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.

AP [9/10/2025 9:33 AM, Staff, 37974K] reports U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met Wednesday with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever in the port of Antwerp to discuss maritime security and bilateral efforts to fight transnational drug smuggling. Noem said during a joint appearance that various American agencies were cooperating with Belgium to increase the sharing of data and intelligence to combat drug trafficking. "Our threats will be stopped through collaboration, through sharing of information and intelligence," she said, adding that ports are "a prime target for foreign terrorist organizations, or cartels, or transnational criminal organizations that smuggle drugs and smuggle traffic through them. And here in Antwerp, you know that all too well." De Wever, a former mayor of Antwerp, has traveled as far as South America in efforts to tackle surging drug trafficking through northern Europe. He said that European nations should increase cooperation amongst themselves as well as the U.S. "to crush the business model of organized crime. We must do this because criminals know no borders at all."

FOX Business [9/10/2025 9:39 AM, Staff, 9194K] reports DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin joins ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss ‘Operation Midway Blitz,’ the surge in ICE arrests, rising assaults on agents and how sanctuary policies are putting Americans at risk. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [9/10/2025 4:01 PM, Jarrell Dillard, 19085K] reports the Congressional Budget Office dramatically marked down its immigration estimates for 2025 and the years to come as a result of President Donald Trump’s policies, lowering projections for overall population growth. The CBO now sees total net immigration of roughly 400,000 this year, 1.6 million people smaller than the amount projected in January, according to a report released Wednesday. The nonpartisan group also marked down that tally for every year through 2032. The US will need to rely on immigration to keep its population expanding in 2031 — two years earlier than previously projected — largely due to lower fertility rates, according to the report. The agency previously projected that immigration would be the main driver of population growth by 2033, when annual deaths would exceed births in the US. The agency’s report shows that the US population in 2035 will be 4.5 million people smaller than seen in January. That difference grows to 5.4 million in 2055. The new immigration figures largely reflect lower immigration among those in the “other foreign nationals” category, which includes those who entered the US illegally and who have not obtained permanent legal status, entered through parole authority and are awaiting court proceedings and those whose temporary status has expired but continue to reside in the country. In 2025, net immigration for that group is anticipated to fall by nearly 300,000. Measures the administration has taken against foreign-born residents include heightened border security, restricted access to asylum designations, the revocation of temporary deportation protections and increased US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests and deportations. Politico [9/10/2025 2:46 PM, Jennifer Scholtes, 2100K] reports that, contributing to that downward trend, the Republican tax and spending package Trump signed into law in January is estimated to result in the removal of 290,000 immigrants and the voluntary exit of 30,000 others over the next five years. What the budget office has not yet calculated is how stemming the influx of immigrants will affect the federal budget. Those estimates are expected next year. On the upside for Trump and congressional Republicans, cooling immigration is expected to shrink federal spending. But there are negative counterweights for GOP leaders too: Namely, foregone cash from taxes. CBO estimated last year that the surge in immigration beginning in 2001 would increase federal revenue by hundreds of billions of dollars over several years, mostly from individual income taxes and payroll taxes. At the same time, more immigrants also typically means boosted economy-wide productivity, a larger labor force and increased gross domestic product. The AP [9/10/2025 3:59 PM, Stephen Groves, 37974K] reports that, coupled with a lower fertility rate in the U.S., the reduction in immigration means that the CBO’s projection of the U.S. population will be 4.5 million people lower by 2035 than the nonpartisan office had projected in January. It cautioned that its population projections are “highly uncertain,” but estimated that the U.S. will have 367 million people in 2055. Lower immigration to the U.S. could have implications for the nation’s economy and the government’s budget. The report did not directly address those issues, but it noted that the projected population would have “fewer people ages 25 to 54 — the age group that is most likely to participate in the labor force — than the agency previously projected.”

Politico [9/10/2025 6:39 PM, Aaron Pellish, 14810K] reports that, Charlie Kirk, who was close to President Donald Trump as an influential figure in conservative politics known for mobilizing young voters, was shot to death Wednesday while speaking at a college campus in Utah in an apparent act of political violence. FBI Director Kash Patel said a person who had been detained as a suspect has been released and that no one else is in custody. “Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country,” Trump said in a video statement after the shooting. The 31-year-old Kirk was speaking at Utah Valley University as part of Turning Point USA’s first event on a tour of college campuses. He founded the organization in 2012, turning it into one of the most prominent grassroots organizations in Republican politics. Turning Point USA mourned his death in a statement. “May he be received into the merciful arms of our loving Savior, who suffered and died for Charlie,” the statement read. “We ask that everyone keep his family and loved ones in your prayers. We ask that you please respect their privacy and dignity at this time.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Kirk was the intended target. “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination,” he said. Law enforcement officials have not yet identified a suspect or a motivation for the shooting. But Trump blamed “the radical left” for Kirk’s death, arguing that rhetoric attacking conservatives led to the attack. “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” he said. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.” The president vowed that his administration will “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it.” The university said in a statement that a single shot was fired at the event, prompting Utah Valley University to quickly lock down its campus and cancel classes. Trump said he was ordering flags lowered to half-staff through Sunday evening to honor Kirk. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The New York Times [9/11/2025 2:15 AM, Glenn Thrush and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, 143795K] reports hopes for the fast capture of the person who fatally shot the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah evaporated on Wednesday when Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, announced that the authorities had released a man he had described as a central subject of a multiagency manhunt. “The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement,” Mr. Patel wrote on his X account, adding: “our investigation continues.” Two hours earlier, Mr. Patel had stoked expectations of a fast end to the search by congratulating state, local and federal officials for taking into custody “the subject for the horrific shooting today.” The release of the subject capped a day of shock, fear and uncertainty over what officials described as political assassination, committed in broad daylight in front of thousands of people who had come to participate in a discussion with Mr. Kirk, 31, at Utah Valley University. The backtrack was a source of significant embarrassment for the F.B.I. director on a day when three former F.B.I. agents filed a lawsuit against Mr. Patel that portrayed him as a partisan neophyte more interested in social media, and swag, than in the day-to-day operations of the nation’s flagship law enforcement agency. That the director of the F.B.I., historically known for careful messaging on fluid investigations — and deferring to local leaders — would personally take the lead in releasing information about the shooting was unusual. It was even more unusual that he chose to post that information minutes before Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and officials from the F.B.I. and local law enforcement were scheduled to provide the first on-camera briefing on the shooting. Moments after Mr. Patel’s post, Beau Mason, the commissioner of Utah’s Department of Public Safety, told reporters that his agency and the F.B.I. would be working together “to find this killer,” suggesting the search was ongoing. Reuters [9/11/2025 4:38 AM, Andrew Hay and Brad Brooks, 45746K] reports police and federal agents mounted an intense manhunt on Thursday for the sniper believed to have fired the single gunshot that killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he was fielding questions about gun violence during a university appearance. Kirk, 31, a podcast-radio commentator and an influential ally of Donald Trump, is credited with helping build the Republican president’s base among younger voters. He was gunned down on Wednesday in what Utah Governor Spencer Cox called a political assassination. The slaying, captured in graphic detail in video clips that rapidly spread around the internet, occurred during a midday event attended by 3,000 people at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, about 40 miles (65 km) south of Salt Lake City. In one clip, blood could be seen gushing from Kirk’s neck immediately after a shot rang out, and he slumped in his chair. Kirk, co-founder and president of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, was pronounced dead at a local hospital hours later. His murder stirred immediate expressions of outrage and denunciations of political violence from Democrats and Republicans alike. Cox said Kirk’s events on college campuses were part of a tradition of open political debate that was "foundational to the formation of our country, to our most basic constitutional rights". "When someone takes the life of a person because of their ideas or their ideals, then that very constitutional foundation is threatened," Cox said. The shooting punctuated the most sustained period of U.S. political violence since the 1970s. Reuters has documented more than 300 cases of politically motivated violent acts across the ideological spectrum since supporters of Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump himself has survived two attempts on his life, one that left him with a grazed ear during a campaign event in July 2024 and another two months later foiled by federal agents. The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that struck Kirk in the neck, apparently from a rooftop sniper’s nest on campus, remained "at large," said Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, at a news conference four hours later. Security camera footage showed a person believed to be the assailant dressed in all-dark clothing, Mason told reporters. But some eight hours after the killing, authorities said they still had no suspect in custody. State police issued a statement on Wednesday night saying that two men had been detained, and one was interrogated by law enforcement, but both were released. "There are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals," the statement said. "There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter.”

Axios [9/10/2025 9:41 PM, Rebecca Falconer, 14595K] reports President Trump responded via video to Wednesday’s killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk by vowing that his administration "will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity." Trump declared his administration would also target "other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it" in the video posted that was to Truth Social, which paid tribute to the 31-year-old Turning Point USA co-founder. "Charlie Kirk traveled the nation joyfully engaging with everyone interested in good faith debate," Trump said in the address, referencing Kirk’s "Prove Me Wrong" tables, like the one he was holding at Utah Valley University when he was shot on Wednesday. "For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals," Trump said, addressing critics of Kirk, who’ve accused him and Turning Point of bigotry. "This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now," Trump said.

Daily Wire [9/10/2025 10:11 PM, Virginia Kruta, 3184K] reports President Donald Trump said the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was a "dark moment for America" in an Oval Office address on Wednesday night, saying that he was "filled with grief and anger" following the "heinous assassination." "Charlie inspired millions and tonight all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror. Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loves so much, the United States of America," Trump said. "He fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people. He’s a martyr for truth and freedom, and there’s never been anyone who was so respected by youth." Trump had responded to the news earlier in the day with posts on Truth Social, first calling on Americans to pray for Kirk and then announcing that he had passed away at the age of 31, leaving behind his wife Erika and their two young children. In his Wednesday night address, he also took aim at what he views to be the root cause of the violent attack. Trump called out the media and the political left, saying that politically motivated assassinations were largely the result of people demonizing others simply because they hold differing opinions. "For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals," he explained. "This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in this country today." Trump said Kirk, one of his most fervent supporters who played a key role in his 2024 political campaign, was better at communicating with young voters than anybody in history. "This is a dark moment for America," he added. "Charlie Kirk traveled the nation, joyfully engaging with everyone interested in good faith debate. His mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody. Ever … He championed his ideas with courage, logic, humor, and grace." "Charlie was also a man of deep, deep faith. And we take comfort in the knowledge that he is now at peace with God in heaven," Trump said, before asking for God’s protection and comfort for Kirk’s family "in this terrible hour of heartache and pain."

Reported similarly:
The Hill [9/10/2025 9:49 PM, Elvia Limon, 12414K]
Daily Caller [9/10/2025 9:36 PM, Mariane Angela, 985K]

AP [9/11/2025 12:24 AM, Lisa Mascaro and Ali Swenson, 27036K] reports that, in the tragic roll call of violence in American public life, Charlie Kirk’s name joins what has fast become a long list. The influential 31-year old commentator, who cast his young professional life rousing other young people to embrace or debate his brand of conservatism, was slain doing what he does best: holding a provocative question-and-answer session on a college campus. Kirk had been sparring with a questioner at Utah Valley University over who commits gun violence. Then the shot rang out. President Donald Trump, a survivor of assassination attempts including at a 2024 campaign rally, announced on social media: Kirk was dead. “It has to stop,” House Speaker Mike Johnson pleaded from the U.S. Capitol. “This is not who we are.” Condemnation of the violence came quickly, from all corners and across the political divide, and it was universal. But it has never been enough. Within minutes a shouting match erupted during a moment of silence in the House. One Republican lawmaker wanted an actual prayer for Kirk; Democrats called for changes in gun laws. Online, certain far-right figures responded with anger and pointed blame. And so did Trump. “We’re moving in a very dangerous direction, and I think we have been moving in this direction for quite some time,” said Kurt Braddock, an assistant professor of public communication at American University. Though nothing is publicly known about the shooter or the motive in this case, Braddock said it can’t be ignored that polarization and normalization of violence have become threaded through U.S. politics. “It’s incumbent on both sides to take steps to lower the temperature and make it clear that violence should never be considered an acceptable form of political action,” he said. The nation’s long history of violence in the public realm carries many data points. It has felled presidents, presidential contenders, activists like Kirk and some of the most consequential figures in American civic life — Abraham Lincoln, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Among those who have survived the violence, Trump does not stand alone. Elected officials in the U.S. have been shot at and critically wounded while talking to voters outside a grocery store in Arizona; practicing for a congressional baseball game in Virginia; answering the door to their own home in Minnesota. The governor’s house in Pennsylvania was set ablaze as he and his family slept inside. Members of Congress fled the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. “It’s time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year,” said Trump — who then proceeded to blame what he called the “radical left” for the attacks.

New York Times [9/10/2025 10:58 PM, Tyler Pager, 143795K] reports President Trump said on Wednesday that rhetoric from the “radical left” contributed to the shooting death of his close ally Charlie Kirk, and he promised to find those responsible for political violence, as well as the “organizations that fund it and support it.” In a video address from the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said that liberal criticism of conservatives was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.” “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials and everyone else who brings order to our country,” he said. High-profile attacks linked to politics have proliferated in recent years. At a moment of deep divisions in the country, Americans on both sides of the political spectrum have been affected by it, Republicans and Democrats alike. In his video, Mr. Trump connected Mr. Kirk’s death to other recent attacks on political figures, all of them Republicans. He mentioned the attempt on his own life during a political rally in Butler, Pa.; the 2017 shooting of Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana; and attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Mr. Trump made no mention of attacks on Democrats, including Melissa Hortman, the former Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, who was killed in June. The four-minute video came just hours after Mr. Kirk, the founder of the nation’s pre-eminent right-wing youth activist group, was fatally shot while speaking at an event on a college campus in Utah. “Radical-left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” Mr. Trump said. The president also honored Mr. Kirk’s life, calling him a “martyr” and a “patriot" and lauding his commitment to free speech, the rule of law and God. “Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country,” Mr. Trump said. “An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed because together we will ensure that his voice, his message and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come.”

Reuters [9/10/2025 5:52 PM, Ted Hesson] reports a U.S. immigration lawyer representing more than a dozen workers arrested at a Hyundai facility in Georgia last week said on Wednesday that many of the nearly 500 picked up appeared to be working legally, contradicting allegations by authorities. The attorney, Atlanta-based Charles Kuck, said his clients included seven South Koreans who entered via the ESTA program, for countries with visa-free travel to the U.S., or with B-1 visas for temporary business travel. He said they were legally allowed to engage in specific work that was outlined in letters attached to their applications, including installing and calibrating battery equipment. On Wednesday, South Korea’s government said it was trying to fly the workers home. Kuck said letters included with visa applications that he reviewed spelled out the scope of the work and appeared to meet requirements. Kuck also said he was representing two Mexicans with valid work permits through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and a Colombian asylum seeker with a valid work permit.

The AP [9/10/2025 11:04 AM, Staff, 37974K] reports a South Korean charter plane arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday to bring back Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia last week, though officials said the return of the plane with the workers onboard will not happen as quickly as they had hoped. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] NBC News [9/10/2025 4:59 PM, Nicole Acevedo, Stella Kim, and Dan Gallo, 43603K] reports about 300 South Korean nationals who were arrested nearly a week ago in a immigration raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia were expected to board a chartered plane on Wednesday to return to their homeland. But a spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport told NBC News that the "charter flight has been canceled.". The flight tracking website Flightaware showed the chartered Korean Air flight over U.S. airspace. An airport spokeswoman confirmed to NBC News the plane landed in Atlanta late Wednesday morning, but it remains unclear when will the plane fly back to Seoul. South Korean officials originally hoped the plane would leave Atlanta as early as Wednesday afternoon local time, shortly after it arrived from Seoul. Plant workers have been held in immigration detention in rural Georgia since they were arrested in the town of Ellabell on Thursday. The foreign ministry told NBC News early Wednesday that the plane’s departure was likely to be delayed because it “has become difficult due to circumstances on the U.S. side.” “We are maintaining consultations with the U.S. authorities in order to facilitate departure as soon as possible. Further notices will be provided as soon as there are additional updates,” the ministry said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun at the White House Wednesday morning to discuss ways to strength their alliance and revitalize American manufacturing through South Korean investments, Tommy Pigott, the State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, said in a statement, which did not mention anything about the detained South Korean nationals.

Reuters [9/10/2025 3:50 PM, Hyunjoo Jin and Norihiko Shirouzu] reports some South Korean workers are decamping in droves from more of LG Energy Solution’s (373220.KS) U.S. production sites because of visa concerns following last week’s immigration raid on its joint facility with Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) said two people familiar with the situation. LG Energy Solution has also asked its subcontractors to prepare contingency plans and hire local workers, one of the people who has knowledge of the matter said, as the move threatens to slow its investment plan in the U.S. Many of those detained had been sent to the U.S. for construction or equipment installation, work that is not allowed under ESTA visa waivers or B-1 business traveller visas held by many of them, Reuters has reported. Some of those detained workers from the Georgia site have returned home, numerous media outlets have reported, but it has not been previously reported that South Koreans working in some of LGES’ other U.S. factories are leaving. Workers at other LG Energy Solution sites who are in the United States under the ESTA visa waiver programme have been told to return to South Korea by the end of this week, according to one of the sources. This includes employees from subcontractors working at the sites, the person said. Many, if not most, of the Korean nationals who had been working at a battery plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, have returned home in recent days because of visa concerns, or plan to do so, a second source said. It was not immediately clear how many workers were heading back to South Korea. Some workers had already done so, one of the people said. CBS News [9/10/2025 12:12 PM, Ramy Inocencio and Jen Kwon, 45245K] Video HERE reports more than 300 South Korean nationals detained by federal agents in a massive immigration raid last week on a Hyundai plant in Georgia for alleged visa violations were waiting Wednesday for a charter flight due to carry them back to their country. The South Korean workers were among some 475 people detained on Sept. 4 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a still-under construction joint Hyundai-LG electric vehicle battery facility near Savannah. ICE said they were suspected of living and working in the U.S. illegally. South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the departure of the Air Korea charter flight, which had been expected on Wednesday, was delayed due to unspecified circumstances in the U.S., but it would not provide any further information. A spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta told CBS News that the charter operation to transport the detainees had been canceled for Wednesday, subject to change. The spokesperson did not provide any information on the reason for the change in plans. The raid and the detention of hundreds of South Koreans in an ICE facility has tested U.S.-South Korea ties that are important politically, militarily and economically. South Korea is the biggest foreign direct investor in the U.S. and the sixth biggest trading partner overall.

Reuters [9/10/2025 8:26 PM, Jack Kim, 20690K] reports South Korea and the United States will discuss establishing a new visa category for Koreans, Seoul’s foreign minister was quoted as saying, after a U.S. immigration raid saw 475 workers rounded up at a Hyundai Motor site. Foreign Minister Cho Hyun also said after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday that he had assurances that the South Koreans who are due to be released will not face disadvantages if they try to re-enter the United States, the Yonhap News Agency reported. Cho had flown to Washington to resolve what has become a diplomatic quagmire after about 300 South Koreans working at the site of an electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia were detained by U.S. immigration authorities last week. A chartered plane carrying the workers will depart the United States on Thursday and the group will not be handcuffed when they are transferred from the detention centre to the airport, Cho was also quoted as saying by Yonhap. U.S. immigration authorities routinely handcuff and shackle immigrants when they are put on deportation flights. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or the State Department.

CNN [9/11/2025 3:50 AM, Jessie Yeung, Yoonjung Seo and Marianna Kim, 23245K] reports the ICE raid on more than 300 South Korean workers in Georgia could impact future South Korean investment in the US, its president said on Thursday, adding the fallout had created a "very confusing" situation for Korean companies there. His comments come as South Korea reels from the raids – one of the largest by US immigration enforcement agencies in recent years, and which threatens to create a rift between two close partners that have long cooperated on military and economic matters. South Korean businesses in the US "need to build facilities, install equipment, and set up factories, which requires skilled technicians," Lee Jae Myung said at a press conference that marked his 100th day in office. He added that confusion over the current visa situation for South Koreans would lead local companies to question "whether they should go at all.” "This issue could have a considerable impact on foreign direct investment in the US," he said. "We are urging the US side to normalize the visa process related to investment, whether by securing sufficient visa quotas or by creating a new category of visa.” Lee’s comments come as the South Korean workers detained in Georgia prepare to depart Atlanta on a Thursday flight and arrive in Seoul on Friday. They will return home to a country that has been dismayed on their behalf, with many viewing the images of shackled workers being marched onto buses as the betrayal of a bilateral friendship forged over more than seven decades since the end of the Korean War. On Thursday, South Korea’s foreign ministry said President Donald Trump had temporarily paused the deportation process to discuss the workers’ potential future in the US. "President Trump temporarily paused the procedure in order to listen to our position on whether it would be possible for our nationals, who’re all skilled workers, to continue working in the US," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "The South Korean side made it clear that under no circumstances should there be delays in their departure and return, and that swift and safe movement of our nationals should be ensured," it said. However, it added, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun had told Secretary of State Marco Rubio "that it would be best if our nationals first returned home and then reentered the US to resume work, and the US side said it respected this position and would promptly move forward with the repatriation schedule.” US and South Korean officials also discussed the process for bringing the workers home – with Trump reportedly instructing immigration authorities to transport the workers "without handcuffs or other physical restraints, despite strict US escort regulations, per our request," the foreign ministry said.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [9/10/2025 10:51 PM, Hyung-Jin Kim and Kim Tong-Hyung, 27036K]

Daily Caller [9/10/2025 9:20 AM, Jason Cohen, 985K] reports Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday warned drug cartels that they could be obliterated after the U.S. struck narco-trafficking terrorists in the Caribbean Sea. President Donald Trump announced on Sept. 2 that America hit and sank a vessel belonging to the Venezuelan drug cartel Tren de Aragua, killing 11 members, with Vance vigorously defending the attack. On One America News Network’s "The Matt Gaetz Show," host Matt Gaetz asked Vance what he believed "the rules of engagement should be when the United States military has the ability to kill someone bringing drugs into America." "Matt, I think the rules of engagement should be similar to what they are in war because we are in fact in a war against these drug cartels," Vance said. "And I understand the concerns about due process. I understand some of the criticisms that have been raised, but this is not a situation where we can send the Navy SEALs into these places, arrest them and give them a proper civil trial or criminal trial." "These people are engaged in criminal terrorist organizations. Sometimes they have the backing of organizations that are more powerful than the governments that exist in these countries," he continued. "And our attitude is very simple: that if you’re engaged in war against the American people, you are at risk of having your entire operation literally blown to bits … If you’re trying to kill our citizens, if you’re engaged in these criminal cartels, we’re going to treat you like a foreign enemy of the United States because that’s exactly what you are."

Washington Post [9/10/2025 3:24 PM, Noah Robertson, 29079K] reports Democrats are amplifying pressure on the Trump administration to produce evidence that last week’s military strike in the Caribbean Sea killed 11 drug smugglers, which the president has claimed, as lawmakers from both parties question the legal basis for the surprise use of force. On Wednesday, more than 20 Democrats petitioned President Donald Trump to clarify a host of facts about the operation, including the military assets involved and how the administration confirmed the targets were part of a drug network. Their outreach followed a closed-door briefing by the Pentagon to bipartisan staff from the principal national security committees, a meeting that two people familiar with the matter characterized as vague and unsatisfying. Sen. Tim Kaine (Virginia) framed the issue as a faceoff between an administration insistent it has sweeping authority to carry out U.S. foreign policy — including through military force — and a Congress trying to reassert its role in the process. The Democrats’ effort represents a public push for accountability in the attack, and the prelude to a potential formal challenge through the War Powers Act. The administration has said it will carry out a broader military campaign against Latin American cartels in a bid to thwart the flow of illicit drugs into the United States, which it says is justified by a Trump executive order designating several groups in the region as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

New York Times [9/10/2025 1:54 PM, Charlie Savage and Helene Cooper, 143795K] reports that a Venezuelan boat that the U.S. military destroyed in the Caribbean last week had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it, according to American officials familiar with the matter. The military repeatedly hit the vessel before it sank, the officials added, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. President Trump has said he authorized the strike and claimed the boat was carrying drugs. The disclosures provide new details about a military operation that was a startling departure from using law enforcement means to interdict suspected drug boats. Legal specialists who have called it a crime to summarily kill suspected low-level smugglers as if they were wartime combatants said the revelations further undercut the administration’s claim that the strike was legally justified as self-defense. Mr. Trump announced the strike last week, saying it took place in international waters and had killed 11 people who he said were transporting drugs “heading to the United States” and were part of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. He has not put forward evidence to support those assertions but has said “we have tapes of them speaking.” While the White House has not provided a detailed legal rationale, it has put forward the outlines of a novel argument that using lethal military force was permissible under the laws of armed conflict to defend the country from drugs because 100,000 Americans die annually from overdoses. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said people suspected of smuggling drugs toward the United States pose “an immediate threat.” Mr. Trump, in a letter to Congress, justified the attack as a matter of self-defense.

Telemundo51 [9/10/2025 6:52 PM, Esther Alaejos, 144K] reports Puerto Ricans are on the fight against the increase in the U.S. military presence on the island due to tensions in the Caribbean with Venezuela, fearing that the Navy will contaminate its beaches again with weapons waste and reactivate the bases. "It gives anxiety, nerves, discomfort, knowing well how our community has been directly affected by the militarization of the archipelago, I would not like to think of a repetition of history," Ilandra Guadalupe Maldonado, born in Vieques, Puerto Rico, with a commonwealth to the United States, tells EFE with a political status. The U.S. Navy. The U.S. used part of the islands - Vieques and Culebra (in the east of the archipelago) - as a firing range, rented those areas to other nations to test their weaponry and, to this day, the clean-up of the remains of unexploded ordnance has not yet been completed. "Six decades of militarization have left us with contaminated land, contaminated population, fractured education, culture, identity, the list is long," emphasizes Maldonado, 27, a member of the Alliance of Viequense Women, an organization nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, which sued the United States. The U.S. for human rights violations of military maneuvers.

ABC News [9/10/2025 4:53 PM, Laura Romero, 27036K] reports a government attorney said at a hearing Wednesday that the administration has "no immediate plans" to deport additional unaccompanied minors, following the near deportation of 76 Guatemalan minors over Labor Day weekend. A judge over the weekend temporarily blocked the deportation of the 76 unaccompanied minors without due process, just as they were sitting on the planes preparing to depart. Justice Department officials have said the 76 minors were being removed in accordance with the law and at the request of the Guatemalan government and the minors’ legal guardians, but attorneys for the minors say some of children did not have parents who had requested their return, and that some minors expressed a fear of returning to Guatemala. At a hearing Wednesday, attorneys for the minors asked a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction blocking such deportations. During the hearing, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly pressed Justice Department attorney Sarah Welch on the government’s plans for additional deportations of unaccompanied minors. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [9/10/2025 8:56 PM, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, 14810K] reports the Trump administration backed off claims Wednesday that hundreds of Guatemalan children it attempted to send to the country last month — before a judge blocked the abrupt weekend deportations — had been requested to return by their parents. A Justice Department attorney acknowledged that the government’s earlier claims had no factual basis and in fact had been contradicted by a review by the Guatemalan government. That review indicated that parents for most of the children could not be located, and those who were largely suggested they wanted their children to remain in the United States for economic opportunities. The reversal is significant. Last week, White House officials and Trump allies hammered U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, for blocking the deportations — just hours after hundreds of children awakened in the middle of the night had been rushed onto waiting airplanes — accusing her of seeking to block children from reunifying with their families. Their attacks were rooted in representations made by senior Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign at a hastily scheduled hearing on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. Ensign decried the lawsuit seeking to block transfers of the children and told Sooknanan that the children were being sent back to Guatemala at the request of their families. “It’s outrageous that the plaintiffs are trying to interfere with these reunifications,” Ensign said at the Aug. 31 hearing. “All of these children have parents or guardians in Guatemala who have requested their return.” However, the report from Guatemala’s attorney general — filed with the court this week by lawyers representing the children — said none of the families who could be found actually sought the return of their kids. About half the families contacted “expressed annoyance when this Office went to their residences, rejecting the request to conduct an assessment, sometimes in an intimidating manner.” Sooknanan ordered a halt to the deportations after immigration advocates claimed the children had been denied due process and a chance for an advocate to challenge their deportation. The case is now in the hands of U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was assigned to the case after Sooknanan’s initial order. Kelly, a Trump appointee, is now weighing whether to extend or potentially expand Sooknanan’s order, not only to the Guatemalan children initially targeted for removal but to all unaccompanied immigrant children whom the administration is considering repatriating. Prior to the government’s concession, Kelly raised questions about the discrepancy between what Ensign told Sooknanan and what the Guatemalan government reported about its interactions with the families. Ensign was not present for Wednesday’s hearing, instead leaving the argument to Sarah Welch, counsel to the assistant attorney general for Justice’s Civil Division.

New York Times [9/10/2025 8:09 PM, Zach Montague, 143795K] reports lawyers from the Justice Department on Wednesday abandoned a claim they had made in court as they sought to deport dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children over a holiday weekend: that they were doing so at the behest of the children’s parents. In federal court in Washington, government lawyers conceded that they had no evidence to support the contention that the children or their families had hoped to reunite in Guatemala, a claim that had been repeated by senior Trump administration officials last week. The admission came after lawyers representing the children produced a report by the Guatemalan attorney general’s office that included interviews with 115 parents refuting the idea. The hearing on Wednesday came in a case initially focused on more than 600 Guatemalan children who had entered the United States without a parent or guardian. The Trump administration had planned to hastily repatriate dozens of them on flights over the Labor Day weekend. During an emergency hearing to stop the planes on Aug. 31, lawyers representing the children told Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, a Biden appointee who received the case during the holiday, that many feared for their safety in Guatemala and were doing everything possible to stay in the United States. Many of the children, their lawyers argued, were loaded onto planes despite pending immigration proceedings and without any chance to challenge the repatriation. The children have been in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. During the Labor Day weekend emergency hearing, the Justice Department insisted the government was working with Guatemalan authorities to reunite families that had been torn apart, and acting on the wishes of the parents. “The United States government is trying to facilitate the return of these children to their parents or guardians, from whom they have been separated,” said Drew Ensign, a lawyer for the government. Senior Trump administration officials echoed those claims. Stephen Miller, a top aide to President Trump and the architect of his immigration policy, said on social media last week that the children had been “orphaned” and, after Judge Sooknanan’s ruling, that “a Democrat judge is refusing to let them reunify with their parents.” During the hearing on Wednesday, Judge Timothy R. Kelly, a Trump appointee who has now been assigned to formally oversee the case, grilled a Justice Department attorney about the Guatemalan attorney general’s report. The report cited 115 relatives contacted by Guatemalan officials who uniformly disputed that they had requested the return of their children. It mentioned one group of 50 parents who said they would welcome their children home but had hoped to see them stay in the United States. Another 59 rejected, “sometimes in an intimidating manner,” officials’ attempts to reach them, the report said, because they believed their children had been cleared to remain in the United States and refused to encourage their repatriation. “It should be noted that in one of the reports, the parents stated that if their daughter were to return, they would do everything possible to get her out of the country again, because she had received death threats and therefore could not live in this country,” the report stated. Sarah Welch, a Justice Department lawyer, told Judge Kelly that the government had no better information than what was contained in the report and therefore would withdraw its claim that families of the children had requested their return.

CBS Chicago [9/10/2025 5:46 PM, Chris Tye, 45245K] Video: HERE reports as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Chicago ramps up, the White House has sent mixed signals over the past day about possibly sending in the National Guard. President Trump on Tuesday appeared to backtrack on sending in troops to Chicago. "We’re going to be announcing another city that we’re going to very shortly," he said after dining at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. "We’re working it out with the governor of a certain state that would love us to be there, and the mayor of a certain city in that same state would love us to be there. We’ll announce it probably tomorrow, and it’s going to be something where we’ll do like we did here.". The federal government’s 30-day takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., expires Wednesday, although the D.C. National Guard will remain posted throughout the district. With the president suggesting another city could see a National Guard instead, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s sources inside the White House have signaled Chicago might no longer be the primary focus of the Trump administration’s National Guard effort. "They’re not calling us now, which I think is a good sign. It is a sign that they are not hearing things that are suspiciously like we’re going to see military troops coming," Pritzker said. "I take it that the silence of the last day or two from those folks is an indication that maybe there’s some other place or other focus that the president is putting his attention.". Pritzker said it’s a good sign a troop deployment isn’t imminent in Chicago, but stressed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts in Chicago are just getting started, with agents netting more than a dozen arrests in recent days. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security touted the arrests of 13 people as part of "Operation Midway Blitz.". "In just the last few days in Chicago, ICE has arrested pedophiles, rapists, abusers, armed robbers, and other violent thugs," Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Mayor Brandon Johnson said the federal government still has not provided any official communication with the city on their immigration crackdown in Chicago.

NewsNation [9/10/2025 10:52 AM, Ethan Illers and Christine Flores, 6811K] reports a number of coalitions and local groups held a rally downtown Tuesday evening to challenge President Donald Trump’s "Operation Midway Blitz" and the presence of ICE in Chicago. More than a dozen groups and organizations gathered at Congress Plaza Garden for a demonstration. Chants and cheers started at around 5 p.m. and speakers from some of the organizations took the microphone to say a few words. The crowd then marched to Trump Tower and back. The protest was organized in response to federal actions, including the Trump administration’s "Operation Midway Blitz." Protesters said they were also standing against ongoing deportations by ICE. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security said the operation will "target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois," a jab at the city of the Chicago and the state’s sanctuary laws. Organizers of Tuesday’s protest said they’re confident about their efforts and added they’ll continue their work.

Chicago Tribune [9/10/2025 2:53 PM, Caroline Kubzansky, 5352K] reports that as it advertised its so-called Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, the Department of Homeland Security used social media to broadcast a now-familiar refrain. In a string of posts on the platform X, the agency blasted state and local laws that restrict local authorities from participating in federal immigration enforcement. Officials included photographs of 11 men they called the "worst of the worst" who have been released from local jails and prisons, despite requests from ICE for administrative detainers. Gov. JB Pritzker, in turn, has shot back that the Trump administration is trying to scare people, rather than work with officials to find real solutions to the city’s violence. At its heart, the argument is rooted in long-held legislation, public policy and case law that separates immigration enforcement from local law enforcement activity - a wall that some experts and advocates say exists for good reason. And law enforcement experts, legal scholars and advocates say any local jail or sheriff’s office, regardless of their state’s political posture toward immigrants, faces significant constitutional concerns in deciding whether to cooperate with federal authorities. Though all 11 men had contact with the criminal justice system, the matters varied in seriousness.

Washington Examiner [9/10/2025 8:19 AM, David Zimmermann, 1563K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi indicated that Chicago may not be the next city after Washington, D.C., to undergo a federal takeover. In recent weeks, Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have denounced the idea of cooperating with armed troops and federal agents entering the city to crack down on crime. Bondi said their resistance is likely why the administration will prioritize a more receptive city. "They are a progressive city, and they don’t want the president’s help. That’s on them," she said of Chicago on Fox News Tuesday night. "Chicago should be begging Donald Trump for help to keep Chicago safe — yet they aren’t. So we’re going to a city who wants us there.". President Donald Trump teased that the announcement would be coming soon, possibly on Wednesday.

CNN [9/11/2025 5:00 AM, Chris Boyette and Taylor Romine, 23245K] reports Katie Abraham and Chloe Polzin were hunting for a late-night snack with three other friends on a frigid night in Urbana, Illinois. The end of winter break was nearing for the two university students, who had traveled to Urbana to visit other water polo players at the University of Illinois, Abraham’s father told CNN. It was nearly 2 a.m. on January 19 when 20-year-old Abraham and 21-year-old Polzin, along with their friends, stopped at a red light. Suddenly, an SUV came up quickly behind them, smashing into the car and injuring all five people inside, according to Urbana Police. The two girls were killed in a drunken-driving hit-and-run collision, the Department of Homeland Security said, by a man in the United States illegally who fled the scene of the crime. Abraham was pronounced dead at the hospital soon after the accident, police said. Polzin died the next day, according to her obituary. Almost eight months after Abraham’s death, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was launching its latest immigration enforcement action in Illinois, “Operation Midway Blitz,” in her honor, drawing the 20-year-old’s name into national politics as an example of a broken immigration system amid a larger crackdown in cities across the US. Her father, Joe Abraham, told CNN the federal government failed “miserably” in protecting his daughter and that state politicians ignored her death, and by extension, “let it happen.”

The Hill [9/10/2025 11:02 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 12414K] reports transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday said the federal government is launching an investigation into the Charlotte transit system’s security protocols after the death of a Ukrainian woman made national headlines. The Department of Transportation said in a statement that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has requested information on the Charlotte Area Transit System’s (CATS) "actions and plans to reduce crime and fare evasion on the transit system.". The FTA has also requested information on the system’s budget for security, safety and information from outside government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security within the next 15 days. "This administration is taking a whole of government approach to hold these progressive, weak politicians accountable for allowing violent assailants to terrorize our public transit systems," Duffy said in the statement.

NewsNation [9/10/2025 11:42 AM, Anna Kutz and Tom Dempsey, 6811K] reports President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the Washington, D.C., police department was set to expire Wednesday as lawmakers considered several proposals to overhaul the district’s criminal justice system. Congress has not announced any official plans to extend the 30-day takeover, which began in August after Trump declared a public safety emergency and vowed to curb crime in the area. If or when the federal takeover expires, it would not impact the D.C. National Guard members stationed there, as the Army has already extended the deployment of troops through Nov. 30. Trump’s order saw local police working alongside federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital, including with National Guard troops and federal immigration officers. The city has since sued the Trump administration over the deployment. New data from Trump’s Department of Justice said more than 2,100 arrests were made as part of the D.C. operation, including 20 alleged gang members. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The New York Times [9/10/2025 2:17 PM, Campbell Robertson, 153395K] reports one month ago, President Trump declared that “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor” in Washington, D.C., represented such a dire emergency that he was placing the local police department “under direct federal control.” The announcement, coming a year and a half into a steady decline in D.C.’s violent crime rates, was one of the most aggressive encroachments on Washington’s self-government since Congress passed the D.C. Home Rule Act more than five decades ago. At the stroke of midnight on Wednesday, that particular intervention will end. The 30-day window that temporarily grants presidents great powers in the city’s affairs will come to a close, a moment that city officials and many residents have been looking to as a sort of deliverance after four surreal weeks. But it is unclear how much will immediately change. The end of the 30-day period has no bearing on the thousands of National Guard troops, drawn from the District of Columbia itself and from eight Republican-led states, who have been deployed to Washington. Neither does it directly affect the hundreds of additional federal law enforcement officers — from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies — who have been sent out into the city to patrol. And U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will continue to take people into custody around Washington, as they did long before the emergency was declared. Congress is marking the last day of the emergency by taking up a range of legislation that would eat away at D.C.’s self-government, including bills that would expand federal oversight, cancel local laws and eliminate some locally elected positions. (Although the district has about 500,000 eligible voters, they do not have congressional representation.) For now, the specter of ever-greater federal control over the city, even if it has loomed particularly large over the past month, is going nowhere.

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AP [9/10/2025 2:45 PM, Gary Fields and Leah Askarinam, 37974K]

Washington Post [9/10/2025 7:36 PM, Jenny Gathright, 29079K] reports when President Donald Trump’s 30-day emergency control of D.C. police officially expires Wednesday, he will no longer have the power to direct D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) to provide him with whatever police services he deems necessary — a milestone that Bowser has framed as imperative for the city. But as Trump’s unprecedented flex of presidential authority over public safety in the nation’s capital winds down, other notable interventions in the city, including the National Guard presence and aggressive immigration enforcement, can continue. D.C. will also remain uniquely vulnerable to federal incursion — as evidenced by actions in Congress on Wednesday, when lawmakers considered a slate of bills to overhaul the city’s criminal justice policies and further restrict its limited home rule. The result, for D.C. residents and officials, will be an uneasy transition, as uncertainty persists about what will change for residents on the ground as a result of the emergency ending. In a news conference Wednesday, Bowser emphasized that her administration is still focused on public safety — but what is changing is the president’s authority to make demands of her police force through one specific section of the Home Rule Act, the law that grants the city its limited self-government. “Our public safety mission doesn’t change,” Bowser said. “What changes with the end of the emergency is the Home Rule charter, Section 740 that … compels the mayor to provide [D.C. police] services.” Bowser issued a mayoral order last week establishing what she sees as the city’s off-ramp from Trump’s emergency declaration: an “emergency operations center” that formalizes coordination between D.C. and the federal law enforcement agencies that regularly work with city police — but notably excluded Immigration and Customs Enforcement from the list of agencies to communicate with. The order seemed to have Bowser’s intended effect. The White House and Congress soon backed off threats to extend Trump’s emergency, seemingly satisfied with her offer of indefinite coordination. But outside of the emergency operations center, ICE retains vast authority to detain D.C. residents regardless of city policies. Bowser on Wednesday said broadly that her police department would not focus on immigration enforcement after the emergency ends, noting that a new D.C. police policy allowing officers to assist ICE in certain circumstances was tied to the presidential emergency. Over the past month, police were frequently accompanied by ICE agents while on patrol. Trump declared his D.C. emergency on Aug. 11, invoking the part of the Home Rule Act that gives the president the power to direct the D.C. mayor to provide him or her with “such services of the Metropolitan Police force as the President may deem necessary and appropriate” for up to 30 days, or longer with Congress’s approval. The mayor, in turn, “shall provide” those services — leaving the city no choice but to comply.

New York Times [9/10/2025 2:17 PM, Campbell Robertson, 153395K] reports one month ago, President Trump declared that “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor” in Washington, D.C., represented such a dire emergency that he was placing the local police department “under direct federal control.” The announcement, coming a year and a half into a steady decline in D.C.’s violent crime rates, was one of the most aggressive encroachments on Washington’s self-government since Congress passed the D.C. Home Rule Act more than five decades ago. At the stroke of midnight on Wednesday, that particular intervention will end. The 30-day window that temporarily grants presidents great powers in the city’s affairs will come to a close, a moment that city officials and many residents have been looking to as a sort of deliverance after four surreal weeks. But it is unclear how much will immediately change. The end of the 30-day period has no bearing on the thousands of National Guard troops, drawn from the District of Columbia itself and from eight Republican-led states, who have been deployed to Washington. Neither does it directly affect the hundreds of additional federal law enforcement officers — from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies — who have been sent out into the city to patrol. And U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will continue to take people into custody around Washington, as they did long before the emergency was declared. Congress is marking the last day of the emergency by taking up a range of legislation that would eat away at D.C.’s self-government, including bills that would expand federal oversight, cancel local laws and eliminate some locally elected positions. (Although the district has about 500,000 eligible voters, they do not have congressional representation.) For now, the specter of ever-greater federal control over the city, even if it has loomed particularly large over the past month, is going nowhere.

Washington Examiner [9/10/2025 7:31 PM, Lauren Green, 1563K] reports Republicans backing President Donald Trump’s emergency takeover of the nation’s capital pushed to make the crime clampdown permanent with new legislation that Democrats slammed as an overreach. The House Oversight Committee marked up a slew of bills on Wednesday related to crime in Washington, on the same day Trump’s DC police takeover expires. The hearing was attended by many Washington residents who vocally expressed their agreement with Democrats, while pushing back on the GOP-led pieces of legislation. "Welcome to the people of Washington, DC, who have flooded this hearing room on a day in which we are hearing a set of bills that have not so much as had a single public hearing," Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) said in the hearing. "I don’t think that it is any mistake that this markup to vote these bills out of committee is happening on that last day that Donald Trump has ordered our nation’s National Guard to occupy this city," she added. The markup hearing comes after Trump placed the Metropolitan Police Department "under direct federal control" and deployed National Guard troops in the capital to reduce crime. Alongside the federalization of the DC police force, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced the investigation following allegations and whistleblower disclosures, saying leadership in the Metropolitan Police Department "deliberately" manipulated crime data. The committee is requesting documents, information, and transcribed interviews with District Commander Michael Pulliam and the District Commanders of all seven patrol districts. "President Trump, in response, has made sweeping moves to bring federal law enforcement resources into the District and exercise existing authorities under the Home Rule Act to direct local law enforcement to combat the crime crisis," Comer said in his opening statement.

AP [9/10/2025 5:21 PM, Alanna Durkin Richer and Rebecca Santana, 37974K] reports that President Donald Trump has portrayed his federal law enforcement surge in Washington as focused on tackling crime. But data from the federal operation, analyzed by The Associated Press, shows that more than 40% of the arrests made over the monthlong operation were in fact related to immigration. The finding highlights that in the nation’s capital, the administration continued to advance its hardline immigration agenda. The Trump administration has claimed success in the federal takeover in D.C., saying it has led to more than 2,300 arrests, including more than a dozen homicide suspects, 20 alleged gang members and hundreds of people accused of drug and gun crimes. More than 220 illegal guns have been taken off the street, including in one case from a teen who made a concerning social media post about a school, officials said. Yet the prominence of immigration arrests — more than 940 people — has fueled criticism that the true purpose of the operation may have been to expand deportations. “The federal takeover has been a cover to do federal immigration enforcement,” said Austin Rose, a managing attorney at Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, an advocacy group. “It became pretty clear early on that this was a major campaign of immigration enforcement.” In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said many had prior arrests, convictions or outstanding warrants for crimes like assault, drug possession and child sexual abuse, without specifying a number. “DHS will support the re-establishment of law and order and public safety in DC, which includes taking drug dealers, gang members, and criminal aliens off city streets,” the department said.

AP [9/10/2025 2:33 PM, Michael Kunzelman, 3790K] reports that a former Justice Department attorney accused of hurling a sandwich at a federal agent in the nation’s capital — a confrontation captured in a viral video — pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a misdemeanor assault charge. Prosecutors charged Sean Charles Dunn with a misdemeanor last week after a grand jury refused to indict him on a felony charge, a sign of a backlash against President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge in Washington. A jury trial for Dunn is scheduled to start on Nov. 3. Dunn didn’t speak to reporters as he left the courtroom. His attorney, Sabrina Shroff, declined to comment on the case. A bystander’s video captured Dunn throwing a "sub-style" sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent on the night of Aug. 10, a court filing said. As the video spread on the internet, the White House touted Dunn’s arrest on social media. But the image of Dunn throwing a sandwich also has become a protest symbol. Over 2,000 people have been arrested on surge-related charges since the operation started on Aug. 7. More than 50 of them, including Dunn, have been charged in the district court. Prosecutors already have asked the court to dismiss eight of those cases, including charges against two people who were accused of threatening to kill Trump. It is extraordinarily rare for a federal grand jury to balk at returning an indictment, but it has happened at least eight times in six cases since Trump’s surge over a month ago.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [9/10/2025 2:28 PM, Ella Lee, 12414K]
NBC News [9/10/2025 3:12 PM, Justin Goldman and David K. Li, 43603K]
NewsMax [9/10/2025 5:08 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4779K]

Reuters [9/10/2025 7:15 PM, Nate Raymond, 20690K] reports a federal judge on Wednesday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from barring migrants living in the U.S. illegally from accessing numerous federally funded services, including Head Start preschools, health clinics, and food banks. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Providence, Rhode Island, at the behest of 21 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, issued a preliminary injunction preventing rules from taking effect that imposed new immigration-related restrictions on a variety of programs. Those new policies were adopted as part of Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda beginning on July 10 by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Labor, and Justice and marked a shift in how the government interpreted a 1996 law that limited migrants’ access to government benefit programs. Among the programs impacted was Head Start, which is overseen by HHS and provides early childhood education, health, and nutrition to low-income children and families. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act has long been interpreted to require states to verify a person’s lawful immigration status before allowing access to certain programs, such as Medicaid, but not others that are generally open to all in a community. The Trump administration reinterpreted that law to revoke exemptions that had been in place for nearly three decades to now require states that accept federal funding to verify applicants’ status before they can access services such as domestic violence shelters, soup kitchens, and adult education. The new policy also applies to some people who are in the country legally, such as those with student visas. "The Government’s new policy, across the board, seems to be this: ‘Show me your papers,’" McElroy wrote. She said that while policymakers could reasonably debate the merits of restricting access to programs to lawful citizens, the agencies had acted in an arbitrary, rushed way to change federal policy without seeking comment from the public first. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in a statement said the administration expected to be vindicated by a higher court. "Illegal aliens should not have access to federal benefits funded by the American taxpayers for American citizens," she said.

AP [9/10/2025 3:07 PM, Moriah Balingit, 37974K] reports labor unions representing millions of educators and school employees are suing President Donald Trump’s administration over its immigration crackdown, saying arrests near school campuses are terrorizing children and their teachers, leading some students to drop out. At the start of Trump’s second term, his Republican administration said it would allow immigration arrests at schools — long considered off limits. That violated the law, argues the lawsuit from the two largest U.S. teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which represent more than 4 million school employees nationwide. Also joining the lawsuit are educators from an Oregon preschool where masked agents broke a car window and dragged a student’s father from his car shortly after the child had been dropped off. The arrival of police prompted the school to go into a lockdown, with teachers playing music so students couldn’t hear the commotion outside. Teacher Lauren Fong, who teaches the child whose father was arrested that day, said she was troubled by the decision to confront the father in the school parking lot, which is private property. “Why a school? Why not someplace else, any place else?” Fong said in an interview. “It was in the parking lot, where it could be witnessed by so many young children.” The educators are joining a lawsuit filed in April by an Oregon farmworker union and a group of churches, challenging the Trump administration’s decision to open houses of worship to immigration enforcement as well. The amended lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Eugene, Oregon. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said immigration officers use discretion when making arrests at schools or churches. “Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a church or a school,” McLaughlin said. “We expect these to be extremely rare.” For nearly three decades, immigration agents were instructed to steer clear of “sensitive locations” like schools, hospitals and places of worship, except under extraordinary circumstances. Homeland Security, according to a 2021 memo, could “accomplish (its) enforcement mission without denying or limiting individuals’ access to needed medical care, children access to their schools, the displaced access to food and shelter, people of faith access to their places of worship.” A day after Trump took office, the department rescinded the memo and instead urged agents to use “common sense” when operating near schools and churches. In a statement, officials outlined their reasoning behind the move: “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.” The lawsuit describes several instances of masked agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement making arrests in and around school and church grounds. In Los Angeles, masked border patrol officers descended on a car parked next to a high school and ordered a 15-year-old boy with disabilities out at gunpoint while searching for a man with gang ties. They handcuffed him and only released him when they discovered they had the wrong person.

San Francisco Chronicle [9/10/2025 5:57 PM, Bob Egelko, 3790K] reports as President Donald Trump moves to shut down the Mexican border, his administration is firing immigration judges who have been sympathetic to migrants facing deportation, including seven of the 20 judges in the U.S. Immigration Court in San Francisco. The latest judge to be dismissed is Loi McCleskey, the court’s assistant chief immigration judge, appointed to the court in 2021 by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department. She ruled in favor of immigrants seeking U.S. asylum in about 72% of her cases, according to TRAC, a research organization at Syracuse University. That rate is similar to the approval rates of other judges in the San Francisco court, but far higher than the 43% rate among immigration judges nationwide. Another Biden administration appointee, Shira Levine, said Wednesday she was midway through an asylum hearing Sept. 3 when she received an email saying she was being dismissed. She told the immigrant and the government’s attorneys, who had waited years for a resolution of the case, that she had just been fired, and left the courtroom. "The decision to fire me was made by an ideologue in D.C. pushing a political agenda to undermine independence of the immigration courts," Levine told the Chronicle. "They’re dismantling immigration courts because they do not want judges who follow the rules" set by federal laws and past legal precedents. Levine granted asylum to 98% of the immigrants she considered. But she said the government had appealed less than 1% of her rulings, and none of them were overturned. And she said the firings of judges has led to new asylum hearings being scheduled for late 2029 or later. Bill Hing, an immigration law professor at the University of San Francisco, said the firings "will cause greater backlogs in the courts, but also this will make it harder on asylum-seekers, which is the ultimate goal of the administration.". The termination notices have stated no reasons for the dismissals and simply told the judges they were being removed under the president’s executive powers over the immigration courts, said Dana Marks, who retired from the immigration court in 2021 after 35 years as a judge. Unlike federal court judges, who are nominated by the president and can serve for life after Senate confirmation, immigration judges are appointed by the president’s Justice Department, which also has the power to remove them. Their decisions can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, whose members are also chosen by the Justice Department. But Marks said Wednesday that the judges, even during Trump’s first term, had "never been subject to this kind of purge, based on their perceived ideology rather than actual performance and actual bias.".

Reuters [9/10/2025 7:12 PM, Emmanuel Bruce, 20690K] reports Ghana has agreed to accept West African nationals deported from the United States and 14 have already arrived in the country, President John Dramani Mahama told reporters late Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a hardline approach toward immigration, aiming to deport millions of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally and seeking to ramp up removals to third countries. A group of 14 deportees including Nigerians and one Gambian have already arrived in Ghana, and the government facilitated their return to their home countries, Mahama said at a press conference. Mahama did not specify a cap on how many deportees Ghana would accept. He justified the decision by saying West Africans "don’t need a visa anyway" to come to Ghana. "We were approached by the U.S. to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the U.S., and we agreed with them that West African nationals were acceptable because all our fellow West Africans don’t need a visa to come to our country," he said. The Trump administration has approached a number of African governments about accepting deportees as part of its campaign to deter immigration through high-profile deportations to so-called "third countries." In some cases migrants have voiced concerns for their safety.

Axios [9/10/2025 2:08 PM, Brittany Gibson, 14595K] reports that American Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, is suing the Department of Homeland Security over unanswered FOIA requests on Corey Lewandowski’s work at the agency. Why it matters: The lawsuit is the latest oversight attention directed at Lewandowski, a former aide to President Trump and special government employee, following increased monitoring from the White House and inquiry letters from congressional Democrats. The latest: The lawsuit stems from three FOIA requests for Lewandowski’s calendar and communications at DHS, where he serves in a temporary role but has significant influence over spending, personnel and operations, according to media reports. The requests were made throughout the summer and acknowledged by DHS, but the agency hasn’t responded with any records, according to the filing. American Oversight requested multiple records: Lewandowski’s emails, text messages and records communicating with external organizations, the White House, Congress and DOGE, Lewandowski’s calendar, Emails from Lewandowski and eight other DHS officials mentioning the Insurrection Act and the Posse Comitatus Act from April 10 to June 5, And emails from Lewandowski and six other DHS officials mentioning denaturalizing American citizens. The other side: "Under the FOIA statute, requesters are free to file lawsuits regarding their document requests, as long as they follow the administrative process," said assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "DHS, however, is fully complying with FOIA requirements and has not indicated any unwillingness to provide responsive documents. If these plaintiffs want to waste their money and the court’s time, that is their right."

FOX News [9/10/2025 11:53 AM, Charles Creitz, 40019K] reports as Republican leaders like Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis line up behind President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown, Democrats are showing cracks of their own – split between those digging in against ICE cooperation and others urging a more pragmatic approach. Some of the party’s loudest voices remain firmly opposed. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has clashed repeatedly with Trump over immigration raids in his state, while Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has vowed his city won’t cooperate. "We have an authoritarian president who’s a criminal," Krasner said earlier this year regarding the sanctuary city’s position against cooperating with ICE. The Democrat, up for reelection in November, added: "The feds can’t commandeer state law enforcement and make them do Nazi stuff" – while Pritzker has warred directly with Trump over efforts to conduct both immigration and law enforcement operations in Illinois. In Pennsylvania, state Rep. Abigail Salisbury took considerations one step further and announced a bill in the Democratic-majority State House to largely ban the Pennsylvania State Police from cooperating with ICE.

CNN [9/10/2025 5:30 AM, Holly Yan and Jeff Winter, 23245K] reports the suspect in the grisly slaying of a young woman on a Charlotte, North Carolina, light rail train now faces a federal charge in a case that has turned into a political lightning rod in the country where she had come to seek safety. Iryna Zarutska fled Ukraine in 2022 with her mother, sister, and brother to escape the war with Russia "and she quickly embraced her new life in the United States," her obituary states. But on the night of August 22, moments after she texted her boyfriend to say she would be home soon, a man sitting behind her on the train stabbed her three times in the throat in an unprovoked attack. The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, had a long rap sheet and now faces a state charge of first-degree murder and a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. The federal charge comes with the possibility of the death penalty – a punishment President Donald Trump said he supports in this case. Prosecutors were still investigating, the US attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, Russ Ferguson, said Tuesday. Democratic and Republican leaders have traded barbs over whom or what is to blame in this case — and for violence nationwide. The debate simmers against the backdrop of the Trump administration vowing to fight crime by deploying federal troops in predominantly Democratic cities.

Reuters [9/10/2025 6:00 AM, Staff, 45746K] reports in January 2023, the Mexican government deployed helicopter gunships and hundreds of soldiers into rural Sinaloa to capture Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of the imprisoned cartel kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. In the hunt for the young capo, the mission’s architects worked hand-in-glove with a powerful American backer: the Central Intelligence Agency. Ahead of the raid, America’s premier spy agency leveraged its vast eavesdropping apparatus to surveil the communications of Guzmán’s associates to locate him in his mother’s hometown in the western Sierra Madre mountains, according to four former U.S. intelligence and law enforcement sources. CIA analysts assembled a detailed dossier, known as a "targeting package," on El Chapo’s flashy son. The CIA was helped by intel from a member of Ovidio’s circle who had secretly flipped, three of the sources added. Finally, to carry out the arrest itself, the Mexican Army deployed an elite unit that was trained, equipped, and vetted by the CIA, a dozen current and former U.S. and Mexican officials said. With the permission of the Mexican government, the CIA gives training and equipment to these outfits, as well as financial backing for activities like travel. The U.S. spy agency also screens their members with U.S.-administered polygraph tests, which is why the groups are often called "CIA vetted units.". Today, there are at least two such CIA vetted military units operating in Mexico. In addition to the Mexican Army group that nabbed Ovidio, there’s a special Mexican Navy intelligence outfit, according to eight current and former Mexican and U.S. officials.

Wall Street Journal [9/10/2025 5:59 PM, Staff, 646K] reports President Trump’s mass deportation policy is excessive in our view, but does it mean the government can snatch anyone off the street as it pleases? The answer is clearly no, though you wouldn’t know that from the reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision letting the policy proceed. The Court on Monday let the Department of Homeland Security resume using appearance, location and workplace in the mix of factors it uses to identify suspected illegal migrants. The ruling stayed a July injunction by a federal judge that barred ICE agents in Los Angeles from considering those details. The Court majority issued no opinion with its judicial order, but that didn’t stop Justice Sonia Sotomayor from saying that a police state is upon us. Joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Sotomayor argued that the deportation raids likely violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on illegal searches. “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” she wrote, in her familiar we’re-all-gonna-die style. It’s one of many times the Trump Administration has been forced to defend its deportation agenda, which on other occasions has stretched or broken due process requirements. The saga of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was sent swiftly to El Salvador in March and then returned after months of litigation, is a famous example, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested and released multiple U.S. citizens in its push to snare as many aliens as possible. She believes characteristics like national origin or manner of work are too broad for law enforcement to consider when identifying suspects, because they “describe a very large category of presumably innocent people.” She said the majority’s ruling “all but declared that all Latinos, U. S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized.”

Washington Examiner [9/10/2025 7:21 PM, Pedro Rodriguez, 1563K] reports Campus conservatives have suffered violence from their ideologically opposing peers for years, but recent events, such as findings from a campus speech survey, an academic study, and the murder of Charlie Kirk, have shown that the violent opposition has escalated to new heights. A day before Charlie Kirk, a conservative influencer and leader of the nation’s largest conservative youth movement, was murdered at Utah Valley State University, The College Fix reported on the overwhelming student support for violence to stop campus speech. A survey from the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression, which studied over 68,000 students from 238 American colleges, recorded that 15% of students believe violence towards a campus speaker is justified. The same survey found that 52% of students find it acceptable to block others from attending a campus speech. According to the survey, one in three students believes that using violence to stop campus speech is acceptable, with 2% deeming it ‘always acceptable’, 13% ‘sometimes acceptable’, and 19% ‘rarely acceptable’, the survey stated. Following the survey’s release on Tuesday, the organization’s Chief Research Advisor, Sean Stevens, issued a news release expressing his concerns over the findings, claiming that this is an "American problem.". "More students than ever think violence and chaos are acceptable alternatives to peaceful protest," "This finding cuts across partisan lines. It is not a liberal or conservative problem — it’s an American problem," Stevens wrote. The organization’s President and CEO, Greg Lukianoff, added that a student’s inability to mediate with opposing views only increases the nationwide polarization. "This will only harm students’ ability to think critically and create rifts between them. We must champion free speech on campus as a remedy to our culture’s deep polarization," he added. Recent events have only reinforced the findings of the survey. Influential political figure Charlie Kirk is dead after suffering a gunshot wound from an on-campus Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley State University. Kirk isn’t the first, and unfortunately, might not be the last victim, of on-campus violence over a political difference. Colleges have become a breeding ground for violence and extremism.

USA Today [9/11/2025 4:03 AM, Rex Huppke, 75552K] reports We shouldn’t have to live like this in America. A right-wing political figure like Charlie Kirk shouldn’t be shot and killed in broad daylight on a Utah college campus. Not for anything he had said, or for who he was, or for any reason. A Democratic state lawmaker like Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband shouldn’t be assassinated in their home, as they were in June. Not for anything they had said, or for who she was, or for any reason. And children shouldn’t be routinely shot in schools, as two students at a Denver area high school were on Sept. 10, about the same time Kirk was shot one state away. I shouldn’t have to text my kids and tell them to avoid the horrific viral video of Kirk being shot. I shouldn’t have to worry that images of real, graphic violence like that will, bit by bit, steal parts of their souls. We shouldn’t have to cringe as online ghouls from across the political spectrum celebrate, speculate or pontificate on the latest shooting. We shouldn’t have to live in a country where the instant a tragedy like the killing of Kirk or the Denver school shooting happens, every politician and every soul with a social media account rises up and boldly declares: I CONDEMN VIOLENCE OF ANY KIND! Of course you do. That should be a given. Those who don’t condemn violence of any kind are outliers, attention seekers, opportunistic ideologues. Condemnation of violence is inherently human. I’m a liberal. I couldn’t have possibly disagreed more with Kirk’s politics. I think his sometimes hateful words and right-wing activism did real harm. I think his pro-gun rhetoric was deplorable. But all I felt as news of the Utah shooting unspooled was horror. He was a human being. He had a young family. Whatever the shooter’s motive, whatever the shooter’s political party or beliefs, there’s no universe in which what happened was anything but a tragedy.

Bloomberg [9/10/2025 8:00 AM, Erika D. Smith, 19085K] reports some 65 million people living in America today identify as Latino or Hispanic. About 16 million of them live in California. Some are undocumented immigrants, but many are, of course, US citizens or legal immigrants. In Los Angeles County alone, where roughly 1 in 3 residents are immigrants, there are nearly 5 million Latinos. And in the city of LA, roughly half of its 4 million residents are Latino. These numbers are important for parsing the dire implications of this week’s ruling by the US Supreme Court, which overturned a federal judge in Los Angeles and essentially gave ICE agents carte blanche to resume harassing anyone they think might be an undocumented immigrant using little more than racial profiling as a justification. In a concurring opinion, offering a window into the reasoning of the court’s conservative majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that “reasonable suspicion means only that immigration officers may briefly stop the individual and inquire about immigration status. If the person is a US citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.” This week’s ruling basically means that, for now, federal immigration agents in Southern California now have the undisputed authority to stop almost half the population and demand proof of citizenship. Yes, Kavanaugh wrote that “apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion.” But his list of other “relevant” factors to be considered, including whether someone, say, works as a gardener or washes cars, or speaks Spanish or English with an accent, doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that agents won’t be targeting people for the flimsiest of pretexts. White House border czar Tom Homan, of course, disputes that any racial profiling is going on. “Looks are one of many factors you have to consider,” he told Fox News on Tuesday.

The Hill [9/10/2025 12:00 PM, Craig A. Deare, 12414K] reports the recent deployment of U.S. naval assets to the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela has reignited debate over the use of military force in Latin America. Critics argue that such a move is reckless, unnecessary and reminiscent of Cold War-era intervention — gunboat diplomacy, even. But after more than a decade of failed diplomatic efforts, it may be time to confront a difficult truth: Military action could be the only remaining tool to restore democracy and stability to Venezuela. This crisis did not begin with the Biden or Trump administrations. It dates back to Hugo Chávez’s death in 2013, when Nicolás Maduro — chosen for his loyalty, not his leadership — took power. Since then, Venezuela has devolved from a struggling democracy into a full-blown transnational criminal enterprise, a reality foreseen by Moisés Naím in 2013. Despite bipartisan U.S. efforts to support opposition leaders like Juan Guaidó and Edmundo González, Maduro has clung to power through repression, electoral manipulation, deep ties to criminal networks and, most critically, support from Cuba, Russia and China. And although some elements of Venezuelan society might prefer to achieve a political transition without the use of force, the 67 percent of Venezuelans who voted for the opposition in the July 2024 elections — the internationally recognized vote total, despite the Maduro regime’s successful electoral theft — suggest strong support for the departure of Maduro and crew. The Trump administration’s recent designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization of the Cartel de los Soles — the Venezuela-based criminal group allegedly headed by Maduro and his regime — marks a dramatic shift. It reframes the issue as Venezuela not being a legitimate sovereign state but rather a criminal-terrorist entity operating under Maduro’s leadership. This opens the door to legal justification for targeted military action under U.S. counterterrorism policy.

FOX News [9/10/2025 2:11 PM, Cameron Arcand, 40019K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recruitment efforts are proving to be a quick success with 141,000 applications and 18,000 tentative job offers since the recruitment push started at the end of July. The Trump administration launched a campaign earlier this summer to boost ICE staff, including by offering major perks, such as up to $50,000 as a sign-on bonus, student loan forgiveness and special retirement benefits. "ICE has received more than 141,000 applications from patriotic Americans who want to defend the homeland by removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the U.S. We have already given more than 18,000 tentative job offers," Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. "Americans are answering their country’s call to serve and help remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from our country," Noem continued. The agency has been conducting large operations in major cities throughout the country, including in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., in order to execute mass deportations as well as arresting those in the country illegally with other criminal charges or convictions. More detention centers have also opened throughout the country to hold individuals before deportation, including Alligator Alcatraz in Florida.

New York Times [9/11/2025 3:25 AM, Allison McCann, 330K] reports vans carrying immigrants arrive at Ohio’s Butler County Jail, about an hour north of Cincinnati, throughout the day and night. They come from across the state, from Illinois, Michigan and even Arizona. Some detainees will spend a few nights here, others weeks, as they wait to be deported. Immigrant detainees are not new to Butler County. Except for a hiatus during the Biden years, the sheriff has held a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use space in his jail for nearly two decades. But now they fill nearly half the jail’s 860 beds. Butler is among the largest of a growing number of county jails and other local facilities that now house a sizable chunk of ICE detainees, many of whom have never been charged with a crime. The agency’s use of these facilities has more than doubled since President Trump took office, and jails held about 10 percent of all detainees, or 7,100 people, on average, each day in July. With detention numbers at a record high, jails have proven to be a quick and convenient way for ICE to expand its detention capacity beyond existing federal and private facilities. Many sheriffs are eager to assist in Mr. Trump’s mass deportation plans — and to shore up their budgets — by offering up their beds. “We’re essential,” said Jonathan Thompson, the executive director and chief executive of the National Sheriffs’ Association. “ICE can’t do what they need to do under the current circumstances without sheriffs and our jails.” Jails are often the first stop on the way to somewhere else in ICE’s vast detention network, and they fill a geographic hole for ICE in the Midwest in particular, where there are few detention centers. At most jails, ICE can easily spin up a contract through existing partnerships to hold federal inmates with the U.S. Marshals Service, reducing the time it takes to approve a new facility. County jails do not have to provide immigrants the same level of legal and medical services as those offered in dedicated ICE facilities, and the bed space is usually less expensive, too. During the Biden administration, ICE went as far as ending one jail contract in Alabama and pausing another in Florida, citing “serious deficiencies” and concerns about medical care. Under Mr. Trump, both facilities are once again holding hundreds of immigrants. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said that both facilities were recently inspected. “If county jails are good enough to hold U.S. citizens, then they are sure good enough to hold illegal aliens,” Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.

FOX News [9/10/2025 11:46 AM, Greg Norman, 40019K] reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a suspected MS-13 gang member in New York who officials said was living "just steps" away from a middle school. Jamie Manual Perez Perez, 42, was taken into custody on Sept. 3 in Brentwood by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the agency announced Tuesday. "This alleged MS-13 associate resided mere feet from school property and went about his life virtually unchecked and consequence-free – until his past finally caught up with him," HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Ricky Patel said in a statement. Perez Perez, a Salvadorean national, was "wanted by Interpol and had a Red Notice for aggravated extortion and threat to injure a person – charges stemming from crimes he allegedly committed in his home country," according to ICE. Officials said Perez Perez initially was taken into custody by the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, in April 2019, after illegally entering the U.S. "Border Patrol officials issued him a notice to appear, and he was subsequently placed in removal proceedings, with an individual hearing scheduled for February 2026," ICE said. Perez Perez was arrested in New York following a vehicle stop. He will now remain in ICE custody pending his deportation from American soil. "This MS-13 gang member and international fugitive mistakenly thought he could hide out in the United States to evade justice in his home country," said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) New York City acting Field Office Director Judith Almodovar. "Let this arrest serve notice that we remain committed to protecting our communities by removing criminal illegal aliens from our country."

NewsNation [9/10/2025 3:30 PM, Kellie Meyer, 6811K] reports as ICE ramps up operations in Chicago, President Trump said he will soon announce the next city he plans to target as part of his campaign to crack down on crime. Arriving for dinner at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night, Trump pointed to his success in curbing crime in the city as justification for continuing the initiative. Trump’s comments come as his federal takeover of the Washington, D.C., police department is set to expire Wednesday night. Congress has not announced any official plans to extend the 30-day takeover, which began in August after Trump declared a public safety emergency. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced the launch of "Operation Midway Blitz." According to DHS, the operation will "target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois," a jab at the city of Chicago and the state’s sanctuary laws. The announcement has been met with pushback from protesters and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who is encouraging immigrants in the city to know their rights. Earlier this month, Trump said he was considering sending the National Guard to New Orleans, where, he said, his help was wanted—and pledged to make the city "safe" within two weeks.

Bloomberg [9/10/2025 1:44 PM, Linda Poon, 19085K] reports that when President Donald Trump expanded federal operations in Washington, DC, nearly 30 days ago under a “crime emergency,” residents swiftly began recording arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants on their phones and warning others of traffic checkpoints through apps like Instagram. These are techniques that community patrol groups in Los Angeles have been using for months: A wide range of messaging services, tech tools and social media sites have been enlisted to track immigration enforcement activity in Southern California. For immigrant neighborhoods, these platforms have become vital news sources and alert systems. Citizen monitoring is likely to grow as Trump ramps up his immigration crackdown in other cities. But while recording police and other public officials is protected by the US Constitution, experts worry about the limitations of those protections, as the administration has said that filming or documenting agents at work threatens their safety. The line between observing federal activity and obstructing agents — which is a crime — is murky, contributor Patrick Sisson reports.

Univision [9/10/2025 2:00 PM, Staff, 4932K] reports that an immigration operation in Rochester ended in a massive protest on Tuesday, when more than 200 people gathered in the Park Avenue area to confront federal immigration agents and block the arrest of several construction workers. According to witnesses, ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents arrived at a residential construction site, where at least two roofing workers were trapped on the roof for hours to avoid arrest. One of the workers was eventually detained, but the others remained on top of the house while the crowd gathered to prevent agents from bringing them down. The standoff lasted nearly four hours and ended with federal officers withdrawing from the scene, amid protest chants of "Shame!" and "Gestapo!" Local videos and reports indicated that a Border Patrol vehicle left with four flat tires, while protesters applauded its withdrawal. Contractor Clayton Baker identified the detained worker as one of his longest-serving employees, who had been in the United States for 25 years and had legal documentation to work legally. “He’s a family man, goes to church, pays taxes, and is now expecting a baby,” he stated. The Western New York Coalition of Farmworker Service Agencies participated in mediating the protest. Rochester, which recently unanimously adopted the sanctuary city policy, has been the scene of growing tension due to the intensification of immigration raids in upstate New York.

Daily Caller [9/10/2025 12:37 PM, Derek Vanbuskirk, 985K] reports that an illegal immigrant accused of murdering 19-year-old Da’Cara Thompson in Maryland had an ignored detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), officials say. Hugo Rene Hernandez-Mendez, a 35-year-old Guatemalan national, was previously arrested in May 2022 for "driving under the influence and failure to maintain control of a motor vehicle to avoid a collision," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Daily Caller. Prosecutors alleged Hernandez-Mendez took Thompson home before killing her and throwing her body off a 30-foot bridge, WTOP News reported. An autopsy is pending and investigators have not yet identified a motive, according to the outlet. Thompson’s father told CBS News she left home around 10 p.m. on Aug. 22 to get gas. Her final text to him read, "I got gas and I’m out. I should be back soon. I love you too. Goodnight." She was reported missing the next day, and her body was recovered more than a week later, WTOP News reported. Court records include surveillance footage showing Thompson in a Family Dollar parking lot around 3 a.m. on Aug. 23. She was seen speaking with another driver before getting into the front passenger seat, the outlet reported. Thompson’s killing has drawn comparisons to the random stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a North Carolina transit line, which occurred the same day Thompson disappeared.

New York Times [9/10/2025 10:36 PM, Julian E. Barnes, Mark Mazzetti and Hamed Aleaziz, 143795K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided a construction site near the Central Intelligence Agency on Wednesday, and some fleeing workers tried to scale the fence surrounding the agency’s headquarters. The security incident snarled traffic and shut down access to the agency’s campus in Langley, Va., for more than hour, according to people briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a law enforcement matter. When ICE officers descended on the construction site, workers ran in various directions. Several fled toward the C.I.A. campus, where some jumped over an outer fence and then tried to scale a larger fence that surrounds the facility. Immigration officers did not notify the agency of plans for the raid, adding to the chaos of the situation, according to the people briefed on the incident. In the confusion that followed, the agency shut down access to the complex, stranding some intelligence officers in their cars on their way to and within the parking lot. A spokesman for the C.I.A. confirmed that law enforcement responded to a security incident at the agency’s headquarters but said additional details would be provided later. A representative from ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Daily Wire [9/10/2025 1:45 PM, Leif Le Mahieu, 3184K] reports fresh off a major legal victory, the Department of Homeland Security is touting the wide variety of illegal aliens convicted on charges related to violence, drugs, and sex crimes currently held in “Alligator Alcatraz.” Last week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a federal judge’s order saying that Alligator Alcatraz needed to be shut down. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis celebrated the ruling over the weekend, saying he was working to open up similar illegal detention centers across the state, including one he dubbed he “Panhandle Pokey.” In the meantime, Alligator Alcatraz will remain home to illegal immigrants convicted of drug trafficking, murder, and sexual offenses targeting children. Since its opening, the detention center has been the focus of protests from leftist activists and a lawsuit arguing that Florida and the Trump administration violated federal environmental laws. “Despite repeated hoaxes peddled by the media and activist judges, Alligator Alcatraz is still open and housing some of the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens, including murderers, pedophiles, weapon traffickers, and drug dealers until they are swiftly removed from our country,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire.

FOX News [9/10/2025 6:00 AM, Madison Colombo, 40019K] reports an Illinois father grieving the loss of his daughter is blaming Gov. JB Pritzker’s migrant policies, saying they led to devastating consequences. "My daughter was taken. We are separated, I will never see her again," Joe Abraham said Tuesday on "Fox & Friends," describing the loss of his 20-year-old daughter, Katie. "She got death; I got a life-sentence." Katie Abraham and a friend were waiting at a stoplight in January 2025 when police say their car was struck at high speed by a Guatemalan man in the U.S. illegally. Authorities said he was suspected of drunk driving. Katie died at the scene, while her friend later died at a nearby hospital. Now, Abraham and his family are demanding tougher action from state leaders. He criticized Pritzker’s silence on the case, calling it "deafening.". In response, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it is ramping up arrests of criminal migrants in Illinois. Federal officials said the raids are being carried out in Katie’s memory. "Every day, the men and women of ICE and the other federal partners that are with us in Chicago, we honor Katie by going out there and getting these criminal aliens off the street," Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said on "Fox & Friends." In a statement on X, the Department of Homeland Security linked its Illinois operations to the state’s sanctuary policies, arguing they allowed criminal migrants to roam the streets. Pritzker denied those claims, accusing federal authorities of using the operation to instill fear in the community rather than reduce crime.

Chicago Tribune [9/10/2025 1:55 PM, Joseph States, 5352K] reports that Lake County Board member Esiah Campos, the first and only Latino to serve on the board, railed against a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow immigration agents to profile people based on race, language, location and job, at the end of Tuesday’s board meeting. His comments come as the county sees itself swept up in the national fight over deportation, with the Great Lakes Naval Base becoming "ground zero for ICE operations" in Chicago, Campos said. Lake County, as well as several local municipalities, have put out statements referencing the potential of deportation operations in the area, affirming that they won’t participate in federal immigration enforcement and acknowledging the rising fears and concerns in the community. The base has seen hundreds of protesters since news broke that it would be the base of operations for President Donald Trump’s threatened immigration crackdown in the Chicagoland area. Most recently, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was launching "Operation Midway Blitz" to target "criminal illegal aliens." The operation is "in honor" of Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old killed in Illinois in a drunk driving hit-and-run earlier this year by an allegedly undocumented and drunk driver. Twenty-one-year-old Deerfield resident Chloe Polzin was also killed. In his statement and comments made after the meeting, Campos blasted the Supreme Court’s decision as "legalized racism" and a "direct attack" on both the Fourth Amendment and the "very principles of justice and equality." Campos, the grandson of an immigrant and a Navy veteran, also criticized the use of the naval station.

Blaze [9/10/2025 11:10 AM, Cortney Weil, 1559K] reports the Department of Homeland Security has issued a stern warning after a foreign-born sex offender in Minnesota who recently worked for the state Department of Education was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Earlier this summer, news broke that Wilson Tindi, a 43-year-old native of Kenya, was working as the director of the Internal Audit and Advisory Services division of the Minnesota Department of Education despite pleading guilty to felony criminal sexual conduct in 2015. ‘In June, just three months ago, Tindi was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence and refusing a field sobriety test. He has been charged with three misdemeanors. Within hours of the initial report from Alpha News about Tindi’s troubling history, Blaze News learned Tindi was no longer employed at MDE. Now Tindi is back in the news for yet another arrest — this time by immigration officers. Though the date of his arrest is unclear, Alpha News reported on Monday that members of ICE and other law enforcement agencies arrested Tindi at his residence in Plymouth, Minnesota, just outside the Twin Cities. Tindi did not seem surprised to see the officers — according to reporter Liz Collin, who rode along with St. Paul ICE field director Sam Olson — and was placed in handcuffs in his garage, standing next to his BMW. Footage of the arrest shows that Tindi was afterward processed in a detention center, but the status of his case remains unclear. A major complication with the case is that Tindi is not in the U.S. illegally. He became a lawful permanent resident in 2014, even though he reportedly overstayed the six-month visa issued to him in 2005, had a previous application for permanent residency denied, and later spent 18 months in ICE custody following his aggravated felony conviction. "It is a privilege to be granted a green card to live in the United States of America. When you break our laws, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Blaze News. "President Trump and Secretary Noem have been clear: Criminal aliens are not welcome in the United States."

Breitbart [9/10/2025 10:51 AM, Bob Price, 2608K] reports federal immigration authorities arrested 822 criminal aliens and immigration violators in a sweeping weeklong operation across Southeast Texas. The operation targeted violent offenders to restore public safety to communities long plagued by cartel-linked crime and illegal reentry. The enforcement surge, conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) between August 17 and August 23, focused on what officials described as the "worst of the worst." These included transnational gang members, child predators, foreign fugitives, and repeat immigration offenders. "During the past four years, transnational gang members, foreign fugitives, and other violent criminal aliens took advantage of the crisis at our southern border to illegally enter the country," said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez. "Many of them remained in the Houston area and have gone on to wreak havoc in our local communities." The arrests were made possible through coordinated efforts between ICE and multiple federal and state law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the DEA, ATF, Diplomatic Security Service, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

NewsNation [9/10/2025 10:42 AM, Dalton Huey and Jala Washington, 6811K] reports law enforcement sources informed NewsNation affiliate KXAN that at least 50 federal agents arrived in Austin, Texas this week for another round of immigration raids. This comes as increased immigration enforcement efforts are happening around the country. KXAN is working to confirm more details about the operations. The Austin community, including those in the technology space, try to help people know where those raids may be happening. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] Univision Austin [9/10/2025 1:58 PM, Staff, 4932K] reports a group of ICE agents arrived in Central Texas this week to begin a new round of immigration raids. Just on Tuesday, September 9, KXAN, a local Austin media outlet, reported that at least 50 federal agents would arrive in Austin ahead of the Mexican national holidays. The arrival of more ICE agents in Central Texas has sparked further fear among the Hispanic community in Texas, as in many cities across the country, according to the latest Supreme Court ruling, federal agents could detain people simply for speaking Spanish or for appearing Latino.

Los Angeles Times [9/10/2025 9:30 AM, James Rainey, 12715K] reports I spotted some of the Trump administration’s wanted men on Tuesday, the day after the U.S. Supreme Court granted immigration agents virtually unchecked permission to continue the "largest Mass Deportation Operation" in America’s history. The wanted stood outside of a U-Haul truck rental outlet in the San Gabriel Valley. They polished other people’s BMWs and Range Rovers at a Pasadena car wash. I saw the wanted women too, walking to jobs as nannies and housekeepers. They looked suspicious, all right, by the definition outlined Monday by Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. They were natives of Mexico and Central America, seeking "certain kinds of jobs, such as day labor, landscaping, agriculture, and construction." They were suspect to many Californians too, but only of wanting to work, wanting to earn a little cash, wanting to pay their bills and feed their families. One hundred and seventy five years to the day after land that once belonged to Mexico became the 31st American state, California felt to many people Tuesday like it had reverted to a kind of frontier justice, where racial profiling had become the law of the land. "I am just working hard and paying taxes," said Mario, 50, between sips of coffee on the sidewalk outside the U-Haul station. Even before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids began three months ago, the Honduran immigrant said, life for street-corner workers was not easy. "People are just looking for work. Some of them are even homeless," said Mario, who declined to give his last name. "But some people are showing them hate, sometimes even hitting or kicking the homeless. We see it out on the street.".

AP [9/10/2025 2:18 PM, Lea Skene and Tim Sullivan, 37974K] reports it sounded like freedom, like a world of possibility beyond the orphanage walls. Maria Pires was getting adopted. At 11 years old, she saw herself escaping the chaos and violence of the Sao Paulo orphanage, where she’d been sexually assaulted by a staff member. She saw herself leaving Brazil for America, trading abandonment for belonging. A single man in his 40s, Floyd Sykes III, came to Sao Paulo to meet her. He signed some paperwork and brought Maria home. She arrived in the suburbs of Baltimore in the summer of 1989, a little girl with a tousle of dark hair, a nervous smile and barely a dozen words of English. The sprawling subdivision looked idyllic, with rows of modest brick townhouses and a yard where she could play soccer. She was, she believed, officially an American. But what happened in that house would come to haunt her, marking the start of a long descent into violence, crime and mental illness. "My father — my adopted father — he was supposed to save me," Pires said. Instead, he tortured and sexually abused her. After nearly three years of abuse, Sykes was arrested. The state placed Pires in foster care. By then, she was consumed with fury. In the worst years, she beat a teenager at a roller rink, leaving him in a coma. She attacked a prison guard and stabbed her cellmate with a sharpened toothbrush. In prison, she discovered that no one had ever bothered to complete her immigration paperwork. Not Sykes. Not Maryland social service agencies. That oversight would leave her without a country. She wasn’t American, it turned out, and she’d lost her Brazilian citizenship when she was adopted by Sykes, who died several years ago. But immigration officials, including those under President Donald Trump’s first administration, let her stay in the country. After her release from prison in 2017, Pires stayed out of trouble and sought help to control her anger. She checked in once a year with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and paid for an annual work permit. But in the second Trump administration — with its promise of mass deportations, a slew of executive orders and a crackdown targeting those the president deemed "the worst of the worst " — everything changed. Trump’s unyielding approach to immigration enforcement has swept up tens of thousands of immigrants, including many like Pires who came to the U.S. as children and know little, if any, life outside America. They have been apprehended during ICE raids, on college campuses, or elsewhere in their communities, and their detentions often draw the loudest backlash. In Pires’ case, she was detained during a routine check-in, sent to one immigration jail after another, and ultimately deported to a land she barely remembers. "She was an enforcement priority because of her serial criminal record," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an email. "Criminals are not welcome in the U.S."

Bloomberg Law News [9/10/2025 4:35 PM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 75K] reports with a deadline looming for Venezuelan nationals to renew protections for Temporary Protected Status, the Trump administration has blocked them from registering for the protections online. A San Francisco judge last week ruled that the Department of Homeland Security’s termination of TPS for more than a million Venezuelans was unlawful, restoring relief for several hundred thousand recipients who were already stripped of protections. Now DHS is defying a court order by removing Venezuela from a list of TPS designated countries on an online registration portal, said Jessica Bansal, an attorney at the National Day Labor Organizing Network representing the plaintiffs. Judge Edward M. Chen of the Northern District of California scheduled a motion hearing Thursday on the government’s compliance with a Sept. 5 court order granting summary judgment to the TPS plaintiffs. He also denied a government request to stay his Aug. 5 order. His decision restored protections through October 2026. But they were required to re-register for the program by Sept. 10 under a Biden administration designation.

Houston Chronicle [9/10/2025 7:00 AM, Julián Aguilar, 2356K] reports in its ongoing effort to overhaul the country’s legal immigration system, the Trump administration is now barring organizations from conducting voter registration drives at some naturalization ceremonies. The new guidance seeks to emphasize "the nonpartisan nature of voter registration services offered to new citizens at administrative naturalization ceremonies," according to a federal memo issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Aug. 29. The policy shift impacts thousands of new citizens in Houston and falls in line with President Donald Trump’s executive orders earlier this year that seek to undo many of former President Biden’s policies that promoted access to voting. The League of Women Voters, a national nonpartisan organization that advocates for increased voter participation and other civic issues, said the Trump administration’s new guidance is "an attempt to keep new citizens from accessing their full rights." The group emphasized its nonpartisan approach to increasing voter turnout and said it helped fill in the gaps when local or regional election officials lack the capacity. "By shutting out the League and other civic partners, USCIS is making it harder for new citizens to register to vote, which is yet another intimidation tactic and attack on the immigrant community," the group said in a statement. "Our democracy is stronger with the voices of new citizens.".

NBC News [9/10/2025 7:30 AM, Alejandra Arteaga, 43603K] reports Gloria García was born in Mexico 42 years ago, but for two decades she had been building a life for herself and her family in California and was one step away from obtaining legal permanent residency in the United States. Now, she says, she’s suffering a painful separation from her family, trapped in administrative limbo in Tijuana, even though, she stresses, she has followed all the rules to apply. In 2019, García began the process to obtain a family-based green card, which was supposed to have ended in March with an interview at the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez. But State Department authorities later notified her that they were returning her case to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, claiming they needed to review a document that, according to her lawyer, had already been approved by them. "They wanted to make sure everything was in order, but I find it very curious since they already did so in the final step," said her lawyer, Fernando Romo. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City declined to comment. USCIS hasn’t responded to another inquiry. "We’re seeing a different attitude in the consulates, a stricter attitude, looking for any detail to deny or question the process," Romo said.

Washington Examiner [9/10/2025 3:05 PM, Paul Bedard, 1563K] reports President Donald Trump’s MAGA-opposed effort to dole out 600,000 visas to Chinese students could face increased opposition now that a key immigration hawk is warning that Beijing often uses those to deploy spies that cost America up to $600 billion a year. The Federation for American Immigration Reform issued a new report on Wednesday that detailed how legal and illegal Chinese immigrants who flooded into the United States during the Biden administration have spied on U.S. national security agencies and corporate offices. His move is somewhat confusing because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has blasted the high number of Chinese students in America. While FAIR and other immigration hawks have praised the Trump administration’s border closing policies, the report is the latest warning that Chinese student immigrants in the U.S. pose a threat.

NewsNation [9/10/2025 7:34 PM, Salvador Rivera, 6811K] reports Ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border will briefly cease operations during ceremonies to honor the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack on Thursday morning. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Offices of Field Operations are asking commuters to expect delays as result of these events, some which will include a one-minute moment of silence. During this time, all activities at the ports of entry will be halted. CBP is recommending travelers monitor border-wait times via Border Wait Times, or download the CBP Border Wait Times app on their smartphone from the App Store or Google Play to monitor expected delays and make decisions on what border crossing to use. The San Diego Field Office announced a brief halt in northbound traffic operations at 5:46 a.m. PDT — 8:46 a.m. EDT — the same moment Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower. Normal traffic operations will resume immediately following the brief ceremony. The following ports of entry in California will participate: San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Tecate and Calexico West. At the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in Laredo, Texas, CBP said officials will halt north- and southbound traffic at 6:45 a.m. CDT. Vehicular traffic is expected to resume at 8 a.m., said CBP, which encourages the traveling public to make arrangements, adding that the Colombia-Solidarity Bridge will open at 6 a.m. on Thursday and will serve as an alternative route. The U.S. Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector will hold a 9/11 commemoration ceremony from 10 a.m. to noon CDT on Thursday at its Alpine Station. The ceremony will take place at the station’s 9/11 Memorial, which features a 1,300-pound steel artifact recovered from the ruins of the World Trade Center. CBP said it’s one of only a few such artifacts located on federal property.

Detroit Free Press [9/10/2025 6:07 PM, Christina Hall, 3744K] reports Chengxuan Han pleaded no contest in U.S. District Court in Detroit in August. Han, a Chinese citizen, was accused of sending concealed or mis-manifested biological materials to people associated with a lab at the University of Michigan. Han was one of three Chinese nationals charged by federal authorities in Detroit with smuggling in two separate cases. Chengxuan Han told a federal judge that she had no intention of harming anyone or creating a security hazard during her sentencing to time served after being accused of bringing biological materials related to roundworms into the United States for her work at a University of Michigan laboratory. Leitman sentenced Han to time served and a $100 special assessment per charge, due immediately.

Reuters [9/10/2025 6:23 PM, Puyaan Singh] reports U.S. authorities have seized 4.7 million unauthorized e-cigarettes valued at $86.5 million in the largest operation of its kind to date, the Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday. The seizures, led by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, were part of a joint federal operation in Chicago aimed at intercepting illegal e-cigarette shipments, HHS said. Most of the illegal shipments originated in China and included vague product descriptions and incorrect valuations to evade duties and safety reviews, HHS said. In total this year, the FDA and CBP have blocked over 6 million unauthorized e-cigarettes worth more than $120 million from entering the United States. At a press conference in Chicago earlier on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Department of Justice, HHS, FDA and other agencies had partnered to seize unauthorized vape products nationwide.

Reported similarly:
UPI [9/10/2025 6:42 PM, Chris Benson, 2608K]

Telemundo 48 El Paso [9/10/2025 6:13 PM, Claudia Moreno, 6K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed it is reviewing a “use of force incident” that occurred Tuesday, September 9, in El Paso, Texas, during a migrant smuggling operation at a local residence. According to the official statement, the incident involved a Border Patrol agent and a canine, although CBP did not provide specific details about what happened. The agency indicated that the case is being reviewed by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, in accordance with its internal policies. The investigation is ongoing, and CBP is expected to release more information in the coming days.

New York Times [9/10/2025 3:43 PM, Claire Fahy, 143795K] reports after accumulating more than $16,000 in gambling debt, a man jumped from a cruise ship after it docked in Puerto Rico last weekend, authorities said. The man, Jey Gonzalez-Diaz, leaped from Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas at around 9:15 a.m. on Sept. 7 as guests were disembarking, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico. He was rescued by two people, one of whom pulled him onto his jet ski. He was brought to shore before Customs and Border Protection officers detained him at 9:45 a.m. He has been charged with attempting to avoid monetary reporting requirements. When asked why he jumped, Mr. Gonzalez-Diaz told customs officers that he had not wanted to declare the currency he had on him because he didn’t want to be taxed. But according to Royal Caribbean records cited in the complaint, Mr. Gonzalez-Diaz had $16,710.24 in debt with the cruise line, most of it in casino and gaming expenses. He boarded the Rhapsody of the Seas in Puerto Rico on Aug. 31, authorities said. He was found with $14,600 in cash in a backpack along with a U.S. passport, a social security card, a Puerto Rican birth certificate, a Tennessee state ID and a Royal Caribbean boarding card, according to the complaint. The IDs had conflicting names, raising further questions.

Reported similarly:
FOX Business [9/10/2025 9:27 AM, Pilar Arias, 9194K]
USA Today [9/10/2025 10:54 AM, Nathan Diller, 64151K]

The Hill [9/10/2025 12:22 PM, Alexander Bolton, 12414K] reports Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) voted Tuesday against a procedural motion to advance the nomination of Robert Law to serve as under secretary for strategy, policy and plans at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Budd’s vote protested the slow federal reimbursement to North Carolina for funds spent to recover from Hurricane Helene. "This is not about Robert Law," Budd told McClatchy. "I’m fine with him, and we’ll vote for passage on him, but I’m trying to get the attention of those at DHS that are being slow to reimburse North Carolina for funds already spent." Budd later voted to confirm Law and said his vote on the procedural motion had made his point. Budd said towns in the western part of his state hit hardest by last year’s hurricane are out tens of millions of dollars and waiting for federal reimbursement, which has dragged on for months. He noted Congress has already approved the money. Budd says he plans to put holds on three of Trump’s other DHS nominees to express his displeasure with the administration’s handling of hurricane relief in his state.

Washington Examiner [9/10/2025 3:07 PM, Christian Datoc, 1563K] reports President Donald Trump faced two potentially serious security lapses recently, reigniting the questions about his personal safety that defined the 2024 campaign. Trump survived two assassination attempts last year — one in Butler, Pennsylvania and the second at one of his Florida golf courses. The incidents led former President Joe Biden to surge resources to Trump’s protective U.S. Secret Service detail and initiate reviews and reforms at the agency itself. And on Tuesday night, Trump faced another security lapse, albeit one that didn’t appear to place him in any immediate danger. Members of the anti-war, feminist group CODEPINK crashed the president’s unscheduled trip to Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab just a few blocks northeast of the White House, chanting “Free D.C. Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time!” directly next to Trump’s table. Furthermore, just one week prior, Secret Service failed to detect a handgun during a routine security screening of a member of Trump’s Sterling, Virginia, golf course. At the same time, the president himself was on the premises, as first reported by RealClearPolitics. A senior Secret Service official confirmed the incident to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday afternoon, noting that the gun owner in question self-reported to the agency after realizing that his firearm had been missed during the screening. The Secret Service employee responsible for screening the club member in question has been removed from all operational duties and is currently on administrative leave until an internal investigation into their actions concludes, the official added.

Breitbart [9/10/2025 12:20 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 2608K] reports Protesters disrupted President Donald Trump and top members of his cabinet when they arrived for dinner near the White House on Tuesday night. Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth dined at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab near Lafayette Square. Upon arriving, the president was greeted with cheers near the bar, as well as some contempt from left-wing protesters, who likened him to Hitler, according to one video obtained by CNN. "Free D.C., free Palestine. Trump is Hitler of our time," the protesters, all of whom appeared to be women in one video, repeated as Trump and his deputies walked through the dining room. A second video shows the protesters being removed from the restaurant. One woman notably had a "Free Palestine" flag as she exited the property. The White House did not immediately respond to Breitbart News’s inquiry as to whether the protesters’ presence was a Secret Service failure. Trump received a much warmer reception, without protests, from bar patrons.

Reported similarly:
CBS News [9/10/2025 9:25 AM, Staff, 45245K]

New York Post [9/10/2025 12:14 PM, Ryan King, 43962K] reports that the Secret Service failed to detect a Glock handgun in a guest’s bag that agents manually searched at President Trump’s Virginia golf club while the commander in chief was on site late last month. The member at Trump National Golf Club Washington DC, which is located in Sterling, Va., later informed the protective agency about the firearm and was described by a senior official to The Post as "cooperative" with investigators. The Secret Service has since launched a review of the Aug. 31 security failure, first reported by RealClearPolitics, which comes just over 13 months after an assassination attempt against Trump during a Butler, Pa. campaign rally on July 13, 2024. "The US Secret Service takes the safety and security of our sites very seriously and there are redundant security layers built into every one," an agency spokesperson said. "Video surveillance indicates the club member was never in close physical proximity to the President’s location at any point while at the golf club." The agent in charge of searching the guest’s bag has been placed on administrative leave amid the ongoing review. The senior official said that handheld magnetometers were used instead of walkthrough devices when screening guests at the president’s golf resort, located about 25 miles northwest of the White House. Following the security breach, Secret Service Director Sean Curran and Deputy Director Matt Quinn visited the club and received a detailed briefing, according to this person.

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [9/10/2025 1:17 PM, Staff, 985K]

FOX News [9/10/2025 6:46 PM, Diana Stancy Fox, 40019K] reports the jury has been seated for the high-profile federal trial of Ryan Routh, the North Carolina man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club last September, when Trump was a leading candidate in the 2024 election. After three days of jury selection that began Monday, 12 jurors and four alternates were chosen. The panel includes six white women, four white men, one Black woman and one Black man. The alternates are two white women and two white men. Opening statements are set for Thursday morning in Fort Pierce, Florida, where prosecutors are expected to launch their case immediately. Three groups of 60 potential jurors went through the selection process, where prosecutors and Routh — who is representing himself — asked potential jurors questions to assess if they could fairly participate in the trial. During Wednesday’s session, Routh said he wanted to raise an objection due to the prosecution eliminating two potential jurors who were Black. "I want to raise that we have a racist situation," Routh said. But the prosecution said that one of the potential jurors was Haitian and would face language barriers, and that they had no knowledge the other was Black. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon eliminated a potential juror for the trial because the woman asserted, "I am MAGA." According to Cannon, the statement showed "self-declared bias.". Another woman was eliminated as a potential juror for saying she "only follows God’s law" on a questionnaire.

AP [9/11/2025 12:02 AM, David Fischer, 27036K] reports opening statements are set to begin Thursday morning for the trial of a man charged with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump while he played golf in South Florida last year, when he was campaigning for a second term. Ryan Routh is representing himself after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon agreed to let him dismiss his court-appointed attorneys. They are, however, standing by in the courtroom if needed. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations. Until this week, Routh has appeared at hearings shackled at the wrists and ankles and dressed in a tan jail jumpsuit. But with jurors present, Routh has been unrestrained and dressed in a sport coat and tie. Cannon has said that Routh will be allowed to address jurors and witnesses from a podium, but he will not have free rein of the courtroom. A panel of 12 jurors and four alternates was sworn in Wednesday, at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida. There are four white men, one Black man, six white women, and one Black woman on the jury, and the alternates are two white men and two white women. The panel was selected from a pool of 180 potential jurors. The trial begins nearly a year after prosecutors say a U.S. Secret Service agent thwarted his attempt to shoot the Republican presidential nominee. It’s expected to run another two or three weeks. Prosecutors have said Routh, 59, methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club. A Secret Service agent spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot. Just nine weeks earlier, Trump had survived another attempt on his life while campaigning in Pennsylvania. That gunman had fired eight shots, with one bullet grazing Trump’s ear, before being shot by a Secret Service counter sniper. Cannon is a Trump-appointed judge who drew scrutiny for her handling of a criminal case accusing Trump of illegally storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. The case became mired in delays as motions piled up over months, and was ultimately dismissed by Cannon last year after she concluded that the special counsel tapped by the Justice Department to investigate Trump was illegally appointed.

Federal News Network [9/10/2025 6:44 PM, Anastasia Obis, 1147K] reports as part of its Force Design 2028 initiative, the Coast Guard has stood up the futures development and integration directorate that will serve as the service’s strategic hub for future planning, innovation and rapid technology integration. The directorate was officially launched Sept. 2 and is set to reach its full operational capability by July 2026. In a message to the force, Rear Adm. Amy Grable, who will lead the newly established directorate, said the organizations will "proactively focus on long-term threats and opportunities and position the service to respond to emerging geopolitical and operational changes.". As the service’s new strategic center, the new directorate is tasked with aligning resources and capability needs with the budget and acquisition cycles. It will also accelerate the requirements development process and drive innovation across the service by leveraging the Coast Guard’s research and development center. "Think of it as "think-tank" meets deck plate," Cmdr. David Garden, FD&I directorate implementation team representative, said in a statement. "FD&I is designed to address issues identified in the Force Design 2028 executive report, including declining readiness, outdated systems, slow requirements processes and the need to better operationalize long-term Coast Guard strategy.". During the transition, Grable will also serve as the head of the service’s capability office. In May, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem unveiled Force Design 2028, the "bold blueprint" for transforming the Coast Guard. "The Coast Guard is less ready than at any other time since the end of World War II. The service is fragile, in crisis, and on a path to failure. It has a significant enlisted workforce shortage, without enough people to operate its assets. Its cutters, boats, aircraft, information technology, and shore stations are on the verge of collapse because of a long-term lack of maintenance. Its organizational structure and force design are outdated. The service is in a downward readiness spiral that is unsustainable. Without change, the Coast Guard will fail," Noem wrote in the report.

Daily Wire [9/10/2025 6:19 AM, Hank Berrien, 3184K] reports in a fiery show of force echoing the new Trump Doctrine on narco-terror, the U.S. Coast Guard over the weekend captured, burned, and sank a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific — just days after the U.S. military obliterated an alleged cartel-run vessel from Venezuela. As part of Operation Pacific Viper, the USCG Cutter Stone conducted three separate drug interdictions in one night, seizing nearly 13,000 pounds of cocaine and capturing seven suspected traffickers, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday. DHS added a viral flair to its announcement, posting on X, "ASMR: @USCG captures, burns, and sinks a drug boat.". The video, which quickly gained traction online, showed the dramatic takedown of the vessel, engulfed in flames and repeatedly shot at. It’s the most visually striking moment yet in Operation Pacific Viper, a rapidly escalating Coast Guard effort that has already seized more than 40,000 pounds of cocaine since its launch last month. The Coast Guard said the operation involves a "surge" of cutters, aircraft, and tactical teams working with international partners to interdict drug routes from South America. The weekend strike came just seven days after a separate, unprecedented move: a U.S. Marine Corps strike team sank another suspected drug boat in the southern Caribbean Sea, which officials say was operated by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan narco-gang. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [9/10/2025 10:22 AM, Staff, 40019K] reports ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ co-host Griff Jenkins reports on the U.S. Coast Guard sinking a suspected drug boat after arresting seven in connection to smuggling. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [9/10/2025 7:07 PM, Amaris Encinas, 64151K] reports dozens of shipping containers took a tumble on Tuesday, Sept. 9, falling over the side of a cargo ship and into Southern California waters. The containers, approximately 67 of them, were stacked on the Mississippi, a cargo ship, stationed at a pier within the Port of Long Beach, when they toppled over around 9 a.m. local time. The containers’ contents were not immediately clear. According to a news release from the Port of Long Beach, a smaller clean air barge connected to the cargo ship was damaged by "several fallen containers." There were no reports of injuries in connection with the incident. The Northern California division of the U.S. Coast Guard, one of multiple agencies on scene around Pier G232, estimated that 67 containers had fallen into the water. According to an update provided by port officials on Tuesday, Sept. 10, the number of toppled containers was 75. While cargo operations at Pier G were temporarily suspended to secure the containers, no other terminals or port operations were impacted. The U.S. Coast Guard also established a 500-yard safety zone around the Mississippi, broadcasting hourly marine safety information to alert mariners of navigation hazards. Coast Guard officials and the National Transportation Safety Board are working to determine the cause of the incident. "The Unified Command – consisting of federal, state and local agencies – is working to ensure a safe and timely recovery of the cargo containers," port officials said in a Sept. 10 statement. "Sonar surveys are being conducted to locate approximately 25 to 30 containers submerged in the harbor to ensure the safe navigation of ship traffic.".

CBS Los Angeles [9/10/2025 10:02 PM, Julie Sharp, 45245K] Video: HERE reports normal operations at the Port of Long Beach resumed on Wednesday as an investigation into the cause of a cargo accident that occurred the day before, where 75 shipping containers spilled into the ocean water continues, port officials said. The National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Coast Guard are investigating the cause of the incident, which occurred just before 9 a.m. on Tuesday. U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Stacey Crecy said at a Wednesday news conference that of the 2,412 cargo containers aboard the cargo ship Mississippi, 75 fell into the water as the vessel was unloading at Pier G in the port. "It’s still a dynamic situation with many unknowns," Crecy said. Many of the containers fell on top of an emissions collection barge tied off next to the ship, and Crecy noted that luckily, no one on the barge or on the vessel was injured. "The barge suffered some damage, and there has been a sheen reported coming from the barge," she said. The accident was captured on video taken by a bystander, which showed stacks of the containers collapsing off the ship. Aerial footage taken right afterwards showed shipping containers floating in the ocean water, near the Mississippi vessel. "The container ship and emissions barge activated their salver and oil spill response organizations, and the U.S. Coast Guard will be working with them to develop plans to safely recover the containers and allow the vessel and barge to move from the area.".

Los Angeles Times [9/10/2025 9:27 PM, Andrew J. Campa, 12715K] reports a light oil sheen, a sprained ankle and waterlogged cargo were among the damage reported when approximately 75 cargo containers tumbled off a stationed vessel at the Port of Long Beach on Tuesday morning. The U.S. Coast Guard, which is leading the investigation into the incident along with the National Transportation Safety Board, provided an update along with Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson and other officials Wednesday afternoon but offered no definite explanation for the cause of the unusual mishap. The containers, which carried general cargo such as clothes, furniture, shoes and electronics, mysteriously fell overboard while the vessel was "in the process of offloading" at Pier G around 9 a.m., according to U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Stacey Crecy. The containers crashed into the water as well as struck and damaged a smaller clean-air barge connected to the large ship named Mississippi. The containers were seen floating in the port Tuesday morning. Members of the Long Beach Police and Fire departments used boats to help corral the giant shipping crates. "It was a miracle that no one suffered any major injuries, especially those individuals who were on the emissions collection barge at the time when the containers fell on top of it," Crecy said. Long Beach Fire Chief Dennis Buchanan said fire units responded at 9:06 a.m. and found that several containers were also leaning against a gantry crane. Fire personnel immediately established an isolation perimeter, Buchanan said. Although initial reports Tuesday said there were no injuries, Richardson confirmed that one worker aboard the barge sprained an ankle fleeing the falling containers. The owners of the cargo and barge vessels would share some of the cleanup responsibilities and also plan container recovery, Crecy said. A 500-yard safety zone was secured around Mississippi — which carried 2,412 containers in total — by the Coast Guard, which produced safety broadcasts every hour alerting nearby ships of the potential safety hazards.

CyberScoop [9/10/2025 3:20 PM, Tim Starks] reports major cyber intrusions by the Chinese hacking groups known as Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon have forced the FBI to change its methods of hunting sophisticated threats, a top FBI cyber official said Wednesday. U.S. officials, allied governments and threat researchers have identified Salt Typhoon as the group behind the massive telecommunications hack revealed last fall but that could have been ongoing for years. Investigators have pointed at Volt Typhoon as a group that has infiltrated critical infrastructure to cause disruptions in the United States if China invades Taiwan and Americans intervene. Those hacks were stealthier than in the past, and more patient, said Jason Bilnoski, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division. The Typhoons have focused on persistent access and gotten better at hiding their infiltration by using “living off the land” techniques that involve using legitimate tools within systems to camouflage their efforts, he said. That in turn has complicated FBI efforts to share indicators of compromise (IOCs). “We’re having to now hunt as if they’re already on the network, and we’re hunting in ways we hadn’t before,” he said at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit. “They’re not dropping tools and malware that we used to see, and perhaps there’s not a lot of IOCs that we’d be able to share in certain situations.”

CyberScoop [9/10/2025 5:20 PM, Derek B. Johnson] reports Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Wednesday called for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Microsoft, saying the company’s default configurations are leaving customers vulnerable and contributing to ransomware, hacking and other threats. That includes the 2024 Ascension hospital ransomware attack, which resulted in the theft of personal data, medical data, payment information, insurance information and government IDs for more than 5.6 million patients. Wyden, whose staff interviewed or spoke with Ascension and Microsoft staff as part of the senator’s oversight, said the attack “perfectly illustrates” the negative consequences of Microsoft’s cybersecurity policies. Ascension told Wyden’s staff that in February 2024, a contractor using one of the company’s laptops used Microsoft Bing’s search engine and Microsoft Edge, the default web browser that came with it. The contractor clicked on a phishing link, which infected the laptop and spread to Ascension’s broader network. The hackers gained administrative privilege to the company’s accounts through Active Directory, another Microsoft product that manages user accounts, and pushed ransomware “to thousands of other computers in the organization.” Wyden noted in his letter to FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson that the hackers used a technique known as Kerberoasting to access privileged accounts on Ascension’s Active Directory server. This method takes advantage of weaknesses in encryption protocols that have been obsolete and vulnerable for decades.

HS Today [9/10/2025 6:45 AM, Staff, 38K] reports the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA) and 19 international partners have released a joint guide on the value that increased software component and supply chain transparency can offer to the global community by implementing software bill of materials (SBOM). This guide informs producers of software, organizations procuring software, and operators of software about the advantages of integrating SBOM generation, analysis, and sharing into security processes and practice. As modern software increasingly relies on third-party and open source components, SBOMs offer a foundational step toward understanding and mitigating supply chain vulnerabilities. This guide emphasizes the importance of SBOMs in identifying risks within software components and encourages their integration into security practices. It encourages alignment of SBOM technical implementations across countries and sectors to help ensure interoperability, reduce complexity, and enable scalable adoption. “The ever-evolving cyber threats facing government and industry underscore the critical importance of securing software supply chain and its components. Widespread adoption of SBOM is an indispensable milestone in advancing secure-by-design software, fortifying resilience, and measurably reducing risk and cost,” said Madhu Gottumukkala, Acting Director of CISA. “This guide exemplifies and underscores the power of international collaboration to deliver tangible outcomes that strengthen security and build trust. Together, we are driving efforts to advance software supply chain security and drive unparalleled transparency, fundamentally improving decision-making in software creation and utilization.”

New York Times [9/10/2025 4:01 PM, Cecilia Kang, 143795K] reports three senior Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, on Wednesday demanding responses to whistle-blower allegations about security and privacy flaws on the messaging app WhatsApp. In their letter, Senators Charles Grassley of Iowa, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee asked Mr. Zuckerberg to address whether Meta had violated a settlement with federal regulators by allowing major security vulnerabilities in the company’s messaging app without informing shareholders and the public of the risks. The letter comes days after the former head of security for WhatsApp sued Meta, which owns the messaging app, claiming it had allowed thousands of employees to have access to the sensitive data of its three billion users. “I’ve always fought for whistle-blowers in both the public and private sectors,” Mr. Grassley said in a statement. “The American public deserves to know what Meta has done to keep their personal data safe and secure, and I look forward to getting answers.” Meta has pushed back on the whistle-blower’s allegations. “These are a mixture of outdated, distorted and demonstrably false claims,” Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, said in a statement. “WhatsApp has internal systems that protect the limited information available from users and we constantly enhance them.” Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, has faced several whistle-blower allegations this week. On Tuesday, the Senate judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law held a hearing in which former Meta researchers testified that the company actively suppressed findings about children as young as age 10 being harassed and groomed on the company’s virtual reality platform. In their letter, the senators also highlighted new whistle-blower documents submitted in the spring by a former Meta senior policy official, Sarah Wynn-Williams. This year, Ms. Wynn-Williams published a memoir, called “Careless People” about her time at Meta. The company won a legal victory to stop her from publicizing her book, the allegations of which it has vehemently denied. The new documents, provided to Mr. Grassley’s office, detail Meta’s plans in 2017 to meet with Chinese communist officials to discuss artificial intelligence, the company’s virtual reality business and content moderation. The company planned to move forward with the meetings, despite the security and privacy risks associated with operating in the nation, according to the senators’ letter. The senators also asked Mr. Zuckerberg to address and provide records related to a document from 2015, which describes Meta’s attempt to create a censored version of Facebook in China called “Project Aldrin.” “I am very grateful the United States Senate continues to investigate,” Ms. Wynn-Williams said in a statement, adding that she wished she could say more. “I urge other tech employees and those who are thinking of whistle-blowing to share what they know.” Mr. Stone said that Meta did not provide its services in China. The WhatsApp whistle-blower, Attaullah Baig, recently told Mr. Grassley’s office that the messaging app was at risk of a “large scale” hacking of data, according to the letter.

StateScoop [9/10/2025 1:25 PM, Sophia Fox-Sowell] reports a cyberattack last June against St. Joseph, Missouri, disrupted most city computer systems and may have exposed personal data from police and health department files, according to News-Press Now, which obtained government documents through public records requests. The incident forced city staff to rely on emergency measures, such as Wi-Fi hotspots and manual processes, to keep essential services running. It also prompted the city to spend more than $1 million on upgrades to its cybersecurity infrastructure. News-Press Now reported there’s no evidence that city information had been misused. Officials of St. Joseph, a city of 72,000 residents north of Kansas City, are planning to notify roughly 11,000 residents of the potential breach and offer free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services. “The City takes its responsibility to safeguard personal information seriously and regrets any concern this incident may have caused,” officials posted to the city website on Monday. “As part of the City’s ongoing commitment to the security of information, the City has reviewed and enhanced its data security policies and procedures related to IT infrastructure, data privacy and data security in order to help reduce the likelihood of a similar event in the future.”

NPR [9/10/2025 7:07 PM, Staff, 34837K] Audio: HERE reports the 9/11 terrorism case has been in legal limbo for more than a decade and many doubt the case will ever make it to take to trial. That’s partly because the defendants were tortured in secret CIA prisons, so there are ongoing legal fights over what evidence is admissible. Meanwhile, the accused men are at the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and thousands of 9/11 family members wait for a resolution. NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer speaks with two young people whose fathers died in the World Trade Center attacks, as they debate whether the 9/11 defendants should get plea deals.

FOX News [9/10/2025 6:46 PM, Sophia Compton, 40019K] reports a shooting at a high school in the Denver suburbs has left three teenagers hospitalized in critical condition, including the suspected shooter, authorities said. The shooting took place at around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado. All victims taken to the hospital are believed to be students, the Associated Press reported, citing Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley. "We’re aware of the tragic situation unfolding near Denver," FBI Director Kash Patel posted to X on Wednesday. "The FBI is on scene and in full support of local authorities to ensure everyone’s safety.". The suspect is believed to be a student at the high school. None of the law enforcement officers who responded to the scene are believed to have fired their weapons. While the shooting occurred on school grounds, it was not immediately clear whether it was inside the building, AP reported. By mid-afternoon, all three teens were either in surgery or being treated in the emergency room at St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colorado, according to the Associated Press, citing CEO Kevin Cullinan, who added that he did not believe there were any other victims. Details about the victims’ injuries were not immediately available. The identity of the shooter and how many shooters may have been involved is not yet clear, according to AP.

NewsMax [9/10/2025 10:03 PM, Colleen Slevin, Matthew Brown, 4779K] reports a boy opened fire with a handgun at a high school in the foothills of suburban Denver on Wednesday and shot two teenagers before shooting and killing himself, authorities said. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office posted on X: "The male suspect responsible for the shootings at Evergreen High School today has died from his self-inflicted injuries.” The shooting was reported around 12:30 p.m. at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, about 30 miles west of Denver. Shots were fired both inside and outside the school building, and law enforcement officers who responded found the shooter within five minutes of arriving, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said. None of the law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting fired any shots, Kelley said. More than 100 police officers from the surrounding area rushed to the school to try to help, Kelley said. A 1999 school shooting at Jefferson County’s Columbine High killed 14 people, including a woman who died earlier this year of complications from her injuries in the shooting. The three teens from Evergreen were taken to St. Anthony Hospital and originally listed in critical condition, CEO Kevin Cullinan said. Their ages were not released. By early evening, one teen was in stable condition with what Dr. Brian Blackwood, the hospital’s trauma director, described as non-life threatening injuries. He declined to provide more details. The high school with more than 900 students is largely surrounded by forest. It is about a mile from the center of Evergreen, which has a population of 9,300 people. After the shooting, parents gathered outside a nearby elementary school waiting to reunite with their children. Wendy Nueman said her 15-year-old daughter, a sophomore at Evergreen High School, didn’t answer her phone right away after the shooting, The Denver Post reported. When her daughter finally called back, it was from a borrowed phone. "She just said she was OK. She couldn’t hardly speak," Nueman said, holding back tears. She gathered that her daughter ran from the school. "It’s super scary," she said. "We feel like we live in a little bubble here. Obviously, no one is immune.” Eighteen students who fled from the shooting took shelter at a home just down the road, after an initial group of them pounded on the door asking for help, resident Don Cygan told Denver’s KUSA-TV. One student said he heard gunshots while in the school’s cafeteria and ran out of the school, Cygan said.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [9/10/2025 4:36 PM, Brooke Williams, 12414K]
CNN [9/10/2025 6:21 PM, Emma Tucker]

Daily Caller [9/10/2025 3:20 PM, Christine Sellers, 985K] reports a Seattle teen who was seemingly obsessed with school shooters was arrested Saturday on firearms charges. The 13-year-old, not identified, was arrested around 1:00 a.m. Saturday after Pierce County deputies and SWAT received information about a juvenile with "school shooting ideations" who was allegedly making threats to kill, according to a press release from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. A search of the juvenile’s residence yielded 23 firearms with several boxes of ammunition, and authorities noted the firearms were unsecured and mounted on the walls, making them easily accessible to the teen. In addition, evidence from the teen’s bedroom indicated "he was obsessed with past school shooters and imitated similar behaviors with photos and inscriptions throughout his room," according to the same press release. Investigators also found social media posts from June 2025 in which the teen appeared to display weapons and was dressed in attire similar to that of past school shooters, The Associated Press reported. The teen was charged with unlawful firearms possession and making a threat. He pleaded not guilty to five charges, four of which are felonies, and has been ordered to remain in detention, The Associated Press reported. Pierce County Sheriff Deputy Carly Cappetto reacted to the teen’s arrest, telling the outlet in an email it was a "matter of time" before a "tragic incident" occurred. The teen is scheduled to attend a pre-trial conference on Sept. 17 and a detention review on Sept. 22, The Associated Press reported, citing an email from the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office.

NPR [9/10/2025 12:03 PM, Carrie Johnson, 34837K] Audio: HERE reports the Trump administration launched a "campaign of retribution" against senior Federal Bureau of Investigation officials who refused to demonstrate loyalty to President Trump, firing them last month for improper political reasons before they could collect early retirement benefits, according to a new lawsuit from three senior FBI agents. The lawsuit describes leaders inside the FBI and Justice Department as both partisan and inept—struggling to please the White House and willing to dismiss anyone who crossed President Trump. At his Senate confirmation hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel promised to protect employees from improper political removal. But once he arrived at the Bureau’s headquarters, the lawsuit alleges, Patel deliberately chose to follow directives from the White House rather than federal law. "His decision to do so degraded the country’s national security by firing three of the FBI’s most experienced operational leaders, each of them experts in preventing terrorism and reducing violent crime," the lawsuit said. The three plaintiffs are among the most senior and lauded FBI agents to have worked at the Bureau in recent memory. Brian Driscoll won awards for bravery and valor and led hostage rescue teams before briefly serving as acting FBI director this year. Steven Jensen ran the Washington Field Office and managed some 2,000 employees working on national security and violent crime. Spencer Evans oversaw high-profile investigations including a Tesla cybertruck bombing outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas this year, according to the lawsuit. The men allege their dismissals violated their Fifth Amendment right to due process and the First Amendment’s guarantee to free association and free speech.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [9/10/2025 6:30 PM, Perry Stein, 29079K]
The Hill [9/10/2025 2:37 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 6811K]
AP [9/10/2025 1:44 PM, Eric Tucker, 2608K]
Axios [9/10/2025 2:48 PM, Avery Lotz, 14595K]

The Hill [9/10/2025 1:30 PM, Carole Plowfield, 12414K] reports that the Senate left Washington for the August recess having failed to act on more than 150 presidential nominees that are waiting to be confirmed for senior government positions, many of which are critical to national security. The floor debate made it clear that senators have not learned lessons from history about what a mistake it would be to continue these delays. The Senate needs to stop the procedural delays and give these nominees an up-or-down vote immediately. Talk of changing the rules now is too little, too late — about 25 years too late. There is no time to debate rules now as Congress becomes consumed with a funding fight and unconfirmed nominees continue to languish. Change the rules later — vote on the nominees now. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution provides the Senate the role of "advice and consent" for nominations made by the president, and senators need to do their constitutional duty. Vote yes or no, up or down, on the non-controversial nominees based on their qualifications. Do not delay these votes because of unrelated policy or funding issues. Critical senior positions should not be left vacant because unforeseen circumstances may leave the U.S. vulnerable to national security threats with no one in place to respond, having not been confirmed by the Senate. We need all hands on deck, prepared for anything that comes our way. History has shown that similar delays in confirming nominees left us vulnerable before — a cautionary tale for the Senate now.

Reuters [9/10/2025 12:41 PM, Jana Winter and Raphael Satter, 45746K] reports U.S. officials say solar-powered highway infrastructure including chargers, roadside weather stations, and traffic cameras should be scanned for the presence of rogue devices – such as hidden radios – secreted inside batteries and inverters. The advisory, disseminated late last month by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, comes amid escalating government action over the presence of Chinese technology in America’s transportation infrastructure. The four-page security note, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, said that undocumented cellular radios had been discovered "in certain foreign-manufactured power inverters and BMS," referring to battery management systems. The note, which has not previously been reported, did not specify where the products containing undocumented equipment had been imported from, but many inverters are made in China.

CBS News [9/10/2025 12:53 PM, Charlie D’Agata, 45245K] reports that a newly-released video captured by a U.S. reaper drone shows a glowing orb off of the coast of Yemen. Then in the video, a Hellfire missile suddenly struck the unidentified object and bounced off of it. Rep. Eric Burlison, a Republican from Missouri, shared the video at a House Oversight hearing on Tuesday on what the military calls "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" or better known as UFOs. The video, which is dated Oct. 30, 2024, was provided by a whistleblower and when slowed down, the missile can be seen continuing on its own path after striking the orb. A recent government report revealed the government received more than 750 new UAP sightings between May 2023 and June 2024, leaving lawmakers digging into the mystery and national security concerns posed by the objects. "We’ve never seen a Hellfire missile hit a target and bounce off," said Lue Elizondo, a former senior intelligence official with the Pentagon. "When a hellfire makes a hit, a kinetic strike on something solid, there’s usually not much left of whatever it is it’s hitting," Elizondo said. "It’s very, very destructive. But in the video … what seems to happen is that the missile is either redirected, or in some case, perhaps glances off the object and continues on its way.". What was not shown in the video is a second reaper drone that launched the missile. Details remain unclear, including what the mission was. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [9/10/2025 11:26 AM, Frances Martel, 2608K] reports the Taliban terrorist organization running Afghanistan and the Chinese Communist Party, who have become increasingly close since the demise of the legitimate Afghan government in 2021, both condemned Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday following a "precise strike" against the jihadist group Hamas in Qatar. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed an attack in a residential area of Doha, the Qatari capital, on Tuesday, targeting senior Hamas "political" leaders. Hamas is a genocidal jihadist terrorist organization that governs Gaza, but its most senior "political" leaders have for years enjoyed lavish accommodations in Doha, which they have used as a platform for exercising political influence in the region. The state of Israel has been in a formal state of war against Hamas since October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded the country from Gaza and indiscriminately massacred an estimated 1,200 Israeli civilians and committed various atrocities including mass abductions, gang rape, and torture. The IDF described the attack on targets in Doha as a "precise strike targeting the senior leadership" of Hamas. "For years, these members of the Hamas leadership have led the terrorist organization’s operations, are directly responsible for the brutal October 7th massacre," the IDF said in a statement, "and have been orchestrating and managing the war against the State of Israel. Prior to the strike, measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and additional intelligence."

AP [9/10/2025 6:34 PM, Claudia Ciobanu, Illia Novikov and Rafal Niedzielski, 37974K] reports multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland in what European officials described Wednesday as a deliberate provocation, causing NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down. A NATO spokesman said it was the first time the alliance confronted a potential threat in its airspace. The incursion, which occurred during a wave of strikes by the Kremlin on Ukraine, and the NATO response swiftly raised fears that the war could spill over — a fear that has been growing in Europe as Russia steps up its attacks and peace efforts go nowhere. Poland requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the drone incursion. South Korea’s U.N. Mission, which holds the council presidency this month, said the time was being discussed. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it did not target Poland, while Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, said it tracked some drones that “lost their course” because they were jammed. However, several European leaders said they believed the incursion amounted to an intentional expansion of Russia’s assault against Ukraine. “Russia’s war is escalating, not ending,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels. “What (Russian President Vladimir) Putin wants to do is to test us. What happened in Poland is a game changer,” and it should result in stronger sanctions. Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but never on this scale in Poland or anywhere else in NATO territory. Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games scheduled to start Friday. It was not immediately clear how many drones were involved. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, but he said information was still being gathered. Polish authorities said nine crash sites were found, with some of them hundreds of kilometers from the border. “There are definitely no grounds to suspect that this was a course correction mistake or the like,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told parliament. “These drones were very clearly put on this course deliberately.” Tusk told parliament that the first violation came at approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and the last around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. Earlier, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish airspace. “What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction from which the drones came. This is the first time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of errors or minor Russian provocations. For the first time, a significant portion of the drones came directly from Belarus,” Tusk said in parliament. Belarusian Maj. Gen. Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the country’s general staff and first deputy defense minister, appeared to try to put some distance between his country and the incursion. In an online statement, he said that as Russia and Ukraine traded drone strikes overnight, Belarusian air defense forces tracked “drones that lost their course” after they were jammed, adding that Belarusian forces warned their Polish and Lithuanian counterparts about “unidentified aircraft” approaching their territory. NATO air defenses supported Poland in what spokesman Col. Martin O’Donnell called “the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace.” That included the Dutch F-35 fighter jets that intercepted drones, according to Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans. The alliance “is committed to defending every kilometer of NATO territory, including our airspace,” O’Donnell said.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [9/11/2025 3:49 PM, Michael Schwirtz and Qasim Nauman, 143795K] Video: HERE

FOX News [9/10/2025 9:04 AM, Rachel Wolf, 40019K] reports NATO issued a stern warning to Russia for violating Polish airspace early Wednesday with drones intended for Ukraine. "Last night, numerous drones from Russia violated Polish airspace. Our air defenses were activated and successfully assured the defense of NATO territory, as they are designed to do," NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday. "The North Atlantic Council met this morning and discussed the situation in light of Poland’s request for consultations under Article IV of the Washington Treaty. Allies expressed solidarity with Poland and denounced Russia’s reckless behavior." He added that NATO allies are "determined to step up their support for Ukraine," which has been fighting Russia for more than three years.

The Hill [9/10/2025 9:02 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 12414K] reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commended the use of NATO aircraft to intercept Russian drones over Poland after a Wednesday incursion amid an attack on Ukraine. "The precedent of using combat aircraft from several European countries simultaneously to shoot down Russian weapons and protect human lives is highly significant," Zelensky wrote in a statement on the social media platform X. "Ukraine has long proposed to its partners the creation of a joint air-defense system to ensure the guaranteed downing of "shaheds", other drones, and missiles through the combined strength of our combat aviation and air defenses," he continued. The Kremlin’s move was seen as an escalation, and a NATO spokesman said it was the first time the alliance has confronted a potential threat in its airspace. Ukraine said it shot down more than 380 Russian drones of various types, noting at least 250 of them were shaheds, an Iranian unmanned combat aerial vehicles.

NewsMax [9/10/2025 6:34 AM, Staff, 4779K] reports the Trump administration is considering sweeping restrictions on medicines originating from China, a move that could dramatically reshape the U.S. pharmaceutical industry and patient access to treatments. A draft executive order, obtained by New York Times, would block American drugmakers from acquiring Chinese-invented experimental treatments and subject such deals to heightened national security review. The proposal also calls for incentives to boost U.S. manufacturing of critical drugs, including antibiotics and acetaminophen. The plan has sparked an intense lobbying battle. Billionaire investors close to President Donald Trump, including Peter Thiel, Sergey Brin, and the Koch family, have urged a hard line, warning that China’s surging biotech sector threatens U.S. innovation, according to the report. Many hold investments in struggling American biotech firms. Opposing them are global pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and AstraZeneca, which have increasingly turned to China for low-cost experimental drugs. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has argued that access to Chinese medicines benefits U.S. patients and cautioned against policies that could slow cancer research. Critics of China warn that dependence on foreign supply chains leaves the U.S. vulnerable to shortages and national security risks, while others stress that curbing access could limit lifesaving treatments.

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