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.

Axios [9/17/2025 9:48 PM, Rebecca Falconer, 14595K] reports President Trump is designating the anti-fascist antifa movement as a terrorist organization, according to a post he made during his state visit to the United Kingdom early Thursday U.K. time. "I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices," he added. Antifa is a decentralized, leaderless movement that’s opposed to fascism and is loosely defined as far-left. It can use direct-action protest tactics and an ADL report notes that while "some extreme actors who claim to be affiliated with antifa do engage in violence or vandalism at rallies and events, this is not the norm." Trump told reporters earlier this week that he would consider designating antifa a "domestic terror organization." "I would do that 100% and others also, by the way, but antifa is terrible." The intrigue: Per the ADL, "Because there is no unifying body for antifa, it is impossible to know how many adherents are currently active." Representatives for the White House and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment on Trump’s plans for enforcing action against antifa. During the first Trump administration, then-Attorney General Bill Barr said the DOJ would use its regional FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces to identify the "criminal organizers and instigators" of violence during George Floyd protests, including antifa. NewsMax [9/17/2025 9:04 PM, Staff, 4779K] reports that the designation was explicitly tied by senior officials to the killing of Kirk at a university event, a killing that has intensified partisan pressure in Washington. Authorities say the 31-year-old Kirk was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University last week; prosecutors have charged a 22-year-old suspect in the death. The shooting has prompted a flurry of political responses across the spectrum. Legal experts say the move raises immediate and daunting legal questions. There is no established federal mechanism for designating a loose, decentralized political movement such as antifa as a domestic terrorist organization in the same way the State Department lists foreign terrorist organizations. Past fact-checking and legal analysis have noted presidents cannot unilaterally declare a domestic political movement a terrorist group in the way foreign organizations are designated. Any attempt to treat a U.S.-based, leaderless movement as a formal terrorist organization would likely face prompt court challenges. Congressional Republicans have for months pushed measures to classify antifa-linked conduct as domestic terrorism; a House resolution introduced earlier this year urged the Justice Department to prosecute antifa-linked violence and called for a legislative pathway to treat certain Antifa conduct as terrorism. But analysts say the resolution does not create the statutory tools necessary for a formal domestic terrorist designation. Administration officials signaled they may pursue multiple avenues beyond a formal label: expanded criminal prosecutions, tighter scrutiny of nonprofit and donor networks, and potential use of racketeering statutes to go after coordinated campaigns of violence. CNN [9/17/2025 8:45 PM, Donald Judd, Kevin Liptak, Alayna Treene, 662K] reports that a White House official told CNN, "This is just one of many actions the president will take to address left wing organizations that fuel political violence.” Trump — who’s overseas for a formal state visit — signaled the move earlier this week in remarks from the Oval Office following the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. A host of administration officials have signaled in the wake of Kirk’s assassination that they’ll be targeting what they claim is a coordinated left-wing effort to incite violence. The moves have drawn protests from some Democrats, who allege Trump is creating a pretext to crack down on dissent or opposing viewpoints. It was also not immediately clear what practical effect, if any, the asserted designation would have. In his first term, Trump vowed to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization, and his then-attorney general, William Barr, said its activities constituted "domestic terrorism.” The Daily Signal [9/17/2025 9:29 PM, Tyler O’Neil, 668K] reports "Left-wing organizations have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials, and more," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday. "The Trump administration will get to the bottom of this vast network inciting violence in American communities," she added. "This effort will target those committing criminal acts and hold them accountable.” While protests in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement occasionally grew into violent riots before 2020, the riots that followed protests in the name of George Floyd that summer set a horrifying record for violent destruction. Property Claim Services reported in 2021 that the protests between May 28 and June 8, 2020, resulted in more than $2 billion in insurance payouts, the largest "riot and civil disorder catastrophe" on record. At least 26 Americans lost their lives in the riots, including black people like 77-year-old retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn. According to the State Department, under Executive Order 13224, which President George W. Bush signed after Sept. 11, 2001, the designation of an organization as a terrorist organization leads to many immediate consequences. Federal law enforcement will have the ability to block the designated organization’s access to property or ability to conduct transactions, and the legal system will deter donations or contributions to such organizations. The designation will draw public attention to the group, and will alert other governments to American concerns about support for terrorism, among other things. The terrorist designation will not change the charges a federal prosecutor can make, but it will help prioritize federal resources to combat Antifa and encourage law enforcement coordination against it, according to Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Cully Stimson and Lora Ries, the director of Heritage’s center on border security.

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Breitbart [9/18/2025 4:30 AM, Staff, 2608K]

NBC News [9/17/2025 9:37 PM, Vaughn Hillyard, Jonathan Allen and Kelly O’Donnell, 43603K] reports the administration is putting together plans to take action against left-wing groups that President Donald Trump and his allies accuse of fomenting political violence, according to three people familiar with discussions about the federal response to the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah. One of the sources said the moves could come as early as the end of the month. The White House is "trying to move quickly while not rushing," the person said. The actions, which are still being formulated, are expected to include investigations into the tax-exempt status of certain liberal organizations, the same source said. They were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. "The White House is exploring a wide variety of options to address left-wing political violence and the network of organizations that fuel and fund it," an administration official said. "The emphasis and focus are on criminal actions," the official added, "not political speech.” Trump said on "Fox & Friends" last week that he wanted to launch a racketeering probe of groups funded by billionaire George Soros, the 95-year-old New York-based financier. Trump later told NBC News that Soros "should be put in jail.” As the guest host of "The Charlie Kirk Show" on Monday, Vice President JD Vance said the administration would look into the Soros-founded Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation. "Do you know they benefit from generous treatment? They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer," Vance said. "And how do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years.” Federal law prohibits the president and the vice president from ordering inquiries into groups’ tax status, and neither Trump nor Vance has presented evidence linking those groups to Kirk’s death. But the administration argues that it resulted from what White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called "a vast domestic terror network" funded by liberal philanthropists. "We are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security," Miller said in an interview with Vance on the Kirk show.

NewsMax [9/17/2025 7:31 PM, Michael Katz, 4779K] reports the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday they have expanded agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies from 135 to 1,001 — a 641% increase since Inauguration Day. Under the 287(g) program, DHS said the agreements "give local and state law enforcement officers the tools and authority to arrest the worst of the worst, including murderers, gang members, rapists, pedophiles, and terrorists, from American communities.” Starting Oct. 1, DHS said participating agencies will qualify for reimbursement opportunities, including annual salary and benefits for each trained officer, with overtime coverage up to 25% of pay. Agencies also will be eligible for quarterly performance awards tied to the successful location of illegal immigrants identified by ICE and overall assistance with ICE’s mission. "We encourage all state and local law enforcement agencies to sign a 287(g) agreement now," ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said in a news release. "By joining forces with ICE, you’re not just gaining access to these unprecedented reimbursement opportunities — you’re becoming part of a national effort to ensure the safety of every American family.” President Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 on ending the Trump administration’s expanded 287(g) agreements that empowered local law enforcement to help conduct federal immigration enforcement. Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s DHS secretary, sought to dismantle the program while also reducing immigration detention space. Mayorkas argued the 287(g) program had a history of "pernicious practices" and widespread "abuses," Breitbart reported. In May 2021, Mayorkas ordered the termination of the 287(g) ICE agreement in Bristol County, Massachusetts, which had allowed agents to take custody of illegal immigrants charged with attempted murder, child rape and other child sex crimes, strangulation, armed carjacking, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to Breitbart. The 287(g) program was scaled back in 2012 when its field-enforcement models were shut down, though its jail-based model continued. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act has revived and expanded 287(g) partnerships, marking the program’s largest boost in more than a decade.

Breitbart [9/17/2025 1:47 PM, Sean Moran, 2608K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced on Wednesday that they have partnered with 1,000 state and local law enforcement agencies, Breitbart News has learned exclusively. DHS and ICE have struck more than 1,000 287(g) program agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies. The 287(g) gives states and local law enforcement agencies the tools and authority to arrest the worst aspects of society, including murderers, gang members, rapists, pedophiles, and terrorists, from American communities. Under DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s leadership, 287(g) partnerships have skyrocketed, growing from 135 agreements to 1,001 agreements across 40 states. ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said in a statement: “ICE is not only supercharging our hiring, we are also multiplying partnerships with state and local law enforcement to remove the worst of the worst including murderers, gang members, rapists, terrorists, and pedophiles from our country. Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE launched a new reimbursement program for state and local law enforcement who partner with DHS to make America safe again. We encourage all state and local law enforcement agencies to sign a 287(g) agreement now. By joining forces with ICE, you’re not just gaining access to these unprecedented reimbursement opportunities — you’re becoming part of a national effort to ensure the safety of every American family.” These historic partnerships serve as a "force multiplier" to help federal agencies find, arrest, and deport illegal aliens.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [9/17/2025 5:04 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1563K]

Washington Examiner [9/17/2025 9:35 AM, David Zimmermann, 1563K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Tuesday that over 150,000 people have submitted applications to Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the agency’s major recruitment campaign this summer. "ICE has received more than 150,000 applications from patriotic Americans who want to defend the homeland by removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the U.S.," Noem said in a press release. Of the total applications, ICE has selected 18,000 prospective candidates for tentative job offers. "Americans are answering their country’s call to serve and help remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from our country," the Department of Homeland Security chief added.

(B) CBS Mornings [9/17/2025 9:27 AM, Staff] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Neom came to Elgin to oversee stepped up immigration enforcement, according to a social media post. At least five people were taken into custody while she and ICE were in that suburb. At least one of the men detained says he was released after proving he is a US citizen. Later this morning, Cook County officials will speak, denouncing the tactics ICE is using in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, and that includes targeting people who are appearing at domestic violence court and going after people who do not have a criminal record.

Daily Wire [9/17/2025 8:32 AM, Jennie Taer, 3184K] reports that the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign is surging, with more than 389,000 illegal immigrants already removed from the United States, The Daily Wire has learned. As of Tuesday, the feds had also arrested more than 415,000 illegal immigrants, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire. Federal immigration authorities are now on track to deport close to 600,000 illegal immigrants by the end of Trump’s first year in office. While the latest deportation numbers outpace the previous fiscal year — when 271,000 illegal immigrants were removed from the United States — they still fall short of the administration’s goal of carrying out 1 million deportations each year. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons recently told The Daily Wire that the agency is likely to meet its goal with the help of the administration’s efforts to push illegal immigrants to self-deport. "I think we’re going to see our number, definitely with the CBP Home app and those that decided to leave on their own," Lyons said. Still, Lyons acknowledged that liberal judges "opining" from the bench have successfully created "roadblocks" that are "impeding how we’re doing our law enforcement mission." "Every day it seems like we have some type of adverse decision that’s going to affect how we’re doing our job," Lyons said.

Chicago Tribune [9/17/2025 7:30 PM, Angie Leventis Lourgos, 5352K]
Local immigration advocates expressed anger and worry after a U.S. citizen was briefly detained - and footage of him handcuffed was posted on social media by a high-ranking member of the Trump administration - during a U.S. Department of Homeland Security raid on an Elgin home Tuesday. Ismael Cordová-Clough, an Elgin immigration activist who witnessed the raid, said he was outraged that the operation was recorded and publicized online by the federal government, especially when one of the individuals captured on the footage was an American citizen. "I think it’s disgusting, to be quite frank, that they utilized our community for their theatrics," he said. "That is not putting our safety first. That is putting their show first." Early Tuesday, federal agents forcibly entered a home in the 900 block of Chippewa Drive in Elgin, destroying the front door and shattering a patio door in the process. One of the residents in the home was Joe Botello, an U.S. citizen born in Texas, who described being handcuffed, questioned by armed agents and taken inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle during the immigration enforcement operation. Botello, 37, said he showed his identification to federal agents, told them he had been born in the United States and then was released. Another roommate of his was also handcuffed and questioned but let go shortly afterward, added Botello, who described being "a bit in shock" following the incident. A few hours after the raid, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared a video on social media of four men - including Botello - handcuffed and being led away from the house. "I was on the ground in Chicago today to make clear we are not backing down," Noem said in the message on X. "Just this morning, DHS took violent offenders off the streets with arrests for assault, DUI and felony stalking. Our work is only beginning." Noem’s message and video post don’t explain that Botello is a U.S. citizen and was later released. To Cordová-Clough, the video and Noem’s message "puts an overlay of guilt on (those recorded) just associated with their faces." "Honestly, if I was a U.S. citizen displayed in that manner by Kristi Noem or any other government official, absolutely I would be suing them," he said. "If this was about public safety, you would be more mindful of who is (being recorded)." The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Wednesday that "no U.S. citizen was arrested, they were briefly held for their and officers’ safety while the operation in the house was under way." "This is standard protocol," the statement added.

Washington Examiner [9/18/2025 12:50 AM, Staff, 1563K] reports the Department of Homeland Security called on Democratic politicians, legacy media outlets, and left-wing organizations to stop "demonizing DHS law enforcement.” The request comes less than a week after the assassination of conservative Republican activist and Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk, and repeated attacks on ICE officers throughout the country, including two incidents over the last week. "This hateful rhetoric is inspiring political violence in our country and assaults against our brave DHS law enforcement," read a release issued on Wednesday from the Department of Homeland Security. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin asked left-wing politicians, activists, organizations and groups to halt the inflammatory rhetoric "before someone else is killed.” "Following the evil act of political violence in the country this week and two brutal assaults on our brave ICE law enforcement last week, we are once again calling on the media and the far left to stop the hateful rhetoric directed at President Trump, those who support him, and our brave DHS law enforcement," said McLaughlin. "This demonization is inspiring violence across the country.” She then explained how such rhetoric has corresponded with a significant increase in violence against ICE officers as they try to do their jobs with illegal immigration enforcement initiatives. "Our ICE officers are facing a more than 1000% increase in assaults against them," McLaughlin added. "We have to turn down the temperature before someone else is killed. This violence must end.” The request also came on the same day a man drove a car into the gates of an FBI building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The FBI categorized the incident as an act of domestic terrorism. The release also noted multiple examples of Democratic politicians using "violent rhetoric against DHS law enforcement.” In one instance, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) compared ICE officers to "slave patrols.” "When I see ICE, I see slave patrols," Crockett said in a comment that was highlighted by DHS. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) has regularly disparaged ICE officers. DHS highlighted a comment he made while giving a commencement speech at the University of Minnesota in which he called ICE officers "Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) said the deployment of ICE officers to enforce illegal immigration law had transformed the U.S. into "essentially Nazi Germany." Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) called ICE a "neo-Nazi group." And Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) said ICE officers were "masked, secret police" that were "terrorizing our communities.” "This hateful rhetoric is contributing to political violence in our country and a more than 1000% increase in assaults against our brave ICE law enforcement," noted the DHS release.

FOX News [9/17/2025 10:43 AM, Taylor Penley, 40019K] Video HERE reports Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused Operation Midway Blitz Commander Gregory Bovino of targeting minorities, saying federal authorities had "acted violently against people" and detained those "who have Brown skin or who speak with an accent." Bovino fired back, forcefully denying the claims on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday. "When you have this crazy rhetoric by folks like that governor or some of the other elected representatives that we’ve seen, all that does is lead to violence against our law enforcement officers and agents," Bovino said on "Fox & Friends." "What we tell our agents is, we’re legal, ethical, and moral in our operations every day, but we are going after those criminal illegal aliens with a vengeance." The Department of Homeland Security recently ramped up its blitz of Chicagoland with Bovino’s help, adding to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations enacted in other major U.S. cities like Los Angeles and New York City. The operation has triggered immediate pushback from Democratic officials like Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who have both persistently opposed federal crackdowns led by the administration. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Wire [9/17/2025 2:14 PM, Hank Berrien, 3184K] reports on Wednesday, a Louisiana immigration judge ruled that pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported to Syria or Algeria, saying the extension of time requested by his attorneys was denied. "The order from the immigration judge, Jamee Comans, came despite a separate order in Khalil’s federal case in New Jersey blocking his deportation while that court considers Khalil’s legal argument that his detention and deportation are unlawful retaliation for his Palestinian advocacy," Politico reported. In April, Comans ruled that Khalil – who was detained over his actions leading anti-Israel protests at Columbia University — could be deported, giving him until April 23 to appeal the decision. Judge Comans cited the letter from the Secretary of State Marco Rubio finding that the Khalil’s presence in the United States had potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States, noting, "As previously found by this Court, the Immigration Judge lacks authority to question foreign policy determinations made by the U.S. Secretary of State.” Rubio had written that Khalil had led "antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States." Khalil led American undergraduates at Columbia University in actions in support of Hamas after its October 7, 2023, attack. "He served as the negotiator on behalf of the occupying students with the university, pressuring the administration to accommodate student demands based on their illegal activity. He helped organize an illegal encampment on the campus that denied access to ‘Zionist’ students," JNS noted. "The Court also takes into consideration, as a negative factor, the Respondent’s underlying fraud in the course of applying for adjustment of status," the judge wrote, adding that Khalil "failed to disclose his involvement, association and participation with United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), on his Form I-485. Candid disclosures by the Respondent may have triggered the need for additional information and further processing, involving some degree of discretionary decision-making on the part of the USCIS adjudicator.”

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The Hill [9/17/2025 9:52 PM, Filip Timotija, 12414K]

AP [9/17/2025 5:38 PM, Jessica Sachs and Ann Marie Vanderveen, 37974K] reports though the federal government is the only entity with the jurisdiction to remove people from the U.S., hospitals across the nation sometimes return uninsured noncitizen patients in need of long-term care to their countries of origin. Advocates call this "medical deportation." Hospitals and medical transport companies refer to it as "medical repatriation." By either name, the practice exists in ethical and legal gray areas – without specific federal regulations, widespread public knowledge or a national tracking system. Facing limited options for care, some immigrant patients and family members may voluntarily decide to continue treatment outside of the U.S. Other times, experts say, the process occurs without full consent. While some foreign governments track these repatriations, data is inconsistent and doesn’t reflect whether patients wanted to return, felt they had no other option or were forced to leave. Experts believe medical deportation happens more than tracking efforts account for, and some worry cases could now increase, given that the practice sits at the intersection of health care and immigration – two systems undergoing drastic change in the second Trump administration. In effect, experts said, the changes will leave even more immigrants uninsured and provide less funding for emergency care if they need it.

The Hill [9/17/2025 2:32 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 12414K] reports that all Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday asked the panel’s chairman to hold a public hearing “at the earliest opportunity” with Pentagon officials to address the Trump administration’s increasing deployments of military service members to American cities. In a letter to Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the 13 Democratic senators say they’re concerned with the administration’s growing efforts to dedicate military forces, assets, resources and personnel to support the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “The American people deserve clarity on the chosen priorities and missions of the Department of Defense and the short- and long-term implications for national security and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars of this new focus on a mission usually reserved for law enforcement professionals,” they write. President Trump has ordered active duty and National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to support federal and local law enforcement officials in conducting immigration missions, cracking down on protests and combating crime. Earlier this week, Trump said National Guard soldiers also would be on the ground in Tennessee as part of the newly established Memphis Safe Task Force, to also include law enforcement from the FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); Homeland Security Investigations; and U.S. marshals. Trump said Chicago will be “probably next,” as he has eyed sending federal law enforcement into the Illinois city for weeks – a move that the state’s governor, Democrat JB Pritzker, said he opposes.

Reported similarly:
NBC News [9/17/2025 6:00 AM, Courtney Kube, 43603K]
NewsMax [9/17/2025 6:54 PM, Solange Reyner, 4779K]

Washington Times [9/17/2025 11:56 AM, Stephen Dinan, 964K] reports that a prominent Democrat lauded FBI Director Kash Patel on Wednesday for the federal law enforcement surge in Memphis, Tennessee, saying it’s made significant headway in combating crime.

“You did a good job,” said Rep. Steve Cohen, who represents the city. “We had a crime problem in Memphis, and the FBI has helped.” The praise was a strikingly rare note in two days of hearings where Democrats lambasted Mr. Patel over his seven months on the job. This week, Mr. Patel sent agents into Memphis to carry out President Trump’s push to combat crime. It followed an earlier surge in Washington, which also involved a deployment of the National Guard. Mr. Cohen said he hoped guardsmen wouldn’t be part of the Memphis effort, that the troops aren’t trained in law enforcement. “I don’t think the National Guard will help,” he said. But Mr. Patel said the guardsmen are crucial since they establish a security perimeter around crime-ridden areas, making it safe for the federal agents to operate. He said that helped in the District, where the monthlong federal agent surge and troop deployment saw a 60% drop in gun crimes, a 53% decrease in homicides and a 74% drop in carjackings.

Reuters [9/17/2025 12:30 PM, Timothy Gardner, 45746K] reports a U.S. Treasury under secretary will visit Mexico City on Thursday to talk with officials and industry representatives about countering illicit financing, drug trafficking and cartel operations, the department said. It will be the first international trip for John Hurley, the under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in his role after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July. In June, the Treasury targeted three Mexican financial institutions, CIBanco, Intercam Banco and Vector Casa de Bolsa, under fentanyl sanctions. The administration of President Donald Trump has also imposed a 25% tariff on some goods from Mexico that aims to stop the flow of the deadly drug into the U.S. Treasury said Hurley intends to emphasize that the U.S. will not permit Mexico-based drug cartels to access the U.S. financial system. His trip to Mexico will come after he visited the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego on Wednesday and met with law enforcement and a U.S. Justice Department official. Bloomberg [9/17/2025 10:42 AM, Michael O’Boyle, 19085K] reports that the visit by John Hurley, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, will be his first international trip since being confirmed for the post in July, the department said in a statement. He’s scheduled to hold meetings with Mexican officials and industry leaders to "discuss strategies for countering illicit financing, drug trafficking and cartel operations," according to the statement. The visit comes in the wake of a June order by Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to cut off three Mexican financial firms from the US financial system for potentially helping drug traffickers launder funds. The move marked the first use of new powers provided to FinCEN by last year’s FEND Off Fentanyl Act. The Mexican government swept in to take control of the firms, and Mexico’s finance minister said last week that officials were looking at ending their interventions after other banks offered to buy parts of the targeted firms.

AP [9/17/2025 7:03 PM, Wilson Mcmakin, Ope Adetayo and Chinedu Asadu, 37974K] reports at least 11 of the 14 immigrants deported by the U.S. to Ghana are still being held in the West African nation, the deportees and their lawyers told The Associated Press on Wednesday, contradicting claims from Ghanaian authorities that the deportees have been sent to their home countries. Three of the deportees spoke to AP of the “terrible” conditions under which they are being held at the Bundase military camp on the outskirts of the capital, Accra. They said the 11 deportees still in Ghana include four Nigerians, three Togolese, two Malians and one each from Gambia and Liberia. A group of 14 immigrants was first deported by the U.S. to Ghana on Sept. 6, the deportees said, speaking to AP on the phone on the condition of anonymity for fear of their safety. The AP could not independently verify their current location. At least one of the 14 has returned to Gambia, his home country, according to his lawyer and U.S. court filings. Two others are believed to have been sent to their home country of Nigeria, the Gambian said in a declaration filed in court. He said the three of them were separated from the rest upon their arrival at the airport in Accra. The claims of the deportees that they are still being held in Ghana contradict that of Ghana’s presidential spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu, who on Tuesday told AP that all 14 deportees had been sent to their home countries. The Ghanaian government previously said the 14 deportees were all Nigerian besides one Gambian. Ofosu did not immediately respond to AP’s inquiry on Wednesday. The confusion surrounding the deportations reflects the dizzying pace at which the Trump administration has moved ahead with its immigration priorities, which lawyers say has come at the cost of immigrants’ legal rights and sometimes puts their safety at risk. In interviews with AP, the deportees said they were not told by U.S. authorities why they were being deported. They said some of them had already spent between seven months to a year in U.S. detention and that some had won their immigration cases. The AP could not independently verify their court records. They also narrated a brutal deportation process during which some of them were handcuffed and put in a straitjacket on their flight to Ghana.

Wall Street Journal [9/17/2025 7:03 PM, Lara Seligman, 646K] reports some military lawyers and other Defense Department officials are raising concerns about the legal implications of President Trump’s expanding military campaign against Latin American-based drug cartels, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The concerns are around the justification for the strikes themselves, as well as the legal implications for the U.S. military personnel involved in the operations, the people said. Some defense officials and career military lawyers have provided written and verbal legal opinions to decision makers inside the Pentagon, but believe they are being ignored or deliberately sidelined, according to one of the people. News of the internal dissent is likely to intensify scrutiny of the campaign, which lawmakers and outside experts have condemned as a series of illegal, extrajudicial killings. But so far, those worries haven’t stopped the Trump administration from expanding the effort: the Pentagon attacked a second vessel in international waters on Monday, alleging it was trafficking illegal narcotics to the U.S., killing three people. “How do we know [the boat] was coming to the U.S.?” asked Sen. Rand Paul, (R., Ky.), a critic who has been more outspoken than most Republicans. “Are we going to blow up every boat? It is just insane.” Inside the Defense Department, some officials have concerns about the decision to jump straight to the use of lethal force, without prior warning, when the standard rules of engagement for dealing with cartels has been to interdict them. It is one thing to use lethal force against terror groups in the Middle East, where the military has relied on congressionally approved authorization for using force, but a different situation entirely when dealing with Latin American based cartel members, one person said. Other defense officials are looking to provide legal protection for the individual military personnel involved in the strikes, who might be “personally liable,” the person said.

Washington Examiner [9/17/2025 11:53 AM, Mike Brest, 1563K] reports the U.S. military’s strikes on three vessels this month that President Donald Trump said originated from Venezuela and were carrying illegal drugs heading for the United States have raised legal questions from experts. Both Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth have declared that the drug cartels are targets that could be engaged with using deadly force as a part of the administration’s crackdown on cartel activity domestically and in the Western Hemisphere. However, questions have emerged surrounding the legality of using lethal force to target these alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting their ships, apprehending suspects, and bringing them back to the U.S. to await trial. This affords them due process, as the Coast Guard has done for decades. "I think that these are legally unjustified uses of force by the United States," Professor Geoffrey Corn, director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University, told the Washington Examiner. The military carried out the first of these operations on Sept. 2. Trump said 11 people from Tren de Aragua, a Venezuela-based gang that the administration declared a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year, were killed in that attack. The second U.S. strike was on Sept. 15, and Trump said three people were killed. The president announced a third attack on Sept. 16 but did not share a casualty count. Between the first and second strikes, the Department of Defense said two Venezuelan aircraft "flew near a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters" in a "highly provocative move designed to interfere with our counter-narco-terror operations."

Telemundo51 [9/17/2025 4:15 PM, Staff, 144K] reports Venezuela’s Interior and Justice Minister, Diosdado Cabello, questioned the veracity of information from the United States on Wednesday, which he claims has attacked three vessels in the Caribbean belonging to alleged drug traffickers from the South American country. On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. forces have so far attacked three suspected drug trafficking vessels from Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea. The Republican addressed this third vessel a day after reporting that U.S. forces had attacked a boat, killing three people he called "terrorists." Shortly afterward, the president claimed that the destroyed boat was carrying cocaine and fentanyl. In response, Cabello said that "there is no way" to determine from a distance what cargo a vessel is carrying. These attacks come amid escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela over the U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean Sea, under the guise of combating drug trafficking.

Breitbart [9/17/2025 7:15 PM, Staff, 2608K] reports Venezuela said Wednesday it had begun three days of military exercises on its Caribbean island of La Orchila as tensions soar amid US military activity in the region. Forces deployed for what Washington called an anti-drug operation have blown up at least two Venezuelan boats and a combined 14 people allegedly transporting drugs across the Caribbean this month — a move slammed as "extrajudicial execution" by UN experts. The strikes and a deployment of US warships in the region have raised fears of an invasion in Venezuela, whose President Nicolas Maduro Washington accuses of being a cartel leader. The exercise ordered by Maduro as commander-in-chief was baptized "Sovereign Caribbean," Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said Wednesday. "There will be air defense deployments with armed drones, surveillance drones, submarine drones… We are going to implement electronic warfare actions," he added, citing the "threatening, vulgar voice" of the United States. Public television showed images of amphibious vessels and warships deployed off La Orchila, where Venezuela has a military base. The armed forces said the exercises will involve 12 ships, 22 aircraft and 20 small boats from the "Special Naval Militia.” La Orchila island is close to the area where the United States intercepted and held a Venezuelan fishing vessel for eight hours over the weekend. Maduro, whose last two elections the US and many other countries did not recognize, has vowed Caracas would defend itself against what he labeled US "aggression" against his country. Washington is offering a $50 million bounty for the arrest of Maduro, who faces drug trafficking charges.

Washington Post [9/17/2025 6:58 PM, Olivia George, 29079K] reports House lawmakers continued to clamp down on D.C. on Wednesday, passing bills that would roll back police chase restrictions and eliminate the already minimal say the city has in the selecting local judges. Declaring crime in D.C. an emergency, Trump last month placed the local police department under federal control and ordered surging federal law enforcement presence, including masked immigration agents. While his 30-day policing takeover expired last week, congressional Republicans appear eager to make good on his pledge of aggressive oversight of the District, especially when it comes to public safety. The votes came a day before D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb (D) and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) are scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee about crime in the city. Though the bills face uncertain paths through the Senate, they are among more than a dozen advanced by the committee last week that would overhaul local criminal justice. On Tuesday, the House voted with Democratic support to allow 14-year-olds to be tried as adults for serious crimes in D.C. and to strip judges of the discretion to give lighter or alternative sentences to young adults. Local leaders have decried the measures, saying the bills would put residents at risk, trample on the city’s limited autonomy and make it more difficult for them to handle an emergency. But they have few options to fend off federal intervention. D.C. has no voting representation on the floor in Congress, which the Constitution gives authority over its laws and budget. Meanwhile, congressional Republicans continue to pitch themselves as liberators of the nation’s capital, guardians watching out for residents and visitors alike. “Together with President Trump, Republicans are committed to restoring law and order and turning our capital city into a model of safety and accountability for the entire nation,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said in a statement following the votes. The D.C. police department allows chases only when the driver is suspected of committing a violent crime or is putting other lives in danger. But under legislation House lawmakers passed Wednesday, officers would have broader latitude to initiate. Encountering a suspect fleeing in a car, D.C. police would be able to chase unless the officer or a supervisor believes the pursuit would “be futile,” involve “an unacceptable risk of harm” to someone other than the suspect or if they can be apprehended more effectively by other means.

The New York Post [9/17/2025 6:00 AM, Josh Christenson, 43962K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blasted her predecessor in an exclusive interview with "Pod Force One," out Wednesday, claiming Alejandro Mayorkas opened the southern border to drug and human traffickers. "I don’t know how he slept at night," Noem told The Post’s Miranda Devine, suggesting that Mayorkas took his "direction" from the Biden White House, where Vice President Kamala Harris served as "border czar." "I don’t know how he slept at night knowing the vulnerabilities he was creating for this country and the people he was letting in and allowing to undo us," the 53-year-old said. "I think one of the biggest disservices they did to the country was not fulfill the mission of what the department was established for; it literally is to secure the homeland," Noem went on. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] NewsMax [9/17/2025 9:47 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4779K] reports that border crossings set all-time records and more than 8 million migrants entered the U.S. under then-President Joe Biden, the Post reported. The aliens included criminals, known gang members, and hundreds of others on terror watchlists. Noem said Mayorkas likely was "told" by the Biden White House what to do at the border. "I think one of the biggest disservices they did to the country was not fulfill the mission of what the department was established for; it literally is to secure the homeland," Noem said.

New York Post [9/17/2025 7:18 AM, Staff, 43962K] reports Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem takes Miranda on a dawn raid of illegal migrant criminals in Chicago. Then she opens up on her massive deportation plans, the FEMA perverts she busted watching porn, deep state saboteurs, a vegan transgender cult attacking her officers, and why she shot her dog. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [9/17/2025 2:01 PM, Marc Tamasco, 40019K] reports that U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem appeared on the New York Post’s "Pod Force One with Miranda Devine" on Wednesday, revealing her last communication with Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk before he was assassinated last week. Noem told Devine that her last communication with Kirk was the day before his murder, and that, unfortunately, she had missed the message while she was traveling for work in a different time zone. "The last message he had texted me was the day before he passed away, and it said we have to hold these mayors and local officials accountable for what they’re doing," she revealed. "I think he was watching across this country as people were continuing to be victimized by illegal criminal activity, and he wanted someone to be held accountable." Kirk, 31, a father of two, was shot and killed Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The TPUSA founder was struck in the neck as he spoke to a large crowd from under a white pop-up tent. He was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead that afternoon. The DHS secretary opened up about how she felt after missing Kirk’s final message to her, expressing that while she felt bad, she believed Kirk knew that she was "on it.” Noem argued that the American people are "waking up" following Kirk’s assassination and that DHS will continue to "be bold" in calling the situation as it sees it. "They’re not going to get the truth … unless they do their research and unless they know, and they know that this has been an attack from liberal, leftist, extremist, radicalized individuals against conservatives trying to silence them," she told Devine. "And we’ll continue to be bold in saying that because until eyes are opened up to what’s really happening in this country and how it’s changing, we can’t do better." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
New York Post [9/17/2025 6:00 AM, Ryan King, 43962K]
The Hill [9/17/2025 3:09 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12414K]
NewsMax [9/17/2025 9:47 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4779K]

Breitbart [9/17/2025 1:35 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 2608K] reports that Charlie Kirk was a "great champion for ICE," Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Todd Lyons said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily, one week after the Turning Point USA founder’s tragic public murder. Host Mike Slater asked Lyons if he ever met Kirk and about the conservative activist’s support of the organization. "You know, I had the great honor and privilege to do a really long podcast with Charlie in June," Lyons said. "When I took the job, he was super supportive. He’s been just such a great champion for ICE. There’s that great video when he’s debating someone on a campus and he’s wearing one of our ICE hats that the officers gave him," he continued, describing Kirk’s death as "such a true loss.” "He was a great voice for us. He understood our mission. He knew exactly what we were trying to do. He fought that rhetoric that we’re seeing so much now, of us being called Nazis in the Gestapo, and we had a great conversation about that," Lyons continued. "It’s such a terrible loss," he added. "My heart just goes out to his wife and kids."

FOX News [9/17/2025 11:07 AM, Charles Creitz, 40019K] reports the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday identified what it called dangerous political rhetoric targeting immigration enforcement in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination, warning that such language is fueling violence against officers. "This hateful rhetoric is contributing to political violence in our country and a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against our brave ICE law enforcement," the department told Fox News Digital. "Following the evil act of political violence in the country and two brutal assaults on our brave ICE law enforcement last week, we are once again calling on the media and the far left to stop the hateful rhetoric directed at President Trump, those who support him, and our brave DHS law enforcement," added Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. McLaughlin said such "demonization" is inspiring violence nationwide: "We have to turn down the temperature before someone else is killed," she said.

Reuters [9/17/2025 6:35 PM, Joseph Ax, Rich McKay and Julia Harte, 45746K] reorts a day after Utah prosecutors unveiled formal charges against the suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk, questions remain about how he planned the shooting, his precise motives for killing the conservative activist and whether anyone else knew what he intended to do. Prosecutors began outlining the case against 22-year-old Tyler Robinson on Tuesday, when he appeared in court via video feed from jail to face capital murder and other charges. But the charging documents revealed gaps that investigators will likely try to fill in the coming months, experts said. The details of the killing – and what specifically drove the gunman to carry it out – have taken on outsized importance given the political firestorm surrounding Kirk’s death. The attack has deepened fears about rising political violence and prompted President Donald Trump and other administration officials to threaten a crackdown on the “radical left,” though no evidence has emerged connecting Robinson with any outside group. "I would certainly, and I’m sure the public would, like to know a lot more about exactly what motivated him," said Kenneth Gray, a retired FBI special agent and professor of practice at the University of New Haven.

New York Times [9/17/2025 6:35 PM, Steven Lee Myers, 143795K] reports in the week since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Russia, Iran and China have spread thousands of false or incendiary claims about what happened to the conservative activist, in an effort to stoke political divisions or to portray the United States as a dysfunctional country. Official state media in the three countries mentioned Mr. Kirk 6,200 times from Sept. 10 to Sept. 17, framing the killing as a conspiracy, though they differed on the nature of the plot involved, according to an analysis on Wednesday by NewsGuard, a company that tracks disinformation online. The findings underscored remarks made last week by Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah, where Mr. Kirk was fatally shot during an appearance on a college campus on Sept. 10. “What we are seeing is our adversaries want violence,” Mr. Cox said two days after the shooting. “We have bots from Russia, China, all over the world, that are trying to instill disinformation and encourage violence.” Foreign influence campaigns have become a recurrent backdrop to virtually any news event in the United States — from natural disasters to elections to political crises. Russia, China and Iran, especially, try to exploit events in the United States to push their own geopolitical agendas. While their narratives differ, and even contradict each other, they share a goal of undermining American democracy and its reputation globally. Mr. Kirk’s assassination immediately generated a deluge of false claims, baseless speculation and conspiratorial thinking from domestic sources that has not yet relented. The country’s adversaries have seized the moment as well, at times amplifying the same unsubstantiated narratives. The day after the killing, Russia’s English-language news channel, RT, repeated unsubstantiated claims that people near Mr. Kirk were making hand signs to cue the shooter. Law enforcement officials have said Tyler Robinson, the man charged in the killing, acted alone. Aleksandr Dugin, a prominent ultranationalist writer in Russia, falsely claimed in subsequent days that the “Deep State” and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations were behind the killing because of Mr. Kirk’s faith and patriotic values — a theme echoed among some conservatives in the United States, as well. “Charlie Kirk was on our side of the front line that now divides humanity,” Mr. Dugin wrote. “The civil war in the U.S.A. is not something distant.

USA Today [9/17/2025 7:10 PM, Terry Collins, 64151K] reports more than 120 progressive organizations signed a letter condemning political violence and defending free speech. The letter follows the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the Trump administration’s vow to crack down on left-leaning groups. Among those who signed the letter include prominent groups like the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and the MacArthur Foundation. More than 100 mostly progressive organizations have written an open letter condemning "acts of political violence" after the Trump administration’s vow to crack down on left-leaning groups, in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death. Published on Medium, the letter on Sept. 17 said that the United States is built on "the premise that everyone has the right to express themselves," even when others don’t agree with or like what they say. "No one should fear for their safety simply for expressing their views," said the letter written by 124 groups, including the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, the Tides Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and the Omidyar Network, funded by the eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar. The letter also pushes back against the Trump administration’s recent condemnation of liberal activists, saying that organizations "should not be attacked for carrying out their missions or expressing their values.” Last month, President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that billionaire George Soros, a major funder of the Open Society Foundation and other progressive causes, should face prosecution, alleging that Soros has supported violent protests. Open Society Foundations called Trump’s accusations "outrageous and false.” Their liberal groups’ letter comes a week after Kirk, the 31-year-old podcaster and organizer, was fatally shot on Sept. 10 while holding a rally in Utah. Vice President JD Vance, serving as guest host on Kirk’s Sept. 15 podcast, claimed that "left-wing extremism" was part of the reason Kirk was killed. Vance pointed to a Sept. 12 article in The Nation calling Kirk an "unrepentant racist, transphobe, homophobe, and misogynist," because of his scathing criticism of the Civil Rights Act, the gay rights movement and feminism.

Politico [9/17/2025 5:25 PM, Dylon Jones, 14810K] reports that, two days after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a surreal scene played out at a press briefing, where Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, read messages allegedly engraved on the shooter’s bullets. “If you read this,” the 50-year-old conservative statesman recited somberly, “you are gay.” He then plodded, as if part of a dirge, through each letter in “LMAO,” the acronym for “laughing my ass off.” The bizarre juxtaposition — puerile troll-speak uttered in the grave tones of an elected leader attempting to guide the country through a crisis — captured a troubling reality of the digital age: A new generation of headline-grabbing shooters is emerging, one that thinks and speaks in the inscrutable language of youth internet culture. Younger generations of Americans grew up with this lingua franca, a forked tongue wrapped in irony and trolling that many journalists, elected officials, the public at large and perhaps even those who trade in its shibboleths themselves do not fully understand. Now, when members of those generations commit violence, they do so with all the byzantine internet references and confounding memes with which their counterparts rib one another in livestream chats. But what that messaging says about the ideologies driving them — and in some cases, whether they are driven by any ideology at all — is anyone’s guess. And plenty of people are guessing. From the start, the few publicly available clues about alleged Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson — meme phrases engraved on bullets, photos of him in memey Halloween costumes mined from his family’s social media accounts — became instant fodder for speculation. Law enforcement wrote in part of a bulletin published in the Wall Street Journal that the bullets referenced “transgender and antifascist ideology.” The Journal later published an editor’s note saying that “Justice Department officials later urged caution about the bulletin by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, saying it may not accurately reflect the messages on the ammunition.” Nonetheless, the idea that the shooter was antifascist, or transgender, or otherwise LGBTQ+ ripped through discourse — with the help of some conservative politicians. In a CNN appearance Tuesday morning, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas incorrectly claimed the shell casings included “transgender slogans,” misquoting one of the messages and saying he had been told it was “an online meme for transgenderism.” Rather, it may be a meme used to attack the furry subculture. Cox didn’t speculate about the meaning of the engravings as he read them off, but he did say that one of them — “hey fascist! CATCH!” — “speaks for itself.” What precisely it said for itself, however, wasn’t so obvious after gamers pointed out that the message also included the control inputs for calling in a bomb strike in the video game Helldivers 2, in which players assume the role of soldiers in a satire of militaristic fascism. Was this an anti-fascist message or just a wink at gamers? (The supposed links between video games and violence, it must be noted, have been repeatedly debunked.) Cox has since said that the shooter subscribed to “leftist ideology” based on police interviews with people close to him. He has not elaborated on that claim, and police have not revealed an established motive, although the FBI released text messages they said were from Robinson to his roommate and romantic partner saying he “had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred.”

Daily Signal [9/17/2025 6:23 PM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 668K] reports the Trump administration will only investigate left-wing groups with a provable tie to violence following the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk, an administration official told The Daily Signal. The focus of investigations will be Antifa-like groups involved in the online conspiracy to assassinate Turning Point USA founder Kirk on Sept. 10, the source said. This comes after Vice President JD Vance and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Monday discussed plans to "go after" leftist nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, due to Kirk’s killing. "We’re going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates, and engages in violence," Vance said. "We are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks," Miller said. Left-wing groups that don’t provide material support to violence will not be investigated because criticism of conservatives is protected as free speech, the administration official said. In a video address the night of Kirk’s death, Trump said his administration "will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it.” The suspect in the killing, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, appeared to take responsibility for the shooting on the messaging platform Discord. FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau is "investigating anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat.”

Washington Post [9/18/2025 5:00 AM, Michael Birnbaum, Sarah Ellison and Perry Stein, 32099K] reports a week after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump and his allies are attacking critics of the right-wing activist who they say have gone too far, a campaign that detractors described as an alarming attempt to curtail one of the nation’s most hallowed civil liberties: freedom of expression. Vice President JD Vance urged supporters to drum those “celebrating Charlie’s murder” out of their jobs and threatened that the administration may strip tax-free status from two prominent foundations that support left-wing causes that he accused of underwriting a “disgusting article” about Kirk. The State Department embarked on a global effort to identify foreign citizens “praising, rationalizing, or making light of” Kirk’s death and put them on a list to prevent them from ever receiving U.S. visas. Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed a sweeping crackdown on “hate speech.” The governor of Texas celebrated a college student’s arrest after she mocked Kirk’s death at a public vigil. And Trump blasted ABC News’s Jonathan Karl for having “hate in your heart” and hinted at an investigation of his network. “The radical left causes tremendous violence,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office this week. “… The radical left really has caused a lot of problems for this country. I really think they hate our country.” The effort represents a significant departure for the conservative movement, whose leaders for years have painted themselves as champions of free speech opposing a culture of liberal censorship.

FOX News [9/18/2025 5:00 AM, Rachel del Guidice, 40019K] reports following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, some colleges are addressing concerns about the future of campus events and the safety of public speakers. In a Friday post on X, Inez Feltscher Stepman, a senior policy and legal analyst for Independent Women’s Forum and Independent Women’s Law Center, said Kirk’s death could mean fewer events for conservatives on college campuses. Authorities identified the suspect as Tyler Robinson, 22, who was living with a 22-year-old roommate who was transitioning from male to female. "This assassination will accomplish what the left has tried to do for so long: significantly shut down conservative speech on college campuses," Stepman wrote. "Not because of a lack of bravery, but because of logistics," she added. "No more outdoor events, no more events without very serious security. And that costs big money that most orgs don’t have, and universities are only too happy to say they can’t manage. Already they were using ‘security’ concerns to punish [right-wing] orgs and prevent them from hosting speakers. Now there’s a real reason. The Assassin’s Veto."

New York Post [9/17/2025 10:40 PM, Miranda Devine, 43962K] reports that, one of the problems of being competent is that people take your achievements for granted. Pretty soon they forget all about them and concoct new complaints or demands. This is the case with President Trump’s astonishingly successful fulfilled promise on border security, achieved within the first 100 days of his second term by his most underestimated Cabinet secretary, Kristi Noem, the tough-minded Homeland Security chief pilloried by the left as "ICE Barbie" because they can’t find anything real to criticize. Thanks to Noem and "border czar" Tom Homan, as well as the president’s own Day One executive orders, Trump could truthfully declare at the end of April that the southern border was "closed," with a 95% plunge in daily encounters and not a single alien released into the country. But then came the hard part of unwinding Joe Biden’s toxic legacy: deportations. This week, I observed Noem in action when she joined more than 100 heavily armed Border Patrol and ICE agents in armored vehicles with helicopter and drone support to execute a felony arrest warrant on a criminal illegal alien. The predawn raid in the peaceful Chicago suburb of Elgin netted a total of five illegals from Mexico and Venezuela, with DHS alleging it had found convictions and arrests against three of the men for assault, felony stalking and aggravated DUI. The operation targeted just one person, Carlos Gonzalez-Leon, who was previously deported to Mexico but returned under Biden and has been convicted for assault causing bodily harm on a family member. Several days of surveillance of the rented house where he was living showed several other men coming and going and established a pattern of daily behavior for the household. On Tuesday, Noem met with the large team of armed operators at a DHS facility just after 4 a.m., as they ran through the plan of action including contingencies for "shots fired," "officer down," "hostage rescue" and medic support. It would be an overwhelming show of force, and they were leaving nothing to chance. At 5 a.m., when the high-risk raid was scheduled, they weren’t certain Gonzalez-Leon, who slept in the basement, was actually in the house; "bedded down" in operator-speak. They knew that one of the residents left for work just after 5 a.m. so Tuesday morning they watched the man leave and then executed a routine traffic stop a few blocks away so he could confirm his roommate was indeed asleep in bed. At 5:38 a.m., Noem and the motorcade of a dozen trucks parked quietly nearby began moving, along with two BearCats (heavily armored tactical vehicles) containing armed Border Patrol officers in camouflage gear with helmets and night-vision goggles. Six minutes later, sleepy Chippewa Drive didn’t know what hit it.

Washington Examiner [9/17/2025 6:00 AM, Chris Spear, 1563K] reports for too long, most of America’s truck drivers and motor carriers have played by the rules while others cheat. They get the licenses, meet the safety requirements, pay the taxes, and do the work. But when it comes to cabotage — the illegal hauling of domestic freight inside the United States by foreign drivers on temporary visas — the cheaters are winning. And Washington has looked the other way. This isn’t a gray area. The law is crystal clear: Mexican and Canadian drivers can bring goods into this country and take goods back out. That is legitimate cross-border commerce permitted under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and this vital freight flow helps sustain America’s supply chain. However, what Mexican and Canadian drivers cannot do is haul loads from Dallas to Houston, or from Phoenix to Chicago. Yet that is exactly what is happening. And it’s happening on a seemingly large scale. This isn’t competition. It’s theft. Each illegal load is a paycheck stolen directly from an American driver. Each scheme that puts foreign drivers behind the wheel for domestic hauls undercuts the companies that follow the law. And sadly, it is a group of U.S. carriers that flout these rules to gain an unlawful competitive advantage over law abiding companies, distorting the marketplace and putting compliant operators at risk of closure. And each time Washington fails to act, it rewards lawbreakers while punishing the very workers who keep our economy moving. We’ve seen the proof. In Nogales, Arizona, one U.S. carrier pocketed $2.4 million in illegal revenue by using Mexican B-1 visa drivers for domestic hauls. A B-1 visa does not permit that driver to haul point-to-point in the U.S. Another raked in $1.3 million before it was finally shut down. These aren’t isolated cases. They are part of a pattern of willful lawbreaking that distorts the market and hollows out good-paying American jobs. And if Customs and Border Protection officers can find multiple violations during just a handful of checkpoint inspections, imagine how many violations go undetected every single day. Cabotage isn’t a fringe problem. It’s a business model for companies willing to sell out American workers.

The Hill [9/17/2025 7:00 AM, Artem Kolisnichenko, 12414K] reports at the end of August, the New Democrat Coalition , which brings together 115 moderate House Democrats, presented a new immigration framework. The essence is a move away from the usual extremes — cruelty vs. amnesty — offering a pragmatic balance: stronger border enforcement and deportations, together with expansion of legal entry paths and responding to economic needs. Against the backdrop of polarization, this is the first systematic step by Democrats to build a centrist position aimed at 2026 voters and the fight for swing districts. The plan covers many aspects: more resources for Customs and Border Protection, expanded entry channels, adjustments to visa caps, and a focus on "priority" deportations — targeting those convicted of crimes. It also proposes new systems of transparency and accountability. The goal is simple: to take away from Republicans their monopoly on "toughness" while still keeping the humanitarian wing inside the party. In 2026, immigration will be a top issue in swing districts. By offering a hybrid, Democrats can present voters both security and a long-term solution that avoids extremes.

The Hill [9/17/2025 9:00 AM, Sheldon H. Jacobson, 12414K] reports airport security is a necessary evil to enjoy the privilege of air travel. Most of us would prefer just to pack our bags, go to the airport, and get on a plane. For nearly all travelers, the air system would remain just as secure as it is today. However, a few “bad actors” make it necessary for all of us to traverse through the airport security gauntlet to ensure these “bad actors” are appropriately vetted and screened. Airport security screening is made more palatable for those enrolled in TSA PreCheck. Passing through a PreCheck lane is quicker, simpler and less intrusive. The challenge is getting more travelers to sign up for the program.

Daily Wire [9/17/2025 1:19 PM, Matt Walsh, 3184K] repots yesterday, just hours before the district attorney of Utah County formally announced the charges against Charlie Kirk’s assassin — and before he ran through some new evidence that authorities had collected — a left-wing journalist named Ken Klippenstein published an exclusive article on his Substack, which happens to be one of the most popular political Substacks in the country. To much fanfare, Klippenstein reported that he had obtained private messages from people who knew the shooter, on the day that Charlie Kirk was killed. These messages were uploaded to a private server on Discord, which is a communications service that’s popular among young people, particularly young people who play video games. To recap: Some members of the shooter’s Discord group shared a small number of screenshots with a popular left-wing Substack author. The screenshots show that the community was mostly focused on video games, and wasn’t celebrating Kirk’s death in the slightest. The author publishes those screenshots, and presents them as proof that the shooter wasn’t actually left-wing. Supposedly, he was just nihilistic and angry at the world. Very transparently, the intent of this article was to deflect any suspicion from Discord, and the people the shooter was interacting with on the platform. Presumably, that’s why the shooter’s friends gave these screenshots to Ken Klippenstein. But in truth, the screenshots raise far more questions than they answer. After Charlie is shot, according to this screenshot, there’s a grand total of 5 messages on this Discord server — written by two people — about the assassination. None of them are incriminating or even controversial. Those messages stop by 5 PM. The entire evening of September 10, and most of September 11 until 9 PM, no one says anything at all. And then, out of nowhere, the shooter confesses. He basically tells an empty room, which appears to be uninterested in the Kirk assassination, that he did it. This is not evidence, as Ken claimed, that the shooter had no political motivations, and wasn’t operating as part of a coordinated terror plot. It doesn’t exonerate the shooter’s acquaintances in any way. It’s actually very odd, as far as evidence goes. It suggests that some messages from this Discord server may have been deleted or redacted before the screenshots were sent to Ken Klippenstein.

Wall Street Journal [9/17/2025 1:11 PM, Kimberley A. Strassel, 646K] reports last week’s cold-blooded murder of Charlie Kirk is proving a national wake-up call on many levels, including the grim reality that Washington’s security apparatus is insufficient to protect officials against modern and growing threats. This might have been obvious given the riots of Jan. 6, two near-miss assassination attempts against Donald Trump and a plot against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. But something about the Kirk slaying—the precision targeting, with a standard hunting rifle, of an unelected figure, at an open event of the type lawmakers attend all the time—has finally focused minds. Washington is aswirl with short- and long-term proposals for all three branches of government—the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court. This is going to cost some money, even as the country may see some profound changes in the way government officials interact with the public. One of the biggest investments Congress could make in its security would simply be toning down its own rhetoric, setting a civil example.

Breitbart [9/17/2025 10:42 AM, Warner Todd Huston, 2608K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is revealing some of the "worst of the worst" criminals it has taken into custody with the first week of the Trump administration’s "Midway Blitz" in the books in Chicago. The campaign was launched in honor of Katie Abraham who was killed in a drunk driving hit-and-run car wreck caused by criminal illegal alien Julio Cucul-Bol in Illinois, and is targeting the criminal illegals who have "flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets," DHS said in a press release. "President Trump has been clear: if politicians will not put the safety of their citizens first, this administration will. I was on the ground in Chicago today to make clear we are not backing down," said Secretary Kristi Noem. "Just this morning, DHS took violent offenders off the streets with arrests for assault, DUI, and felony stalking. Our work is only beginning.” DHS released information on 11 of some of the worst, most dangerous criminals they have taken off the streets of Chicago, despite the efforts of the state’s Democrats to protect and coddle these criminals.

Washington Post [9/17/2025 5:15 PM, Maria Sacchetti, 29079K] reports Sulma Martinez had just left the dentist’s office with her 14-year-old twin daughters when an unmarked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicle pulled up behind her and flashed its blue lights. The officers asked for her papers. Martinez, a 35-year-old originally from Honduras, had a work permit, a pending asylum claim and a pathway to a visa for crime victims. But none of that mattered, she said the officers told her. They gave her a choice: She could head to a hotel and be deported with her daughters, or she could contest her removal and try to stay in the United States. If she chose the latter, she’d be arrested and the twins would be sent to a shelter for child immigrants. “We were crying. We were scared,” Martinez said. “I didn’t want them to separate me from my girls.” As President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign ramps up, ICE has sharply increased the number of migrant children it is sending to federal shelters for unaccompanied minors. Officers have referred more than 400 children nationwide to shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement since Trump took office, according to two people who have reviewed internal records. While some allegedly were removed from dangerous situations, many were separated from parents, relatives or government-vetted sponsors as part of immigration enforcement actions. ICE officials disputed that information and said its referrals are not that high. But the agency and ORR did not provide the data. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the agency is not splitting up families. ICE gives parents the option of having their children removed with them or being placed with “a safe person the parent designates,” she said in a statement. ORR, which oversees shelters for unaccompanied minors, did not respond to questions about the number of children apprehended and placed in the agency’s care.

Chicago Tribune [9/17/2025 5:30 PM, Jake Sheridan, 5352K] reports President Donald Trump is turning to the Chicago Police Department as he rushes to add immigration enforcement officers to carry out his administration’s mass deportation policy. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Department specifically pitched jobs to the city’s cops when it ran a local advertisement during a Monday night NFL broadcast. "Attention Chicago law enforcement," the commercial said, the city’s skyline in the background. "You took an oath to protect and serve, to keep your family, your city safe. But in sanctuary cities, you’re ordered to stand down." "Join ICE, and help us catch the worst of the worst," it continued before touting a $50,000 sign-on bonus and student loan forgiveness. Asked about the ad Tuesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson called it "a horrible way to recruit," but added, "I don’t sit around worrying about the president’s tactics." He praised police Supt. Larry Snelling for raising officer morale and instituting "constitutional policing," then criticized Trump for spending more on ICE than anti-poverty programs. The commercial is part of a broad effort to recruit law enforcement officers from cities across the country. Nearly identical ads ran in other cities during the game, including Denver. ICE has received more than 150,000 applications and extended over 18,000 tentative job offers, Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Tuesday, without specifying a timeline. The number of police in Chicago has for years lagged below what the department is authorized to hire.

Latin Times [9/17/2025 1:21 PM, Pedro Camacho] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday warned that political rhetoric targeting U.S. immigration enforcement is fueling violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, citing what it described as a "1,000% increase" in assaults." This hateful rhetoric is contributing to political violence in our country and a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against our brave ICE law enforcement," a Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who was also consulted by the news site, added: "Following the evil act of political violence in the country and two brutal assaults on our brave ICE law enforcement last week, we are once again calling on the media and the far left to stop the hateful rhetoric directed at President Trump, those who support him, and our brave DHS law enforcement" The department linked the rise in attacks to recent public comments by Democratic officials, including remarks by Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett comparing ICE to "slave patrols," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz calling the agency the "modern-day Gestapo," and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker likening the U.S. to Nazi Germany. Other examples cited included Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Rep. John Larson of Connecticut, who described ICE enforcement actions as akin to the SS and Gestapo.

AP [9/17/2025 5:43 PM, Hannah Psalma Ramirez] reports during his first term in office, Trump enacted immigration policies aimed at a group normally safe from scrutiny: noncitizens who serve in the U.S. military. His administration sought to restrict avenues for immigrant service members to obtain citizenship and make it harder for green card holders to enlist -– actions that were unsuccessful. Now, military experts and veterans say service members are once again targets of the president’s immigration policies. There is no publicly available data on how many veterans are being affected, though ICE is supposed to track service member removals and the Department of Homeland Security is typically required to share that information with Congress.

AP [9/17/2025 5:29 PM, Lee Ann Anderson and Lorenzo Gomez] reports on May 9, the day of Madison’s graduation from medical school, Juan was taken into custody despite having no criminal record. Madison said he was tackled to the ground – a sight so jarring, she said, that a neighbor called the front office to report a potential kidnapping. Juan has been in detention ever since. Immigration authorities say he is in the country unlawfully. His wife, an American citizen, says he unknowingly overstayed his visa after the couple used an unscrupulous notary to file his green card application. Today, some 60,000 people are being held in immigration detention – a 51% increase since January, according to the nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. About 70% of those detained have no criminal record, TRAC says. Many others have convictions for offenses as minor as a traffic violation. The result, advocates argue, is an unprecedented attack on immigrants from all walks of life and living in the U.S. under all kinds of circumstances.

Yahoo News [9/17/2025 1:17 PM, Adam Bass, 59943K] reports the mother and father of a 16-year-old briefly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Milford were not arrested on Tuesday — but were instead ordered to wear ankle monitors. The couple was ordered to wear the monitors as part of a surveillance program by ICE, according to Daniel Santiago, the co-founder of the Mable Center for Immigrant Justice. The Mable Center’s other co-founder, Jill Seeber, represented the 16-year-old son when he was briefly detained by ICE agents on Main St. in Milford on Sept. 12. The parents, who immigrated from Brazil in 2021, do not have legal status and are seeking asylum, according to Santiago. As part of the surveillance program, the parents will have to check in with ICE periodically, he said. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told MassLive that ICE had no idea that the teenager was a minor and that he was detained “to determine his identity and if he was a potential safety threat.” “ICE does NOT target juveniles or children,” DHS Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to MassLive. “At the time of the detainment, ICE had no knowledge of the individual’s age.” During the detainment, Milford police were called to manage a crowd of bystanders who gathered during the ICE operation on Friday. Milford Police Spokesperson Jason Covino told MassLive that Milford Police officers were not involved or notified about the ICE operation. ICE agents eventually released the teenager, taking him home, according to McLaughlin and Santiago.

(B) NBC News Daily [9/17/2025 12:23 PM, Staff] reports that today, Governor Ned Lamont is expected to talk about ICE activity near schools and helping students feel safe. People in the Danbury area say there is genuine fear and concern about sending their kids to school. They are worried they could be picked up at places like school bus stops. The Department of Homeland Security has put out statements to dispel these concerns about schools. The assistant secretary of DHS said ICE is not conducting enforcement operations at or raiding schools, and that they will not be arresting children. DHS does have the ability to go into schools, but officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a school.

New York Times [9/18/2025 3:24 AM, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, 330K] reports a federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to swiftly remedy conditions inside migrant holding cells in New York City where detainees have complained of squalid and overcrowded conditions. The judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, ordered the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold fewer people in the 10th-floor holding cells of its Lower Manhattan offices at 26 Federal Plaza. ICE has been accused of detaining dozens of migrants for days or weeks there in tight quarters meant to hold detainees for just a few hours. The judge also ordered ICE to allow migrants to place calls to their lawyers and to ensure access to proper medical and hygienic care following allegations that detainees were deprived of showers, given meager meals and forced to sleep on the concrete floor without any bedding. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court on Friday by legal organizations representing a Peruvian immigrant, Sergio Alberto Barco Mercado, who was arrested by ICE and held at 26 Federal Plaza last week. Judge Kaplan issued a temporary restraining order while he fully reviews the case and considers whether to issue a longer-lasting order. ICE has repeatedly denied that the cells at 26 Federal Plaza are overcrowded or that conditions are inadequate, and indicated on Wednesday that it would appeal the judge’s order. The ruling is a short-term victory for immigration activists who have spent months denouncing the conditions in the holding cells. They have filled up as ICE has increased arrests in New York’s immigration courts, straining the agency’s detention capacity. Many of the more than 3,200 people ICE has arrested in the New York City area since Jan. 20, when President Trump’s second term began, have been detained at 26 Federal Plaza at some point, according to new federal data released this week. The holding cells emerged as a flashpoint this summer, as migrants shared details of overcrowding so severe that some of them slept sitting upright or on the floor by the toilets, which filled the cells with a “horrific stench,” according to the lawsuit. A cellphone video recorded by a detainee last month offered the first glimpse of the conditions, escalating criticism by congressional Democrats who have been denied access to inspect the cells. The lawsuit argued that ICE was violating its own policies and the Constitution by holding detainees in the cells for longer than 72 hours and by depriving access to lawyers. The legal groups representing Mr. Barco Mercado are: the American Civil Liberties Union; the New York Civil Liberties Union; Make the Road New York, an immigrant advocacy group; and Wang Hecker, a law firm. The lawyers in the case are seeking to certify the suit as a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the thousands of immigrants who have been detained or could be detained at 26 Federal Plaza. In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE, said that any claims of “overcrowding or subprime conditions at ICE facilities are categorically false.” “Despite a historic number of injunctions, D.H.S. is working rapidly overtime to remove these aliens from detention centers to their final destination — home,” she said.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [9/17/2025 3:32 PM, Laura Romero, 27036K]

New York Post [9/17/2025 3:38 PM, David Propper, 43962K] reports the driver accused of intentionally mowing down a 16-year-old Queens girl is an illegal migrant who had previously been deported and had multiple run-ins with the law, according to a report. Edwin Cruz-Gomez, 38, allegedly fatally hit teen Jhoanny Alvarez on a Queens sidewalk with his 2009 Chevy Suburban after he made unwanted sexual advances toward her and her mother outside an Elmhurst restaurant early Saturday morning, according to prosecutors. The crude remarks sparked a heated fight between that involved the teen and her mother, as well as the girl’s boyfriend and stepfather, prosecutors said. Cruz-Gomez allegedly jumped in his car and "intentionally" slammed into three of the four loved ones, prosecutors claimed. Cruz-Gomez, a Honduran national now facing murder charges, was booted from the US in 2005 before reentering at a later date, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement source told Fox News. He was arrested in April 2013 on a driving under the influence rap and was even detained by ICE Long Island, according to the outlet. He reportedly faced another deportation order, but was freed from custody three months later under the Alternatives to Detention program with officials then losing track of him. An ICE detainer was slapped against Cruz-Gomez in the aftermath of his latest arrest Saturday, the report said. Prosecutors said he had a blood alcohol level about twice the legal limit four hours after the crash. He is also facing three counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault and a count of vehicular manslaughter.

Telemundo [9/17/2025 3:29 PM, Staff, 2782K] reports a New York judge on Wednesday ordered the Donald Trump administration to improve the conditions under which immigrants are detained at a federal building in New York. Last August, Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from holding people in "unsanitary" conditions at this building, located in Federal Plaza, in southern Manhattan. On Wednesday, Kaplan urged the government to comply with his requirements in a preliminary injunction prohibiting ICE from holding detainees in spaces smaller than 50 square feet. He also demanded the provision of mattresses, access to soap and other hygiene products, and urged that the rooms where the migrants are staying be cleaned "thoroughly" three times a day. Kaplan also requires authorities to ensure that detained individuals can make free, unmonitored, and confidential calls to their attorneys within 24 hours of their arrest. And it orders that those arrested be provided with clean clothing, a private area where they can change, and access to any medication they require.

AP [9/17/2025 7:06 AM, Moriah Balingit, 37974K] reports the last time she saw her husband, the father of her three children, was when he left their Washington apartment a month ago to buy milk and diapers. Before long he called to say he had been pulled over — but not to worry, because it was just local police. The next time she heard from him, he was at a detention center in Virginia. Since that day, the 40-year-old mother of three has been too afraid to take her two sons to their nearby charter school. Like her husband, who has since been deported, she is an immigrant from Guatemala and has lived in the U.S. illegally for more than a decade. She spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear she would be targeted by immigration authorities. All three of the couple’s children were born in the nation’s capital, and the older two attend a local charter school. She planned to keep them home until a volunteer offered to drive them. Still, one of the boys was so upset over his father’s absence he missed three days of school one week. The country’s largest teachers unions filed a lawsuit last week over the immigration crackdown, saying fear stirred by arrests near campuses has led some children to drop out of school. In response, Homeland Security officials said ICE agents have not entered schools to make arrests. “ICE is not conducting enforcement operations at, or ‘raiding,’ schools. ICE is not going to schools to make arrests of children,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Washington Post [9/17/2025 6:00 AM, Paul Schwartzman and Brittany Shammas, 29079K] reports the text messages ricocheted across Mount Pleasant, a historically diverse enclave two miles north of the White House, moments after someone said they saw federal agents stopping a Latino immigrant driving his daughter to school. “At a raid now at mt p and Lamont!!!” popped up on Phaedra Siebert’s phone a few blocks from the intersection, she recalled later. Sprinting over, the former museum curator joined a crowd that was screaming at officers they assumed were with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime in D.C. roiled large swaths of the nation’s capital, as Washingtonians encountered police checkpoints, armed National Guard troops and masked immigration agents. Although the president’s 30-day emergency ended Wednesday, the heightened pace of immigration arrests has continued in the city. The ICE raids — and the possibility of more in the future — have caused fear in the neighborhood, a sloping pocket just off 16th Street NW with a diverse population of lawyers, policy analysts, Capitol Hill staffers and blue collar workers, many of them immigrants from El Salvador.

Chicago Tribune [9/17/2025 2:04 PM, Steve Sadin, 5352K] reports that knowing they cannot stop raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Lake County, leaders like state Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, are urging residents to bear witness and make a record of area ICE activities. "When you see ICE, take out your phone and video everything you see," she said Tuesday. "Get videos and photos from all angles. This is putting ICE on notice that we will not tolerate them terrorizing us and our communities." Johnson’s suggestion came a day after ICE agents were spotted in the vicinity of North Elementary School on Monday in Waukegan as part of a broader effort in recent days all over Chicago and surrounding areas of federal agents looking for illegal immigrants. As soon as reports of an ICE presence on the north side of Waukegan surfaced Monday, a "rapid response team" was dispatched to the area and Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 Superintendent Theresa Plascencia quickly reached out to the school community. Part of a four-group coalition dealing with the efforts of President Donald Trump’s administration to deport immigrants in the country illegally, the rapid response team observed what was happening around the school and other areas near Sheridan Road. When ICE surfaces, a team — always in pairs — or teams go to the scene to observe what occurs and interact if appropriate, as happened Monday near the school. They observed three vehicles with ICE personnel parked near the school. "They will keep coming as long as ICE keeps coming," Ortiz said. "They know how to interact with federal agents, and how to interact with the court. They can offer resources."

Univision Chicago WGBO [9/17/2025 5:02 PM, Staff, 4932K] reports the sound of multiple explosions, helicopters, and drones hovering over a Chicago metropolitan area neighborhood alerted residents on Tuesday morning, September 16. The deployment of federal agents, including officers from the Border Patrol, ICE, and the Department of Homeland Security, turned the suburb into what some described as a “war zone.” The operation focused on a house, where several men were arrested. According to witnesses, the officers entered the house aggressively. According to testimonies obtained by this media outlet, four people were initially arrested. Two of those involved, U.S. citizens, were released after their immigration status was confirmed. However, in a social media post, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asserted that they were never arrested. One of the detainees suffers from serious health problems, including diabetes and heart problems. His family has informed us that they have contacted the Mexican Consulate in Chicago to locate him and get his medications to him as soon as possible.

Univision [9/17/2025 2:31 PM, Mariana Rambaldi, 4932K] reports that "Not in my city! Not in my city!" Illinois Democratic State Senator Karina Villa (District 25) can be heard saying in a viral video of a group of uniformed and masked men who appear to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducting an operation in West Chicago. On Monday, Villa broadcast a Facebook Live to warn families in the area about the ongoing immigration raids. The senator urged them to stay indoors and not open their doors while ICE carried out "Operation Midway Blitz," during which several arrests were made. Her actions have generated widespread support from immigrant rights groups. ICE issued a statement asserting that Villa’s actions were "irresponsible and dangerous" for encouraging the public to interfere with law enforcement operations. Villa, a harsh critic of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and running for Illinois Comptroller, spoke with Univision News about what happened in the area. This is part of the interview: Senator Karina Villa: I was warned very early on that ICE was present here in DuPage County (in West Chicago). Then, immediately after that, people started sending me messages telling me where ICE was. I immediately went to where they were, and when I got there, I got out of my car and felt, honestly, so helpless that I wanted to shout to the whole town to let them know what was happening. Villa: Yes, yes. I know that before I arrived, they had already stopped vans carrying approximately 13 individuals who were taken away. I also know that during that encounter I had, they were detaining one person in some apartments and another person inside his car.

Chicago Tribune [9/17/2025 9:16 PM, Carolyn Stein, 5352K] reports at least three people were detained by federal immigration enforcement agents Wednesday morning outside the Menards store in Naperville. One of those arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was Martin Morales, a Montgomery resident who owns Martin Morales Wood Flooring Inc., according to his daughter, Veronica Beltran. Two others were his employees, she said. "My mom called me. I was at work and she told me that my dad had gotten taken by immigration," said Beltran, who rushed to the home improvement store on Fort Hill Drive. "But when we got here, it was too late because they had already taken him.” Beltran and her sister, Karina, stood in the parking lot as they watched their father’s van get towed away. "It’s ridiculous, the world that we live in," Beltran said. "Harming so many families, separating so many families, so many kids from their parents when they should be focusing on getting the criminals, the ones that harm this country, not the ones who work their asses off and pay taxes.” The arrests come as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s ongoing "Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, said in a news release that she had been briefed Monday on ICE’s actions in the Chicago area as a ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations and was disturbed by what was happening. As of Monday, 250 people had been taken into custody by immigration officials since the local operation began in early September, she said. "Everyone deserves to feel safe in their community," Underwood said in the release. "Like all Illinoisans, I’ve been concerned and alarmed by reporting about ICE’s conduct and operations in our state under Donald Trump.” Beltran, a green card holder, said Wednesday night that the Morales family had not heard from her father. They were in the process of trying to determine where he had been working so they could retrieve his tools. According to Underwood, detainees who have been arrested and processed are being taken to locations in Indiana and Wisconsin. One witness to the arrest of Morales and the other two men was a 60-year-old Warrenville resident who declined to give his name. "I was pulling up to buy some stuff and, you know, to have it happen here in your neighborhood, it really brings it home," he said. "They were putting people in the cars, handcuffed. I really couldn’t figure out who was doing what but it did say federal agents.” "It looked like there were two going away in one car and it looked like another agent was talking to somebody else and it looked like he was probably getting taken in too," he said. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Beyond the 250 arrests noted by Underwood, it is not known how many immigration-related arrests have been made in Naperville specifically or the Chicago area as a whole.

New York Post [9/17/2025 1:40 PM, Patrick Reilly, 43962K] reports that an Illinois Democrat was filmed tearfully trying to stop ICE agents carrying out an operation in her Chicago suburb — which the head of the operation suggested Wednesday was proof she "needs some help." State Sen. Karina Villa went viral after being filmed running through West Chicago early Monday in red pants and high heels while yelling to locals to "stay in your cars" and houses. "This is my city!" she told agents as she approached them in a car, sounding close to tears. "This is my city, that’s right! "Take off your masks!" she then yelled repeatedly, before turning to the camera to give a breathless warning in Spanish. Gregory Bovino, the US Customs and Border Patrol chief leading the operations in Chicago, told "Fox and Friends" on Wednesday that the Dem appeared unhinged. "When I see this, I think she really needs to see someone," said Bovino. "She may need some help." As for the state rep’s demands for his agents to remove their masks, she was missing how important they are to keep agents "safe," Bovino stressed. "With a 1,000% increase in assaults against federal agents doing operations such as this, I think it makes sense for these masks to be there," he stressed. "There’s a reason for this." ICE, meanwhile, called it "irresponsible and dangerous for any elected official to flagrantly encourage individuals to disregard the law and interfere with lawful operations that protect public safety."

(B) NBC News Daily [9/17/2025 3:24 PM, Staff] reports there is a $1.3 million plan to expand the Boise Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. The move is part of President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill that supports ICE with a $75 billion budget. ICE is using almost $30 billion across the United States. The permit which was filed by a Boise-based architecture firm shows that ICE plans to remove and add walls to reconfigure an office area as well as creating new storage rooms. The space is in an office building that the government leases.

AP [9/17/2025 10:24 PM, Claire Rush, 27036K] reports that, Portland, Oregon, said Wednesday it will issue a land use violation notice to the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, accusing the facility of detaining people beyond the limits of what its land use approval allows. The building’s conditional land use approval, in place since 2011, does not allow people to be kept overnight or held for more than 12 hours. The city alleges that this provision was violated 25 times over the 10-month period from last October through most of this July. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made clear detention limitation commitments to our community, and we believe they broke those policies more than two dozen times," Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a news release. "I am proud of our team for conducting a thorough, thoughtful investigation, and referring the matter to the next steps in the land use violation process.” The city said it will issue the notice, which also references a second violation regarding boarded-up windows, on Thursday. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Recently, the building has been the site of nightly protests, which peaked in June, with smaller clashes also occurring since then. Immigration and legal advocates often gather there during the day to help those arriving at the building, while protesters, often dressed in black and wearing helmets or masks, show up at night. While disruptive to nearby residents, the protests are a far cry from the racial justice protests that gripped the city in 2020. They nevertheless have drawn the attention of President Donald Trump, who recently said he was considering sending in federal troops, as he has also threatened to do to combat crime in other cities. He signed an order Monday to send the National Guard into Memphis, Tennessee, and deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C. Most violent crime around the country has actually declined in recent years, including in Portland, where a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found that homicides from January through June decreased by 51% this year compared to the same period in 2024. Under Portland’s sanctuary policy, city employees, including police officers, do not enforce federal immigration law. Oregon also has a sanctuary law that prohibits state and local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement without a warrant. Portland said its permitting bureau launched an investigation into the ICE building in late July in response to formal complaints. It reviewed data released by ICE to the nonprofit Deportation Data Project under public records requests, which indicated that the most recent of the 25 detention violations between Oct. 1, 2024, and July 27, 2025 occurred on May 20, the city said.

Los Angeles Times [9/17/2025 6:00 AM, Rebecca Ellis, 12715K] reports Los Angeles County is moving to add more checks on how federal immigration officials can access data collected by the Sheriff’s Department that can be used to track where people drive on any given day. County supervisors voted Tuesday to approve a motion, introduced by Supervisor Hilda Solis, to beef up oversight of data gathered by law enforcement devices known as automated license plate readers. It’s already illegal in California for local law enforcement agencies to share information gleaned from license plate readers with federal agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a warrant. But after a summer of ramped-up deportations, the county supervisors decided to impose more transparency on who’s requesting license plate data from the Sheriff’s Department — and when the agency provides it. “LASD shares ALPR data with other law enforcement agencies only under an executed inter-agency agreement, which requires all parties to collect, access, use, and disclose the data in compliance with applicable law,” the statement read. “LASD has no current agreements for ALPR data sharing with any federal agency.” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that the agency has multiple resources at its “fingertips to ensure federal law is enforced in Los Angeles, and throughout the entire country.” “These sanctuary politicians’ efforts to stop the Sheriff’s Department from cooperating with ICE are reckless and will not deter ICE from enforcing the law,” McLaughlin said.

NBC News [9/17/2025 4:53 PM, Juhi Doshi, 43603K] reports Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old Bay Area grandmother who has lived in the U.S. for three decades, was unexpectedly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week during a routine check-in, according to her attorney. Her detention, which her attorney said came after she had complied with immigration officials for more than a decade, has sparked protests from those in her community. Deepak Ahluwalia, who is representing Kaur, told NBC News that Kaur has lived in the United States since 1992 and has no criminal record. After her asylum case was denied in 2007, she appealed her case up until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but her final appeal was denied "sometime in 2012 or 2013," Ahluwalia said. Since then, she checked in with ICE every six months for 13 years. Because she was repeatedly checking in with ICE while under a final order of removal, she received legal authorization allowing her to work, he added. Kaur’s detention comes amid the Trump administration’s push to increase immigration enforcement around the country, following on the president’s promise to conduct the largest mass deportation in American history. ICE has increasingly been arresting immigrants appearing for routine check-ins and court hearings.

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Telemundo [9/17/2025 10:43 PM, Juhi Dosshi, 2782K

AP [9/17/2025 7:06 AM, Moriah Balingit, 1648K] reports the last time she saw her husband, the father of her three children, was when he left their Washington apartment a month ago to buy milk and diapers. Before long he called to say he had been pulled over — but not to worry, because it was just local police. The next time she heard from him, he was at a detention center in Virginia. Since that day, the 40-year-old mother of three has been too afraid to take her two sons to their nearby charter school. Like her husband, who has since been deported, she is an immigrant from Guatemala and has lived in the U.S. illegally for more than a decade. She spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear she would be targeted by immigration authorities. All three of the couple’s children were born in the nation’s capital, and the older two attend a local charter school. She planned to keep them home until a volunteer offered to drive them. Still, one of the boys was so upset over his father’s absence he missed three days of school one week. Schools in Washington reopened late last month against the backdrop of a law enforcement surge that brought masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into normally quiet neighborhoods, scenes likely to be replicated elsewhere as President Donald Trump dispatches federal agents to the streets of other big cities. In some Washington communities, the fear spread by the police presence has taken a toll on children. Some students have had parents swept up in the crackdown. Other students fear they or their family members could be next. Parents are grappling with how to explain the situation. “In my community, the impact has been immense fear and terror that is threatening student safety getting to and from school every day,” said Ben Williams, a high school social studies teacher who also serves on the District of Columbia State Board of Education. “It is really making everyone feel on edge every day as to whether someone, a community member or a parent or someone that is close or connected to the community, could be taken.”

Bloomberg [9/17/2025 7:01 AM, Yoolim Lee, 19085K] reports the past couple of weeks in South Korea have unfolded like a national drama — emotions swinging from shock and disbelief to betrayal and a reckoning with the unconscionable. On Sept. 4, more than 300 Korean engineers and technicians dispatched to the US state of Georgia to build a $4.3 billion battery plant suddenly found themselves in chains and handcuffs. It was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of the Homeland Security Investigations agency, a military-style action that included the deployment of helicopters and armored vehicles. But these weren’t shadowy figures. They were highly trained professionals flown in to help build President Donald Trump’s dream of domestic manufacturing, with Hyundai Motor Co. and LG Energy Solution Ltd. bringing resources and talent to the southern state. Instead, the workers were thrown into detention like fugitives and treated inhumanely. Some accounts are now emerging after their return home via a chartered flight, paid for by employer LG. The raid by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit spiraled into what seemed like indiscriminate arrests, one engineer said in a radio interview this week, with 475 people — including nationals from other countries — rounded up. Shackled at the waist, handcuffed and deprived of their phones, they were sent to a detention center in Folkston.

CBS News [9/17/2025 2:15 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 45245K] reports the U.S. government is adding more questions to the civics test that applicants need to pass to become American citizens, the latest step by the Trump administration to tighten the legal immigration process. The move will reinstate a 2020 test from the first Trump administration that had been scrapped by the Biden administration, which argued the additional questions created unnecessary barriers for legal immigrants seeking to become citizens. Among other requirements, legal immigrants applying to become U.S. citizens must demonstrate they have lived in the U.S. as lawful permanent residents for at least 3 or 5 years, depending on their case; that they can read, write and speak English; and that they have a basic understanding of America’s history and political system. The civics test has long been administered to assess the last requirement. Under the new version of the test, applicants will need to study 128 questions about U.S. history and politics, and answer 12 out of 20 of those questions correctly. Previously, under a test dating back to 2008, citizenship applicants had to study a pool of 100 questions and answer 6 out of 10 questions correctly. The new test will apply to those who file citizenship applications after mid-October, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that adjudicates requests from prospective citizens. Matthew Tragesser, a spokesman for USCIS, said the reinstatement of the 2020 civics test would help ensure that those allowed to become citizens "are fully assimilated and will contribute to America’s greatness." He said the move was the "first of many" changes. "American citizenship is the most sacred citizenship in the world and should only be reserved for aliens who will fully embrace our values and principles as a nation," Tragesser added. The Daily Signal [9/17/2025 8:00 AM, Virginia Allen, 668K] reports the Trump administration is making changes to the U.S. citizenship test and reimplementing updates made to the test during the president’s first term, but which the Biden administration scrapped. The changes "to naturalization civics test better assess applicants’ knowledge of U.S. history and government," U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Wednesday. The 2025 test will reimplement the 2020 naturalization civics test. Under the first Trump administration, USCIS updated the 2008 version of the exam to further test an alien’s knowledge of U.S. history and civics. The Biden administration reverted to the 2008 version of the test in 2021. "American citizenship is the most sacred citizenship in the world and should only be reserved for aliens who will fully embrace our values and principles as a nation," USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said. "By ensuring only those aliens who meet all eligibility requirements, including the ability to read, write, and speak English and understand U.S. government and civics are able to naturalize, the American people can be assured that those joining us as fellow citizens are fully assimilated and will contribute to America’s greatness," Tragesser said. "These critical changes are the first of many," he added. The Hill [9/17/2025 3:26 PM, Alix Martichoux, 12414K] reports that the naturalization test has existed in some form since the early 1900s, USCIS said, and has changed several times over the decades. The test has since been standardized, and the list of possible questions are publicly available so people can study in advance. The questions are not multiple choice, but some questions have multiple correct answers. The 2025 version of the Natural Civics Test will expand the number of potential questions from 100 to 128. The test will also get longer – citizenship applicants will need to answer 20 instead of 10. To pass, they’ll need 12 correct answers out of 20. The questions are about 75% the same or similar, and 25% is new content, USCIS said. The longer citizenship test is just the "first of many" changes to the naturalization process, Tragesser said. More details on what else is changing will be announced "in the coming weeks and months."

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Univision [9/17/2025 2:19 PM, Staff, 4932K]
Telemundo [9/17/2025 10:17 PM, Karla Gonzalez, 51K]

FOX News [9/17/2025 6:34 AM, Preston Mizell, 40019K] Video: HERE reports the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency (USCIS) unveiled a letter from President Donald Trump that newly naturalized legal migrants will receive upon obtaining citizenship in the U.S. The letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, is written by President Trump and congratulates the new citizens while reminding recipients of the oath they’re taking to "forge a sacred bond with our Nation, her traditions, her history, her culture and her values." "America has always welcomed those who embrace our values, assimilate into our society and pledge allegiance to our country," Trump writes in the letter. DHS and Trump himself have maintained an immigration policy stance consistent with the 47th president’s campaign promise to deport illegal immigrants who entered the country under the Biden Administration, while promoting migrating to the U.S. legally. "I’m fine with legal immigration," Trump said during his first press conference of his second term. "We need people and I’m absolutely fine with it – we want to have it." "American citizenship is a sacred trust, and it should never be treated like that," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital in a statement. "To be an American citizen is to commit yourself to upholding our values, culture, and Constitution." "We are doing everything in our power to make sure that anyone who is offered the privilege of becoming an American citizen fulfills their obligation to their new country," McLaughlin added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [9/17/2025 6:59 PM, Gabrielle Coppola, 12715K] reports a massive immigration raid on a battery plant in Georgia earlier this month continues to reverberate across the region, with workers staying home and delays mounting. Ken Shim, president of Woowon Technology Inc., says he’s had to provide paid time off to ease the stress of South Korean engineers installing equipment at a cell plant being built by Hyundai Motor Co. and Korea’s SK On Co. near Cartersville, Ga. Shim, an American citizen who has lived in the U.S. for more than a decade, stresses that his employees are all working legally — they have visas that allow for limited business activity such as training local hires and setting up equipment. But Hyundai and LG Energy Solution Ltd. also thought workers and subcontractors at their plant outside the city of Savannah on similar visas were complying with the law. Yet on Sept. 4, they were shackled and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. "They stopped going to work. Everybody right now is staying in their hotels or houses," Shim said in an interview. "I told my people — don’t worry about it, take it as a one-week vacation. Go shopping, you guys work hard.” SK has advised some visa holders to avoid coming to U.S. work sites until there is more clarity around their legal status, Shim said. His workers in Georgia are hunkered down, citing rumors of immigration agents questioning people at Walmart and H Mart, a grocery chain that specializes in Asian foods. He understands their worries, and advised everyone to carry their visa and passport documents with them. SK didn’t respond to a request for comment. The White House and Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests for comment. Korean battery manufacturers have invested billions in the U.S. over the past few years as the electric-vehicle industry has ramped up production in anticipation of a boom in demand. That business plan is being tested now as EV sales have lost steam and after Republicans eliminated consumer tax credits that helped stimulate EV demand. The immigration uncertainty has added to stress on their businesses. Worker unease at the Hyundai-SK plant in Cartersville is emblematic of what’s happening at other factory floors across the country. Hyundai has acknowledged the raid set back construction at its site near Savannah by at least several months due to workers’ fears of being detained.

Washington Examiner [9/17/2025 7:10 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1563K] reports the Trump administration has located more than 22,000 unaccompanied migrant children who were deemed missing after being released into the United States from the U.S.-Mexico border by the Biden administration, according to a Republican senator. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who presided over a Wednesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the status of the half a million children who crossed the southern border alone between 2021 and 2024, said the Trump administration was making strides in finding countless children lost inside the country. "Working with state and local law enforcement authorities, the Trump administration has located more than 22,000 missing illegal migrant children and arrested more than 400 criminal sponsors," Cornyn said during the hearing Wednesday afternoon. "We’ve witnessed progress in the last eight months, although much remains to be done.” By the end of the Biden administration, more than 500,000 children had crossed the border without a parent, a staggering figure that far outpaced any previous administration. Roughly 90% of all children were released to adults within the U.S., except for children from Canadian, Mexican, and some Central American countries.

NewsMax [9/17/2025 9:31 AM, Eric Mack, 4779K] reports President Donald Trump’s health advisers are calling for ramped-up enforcement against illicit Chinese vapes, an issue they believe resonates strongly with suburban parents heading into the 2026 midterms. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary have made targeting illegal, youth-focused vaping products a central priority. Last week, Kennedy joined Attorney General Pam Bondi in Chicago to spotlight federal raids aimed at clearing vape shops of unregulated imports. "The Chinese are getting richer while our children get sicker," Kennedy said, pointing to nationwide ATF seizures of flavored and gaming-themed vapes designed to hook teenagers. "We’re putting an end to that. "We are going to continue to target these Chinese vapes and stop them from poisoning our children." The FDA has already seized nearly $34 million in illegal e-cigarettes from China in coordination with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Makary says these steps reflect a break from the former President Joe Biden-Vice President Kamala Harris era, when domestic vape producers were stalled while foreign companies flooded the market.

USA Today [9/17/2025 5:34 PM, Nathan Diller, 64151K] reports four Carnival Cruise Line crew members were removed from a ship in Baltimore by border security officials. Customs and Border Protection inspected the Carnival Pride ship on Sept. 7, "based off intelligence that crew members were in possession of child sexual exploitation material," the law enforcement organization told USA TODAY. CBP did not specify whether any criminal charges had been filed against the crew members.

Telemundo [9/17/2025 7:18 PM, Staff, 144K] reports after seven years of living in the United States, Deivy Alemán self-deported himself to Cuba last weekend, following an official request from the authorities to do so. "Return has been one of the most difficult decisions of my life," Alemán said in an exclusive interview from the municipality of Palmira, on the outskirts of Cienfuegos province, in the central-south area of the island. The cameras on our channel were present when the Cuban father had to say goodbye to his family at Miami International Airport. German, 40, crossed the southern border seven years ago and was issued with an I220-B, virtually a deportation order that was never enforced due to his decision to leave the United States. The father decided to self-deport after an appointment with immigration officials, where he was informed that if he did not self-deport, he could never enter the United States again. His wife, Yisel Miguel Sarduy, claims that Alemán has no criminal record and that he has done everything right, and that the family is separating at the most inopportune moment given his daughter’s state of health. His daughter Keira, two, has heart disease and has undergone open heart surgery, with more pending surgeries ahead, so her health remains delicate. But for now, he’ll have to live without his father in the hope he’ll return. Cell phone technology helps them stay in touch, but it’s still difficult for this parent.

Los Angeles Times [9/17/2025 2:42 PM, Brittny Mejia and James Queally, 12715K] reports that U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino — the brash agent who led a phalanx of military personnel into MacArthur Park this summer — was called as a witness Wednesday in a misdemeanor assault case against a protester, who allegedly struck a federal agent. Bovino, one of the faces of President Trump’s immigration crackdown that began in Los Angeles and is now underway in Chicago, took the stand to testify that he witnessed an assault committed by Brayan Ramos-Brito in Paramount on June 7. Outfitted in his green Border Patrol uniform, Bovino testified that he witnessed Ramos-Brito drag his arm back and strike an agent with an open palm in the chest. The incident occurred during a skirmish outside a federal building between federal law enforcement agents and locals frustrated by Trump’s immigration policies. On a cross-examination, federal public defender Cuauhtemoc Ortega questioned Bovino about being the subject of a misconduct investigation a few years ago and receiving a reprimand for referring to undocumented immigrants as "scum, filth and trash.” Bovino denied referring to undocumented immigrants that way and said he was referring to "a specific criminal illegal alien" — a Honduran national who he said had raped a child and reentered the United States and had been caught at or near the Baton Rouge Border Patrol station. "I said that about a specific individual, not about undocumented peoples, that’s not correct," he said. "They did not say one illegal alien," Ortega said. "They said you describing illegal aliens, and or criminals, as scum, trash and filth is misconduct. Isn’t that correct?". "The report states that," Bovino said.

NBC News [9/17/2025 9:18 AM, Minyvonne Burke, Joe Kottke, and Jay Blackman, 43603K] reports an air traffic controller on Tuesday had to repeatedly warn a Spirit Airlines flight to turn away from Air Force One’s path as both traversed over New York, according to LiveATC audio. The Spirit Airlines flight was traveling from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Boston on Tuesday morning when the incident occurred. Air Force One, carrying President Donald Trump, was headed to the United Kingdom. In the audio, air traffic control could be heard warning the Spirit flight to "turn 20 degrees." A source with direct knowledge of the situation told NBC News that the Spirit flight and Air Force One maintained the required separation. However, the audio showed that the air traffic controller continued to instruct the flight to turn away, saying, "I’m sure you can see who it is." A spokesperson for Spirit Airlines said that the flight "followed procedures and Air Traffic Control instructions while en route to Boston." The flight "landed uneventfully" at Boston Logan International Airport, the spokesperson said, adding: "Safety is always our top priority." [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The New York Times [9/17/2025 5:03 PM, Caroline Hopkins Legaspi, 143795K] reports that the Spirit Airlines plane was about 11 miles away from Air Force One when the pilot began to turn the flight to deconflict its flight path from Air Force One. According to Flightradar24 data, the closest the two planes came was eight miles apart, laterally. A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration wrote in an email that “required separation was maintained between the aircraft.” The Spirit Airlines flight, NK1300, was transporting passengers from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Boston on Tuesday morning. Air Force One was transporting Mr. Trump from the aircraft’s base in Maryland to the United Kingdom for a two-day state visit hosted by King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

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New York Post [9/17/2025 8:58 AM, Richard Pollina, 43962K]

CBS News [9/17/2025 3:54 PM, Kerry Breen, 45245K] reports a dive team has identified a shipwreck off the coast of Nantucket as a World War I-era fishing boat that sank nearly 100 years ago with more than 20 men aboard. The ST Seiner was last seen in January 1929, according to a news release from the Atlantic Wreck Salvage, a company that searches for lost wrecks. The 139-foot ship, built in 1921, set sail from New London, Connecticut, on Jan. 9. The ship’s captain made his last daily report to the Portland Trawling Company on Jan. 18. The next day, no report was made. The ship was set to arrive in port on Jan. 22, but never did, according to the news release. The news release did not say which port the ship was headed to. The Seiner was believed to have foundered and sank in a storm, the news release said. There were 21 men, including the captain, aboard when the ship went down. The men were from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Newfoundland, Canada. The Portland Trawling Company and the U.S. Coast Guard mounted a search and rescue mission at the time, but no survivors were found. Previous attempts to search for the wreck in the 1990s failed because of the location of the wreck site.

Daily Caller [9/17/2025 1:45 PM, Derek Vanbuskirk, 985K] reports that many shipbuilding companies are bidding for billions of dollars in government contracts for the highly anticipated creation of military icebreakers, but one of these companies, Bollinger Shipyards, is competing despite its tainted history with the United States. When the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed on Independence Day, more than $8 billion was allocated for the production of up to three new heavy icebreakers, three medium polar icebreakers and 10 medium to light icebreaking vessels, according to High North News. A Homeland Security press release from August called icebreakers "vital for America’s presence in the Arctic, an area increasingly contested by America’s adversaries due to its growing potential for oil and gas exploration, critical minerals, trade route traffic, fishing and tourism." As companies submit bids for the coveted contracts, Bollinger Shipyards has moved to secure a deal to construct three medium icebreakers. If successful, the company would receive $3.5 billion, according to Marine Insight. Founded in 1946, Bollinger Shipyards has a longer history than many of its competitors, but with that comes a past riddled with government bailouts and scandals. In 2022, Bollinger acquired shipbuilding company VT Halter Marine, taking over its $745 million contract that was awarded in 2019 to construct a heavy icebreaker for the U.S. Coast Guard, according to the Department of Defense.

Federal News Network [9/17/2025 5:17 PM, Justin Doubleday, 1147K] reports the House CR tacks on a short-term extension of the CISA 2015 law, potentially giving lawmakers more time to work out updates to the decade-old law. House Republicans have included a short-term extension of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 in a stopgap government funding bill, potentially giving lawmakers more time to work out updates to the decade-old CISA 2015 law. The continuing resolution unveiled by House Republicans this week would extend CISA 2015’s provisions and authorities until Nov. 21. The law is currently set to expire after Sept. 30. However, passage of the stopgap funding bill is far from a certainty. Democrats have come out against the Republican CR proposal. The House is expected to vote on the measure by Friday. The proposed short-term CISA 2015 extension comes as Congress has yet to coalesce around a broader reauthorization of the cyber law.

CyberScoop [9/17/2025 4:30 PM, Matt Kapko] reports SonicWall said it confirmed an attack on its MySonicWall.com platform that exposed customers’ firewall configuration files — the latest in a steady stream of security weaknesses impacting the besieged vendor and its customers. The company’s security teams began investigating suspicious activity and validated the attack “in the past few days,” Bret Fitzgerald, senior director of global communications at SonicWall, told CyberScoop. “Our investigation determined that less than 5% of our firewall install base had backup firewall preference files stored in the cloud for these devices accessed by threat actors.” While SonicWall customers have been repeatedly bombarded by actively exploited vulnerabilities in SonicWall devices, this attack marks a new pressure point — an attack on a customer-facing system the company controls. This distinction is significant because it indicates systemic security shortcomings exist throughout SonicWall’s product lines, internal infrastructure and practices. “Incidents like this underscore the importance of security vendors — not just SonicWall — to hold themselves to the same or higher standards that they expect of their customers,” Mauricio Sanchez, senior director of enterprise security and networking research at Dell’Oro Group, told CyberScoop.

Blaze [9/17/2025 12:30 PM, Staff, 1559K] reports on September 15, Vice President JD Vance guest-hosted a special memorial episode of "The Charlie Kirk Show" from the White House following the assassination of the Turning Point USA founder last week. Among other officials, Vance interviewed White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who had some powerful remarks about the Trump administration’s plans to target and dismantle what he described as the "vast domestic terror movement" of left-wing networks that led to Charlie Kirk’s targeted murder. "We are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks," he said. He then specified that the administration would go after "the organized doxxing campaigns, the organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people’s addresses," as well as the leftist "messaging that’s designed to trigger [and] incite violence and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence." "It is a vast domestic terror movement, and with God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have ... to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people. It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name," Miller vowed. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [9/17/2025 5:45 PM, Sudiksha Kochi, 64151K] reports the Department of Justice has removed a study on its website that found the "number of far-right attacks" outpaces "all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism." The removal of the study, which happened after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, was first flagged on Sept. 13 by Daniel Malmer, a PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who studies online extremism, according to 404 Media. The National Institute of Justice study, titled "What NIJ Research Tells Us About Domestic Terrorism," notes that "since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives." "In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives," the study said. Other studies have come to similar conclusions.

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Blaze [9/17/2025 2:45 PM, Cooper Williamson, 1559K]

Wall Street Journal [9/17/2025 4:25 PM, Michael R. Gordon, Vera Bergengruen, and Lindsay Wise, 646K] reports after a deadly U.S. airstrike on a suspected drug boat, President Trump described the casualties as three “terrorists killed in action.” U.S. forces in the Caribbean are on the “front lines” and will take out enemies “at the times and places of our choosing,” his defense secretary has said. The U.S. military operations launched against Latin American drug smugglers in the past month have repeatedly echoed the tactics and jargon of the two-decade-long global war against terrorist groups, casting traffickers not as criminals but as enemy combatants to be neutralized with deadly force. It is a deliberate approach by the White House aimed at justifying use of the armed forces against civilian drug cartels by suggesting they are waging a war against the U.S. in the same way that al Qaeda, Islamic State and other militant groups in the Middle East have. But experts say that the two conflicts are dramatically different, not least because the drug cartels haven’t attacked the U.S., and Congress hasn’t approved the military strikes. Trump, who campaigned on avoiding foreign wars, is framing the campaign as homeland defense rather than another open-ended overseas conflict. There is no sign as yet that he is preparing for a large-scale use of air and ground forces in Latin America against drug organizations. But by branding drug traffickers as terrorists, the White House is using a familiar framework to rally support for using military force in a way that has rarely been tried. “We must treat them like the al Qaedas of the world,” FBI Director Kash Patel told a Senate hearing on Tuesday, referring to South American drug gangs such as Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua. “The manhunt after 9/11 took some years and this is going to be a yearslong mission.”

Denver Post [9/17/2025 5:00 PM, Shelly Bradbury, 2562K] reports the 18-year-old Evergreen High School student who was wounded during a shooting at the school last week warned fellow students about the attack as it unfolded, his uncle said in a video statement released Wednesday by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Matthew Silverstone remains in critical condition after the shooting and may be facing a "lifelong recovery," his uncle, Kris Koehler, said in the statement. Silverstone was shot at the very end of the nine-minute attack on the high school carried out by a 16-year-old student at the school. A witness on Tuesday told The Denver Post that he saw two boys - later identified as the shooter and Silverstone - fighting and grappling near the intersection of Buffalo Park Road and South Olive Road before the shooter threw Silverstone to the ground and shot him. Representatives for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office did not answer questions Wednesday about how the two boys came into contact or how their interaction unfolded. The office also did not answer questions about the shooter’s route through the school or where inside the building the other victim, who has not been publicly identified, was shot. The 16-year-old attacker died by suicide shortly after shooting Silverstone, as law enforcement officers closed in.

CBS News [9/17/2025 7:05 PM, Katrina Kaufman, 45245K] reports on the same day that Tyler Robinson was formally charged with the murder of Charlie Kirk, a suspect was taken into custody for allegedly making a threat of terrorism against Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed, according to local authorities. "There were clear and specific threats of violence and Utah Valley University was specifically mentioned," said Sergeant Skyler Talbot, public information officer for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office of the video. The arrest took place on Tuesday in Summit County, northeast of Utah County, where the university is located. This news comes as UVU students somberly return to campus for classes on Wednesday, a week after Kirk’s death. The campus was a scene of collective mourning. Students quietly gathered around the fenced-off courtyard, where Kirk was killed. Nearby was a memorial where students and faculty laid down flowers and spoke of how safe they had felt at the university. On Tuesday, the FBI alerted the Summit County Sheriff’s Office of a 70-second video posted online Monday night in which a person named Blake Francis Rogers allegedly made threats against Utah Valley University, according to a probable cause affidavit. Rogers, 20, allegedly told investigators it was a "joke.” According to the affidavit, Rogers said in the video: "I am now beginning my odyssey to Utah Valley University, to fulfill my lifelong duty, of finally killing woke. If you are receiving this video, it means that I did not make it back on this trip, and I was defeated by my mortal enemy, the woke mind virus at Utah Valley University, where Charlie Kirk was assassinated.” "I hope by seeing this video, you all can understand what made me perform such actions, and can view me as the hero that I know I am. I would like to request a gold statue be erected in place of Mario the Dragon, on the crossing of Market and I think 31st Street, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Thank you all," Rogers continued.

Daily Caller [9/17/2025 1:54 PM, John Loftus, 985K] reports that the 80s are back? Cocaine in the U.S. market is now more affordable than ever while still maintaining high purity levels, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Tuesday. The resurgence of cheap cocaine is due, in large part, to a new Mexican drug lord. Nicknamed "Mencho," 59-year-old Nemesio Oseguera has quickly become one of the wealthiest and most powerful kingpins in the country, according to WSJ. Over the past several decades, Oseguera has built up the Jalisco New Generation Cartel into a transnational criminal powerhouse. The organization has become so powerful that it is upending the existing criminal order in Mexico and has overtaken the Sinaloa cartel, which has been weakened by its battle against the Trump administration, as the leading drug syndicate globally, WSJ reported. The Sinaloa cartel, once the uncontested leader in fentanyl trafficking in Mexico, has recently faced intense scrutiny from the Trump administration, which has cracked down on synthetic opioids and harshen punishments for drug dealers. The enforcement focus on fentanyl created an opportunity for Jalisco’s coke business, propelling Oseguera to the forefront as the most influential figure in the drug trade. "‘Mencho’ is the most powerful drug trafficker operating in the world," Derek Maltz, who recently served as interim chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), told WSJ. "What is happening now is a pivot to much more cocaine distribution in America."

Reuters [9/17/2025 8:58 AM, Maiya Keidan, 45746K] reports the Unites States designated four Iran-aligned militia groups as foreign terrorist organizations on Wednesday, the State Department said. The groups are Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali, the department said in a statement. All four have been previously cited as Specially Designated Global Terrorists and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada in 2023, it said. "Iran-aligned militia groups have conducted attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and bases hosting U.S. and Coalition forces, typically using front names or proxy groups to obfuscate their involvement," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the statement. The United States considers Iran the world’s leading sponsor of state terrorism.

NewsMax [9/17/2025 2:26 PM, Jim Mishler, 4779K] reports that the State Department has increased the terror-related designation of four Islamic groups it has accused of attacking U.S. sites in Iraq. This follows the government’s naming on Tuesday of more than a dozen people involved with facilitating secretive financial transactions on behalf of Iran to launder currency for the Iranian leadership. The State Department said in a release Wednesday that the four terrorist groups it is closely monitoring are now labeled as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, a heightened level of scrutiny compared to their previous designation as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The administration said the groups get direct support from the Iranian government to "plan, facilitate, or directly carry out attacks across Iraq." The State Department said that includes attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and at military bases where U.S. and coalition forces are stationed. The State Department said the action will help put pressure on the Iranian leadership to curb terrorist activities. It follows the directive of President Donald Trump in a national security memo issued in February. Trump proclaimed in the order that "Iran remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terror.” The Treasury Department on Tuesday broadened its approach to Iran securing funding for terror campaigns, by naming more than a dozen people the government says have laundered money for Iran.

Politico [9/17/2025 6:30 PM, Paul McLeary and Jack Detsch, 14810K] reports the Pentagon’s crackdown on employees accused of mocking Charlie Kirk’s death has startled troops, who fear an increasing stranglehold on what they’re allowed to say. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other military leaders have denounced any posts critical of the conservative activist, due in part to far-right influencers who have flagged service members they believe are making negative comments about Kirk. That has led to the start of a suspension process, according to a Defense Department official. Several troops also have been fired or punished for social media posts that don’t necessarily attack the slain activist, according to a congressional aide and a person close to the Pentagon. The overtly political tinge has stunned civilian employees and service members, who pledge an oath to the Constitution and not a political leader. Some worry they will face politically motivated punishments for posts that are seen as disloyal to President Donald Trump, according to more than a half dozen troops and defense officials. “Dangerous territory and very headhunter-like,” said a defense official, who like others was granted anonymity to avoid potential recrimination. “People are getting swept up for anything that is ‘woke.’” The focus on social media goes beyond top Pentagon leadership to the military branches. The Air Force on Wednesday issued new social media guidance about what troops could say online. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, in the memo, told commanders to use “all tools available” to investigate and punish those who violate the rules. Active duty troops, unlike other federal employees, operate under strict rules on speech. The Uniform Code of Military Justice bars service members from making political statements or attending rallies and fundraisers while in uniform. They also may not make disparaging comments about the chain of command. But the Defense Department’s recent social media actions could extend further. “We see abuse of these reasonable speech restrictions that have long been upheld to instead instill a culture of fear and intimidation,” said Rachel VanLandingham, a retired Air Force officer and military lawyer. “I fear it will turn the military from being an apolitical institution to being a political one.”

Reported similarly:
CBS News [9/17/2025 6:36 PM, Eleanor Watson and James LaPorta, 45245K]

Reuters [9/17/2025 2:29 PM, Andrew Goudsward, 45746K] reports FBI Director Kash Patel on Wednesday faced a second day of questioning by U.S. lawmakers, defending his handling of investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein against claims from Democratic and one Republican lawmaker that the FBI is shielding information related to the late financier and sex offender. Appearing before a U.S. House of Representatives panel, Patel offered a variety of explanations for the Trump administration’s about-face on releasing material on the Epstein investigations. He argued that court orders prevented the release of some evidence and that in other areas the FBI had limited material in its possession. "We are releasing as much as legally allowed," Patel told the House Judiciary Committee. USA Today [9/17/2025 2:18 PM, Erin Mansfield, 64151K] reports that "you are hiding the Epstein files," a steamed Democratic congressman told FBI Director Kash Patel in a routine oversight hearing that periodically devolved into raised-voice bickering and partisan gamesmanship. "You are part of the coverup." Rep. Daniel Goldman, from New York, was one of several Democrats who pressed Patel on why President Donald Trump’s administration has not released more files related to the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Forcing the Department of Justice to release Epstein documents has put some MAGA Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — a firebrand from Georgia who has pledged to read the names of Epstein’s alleged accomplices if they are released — on the same side as mainstream Democrats. "Any allegations that I’m the part of a coverup to protect child sexual trafficking and victims of human trafficking and sexual crimes is patently and categorically false," Patel told the committee. Patel repeatedly said that the Trump administration has released more than any previous administration, specifically pointing the finger at Democratic administrations under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. He also said that the administration has released everything it is legally allowed to release. On why the FBI hasn’t released video evidence, Patel said: "The overwhelming majority of that video is pornographic material that was downloaded from the internet, and child sexual abuse material.”

Reuters [9/17/2025 5:19 PM, Marc Frank, Nelson Acosta, 45746K] reports Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Wednesday called for the United Nations to stop the United States from starting a war in the region, amid rising tensions due to a military buildup in the Caribbean to counter drug cartels. The foreign minister said fighting drug trafficking in the name of U.S. national security was a “crude and ridiculous pretext” for aggression. Tensions have been mounting between Washington and Venezuela, Cuba’s most important political and economic ally, after U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean on three boats out of Venezuela that it claimed were carrying drugs.

Reuters [9/17/2025 1:17 PM, Staff, 45746K] reports Denmark did not invite the U.S. military to take part in Arctic Light 2025, the largest military exercise in Greenland’s modern history, as NATO allies step up defence cooperation in the Arctic amid U.S. interest in the island. Denmark’s Arctic commander, Soren Andersen, confirmed that, while U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had been invited, no U.S. military units were asked to participate. "We work together with colleagues on the U.S. Pituffik Space Base, but they were not invited with units for this exercise," Andersen told Reuters. The U.S. has previously participated in Denmark-led military exercises in Greenland. A spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen said that "while we are not participating in this particular exercise, we continue our robust military cooperation with the Kingdom of Denmark and other Arctic allies". Independent military analyst Hans Peter Michaelsen told Reuters the exercise has "a strong political signalling" to demonstrate Denmark’s stewardship of Greenland with NATO allies. "The exercise is basically designed to show the Americans that Denmark looks after Greenland and does so with the help of other major NATO countries," Michaelsen said.

Blaze [9/17/2025 12:13 PM, Rebeka Zeljko, 1559K] reports Republican Rep. August Pfluger of Texas is leading the effort to counter growing CCP influence in global communications, Blaze News has learned, an issue President Donald Trump has been hammering for years. China is set to host the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference, posing a threat to America’s national security and giving our adversary the opportunity to shape the global telecommunications landscape. In a letter obtained exclusively by Blaze News, Pfluger is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to address China’s looming influence or else "we risk being overtaken by our adversaries." "President Trump’s consistent leadership and support of an America First agenda to counter China is important now, more than ever," the letter reads. "Our leadership in technology and innovation is at risk, and our allies may increasingly turn to China for telecommunications solutions, eroding our influence and compromising shared security interests.”

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