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

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

The Wall Street Journal [9/23/2025 12:52 PM, Joseph De Avila and James Fanelli, 646K] reports earlier this spring, the U.S. Secret Service opened an investigation into a series of anonymous telephone threats directed at high-level government officials. What followed was straight out of a spy thriller, with investigators discovering a cache of tech equipment in empty apartments that law-enforcement officials say was tied to foreign actors and capable of crippling New York’s cellular network. The announcement comes as world leaders gathered Tuesday at the United Nations in New York City for the annual General Assembly. This year’s session began on Sept. 9, with President Trump giving a speech Tuesday morning during the opening of the high-level general debate. The Secret Service said it dismantled the network of electronic devices, which was capable of shutting down cellphone services and carrying out other telecommunications-related threats aimed at U.S. officials. The devices, located throughout the New York tri-state area, could conduct denial of services attacks and other illicit telecommunication attacks, the agency said Tuesday. Officials also found 80 grams of cocaine and firearms at the locations, according to a law-enforcement official familiar with the matter. The Secret Service said the network included 300 servers and 100,000 SIM cards that investigators uncovered at multiple sites. The system was capable of shutting down EMS and police communications, the law-enforcement official said. The servers and SIM cards were found in apartments and other locations, this person said. No one was living in the apartments, the person said. “The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” said U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran. The AP [9/23/2025 7:01 AM, Mike Balsamo, 37974K] reports that the cache, made up of more than 300 SIM servers packed with over 100,000 SIM cards and clustered within 35 miles of the United Nations, represents one of the most sweeping communications threats uncovered on U.S. soil. Investigators warn the system could have blacked out cellular service in a city that relies on it not only for daily life but for emergency response and counterterrorism. Coming as foreign leaders filled midtown hotels and motorcades clogged Manhattan, officials say the takedown highlights a new frontier of risk: plots aimed at the invisible infrastructure that keeps a modern city connected. The network was uncovered as part of a broader Secret Service investigation into telecommunications threats targeting senior government officials, according to investigators. Spread across multiple sites, the servers functioned like banks of mock cellphones, able to generate mass calls and texts, overwhelm local networks and mask encrypted communications criminals, officials said. "It can’t be understated what this system is capable of doing," said Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office. "It can take down cell towers, so then no longer can people communicate, right? …. You can’t text message, you can’t use your cell phone. And if you coupled that with some sort of other event associated with UNGA, you know, use your imagination there, it could be catastrophic to the city.” Officials said they haven’t uncovered a direct plot to disrupt the U.N. General Assembly and note there are no known credible threats to New York City. The New York Times [9/23/2025 8:39 AM, Eileen Sullivan, 153395K] reports that one official said the network was capable of sending 30 million text messages per minute, anonymously. The official said the agency had never before seen such an extensive operation. There is no specific information that the network, now dismantled, posed a threat to the conference itself, Secret Service officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The agency leads the security for the U.N. meetings this week. The conference draws more than 100 foreign leaders and their staffs and has been described as the Super Bowl of spy games. The scale of the equipment discovered suggests the network could be part of a nation’s surveillance operation, experts said. Initial analysis of the data on some of the SIM cards has identified ties to at least one foreign nation, as well as links to criminals already known to U.S. law enforcement officials, including cartel members, Secret Service officials told reporters on Monday in a call previewing Tuesday’s announcement. “We will continue working toward identifying those responsible and their intent, including whether their plan was to disrupt the U.N. General Assembly and communications of government and emergency personnel during the official visit of world leaders in and around New York City,” Matt McCool, the top agent at the Secret Service’s New York field office, said in a video statement recorded by the agency ahead of the announcement. The Washington Post [9/23/2025 75:28 PM, Derek Hawkins, 29079K] reports that the service began investigating the network in the spring after senior Trump administration officials received threatening anonymous phone calls, according to officials briefed on the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. One of the officials said the network had been linked to swatting attacks on U.S. officials. Swatting is an intimidation tactic in which a caller falsely reports serious crimes at a target’s house in an attempt to draw an urgent and heavily armed police response. The service declined to say which officials were targeted or how many, citing concerns about their privacy. Breitbart [9/23/2025 12:14 PM, Lucas Nolan, 2608K] reports that the Secret Service’s Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit, in collaboration with various law enforcement agencies, traced the swatting signals to several locations in the New York tri-state area. Upon further investigation, they found a sophisticated network of SIM servers capable of generating enormous amounts of phone traffic while rapidly switching out SIM cards to evade detection. According to Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office, the network posed an "imminent threat" to the agency’s protective operations. The servers, strategically positioned around New York City’s cellular network infrastructure, could have overwhelmed cell towers and disrupted cell service for the entire city. Furthermore, the network was powerful enough to send an encrypted, anonymous text message to every person in the United States within just 12 minutes. While no arrests have been made in connection with the operation, early forensic analysis suggests that the network has been utilized by cartels, human traffickers, and terrorists. "It is absolutely well funded and well-organized," McCool stated, emphasizing the gravity of the situation. The Secret Service has successfully taken down the network, eliminating the immediate threat to New York City. However, McCool cautioned that it would be unwise to assume that there are no other similar networks operating across the country. The Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit is now working to identify and dismantle any additional networks that may exist. U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran underscored the severity of the threat, stating, "The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated.”

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The Washington Examiner [9/23/2025 11:36 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1563K] reports more than 2 million illegal immigrants residing in the United States have chosen to self-deport or been forcibly removed from the country since President Donald Trump took office, according to the government. The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday morning that more than 400,000 illegal immigrants had been deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since late January. The DHS anticipates hitting 600,000 ICE deportations by Jan. 20, 2026. Trump had vowed to hit 1 million in that time. An additional 1.6 million people chose to leave the U.S. rather than face arrest, detention, and deportation by the government. "The numbers don’t lie: 2 million illegal aliens have been removed or self-deported in just 250 days — proving that President Trump’s policies and Secretary Noem’s leadership are working and making American communities safe," DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. McLaughlin credited "ramped-up immigration enforcement" since Trump took office as having sent a message to illegal immigrants to leave the country voluntarily. NewsMax [9/23/2025 9:46 AM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4779K] reports nearly two million immigrants in the United States illegally have left since President Donald Trump began his second term, and the numbers will "explode" in the upcoming year with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) planning to triple its workforce, according to White House border czar Tom Homan. Homan said in a television interview that ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have carried out more than 400,000 deportations, with another 1.6 million migrants leaving voluntarily because of the increased enforcement efforts, reports The Washington Examiner on Tuesday. "We’re at over 400,000 deportations between CBP and ICE, and that’s just since the president took office," Homan said. "The first four months of the fiscal year, we can’t count them because Joe Biden wasn’t doing anything. But here’s what people need to understand: over 1.5 million illegal aliens, close to 1.6 million illegal aliens, have already left the country on their own. Why? Because they see what ICE is doing out there every day.” He added that the increased number of ICE agents will also affect the number of immigrants being apprehended. "What’s to come? ICE is getting 10,000 more agents," he said. "Right now, we have 5,000 deportation officers. We’re tripling the size of the workforce.” Homan said he knew that once ICE started making arrests, many migrants would opt to leave on their own or decide not to try entering the United States.

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FOX News [9/23/2025 7:46 AM, Staff, 40019K] reports Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent bills related to immigration enforcement in the state and anti-ICE protesters’ clash with agents in Illinois. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [9/23/2025 2:22 PM, Jeff Poor, 2608K] reports that Tuesday on FNC’s "Hannity," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and other California Democrats were threatening the safety of federal ICE agents. Noem argued that a California law banning law enforcement’s use of masks was part of that threat. "You and your family — you’ve had to move into military housing," host Sean Hannity said. "Now, this bill, which doesn’t really become law until January, that the state of California is going to tell federal author,ities and they have jurisdiction how and which ways they will enforce the laws of our country. I don’t think that’s going to fly. Your reaction?" Noem replied, "Yeah, it’s not going to fly, Sean. And you’ve already mentioned that it’s unconstitutional. So, this was just something they could use to posture and attack our ICE law enforcement officers over again. And that’s what’s so irresponsible about it. Governor Newsom waited many, many days to even sign this into law. And like you said, wouldn’t even be enforced until January, which means that it’s pointless. It’s just something that they want to talk about. I was a governor. When I had a bill and a policy that I thought was very important for my people in the state of South Dakota, we put an emergency clause on it. We signed it into law as soon as possible." "That means that Governor Newsom doesn’t think this is important," she added.

The New York Post [9/23/2025 7:02 AM, Emily Crane, 43962K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blasted California Gov. Gavin Newsom for posting a "really menacing" warning to her online — insisting it panicked her loved ones in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death. The DHS boss said her family and friends were immediately alarmed when Newsom’s office posted over the weekend: "Kristi Noem is going to have a bad day today. You’re welcome, America.” "It was cryptic and it was really menacing," Noem told Fox News’ "Hannity" on Monday. "It immediately panicked my family and friends. Within, I would say, a couple of minutes of that being posted I started to get text messages and phone calls. Family, my kids saying, ‘Are you okay, Mom? Are you fine?’ They know the threats that I’ve had.” She said her loved ones were aware of threats her family has already received from "cartels and criminals" ever since she started rolling out the Trump administration immigration policies. "So you know, this is a day and age where we’ve always known that words matter, but there’s been real consequences that we have realized that have happened to incredible people like Charlie [Kirk] that we’ll have to live with forever, and I hope we all learn from that," she added. "I hope we all learn that it’s time to start listening to each other, having civil discourse, and stop ridiculous, irresponsible posts like Governor Newsom put out there." NewsMax [9/23/2025 7:34 PM, Jim Mishler, 4779K] reports that the post was short: "Kristi Noem is going to have a bad day today. You’re welcome, America.” But it had enough of a potentially dangerous angle to create a reaction from Bill Essayli, acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. "We have zero tolerance for direct or implicit threats against government officials. I’ve referred this matter to @SecretService and requested a full threat assessment," Essayli posted on X. Newsom, a Democrat, has taken a firm stance against federal immigration enforcement measures directed by Noem while pushing back on what he and other state officials view as overreach. He has signed new state laws that limit Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents from hiding their identities by wearing masks during operations, and restrict their access to sensitive areas such as schools and hospitals.

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FOX News [9/23/2025 4:34 PM, Cameron Arcand and Diana Stancy, 40019K] reports President Donald Trump scolded the European nations during his United Nations address on Tuesday morning, specifically over immigration policies in several countries. Europe has dealt with a major influx of people coming from Africa and the Middle East in recent years, with critics raising concerns about everything from resources to cultural assimilation. "The U.N. is supposed to stop invasions, not create them and not finance them," Trump said. "You’re destroying your countries. They’re being destroyed. Europe is in serious trouble. They’ve been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before. Illegal aliens are pouring into Europe. Nobody is doing anything to change it to get them out. It’s not sustainable. And because they choose to be politically correct, they’re doing just absolutely nothing about it," he added. Trump compared the situation to the United States’ own border crisis under the Biden administration, which led to millions of people entering the country illegally. The high number of people crossing the southern border led to a strain on resources in border communities and major cities across the U.S. As part of Trump’s agenda, mass deportations continue. "In the United States, we reject the idea that mass numbers of people from foreign lands can be permitted to travel halfway around the world, trample our borders, violate our sovereignty, cause unmitigated crime and deplete our social safety net. We have reasserted that America belongs to the American people, and I encourage all countries to take their own stand in defense of their citizens as well," the president said. Axios [9/23/2025 12:19 PM, Dave Lawler and Barak Ravid, 14595K] reports President Trump had a harsh message for fellow world leaders at the UN General Assembly today: "Your countries are going to hell!" In Trump’s depiction, the U.S. is in a "golden age" — but every other country, particularly Western European allies, are collapsing due to immigration, unreliable green energy sources and weak leadership." Trump said he’s demonstrated how to end wars, build the world’s "hottest" economy — and shut down immigration, which he told fellow leaders was "destroying your country." They’d be wise to take his MAGA agenda back home with them, he advised. After rolling through his usual talking points on his "sleepy," "weak" predecessor and the prosperity he’d unleashed, Trump trained his fire on the UN itself. Trump said the UN hasn’t made any headway in ending any conflict anywhere in the world. "What is the purpose of the United Nations?" he asked. "All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter." He said UN officials "didn’t know what they were doing when it came to construction either," because they picked another bid over his to rebuild the UN complex years ago. Trump drew laughter after taking the stage by saying whoever was running the faulty teleprompter was "in big trouble." Later in the speech, he ad-libbed: "These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter." Trump’s tone grew darker. "Not only is the UN not solving the problems it should. Too often, it’s actually creating new problems for us to solve. The best example is the No. 1 political issue of our time, the crisis of uncontrolled migration," he said.

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Reuters [9/23/2025 11:33 AM, Gram Slattery Staff, 45746K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said recent U.S. strikes on boats carrying alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers delivered a powerful warning to anyone seeking to bring drugs into the United States. "To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence," Trump said in an address to the United Nations. Trump asserted, without evidence, that every boat hit by U.S. forces contained drugs that would kill more than 25,000 Americans. He also repeated his assertion that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro leads drug trafficking networks, which Maduro denies.

AP [9/23/2025 12:11 PM, Edward Acquah and Mark Banchereau, 37974K] reports eleven West African nationals deported by the U.S. to Ghana were sent to their home countries over the weekend despite safety concerns, their lawyer told a court in Ghana on Tuesday. The U.S. had deported a total of 14 West African immigrants to Ghana under controversial circumstances. Although Ghanaian authorities earlier said they had all been sent home, the deportees and their lawyers later told The Associated Press that 11 of them were still at a military facility in Ghana. The 11 deportees sued the Ghanaian government last week, seeking their release. Eight of them had told the local court that they had legal protections from being deported to their home countries “due to the risk of torture, persecution or inhumane treatment.” “We have to inform the court that the persons whose human rights we are seeking to enforce were all deported over the weekend,” their lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, told the court Tuesday at a virtual hearing, adding that the suit had become irrelevant. “This is precisely the injury we were trying to prevent,” he said of the safety concerns of the deportees.

NewsNation [9/23/2025 5:00 PM, Jeff Arnold, 6811K] reports federal immigration agencies are accusing Illinois law enforcement agencies of refusing to assist with "violent crowds" that protested at a suburban Chicago Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center where federal law enforcement officers used tear gas and pepper balls against anti-ICE protesters last week. But elected officials, including Gov. JB Pritzker, refute that characterization, saying that the feds are running a campaign of misinformation geared at pinning the blame for escalating tension between the two sides as a federal immigration crackdown known as Operation Midway Blitz continues into its third week. The heated back-and-forth began Friday, when between 75 to 80 protesters gathered outside the boarded-up ICE processing center in Broadview, which has been used as the main processing center for the ongoing federal effort that involves hundreds of officers and agencies from multiple federal agencies. "For the past three days, rioters and sanctuary politicians have obstructed and assaulted law enforcement," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement issued to NewsNation on Monday. "These rioters have thrown tear gas cans, rocks, bottles, and fireworks at law enforcement, slashed tires of cars, blocked the entrance of the building, and trespassed on private property. McLaughlin has said multiple times since Friday’s protests that police working in Pritzker’s "sanctuary jurisdictions" have refused to assist with protesters. However, two local law enforcement agencies contacted by NewsNation said that they were never contacted for assistance.

FOX News [9/23/2025 11:34 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 40019K] reports Portland is set to consider new legislation that would further strengthen the city’s sanctuary policies and limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The City Council’s Community and Public Safety Committee is set to review an ordinance on Tuesday that would codify Portland’s protections into binding city law. It would expand a 2017 resolution that declared Portland a sanctuary city. The draft ordinance prohibits the use of city resources to enforce federal immigration laws and bars employees, contractors and police from helping federal immigration officers looking to investigate or detain suspected illegal immigrants. It also blocks city agencies from collecting or sharing information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), unless compelled by a court order. "The City of Portland recognizes and values the diverse contributions of all individuals and affirms its commitment to treating all persons with dignity and respect, regardless of race, color, national origin, immigration or refugee status," the ordinance reads in part.

The Hill [9/23/2025 8:54 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12414K] reports Border czar Tom Homan on Monday said he "did nothing criminal" but did not deny taking a $50,000 cash payment — failing to repeat a claim first offered by the White House. MSNBC reported Friday that Homan accepted the cash payment in September of last year as part of an FBI undercover operation conducted after the bureau was given a tip that he was taking kickbacks in exchange for helping companies secure lucrative government contracts should President Trump be elected. When first responding to the outlet’s reporting, the White House did not initially claim Homan did not accept the money when it first responded to MSNBC’s reporting, instead saying the border czar is not involved in contracting decisions and did nothing wrong. But that shifted Monday when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the border czar. "Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight. Number one," she told reporters. In his appearance on the Ingraham Angle, Homan denied wrongdoing but did not repeat Leavitt’s claim. "Look, I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal," Homan said. "It’s hit piece after hit piece after hit piece and I’m glad the FBI and DOJ came out and said, you know, said that nothing illegal happened, no criminal activity.”

NewsMax [9/23/2025 10:33 AM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4779K] reports Former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan forcefully denied allegations that he accepted a $50,000 bribe from undercover FBI agents, telling Newsmax the claims are part of an orchestrated campaign to discredit him. "Look, the Justice Department said I did nothing criminal, I did nothing illegal, I did nothing wrong," Homan said on "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE," Monday. "This is a series of hits against me since the beginning of the year. There’s been a hit piece about every week." The New York Times on Saturday reported that Homan was investigated after an audiotaped meeting surfaced, in which he allegedly accepted $50,000 from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking border security contracts. The case was dropped after President Donald Trump took office, the paper said, citing doubts prosecutors could prove a quid pro quo and noting that the alleged incident took place in September 2024, when Homan was not a government employee. The White House strongly denied the report, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it "another example of the weaponization of the Biden Department of Justice against one of President Trump’s strongest and most vocal supporters in the midst of a presidential campaign.” Homan told Higbie he never took the money and underscored that he set strict ethical boundaries when returning to government under Trump.

New York Times [9/23/2025 2:34 PM, Michael Gold, 143795K] reports that House and Senate Democrats have opened separate investigations into the Trump administration’s decision to close a criminal F.B.I. inquiry into Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s border czar, that began after he was recorded last year accepting a bag with $50,000 in cash. Mr. Homan’s encounter with undercover F.B.I. agents in September 2024 was recorded on audiotape and led him to be investigated for potential bribery and other crimes. On the tape, he agreed to help the agents, who were posing as businessmen, get government contracts related to border security, according to people familiar with the case. Senior officials expressed skepticism about the case as early as February, and the Justice Department closed the investigation this year. In a letter on Monday, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, provide “all recordings from Mr. Homan’s meeting,” all of their investigative material and any communications between the White House and their agencies over the case. “Your reported effort to shut down this investigation appears to be a brazen cover-up to protect Donald Trump’s allies, at a time when the D.O.J. and F.B.I. are also being ordered to aggressively pursue prosecution of Donald Trump’s political enemies,” the Democrats wrote in the letter, which was led by Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the committee.

Reuters [9/23/2025 12:01 PM, Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch, 45746K] reports Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday launched investigations into the closure of a Justice Department bribery probe of White House border czar Tom Homan, after Reuters and other media outlets reported he was caught on a recording accepting $50,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent. Democrats on the Senate and House Judiciary Committees sent letters to top Justice Department and FBI officials, questioning the DOJ’s decision under President Donald Trump to close the investigation and demanding the release of any recordings from the sting operation. "Such allegations of high-level corruption and cover-up demand your close cooperation with congressional oversight and extraordinary transparency to restore public trust, including the public release of key evidence," Senate Democrats, led by Adam Schiff of California, wrote in their letter. The investigation into Homan, which began last year, examined whether, in anticipation of serving in a second Trump administration, he promised to influence immigration-related government contracts. A recording captured Homan accepting $50,000 in cash in a bag, sources told Reuters. FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, both Trump appointees, have said the probe "found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing". White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt denied that Homan accepted the payments. The letters from Schiff and Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, also seek any communications related to the investigation between Justice Department leaders and Trump and other White House staff.

Washington Examiner [9/23/2025 4:50 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1563K] reprots President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, is facing pressure from House Homeland Security Committee Democrats to come before the committee following bribery allegations levied against him. The Democrats sent a letter, which was shared with the Washington Examiner, to committee chairman Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) on Tuesday, asking him to call Homan in to testify. Homan is accused of taking $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents, posing as business executives, in exchange for government contracts. The Trump administration halted the investigation into Homan. The Democrats, led by ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), also accused Homan of continuing to profit from immigration and border security spending through his consulting company. The Democrats want to reveal more of Homan’s client list to ensure the DHS’s "mission is faithfully executed." Homan has denied the allegations.

The Washington Examiner [9/23/2025 9:00 AM, Lauren Green, 1563K] reports House Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin sent a letter to the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation demanding recordings from "Border Czar" Tom Homan’s alleged bribe scandal. Homan allegedly accepted $50,000 in cash bribes from undercover FBI agents stuffed in a Cava takeout bag following an agreement to help the agents, posing as business executives, lock down a large government contract. The letter comes as the Trump administration recently shut down the investigation into Homan. Homan, the former acting head of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was reported as having traveled to Texas to receive the cash. In exchange for payment, he was said to have promised to give out contacts if President Donald Trump won the election. "Confirmed by six sources and reportedly captured on recordings now in the DOJ and FBI’s possession, this startling episode is powerful evidence that Mr. Homan may have committed multiple federal felonies, including conspiracy to commit bribery," the Democrats wrote. "Your reported effort to shut down this investigation appears to be a brazen cover-up to protect Donald Trump’s allies, at a time when the DOJ and FBI are also being ordered to aggressively pursue prosecution of Donald Trump’s political enemies," it continued. The Hill [9/23/2025 9:00 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12414K] reports “Do the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have video and audio recordings of White House ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan accepting $50,000 in cash bribes from undercover FBI agents stuffed in a brown paper takeout bag from the restaurant chain Cava? It certainly sounds like you do,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the panel, wrote in a letter signed by Democratic members of the committee. The request comes as the White House has shifted its response to the story, sparking more calls from Democrats to release any tapes. MSNBC reported Friday that an informant relayed last year that Homan was soliciting payments from those looking to gain lucrative contracts should President Trump win the election.

AP [9/23/2025 9:20 PM, Staff, 4779K] reports Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday called for a criminal investigation against U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials involved in this month’s deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the White House has said were transporting drugs. Petro repudiated the three attacks in his speech at the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly during which he also accused Trump of criminalizing poverty and migration. “Criminal proceedings must be opened against those officials, who are from the U.S., even if it includes the highest-ranking official who gave the order: President Trump,” Petro said of the strikes, adding that boat passengers were not members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang as claimed by the Trump administration after the first attack. If the boats were carrying drugs as alleged by the U.S. government, Petro said, their passengers “were not drug traffickers; they were simply poor young people from Latin America who had no other option.” Petro’s comments came shortly after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that his government is preparing a series of constitutional decrees to defend the country’s sovereignty in the event of an “attack” from U.S. forces. Few details are known about the deadly strikes, the first of which took place Sept. 2 and killed 11 people, according to the Trump administration. U.S. officials have said that boat and another vessel targeted Sept. 16 had set out to sea from Venezuela. Three people died in the second attack. The U.S. military struck a third boat Friday, killing three people. The Trump administration has justified the military action as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. It has yet to explain how the military assessed the boats’ cargo and determined the alleged gang affiliation of passengers. U.S. national security officials told members of Congress that the first boat taken out was fired on multiple times after it had changed course and appeared headed back to shore. “They said that the missiles in the Caribbean were used to stop drug trafficking. That is a lie stated here in this very rostrum,” Petro said Tuesday in what appeared to be a direct reference to Trump, who spoke hours earlier. “Was it really necessary to bomb unarmed, poor young people in the Caribbean?” Maduro has accused the Trump administration of using drug trafficking accusations as an excuse for a military operation whose intentions are to oust his government. Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, restarted his country’s diplomatic relations with Venezuela after taking office in 2022.

Washington Post [9/23/2025 6:00 AM, Samantha Schmidt, 29079K] reports Colombia’s president said the world’s booming drug trade will not be stopped with military attacks against traffickers at sea, and that the Trump administration is targeting the wrong criminal organizations in its efforts to combat the record amounts of cocaine leaving South America. In an interview with The Washington Post, President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist president of the country that is the world’s largest cocaine producer, said drug trafficking networks must be stopped through intelligence and police investigations, not with armies. Striking go-fast boats in the Caribbean, as the United States has done repeatedly in recent weeks, is “only for television,” Petro said, and results in the killings of poor young people who are not the owners of the drugs "It’s murder," Petro said, speaking from the presidential palace in Colombia’s capital on Thursday, days before traveling to the U.N. General Assembly. "Because they don’t have weapons, because they don’t have the capacity, and because that’s not how you stop drug trafficking." U.S. authorities have carried out at least three strikes on vessels allegedly carrying drugs in recent weeks, killing a total of at least 17 people on board the boats, in a dramatic escalation that has raised questions about the attacks’ legality. The Trump administration has not released evidence supporting its claim that those on board these vessels were trafficking drugs. It remains unclear who the people were, where exactly the boats were hit, and what kinds and amounts of drugs were on board each vessel. The White House has insisted its actions are "fully consistent with the law of armed conflict." Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after the first strike, said the boat posed an "immediate threat to the United States," giving the country the right to destroy it. When asked for comment, the White House again said that Trump "is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding in to our country and to bring those responsible to justice," echoing comments made by press secretary Karoline Leavitt last month.

Breitbart [9/23/2025 10:19 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2608K] reports Colombia’s far-left, pro-cocaine President Gustavo Petro called for criminal proceedings against President Donald Trump over recent military strikes against drug-laden vessels in the Caribbean in an unhinged tirade before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. Petro reminded his small audience that Tuesday marked his final appearance at the U.N. as head of state. Colombia will hold a presidential election between May and June 2026. Petro is ineligible to run for president again as per the strict terms of Colombia’s constitution, which only allows for a single four-year term with no possibility for reelection. He also let everyone know that he was wearing a pin of the "War to the Death" flag, an over 200-year-old Venezuelan flag briefly hoisted during its war for independence that Petro has seemingly co-opted for his own pursuits. Throughout his roughly 40-minute speech, Petro levied wild accusations against President Trump’s drug-fighting and illegal migration policies. The latter, Petro claimed, is an "excuse for a rich, white, racist society that believes in a superior race." Petro further accused those who engage in said policies of "doing the same as Hitler" by allegedly building migrant concentration camps and claimed that Trump’s ongoing efforts to combat drug trafficking in the Caribbean seek to "dominate Latin America with violence.” Petro proclaimed himself a "decertified" president, in reference to President Trump’s determination to Congress designating Colombia and other countries as having failed demonstrably to adhere to obligations under international counternarcotics agreements. Petro said that Trump had "no human, divine, or mental" right to issue the determination against Colombia. The Colombian president once again accused Trump of "murder" over the military strikes against drug-laden vessels in the Caribbean. "Four years after my first speech at the General Assembly, I believe that the horrific situation in Palestine did not lead me to think that the same or almost the same could happen in the Colombian Caribbean. Missiles are fired at unarmed young people at sea; today, they fall on 17 unarmed young people in the waters of the Caribbean Sea," Petro said. "The persecution and enslavement of millions of migrants. Missiles fall on the 70,000 people in Gaza and kill them. Migration is an excuse for a rich, white, racist society to lead all of humanity into the abyss," he continued. According to Petro, the men aboard the drug-trafficking vessels were not from the Tren de Aragua terrorist group, nor Hamas, but rather "Caribbean, possibly Colombian," and called for criminal proceedings against U.S. officials involved in the drug-fighting operations, even if they include President Trump, "who allowed the missile strikes against youth who simply want to escape poverty.”

New York Times [9/24/2025 12:20 AM, Choe Sang-Hun, 153395K] reports they thought they were the kind of highly skilled engineers who could help fulfill President Trump’s goal of reviving American manufacturing. Park Sun-kyu said he had ​built factories that make electric car batteries in Indonesia, Michigan and Ohio. Kim Min-su said he had built or worked in such facilities in Poland, Ohio and Tennessee. Nate Cho, an HVAC guru, said he had helped put up a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates and a Samsung semiconductor factory in Texas. All three are South Korean citizens, and all of them had gone back to the United States this year. Along with hundreds of their compatriots, they were working at a sprawling 2,900-acre complex built by the South Korean company Hyundai in southeastern Georgia to make electric cars. They were finishing up a battery factory at the site, which the state’s governor has praised for bringing thousands of new jobs for Georgians. On the morning of Sept. 4, Mr. Park said he was in an office teaching a colleague how to troubleshoot a computerized manufacturing system when a U.S. agent carrying a handgun barged in and shouted: “Everyone outside!” Mr. Kim said he was supervising in a “dry room,” where the temperature and moisture were kept at precise levels for machines to produce sample batteries. A commotion broke out in the room as a security manager called to report a raid by armed officers. Outside, the agents moved swiftly, spreading out through the premises. Mr. Cho said he was checking his team’s balance sheets in his office when he saw helicopters and armored vehicles outside. They were soon swept up in what U.S. officials called the largest-ever Homeland Security enforcement operation at a single location. The workers were held in shackles. They were detained for a week in what they described as poor conditions, and accused the U.S. authorities of rights abuses. The raid was a head-on collision of Mr. Trump’s immigration and trade policies. And it has deeply unsettled South Korea, a key U.S. ally. Its diplomats haggled with Washington for a week until the country was able to fly the workers home. Days after ​their repatriation, six returnees interviewed by The New York Times said they were still struggling to process what had happened to them. Mr. Park said he is seeing a doctor because he is having trouble sleeping. “My main takeaway is that America is not a safe place to work,” Mr. Park said. “I don’t think I would go there again to work.”

The Washington Examiner [9/23/2025 12:06 PM, Asher Notheis, 1563K] reports the Department of Homeland Security posted a video parodying the Pokémon franchise on Monday, saying it needs to find illegal immigrants and "catch ‘em all.” The video shares footage of officers and agents from the border patrol, Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement detaining illegal immigrants as the Pokémon theme song plays in the background. The video’s end also showcases illegal immigrants as trading cards, all of which have ICE listed as their weakness, a nod to the "ice" type in the franchise. "To arrest them is our real test. To deport them is our cause," DHS said, parodying the Pokémon theme lyrics. Customs and Border Protection joined the online conversation by sharing a dancing Pikachu gif, calling him "Border Patrol’s newest recruit.” The Pokémon-themed post is the latest meme from the DHS and the Trump administration, a growing social media strategy from both. DHS shared a screenshot from an upcoming South Park episode parodying ICE raids in August, including the link to join ICE in its post. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also briefly changed her X profile picture to her South Park counterpart, sharing the same link to promote ICE applications. FOX News [9/23/2025 12:55 PM, Greg Norman, 40019K] reports "Gotta Catch ‘Em All," the Department of Homeland Security wrote in a caption alongside the clip. The video ends with a showcase of U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s "Worst of the Worst," with those captured being displayed as Pokémon cards. Among those featured on the mocked-up cards were Nery Garcia Linares, a 32-year-old alleged sexual predator from Guatemala who was arrested by ICE Newark on Sept.18, and Moises Lopez-Zepeda, whom DHS described as 44-year-old "criminal alien" from Mexico who was taken into custody by ICE Houston on Sept. 19. Lopez-Zepeda previously was "convicted of intoxicated manslaughter with a vehicle in Rockwall County, Texas, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison," according to DHS. Both cards have a snowflake symbol – apparently representing ICE – to indicate their weakness.

Wall Street Journal [9/23/2025 5:10 PM, Jason L. Riley, 646K] reports President Trump fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in August for allegedly manipulating jobs data to make him look bad. Is the president likewise suspicious of student progress reports from the Education Department? The latest results from the National Assessment of Education Progress were released earlier this month, and they weren’t pretty. High-school seniors recorded the worst reading scores since 1992, and math scores were the lowest since the current test began two decades ago. Elementary-school students have also lost ground. Just 31% of eighth-graders scored at or above the proficient level on the science assessment. The teachers unions that control our public-education apparatus like to blame these failures exclusively on factors outside the classroom, while liberals in general blame a supposed lack of resources. Nevertheless, school spending has steadily grown over the decades, even as enrollment has shrunk. School districts with some of the poorest children now have the highest per pupil spending. And although it’s true that larger numbers of students from lower-performing groups can bring down average scores, even top students are struggling. According to an analysis of the NAEP findings by Brandon Wright of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education-policy think tank, the percentage of students scoring at the highest level has stalled or decreased. “Math performance at the Advanced achievement level and the 90th percentile is flat,” he writes, while aptitude in reading fell. “And the decline, rather puzzlingly, seems to have been driven mostly by girls and kids whose families are middle class or higher—groups that historically have done better than their less affluent and male peers, respectively.” Covid didn’t help, but these trends predate school closings, Zoom instruction and mask mandates. The ramifications extend far beyond our borders. The Program for International Student Assessment exam is a global assessment of 15-year-old pupils. In 2018 only 8% of U.S. test-takers scored in the top tier in mathematics, compared with 15% in Canada, 18% in Japan and 29% in Hong Kong. Today’s students will populate tomorrow’s labor force, and employers who rely on workers with math, science and engineering backgrounds have been complaining for decades that too many Americans are uninterested or ill-prepared to fill these jobs.

Washington Post [9/23/2025 6:30 AM, John Yoo, 29079K] reports President Donald Trump announced Friday that the United States had destroyed a drug-running boat in South American waters, the third attack in as many weeks. The attack followed two others against suspected drug-smuggling vessels operated by Venezuelan cartels. These attacks risk crossing the line between crime-fighting and war. The Trump administration is right that illicit drugs are inflicting more harm on the U.S. than most armed conflicts have. More than 800,000 Americans have died of opioid overdoses since 1999. Drug-caused deaths remain at historic highs, with an estimated 76,000 perishing from fentanyl in 2023 alone (though this figure dropped to 48,000 last year), far outpacing American personnel killed in recent wars, such as Iraq (4,418), Afghanistan (2,349), and even Vietnam (58,220) and Korea (36,574). But the U.S. cannot wage war against any source of harm to Americans. Americans have died in car wrecks at an annual rate of about 40,000 in recent years; the nation does not wage war on auto companies. American law instead relies upon the criminal justice or civil tort systems to respond to broad, persistent social harms. In war, nations use extraordinary powers against other nations to prevent future attacks on their citizens and territory. Our military and intelligence agents seek to prevent foreign attacks that might happen in the future, not to punish past conduct. To perform that anticipatory and protective function, we accept that our military and intelligence forces must act on probabilities, not certainties, to prevent threats that might never be realized.

The Hill [9/23/2025 1:30 PM, Oren Segal, 12414K] reports that the first weeks of school should be filled with jitters, anticipation and fresh starts. Instead, in Evergreen, Colo., they were filled with grief and fear. A 16-year-old opened fire at Evergreen High School, wounding two classmates before turning the gun on himself. Deadly school shootings in the U.S. are tragically common, but they are not inevitable. The 16-year-old who opened fire on his classmates and ultimately took his own life had been exposed to a toxic online community, including a forum in which graphic violent videos and extremism were celebrated. Our team of analysts has found that at least two other school shooters in the past year were active in similar online spaces. The teenagers who perpetuated attacks at the Abundant Life Christian School in Wisconsin and Antioch High in Tennessee were both steeped in online spaces that glorify violence and amplify extremist narratives. Meanwhile, the perpetrator of the Annunciation Catholic School shooting in Minnesota used names, symbols and phrases that likely originate in such spaces. Moreover, these teens even referenced one another as inspirations for their own successive attacks. Today’s school shooters are often driven by a broader online nihilism, finding validation in digital subcultures that glorify violence and fuel a cycle of imitation. We must broaden our understanding of extremism. Today’s deadly attacks are fueled not by ideology alone, but by the toxic glorification of mass violence itself.

Houston Chronicle [9/23/2025 7:00 AM, Staff, 2356K] reports regarding "Can military attorneys fix Houston’s overwhelmed immigration courts? Critics are doubtful," (Sept. 5): I applaud Julián Aguilar for his excellent reporting on the use of military attorneys as temporary immigration judges. The critics are right. Using military attorneys who lack experience in immigration law will likely slow down case adjudication and increase the risk of due process violations, as reported in the article. Although immigration cases are civil in nature, their outcomes often carry life-or-death consequences, especially for those fleeing violence and seeking refuge. There are ways to ease case backlog in immigration courts. First, it’s to ensure access to legal representation by providing attorneys to immigrants who cannot afford one. Legal counsel helps individuals navigate the complex immigration process, prevents unnecessary delays and promotes just outcomes. Second is to hire qualified, independent immigration judges who are trained in immigration law. A fair, efficient judiciary ensures timely adjudication and reduces the need for appeals. Third is to end mass deportations that tear families apart, destabilize immigrant communities and disrupt neighborhoods — while only exacerbating the existing case backlog. Lastly, follow established legal precedents to bring consistency and predictability to decisions about eligibility for immigration relief, a critical step in reducing systemic delays.

Daily Wire [9/23/2025 2:22 PM, Leif Le Mahieu, 3184K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday arrested more illegal aliens convicted of serious crimes like robbery and sexual offenses against a child, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire. "Despite vile rhetoric and continued assaults on our ICE law enforcement officers, they continue to risk their lives every single day to arrest criminal illegal aliens convicted of child sex crimes, homicide, aggravated robbery, and other violent criminals. Our brave law enforcement are heroes Americans can be proud of," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire. "Our ICE officers are facing a more than 1000% increase in assaults against them as they carry out operations to remove criminal illegal aliens from American neighborhoods. Our brave law enforcement will not be deterred from enforcing the law and getting heinous criminals out of our country," McLaughlin added. Javier Perez-Garcia, a 48-year-old illegal alien from Mexico convicted of indecent sexual contact with a child, in Hopkins County, Texas. Perez-Garcia was sentenced to eight years in prison. Jose Nehemias Zavala-Mejia, an illegal alien from El Salvador convicted of aggravated robbery in Finney County, Kansas. Carlos Vasquez-Castro, an illegal alien from Mexico convicted of criminal possession of a weapon, in Queens, New York. Adan Guerrero-Gonzalez, a 50-year-old illegal alien from Mexico convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Hardeeville, South Carolina. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Mirna Mendez-Escamilla, an illegal alien from Mexico, convicted of theft in Ogden, Utah. Over the weekend, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law banning ICE agents from wearing masks while making arrests as he continues to oppose the Trump administration’s illegal immigration crackdown. McLaughlin called the new law "despicable" and "a flagrant attempt to endanger" federal officers, and agency sources told The Daily Wire that the new law won’t stop them from masking their faces. "Nice try by Newsom, but he knows it doesn’t apply to federal agents. He loves stirring the pot so that people find more ways to bring conflict to ICE," said one ICE source.

AP [9/24/2025 12:02 AM, Stephen Groves, 27036K] reports that, after serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq, Julio Torres has the American flag and Marine Corps insignia tattooed on his arms to show his pride in serving a country he calls home. And after struggling with post-traumatic stress syndrome, drug addiction and a related criminal charge following his deployment, the 44-year-old has found new purpose as a pastor preaching a message of freedom to those facing similar problems. But these days, his community in East Texas feels more like jail than the land of the free. As President Donald Trump works to carry out his mass deportation agenda, Torres, who was born in Mexico and migrated legally to the U.S. when he was five years old, is afraid to venture far from home. Despite holding a green card residency permit and a record of service in the U.S. military, Torres was detained by immigration authorities last year under the Biden administration. He fears that Trump’s aggressive ramp-up of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement raids could only mean more trouble. "Do I want to leave this nation? No. I want to serve it. I want to continue to serve my community," Torres told The Associated Press. "It breaks my heart that I fought for this nation to raise my children in this nation, and now I have to pull my children out of this nation if I get deported. Then what did I fight for?". Torres is not alone. There are well over 100,000 military veterans living in the U.S. who do not have citizenship, according to estimates in recent years by the Congressional Research Service. Despite military recruiters frequently describing service as a fast-track to citizenship for soldiers and their family members, the Trump administration’s immigration agenda is putting them at renewed risk of deportation. Democrats in Congress have begun to raise alarm at the recent spate of military veterans who have either been forced out of the country or had family members detained by ICE. A bipartisan bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Mark Takano, a California Democrat, aims to address that by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to identify whether immigrants are U.S. military veterans and provide them with an opportunity to apply for lawful immigration status. The legislation, which is also being supported by Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida and the delegate for American Samoa, Amata Coleman Radewagen, would also extend the deadline and make it easier for military members to apply for citizenship. "It’s very important for Americans to understand the contributions of noncitizens to our national security," Takano told the AP. "They’re often posed as threats to our personal safety, but this is a story about how they play an essential role — tremendous numbers of our current military forces are noncitizens.”

Blaze [9/23/2025 8:15 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1559K] reports a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security berated Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota for pushing a "vile lie" about immigration enforcement tactics. Omar was responding to a report from the family of a Guatemalan man who was being sought Tuesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. They claimed that ICE agents held the autistic 5-year-old daughter of Edwards Hip Mejia as bait to try to coax him out of his home. ‘This is a vile lie. [Ilhan Omar’s] habitual lies and demonization of our law enforcement is what’s cruel.’. "This is vile and beyond cruel. Abolish ICE," Omar replied on social media Tuesday. However, the social media post she included was deleted by NBC News. Dept. of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin fired off a statement excoriating Omar for pushing the story and offering additional information to undermine the story. "This is a vile lie. [Ilhan Omar’s] habitual lies and demonization of our law enforcement is what’s cruel," McLaughlin wrote. "ICE agents NEVER used a 5-year-old girl as ‘bait.’ The criminal illegal alien target — with previous arrests for domestic abuse and strangulation, among other charges — ABANDONED his own child in a car," she added. She went on to say that Mejia had ignored law enforcement emergency lights and instead drove to his home. "He fled from the car, gave officers the double middle finger, and darted inside his house. He abandoned his 5-year-old daughter in the car. Officers helped rescue the child and called local police to report the abandonment.” Leominster police arrived at the home and returned the girl to the family. The family said that federal officers returned to the home two days later on the mother’s birthday and arrested Mejia. He is reportedly being held at an ICE detention center in Plymouth. His wife said that he had been in the U.S. for about 25 years.

NBC News [9/23/2025 2:24 AM, Matt Lavietes, 43603K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents held a 5-year-old autistic girl outside her Massachusetts home to pressure her father to surrender to authorities last week, according to the girl’s family — an allegation that the Department of Homeland Security strongly disputes. A video of the incident, obtained by Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra, shows a young girl surrounded by what appears to be several male law enforcement agents outside of her home in Leominster, Massachusetts, last Tuesday. The girl is sitting beside what appears to be a law enforcement SUV and holding a bottle while encircled by the several men, according to the video. "They took my daughter, she’s 5-years-old. She has autism spectrum," the girl’s mother says in the video. "Give me my daughter back." The woman told Telemundo — which is owned and operated by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News — that her husband called her while he was driving with their daughter shortly before the incident and told her he thought he was being followed. Her husband, Edward Hip Mejia, drove home and "managed to run back into the parking lot of my house, but they grabbed" their daughter, she added. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin vehemently denied the mother’s account of events. “ICE agents NEVER used a 5-year-old girl as ‘bait’ — what a disgusting smear," she said in a statement. "The facts are the criminal illegal alien target of the operation — with previous arrests for domestic abuse, strangulation, and vandalizing property — abandoned his own child in a car." She added that Mejia "ignored law enforcement emergency lights to pull over and drove back to his house. He then fled from his car and gave officers the double middle finger, leaving his daughter behind, McLaughlin said.

FOX News [9/23/2025 4:03 PM, Greg Wehner, 40019K] Video: HERE reports DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin on Tuesday strongly rejected a report from NBC News alleging that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents used a 5-year-old autistic girl as "bait" to arrest her father, an illegal alien from Guatemala, in Massachusetts. A video obtained by Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra shows the girl sitting beside a law enforcement SUV, holding a bottle, while surrounded by several male officers outside her home in Leominster last Tuesday. NBC reported that the father, Edwards Hip Mejia, told his wife he believed he was being followed and drove home. Once there, he allegedly ran toward the parking lot, but agents "grabbed" their daughter, the wife told Telemundo. The girl’s mother can be heard telling officers her daughter is on the spectrum before demanding they return her child. McLaughlin, though, called the allegation a "disgusting smear." "Absolutely not. ICE agents NEVER used a 5-year-old girl as ‘bait’—what a disgusting smear," she said in a post on X. "The criminal illegal alien target — with previous arrests for domestic abuse and strangulation, among other charges — ABANDONED his own child in a car." She added that Mejia ignored emergency lights, fled to his home, and left his daughter behind. "He fled from the car, gave officers the double middle finger, and darted inside his house," McLaughlin said. "He abandoned his 5-year-old daughter in the car. Officers helped rescue the child and called local police to report the abandonment. "Disgusting smears like these peddled by the media are leading to a 1000% increase in assaults against our brave law enforcement," she added. According to NBC Boston, local police recovered the girl when they arrived and returned her to her family.

New York Times [9/23/2025 5:45 PM, John Eligon, 143795K] reports a Jamaican citizen who had been deported from the United States to a prison in the African kingdom of Eswatini has been repatriated back to his native country, government officials in Eswatini and Jamaica said this week. The man, Orville Etoria, was freed on arrival in Jamaica, according to the country’s top diplomat in southern Africa. Mr. Etoria’s deportation to a prison in Africa, where he had no ties, generated alarm among rights groups and activists, who argued that he had been unlawfully detained because he faced no criminal charges. Officials in the Trump administration said that Mr. Etoria, a convicted murderer, and four other immigrants deported to Eswatini were “barbaric,” and a danger to American citizens. Mr. Etoria, 62, was convicted of fatally shooting a man in Brooklyn nearly three decades ago. He served 25 years in prison, completed his parole and was living free in New York, where he was working at a men’s shelter, when immigration officials arrested him this year. Since starting his second term, Mr. Trump has sought to deport immigrants in record numbers, in part by brokering deals with countries to accept American deportees. Some legal experts have criticized the practice, saying it puts immigrants in harm’s way because they may end up in nations with poor human rights records. The Trump administration has sought to use the threat of being sent to a far-flung country as a deterrent to illegal immigration. Administration officials initially said that Mr. Etoria’s home country had refused to take him, a claim Jamaican officials denied. Mr. Etoria moved to the United States in 1976 and was a legal permanent resident until a judge ordered his removal while he was serving his prison sentence for murder. When Mr. Etoria was released from prison in 2021, immigration officials allowed him to remain in the United States, provided he check in with them annually. It was during one of his annual check-ins that he was detained. Mr. Etoria’s supporters said they were relieved that he was no longer in Eswatini, a tiny southern African monarchy, but warned that he still faced challenges. “Mr. Etoria now begins the difficult process of readjusting to life in his country of birth, Jamaica, after nearly five decades living in the United States,” Mia Unger, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society of New York, which represented Mr. Etoria, said in a statement.

Breitbart [9/23/2025 4:56 PM, John Binder, 2608K] reports a man in Chester County, Pennsylvania, is accused of bringing two Mexican migrant girls to the United States for the sole purpose of labor trafficking them, forcing them into grueling farm work with little to no pay. This week, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday (R) and the state police announced charges against Ramiro Caal Jolomna, including trafficking in individuals and involuntary servitude, as well as other charges. According to the charges, Jolomna brought a 14-year-old girl from Mexico to Pennsylvania and forced her to work 16-hour shifts, 7 days a week, only to sign her paychecks over to himself and his wife. Likewise, the Mexican girl was allegedly forced to clean Jolomna’s home without payment. Jolomna similarly allegedly brought a 17-year-old girl from Guatemala to Pennsylvania to make her do similar work for grueling hours and little to no pay. Both girls were not allowed to attend school, instead being forced to work with the threat of deportation if they went to the authorities. Jolomna has been arraigned on the charges and remains in jail with bail set at $1 million.

FOX News [9/23/2025 8:12 PM, Peter Pinedo, 40019K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is targeting an illegal alien who is charged with strangling his infant sister with a power cord, leaving the baby in critical condition. In a statement Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had lodged a detainer against Alvaro Mejia-Ayala, a 21-year-old Salvadoran national, after he was arrested for strangulation of an infant by police in Leesburg, Virginia. According to the Leesburg Police Department, police responded to a report of an infant not breathing on the morning of Sept. 17. The department said it discovered the baby had been the victim of an assault and that Mejia-Ayala had fled on foot. Local Fox affiliate Fox 5 reported that the infant was found unresponsive with a white charging cable around her neck. With the assistance of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the department tracked down Mejia-Ayala. He is now in custody and is being charged with strangulation. According to DHS, the baby is in critical condition. A spokesperson for the agency told Fox News Digital that Mejia-Ayala entered the U.S. as part of a family unit from El Salvador during the Obama administration in 2016. The spokesperson said that on Oct. 17, 2024, the Biden administration dismissed Mejia-Ayala’s immigration case, allowing him to illegally remain in the U.S. indefinitely. DHS also said that Mejia-Ayala was previously arrested by police for reckless driving in 2024, but he was released "before ICE could even lodge a detainer.” The Virginia General District Court online database says that Mejia-Ayala pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving in February 2024. The database also lists several other charges against Mejia-Ayala, including driving without a license in 2023 and failure to display license plates in 2024 and 2025. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin commented on the case, saying that "ICE lodged an immigration detainer to ensure this heinous criminal is not released on U.S. streets.” "What kind of sick monster strangles a defenseless, innocent baby girl with a charging cord? This barbarism has no place in the U.S.," said McLaughlin. "President Trump and Secretary Noem have been clear: Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.” In a separate message posted to X, McLaughlin wrote, "Pray for this precious baby girl. May God cover her and protect her.” In another X post, Homeland Security called Mejia-Ayala a "monster" and the case an example of "PURE EVIL.” "This criminal illegal alien STRANGLED AN INFANT with a charging cable," DHS wrote, adding, "President Trump and @Sec_Noem will not allow this barbarism in America.” A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment. Fox News Digital also reached out to Obama spokespeople but did not receive a response by the time of publication. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [9/23/2025 1:43 PM, John Binder, 2608K]
Daily Caller [9/23/2025 2:10 PM, Jason Hopkins, 985K]

Daily Caller [9/23/2025 5:01 PM, Jason Hopkins, 985K] reports Virginia authorities deemed an illegal migrant accused of raping a woman on a popular hiking trail too incompetent to stand trial. Denis Humberto Navarette Romero, an illegal migrant arrested in November for allegedly raping a woman along a hiking trail in a Washington, D.C. suburb, was found unfit to stand trial during a court hearing on Tuesday, according to WJLA. The development comes amid a hotly contested gubernatorial race in which cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has taken center stage. Law enforcement officers arrested Navarette Romero “just minutes” after he allegedly attacked a woman walking along the popular Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail, the Herndon Police Department confirmed at the time. He was charged with abduction with intent to defile and rape. Navarette Romero, a Honduran national, had a litany of prior arrests before the alleged rape incident in Herndon, Virginia. During a press conference in November, DeBoard said it was “disturbing” how many times Navarette Romero had been previously arrested and released. The Honduran national will have a follow-up hearing in December to determine if he has been “restored to competency,” according to WJLA.

NBC News [9/23/2025 6:10 PM, Suzanne Gamboa, 43603K] reports the son of a journalist in immigration detention pleaded Tuesday for the release of his father, saying his dad has been his caregiver and source of strength since he underwent surgery for a brain tumor. Oscar Guevara said in a Zoom news conference that since his procedure in 2021, his father, Emmy-winning digital journalist Mario Guevara, "has been the person who keeps me going." Oscar also suffered a stroke during the procedure. "He drives me to my medical appointments, helps me manage my care and, most importantly, lifts me up when I feel like giving in to the pain," Oscar, 21, of Lilburn, Georgia, said about his dad, who is from Guatemala. Guevara, who has work authorization through a 13-year-old asylum claim, marked 100 days in immigration detention Sunday. He was arrested covering a June 14 "No Kings" rally in Georgia and continues to be detained despite the dismissal of all criminal charges against him and an immigration judge’s order that he be released on bond. Oscar is Mario Guevara’s oldest son and a U.S. citizen. He also has a sister, Katherine, 27, and a brother, 14. Guevara’s case has drawn attention from free press and civil rights groups, who said he is the only journalist detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and see the attempt to deport him as retribution by the Trump administration for negative media coverage. "Mario’s detention is a true five-alarm fire for press freedom in this country, particularly for noncitizen journalists, but also for any journalist who covers law enforcement activity," said Scarlet Kim, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. Kim said the arrest and the attempt to deport Guevara are at the heart of a broader story of ICE’s acting as a secret police force whose agents mask up, refuse to wear visible ID and drive unmarked cars. "Mario’s work was precisely directed at reporting on these activities and officers," she said. His attorney has said he entered on a tourist visa and applied for asylum. However, the Department of Homeland Security maintains he doesn’t have legal authorization to be in the country, which DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin repeated in an email Tuesday. "The facts of this case have not changed. Mario Guevara is in the country illegally," she wrote.

Reported similarly:
CBS News [9/23/2025 6:27 PM, Dan Raby, 45245K]

Univision [9/23/2025 5:34 PM, Staff, 4932K] reports Salvadoran Mario Guevara, the first journalist detained by ICE in the administration of President Donald Trump, received bitter news on September 19. An immigration appeals court ordered his deportation after more than 100 days in detention in a prison in Folkston, Georgia. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [9/23/2025 9:00 PM, Ximena Bustillo, 34837K] reports Georgia’s Democratic senators are asking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to provide more information on recent deaths in immigration detention centers, including the conditions of detainees. Since President Trump took office, 15 people have died in immigration detention, 10 of those deaths occurred between January and June, Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock wrote in a letter shared exclusively with NPR. The senators say that is the highest rate in the first six months of any year publicly available. "Whatever our views on border enforcement, immigration enforcement, immigration policy, I think the overwhelming majority of the American people does not want detainees abused while they’re in U.S. custody," Ossoff told NPR in an interview. The Homeland Security Department is rushing to expand detention space and increase the rates of arrests after Congress provided billions of dollars in additional funding. Across the country, reports of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and issues with food and healthcare access have been the product of a focus to make more arrests. In an e-mail to NPR, DHS said, "All in-custody deaths are tragic, taken seriously, and are thoroughly investigated by law enforcement. ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously. DHS responds to official correspondence through official channels." The letter follows a report Ossoff released in July that alleges human rights violations occurred at immigration detention centers, including mistreatment of children, citizens and pregnant women. DHS broadly refuted the claims.

New York Times [9/23/2025 10:02 AM, Bora Erden, Devon Lum, Albert Sun, Hamed Aleaziz, Julie Bosman, and Ainara Tiefenthäler, 153395K] reports on the morning of Sept. 12, two immigration officers pulled over a man driving a silver Subaru on a busy street in a Chicago suburb. Less than a minute later, the driver had been shot in the neck, and the Subaru had crashed into a truck more than 100 feet away. Department of Homeland Security officials said the driver, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, hit and dragged one of the officers a significant distance with his car as he tried to flee the scene and had “seriously injured” the officer, who shot and killed him in self-defense. Local officials and immigrant advocates say the death of Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant, was unwarranted and reflects a dangerous escalation of arrest tactics amid an aggressive federal operation in the Chicago area. Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez appeared to be unarmed and officials have not said that he had any weapons or a criminal record beyond traffic offenses. Videos from the scene and its aftermath call into question two aspects of the D.H.S. description of events: Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez is not shown hitting either officer with his car; and, in the aftermath, one of the officers says his own injuries are “nothing major.” The New York Times analyzed these videos; interviewed policing experts; and reviewed law enforcement policies to understand how an attempted immigration arrest turned deadly so quickly.

Reuters [9/23/2025 8:35 PM, Renee Hickman and Brad Brooks, 45746K] reports police records and witness accounts from a Chicago suburb where a man was fatally shot by a federal immigration enforcement agent earlier this month complicate the picture of the event presented by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which said the agent fired his weapon after the man drove his vehicle toward agents. Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, 38, was pulled over and eventually shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Franklin Park, Illinois on September 12, just after dropping off his two children at Passow Elementary School and Small World Learning Center, a daycare located blocks away from the incident. In the shooting incident, the agent fired his weapon and Villegas Gonzalez crashed his car into a delivery truck. Bodycam footage, which Reuters obtained on Tuesday, captures an interview with the truck driver, named in police records as Josue Hernandez-Rodriguez. "He was trying to escape from them," Hernandez-Rodriguez said. In multiple statements, DHS has said the agent, who has not been identified, responded with lethal force because he was "fearing for his own life." But in bodycam footage, the agent, in a bullet-resistant police vest and torn jeans, described his injuries as "nothing major.” The shooting has been the most violent case in a wave of aggressive ICE actions taken as part of the Trump administration’s "Operation Midway Blitz," a surge in immigration enforcement in the Chicago area that began earlier this month. The administration said the operation was necessary because of city and state "sanctuary" laws that limit local police cooperation with federal authorities. DHS said in a statement on September 12 after the incident its agent fatally shot Villegas Gonzalez, whom the agency said was in the U.S. illegally, during a vehicle stop to arrest him. "He refused to follow law enforcement’s commands and drove his car at law enforcement officers," the statement said. "One of the ICE officers was hit by the car and dragged a significant distance. Fearing for his own life, the officer fired his weapon.” A trove of documents and bodycam footage obtained by Reuters as part of a public records request, as well as surveillance and bystander video, paints a more complex account. Franklin Park Police Officer Daniel Velazquez’s bodycam shows him pulling up to the scene as medics in neon green vests worked to revive a shirtless and limp Villegas Gonzalez. Velazquez asked the ICE agents about their injuries. "I got a cut," the agent in the torn jeans responded, motioning toward his bloodied knee. He also described lacerations on a hand and elbow. "Nothing major," he said. Villegas Gonzalez was then taken into a waiting ambulance, as his right arm, covered in blood, hung off the stretcher. A pool of blood was left behind on the asphalt. About three hours after police responded to a 911 call reporting shots fired, police were notified that Villegas Gonzalez was dead, records show. An ambulance also arrived for the ICE agents, but neither was seen in bodycam footage receiving treatment. "I think we’re good, man. I’m just shooken up," the second agent said. Surveillance footage from a nearby nail salon obtained earlier by CBS News showed the passenger side of Villegas Gonzalez’s silver sedan.

Axios [9/23/2025 4:45 PM, Monica Eng, 14595K] reports tensions continue to run high at the Broadview ICE detention center, where federal authorities have erected a fence that local officials say is illegal. The need to monitor clashes between protesters and ICE staff is putting a strain on the local police department. The fence, which Broadview officials told Axios was built without city permission, is preventing protestors and relatives from getting near the building, while also stopping those who’ve received notices to check in with ICE from getting inside. Last week, clashes between demonstrators and ICE officers at the facility hit a fever pitch with protesters and politicians getting tear-gassed, arrested and hospitalized. ICE officials characterized it as rioters attacking law enforcement, while protesters portrayed it as violence and intimidation against those exercising free speech. On Sunday morning, Huffington Post reported the facility would be closing, based on internal communications, but ICE officials denied it Sunday night.

The AP [9/23/2025 5:38 PM, Christine Fernando, 37974K] reports a federal immigration agent called injuries caused by being dragged by a car "nothing major" in body camera footage released Tuesday showing the moments after an immigration enforcement officer fatally shot a Mexican immigrant in the Chicago area earlier this month. Trump administration officials had previously said the officer was seriously injured by Silverio Villegas González, a Mexican immigrant who allegedly tried to evade arrest after the agents pulled over his car in suburban Franklin Park. The shooting escalated tensions amid a federal immigration crackdown in the country’s third-largest city that federal officials have said secured nearly 550 arrests. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Villegas González drove his car at officers, dragging one of them before the officer feared for his life and opened fire. Federal officials have said their officers were not wearing body cameras at the time. But footage released Tuesday by the Franklin Park Police Department shows a local officer arriving at the roadside where a car had crashed into a cargo truck in the majority Hispanic suburb of Franklin Park, about 18 miles (29 kilometers) west of Chicago. ICE agents attempt to explain to the police officer what had happened moments after an agent shot and killed Villegas González. Immigrant rights advocates, Illinois’ top elected officials and Mexico’s president have called for a thorough investigation and more transparency and accountability. Video footage also shows the first agent saying his partner had suffered "a left knee injury and some lacerations to his hands" while speaking over the radio, according to a similar account published Tuesday in the Chicago Tribune. "Nothing major," the injured agent says while putting his arms up to shrug off concerns. Federal officials had previously said the agent suffered "multiple" and "serious injuries." "His life was put at risk and he sustained serious injuries," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who visited Chicago for an immigration operation last week, posted on X. Marcos Charles, the acting head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, told The Associated Press on Friday that he had met with the officer in the hospital, saw his injuries and felt that the force used was appropriate. He declined further comment, saying there is an open investigation. The Chicago Tribune [9/23/2025 2:15 PM, Caroline Kubzansky, Jason Meisner, and Madeline Buckley, 5352K] reports that in a statement released shortly after the shooting, DHS officials said Villegas-Gonzalez, 38, “refused to follow law enforcement commands and drove his car” at officers trying to conduct a traffic stop, striking one of the ICE agents and dragging him “a significant distance.” Though it only shows the aftermath, the body camera footage from Franklin Park police offers one of the only glimpses into what happened, given that the ICE agents involved in the shooting were not wearing body cameras. And while it seemingly contradicts at least in part ICE’s original account, the shooting itself was not captured. And on Tuesday, Illinois Democrats led by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin wrote to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem asking for transparency and urging her to end what they called “dangerous operations” in the Chicago area. On Tuesday, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that every use-of-force incident or discharge of a firearm “must be properly reported and reviewed by the agency in accordance with agency policy, procedure, and guidelines.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [9/23/2025 1:01 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2608K] reports that the U.S. Marshals service has reported discovering a missing teen girl from New York being held in a hotel room by two illegal aliens in a Chicago suburb. The Marshals noted that they worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to find the child who was reported missing in Rochester, New York, on Sept. 11, the Marshals said in a September 22 press release. The Marshals were called in after investigators reviewed video of the girl leaving her family home and later encountering the illegals who then placed her in a light-colored SUV and drove off. NCMEC had coordinated with the U.S. Marshals to investigate while compiling evidence that the men had driven the girl to the Chicago area. The Marshals then discovered that the girl was in the south suburban Chicago city of Blue Island and in the company of an 18-year-old male and his father, both of whom are in the country illegally. "The United States Marshals Service worked tirelessly to recover this endangered child from the predators who should have never been in this country to take her from the safety of her family and home. Our children deserve safe cities!" said U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces S. Serralta. The Trump administration has made finding the thousands of migrant children lost by the Biden junta among its top priorities for ICE, the DHS, and other federal law enforcement agencies.

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [9/23/2025 10:23 AM, Jason Hopkins, 985K]

New York Post [9/23/2025 6:43 PM, Nicholas McEntyre, 43962K] reports a missing 13-year-old girl from upstate New York was found in a suburban Chicago apartment after she was lured away from home by illegal immigrants, authorities said. The unidentified teen was rescued from a complex in Blue Island, Ill. by US Marshals who were tipped off about the girl’s location after she disappeared from her Rochester home on Sept. 11. An 18-year-old illegal immigrant and his father were inside the apartment with the missing girl when she was located, according to the US Marshals Service. The girl was caught on security cameras walking from her house before being confronted by three adult males near the home. The younger suspect allegedly lured the teen using social media, US Marshals Director for the Western District of NY Charles Salina told Fox News’ "America Reports.” "They were exploiting her in Chicago," Serralta said without given further context. Blue Island sits 20 miles south of Downtown Chicago. The suspects met the girl near her home and she got in their "light-colored SUV" and they drove off, the US Marshal Service revealed. Officials believed the girl was in danger and expedited the search for her. "US Marshals in Rochester, working with the local NCMEC office, developed information that the child had traveled to the Chicago area and sent a collateral lead to US Marshals in the Northern District of Illinois," officials said.

Daily Wire [9/23/2025 7:04 AM, Jennie Taer, 3184K] reports a pair of illegal immigrants lured a 13-year-old girl from her home in Rochester, New York, transporting her to a location outside of Chicago before federal authorities found her 10 days later. The young girl was first reported missing on September 11, the U.S. Marshals Service said Monday. She was later seen in a security video meeting with three individuals before getting into a light-colored SUV with them. The Rochester Police Department requested help locating the missing child from the U.S. Marshals, who determined that she had traveled to the Chicago area. She ended up at an apartment complex in the 2300 block of West 119th Street in Blue Island, Illinois, where she was found in the company of an 18-year-old man and his father, both of whom were determined by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be illegal immigrants, according to the U.S. Marshals. “The United States Marshals Service worked tirelessly to recover this endangered child from the predators who should have never been in this country to take her from the safety of her family and home. Our children deserve safe cities!” U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces S. Serralta said in a statement Monday.

Breitbart [9/23/2025 1:55 PM, John Binder, 2608K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reveals that former President Joe Biden’s administration released an illegal alien into the United States who is now accused of murdering a man in the sanctuary city of Chicago, Illinois, and then burying the man’s body in concrete. As Breitbart News reported, 25-year-old illegal alien Jose Javier Coronado-Meza of Venezuela was arrested and charged in Chicago for allegedly murdering 31-year-old Gregori Arias and then claiming to have buried his remains in concrete at an unknown construction site. Coronado-Meza should have been deported from the U.S., but instead, Biden administration officials had him released from federal custody, DHS officials said. "This sick, depraved criminal alien — Jose Javier Coronado-Meza — should have never been in our country in the first place, but the Biden administration chose to allow him to roam free on American streets," DHS’s Tricia McLaughlin said. "Despite having a final order of removal from an immigration judge, the Biden administration released this criminal into our country," McLaughlin said. "We will not allow sanctuary politicians to put the lives of Americans at risk."

CNN [9/23/2025 6:00 AM, Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken, Anna-Maja Rappard, and Kyung Lah, 23245K] reports Febe and Angelo Perez were asleep in their beds when immigration agents came for their mother. Only 6 and 9 years old, the siblings – both US citizens from Texas – didn’t understand who the men in tactical vests were or what "ICE" was. And they didn’t hear an officer tell their mom, Kenia, that they would be picked up by Child Protective Services and placed into foster care if she couldn’t find someone to take care of them. All they knew was that their mother, their only parent since their father died five years ago, was being taken from them. Across the country, US-born children like Febe and Angelo have become collateral damage in the Trump administration’s unprecedented crackdown on undocumented immigrants. CNN identified more than 100 US citizen children, from newborns to teenagers, who have been left stranded without parents because of immigration actions this year, according to a review of verified crowdfunding campaigns, public records and interviews with families, friends, immigration attorneys and other advocates. These cases have unfolded as the Trump administration has abandoned the "humane enforcement" of immigration laws when deporting mothers and fathers who entered the country illegally, according to policy documents. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, American children across the country have ended up in the care of relatives, neighbors, friends, co-workers and even strangers. Their parents were picked up during raids on workplaces ranging from farms to meatpacking plants, coming out of check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or dropping their kids off at school. ICE has taken a different approach under Trump’s second term. The administration’s "border czar," Tom Homan, has repeatedly said parents are to blame for entering the country illegally and having children here without being documented. "If (you’re) in the country illegally and you choose to have a US citizen child, that’s on you," Homan told Politico in July. "If we want to send a message to the whole world … go have a US citizen child and you’re immune … we’re never going to solve this problem." ICE echoed this in its statement to CNN, saying that even if an undocumented immigrant attends immigration appointments, pays taxes or receives authorization to work in the US, they "are not absolved of their original offense of illegally entering the country."

Axios [9/23/2025 5:47 PM, Esteban L. Hernandez, 14595K] reports Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas on Tuesday didn’t mince words about an Immigration and Customs Enforcement ad that has recently aired on local TV stations targeting local officers for recruitment. Thomas said he’s "not worried in the least" about losing any DPD officers to ICE, an agency his officers aren’t allowed to cooperate with in most instances. He added he doesn’t believe Denver police "are jockeying for the same personnel" as his department prepares to hire 168 more police officers next year. The ICE ad appears to be targeting places labeled "sanctuary cities" by President Trump as the agency seeks to hire 10,000 deportation officers this year. Salaries for Denver police officers currently range from $71,633 to $110,204 annually — and a recently approved contract guarantees multiple raises starting next year. ICE salaries range from $49,739 to $89,528 a year, Newsweek reports. The federal law enforcement agency’s TV ad touts $50,000 bonuses and student loan repayment for new hires.

Los Angeles Times [9/23/2025 8:28 PM, Ruben Vives and Jenny Jarvie, 12715K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday that a Mexican national and former DACA recipient had died in their custody after being transferred to a local hospital in Victorville. Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39 was pronounced dead Sunday at the Victor Valley Global Medical Center, according to an ICE statement. Ayala-Uribe is now the 14th detainee to die in immigration detention since January, when federal immigration officials began to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. News of his death comes on the day that two Democratic senators from Georgia sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, raising concerns about the rise in the number of deaths in ICE custody, in particular two that occurred at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. NPR was the first to report on the letter. In July, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga) released the findings of a probe into alleged human rights violations that have occurred at immigration detention centers, including dozens of reports of physical and sexual abuse, and mistreatment of pregnant women and children. DHS rejected the senator’s allegations in a statement. In California, the Adelanto Detention Center, one of the largest in the state, has long been the focus of complaints from detainees, attorneys and state and federal inspectors about inadequate medical care, overly restrictive segregation and lax mental health services. In June, critics — including some staff who work inside — told The Times that conditions inside the detention center were unsafe and unsanitary. The facility, they said, was unprepared to handle the large waves of detainees pouring into the center. That month, U.S. Rep Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), toured the detention center with four other Democratic members of Congress from California amid concern over the increasing number of detainees and deteriorating conditions inside. The facility’s manager "has to clearly improve its treatment of these detainees," Chu said at a news conference after inspecting the facility. Some of the detainees told lawmakers they were held inside Adelanto for 10 days without a change of clothes, underwear or towels, Chu said. Others said they had been denied access to a telephone to speak to loved ones and lawyers, even after repeatedly filling out forms. A spokesperson for DHS could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday’s death. But the agency said in its statement about Ayala-Uribe that immigration agencies such as ICE and Customs and Border Protection are committed to ensuring the safety of people who are in their custody. "Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay," the agency’s statement read. "All people in ICE custody receive medical, dental and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. At no time during detention is a detained illegal alien denied emergent care.”

Reported similarly:
San Francisco Chronicle [9/23/2025 11:51 PM, Brooke Park, 3790K]

CBS News [9/23/2025 8:55 PM, Nidia Cavazos, 45245K] reports that, days after federal immigration agents detained Cary Lopez Alvarado, a 23-year-old Los Angeles native and U.S. citizen, she gave birth to a baby girl. Lopez Alvarado and her now 3-month-old child are among some Americans who have been caught in the middle of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and forced to prove their citizenship to gain their release from detention. "And they told me, OK, your baby is gonna be born here, but you’re from Mexico, right?" Alvarado recounted of the June arrest to CBS News. "And I told them like, ‘No, I was born here and I speak English.’". Alvarado says she was handcuffed and detained for over eight hours with a chain around her belly. Once she was released, Alvarado says she went straight to the hospital with cuts and bruises. She was also already in labor. "At the hospital, they had told me that I was already having contractions every two minutes," she said. Lopez Alvarado’s boyfriend was also detained. He has not seen his newborn and was later deported to Guatemala. The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday announced that it is on pace to deport nearly 600,000 undocumented immigrants by the end of 2025. Lopez Alvarado, seven other Americans and one green card holder have filed joint legal claims against the U.S. government, alleging they were wrongfully detained and racially profiled — some claim they were beaten by federal officers. "What they’re doing is they’re stopping, detaining, arresting, putting people in federal custody and then asking questions later," said their lawyer, Michael Carrillo. Juan Rivas, one of the defendants who has a green card, has been working as a day laborer for more than 20 years. Despite having his legal documents on him, Rivas says he was detained at a Home Depot parking lot in Los Angeles on the Fourth of July. "I was ready to show them when they started hitting me and threw me on the floor," Rivas said. CBS News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment but has not received a response. As immigration raids have increased across California and other parts of the country, immigration lawyers and advocates warn that a recent Supreme Court decision can put U.S. citizens at risk of being questioned or detained. Carrillo says he has been advising clients to carry their documents every time they leave their house. Earlier this month, the high court agreed to freeze a district court’s temporary restraining order that prevented federal immigration authorities from stopping people in Southern California without reasonable suspicion that they are in the U.S. unlawfully. That order barred officials from relying solely on certain factors like a person’s race or occupation as the basis for a detentive stop. "Where’s my due process? Allow me to present my ID, don’t just throw me to the wall. Don’t just twist my arm," said Brian Gavidia, a U.S. citizen who was confronted by federal agents outside the car dealership he owns in L.A. Gavidia told CBS Los Angeles that the agent took both his phone and Real ID. He said his friend started filming and agents released Gavidia after they verified his citizenship. He now says he regrets voting for President Trump. "I truly believed it was the worst of the worst, not Americans, not our day laborers, not our farmworkers," Gavidia said, referring to Mr. Trump’s and other administration officials’ vow to deport undocumented immigrants with violent criminal records. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [9/24/2025 4:30 AM, Priscilla Alvarez and Kaanita Iyer, 23245K] reports the Trump administration is making it significantly harder for people seeking to come to the United States legally and more difficult for current legal immigrants to stay, a squeeze that will have profound ripple effects across the economy and society. In eight months, administration officials have rolled out a series of moves that have made it more challenging for international students and foreign workers to gain entry, including changes to visa rules — like adding a hefty price tag to H-1B visas — and increased vetting of their political views and social media activity. The administration has also largely halted the US refugee admissions program, with the narrow exception of White South Africans. At the same time, officials have mounted obstacles for the tens of millions of immigrants in the country legally to remain without running afoul of rules, putting restrictions on immigration benefits, carrying out enforcement at immigration courts and offices, instituting a more difficult US citizenship test, and attempting to end birthright citizenship. Taken together, the spate of measures highlights the administration’s intense focus on every part of the US immigration process — not just illegal immigration — with the aim of overhauling the system that has previously allowed millions of immigrants to live, work, and study in the country. It’s not just immigrants in the US on a temporary basis who face higher hurdles, but also those seeking to become US citizens. Last month, USCIS also announced it was resuming "neighborhood checks," which include testimonials from neighbors, employers and co-workers, for people applying to become US citizens. Previously, USCIS largely waived those investigations, relying instead on biometric checks and criminal history. And in a separate denaturalization push, the administration has rescinded a Biden-era memo that put up guardrails on investigations of naturalized citizens to avoid a "chilling effect or barriers for lawful permanent residents seeking to naturalize." In a one-page memo obtained by CNN, Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons announced this month that the 2023 memo had been pulled. The Department of Homeland Security also proposed a federal regulation that would limit the amount of time foreign students are allowed to remain the US, arguing that students have "taken advantage of U.S. generosity."

The Hill [9/23/2025 7:03 PM, Max Rego, 12414K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is proposing an overhaul of the H-1B visa system to favor more highly skilled and highly paid foreign workers, according to docket submitted Tuesday. The change would replace a lottery system with a “numerical cap” that allows employers to prioritize higher–skilled workers that make higher wages. Workers would be separated into four different categories, with Level IV workers being entered into the selection pool four times and Level I workers being entered once. The policy change would, according to DHS, incentivize employers to provide “higher wages or higher skilled positions to H-1B workers.” The current system, the docket says, allows employers to prioritize lower-skilled, lower-wage workers. The docket will be published to the Federal Register on Wednesday. After that, there will be a 30-day public comment period. President Trump on Friday signed a proclamation imposing a new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, which took effect Sunday and has already rattled some in the tech sector. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified on Saturday that the charge is a one-time fee and H-1B visa holders outside the U.S. will not have to pay the fee to reenter the country. The H-1B visa program allows employers to hire foreign workers in certain specialty occupations, according to the Department of Labor. The program, created in 1990, is primarily utilized by tech companies to hire workers who are not lawful permanent residents of the U.S. H-1B visas are valid for three years and can be extended for up to six years, according to the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency. In 2005, Congress capped H-1B approvals at 65,000 per fiscal year, with an additional 20,000 approvals exempted for workers with advanced U.S. degrees. Certain employers, including colleges and universities, nonprofits and government research institutes are exempt from the cap. If application totals exceed the cap, USCIS uses the aforementioned lottery system. Nearly 400,000 H-1B applications were approved last year, according to the Pew Research Center, with just less than 65 percent being renewals. The number of applications peaked in 2022, when more than 440,000 applications were approved.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [9/23/2025 11:08 AM, Ted Hesson, 45746K]
NBC News [9/23/2025 4:00 PM, Daniella Silva, Rob Wile and Nicole Acevedo, 43603K]

Reuters [9/23/2025 1:33 PM, Daniel Wiessner, 45746K] reports that President Donald Trump’s order imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers is almost certain to draw legal challenges, which could set up a battle over the future of the program and the president’s powers to bar non-citizens from entering the U.S. The program offers 65,000 visas annually and another 20,000 for workers with advanced degrees. The tech industry relies heavily on H-1B workers and is often the target of critics’ claims that the program displaces American workers, but the visas are also widely used in finance, consulting, healthcare and academia. Trump’s September 19 proclamation imposes an additional fee of $100,000 for new H-1B applications and says the U.S. State Department will only issue visas to employers who pay it. The order also bars H-1B recipients from entering the U.S. unless the employer sponsoring their visa has made the payment. The administration has said that the order does not apply to people who already hold H-1B visas or those who submitted applications before September 21. Trump’s order is unprecedented and it is unclear whether it is legally valid. Federal immigration law allows U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes visa applications, to collect fees, but only those necessary to cover the costs of administering the program. And some experts said that because the existing fee structure was authorized by Congress and is periodically tweaked by USCIS through formal regulations, it is unlikely the president has the power to separately impose additional fees.

Washington Post [9/23/2025 3:50 PM, Youyou Zhou, León Krauze and David Bier, 29079K] reports under President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, the fight to preserve the H-1B visa program — which attracts temporary, high-skilled foreign workers to the United States — has faced a huge setback. On Friday, the president issued an executive order imposing a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, citing "systemic abuse of the program" that has undermined America’s economy and national security. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security released a draft of new rules that would alter the H-1B lottery to favor higher-wage roles. Will the H-1B program buckle under this new policy? And how should companies and prospective visa holders move forward? I’m joined by my colleague León Krauze (who, like me, is a former H-1B visa holder) and David Bier of the Cato Institute to discuss.

Bloomberg [9/23/2025 3:37 PM, Julia Fanzeres, 19085K] reports the White House’s new $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications could reduce work authorizations for immigrants by as many as 5,500 a month, according to an analysis by JPMorgan Chase & Co. economists. Though the number of affected workers is “fairly small” in the context of the overall US labor market, Abiel Reinhart and Michael Feroli wrote in a note, technology companies and immigrants from India stand to face a greater impact. Computer-related occupations accounted for nearly two-thirds of H-1B approvals in fiscal year 2024, and roughly half of approved petitions were for roles in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector. About 71% of the visa approvals were from India. Of the some 141,000 H-1B petitions for new employment approved last fiscal year, about 65,000 of those visas were processed abroad. The JPMorgan economists said those are most likely to be exposed to the new fee. “If all of them were to stop, it would reduce work authorization for immigrants by up to 5,500 per month, unless immigrants are able to use other visa categories to get employment,” Reinhart and Feroli wrote. Loujaina Abdelwahed, a senior economist at Revelio Labs, said the dramatic increase in fees “is effectively equivalent to dismantling the H-1B system, potentially eliminating up to 140,000 new jobs per year — about 10,000 per month — in US companies that depend on skilled foreign talent.” US hiring has cooled materially, with employers adding just 29,000 payrolls per month on average over the past three months. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last week that reflects a “marked slowing” in both the supply and demand for workers, in part due to lower immigration. Bloomberg Economics estimates the most notable impact will likely be a reallocation of visas toward higher-wage roles in sectors such as technology, finance and health care, while squeezing out lower-paid positions in fields like education. They don’t anticipate a large reduction in the overall number of visas, since demand for the authorizations still far outstrips supply.

AP [9/23/2025 6:06 PM, Staff, 37974K] Video: HERE reports the Trump administration’s abrupt decision to slap a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas has stunned and confused employers, students and workers from the United States to India and beyond. So what is the H-1B visa, and what impact will Trump’s crackdown on it have?

Roll Call [9/23/2025 12:40 PM, Chris Johnson, 511K] reports President Donald Trump’s proclamation creating a $100,000 fee for the hiring of foreign workers through the H-1B visa program came after years of congressional inaction on the immigration system, and is a move some experts say exceeds his authority to act without Congress and will likely be challenged in court. The president’s proclamation said the H-1B program was created to bring temporary workers to the U.S. for high-skilled functions, “but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.” That echoes the concerns of Sens. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, and Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., who for years put forward bipartisan bills that would, among other changes, place new wage, recruitment, and attestation requirements on employers seeking to hire with those visas. Their bill, known as the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, sought to allow the Labor secretary to collect a fee on applications but only to use that money for enforcement. The legislation has not been reintroduced this Congress. Grassley reproached the business community over concerns about the increased H-1B fees, saying in a social media post Saturday they should have supported congressional efforts for reform when they had the chance.

Bloomberg [9/23/2025 7:03 AM, Anna Shiryaevskaya, 19085K] reports Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC has been granted permission to re-export LNG from the facility as the facility prepares for start-up at the end of this year. The US Department of Energy has allowed Golden Pass to export a total of 50 billion cubic feet of previously imported LNG from foreign sources for two years starting from Oct. 1, according to the order published on the department’s website. The Golden Pass LNG export terminal in Texas is nearing the start of operations. Exxon Mobil Corp., which is developing the facility with QatarEnergy, said earlier this month that it’s confident that mechanical completion will happen in December and first LNG will come “right at that point or shortly thereafter.” The timing of the startup of the plant — one of the biggest facilities to come online that would open a wave of new LNG supply — is closely watched as the project previously faced delays. The Department of Energy said that granting the requested authorization “would facilitate GPLNG’s start up of its export terminal and avail itself of spot-market LNG import cargoes.” Under the terms of that authorization, Golden Pass may import the LNG at any receiving facility in the US. It would reside in storage tanks at the terminal and then would be either re-exported or regasified to be used as fuel.

Reuters [9/23/2025 1:46 PM, Aditya Soni and Echo Wang, 45746K] reports the Trump administration’s hefty new visa fees for H-1B workers have prompted high-level talks inside companies in Silicon Valley and beyond on the possibility of moving more jobs overseas - precisely the outcome the policy was meant to stop. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday announced the change to the visa program that has long been a recruitment pathway for tech firms and encouraged international students to pursue postgraduate courses in the U.S. While the $100,000 levy applies only to new applicants - not current holders as first announced - the confusion around its roll-out and steep cost are already leading companies to pause recruitment, budgeting and workforce plans, according to Reuters interviews of founders, venture capitalists and immigration lawyers who work with technology companies. "I have had several conversations with corporate clients ... where they have said this new fee is simply unworkable in the U.S., and it’s time for us to start looking for other countries where we can have highly skilled talent," said Chris Thomas, an immigration attorney at Colorado-based law firm Holland & Hart. "And these are large companies, some of them household names, Fortune 100 type companies, that are saying, we just simply cannot continue."

The Hill [9/23/2025 6:18 PM, Julia Shapero, 12414K] reports President Trump’s decision to raise the fee for H-1B visa applications to $100,000 is sending shock waves through Silicon Valley, as the changes enact new hurdles to hiring foreign talent in the U.S. tech industry. The administration has argued the hefty new fee on visas for highly skilled foreign workers will encourage companies to instead hire American workers amid an ongoing push to steeply curb immigration. However, experts warn the move may have unintended consequences for the American tech sector. "It’s going to be a big blow to the industry and will result in less innovation, less output, less economic growth in the United States," said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute. Trump signed a proclamation Friday increasing the H-1B visa fee to $100,000. It previously cost between $2,000 and $5,000, according to NBC News. "No more will these Big Tech companies or other big companies train foreign workers," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said alongside the president in the Oval Office. "They have to pay the government $100,000. Then they have to pay the employee. So, it’s just not economic.” "If you’re going to train somebody, you’re going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs, that’s our policy here," he added.

San Francisco Chronicle [9/23/2025 2:45 PM, Aidin Vaziri, 3790K] reports President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a $100,000 application fee on H-1B visas has drawn sharply divergent reactions from some of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. The executive order, signed Friday, marks the most dramatic overhaul yet to a program long relied upon by U.S. companies to recruit highly skilled workers from abroad. While current holders of that visa are not affected, new applicants will now face a steep barrier to entry. The White House said the fee is meant to curb abuse of the lottery system and ensure visas go to "very high-value jobs.” Some tech leaders applauded the change. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang called immigration "the foundation of the American dream" and praised Trump’s decision. "We want all the brightest minds to come to the US, and remember immigration is the foundation of the American dream. And we represent the American dream," Huang said in a CNBC interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, where they also announced Nvidia’s $100 billion investment in the AI lab. "Immigration is really important to our company and is really important to our nation’s future, and I’m glad to see President Trump making the moves he’s making.” Altman agreed, endorsing the $100,000 fee. "We need to get the smartest people in the country, and streamlining that process and also sort of aligning financial incentives seems good to me," Altman said.

San Francisco Chronicle [9/23/2025 12:13 PM, Staff, 3790K] reports a judge first ordered Leonard Lacayo to stop providing unlicensed legal advice to immigrants in 2017. Lacayo didn’t take the hint, city officials said. That was apparently an expensive mistake. Now, Lacayo will have to pay more than $600,000 in civil penalties and attorney’s fees — and is barred from providing immigration-related services to clients for another 5 years. Lacayo could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning. The development is the latest chapter in San Francisco’s escalating battle to stop a notary public it says put immigrants at risk by tricking them into paying for immigration services he was not licensed or qualified to provide. City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement that Lacayo flouted past rulings, showing "zero regard for the law." "His actions are particularly egregious during a time of mass deportations and heightened fear in our immigrant communities," Chie said. "Immigration services are desperately needed right now, but I want the public to know that Lacayo is not legally allowed to provide immigration services of any kind."

Bloomberg [9/23/2025 6:50 AM, Shruti Srivastava, 19085K] reports Indian officials will ask US trade negotiators this week to ease access for thousands of skilled workers, a person familiar with the matter said, days after President Donald Trump’s abrupt announcement to restrict H-1B visas. Indian negotiators led by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will raise the issue of movement of skilled professionals, such as IT workers, in their current round of trade talks in Washington, the person said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. Trade talks up to now have centered around easing access for goods only, but Trump’s latest crackdown on immigration have pushed New Delhi to widen the negotiations to include services industries, such as IT. India’s economy is heavily skewed toward services, which make up more than 50% of gross domestic product. India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comments.

FOXBusiness [9/23/2025 11:06 AM, Daniella Genovese, 9194K] reports more than 85,000 bags of shrimp are being recalled due to concerns that they may have been contaminated with cesium-137 as federal health officials continue to investigate how the radioactive element may have entered the food supply. Seattle-based AquaStar (USA) Corp recalled approximately 49,920 bags of Kroger Raw Colossal EZ Peel Shrimp, 18,000 bags of Kroger Mercado Cooked Medium Peeled Tail-Off Shrimp and 17,264 bags of AquaStar Raw Peeled Tail-on Shrimp Skewers because they may have been prepared, packed or held under unsanitary conditions, which may have led to their contamination, according to a notice from The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It’s the latest in a string of recalls linked to cesium-137 over the past month that the FDA has been investigating. Traces of Cs-137, a man-made radioactive form of the element cesium, are widespread and can be present in the environment in small amounts, according to the recall notice posted on Sunday. However, higher levels of it can be found in water or foods grown, raised or produced in areas with environmental contamination. If someone has long-term repeated low-dose exposure to Cs-137, through consuming contaminated food or water over time, they could be at an elevated risk of cancer stemming from "damage to DNA within living cells of the body," according to the notice. U.S. Customs and Border Protection alerted the FDA about the contamination detected in shipping containers and frozen shrimp products processed in Indonesia. The products were found at four U.S. ports: Los Angeles, Houston, Miami and Savannah, Georgia, according to a news release from the FDA. The FDA is working with distributors and retailers who received seafood from PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati after Customs first found traces of Cs-137. While later shipments didn’t test positive, the FDA said it is still recommending recalls out of caution as it determined that the company’s products were handled in unsanitary conditions that may have led to contamination with Cs-137.

Breitbart [9/23/2025 2:26 PM, Randy Clark, 2608K] reports that law enforcement authorities quickly recaptured two illegal aliens who escaped from Border Patrol custody after allegedly choking a female agent. Officials say the attack happened while the two Mexican nationals were being transported to a detention facility. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers initially arrested the two during a multi-agency enforcement operation in the greater Houston area. The short-lived escape began when 29-year-old Juan Carmen Padron-Mendez and 23-year-old Juan Carlos Padron-Barron, both illegal aliens from Mexico, were being transported to the Montgomery Processing Center on Monday. According to ICE, one of the illegal aliens freed himself of his restraints and began choking the female Border Patrol agent, who transferred them to the facility. The two men were initially arrested during an ICE-led multi-agency operation targeting violent criminal aliens and egregious immigration offenders near Spring, Texas. According to ICE, the operation was part of the Trump administration’s focus on increasing public safety by targeting the "worst of the worst" illegal aliens. Law enforcement officers mounted an immediate search for the escapees that originated at their last known location, Interstate 45 and North Loop 336 in Conroe. Within hours, the two illegal aliens were located and recaptured on Monday evening just outside the city limits.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [9/23/2025 1:36 PM, Greg Norman, 40019K] r

NewsNation [9/23/2025 11:14 AM, Sandra Sanchez, 6811K] Video: HERE reports law enforcement officers and advocates for victims of human and sex trafficking on Monday highlighted the dangers women often face when they cross the border illegally from Mexico. Discussions about forced labor, sexual exploitation and Texas having the second-most hotline reports for those crimes kicked off the second annual "Conference on Crimes Against Women Summit: Beyond the Bounds" on Monday morning in the border beach town of South Padre Island. At any given time, over 313,000 people could be victims of trafficking in Texas, conference officials said. Keynote speaker Joseph Scaramucci, a detective from Waco, told Border Report that holding the two-day conference at the border brings attention to crimes committed at the border. “When we’re looking at the border it’s an interesting perspective. One of the biggest ones we see is the smuggling of people coming and they’re coming to the U.S. looking for better lives, things like that, but there are vulnerabilities whenever they get here and people are then coming along and exploiting those vulnerabilities. It’s really unique being this close to the border. That I don’t think most places throughout the country get to see that perspective,” he said. He told participants that women of color are most prone to being trafficked. A 2011 report by the Department of Justice found that 40% of sex trafficking victims are African-American. “Policies aimed at focusing on victims are a solid place to start in decreasing sex trafficking,” according to a report by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Proving coercion or manipulation of the victims is often difficult, and Scaramucci says getting more agencies to work together to solve and prevent these types of crimes is the solution moving forward. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsNation [9/23/2025 4:42 PM, Jorge Ventura, Jeff Arnold, 6811K] reports the owner of a Texas vape shop was arrested and faces criminal drug charges after federal and local law enforcement officers discovered a tunnel that investigators believe could be linked to transnational criminal organizations. The Drug Enforcement Administration discovered the 25-foot-deep tunnel inside the Laredo business as part of a week-long enforcement operation, officials said. The operation, which is being called "Operation Vaporizer", is targeting American vape shops, including those along the U.S.-Mexico border. Officials with the DEA’s Houston division told NewsNation that the purpose of the unfinished passageway was intended for illicit use. As part of the probe, including the Laredo police, cocaine and marijuana were seized. Gilberto Pena, who owns the Laredo shop, has been charged with possession of a controlled substance. County officials told NewsNation that although Pena’s shop remains open, authorities will return to the business to dismantle the tunnel.

CNN [9/23/2025 5:25 PM, Gabe Cohen, 23245K] reports the Trump administration has launched an internal investigation into FEMA employees who signed a public letter to Congress warning that the administration’s overhaul of the disaster relief agency is undermining emergency response and endangering the public. As part of the probe, the agency has ordered the employees — who were placed on leave in August — to sign non-disclosure agreements and schedule interviews with investigators, according to five sources and internal emails reviewed by CNN. At least seven FEMA staffers received emails Tuesday from investigators at the Office of Professional Responsibility, which included the non-disclosure forms, the sources told CNN. Of the more than 180 current and former FEMA staffers who signed the August letter, most did so anonymously. Only 36 signed publicly, though it is unclear how many were still employed at the time of its release.
FEMA has not disclosed the total number of workers the agency placed on paid leave. The emails indicate that the inquiry is not a criminal investigation and direct the FEMA employees to contact investigators for more information. Some were ordered to submit for interviews within 24 hours, even as they requested time to consult legal counsel, multiple sources said.

CNN [9/23/2025 7:48 AM, Alex Rodway, 23245K] reports the Earth Fire Alliance, a global nonprofit, has partnered with Muon Space and Google to launch FireSat — the world’s first fleet of more than 50 satellites designed to scan the entire planet in near real time for signs of wildfire. Using AI to analyze the data, FireSat will deliver almost continuous intelligence to responders worldwide, transforming how communities confront these devastating blazes. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC News [9/23/2025 11:07 AM, Staff, 27036K] reports when Marshall Hinshaw was reading the news last year and saw his longtime friend’s name in a story about an attempted assassination of Donald Trump, he said he was "shocked" -- but not totally surprised. "I don’t think that he was trying to be mean or evil or violent or anything like that. I think he was just doing what he thought was right," Hinshaw told ABC News in an exclusive interview. Routh, who is representing himself in his trial on charges of trying to assassinate Trump on Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course last year, called Hinshaw to testify as a character witness Monday. Hinshaw, who was called to testify as a character witness, described Routh to ABC News as a spirited and reliable friend whose personal convictions might have led him into trouble. "Does this seem like anything he would ever do?" he was asked. "The violent part, no, but standing up for something that he believed in, maybe yeah," Hinshaw said. "If he believes strongly enough about something, I think that he would sacrifice in a personal way.” Hinshaw testified at trial that he never saw Routh behave violently or recklessly -- part of Routh’s defense strategy of highlighting his self-described "gentle" nature. Routh helped Hinshaw find work, supported him and his girlfriend when they had a child, and was a reliable coworker for years, Hinshaw testified.

New York Times [9/23/2025 5:29 PM, Ruth Graham, 143795K] reports Camp Mystic, the girls’ summer camp in Texas where 27 young campers and counselors died in flooding in July, plans to reopen next summer, a decision that has shocked and divided the once tight-knit community of Mystic alumni and parents. The camp’s owners announced their intentions in two emails sent hours apart on Monday, one to the families of the girls who died, and one to a much broader group of past campers and their families, many of whom remain fiercely loyal to the camp’s leadership. The question of whether the camp should reopen has roiled the Mystic community for weeks. One child, Cile Steward, 8, remains missing. The Texas Legislature has passed new laws to address camp safety, with an emotional push from the families of the children who died in the July 4 floods that devastated the Hill Country of Central Texas. But questions remain about what happened in the early morning hours of the Independence Day catastrophe, and many families have deeply opposed a reopening. The messages sent on Monday, which included plans to erect a memorial on Mystic grounds in honor of the girls who died there, prompted immediate waves of shock and anger among the families, several parents said on Tuesday. They also said that they had received almost no other communication from the camp in recent months.

San Diego Union Tribune [9/23/2025 3:32 PM, Elizabeth Marie Himchak, 1648K] reports nearly 2,700 trees along Poway’s Twin Peaks Road, Camino del Norte, Espola Road and in the Green Valley open space area are slated for removal over the next several months. The project will cost over $3 million, mostly funded by the federal government and rest by the City of Poway, officials said. Cutting down the trees, which began on Sept. 16 and is slated to continue into next year, is meant to make some of Poway’s evacuation routes safer in times of wildfire and strong Santa Ana winds, according to city officials. According to Stein, when there is a significant wildfire in the area, there can also be Santa Ana winds. The winds are more likely to make unhealthy trees fall over. If they do, the trees could block roadways used for evacuation routes. The trees marked for removal represent just over 20% of the trees on city land in these four areas, but the number could go up as additional assessments are conducted, said Steve Jackson, Poway’s assistant director of public works for maintenance operations. Poway received funding from FEMA for its Hazardous Tree Removal Mitigation Grant projects. FEMA is covering 75% of the cost, while the city is matching with 25%.

Bloomberg [9/23/2025 10:11 PM, Magdalena Del Valle and Myles Miller, 19085K] reports US President Donald Trump said Tuesday there were two things he got from the United Nations: “a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.” The teleprompter malfunctioned during his grievance-laden speech before the General Assembly. Another snag occurred when First Lady Melania Trump stepped onto an escalator at the New York headquarters and it ground to a halt, likely because a safety mechanism was triggered by someone in the US delegation, according to the UN. Still, Trump’s spokeswoman suggested someone at the UN may have purposefully caused the escalator mishap. Now the Secret Service is investigating if both the teleprompter and the escalator were tampered with, according to people familiar with the matter. The seemingly minor episodes risked becoming a fresh source of friction after Trump blasted the UN as an ineffectual talking shop during his speech to the world body. “I know that we have people, including United States Secret Service, who are looking into this to try to get to the bottom of it and if we find these were UN staffers who were purposely trying to trip up, literally trip up the president and the first lady of the United States, there better be accountability for those people and I will personally see to it,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday night on Fox News.

The Daily Caller [9/23/2025 2:34 PM, Katelynn Richardson, 985K] reports that a Florida jury found Ryan Routh guilty on Tuesday of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to several reports. Routh was convicted on five counts, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several gun charges. A Secret Service agent discovered Routh hiding in the bushes at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club with a rifle last year on Sept. 15 — just two months after a gunman’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Routh fled the scene after the agent fired shots in his direction, but was arrested later that day. Over the 12-day trial, prosecutors called over 38 witnesses to the stand, including FBI agents, local law enforcement and Secret Service agents who responded to the scene. The trial began in Florida two days before Charlie Kirk’s assassination while speaking at a college campus in Utah. Though he is not an attorney, Routh opted to represent himself, cross-examining witnesses and presenting his own opening and closing statements. Judge Aileen Cannon cut Routh off just minutes into his opening statement as he diverged into talking about Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning him against making a "mockery" of the courtroom. CNN [9/23/2025 2:35 PM, Randi Kaye, 23245K] reports that Routh, who represented himself at his federal trial in Fort Pierce, Florida, was facing five charges, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm and ammunition as a felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Authorities say Routh created a “sniper’s nest” near the sixth green of Trump International Golf Club, but never fired a shot at Trump. Jurors deliberated for under three hours before delivering the verdict. US attorneys rested their case on Friday after calling 38 witnesses. Nearly two weeks of testimony and hundreds of exhibits culminated with the final witness who pieced together how Routh was allegedly “stalking” Trump and collecting both “physical and electronic evidence.” Kimberly McGreevy, an FBI supervisory special agent, focused on evidence collected between August 14 and September 15, 2024, leading up to the alleged assassination attempt. Prosecutors ticked through a mountain of evidence with McGreevy on the stand, including call logs, text messages, bank records and video surveillance. NBC News [9/23/2025 3:50 PM, Juliette Arcodia, Carmen Gonzalez and Corky Siemaszko, 43603K] reports the trial of Ryan Wesley Routh came to a dramatic end Tuesday when he tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen after a Florida jury found him guilty of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump last year on a golf course. "Dad, don’t hurt yourself," Routh’s daughter, Sara, screamed as the bailiffs struggled to restrain Routh and rushed him out of the courtroom. A short time later, Routh was returned to the courtroom to complete the proceedings. This time, he was wearing handcuffs, but there was no blood visible on his white shirt and he did not appear to have succeeded in harming himself. "We love you dad," Routh’s son, Adam, said after he was escorted out of the courtroom again. Routh appeared to wink at his kids as he was being led away. It took the jury just two-and-half hours of deliberating to also find Routh guilty of assaulting the Secret Service agent who rousted him from his hiding place, and guilty of three federal gun charges stemming from the Sept. 15, 2024, incident. Routh, who had pleaded not guilty to all the charges, now faces life in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 18. The New York Times [9/24/2025 3:19 AM, David C. Adams and Patricia Mazzei, 330K] reports that as he was being led out, Mr. Routh’s daughter, Sara Routh, one of several relatives present, started screaming. She yelled vulgarities and told her father that she loved him and would fight to get him out of prison. Ms. Routh declined to comment after court adjourned. Prosecutors said that on Sept. 15, 2024, Mr. Routh pointed his rifle, with its serial number scratched off, at a Secret Service agent who spotted him in the shrubbery at the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach. (Mr. Routh denied that he ever took aim at anyone.) The agent fired at him, and Mr. Routh fled without firing any shots of his own. The police stopped him about 45 minutes later, driving north on Interstate 95. “Make no mistake: The defendant was going to kill Donald Trump,” Christopher B. Browne, one of the federal prosecutors, said during his closing argument. “The defendant was just one bullet away.” It was the second assassination attempt against Mr. Trump last year, when he was running for a new term in office. Opening statements in the trial took place the day after the influential right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot, adding to a national surge in political violence. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement after the verdict that Mr. Routh’s conviction illustrated the Justice Department’s “commitment to punishing those who engage in political violence.” “This attempted assassination was not only an attack on our president, but an affront to our very nation itself,” she said. Mr. Routh is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 18. The rare trial of a would-be presidential assassin was made more unusual because Mr. Routh chose to represent himself without a lawyer. His decision made the trial a lopsided one from the start, when Judge Aileen M. Cannon cut off Mr. Routh’s opening statement for lack of relevance. Mr. Routh’s brief cross-examinations of prosecution witnesses and the small number of defense witnesses he called made the trial much shorter than expected, lasting just 12 days. CBS News [9/23/2025 7:42 PM, Caroline Linton, 45245K] reports that a Secret Service agent testified last week that he spotted Routh before the then-presidential candidate came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot, the agent said. It was the second assassination attempt against Mr. Trump in 2024, after shots were fired in a separate incident at a Pennsylvania rally. A bullet grazed Mr. Trump’s ear in that incident. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that the guilty verdict against Routh "illustrates the Department of Justice’s commitment to punishing those who engage in political violence," and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the verdict sends "a clear message" that an "attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate is an attack on our Republic and on the rights of every citizen." A federal district judge will determine his sentence. He faces life in prison. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze [9/23/2025 4:55 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1559K] reports the man convicted of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump caused a scene in the courtroom by trying to harm himself with a pen on Tuesday. Court officers grabbed Ryan Routh as he tried to jab the pen into his neck just after the jury convicted him on all counts related to the attempted assassination in September 2024. Fox News reported that four U.S. marshals dragged him out of the court, took his coat off, and brought him back with shackles on his ankles and waist. A courtroom sketch artist depicted the moment the 59-year-old apparently tried to kill himself in the federal courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida. Prosecutors said that Routh had been trying to get a clear shot at Trump when he was found hiding in the shrubbery near the sixth hole outside of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach a year ago. He was convicted of trying to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and a number of gun charges. The jury had deliberated for just under three hours. Routh will be sentenced in December and could face life in prison for the most serious offense. The AP [9/23/2025 6:59 PM, Jesse Bedayn, 2356K] reports that warnings about Routh ‘s erratic and sometimes violent behavior were raised in years prior. He’d also been interviewed and photographed by media in Ukraine as a self-styled mercenary leader trying to recruit soldiers. The federal court jury found Routh guilty of five charges, including attempting to kill a presidential candidate and several firearm related charges. He faces life in prison at sentencing Dec. 18. In court, Routh had argued that he was not guilty and that "it’s hard for me to believe that a crime occurred if the trigger was never pulled. ". Routh was convicted of attempted assassination and other charges.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [9/23/2025 6:00 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2608K]

Breitbart [9/23/2025 5:20 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 2608K] reports President Donald Trump on Tuesday expressed his gratitude that a jury convicted Ryan Wesley Routh, 59, of attempting to assassinate him last September at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. A jury convicted Routh on Tuesday on five federal counts, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, both of which carry maximum sentences of life in prison, according to the Justice Department. He was also found guilty of assaulting a federal officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. According to the Associated Press, Routh "tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen shortly after being found guilty," and officers swooped in to usher him out of the courthouse. Trump responded to Routh’s conviction at the United Nations General Assembly. Routh, who is pro-Ukraine, had staked out a hole at the golf course with an AK-style rifle when a Secret Service agent, who was sweeping the hole ahead of Trump, spotted Routh and opened fire, per evidence presented at trial that the Justice Department cited. Routh fled the scene and was seen by a witness, which led to his arrest. USA Today [9/23/2025 4:37 PM, Joey Garrison, 64151K] reports "I’m very appreciative of the justice that was given and the way it was handled by (Attorney General) Pam Bondi and (Deputy Attorney General) Todd Blanche and everybody," Trump told reporters on Sept. 23 while attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Routh, 59, was convicted in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida, of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, a charge carrying a possible sentence of life in prison. The 12-person jury also found him guilty of assaulting a federal officer and several weapons violations. The case was tried before U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee. Routh’s guilty verdict came just over a year after authorities said Routh perched himself outside the fence of Trump International Golf Club with a rifle on Sept. 15, 2024, and waited over 11 hours for Trump to walk into his line of sight. Prosecutors said the plot was thwarted by a U.S. Secret Service agent who spotted Routh and opened fire, leading him to drop his rifle and flee. Routh was arrested less than an hour later.

Federal News Network [9/23/2025 6:26 PM, Justin Doubleday, 1147K] reports Steve Casapulla has served at CISA for more than a decade and also led critical infrastructure efforts at the Office of the National Cyber Director. A longtime federal official is now leading the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s infrastructure security division. CISA announced Tuesday that Steve Casapulla has been appointed executive assistant director for infrastructure security. Casapulla had been serving as interim assistant director for the National Risk Management Center and acting chief strategy officer. He previously served as director for critical infrastructure cybersecurity in the Office of the National Cyber Director. Casapulla had also spent 13 years at CISA and its predecessor, the Department of Homeland Security’s National Protection and Programs Directorate. "I’m honored to take on this critical role at CISA and deeply appreciate the trust placed in me by President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem," Casapulla said in a statement. "I am committed to advancing CISA’s mission and ensuring the security and resilience of our nation’s critical infrastructure and the American people.” As head of the infrastructure security division, Casapulla will oversee CISA’s efforts to manage risks across 16 critical infrastructure sectors. His office will likely work with CISA’s cybersecurity division on efforts to address cyber threats to critical infrastructure, particularly the China-based threats groups "Salt Typhoon" and "Volt Typhoon.” "I am pleased to have Steve expand his role on CISA’s leadership team," Acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala said in a statement. "With his extensive experience in critical infrastructure security and working with stakeholders, he is perfectly poised to lead our efforts in securing the nation’s critical infrastructure. I look forward to working with him on this important mission.” Casapulla’s division also oversees the National Risk Management Center, which analyzes interconnections and dependencies between different critical infrastructure organizations and sectors. The National Risk Management Center is among CISA efforts in line for staffing cuts under the Trump administration’s fiscal 2026 budget request. CISA is also planning to cut 35 positions and $70 million in funding from the National Risk Management Center by "eliminating initiative planning and coordination efforts," the documents show.

DefenseScoop [9/23/2025 2:11 PM, Jon Harper, 150K] reports the Air Force is working on a new defensive cyberspace operations campaign plan as it moves to protect military bases and utility companies against digital threats, according to a top commander. The effort comes amid concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to China-backed actors. Prominent entities known as Volt Typhoon and Salt Typhoon, which are believed to be backed by the Chinese government, have particularly alarmed U.S. officials. “Volt Typhoon being a state-sponsored malicious cyber actor that has had persistent access in our CIKR infrastructure — critical information, key resources — [such as] water, energy, transportation, persistent access for five years. They haven’t done anything with it. … Salt Typhoon — persistent access into our telecommunication networks. So, persistent access, [but] they haven’t done anything with it. Why? Because they’re probably setting the conditions to execute destructive cyberattacks, should there be a regional conflict in the Pacific over Taiwan. And my words and my words only — nobody else has said this — but if we find ourselves in a conflict with China and they execute destructive cyberattacks against our critical infrastructure in the United States, that is total war in my definition,” Lt. Gen. Thomas Hensley, commander of 16th Air Force and Air Forces Cyber, said Monday during a panel at AFA’s Air, Space and Cyber conference. “Not total war in the sense of World War I total war or World War II … total war, but total war in the sense of all-domain warfare, using the cyber domain to execute a counter-value attack against the U.S. population in the United States.” Cyber threats are growing, not just against IT systems but also operational technology networks, he noted.

Washington Times [9/23/2025 3:36 PM, Craig Apple, 964K] reports America’s law enforcement agencies and departments are under siege, not by armed assailants but by cybercriminals. These threat actors are no longer just stealing data but actively disrupting the systems that keep communities safe. Through tactics such as ransomware attacks that cripple jail management systems or hackers infiltrating sensitive police networks, these digital assaults are derailing law enforcement operations, endangering officers and compromising critical investigations. The good news is that there is a solution. Every day, hundreds of sheriff’s offices like mine rely on a national program called the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center to protect our communities’ digital backbones. The MS-ISAC provides critical resources to protect dispatch systems, jail networks, court records and 911 emergency communications. Since January 2024, MS-ISAC services have prevented 57 cybersecurity incidents specifically targeting more than a dozen law enforcement organizations and blocked more than 40 million threat events across nearly 60 law enforcement organizations. Each of these incidents had the potential to cause significant disruption to communities across the country. The bad news is that the federal government cut funding for these critical cyberdefense services earlier this year. If we lose access to this program, the ability of many state and local agencies to safeguard their communities will be greatly diminished. Cybersecurity is more than zeros and ones flashing across a computer screen. When our systems go down, we don’t lose just data. We also lose time, trust and the ability to protect our citizens.

Daily Caller [9/23/2025 6:34 PM, Mark Tanos, 985K] reports a teenage suspect surrendered to Las Vegas authorities Sept. 17 and faces charges in connection with cyber attacks on casinos, reportedly including one that cost MGM Resorts $100 million. The juvenile turned himself in at the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center, according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s (LVMPD) press release. Police booked him on six charges, including three counts of obtaining and using personal information of another individual to cause harm or impersonate them. He was also charged with with count each of extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and unlawful acts regarding computers. The Clark County District Attorney’s Office wants to turn the juvenile over to the criminal division where he would be tried as an adult. Las Vegas police said the suspect was connected to the targeting of multiple casino properties from August to October 2023 through "sophisticated network intrusions" linked to an alleged cyber group known as "Scattered Spider." The group also operates under the names "Octo Tempest," "UNC3944" and "Oktapus," authorities said.

The AP [9/23/2025 3:39 PM, Megan Janetsky, 11503K] reports the Trump administration Tuesday designated the Barrio 18 gang as a foreign terrorist organization, joining other Latin American criminal groups receiving the designation in recent months. Barrio 18, largely based in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, originated in the United States as a street gang in Los Angeles created by young Salvadoran immigrants as a way to protect themselves. When many of their members were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador, the gang expanded and gained power across Central America, where it continues to terrorize communities. In recent years, the gang has been dealt a powerful blow by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who has waged war on the country’s gangs, imprisoning more than 1% of El Salvador’s population for alleged gang ties with little evidence or access to due process. That has sharply dropped crime rates in El Salvador, but also fueled accusations of mass human rights abuses by the government. In a statement on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the designation "further demonstrates the Trump administration’s unwavering commitment to dismantling cartels and gangs and ensuring the safety of the American people.” Bukele has long referred to members of the gang as "terrorists" and even built a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center. It was that same lockup where 200 Venezuelan deportees were held earlier this year as part of an agreement with Trump. On Tuesday, Trump thanked Bukele, an ally, on the stage of the United Nations General Assembly "for the successful and professional job they have done in receiving and jailing so many criminals that entered our country.” It’s unclear what the designation would mean for law enforcement in the region. The Trump administration has ruffled feathers in Latin America as it has drastically expanded military actions by firing on boats in the Caribbean that it alleges were carrying drugs to the U.S. A number of people have been killed in those strikes. Breitbart [9/24/2025 2:19 AM, Staff, 2608K] reports that the United States will continue to protect our nation by keeping illicit drugs off our streets and disrupting the revenue streams funding the violent and criminal activity of vicious gangs and drug cartels," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. "Today’s action taken by the State Department further demonstrates the Trump administration’s unwavering commitment to dismantling cartels and gangs and ensuring the safety of the American people.” The gang was designated as both a foreign terrorist organization and a specifically designated global terrorist. The foreign terrorist organization designation applies to organizations, while the latter applies to individuals. Both designations block property in their names and freeze assets, while barring U.S. persons from providing them with material support or doing business with them. Trump, who campaigned on mass deportations with the use of incendiary rhetoric and often misinformation, has targeted gangs as part of his nationwide crackdown on immigration. Since returning to office in January, Trump has designated nearly a dozen criminal gangs as terrorist groups. Barrio 18 was founded in Los Angeles, and then exported to Central and South America. It has an estimated 50,000 members, according to a U.S. Justice Department statement on a March conviction involving members of the gang. Eleven gangs, including Barrio 18, have been designated by the Trump administration, including Tren de Aragua, MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and others.

Reported similarly:
CBS News [9/23/2025 2:38 PM, Sarah Lynch Baldwin, 45245K]
Univision [9/23/2025 5:25 PM, Staff, 4932K]

NBC News [9/24/2025 5:00 AM, Kevin Collier, 43603K] reports state and federal law enforcement agencies warned earlier this year that young people were at risk of radicalization on the chat platform Discord, according to government documents obtained by NBC News. Two intelligence assessments from the Department of Homeland Security and Ohio’s Statewide Terrorism Analysis & Crime Center (STACC) marked for distribution to police specifically cite Discord as a platform on which American youth have been exposed to extremist material from foreign terrorist organizations. Both documents are unclassified but marked “For Official Use Only.” They were obtained by the Property of the People, a pro-transparency nonprofit that seeks and publishes government documents through Freedom of Information Act requests, and shared with NBC News. It’s unclear how widely disseminated the documents were, but law enforcement information centers like STACC routinely share warnings and analysis with other police agencies. The reports, which draw on academic studies and law enforcement data, provide insight into how officials understand the risks of online radicalization. The FBI declined to comment and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to a request for comment. Discord did not respond to a request for comment about the documents.

NewsMax [9/23/2025 1:16 PM, James Morley III, 4779K] reports that Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee have requested documents from several social media platforms regarding their handling of extremist content following the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder and conservative leader Charlie Kirk. House Homeland Security Chair Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, head of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, sent letters to top executives at Discord, GitHub, Reddit, and Twitch on Monday, requesting information about how the social platforms monitor extremist content and disseminate information for law enforcement. "The assassination of Mr. Charlie Kirk serves as a sobering reminder of the escalating threats facing our nation from violent extremists. These heinous and senseless acts of violence further expose the challenging and sometimes dangerous nature of online platforms that serve to foment extremism, leading to deadly real-world consequences," the letter begins. "In furtherance of our ongoing investigation into domestic terrorism cases, the committee is investigating how specific bad actors may use online platforms to facilitate radicalization, disseminate extremist content, and aid in individuals’ planning efforts to conduct violent attacks within the United States," the lawmakers continued. The congressmen noted that extremists are using secure communication and anonymous cloud storage to avoid law enforcement.

Daily Caller [9/23/2025 6:31 PM, Hudson Crozier, 985K] reports House Republicans have plenty of strategies to expose far-left agitator groups to the world if they are serious about their proposal to form a committee investigating them, conservative policy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Dozens of lawmakers, led by Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, are pushing to create the select committee in the wake of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s Sept. 10 assassination in Utah, outlining the request in a letter the day after. The letter mentions a 2012 shooting targeting the Family Research Council, violent anti-fascist or "Antifa" rioters and the 2017 shooting targeting Republicans at a congressional baseball practice as the reasons for lawmakers to take more aggressive action. The committee, if it becomes reality, would have subpoena power to probe "the money, influence, and power behind the radical left’s assault on America and the rule of law," the Republicans’ letter says, creating the possibility of criminal penalties if individuals refuse to testify and provide information. This could allow lawmakers to put the spotlight on powerful organizations suspected of driving violent leftist radicalism in recent years, the heads of conservative watchdog groups told the DCNF.

AP [9/23/2025 7:27 PM, Staff, 2356K] reports a New York man accused of plotting an attack on behalf of the Islamic State group in 2019 was sentenced to nine years in prison by a federal judge Tuesday. Awais Chudhary, 25, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan and living in the New York City borough of Queens, pleaded guilty in June to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. Prosecutors said Chudhary was planning a knife or bomb attack on targets in Queens, including pedestrian bridges over Grand Central Parkway and the Flushing Bay Promenade. According to court documents, Chudhary was radicalized after watching and sharing violent content, including knife attacks and beheadings, for more than 16 months. "After consuming violent ISIS propaganda for more than a year, the defendant took real world steps to carry out a lethal terrorist attack in Queens, including scouting the location of his attack and analyzing when it would be the most crowded so he could inflict maximum slaughter," U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement.

AP [9/23/2025 5:08 PM, Staff, 20690K] reports a person already in prison has been sentenced to 80 years in federal custody after authorities said the inmate built two bombs while behind bars and mailed them to a federal courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, and the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced the sentence for the inmate authorities identified as David Dwayne Cassady, 57, who was incarcerated in a state prison in Georgia when the devices were made, authorities said. The inmate pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted malicious use of explosive materials. The inmate has severe anxiety and gender dysphoria, defense lawyer Tina Maddox wrote in a sentencing memo to the court. The crimes were "acts of desperation born out of unrelenting abuse, hopelessness, and mental distress," Maddox wrote. The defendant is a transgender woman and now goes by the name Lena Noel Summerlin, the lawyer said in the July 8 court document. The indictment says both bombs were made at a state prison in Tattnall County, Georgia, and mailed from the prison. The document does not detail how the bombs were built or where the materials were obtained. The bombs were functional and had the capabilities to explode, a plea agreement states. The inmate admitted to mailing them "in retaliation for prison conditions," it said.

ABC News [9/23/2025 6:52 PM, Doc Louallen, 27036K] reports the family of a 12-year-old girl critically wounded during the deadly shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school last month said she is making remarkable progress in her recovery, calling it "nothing short of miraculous.” Sophia Forchas, who suffered a gunshot wound to the head in the Aug. 27 attack at the Annunciation Catholic School, is preparing to transition from acute care to an inpatient rehabilitation program this week, her family said in a statement released through Hennepin Healthcare. "Sophia is winning," the family said, noting she has shown "promising signs of neurological recovery" while under care at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC). The shooting claimed the lives of two children -- Harper Moyski, 10, and Fletcher Merkel, 8 -- and left 21 others injured when a gunman fired more than 100 rounds through church windows during Mass, according to authorities. The family expressed gratitude for worldwide support, including prayers from Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Leo XIV, while attributing her survival to divine intervention. "Each day we uncover new revelations of moments and circumstances that kept her alive and made her recovery possible," the family said. The announcement of Forchas’s progress came as Annunciation Catholic School completed its first week of limited on-campus activities since the tragedy. The school resumed some operations on Sept. 16, offering students "activities centered on support, connection, and play," with support staff from Washburn Center for Children and the Minnesota Department of Education on site. Police identified the shooter as Robin Westman, 23, a former student whose mother had previously worked at the church. Westman, who authorities said had "a deranged obsession with previous mass shooters," died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. While Forchas’s family acknowledged she faces "a long journey ahead, filled with extensive therapy," they remained hopeful about her recovery, asking for continued prayers and support. The church building remains closed, with no announced timeline for reopening.

NBC News [9/23/2025 12:25 PM, Rebecca Cohen, 43603K] reports a possible Northern California high school shooting was prevented thanks to a report sent into a tip line created by a nonprofit that aims to prevent gun violence, the organization said. Sandy Hook Promise said in a statement Monday that the Sequoia Union High School District was able to stop the potential school shooting from taking place after a student reported that a classmate was exhibiting warning signs in their Instagram posts. The student then sent that information to the organization’s "Say Something" anonymous reporting tip line. "This set off a swift chain of events that ultimately saved lives," the Sandy Hook Promise statement said. The threat was made against Menlo-Atherton High School by a former student who is now enrolled in another area high school, according to a Sept. 10 statement from Atherton Police Commander Dan Larsen, the day the threat was reported. According to the report, the alleged suspect posted "detailed threats" on their social media account about carrying out a school shooting within the district, Sandy Hook Promise said. The suspect’s posts included pictures of ammunition and a "mapped-out plan for attacking the school.” After the tip was reported, Sandy Hook Promise notified local police. Larsen said at that point, Menlo-Atherton High School was placed on a "secure campus" order while officers checked on the safety of students and staff at the school. The Laurel School, located nearby, was also placed on a "secure campus" order as a precaution. Police located and detained the former student — a juvenile — responsible for making the threats, Larsen said. The student was interviewed by police and was placed on psychiatric hold.

Federal News Network [9/23/2025 1:32 PM, Tony Holmes, 1147K] reports that as artificial intelligence continues to reshape global industries, government agencies are rightly investing in AI capabilities to improve public services, national security and operational efficiency. Recent high-profile initiatives, such as the Defense Department’s AI-focused training programs and the Office of Management and Budget’s draft guidance on federal AI use, underscore Washington’s recognition that AI is not a distant frontier; it’s here, and its applications are essential to the government’s ability to operate effectively. However, there’s a growing gap between ambition and execution. While funding, tools and policy frameworks are being implemented, one foundational element is often overlooked: people. Without a workforce that understands how AI actually works — its capabilities, limitations, risks and ethical implications — even the most well-funded initiatives are unlikely to deliver lasting impact. Put simply, government AI initiatives will fail if the people charged with implementing them lack the skills to engage meaningfully with the technology. Need for foundational AI knowledge across workforces. There’s a prevailing misconception that AI can be treated like any other technology rollout, and once systems are procured, they will "just work," producing efficiency gains automatically. But unlike other technologies, AI is not a plug-and-play solution. It relies on constant training and context-aware deployment. These nuances require decision-makers and individual contributors to have a foundational understanding of how AI models learn, when they might fail, and what kinds of data biases can influence results.

New York Post [9/23/2025 10:36 AM, Ryan King, 43962K]reports First lady Melania Trump is expected to greet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife, Olena, on Tuesday. Olena had repeatedly pushed for a meeting with the first lady, and the two have shared a passion for freeing the over 20,000 Ukrainian children alleged to have been abducted by the Russians during the bloody war, according to Marc Beckman, a senior adviser to the first lady. "Mrs. Zelensky has reached out to several times to set up a meeting, but there’s no bilateral meeting. There’s nothing formal," Beckman told Fox News’ "Fox & Friends.” "As our First Lady is very polite, she’s going to say hello today, but there’s no sit-down, substantive conversation set; no meeting set.” Famously, President Trump in August handed Russian strongman Vladimir Putin a letter penned by Melania underscoring the importance of making peace for the sake of children. That plea comes amid allegations from Ukraine and international watchdogs that Russia has been kidnapping children from its war-torn neighbor. The Kremlin has been accused of putting some of them up for adoption, with the apparent intent of raising them to be Russian. Additionally, some of the kids have reportedly been sent off to military camps and have been used to fight the war in their country of birth. Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of senators rolled out legislation to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism due to the abductions. Melania has been seen by some observers as a key voice in the president’s ear to ramp up pressure on Putin.

CBS News [9/23/2025 11:43 AM, Christopher Harris, 45245K] reports federal agents have seized more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine in Georgia after a series of undercover drug deals linked to a violent Mexican cartel, authorities said Monday. Five people, including four Mexican nationals in the country illegally, have been arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said the defendants attempted to sell meth to undercover DEA agents during multiple transactions in DeKalb County and Stone Mountain earlier this month. Investigators later discovered hundreds of kilograms of drugs stashed in an apartment and a nearby home. "My office will continue to proudly partner with federal, state, and local crimefighters to protect the public and eliminate the scourge of drug trafficking," Hertzberg said in a statement. Robert J. Murphy, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Atlanta Division, called the CJNG cartel "a significant threat to public safety, public health, and the national security of the United States," adding that the DEA will work to disrupt and destroy its networks.

FOX News [9/23/2025 9:30 AM, Amanda Macias, 40019K] reports Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers will file a lawsuit Tuesday against home security camera maker Lorex, alleging the company misled consumers about the safety and privacy of its devices, Fox News Digital has learned. Few people know the name Lorex, but its cameras, sold at retailers like Costco and Best Buy, are quietly monitoring homes across the U.S. The 39-page lawsuit, filed in Nebraska state court, claims the company marketed its cameras as "private by design" and safe for places like children’s bedrooms, while concealing that the devices rely on a Chinese firm sanctioned by the U.S. over national security and human rights violations. Lorex did not immediately respond to Fox News Digitial’s request for comment. According to Hilgers, Lorex devices depend on technology from Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., a Chinese surveillance firm legally bound to assist Beijing’s sweeping intelligence apparatus. "The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses a direct threat to American security, including through market actors who create or exploit security to American consumers," Hilgers told Fox News Digital. "This is a national issue, and we are leading the fight in Nebraska against these companies who enable the CCP influence and surveillance.” The complaint notes that the Lorex 2K Dual Lens Indoor camera, sold by major U.S. retailers such as Costco, Best Buy, Kohl’s and Home Depot, closely mirrors Dahua’s "H5D-5F" and "H3D-3F" models.

Washington Post [9/23/2025 5:24 PM, Michael Birnbaum and Matt Viser, 29079K] reports President Donald Trump sharply escalated his rhetoric toward Russia on Tuesday, declaring that he now believes Ukraine can reclaim the entirety of its invaded territory, calling Russia a “paper tiger” and expressing support for European countries’ right to shoot down Russian warplanes should they again violate NATO airspace. Trump has for years expressed empathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin even as he called for an end to the war, and Tuesday’s comments amounted to his strongest public support yet for Kyiv. The remarks, which came on an afternoon that he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, went beyond what even many Ukrainian policymakers privately acknowledge is the likelihood that they will not regain full control of their territory anytime soon. Just a month ago, Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin in a warm encounter in Anchorage — and he has spent the ensuing weeks trying unsuccessfully to pressure the Russian leader into a meeting with Zelensky as the Kremlin escalates attacks on Ukraine. Trump’s comments on social media, reemphasized to reporters soon after, highlighted the mercurial nature of his efforts to end the war. “I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump said in a post about 30 minutes after his meeting with Zelensky. “With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not?” He said that Russia “has been fighting aimlessly” and that its military has not been dominant. Ukraine has not had full control of its borders since 2014, when Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula and helped foment a separatist war in Ukraine’s east. The Kremlin has controlled about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory since the full-scale invasion in 2022, and the front lines have largely stagnated. Ukrainians have long said that they could make more progress with enhanced military support from NATO allies. But foreign aid alone could not solve a shortage of Ukrainian combat-ready soldiers.

Reuters [9/23/2025 5:28 PM, Tom Balmforth and Gram Slattery, 45746K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he believed Kyiv could retake all its occupied lands and that Ukraine should act now with Russia facing "big" economic problems, remarks that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed as a "big shift". But it was unclear if Trump’s words would be matched by a major change in U.S. policy, such as a decision to impose heavy new sanctions on Moscow. Trump has previously suggested Ukraine give up territory in order to make peace. "Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act," Trump wrote on Truth Social, shortly after he met Ukraine’s leader on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. "After seeing the Economic trouble (the war) is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form," he said, describing Russia as a "paper tiger". Trump’s tone contrasted greatly with his red-carpet treatment for Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska last month, part of an ostensible push to expedite an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Bloomberg [9/23/2025 8:36 AM, Eric Martin, 19085K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed the American commitment to NATO after incursions by Russian aircraft into the alliance’s airspace that have shaken governments on its eastern flank. “We will work with our allies to defend every inch of NATO territory,” Rubio said Tuesday in comments to CBS News as President Donald Trump prepared to address the United Nations General Assembly. His remarks also followed a NATO statement earlier Tuesday that promised a “robust” response to the Russian incursions, saying it would use all options, including military, to defend itself. “Allies will employ, in accordance with international law, all necessary military and non-military tools to defend ourselves and deter all threats from all directions,” the alliance said. Russian fighter jets entered Estonian airspace for 12 minutes last week, the latest in a series of incidents that have rattled US allies. NATO forces also shot down Russian drones that crossed into Poland earlier this month, the first such episode since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday said his country was prepared to shoot down foreign aircraft that cross into its territory without authorization.

AP [9/23/2025 2:19 PM, Lorne Cook, 37974K] reports NATO warned Russia on Tuesday that it would use all means to defend against any further breaches of its airspace after the downing earlier this month of Russian drones over Poland and Estonia’s report of an intrusion by Russian fighter jets last week. The Sept. 10 incident in Poland was the first direct encounter between NATO and Moscow since the war in Ukraine began. It jolted leaders across Europe, raising questions about how prepared the alliance is against growing Russian aggression. Another test of NATO’s preparedness and credibility came last Friday, after Estonia said that three Russian fighter jets had entered its airspace for 12 minutes without authorization, a charge that Russia has rejected. "Russia should be in no doubt: NATO and Allies will employ, in accordance with international law, all necessary military and non-military tools to defend ourselves and deter all threats from all directions," the alliance said in a statement. "We will continue to respond in the manner, timing, and domain of our choosing," the 32-member NATO said, and underlined its commitment to Article 5 of its founding treaty that an attack on any one ally must be considered an attack on them all. Asked whether suspect aircraft would be shot down, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said this would depend "on available intelligence regarding the threat posed by the aircraft, including questions we have to answer like intent, armaments and potential risk to allies, forces, civilians or infrastructure.” On Monday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Poland would "without discussion" shoot down flying objects when they violate Polish territory.

Bloomberg [9/23/2025 5:10 PM, Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Natalia Drozdiak, and Ellen Milligan, 19085K] reports President Donald Trump said NATO nations should shoot down Russian aircraft that violated their airspace and struck a more sympathetic tone on Ukraine’s chances of winning the war. He spoke as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy following recent jet incursions that have alarmed allies. “Yes, I do,” Trump said when asked directly by a reporter if NATO allies should take down Russian aircraft during his meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. In a subsequent social media post, Trump said he believed that Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, was positioned not only to fight back but to reclaim all the territory taken by Russia since its invasion in 2022 — and perhaps more. “Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act. In any event, I wish both Countries well. We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!” Trump said. The exchange embodied Trump’s recent policy of voicing support for Ukraine, even as he continues to emphasize that he wants Europe to take a greater role in efforts to pressure Russia. That’s left allies, who have political and economic barriers to imposing additional tariffs and sanctions on Moscow and its partners, unsure of the extent to which the US is dedicated to assisting Kyiv and punishing the Kremlin. On Tuesday, Trump declined to say whether the US would support NATO if it engaged Russian planes over its airspace, saying it “depends on the circumstance” but that “we’re very strong toward NATO.” But in his social media post, he criticized Russia for “fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win.” “I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump said. Zelenskiy said the post was a big shift and described it as positive.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [9/23/2025 3:32 PM, Staff, 19085K] Video: HERE
AP [9/23/2025 3:39 PM, Staff, 37974K] Video: HERE
CNN [9/23/2025 2:01 PM, Kevin Liptak, Adam Cancryn and Jennifer Hansler, 23245K]
Washington Times [9/23/2025 5:07 PM, Jeff Mordock, 964K]

Bloomberg [9/23/2025 8:58 AM, Staff, 19085K] Video: HERE reports Estonia’s prime minister said NATO will be ready to respond if Russian forces repeat a violation into the Baltic nation’s airspace. “We have protocols and measures in place — it depends pretty much on intent, on the weaponry, and so on,” Kristen Michal told Bloomberg Television’s Oliver Crook.

Washington Post [9/23/2025 6:00 AM, Drew Harwell and Eva Dou, 29079K] reports when President Joe Biden signed a law last year forcing the sale of TikTok, top Democrats and China hawks heralded it as a triumph. Four years earlier, Donald Trump tried and failed during his first term in the White House to push through a similar measure, but the Biden administration worked aggressively with Congress to craft a law officials said would sever all risks of political influence from China, where TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is based. Now, some critics of an extraordinary deal to spin off a U.S. version of TikTok say that effort has backfired. The app’s recommendation algorithm will remain in ByteDance’s hands under the proposal, undermining one of the Biden team’s central justifications for the law. TikTok’s new owners are likely to include corporate interests tied to some of Trump’s most prominent backers, including Larry Ellison, Jeff Yass and Rupert Murdoch, who some fear could exert their own political influence. China even eked out its own kind of win in the process, hitching the company to broader negotiations with the United States regarding concessions on tariffs and trade. The wildly popular video app will soon be spun off into a new U.S. joint venture mostly owned by American investors who “are patriotic and love America,” a senior White House official said Monday. A consortium of investors from the tech giant Oracle, the investment group Silver Lake and other groups will own about 80 percent of the company under the deal, which is not yet finalized but for which China and the U.S. have confirmed their general support. Trump is expected to sign an executive order this week declaring that the deal, largely negotiated by administration officials, will be a “qualified divestiture,” satisfying the Biden law’s requirements to allow TikTok to continue operating in the U.S.

NewsMax [9/23/2025 7:28 AM, Martin Petty, 4779K] reports the U.S. house committee on China has urged Washington to ensure funding for the Philippines to counter Beijing’s "aggressive and destabilizing actions" in the South China Sea, according to a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which warns cuts could threaten U.S. security interests. In the letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sought clarity on funding for the Philippine coast guard, noting the State Department had sought a dramatically reduced 2026 budget for International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement that would "devastate" programs to help its ally stand up to China. The select committee’s letter follows moves by China to further tighten its grip on the strategically located Scarborough Shoal, one of Asia’s most contested maritime features, where Philippine and Chinese vessels have clashed repeatedly. "Beijing has significantly escalated its aggressive activities in the South China Sea, including its efforts to unlawfully assert control over much of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. (China’s) coast guard and maritime militia regularly attack or physically coerce Philippine vessels," the letter said. "Beijing’s actions have only grown more threatening over the last several months, reflecting the immediacy of this threat.” The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of office hours. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

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