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 Hill [9/3/2025 6:30 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12414K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem ended deportation protections for some Venezuelans, the latest Trump administration effort to strip Temporary Protected Status (TPS) after a series of court losses. The termination affected about 250,000 people who were awarded TPS through a 2021 declaration otherwise set to expire on Sept. 10. "Given Venezuela’s substantial role in driving irregular migration and the clear magnet effect created by Temporary Protected Status, maintaining or expanding TPS for Venezuelan nationals directly undermines the Trump Administration’s efforts to secure our southern border and manage migration effectively," a DHS spokesperson said in a release. "Weighing public safety, national security, migration factors, immigration policy, economic considerations, and foreign policy, it’s clear that allowing Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not in America’s best interest.” DHS can award TPS for countries experiencing natural disasters or civil unrest. Under former President Biden, then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas awarded TPS for Venezuela twice, citing widespread political instability and food insecurity that has wracked the country for years, causing millions to flee. The announcement comes days after an appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that found an earlier attempt by Noem to "vacate" TPS for Venezuela was unlawful. The Washington Post [9/3/2025 9:10 PM, Marianne LeVine and María Luisa Paúl, 29079K] reports that in a news release, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the temporary protected status program for Venezuelans acted as a “magnet” for “irregular migration” from that country. Authorities said the termination of their legal status in the United States could come within about two months. “Weighing public safety, national security, migration factors, immigration policy, economic considerations, and foreign policy, it’s clear that allowing Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not in America’s best interests,” USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement. The protected status of the Venezuelans was set to expire on Sept. 10, and the Trump administration had the option to renew it or allow it to end. In a ruling earlier this year, the Supreme Court permitted the Department of Homeland Security to move forward with ending temporary protected status for a separate group of Venezuelans — who were granted the designation in 2023 — while the legal fight continues in the lower courts. That case is under the jurisdiction of a federal judge whose decision could affect all of the estimated 600,000 Venezuelans who have received temporary protected status in the United States. “If the district court recognizes again, as it did before, the illegality of the administration’s actions, they should regain their humanitarian protected status,” said Emi MacLean, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, who is representing the National TPS Alliance in two legal challenges to the Trump administration’s terminations. “Currently they are without status because of the administration’s actions and because of the Supreme Court’s willingness to allow those terminations to go into effect despite their lawlessness.” The Biden administration granted TPS for the Venezuelan immigrants in 2021 after determining that the political and economic turmoil under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro made it too risky to deport migrants back to their home country. That designation shielded hundreds of thousands of people who had arrived in the U.S. before that year. The group represents the earlier waves of exile from the South American nation: families, students and professionals who fled political persecution, economic calamity and crime before the mass migration surge of recent years. CBS News [9/3/2025 7:06 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 45245K] reports that those who lose their TPS protections and don’t have any other legal means to remain in the U.S. — such as applications for asylum or permanent American residency — could face arrest and deportation by federal immigration officials. Homeland Security officials on Wednesday said TPS recipients whose status expires should sign up for self-deportation using a government smartphone app, called CBP Home, that the Trump administration has repurposed to facilitate voluntary returns. Officials have offered self-deportees a $1,000 bonus if they return to their home countries.

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CBS News [9/3/2025 11:41 PM, Kati Weis, Julia Ingram, 45245K] reports a new immigration detention facility designed to house hundreds of undocumented immigrants convicted of serious crimes opened in Louisiana this week as part of what Attorney General Pam Bondi called a "historic agreement" between the state and federal government. The new facility — which is located inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola — is designed to house more than 400 detainees. The facility was given the name Camp 57 after Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry being the 57th governor of the state. Federal officials have also dubbed Camp 57 as "Louisiana Lockup." In a news release, the Department of Homeland Security described it as part of a "new partnership" between the Trump administration and the state of Louisiana. U.S. Immigrations Customs and Enforcement officials said that 51 detainees had already arrived at Camp 57 as of Tuesday. "This is not just a typical ICE detention facility that you will see elsewhere in the country," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said during a news conference Wednesday in front of Camp 57, alongside Bondi and Landry. She said some of the men who have already transferred there were convicted of serious crimes, including murder and rape. "Louisiana is one of several states stepping up to solve these problems," Noem said. Noem also indicated that Angola’s "notorious" history was one of the reasons that it was chosen for Camp 57. "This is a facility that’s notorious, it’s a facility, Angola Prison is legendary — but that’s a message that these individuals that are going to be here, that are illegal criminals, need to understand," Noem told reporters. During Wednesday’s news conference, Landry said the facility is next to a lake "full of alligators" and surrounded by a "forest full of bears." An officer with the Louisiana Department of Corrections told CBS News Wednesday there are alligators as big as 10 feet in the lake. Camp 57 has a chapel and law library, law enforcement officials familiar with the project told CBS News Wednesday. The facility, which will house only men, is separated from the rest of the Louisiana state prisoners incarcerated in the Angola complex, which spans 18,000 acres. Camp 57 was shuttered for many years before renovations started about a month ago. DHS officials said it was renovated into working order in about 30 days. Prior to its closure, Camp 57 had been used for disciplinary actions against state prisoners, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the project. Transferring ICE detainees between facilities isn’t new but has increased under the current administration. A CBS News analysis of government data found that more than half of immigrants detained by ICE between Jan. 20, 2025, and July 29, 2025, were transferred to another facility two or more times — a greater share than during the Biden administration, the first Trump administration or the second Obama administration. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] FOX News [9/3/2025 10:01 AM, Brooke Taylor, 40019K] Video HERE reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is partnering with Louisiana to use a portion of the prison to expand detention space by 416 beds. The funding comes from the "One Big Beautiful Bill," which allows ICE to add 80,000 new detention beds to help ramp up deportations. The detainees will be housed in an unused section called Camp J, which was once known as the "Dungeon" because most of the cells were used for solitary confinement. In late July, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry declared a state emergency to allow expedited repairs of Camp J. "Louisiana Lockup" is the latest facility to be converted into an ICE detention facility, after "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida, "Cornhusker Clink" In Nebraska and "Speedway Slammer" in Indiana. Today, we’re announcing a new partnership with the state of Louisiana to expand detention space," Secretary Kristi Noem said. "Thank you to Governor Landry for his partnership to help remove the worst of the worst out of our country. If you are in America illegally, you could find yourself in CECOT, Cornhusker Clink, Speedway Slammer, or Louisiana Lockup. Avoid arrest and self deport now using the CBP Home App." [Editorial note: consult video at source link] CNN [9/3/2025 8:45 PM, Hannah Rabinowitz, Devon M. Sayers, 662K] reports that administration officials said Camp 57 is designed to hold the "worst of the worst" and pointed to it as a sign of success amid their ongoing campaigns against both illegal immigration and violent crime — both of which are key to Trump’s agenda. The facility’s name is a nod to Landry, the state’s 57th governor, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told CNN. It is being repurposed from an existing facility that was not in use, Landry said. Camp 57 is "not just a typical ICE detention facility that you may see in another state, somewhere else in this country," Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Wednesday. "Instead, this facility will hold the most dangerous of criminals that have been out there harming individuals in this country.” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said, "Louisiana, you’re going to be an example for the rest of this country.” Though Camp 57 will be isolated from the prison’s normal criminal population, Louisiana’s prison system has been accused of forcing incarcerated individuals at Angola to work in dangerous conditions for little to no pay — including accusations that inmates were made to pick vegetables by hand in temperatures over 100 degrees at what was once a slave plantation. In 2021, a judge found that Angola was providing inadequate medical care to its incarcerated population. Noem said Wednesday that the prison’s infamous reputation was "absolutely" a reason officials chose it as the location for Camp 57. "This is a facility that’s notorious," Noem said. "But that’s a message that these individuals that are going to be here, that are illegal criminals, need to understand," she continued. "If you come into this country and you victimize someone … there’s consequences. You’re going to end up here.” The Trump administration’s plan to open the detention ICE facility in Louisiana comes it has sought to open several immigration detention centers in other Republican-led states. The administration tried to convert a remote training airport in Florida to a detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," but a US district judge upheld her decision last week ordering operations to wind down indefinitely. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis also announced a facility called "Deportation Depot," which will be located in a temporarily closed state prison about 45 miles west of Jacksonville. Last month, Nebraska announced plans for an immigration detention center in the remote southwest corner of the state to be dubbed the "Cornhusker Clink.” The AP [9/3/2025 10:06 PM, Sara Cline, 20690K] reports that officials said 51 detainees were already being housed at Angola. But Gov. Jeff Landry said he expects the building to be filled to capacity, expecting over 400 people to come in ensuing months as President Donald Trump continues his large-scale attempt to remove millions of people suspected of entering the country illegally. At the prison entrance a sign reads: "You are entering the land of new beginnings.” The dirt road to the new ICE facility meanders past lofty oak trees, green fields and other buildings — including a white church and a structure with a sign that said, "Angola Shake Down Team". The facility is surrounded by a fence with five rows of stacked barbed wire. Overlooking the outdoor area is a tower, where a guard paced back and forth. Across the way is a lake dotted with cypress trees, where a few alligators could be seen swimming. In addition to the "large alligators" officials promised "forests full of bears" nearby. The Associated Press joined officials for a brief tour of the facility, viewing some of the cells where detainees would be held. The cells, built of three cinder block walls and steel bars on the front, were single occupancy — one bed, toilet and sink in each. Outside were confined enclosures of chain-link fencing, tall enough for multiple people to stand in. "If you don’t think that they belong in somewhere like this," Landry said of the detainees during Wednesday’s news conference, "you’ve got a problem.” The building holding ICE detainees is not new, but rather refurbished after sitting vacant for years. The rest of Angola, which is made up of many buildings, has remained active. Many of Angola’s 6,300 inmates still work the fields, picking long rows of vegetables by hand as armed guards patrol on horseback. In addition, the prison is home to more than 50 death row inmates. The most recent execution was in March, using nitrogen gas to deprive the inmate of oxygen, causing death. The state’s electric chair, nicknamed "Gruesome Gertie", is still on display in the prison’s museum.

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New York Times [9/4/2025 3:37 AM, Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper, Alan Feuer, Charlie Savage and Edward Wong, 330K] reports the Trump administration declared the start of a new and potentially violent campaign against Venezuelan cartels on Wednesday, defending a deadly U.S. military strike on a boat that officials said was carrying drugs even as specialists in the law of war questioned the legality of the attack. The U.S. Navy has long intercepted and boarded ships suspected of smuggling drugs in international waters, typically with a Coast Guard officer temporarily in charge to invoke law enforcement authority. Tuesday’s direct attack in the Caribbean was a marked departure from that decades-long approach. The administration has said 11 people were aboard the vessel. It was unclear whether they were given a chance to surrender before the United States attacked. The Trump administration has not offered any legal rationale. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an appearance on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday that administration officials “knew exactly who was in that boat” and “exactly what they were doing,” although he did not offer evidence. “President Trump is willing to go on offense in ways that others have not seen,” he added. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a news conference in Mexico City that seizing drug shipments in recent years had not dissuaded cartels and traffickers. “What will stop them is when we blow up and get rid of them,” he said. But some officials at the Defense Department privately expressed concern on Wednesday about the administration’s shifting narratives, including where the vessel was headed. Mr. Rubio had said on Tuesday that it was going to Trinidad, while Mr. Trump said the United States. On Wednesday, Mr. Rubio changed his version, saying the drug-laden boat was bound for the United States. The secretary said in Mexico City that drug cartels and traffickers, including those on the boat, “pose an immediate threat to the United States, period.” Pentagon officials were still working Wednesday on what legal authority they would tell the public was used to back up the extraordinary strike in international waters.

Bloomberg [9/3/2025 6:17 PM, Courtney McBride, Magdalena Del Valle, and Eric Martin, 19085K] reports the Trump administration threatened more strikes against narco-traffickers in the Caribbean Sea after targeting a boat allegedly laden with drugs from Venezuela, killing 11 people, even as questions arose about the legality of the move and whether it was an unnecessary act of aggression. “It won’t stop with just this strike,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an interview with Fox and Friends on Wednesday morning. “We knew exactly who was in that boat, we knew exactly what they were doing and we knew exactly who they represented.” The move marked a major escalation in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on narcotics traffickers following the deployment of several Navy vessels off the Venezuelan coast in recent weeks. The administration has also offered a $50 million bounty for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose government it accused of links with the drug-running groups. Trump told reporters at the White House later Wednesday that the boat contained “massive amounts of drugs” bound for the US and said his administration has recordings of the people on the vessel. “Venezuela has been very bad, both in terms of drugs and sending some of the worst criminals anywhere in the world into our country,” Trump said. The move prompted an outcry from Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who said on social media site X that the US action could be viewed as murder, saying there is a long tradition of capturing drug smugglers. He said those using such vessels tend to be poor youth, not cartel leaders. “If this is true, it is a murder anywhere in the world,” Petro wrote. “We have been capturing civilians who transport drugs for decades without killing them.” But others were in favor. The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, backed the move, saying “I have no sympathy for traffickers — the U.S. military should kill them all violently.” Reuters [9/3/2025 4:16 PM, Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart, Jeff Mason, and Daphne Psaledakis, 45746K] reports "We’ve got assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships, because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it won’t stop with just this strike," Hegseth said on Fox News. "Anyone else trafficking in those waters who we know is a designated narco terrorist will face the same fate," Hegseth said. He declined to provide details on how the operation was carried out, saying they were classified. It is unknown whether the vessel was destroyed using a drone, torpedo, or by some other means. After the strike, Trump said on Tuesday the U.S. military had identified the crew as members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the United States designated a terrorist group in February. On Wednesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that "massive amounts of drugs" were found on the boat, but did not specify the type of drugs or the quantity. Axios [9/3/2025 10:51 AM, Avery Lotz, 14595K] reports President Trump on Tuesday said the deadly "kinetic strike" targeted "positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists," reiterating the disputed claim that Maduro controls the multinational crime organization. The U.S. operation, which officials said is targeting drug trafficking, is threaded with hopes of regime change, Axios’ Marc Caputo previously reported, as Maduro lives under the U.S. government’s $50 million bounty.

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FOX News [9/3/2025 8:48 AM, Staff, 40019K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss President Donald Trump’s crackdown on the cartel drug trade and the potential to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [9/3/2025 3:47 PM, Pedro Rodriguez, 1563K] reports Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro slammed U.S. anti-narcotics operations as an "act of war," and vowed to resist any effort to topple his regime. The Trump administration, however, dismissed his threats and pledged to bring an end to his anti-American operations. According to Maduro, President Donald Trump’s show of force is a "pretext" for an American invasion and is seen as an "extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat" to him. In the same statement, Maduro reiterated that violence against him could mean war with the rest of South America. However, the Trump administration and U.S. military forces have not taken the threats seriously and have only escalated the intensity of their operations. On Tuesday, Trump announced the eradication of 11 Tren De Aragua Cartel members, who, along with millions of dollars in illicit drugs, were wiped out by a U.S. military strike. Later on Tuesday, Rubio told reporters that the administration will "take on" drug cartels "wherever they’re operating against the interest of the United States," even if that includes acting on Venezuelan soil. Rubio has not revealed any ongoing plans, but based on his remarks, further military operations against American enemies, of which Maduro is one, is not something Trump’s Cabinet will shy away from.

NBC News [9/4/2025 1:09 AM, Gabe Gutierrez, Carol E. Lee, Courtney Kube, Abigail Williams, Didi Martinez, Julie Tsirkin and Erika Angulo, 43603K] reports the Trump administration is warning would-be drug traffickers that they will meet the same fate as those killed in a boat the U.S blew up Tuesday in the southern Caribbean, a dramatic escalation in the drug war and the White House’s bitter feud with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. "Venezuela has been a very bad actor," President Donald Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office. The U.S.’s offensive posture in the region is raising questions about its ultimate goal — and how U.S. intelligence agencies were so certain that the boat contained drugs and members of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. "We have tapes of them speaking," Trump said. "It was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people.” Though the president’s specific intentions regarding Maduro are unclear, the U.S. seems to have two objectives: stemming the flow of illegal drugs from Venezuela and placing debilitating pressure on the Venezuelan leader. The goal is to force Maduro to make rash decisions that could ultimately lead to his ouster — without American boots on the ground — according to a source familiar with the Trump administration’s thinking. A second source familiar said that last week the administration privately signaled plans to intensify pressure on Venezuela, saying the situation was about to quickly escalate and that Maduro "had a lot to worry about.” "There’s definitely going to be more to come" with regard to hitting drug cartel operations, the source said. In 2019, during Trump’s first term, his administration recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president while Maduro faced mass protests after years of hyperinflation and a string of blackouts. Despite the U.S. backing of Guaidó, Maduro held onto power. Last month, some members of the Venezuelan opposition movement visited the State Department for meetings with top officials, according to two people familiar with the talks. Marco Rubio has long been a hardliner on Venezuela, as a senator, as a presidential candidate, and now as secretary of state as well as national security advisor. The source familiar with the administration’s thinking believes regime change in Venezuela has been Rubio’s goal. The administration is preparing for this by not recognizing Maduro as a legitimate president, accusing him of rigging elections and alleging he’s a narco-terrorist, the head of the Cartel de Los Soles. Several weeks ago, the U.S. doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million. Telemundo51 [9/3/2025 4:32 PM, Staff, 144K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump asserted Wednesday that Venezuela has created a "tremendous problem" for the United States in relation to drug trafficking and illegal immigration, adding: "We’re not going to tolerate it anymore," and the alleged drug traffickers killed yesterday "are not going to do it again." The president was asked about the "lethal attack" carried out by U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea against a boat allegedly belonging to the Tren de Aragua criminal organization, which left eleven "narcoterrorists" dead. Trump claimed Tuesday that the vessel he said was transporting drugs had been shot down and shared a video from the U.S. Army’s Southern Command showing the vessel, a small speedboat, being attacked. The U.S. is conducting an unprecedented military deployment in the Caribbean Sea to combat drug trafficking, something typically addressed through intelligence cooperation with local authorities or non-lethal intervention by the Coast Guard.

AP [9/3/2025 3:31 PM, Aamer Madhani, Matthew Lee, and Farnoush Amiri, 37974K] reports that President Donald Trump on Wednesday justified the lethal military strike that his administration said was carried out a day earlier against a Venezuelan gang as a necessary effort by the United States to send an unmistakable message to Latin American cartels. Asked why the military did not instead interdict the vessel and capture those on board, Trump said the operation would cause drug smugglers to think twice about trying to move drugs into the U.S. “There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people, and everybody fully understands that,” Trump said while hosting Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the White House. He added, “Obviously, they won’t be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people won’t be doing it again. When they watch that tape, they’re going to say, ‘Let’s not do this.’” Tuesday’s strike was an astonishing departure from typical U.S. drug interdiction efforts at a time when Trump has ordered a major Navy buildup in the waters near Venezuela. Later Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that such operations “will happen again.” Rubio said previous U.S. interdiction efforts in Latin America have not worked in stemming the flow of illicit drugs into the United States and beyond. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Post [9/3/2025 1:51 PM, Samantha Schmidt, 29079K] reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “has some decisions to make” after the lethal U.S. strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that President Donald Trump said was operated by drug smugglers connected to the authoritarian leader.

Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI. Maduro is running the South American nation “effectively as a kingpin of a drug narco state,” Hegseth said on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday morning, a day after the military strike killed 11. “Nicolás Maduro, as he considers whether or not he wants to continue be a narco trafficker, has some decisions to make.” The strike was dramatic escalation for the United States in its fight against drug traffickers and strains already tense relations with Venezuela. The Trump administration has not provided a legal justification for launching a lethal strike against civilians in international waters outside of an armed conflict. “We have tapes of them speaking,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Wednesday. “It was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people, and everybody fully understands it. You see it, you see the bags of drugs all over the boat and they were hit.” “Venezuela’s been very bad,” Trump said, “both in terms of drugs and sending some of the worst criminals anywhere in the world into our country.”

CNN [9/3/2025 4:47 PM, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood] reports the deadly US military strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Tuesday marked a significant and escalatory shift in the Trump administration’s fight against drug trafficking, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio signaled there would be more destruction moving forward. Rubio on Wednesday argued that the traditional policy of intercepting drug-carrying vessels had not worked. Instead, the US is "going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations." The top US diplomat said the US had intelligence that the vessel coming from Venezuela, with alleged ties to the criminal organization Tren de Aragua, "was headed towards, eventually, the United States." Still, questions remain about the specifics of the operation, which came as the US in recent weeks has also amassed a significant number of military assets around the Caribbean and South America. Rubio did not provide any details on what kind of drugs were on board, or exactly how the boat was destroyed. On Tuesday he referred questions on the operational details to the Pentagon, but the department has not briefed reporters on the strike.

Breitbart [9/3/2025 6:55 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2608K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the U.S. military’s strike on a drug-carrying vessel on Tuesday, and noted that narco-terrorist organizations "pose an immediate threat" to the United States. "The President of the United States has determined that narco-terrorist organizations pose a threat to the national security of the United States — I don’t need to explain to you why," Rubio said, adding that the narco-terrorist organizations are "traffickers of people" and "traffickers of deadly drugs.” Rubio continued to point out that the narco-terrorist organizations "are not stockbrokers" or real estate agents who "deal a few drugs" on the side, adding that they "pose an immediate threat to the United States.” "These are not stockbrokers," Rubio continued. "These are not real estate agents, who on the side deal a few drugs, these are organized, corporate-structured organizations who specialize in the trafficking of deadly drugs, into the United States of America. They pose an immediate threat to the United States.” Rubio continued to warn that if people are "on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl," or other drugs heading towards the U.S., they are "an immediate threat" to the nation and that under President Donald Trump’s authority as Commander-in-Chief, he "has a right under exigent circumstances, to eliminate imminent threats.” "We’re not going to sit back anymore and watch these people sail up and down the Caribbean like a cruise ship. It’s not going to happen, it’s not going to happen anymore," Rubio added. "They’re not going to bring drugs into the United States. We’re going to stop them.” Breitbart News’s Bob Price reported that Trump revealed in a Truth Social post that the U.S. military’s "precision strike" on the drug-carrying boat resulted in the deaths of "11 Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists.”

FOX News [9/3/2025 10:06 PM, Landon Mion, Jennifer Griffin, 40019K] reports the U.S. military is strengthening its Navy presence near Venezuela, as President Donald Trump seeks to stop the flow of drug trafficking from the Latin American country. U.S. naval and air assets have been sent to the region to take on drug trafficking and protect regional maritime routes, with some already used this week to target alleged narco-terrorists. A Marine strike on Tuesday struck a vessel in the southern Caribbean Sea while allegedly carrying members of Tren de Aragua smuggling narcotics headed for the U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has deployed several assets to the region, including USS Iwo Jima, USS Lake Erie, USS Jason Dunham, USS Gravely and USS Sampson, to target criminal organizations and narco-terrorism, Fox News can confirm. "In support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs), Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), and counter narco-terrorism to defend the homeland, the Secretary of Defense directed the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group/22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR)," Col. Chris Devine, a spokesman for the Defense Department, told Fox News. "Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109), USS Gravely (DDG 107), USS Sampson (DDG 102) and embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment teams are currently operating in the region," he continued. Hegseth also sent air assets "to strengthen U.S. whole-of-government detection, monitoring, and interdiction capabilities to sustain pressure on TCO networks throughout the region," according to Devine. "The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere," he said. "These forces will enhance and augment existing Joint Interagency Task Force – South and USSOUTHCOM capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs and FTOs.”

CNN [9/3/2025 6:46 PM, Ana María Cañizares, 23245K] reports the deployment of US warships in the Caribbean to counter drug-trafficking could simply divert the problem to the Pacific, experts in the region warn. While much attention has focused on the political tension between the United States and Venezuela – even more so after a strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat on Tuesday – security specialists warn that the focus on Caribbean trafficking routes by American ships could have serious, unintended consequences for countries struggling to prevent drug flows on the Pacific corridor – such as Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. "What’s going to happen is that, by blocking this Caribbean corridor, drug traffickers will avoid continuing to transport drugs through that route, because it’s more dangerous, and they’ll incur greater losses. They’ll redirect the flow of drugs," former Ecuadorian Army Intelligence chief Mario Pazmiño told CNN. Ecuador is one of the most violent countries in Latin America due to transnational organized crime and has the third-highest drug seizures after the United States and Colombia, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Various drug trafficking routes operate from the South American country to Central America, the United States and Europe, where a series of Ecuadorian, Colombian, Mexican and European criminal networks converge. Pazmiño thinks these routes will get only more popular with traffickers as the Caribbean routes are squeezed off. "This flow of drugs will no longer leave through Colombia or Venezuela. They will try to use Ecuadorian ports, which are one of our country’s greatest weaknesses and through which drugs are constantly leaving," he warned. Indeed, Pazmiño believes this effect is already in play.

NewsMax [9/3/2025 8:50 PM, Staff, 4779K] reports Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Wednesday he has little sympathy for suspected Venezuelan gang members killed in a U.S. military strike on a vessel allegedly carrying illicit drugs, but he questioned what the operation means for America’s role abroad. On "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Paul, chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said that although "nobody’s going to have any kind of lost love" for drug traffickers, the U.S. risks assuming the role of "the world’s policeman" by conducting such strikes in international waters. "It sounds good on the face of it," Paul said. "But really, where does it end? Is it really the constitutional duty of our government to be policing international drug trade everywhere around the world?". Paul stressed that if such suspects had been caught off the coast of Miami, they would have been arrested, charged, and tried in court. "Even the worst people in our country still get a trial," he said. "Sometimes you have to figure out who people are before you kill them. That’s the problem.” Paul argued that treating drug cartels like enemy combatants risks blurring the line between law enforcement and war powers. "It’s also why in our country, wars are the exception," he said. "So, when we have a war, it was intended that we would declare war, [it] would be a big vote of our Congress. And then at that point in time, we say, if that enemy, if we’re at war, let’s say with Venezuela, then we say their ships are free to shoot them anywhere they are anytime. "And so, we kill them off their coast. We kill them in their country, but we’ve declared war on them. It’s a little harder here because this is a crime and this is a criminal syndicate.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the strike Wednesday, saying decades of U.S. interdiction operations in Latin America have failed to stem the flow of dangerous drugs. "What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them," Rubio said, calling the action just the beginning of a larger U.S. operation in the region. He argued that the scale of fentanyl and cocaine entering the country — contributing to more than 100,000 American deaths annually — justifies a more forceful response. Paul acknowledged the devastation of drug-related deaths but maintained that the U.S. must balance deterrence with constitutional limits and due process. "Once again, no love lost for the people who died that are trying to infiltrate our country with this filth," he said. "But at the same time, you have to realize it’s not as simple as it may sound that, well, let’s just kill drug dealers, because sometimes you have to figure out who people are before you kill them. That’s the problem.”

FOX News [9/3/2025 1:59 PM, Stephen Sorace, 40019K] reports federal officials made a high-seas interception of hundreds of thousands of pounds of two different precursor chemicals that are used to make methamphetamine, a shipment they say came from China and was destined for the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. Jeanine Pirro, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, announced what officials called the largest ever bust of precursor chemicals being shipped to a foreign terrorist organization during a news conference in Pasadena, Texas, on Wednesday. "Tons of chemicals that are used to create synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl are shipped from China to Mexico in China’s undeclared war against America," Pirro said. Pirro said that 1,300 barrels containing 363,000 pounds of benzyl alcohol and 334,000 pounds of N-Methylformamide were seized from two different vessels on the high seas. Both chemicals, Pirro said, are precursor chemicals that could have been used to produce 420,000 pounds of methamphetamine. The meth produced from the seized chemicals would have an estimated street value of at least $569M, Pirro said. ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said the operation’s approach is to target the supply line for illicit drug manufacturers, such as chemical precursors, rather than the finished product. "Had these precursors made it to the destination, they would have made hundreds of thousands of pounds of methamphetamine, with profits of over half a billion dollars, which would lead to more American deaths here, not only in Houston, but all across the country," Lyons said. Pirro declined to comment on the exact location where the chemicals were seized aboard the ships, though she said there were 1,300 barrels inside shipping containers. The chemicals had been loaded onto the ships from a port in Shanghai, China, Pirro said, adding that they were en route to Mexico to be used by the Sinaloa Cartel. The meth the cartel would have produced would have likely made its way into the U.S. Pirro said that the seizure will put a dent in the drug trafficking organizations, though it may take them a while to recoup from the loss. Breitbart [9/3/2025 12:49 PM, Randy Clark, Bob Price, 2608K] reports t U.S. Attorney Pirro was joined by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons, HSI Houston Special Agent in Charge Chad Plantz, CBP Houston Director of Field Operations Jud Murdock, DEA Houston Acting Special Agent in Charge William Kimbell, and FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams.

Reported similarly:
Houston Chronicle [9/3/2025 11:02 AM, Yvette Orozco and Catherine Dominguez, 2356K]
Univision [9/3/2025 6:01 PM, Staff, 4932K]

Washington Examiner [9/3/2025 4:06 PM, David Zimmermann, 1563K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump will "wage war" on narcoterrorists, one day after the United States military destroyed a drug-carrying ship operated by a foreign terrorist organization off the coast of Venezuela. The precision strike killed 11 Tren de Aragua cartel members on board the vessel. The operation represented a dramatic, albeit expected, escalation after the Trump administration moved to target Latin American cartels by deploying a few Navy destroyers and several thousand Marines to the Caribbean region. Doubling down on the administration’s efforts to eliminate cartels’ drug trafficking operations, Rubio defended Tuesday’s strike. Rubio underscored the importance of taking a more aggressive stance against cartels, explaining that simply preventing the drugs from reaching their destination is not enough. Rubio traveled to Mexico City on Wednesday to strengthen cooperation between the two North American neighbors on combating illegal immigration and countering narcoterrorism. During his visit, the State Department reaffirmed the U.S.’s commitment to collaborating with Mexico.

NewsMax [9/3/2025 10:18 PM, James Morley III, 4779K] reports the State Department announced Wednesday that the United States and Mexico will continue security cooperation to fight "transnational organized crime.” Speaking with Mexican Foreign Secretary Juan Ramon de la Fuente in Mexico City, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two countries face "common issues, threats, danger, and problems that we must confront.” The two nations pledged to target organized crime groups — particularly drug cartels — while curbing migration and respecting each other’s sovereignty. The announcement suggested the Trump administration may scale back unilateral cross-border operations against suspected criminals after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum made clear that U.S. incursions would not be tolerated. "When it comes to our cooperation, there’s no other government that’s cooperating as much with us in the fight against crime as the government of Mexico and President Sheinbaum’s administration," Rubio said. In an official statement, the State Department said the purpose of the agreement is "to work together to dismantle transnational organized crime through enhanced cooperation between our respective national security and law enforcement institutions, and judicial authorities. Additionally, we are working to address the illegal movement of people across the border. This cooperation through specific and immediate actions will strengthen the security along our shared border, halt the trafficking of fentanyl and other illicit drugs, and stop arms trafficking.” The agreement comes a day after a precision U.S. military strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs by the Tren de Aragua gang. While the statement was short on details, de la Fuente praised the joint anti-crime initiatives between the two countries but noted there are "particularly sensitive and complex" issues in the relationship that must be handled with care. He added that cooperation would succeed as long as both governments respect each nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Rubio added, "But this is a — this is an important and, I believe, a significant day in the relations of our two countries as we are able to continue to formalize this unprecedented, historic, and so far, highly successful security cooperation between the government of Mexico and the government of the United States.”

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [9/3/2025 5:40 PM, Patrick J. McDonnell and Cecilia Sánchez Vidal, 12715K]
Washington Examiner [9/3/2025 5:48 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1563K]

Reuters [9/3/2025 4:44 PM, Daphne Psaledakis and Brendan O’Boyle, 45746K] reports U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that security cooperation with Mexico was closer than it had ever been, during a visit to the country as the Trump administration pursues a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration and drug cartels.

The two countries vowed to work together against organized crime groups, several of which U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations, though Mexico reiterated that all operations must respect its sovereignty. Rubio met with President Claudia Sheinbaum and members of her cabinet to discuss security and praised Mexico’s work. "It is the closest security cooperation we have ever had, maybe with any country, but certainly in the history of U.S.-Mexico relations," Rubio told reporters alongside his Mexican counterpart, Juan Ramon de la Fuente, who touted "undeniable results" on migration and security cooperation between the Sheinbaum and Trump administrations. The visit was overshadowed, however, by the U.S. military strike on a vessel from Venezuela in the Caribbean on Tuesday, which U.S. officials said was carrying illegal drugs. Rubio said such strikes "will happen again" as Trump wages "war on narco terrorist organizations."

FOX News [9/3/2025 8:39 PM, Staff, 40019K] reports ‘Border czar’ Tom Homan discusses President Donald Trump’s plans to deploy the National Guard to Chicago on ‘Kudlow.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [9/3/2025 2:04 PM, Pilar Arias, 40019K] reports the FBI is "targeting the fentanyl supply chain at its source," and a recent operation led to the indictments of 22 Chinese nationals, four China-based chemical companies and three Americans. "We’re done playing Whack-a-Mole," FBI Director Kash Patel said during a news conference on Wednesday in Cincinnati, adding that no other country besides the U.S. has a "fentanyl crisis.” Dubbed Operation Box Cutter, it has resulted in the seizure of "enough fentanyl powder to kill 70 million Americans and enough fentanyl pills to kill another 270,000," Patel said in a statement. The investigation started in Dayton, Ohio, before expanding "all the way to mainland China, where chemical companies were openly marketing and selling dangerous precursor substances used to cut and manufacture fentanyl, cocaine and heroin," according to a news release. "Today’s takedown marks the FBI’s first-of-its-kind international operation targeting the fentanyl plague that has killed tens of thousands of Americans, indicting the companies and individuals in mainland China that manufacture the precursors fueling the destruction of our communities," Patel’s statement said. "We have indicted Chinese precursor companies and exposed their bank accounts and cryptocurrency pipelines and funding sources that facilitate this deadly trade," his statement concluded.

Daily Signal [9/3/2025 9:41 AM, Virginia Allen, 668K] reports the House passed a bill Tuesday aimed at holding China accountable for its role in the fentanyl crisis. Fentanyl is the leading cause of death in America for people between the age of 18 and 45. "The Chinese Communist Party has played a key part in the deadly fentanyl crisis plaguing Kentucky and our entire country—from manufacturing fentanyl in China to laundering the products through the cartels and into the country," Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., who introduced the legislation, said in a statement Tuesday. The Stop Chinese Fentanyl Act specifically targets fentanyl manufacturers by allowing the U.S. government to sanction Chinese organizations, individuals, or government if those entities, according to Barr’s office: "Produce, sell, finance, or transport synthetic opioids or precursor chemicals;" "Fail to implement ‘know-your-customer’ procedures; or" "Refuse to cooperate with U.S. counternarcotics efforts.” Mexico’s criminal cartels are believed to use a chemical primarily sourced from China to make fentanyl, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. So far in fiscal year 2025, Customs and Border Protection has seized over 10,000 pounds of fentanyl, compared with nearly 22,000 pounds in fiscal year 2024 and 27,000 pounds in 2023. As little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal.

NBC News [9/4/2025 5:00 AM, Didi Martinez and Laura Strickler, 43603K] reports last month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem praised a new Trump administration effort to persuade undocumented immigrants to return to their homelands on their own. She said a new two-year, $200 million television ad campaign, a $1,000 cash stipend to pay for plane tickets home and a new “CBP Home” app were prompting undocumented people to self-deport. “If they wait until we arrest them and we remove them, they’ll never get the chance to come back to the United States,” Noem said when she was asked about the program at a news conference. “We know thousands and thousands of people have used the app.” Migrants and Democrats, though, question the effectiveness of the campaign, which remains unclear six months after its launch. Noem, who promised last month to release the exact number of people who have self-deported using the app, hasn’t done so. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to repeated requests for the figures. Democrats question the cost of the TV ads, as well. And undocumented migrants and advocates told NBC News they don’t trust Noem, her ads and Customs and Border Protection’s new CBP Home app. “You just can’t get on a plane tomorrow and just go,” said Lauren, a mother of two who lives in Ohio with her undocumented husband and asked to be identified only by her first name. She expressed anger at Noem, saying that the family doesn’t plan to use the CBP app and that self-deportation will take them close to a year. “You know, we have a home. We have to sell this home, get rid of everything that’s in this home,” she added. “It’s just, you can’t just leave like she says.”

The AP [9/3/2025 5:39 PM, Will Weissert] reports President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that New Orleans could be his next target for deploying the National Guard to fight crime, potentially expanding the number of cities around the nation where he may send federal law enforcement. Trump has already said he plans to send the National Guard into Chicago and Baltimore following his administration deploying troops and federal agents to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., last month. Trump’s latest comments came a day after he declared "We’re going in" and suggested that the National Guard might soon be headed for Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, and Baltimore. That’s despite state and local officials, as well as many residents, both places staunchly opposing the idea. New Orleans, however, is a Democrat-controlled in a red state run by Landry. But city leaders immediately balked at the idea. Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly railed against Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for not requesting that the National Guard be deployed. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have been adamant in saying Chicago doesn’t need or want military intervention. In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore have remained similarly opposed. The Washington Post [9/3/2025 5:32 PM, Natalie Allison and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, 29079K] reports that the president’s latest comments came as Democratic mayors and governors around the country have pushed back on his threats to send federal authorities to patrol large cities. But unlike Chicago, Baltimore, New York or Los Angeles, New Orleans is a Democratic city in a conservative state, and Trump would likely face little to no resistance from state officials. It remains unclear if Trump is considering backing off his plans to deploy resources to blue states, where they are less welcome. “We’re making a determination now,” Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office as he met with Polish President Karol Nawrocki. “Do we go to Chicago, or do we go to a place like New Orleans where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite — you know, quite tough, quite bad.” The Democratic governors of states including Illinois, New York, California and Maryland have made it clear they do not welcome Trump’s plans to send in federal law enforcement to combat crime, signing a joint statement in recent days that said doing so would amount to an “alarming abuse of power.” D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, a Democrat, however, has responded with more deference to Trump, who has wide authority under the U.S. Constitution to deploy federal agents in the district. NBC News [9/3/2025 1:19 PM, Megan Lebowitz, 43603K] reports "We’re going to be going to maybe Louisiana, and you have New Orleans, which has a crime problem," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "We’ll straighten that out in about two weeks. It’ll take us two weeks, easier than D.C." Last month, Trump deployed thousands of National Guard members to Washington, D.C., and surged federal law enforcement, including the FBI and border patrol agents, there. He has also repeatedly threatened to send National Guard troops to Chicago and Baltimore. Trump said Wednesday that Gov. Jeff Landry, R-La., "wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad.” In a post to X, Landry shared a clip of Trump’s comments and welcomed the move. In a joint statement, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s office and the New Orleans Police Department touted the city’s ongoing collaboration with the federal government. "We have consistently worked with our federal partners, including collaborations with the Louisiana State Police," the statement read. "This collaborative approach has been instrumental in our ongoing success in reducing crime." City data indicates that the overall crime rate in New Orleans is down 21.5% compared to last year.

Reported similarly:
Axios [9/3/2025 3:38 PM, April Rubin, 14595K]
Blaze [9/3/2025 3:15 PM, Cortney Weil, 1559K]
Washington Examiner [9/3/2025 2:11 PM, Mabinty Quarshie, 1563K]

Washington Examiner [9/3/2025 6:18 PM, Mabinty Quarshie, Naomi Lim, 1563K] reports White House "border czar" Tom Homan claimed that if President Donald Trump decides to send in federal forces into New Orleans, Chicago, or any other sanctuary cities, the deployment will be related to cracking down on illegal immigration. The border czar claimed the White House will ‘flood the zone’ in Democratic-led sanctuary cities across the nation with law enforcement troops in the aftermath of the militarization of Washington’s police force. Homans’ comments to the Washington Examiner follow the president’s earlier remarks to reporters that Chicago and New Orleans were the next likely cities he would consider sending the National Guard to. The border czar declined to say when exactly forces will deploy to Chicago and other sanctuary cities, but operations are being planned. Vice President JD Vance also declined to give a more detailed timeline of when forces could be sent to Chicago during his visit to Minneapolis’s Annunciation Church on Wednesday.

FOX Business [9/3/2025 7:09 PM, Staff, 9194K] reports that, “We’re going to make Chicago ‘safe again,” says Tom Homan. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Chicago Tribune [9/3/2025 6:36 PM, Steve Sadin, 5352K] reports roughly 300 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be sent to the Chicago area as part of increased operations ordered by the Trump Administration, suburban officials have been told. With Naval Station Great Lakes serving as the nerve center for the effort, federal officials met with Lake County law enforcement Wednesday morning to brief them on the agents’ arrival and the potential for the National Guard’s deployment, according to Gregory Jackson, the chief of staff for North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. The city’s police chief, Laz Perez, was among those in attendance, Jackson said. As a result, Rockingham and Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said they are taking steps to ensure the safety of people in their communities, where there is fear of family separation in mixed families where some members are documented and others are not. Jackson said as many as 300 ICE agents will be part of the operation. The officers will stay in hotels in Waukegan, Gurnee and possibly other area communities. National Guard troops will be used as they were in Los Angeles to protect federal buildings, he said. Federal buildings in the area include the Navy base, the James A. Lovell Federal Healthcare Center and an FBI firing range in North Chicago, as well as a U.S. Social Security Office in Waukegan. Along with representatives of law enforcement from neighboring communities, Jackson said U.S. Navy personnel and naval police were at the briefing, as well as representatives of ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

CBS Chicago [9/3/2025 7:45 PM, Todd Feurer, 45245K] Video: HERE Leaders in west suburban Broadview said federal immigration officials have contacted them, confirming a large-scale enforcement operation beginning soon. "Federal officials have informed us that a large-scale enforcement campaign will soon be underway," Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson wrote in a letter to residents and business owners. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Beach Street will serve as the primary processing location, according to Thompson. "This effort may draw protests and demonstrations, like those seen earlier this year in Los Angeles, where property damage and assaults against law enforcement were reported. As a result, we will be working closely with all businesses along Beach Drive to alert them to the possibility of traffic disruptions that may affect employees and deliveries over the next 45 to 60 days," Thompson wrote. Thompson said the village is working with neighboring police departments, Illinois State Police, and the Cook County Sheriff’s office "to ensure safety and order are maintained.”

CBS Chicago [9/3/2025 10:15 AM, Sara Tenenbaum, 45245K] reports Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said he believes the Trump administration has chosen to drastically ramp up immigration raids and arrests in September because of the city’s Mexican Independence Day celebrations. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the administration will be upping ICE operations in the city, reportedly as early as this Friday. Addressing these escalations Tuesday, Gov. Pritzker said he believes the administration has chosen the timing of their immigration enforcement escalation to coincide with Mexican Independence Day. "We have reason to believe that Stephen Miller chose the month of September to come to Chicago because of celebrations around Mexican Independence Day that happen here every year," Pritzker said Tuesday. "It breaks my heart to report that we have been told ICE will try and disrupt community picnics and peaceful parades. Let’s be clear: the terror and cruelty is the point, not the safety of anyone living here.” "Unidentifiable agents in unmarked vehicles with masks are planning to raid Latino communities, and say they’re targeting violent criminals," the governor continued. "As we saw in Los Angeles, a very very small percentage of the individuals they will target will be violent criminals. Instead, you’re likely to see videos of them hauling away mothers and fathers traveling to work or picking up their kids from school.” The governor accused the president of looking for "any excuse to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago" once ICE operations begin, and implored residents not to take the bait. "If someone flings a sandwich at an ICE agent, Trump will try and go on TV and declare an emergency in Chicago. I’m imploring everyone, if and when that happens, do not take the bait," he said.

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NBC News [9/3/2025 10:54 AM, Izzy Stroobandt, 43603K]

CBS News [9/3/2025 6:07 PM, Joe Walsh, 45245K] reports Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday the federal government has "no immediate plans" to send National Guard forces to Chicago, one day after President Trump again suggested he will send federal forces to the nation’s third-largest city — drawing criticism from local leaders. The president had told reporters Tuesday that "we’re going in" to Chicago, but "I didn’t say when." The comments came weeks after Mr. Trump deployed Guard forces to the streets of Washington, D.C., as part of a controversial anti-crime push, and suggested during that time that Chicago could be next. Asked by reporters for details on a possible Guard deployment in Chicago, Vance deferred to Mr. Trump on Wednesday, before saying: "There are no immediate plans, but the president has said he has the legal authority to protect American citizens, whether that’s in Chicago or in Washington, D.C." Vance said the Trump administration hopes to work with Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, echoing the president, who said Tuesday he wants Pritzker to request that military forces be sent to Chicago to quell violent crime. According to Department of Homeland Security sources, the Trump administration is also planning a major expansion of immigration enforcement operations in Chicago as early as this week, CBS News has reported.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [9/3/2025 5:01 PM, Alex Gangitano, 12414K] r

The Hill [9/3/2025 9:26 AM, Elizabeth Crisp, 12414K] reports that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) told reporters Tuesday that he was insulted by President Trump’s suggestion this week that the governor should call him and ask for help in combating crime in Chicago. "It’s an insult to any and every citizen to suggest that any governor should have to beg the president of any political party for resources owed their people," Pritzker said during a news conference. "When did we become a country where it’s OK for the U.S. president to insist on national television that a state should call him to beg for anything, especially something we don’t want?" "Have we truly lost all sense of sanity in this nation, that we treat this as normal?" he added. Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he would "gain respect" for Pritzker if the Democratic governor called him first to seek assistance. "I would love to have Gov. Pritzker call me — I’d gain respect for him — and say, ‘We do have a problem, and we’d love you to send in the troops,’" the president said. "Because, you know what? The people — they have to be protected.” The Illinois leader, who has been a vocal critic of Trump, said he won’t call the president, though he believes the White House is already moving to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago as the administration expands its law enforcement takeover of the nation’s capital to other Democrat-led areas Trump says are crime hot spots. White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed last week that "a large contingent" of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would be sent to Chicago after Labor Day.

Breitbart [9/3/2025 5:17 AM, Ian Hanchett, 2608K] reports on Tuesday’s "CNN News Central," Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul (D) said that there is a crime problem in Chicago and "I’m not happy until we don’t have any murders in the city of Chicago. I’m not happy until we don’t have any gun crime in the city of Chicago. And I will work at collaboration to try to get to that point." And also argued that the Trump administration shouldn’t condition some crime funding on immigration policy. Raoul stated that “if President Trump were talking about putting more resources into federal law enforcement agencies that already collaborate with local law enforcement, I would applaud it. I support more resources going into the ATF, for example, instead of trying to defund them like the White House’s budget proposal did. We’ve had a tremendous collaboration with the ATF here locally in Chicago and have reduced gun crimes and have been able to investigate and prosecute gun trafficking. And so, I would applaud the President if he said, hey, I’m going to fully fund those programs, I’m going to fully fund community violence interruption, I’m not going to condition funding for victims on immigration policy within any particular state. But that’s not what he’s doing.” He added, “There are municipalities in red states that the President is not talking about with far higher crime rates per capita than the city of Chicago. And I’m not saying that we don’t have a crime problem in Chicago. We do. I’m not happy until we don’t have any murders in the city of Chicago. I’m not happy until we don’t have any gun crime in the city of Chicago. And I will work at collaboration to try to get to that point. And so, I’m not in denial of whether or not we have a crime problem. We do. But we, through collaboration and through great law enforcement leadership, have been chipping away at that problem.”

NBC News [9/3/2025 5:35 PM, Zoë Richards and Frank Thorp V, 43603K] reports the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is calling on the panel’s Republican chairman to hold a hearing on President Donald Trump’s threats to deploy military forces to Chicago and other cities. Durbin contended that police power to ensure residents’ safety is a duty that rests with state and local officials, not the federal government. Details on the timing of such a hearing were not immediately available. Trump has indicated that he will send federal forces into cities across the country, saying "We’re going in" when asked at the White House on Tuesday whether he’d be sending National Guard troops to Chicago. Trump suggested Wednesday that he could send federal troops to New Orleans.

AP [9/3/2025 5:04 PM, Sophia Tareen] reports Chicago community leaders forged ahead Wednesday with preparations for the influx of National Guard troops and immigration agents the city is expecting, advising residents about their rights and organizing protests with fresh urgency. Details about the operation are scant, but President Donald Trump has amped up the rhetoric about crime in the nation’s third-largest city, saying an immigration crackdown and National Guard deployment are planned despite the objections of local leaders and a federal court ruling that a similar deployment in Los Angeles was illegal. Still, leaders of schools, churches and community groups — particularly in the city’s immigrant enclaves and Black and Latino neighborhoods — say there’s increased gravity and coordination in preparing for the expected troop deployment and its accompanying deluge of attention.

Blaze [9/3/2025 12:00 PM, Julio Rosas, 1559K] reports Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) said on Tuesday that the real reason why his city had a Labor Day weekend filled with shootings and other crimes is because Republican-run states have more gun rights than Illinois. Johnson made his remarks after President Donald Trump confirmed that he will be sending National Guardsmen and federal law enforcement into Chicago to lower the city’s crime rate. "We’re going in. I didn’t say when. We’re going in. ... This isn’t a political thing. I have an obligation. When 20 people are killed over the last two and a half weeks, and 75 are shot with bullets," Trump said, pointing to how his deployment of personnel to Washington, D.C., has made the city safer. Johnson and Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) have repeatedly said they do not want the extra help to address crime. "Chicago will continue to have a ‘violence problem’ as long as Red states continue to have a gun problem," Johnson reiterated on X. "The endless flow of illegal guns into Chicago can be traced to Red states like Mississippi, Indiana, and Louisiana. It is up to the federal government to step up and stop interstate gun trafficking networks." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed on Sunday that extra immigration agents will be sent to the sanctuary city in a manner similar to what has been happening in Los Angeles, using U.S. Border Patrol agents. It remains to be seen where National Guardsmen will placed in Chicago after they are deployed there. Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez (D) suggested that the soldiers protect the tourist areas of the city so that Chicago police can go back to patrolling other areas of the city that have higher crime rates.

NBC News [9/3/2025 6:12 PM, Daniella Silva, 43603K] reports as residents of Chicago prepare to mark Mexican Independence Day with parades and events starting this weekend, immigration advocates, as well as state and city officials, are bracing for the celebrations to potentially coincide with a surge of immigration enforcement. Officials and advocates in Boston are also preparing for any attempt by Trump to ramp up immigration enforcement after Politico published a report Friday indicating Trump was preparing for an immigration crackdown in the city. While there aren’t yet concrete indications of exactly when additional law enforcement could be expected in those cities, immigration enforcement has gone hand in hand with the Trump administration’s sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles and in the federal takeover of Washington, D.C. Trump said late Tuesday that he would be "going in" to Chicago and that he had a right to go into the city to "protect this country." The Trump administration has said the operations are necessary to bring down crime, although statistics show crime has been down in cities, including Los Angeles, Washington and now Chicago and Boston. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it will "go to wherever these criminal illegal aliens are—including Chicago and Boston. Under President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem, nowhere is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens. If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return."

The AP [9/3/2025 9:49 PM, Konstantin Toropin, 37974K] reports District of Columbia National Guard troops who are deployed as part of President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement intervention in the nation’s capital have had their orders extended through December, a National Guard official said. The main purpose of the extension is to ensure that any D.C. Guard members out on the streets of Washington will continue to have uninterrupted benefits and pay for a mission that seems likely to persist for months, the official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said that while the extension doesn’t mean that all 950 D.C. Guard troops now deployed will serve until the end of December, it is a strong indication that their role is not winding down anytime soon. Typically, Guard members need to be on active orders for more than 30 days to qualify for benefits like a housing allowance or health care, and issuing multiple extensions to those orders can sometimes cause interruptions. National Guard members from Republican-led states also have been sent to Washington. How long those troops, who number 1,334, remain in the nation’s capital is up to their individual governors. A spokesperson for the joint task force overseeing all Guard troops deployed to Washington and the Pentagon directed questions about the extension to the White House. In response to questions, a White House official said Trump was committed to the long-term safety and security of Washington. The National Guard official said leaders also are expected to begin putting out policies on leave and time off for deployed troops — another sign that military leaders expect the deployment to go on for a longer period of time. The task force acknowledged Monday that it was “aware of concerns regarding pay and benefits for members of Joint Task Force-District of Columbia.” “While exceptions exist, the majority of service members are mobilized on orders extending beyond 30 days, ensuring they qualify for full benefits,” the task force said in a statement. The Washington Examiner [9/3/2025 11:02 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1563K] reports that around 1,300 National Guard soldiers from West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Tennessee are also in Washington. It’s unclear when their orders will end. A National Guard official said leaders are expected to put out guidance on leave and time off for deployed troops, a sign of the extended stay. The Washington task force acknowledged Monday that it was "aware of concerns regarding pay and benefits for members of Joint Task Force-District of Columbia.” "While exceptions exist, the majority of service members are mobilized on orders extending beyond 30 days, ensuring they qualify for full benefits," the task force said in a statement. The troops’ presence in Washington has been criticized as excessive and an overreach of power. Other criticisms are aimed at what the soldiers are actually doing. With several other federal law enforcement agencies and the MPD policing the city, Guard troops have been spotted on their phones, cleaning up trash, or doing groundskeeping. The Joint Task Force said the Guard had "cleaned more than 3.2 miles of roadways, collected more than 677 bags of trash, and disposed of five truckloads of plant waste in coordination with the U.S. National Park Service.” Detractors have wondered whether using the soldiers in such a way is the best use of the armed forces. Master Sgt. David Bowden told Washington Post that the cleanup duties raise questions about how to maintain the units’ readiness. "It’s a question," Bowden said, that "I and a lot of other higher enlisted are asking.”

CNN [9/4/2025 5:00 AM, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Nicky Robertson, Haley Britzky, and Jeff Zeleny, 23245K] reports with each phone call home, the troops describe a mission unlike any other. One soldier from Tennessee told his father that from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. every day, his only task is to walk around Chinatown. Another service member from Mississippi told a loved one that she’d been repeatedly cursed at while on patrol. During a call to his wife, a guardsman from Louisiana said there was confusion about what the military was actually doing there. “We haven’t gotten critically low on morale, but we’re falling fast,” said one soldier who, like others quoted in this story, spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak to the media and feared reprisal. Of the more than 2,200 National Guard soldiers President Donald Trump deployed to Washington, DC, last month, in addition to a wave of federal law enforcement, roughly 1,300 are from out of state. Guardsmen on the DC mission and their relatives who spoke to CNN said they left behind civilian jobs and children to serve – a sacrifice they understood when they enlisted. And while domestic missions typically have National Guard troops responding to crises like hurricanes or wildfires, in DC, much of their work has involved more mundane tasks – patrolling popular tourist destinations and assisting with “beautification projects” including picking up trash, raking leaves and laying mulch. Most of that beautification work has been assigned to soldiers from the DC National Guard to avoid angering GOP governors who have sent their troops. For some, the mundane orders aren’t an issue. One father of a Guardsman joked that this is like a vacation for his son. But the mother of another soldier from Mississippi said her daughter is missing out on “a lot of first events with her child” to serve in Washington. It’s also unclear how long the deployment will last. A senior official familiar with the planning told CNN military orders for Guardsmen on the mission are expected to be extended through the end of December, though the official stressed that was largely to ensure the continuity of their benefits like health care coverage, and not necessarily to indicate the mission will continue through year’s end.

The Hill [9/3/2025 11:03 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 12414K] reports Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) signed an order Tuesday authorizing coordination between local police and federal forces extending beyond President Trump’s declared emergency in the nation’s capital. The top priorities for the joint effort will include homelessness and encampments, beautification, and finance and economic resilience, according to a release from Bowser’s office. The president and White House communications staff have praised Bowser for her "positive" response to the federal takeover of the district’s law enforcement and the new agreement. "I’m very proud of Washington," Trump said after Bowser signed the Tuesday order. "It can be used as a template.” The measure created the Safe and Beautiful Emergency Operations Center (SBEOC), which is expected to be run by the city and work alongside the president’s Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which was launched in March, to promote public safety. Agencies involved in the joint operations include the U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, U.S. Park Police, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Capitol Police and the U.S. Secret Service.

CNN [9/3/2025 2:59 PM, Shania Shelton and Gabe Cohen, 23245K] reports Washington, DC, doesn’t need a "federal emergency," Mayor Muriel Bowser said Wednesday, adding her new executive order is meant to be a pathway out of the federal takeover that is set to end this month. The Democratic mayor clarified that her order this week, which requires the city to coordinate with federal law enforcement, is not an endorsement of the Trump administration’s ongoing involvement in the city, but rather a framework for ending the president’s federal emergency. "Let me tell you, without equivocation, that the mayor’s order does not extend the Trump emergency," Bowser said at a press conference. "In fact, it does the exact opposite. What it does is lay out a framework for how we will exit the emergency. The emergency ends on September 10. The only way it can be extended legally is by the Congress.” Her comments come as Republican senators on Wednesday praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital. One senator suggested reforming or altogether undoing DC’s Home Rule Act – a law that balances local self-governance with federal oversight in the capital. "If we can reform the Home Rule status, we can give that a try. But we have to remember, this is authority that is ours. It’s been delegated, delegated unwisely, in my view. If we can reform that, then let’s do it. And President Trump’s action is an important first step in that direction," Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said.

Washington Post [9/3/2025 1:47 PM, Emma Uber, 29079K] reports that D.C. police officers will receive a 13 percent raise next month in a bid to bolster the department’s ranks, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said at a news conference Wednesday morning. The department, whose ranks have shrunk to half-century lows, currently employs 3,188 sworn officers, but aims to reach 4,000 officers. The police department is also seeking to expand the number of officers who can take home patrol cars and is forging a partnership with the University of the District of Columbia to apply police academy training hours as college credit. The push — which will cost the city more than $200 million over four years, according to city administrator Kevin Donahue — comes as President Donald Trump has ordered a federal law enforcement surge across the District, resulting in FBI agents, Homeland Security investigators and immigration officers participating in regular police patrols and conducting traffic stops. “We’re going to make sure that Washington, D.C., is the best big city to be a police officer,” Bowser said. “They have a challenging job in normal circumstances. They’ve had an even more challenging job in the last weeks. They’ve played an important role in driving down crime, not just over the last two weeks, but especially over the last two years, and we are so grateful for their work.”

NewsMax.com [9/3/2025 5:30 PM, Michael Katz, 4779K] reports just hours after a federal court ruled in its favor, California is seeking a preliminary injunction to block the Trump administration from keeping National Guard troops in Los Angeles through November’s election. The news came amid a ruling Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. He found that President Donald Trump’s deployment of 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 Marines to protect federal personnel and property (including Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations) in Los Angeles in June violated the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. Later that day, Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, both Democrats, filed a motion seeking to stop the administration’s 90-day extension, announced Aug. 5, that would keep 300 National Guard troops in Los Angeles through Nov. 5, the day after California’s statewide special election. Breyer’s injunction issued Tuesday barred the remaining 300 National Guard troops from engaging in law enforcement activities such as arrests, searches or crowd control. However, he stayed the order until Sept. 12 to allow for an appeal. He also suggested that the deployment’s "top-down" approach sidelined state authority, creating a "national police force," according to the ruling. The Trump administration appealed the ruling Wednesday to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In June, the Ninth Circuit stayed Breyer’s temporary restraining order that declared Trump’s federalization of the National Guard was illegal. The appeals court found that violent protests in Los Angeles upheld Trump’s actions and that procedural requirements were met.

AP [9/3/2025 5:16 PM, Staff, 37974K] Video: HERE reports immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, which the federal government called “ground zero for the effects of the border crisis” will continue undeterred says U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino as seen during recent operations at a Home Depot and car wash.

Bloomberg [9/3/2025 1:19 PM, Erik Larson, 19085K] reports a federal appeals court blocked the Trump Administration from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under a two-century old wartime law, teeing up the case to return to the US Supreme Court. President Donald Trump can’t use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport the men because their presence in the US doesn’t amount to an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” by a foreign nation as required under the law, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled late Tuesday. The 2-1 decision by the conservative-leaning court rejected Trump’s argument that he was entitled to invoke the law because members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang had been sent to the US by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to destabilize the nation. “A country’s encouraging its residents and citizens to enter this country illegally is not the modern-day equivalent of sending an armed, organized force to occupy, to disrupt, or to otherwise harm the United States,” according to the New Orleans-based panel. “There is no finding that this mass immigration was an armed, organized force or forces.” The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that Venezuelans facing deportation under the Alien Enemies Act must receive notice that they face removal in a “reasonable time and in such a manner” to bring a legal challenge. Several federal judges have ruled that Trump improperly invoked the law, but the Supreme Court has not answered that question. The decision comes as Trump’s wide ranging crackdown on undocumented immigrants continues to trigger legal challenges across the country, with mixed results. Earlier Tuesday, a judge ruled Trump illegally used the federal troops to help enforce immigration law when he deployed the National Guard to California during protests against his crackdown. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement that Trump expects to ultimately prevail in the case. “The authority to conduct national security operations in defense of the United States and to remove terrorists from the United States rests solely with the President,” Jackson said. “President Trump exercised this lawful authority and employed the Alien Enemies Act to remove enemies of the United States, including vicious TdA gang members, from the country.” The appeals court and the Supreme Court have both said that the Trump administration can continue to deport accused gang members and terrorists under the usual immigration laws, which require more due process.

Reported similarly:
Roll Call [9/3/2025 11:21 AM, Chris Johnson, 511K]
The Hill [9/3/2025 8:01 AM, Zach Schonfeld, 12414K]

Daily Caller [9/3/2025 12:43 PM, Jason Hopkins, 985K] reports that a federal judge tore into his colleagues for blocking President Donald Trump’s use of a wartime authority to arrest and deport Venezuelan gangbangers in a scathing dissent. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was not intended to be used on crime syndicates such as the Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua gang, according to court documents. Two judges on the panel — one appointed by President George W. Bush and another by President Joe Biden — stated that Trump’s allegations about Tren de Aragua did not meet the scale of national conflict that Congress intended for the law. However, Judge Andrew Oldham, the third judge on the panel, "emphatically" disagreed and issued a scathing rebuke of the majority opinion’s findings. "The majority’s approach to this case is not only unprecedented — it is contrary to more than 200 years of precedent," wrote Oldham, a Trump appointee, in a dissenting opinion. "It reflects a view of the Judicial power that is not only muscular — it is herculean," Oldham continued. "And it reflects a view of the Executive power that is not only diminutive — it is made subservient to the foreign-policy and public-safety hunches of every federal district judge in the country." The White House, which praised, Oldham’s dissent, indicated it would take the fight to a higher court. "The authority to conduct national security operations in defense of the United States and to remove terrorists from the United States rests solely with the President," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation. "President Trump exercised this lawful authority and employed the Alien Enemies Act to remove enemies of the United States, including vicious [Tren de Aragua] gang members, from the country," Jackson continued. "Judge Oldham’s dissent provides a careful review of this authority, and we expect to be vindicated on the merits in this case."

DailySignal [9/3/2025 1:00 PM, Mary Mobley, 668K] reports that the Department of Justice is taking Illinois to court over state laws it says unlawfully offer in-state tuition and scholarships to illegal aliens. The DOJ filed a complaint Tuesday asking a federal court to prevent Illinois from enforcing those laws, which it says are both unlawful and unconstitutional. "Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. "This Department of Justice has already filed multiple lawsuits to prevent U.S. students from being treated like second-class citizens—Illinois now joins the list of states where we are relentlessly fighting to vindicate federal law." The challenged laws include Illinois’ 2011 DREAM Act, which established a fund that offers scholarships to "undocumented students" in Illinois, as well as the 2020 RISE Act, which extended Illinois financial aid to "noncitizen student[s]" who have "not obtained lawful permanent residence." The DOJ says those laws discriminate against U.S. citizens in violation of federal law. Specifically, it points to a 1996 law that bans states from offering in-state tuition to illegal aliens unless they offer the same tuition to all U.S. citizens from any state. By violating federal law, the DOJ says, the laws also violate the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which establishes federal law as "the supreme Law of the Land."

The AP [9/3/2025 5:35 PM, Matt Brown and Kevin Freking, 27036K] reports the House rejected a resolution to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., and remove her from a committee that oversees immigration and national security as she faces federal charges stemming from a visit to an immigration detention facility. The House voted 215-207 to table the measure, a sign that some were uncomfortable moving forward with censure while McIver’s case is still pending in the courts. A trial in her case has been scheduled for November. Democratic lawmakers unanimously voted to table the resolution, which was sponsored by Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La. Five Republicans joined them and two others voted present. As the resolution was being read, some Democrats were incensed. "Liar," some shouted; "Shame," yelled one Democratic lawmaker. Many Republicans streamed out of the chamber before the vote concluded. Democrats cheered and hugged at the final tally’s reading. "The censure attempt against me has failed. Rightfully so. It was a baseless, partisan effort to shut me up," McIver wrote on social media after the vote. "I was not elected to play political games — I was elected to serve. I won’t back down. Not now. Not ever.” Republicans sought to punish McIver for a confrontation with federal law enforcement during a congressional visit to a new immigration detention facility in Newark, N.J. McIver has pleaded not guilty to federal charges accusing her of assaulting and interfering with immigration officers outside the facility. The censure resolution recounted how McIver is alleged to have interfered with Homeland Security Investigations officials’ ability to arrest an unauthorized visitor. It said she is alleged to have slammed her forearm into the body and forcibly grabbed an HSI officer. The resolution also said body camera and other video evidence supported the allegations made in the federal indictment. The measure said such actions did not reflect credibly on the House and that her continued service on the House Homeland Security Committee was a significant conflict of interest. The committee’s portfolio includes oversight of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which operates the detention center that McIver tried to enter. Politico [9/3/2025 2:41 PM, Nicholas Wu, 14810K] reports some House Republicans joined every Democrat in voting to sink an effort to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver over her involvement in a chaotic May scuffle outside an immigration detention center. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) forced the vote to formally reprimand McIver and remove her from her position on the House Homeland Security Committee, a handful of his GOP colleagues had little appetite for moving forward with the punishment. Five Republicans — Reps. Don Bacon and Mike Flood of Nebraska, Dave Joyce and Mike Turner of Ohio and David Valadao of California — joined every Democrat in voting to table the measure, while two Republicans — Reps. Andrew Garbarino of New York and Nathaniel Moran of Texas — voted present. “I think it’s best to let Ethics Committee finish its report,” Bacon said. A spokesperson for Turner said after the vote the Ohio Republican inadvertently voted to kill McIver’s censure; the incorrect vote did not change the outcome. Several Democratic officials, including McIver and Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, were attempting to conduct an oversight visit of the Newark, New Jersey, facility when federal agents arrested the city’s mayor. Federal prosecutors abandoned a charge against the mayor, but acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba then charged McIver with offenses that come with a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison. Habba accused McIver of slamming a federal agent with her forearm, “forcibly” grabbing him and using her forearms to strike another agent. McIver denied wrongdoing, with her lawyers explaining that an “unnecessary, reckless, and disproportionate escalation” by federal agents led to “chaos and a serious scuffle involving a great deal of physical contact.” The McIver censure resolution prompted Democrats to threaten retaliation, with some members introducing a measure earlier Wednesday to censure Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) over a litany of ethics allegations. Censure resolution and other discipline-related matters can be fast-tracked to a House vote, but it’s not clear whether Democrats will now withdraw the Mills resolution now that the McIver censure failed. “I’m going to have some conversations with my colleagues, with Ms. McIver in particular, and some of our leadership, and we’ll make that determination,” said Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), who introduced the Mills resolution.

Reported similarly:
NPR [9/3/2025 12:23 PM, Barbara Sprunt, 34837K]

CNN [9/3/2025 3:29 PM, Priscilla Alvarez, 23245K] reports it began with a pair of notices from the Trump administration and then a flood of messages and calls among attorneys and child advocates: Guatemalan children in US government custody were being moved in the middle of the night to be sent back to their home country. Late Saturday and into the early morning hours of Sunday, staff at shelters woke children up — some of them crying or vomiting in fear, legal filings say — to prepare them to fly back to their home country. Shelter providers were directed to collect personal belongings and any necessary medications, as well as two prepared sack lunches. Attorneys, meanwhile, were advised their clients were going to be removed from the country. The South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR), which provides legal services at nearly two dozen shelters for migrant kids, immediately deployed staff to facilities. "At all of the shelters visited in the middle of the night, ProBAR staff witnessed children who had been pulled out of their beds. They were confused and scared," said Lauren Fisher Flores, legal director of ProBAR, in a declaration submitted Wednesday as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the administration’s attempt to repatriate Guatemalan kids. Seventy-six children were prepared for repatriation, placed on planes for departure then abruptly returned to US custody after a federal judge temporarily blocked their removals. The last child was placed back at a shelter at around 1:30 a.m. Monday — more than 24 hours after the whole episode began. The Trump administration has fixated on unaccompanied migrant children in US government custody, as well as those residing in the country with family or legal guardians, arguing that the previous administration mishandled their care. Former Biden officials and experts dispute that characterization, but it’s served as the premise for a series of policy changes that have overhauled the way the US government handles migrant kids. A senior Guatemalan official told CNN that in diplomatic exchanges between the two governments over the summer Guatemala said it would be open to receiving unaccompanied minors as long as they received due process. The issue, Guatemalan officials have said, came up in June, during a visit by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. At the time, the Guatemalan government expressed a desire for the US to return children who were close to aging out of the custody of Health and Human Services, to avoid those teens being placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Senior Trump officials have pushed back on criticism over the repatriation of Guatemalan minors. "The Biden judge is effectively kidnapping these migrant children and refusing to let them return home to their parents in home country," said White House deputy policy chief of staff Stephen Miller on X Sunday. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin called it "disgusting and immoral" that the kids would be in shelters in the US rather than reunified with their families.

ABC News [9/3/2025 5:32 PM, Laura Romero, 27036K] reports on a Saturday night, staff members at a Texas legal services organization say they watched as dozens of Guatemalan children were pulled from their beds at shelters and taken to an airport in the early morning hours to be removed from the U.S. One young girl was so scared that she threw up, according to a staff member. These events were part of an apparently chaotic scene over Labor Day weekend as the Trump administration attempted to deport 76 unaccompanied Guatemalan children. Declarations filed on Wednesday by attorneys, advocates and the children themselves provide a detailed account of what the minors say they experienced. The new court filings also describe what some families in Guatemala say they were told about the planned deportations. The removal of the unaccompanied minors was temporarily blocked on Sunday by a federal judge just as the children were sitting on the planes. Attorneys representing the children moved to file a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, arguing that the minors remain at risk of being sent to Guatemala without a final order from an immigration judge.

Reuters [9/3/2025 6:57 PM, Emily Green, 45746K] reports many family members of unaccompanied Guatemalan migrant children who are part of a group the Trump administration attempted to deport over the weekend did not want their children returned to Guatemala, according to an internal Guatemalan government report that contradicts assertions made by U.S. officials. The report, produced by a Guatemalan attorney general’s office and reviewed by Reuters, said Guatemalan authorities had contacted the families of 115 minors who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent or guardian. Of those, 59 families expressed anger about the possibility of their children being returned to Guatemala, with some even describing it as intimidation, the document said. Contents of the report have not been previously reported and offer the most comprehensive insight so far into the resistance of many family members to the children being deported. Some of those concerns were backed up by court filings published on Wednesday. President Donald Trump’s effort to deport unaccompanied migrant children aged 10-17 over the weekend triggered an immediate legal challenge. In an emergency court hearing on Sunday, a Justice Department attorney said the parents wanted their children to be deported, but a lawyer for the children rejected that assertion. Guatemala initially agreed with U.S. authorities that it would receive migrants nearing the age of 18 whose parents were generally not in the United States and who would be transferred to adult detention, according to the report. On July 11, the U.S. provided Guatemala with a list of minors in Health and Human Services custody who were about to turn 18, in accordance with the original plan to facilitate their return to Guatemala before their birthdays. But some time after that, the U.S. sent Guatemala a much broader list of 609 children ages 14-17. One person with knowledge of Guatemalan authorities’ thinking said the government was taken aback by how quickly the Trump administration had broadened the scope of the plan. The person said that it seemed to go overnight from returning 17-year-olds to deporting children as young as 10. In response to a Reuters request for comment, a Trump administration official said that the Guatemalan government in August assured the administration that any unaccompanied children sent back would be processed in a safe and orderly manner for possible reunification.

Washington Post [9/3/2025 6:12 PM, Maria Sacchetti and Jeremy Roebuck, 29079K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi has issued a pair of immigration rulings aimed at making it more difficult for immigrant families fleeing persecution and victims of domestic abuse to qualify for asylum in the United States. The rulings late Tuesday marked the first time that Bondi has used her authority to review immigration appeals court decisions and set precedents for judges nationwide. Bondi’s interpretations could affect a significant share of pending asylum claims in immigration courts, which make up the majority of the 3.7 million cases nationwide. Bondi’s rulings essentially reinstated previous decisions from then-Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William P. Barr and then-acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen during the first Trump administration. They had determined that victims of domestic abuse and families targeted by gangs or other threats generally would not qualify for asylum under U.S. law. The Biden administration vacated those decisions in 2021 to give immigrants more latitude to seek protection.

CBS News [9/3/2025 3:53 PM, James LaPorta, Eleanor Watson, Katrina Kaufman, 45245K] reports the Defense Department is considering authorizing up to 600 military attorneys to serve as temporary immigration judges, a defense official confirmed. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that at the request of the Justice Department, the Defense Department is in the process of "identifying qualified Judge Advocates and civilian attorneys for details to serve as Temporary Immigration Judges." Parnell said the Defense Department attorneys would help with the backlog of cases "by presiding over immigration hearings." The Associated Press first reported the Pentagon’s plans. The immigration courts are struggling with a backlog of more than 3.4 million cases. But the plan to turn possibly hundreds of military lawyers into immigration judges comes after the Trump administration has fired more than two dozen immigration judges nationwide so far this year. The Trump administration loosened the job requirements for temporary immigration judges last month, allowing a wider group of government lawyers to handle cases in immigration court. The American Immigration Lawyers Association criticized the plan in a statement after the new rule was published.

FOX News [9/3/2025 2:04 PM, Cameron Arcand, 40019K] reports that a new Republican congressional proposal aims to close loopholes for illegal immigrants able to get driving privileges in some states. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, chair of the House Budget Committee, introduced the "Stop Greenlighting Driver Licenses for Illegal Immigrants Act," as there is renewed attention on the issue following a deadly Florida truck crash, in which an illegal immigrant from India allegedly struck and killed three people, and did not pass English proficiency or road sign tests from federal investigators. Nineteen states, along with Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, currently allow some form of driver’s licenses for people regardless of their legal status. Connecticut offers a "drive-only license" for those who are "unable to establish lawful presence in the United States," according to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. Specifically, the legislation would nix the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant for states who give out licenses to illegal immigrants. The Department of Justice is a key federal funding source for local and state law enforcement and other justice system entities. The proposal would also prompt state and local governments to provide information to the Department of Homeland Security if it is requested for immigration purposes. Fox News Digital reported that the Department of Homeland Security is highlighting recent arrests of illegal immigrants in serious car crash cases. "It seems to be almost a daily occurrence where an illegal alien driving kills innocent Americans," Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement last week. "All of these deaths are preventable because these illegal aliens should have never been in our country," she added.

Washington Post [9/3/2025 7:00 PM, Staff, 29079K] reports President Donald Trump called a federal court “Highly Partisan” after it ruled against his tariffs last Friday. Indeed, Democrats have nominated more than twice as many judges to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as Republicans have. It’s harder for Trump to make that claim against a different federal court that on Wednesday ruled against another attempt by the White House to expand its power. Republicans have nominated 12 of the active judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, compared to five from Democrats. A panel of that court held that Trump lacks the authority to deport Venezuelans under an obscure war-powers law. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 unlocks sweeping powers for a president when there is an “invasion or predatory incursion” — actual or threatened — by a foreign nation. Trump invoked the law in March, claiming an invasion by Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang. The government swiftly flew people it said were gangsters from the United States to a notorious prison in El Salvador. No president had ever used the Alien Enemies Act outside of a congressionally-declared war, and Trump’s use of the law prompted a series of legal fights. The Supreme Court ordered the administration to halt its summary deportations and respect due process but also told the Fifth Circuit to consider the case in more detail. After looking it over, the panel concluded that the activities of Tren de Aragua could not trigger the Alien Enemies Act because illegal immigration and crime are distinct from the military activities. “We define an invasion for purposes of the AEA as an act of war involving the entry into this country by a military force of or at least directed by another country or nation, with a hostile intent,” said the majority opinion, written by Judge Leslie Southwick, a George W. Bush appointee.

New York Post [9/3/2025 6:40 PM, Tom Cotton and Elise Stefanik, 43962K] reports it’s a national betrayal: Microsoft, actively exploiting loopholes in federal guidance, has effectively handed Xi Jinping the keys to sensitive US defense systems — by using cheap Chinese labor to maintain them. In July, for example, ProPublica reported that Microsoft has long employed engineers based in Communist China to maintain and support cloud systems used by the US Department of Defense. Microsoft’s role as a trusted contractor for our federal government means this is not a routine cyber vulnerability, but a direct threat to our national security. When China gains insight into Department of Defense systems — whether through direct system access, negligent cybersecurity practices or recklessly lax contracting policies — it isn’t just a hypothetical risk. It gives the Chinese Communist Party the ability to map and disrupt US military operations, logistics networks, and critical infrastructure. It allows Beijing to build comprehensive surveillance profiles on American servicemembers, government employees and private citizens, and to undermine our technological advantage by stealing proprietary information, research and defense innovations. In short, it’s putting American lives at risk. This is not a stand-alone incident, but part of an alarming pattern in which Microsoft has consistently ignored or dismissed security risks, allowing Chinese and Russian hackers to exploit its software. The pattern is clear, and the implications are devastating: These breaches have compromised sensitive government operations, exposed personal data and jeopardized mission-critical systems. Worse yet, this is espionage facilitated not just by foreign adversaries’ aggression, but by the greed and negligence of an American corporation. Time and again, Microsoft has knowingly prioritized its profit margins over the safety of our warfighters, the confidentiality of our intelligence operations and the integrity of America’s military readiness.

Bloomberg [9/3/2025 2:45 PM, Patrick Howell O’Neill and Michael Shepard, 19085K] reports spyware for mobile phones has long been marketed as a crucial tool for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to keep tabs on terrorists and violent criminals. The technology allows users to spy on a target’s mobile phone communications, a potential gold mine of intelligence. But time and again, government customers around the world have used the technology to spy on activists, journalists and others. The checkered history of mobile spyware is one reason critics have balked at the Trump administration’s decision to grant Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to it. As my colleague Ryan Gallagher reported on Tuesday, the decision overturns an order by the Biden administration suspending a contract with the spyware company Paragon. Last year, the US private equity firm AE Industrial Partners bought Tel Aviv’s Paragon in a deal worth up to $900 million. ICE had signed the $2 million deal last September for Paragon’s software, but the stop work order came soon after. Now, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has requested a briefing with ICE about how it plans to deploy the technology, and some activist groups have raised alarms. “ICE is already shredding due process and ruining lives in its rush to lock up kids, cooks and firefighters who pose no threat to anyone,” Wyden said in an email to Bloomberg. “I’m extremely concerned about how ICE will use Paragon’s spyware to further trample on the rights of Americans and anyone who Donald Trump labels as an enemy.” ICE is at the center of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive, an effort that involves sweeping arrests and fast-track deportations which is running into trouble in courts. Critics have argued that the agency is violating civil rights. ICE didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Reuters [9/3/2025 6:23 AM, Brad Brooks and Maria Tsvetkova, 45746K] reports in Los Angeles, Francisco "Chavo" Romero and a dozen other immigration activists were out before dawn on a recent summer morning, gathering near an ICE staging area so they could tail the immigration agents’ vehicles and send alerts over social media on the officers’ whereabouts. In Austin, a technology worker created an app to report sightings of agents - it has over 1 million users. On Long Island, New York, another activist developed a similar app to report immigration enforcement raids in local areas. As President Donald Trump ramps up his mass deportation efforts with $75 billion in new funding through 2029 to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, civilian surveillance of federal immigration agents is becoming increasingly assertive, according to interviews with a dozen activists, legal experts, and historians. "With minimal resources, we’ve been able to confront, challenge and expose a billion-dollar repressive state apparatus that is attacking and kidnapping our people," said Romero, 50, an activist with Union del Barrio, an immigrant rights group, in Los Angeles. Romero said he and other activists gather nearly every morning near an ICE staging area around Terminal Island, about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. They watch for agents heading out in marked and unmarked vehicles to conduct operations - then follow from several car lengths and alert the public on the agents’ locations. "Interfering with federal law enforcement is a crime – so is assaulting law enforcement and harboring criminal illegal aliens," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Reuters when asked to comment on citizen surveillance. "Anyone who uses apps or other methods to commit crimes will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law."

Telemundo Amarillo [9/3/2025 2:42 PM, Anel Flores, 2K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced new reimbursement opportunities for state and local law enforcement agencies that assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in arresting and removing undocumented individuals it says are “the worst of the worst.” In a press release, the department stated that it is seeking state support to "deport murderers, gang members, rapists, terrorists, and pedophiles from American communities." During President Donald Trump’s administration, Secretary Kristi Noem has been seen intensifying efforts with state and local law enforcement to seek support for federal immigration officials in efforts to—they say—restore security to the country. In the document released by the agency, it stated that collaborations under Law 287(g) have increased by 609%, from 135 agreements to 958. Currently, state and local police from 40 states are participating, with 8,501 trained Task Force officers and more than 2,000 additional officers in training. ICE will reimburse the full annual salary and benefits of each eligible 287(g)-trained officer, including overtime coverage of up to 25% of the officer’s annual salary. Law enforcement agencies will be eligible for quarterly monetary performance awards based on the successful location of undocumented immigrants provided by ICE and general assistance in furthering ICE’s mission of "defending the homeland."

Daily Caller [9/3/2025 4:42 PM, Hudson Crozier, 985K] reports a lack of oversight under former President Joe Biden has given the Trump administration a harder job in locating missing migrant children, White House border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday. The Biden administration handed off numerous unaccompanied migrant children to adult "sponsors" without properly verifying where the supposed caretakers lived or other information, giving authorities few leads on finding the children now, Homan said in a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C. Due to this "incompetence," finding the more than 300,000 migrant children that the Biden administration lost track of is the hardest job Homan faces, he said. Despite the constraints, Homan said in July that the Trump administration had found roughly 10,000 of the missing children.

Blaze [9/3/2025 12:15 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1559K] reports that during a Wednesday speech at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, D.C., border czar Tom Homan outlined the Trump administration’s success regarding immigration enforcement. Homan explained that President Donald Trump gave him three tasks as border czar: secure the border, run a mass deportation operation, and find missing unaccompanied migrant minors. "We have the most secure border in the history of the nation," he stated, giving credit to the president and Border Patrol agents. "Illegal immigration is down 96%.” Trump’s success with the border proves that the Biden administration "unsecured the most secure border on purpose," Homan declared. "It wasn’t mismanagement. It wasn’t incompetence. It was by design," he added. Homan stated that Trump’s border policies have saved thousands of lives by reducing human trafficking, drug trafficking, and sexual assaults. "They always say the Trump administration is inhumane," he continued. "I’m a racist, supposedly. I’m a white nationalist. I read it all. I’m a terrorist." "Whatever you want to call me. I don’t give a s**t what people think about me, never have," Homan remarked. Homan also addressed sanctuary cities that are attempting to shield illegal aliens from federal immigration officials. "I said two months ago, ‘We’re going to flood the zone,’ and that’s exactly what we’re doing," he stated. "In Chicago, it’s coming.” "President Trump is going to make Chicago safe again," Homan declared.

FOX News [9/3/2025 8:00 AM, Elizabeth Elkind, 40019K] reports House Republicans are advancing legislation to stiffen penalties for people convicted of assaulting or impeding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, escalating the partisan battle over illegal immigration and crime enforcement. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, introduced the "Protect and Respect ICE Act," backed by Reps. Brad Knott, R-N.C., and Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn. The measure would double the maximum prison sentence and fines for assaulting, resisting or impeding an ICE agent or employee. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported in July that ICE officials experienced an 830% increase in assaults between late January and mid-July compared to the same period in 2024. A Hinson spokesperson told Fox News Digital the bill is intended to deter violence by anti-ICE protesters targeting federal agents. Hinson tied the surge in attacks to progressive activists. "Instead of standing with law enforcement, the radical Left sides with dangerous illegal aliens and even wants to strip ICE agents of the gear that keeps them safe. That’s unacceptable," she told Fox News Digital. "Anyone who assaults an ICE agent must face the harshest possible punishment.".

Politico [9/3/2025 1:24 PM, By Andrew Atterbury, 14810K] reports that, in the face of a court order requiring the state to dismantle its touted and controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida remains “committed to the mission” of carrying out President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts. State officials, led by the GOP governor, quickly rebuffed the Thursday night ruling from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, an Obama-era appointee. The ruling would make it impossible to operate Alligator Alcatraz by requiring the removal of fencing, lighting and generators. Florida already appealed the decision Friday morning, as the state prepares to open a second immigrant housing facility in a vacant prison outside Jacksonville. “This is a judge that was not going to give us a fair shake,” DeSantis said Friday during an event in Panama City. “This was preordained, very much an activist judge that is trying to do policy from the bench.” “This is not going to deter us. We’re going to continue working on the deportations, advancing that mission.” The comments from DeSantis underscore how Florida is taking a hard-line position against illegal immigration and hoping to lead on the state level in enforcing Trump’s deportation push. State leaders have been vocal and public supporters of the country’s revamped immigration policies, authorizing state agencies to sign 287(g) illegal immigration assistance agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Florida this week dispatched Lt. Gov. Jay Collins to California to ensure an immigrant from India who allegedly killed three people in a semi-truck crash was “extradited back” to the state. While some of Florida’s moves, including the establishment of the Alligator Alcatraz facility in the Everglades, are being fought in court, DeSantis pledged the state will “make sure to get the job done in the end.” “You have people that are in this country that have already been ordered to be removed by the current system, and yet the previous administration didn’t want to do anything about it,” DeSantis said Friday. “We’re now in this position where we’re leading the state efforts to help the Trump administration actually enforce the law and actually remove these illegal aliens from not just Florida, but from our country.”

CBS Chicago [9/3/2025 6:28 PM, Sabrina Franza, 45245K] Video: HERE reports witnesses say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were spotted outside of the Domestic Violence Courthouse in Chicago’s West Loop on Wednesday, taking at least one person into federal custody ahead of their scheduled court appearance. The incident comes as the Trump administration has been preparing to launch a major immigration enforcement operation in Chicago by the end of the week. The courthouse at 555 W. Harrison St. opens at 8:30 a.m. each weekday. One woman, whose name CBS News Chicago is withholding because of the nature of her case, was set to appear in court at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, but didn’t make it there. According to court records, she wasn’t in court because she was in ICE custody. Witnesses said they saw a man, who they believe to be a federal officer, assist in her arrest outside the courthouse about 15 minutes before her scheduled time to appear. A victim advocate asked why the woman was being arrested, and said an agent told her, "We’re going to speak to her about her immigration status" before putting the woman in handcuffs. CBS News Chicago has learned the woman in this case was an accused abuser, arrested by the Chicago Police Department and charged with two misdemeanor counts of domestic battery. Court records indicated the charges were dropped on Wednesday. "Sounds like as soon as we got word, my advocates and a bunch of other advocates and legal aid attorneys came down and started passing out ‘know your rights’ information," said Tessa Kuipers, program director and policy advisor at Family Rescue. Victim advocates said the incident has people concerned they’ll need to choose between reporting domestic violence and facing ICE when they show up to court.

Chicago Tribune [9/3/2025 5:34 PM, Richard Requena, 5352K] reports ahead of a potential National Guard deployment to Chicago and sweeping raids from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the greater area, the Evanston City Council is moving forward with plans to pass a largely symbolic resolution to ban law enforcement agents from wearing masks while on the job. The city’s Human Rights Committee unanimously passed a resolution at its Sept. 2 meeting to encourage the U.S. Congress and Illinois General Assembly to prohibit law enforcement officials from concealing their identities. The committee, made up of five City Councilmembers, also passed an ordinance to increase the penalty for those impersonating law officers, doubling the city’s $750 civil penalty and adding a proposed six-month prison sentence - on top of the state’s $25,000 fine and prison time. Both measures sailed through the city’s committee with little debate or comment from the City Councilmembers. "I think it’s pretty straightforward," 8th Ward City Councilmember Matt Rodgers said of the proposed boosted penalty for law enforcement impersonators. Both measures are expected to be on the agenda for the Sept. 8 City Council meeting, according to Community Engagement and Communications Manager Cynthia Vargas. The City Council can pass the resolution the same night, but will need to give the ordinance a second reading at the Sept. 29 City Council meeting, she said. In Chicago and across the nation, ICE and other federal agencies have worn masks covering much of their faces, wearing plain clothes and not giving out their names as they have detained and arrested people accused of being in the country illegally. Federal officials say the practice is done to ensure the agents’ safety and prevent their personal information from becoming public. "The current federal administration, which aims to instill fear in our communities, has recently deployed federal agents wearing masks and civilian clothing, without name tags or badges and traveling in unmarked vehicles, to make arrests and conduct immigration enforcement operations across the country, including in Illinois and the Chicago area," the city’s proposed resolution reads.

Axios [9/3/2025 4:41 PM, Jeremy Duda, 14595K] reports a handful of Republican state senators filed a complaint on Wednesday against a Democratic colleague for a highly publicized recent social media post warning people about the presence of immigration agents near a school, and the chair of the Senate Ethics Committee referred the issue to federal prosecutors. The ethics complaint by Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) recommends other punishments if there aren’t enough votes for expulsion, including stripping Ortiz of all committee assignments, her office and parking space, administrative staff and unrestricted keycard access to the Senate. Ortiz, whose Legislative District 24 covers parts of Glendale and Maryvale, posted on Instagram last month to warn people about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity near a south Phoenix elementary school. On Wednesday, Hoffman filed an ethics complaint against Ortiz, accusing her of disorderly behavior, undermining efforts to enforce immigration laws, "brazenly advocating for lawlessness," and jeopardizing agents’ safety by disclosing their location.

FOX News [9/3/2025 9:01 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 40019K] Video HERE reports Portland Mayor Keith Wilson is reaffirming his city’s commitment to sanctuary policies in the wake of another night of violence outside a local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. Wilson, a Democrat, vowed that local police would not aid ICE and said he’s working with Portland police to determine a response to the violent Labor Day clashes outside the South Macadam Avenue facility, the latest in a series of ugly incidents at the site over the last few months as agitators push back against federal immigration enforcement. Anti-ICE protesters were captured on video rolling out a guillotine and clashing with police before law enforcement fired munitions to disperse the crowd. "But we will not engage with the federal immigration enforcement that goes on," Wilson told KOIN 6 News. "That is our sanctuary city goals; that is what the governor’s goals are. So you can rest assured we won’t be engaging with or working with ICE in any circumstances." The mayor outlined how his administration is coordinating with state and federal allies to manage potential clashes. "We are really working with everybody in the city, we’re working with our congressional delegates, we’re working on what we can do to protect our citizens responsibly, to protect Portlanders," Wilson said. "We have tabletop exercises to determine what our next responses are to this overreach and overreaction." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [9/3/2025 5:01 PM, Alicia Victoria Lozano, 43603K] reports federal agents are violating a court order that prohibits them from racially profiling Latinos and other Southern California residents as the directive winds it way through an appeals process, immigrant advocates and local officials say. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden-era appointee, imposed the temporary restraining order in Los Angeles more than a month ago, but arrests in locations frequented by Latino workers, such as Home Depots and car washes, have become daily occurrences. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, denies racially profiling people in its efforts to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. The American Civil Liberties Union and Public Counsel, which filed the original lawsuit in July, filed a new motion on Tuesday asking Frimpong to order additional evidence from the federal government "in light of apparent violations" of her order. It details six arrests in August — three at Home Depots and three at car washes in L.A County — that appear to undermine the temporary restraining order.

Telemundo20 [9/3/2025 3:29 PM, Staff, 51K] reports a week after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a convicted sex offender at a San Diego daycare center, NBC 7 confirmed Tuesday that the center has closed. According to the California Department of Social Services, the daycare closed on August 28. No reason was given, but the day before, in an email response to NBC 7’s inquiry, spokesperson Jason Montiel wrote, "The Department is conducting an investigation and cannot comment on ongoing investigations." Federal agents discovered Ezequiel Cruz Rodríguez, a 47-year-old Mexican citizen and unregistered sex offender, living at the daycare. He had lived there for nine years, according to ICE agents and neighbors. A week ago, on August 26, at 6 a.m., ICE agents arrived at the daycare to arrest Rodríguez. According to officers on the ground, there was a brief conversation with Rodriguez before he was taken into custody without incident. The arrest lasted no more than 10 minutes. Federal court records obtained by NBC 7 show Rodriguez was first deported in August 1996. At the time, he was a registered sex offender in California and a member of the San Diego gang "Logan Clika." Court records also indicate that three months before his deportation, he was convicted of a lewd act with a child under 14. He was sentenced to six months in prison and three years of probation.

Los Angeles Times [9/3/2025 10:17 PM, Clara Harter, 12715K] reports a professor at Cal State Channel Island has been charged with assaulting U.S. Border Patrol agents with a deadly or dangerous weapon — a canister of their own tear gas. On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted Jonathan Caravello, 37, of Ventura on one felony count of assault after he was arrested at a protest against an immigration raid at a Ventura County marijuana farm. Prosecutors say that agents deployed the tear gas as a crowd control measure during the July 10 protest and that Caravello picked up a canister and lobbed it back at officers. If convicted as charged, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison. The incident unfolded during a heated clash between protesters and agents at Glass House Farms’ weed growing site in Camarillo. Caravello posted $15,000 bail and was released on July 14. The massive immigration operation led to the arrests of more than 300 workers without documentation during simultaneous raids at Glass House Farms’ Camarillo and Carpinteria grow sites, according to the Department of Homeland Security. One worker died after falling 30 feet from a greenhouse roof in an attempt to flee federal agents in Camarillo. During the operation, a crowd of several hundred protesters gathered at the Laguna Road entrance to the Camarillo site. Prosecutors allege that protesters used their bodies and cars to impede federal law enforcement from exiting the farm and threw rocks at agents’ vehicles, which broke windows and side-view mirrors. "For agents’ safety, law enforcement deployed tear gas among the protesters to assist with crowd control, ensure officer safety, and to allow law enforcement to depart the location," prosecutors said. Caravello is accused of chasing after a tear gas canister that rolled past him and throwing it overhand back at Border Patrol agents. He then allegedly left the protest and returned two hours later wearing a different T-shirt and shoes, according to court documents. Border Patrol identified him as the suspect who had previously thrown the tear gas canister and attempted to detain him. Caravello allegedly resisted arrest by continuously kicking his legs and refusing to give agents his arms, according to court documents. Activist Angelmarie Taylor previously told The Times that she is one of his students and witnessed Caravello being "piled on by multiple agents all at once" while trying to assist a man in a wheelchair as agents pushed the crowd back. Prosecutors initially charged Caravello with felony assault in a criminal complaint filed on July 12 but later downgraded that to a misdemeanor charge. On Aug. 25, the professor pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor and told the Ventura County Star, "Anything and everything I do at protests is to protect people. I would never intentionally harm anyone.” This week, however, a grand jury reviewed the case and ultimately indicted Caravello on a felony count of assaulting a federal agent. He will be arraigned again in the coming weeks, prosecutors said. Caravello was among four U.S. citizens arrested at the immigration raid on suspicion of assaulting or resisting officers, according to Homeland Security.

Reported similarly:
CBS Los Angeles [9/3/2025 8:30 PM, Staff, 45245K] Video: HERE

NPR [9/3/2025 11:30 AM, Ximena Bustillo, 34837K] reports more than three dozen Democratic and independent senators are asking Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to clarify the agency’s position on beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Also known as DACA, the program was created in 2012 to protect from deportation children who arrived in the country illegally prior to 2007 and now benefits some half a million people. The letter, which was shared exclusively with NPR, comes in response to a DHS statement to NPR earlier this summer which said that "illegal aliens who claim to be recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are not automatically protected from deportations" and that "DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country." DHS assistant press secretary Tricia McLaughlin in the statement then encouraged those here illegally to self-deport. The senators argue that policy flies in the face of DHS’s own guidance, which states that those who have deferred action from immigration enforcement are "not considered to be unlawfully present" in the U.S. The policy also states that anyone "who has received deferred action is authorized by DHS to be in the United States for the duration of the deferred action period."

New York Times [9/4/2025 12:01 AM, Adam Rasgon and Fatima AbdulKarim, 143795K] reports that, after a bullet was fired at Donald J. Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July last year, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority sent him a letter denouncing the violence. Mr. Trump posted his ebullient response on social media: “Mahmoud — So nice — Thank you — Everything will be good.” But little is good between Palestinian officials and the Trump administration. Last week, the United States, a staunch supporter of Israel, blocked U.S. visas for Mr. Abbas and his staff, preventing them from attending the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly later this month. Several countries, including France and Canada, plan to use the occasion of the assembly to declare their recognition of a Palestinian state, and a conference focused on recognition of Palestinian statehood is scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the gathering. Recognition of a Palestinian state does not mean that oneis closer to being established. But the move by these countries carries significant symbolic weight as Israel finds itself ever more isolated internationally over the war in Gaza, in which tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed. For Mr. Abbas, the conference would have been an opportunity to revel in the moment on an international stage. Now, he is launching a diplomatic blitz to try and reverse the American decision to bar him. The United States has rarely barred foreign officials from traveling to U.N. headquarters in New York. Even adversaries like the former Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi were allowed to participate in the annual meeting of the General Assembly. In announcing the visa ban against the Palestinian officials, the State Department said that the Palestinian Authority should end its efforts to secure “recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.” The Palestinian Authority is a semiautonomous governing body that has control over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian leaders based in the West Bank are working on multiple fronts to try to reverse the American decision. Hussein al-Sheikh, Mr. Abbas’s deputy, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling on him to reconsider, Mr. al-Sheikh said in a text message. Asked whether Mr. Rubio had received the letter, the State Department said it would not comment on “private diplomatic communications.”

New York Post [9/3/2025 9:48 AM, Patrick Reilly, 43962K] reports the United States could see its population shrink for the first time ever in 2025 as immigration numbers have plummeted, according to a report. Net international migration to the US in 2025 could drop to as low as negative-525,000 this year, according to an analysis by the American Enterprise Institute. With a net of 519,000 births reported by the US Census last year, the US could possibly lose 6,000 people — the first population decline in nearly 250 years of American history. AEI predicts that the net immigration into the US will fall off from about 2.8 million to between 115,000 and negative-525,000, which, even at the lower end, is still a 96 percent fall in international immigration, the Telegraph reported. Even during the American Civil War — when some 700,000 Americans were killed — and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the US population has always increased every year, even if not significantly. The number of immigrants in the US had already dropped for the first time in 50 years, declining by 1.4 million people in the first six months of 2025 after President Trump kicked off his second term with a major crackdown on illegal border crossings and mass deportation efforts, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. The Department of Homeland Security has said that 1.6 million illegal migrants have voluntarily left the US since Trump came back to office — contributing to the massive decline in the immigrant population. Federal immigration authorities have additionally arrested more than 359,000 illegal migrants — and deported 332,000 — during the first 200 days of the second Trump administration, DHS said last month.

FOX News [9/4/2025 1:25 AM, Landon Mion, 40019K] reports President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was giving serious thought to stripping actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell of her U.S. citizenship, a move he had threatened in the past but cannot legally do. "As previously mentioned, we are giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship. She is not a Great American and is, in my opinion, incapable of being so!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump had made similar statements in recent months, including in July when he said he was considering pulling O’Donnell’s citizenship because she "is not in the best interests of our Great Country" and is a "Threat to Humanity.” O’Donnell responded to the president’s post in July with a reference to the character King Joffrey from "Game of Thrones," saying: "Go ahead and try, king joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. i’m not yours to silence i never was.” The Constitution does not allow a president to strip citizenship of someone born in the U.S. The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., and O’Donnell was born in Commack, New York. O’Donnell, who has Irish grandparents, moved to Ireland with her daughter earlier this year following Trump’s electoral win and is in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship to become a dual citizen. She cited the current political climate as a reason for her move. "When it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back," she said in a TikTok. In March, when a reporter asked the Irish prime minister during a visit to the White House why he would allow O’Donnell to move to Ireland, Trump jumped in and said he was better off not knowing who she was. "Do you know who she is? You’re better off not knowing," Trump said at the time. Trump’s feud with O’Donnell has spanned nearly two decades, sparked by O’Donnell criticizing him on "The View" in 2006 about his decision to be lenient toward a Miss USA winner who had been accused of drug use and other controversies. In 2015, during a Republican primary debate, a moderator asked Trump about his past use of derogatory terms to describe women. "Only Rosie O’Donnell," then-candidate Trump responded.

AP [9/3/2025 11:35 AM, Kate Payne, 37974K] reports Carlie was hoping to spend her senior year savoring her final moments on the palm tree-lined campus of the University of Central Florida. Instead, she sits at home alone, logging on to online courses, afraid to leave her apartment and run the risk of being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A few months ago, Carlie was studying public relations in Orlando, envisioning one day working for nonprofits that help students like her. Thanks to in-state tuition and private scholarships, Carlie had been living a life she had only dreamed of in Haiti, a country she left behind at 13 years old. Now, she’s one of thousands of Florida students whose education is being delayed or derailed after state lawmakers revoked a 2014 law that let residents who are in the country illegally qualify for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. Across the country, tens of thousands of college students without legal status are losing access to in-state tuition as part of an immigration crackdown carried out by President Donald Trump and his allies. "It feels like all my hard work means nothing. Like, one day I can just lose it," said Carlie, who spoke on condition of being identified by only her first name because she fears being deported. Thousands of students without legal status lose in-state tuition.

Breitbart [9/3/2025 9:28 AM, Randy Clark, 2608K] reports United States Attorney Pam Bondi announced the filing of a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois challenging state laws that provide in-state tuition and scholarships for illegal aliens on Tuesday. The complaint alleges the laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens, who are not afforded the same reduced tuition rates or scholarships, in direct conflict with federal law. The civil complaint, filed on Tuesday by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) against the State of Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker, the State Attorney General, and the boards of trustees of state universities in Illinois, seeks to enjoin the State of Illinois from enforcing the laws and bring them into compliance with federal requirements. The complaint, filed on behalf of the United States, seeks an end to specific benefits provided under Illinois State law that require colleges and universities to offer in-state tuition rates for all aliens who maintain Illinois residency, regardless of whether those aliens are lawfully present in the United States. The DOJ asserts the laws conflict with federal laws that prohibit institutions of higher education from providing benefits to aliens that are not offered to U.S. citizens. In an announcement issued by the Bondi-led DOJ, agency officials say the Illinois laws blatantly conflict with federal law and are thus in conflict with the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In the statement issued by the DOJ, Attorney General Pam Bondi described the discrimination against United States Citizens that are not offered the same benefits under the Illinois laws, saying, "Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens. This Department of Justice has already filed multiple lawsuits to prevent U.S. students from being treated like second-class citizens — Illinois now joins the list of states where we are relentlessly fighting to vindicate federal law."

Bloomberg [9/3/2025 1:31 PM, Manuela Tobias and Eric Martin, 19085K] reports that the US paused Argentina’s bid for a visa waiver just as the process for its entry into the program was getting underway, in a fresh setback for President Javier Milei ahead of a crucial midterm vote on Sunday. South America’s second-largest economy took its first steps to establish visa-free travel to the US during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s visit to Buenos Aires in July. But that process is now on hold, according a person familiar with the matter. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had concerns about a corruption scandal engulfing the libertarian administration and wanted to have more discussions about it before reaching an agreement, according to Axios, which first reported the news on Wednesday. A delegation led by the head of Argentina’s tax agency was sent home empty handed last week after a stop in Miami, Axios said, citing unnamed sources. The news outlet attributed the “diplomatic snub” to a lack of communication between Noem and Rubio’s departments. Argentina’s foreign minister didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the issue. But a Milei government official, speaking anonymously to La Nacion newspaper, called the Axios report false and malicious. The head of the tax agency is also quoted in the article denying that his team’s trip was related to Argentina’s potential entry into the US visa waiver program. Milei, who has carefully cultivated an ideological bond with President Donald Trump, has been dogged by a bribery scandal for the past two weeks.

Breitbart [9/3/2025 11:52 AM, Bob Price and Randy Clark, 2608K] reports Border Patrol agents assigned to the nine southwest sectors encountered approximately 6,300 illegal aliens who crossed the border in August between ports of entry, according to unofficial reports reviewed exclusively by Breitbart Texas. This represents a 90 percent decrease in migrant apprehensions compared to August 2024. Sources within U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed to Breitbart Texas that Border Patrol agents arrested approximately 6,300 illegal aliens who crossed the border between Brownsville, Texas, and San Diego, California in August. This is an average of just over 200 arrests per day. Adding in the remaining Border Patrol sectors, that number increased to approximately 8,000 migrant encounters nationally (nearly 260 per day). In August 2024, Border Patrol agents encountered nearly 61,000 migrants who illegally entered the U.S. between ports of entry and without inspection. This August’s nationwide total of about 8,000 illegal aliens represents a drop of nearly 87 percent. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the average number of migrants apprehended fell to less than 6,000 per month. On August 1, Breitbart Texas reported the Trump administration’s announcement of the "Most Secure Border in History. July migrant apprehensions fell to a record-shattering low of 4,601. In July, the average number of daily apprehensions fell to 148 per day. In June, agents also set a record for the least number of migrant arrests in a single day with the apprehension of 112 illegal aliens, Breitbart reported. On July 20, that record was shattered with the report of only 88 arrests. For the third month in a row (May through July), not a single migrant who was apprehended after illegally crossing the border was admitted into the United States. During the Biden era of "catch and release," between 50-70 percent of migrants who were encountered at the border were released into the U.S. Frequently, this resulted in thousands of illegal aliens being dumped into American cities daily without adequate time for screening. Official numbers are expected to be released around August 15.

FOX News [9/3/2025 5:49 PM, Emma Bussey, 40019K] reports a shipment of more than 11,000 fake Labubus disguised as LED light bulbs was intercepted at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials. The shipment, which originated in South Korea, contained 11,134 fake dolls that would have been worth around $513,937.76 if they were real. According to a CBP statement, the seizure was made after officers determined the items violated federal laws prohibiting unlawful imports and goods infringing on intellectual property rights. The shipment was falsely labeled as "LED Bulb," officials said. Officials also said arrests have not been ruled out.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [9/3/2025 11:51 AM, Megan Forrester, 27036K]
USA Today [9/3/2025 4:18 PM, Julia Gomez]

FOX Business [9/3/2025 7:58 AM, Daniella Genovese, 9194K] reports the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened a record number of passengers nationwide over the Labor Day weekend, with Friday marking one of the busiest travel days in the agency’s history. Approximately 10.4 million travelers flooded airports from Friday through Monday, marking a 3.3% jump over the same four-day period in 2024. Friday was the busiest day for the Friday before Labor Day, with TSA officers screening 2,971,217 passengers. It also marked the 15th busiest single day in the agency’s nearly 24-year history. Eight out of the top 10 busiest travel days at airports nationwide have been reported since May 23 as the agency is on pace to break an all-time annual passenger volume record this year. The numbers highlight how "air travel continues to reach record high trajectories," according to TSA acting Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl. However, Stahl said TSA is "fully prepared to meet the growing demand by maintaining a close partnership with our aviation industry partners." Stahl said the agency underwent "a summer of remarkable change." It enhanced the traveler experience while boosting security as it seeks to "implement President Trump’s vision for a new Golden Age of American travel," he continued. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also hinted in July that there may be an easing of rules surrounding the size of liquids that travelers can bring in carry-on luggage, though no change has been made to date. "The liquids I’m questioning, so that may be the next big announcement, is what size your liquids need to be," Noem said at an event in Washington, D.C., hosted by "The Hill."

AP [9/3/2025 1:36 PM, Staff, 37974K] reports that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened nearly 10.4 million travelers at the nation’s airport security checkpoints from Friday through Monday of the Labor Day holiday weekend, with Friday marking one of the busiest days in TSA history. This represents about a 3.3% jump over the same four-day period in 2024. On Friday, Aug. 29, TSA screened 2,971,217 passengers, the highest volume ever for the Friday before Labor Day and the 15th busiest single day in the agency’s nearly 24-year history. Of the top 10 busiest travel days, eight have been reported since May 23, with the agency on pace to break an all-time annual passenger volume record this year. “As air travel continues to reach record high trajectories, TSA is fully prepared to meet the growing demand by maintaining a close partnership with our aviation industry partners,” said TSA Acting Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl. “Thanks to Homeland Security Secretary Noem’s leadership, this was a summer of remarkable change at TSA, as we focused on enhancing the traveler experience while continuing to strengthen our security posture. We’re happy to see passengers are taking notice, and we look forward to continuing to implement President Trump’s vision for a new Golden Age of American travel.”

The New York Times [9/3/2025 3:52 PM, Lisa Friedman, 143795K] reports President Trump’s decision to shrink the Federal Emergency Management Agency has hampered the agency’s ability to respond to hurricanes and other natural catastrophes — particularly if multiple disasters hit simultaneously, a government oversight body found. The report released on Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office found that the number of active FEMA employees dropped to 23,350 on June 1 from about 25,800 on Jan. 1, a decrease of about 10 percent, a decline that was heavily attributed to the Trump administration’s staff reduction efforts. If the United States were to experience a hurricane season this year similar to last year’s, when Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton delivered a one-two punch along the Eastern Seaboard just weeks apart in September and October, FEMA would not have the staffing or resources to adequately respond, the report said. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, noted that the G.A.O. report also found that during the Biden administration, just 4 percent of FEMA’s workforce was available to be deployed to disasters. In a statement, she said that the Biden administration “over-declared disasters at a pace of nearly one every other day in 2024 (179 in total) while burning through FEMA’s budget on so called ‘climate change’ and DEI pet projects.” She said the Trump administration was reshaping the agency to focus on “real disaster response.” Reuters [9/3/2025 1:46 PM, Leah Douglas, 45746K] reports that disaster experts and FEMA employees have warned that understaffing, inexperienced leadership and a prolonged hiring freeze could hobble this year’s hurricane and wildfire response. President Donald Trump has said he plans to wind down FEMA and shift the responsibility for disaster response to states after this hurricane season, which lasts through November. He has criticized FEMA for being inefficient and overly bureaucratic. Roughly 2,500 staff left FEMA between January 25 and June 1, including 24 top career officials, said the Government Accountability Office report dated September 2 and seen by Reuters on Wednesday. About half of those staff, and 20 of the career officials, left as part of the Trump administration’s voluntary incentive programs meant to slim the federal workforce, the report said. FEMA officials told the GAO that the agency is facing "significant skills gaps in its leadership cadre" and that staff losses could reduce its capacity to adequately train its workforce, the report said. FEMA officials also told the GAO they anticipate deploying fewer volunteers from other federal agencies to support with disaster response due to widespread federal workforce reductions. In 2024, FEMA deployed almost 1,300 federal volunteers during the response to hurricanes Milton and Helene, but officials anticipate only having the capacity for 600 such volunteers this hurricane season, the report said. "Should the U.S. experience a similarly catastrophic peak hurricane season in September and October 2025, as it did in 2024, meeting response needs could be a major challenge," the report said. FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NewsNation [9/3/2025 9:11 AM, Brook Shafer, 6811K] reports that the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has moved forward with a proposal to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency, calling it the most significant reform effort in decades. The bill, taken up in a markup hearing Wednesday, would remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and establish it as an independent agency. Under the plan, the FEMA administrator would become a Cabinet-level official reporting directly to the president. Other changes would include creating a centralized website to streamline disaster assistance requests. Lawmakers have said the changes would cut through bureaucracy and help Americans access the aid they need during a disaster more quickly. The Trump administration has said it wants to dismantle FEMA — at least as it currently exists. Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said this proposed bipartisan legislation would instead strengthen FEMA. "We think dismantling FEMA is a really bad idea and not a cost-effective one, because it will be devastating for states and localities," he said. "I don’t want to underplay how important it will be to make the FEMA administrator a cabinet position. It’s going to send a message that this, this emergency management function of the United States government is as important as anything else we do."

Bloomberg [9/3/2025 12:31 PM, Kellie Lunney, 84K] reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would move out of the Homeland Security Department and report directly to the US president under a bipartisan bill a House panel advanced Wednesday. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the FEMA Act of 2025 (H.R. 4669) in a 57-3 vote. The legislation would restore FEMA to its independent, Cabinet-level agency status with a Senate-confirmed administrator, deputy administrator, and inspector general. [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

Washington Examiner [9/3/2025 10:08 AM, David Zimmermann, 1563K] reports Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem moved on Tuesday to fire multiple employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, accusing them of consuming pornographic content on their government-issued devices during work hours. "These individuals had access to critical information and intelligence and were entrusted to safeguard Americans from emergencies—and instead they were consuming pornography," Noem said in a statement, noting at least one FEMA official consumed "racially charged" pornography that "involved bestiality." The Department of Homeland Security’s statement cites two instances of inappropriate conduct. The workers were employed at the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Bluemont, Virginia. "Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we are cleaning house at FEMA to make this dysfunctional agency work for the American people the way that it was intended," Noem added. "For decades some of these bureaucrats engaged in every act imaginable instead of safeguarding the American people from natural disasters. That ends now."

AP [9/3/2025 5:29 PM, Staff, 37974K] reports Hurricane Kiko intensified into a major hurricane in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday at the same time Hurricane Lorena geared up to lash the coast of Mexico’s Baja California. Kiko surged to Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph), according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. It was centered about 1,600 miles (2,580 kilometers) east of Hilo, Hawaii, and was traveling west at 9 mph (15 kph). Forecasters said Kiko could get even stronger in the next day or so, but that its intensity was likely to fluctuate after that. There were no watches or warnings associated with Kiko and no hazards affecting land. Meanwhile, Lorena was a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds at 80 mph (130 kph), the hurricane center said. It was expected to continue strengthening through the evening, and forecasters urged people on the Baja California peninsula and in northwestern Mexico to monitor the storm’s progress.

CBS News [9/3/2025 9:59 AM, Brian Dakss, 45245K] reports one of two hurricanes churning over the Pacific Ocean early Wednesday could bring heavy rain and perhaps "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides" to Mexico’s Baja California peninsula later in the week, though possibly as a tropical storm, forecasters said. Hurricane Lorena just hit hurricane strength, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said but "rapid strengthening" is likely through tonight. Then, the center said, "Fast weakening is expected to begin on Thursday, and Lorena could weaken back to a tropical storm by Friday." As of Wednesday morning, Lorena was located south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph — barely hurricane status. A second Pacific hurricane — Kiko — was much stronger but farther out to sea and posing no threat to land. The center said that as of 4 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Lorena was about 120 miles south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and some 275 miles south-southeast of Cabo San Lazaro, Mexico and moving northwest at 14 mph with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph — barely hurricane status. Mexico’s government posted a tropical storm warning for Baja California Sur’s west coast from Santa Fe to Cabo San Lazaro, and a tropical storm watch for Baja California Sur’s coast north of Cabo San Lazaro to Punta Abreojos.

Gulf Coast News [9/3/2025 6:31 PM, Alexa Velez] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem toured the Naples Pier on Friday, joining Mayor Teresa Heitmann and City Manager Gary Young to discuss ongoing frustrations over federal delays holding up the pier’s reconstruction. The iconic pier has remained closed since Hurricane Ian destroyed it in 2022. City officials say the project is stuck in the permitting process, leaving the old pier standing unrepaired. In a post on Instagram, Noem called the delays a “failure,” saying the city still has not been given permission to demolish the existing pier. Mayor Heitmann said she contacted Noem’s office in August, hoping the secretary could help the city navigate federal red tape. “She showed up. I’m impressed. I didn’t ask her to come, but she showed up, and I was very impressed,” Heitmann said. City officials explained that FEMA cannot issue final approval until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers grants a permit. The Corps is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Gary Young, Naples city manager, said Noem’s visit appeared to bring momentum. “We have seen significant movement in the last week, and we’re hopeful that our project will be obligated maybe within the next week or two,” Young said. The new pier is expected to cost about $23 million. While FEMA has advanced the project through its internal review, there is still no timeline for when demolition and construction will begin.

New York Post [9/3/2025 12:09 PM, Steven Yablonsk, 43962K] reports a massive wildfire raging within a historic California Gold Rush community has forced residents to flee their homes and seek safety as flames devour the landscape and structures. According to the latest information from CAL FIRE, the 6-5 Wildfire in Tuolumne County grew rapidly and remains extremely active with no containment. Officials said mandatory evacuations have been ordered, with "widespread warnings extending further.” Evacuations include Chinese Camp, which is an abandoned community that was once home to 5,000 Chinese miners, in addition to many Americans and Europeans. "We currently have more than 40 members of our Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office team supporting operations on the 6-5 Fire," the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post. "Deputies from Patrol, the Jail, and Animal Control are actively in the field, patrolling evacuated areas and assisting community members." Lightning determined to be cause of California wildfires. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday provided information on the blazes and said federal assistance has been secured for resources to beat back the flames. "We are securing all available resources — including support from our federal partners — to fight this growing lightning complex fire in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties." – California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom said that the Golden State secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help ensure the availability of vital resources needed to suppress the 2-7 fire within the TCU September Lightning Complex Fire burning in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties.

Reported similarly:
AP [9/3/2025 5:17 PM, Noah Berger and Sarah Brumfield, 37974K]
SFGate [9/3/2025 2:05 PM, Gillian Mohney, 11503K]

CNN [9/3/2025 11:14 AM, Jocelyn Contreras, 23245K] reports that a wildfire scorched thousands of acres and burned homes in Chinese Camp, a California Gold Rush town settled around 1850 by miners from China. CalFire said the blaze was started by lightning and was just one of more than a dozen wildfires that ignited across California on Tuesday. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [9/3/2025 11:02 AM, Scott MacFarlane, 45245K] reports what was happening in the criminal case of Nathalie Rose Jones, who was facing charges in Washington, D.C., federal court this summer, wasn’t typical. A grand jury of D.C. citizens on Tuesday had denied the Justice Department’s request to indict Jones, who was accused of a federal crime for allegedly posting an Instagram threat against President Trump. In the nearly empty, dimly lit courtroom, Judge Moxila Upadhyaya listened to arguments from attorneys for nearly 15 minutes and surveyed the case file before her. She paused, looked up at the federal prosecutor standing 10 feet away and asked what the Justice Department planned to do next in the case. The prosecutor had no answer but said he’d have a response "as soon as possible," maybe within a few days. This grand jury’s rejection of the Justice Department’s request for an indictment was one of at least four such instances in the past week in which a grand jury denied an indictment in the District of Columbia. According to the Justice Department, on Aug. 15, the U.S. Secret Service conducted a voluntary interview with Jones, during which she stated the president was a "terrorist" and a "Nazi." In a statement to CBS News, D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said, "A Washington D.C. grand jury refused to indict someone who threatened to kill the President of the United States. Her intent was clear, traveling through five states to do so. She even confirmed the same to the US Secret Service. This is the essence of a politicized jury. The system here is broken on many levels. Instead of the outrage that should be engendered by a specific threat to kill the president, the grand jury in DC refuses to even let the judicial process begin."

Breitbart [9/3/2025 1:42 PM, Staff, 2608K] reports that a Washington, D.C., federal grand jury refused to indict a woman who allegedly made threats against President Donald Trump, and it appears to be part of a trend in the district. The woman, Natalie Rose Jones, said on Instagram that she was “willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea with Liz Cheney and all The Affirmation present.” She then traveled to Washington to participate in a protest on Aug. 16 near the White House. The U.S. Secret Service interviewed her, and she said the president was a terrorist and a Nazi, the Justice Department said. In a statement to CBS News, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro criticized the grand jury’s refusal to indict. “A Washington, D.C., grand jury refused to indict someone who threatened to kill the President of the United States. Her intent was clear, traveling through five states to do so. She even confirmed the same to the U.S. Secret Service. This is the essence of a politicized jury. The system here is broken on many levels. Instead of the outrage that should be engendered by a specific threat to kill the president, the grand jury in D.C. refuses to even let the judicial process begin,” Pirro said. Her attorneys filed a motion for her release. “A grand jury has now found no probable cause to indict Ms. Jones on the charged offenses,” her attorneys wrote. Chief District Judge James Boasberg had ordered Jones released on home detention.

Blaze [9/3/2025 10:02 AM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1559K] reports Nathalie Rose Jones of Lafayette, Indiana, was arrested in Washington, D.C., last month for allegedly threatening to kill President Donald Trump and transmitting threats across state lines. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C., indicated that "justice will be served"; however, an Obama judge and a grand jury comprising Washington residents evidently had other plans. U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg, whom Attorney General Pam Bondi slapped in July with a misconduct complaint "for making improper public comments about President Trump and his administration," overruled a magistrate judge last week and ordered Jones’ release. Boasberg told Jones, who recently participated in an anti-Trump protest outside the White House, to drive to New York City and meet with her psychiatrist. Jones’ attorneys revealed in a Monday court filing that a D.C. grand jury declined to indict her.

NewsNation [9/3/2025 1:46 PM, Diana Falzone, 6811K] reports that the man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump last September wrote in a bizarre and profanity-laced court document that he wished to fight the president and challenged him to a round of golf for the Oval Office. Ryan Routh, who was arrested after allegedly pointing a gun through the fence of the president’s West Palm Beach golf club last year, filed a motion to exclude the prosecution’s evidence, which included threats against Trump. "A beatdown session would be more fun and entertaining for everyone," Routh said in the motion. He also proposed a round of golf against the president, and said that if he loses, Trump can "execute me, I win I get his job." Warning: The filing below contains profanity. The motion concluded with Routh’s signature, and he identified himself as "Inmate 35967511." Routh will represent himself in his upcoming federal criminal trial. The judge has set ground rules for Routh, who is expected to be properly dressed and is not allowed to roam freely about the courtroom. According to the Department of Justice, Routh was "charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer (a Secret Service Agent), felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. At a detention hearing on Sept. 23, Routh was ordered to remain in federal custody pending trial. If convicted, Routh faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.” Jury selection in the trial is set to begin next week. Routh, 59, has pleaded not guilty.

CyberScoop [9/3/2025 3:08 PM, Tim Starks] reports compiling an “ingredients list” for software can help organizations reduce cyber risks, avoid fines and save time, among other benefits, a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency-led guide published Wednesday advises. The CISA document, produced with the National Security Agency and cyber agencies from 14 other countries, aims to produce a shared vision on advancing the concept known as software bill of materials, or SBOM. It’s a nearly universally praised idea whose implementation has been playing catch-up with the embrace of its theoretical value. In the guide, the agencies tout SBOMs as a way to adopt secure-by-design principles, where software makers implement security as part of the design process rather than as something to be tacked on afterward. “The ever-evolving cyber threats facing government and industry underscore the critical importance of securing software supply chain and its components,” Madhu Gottumukkala, acting director of CISA, said in a news release accompanying the guide’s publication. “Widespread adoption of SBOM is an indispensable milestone in advancing secure-by-design software, fortifying resilience, and measurably reducing risk and cost. “This guide exemplifies and underscores the power of international collaboration to deliver tangible outcomes that strengthen security and build trust,” he said. “Together, we are driving efforts to advance software supply chain security and drive unparalleled transparency, fundamentally improving decision-making in software creation and utilization.”

SC Media [9/3/2025 11:32 AM, Staff] reports the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has appointed Nicholas Andersen as its executive assistant director of cybersecurity, replacing Chris Butera, who has been assigned as acting deputy executive assistant director, according to CyberScoop. After serving as principal deputy assistant secretary for the Energy Department’s Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response division during the first Trump administration, Andersen has worked as president and chief operating officer at cybersecurity firm Invictus International Consulting. "Having led organizations in both the public and private sectors, I deeply appreciate the vital role a robust cyber defense agency plays in securing our nation’s critical infrastructure. My career has been dedicated to defending America, and I look forward to continuing that mission at CISA," said Andersen. Such an appointment was noted by Acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala, who noted the advantages of Andersen’s business, government, and technology experience in strengthening the agency’s relationship with critical infrastructure partners.

New York Times [9/4/2025 4:36 AM, Adam Goldman, 143795K] reports China has hacked into American power grids and companies for decades, stealing sensitive files and intellectual property such as chip designs as it seeks to gain an edge over the United States. But a sweeping cyberattack by a group known as Salt Typhoon is China’s most ambitious yet, experts and officials have concluded after a year of investigating it. It targeted more than 80 countries and may have stolen information from nearly every American, officials said. They see it as evidence that China’s capabilities rival those of the United States and its allies. The Salt Typhoon attack was a yearslong, coordinated assault that infiltrated major telecommunications companies and others, investigators said in a highly unusual joint statement last week. The range of the attack was far greater than originally understood, and security officials warned that the stolen data could allow Chinese intelligence services to exploit global communication networks to track targets including politicians, spies and activists. Hackers sponsored by the Chinese government “are targeting networks globally, including, but not limited to, telecommunications, government, transportation, lodging, and military infrastructure networks,” the statement said. British and American officials have described the attack as “unrestrained” and “indiscriminate.” Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain were also signatories to the statement, which was part of a name-and-shame effort directed at the Chinese government. “I can’t imagine any American was spared given the breadth of the campaign,” said Cynthia Kaiser, a former top official in the F.B.I.’s cyber division, who oversaw investigations into the hacking. It was unclear whether the Salt Typhoon hack was intended to store ordinary people’s data or if that data was incidentally swept up in the attack. But its scope was broader than previous hacks, in which China more narrowly targeted Westerners working on security or other sensitive government issues, Ms. Kaiser said. The Salt Typhoon hack could signal a new era of Chinese cyber capabilities that will test its strategic rivals, including the United States, security experts said. It highlights China’s ambitions for global influence, which were on display on Wednesday at an elaborate military parade in Beijing that featured fighter jets, tanks and thousands of troops marching across Tiananmen Square.

ABC News [9/3/2025 11:58 AM, Sasha Pezenik, 27036K] reports that dozens of survivors and families of victims of the 2023 mass shooting in Maine are suing the federal government over its "negligence" in failing to address "known dangers" posed by the Army reservist who would go on to kill 18 people. Lawyers for about 100 survivors and families of victims announced their intent to sue the government last October. Now, with no response or acknowledgement, the group said, they are officially filing suit. At least 18 people were killed and more than a dozen others injured after a gunman opened fire at two locations in Lewiston, Maine: a bowling alley where a children’s league was taking place and a local bar. The massacre was one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history. The gunman, Robert Card, displayed multiple warning signs in the weeks and months leading up to the shooting, including a clear pattern that was known to the Army, but to which they did not respond, the 119-page suit alleged. "Well before the mass shooting, the Army was aware that Robert Card had classic warnings signs of high risk to himself and the public. The Army’s knowledge; its mandatory processes; its promises to Card’s family, medical providers and local law enforcement; and its actions in undertaking to intervene individually and in combination created a legal duty on the part of the Army to address the risks posed by Card in a reasonable manner," the suit said. The actions that should have been taken were buttressed by a wealth of knowledge of the "unique risks" service members with "mental health crises" pose to "themselves and the public," but instead those policies were "violated" in failing to take "mandatory action" with Card, according to the suit. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] Reuters [9/3/2025 1:25 PM, Diana Novak Jones, 45746K] reports that the October 25, 2023, shooting killed 18 people and wounded 13 at a bowling alley and a restaurant. Card was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days later. The lawsuit claims that by March 2023, the U.S. Army knew Card, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army Reserve and a West Point firearm and grenade instructor, was paranoid, delusional, and violent, and that he had a hit list and access to firearms. But the Army did not remove Card’s guns, dissuaded law enforcement from taking the guns, and dismissed Card’s threats to "shoot up" a Maine Army Reserve center in the month before the massacre, the victims say in the lawsuit. In a statement, Army spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ruth Castro said the Army does not comment on pending litigation. A Department of Defense spokesperson also declined to comment on pending litigation, and representatives for Tricare, the military’s healthcare agency, did not respond to a request for comment. The New York Times [9/3/2025 9:53 AM, Jenna Russell, 143795K] reports that the lawsuit, filed on Wednesday morning, argues that the military was aware of “unique risks posed by service members with mental illness,” and that it knew of “the effects on the brain from repeated exposure to blast forces” that “likely caused or contributed to” the gunman’s “precipitous onset of mental illness.” Scientists who examined the gunman’s brain found significant damage, similar to that detected in the brains of veterans exposed to weapons blasts. He had been exposed to thousands of blasts in his years as a grenade instructor. The suit further charges the Army with violating its own policies and regulations by failing to respond to the threat of imminent harm posed by Mr. Card, and failing to take away his weapons after he made threats. Lawyers for the survivors said the government did not respond to their initial administrative filing in October, in which they served notice of their intent to sue. As a result, they said, families were forced “to seek justice through the courts,” a process that could take years. “If the Army does not accept accountability here, where it knew its soldier had severe mental illness, had access to weapons and was warned in advance that he planned to commit a mass shooting,” Benjamin Gideon, a lawyer for survivors, said in a statement, “then it’s hard to imagine the Army ever accepting accountability without being forced to do so in court.”

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [9/3/2025 9:54 AM, Victoria Craw and Gaya Gupta, 29079K]
USA Today [9/3/2025 10:41 AM, Christopher Cann, 64151K]
Washington Examiner [9/3/2025 1:51 PM, Annabella Rosciglione, 1563K]

FOX News [9/3/2025 4:37 PM, Alexandra Koch, 40019K] reports city and state police and FBI Boston are investigating after a video that appears to show a person holding a gun near the University of Massachusetts (UMass) campus in Lowell was shared on social media Wednesday afternoon. The video appears to show a man holding a gun, walking down a sidewalk. There were no reports of a shooting. A campus-wide shelter in place order was issued as UMass Lowell and city police attempted to find the suspect. The order was lifted shortly just after 5 p.m., after law enforcement partners determined the suspect was no longer in the vicinity. All classes and events on campus for the remainder of the day were canceled, and a large police presence remains in place on campus. Officers will be stationed at residence halls through the night. FBI Boston said it is on scene and coordinating with law enforcement partners. "We encourage the public to remain vigilant and avoid the area," FBI Boston shared in an X post. Massachusetts State Police said it is aware of the video and responded to the area. "We are aware of a video circulating of a person who appears to be armed walking in Lowell near the Riverview Suites on Middlesex Street," state police wrote in a social media post. "State and Local Police have responded to the area to further investigate. Anyone with relevant information should call 911.” ATF agents are also responding.

New York Post [9/3/2025 6:33 PM, Victor Nava, 43962K] reports Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha traveled to Minneapolis on Wednesday and met with the parents of the victims of last week’s school shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church. "I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did," the vice president said of his emotional meetings with grieving parents, children wounded by gunfire and church leaders. "These parents, in the midst of the worst grief of their entire lives, they opened up their lives, and they opened up their hearts, and they made me part of it," he added. The Vances met with the parents of Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, both of whom were killed when the 23-year-old gunman Robin Westman barricaded a door to the church and opened fire through a stained-glass window during a school opening Mass. Westman then killed himself. The vice president and second lady brought two bouquets of flowers, tied with blue ribbon, to leave at the entrance to the church where the massacre took place. After visiting the site of the Westman’s rampage – the church sanctuary, where the gunman fired 116 rounds from a rifle as children and adults attended Mass – the Vances went to Children’s Minnesota Hospital, where they spoke with Lydia Kaiser and Weston Halsne. Weston, 10, was struck in the neck by one of Westman’s bullets and had "just got out of surgery," the vice president said. Lydia, also 10, was hit while shielding her "little buddy" – her therapy dog – from the gunfire. The vice president said "every single family" he met with asked for prayers. "So, my fellow Americans, if you’re the praying type, say a prayer for this innocent girl, who’s actually in surgery right now, that the swelling will go down, that she will be okay, because she’s still in a fight for her life," Vance said. "And every single family, to a person, is desperate that the death toll, which currently is at two, stays at two.”

NBC News [9/3/2025 10:05 PM, Nnamdi Egwuonwu and Phil Helsel, 43603K] reports the parents of a child shot at a Minneapolis Catholic church last week pressed Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday to take actions on guns, urging him to advocate for bipartisan legislation that would address the nation’s "mass shooter problem.” Vance and second lady Usha Vance met with several families affected by the shooting as they surveyed the human toll of the gruesome attack. They made stops at both Annunciation Catholic Church, where the shooting took place, and Children’s Minnesota Hospital, which is treating some injured victims. Harry Kaiser, whose 12-year-old daughter, Lydia, has been hospitalized since the shooting, told reporters that he read a note directly to Vance during a meeting at the hospital. He said he asked Vance to "earnestly support the study of what is wrong with our culture.” That study, Kaiser said, needs to explore why "we are the country that has the worst mass shooter problem.” "Will you please promise to pursue, despite powerful lobbies, some commonsense bipartisan legislation as a starting point so we can come out of our corners and find the values that we share — so that this time some progress is made?" said Kaiser, a gym teacher at Annunciation School. "Thoughts and prayers haven’t been enough," he added. Kaiser acknowledged that finding an effective solution to the gun epidemic would be difficult but warned of the danger of the growing apathy around the issue. "I don’t claim to have the answers, but we have to commit to looking," Kaiser said. "Then we can feel good about defending life.” Kaiser did not say how Vance responded to their message. Kaiser’s daughter is one of 15 children injured in the shooting, alongside three adult victims. Two children, Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, were killed. Vance had previously sparred with critics who bashed offerings of "thoughts and prayers" after the Minnesota shooting as weak and ineffective. He called the criticisms about expressions of prayer "bizarre" and part of "weird left wing culture wars.” But in comments to reporters after Wednesday’s visit, he struck a different tone, calling his conversations with grieving community members "heartbreaking but also very gratifying.” "They were rational, reasonable people despite their grief, and I can’t imagine what I would be like in this moment of heartbreak," Vance said. "All they ask is that we look very seriously at the root causes, that we look very seriously at ways to prevent crazy people who are about to shoot up a school from getting access to firearms.”

FOX News [9/3/2025 6:00 AM, Peter D’Abrosca, 40019K] Video HERE reports a week after a crazed 23-year-old shot and killed two children and injured 18 more victims at a Catholic mass in Minneapolis, details about a chaotic personal life and a meticulously planned attack by a maniac who was "obsessed with the idea of killing children" have begun to unravel. Robin Westman, formerly Robert Westman, committed the heinous act at the Annunciation Catholic Church the morning of Aug. 27 before committing suicide at the scene. As a child, Westman attended both the school and the church, which is located next door. The years and months leading up to the unthinkable mass shooting appear fraught with chaos in the shooter’s personal life. While the shooter’s exact motive remains unknown, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joe Thompson said hatred aimed at everyone played a significant role. "The shooter expressed hate towards almost every group imaginable. The shooter expressed hate towards Black people. The shooter expressed hate towards Mexican people. The shooter expressed hate towards Christian people. The shooter expressed hate towards Jewish people," Thompson continued. "In short, the shooter appeared to hate all of us. The shooter’s heart was full of hate. There appears to be only one group that the shooter didn’t hate. One group of people who the shooter admired. That group were the school shooters and mass murderers that are notorious in this country." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

DailySignal [9/3/2025 1:51 PM, Amy Swearer, 668K] reports that last week, just days into the new school year, a 23-year-old transgender gunman targeted a Minneapolis Catholic school that he used to attend, opening fire on students through the windows of the church where they’d gathered for a special mass. He killed two students and wounded nearly two dozen additional victims before taking his own life. Here are three of the most uncomfortable truths about school shootings in the wake of this latest tragedy. It feels like school shootings are a common occurrence. They’re not. When mass shootings take place on school campuses, we remember them. They are uniquely devastating events that strike deeply at our most basic sense of public safety. And, in their aftermath, they leave a wake of heated and politically charged rhetoric that all but ensures the trauma will be dragged back into the headlines for months or even years after the killing has stopped. The highly salient nature of school shootings makes it easy to assume that they are responsible for hundreds of deaths every year or that, at the very least, it’s statistically likely that any particular student or teacher will be victimized by a school shooter on any given day. And yet, the actual statistics indicate that the nation’s students and teachers are remarkably safe from gun violence while at school. This is true even when using the broadest possible definition of what constitutes a "school shooting." Consider the database maintained by Everytown, a well-known gun control advocacy group, which tracks every time that a person fires a gun on school-owned property, regardless of context.

FOX News [9/3/2025 12:16 PM, Alex Miller, 40019K] reports that House Speaker Mike Johnson slammed California Gov. Gavin Newsom for his "anti-Christian rhetoric" in the aftermath of the deadly shooting in Minnesota. Johnson, speaking during his first press conference since lawmakers returned from an extended recess, noted that the Democrat governor had taken personal jabs at him in recent weeks and accused Newsom of "shamelessly" mocking the victims of the Annunciation Catholic School shooting, where two children were killed and 17 people injured during morning Mass. The Louisiana Republican pointed to Newsom’s post on X in response to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who condemned former White House press secretary and current MSNBC host Jen Psaki’s comments criticizing the outpouring of "thoughts and prayers" and lack of focus on gun control. Leavitt slammed Psaki’s comments as "incredibly insensitive and disrespectful" to Americans of faith. "These children were literally praying as they got shot at," Newsom fired back. Johnson called Newsom’s remarks "sick." "I mean, like, why would we do that? Why would you do that? Except that you are starving for attention," he said. "It’s detestable. Two children were murdered. More than a dozen were hospitalized, and Gavin Newsom’s response was to sneer and condemn those who seek out our creator in the darkest moments." "I just thought it was, I just thought it was evil. In fact, it’s indicative of such a profound moral decay that really the only hope for Gavin Newsom is prayer."

Reuters [9/3/2025 2:28 PM, Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu, 45746K] reports that U.S. Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Wednesday his planned oversight visit to an intelligence agency was cancelled as a result of criticism by far-right activist Laura Loomer. Warner had been scheduled to meet on September 5 with staff at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in Springfield, Virginia, which he described as a meeting scheduled weeks earlier as part of his normal committee duties. Warner said he got word the visit was cancelled after Loomer criticized him and NGA Director Vice Admiral Trey Whitworth online during the weekend.

"It’s beyond outrageous," Warner told reporters. Warner is the senior senator from Virginia, a state that is home to several intelligence agencies, including the CIA, and his constituents include thousands of people who work on national security issues. "Where does it end?" he asked. Warner said he hoped his Republican colleagues would also push for access, but that he had not had a chance to discuss the matter with Senator Tom Cotton, the Republican intelligence committee chairman. Aides to Cotton did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. Warner said the incident is the latest example of Loomer’s influence on President Donald Trump’s administration. "In response to Loomer’s criticism, political appointees canceled the visit, just the latest example of an administration seemingly desperate to please Loomer, a figure with a long history of extreme and outlandish fringe views, including 9/11 denialism, anti-Muslim harassment campaigns, and associations with white supremacists," Warner said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Breitbart [9/3/2025 12:01 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 2608K] reports Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is flagging the FBI on what he describes as the "dangerous" and "almost certainly illegal" activities of the controversial Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Breitbart News first learned exclusively. In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel dated September 3, Cotton asked the federal agency "to conduct a full investigation" into the PYM, deeming it a "threat" to U.S. national security. Cotton specifically pointed to remarks PYM leader Aisha Nizar made at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Michigan, where she, per the letter, "openly called on supporters to disrupt the U.S. F-35 supply chain." Cotton added that this was part of Nizar’s call to "damage U.S. military support to Israel in their lawful war against Hamas." Cotton quoted her words: "If one specific node of the F-35 supply chain is intervened in, it has a huge impact." He added that Nizar also said, "We need to be surgical. We need to be strategic…Because there are many different points of these supply chains of death that we can intervene in and we must intervene in." The senator reminded Patel that this is not the first time he has raised concerns about PYM specifically and their "antisemitic activities, along with their likely illegal receipt of tax exempt donations." The organization, he continued, is filled with "bad actors, like Nizar who was arrested and charged for her role in the 2024 Gaza war protests that trapped motorists on the Golden Gate Bridge.”

AP [9/4/2025 2:33 AM, Edith M. Lederer, 20690K] reports the United States and Panama are urging the U.N. Security Council to authorize a 5,550-member force with the power to detain gang members in Haiti to help stop the escalating violence. The two countries outlined their proposal to transform the Kenya-led multinational force now deployed in the Caribbean nation into a much larger force in a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The first Kenyans arrived in Haiti in June 2024 and the force was supposed to have 2,500 troops, but it has been plagued by a lack of funding and its current strength is below 1,000. Gangs have grown in power since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. They now control 90% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have expanded their activities, including looting, kidnapping, sexual assaults and rape, into the countryside. Haiti has not had a president since the assassination. The six-page draft resolution expresses appreciation to Kenya for leading the multinational force but reaffirms Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ finding in February that it hasn’t been able to keep pace with the dramatic expansion of the gangs and needed to be scaled up. Acting U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea had announced on Aug. 28 that the U.S. was seeking U.N. authorization for a new Gang Suppression Force. The draft resolution would authorize U.N. member nations to transition the mission into such a force in cooperation with Haiti’s government for an initial period of 12 months. The force would be able to detain and arrest Haitians. It states that the force would consist of 5,500 uniformed personnel and 50 civilians who would be paid from voluntary contributions. But it does not specify whether Kenya or any other country would contribute troops or police. The resolution would authorize participants in the new force to "conduct independent, intelligence-led targeted counter-gang operations to neutralize, isolate, and deter gangs that continue to threaten the civilian population, abuse human rights and undermine Haitian institutions.” The new force would also provide security for critical infrastructure, including the airport and ports, schools and hospitals, along with the Haitian police and armed forces. And it would support Haitian efforts "to combat illicit trafficking and diversion of arms and related materiel.” The Security Council mandate for the Kenya-led multinational force ends Oct. 2 and council members are expected to vote at the end of the month on the U.S. and Panama draft resolution.

FOX News [9/3/2025 1:55 PM, Staff, 40019K] reports Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday claimed he "never refused" a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and invited him to come to Moscow, according to Russian state-owned news outlet Tass. "If Zelenskyy is ready for a meeting, let him come to Moscow," Putin said, according to a translation of the remarks issued from China, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of World War II. Zelenskyy’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions, nor did the White House. Though President Donald Trump told reporters from the Oval Office on Wednesday that he would be speaking with Putin "very shortly," as his two-week deadline issued last month for the Kremlin chief to meet with Zelenskyy is now up. "I’ll know pretty much what we’re going to be doing," Trump told reporters. "We’ve taken very strong action. But I’ll be speaking to him over the next few days, and we’re going to see. "I’m going to know exactly what’s happening," he added. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha took to X and accused Putin of issuing "knowingly unacceptable proposals," adding that seven nations have made known their readiness to host peace talks, including Austria, Vatican City, Switzerland, Turkey, and three Gulf states. "These are serious proposals and President Zelenskyy is ready for such a meeting at any point of time. Yet, Putin continues to mess around," he added. "Only increased pressure can force Russia to finally get serious about peace process.” Zelenskyy has proposed face-to-face meetings with Putin on multiple occasions using a third-party neutral nation like Turkey, though the Kremlin chief has thus far never agreed to engage directly with the Ukrainian president. Putin on Wednesday claimed that if a "meeting is well-prepared and will lead to some positive results," then he would agree to meet. He also claimed Zelenskyy was "afraid" to meet with him, though he did not detail why he believed this. Any possibility of Zelenskyy traveling to Russia appears highly unlikely given the threats he would face, and the fact that Putin has made clear his chief aim is to oust Zelenskyy from Kyiv.

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