal judge on Tuesday pressed a senior Border Patrol official over reports that he and other federal immigration officers are continuing to use tear gas and other aggressive tactics on protesters and residents in possible violation of a court order. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis referred to several recent incidents, including one over the weekend in which U.S. Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino was recorded throwing without any warning what appeared to be tear gas canisters into a crowd in a Chicago neighborhood. She said the actions appeared to violate her temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting federal officers from using chemical munitions on protesters or journalists who do not pose a threat. On the witness stand, Bovino demurred when the judge asked about the incidents, saying he would want to know more details on each before speaking about them. Ellis responded: “The facts that I have right now — if I were looking only at those facts — that would tell me this is violating certain provisions of the TRO. And no one wants to violate the TRO.” “That’s correct, ma’am,” said Bovino, who is in charge of “Operation Midway Blitz,” a targeted immigration enforcement operation that the Trump administration launched in Illinois in early September. The operation has resulted in more than 1,500 arrests, federal authorities said, sparking widespread protests over the tactics used by federal officers.

USA Today [10/28/2025 1:50 PM, Michael Loria, 67103K] reports that a federal judge in Chicago had a clear message to the Trump administration: She will enforce her court orders limiting the type of force agents can use in the city. U.S. District Court Judge Sara L. Ellis on Oct. 28 ordered Homeland Security officials to turn over all use of force reports and related body-worn camera footage that the agency has in connection with the Chicago-area crackdown; provide information on anyone arrested in connection with protesting immigration enforcement; and have the Border Patrol’s top leader in the area deliver daily reports in person at the courthouse as well as begin using a body-worn camera. Ellis – who issued orders limiting the kinds of tactics immigration enforcement agents can use amid the White House’s crackdown in Illinois – hauled the administration’s top enforcement official Customs and Border Patrol Commander at-Large Gregory Bovino into court to ensure he understood the limits she had put upon him and his agents. The judge questioned Bovino, President Donald Trump’s face of the Operation Midway Blitz, in response to court filings contending he and his agents have violated orders she gave limiting how agents use chemical weapons and physical force. Ellis issued a temporary restraining order in connection with a lawsuit brought by journalists, clergy and protesters that agents were using force unnecessarily. Ellis’ orders compel agents to give warnings before using chemical agents such as pepper spray and limit using physical force to instances where agents face immediate harm.

New York Post [10/29/2025 2:05 AM, Zoe Hussain, 42219K] reports shocking video captured Border Patrol agents dragging a 67-year-old man from his car and pinning him to the ground in an immigration enforcement operation during a children’s Halloween parade in Chicago, according to reports. The man was driving home after a long morning run when he turned a corner in the city’s Old Irving Park neighborhood and discovered Border Patrol agents had blocked off the road leading to his home, his running club, DWRunning Racing Team, posted in a social media statement. The man, who the club identified as a US citizen, was reportedly dragged out of the car and thrown to the ground shortly after agents "threatened to break his window," if he didn’t move his car, the club said. Video posted by the club captured the runner, who has not been identified by name, on the ground breathlessly saying, "I’ll move my … get off of me," as agents kneeled on his back while cuffing him. Onlookers screamed, "Get off of him," and "You’re f—-ing suffocating him!" at the agents while filming the incident. The man suffered six broken ribs, which caused internal bleeding during the detainment, the club claimed. The arrest came as Border Patrol agents converged in the neighborhood to conduct an immigration enforcement raid. Residents claimed the officers interrupted a children’s Halloween parade and released tear gas without warning, ABC News reported. Footage obtained by the outlet showed agents deploying the tear gas and cuffing several people, including US citizens, outside houses adorned with Halloween decorations, according to the outlet. The agents "had to deploy crowd control measures" to protect themselves from a hostile crowd, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement to ABC. Agents were conducting an operation to arrest an illegal immigrant from Mexico "who has previously been arrested for assault," authorities told the outlet. "During the operations, Border Patrol agents were surrounded by a group of agitators. Federal law enforcement issued multiple lawful commands and verbal warnings, all of which were ignored," McLaughlin said. Two US citizens were arrested for assaulting and impeding a federal officer, Mclaughlin said. "To safely clear the area after multiple warnings and the crowd continuing to advance on them, Border Patrol had to deploy crowd control measures," the statement continued. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately answer The Post’s request for comment on the arrest of the man featured in the video.

Chicago Tribune [10/28/2025 1:16 PM, Steve Sadin, 4829K] reports that as at least 12 people were arrested by federal immigration enforcement agents in Lake County over the weekend, community organizers said they are taking a different approach than what is being done in Chicago, where demonstrators are sometimes confronting agents who have used tear gas at times in response. Dulce Ortiz, executive director of the Mano Family Resource Center and a Waukegan Township trustee, said different forms of "community resistance" are being used to deal with Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the Waukegan area. Ortiz said when the Border Patrol or ICE agents take people into custody, neighbors tend not to run outside to protest — as sometimes happens in Chicago — out of "fear they will be kidnapped themselves." "By the time our rapid response teams get there, ICE is gone," Ortiz said. "When (community members) identify an ICE vehicle, they start beeping and honking. A line of 10 cars followed them down Sheridan Road into North Chicago. They left. This is community resistance." U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended nine undocumented individuals in a targeted operation Saturday in Waukegan, some of whom have criminal backgrounds, according to an email from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

FOX News [10/28/2025 9:29 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports ‘Border czar’ Tom Homan discusses how federal agents are trained for crowd control and responds to the reported feud between him and DHS secretary Kristi Noem on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [10/28/2025 9:30 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K] reports Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s point man for mass deportations and border security, told Newsmax on Tuesday that the administration is dramatically stepping up interior enforcement and deportations, even as media reports suggest a power shift at the Department of Homeland Security. Senior DHS sources reportedly alleged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement field chiefs in several cities could be replaced with Border Patrol officials to accelerate removals. There also is a report about a rift in DHS, with Homan and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons on one side, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino, commander in charge of U.S. Border Patrol, on another. Homan did not address the reports directly on "Rob Schmitt Tonight" but said the administration is in "lockstep" in its goal of finding and deporting illegal immigrants. "We’ve all been pushing for more arrests, more deportations," he said. "I said from Day One, I don’t think DHS or Secretary Noem disagrees with, is the president wants to prioritize public safety threats and national security threats. "I’ve also said from Day One that if you’re in the country legally, you’re not off the table. "Prioritization doesn’t mean you forget about everybody else. "So, the results speak for themselves. This administration is in lockstep, and we’re doing what President Trump promised the American people we would do to make this country safer by removing public safety threats," Homan said. The border czar touted what he called a record year for enforcement. The administration will reach roughly 600,000 deportations by year’s end, and Homan credited "1,000 arrest teams" for prompting roughly 1.5 million illegals to self-deport. He also said the administration is hiring thousands of new deportation officers and expanding detention capacity — assertions consistent with funding provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that backstopped ICE with new beds, transport contracts, and hiring authority. Homan said the OBBB funding will let ICE hire more deportation officers, increase transportation contracts and provide places to hold detainees while removal logistics are arranged. He predicted removals will accelerate as new staff come on line.

AP [10/29/2025 12:04 AM, Claire Rush and Gene Johnson, 30493K] reports a federal trial over whether President Donald Trump can deploy the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, is set to begin Wednesday, with local police officials expected to testify that federal agents at the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building have inflamed protests in recent weeks through excessive force. U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, will preside over the trial in Portland. The trial stems from a lawsuit filed by the city and state against the Trump administration in a bid to block the troop deployment. Immergut has already issued two temporary restraining orders in the case blocking the troops pending further litigation. She found that Trump had failed to show that he had met the conditions set out by Congress for using the military domestically. She described his assessment of the situation in Portland, which Trump called "war ravaged," as "simply untethered to the facts.” One of Immergut’s orders was paused last week by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals. But late Tuesday the appeals court vacated that decision and said it would rehear the case before an 11-judge panel. The complex case comes as Democratic cities targeted by Trump for military involvement — including Chicago, which has filed a separate lawsuit on the issue — seek to push back. They argue the president has not met the legal requirements to deploy troops and that doing so would violate states’ sovereignty. The administration argues that it needs the troops because protests have impeded law enforcement operations. Portland’s ICE building outside downtown has been the site of nightly protests that peaked in June when police declared one demonstration a riot. Smaller clashes have also occurred since then, and federal officers have fired tear gas to clear crowds, which at times have included counterprotesters and live-streamers. During the trial, witnesses are expected to take the stand for both sides and face cross-examination. The federal defendants will call officials from ICE, the Defense Department and the Federal Protective Service, the agency that provides security for federal buildings. The administration argues that it has had to shuffle Department of Homeland Security agents from elsewhere around the country to respond to the protests, showing that it has been unable to enforce the law with regular forces — one of the conditions set by Congress for calling out the National Guard. It has also characterized the protests as a "rebellion" or "danger of rebellion" — another of the conditions.

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Washington Post [10/28/2025 10:45 PM, Mark Berman, 24149K]

CNN [10/28/2025 10:17 AM, Andy Rose, 606K] reports as a federal appeals court mulls whether to reconsider its decision allowing President Donald Trump to federalize and send the Oregon National Guard to Portland, his administration on Monday made what local leaders fighting a deployment are casting as a remarkable admission: Part of its testimony justifying the need for troops was wrong. "We deeply regret these errors," wrote Justice Department attorney Andrew M. Bernie in a letter to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals filed in the court record. The admission comes as the Trump administration faces a series of legal challenges in its efforts to deploy guard troops in Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago, Democratic-led cities where it has intensified immigration enforcement and crowd control tactics by federal agents. In Oregon, "115 (Federal Protective Service) officers have had to deploy to Portland" due to monthslong protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility there, an official with that agency – which provides security to government-owned properties – said earlier this month in an affidavit in support of a troop deployment. "The continued deployment of FPS officers in response to the immigration protests stretches an already thin force beyond what is safe and effective," Regional Deputy Director Robert Cantu said in the affidavit. Those 115 officers amounted to "nearly a quarter of the agency’s entire FPS capacity," Trump administration attorneys originally said. However, this "statement was incorrect," Bernie acknowledged in the Monday letter, noting only about half that number were agents sent out to provide security. The admission calls into question a key part of the president’s justification for deploying the guard: "FPS, which is the regular security force charged with protecting the (ICE) Building, is stretched to the point of collapse," the Trump administration argued in its original court filing.

FOX News [10/29/2025 1:29 AM, Christina Shaw, 40621K] reports President Donald Trump spoke to the press while en route to South Korea on Tuesday aboard Air Force One and made remarks about his authority to deploy U.S. military forces domestically — something that will likely draw legal and political concerns. Trump was traveling to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), where he is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. During the media availability, Trump claimed he could deploy U.S. military forces into American cities if necessary, claiming that "the courts wouldn’t get involved.” When speaking with reporters, he said he would consider using the military beyond the National Guard if the need arises. "I would do that if it was necessary," he said. "It hasn’t been necessary. We’re doing a great job without that.” Trump also argued that, as president, he has the power to take such an action. "If I want to enact a certain act, I’m allowed to do it routinely," he said. "I’d be allowed to do whatever I want… You understand that the courts wouldn’t get involved. Nobody would get involved.” He added, "I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. I can send anybody I wanted, but I haven’t done that because we’re doing so well.” Trump made it a point to use San Francisco as an example, describing how federal officials were "all set to go last Saturday" to intervene in the city but held off after local leaders asked for a chance to handle it themselves. "We would have solved that problem in less than a month," he said, adding that federal intervention "would go a lot quicker and it’s much more effective.” He also emphasized what he described as progress in other parts of the U.S. "Memphis is making tremendous progress," Trump said. "It’s down, I think, almost 70%, 60–70%. And within two or three weeks it would be down to almost no crime.” The president is scheduled to meet with Xi on Wednesday to discuss fentanyl trafficking, trade policy and border security.

Reuters [10/28/2025 6:08 AM, Andrew Chung, 36480K] reports President Donald Trump’s administration has told the U.S. Supreme Court he needs to deploy National Guard troops to the Chicago area in part because local police have failed to respond to what the Justice Department described as mob violence by people protesting his aggressive immigration enforcement. Those law enforcement agencies have given the nine justices a starkly different account of protests they called limited in scale, detailing in court filings how they have responded on specific dates and explaining how a unified command they set up to coordinate efforts dealt effectively with the demonstrations. This is just one of many contrasts in how events on the ground are being portrayed in the case, creating for the justices what may be a dilemma over who to believe as they mull the Justice Department’s October 17 emergency request to allow the deployment. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the move, rejecting the administration’s legal rationale and its version of events. The Supreme Court could act at any time. The Justice Department relied heavily in its Supreme Court request on two written statements to justify its stated need for the National Guard to protect federal agents and property. The statements by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency official Russell Hott and Border Patrol official Daniel Parra portray the situation on the ground as dire and dangerous. The Justice Department cited Hott’s declaration 37 times in its 40-page application to the Supreme Court, and Parra’s 15 times, a Reuters analysis showed. Chicago-based U.S. District Judge April Perry found the sources of the administration’s facts to be unreliable, a determination an appeals court upheld. "In addition to demonstrating a potential lack of candor" by Hott and Parra, Perry wrote in her decision, "it also calls into question their ability to accurately assess the facts." The Justice Department declined to comment. An ICE spokesperson said that agency "is not going to comment on court documents and pending litigation." The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection did not respond to requests for comment.

Bloomberg [10/28/2025 10:20 AM, Michael Smith, Alicia A. Caldwell, and Myles Miller, 18207K] reports the federal government is supercharging its use of local cops to hunt down immigrants suspected of being in the US illegally as part of an unprecedented effort to fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to deport millions of people. Almost 16,000 local police, county sheriffs, state troopers, university law enforcement and even lottery investigators have been signed up to stop, arrest and detain undocumented immigrants. Nationwide data reviewed by Bloomberg show these officers, across 40 states, nabbed almost 3,000 people since Trump took office through the end of July. Florida keeps its own tally under the same program, and its deputized cops have arrested another 2,500 people since then. Combined, that’s a small fraction of the total number of immigration arrests this year, but almost double the amount that deputized cops made in 2024 under President Joe Biden’s watch. Local law enforcement usually doesn’t have the authority to enforce immigration rules, but a nearly 30-year-old program called 287(g) allows the federal government to grant immigration arrest power to agencies that sign on. Trump has overseen a dramatic expansion at the start of his second term, with the number of accords surging seven-fold to almost 1,100 by September. It’s “a force multiplier,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said in an interview.

NewsNation [10/28/2025 11:58 PM, Patrick Djordjevic, 8017K] reports strong rhetoric from Border Patrol agents and ICE officers forcefully arresting individuals is due to "antagonists" protesting the federal agencies, according to Paul Perez, president of the National Border Patrol Council. Perez and Juan Proano, CEO of civil rights group The League of United Latin American Citizens, joined "CUOMO" Tuesday night to discuss ICE and Border Patrol arrests of both migrants and protesters in recent days and weeks. "A lot of people get angry and upset because of what they’re seeing, but what the story doesn’t show is that these agitators, these antagonists, are not the people that we’re going after to arrest," Perez told NewsNation. "These are people who are impeding, they’re interfering with our lawful right to enforce the laws that are on the books, and that’s why the optics that you’re talking about are showing that we’re in a riot situation almost everywhere and almost every day," he added. Perez explained that because of these individuals, federal agents are "having to battle every single day.” Proano acknowledged there are some "agitators" present during ICE and Border Patrol operations, but argued that the Trump administration’s efforts are "tearing apart our country,". "It’s tearing apart the fabric of our country, and it’s really trying to separate our communities. What you see in Chicago, you see people standing up for their neighbors, for their brothers, for their sisters, for their children," Proano said. "The fact of the matter is, most of the immigrants are … honest people, they’re earnest people, they’re hard-working people, and they serve a very particular and important function that helps drive this economy," he added. On Tuesday, federal Judge Sara Ellis warned a top Border Patrol official about using chemical agents while children are trick-or-treating this week. Ellis will meet with Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino daily until Nov. 5 as a means of holding federal agents accountable.

FOX News [10/28/2025 2:40 PM, Alex Nitzberg, 40621K] reports that as President Donald Trump aims to crackdown on illegal immigration, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois has accused the administration of "terrorizing people in their homes." "Immigrants are afraid to go to church… the market… their children’s schools… restaurants… all because of ICE. That’s not what America stands for," the long-serving senator asserted in the post on X, using the acronym that refers to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment. The comments in Durbin’s post echoed similar remarks he made during a speech in which he also floated the World War II internment of Japanese Americans as a historical "parallel." "More than 2 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. including 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported and over 527,000 deportations," Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Monday. "This is just the beginning. President Trump and Secretary Noem have jumpstarted an agency that was hamstrung and barred from doing its job for the last four years," she noted. Durbin announced earlier this year that he will not seek re-election in 2026. He will turn 81 years old next month. Durbin has served in the Senate since early 1997. He had previously served in the House of Representatives starting in early 1983.

AP [10/28/2025 4:48 PM, Jim Mustian and Jack Brook] reports immigration officials have deported a father living in Alabama to Laos despite a federal court order blocking his removal from the U.S. on the grounds he has a claim to citizenship, the man’s attorneys said Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick last week ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep Chanthila "Shawn" Souvannarath, 44, in the United States while he presented what the judge called his "substantial claim of U.S. citizenship," court records show. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand but was granted lawful permanent residence in the U.S. before his first birthday, according to court filings. The ACLU of Louisiana, which is representing Souvannarath, called the deportation a "stunning violation of a federal court order." Before his deportation, Souvannarath had been detained at a newly opened ICE facility at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Souvannarath filed an emergency motion seeking to delay his deportation. Dick, the federal judge based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, issued a temporary restraining order Thursday, citing the "irreparable harm that would be caused by immediate deportation." The court docket shows no changes in Souvannarath’s case since the judge issued the temporary restraining order, which was set to expire Nov. 6. Dick declined to through her office to comment.

The AP [10/28/2025 12:51 PM, Travis Loller, 4722K] reports that a federal judge in Tennessee on Monday warned of possible sanctions against top Trump administration officials if they continue to make inflammatory statements about Kilmar Abrego Garcia that could prejudice his coming trial. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw filed an order late on Monday instructing local prosecutors in Nashville to provide a copy of his opinion to all Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security employees, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “Government employees have made extrajudicial statements that are troubling, especially where many of them are exaggerated if not simply inaccurate,” Crenshaw writes. He lists a number of examples of prohibited statements as outlined in the local rules for the U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee. They include any statements about the “character, credibility, reputation, or criminal record of a party” and “any opinion as to the accused’s guilt or innocence.” “DOJ and DHS employees who fail to comply with the requirement to refrain from making any statement that ‘will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing’ this criminal prosecution may be subject to sanctions,” his order reads. The Daily Caller [10/28/2025 10:43 AM, Jason Hopkins, 835K] reports Crenshaw noted as examples DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s characterization of Abrego Garcia as an "MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, Serial domestic abuser, and child predator" as well as Attorney General Pam Bondi’s declaration he played "a significant role in an alien smuggling ring," according to court documents. "To assist DOJ and DHS employees going forward Government’s counsel of record shall provide them a copy of this Memorandum Opinion and Order to understand their obligations," Crenshaw wrote. "Their compliance will ensure that any future statements will not ‘pose a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing this proceeding.’". FOX News [10/28/2025 9:04 AM, Greg Norman, 40621K] reports “The high-profile nature of his immigration case resulted in government officials and those supportive of Abrego regularly commenting to the media. Now that he has been indicted in this District, Abrego asks the Court to freeze extra-judicial comments to ensure his Constitutional right to an impartial jury," Crenshaw wrote in a memorandum opinion. In that filing, the judge wrote, "Media attention about Abrego started in March 2025 when the United States sent him to El Salvador, months before his indictment in the Middle District of Tennessee." "Government employees have made extrajudicial statements that are troubling, especially where many of them are exaggerated if not simply inaccurate. These statements made allegations regarding Abrego’s ‘character or reputation’ and expressed government officials’ views on Abrego’s ‘guilt or innocence,’" the judge said.

Reported similarly:
Axios [10/28/2025 6:34 PM, Josephine Walker, 12972K]
(B) 7News ON YOUR SIDE at 6AM [10/28/2025 6:35 AM, Staff]

Daily Caller [10/28/2025 1:35 PM, Harold Hutchison, 835K] reports that the attorney for adjudicated MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia told MSNBC host Ana Cabrera Tuesday that the federal government should release his client if it won’t deport him to Costa Rica. Abrego Garcia is currently under indictment for human trafficking charges in Tennessee and had initially been deported to El Salvador, leading Democrats to take up his cause and demand his return to the United States. Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told Cabrera on "Ana Cabrera Reports" that Costa Rica was willing to consider Abrego Garcia a refugee. "The judge has scheduled another hearing in court in Maryland in about three weeks. And certainly, the injunction is in place between now and then. The government confirmed yesterday that they’re aware of the injunction and that they’re not going to remove him in violation of the injunction," Sandoval-Moshenberg claimed. "This is now the fourth African country that they’ve tried to send him to. You know, the first three said yes, then they said no. Meanwhile, all this while, as the judge pointed out very pointedly in court yesterday, Costa Rica has offered him a grant of refugee status, which means that he gets to live there permanently, at no risk of being deported to El Salvador, where he was tortured earlier this year. And yet again, the government had no good answer for why they’re not willing to simply take that off-ramp."

FOX News [10/28/2025 2:11 PM, Breanne Deppisch, 40621K] reports that Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain in the U.S. through at least the last week of November, according to a new court filing submitted Tuesday morning, as his months-long legal fight with the Trump administration continues to play out in multiple federal courts. The update comes as Abrego Garcia’s dueling criminal and civil cases have emerged as a major flashpoint in the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown. Two separate federal judges in Tennessee and Maryland are currently weighing Abrego’s current legal status, and whether the Justice Department acted with "selective" and "vindictive" prosecution in bringing a criminal case against him earlier this year. The new schedule ordered by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis allows Abrego Garcia to participate in a two-day evidentiary hearing ordered by another federal judge in Nashville to consider his assertion that his criminal case was motivated in part by the government’s desire for retaliation. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw is currently weighing a request from Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to subpoena the second-highest-ranking Justice Department official, Todd Blanche, for testimony in that hearing. He also ordered the Justice Department to produce various government documents and communications stemming from Abrego’s case, including on its decision to open an investigation into the 2022 traffic stop earlier this year. Separately on Monday, Judge Crenshaw scolded DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi for failing to limit their comments on Abrego Garcia’s ongoing criminal case in Tennessee, in violation of a local court rule, and ordered prosecutors to notify all employees at the Justice Department and DHS about the rule to prevent any future public remarks. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

WHTM [10/28/2025 6:30 PM, Alton Northup] reports Pennsylvania joined an effort to challenge the Trump administration’s decision to revoke millions of dollars in Homeland Security grants to states. The lawsuit, which includes 10 other states and the District of Columbia, alleges the Department of Homeland Security revoked funding awarded to states from the DHS Grant Program because of immigration policies. The program provides states with risk-based grants to protect them from terrorism and other threats. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who joined the lawsuit in his capacity as governor, said the Philadelphia region would lose $18 million because of the cuts. Shapiro said the cuts came as the state plans to host high-risk events in 2026, including the NFL Draft, the FIFA World Cup, and the MLB All-Star Game. While the federal government did not identify the state as a sanctuary jurisdiction for undocumented immigrants, the lawsuit said the Urban Area Security Initiative, a component of the grant program, listed Philadelphia as a sanctuary city. DHS defended the cuts as part of an effort to end violations of federal immigration law.

Daily Caller [10/28/2025 10:31 AM, Harold Hutchison, 835K] reports Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said on Tuesday he was pulling an additional $160 million in federal funding from California over the state issuing commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to illegal immigrants, warning that revoking the state’s ability to issue those licenses was on the table. The Transportation Department accused California on Thursday of ignoring stricter guidelines for non-citizens applying for CDLs issued in September after an illegal immigrant driving a tractor-trailer killed three people in an accident near Ontario, California, on Oct. 21 while allegedly driving under the influence of drugs. Duffy told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night that the department was conducting a "quick review" of the state’s failure to comply with regulations in the aftermath of the fatal wreck Duffy announced he would yank $40 million in federal funds from California during an Oct. 15 appearance on Fox Business Network. Newsom has opposed the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including filing lawsuits against the deployment of the National Guard to address riots targeting United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and facilities.

San Francisco Chronicle [10/28/2025 1:11 PM, Sara Libby and St. John Barned-Smith, 4722K] reports that Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino glanced at the crowd of yelling protesters in Chicago’s largely Latino Little Village neighborhood, took a step toward them and lobbed a canister of tear gas, a tactic a judge had temporarily banned. The interaction — captured last week on shaky cellphone video — demonstrated the defiant approach that has powered Bovino’s unlikely rise within the Trump administration: Despite his official role as chief of the agency’s El Centro sector in California’s Imperial Valley, he has been on the ground in some of his department’s most aggressive efforts around the country. And he is literally hands-on, using tactics that stretch or even disregard the law. His efforts have landed him at the center of multiple lawsuits accusing Bovino and his Border Patrol officers of excessive force and violating the rights of residents in Illinois, Oregon and California — where he has been developing his brazen playbook. Many feared similar scenes in the Bay Area last week, as more than 100 federal agents, including from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, were dispatched to a Coast Guard base in the East Bay. Federal officials told CBS News Bovino would be involved, before Trump suddenly called off a planned "surge" in San Francisco.

NPR [10/28/2025 6:30 AM, Greg Rosalsky, 28013K] reports earlier this year, the Trump administration shut down USAID and slashed spending on international aid and development. Development advocates worried — and continue to worry — that this will hurt the economies of developing nations and have deadly consequences for some of the poorest people on Earth. That story generated tons of headlines earlier this year. But Dean Yang, an economist at the University of Michigan, argues "the anti-immigration actions of the Trump administration are likely to have an even bigger negative effect on the economic development of the world’s poor countries" — and that story has gotten much less attention. It’s not just that migration is one of the best known mechanisms to lift people out of poverty. Studies suggest those who move from poor countries to work in rich nations like the United States often see a four-to-five fold increase in the amount they’re able to earn, and sometimes way more. What leads Yang to argue this is that immigrants in the United States send a jaw-dropping amount of money back home to their families. These remittances, as they’re known, have dwarfed the size of official foreign aid that the U.S. spends on things like economic development, health, and humanitarian assistance. In fact, the United States has far and away been the number one source of remittances in the world. According to the International Organization for Migration, which works with the United Nations, immigrants in the United States sent almost $80 billion to their origin countries in 2022 (the last available year of data).

Breitbart [10/28/2025 1:11 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2416K] reports socialist dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro on Monday claimed his regime allegedly dismantled three "CIA terrorist operations" seeking to oust him. Maduro – during the latest broadcast of his weekly show, With Maduro Plus – asserted the three purported "CIA attacks" were "neutralized" by regime law enforcement, intelligence officials, and the Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB). According to Maduro, who did not present any evidence that could substantiate his accusations, one of the attacks called to "blow up Victory Square against the fascism of the Soviet Union, there in Plaza Venezuela," a pro-Soviet monument inaugurated by the ruling socialists in May. The purported second attack, the dictator claimed, sought to "place an explosive device to attack the U.S. embassy building" in Caracas, while the third one allegedly involved a false flag attack against U.S. military vessels in Caribbean waters. Maduro stressed that "the CIA is always behind the dirty work it has always done.” "We are not giving the U.S. government any evidence, because the last time we gave them all the evidence about who wanted to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, we gave them names, surnames, places, and times, they simply went out and protected those people, we know that for a fact," Maduro claimed. "We have good international cooperation and a good intelligence team, and between Saturday night, the 25th, and Sunday morning, the 26th, a group of mercenaries trained and financed by the CIA were captured. All of this led us to discover a plan for a false flag attack that the CIA was going to carry out on its military ships stationed off the Caribbean coast," he continued. During the dictator’s show, Interior Minister and long suspected drug lord Diosdado Cabello said that three "individuals in possession of CIA execution manuals" were allegedly detained. Cabello, a man actively wanted by U.S. authorities on multiple narco-terrorism charges and the current leader of the socialist regime’s brutally repressive apparatus, claimed that the three unidentified individuals allegedly captured attempted to conceal their involvement in the events but that information "found" in the individuals’ phones contained relevant information.

CNN [10/29/2025 5:02 AM, Katie Bo Lillis, Sean Lyngaas, and Kylie Atwood, 18595K] reports in the final year of President Donald Trump’s first administration, the CIA carried out a clandestine cyberattack against the Venezuelan government, disabling the computer network used by Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s intelligence service. The attack, described to CNN by four sources familiar with the operation, was perfectly successful. It was also a throwaway, those sources said — an effort by the CIA to satisfy the president’s ambitions to do something about Venezuela and avoid taking riskier, more direct action against Caracas. The previously unreported episode was one of a series of moves that national security officials took to placate Trump during his first term in office as he sought to oust Maduro, covert maneuvering that came to deeply frustrate the president and his team as the Venezuelan strong man remained stubbornly in power. It helps underscore the president’s public determination to take a maximalist approach toward Venezuela in his second term. Since the summer, the US has amassed a huge military force in the region, including roughly 10,000 troops, with an aircraft carrier now en route from Europe. The president has said in recent weeks that the US is considering direct strikes on Venezuelan territory, and that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert activity there. A series of what the military termed “attack demonstration” flights off the Venezuelan coast by US bombers last week were an even more visible indicator of the US’ intentions. Although the administration has characterized the mission for all those military assets as a counternarcotics effort, the size and scope of the buildup has raised the specter of a possible regime-change operation.

AP [10/28/2025 12:08 PM, Joshua Goodman, 31753K] reports the federal agent had a daring pitch for Nicolás Maduro’s chief pilot: All he had to do was surreptitiously divert the Venezuelan president’s plane to a place where U.S. authorities could nab the strongman. In exchange, the agent told the pilot in a clandestine meeting, the aviator would be made a very rich man. The conversation was tense, and the pilot left noncommittal, though he provided the agent, Edwin Lopez, with his cell number — a sign he might be interested in helping the U.S. government. Over the next 16 months, even after retiring from his government job in July, Lopez kept at it, chatting with the pilot over an encrypted messaging app. The untold, intrigue-filled saga of how Lopez tried to flip the pilot has all the elements of a Cold War spy thriller — luxury private jets, a secret meeting at an airport hangar, high-stakes diplomacy and the delicate wooing of a key Maduro lieutenant. There was even a final machination aimed at rattling the Venezuelan president about the pilot’s true loyalties. More broadly, the scheme reveals the extent — and often slapdash fashion — to which the U.S. has for years sought to topple Maduro, who it blames for destroying the oil-rich nation’s democracy while providing a lifeline to drug traffickers, terrorist groups and communist-run Cuba. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the State Department did not comment. The Venezuelan government did not respond to a request for comment.

Chicago Tribune [10/28/2025 6:00 AM, Staff, 4917K] reports Friday lunchtime, a guy was walking his fluffy dog at the corner of Henderson and Lakewood streets in Chicago’s leafy Lakeview neighborhood. On any other sunny, autumnal Friday, such a stroll would have been as calming and uneventful as the city gets. But on this most recent one, the man found himself at what looked like a scene from the TV show “Chicago Fire,” which has filmed on and around this very block: he came upon screaming, yelling, fighting, spilled blood, tear gas canisters and masked federal agents in military-style fatigues moving their vehicle backward down a one-way street as an infuriated neighborhood repelled them with all the force its collective voice could muster. The man responded in kind: screaming and hollering at the agents as they took a man away from a $300,000 renovation of a classic Chicago three-flat, even as he tried to keep hold of his dog. He didn’t care what the worker allegedly had done nor did he care about his immigration status and even if he had, no one would have explained. The man just wanted the invaders gone. Had someone happened on this scene without the context of an immigration enforcement operation happening over the strenuous objections of the residents of an American city, they would not have believed their eyes, any more than they would if they had happened on a similar scene in the Old Irving Park neighborhood where, as the Tribune reported, “residents were tackled and tear-gassed as children prepared for a Halloween parade.” Little Village and Southeast Side residents, among others, have experienced the same. Let that sink in, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. [Editorial note: consult source link for extended commentary]

Washington Examiner [10/28/2025 11:41 AM, Christopher Tremoglie, 1394K] reports the employees of the Department of Homeland Security and officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are making America great again. They never receive the necessary or appropriate recognition for making communities safer and protecting the country’s citizens. First, they had risked their lives by being in harm’s way when apprehending violent criminals. Now, they risk their lives because Democrats essentially painted a metaphorical bullseye on their backs and made them the target of every unhinged, violent acolyte of radical left-wing political ideology, with numerous incidents of attempted assassinations and physical harm. Yet, after months of being vilified by millions of Americans at the behest of Democrats and others on the Left, they’ve persisted. DHS announced on Monday that it had removed over 527,000 illegal immigrants from the United States. Another 1.6 million have voluntarily deported themselves, the federal agency reported. All of this has happened in a little over nine months. It’s indicative of what happens when there is real presidential leadership about removing illegal immigrants, instead of repeated but noncommittal quotes about doing so. Where other presidents, congressional leaders, and other elected officials said they were going to do things to curb illegal immigration, DHS and ICE, at the behest of President Donald Trump, have actually done so. DHS has delivered a much-needed illegal immigration reckoning in the U.S. The federal agency touted its accomplishments in a released statement. "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced record-breaking statistics with more than 527,000 illegal aliens removed under the leadership of President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem," noted the release. "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," said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs for the DHS. "More than 2 million illegal aliens have left the U.S., including 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported and over 527,000 deportations." The country is much safer without such criminals, and they are no longer here because of the Trump administration’s directives to DHS.

Bloomberg [10/28/2025 5:30 AM, James Stavridis, 18207K] reports when I headed US Southern Command in the late 2000s, I spent a lot of time thinking about three things: stopping the flow of cocaine into the US; the guerrilla conflict in our closest South American neighbor, Colombia; and the despot of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez. I often asked — begged, frankly — the secretary of defense for more military capability to deal with these significant challenges. Unfortunately for Southern Command — which is responsible for all military activity south of the US, including the Caribbean — we were regarded as an "economy of force" theater. The Defense Department’s big resources were earmarked for the "forever wars" in Afghanistan and Iraq, while I swept up the crumbs under the table. We had to make do with a few Coast Guard frigates, an occasional Navy destroyer, and a hospital ship. A nuclear carrier breezed through once, but not for operations: the USS George Washington was in routine transit from Norfolk, Virginia to Yokosuka, Japan, and couldn’t fit through the Panama Canal. So I am astounded by the level of military force gathering in the Southern Command’s area of operations. When the USS Gerald Ford strike group arrives early next month, there will be at least a dozen major warships, including the nuclear-powered carrier featuring 80 combat aircraft and 5,000 sailors; an amphibious readiness group with big-deck ships, almost as large as carriers, each with 3,000 sailors and Marines; an assortment of guided-missile destroyers; and the secretive special-forces warship Ocean Trader. Long-range strategic bombers — B-52s and B-1s — have been buzzing around. A squadron of 10 Marine Corps F-35 Lightning stealth aircraft were reportedly deployed to Puerto Rico, along with a contingent of Reaper drones. That is a lot more military force than is required to carry out strikes against drug smugglers — which the Pentagon has done 10 times this month. It’s the largest level of US military capability in the region since Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama and arrest of the dictator Manuel Noreiga in 1989. The real target here is Venezuela, and US President Donald Trump’s administration is clearly signaling that land strikes are imminent. The justification will be President Nicolás Maduro’s involvement in drug trafficking, which kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.

The Daily Caller [10/28/2025 4:26 PM, Staff, 835K] reports the Trump administration began sweeping out Immigration and Customs Enforcement field chiefs across the country, reassigning many and moving Border Patrol veterans into top jobs to juice arrests. Nearly half of ICE’s 25 field office directors are being shifted, with replacements drawn from elsewhere in DHS — including the Border Patrol, which has already been embedded in ICE operations in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, the Associated Press reported. The Washington Examiner first identified five cities — Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Diego — where leaders were removed and reassigned Friday, with more changes expected. "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," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News. The shake-up is the third major overhaul of ICE leadership this year amid White House pressure to hit aggressive deportation targets. Axios has documented earlier ousters of top ICE brass after aides set a 3,000-per-day arrests goal; the moves extend that push by installing Border Patrol leaders long associated with faster, more sweeping operations. NewsNation [10/28/2025 1:02 PM, Ali Bradley, 8017K] reports that it comes as Border Czar Tom Homan says he’s working with White House adviser Stephen Miller to increase the pace of deportations. "We need to continue prioritizing public safety threats," Homan told NewsNation. "Worst first but prioritization doesn’t mean everyone else is off the table. If you are here illegally, you ARE NOT off the table." Border Patrol has been carrying out the majority of the sweeping raids that generally lead to protests at the direction of Chief Gregory Bovino, who appeared in court Tuesday over allegations that he threw tear gas canisters during an immigration enforcement operation in Chicago. Border Patrol agents also carry out targeted enforcement operations. By comparison, ICE officers generally stick to one target after they conduct research. Fox News reports that the change in staffing comes from competing factions within deportation enforcement, with Homan and ICE Director Todd Lyons squared off against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Bovino. Sources believe that ICE’s current enforcement approach is not producing the number of arrests Trump wants, but Bovino’s broader methods appear to be what the administration is after. Breitbart [10/28/2025 12:44 PM, Amy Furr, 2416K] reports that "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," the Fox article said. "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." In a social media post on Monday, Fox News’s Bill Melugin reported, "Per four senior DHS & Trump admin sources, a mass removal of ICE leadership around the country is underway, with up to 12 ICE field office chiefs being removed & reassigned in an effort to increase deportation numbers."

Reported similarly:
Axios [10/28/2025 1:12 PM, Brittany Gibson, 12972K]
(B) NBC News Daily [10/28/2025 2:44 PM, Staff] r
Blaze [10/28/2025 1:05 PM, Julio Rosas, 1442K]

NewsMax [10/28/2025 5:11 PM, Theodore Bunker, 4109K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement is undergoing one of its largest internal leadership reorganizations in years, as the Trump administration seeks to accelerate its immigration-arrest and deportation agenda. One current and one former U.S. government official told The Associated Press that at least 12 of ICE’s 25 field-office directors are being reassigned — almost half the agency’s regional leadership. Officials also spoke with Axios on the condition of anonymity, saying the shake-up was driven by pressure from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security on ICE to meet more aggressive enforcement and removal targets. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said publicly in March that a "culture of accountability" must be reinstated at ICE and named new top leadership to help meet the Trump administration’s mandate. The reassignments come amid mounting frustration within the administration over ICE’s pace of arrests and deportations. Reports had surfaced earlier this year that ICE leaders had been reassigned after the agency failed to meet daily arrest quotas reportedly set by senior White House officials.

Daily Wire [10/28/2025 7:07 AM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement is facing a massive leadership shakeup, exposing a major internal divide over the direction of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort. ICE leadership in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Denver, El Paso, San Diego, Seattle/Portland, and New Orleans will be replaced with Border Patrol officials, according to sources familiar with the plan. An internal message informing Homeland Security personnel of the changes came from senior adviser Corey Lewandowski, whose role is temporary and similar to that of Elon Musk’s former position in the White House, sources said. "It’s a s*** show … this is all Corey Lewandowski," one source fumed. "He wants power." "Noem isn’t even in control, it’s all Corey," the source added. Lewandowski is at odds with Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons over the mass deportation targets, sources said. Homan and Lyons want more criminals arrested, while Lewandowski is only concerned with increasing numbers. DHS didn’t immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment. However, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said on X that "this is one team, one fight," adding that Miller, Homan, Lyons, Bovino, Lewandowski, and ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan are "patriots who wake up every day to make this country and its people safer.” "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," McLaughlin wrote. "As we said, we have no personnel changes to announce right now but we remain laser focused on RESULTS and we will deliver," she added.

Daily Wire [10/28/2025 1:42 PM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports the Trump administration has already deported more than 527,000 illegal immigrants from the country, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday. At the current pace, federal authorities could deport 600,000 illegal immigrants by the end of President Donald Trump’s first year in office. However, it still falls short of the Trump administration’s lofty goal of deporting one million illegal immigrants each year. Last month, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told The Daily Wire that the agency can still make that happen with its push for illegal immigrants to "self-deport.” The Trump administration is offering a $1,000 bonus and free flights home to those who choose to leave on their own. Roughly 1.6 million illegal immigrants have already self-deported, according to DHS. "I think we’re going to see our number, definitely with the CBP Home app and those that decided to leave on their own," Lyons said. Assistant Homeland Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said it’s "just the beginning.” "President Trump and Secretary Noem have jumpstarted an agency that was hamstrung and barred from doing its job for the last four years," McLaughlin said. "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%.”

Breitbart [10/28/2025 11:32 AM, John Binder, 2416K] reports President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has deported more than half a million illegal aliens from the United States since the president’s mass deportation program began in late January, agency officials reveal. This week, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration is breaking records with more than 527,000 illegal aliens deported thus far, with an expectation that close to 600,000 will have been deported by the end of Trump’s first year of his second term. "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," DHS’s Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: More than 2 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. including 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported and over 527,000 deportations. This is just the beginning. President Trump and Secretary Noem have jumpstarted an agency that was hamstrung and barred from doing its job for the last four years. Aside from violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at the hands of the Mexican drug cartels, left-wing rioters, and gangs, McLaughlin said the agency has been forced to deal with "a historic number of injunctions from activist judges," but that such legal action has not slowed down deportations or arrests. "… DHS, ICE, and [Customs and Border Protection] 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 percent."

Washington Examiner [10/28/2025 1:14 PM, Emily Hallas, 1394K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security revealed on Tuesday that over 2 million illegal immigrants have left the United States during the first nine months of President Donald Trump’s second term. The announcement follows the Trump administration’s commitment to deport a minimum of a million people living in the U.S. without legal status by the end of 2025. As of this week, 1.6 million people have already "voluntarily self-deported," and the government has carried out an additional 527,000 deportations, according to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. Administration officials have ramped up deportation efforts by utilizing a "whole of government" approach to target illegal immigration. In addition to Border Patrol contributing to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, many state and local officials, as well as police and law enforcement divisions, are participating in the White House’s agenda to eradicate the country of those who lack legal status. "My entire career in the Border Patrol, you would always hear the words, ‘Whole of government approach’… meaning we’re going to bring every resource in the U.S. government to bear on a problem in this country. [But] I had never seen it," Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks said during a September event, during which he suggested illegal border crossings could reach zero. "There’s an administration that said, ‘We’re not gonna accept no for an answer. You’re going to enforce the laws.’" McLaughlin said this week that the deportations announced so far are "just the beginning." "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. Illegal aliens are hearing our message to leave now or face the consequence: Migrants are now turning back before they even reach our borders," she said.

Breitbart [10/29/2025 4:28 AM, Neil Munro, 2608K] reports the U.S. government is on track to deport 600.000 illegal migrants by the end of the year, White House deportation czar Tom Homan confirmed Tuesday. “As we get more agents on, you will see arrests increase two, three times,” Homan told Fox News on Tuesday. “You’re going to see the numbers skyrocket.” “I just count from January 20 to now ….. under Trump’s presidency, by time of the new year, we’ll be over 600,000 deportations,” Homan told an Axios interviewer, adding: The majority are criminals, and the data proves it. And who are the other 30-35 percent? Those are national security threats … who don’t have a lot of criminal convictions. “We are prioritizing public safety threats [and] national security threats. But as I said, [no one] is off the table, and if we find you, we’re going to arrest you,” he added. Homan’s comments came as the Department of Homeland Security is promoting managers from the Customs and Border Patrol agency to run deportation operations in several major cities, fueled by billions of dollars from Congress. The agency deportations are also driving up the number of self-deportations by illegal migrants who worry about being arrested and also fined for living in the United States illegally.

The Hill [10/28/2025 1:21 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12595K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a Monday flyer urging people to join the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) team with a graphic modeled after the Halo video game. "Destroy the flood. Join.ICE.gov," reads text overlaid on the graphic, shared on the social platform X, which features two Halo characters driving a vehicle through a grassy field. Above the graphic, the official DHS account wrote, "Finishing this fight.” The advertisement comes three days after Microsoft and Halo Studios said a "modernized" version of the 2001 game would soon be released on PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC with "more weapons, vehicles and enemies." ICE and the DHS did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment regarding why references to the video game are being used to recruit ICE agents. However, the DHS did release new numbers regarding ICE deportations on Monday. The department said 1.6 million people have voluntarily self-deported and more than 527,000 people have been removed through deportation efforts since President Trump returned to the White House. NewsMax [10/28/2025 4:16 PM, James Morley III, 4109K] reports that the new ad comes after an official DHS statement reporting that more than 2 million illegal immigrants have left the U.S., with 1.6 million of those deportations being voluntary. "This is just the beginning. President [Donald] Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem have jump-started an agency that was hamstrung and barred from doing its job for the last four years," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "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." Noem announced in September that ICE had received over 150,000 applications following its offer of a $50,000 signing bonus.

Daily Signal [10/28/2025 7:45 PM, Virginia Allen, 549K] reports the Department of Homeland Security says it is working "at turbo speed" to deport criminal illegal aliens after MSNBC ran a commentary piece outlining the challenges of hiring new immigration enforcement agents. "Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens," Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, told The Daily Signal. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has "received more than 175,000 applications from Americans who want to join U.S. ICE to help arrest and remove the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from America’s streets," she said. The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now. McLaughlin’s statement follows an MSNBC opinion column from Fordham Law School professor John Pfaff. In the op-ed, Pfaff asserts that ICE has "lowered" its hiring standards, but is still struggling to meet its goal of hiring 10,000 new agents before the end of 2025. In August, DHS announced it would "waive age limits" for ICE applicants, but added that recruits still would be required to undergo "medical screening, drug screening, and complete a physical fitness test.” While ICE has extended "tentative offers" to 18,000 individuals, according to DHS, Pfaff asserts that many applicants are "not up to the task" physically of being a field agent. The assistant secretary says ICE is maintaining its fitness standards while continuing to hire more agents, adding that candidates "must meet the Physical Ability Assessment standards as a condition of employment.” "We are moving fitness checks earlier in the training sequence to improve efficiency and accountability—not to lower standards," she added. The majority of new ICE hires "are experienced law enforcement officers who have already successfully completed a law enforcement academy," McLaughlin told The Daily Signal. "This population is expected to account for greater than 85% of new hires. Prior-service hires follow streamlined validation, but remain subject to medical, fitness, and background requirements.” Still, Pfaff argues ICE has only made around "1,000 successful hires, just 10% of the goal.” In response, McLaughlin says ICE is "deploying new officers on a rolling basis and will continue onboarding through December to hire 10,000 deportation officers.” Funding to hire the new agents is included in Trump’s "One Big, Beautiful Bill," which was signed into law in July. DHS continues to conduct an aggressive recruitment campaign as it seeks to arrest and remove illegal aliens—specifically, those with a criminal history—who are living in the U.S. The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has resulted in a 1,000% increase in attacks against immigration enforcement officials, according to DHS.

NPR [10/28/2025 4:44 PM, Ximena Bustillo, Ailsa Chang, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports the Trump administration appears to be relying on unmarked vehicles in immigration enforcement, NPR has learned.

NPR [10/29/2025 5:00 AM, Chiara Eisner and Ximena Bustillo, 34837K] reports in a video shared on TikTok in September, a masked man in a tactical vest runs across a street in Chicago toward a Ford SUV. More people in tactical police vests get inside the vehicle, as an angry crowd forms around it, yelling profanities. "You guys are separating families," one woman shouts at the car, which is flashing red and blue lights. "And for what?" The woman tells others not to come near the area because "la migra" is there, which is how some Spanish speakers refer to U.S. immigration authorities. But there is little to reveal whether the Ford belongs to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agency that is leading President Trump’s push for mass arrests and deportations of those suspected of being in the U.S. without legal status, or any other federal unit tasked with carrying out immigration-related arrests. The car has no license plates on the back and appears to have no words on the side that indicate it is government property. Over the past year, many federal law enforcement agents conducting immigration arrests have been concealing their faces under masks and gaiters when making arrests in public, in what DHS says is an effort to avoid doxing, or publishing agents’ personal information online. Dozens of pending proposals across the country now seek to ban masking of federal policing authorities in public places. Less public attention has centered on the masking of agents’ cars. But some vehicles being used in what appear to be immigration-related arrests do not have license plates, or have traded license plates, NPR found in a review of videos shot by bystanders and reporters, and those circulating on social media. The videos appear to come from areas where the administration has focused its immigration enforcement across the country, including Illinois, California and Washington state. Witnesses and activists have alleged similar behavior concerning license plates in court filings and in media reports, while the Illinois Secretary of State, a Democrat, has condemned the apparent trading of license plates as illegal in his state. NPR sent several requests for comment to ICE citing the specific photos and videos that appear to show license plate removal or manipulation during immigration enforcement operations. The department did not respond to the specific examples. When asked about whether Border Patrol agents were using a vehicle with Mexican flag decals, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin stated the agency believes its employees are not camouflaging their identities, though she acknowledged agents do wear masks to protect themselves from harm. ICE did not respond. "DHS is not going to confirm our vehicles and put an even larger target on our officers’ backs," McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to questions regarding current CBP policy for markings on cars including painted hoods and stickers.

Axios [10/29/2025 4:50 AM, Brittany Gibson, 13599K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is struggling to quickly hire 10,000 qualified agents for mass deportations, even as it offers signing bonuses of up to a year’s salary. The agency has received a flood of applications and fast-tracked its training for some recruits. But it’s a huge challenge to add 10,000 agents to a force of 6,000, and White House border czar Tom Homan acknowledges a "high fail rate" on physical standards. "I mean, if you can’t run a mile and a half, you probably shouldn’t be a federal law enforcement officer," Homan told Axios. Recruits have to do 15 push-ups and 32 sit-ups, and run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes. Some new recruits were described in an internal email as "athletically allergic," according to reporting in The Atlantic. Others are failing tests on immigration law: "I’m concerned that every agent is fully trained in immigration law, Fourth Amendment training," Homan said, referring to the constitutional ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. There’s also continuous vetting to weed out poor recruits and bad actors, Homan told Axios. "They’re trying to push ... the majority of the vetting up before they’re even offered a job [and start training]," he said Drug use and criminal histories are immediately disqualifying, Homan added. "ICE has received more than 175,000 applications, for 10,000 roles," Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Axios. She would not say how many of those new applicants have been hired.

FOX News [10/28/2025 6:28 PM, Emma Bussey, 40621K] reports a Lufthansa flight from Chicago to Frankfurt was forced to make an emergency landing Oct. 25 after a man allegedly stabbed two teenagers with a metal fork on board during a violent outburst, authorities said. Federal prosecutors have charged 28-year-old Indian national Praneeth Kumar Usiripalli with assault following the incident aboard Lufthansa Flight 431. The plane was subsequently diverted to Boston Logan International Airport, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. A release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Usiripalli faces one count of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm while traveling on an aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, prosecutors said. The release also said charging documents allege that shortly after meal service, a 17-year-old passenger who had been lightly asleep awoke to find Usiripalli standing over him. Usiripalli allegedly stabbed the teen who was sleeping in the left clavicle with a metal fork, then lunged at another 17-year-old seated nearby, striking him in the back of the head with the same utensil, per the release.

FOX News [10/28/2025 5:29 PM, Peter Pinedo, 40621K] reports while New York City doubles down on Trump resistance and socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani is heavily favored to be elected the next mayor of America’s largest city, a nearby suburb is going the opposite direction, and it is working "even better than anticipated," according to the county’s top official. In February, Nassau County, New York, launched a new partnership with the federal government to allow police to assist with immigration enforcement. The partnership was further expanded in March. Currently, ten Nassau County detectives have been trained and designated to work with ICE on apprehensions and investigations, and the county has reserved 50 jail cells for ICE to hold detainees for up to 72 hours for deportation or charges. He also said the policies have been yielding results not only for the county but the entire region. Blakeman said that, in September alone, Nassau County Police worked with ICE to arrest 47 illegal immigrants, 28 of whom were involved with gang activity, including drug dealing, attempted murder, carjacking and robbery. He also said the Nassau County Jail has processed over 2,000 ICE cases. The result, Blakeman said, is that overall crime in Nassau County has gone down by 14%, and provisional data on opioid, fentanyl and other drug-related deaths show they have gone down by over 20% compared to the previous year.

Univision [10/28/2025 3:20 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports Joel Camas, a 16-year-old Ecuadorian national with a Special Juvenile (SIJ) visa, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after voluntarily appearing before an immigration judge in Manhattan. According to his lawyer, the teenager "did everything in accordance with the law," so his detention was "unjustified and contrary to the spirit of humanitarian protection" of the visa, which covers unaccompanied minors who are victims of parental abandonment or neglect. Joel’s attorney filed a habeas corpus petition demanding his immediate release. She asserts that there are "solid legal grounds" to reverse the detention, as her client has regular immigration status. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a message on social media stating that the young man had been ordered deported and that now "he will be able to reunite with his family."

Breitbart [10/28/2025 12:28 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a three-time deported illegal alien in Virginia this week after he was accused of violently assaulting a police officer, among other violent crimes. Carlos Ramirez-Guzman, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was arrested by ICE agents on October 17 in Arlington, Virginia. Ramirez-Guzman has a 21-year criminal record in the United States. His criminal record includes charges for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer; domestic battery; exhibition of a dangerous weapon; resisting, obstructing, or opposing a law enforcement officer; disorderly conduct; and illegally reentering the U.S., which is a felony. "Carlos Ramirez-Guzman racked up an extensive criminal history over the last 21 years he has spent ignoring America’s law," the Department of Homeland Security’s 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. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, this criminal illegal alien’s crime spree has come to an end. Good riddance, you are not welcome in this country.

AP [10/28/2025 5:04 PM, Michael Kunzelman] reports a federal agent fired shots at an unarmed Black man during a recent traffic stop while patrolling the nation’s capital for President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge. But a police report on the encounter doesn’t mention the shooting, an omission that the man’s attorneys point to as evidence of a cover-up attempt. The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the shooting by a Homeland Security Investigations agent, who was with police officers and other federal agents when they stopped a car driven by Phillip M. Brown on Oct. 17. Brown, 33, of Hyattsville, Maryland, wasn’t injured in the shooting. He was jailed for three days on a charge that he fled from law enforcement, but a judge has already dismissed the case. Brown’s lawyers claim the police department tried to cover up the shooting by leaving it out of the police report and refusing to provide them with video from police body cameras. At a court hearing for Brown’s criminal case, a police officer testified that he was instructed not to include the shooting in the police report, according to civil rights attorneys Bernadette Armand and E. Paige White. They said police also failed to disclose the shooting to a prosecutor assigned to the case. The judge who dismissed the case against Brown ruled that there was insufficient evidence that he was fleeing, according to Brown’s attorneys. The gunshots struck Brown’s driver-side window and front passenger seat at chest level, the lawyers said. The officer’s police report says Brown revved his sport utility vehicle’s engine and began driving toward law-enforcement officers before he rear-ended another vehicle. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson says the agent who fired his gun feared for his life "and the lives of others" when he fired "defensive shots" into the vehicle.

Breitbart [10/28/2025 4:17 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2416K] reports a federal judge is instructing Trump Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino about how to deploy the tactics she thinks should be used by federal officers in pursuit of President Trump’s immigration policies. The judge questioned Bovino on the tactics now being used in Chicago by ICE and other federal officers in pursuit of President Trump’s immigration policies. Judge Sara L. Ellis of Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had Bovino in her court over allegations that ICE and Border Patrol are using unnecessary force in confrontations with increasingly threatening and violent protesters, including routine use of tear gas and other noxious gases to subdue crowds and keep federal law enforcement officers safe. Bovine, dressed in his Border Patrol uniform, promised to have officers adopt body cameras in Chicago and also said he, himself, would wear one going forward. Ellis also warned Bovino that agents must warn crowds that they intend to use gas. Ellis was reacting to a lawsuit brought by several activist reporters who are suing the federal government, alleging "a pattern of extreme brutality" and injuries they claim they suffered at the hands of ICE agents. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has defended the use of gas canisters and said they are only used when agents are "swarmed by agitators."

Univision Chicago WGBO [10/28/2025 4:28 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports a decrease in the presence of enforcement taxi drivers has been noticed at one of the parking lots at O’Hare International Airport, one of the largest in Chicago, Illinois, due to recent federal operations in the area, which has affected both passengers and employers. The atmosphere is tense, with several drivers reporting that the area has been the scene of multiple raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. In response to the recent raids, the Cook County Board Chairwoman signed an executive order prohibiting the use of county property for immigration activities. The measure includes buildings, parking lots, and vacant lots, which can no longer be used by federal agencies to conduct immigration-related raids, meetings, or interrogations. When asked how they will enforce this order, Vasquez explained that in the coming weeks they will post notices on all county buildings and parking lots, and that public employees are being trained to report the presence of federal agents.

Daily Wire [10/28/2025 8:19 AM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports that an illegal immigrant is accused of killing a county official and his wife while driving drunk on an Illinois road, The Daily Wire has learned. Honduran illegal immigrant Edwin Pacheco-Meza, 34, was swiftly arrested by local cops after allegedly killing Coles County board member Michael Clayton, 71, and his wife, Gail, 66, in a drunk driving crash on Friday. Pacheco-Meza snuck across the border illegally at an unknown date, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire. The couple was pronounced dead at the scene. Pacheco-Meza was charged with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI. Local authorities also found an extended magazine, ammunition, and marijuana in his van. Illinois state Rep. Adam Niemerg blamed the "failed leadership" of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker for the fatal crash in a recent X post. "Gov. Pritzker’s reckless policies keep putting Illinois families at risk. While ICE quickly lodged a detainer to ensure Morales-Martinez wasn’t released onto the streets, the local jail still let him walk free on Monday, according to DHS. Luckily, ICE officers were waiting outside and scooped him up. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire that the illegal immigrant pair "should’ve never been in our country in the first place." "President Trump and Secretary Noem have unleashed ICE and CBP in Illinois to restore law-and-order and remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities," McLaughlin said. "Anyone who is in the U.S. illegally and thinks they can roam free while breaking our laws and harming Americans is in for a rude awakening. If you are in our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, arrest you, remove you, and you will never return," she added.

AP [10/28/2025 10:23 AM, Rebecca Blackwell and Claire Galofaro, 31753K] reports just before noon on a sunny Friday earlier this month, federal immigration agents threw tear gas canisters onto a busy Chicago street, just outside of an elementary school and a children’s play cafe. Parents, teachers and caregivers rushed to shield children and have been grappling ever since with how to protect them when masked men in unmarked SUVs show up unannounced in neighborhoods across this city. A half-dozen toddlers were sitting in the window of the Luna y Cielo Play Cafe, where children learn Spanish as they play, on Oct. 3 when a white SUV rolled down their street in Logan Square, a historically Hispanic neighborhood that’s been steadily gentrifying for years. Cafe owner Vanessa Aguirre-Ávalos ran outside to see what was happening, as the children’s nannies hustled them to a back room. "These kids are traumatized," Aguirre-Ávalos said. "Even if ICE stops doing what they’re doing right now, people are going to be traumatized.” Weeks later, families — even those not likely in danger of being rounded up in immigration raids — say they remain terrified, and many asked that they not be identified out of fear it would make them targets. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Border Patrol agents were "impeded by protesters" during a targeted enforcement operation in which one man was arrested.

Chicago Tribune [10/28/2025 6:33 PM, Kate Perez, 4829K] reports Barbers paused haircuts to look out windows and bakers in aprons peered out doorways along West 26th Street in Little Village to the sounds of whistles and chants from young voices echoing down the street. Since the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz began in September, whistles have been used as warnings that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is nearby. But on Tuesday, the whistle-blowing coincided with students carrying Mexican flags and signs during a staged walkout of local schools. In an over 2-mile walk, hundreds of students made their way from Little Village Lawndale High School to the La Villita or Little Village Arch, denouncing recent ICE action and supporting immigrant communities. Immigration enforcement descended on Little Village last week, resulting in multiple people being taken into custody. The sobering effect the arrival of federal officers had on the community inspired the walkout, student organizer and Social Justice High School senior Lia Sophia Lopez said. "They hurt us like they’ve never hurt us before. They attacked our community, they surrounded the parks, they surrounded our school, I’ve never felt more unsafe in my life than that day," Lopez said. "We need to protect our people’s peace. We need to protect their freedom and dignity. Because if we don’t, no one else will.” Lopez and other students organized the walkout, which included her peers from the four schools on Little Village Lawndale High School’s campus – Multicultural Academy of Scholarship High School, World Language High School, Greater Lawndale High School for Social Justice, and Infinity Math, Science, and Technology High School. With less than a week of planning, Lopez said she was pleased with the large turnout and made sure her fellow students knew the risks of protesting, including the presence of federal agents, telling them "they will not stop because you are children" and "they do not care," she said. Still, fear did not stop students accompanied by Chicago police officers as they moved along the route. Chants of "say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here," and "the people united, will never be divided" drew honks from cars stopped along the marchers’ path. For Lopez, protesting was worth whatever potential consequences. When her peers and family expressed concerns, she pushed back. "I said to them, I don’t care if I get expelled, I don’t care if I get detained. … I will do this for my people, for my community, because they deserve it," Lopez said. "They deserve people to speak out for them. They deserve people to show the love and appreciation that they give to us and to our students, Social Justice and Little Village Lawndale High School as a whole.”

CBS Colorado [10/28/2025 5:31 PM, Anna Alejo, 39474K] reports a charter school in Douglas County says it is scrambling to staff a 5th-grade classroom after its teacher was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents over the weekend. A staff member says the educator’s abrupt absence posed "unique challenges." The educator was in her first full year of teaching at Global Village Academy in Parker, after previously working there as a substitute, said staff, who did not provide the teacher’s name. Global Village Academy said it is in compliance with the law and that the teacher was authorized to work.

Houston Chronicle [10/28/2025 5:01 PM, Matt deGrood and Julián Aguilar, 2983K] reports attorneys have joined an effort to help a Houston mother reunite with her son, a teenager with autism who was placed with immigration agents after being reported missing earlier this month. More questions than answers remained in the case of 15-year-old Emmanuel Gonzalez-Garcia – family members say they haven’t yet seen Houston police video of their interaction with him or read the incident report. But Maria Garcia, his mother, was hopeful she might get to visit him at a federal facility sometime in the coming days. "This is Day 24 of Emmanuel being in federal custody, and we still don’t understand why," said Cesar Espinosa, the executive director of FIEL Houston, an immigrant-aid organization, at a news conference Tuesday. Advocates have been fuming over the Houston Police Department’s decision to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement after they found the teenager. Officials with the Houston Police Department said that they contacted ICE after coming into contact with Gonzalez-Garcia, who said he was homeless and from another country. Police worked for more than four hours to confirm the child’s identity and find an acceptable person to leave him with, but couldn’t find anyone, officials said. After exhausting other options, Houston police worked with immigration officials to place the child with the Office of Refugee Resettlement inside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, officials said. The police department’s policy stipulates that when officers encounter a person younger than 17, they are supposed to return the juvenile to parents or family, school, or Child Protective Services. Officials with the agency haven’t said whether CPS was called.

Axios [10/28/2025 7:20 AM, Steph Solis and Megan Stringer, 12972K] reports immigrant detention centers in Texas, including one near San Antonio, were among the facilities with the highest number of people in solitary confinement this year, per recent research. U.S. solitary confinement placements increasingly drag on for 15 days or longer, which the United Nations says constitutes psychological torture, according to a report by Harvard University researchers and Physicians for Human Rights. The researchers focused on immigrant detention centers, which experts say are primarily used to hold immigrants and ensure they make their court hearings and check-ins — not to punish them for immigration violations. Nearly 14,000 people were placed in solitary confinement in immigrant detention centers nationwide between April 2024 and August 2025, per new data provided to Axios. Researchers detailed an increase in solitary confinement placements and, for some populations, weeks-long isolation The report, which relies on ICE’s data collections, didn’t show the duration of solitary confinement placements for all detainees, just for those labeled as "vulnerable," like those with mental health issues. The report found that the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, about 55 miles southwest of San Antonio, had 488 people isolated from April 2024 to May 2025 — the fourth highest nationwide.

Breitbart [10/28/2025 8:19 AM, Bob Price, 2416K] reports in a bold nighttime sweep through Houston’s high-crime corridors, Breitbart Texas rode with a team of 40 federal officers and agents arrested approximately 25 illegal aliens—many with criminal records — during a four-hour ICE operation that unfolded under pounding rain. Armed with a new data-driven targeting system and a mandate to saturate the streets, law enforcement teams encountered suspects actively committing crimes as part of a sweeping crackdown aimed at restoring order and sending a message: ICE is now a 24/7 presence in Texas. Breitbart Texas rode with Larry Adams, Acting Deputy Director of the Houston ICE Field Office, who revealed details of a groundbreaking law enforcement operation targeting criminal hotspots across multiple Texas counties. The pilot operation on Saturday night focused on finding criminal aliens on the streets. Adams told Breitbart Texas that they anticipated there would be more opportunities to find people committing crimes, including carrying drugs, firearms, and driving under the influence. "We’ve identified approximately 800 potential targets within just a one-mile radius," Adams explained. Using their proprietary "Elite" system, the team will strategically saturate high-crime areas with 40 volunteer officers from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Customs and Border Protection. Following Adams’s pre-operation safety briefing to the gathered agents and officers, the team moved out onto the streets in search of criminal aliens. Adams cautioned the officers to continue making "careful, controlled decisions." He said they expected to encounter more female subjects and that, due to the nature of this operation, they could be in night-club dress. He reminded the team to be respectful, but cautious.

FOX News [10/28/2025 3:22 PM, Louis Casiano, 40621K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel working in Washington state were targeted with online threats from a man on social media, the Department of Homeland Security said. James Adrian Warren is under investigation after he allegedly shared posts on Oct. 22 in which he specifically targeted the Ferndale, Washington, ICE office, which sits near the U.S.-Canadian border, DHS said. In his post, Warren called ICE "Nazis" and "the Gestapo." He also said he would begin observing, tailing, recording and reporting ICE employees to "make life harder for ICE here in Whatcom County." The post is one of many that have threatened to harm or harass ICE agents, who now face a 1,000% uptick in assaults as the Trump administration continues to ramp up immigration enforcement operations nationwide.

Univision [10/28/2025 6:58 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operative concluded on Monday, October 27, with three arrests and versions found between authorities and the families of those arrested. On Tuesday, ICE reported the arrest of Oscar Daniel Barron-Hernandez, 28, an undocumented immigrant who had entered the United States irregularly three times, incurring a felony under federal law. According to an ICE spokesman who was consulted by Univision 45, the arrest attempt began during a vehicular stop directed specifically against Barron-Hernandez, who disobeyed repeated warrants and fled, putting at risk the public safety, that of his two companions and that of the officers. After a chase, Barron-Hernandez took refuge with two companions in a home in Pasadena, where the three barricaded themselves as residents of the area began to gather in front of the house, verbally rebuking authorities. “ICE agents acted with total professionalism, even while being insulted by those who opposed the operation,” the spokesman said. “A channel of dialogue was opened with the residents of the house to avoid an escalation, and they finally agreed to leave peacefully, allowing their detention without violence.” ICE has pointed out, without offering any evidence, that recent public actions by political figures, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Dan Goldman, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom, have helped encourage irregular immigrants to avoid law enforcement. The ICE spokesperson emphasized to Univision 45 that the agency “will continue to fulfill its duty to enforce U.S. immigration laws, regardless of the political or social pressures that seek to hinder its operations.”

Bloomberg [10/28/2025 2:37 PM, Drew Hutchinson, 91K] reports that the Trump administration’s proposed wage-based lottery for foreign worker visas has gotten the attention of human resources organizations, which say the plan would jeopardize small and medium-size companies and drive global talent elsewhere. Employers are already dealing with a shortage of highly skilled workers, the Society for Human Resource Management said in recent public comments to the Department of Homeland Security. That includes smaller operations, it says, with 60% of SHRM members who use the H-1B visa program having fewer than 500 employees. The technology industry has grabbed headlines as the most likely victim of H-1B restrictions. [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

FOX News [10/28/2025 9:00 AM, Elizabeth Elkind, 40621K] reports a House GOP lawmaker is calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to denaturalize and deport New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., is sending a new request to the DOJ to probe Mamdani, a self-declared Democratic socialist and New York State assemblyman, who is the frontrunner in the race to lead the Big Apple. Since his initial inquiry in June, Ogles wrote that "additional public reporting has raised further questions about Mr. Mamdani’s past statements and associations, including his refusal to disavow violent anti-American rhetoric and continued public praise for individuals convicted of providing material support to Hamas." Mamdani, who holds dual citizenship with the U.S. and Uganda, was naturalized as an American in 2018. Ogles’ letter said, "The United States must uphold the integrity of its citizenship process and ensure that those who seek to represent the public meet the highest standards of loyalty to this Nation."

FOX News [10/28/2025 12:36 PM, Anders Hagstrom, 40621K] reports that an investigation by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has uncovered over 1,000 noncitizens who "appear to have registered to vote unlawfully in Ohio," his office announced Tuesday. LaRose says he has referred all 1,084 cases to the Department of Justice, noting that 167 of the individuals appear to have cast a ballot in a federal election since 2018. LaRose’s office also referred 135 others for potential prosecution, citing evidence of other unlawful voting activity. "Ohio has earned its reputation as the Gold Standard, and our Election Integrity Unit continues to prove why," LaRose said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "We work tirelessly to ensure that every eligible voter’s voice is heard, and anyone who tries to cheat the system will face serious consequences." LaRose sent a letter to the DOJ’s criminal division on Tuesday, highlighting the evidence of the 1,084 noncitizen voter registrations as well as other alleged crimes. The other crimes include 99 individuals who appear to have voted in two states in the same federal election; 16 people who appear to have voted twice in Ohio in the same federal election; 14 who appear to have voted in a federal election after the date of their death; four who appear to have engaged in ballot harvesting and two who registered at an unlawful residence. The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

NBC News [10/28/2025 2:28 PM, Rebecca Cohen, Jay Blackman, and Tom Costello, 34509K] reports that as the government shutdown drags on, federal employees who support the country’s airports, such as air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration workers, say they are still in the dark about when they will next be paid. On Tuesday, workers received their first zero-dollar paycheck, reflecting two weeks of unpaid work amid the ongoing government shutdown. During the nearly monthlong shutdown, these individuals, whose roles are deemed essential, have been required to show up for work without the promise of a paycheck at the end of a standard pay period. Their last payout was a partial paycheck that included funds for time worked in September before the shutdown that began Oct. 1. Also Tuesday, controllers took matters into their own hands, pushing back on the work the government is demanding of them by handing out leaflets that describe the impact of the shutdown on aviation workers and how people can contact their members of Congress to call for the shutdown to end. The actions were scheduled to take place at nearly 20 airports nationwide. While these federal employees will eventually receive back pay when the government shutdown ends, thanks to a 2018 law, the uncertainty of when that will be has air traffic controllers taking up side gigs to stay afloat. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [10/28/2025 1:51 PM, Greg Norman, Elizabeth Elkind, and Alex Miller, 42219K] reports that Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy told "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday that "today is the first day" that air traffic controllers "don’t get any money" as a result of the government shutdown. "The first day is hard, but the second day is even harder than that. And the third day. Because they have gas, they have childcare costs," he said. "I had one controller tell me, ‘my 10-year-old daughter made the traveling volleyball team, and it cost hundreds of dollars. I had to tell her I couldn’t pay the money because I don’t have a check coming in. I have to put food on the table,’" Duffy continued. "It’s tragic. But here’s what’s even worse. Democrats aren’t voting to open up the government." "You are safe to fly because these controllers come in, they’re the most amazing professionals. They do their job, they keep you safe. But again, I don’t want them driving DoorDash. I don’t want them going to the food bank. I want them focused on keeping you safe," Duffy also said. Duffy later said at a press conference Tuesday, "I think we’re getting to the point of extremism. And it does beg the question for me again, what are the Democrats fighting for? "Let’s fight for America. Let’s not fight for health care for illegal immigrants, illegal aliens. I think that’s a wrong approach. And listen, I spent almost ten years in Congress. There are political differences. Those political differences are very real. And the way you resolve those differences is not taking hostages. It’s actually opening up the government and having a conversation. What can we work out? What compromises can we make?" Duffy added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC News [10/28/2025 9:41 PM, Staff, 30493K] Video: HERE reports ABC News’ Linsey Davis spoke with Acting Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl as TSA workers received their first $0 paycheck amid the ongoing government shutdown.

CBS News [10/28/2025 2:35 PM, Megan Cerullo, 39474K] reports that some airlines are stepping in to help feed air traffic controllers and other unpaid federal aviation workers who missed their first full paycheck on Tuesday, Day 28 of the government shutdown. United Airlines told CBS News that it is helping support essential workers who are going unpaid during the stalemate in Washington, D.C. "United is donating meals for air traffic controllers and other federal workers whose pay is delayed. We appreciate the hardworking federal employees who are keeping the air travel system running," the airline said in a statement. United said that it’s feeding workers at the airline’s hubs across the country, including in Chicago; Denver; Houston; Los Angeles; Newark, N.J.; San Francisco; and Washington, D.C. Delta Air Lines also confirmed to CBS News that it has "arranged for a limited number of meals for transportation sector workers," while noting that it is operating "within the strict rules established for employees of federal government agencies." Additionally, JetBlue said it is working with its federal partners, including local aviation officials, "to offer meals at our airports as a gesture of support." The airline said it’s working with the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Federal Aviation Administration to coordinate those efforts. At a press conference on Tuesday at LaGuardia Airport in New York, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy highlighted air traffic controllers’ financial struggles as they go without pay.

New York Post [10/28/2025 7:02 PM, Chris Nesi and Josh Christenson, 42219K] reports air traffic controllers across the US received their first zeroed-out paycheck Tuesday because of the protracted government shutdown — and staffing shortages are causing airport delays to pile up ahead of the busy holiday season. With the shutdown entering its second month, federal workers are scrambling to make ends meet. Air traffic controllers in particular are feeling the bite, coping with grueling six-day workweeks, mandatory overtime and chronic understaffing — all while working without pay. "The system is already short-staffed, shutdown or no shutdown, and has been for a very long time," Ian Petchenik, communications director for real-time flight-tracking website Flightradar24 told The Post. "Even at full staff, it’s a very stressful job. Then there’s a government shutdown where you aren’t being paid anymore. This sets the backdrop for an increase over time of air traffic controllers calling out and saying look, I’m not getting paid, so maybe a six-day week and mandatory overtime right now isn’t something I can do.” Staffing shortfalls have begun ticking up at major US airports, the Federal Aviation Administration is already warning of shortages at airports serving Denver, Philadelphia and much of the western US. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters Tuesday that 44% of Sunday’s flight delays, and around 24% on Monday, were a direct result of air traffic controller staffing issues. Those figures represent a sharp increase from about 5% of the total airport delays previously this year. International travelers are feeling the downstream effects of the shortages too, with max customs wait times at John F. Kennedy International Airport stretching out to nearly one hour and 15 minutes for some international arrivals — up 30 minutes from before the shutdown. Petchenik said depending how long the shutdown lasts, travelers at other major hubs like Dallas-Fort Worth and Phoenix are likely to be impacted based on the high volume of passengers going through those airports. "Right now the facilities that are impacted vary from day to day, and are scattered throughout the country. We’re dealing with delays and a few cancelations here and there, but if it continues along this path, if there are fewer air traffic controllers working at more facilities then we start to get into real systematic issues," he said.

CBS Chicago [10/28/2025 6:44 PM, Tara Molina, 39474K] Video: HERE reports Transportation Security Administration workers and air traffic controllers won’t be receiving paychecks starting Tuesday as a result of the government shutdown. A local soup kitchen delivered hundreds of meals to O’Hare to feed those who are working and not getting paid. They make sure you’re safe traveling through our airports, but it’s a job TSA agents in Chicago are officially doing without any pay now due to the shutdown. It’s why the Elgin’s Holy Trinity Soup Kitchen is making sure those workers are fed on Tuesday. "With the struggling that’s going on, we just want to give back," Vee Armer said. Their generosity means one less worry on the workers’ minds. "It’s causing people to go get loans and create other credit problems down the line," Darrell English said. English and Vietel are with the American Federation of Government Employees Local 777 and represent around 1,400 TSA workers. As workers themselves, they said they, too, are going without pay and are stressed. They said they coordinated lunches, like this one, to try to alleviate that a bit, pointing out that TSA officers are among the lowest-paid in the federal workforce. Delivering after 200 hot meals to workers at O’Hare, they’ll do this again on Wednesday and could extend into next week.

StateScoop [10/28/2025 7:08 PM, Sophia Fox-Sowell, 37K] reports county officials from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C., this week to urge Congress to pass the FEMA Act, legislation aimed at improving how federal, state and local governments respond to disasters by simplifying assistance for survivors, speeding up infrastructure repairs and increasing transparency with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Nearly two dozen county leaders from 15 states, as part of the National Association of Counties’ Intergovernmental Disaster Reform Task Force, held meetings on Capitol Hill to advocate for the bill, which passed the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in September. “When disasters strike, county emergency responders are first on the scene, and long after, counties take the lead on rebuilding our communities,” NACo Executive Director Matthew Chase said in a statement. “This robust role depends on an effective intergovernmental partnership, and the FEMA Act includes a range of county priorities that will improve our ability to serve and support our residents in their greatest time of need.” Key provisions of the bill include establishing a universal disaster application that reduces paperwork and delays, and creating a website to track project approvals and payments. The legislation also reforms FEMA’s Public Assistance program to allow faster, grant-based funding. The legislation also offers coverage for loan interest incurred by local governments responding to disasters. Cynthia Lee Sheng, president of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, and co-chair of NACo’s task force, said counties helped shape many of the bill’s reforms. “We’re here to make sure lawmakers understand how these changes will work in real life — to cut red tape and get help to communities faster,” she said. “We’re here to make sure every last question lawmakers have about this bill is answered,” Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, President Cynthia Lee Sheng, who co-chairs the task force, said of the fly-in. “From a universal disaster application to reforming FEMA’s Public Assistance Program, county leaders can speak to the impact these reforms will have on the ground.”

CBS News [10/28/2025 9:06 PM, Giles Hudson, 39474K] reports FEMA announced Tuesday it will provide $875 million to help bolster security at FIFA World Cup games next year. The funding will be distributed in two tiers, according to a news release from the agency. About $625 million is earmarked for the 11 cities hosting matches. The money can be used for security preparations, training, staff background checks, and increasing the number of first responders at venues and hotels. Nine of those games will take place in North Texas, FIFA has announced. CBS News Texas reached out to the North Texas Council of Governments and the city of Arlington about the potential security funding, but did not receive a response. In addition to FEMA’s funding, the Department of Homeland Security will provide $250 million to nine states and the national capital region for anti-drone technology ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and America 250 national events. "Nothing is more important to President Trump than protecting the American people," a FEMA spokesperson said. "The 2026 FIFA World Cup is expected to be the largest sporting event in history, so it must also be the safest. That’s why DHS is already working with host cities to ensure players, staff, and attendees are safe from all threats, including terrorist activities and criminal use of drones.”

The Hill [10/28/2025 1:52 PM, Addy Bink, 12595K] reports that Hurricane Melissa has become one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record, reaching the rare strength of Category 5 on Monday. The "extremely dangerous" storm has its sights on Jamaica as of Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said. As of 1 p.m. ET, the NHC said Melissa had made landfall in New Hope, Jamaica, with 185 mph winds. The NHC said Melissa is moving at about 9 mph toward the north-northeast as of early Tuesday afternoon. It’s slow speed it expected to keep it over Jamaica through the day before Melissa moves toward southeastern Cuba Wednesday morning. "Can’t remember a storm moving this slowly for this long," Rebecca Barry, a meteorologist at Nexstar’s WFLA, remarked Tuesday during a broadcast of "Tracking the Tropics." Winds are so strong, according to Barry, that it’s like a tornado, "but it’s lasting for over a day because it’s moving so slowly." "There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5," Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. "The question now is the speed of recovery. That’s the challenge." Massive wind damage is expected in Melissa’s core and Jamaica’s highest mountains could see gusts of up to 200 mph, said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [10/28/2025 9:02 PM, Brian K Sullivan, Lauren Rosenthal, and Ben Westcott, 18207K]
AP [10/28/2025 9:14 PM, Dánica Coto and John Myers Jr., 31753K]

New York Times [10/29/2025 2:03 AM, Francesca Regalado, 135475K] reports the authorities in Jamaica said on Tuesday that they had received initial reports of devastating damage to infrastructure wrought by Hurricane Melissa, which disabled communications, electricity and one of the country’s major airports. Eastern parts of the island, including the capital, Kingston, were mostly undamaged by the storm’s strong winds and heavy rains, Energy and Transport Minister Daryl Vaz said. “We’re hoping to be able to do an assessment tomorrow, but as of right now, the reports that are coming in are catastrophic,” Mr. Vaz said in an interview with Sky News on Tuesday. “Not very much survives a Category 5 hurricane, in terms of infrastructure.” Photos and videos posted on social media showed damaged cars and debris from roofs blown off by Hurricane Melissa’s sustained winds of 185 m.p.h., which were stronger than the winds recorded at the height of Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago. The winds knocked down power and telecommunications lines, reducing internet connectivity in Jamaica to 30 percent of ordinary levels, according to Netblocks, which tracks network data. Norman Manley International Airport, which serves Kingston, will probably be able to receive emergency relief flights as soon as Thursday, Mr. Vaz said in a news briefing on Tuesday. But Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, on the north side of the island, may have suffered “potential disabling impact,” he said, without providing details. The airports are central to the economy of the nation of 2.8 million, which depends on tourism for a third of its annual revenue. Many vacationers have been stranded in Jamaica since airports were closed in the days leading up to the storm. The authorities are considering using the smaller Ian Fleming International Airport, east of Montego Bay, to bring in relief goods bound for the north, Mr. Vaz added. Three bridges were flooded and several roads were impassable, according to the National Works Agency. More than 51,000 people were without electricity, mostly in the western and central regions, Mr. Vaz said in a briefing on Tuesday. Starlink, the satellite internet provider owned by Elon Musk, will provide free service in Jamaica until November, Mr. Vaz said. Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared a disaster on the island on Tuesday. At least three people died during preparations for the hurricane’s arrival, but so far, the authorities have not confirmed any additional casualties.

New York Times [10/28/2025 6:23 PM, Judson Jones, 135475K] reports from space, the eye of Hurricane Melissa, spinning in the Caribbean on Tuesday, looked like a kaleidoscope of white on blue — a deceptive, dreamlike image that belied the storm’s destructive power. But as hurricane hunter planes made regular passes through the eye on Tuesday morning — a day after one aircraft was forced to abort its mission because of extreme turbulence — experts on board documented the storm’s relentless intensification. Melissa’s central pressure plummeted, and maximum sustained winds in the eyewall increased with every run; both are crucial measurements of a hurricane’s intensity. Inside the eye, photographs confirmed that the eyewall, a ring around a storm’s center, was a towering structure that, to the meteorologists flying through it, resembled the stands of a vast sports stadium. Migratory birds were trapped in the deceptive stillness of the storm’s core. It was evident to meteorologists that Melissa had cemented its place in hurricane history. Melissa’s dropped to a staggering 892 millibars at landfall, putting it among the top three strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, tied with the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and behind only Gilbert (888 millibars) and Wilma (882 millibars). However, those two storms recorded those extreme pressures while still over open water. Melissa made landfall in Jamaica with both 185 m.p.h. winds and the 892-millibar pressure. In the Atlantic, only one other storm has ever struck land with this exact ferocity: the unnamed Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, which tore through the Florida Keys. Nearly a century ago, that storm’s pressure reading was taken by a weather observer who climbed a tree to record it. Melissa’s was measured by a hurricane hunter plane that flew into the eye of the storm. Melissa is by far the strongest to ever hit Jamaica — or anywhere else in the Atlantic basin. Before Tuesday, the most powerful storm to strike the island was Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, with maximum sustained winds of 130 m.p.h. at landfall.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [10/28/2025 5:15 PM, Judson Jones, et al., 135475K] r

New York Times [10/28/2025 10:39 AM, Scott Dance, 135475K] reports that MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire former wife of Jeff Bezos, is donating $60 million to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, a nonprofit group that helps improve disaster resilience and recovery in struggling communities that otherwise lack the resources to rebuild. The grant is an early signal that philanthropists and foundations may be stepping up to fill the void expected as the Trump administration scales back the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It also follows other recent donations by Ms. Scott to groups that help minority communities. Earlier this month, she gave $42 million to 10,000 Degrees, which works to make college accessible to low income students, who are often people of color. And she gave $40 million to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. She has also supported efforts to fight global warming with a $10 million gift announced last week to support the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Massachusetts, where scientists are studying climate solutions. Founded in 2010, the Center for Disaster Philanthropy focuses on helping “historically marginalized and at-risk populations.” Its chief executive, Patricia McIlreavy, said the donation from Ms. Scott serves as an endorsement of its focus on how floods, fires and other hazards can worsen social, health and economic disparities. Ms. Scott previously donated $13 million to the center for initiatives concerning Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, but her latest grant can be used however the center’s leaders see fit, Ms. McIlreavy said.

NPR [10/28/2025 4:15 PM, Eyder Peralta and Juana Summers, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports Hurricane Melissa has made landfall in Jamaica as the strongest storm in the island’s history, leaving widespread destruction in its wake.

Washington Post [10/29/2025 4:50 AM, Ben Noll, 18207K] reports Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early Wednesday after devastating western Jamaica on Tuesday. Melissa struck near Chivirico, Cuba, as a Category 3 storm around 3 a.m., 14 hours after its first landfall, in western Jamaica. Some 10 to 20 inches of rain are expected in eastern Cuba on Wednesday, with up to 25 inches expected over mountainous terrain, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday. “This will cause life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flash flooding with numerous landslides,” it said. Peak storm surge of 8 to 12 feet was forecast along Cuba’s southeast coast. Hurricane warnings covered the Cuban provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Holguin and Las Tunas, while a tropical storm warning was in effect for Camaguey. After moving away from Jamaica late Tuesday, Melissa briefly dipped to Category 3 intensity, but became a formidable Category 4 storm within hours as it tapped into exceedingly warm ocean water, above 86 degrees, which is high-octane fuel for restrengthening. Late Wednesday, Melissa’s third and final landfall — forecast as a strong Category 2 or 3 hurricane — is expected in the central or southeastern Bahamas, probably on Long Island or Crooked Island — though it’s possible the storm’s center could miss the narrow land masses. Five to 10 inches of rainfall are expected over the southeast Bahamas on Wednesday, which will result in flash flooding in some parts, the Hurricane Center said Wednesday. Storm surge of 5 to 8 feet was also possible in the southeastern Bahamas. A hurricane warning covers the central and southeastern Bahamas.

(B) NBC News Daily [10/28/2025 1:23 PM, Staff] reports that there is an update on recovery efforts following the March ice storm. Presque Isle Electric and Gas Cooperative says it will not be getting federal assistance for damages caused by that storm. PIE&G says FEMA has denied the cooperative’s Category F appeal. PIE&G says the ice storm damaged thousands of utility poles, transformers, and miles of power lines, bringing the total cost of restoration to nearly $150 million. The cooperative says while FEMA’s denial limits funding under Category F, it is looking to work with federal agencies to explore other categories of assistance.

Chicago Tribune [10/28/2025 8:14 PM, Adriana Pérez, 4829K] reports the city of Chicago, Cook County and the state of Illinois are appealing President Donald Trump’s denial last week of a disaster declaration that would have unlocked federal financial assistance for survivors and public repairs after heavy rains and flooding in the state in July and August. A joint news release on Tuesday noted that flooding from the storms on July 25-28 and Aug. 16-19 caused "widespread property damage, prolonged power outages, and significant disruptions to transportation and essential services" across Illinois. The heavy rains displaced residents, left thousands without electricity, led to collapsed ceilings from water damage, flooded basements and roadways, overflowed rivers, broken boilers, furnaces and other large appliances, and triggered ground stops at Midway and O’Hare International airports. "I will say, Illinois is not alone. They’ve rejected requests from a number of states this year already," said Andy Winkler, managing director of housing and infrastructure policy at the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center and manager of the think tank’s Disaster Response Reform Task Force. "This batch of rejections — it looks more political, but it is consistent with what they’ve been doing across the board, to really only approve the highest-profile disasters.” In recent years, as climate change has fueled more intense events from flooding to wildfires, the federal government has taken on a larger financial responsibility for natural disaster recovery. But that approach is being curtailed under the Trump administration. "We now are very abruptly shifting the financial burden of disaster recovery directly onto states and local governments," Winkler said. According to an Associated Press report, the administration’s decisions have fallen mostly along party lines, with Trump touting on social media last week that he approved aid for Alaska, which he "won BIG" in the last three elections. "I will never let you down," he wrote. Trump also approved disaster declarations for Nebraska, North Dakota and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota. He denied requests from Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Vermont and has also denied an appeal from Maryland after the state was denied a disaster declaration for May flooding. When asked why the states were denied, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Trump was "ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement — not substitute — their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters.” In Illinois, preliminary damage assessments in affected jurisdictions included Chicago and Aurora, as well as Cook, Will, Kane, Boone, McHenry, Jersey and Calhoun counties. Trump clinched the majority vote in the latter four counties during last year’s presidential election — with over 70% of the vote in Jersey and Calhoun in south central Illinois — fueling discussions about how the politicization of federal aid is not only harming blue states but also supporters of the current administration. Winkler said the impact on Trump voters has been a major sticking point for red North Carolina counties affected by flooding from Hurricane Helene last year that are still waiting for federal reimbursements for disaster recovery money that has already been spent. "I don’t know if people will blame the president personally," Winkler said. "My bigger concern is that it further erodes the confidence that people have in government and its ability to help.” In a statement to Stateline, Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said: "The Federal Government focuses its support on truly catastrophic disasters — massive hurricanes, devastating earthquakes, or wide-scale attacks on the homeland.” Hughes added that state and local governments "often remain an impediment to their own community’s resilience," and called on states to take on a more extensive role, according to Stateline, and have "an appetite to own the problem.” Local leaders in Illinois and other states are already scrambling to address the growing dangers of extreme weather fueled by climate change. To appeal the president’s denial and strengthen the request for aid, the city’s Office for Emergency Management and Communications and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency are asking residents and businesses to share additional evidence of new or previously unreported information on damages and needs through Nov. 7. After the mid-August floods, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson surveyed storm damage in the Gage Park neighborhood. He proposed a few quick solutions: adding sensors in drains, planting thousands of trees and more aggressively clearing pipes. But, ultimately, the mayor said the city’s drainage system and infrastructure are insufficient and in need of repairs, and that prevention will require investments like progressive revenue — or "pay what you can" tax systems. "We’ll bring it to the residents and people can decide if we want to remain stagnant and continue to get what we have received, or do we want to press forward … so that families who are hurting from these floods don’t have to worry every time it rains," he told reporters at the time. After storms caused wind damage across the Chicago region on July 24, a slow-moving line of storms with torrential rainfall the next day led to several instances of flash flooding across parts of Chicago, according to the National Weather Service. A weather station at Midway observed 3.25 inches of rain for the day — most of it falling over 3.5 hours. According to Cook County officials, Chicago, Burbank, Justice and Summit were among the hardest-hit municipalities in the county through July 28. When the county and Chicago issued a disaster proclamation nine days later, residents had filled out over 3,000 surveys reporting damage. The weekend of Aug. 16-17, a long line of severe thunderstorms that swept across Chicago and its suburbs left more than 60,000 Commonwealth Edison customers without power. Across the western and southern Chicago metropolitan area, local rain rates of 2 to 4.5 inches per hour were observed. Lee Carlaw, lead meteorologist at the weather service’s office in Chicago, told the Tribune then that the rain likely saturated the soil, making conditions more favorable for flash flooding through Aug. 19. During storms the next two days, rainfall totals were "highly variable," from half an inch in downtown Chicago to 3 to 4 inches in the south suburbs, Carlaw said. Some locations in Cook and Will counties, such as Oak Forest, Lockport and Oswego, received anywhere between 6 and 9 inches of rain over a 72-hour period. According to the weather service, radar estimated that hourly rain rates on Aug. 18 at times approached 2 to 4 inches, resulting in numerous instances of flash flooding due to how fast it fell onto saturated soil and concrete urban environments, preventing it from being absorbed into the ground. After the storms passed, the city’s Department of Water Management Commissioner Randy Conner called the rain a "100-year" downpour. A week after the August flooding, Johnson and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle signed disaster proclamations in what Johnson called "a necessary step" to help "our most vulnerable neighborhoods.” According to local officials, some areas in Chicago were already recovering from the July floods when they were hit by the August storms. Less than three days later, more than 4,000 surveys in the city and suburban Cook County had been filled out by residents who had experienced damage. "It’s clear that these massive events are occurring and people are not prepared; they’re at high risk," Winkler said. State and local officials are urging residents affected by the rain and flooding on July 25-28 or Aug. 16-19 to fill out a self-assessment survey that will open Wednesday at 8 a.m. and will close Nov. 7 on the state’s website at iemaohs.illinois.gov/recovery. They are also asking residents and business owners to share photos of damage, documentation of alternative housing needs, reports of illness or health impacts, mold remediation efforts and replacement of furnaces, water heaters or other major appliances. The Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune’s Rebecca Johnson, Jake Sheridan, William Tong and Paulina Czupryna contributed.

New York Post [10/28/2025 7:51 AM, Staff, 42219K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi was the target of a murder-for-hire plot with a $45,000 bounty put on her head. An Indiana trans teen is set to plead guilty to planning a Valentine’s Day school massacre. Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin back in court. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Axios [10/28/2025 1:10 PM, Sam Sabin, 12972K] reports that the White House is pushing Congress to pass a clean, 10-year reauthorization of a program that affords liability protections to companies that share cyber threat intelligence with the federal government.

Why it matters: It’s been nearly a month since the protections lapsed, leaving companies and the federal government without a complete picture of how adversaries are targeting networks. Lawmakers have been going back and forth on whether to extend the protections for a full decade or for just one to two years as they debate potential changes. Driving the news: National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said at the Meridian Summit on Friday that the White House has been pushing for a "10-year, clean reauthorization" of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015. Cairncross’ statement marks the first public remarks from a White House official on the month-long debate. "It’s important for national security," Cairncross said. "It’s vital for our threat assessment and response, and we want to see it done." Between the lines: The White House’s stance lines up with that of Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, whose bipartisan bill calls for a clean, 10-year reauthorization.

Axios [10/28/2025 1:09 PM, Sam Sabin, 12972K] reports that as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency pulls back, the government’s hard-won trust with small businesses and local utilities is slipping, with potentially serious implications for national security, industry executives tell Axios. Why it matters: Small to medium-sized businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, and hackers know it. A large bank or electric grid operator may have the best security system in the world, but it doesn’t matter if their third-party, smaller suppliers are vulnerable to cyberattacks. "You can’t build a strong chain with a weak link," Henry Young, senior policy director at the Business Software Alliance, told Axios. Threat level: Supply chain attacks have surged in recent years, with small businesses often serving as unintentional gateways. One such example: when ransomware groups exploited vulnerabilities in VMware Horizon software to target local governments. In that situation, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency was able to provide real-time alerts to exposed entities hours before the attacker started targeting them, Matthew Warner, co-founder and CEO at cybersecurity firm Blumira, told Axios. Driving the news: Many of the employees who oversaw CISA’s outreach to small businesses and critical infrastructure organizations have either taken buyouts or been laid off, according to news reports.

New York Post [10/29/2025 3:47 AM, Aaron Bandler, 42219K] reports the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office in Grove Hill, Ala., stated on Tuesday that it arrested Jeremy Wayne Shoemaker the prior night in connection to "credible threats of violence made against multiple synagogues throughout Alabama and surrounding states.” "Likely acts of violence were averted before they happened," the sheriff’s office stated, noting that a search warrant was executed and Shoemaker was arrested at his residence in Needham, Ala. "The subject was taken into custody along with weapons, more than a suitcase full of ammo, body armor and other items related to the plans of violence," it said. "Further investigation revealed that the subject had intentions of not being taken alive and was possibly planning attacks on public figures as well.” The sheriff’s office noted that "numerous" federal agencies are investigating and "multiple federal charges are likely." It added that "local charges include resisting arrest and certain persons forbidden.” Tommy Loftis, public affairs specialist for FBI Mobile, told JNS that Shoemaker is being held in jail in the county jail on state charges. DeWayne Smith, the county sheriff, told JNS that until federal agencies conclude their investigation, Shoemaker is being charged locally with resisting arrest and illegally possessing firearms. Smith, the county sheriff, told JNS that "because we worked together, you’re not reading about in the paper a situation where there was a mass shooting or something, and everybody’s wondering how we could have prevented it.” "This is what happens when all the agencies work together," he said. The Birmingham Jewish Federation stated that "there is no credible threat to our community at this time.” "We are deeply grateful that swift and coordinated action by the FBI, state investigators and local law enforcement prevented what could have been a devastating act of violence," it said. "This incident is a sobering reminder that threats motivated by antisemitism and hate persist. Yet it also highlights the power of partnership, preparedness and vigilance.”

NBC News [10/28/2025 1:44 PM, Megan Lebowitz, Ryan Nobles, and Kelly O’Donnell, 34509K] reports that the Republican-led House Oversight Committee asserted in a report Tuesday that some executive actions that then-President Joe Biden signed by autopen, including his pardons, were "illegitimate" because he suffered from mental decline while in office and could have been unaware of their contents. The committee’s Republicans said in the report that they deemed as "void all executive actions signed by the autopen without proper, corresponding, contemporaneous, written approval traceable to the president’s own consent." In a letter accompanying the report, Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Biden’s executive actions "to ascertain whether they were duly authorized by the President of the United States." Before he left office, Biden issued several pardons for members of his family and key associates who he said could be targets of political retribution by the Trump administration. Those included pre-emptive pardons for his two brothers and sister; Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley; members of Congress involved in the Jan. 6 investigation and their staff, including now Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Washington police officers who testified before that panel. Biden also pardoned his son Hunter Biden of federal gun and tax charges after saying he would not do so.

Reported similarly:
AP [10/28/2025 1:07 PM, Matt Brown and Joey Cappelletti, 31753K]

Washington Post [10/29/2025 5:01 AM, Christian Davenport, William Neff and Aaron Steckelberg, 18207K] reports since ordering the Pentagon in January to erect a U.S. missile defense shield partly based in space, President Donald Trump has claimed that it would be completed by the end of his term and cost $175 billion. His signature national security effort will have close to a 100 percent success rate, he has pledged, “forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland.” But the White House and Pentagon have revealed scant details of the “Golden Dome” project, which defense and budget analysts say is likely to take at least a decade to complete and cost a trillion dollars or more. Golden Dome would radically reshape military doctrine and further militarize space, an effort that’s been compared to the rush to build the atomic bomb during World War II and the Apollo moon landings. Yet it still may not come close to providing the kind of comprehensive protection Trump says it will. Marking a historic break from decades of nuclear deterrence, it would either remedy a glaring vulnerability to the U.S. homeland or ignite an arms race in orbit that could last a generation or more. Critics deride the most ambitious part of the program — flooding low Earth orbit with thousands of satellites to detect and take out adversaries’ missiles — as a fantasy that will only destabilize the fragile international order that has prevented nuclear war for more than 70 years. “Golden Dome could be the single most dangerous idea Trump has ever proposed, and that’s saying something,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in an interview. Proponents counter that because of expanding threats, as well as dramatic technological advances, the time is right to resurrect the Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative, known as “Star Wars,” that fizzled out at the end of the Cold War. For years, defense hawks have pushed for a more robust missile-defense shield, citing the unsettling truth that the United States doesn’t have a comprehensive way to protect its homeland. China and Russia, meanwhile, are already expanding their nuclear arsenals in the largest long-range weapons buildup since the Cold War. They are adding hundreds of intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as new weapons systems, including hypersonic weapons designed to speed toward U.S. cities at more 4,000 mph, according to intelligence officials. The United States has neglected its homeland missile defense systems, said Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The $25 billion Trump dedicated to Golden Dome this year is a “down payment to blot out the years of inattention to this. We’ve known these threats are coming,” he said during a CSIS event. “It’s long overdue.”

CNN [10/28/2025 7:03 PM, Morgan Rimmer and Ted Barrett, 18595K] reports the Senate passed a resolution Tuesday aimed at ending President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, with five Republicans joining Democrats in a rare bipartisan rebuke of the president over trade policy. Sens. Rand Paul, Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell sided with Democrats in the 52 to 48 vote. McConnell has long been critical of Trump’s trade policy, and said in a statement ahead of the vote, "Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive. The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule.” The resolution, however, isn’t expected to be taken up by the House. Earlier this year, Republicans in the chamber added a measure to a procedural rule blocking members from being able to force a vote on the president’s tariffs. The resolution aims to end the Brazil tariffs by terminating an emergency declaration from the president. Sen. Tim Kaine, the lead sponsor of the resolution, said before the vote that the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was not appropriate, considering that the inciting "emergency" that led to the tariffs was Brazil’s indictment of the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro. "The emergency, with respect to Brazil, the unusual and extreme emergency that threatens the United States, that emanates in whole or in part outside the United States, is the Brazilian decision to prosecute Donald Trump’s friend. How is that an emergency?" he said, noting that the US has a trade surplus with Brazil. Kaine added, "I’m against tariffs generally, unless they’re used very specifically. But I’m also against letting presidents just invent a reason to use emergency powers to do all kinds of things without coming to Congress.” Trump’s executive order that kicked off the tariffs said that "the Government of Brazil’s politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters are serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil.”

AP [10/28/2025 1:44 PM, Staff, 4722K] reports that the U.S. Embassy in Mali told American citizens Tuesday to leave the country by plane because of the threats of terrorism and a severe fuel crisis stemming from a jihadi group’s blockade of fuel tankers entering the landlocked West African nation. "U.S. citizens should depart using commercial aviation, as overland routes to neighboring countries may not be safe for travel due to terrorist attacks along national highways," the U.S. Embassy in Bamako said on its website. It was the embassy’s second alert in three days after an Oct. 25 advisory for U.S. citizens not to travel to Mali due to "crime, terrorism, kidnapping" and other reasons. The al-Qaida-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin group, or JNIM, announced in September that it was imposing a blockade on tanker trucks entering Mali as part of its fight against the country’s military authorities. The group’s fighters have set more than 100 trucks on fire, paralyzing the country’s fuel supply. The government has announced the closure of schools and universities nationwide because of the disruptions to travel caused by the fuel shortage. JNIM is one of several armed groups operating in the Sahel, a vast strip of semi-arid desert stretching from North Africa to West Africa, where an insurgency is spreading rapidly with large-scale attacks.

NBC News [10/28/2025 5:10 PM, Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee and Dan De Luce, 34509K] reports a recent U.S. intelligence assessment warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is more determined than ever to carry on the war in Ukraine and prevail on the battlefield, according to a senior U.S. official and a senior congressional official. The analysis, which was communicated to members of Congress this month, indicated the agencies see no sign Russia is ready to compromise on Ukraine as President Donald Trump seeks to broker peace talks. The assessment is consistent with how U.S. and Western intelligence agencies have viewed the Russian regime’s stance since February 2022, when Putin ordered an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, according to two other people with knowledge of the matter. But Putin is now believed to be more dug in than ever, according to the senior U.S. official and the senior congressional official. Facing steep Russian troop losses and economic setbacks at home, he is committed to securing Ukrainian land and expanding his country’s footprint to justify the human and financial toll, the intelligence assessment found, according to the officials. In a sign of Trump’s growing frustration, last week he called off a planned meeting with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, and for the first time since he returned to office in January he imposed punitive measures against Moscow, slapping sanctions on two major Russian oil companies. "I just felt it was time," Trump told reporters, describing the new sanctions as "tremendous" and adding that he had "waited a long time" to implement them but hopes "they won’t be on for long.” "We hope that the war will be settled," he said. The White House declined to comment on the recent intelligence assessment and pointed to Trump’s public comments on efforts to reach a peace deal.

AP [10/28/2025 3:50 PM, Wafaa Shurafa, 2218K] reports that the Israeli army launched a barrage of attacks in Gaza on Tuesday as tensions with Hamas grew two weeks into a fragile ceasefire, and the militant group responded by saying it would delay handing over the body of a hostage. Tank fire and explosions were seen and heard in various parts of Gaza, and at least two Palestinians were killed, according to health officials in the territory. The order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch “powerful strikes” 18 days into the truce came after an Israeli official said its forces were fired upon in southern Gaza and after Hamas handed over body parts on Monday that Israel said were the partial remains of a hostage recovered earlier in the war. Netanyahu called the return of these body parts a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement, which requires Hamas to return the remaining hostages in Gaza as soon as possible. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Hamas would pay a “heavy price for attacking Israeli soldiers in Gaza and for violating the agreement on returning the deceased hostages.” Israel notified the United States before launching the strikes on Tuesday, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. An Associated Press reporter in Deir al-Balah heard tanks firing from an area controlled by the Israeli army. And in Gaza City, at least two Palestinians were killed by strikes, according to Rami Mhanna, the managing director of Shifa hospital, where the bodies were taken.

Reuters [10/29/2025 4:55 AM, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Trevor Hunnicutt Kanishka Singh and Maayan Lubell, 36480K] reports Israel kept up airstrikes in Gaza on Wednesday killing dozens of people, after it said an attack by Palestinian militants had killed one soldier, in the latest challenge to an already fragile ceasefire. U.S. President Donald Trump said that the U.S.-backed ceasefire was not at risk even as Israeli planes struck across the enclave, with Israel and Hamas trading blame for violations of the truce. Gazan health authorities said the Israeli strikes killed at least 70 people, including five in a house hit in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, four in a building in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood, and five in a car in Khan Younis. "As I understand it, they took out an Israeli soldier," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "So the Israelis hit back and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back," he added. The Israeli military confirmed the soldier’s death on Wednesday. "Nothing is going to jeopardize" the ceasefire, Trump said. "You have to understand Hamas is a very small part of peace in the Middle East, and they have to behave." The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, which followed a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying he had ordered immediate "powerful attacks." An Israeli military official said Hamas had violated the ceasefire by carrying out an attack against Israeli forces who were stationed within the so-called ‘yellow line’, the deployment line agreed upon in the ceasefire. Turkey late on Tuesday said Israel’s renewed attacks on Gaza were a violation of the ceasefire and that the Israeli government must be pushed by world powers to fully adhere to the deal and end its "policy of genocide". Israel has strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self-defence. Israel is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague that accuses it of genocide. The U.S.-backed ceasefire agreement went into effect on October 10, halting two years of war triggered by deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. Both sides have accused each other of ceasefire violations. "If they (Hamas) are good, they are going to be happy and if they are not good, they are going to be terminated, their lives will be terminated," Trump said. "Nobody knows what happened to the Israeli soldier but they say it was sniper fire. And it was retribution for that, and I think they have a right to do that." Hamas denied responsibility for the attack on Israeli forces in Rafah, in southern Gaza, and said in a statement that it remained committed to the ceasefire deal.

FOX News [10/29/2025 2:19 AM, Christina Shaw, 40621K] reports that, during the final leg of his Asia trip en route to South Korea, President Donald Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One, expressing confidence in his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of their meeting at an economic summit. When asked about U.S. efforts to curb fentanyl trafficking, Trump said the issue would be central to his discussions with Xi. Ahead of his meeting with the Chinese leader, Trump said he hoped for progress on "a lot of problems," including fentanyl trafficking, trade and tariffs. "China is going to be working with me, okay," Trump told reporters. "They’re going to be working with me, and we’re going to do something, I believe.” Trump said the issue would be a major topic of discussion in his upcoming meeting. "We have to have the meeting — a meeting tomorrow. That’s a big meeting," he said. "And fentanyl will be one of the things that we’re discussing. The farmers will be discussing a lot of things, but fentanyl will be one of the things we discuss.” Trump stated that the fentanyl crisis and drug trafficking across the southern border are directly related, calling them "tremendous amounts of death.” "We took in tremendous amounts of death. I call them the boats of death," he said. "Under Biden and open borders, stuff was flowing. I think they killed 300,000 people last year — fentanyl drugs coming through the southern border. And now nobody gets through this. We’re very tough on the border.” Trump credited his policies with a sharp reduction in illegal drug trafficking by sea, saying it was "down about 80% by water.” He also praised U.S. law enforcement and border officials for their efforts, saying, "Our border agents, our Border Patrol agents, they’ve been amazing. ICE — these people do such a great job with what they’re doing.” During his visit, Trump also commented on international security issues, including the Israel-Hamas conflict and North Korea’s recent missile launches. He said he expects his meeting with Xi to be productive, adding, "I think we’ll get a great meeting with President Xi of China. And a lot of problems are going to be solved.” Trump’s comments underscored his push to link border security and international cooperation as key priorities ahead of his meeting with Xi.

FOX Business [10/28/2025 4:45 PM, Staff, 10085K] Video: HERE reports Government Accountability Institute president Peter Schweizer discusses China’s role in perpetuating the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. and how tariff relief can ease tensions on ‘Kudlow.’

CNN [10/29/2025 12:00 AM, Boer Deng, 606K] reports that, when President Donald Trump sits down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, trade will be the subject at hand. But it is also an opportunity for something else: a chance to secure the release of US citizens detained by the People’s Republic. More Americans are thought to be imprisoned in China, some 200 in total, than in any other country, according to the Foley Foundation, which advocates for American hostages and those wrongfully detained overseas. Most are believed to be ethnically Chinese Americans who have been ensnared by Beijing’s strict security apparatus and detained for posing a threat to China’s "national security.” A smaller number are jailed for breaking local laws, sometimes unwittingly. A campaign to free two Americans jailed for more than a decade after falling victim to scams has gathered steam following months of advocacy, reaching high into the Trump administration. In May, the State Department issued a request for the release of Dawn Michelle Hunt and Nelson Wells Jr. on humanitarian grounds. Last month, a bipartisan bill named for the pair was put forward in the House to expand diplomatic advocacy on behalf of Americans held in China. And in a letter sent last week to the White House, Republican lawmakers urged Trump to raise their cases and those of others as part of trade talks with Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The last-minute lobbying effort comes amid what officials, campaigners and the families of Hunt and Wells say is the best opportunity to secure their release — before it’s too late. Both detainees are ill. Though they have access to some health care, their families say they will not survive much longer in prison. Tim Hunt saw his sister Dawn Michelle last summer for the first time in a decade from behind the glass partition of a visiting booth in a Chinese prison, under the watchful eye of minders who sat not 2 yards away. Her hair was so thin, so gray, he recalled. "I’m oldest of three," he said, so it was like he had helped raise her. "So I know every facial expression" — the pain, the anger, the change etched into her features. "I told her before I left — I’m like, ‘This is not your existence. I will get you out of here,’" he told CNN.

Reuters [10/28/2025 3:06 PM, David Shepardson, 36480K] reports the United States tightened rules on telecoms gear made by Chinese companies deemed a national security risk, the latest move in a broader crackdown on Beijing. The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-0 on Tuesday to block new approvals for devices with parts from companies on its "Covered List" and to allow the agency to bar previously approved equipment in certain cases. "These present loopholes that bad actors could use to threaten the security of our networks," FCC Chair Brendan Carr said. "America’s foreign adversaries are constantly looking for ways to exploit any vulnerabilities in our system."

FOX News [10/28/2025 1:46 PM, Morgan Phillips, 40621K] reports that as President Donald Trump floats the idea of meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the question in Washington and Seoul is whether there could be any real substance left in a summit that once dominated global headlines. For Trump, the answer may lie less in new breakthroughs and more in reviving an old diplomatic gamble: the belief that personal diplomacy can succeed where conventional statecraft has failed. "I got along great with Kim Jong Un. I liked him, he liked me," Trump told reporters on Monday — a reminder of his trademark tactic of flattering America’s adversaries, a style that infuriates critics. "I’d love to meet him." Trump’s approach to North Korea has always been defined by spectacle — the 2018 Singapore summit, the DMZ handshake and the failed Hanoi talks in 2019. While direct engagement briefly lowered tensions and paused North Korea’s nuclear tests, Pyongyang has since dramatically expanded its nuclear arsenal, tested more advanced solid-fuel missiles and aligned more closely with China and Russia. It has also claimed to test new underwater nuclear-capable drones and satellite systems — and has declared that talks focused on nuclear disarmament are a nonstarter. Trump has floated sanctions relief in exchange for denuclearization. "Well, we have sanctions," Trump said of possible discussion points. "That’s pretty big to start off with. I would say that’s about as big as you get." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [10/28/2025 10:03 PM, Kim Tong-Hyung, 28013K] reports North Korea said Wednesday its recent test-firings of sea-to-surface cruise missiles were successful, in another display of its growing military capabilities as U.S. President Donald Trump visits South Korea. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the missiles fired Tuesday flew for more than two hours before accurately striking targets in its western waters. It said the weapons would contribute to expanding the operational sphere of the country’s nuclear-armed military. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military had detected the North Korean launch preparations and that the cruise missiles were fired in the North’s northwestern waters at around 3 p.m. Tuesday. The joint chiefs said South Korea and the United States were analyzing the weapons and maintaining a combined defense readiness capable of a "dominant response" against any North Korean provocation. The North Korean report came hours before an expected summit between Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in the city of Gyeongju, where South Korea is hosting this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings. Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Japan to South Korea, Trump downplayed the North Korean launches. "He’s been launching missiles for decades, right?" he said, apparently referring to Kim Jong Un. Trump reiterated he still wants to meet with Kim, whom he met three times in 2018 and 2019 before their diplomacy derailed over disagreements on U.S.-led sanctions against the North. "We had a really good understanding of each other," Trump said. KCNA said the tests were attended by senior military official Pak Jong Chon, who also inspected training for sailors aboard North Korea’s newly developed destroyers Choe Hyon and Kang Kon, which leader Kim Jong Un has described as key assets in his efforts to strengthen the navy. North Korea’s latest launches followed short-range ballistic missile tests last week that it said involved a new hypersonic system designed to strengthen its nuclear war deterrent. During his South Korean visit, Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, South Korean officials have said a Trump–Kim meeting is unlikely. North Korea has shunned any form of talks with Washington and Seoul since Kim’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump fell apart in 2019 during the American president’s first term. Kim’s top foreign policy priority is now Russia. In recent months, he has sent thousands of troops and large quantities of military equipment to help fuel President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, while embracing the idea of a "new Cold War" and positions his country as part of a united front against the U.S.-led West. Last month, Kim reiterated he wouldn’t return to talks with the United States unless Washington drops its demand for North Korea’s denuclearization, after Trump repeatedly expressed his hopes for new diplomacy.

Reuters [10/28/2025 9:05 PM, Trevor Hunnicutt and Jihoon Lee, 36480K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump heads to South Korea on Wednesday for the final leg of his Asia trip, with high-stakes meetings expected with Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung. After arriving on a flight from Tokyo, where he signed a rare earths deal with Japan’s new prime minister, Trump is due to address a summit of CEOs and meet with Lee in Gyeongju, a sleepy South Korean town filled with historic tombs and palaces. At the top of the agenda will be the unresolved trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea. The two allies announced a deal in August under which South Korea would avoid the worst of the tariffs by agreeing to pump $350 billion of new investments into the United States. But talks over the structure of those investments have been deadlocked, and officials from both sides have said Trump and Lee are unlikely to finalise an agreement. Trump has also pressed allies like South Korea to pay more for defence, and South Korea has sought reforms to U.S. immigration laws to allow for more workers to build factories after a raid on a Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), battery plant in Georgia. Trump and Lee are likely to discuss efforts to engage North Korea, which announced early on Wednesday that it had test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile the day before. "It is our responsible mission and duty to ceaselessly toughen the nuclear combat posture," the North Korean official who oversaw the test said, according to state news agency KCNA.

Politico [10/28/2025 3:51 PM, Ari Hawkins, Daniel Desrochers and Phelim Kine, 13586K] reports the United States and South Korea still can’t agree on a key plank of the tentative trade agreement they inked over the summer, despite U.S. pressure to finalize the deal during President Donald Trump’s visit to the country Wednesday. Seoul is bridling over Trump’s insistence that South Korea pony up $350 billion in an “upfront” payment to the U.S. government as part of the investments it promised in July. South Korean officials have warned that doing so would crater their economy and potentially destabilize the value of their currency, the won. According to three people in touch with the South Korean and U.S. negotiators, the Trump administration is now considering softening some of its initial demands for the investment. “The details of the investment is the major stumbling block,” said one person familiar with U.S.-South Korean trade talks, who was granted anonymity to share sensitive details. “It’s not been decided what the sources of those funds will be — whether it includes loans or loan guarantees — and the process for investment project selection and profit sharing.” It’s a sign of the challenges the administration faces turning a series of eye-popping foreign investment pledges into reality. In addition to South Korea, Japan and the European Union have promised to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States in exchange for lower tariff rates, but they chafed over some of the initial terms for spending the money that Trump and his top officials demanded. Any leeway the president may grant South Korea in fulfilling its investment pledge will likely set a precedent for other countries pursuing trade negotiations with the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged Monday that the deal is unlikely to be finalized during Trump’s nearly weeklong trip to Asia. “[There’s] just a lot of details to work out,” Bessent told reporters on Air Force One en route from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo. “It’s a very complicated deal and I think we’re very close.” A White House spokesperson declined to comment on the state of the negotiations. South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment. The president and some of his top economic officials raised expectations earlier this month that both sides could finalize the handshake agreement they struck in July ahead of a Wednesday sit-down with President Lee Jae Myung. Speaking to reporters Friday, Trump claimed the agreement was “pretty close to being finalized” and said he was “ready” to fill in the details from the framework outlined this summer, if Seoul was, too. But Lee, who was elected in June, has been resisting Trump administration demands that Seoul commit to funding the full $350 billion it pledged with a one-time payment from government coffers and grant the White House broad control over how to invest it — along the lines of a $550 billion investment deal Trump reached with Japan. Korean officials have also grumbled that relative to the size of their economy, their investment pledge is a far greater burden than Japan’s. “South Korea will deliver on its commitment, but the U.S. should recognize that Korea’s economy is much smaller than Japan’s,” a person familiar with U.S.-South Korean trade talks said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of those discussions.

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