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

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

The New York Times [9/13/2025 2:49 AM, Julie Bosman, Hamed Aleaziz and Jesus Jiménez, 330K] reports a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a man in the Chicago area who drove his car into ICE officers, a representative for the agency said on Friday, adding that the man had been resisting arrest during a vehicle stop. The man, who the authorities said was not legally in the country, dragged the officer as he fled in his vehicle, the agency representative said. The officer was severely injured and was in stable condition. ICE identified the man as Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, 38, who is from Mexico. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The ICE officer “followed his training, used appropriate force and properly enforced the law,” Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. She added that “viral social media videos and activists encouraging illegal aliens to resist law enforcement” were undermining public safety. The agency did not immediately respond to requests about whether the officers involved in the operation were wearing body cameras. ICE has been conducting a higher number of immigration arrests than usual in the Chicago area this week, under an effort called Operation Midway Blitz. That operation has led to the arrests of several people, including those accused of robbery, assault and other violent crimes, the agency said on Wednesday. Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat who has criticized the federal immigration crackdown, said in a statement that he was concerned about the shooting. “The people of Illinois deserve a full, factual accounting of what’s happened today to ensure transparency and accountability,” he said. In a news conference on Friday evening near the site of the shooting, elected officials and local activists also called for accountability from federal officials. “We know the increasingly aggressive tactics of ICE do not keep our communities safe,” said Lawrence Benito, the executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Residents of Chicago and its suburbs have been watchful for ICE officers and vehicles, reporting activity to hotlines and websites that track the agents. Local officials said they had seen an uptick in sightings since last weekend. The shooting on Friday took place in Franklin Park, a suburb of Chicago near O’Hare International Airport with a significant Latino population. A stretch of the street where the shooting took place was closed off with yellow tape on Friday afternoon, and police officers and municipal workers directed traffic away from the area. Shortly after 3 p.m., an F.B.I. evidence recovery team had left the scene, and the driver’s car was being towed. The AP [9/12/2025 7:29 PM, Christine Fernando and Rebecca Santana, 37974K] reports “We are praying for the speedy recovery of our law enforcement officer. He followed his training, used appropriate force, and properly enforced the law to protect the public and law enforcement,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he is aware of the shooting and demanded “a full, factual accounting of what’s happened today to ensure transparency and accountability.” Video from the scene shows police tape and traffic cones blocking off parts of the street where a large food distribution truck and gray car can be seen from a distance. Multiple law enforcement vehicles were surrounding the area. Amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Los Angeles earlier this summer, at least two people died while attempting to evade ICE — a farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a raid and a man struck by an SUV while running from agents outside a Home Depot store. At a Friday news conference, immigration advocates argued that the Chicago area shooting represents how militarized immigration enforcement harms communities and demanded transparency and accountability from ICE agents involved in the shooting. They were flanked by about two dozen protesters who chanted and banged on drums while holding a banner declaring, “End Detention, Welcome Immigrants.” “The Trump deportation machine is out of control and operating with no transparency or accountability and leading to senseless harm to our communities,” said Lawrence Benito, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Illinois Rep. Norma Hernandez called the shooting a tragedy and decried ICE officials’ attempts to blame the man who died. The Daily Wire [9/12/2025 9:58 AM, Zach Jewell, 3184K] reports that a team of ICE agents was conducting "targeted law enforcement activity" at Franklin Park when a suspect was asked to stop his vehicle, but continued to drive, hitting an agent and "subsequently dragging him as he fled the scene," an ICE spokesman told NBC 5 Chicago. The agent, "fearing for his life," shot the driver. The agent and suspect were taken to a hospital, where the Department of Homeland Security later identified the victim as Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, who was pronounced dead. The DHS said that Villegas-Gonzalez was an illegal immigrant. The ICE agent suffered severe injuries but remained in stable condition. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the agent was dragged "a significant distance" after being struck by the illegal immigrant’s vehicle.

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [9/12/2025 5:40 PM, Joseph Pisani, 646K]
Washington Post [9/12/2025 2:47 PM, Marianne LeVine, 29079K]
Bloomberg [9/12/2025 2:48 PM, Erin Ailworth and Myles Miller, 19085K]
The Hill [9/12/2025 6:10 PM, Filip Timotija, 12414K]
Reuters [9/12/2025 5:45 PM, Renee Hickman, 45746K]
CNN [9/12/2025 1:29 PM, Priscilla Alvarez, 662K]
(B) CNN News Central [9/12/2025 2:31 PM, Staff]
FOX News [9/12/2025 5:21 PM, Alexandra Koch, 40019K]
USA Today [9/12/2025 6:00 PM, Michael Loria, 64151K]
National Review [9/12/2025 5:15 PM, Kamden Mulder, 109K]
Chicago Tribune [9/12/2025 1:19 PM, Jason Meisner and Rebecca Johnson, 5352K]
Univision [9/12/2025 3:41 PM, Staff, 4932K]
Washington Examiner [9/12/2025 5:23 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1563K]

Chicago Tribune [9/12/2025 10:01 PM, Tess Kenny and Caroline Kubzansky, 5352K] reports that, hours after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fatally shot a man in Franklin Park, U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, a Democrat from Chicago, called for a full investigation of the shooting at a news conference Friday night held in tandem with local officials and immigrant rights leaders. He spoke over a loud group of protesters who called out, “Don’t investigate, abolish ICE!” The shouts drowned him out and aides brought him a microphone. Garcia condemned the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for “judging an individual who was killed by one of their agents” and “casting him in the worst light.” He said he met with the man’s family after the shooting. Asked whether the agents had been wearing body cameras, Garcia said he was not aware. The man who was killed, identified by federal officers as Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, 38, was fatally shot after he allegedly tried to flee a traffic stop and struck an officer with his vehicle, leaving him with serious injuries. The shooting in the typically quiet, working-class northwest suburb, which has a population that is more than half Hispanic, immediately brought calls for transparency from Illinois political leaders and condemnation from activists who decried the “aggressive” tactics of immigration agents. Federal officials, meanwhile, said the officer who opened fire acted appropriately and in fear for his life. He was recovering from severe leg injuries Friday at a local hospital, where his condition had stabilized. The Department of Homeland Security said in a written statement that Villegas-Gonzalez is a citizen of Mexico and was in the U.S. illegally, though further details were not provided. According to DHS, immigration officers conducted a vehicle stop Friday morning to arrest Villegas-Gonzalez, who has a record of reckless driving offenses. Records show that a man whose name and age matches Villegas-Gonzalez has received a number of traffic tickets in Cook County, but an initial search by the Tribune revealed no criminal incidents locally. Villegas-Gonzalez “refused to follow law enforcement commands and drove his car” at officers, striking one of the ICE agents and dragging him “a significant distance,” the DHS statement said. “Fearing for his life, the officer discharged his firearm and struck the subject.” Both the agent and Villegas-Gonzalez were taken to nearby Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where Villegas-Gonzalez was pronounced dead, authorities said. At Friday night’s news conference, state Rep. Norma Hernandez, a Melrose Park Democrat, said Villegas-Gonzalez had only a traffic violation when agents stopped him Friday. “We don’t trust you and we don’t want you here,” she said. “We need to abolish ICE. You cannot get rid of the 14 million undocumented immigrants here.” U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, a Chicago Democrat, and other public officials on the city’s Northwest Side, condemned the shooting and also called for an investigation. “We demand a full and thorough investigation into what happened today. DHS is not above the law,” the statement released Friday said. “They should immediately release all body camera footage, warrants, and relevant information on this case. Our community deserves answers and accountability, not the scapegoating of our most vulnerable.”

Daily Wire [9/12/2025 11:42 AM, Zach Jewell, 3184K] reports that an Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has cut over $30 million in "frivolous and unnecessary" government grants and contracts in the last three weeks, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire. The department said that it had cut a total of $31,692,166 in spending between August 22 and September 12. The savings were from de-obligated grants and contracts targeted as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut down on government waste, the department told The Daily Wire. "In just three weeks, Secretary Noem has saved the taxpayer more than $30 million. That’s more than $1 million per DAY," said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, it is no longer open season on the American taxpayer at DHS. The Trump administration is draining the swamp, restoring accountability to the federal government, and putting hardworking Americans FIRST again." Under the Trump administration, all department contracts worth over $100,000 have to be approved by Noem. In total, the Department of Homeland Security said it has saved over $12 billion during Noem’s tenure. In total, that equals out to saving about $50 million per day during the Trump administration. Homeland Security also said that it was providing savings to American taxpayers by deporting illegal aliens.

Reuters [9/12/2025 7:28 PM, Nate Raymond, 45746K] reports a federal appeals court rejected on Friday a challenge by immigrant rights advocates to the decision by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans living in the United States. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who had decided that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lacked the discretion to end the immigration "parole" granted to about 430,000 migrants under Democratic former President Joe Biden. The U.S. Supreme Court in May put Talwani’s April ruling on hold, allowing the parole terminations to take effect while the litigation played out. Judge Gustavo Gelpí, writing for a three-judge 1st Circuit panel, said Noem’s action forced parolees who entered the United States lawfully to have to choose suddenly between returning to the dangers in their home countries or staying in the United States and risk being detained and deported. But Gelpí said lawyers for a class of migrants pursuing the case had failed to make a strong showing that Noem lacked authority under a law called the Immigration and Nationality Act to categorically end their parole. All three judges on the panel were appointed by Democratic presidents.

Reuters [9/12/2025 5:42 PM, Jarrett Renshaw and Andy Sullivan, 45746K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would send National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee, to combat crime, following his administration’s unprecedented police takeover in Washington, D.C. last month. Trump has sought to make crime a central issue even as violent crime rates have fallen in many cities. His crackdown on Democratic-led municipalities has spurred protests, including a demonstration by several thousand people in Washington last weekend. "We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled," Trump said in an interview with the Fox News "Fox and Friends" program at a studio in New York. "We’re going to fix that, just like we did Washington." Trump said Memphis’ mayor, a Democrat, was "happy" with the move. The office of Memphis Mayor Paul Young did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Memphis, a city of 611,000 people along the Mississippi River, has one of the highest violent crime rates in the United States, according to FBI statistics. Some 24% of residents live in poverty, more than double the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. Justice Department sent federal agents to help fight violent crime in the city in 2020, during Trump’s first term in office. Trump said he might also send federal personnel to New Orleans - like Memphis, a Democratic-leaning city in a Republican-controlled state. He has threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, but so far has not done so. FOX News [9/12/2025 4:36 PM, Cameron Arcand, Charles Creitz, 40019K] reports Memphis has the highest violent crime rate in the United States of cities with over 250,000 people, with a rate of 2,501 per 100,000 people, WSMV reported, citing FBI data. Oakland, California; Detroit; and Baltimore are right behind it. The president said on "Fox & Friends" Friday morning he would have "preferred" sending troops into Chicago, where Democratic leaders have opposed a surge, but a major immigration enforcement operation is underway. "We’ll straighten out the National Guard and anybody else we need," he later added. Memphis Mayor Paul Young said in a statement Thursday to the local outlet that he is aware of the possibility of troop deployment, saying he is "working to ensure any efforts to strengthen our community" and asked for more "financial resources" for law enforcement, saying progress is being made in tackling crime in the city, according to WREG. CNN [9/12/2025 8:47 AM, Donald Judd, Betsy Klein, Chris Isidore, Marshall Cohen, Wesley Bruer, and Jason Morris, 662K] reports Memphis Mayor Paul Young said at a Friday afternoon news conference that it was not done at his request, asserting that he learned in the morning "that the President and Governor are looking to bring Federal resources to our city which include the National Guard, which they have the authority to do." "I want to be clear I did not ask for the National Guard and I don’t think it is the way to drive down crime," he said. "However that decision has already been made." Trump had previously threatened to send troops to Chicago and wrote in a Truth Social post that city is "about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR." But while the Department of Homeland Security has announced an immigration crackdown there, the mobilization of troops Trump promised has not materialized. "I would have preferred going to Chicago," he said Friday as he announced the impending action in Tennessee.

NewsNation [9/12/2025 5:48 PM, Deja Davis, David Royer, 6811K] reports President Donald Trump said Friday that the National Guard is coming to Memphis to address crime concerns. Trump made the announcement during an appearance on Fox News’ "Fox and Friends," claiming he has the support of both the mayor of Memphis and the Tennessee governor. He said the city is "deeply troubled" and "we’re going to fix that just like we did Washington," where he’s sent National Guard and surged federal law enforcement. Trump’s announcement comes one day after Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, released a statement confirming he was informed this week that Republican Gov. Bill Lee and President Trump were considering the option, along with other resources. But on Thursday, he addressed the president’s plans again, clarifying that he did not believe it was the right move for the city. Questions remain on when the troops will arrive in the city. Young said he is in consultation with the governor to get answers.

(B) NBC News Daily [9/12/2025 3:17 PM, Staff] reports President Trump says he is sending the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee. It is part of what he says is his administration’s crackdown on crime. This is separate from an immigration crackdown which will continue to be focused on Chicago with their Operating Midway Blitz. The Memphis police department said earlier this month that crime is at a 25-year low.

Politico [9/12/2025 12:00 PM, Liz Crampton, Myah Ward and Brakkton Booker, 14810K] reports that, in naming Memphis the next destination for National Guard deployment, President Donald Trump has opened a new front in his crusade against cities — one that relies on cooperation from Republican governors. So far, Trump has targeted crime in cities within states led by Democrats, deploying the Guard to Los Angeles and Washington, and threatening action in Illinois, Maryland and Oregon. But launching troops into one of deep-red Tennessee’s largest cities marks a shift for the White House, alleviating legal hurdles and strengthening the president’s efforts as he increasingly relies on the military for policing. And Memphis may just be the start — GOP governors have shown a willingness to lean on the Guard to aid in crime fighting and deportation efforts. Before it was declared the next target on Friday, Trump had suggested he would dispatch the Guard to New Orleans — which GOP Gov. Jeff Landry celebrated. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders this week detailed the Guard to assist in immigration enforcement in Little Rock and Fayetteville. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has routinely sent the Guard to police the border, and in June authorized 5,000 troops in anticipation of protests against deportation raids. Tennessee Republicans view the entrance of the Guard in their state as an opportunity to sharpen their attacks on Democrats over crime, an issue that remains one of the GOP’s biggest strengths. “Why these blue state governors would act like dumbasses and not welcome the federal help to reduce the crime for their own citizens is beyond me,” said Tennessee Sen. Brent Taylor, a Memphis-area Republican who has long requested federal intervention in his city. “When it comes to the crime issue, blue state governors are as useless as a milk bucket under a bull.” But by teaming with Republican governors, Trump will “be able to demonstrate to the rest of the country, in particular to the blue state governors, that your opposition kept your crime rate high in your cities,” he said. Trump’s decision to go to a red state also offers more flexibility in how the National Guard is mobilized — and allows him to avoid some of the legal resistance he has faced with Democratic leaders. The White House and governor’s office have yet to decide how resources will be deployed in Memphis, but with Lee’s buy-in, the National Guard could remain under the state’s authority and avoid the constraints of the Posse Comitatus Act, which which bars the military from enforcing domestic laws without explicit permission from Congress, said Christopher Mirasola, an assistant law professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

Politico [9/12/2025 10:26 AM, Myah Ward, 14810K] reports White House border czar Tom Homan is warning of an immigration enforcement blitz in sanctuary cities, as the administration launched enforcement operations in Boston and Chicago this week. The planned surge is running up against a limited number of detention beds. “We’re almost at capacity,” Homan told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. But “we got beds coming online every day.” His comments underscore an ongoing tension in President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda: The mismatch between the White House’s appetite for increased enforcement and the logistical hurdles of rapidly deploying unprecedented resources and deporting people from the U.S., according to administration officials and policy experts. ICE continues to fall short of the White House’s goal of 3,000 daily immigration-related arrests. Trump has talked of surging law enforcement resources in a number of sanctuary cities to clampdown on crime and immigration, including New Orleans and Portland, in addition to Boston and Chicago. Immigration arrests in Washington also increased with Trump’s deployment of the National Guard. “It’s interesting timing because we don’t have the bed space to support all the arrests,” said an administration official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. As of late August, there were more than 61,000 people in long-term detention. The government has fewer than 65,000 beds, according to the administration official. The number of people in detention since Trump took office has increased by more than 50 percent, as ICE was holding around 39,000 detainees in the final days of the Biden administration. Reports in recent months have documented concerns about conditions inside of facilities, including overcrowding and lengthy stays in temporary holding rooms. The Department of Homeland Security is rushing to spend billions to expand detention capacity across the country and double its bed space by next year. The agency is tapping into $45 billion provided by the GOP’s policy and tax law for detention expansion, and has turned to GOP governors to form federal-state partnerships — part of an effort to build soft-sided tent facilities and use vacant and local prisons to hold detainees. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the agency, “in mere weeks” has “greatly expanded detention space by working with our state partners” — pointing to “Louisiana Lockup” and “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot” in Florida. “The One Big Beautiful Bill provided historic funding to help us carry out this mandate, including $45 billion to support the expansion of detention space to maintain an average daily population of 100,000 illegal aliens and 80,000 new ICE beds,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

AP [9/12/2025 9:24 AM, Kim Tong-Hyung and Hyung-Jin Kim, 1648K] reports more than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in the United States last week were brought back home on a charter plane and reunited with their loved ones on Friday. They were among the 475 people detained during the Sept. 4 immigration raid at a battery factory under construction on the campus of Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah, Georgia. Their roundup and the U.S. release of video showing some Korean workers shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists have caused public outrage and a sense of betrayal in South Korea, a key U.S. ally. After their charter plane, a Boeing 747-8i from Korean Air, landed at Incheon International Airport, near Seoul, they appeared in an arrivals hall, with senior officials including presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik clapping hands. "We feel sorry that we failed to bring them back home earlier, but we did our best," Kang said. Hundreds of journalists gathered at the airport to cover their arrival, with many ordinary citizens shouting "Welcome back!" One protester unfurled a huge banner with a photo of U.S. President Donald Trump and a message criticizing U.S. immigration crackdowns before security officials persuaded him to stop. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry asked media to blur the workers’ faces in videos and photos taken at the airport, citing requests by the workers who worried about their privacy. The plane carried 330 people who were detained in the Georgia raid — 316 of them are South Koreans, including a pregnant woman, and the rest are Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian workers. They had been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, 285 miles southeast of Atlanta.

Reuters [9/12/2025 3:32 PM, Staff, 45746K] reports South Korean workers who returned home on Friday after being detained for a week by U.S. immigration authorities described their horror over the raid at their workplace in the state of Georgia and their relief at being reunited with their families. "It was like a military operation," said one of the workers of the September 4 raid at the car battery plant that is owned by Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution, adding the authorities had deployed across the site in less than 10 minutes. Like many others who spoke to Reuters after their charter plane landed at Incheon airport, he declined to give his name due to the sensitivity of the matter. A second worker said U.S. government agents had arrived at the site in helicopters and armoured vehicles and had separated workers according to visa type, arresting those on the ESTA visa-waiver programme or with a B-1 business traveller visa. Workers’ phones were confiscated, and some were unable to inform their families back home until their eventual release. In total, some 475 workers - including more than 300 South Korean nationals - were detained at the plant, in the biggest single-site operation conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in its history. U.S. officials said the workers were engaged in activities beyond the scope of their visa authorisation or had overstayed their visas. "I am really relieved now," said Hwang In-song, the brother of a detained engineer. "I was so worried and couldn’t sleep well for a week." The anxiety of the detainees and their families increased further when diplomatic wrangling over the terms of their release delayed their departure. "I didn’t know when I would actually be able to leave. That was the hardest part," said one of the workers. Asked about life at the detention center in Folkston, Georgia, where they were held, he said: "It was the worst." Others complained about the quality of the food and said the water smelt of bleach.

NewsMax [9/12/2025 8:21 AM, Staff, 4779K] reports hundreds of South Korean workers were greeted by applause and tearful relatives Friday when they returned home after being tangled in a U.S. immigration row that cast a shadow over massive Korean investments in the United States. South Koreans made up the majority of the 475 people arrested at a Hyundai-LG battery factory site in the state of Georgia, triggering a delicate effort to resolve the thorny situation between close allies. Officials from South Korea’s government applauded as the 310 workers stepped off the chartered flight at Incheon airport, while some of the workers shouted "freedom" and "I’m back!" at the arrival gate. When the engineers finally appeared, waiting families broke into tears and embraced their loved ones after nearly a week without contact and a roller coaster of emotions. South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told reporters on Friday that he was "deeply pained" by the ordeal. "The return of the workers was unexpectedly delayed by a day," Cho said. "When I met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday morning, he informed me that President Trump had expressed strong dissatisfaction with how the situation was being handled and ordered a full review of all possible options, which caused the delay." He added that the two governments had agreed to establish a working group to create a new visa category for future South Korean investment projects.

AP [9/12/2025 3:46 PM, Gisela Salomon, 37974K] reports that Some West Africans who were deported from the U.S. to Ghana were held in “straitjackets” for 16 hours on a flight during which all passengers were shackled and given only bread and water, according to a lawsuit filed Friday. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington on behalf of five migrants, says passengers were awoken in the middle of the night on Sept. 5 and not told where they were going until hours into the flight on a U.S. military cargo plane. The migrants have been detained for five days in Ghana in “squalid conditions and surrounded by armed military guards in an open-air detention facility,” called Dema Camp, the complaint says. Conditions are “abysmal and deplorable,” with tents for shelter and little running water. The migrants are not from Ghana and have been told they will be sent to other countries that have been determined to be too dangerous by U.S. immigration judges — making it the latest legal challenge to the Trump administration’s practice of sending people to countries other than their own, including El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica and several African nations. The complaint, filed by lawyers for Asian Americans Advancing Justice, asks a judge to immediately halt deportations to their countries of origin. “Defendants have enlisted the government of Ghana to do their dirty work,” it says. “Despite the minimal, pass-through involvement of the Ghanaian government, Defendants’ objective is clear: deport individuals who have been granted fear-based relief from being sent to their countries of origin to those countries anyway, in contravention to the rulings of U.S. immigration judges and U.S. immigration law.” The Homeland Security Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington Examiner [9/12/2025 5:18 PM, Jack Birle, 1563K] reports a federal judge halted a Trump administration policy on Friday that ordered immigration judges to dismiss cases quickly to allow for the illegal immigrants to be picked up by federal immigration officers after hearings. U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel ruled that the Trump administration’s policies for arresting illegal immigrants at courthouses are not unlawful. However, he did rule that the immigrant advocate groups suing showed the necessary harm to halt a May Justice Department directive to immigration judges to allow for the speedy dismissal of immigration cases the government asks to dismiss so that federal immigration officers can make quick arrests. The ruling is a mixed bag for immigration activists and the Trump administration, with part of the administration’s “dismiss and arrest” immigration enforcement policy now halted in New York. However, the judge did find the Trump administration’s arrest policies at courthouses were likely lawful, saying the immigration activists failed to show the Trump policies were “unexplained, arbitrary and capricious changes” from the Biden administration’s policies.

NPR [9/12/2025 4:56 PM, Sacha Pfeiffer, 34837K] reports several migrants sent by the United States to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had to be relocated to another part of the U.S. naval base there because of a water supply failure, raising more questions about whether Guantánamo can accommodate the 30,000 migrants President Trump has said he wants to send there. As a result, the three migrants being held at the MOC at the time were transferred to another part of the base where "high-threat aliens" are held. An official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which runs the facility, told the court that the two categories of migrants are being housed in separate areas. The government filing did not state the total number of migrants at Guantánamo when the water problem was discovered, but it said 24 migrants were on the base as of Sept. 9. Migrants have been cycled on and off the island since early February. Water is not expected to be restored for at least another week, the government said. Critics of sending migrants to Guantánamo say the base’s infrastructure is too primitive to hold large numbers of people there, and the ongoing water failure has added to their skepticism. The average daily cost of holding a migrant at Guantánamo is about $100,000, whereas it costs about $165 a day to keep a migrant in ICE detention in the U.S., according to court filings, government documents, and congressional delegates who visited the base earlier this year. The government said naval personnel found the water supply problem on Aug. 28, and the Defense Department notified ICE on Aug. 30 of "structural damage" to the pipeline.

The AP [9/12/2025 4:49 PM, Trân Nguyễn, 37974K] reports California state lawmakers have passed legislation that would ban most law enforcement officers from covering their faces while carrying out operations, a response to recent immigration raids in Los Angeles. But even if the governor signs the measure into law, it’s unclear whether the state could enforce it on the federal agents who have been carrying out those raids. It is the first such bill to be approved by a state legislature, though Democrats in Congress and lawmakers in several states, including Tennessee, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, have introduced similar proposals calling for mask bans for law enforcement officers. The bill would prohibit neck gator, ski masks and other facial covering for local and federal officers, including immigration enforcement agents, while they conduct official business. It makes exceptions for undercover agents, medical masks such as N95 respirators or tactical gear. Gov. Gavin Newsom has about a month to decide whether to sign it into law. The Hill [9/12/2025 10:09 AM, Elizabeth Crisp, 12414K] reports that critics have taken issue with ICE agents wearing face coverings while carrying out President Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown in cities across the country. They argue the covering is meant as an intimidation tactic. California — Los Angeles in particular — became a major focus of ICE operations over the summer as mass protests erupted in response to workplace raids. The president deployed National Guard troops and Marines to protect federal properties, sparking an ongoing court battle. ICE didn’t immediately respond to The Hill’s request on the California legislation, but officials in the Trump administration have repeatedly defended the need for officers to protect their identities. "I don’t particularly like masks, but the ICE officers need the mask because their families are being doxed," Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told reporters at the White House late last month. "Their families are being doxed, their children are being doxed, their families have been put in harm’s way.".

Reported similarly:
SFGate [9/12/2025 7:46 AM, Staff, 11503K]

AP [9/12/2025 2:25 PM, Mike Schneider, 37974K] reports that there still are no protocols for attorneys to get in touch with clients at the immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” and detainees are often transferred just before scheduled lawyer visits, according to new court papers alleging continued unconstitutional obstacles for meeting with legal representatives. Thursday’s court papers were filed in response to a transfer from Miami to Fort Myers of the federal lawsuit claiming detainees have been denied private meetings with immigration attorneys while being held at the facility built by the state of Florida in the Everglades wilderness. It also comes a week after a federal appellate court panel, in a separate environmental lawsuit, allowed operations to continue at the detention center by putting on hold a lower court’s preliminary injunction ordering the facility to wind down by the end of October. A third federal lawsuit challenging practices at the facility claims immigration is a federal issue and Florida agencies and the private contractors hired by the state have no authority to operate the facility. “Detained individuals have a First Amendment right to communicate with their attorneys in confidence,” lawyers said Thursday in the legal rights case. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to omit information about detainees at the facility from its online locator system “so attorneys cannot confirm whether detained clients are held at the facility.” During videoconferences with their lawyers, detainees are placed in cages that aren’t soundproof with staff in earshot, and documents for clients are subject to review by staff, the attorneys said.

The Hill [9/12/2025 2:56 PM, Julia Shapero, 12414K] reports Discord said Friday that the person accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk did not use the platform to plan the shooting or promote violence, after officials revealed he sent messages over the app. Law enforcement arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson after a multi-day search for Kirk’s killer. The suspect’s roommate shared Discord messages with officials, in which Robinson said he needed to get a rifle from a drop point, and discussed leaving the weapon in a bush and watching the area where it was left wrapped in a towel. "We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and extend our condolences to the Kirk family and everyone affected," a Discord spokesperson said in a statement. "In the course of our investigation, we identified a Discord account associated with the suspect, but have found no evidence that the suspect planned this incident or promoted violence on Discord," they continued.

NBC News [9/12/2025 7:37 PM, Ben Goggin, Chloe Atkins and Melissa Chan, 43603K] reports the suspect accused of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk left behind ammunition engraved with a reference to fascism and obscure internet memes and video games, officials said Friday. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said inscriptions were found on at least four shell casings linked to Tyler Robinson, 22, who was arrested early Friday in connection with the killing. One engraving read, “Hey fascist! Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓,” a seeming reference, at least in part, to a video game that’s been interpreted as a satire of fascism. Authorities said the rounds were found with a Mauser Model 98 bolt-action rifle, fitted with a scope, that investigators recovered in a wooded area on the edge of Utah Valley University’s campus. The gun was wrapped in a dark-colored towel. In addition to the engraving referencing fascists, Cox also referred to engravings that contained more obscure references. On the fired casing, for instance, a message read: “notices, bulges, OWO, what’s this?” The writing appears to be a reference to a meme about the online furry subculture and online role-play, said Jamie Cohen, an assistant professor of media studies at Queens College who researches memes. The meme has largely been used as a method of mockery and trolling, though its relevance to Kirk or the shooting is unclear. Experts urged caution in interpreting the engravings, citing a long history of shooters using misleading or ironic messages, often mixing politics and internet culture in ways that defy easy categorization. Cohen said he believes the messages on most of the recovered rounds were left purposely vague by a person who is “extremely online.” The suspect may have specifically used terms that are difficult to decipher “to remain in the undercurrent of the internet,” he said. “This type of meme is designed specifically to kind of make sure that the news can’t report on it because it comes from an extremely online approach,” he said.

Politico [9/12/2025 8:28 PM, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, 14810K] reports the criminal case against the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk will likely play out in a Utah county courthouse, under the control of local prosecutors. But a national audience may very well be watching. That’s because the alleged shooter, whom authorities identified on Friday as Tyler Robinson, is facing state-level criminal charges. And in Utah — unlike in federal court — criminal trials are routinely televised. Robinson has been charged with three crimes under Utah law: murder, causing bodily injury with a firearm and obstruction of justice. It might seem surprising that the case is not a federal one, given the national notoriety of the crime and the FBI’s heavy involvement in the investigation. But homicides can be charged as federal crimes in only a few circumstances — such as an assassination of a federal government official, a killing on federal property or a “hate crime” that was motivated by the victim’s race, religion or another protected characteristic. So far, the known details of the Kirk shooting do not appear to support a federal prosecution, legal experts say. “Right now, based on the facts I’m aware of, I don’t see an obvious federal crime,” said Mary McCord, a longtime federal prosecutor and former acting head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Of course, there’s hate crimes that sometimes can be applicable, but not for politics.” McCord cautioned that the investigation is still in the early phases, so it’s possible that evidence may emerge of other participants or additional offenses that could form the basis of federal charges — for instance, violations of federal gun laws or computer-intrusion laws. But for now, the case is under the jurisdiction of Utah prosecutors. FBI Director Kash Patel alluded to that fact at a press conference Friday announcing Robinson’s arrest, saying his agency is largely supporting state and local officials. “The FBI has a certain role to play, and we will play that role,” Patel said. “We will continue to work with state and local authorities to develop the investigation, to provide them the evidence they need for their ongoing prosecutions.”

New York Times [9/13/2025 2:49 AM, Annie Karni, Megan Mineiro, Michael Gold, Catie Edmondson and Robert Jimison, 330K] reports Republicans lashed out at Democrats and members of the media, saying their language and news coverage incited a killer. Democrats blamed Republicans for blocking gun safety legislation they said could have prevented the shooting and countless others. And behind the scenes and the partisan strife, members of Congress in both parties begged their leaders to provide more security to protect them from rising political violence in the wake of the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at an event on a university campus. The killing of Mr. Kirk has intensified already pervasive fears among lawmakers on Capitol Hill about personal safety, even as it has fed the cycle of finger-pointing and partisan warfare in the toxic political discourse often gripping Congress and the country. Ever since rioters threatened their lives inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Democrats and Republicans have been living on edge, and under a near-constant barrage of death threats, with some stalked by armed and angry individuals or even targeted for assassination. “My head’s always on a swivel,” said Representative Nick LaLota, Republican of New York and a Navy veteran who served three deployments overseas. After the fatal shooting of Mr. Kirk, many immediately scrapped upcoming outdoor events and said an already untenable security situation had grown even worse. “People are scared to death in this building,” said Representative Jared Moskowitz, the Florida Democrat who was the target of an assassination plot last year. “Not many of them will say it publicly, but they’re running to the speaker talking about security — and that’s a lot of Republicans. People are scared, really scared.” But even as lawmakers across the political spectrum said they were petrified and their leaders urged everyone to “turn down the temperature,” as Speaker Mike Johnson put it, some Republicans stepped up their heated statements. They echoed President Trump’s bid to blame and target the political left for Mr. Kirk’s death. Representative Derrick Van Orden, Republican of Wisconsin, did not wait to learn about the motivations or the profile of the shooter before condemning his political opponents and the media. “The left and their policies are leading America into a civil war,” he wrote on social media, posting on X more than 40 times in response to Mr. Kirk’s killing. “The gloves are off. This I will defend.”

FOX News [9/12/2025 1:11 PM, Amanda Macias, 40019K] reports that security experts are questioning the adequacy of the threat assessment carried out ahead of Charlie Kirk’s scheduled event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, where the conservative activist was assassinated in front of thousands of attendees. The scrutiny comes as federal authorities end a manhunt for the suspect linked to the attack. "Universities have so many speakers that come on campus all the time. Rarely do they plan for somebody taking a longer-range shot with a rifle," explained retired Marine Lt. Col. Hal Kempfer in an interview with Fox News Digital. "Sniper assassinations are far less common and even in active shooter scenarios, usually the active shooter gets into a closed space where the person is very close to where the victims are," he said, noting the immense difficulty of defending against an assailant who can strike from a concealed, elevated, or distant position. "It’s a lot more involved to carry out and plan for counter-sniper missions," Kempfer said, emphasizing that this level of violence was never anticipated at what was meant to be a debate-style discussion. The revelation underscores an unprecedented challenge confronting law enforcement as they work to protect political rallies on college campuses and in communities nationwide. "The campus has limited security. They don’t have an unlimited budget for this. They had six officers out there, which for any college campus security force, that’s not an insubstantial number of officers. But they also had 3,000 people at this event," Kempfer said.

USA Today [9/12/2025 10:34 AM, Staff, 64151K] reports President Donald Trump stated in a new interview that the “radicals on the left are the problem” following the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Kirk, 31, was fatally shot Sept. 10 while speaking in front of a crowd of people as part of his "American Comeback Tour" at Utah Valley University. Trump announced Kirk’s death on Truth Social, calling him “Great, and even Legendary.” Trump on “Fox & Friends” on Sept. 12 said that “the radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime.” “Worried about the border, they’re saying, ‘We don’t want these people coming in. We don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street,’” Trump said. “The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy.” He said on Sept. 10 that the rhetoric of the “radical Left” was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”

NPR [9/12/2025 6:49 AM, Steve Inskeep, 34837K] Audio: HERE reports NPR speaks with Juliette Kayyem, Harvard lecturer and former Homeland Security assistant secretary, about the current status of the FBI investigation into Charlie Kirk’s killing Wednesday.

New York Times [9/12/2025 5:03 PM, Edward Wong and Michael Crowley, 143795K] reports for decades across Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. drug enforcement officials have tried to cut off narcotics trafficking by intercepting boats, trucks and even horses laden with drugs and arresting the smugglers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said those efforts are not bold enough. He has helped steer the Trump administration toward a much more aggressive — and deadly — tactic: use military force to destroy suspected drug boats and kill the people on board, without a legal process. “Interdiction doesn’t work,” Mr. Rubio said at a news conference in Mexico City last week when asked about the U.S. attack on a boat in the Caribbean. President Trump had boasted that the strike had killed at least 11 people. “What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” Mr. Rubio added. “And it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now, I don’t know, but the point is the president of the United States is going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations.” Mr. Rubio has cast himself as a top general in that war. No senior Trump official has spoken more forcefully about the new campaign of violence against Latin American criminal groups and their allies. And no senior aide to Mr. Trump has as long a history working on Latin America policy. Over 14 years as a Republican senator from Florida, Mr. Rubio pressed three administrations to go on the offense across the region. The son of anti-Communist immigrants from pre-revolutionary Cuba, he was motivated by his loathing for the Castro government and its allies, notably Venezuela — a stance well rewarded by Florida’s sizable population of expatriates from those countries. Now, as both secretary of state and White House national security adviser, he is seizing his chance to turn words into action. Mr. Rubio has long sought the ouster of leftist strongmen in the region, particularly leaders of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, whose governments he has called “illegitimate.” He has also helped engineer the administration’s mass deportations of immigrants, including to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Mr. Rubio’s approach carries legal and political risks. He has not presented a legal rationale for the lethal strike on the boat. He has said only that the vessel posed an “imminent” threat even though it appeared to be turning around before it was hit multiple times by the U.S. military.

Reuters [9/12/2025 6:02 PM, Ted Hesson and Jonathan Landay, 20690K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration plans to call for sharply narrowing the right to asylum at the United Nations later this month, documents show, as it seeks to undo the post-World War Two framework around humanitarian protection. State Department officials sketched out plans for an event later this month on the sidelines of the U.N.’s annual general assembly meeting that would call for reframing the global approach to asylum and immigration to reflect Trump’s restrictive stance, according to two internal planning documents reviewed by Reuters and a State Department spokesperson. Under the proposed framework, asylum seekers would be required to claim protection in the first country they enter, not a nation of their choosing, the spokesperson said. Asylum would be temporary and the host country would decide whether conditions in their home country had improved enough to return, a major shift from how asylum works in the U.S. and elsewhere. Trump’s administration has already rewritten the U.S. approach to immigration, prioritizing white South Africans for entry and forcefully detaining those in the country illegally. With the U.N. event, Trump would be taking that restrictive vision global, urging its adoption by the world body that established the international legal framework for the right to seek asylum.

Daily Caller [9/12/2025 4:29 PM, Jason Cohen, 985K] reports Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett on "The Breakfast Club" Friday likened U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to "slave patrols" as agents reportedly face a significant spike in assaults. ICE agents are experiencing a 1000% increase in assaults as they conduct operations, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Crockett called ICE a "rogue policing force" on the radio show, arguing people would realize it resembled "slave patrols" if they knew black history.

Daily Wire [9/12/2025 5:56 AM, Hank Berrien, 3184K] reports Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) ignited outrage during a House Judiciary Committee markup when she referred to Kayla Hamilton — a 20-year-old autistic woman raped and murdered by an MS-13 gang member who entered the country as an unaccompanied minor — as a "random dead person." The committee was debating the Kayla Hamilton Act, legislation introduced by Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) that would require background checks on Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) before releasing them into U.S. communities. The bill is named in honor of Hamilton, who was brutally murdered in 2022 by Walter Javier Martinez, a 17-year-old illegal immigrant with known gang ties who had been placed in the U.S. without vetting. Crockett, rather than focusing on the substance of the bill, lashed out at Republicans, accusing them of exploiting tragedies. "Stop just throwing a random dead person’s name on something for your own political expediency," she said, in reference to Hamilton. Crockett didn’t stop there — she also accused the GOP of ignoring victims like those tied to Jeffrey Epstein and claimed Republicans only use tragic deaths when politically convenient. Rep. Fry fired back, calling Crockett’s comments "disgusting rhetoric" and "shameful behavior.". "Let me be clear: Kayla Hamilton was not just a random person," Fry told Fox Digital. "She was a young woman with a family and a future." "Sadly, this is what we’ve come to expect from Democrats, who will take any opportunity to downplay the tragedy of Americans killed by criminal illegal aliens," Fry continued. "I expect Mrs. Crockett to issue a full, public apology to Kayla’s family and to every American who has suffered because of her party’s reckless, open-borders agenda."

Reported similarly:
FOX News [9/12/2025 9:08 AM, Preston Mizell, 40019K]

Washington Post [9/12/2025 8:00 AM, Daniel García-Peña, 29079K] reports last month, Colombia buried 13 police officers ambushed while protecting coca eradication efforts in Amalfi. That same day, a car bomb exploded near a military facility in Cali, killing six civilians and injuring dozens more. These tragedies are not the echoes of an old war but new violence from weakened drug traffickers retaliating with cruelty. Colombia does not mourn in isolation. The narcotics that fuel this violence are destined not for our streets but mainly for the streets of Washington, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and beyond. The fight against transnational crime is a shared struggle that touches lives across the Western Hemisphere. At last month’s International Drug Enforcement Conference, hosted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Nashville, Brig. Gen. Carlos Fernando Triana, head of Colombia’s National Police, paid tribute to the 13 fallen officers. He reminded the audience, drawn from law enforcement agencies around the world, of the mission’s human cost. Colombia’s security forces are on the front line, but they are not fighting for Colombia alone. The results of this fight are tangible and measurable. In the first half of this year alone, Colombian authorities seized more than 500 tons of cocaine, which means they are on track to break last year’s record. They have also destroyed 2,486 laboratories, captured 183 people for extradition and delivered 177 more to U.S. and international courts. Assets worth more than $125 million have been seized from mafia networks. These figures represent more than 800 million doses of cocaine kept off global markets. Every interdiction, every arrest, every seizure denies criminal groups the money that is their oxygen. Progress has also been made in fighting organizations that have extended their reach well beyond Colombia. The Tren de Aragua and Clan del Golfo cartels, both of which operate across borders, have lost leaders thanks to joint U.S.-Colombian operations. Authorities in Medellín, recently arrested two Tren de Aragua’s criminals on Colorado’s most wanted list. This success demonstrates how shared intelligence and cooperation also protect U.S. communities.

Washington Times [9/12/2025 8:46 AM, Stephen Dinan, 964K] reports ICE has now tallied more than 300,000 deportations for the fiscal year, marking the first time in more than a decade that the deportation agency has topped that milestone. The fiscal year includes the last three and a half months of the Biden administration, but the vast majority of those deportations have happened under President Trump, who has roughly doubled the pace compared to his predecessor. All told, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has formally removed 302,192 people as of the latest count on Sept. 6. The fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2024. The last time ICE topped 300,000 was in 2014. Last year, the final full fiscal year under President Biden, the tally was about 271,000, or an average of about 740 a day. Under Mr. Trump, ICE is currently averaging 1,350 a day. If that continues, he’ll end the fiscal year at the end of this month in the ballpark of 335,000 deportations. The all-time record is 2012, when President Obama oversaw nearly 410,000 deportations. If Mr. Trump maintains his current pace of removals for a whole year, he would shatter that, coming in at just shy of half a million. The new data shows ICE is arresting about 920 people a day. That rate has held steady since late July.

NewsNation [9/13/2025 5:32 AM, Sandra Sanchez, 6811K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is increasing the use of ankle monitors, an older form of technology for migrants not in detention facilities while their immigration cases are under review, according to an analysis of new data by Border Report. As of Saturday, the number of migrants on ankle monitors was 29,089 nationwide, according to the latest ICE data published on the agency’s website. That’s up from 28,070 migrants on ankle monitors as of Aug. 23 in the agency’s Alternatives to Detention program, according to data from Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). The ankle monitors use satellite GPS technology, according to ICE. The number of migrants monitored via the SmartLINK app decreased from 150,784 as of Aug. 23, to 148,717 as of Sept. 6, a comparison of the data found. For the past few years, the number of migrants given devices with the SmartLINK app to monitor their whereabouts had been increasing. The app allows migrants to send photos of themselves and check in with ICE officials and to access calendars with their upcoming court date information. It is not a cellphone, however, and does not allow them to make calls or scroll the Internet. The number of migrants placed on ankle monitors in El Paso is more than double the number on SmartLINK apps. The number supervised through ankle monitors in Harlingen, Texas, is about half the number now on SmartLINK apps. The number of migrants monitored via a newer wristworn GPS device also decreased to 2,547 from 2,623 during that time period, Border Report has found. The wristworn devices use satellite GPS but also have software enabling facial matching, direct messaging, and push notifications, ICE says. The total number of migrants placed in the Alternatives to Detention program was 181,401 as of Sept. 6, ICE reports. "ICE’s Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program exists to ensure compliance with release conditions and provides important case management services," the agency says on its website. The "program utilizes case management and technology tools to support aliens’ compliance with release conditions while on ICE’s non-detained docket.” The daily tech monitoring costs for the various programs was $234,153.82 as of Sept. 6, according to ICE. The daily cost per ATD Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) participant is less than $4.20 per day — much less than the $152 per day fee for migrants held in detention facilities, the agency says. The total number of migrants held in detention facilities nationwide was 58,766 as of Sept. 7.

New York Times [9/13/2025 12:51 AM, Chris Cameron, 143795K] reports lawyers for five migrants deported to Ghana last week accused the Trump administration on Friday of ignoring court-ordered protections for their clients, the latest legal challenge to a campaign that has been carried out with remarkable speed and a lack of transparency. In an interview on Friday evening, the lawyers said the case bore similarities to that of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to his home country of El Salvador earlier this year and who continues to fight a labyrinthine legal battle as the administration tries to deport him to various African countries. As in his case, the suit, filed in the Federal District Court in Washington, raised the question of whether the administration had defied judges’ orders protecting the migrants. The Trump administration has brokered deals with several African nations, Rwanda, Uganda, Eswatini and — most recently — Ghana, to accept deported migrants, many of whom have no connection to those countries. Administration officials, under pressure from President Trump to carry out his promised mass deportation operation, have moved swiftly on these so-called third-country deportations. Lawyers with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, representing the five migrants, accused the administration of using its agreement with Ghana to ignore the legal protections that prevent deportation to their home countries because they fear torture or persecution. In essence, they argued, the administration has enabled an “end run” around those prohibitions, by first removing them to Ghana, and then claiming it is powerless to stop Ghana from sending them to their home countries. “Defendants have enlisted the government of Ghana to do their dirty work,” the lawyers said in their filing. “Despite the minimal, pass-through involvement of the Ghanaian government, defendants’ objective is clear: Deport individuals who have been granted fear-based relief from being sent to their countries of origin to those countries anyway, in contravention to the rulings of U.S. immigration judges and U.S. immigration law.”

Reuters [9/12/2025 6:30 AM, Ben Kellerman, 45746K] reports the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday gave momentum to President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration agenda, letting agents continue raids in Southern California as well as target people based on their race or language. The same day, the administration said it launched a deportation crackdown in Illinois. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, however, has not kept pace with Trump’s targets. The administration tripled its daily quota for ICE arrests from 1,000 to 3,000 in late May, sources told Reuters. Data showing the number of people booked into detention facilities each month indicates ICE is falling far short of that. The White House plans to target more businesses for enforcement after a raid on a Hyundai facility in Georgia led to hundreds of arrests, its border czar Tom Homan said.

AP [9/12/2025 1:00 PM, Luis Andres Henao, 37974K] reports a group of top U.S. Catholic bishops and nuns on the front lines of the country’s immigration conflict have decried the Trump administration’s hard-line policies for tearing apart families, inciting fear and upending American church life. While criticizing the federal government, the Catholic leaders also explained at a Thursday panel discussion at Georgetown University how they are supporting worried immigrants. With President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda and ramped up immigration enforcement, they said, many families are wary of taking their children to school, going to work or church for fear of being detained and deported. "The way that the immigration policies are enforced these days are not only destabilizing the life of the particular immigrant, but whole families, businesses, the life of children, whole communities, neighborhoods," said Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, of Washington, D.C. "What I’m seeing in people’s eyes, is pain and a deep confusion. … Where do we go from here if we’re not welcome." Department of Homeland Security officials have maintained there will be no safe spaces for those who are in the country illegally, have committed crimes, or tried to undermine immigration enforcement. They have consistently said their efforts are intended to safeguard public safety and national security. Catholic leaders at odds with Trump over immigration.

FOX News [9/12/2025 7:07 PM, Alexandra Koch, 40019K] reports a federal judge ruled on Friday ICE agents can continue making courthouse arrests in New York City, shutting down a challenge brought by the ACLU and immigrant rights groups. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, a George W. Bush appointee, found there was not enough evidence to suggest that ICE’s courthouse arrest policy changes were "unexplained, arbitrary and capricious," as 2021 guidance allowed arrests at or near immigration courts. Noting the 2025 guidance is more "expansive and permissive," Castel acknowledged ICE made the changes because local correctional facilities and prisons, which are considered "safe" locations due to security screenings, are not available due to state and local policies regarding immigration detainers. However, the judge did block a Department of Justice policy encouraging immigration judges to dismiss cases so ICE could immediately arrest migrants.

Reported similarly:
Washington Times [9/12/2025 2:03 PM, Stephen Dinan, 964K]
Telemundo [9/12/2025 10:03 PM, Staff, 2782K]

New York Times [9/12/2025 4:21 PM, Lydia DePillis and Hamed Aleaziz, 153395K] reports almost 500 people were detained during a raid of a Georgia battery plant owned by two South Korean manufacturers last week, the largest immigration enforcement operation at one location in the history of the Department of Homeland Security. But in at least one instance, officials admitted a worker was employed legally and forced him to leave the country anyway, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. The Times obtained internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest records for 11 of the detained workers. Six entered the country with B1 or B1/B2 visas, which are issued for business trips of up to six months. Four entered through the visa waiver program, which allows travel for 90 days. In one case, the worker’s status was unclear. The records stated that all but one of the 11 were working unlawfully at the time of the raid, but did not provide details about why. In the one exception, agents said that although the worker “has not violated his visa,” the local ICE field office director “mandated” that he be considered someone who was voluntarily departing the country. The file noted that he worked for the South Korean engineering firm SFA, which did not respond to a request for comment. Two-thirds of the people arrested on Sept. 4 were South Koreans, and nearly all of them were flown back to their home country this week. They landed in Seoul on Friday afternoon local time — only after sitting in limbo for 24 hours while President Trump told his government to consider letting them stay and train American workers, South Korean officials said. “What ICE is doing here is illegal, and people should be held to account,” said Charles Kuck, an Atlanta immigration lawyer who is representing some of those who were detained. “If we’re turning from ‘let’s enforce the law against people who violate the law’ to ‘let’s enforce the law against everybody regardless of their legal status,’ I think we’ve changed the kind of country that we’ve become.” The question of who will perform both the heavy manual labor and sophisticated technical jobs associated with advanced factories has taken on greater urgency in recent years as the federal government has pushed advanced manufacturing, often led by foreign companies.

Breitbart [9/12/2025 5:17 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2608K] reports several homes and a Chinese restaurant were raided by ICE agents simultaneously in St. Charles, Missouri last week with dozens of workers taken into custody and two indicted for harboring illegal aliens. After the Sept. 4 raid, an indictment was handed down for two migrants, De Jin Ye and Guo Liang Ye, who reportedly own the Golden Apple Buffet in St. Charles, KSDK-TV reported. Guo Liang Ye and De Jin Ye, both 56, are facing felony charges in the Eastern District of Missouri, court records show. Federal prosecutors allege that the pair concealed, harbored, and shielded people who entered the United States illegally, according to St. Louis Public Radio station STLPR. The St. Charles County Department of Public Health issued a statement saying that they participated in the immigration action. A spokesman for the restaurant claimed that many of the workers had their proper work authorizations and are not working illegally.

Chicago Tribune [9/12/2025 2:45 PM, Steve Sadin, 5352K] reports that organizers of Waukegan’s Viva La Independencia Parade 2025 will step off Sunday as planned despite the hundreds of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stationed at nearby Naval Station Great Lakes as part of President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts. Celebrating the independence of Mexico and six other Latin American countries, Elizabeth Marrero, part of parade organizer Juntoz NFP, said she expects a smaller crowd than last year. Still, she believes continuing the tradition is important for the community. "We’re going to be here for the people who are not able to be here," Marrero said. "We’re not stopping. We’re defending our community. We’ve been doing this for 30 years. If you don’t feel safe, please stay home. We’re doing everything we can to make people feel safe." The Viva La Independencia Parade 2025 steps off at noon Sunday near Waukegan High School’s Washington campus and proceeds east on Washington Street to downtown Waukegan with horses, bands and floats celebrating Mexican independence won on Sept. 16, 1810. Working with the city, community organizations and other groups to bring symbols of Mexican culture to Waukegan Sunday, community safety and fear did not become a significant issue until late last week when approximately 300 ICE agents arrived at the North Chicago naval base. Though witnesses said they saw ICE agents around the office they were using at the base last week, when U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Springfield, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Hoffman Estates, and U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, arrived the following day, they were gone.

Chicago Tribune [9/12/2025 5:53 PM, Molly Morrow, 5352K] reports that just days after President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security announced a surge of immigration law enforcement in Chicago, dubbing it "Operation Midway Blitz," state Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, is saying that all suburbs should prepare in case federal law enforcement activity extends into their towns. On Thursday, Hernandez hosted an informational session with a representative from the Illinois Coalition on Immigrant and Refugee Rights and several Aurora aldermen meant to address what local businesses can do if federal agents arrive at their workplaces. The training addressed topics like distinguishing between federal and local law enforcement badges, how individuals can respond to federal law enforcement agents’ presence in both public and private business spaces and what to do if apprehended by federal agents. Weeks ago, President Trump was floating the possibility of sending National Guard troops to Chicago, according to past reporting. Then, last weekend, he set the stage for a surge of immigration enforcement in the city with a social media post with the title "Chipocalypse Now." Though Trump has seemingly put on pause the plans to send the National Guard to Chicago, on Monday, the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security announced "Operation Midway Blitz," the much-anticipated immigration enforcement surge, according to past reporting.

Breitbart [9/12/2025 1:04 PM, Randy Clark, 2608K] reports that the United States Marshals Service (USMS) Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, working hand in hand with the San Antonio Police Department, located 30 missing children. Investigators also opened five new human trafficking cases during a two-week operation dubbed "Operation Lightning Bug." The operation, carried out from July 28 through August 15, focused resources to review every missing juvenile listed in the Texas Crime Information Center and National Crime Information Center databases for the greater San Antonio area. The multi-law enforcement agency task force compiled intelligence that was used to create operational plans that ultimately led to the recovery of the children and struck a blow to human trafficking activity in the Alamo city area. On Wednesday, Deputy U.S. Marshal Jose Nunez, announced the results of the operation that led to the rescue of the missing children and evidence that led to the newly opened human trafficking investigations. In addition to the location of the missing children, Nunez reported that the task force executed nine felony arrest warrants, made three arrests for harboring a runaway, provided victim services for six trafficking survivors, and contacted more than 120 additional missing juveniles, encouraging to return home. The successful operation in San Antonio was carried out through the coordination of personnel from the San Antonio Police Department, Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Attorney General’s Office, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, New Braunfels Police Department, Texas Board of Criminal Justice, Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Washington Examiner [9/12/2025 4:35 PM, Brady Knox, 1563K] reports an illegal immigrant who is charged with beheading his boss had been released from immigration detention in January after his home country of Cuba refused him entry because of his criminal history. Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, 37, was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly beheading his boss, Chandra Nagamallaiah, 50, and kicking his head around. The grisly killing was allegedly over an argument about a washing machine. Jail records viewed by NBC News showed he was being held without bond in the Dallas County Jail on an immigration detainer. The Department of Homeland Security identified Cobos-Martinez as a Cuban national who was previously held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in a detention center near Dallas. He was released in January after Cuba "would not accept him because of his criminal history," the outlet reported. The statement said the case supported President Donald Trump’s new policy of deporting illegal immigrants with dangerous criminal histories to third countries to which they have no relation.

San Diego Union Tribune [9/12/2025 6:31 PM, Alexandra Mendoza, 1648K] reports a class-action lawsuit is challenging the Trump administration’s practice of arresting people upon exiting their immigration court hearings, as has occurred in several cities, including San Diego, over the past several months — although local court watchers say arrests in the hallways have stopped in recent weeks. Filed on behalf of two asylum seekers detained outside the San Diego federal building’s immigration court this year, the lawsuit claims that the federal government is employing tactics that violate individuals’ due process rights. "We’re asking a federal judge to look at what the agencies are doing and to declare that it’s unlawful," said Kimberly Hutchison, partner at the Singleton Schreiber law firm, which filed the suit last week in the San Diego federal court. The Department of Homeland Security — the parent agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, all of which are named in the lawsuit — did not respond to a request for comment. The lawsuit notes the shift in policies concerning civil immigration enforcement "in or near" courthouses.

AP [9/12/2025 6:46 PM, Michael Casey, 37974K] reports that a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Trump administration can end legal protections for around 430,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest twist in a legal fight over Biden-era policies that created new and expanded pathways for people to live in the United States, generally for two years with work authorization. The Trump administration announced in March it was ending the humanitarian parole protections. “We recognize the risks of irreparable harm persuasively laid out in the district court’s order: that parolees who lawfully arrived in this country were suddenly forced to choose between leaving in less than a month — a choice that potentially includes being separated from their families, communities, and lawful employment and returning to dangers in their home countries,” the judges wrote. “But absent a strong showing of likelihood of success on the merits, the risk of such irreparable harms cannot, by itself, support a stay.” In a two-page ruling, the court lifted a stay issued by a district court and is allowing the administration to end humanitarian parole for those groups while the lawsuit plays out. The ruling Friday is a victory for the Trump administration but doesn’t change anything on the ground. Esther Sung, the legal director of Justice Action Center, a co-counsel in the case, said the ruling “hurts everyone.”

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Bloomberg Law [9/12/2025 6:18 PM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 75K]

Univision [9/12/2025 8:28 AM, Staff, 4932K] reports a federal judge orders the Trump administration to comply with its previous ruling that it reinstated the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Venezuelans, also demanding the reopening of the TPS registry for Venezuelans for 24 hours. Judge Edward Chen imposed a deadline to update the USCIS website on Friday, September 12, 5 p.m. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to comply with its previous ruling that reinstated the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Venezuelans, also demanding the reopening of the TPS registry for Venezuelans for 24 hours. The order was issued following the government’s refusal to allow access to a website to renew existing protections, causing widespread confusion. Judge Edward Chen had previously ruled that the actions of the Trump administration, which stripped a million Venezuelans and Haitians of aid, were illegal.

AP [9/12/2025 12:21 PM, Janie Har, 3790K] reports President Donald Trump’s administration must update its immigration services website to reflect that 600,000 Venezuelans with temporary protected status are legally allowed to live and work in the United States, a federal judge ordered. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ordered Trump’s Republican administration to change its U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website after plaintiffs’ lawyers said temporary protected status holders were still in detention centers or unable to return to work even after his Sept. 5 judgment in favor of plaintiffs. Chen said on Thursday his Sept. 5 order in favor of TPS holders went into effect immediately. That ruling found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had unlawfully canceled temporary protected status, or TPS, extensions granted by President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration for 1.1 million Venezuelans and Haitians. TPS is a designation that can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary to people in the United States if their homelands are deemed unsafe for return due to a natural disaster, political instability or other dangerous conditions.

AP [9/12/2025 3:33 PM, Jonathan Stempel, 45746K] reports Tesla, the electric vehicle company led by billionaire Elon Musk, was accused in a lawsuit on Friday of favoring visa holders over Americans when making employment decisions so it can pay less. According to a proposed class action filed in San Francisco federal court, Tesla violates federal civil rights law through its "systematic preference" to hire visa holders, and fire U.S. citizens at disproportionate rates compared with visa holders. The complaint said Tesla is dependent on holders of H-1B visas for skilled workers, including in 2024 when it hired an estimated 1,355 visa holders while laying off more than 6,000 workers domestically, "the vast majority" believed to be U.S. citizens. Tesla, based in Austin, Texas, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

San Francisco Chronicle [9/12/2025 9:01 AM, Tara Sonenshine, 3790K] reports American college campuses from Tucson to Tallahassee are buzzing with the familiar routine of students getting settled in classes and dorms. One new trend, though, is emerging. An estimated 30% to 40% fewer international students are expected on American college campuses in the fall of 2025, compared with trends in the 2024-2025 academic year, according to according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators – a nonprofit that focuses on international education – and JB International, a for-profit educational technology firm. In total, an estimated 150,000 fewer international students were expected to arrive this fall, due to new visa restrictions and visa appointments being canceled at U.S. embassies and consulates in many countries, such as India, China, Nigeria and Japan. NAFSA and JB International are expected to release updated data on international student enrollment in November 2025. There were over 1.1 million international students – more than half of whom were from China or India – on American college campuses in the 2023-2024 academic year, according to the Institute for International Education, which monitors foreign student programs and shares the most comprehensive available recent data. This sharp drop in international students could cost the U.S. economy US$7 billion in the 2025-26 school year, according to estimates from NAFSA. For every three international students in the U.S., one new American job is created or supported by the average $35,000 these students spend in their local communities on housing, food and transportation, and other costs. As a senior fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy in the Obama administration, I oversaw many of the student exchange programs involving multiple countries around the globe. I foresee a major economic crisis over international students that could last for years.

Daily Caller [9/12/2025 10:03 AM, Jason Hopkins, 985K] reports the largest trucking association in the country is pleading with the Trump administration to stop foreign nationals from ripping off American truckers. The American Trucking Associations (ATA), which represents more than 37,000 motor carriers and suppliers throughout the U.S., is asking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to put a stop to unauthorized Mexican drivers hauling point-to-point loads within the U.S., a process known as cabotage, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The ATA argues this unlawful conduct by foreign drivers is a serious issue that hurts American truckers. "A foreign driver engaged in cabotage is not a technicality or a minor paperwork violation," ATA President Chris Spear wrote to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. "It is outright lawbreaking that suppresses wages and work for American truck drivers."

Reuters [9/12/2025 9:27 AM, Diana Shaw, 45746K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is emerging as one of the most consequential enforcement agencies in Washington, with its traditional role in customs and tariff collection now intertwined with the Trump Administration’s trade strategy and foreign policy. Once largely seen as revenue collectors, customs officers and trade specialists are increasingly on the front lines of detecting fraud, monitoring supply chains, and policing compliance with U.S. trade laws. The shift comes at a moment when tariffs and trade policy are dominating the headlines. With the Administration betting heavily on tariffs both as a negotiating tool and a source of federal revenue, CBP has become a linchpin for making those policies stick. That pivot is changing not only how the agency is resourced and staffed, but also how businesses must calibrate their compliance strategies to guard against growing enforcement risks. CBP’s roots in tariff enforcement stretch back more than two centuries. The agency traces its lineage to the creation of the U.S. Customs Service in 1789, when customs duties were the young nation’s primary source of federal revenue.

SFGate [9/12/2025 2:28 PM, Sam Hill, 11503K] reports when U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested two firefighters at the height of the Bear Gulch Fire on the edge of Olympic National Park last month, it sparked widespread backlash over whether immigration enforcement had put public safety at risk. Social media exploded with criticism over the arrests, and local lawmakers alarmed by the federal agents’ actions began strategizing on what to do next. In Thurston County, county Commissioner Wayne Fournier decided to spearhead a new ordinance that seeks to bar federal agencies from disrupting emergency crews and mandates clearer communication with response leaders. "This isn’t about politics or immigration. This is about keeping emergency responders focused on saving lives and property," Fournier, who had a 30-year career in fire services before turning to politics, told SFGATE. "We can’t have raids disrupting fire suppression efforts or emergency response efforts, because it doesn’t help bring things to an end and also wastes taxpayer money.". The proposed ordinance, called the Emergency Responder Protection and Enforcement Coordination Act, hasn’t been made public, but a draft was provided to SFGATE for review. It’s designed to safeguard emergency operations from outside disruption, ensuring that firefighting and disaster responses aren’t derailed by federal enforcement actions, to protect all responders’ due process rights regardless of background and to require federal agents to clearly identify themselves and coordinate with incident commanders before taking action. It would declare emergency operations as "Non-Interference Zones" that require agencies to comply with additional rules to operate.

New York Times [9/13/2025 2:49 AM, Ben Blatt and Christine Chung, 330K] reports that, if you’ve flown in the last 15 years, you probably know about T.S.A. PreCheck, the program intended to speed vetted travelers through dedicated airport security lanes: You don’t have to remove your shoes or belt and can keep liquids and electronics in carry-ons. Over time, the Transportation Security Administration program, which costs under $80 for five years, has become less exclusive as its membership numbers have soared to more than 22 million. Meanwhile, the standard security line has begun to resemble the PreCheck line, with the recently announced end of the shoe removal rule; new lanes for families and veterans at certain airports; and the rollout of more advanced imaging technology. So how much time does PreCheck actually save travelers at some of the busiest U.S. airports? We analyzed publicly available data from some major airports, including the three in the New York area. At these airports — Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark — PreCheck saves travelers five to 10 minutes on average, according to our analysis. But this will depend on the terminal you’re flying out of and the time of day you’re departing. Sometimes you may save over 30 minutes, sometimes none at all. At some other major airports, the average time saved appears to be lower than in New York. It’s too early to say how the shoe rule change will affect PreCheck’s value. But at the very least, PreCheck is a relatively inexpensive insurance policy. It can make a big difference if you find yourself flying when lines are longer than usual. We have data on specific New York-area terminals below. Over the past year, PreCheck members accounted for 34 percent of passengers screened at airport checkpoints, a T.S.A. spokesman said. The program is available at more than 200 U.S. airports. At the New York airports, PreCheck’s value plummeted during the pandemic in 2020, when fewer people traveled and all security lines were short, so the gap in wait times was negligible. But today, the time savings are roughly the same as just before the pandemic, even though PreCheck now has more than double the number of enrollees. Adam Stahl, acting deputy administrator at the T.S.A., said PreCheck still offered a “significant value proposition,” with shorter waits and less invasive screening. (Applicants to the program are fingerprinted and submit to a background check.) Even as membership has grown, the T.S.A. has largely been able to keep up with demand by opening additional PreCheck lines and repositioning transportation security officers. Using data from airline bookings, the agency can determine how many officers are needed at each security checkpoint and lane, said Christopher Bidwell, a senior vice president for the Airports Council International-North America, a trade group representing commercial airports. The T.S.A. has also hired more officers as passenger numbers have risen, with more than 54,000 transportation security officers across 440 U.S. airports. That’s a roughly 9 percent increase since 2021, according to the agency. Last year, it screened a record 904 million passengers, a 5 percent increase from the previous year.

FOX News [9/12/2025 7:09 AM, Preston Mizell, 40019K] reports DHS and Secretary Kristi Noem are placing a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employee on administrative leave after a data analyst complained that flags were flying at half-staff in memory of Charlie Kirk, referring to the conservative activist as a "racist homophobe misogynist." Sources at DHS confirmed to Fox News Digital that Gavin Sylvia, who has been with FEMA since November 2024, questioned President Donald Trump’s order to have American flags flown at half-staff in memory of Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in Utah during an event on Wednesday. "Half staff for the literal racist homophobe misogynist," Sylvia questioned on Instagram. "This employee’s words are revolting and unconscionable," a spokesperson for FEMA told Fox News Digital. "Celebrating the death of a fellow American is appalling, unacceptable and sickening." "Such behavior does not reflect the values of public service, and it will not be tolerated among individuals entrusted to work at FEMA," the spokesperson continued. "We expect all public servants to uphold the highest standard of professionalism, respect and integrity." DHS confirmed to Fox News Digital that Sylvia has officially been placed on administrative leave. Sources at DHS also told Fox that Sylvia’s comments were disgraceful and that the data analyst has no place at the Department of Homeland Security or at any agency in the federal government. Sylvia’s leave comes as other federal agencies are closely monitoring employee social media activity and responses to Kirk’s murder.

AP [9/12/2025 12:38 PM, David A. Lieb and M.K. Wildeman, 37974K] reports President Donald Trump has approved federal disaster aid for six states and tribes following storms and floods that occurred this spring and summer. The disaster declarations, announced Thursday, will allow federal funding to flow to Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota and Wisconsin, and for tribes in Montana and South Dakota. In each case except Wisconsin, it took Trump more than a month to approve the aid requests from local officials, continuing a trend of longer waits for disaster relief noted by a recent Associated Press analysis. Trump has now approved more than 30 major natural disaster declarations since taking office in January. Before the latest batch, his approvals had averaged a 34-day wait from the time the relief was requested. For his most recent declarations, that wait ranged from just 15 days following an aid request for Wisconsin flooding in August to 56 days following a tribal request for Montana flooding that occurred in May. The AP’s analysis showed that delays in approving federal disaster aid have grown over time, regardless of the party in power. On average, it took less than two weeks for requests for a presidential disaster declaration to be granted in the 1990s and early 2000s. That rose to about three weeks during the past decade under presidents from both major parties. During Trump’s first term in office, it took him an average of 24 days to approve requests. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the AP that Trump is providing "a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him" to make sure that federal tax dollars are spent wisely.

Washington Examiner [9/12/2025 9:01 AM, Brady Knox, 1563K] reports President Donald Trump’s Secret Service was silently beefed up after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, reviving safety fears for the president and his allies. Amid the shock of the death of Kirk, Trump’s close ally and friend, the president and his allies’ security details and precautionary measures were expanded, a senior White House official told the Wall Street Journal. A 9/11 commemoration ceremony at the Defense Department, where Trump delivered a speech, was moved to a more secure location, the official said, while the law enforcement presence at the Thursday Yankees game was expanded. The official said Trump’s team is having wider discussions regarding how to increase his security. When contacted for comment, the Secret Service wouldn’t confirm or deny the reports. Close calls regarding security have caused concern about Trump’s protection. One person was let into Trump’s Virginia golf course with a handgun while the president was on the premises. And during a trip to Joe’s Seafood in Washington, D.C., protesters were able to get within feet of the president. "The safety and security of our protectees is the U.S. Secret Service’s top priority. President Trump receives the highest levels of U.S. Secret Service protection and the agency adjusts our protective posture as needed to mitigate evolving threats. Out of concern for operational security, we cannot discuss the specific means and methods used for our protective operations," Secret Service chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi said. When contacted for comment, the White House directed the Washington Examiner to Trump’s remarks on Thursday when reporters asked if he was concerned about his own safety. "Not really," Trump said. "I’m really concerned for our country. We have a great country. We have a radical-left group of lunatics out there, just absolute lunatics, and we’re going to get that problem solved. I’m only concerned for the country.".

CBS News [9/12/2025 3:43 PM, Jennifer Jacobs and Nicole Sganga, 45245K] reports that the U.S. Secret Service put on leave an agent who expressed negative opinions on social media about slain conservative influencer Charlie Kirk and revoked his security clearance, two U.S. officials said. Anthony Pough wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday that Kirk had "spewed hate and racism on his show ... at the end of the day, you answer to GOD, and speak things into existence. You can only circumvent karma, she doesn’t leave." In a memo to staff that was shared with CBS News, Secret Service Director Sean Curran said politically motivated attacks in the United States are on the rise, and staff shouldn’t exacerbate the problem. "Let me be clear, politically motivated attacks in our nation are increasing — seemingly every day," Curran wrote. "The men and women of the Secret Service must be focused on being the solution, not adding to the problem.". Real Clear Politics first reported on Pough’s social media post on Kirk. Pough has not yet responded to a request for comment. A U.S. Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement, "The U.S. Secret Service will not tolerate behavior that violates our code of conduct. This employee was immediately put on administrative leave, and an investigation has begun." Curran’s memo, sent Thursday night and addressed to "the Men and Women of the Secret Service," said he was reminding employees "we swear an oath to those we protect to conduct ourselves with the highest standards of conduct on and off duty."

Reported similarly:
NewsNation [9/12/2025 3:28 PM, Libbey Dean, 6811K]

Daily Caller [9/12/2025 6:41 PM, Katelynn Richardson, 985K] reports that several law enforcement officials took the stand Friday to detail how they responded on the day they discovered Ryan Routh’s alleged attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump. The trial, which wrapped up early on its fifth day, is moving along faster than anticipated, as Routh takes little time to cross-examine witnesses. Routh is representing himself as he faces five charges for allegedly attempting to assassinate Trump at his Florida golf course. The jury heard Friday from two officials — Sergeant Kenneth Mays and Lt. William Gale of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office — who responded to the situation on Sept. 15, 2024, along with several FBI agents who recovered evidence from the scene. Mays, who was helping with protection that day, explained how he sprang into action after hearing "shots fired!" over the sheriff’s office communications channel. With no access to the Secret Service channel and no further information provided over his own, he began trying to figure out what was happening. After a Secret Service agent at the golf course clubhouse was unable to provide him with any information, Mays parked on Summit Boulevard, where he heard another agent and found a spot in the bushes cleared away like "somebody had been in there." McGee, a mental health counselor, testified Thursday that he followed Routh after hearing the gunshots. He said he did so to record Routh’s license plate number and to take a photo. Prosecutor John Shipley said on Thursday that McGee is "the reason the defendant didn’t get away." Shipley credited Secret Service agent Robert Fercano with stopping Routh from "getting away with it."

Federal News Network [9/12/2025 12:59 PM, Frank Cilluffo, 1147K] reports that Cyberspace is the new battlespace, and America’s cyber defenders are staring down a scary and quickly approaching deadline. This is not a time for uncertainty or political posturing. Our greatest adversary, China, is prepositioning itself inside the digital networks of our nation’s most critical infrastructure, presumably to impede our ability to respond to their own aggression. They’ve broken into nine of the largest U.S. phone networks — and according to the FBI, targeted 80 nations — and are now able to syphon off a treasure trove of data and intelligence on almost every American. They’re targeting internet-connected devices to break into even more of our nation’s critical systems and companies. These attacks, collectively known as The Typhoons, exemplify just one of the threats taking aim every day at companies large and small, state and local governments, and the federal government itself. Protecting our nation’s critical systems in cyberspace is a national and economic security imperative, and an urgent one. Congress has until the end of September to prevent two pillars of America’s cyber defense from collapsing. At risk: the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) of 2015, which enables private sector companies to continue sharing information with the federal agencies piecing together the complex picture during an attack; and the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, which provides vital resources to state and local governments who find themselves under constant assault from cyber criminals and nation-states.

FedScoop [9/12/2025 12:25 PM, Rebecca Heilweil, 56K] reports the Department of Homeland Security failed to effectively implement a critical retention incentive program for cyber talent, according to a new report from the agency’s inspector general, which found that federal funds meant for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were used incorrectly. In 2015, the agency implemented the Cyber Incentive program. The goal, the inspector general said, was to provide extra incentives to employees that might otherwise leave the federal government. More than $100 million has been spent on the program in recent years. The program “was designed to help CISA retain mission-critical cybersecurity talent needed to execute its mission,” the report noted, and was meant to consider a series of qualifications to guide who received the retention benefit. The government hoped to keep in-demand technology experts in government. “We found CISA’s implementation of the program wasted taxpayer funds and invites the risk of attrition of cyber talent, thereby leaving CISA unable to adequately protect the Nation from cyber threats,” the watchdog wrote. Instead of being targeted toward valuable talent likely to transition to the private sector, the payments were disbursed generally, with many ineligible employees receiving tens of thousands of dollars in payment. According to the report, 240 employees who didn’t hold roles directly related to cybersecurity received payment through the Cyber Incentive program.

CyberScoop [9/12/2025 1:24 PM, Matt Kapko] reports researchers and authorities are warning that Akira ransomware attacks involving exploits of a year-old vulnerability affecting SonicWall firewalls are on the rise. A burst of about 40 attacks linked to CVE-2024-40766 hit SonicWall firewalls between mid-July and early August. Researchers have since observed another wave of ransomware attacks linked to active exploits of the defect, which affects the secure sockets layer (SSL) VPN protocol in multiple versions of SonicWall firewalls, and configuration errors. Rapid7 has responded to a “double-digit number of attacks” related to the vulnerability and a series of misconfigurations in victim environments, the company said, expanding on a blog it published earlier this week. The Australian Cyber Security Centre also issued an advisory Wednesday noting that it, too, is responding to a recent increase in active exploitation of the defect. “We are aware of the Akira ransomware targeting vulnerable Australian organisations through SonicWall SSL VPNs,” the agency said. Rapid7’s incident response team told CyberScoop it has spotted a steady increase in attacks since July, sometimes multiple incidents per week among its customers. The narrow scope of Rapid7’s visibility suggests impact could be much wider.

StateScoop [9/12/2025 9:27 PM, Keely Quinlan] reports Nevada has faced a 300% increase in cyberattack attempts on its websites since a ransomware attack in August knocked several state websites offline and downed several digital services, Gov. Joe Lombardo said in a press briefing Friday. The uptick in attempts, Lombardo said at a press briefing in Las Vegas, totaled about 150 million hits to the state’s firewalls in the 72 hours following the first press conference discussing the attack, which was first detected on Aug. 24 and initially identified by state officials as a “security incident.” Despite this, Lombardo said that the state has restored about 90% of its public-facing websites and services following the ransomware attack, with hopes to bring some of the remaining sites and digital services online over the weekend. The increased attempted cyberattacks, which Lombardo said came in the form of phishing attempts to gather state system credentials, followed news about the state conducting a statewide password reset for all employees. Lombardo said the reset was performed as a defensive control to cut off any compromised credentials, and since then, nearly all employees have regained access to their systems. “After new stories about the password resets went live, we began to receive reports of phishing attempts attempting to capture state credentials in real time. Thanks to the heightened awareness from our state employees, these attempts were quickly identified and thwarted as another example of how sensitive these public announcements are,” he said. “For context, the state normally would face approximately 150,000 hits a day. The state has faced over 300% increase in direct attack attempts throughout the recovery operations.”

New York Times [9/13/2025 2:49 AM, Jonathan Wolfe, 330K] reports classes and events at several historically Black colleges and universities were canceled on Friday after a wave of fake threats against schools. The false alarms on Thursday sent at least eight institutions into lockdown, unnerving students and educators and prompting condemnation from Black elected officials. The schools did not provide information about the nature of the threats made, and it was unclear if they were connected. The threats shuttered college campuses across five states, including Florida, Georgia and Virginia, and come at a time of heightened anxiety in the aftermath of the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. The threats also extended beyond Black institutions to campuses and buildings nationwide, including the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland, where a false report of a shooter on Thursday led to an accidental shooting and two injuries. The threats against the historically Black colleges, or H.B.C.U.s, began Thursday morning, when several institutions said they had received what they believed were credible threats, and took steps to protect campus safety. At Hampton University in Virginia, officials sent out an alert asking all nonessential personnel to evacuate and warned students to “minimize their movement across campus.” At Alabama State University, officials suspended all activities, told students to shelter in place and had police officers clear every building on campus. And at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, classes and events were canceled and students were told to go to their dorm rooms and shelter in place. Other campuses, including Spelman College in Atlanta and Florida A&M University, did not receive threats, but locked down anyway out of what they said was an abundance of caution. In a statement, the F.B.I. said it was aware of what it called “hoax threat calls” to a number of H.B.C.U.s, adding that it had “no information to indicate a credible threat.” “The F.B.I. takes these threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk,” the agency said. It added that it was working with local law enforcement to monitor and act upon further threats. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, called the threats against the schools “despicable,” and said they were “yet another indication that the explosion of hateful extremism is out of control.” “These attempts to intimidate everyday Americans will not stand,” he said. He called on the Department of Justice and the F.B.I. to investigate the threats, “and not turn a blind eye when Black college students are apparently being viciously targeted.”

AP [9/13/2025 12:11 AM, Heather Hollingsworth and Andrew Demillo, 37974K] reports around 50 college campuses across the country have been deluged in recent weeks with hoax calls about armed gunmen and other violence, laying bare the challenges of detecting fake threats quickly to prevent mass panic. Students at some schools spent hours hiding under desks, only to find out later it was someone’s idea of a entertainment. On Thursday, several historically Black colleges locked down or canceled classes after receiving threats, at a time when the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college had campuses newly on edge. In other cases, schools figured out early that something was amiss, but even then it took time and resources. The FBI is investigating, but so far there have been no arrests. Dispatch call centers often are the last lines of defense to swatters, a burden in an era of mass shootings, including one this week at a suburban Denver high school and another two weeks ago at a Catholic church in Minneapolis that killed two schoolchildren and injured 21 people. "We have so many mass shootings in this country and so many young people die," said Wendy Via, co-founder and CEO of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. "And so you can’t just blow it off because there has been a bunch of hoaxes." The FBI said swatting is on the rise. Since a center was created in 2023 to gather details on swatting incidents, hundreds of law enforcement agencies have voluntarily submitted thousands of incidents, the FBI said. Swatting has become so prevalent that the U.S. Department of Education offered guidance on how to spot hoax calls. Clues include if the caller can’t answer follow-up questions about their phone number or current location, or mispronounces names. Purgatory, a group affiliated with The Com, which is a loose network of online threat actors, has been linked to some of the recent swats, according to reports from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, an Alabama-based nonprofit that tracks extremist groups online, and the nonprofit Center for Internet Security and Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The FBI declined to comment on the reports. On more than two hours of livestreams captured by the nonprofits and provided to The Associated Press, the caller’s friends can be heard in the background laughing, belching and taking breaks to rap. Keven Hendricks, a cyber crime expert who teaches law enforcement about investigating swatting, said the calls "shake your faith" "We want there to be a reason they were doing it," he said. "And they were doing it for the LOLs."

The Hill [9/12/2025 5:08 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 12414K] reports a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy was injured Thursday after mistaking law enforcement for an active shooter due to online misinformation. After concerns of an active shooter were posted anonymously on a chat platform, the campus in Annapolis, Md., was placed on lockdown shortly after 5 p.m. and security officials began clearing buildings, CNN reported. Even as communications from the school’s commandant seen by CNN showed that there was no active shooter on campus, two midshipmen mistook security personnel for a potential shooter and refused to open their door. The security then forced the door open, prompting one student to hit one official in the head with the butt end of a parade rifle, and was then shot in the arm in the struggle, a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official confirmed. Both injured individuals were taken from the campus to receive medical care, they said. The AP [9/12/2025 4:06 PM, Konstantin Toropin and Brian Witte, 3915K] reports that a post on an anonymous chat platform triggered a lockdown at the U.S. Naval Academy this week, and authorities investigating what turned out to be a false report of a gunman then shot and injured a midshipman who had mistaken them as a threat, a military official said Friday. The base that hosts the academy went into lockdown around 5 p.m. Thursday after it received a threat. However, the official said the threat wasn’t real — it came from a computer belonging to a former midshipman who was later confirmed to be in another part of the country. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely about an ongoing investigation. The false report comes amid anxiety over a spate of recent violence at schools nationwide, including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college. A shooting at a high school in Denver this week left two students injured and the gunman dead, while a shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school left two children dead and 17 injured just over two weeks ago. During the lockdown at the Naval Academy on Thursday, the Navy said in a statement at the time that it was responding to “reports of threats” but that the lockdown was “out of an abundance of caution.” Police were seen near Bancroft Hall, which houses midshipmen in more than 1,600 dorm rooms. It is considered the biggest single college dormitory in the world, according to the school’s website. Online speculation and misinformation led to reports that ranged from an assailant who was dressed in a police uniform to several injured midshipmen.

AP [9/12/2025 8:19 PM, Colleen Slevin and Matthew Brown, 2608K] reports a teenager suspected in a shooting attack at a suburban Denver high school that left two students in critical condition appeared fascinated with previous mass shootings including Columbine and expressed neo-Nazi views online, according to experts. Since December, Desmond Holly, 16, had been active on an online forum where users watch videos of killings and violence, mixed in with content on white supremacism and antisemitism, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism said in a report. Holly shot himself following Wednesday’s shooting at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County. He died of his injuries. It is still unclear how he selected his victims. The county was also the scene of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that killed 14 people. Holly’s TikTok accounts contained white supremacist symbols, the ADL said, and the name of his most recent account included a reference to a popular white supremacist slogan. The account was unavailable Friday. TikTok said accounts associated with Holly had been banned. A spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Mark Techmeyer, declined to comment on the ADL’s findings or discuss its investigation into the shooting. The office previously said that Holly was radicalized by an unspecified “extremist network” but released no details. Two recent suspects in school shootings were active on the so-called “gore forum” that Holly used — Watch People Die, according to the ADL. Holly appears to have opened his account in the month in between shootings in Madison, Wisconsin and Nashville, Tennessee, the ADL said. A few days before Wednesday’s shooting, Holly posted a TikTok video posing in a similar way to how the Wisconsin shooter posed before killing two people during in December. He included a photo of the Wisconsin shooter in a post in which Holly wore black T-shirt with “WRATH” written on the front. He also posted videos showing how he had made the shirt that was like one worn by a gunman in the Columbine shooting, the ADL said. “There is a through-line between those attacks,” said Oren Segal, the ADL’s senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence. “They’re telling us there is a through line because they are referencing each other.” Emails sent to Watch People Die seeking comment weren’t immediately returned. Holly was also active on TikTok’s “True Crime Community,” where it says users have a fascination with mass murderers and serial killers, the ADL said. Some TikTok posts shared by the ADL show one user encouraging Holly to be a “hero,” a term it says white supremacists use to refer to successfully ideologically motivated attackers. The person also told Holly to get a patch with a Nazi-era symbol that was worn by the men who carried out the 2019 attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the 2022 attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Holly posted a photo of two patches that he had but said the Velcro on the back had fallen off. “I’m gonna use stronger glue when I fix it,” he said.

Denver Post [9/12/2025 12:00 PM, Judith Kohler, 2562K] reports that the two students wounded in the Wednesday shooting at Evergreen High School remain in two separate hospitals in critical condition. One student is in CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood and is in critical but stable condition. The other person was moved from St. Anthony to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora and was in critical condition Thursday. A more recent update on their condition was not yet available Friday morning. The students were wounded in the attack at the school in the foothills west of Denver when another student, Desmond Holly, 16, fired on them with a revolver. Jefferson County Sheriff’s said Desmond shot two of his schoolmates -- including 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone — before turning the gun on himself. Desmond died later Wednesday at the hospital. The name of the second student who was shot has not been released. Sheriff’s officials said one victim was shot inside the school and the other was shot in the street behind Evergreen High while attempting to flee. Evergreen High School remained closed, with authorities noting Thursday that the building needed "cosmetic" repairs, including replacing broken windows and lockers with bullet holes, before classes could resume.

AP [9/12/2025 4:06 PM, Staff, 37974K] reports a post on an anonymous chat platform triggered a lockdown at the U.S. Naval Academy this week, and authorities investigating what turned out to be a false report of a gunman then shot and injured a midshipman who had mistaken them as a threat, a military official said Friday. The base that hosts the academy went into lockdown around 5 p.m. Thursday after it received a threat. However, the official said the threat wasn’t real — it came from a computer belonging to a former midshipman who was later confirmed to be in another part of the country. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely about an ongoing investigation. The false report comes amid anxiety over a spate of recent violence at schools nationwide, including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college. A shooting at a high school in Denver this week left two students injured and the gunman dead, while a shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school left two children dead and 17 injured just over two weeks ago. During the lockdown at the Naval Academy on Thursday, the Navy said in a statement at the time that it was responding to "reports of threats" but that the lockdown was "out of an abundance of caution."

Reuters [9/12/2025 10:24 AM, David Lawder, 45746K] reports the U.S. Treasury on Friday called on Group of Seven and European Union allies to impose "meaningful tariffs" on goods from China and India to halt their purchases of Russian oil and convened an emergency G7 finance meeting to discuss efforts to step up pressure on Moscow to end its war in Ukraine. "Chinese and Indian purchases of Russian oil are funding Putin’s war machine and prolonging the senseless killing of the Ukrainian people," a U.S. Treasury spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters. "Earlier this week, we made it clear to our EU allies that if they are serious about ending the war in their own backyard, they need to join us and impose meaningful tariffs that will be rescinded the day the war ends," the spokesperson added. President Donald Trump has imposed an extra 25% tariff on imports from India to pressure New Delhi to halt its purchases of discounted Russian crude oil, bringing total punitive duties on Indian goods to 50% and souring trade negotiations between the two democracies. But Trump has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on Chinese imports over China’s purchases of Russian oil, as his administration navigates a delicate trade truce with Beijing that has brought down retaliatory tariffs from over 100%.

Reuters [9/12/2025 11:15 AM, Staff, 45746K] reports Mexican officials are set to speak with representatives from China next week about Mexico’s planned tariffs on goods from the Asian country, President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday, saying the tariffs were not intended as a coercion measures. Sheinbaum added that the proposed measures, which are set to impact hundreds of goods from countries with which Mexico does not have trade agreements, notably cars sent from China, are not against any country in particular. China on Thursday criticized the tariff hike on Chinese autos, saying the move would undermine investor confidence and "seriously affect Mexico’s business environment." "We have a very good relationship with China and we want to keep having a very good relationship with them," Sheinbaum said in her daily morning press conference. The fresh tariff measures are targeted to sectors which need to boost national production, Sheinbaum added. South Korea has also reached out to Mexican officials to initiate talks, she said.

Washington Post [9/12/2025 10:54 AM, Adam Taylor, 29079K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Israel this week, arriving in the country days after an Israeli airstrike in Qatar against Hamas officials led to a major rift with the Trump administration. The full schedule for Rubio’s trip — slated for Sept. 13-18 — has not been announced, but Israeli media has reported that Rubio will visit the inauguration of a controversial archaeological site in East Jerusalem built by an Israeli settler group in a Palestinian neighborhood. After going to Israel, Rubio will join President Donald Trump in Britain for an official state visit. Rubio also serves as Trump’s White House national security adviser. Rubio’s trip to Israel was planned long before Israeli airstrikes in Qatar on Tuesday, which targeted Hamas officials involved in negotiations toward a ceasefire in the Gaza war. U.S. officials have said little about whether Rubio intends to reiterate Trump’s displeasure with the Israeli airstrikes in Qatar or in any way reprimand Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Rubio “will convey America’s priorities in the Israel-Hamas conflict and broader issues concerning Middle Eastern security, reaffirming the U.S. commitment to Israeli security. He will also emphasize our shared goals: ensuring Hamas never rules over Gaza again and bringing all the hostages home,” State Department deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement. Rubio also intends to discuss Israel’s new offensive in Gaza and the shared opposition to widening international recognition of a Palestinian state, Pigott said. Qatar was not mentioned in the statement.

Reuters [9/12/2025 11:31 PM, Jarrett Renshaw, 45746K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump held dinner with the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday, days after U.S. ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha. Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an attack in Qatar on Tuesday, a strike that risked derailing U.S.-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge. Trump expressed annoyance about the strike in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sought to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not happen again. Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were joined by a top Trump adviser, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. "Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended," Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, said on X. The White House confirmed the dinner had taken place but offered no details. The session followed an hour-long meeting that al-Thani had at the White House on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. A source briefed on the meeting said they discussed Qatar’s future as a mediator in the region and defense cooperation in the wake of the Israeli strikes against Hamas in Doha. Trump said he was unhappy with Israel’s strike, which he described as a unilateral action that did not advance U.S. or Israeli interests. Washington counts Qatar as a strong Gulf ally. Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and for a post-conflict plan for the territory. Al-Thani blamed Israel on Tuesday for trying to sabotage chances for peace but said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator. Israel’s assault on Gaza since October 2023 has killed over 64,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, while internally displacing almost all Gaza’s population and setting off a starvation crisis. Multiple rights experts and scholars say Israel’s military assault on Gaza amounts to genocide. Israel has rejected that determination. It launched its offensive in Gaza after an attack by Hamas-led militants in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel has also bombed Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Yemen in the course of the Gaza conflict.

Reuters [9/12/2025 6:34 PM, Staff, 45746K] reports the United States told the United Nations Security Council on Friday it would "defend every inch of NATO territory" after a suspected Russian drone incursion into Poland. "The United States stands by our NATO allies in the face of these alarming airspace violations," acting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea told the 15-member body. The remarks appear aimed at assuaging Washington’s NATO allies after U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said Russia’s alleged drone incursion into Poland could have been a mistake. Shea also noted Russia has intensified its bombing campaign against Ukraine since Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska as part of his bid to broker an end to Moscow’s more than three-year war in Ukraine. "These actions, now with the addition of violating the airspace of a U.S. ally – intentionally or otherwise – show immense disrespect for good-faith U.S. efforts to bring an end to this conflict," Shea said.

Reuters [9/12/2025 9:11 AM, Staff, 64151K] reports Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday that this week’s drone incursions into his country’s airspace were not a mistake by Russia, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the incident could have been accidental. "We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it," Tusk said on X. Early on Wednesday, Poland shot down drones in its airspace with the backing of military aircraft from its NATO allies, the first time a member of the Western military alliance is known to have fired shots during Russia’s war in Ukraine. Earlier on Friday, deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk also commented on Trump’s comment. "I think this is a message that should reach President Trump today: there’s no question of a mistake - this was a deliberate Russian attack," he told local TV broadcaster Polsat News. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who visits Kyiv on Friday, also responded to Trump’s words.

Reuters [9/12/2025 6:46 PM, David Lawder, 45746K] reports Group of Seven nations’ finance ministers discussed in a call on Friday further sanctions on Russia and possible tariffs on countries that they consider "enabling" its war in Ukraine, as the U.S. called on its allies to impose tariffs on purchasers of Russian oil. Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne chaired the G7 meeting, which was held to discuss further measures to increase pressure on Russia to end its war against Ukraine, according to a statement from Canada, the head of the rolling G7 presidency. The ministers agreed to speed up discussions to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defense, and discussed a "wide range of possible economic measures to increase pressure on Russia, including further sanctions and trade measures, such as tariffs, on those enabling Russia’s war effort," the statement said. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told finance ministers during the call that they should join the U.S. in imposing tariffs on countries that purchase oil from Russia, Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a separate statement following the meeting.

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