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

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

The New York Times [4/24/2026 4:50 PM, Mattathias Schwartz, 148038K] reports one of President Trump’s key assertions of presidential power over the southern border was ruled unlawful by a federal appeals court on Friday. In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld an earlier ruling by a district court judge that Mr. Trump had to adhere to requirements outlined in the Immigration and Nationality Act and could not categorically deny asylum claims from people crossing from Mexico into the United States. Existing immigration law “does not allow the president to remove plaintiffs under summary removal procedures of his own making,” Judge J. Michelle Childs wrote for the majority. She rejected the administration’s view of the law, which would allow it to “unilaterally and heedlessly return individuals even to countries where they will most certainly face persecution.” While the ruling does not take effect immediately, it brings the administration one step closer to a requirement that it process new applications from asylum seekers. The administration now has 45 days to ask for the case to be reheard by the full appellate court. It could also appeal directly to the Supreme Court, which is already considering a separate case over whether asylum seekers can be turned back at the border before they have a chance to file an asylum claim. Bloomberg [4/24/2026 2:25 PM, Suzanne Monyak, 763K] reports that the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit found Friday that the federal immigration statute does not allow Trump to deport migrants "under summary removal procedures of his own making," nor to suspend their right to apply to asylum. Trump’s proclamation, and its related implementation guidance, represents an "unprecedented decision to preemptively and categorically deny asylum to many thousands of foreign individuals," Judge J. Michelle Childs, a Joe Biden appointee, wrote for the majority of the three-judge panel. "Denying asylum in one stroke, without any information about the affected individuals, necessarily ignores every risk of persecution they face when forced back to where they came from. The challenged decision thus necessarily denies asylum even to foreign individuals who are sure to face persecution without it," she wrote. And if the administration "wishes to modify this carefully structured and intricate system" governing asylum procedures outlined in the federal immigration statute, the Immigration and Nationality Act, "it must present those arguments to the only branch of government able to amend the INA: Congress," Childs wrote. The Washington Examiner [4/24/2026 4:11 PM, David Zimmermann, 1147K] reports that the federal appeals court also concluded that Trump cannot deport immigrants to countries where they will be persecuted or strip them of their protections against removal from the United States. The ruling sets up a potential legal showdown at the Supreme Court if the Trump administration decides to go that route. The federal government can also ask the full appeals court to reconsider the ruling. The order doesn’t take effect until after the court reconsiders. The ruling will likely be appealed. The Washington Post [4/24/2026 6:23 PM, Maria Sacchetti, 24826K] reports White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump had utilized his “lawful authority” to end the “egregious exploitation” of the U.S. asylum system. The Justice Department “will seek further review of this badly flawed decision and we are confident we will be vindicated,” she said in a statement. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump issued the proclamation, “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion,” on the first day of his second term, barring entry to asylum seekers for public safety, health and economic reasons “until I issue a finding that the invasion at the southern border has ceased.” Since then, Border Patrol apprehensions have fallen to the lowest levels in decades after spiking to record highs under the Biden administration. Advocates for immigrants sued, however, arguing that the administration was violating federal law by rejecting people’s right to seek asylum because they fear persecution based on their political opinion, race or other reasons detailed in federal law.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [4/24/2026 6:23 PM, Maria Sacchetti, 24826K]
AP [4/24/2026 5:25 PM, Michael Kunzelman and Lindsay Whitehurst, 1257K]
Reuters [4/25/2026 6:07 AM, Andrew Chung, 38315K]
ABC News [4/24/2026 5:34 PM, Armando Garcia, 34146K]
CBS News [4/24/2026 2:11 PM, Melissa Quinn and Jacob Rosen, 51110K]

Reuters [4/24/2026 2:33 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports that the Trump administration again plans to terminate the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants, after a judge blocked its initial effort to revoke permissions to live in the United States granted under Democratic ‌President Joe Biden. The administration detailed its intention in filings in federal court in Boston, where a judge had ruled in March that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully when it ended the legal status of more than 900,000 people who were allowed to live in the country after using the Biden-era app CBP One. That judge, Allison Burroughs, ⁠on Friday scheduled a May 6 hearing to consider barring DHS from following through on its plans. DHS did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Under Biden, immigrants had been generally granted two-year terms of humanitarian parole after using CBP One, an app that allowed them to schedule an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. After Republican President Donald Trump returned to the White House, many non-citizens who received parole through the CBP One process received an email in April 2025 from DHS saying it was terminating ‌their ⁠parole and it was "time for you to leave the United States."

The Hill [4/24/2026 10:29 PM, Sarah Davis, 18170K] reports the U.S. military killed two “narco-terrorists” in a strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Eastern Pacific on Friday, according to U.S. Southern Command (Southcom). The military unit announced the strike by posting a video of the boat exploding on the social platform X on Friday evening. Southcom commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan directed the attack as part of the Pentagon’s mission to target boats along known “narco-trafficking routes,” which launched under the name “Operation Southern Sphere” last fall. “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” Southcom said in the statement on X. “Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed.” The Pentagon conducted its 50th boat strike under Operation Southern Sphere earlier this month. The U.S. military has now killed about 180 alleged “narco-terrorists” during these attacks. Earlier this year, the Pentagon announced that it would begin deploying unmanned vessels to conduct these counternarcotics operations. President Trump has championed this effort, saying these strikes will curtail the flow of illicit drugs into the United States from the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. The president declared in a letter to Congress last fall that the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict with these designated terror organizations.” The military strikes have drawn pushback from Democrats in Congress, who criticized a lack of information about the scope of these operations and the Trump administration’s legal justification for these attacks. This newest attack comes as Trump continues to impose a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the ongoing Iran war. The blockade remains in effect during an indefinite ceasefire period between the two sides, and the U.S. military will continue to block Iranian ports and stop some ships from entering the critical waterway.

Reported similarly:
AP [4/24/2026 10:36 PM, Staff, 35287K]
NBC News [4/25/2026 1:03 AM, Staff, 42967K]
FOX News [4/24/2026 11:57 PM, Michael Sinkewicz, 37576K] Video: HERE

Reuters [4/24/2026 5:27 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports a federal ​appeals court on Friday cleared the way for Texas authorities to enforce a Republican-backed ‌state law that would let them arrest and prosecute people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. A 10-7 panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2024 injunction that had blocked enforcement of the law, which former Democratic ​President Joe Biden’s administration had gone to court to challenge. Republican President Donald Trump’s administration dropped the ​federal government’s case, but the Texas law known as SB4 continued to be ⁠challenged by immigrant-rights groups Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and American Gateways and the city of El ​Paso. That law, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed in December 2023, would make it a state crime to illegally ​enter or re-enter Texas from a foreign country and would empower state judges to order that violators leave the United States, with prison sentences up to 20 years for those who refuse to comply. Bloomberg Law [4/24/2026 3:53 PM, Ryan Autullo, 763K] reports SB 4 creates state-level crimes for illegal entry and re-entry and authorizes state judges to initiate deportations. Before Friday, two courts — including a Fifth Circuit panel — blocked the law citing a longstanding principle that states can only assist the federal government in enforcing federal immigration laws but can’t come up with their own state-level laws. NewsMax [4/24/2026 9:16 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports that after a ‌judge in February 2024 issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law, the case arrived at the ​U.S. Supreme Court, which ‌briefly allowed the law to take effect before the 5th Circuit within hours halted it pending further review. A 2-1 panel of the 5th Circuit in July ‌2025 upheld the injunction, saying the state law would interfere with the federal government’s ability to enforce U.S. immigration laws. But the full appeals court, among the most conservative in the nation, agreed to reconsider ⁠the case at the urging of Republican Texas ‌Attorney General Ken Paxton. U.S. Circuit Judge ⁠Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, said in Friday’s ruling that just because the legal advocacy groups voluntarily opted to increase representation of immigrants adversely affected by ⁠the law ⁠did not mean they had standing to challenge it. "When enterprising plaintiffs repackage a generalized grievance as an ‘injury,’ courts should rightly exercise caution," Smith wrote in ‌an opinion joined by all but two of the court’s Republican-appointed judges. "Texas’s right to arrest illegals, protect our citizens, and enforce immigration law is fundamental," he said in a statement. Edna Yang, co-executive director of American ‌Gateways, said in a ​statement the ruling was "a setback, ‌not the final word, and we remain committed to fighting this dangerous law at every turn.” Seven judges dissented, including U.S. Circuit Judge Priscilla Richman, a George W. Bush appointee, who ​said that under a controlling 2012 precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas’ law was trumped by federal law. "Texas cannot enact its own immigration regime," she wrote.

Reported similarly:
Houston Chronicle [4/24/2026 5:21 PM, Benjamin Wermund, 2493K]

Washington Examiner [4/25/2026 5:00 AM, Lauren Green, 1147K] reports Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will be at odds with his conference next week as he tries to pass a narrow Senate reconciliation bill to fund border enforcement, despite many Republicans wanting a wider bill to boost their 2026 standing. The Senate moved forward with a plan to provide up to $70 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its sister agency, Customs and Border Protection, using a party-line process known as reconciliation that bypasses the 60-vote filibuster threshold. However, House Republicans are up in the air about the proposal. House Republicans are concerned about giving up their best tool to pressure the Senate to pass legislation dealing with affordability ahead of the November elections, which are looking increasingly difficult for the GOP. Johnson is promising that Congress will move an additional reconciliation bill after the narrow immigration measure passes. Even top lieutenants, however, doubt there is enough time on the congressional calendar or sufficient support within the Senate. The backdrop will face Johnson when lawmakers return to Washington next week. With a narrow House majority, the speaker can only lose two votes on any given bill before having to rely on Democrats crossing the aisle. Bipartisan support for the $70 billion immigration funding package is unlikely to materialize. Democratic opposition to ICE and CBP funding has led to a monthslong partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

AP [4/24/2026 8:30 AM, Mary Clare Jalonick, 34146K] reports just as the Senate prepared to launch into a late-night vote series, Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana went to the floor to vent. Frustrated and seemingly exhausted Wednesday, Kennedy said he wanted more time to debate his amendments to a budget resolution to fund immigration enforcement agencies. But he had another complaint. "Frankly I am worried about the health of some of our members," Kennedy said as 9 p.m. approached. "Not that they’re in bad health, but it’s hard to stay up all night." More than 6 hours later, just past 3:30 a.m., senators wrapped up another marathon voting session on amendments and filed out of the chamber, dazed, tired and resigned to soon doing it all again. It’s a complaint as old as the Congress, with leaders in both major political parties often turning to the torturous grind of an overnight session to exhaust members, overcome objections and push legislation to passage. But it’s a scenario that is playing out again and again, nearly business as usual, as the House and the Senate fracture and careen from one crisis to the next. Lawmakers say it’s a symptom of a broken Congress that leaders are increasingly forced to govern in the dead of night. "The dysfunction is getting worse," said Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, who has been in Congress for 14 years. Lawmakers have become "less mature," he said, as a growing number act only in their own self-interest and hold up bills or delay proceedings. "It’s not a healthy lifestyle," Cramer said, for the country or the lawmakers. "There’s less concern for the team effort.”

The Hill [4/24/2026 6:00 AM, Alexander Bolton, 18170K] reports Republicans in the upper chamber are ramping up the pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to swiftly approve a Senate-passed bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), arguing that tens of thousands of federal workers could miss paychecks next month if the House delays much longer. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says Senate passage of a budget resolution early Thursday morning shows he has the votes to pass a budget reconciliation package next month to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. He believes that should give the House the green light to approve the Senate-passed bill to fund the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Johnson, under pressure from Republicans in the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus and beyond, has said he won’t move the bipartisan DHS bill until after passage of the reconciliation package. But GOP senators fear that plan leaves a good chance that Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin could run out of money to pay TSA agents and other critical federal workers. “That’s certainly the hope and expectation,” Thune said when asked about the prospect of the House moving quickly on the Senate-passed Homeland Security funding bill now that the Senate has passed a budget resolution, taking a major step toward unlocking the special reconciliation process that will allow GOP senators to avoid a Democratic filibuster.

Washington Examiner [4/24/2026 7:00 AM, David Sivak, 1147K] reports Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin is jumping back into the thick of GOP infighting on Capitol Hill as he tries to speed up funding for the embattled agency he took over in the middle of a partial government shutdown. Mullin, who left the Senate in March to run the Department of Homeland Security, has been away from the Capitol for just a handful of weeks, but his personal stake in reopening the agency has him reprising a role he often played as a senator: mediator for congressional Republicans. Both House and Senate leaders say that Mullin has checked in regularly on DHS funding, and despite it becoming a sore spot between the chambers — Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is holding up the bulk of agency funding as leverage over the Senate — Mullin appears to be navigating the impasse without taking sides. "He’s been engaged in trying to be able to get things moving, which is helpful," said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), Mullin’s former Oklahoma colleague and a senior member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. House Republicans have grudgingly accepted a two-part plan to reopen DHS, deferring to Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-SD) decision to pass funding for immigration enforcement through reconciliation, a time-consuming budget process that sidesteps the filibuster. But House conservatives have threatened to derail that approach unless unrelated priorities, such as defunding Planned Parenthood or voter ID requirements, get attached.

Daily Caller [4/24/2026 2:22 PM, Ashley Brasfield, 803K] reports that as House Republicans debate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a strategy has emerged: use the surveillance bill as leverage to advance the SAVE America Act. The idea — promoted by members such as Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna — would link the election integrity legislation to a FISA extension, a strategy supporters argue could improve its chances of passage. The Senate would walk over broken glass to pass FISA, which is why FISA is the perfect vehicle to attach the SAVE America Act and force a vote. A group of Senate Republicans blocked an effort to attach the SAVE America Act to the budget reconciliation bill on Thursday. The vote took place during the Senate’s "vote-a-rama," a marathon session where senators can offer and vote on numerous amendments regardless of their relevance to the underlying budget framework. However, the proposal to combine the SAVE America Act with other legislative measures has exposed divisions within the Republican conference, particularly in the wake of a short-term 10-day FISA extension, over what path forward to take. Some Republicans remain wary of packaging the bills together, arguing each should be evaluated on its own merits. Their concerns largely center on Section 702 of FISA, which critics say has been used in ways that raise civil liberties concerns and could involve surveillance of Americans.

FOX News [4/24/2026 11:48 AM, Madison Colombo, 37576K] reports Protesters issued death threats and disrupted a talk by Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival at the UCLA School of Law this week. Percival joined "The Will Cain Show" Thursday and explained why he went through with the constitutional law discussion as student activists tried to drown out the event with loud noises and insults. "I might get death threats when I go on a college campus, but the people I work with at DHS get death threats just for showing up to work every day," Percival said. "I really felt like I had an obligation to the people I work with not to back down, to show up and take some abuse." The event, hosted by the Federalist Society’s UCLA chapter, was intended to be a professional conversation on DHS legal operations. Instead, more than 150 protesters gathered inside and outside the venue. Students booed, called him a "Nazi" and held signs, including one that read: "F--- you loser." Percival described the experience as "not pleasant." The school administration issued a statement to Fox News Digital defending the event, noting it proceeded to its conclusion. "UCLA Law is committed to free speech and academic freedom, including perspectives that may be controversial or deeply contested," they wrote.

FOX News [4/24/2026 7:53 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller discusses Democrats’ ‘obsession’ with trying to impeach President Donald Trump and a U.S. appeals court ruling Trump’s asylum ban illegal on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [4/24/2026 1:36 PM, Elaine Mallon, 37576K] reports that the Minneapolis man who sprayed Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., with vinegar during a January town hall is changing his plea to guilty on federal charges. Anthony James Kazmierczak’s alleged assault on Omar occurred weeks after Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent, which heightened tensions between federal officials and Democratic state leaders. Democratic leadership called for federal agents to leave Minnesota. In March, Kazmierczak pleaded not guilty to one federal count of assaulting a United States officer, but an April court filing from his attorney, John Fossum, said Kazmierczak will change his plea to guilty after they have "reached a settlement" with federal prosecutors. Kazmierczak’s change-of-plea hearing is scheduled for May 7. The details of the settlement are unknown. Fox News Digital reached out to Kazmierczak’s lawyer for comment. Video of the Jan. 27 town hall showed Kazmierczak rushing the stage as Omar spoke. She was calling for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to step down and for ICE agents to leave Minnesota. He pulled out a syringe filled with apple cider vinegar and water and attempted to douse the congresswoman with the liquid before an officer stepped in. "She’s not resigning," Kazmierczak said in the video, referring to Noem. Kazmierczak also pointed his finger at Omar, screaming, "You’re splitting Minnesotans apart." Omar was not injured and continued her town hall after Kazmierczak was arrested. Fox News Digital reached out to the United States Attorney’s Office District of Minnesota for comment.

Daily Caller [4/24/2026 3:15 PM, Staff, 803K] reports ever heard someone once accused of being homophobic reply by saying, "why, some of my best friends are gay?". Or a White person accused of being a racist respond by saying, "I’ve had Black friends all my life?". Something similar happens to those defending the policy to secure the nation’s border and to deport those in the country illegally. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently tripped on this one. Biden’s administration supported open borders and eventual citizenship for illegals. President Donald Trump shut the border and now actively deports illegals. To backheel Trump supporters, the open border crowd accuses deportation supporters of hating immigrants. To be clear, I support modest immigration levels of properly vetted individuals, not because it is good for the immigrants, but because it is good for America. Immigration stirs the genetic pot. It adds a beneficial new energy to society. Immigrants with the training and skills American industry needs fill gaps in the workforce. Sensible immigration is a classic win-win situation. Progressives have something else in mind. Sure, they allude to those issues, but that is just window dressing, cheap chrome bolted onto a poorly built jalopy. The open borders crowd are motivated by political power, seeking to grow the Democrat Party base with illegals. They’ll deny it, of course, but they also pretend they didn’t know of President Joe Biden’s collapsing capacities even while insisting he be re-elected. To deflect accusations of immigrant-hating, in a recent interview Mullin lapsed into immigrant virtue signaling when he repeated the trope that, "We are a nation of immigrants.” No, Mr. Secretary, we are not. I am not an immigrant, nor was my father nor my father’s father. My family on my father’s side traces back to American settlers from the early 1700s. My mother’s family goes back nearly as far. My wife’s family has been in this country just as long. We are not immigrants.

Wall Street Journal [4/24/2026 7:20 PM, Joshua S. Treviño, 646K] reports deaths in Mexico’s modern cartel wars are nothing unusual: The sanguinary toll of nearly 20 years of bloodshed, of state vs. criminals vs. citizenry, exceeds that of most major wars. But American deaths in Mexico are unusual—especially deaths of Americans present in an official capacity. That alone would make notable last weekend’s reported death of two Central Intelligence Agency officers in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Those fallen Americans, killed in the line of duty against Mexico’s cartels, are a sign of a crisis in relations between the U.S. and Mexico. It is a crisis created by Mexico’s regime, which has cooperated for too long with its own cartels and must now reap the predictable result as Americans act to protect themselves. When Americans crack down on cartels, they aren’t doing it only for American interests; they’re also protecting the Mexican majority that yearns for a defense against the cartels. These CIA officers—apparently killed in a car that crashed and then exploded—are said to have been accompanied by Chihuahuan officials, two of whom also died. American and Mexican alike gave their lives in the fight against some of the worst people on earth in Mexico’s narco-terror cartels. But that isn’t how President Claudia Sheinbaum and her Morena party see it. Asked about the deaths, the Mexican president expressed ignorance of the cooperation between these CIA officers and local Chihuahuan authorities and indignation that American forces would operate on Mexican soil. The profession of ignorance was at least in part performative. Ms. Sheinbaum and her security chief, Omar García Harfuch, have been quietly allowing expanded American operations in Mexico since Donald Trump returned to the White House. Americans provided intelligence in the killing of cartel leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes on Feb. 22. Much more is happening off the record. Nonetheless, the Mexican regime’s scapegoats are the Americans, who supposedly violated Mexican sovereignty, and the governor of Chihuahua, who supposedly invited them in.

Blaze [4/24/2026 2:00 PM, Zach Laidlaw, 1556K] reports that ICE agents have a hard enough time staying safe with leftist politicians trying to defund them, media villainizing them, and rioters threatening them. For months, ICE agents even watched their backs as location-tracking apps pinpointed their every move on the streets, at least until alleged government pressure wiped them from the App Store and Google Play. Unfortunately for ICE, the ban didn’t last long, as a district court judge just ruled their removal unconstitutional, seemingly disregarding the safety of ICE agents while blaming the Trump administration. ICE-reporting apps — led by ICEBlock on iOS — popped up online around April 2025, shortly after deportation raids in Democrat-run strongholds earned the ire of politicians, media, and rioters on the left side of the aisle. The apps were billed as a way to report and monitor the location of ICE agents and hold them accountable for "alleged civil rights abuses and failures to adhere to constitutional principles and due process.” It sounds altruistic, if any of that were true, but it’s ICEBlock’s off-label use cases that make it far more dangerous to the people, government officials, and United States sovereignty. The next step in deciding the fate of ICE-tracking apps is to take the case to court. With ICE agent locations marked on a map, apps like ICEBlock gave illegal aliens enough information to hide or flee from law enforcement to avoid deportation. ICEBlock also essentially showed rioters exactly where to go to confront ICE on the street, adding fuel to countless attacks on agents and the deaths of two American citizens. ICE agents aren’t the only ones at risk. Due to increasingly divisive rhetoric by left-wing politicians, agitators took to the streets and threatened ICE to the point that two protesters lost their lives.

FOX News [4/24/2026 3:27 PM, Preston Mizell and Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports a man who used government loans meant to provide financial relief to small businesses pleaded guilty to defrauding taxpayers of more than $1 million for a company he claimed operated an amateur basketball league, authorities said. Jamar Johnson, a U.S. citizen, entered his plea on Monday for his role in a scheme that netted him $1,047,824 in taxpayer funds through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said. "Jamar J. Johnson exploited a critical pandemic relief program for personal gain, stealing more than $1 million meant to support American small businesses when they needed it most," said acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. "This guilty plea sends a clear message: Those who defraud the American people and attempt to hide their crimes will be identified, investigated and held accountable. DHS remains committed to protecting taxpayer-funded programs and ensuring justice for those who abuse them.” In 2020, Johnson submitted a PPP loan application for a company he said ran an amateur league. However, once the funds were disbursed, Johnson used the money to fund his lifestyle, including purchasing cryptocurrency and transferring the funds to foreign markets in an effort to conceal the illicit proceeds. In addition to depriving the government, the scam also hurt small businesses that needed access to government funds to avoid shutting their doors and laying off employees at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, DHS said. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which operates under DHS, has authority over certain financial crimes and was involved in the investigation that ultimately led to Johnson’s guilty plea.

Univision [4/24/2026 8:18 AM, Staff, 4937K] reports the Trump administration has begun to moderate some of its most aggressive immigration policies, with new internal instructions limiting the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents , officials and lawyers told NBC News. According to the report, local ICE offices in the United States received verbal instructions to avoid entering homes without a warrant signed by a judge, a practice that had been widely criticized in recent months. The information comes from two Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials and immigration lawyers who have directly observed the changes. Sources also noted that agents have significantly reduced arrests inside immigration courts , especially following an adjustment implemented in February. Under this new policy, court arrests are limited to cases where the person is already deemed deportable. This shift comes after a period marked by more aggressive operations , such as the detention of asylum seekers during court hearings or raids on homes with administrative warrants. These practices were implemented during Kristi Noem’s tenure as head of DHS.

Newsweek [4/24/2026 10:50 AM, Khaleda Rahman, 52220K] reports a new tool to "crowd cancel" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities before they open was launched by a former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official this week. Miles Taylor, who was chief of staff at DHS during the first Trump administration and authored an anonymous 2018 op-ed that was sharply critical of the president, has launched GTFOICE.org—which stands for Get the Facilities Out, ICE—to help Americans find out about and protest proposed facilities amid DHS’s expansion of detention centers to house immigrants. "We want to make sure that the moment that ICE decides to open up a new prison camp, that local communities immediately have the chance to weigh in and to stop it," Taylor told Newsweek. "This sweeping expansion of ICE facilities around the country has been done in secret. People have been finding out late in the game that ICE has purchased multimillion-dollar warehouses and they’re turning those warehouses into detention camps," he added. When asked for comment, a DHS spokesperson told Newsweek, "Where are the protests on behalf of the victims of criminal illegal aliens, including Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Sheridan Gorman?"

DailySignal [4/24/2026 11:27 AM, Virginia Grace McKinnon, 474K] reports that Congress is putting parties aside to extend the bipartisan protection and prevention of human trafficking in the United States. The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act has been stalled in the House since February 2025. But Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., are now calling for more education to prevent human trafficking, increased funding to support victims, and stronger guardrails to combat trafficking abroad. "Survivors told us clearly that healing doesn’t end when someone exits a trafficking situation—it’s just the beginning," Smith said at a press conference on Thursday. "They asked for safe housing, mental health support, education, and job training. We listened." Smith announced that House leadership agreed to schedule the debate and a vote, which is expected in two to three weeks. The wait time is based on other legislation already lined up, mainly FISA reauthorization. One key component Smith highlighted from this bill is the education element. "There will be targeted funding for grants to hire prevalent higher risk populations… That’ll be done through a careful analysis, where those grants should go," Smith told The Daily Signal. Smith highlighted the educational organizations he worked closely with on the legislation. 3Strands Global Foundation has digital training materials ready to send to schools for teachers to facilitate; Paving the Way Foundation does in-person training at schools by experts.

Washington Examiner [4/24/2026 1:56 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s mass round-ups of illegal immigrant workers at job sites have not made headlines for months, and immigration groups who want President Donald Trump to do more blame Republicans’ ties to Big Business for the hold-up on enforcement. Trump promised to carry out the "largest-ever" deportation operation in history, while simultaneously going after the "worst of the worst" first. To get to the former, immigration research groups that call for stricter enforcement told the Washington Examiner that Trump needs to go all-in on targeting employers and illegal workers nationwide. Analysts from the Center for Immigration Studies, Federation for American Immigration Reform, and NumbersUSA told the Washington Examiner that the Trump administration cannot ignore millions of illegal immigrant workers who do not have criminal records — because doing so would sabotage Trump’s goal of carrying out a historic immigration crackdown before he leaves office. Approximately 60 organizations that banded together as the Mass Deportation Coalition listed "worksite enforcement" as the top priority for Trump. "There is no chance for a mass deportation program if worksite enforcement is not the centerpiece," the coalition states on its website. "Enforcement at scale means focusing on physical areas where illegal aliens are concentrated: worksites. This is how President Eisenhower, who President Trump pledged to surpass in terms of enforcement efforts, was able to achieve his success."

Axios [4/24/2026 6:00 AM, Josephine Walker, 17364K] reports the push to block ICE’s plans to expand detention centers is fueling a coordinated national day of protests on Saturday. No Kings protests have shown an appetite among Americans to unify against some Trump administration policies, and the latest effort — organized by the Disappeared in America campaign — is building on that momentum. Organizers tell Axios that one of the most mentioned reasons demonstrators attended the No Kings protests was their opposition to immigration enforcement, and Saturday’s Communities Not Cages events expect to harness that energy. Key protester demands include making the administration cancel warehouse detention plans and encouraging communities to reject any public funding, approvals, or local resources for expanding detention of migrants. They’re also calling for transparency and community consent before any detention-related plans proceed.

Daily Caller [4/24/2026 2:45 PM, Harold Hutchison, 803K] reports that police in Vermont blasted a local prosecutor for her decision not to file charges against six people who took part in a violent clash with law enforcement in March. Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George announced Wednesday that she would not file charges against six people arrested during a violent protest opposing an operation by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Burlington-area TV station NBC5 News reported. Police and public safety officials criticized George for the decision, saying that while ICE caused "harm" to the community, attacking law enforcement shouldn’t be tolerated. "I am confident that some protesters escalated the situation and went beyond civil disobedience into unacceptable and perhaps criminal behavior, including the three individuals cited by BPD – but I am just as confident that there were some law enforcement officers who agitated, who escalated, and who responded in a way that may ultimately be deemed legal, but was also unacceptable," George claimed in a statement released Wednesday. "So to charge these six individuals with no criminal records, and expect that they bear the burden of all the harm caused that day — is not something I was interested in our office being a part of." "BPD recognizes the degree of harm that was experienced on March 11 as a result of the actions of federal immigration officials, and we acknowledge the impact this harm has had on members of our community," the Burlington Police Department said in a statement to NBC5 News. "At the same time, the rule of law must be upheld.

Newsweek [4/24/2026 5:38 AM, Billal Rahman, 52220K] reports the Philadelphia City Council on Thursday approved a package of bills aimed at further limiting cooperation between city agencies and federal immigration authorities, sending the measures to Mayor Cherelle Parker for consideration. The "ICE Out" legislation passed with a veto-proof majority after advancing through committee earlier this month. The legislation would restrict cooperation between city agencies and federal immigration authorities, including banning 287(g) agreements and limiting information sharing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It would also require visible identification for officers, prohibit discrimination based on immigration status and restrict ICE access to city property without a judicial warrant. Newsweek has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and Parker’s office for comment.

CBS News [4/24/2026 6:08 PM, Emily McLeod, 51110K] Video: HERE reports a Dunwoody teenager is in ICE custody following a traffic stop at the end of March. Officials with the Dunwoody Police Department said they arrested 18-year-old Axel Gerardo Archaga Rios after he ran a stop sign and was driving without a valid license. Cornejo said they are late in the game since a final order of removal was issued for both Rios and his mom in 2015. Cornejo said Rios came to the United States with his mom when he was a young boy from Honduras. He said Rios’ mom was seeking asylum and moved from Florida to Georgia to escape domestic violence. According to Cornejo, Rios and his mother missed court dates because of that move. Dunwoody police said Rios was arrested on March 27, but the arresting officer was not aware of any ICE hold at that time. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said Rios was turned over to ICE after being released on bond on March 29. Rios is now in ICE custody at the Folkston ICE Processing Center near Brunswick. Cornejo said he has filed a stay of removal for Rios. He’s also working to get Rios’ final order of removal dismissed in Florida so he can apply for asylum.

New York Times [4/25/2026 2:38 AM, Catherine Porter, 148038K] reports Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé was in bed at home in Anniston, Ala., when she was startled awake by banging. Men had surrounded the bungalow where Ms. Ross-Mahé, a French citizen, had lived with her American husband until he died in January. They were knocking loudly on the windows and doors. When Ms. Ross-Mahé, 85, opened the door, they pushed inside, saying they were the immigration police, she said in an interview. They handcuffed her and took her to an unmarked car before driving her to a jail cell. She was still in her bathrobe, pajamas and slippers, she said. “I didn’t know what was happening to me really,” she told me in France this week, in her first interview since being deported after a 16-day incarceration. “It was very humiliating. My hair had not even been combed. I was just getting out of bed.” After her arrest on April 1, Ms. Ross-Mahé was swallowed into the country’s sprawling immigration detention system, where, she said, she was chained by her wrists and ankles to other inmates and loaded onto buses and a plane “like a potato sack.” After two weeks in detention in Alabama and Louisiana, she said, she feared she might die. Her story gives a glimpse into the opaque labyrinth of immigrant-detention sites operated by the Trump administration, where many like her see no lawyer, have no sense of where they are and understand little of why they are held or, in her case, later released. It also raises questions about how that system may be weaponized: A judge said in a ruling that she believed that Ms. Ross-Mahé’s stepson Tony Ross, who had been fighting with her over her late husband’s estate, instigated her arrest. New York Times could not independently confirm the details of her experience in detention, but it aligns with the accounts of others who have been detained in similar circumstances. Tony and his brother, Gary Ross, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did their lawyer. The experience stunned Ms. Ross-Mahé, who previously considered herself a supporter of President Trump and so admired his policy to deport illegal immigrants that she thought it should be adopted in France. “I didn’t think these things existed,” she said of the immigration facilities she was held in. “I thought that when we arrested them, we would treat them properly. It really shocked me.” She added, “They treat them like dogs, not in a human way.” Asked for comment, the Homeland Security Department said in a statement that “all detainees are provided with proper meals, quality water, blankets, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.” It added that “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens” and is “regularly audited and inspected by external agencies.”

Bloomberg Law [4/24/2026 12:36 PM, Alex Ebert, 763K] reports attorneys representing Chicago residents frustrated by the local top cop’s response to immigration officers’ violence went to state court Friday demanding a special prosecutor be appointed to prosecute federal law enforcement personnel. Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has not investigated, convened a grand jury or brought any charges against US Immigration and Custom Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection officers, attorneys for hundreds of petitioners said. Chicagoans have clambered for accountability after two high-profile shootings of residents and myriad other incidents where officers injured protesters during and after the Midway Blitz surge of immigration enforcement last year. "These were aggravated batteries, assaults, kidnapping, conspiracy and acts of perjury," Meg Gould, lawyer for the petitioners and attorney at Loevy & Loevy, told Cook County Circuit Judge Erica L. Reddick. "She has the duty to investigate crimes she knows have happened." The movement to appoint an aggressive lawyer to indict federal officials has garnered support from a Who’s Who of area leaders, including roughly 80 federal, state and local elected officials; nearly 80 local nonprofits; dozens of religious leaders, and a handful of law professors.

Chicago Tribune [4/24/2026 10:58 AM, Melissa Nann Burke and Ben Warren, 5209K] reports detainees at the privately run ICE detention center in west Michigan have gone without food for several days to protest poor conditions at the facility, according to attorneys and an anti-ICE advocacy group, though an ICE spokesperson denied that a hunger strike was underway. A majority of the men in two cell blocks at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin began refusing to eat on the evening of April 19, said Lauren Coman of No Detention Centers in Michigan, an advocacy group whose members say they spoke to several of the participants. Detainees told the group their main concerns were “dangerous” detention conditions, poor medical care and limited opportunities for legal recourse, according to Coman. “We demand competent doctors, better medical care—the food here is absolute garbage—and, above all, an end to the procedural delays we are suffering through inside these walls,” one detainee said in a translated statement shared by No Detention Centers in Michigan. In an email to The News, an ICE spokesperson wrote: “There is no hunger strike at the ICE North Lake Processing Facility.” “Any claim that there are subprime conditions at the North Lake facility in Baldwin, Michigan is false. All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” the statement said. The spokesperson wrote that it is “longstanding practice” to provide detainees with medical care, including dental and mental health services, medical appointments and emergency care. Detainees protest their conditions in ICE detentions in “any way possible” but are often punished by being put in solitary confinement or in medical isolation away from others, said Jesse Franzblau, associate director of policy for the National Immigrant Justice Center, a Chicago-based non-profit that represents several people detained at North Lake.

Univision [4/24/2026 4:22 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports through internal circular 26-0423-044, the Houston Police Department (HPD) has formalized the implementation of Proposition A 2026-0335, a measure that stipulates how the interaction between the local authority and the United States Department of Homeland Security is. The most important change in the text is the elimination of the 30-minute time limit that previously applied to resolving scenes involving a Houston agent, an ICE agent, an immigrant, and an administrative order. This adjustment is not an administrative coincidence, but a response to the massive influx of more than 700,000 administrative detention orders made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) since the beginning of 2025. Although the HPD categorizes these encounters as "rare" during patrols, the new directive seeks to shield the corporation from potential violations of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, keeping officers available for public service without the pressure of the clock. From now on, whenever an officer detects an ICE administrative warrant in the system, the presence of a sergeant at the scene is mandatory.

Univision [4/24/2026 8:38 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports a Utah couple is facing parental abduction charges after federal authorities claimed they took a 10-year-old girl to Cuba amid a complicated custody dispute related to the minor’s gender identity. The girl was returned to her birth mother this week, when President Donald Trump’s administration took the unusual step of sending a government plane to Cuba to retrieve it. Federal officials expressed concern that the girl had been taken to Havana for gender reassignment surgery. It is unclear in court documents whether the defendants, Rose Inessa-Ethington — a transgender woman and biological father of the girl — and her partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, were really planning to have surgery, which is not legal for minors in Cuba. Rose Inessa-Ethington had joint custody under a court settlement and had arranged a trip to take the girl, along with Blue Inessa-Ethington and her 3-year-old son, to Calgary, Canada last month, allegedly to go camping, authorities said. Instead, they headed to Vancouver, Canada, hundreds of miles away, and took a flight to Mexico City. On April 1 they flew to Cuba, authorities said. When the group did not return as expected on April 3, the girl’s mother contacted police in Logan, Utah, claiming that her ex-partner Rose Inessa-Ethington had violated her custody agreement. Police found that the group had not gone to Calgary and asked for help from the Department of Homeland Security’s investigative division, according to court documents. The group was determined to have entered Canada on foot via the Peace Arch Bridge, south of Vancouver, obtained search warrants for Rose and Blue Inessa-Ethington’s emails, cell phones and social media accounts. The researchers then used their Internet activities to track the group to Cuba. On April 8, at the request of Cache County Prosecutor Dane Murray, a Utah state judge issued arrest warrants for the couple for alleged custody interference, a third-degree felony. Judge Brian Cannell set bail at 5,000 dollars for each.

FOX News [4/24/2026 9:06 AM, Elaine Mallon, 37576K] reports an illegal immigrant from Mexico serving a 139-year prison sentence for raping and impregnating his underage stepdaughter will be eligible to seek early parole for a second time in the coming months due to a loophole in a law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Israel Ceja’s early release was blocked Wednesday after a review by an en banc parole board convened by Newsom following pressure from Yolo County District Attorney Jeffrey Reisig. An official with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed to Fox News Digital that a new hearing has been ordered for Ceja. Reisig is calling on Newsom and California lawmakers to "stop the madness" by closing the loopholes in the state’s Elderly Release Program that allow child rapists to be considered eligible for parole. "Nobody wants this," Reisig told Fox News Digital. "The general public does not want this, and all they’re doing is victimizing, re-victimizing the victims and the communities. Nobody wants these guys coming back to their community.” A jury convicted Ceja, 63, in 2000 for his years-long abuse of his stepdaughter, Roxanne Cruz, which began when she was 11 years old in 1993. With roughly 20% of his sentence served, Ceja was granted early release by a two-commissioner parole board panel in January, which did not consult the victim or notify the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office that prosecuted him more than 20 years ago, according to Reisig. "It’s twisted," Reisig said. "This is twisted stuff.”

New York Times [4/25/2026 5:02 AM, Hamed Aleaziz and Nicholas Nehamas, 646K] reports for decades, immigrants who have followed the rules and have not broken the law have had hopes of earning a green card, a document that allows them to live legally in the United States and gain a path to citizenship. But under new guidance issued by the Trump administration, immigrants can now be denied a green card for expressing political opinions, such as participating in pro-Palestinian campus protests, posting criticism of Israel on social media and desecrating the American flag, according to internal Department of Homeland Security training materials reviewed by The New York Times. The documents, which have not been previously reported, show how expansively the Trump administration is carrying out a directive from last August to vet green card applicants for “anti-American” and “antisemitic” views. The administration includes criticism of Israel as a potentially disqualifying factor, with the training materials citing as an example of questionable speech a social media post that declares, “Stop Israeli Terror in Palestine” and shows the Israeli flag crossed out. The materials were distributed last month to immigration officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security and handles applications for green cards and other forms of legal status.

FOX News [4/24/2026 9:50 AM, Alex Nitzberg, 37576K] reports more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers have signed onto a letter urging President Donald Trump’s administration to protect Iranians living in the U.S. who could not safely return to Iran. "We write to urge the Trump administration to immediately institute protections for Iranian nationals currently in the United States who cannot return home safely," the letter states. "The Administration must not forcibly return Iranian families in the United States to Iran — where they face the dual threat of the regime’s humanitarian abuses and dangers a resumption of the war poses — and should therefore pause deportation flights and designate Iranians for temporary protection, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED)," it continues. The letter accuses the Trump administration of launching "attacks on Iran unlawfully, without the constitutionally required congressional authorization, plunging millions of innocent civilians into a state of insecurity, with the human cost of the conflict mounting daily."

NBC News [4/24/2026 2:16 PM, Julia Ainsley and Colleen Long, 42967K] reports that the Justice Department is targeting at least 300 foreign-born Americans to possibly revoke their citizenship as part of the Trump administration’s effort to ramp up denaturalization, according to a person familiar with the investigations. A Justice Department official told NBC News the number was in the hundreds. NBC News previously reported that the Trump administration was dramatically expanding an effort to revoke U.S. citizenship for foreign-born Americans. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency within the Department of Homeland Security that’s responsible for legal immigration, sent experts to its offices around the country or reassigned staff members to look for possible cases where citizenship could be revoked. The goal was to supply between 100 and 200 potential cases per month to the Justice Department, which prosecutes them, NBC News reported. Federal prosecutors in field offices across the country are working on the effort, the DOJ official said. "The Department of Justice is laser-focused on rooting out criminal aliens defrauding the naturalization process," a Justice Department spokesperson said. "Under the leadership of President Trump and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Department is pursuing the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history. We are moving at warp speed to ensure fraudsters are held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent."

Newsweek [4/24/2026 12:00 PM, Billal Rahman and Dan Gooding, 52220K] reports U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reduced green card approvals by roughly half and slowed the processing of pending applications across multiple immigration categories, according to an analysis by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute. The study found that approvals for lawful permanent residence fell in most categories, excluding employment-based visas, with overall green card grants dropping by roughly half from earlier levels. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees USCIS, told Newsweek, "The Biden administration failed American citizens by undermining basic vetting and screening processes for aliens. Unfortunately, this recklessness allowed dangerous people, including national security threats, into our country who may pose a serious risk to the nation."

Telemundo52 [4/24/2026 7:52 PM, Elizabeth Chavolla, 61K] reports significant and drastic changes would be about to be approved for migrants and asylum seekers who attempt to process or renew their work permits, amid the closure of the public comment period required by law before moving forward with the reforms. María González, originally from Honduras, who will soon have to renew her work permit, is concerned about possible changes that could come into force soon. “[It’s harder] for you because you need it; it’s like they say, it’s not because they want to, we need to have it and more to be in order in this country,” Gonzalez said. According to the information, this process occurs due to the closing of the period of public comment on April 24 in relation to the proposal of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that aims to introduce radical modifications in the deadlines, requirements and conditions to obtain and renew work permits for asylum seekers. “It’s an extreme change in the world of how to apply for a work permit if you’re applying for asylum, a lot of new restrictions,” said immigration attorney Alex Gálvez. If approved, the new regulation would raise the total time of the process up to eighteen months. Currently, asylum seekers can apply for authorization after 150 days and obtain it from six months.

AP [4/24/2026 5:16 PM, Josh Funk] reports New York filed a lawsuit Friday to challenge the federal Transportation Department’s decision to withhold nearly $74 million in highway money because the state refused to revoke nearly 33,000 questionable commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants since an audit uncovered problems last year. New York joins California in suing over Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s efforts to tighten up the rules for which immigrants can qualify to get a commercial driver’s license and make sure the states are properly enforcing the existing rules. The federal government declined to comment on the new lawsuit Friday, but officials have been clear about the problems they found with more than half of the 200 licenses they reviewed. Officials said they found significant flaws such as licenses remaining valid long after an immigrant was authorized to be in the country. New York’s computer system defaulted to issuing licenses valid for eight years regardless of how long a driver’s visa remained valid, according to the Transportation Department.

Breitbart [4/24/2026 4:14 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports an illegal alien from India is accused of trafficking millions of dollars’ worth of drugs into the United States, Breitbart News has learned. On April 16, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents encountered Dipakkumar Ghelani, an illegal alien from India, at the Duval County Pre-Trial Detention Facility, thanks to the agency’s 287(g) agreement with the Florida Highway Patrol. Ghelani had been arrested and booked after allegedly trafficking $13 million worth of drugs into the United States. ICE agents have since lodged a detainer against Ghelani, ensuring he will not be released back into the community. Ghelani first entered the United States on March 18, 2016, on a B-2 tourist visa. The visa was valid through May 23, 2019, indicating that Ghelani overstayed his visa by nearly seven years.

FOX News [4/24/2026 4:11 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 37576K] reports Ohio officials say a semitruck driver charged in a fiery interstate crash that killed a young family of three fraudulently obtained an Ohio driver’s license, a commercial driver’s license and later U.S. citizenship under an alternate identity. The driver, Modou F. Ngom, 50, was arrested after authorities said he caused an April 11 chain-reaction crash on Interstate 71 northbound near U.S. 36, where a semitrailer slammed into slowed traffic in a construction zone and ignited a deadly fire. The Ohio State Highway Patrol said the crash killed a 37-year-old man, a 36-year-old woman and a 1-year-old child from Ashley, Ohio, who were traveling in a Chevrolet Silverado. Three others sustained serious injuries that were not considered life-threatening. In a statement, Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson confirmed to Fox News that investigators with the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and Ohio State Highway Patrol uncovered conflicting identity information in state and federal records after Ngom’s arrest. Ngom, he said, entered the United States in the 1990s and used multiple names and dates of birth to obtain state and federal identification documents. Wilson said he directed state investigators to turn the information over to Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further investigation. He said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio and the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office were also notified. Ngom was jailed after the crash on vehicular homicide charges, according to police. He was indicted by a Delaware County grand jury on the seven felony charges April 16.

FOX News [4/24/2026 1:17 PM, Andrea Margolis, 37576K] reports that this season, U.S. airports aren’t just busy with travelers. They’re busy with illegal meat busts, too. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport recently discovered a monkey carcass and illegal meat during separate X-ray examinations. The carcass belonged to a traveler from Cameroon, who packaged the primate in luggage. "Due to significant human health concerns, the monkey remains were detained by CBP and destroyed in accordance with partner governing agency directives," the agency said. It wasn’t the only concerning find from the region. Another traveler from Liberia tried to sneak in "ruminant meat" identified as beef. "CBP agriculture specialists inspected eight boxes within the traveler’s baggage and discovered meat, bones and hair concealed in dried seafood," officials said in a statement. "The traveler admitted that the concealed meat was beef." While seafood is generally admissible, certain meats are banned due to disease risks in their countries of origin, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) and foot-and-mouth disease, according to CBP. "I feel for the customs agents who came across that mess." CBP said 125 pounds of the meat was seized in addition to a pound of prohibited fresh leaves and "four types of prohibited seeds for planting" from the Liberian traveler’s baggage. The monkey carcass in particular riled up social media users on X. Carlos C. Martel, director of field operations in Florida, announced Wednesday that over 44 pounds of prohibited meat was recently intercepted at Miami International Airport. Fox News Digital reached out to CBP for further comment.

Breitbart [4/24/2026 4:26 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports Coldwater, Kansas, Mayor Jose Ceballos, a green card-holder from Mexico, has pleaded guilty to illegally voting in United States elections and falsely claiming to be an American citizen. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials credited the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which allows states to enter Social Security Numbers (SSNs) to verify a voter registrant’s American citizenship and thus eligibility to vote, and urged passage of the SAVE Act. This week, Ceballos pled guilty to three counts of disorderly election conduct. Ceballos was first issued a green card in 1990 and had applied for naturalized American citizenship in February 2025.

Daily Caller [4/24/2026 3:03 PM, Ashley Brasfield, 803K] reports the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) arrested an illegal Somali national with a prior piracy-related history, according to a document obtained by the Daily Caller. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Said Jama Ahmed’s arrest on Friday, citing an outstanding warrant for allegedly falsifying, using, and forging a passport, as well as a fingerprint match linking him to a 2012 national security-related encounter tied to Somali piracy. On the night of April 14, an off-duty Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer initially reported seeing Ahmed walking southbound with a backpack several miles north of the U.S.-Canada border. About two hours later, a U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agent located Ahmed, made contact, and took him into custody. He is currently being held by USBP in the District of North Dakota on charges related to illegal entry.

FOX News [4/24/2026 7:43 PM, Sophia Compton, 37576K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers have arrested a Somali illegal immigrant who authorities say is linked to a past piracy case and faces an outstanding warrant for passport fraud. Said Jama Ahmed is being held in North Dakota on illegal entry charges after agents apprehended him near the U.S.-Canada border earlier this month. Officials said his fingerprints match records collected during a 2012 U.S. Navy operation involving suspected Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, according to a Friday announcement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "Weak Biden Administration border policies allowed this illegal alien to enter and remain in the country despite his multiple law enforcement encounters," DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. According to DHS, Ahmed was first spotted on April 14 by an off-duty Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer walking southbound with a backpack a few miles north of the border. About two hours later, a U.S. Border Patrol agent located Ahmed and took him into custody. The fingerprint match ties Ahmed to a 2012 incident in which the USS Halsey, a Navy guided-missile destroyer, responded to a distress call from an Indian-flagged vessel hijacked by pirates, according to DHS. In 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him during a search for fraudulent documents. A full extradition warrant was issued in April 2025, according to DHS. "We are thankful for our hardworking U.S. CBP officers and Canadian officials for their cooperation in arresting this individual," Bis added. "DHS will continue to work to arrest criminal illegal aliens to protect the American homeland from all threats.”

NewsMax [4/24/2026 4:40 PM, Jim Thomas, 3760K] reports clothing on Pop Mart’s popular Labubu dolls sold in the United States contains cotton traced to China’s Xinjiang region, where U.S. agencies and independent researchers have documented mass detention and state-directed forced labor of Uyghurs, according to independent laboratory testing reported Thursday by The New York Times. The testing, commissioned by the advocacy group Campaign for Uyghurs and independently verified by the Times, puts one of the year’s most viral consumer products within the reach of a 2022 U.S. law that presumes goods tied to Xinjiang are made with forced labor and bars their importation absent proof to the contrary. The dolls are mostly polyester, but the tracing was found in the clothing. Isotopic analysis, the technique U.S. Customs and Border Protection has used on clothing imports, traced the cotton to the region, according to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [4/24/2026 4:43 PM, Taylor Herzlich, 40934K]

NewsMax [4/24/2026 10:31 PM, Michael Katz, 3760K] reports an Iranian national has been arrested on charges of smuggling illegal aliens, primarily Iranian nationals, into the United States through Latin America, according to the Department of Justice. Colombian authorities arrested Jafar Tafakori, 57, on Thursday in Pereira, Colombia, at the request of the United States, the DOJ said in a news release. Tafakori is expected to face prosecution in federal court in the Western District of Texas following extradition. Tafakori faces one count of conspiracy to bring an alien to the United States and five counts of bringing an alien to the United States for financial gain, the DOJ said, citing an indictment unsealed Friday in the Western District of Texas. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison for each count. If convicted of three or more counts of bringing an alien to the United States for financial gain, Tafakori faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 15 years. "Securing our borders and stopping alien smuggling is a top priority for the Department of Justice," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. "This defendant allegedly transported many illegal aliens into the United States, exploiting our nation’s immigration laws and depriving our immigration officials of the ability to vet and review the individuals entering our communities.” Prosecutors allege that from December 2022 to May 2024, Tafakori facilitated the illegal entry of primarily Iranian nationals into the United States, charging some individuals up to $30,000. He is accused of coordinating with others to provide shelter and transportation, and at times airline tickets, as the migrants traveled through South and Central America and Mexico. He then allegedly directed them to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. "Based on this indictment, Colombian authorities acted fast and arrested Tafakori, and when he is extradited, he will face justice in the United States," Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the DOJ’s Criminal Division said in a statement. "Those who endanger our communities by participating in human smuggling across our borders will be apprehended regardless of whether they live in the United States or abroad.” The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations in San Antonio, with assistance from multiple national and international agencies, including Colombian law enforcement. The prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force and the Joint Task Force Alpha, which target transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling rings.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [4/24/2026 4:29 PM, John Binder, 2238K] r

Houston Chronicle [4/24/2026 11:16 AM, Benjamin Wermund, 2493K] reports border crossings have ground to such a halt over the last year that President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, recently said “we have the most secure border in the history of the nation.” But last week, Gov. Greg Abbott quietly renewed a border disaster proclamation — a version of the same order he has issued monthly since 2021, when migrant crossings were at decades-long highs. The now five-year-long disaster declaration has provided the foundation for Abbott’s $11 billion security crackdown and is now allowing the state to help Trump’s mass deportation effort. “The effects of four years of failed border policy under the Biden Administration did not go away overnight,” said Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for the governor. “Illegal crossings, cartel smuggling, fentanyl trafficking, and related criminal activity continue to threaten public safety in Texas.” The lasting nature of the declaration underscores how Abbott — who is seeking a record fourth term as governor this fall — has leveraged his executive authority and consolidated power over the past decade in office.

HS Today [4/24/2026 6:25 AM, Staff, 38K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has announced more than $657 million in FEMA funding to reimburse states, local governments and health care facilities for their costs to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. FEMA has continued to provide funding as responsibly as possible, forecasting that the agency would be funded. The lapse in appropriations has drastically depleted the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), FEMA’s primary source of funding for responding to and supporting recovery from Presidentially declared disasters. “FEMA continues to work tirelessly to clear the backlog of pending reimbursement requests for states, hospitals, local health care facilities and many others to ensure they receive funding for their eligible COVID-19 expenses, while also ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately,” said Secretary Mullin. “This was an unprecedented event, and we are aggressively working to close out outstanding COVID-19 projects since it has dragged on for far too long.” The funds will be distributed through FEMA’s Public Assistance program to support 75 COVID-19 projects across the country. This money is disbursed to states, territories and health care facilities as FEMA continues to review additional projects for potential duplication of benefits. Because of the unique nature of the COVID-19 response, FEMA conducted thorough reviews of claimed costs to identify duplication of benefits, specifically with patient care revenue. This led to roughly $8 billion in recovered funding for projects that were ineligible for FEMA funds and did not comply with the agency’s standards for reimbursement.

HS Today [4/24/2026 6:25 AM, Staff, 38K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced more than $250 million in funding to help states prevent damage from future flood disasters. Under the leadership of Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, FEMA has been empowered to expeditiously work on pending mitigation grant awards. At his direction, FEMA is moving forward with plans to fund more than 100 projects across 20 states. This funding—distributed through FEMA’s Flood Mitigation Assistance program and Swift Current—will enable states to protect their communities from the devastating impact of floods, which are the most common and costly type of natural disaster. “Communities all across the United States are all too familiar with how devastating flooding can be,” said Senior Official Performing the Duties of the FEMA Administrator Karen S. Evans. “State and local leaders need support from FEMA—not red tape. Under the leadership of Secretary Mullin, FEMA has prioritized moving resources to states to help them face all kinds of disasters, including floods. This funding will empower them to take decisive, proactive action to save lives and reduce the cost of future disasters.” FEMA’s Flood Mitigation Assistance Program funds community-led projects to reduce or eliminate the risk of repetitive flood damage to structures and buildings insured by the National Flood Insurance Program. Also, as a part of Flood Mitigation Assistance, in 2022, FEMA implemented its Swift Current grant opportunities which are made available after Presidentially declared flood disasters to expedite the delivery of mitigation awards.

HS Today [4/24/2026 6:25 AM, Staff, 38K] reports FEMA has announced nearly $2 million in funding to New York for long-term projects that will make local communities more resilient to floods. This funding is part of the more than $250 million that FEMA announced today for over 100 flood mitigation projects nationwide. Under DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s leadership, FEMA is working diligently to address the backlog of funding requests. Even 67 days into the current lapse in appropriations, the longest ever in U.S history, DHS and FEMA are delivering resources to states across the country. These awards are distributed through FEMA’s Flood Mitigation Assistance program, empowering states to take proactive action against the devastating impact of floods, which are the most common and costly type of natural disaster.

New York Times [4/24/2026 6:22 PM, Mark Walker and Amy Graff, 148038K] reports Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia said on Friday that two large wildfires in southeast Georgia had destroyed more than 120 structures and scorched tens of thousands of acres of drought-stricken land as firefighters worked to contain them. The fires were among dozens of wildfires that have been burning in southern Georgia and northern Florida this week, including one northwest of Jacksonville where a volunteer firefighter died after an unspecified medical emergency on Thursday, officials said. Georgia officials said they believed the fires had burned more homes than any wildfire in the state’s history. About 1,000 additional homes remain at risk, Mr. Kemp said at a news conference. Smoke from the fires has spread as far as West Virginia. The most destructive fire started Monday along Highway 82 in rural Brantley County, east of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge near the Georgia-Florida border, and has since burned more than 7,500 acres and 87 homes and other structures, Mr. Kemp said. The fire was about 15 percent contained on Friday, he said. “We believe the fire was started by a balloon landing on a power line causing an arc that created the fire,” Mr. Kemp said. Other news outlets reported that the balloon was a metallic one from a child’s party. The Pineland Road fire in Clinch and Echols Counties, on opposite side of the wildlife refuge, has burned more than 31,000 acres and destroyed 35 homes, Mr. Kemp said. That fire was about 10 percent contained on Friday morning.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [4/24/2026 4:13 PM, Jeanine Santucci, 70643K]

US News & World Report [4/25/2026 12:57 AM, Steve Gorman, 16072K] reports Georgia Governor Brian Kemp declared an emergency on Friday for 91 counties in his state, where authorities are battling two major wildfires that have caused record property damage as more than 120 homes and other buildings have ‌gone up in flames. The Highway 82 and Pineland Road fires - one sparked by a party balloon, the other by a welder’s torch - are by far the fiercest among dozens of blazes ravaging the drought-stricken Georgia countryside and neighboring states of Florida, South Carolina and Alabama in recent days. No casualties were reported in Georgia, which has borne the brunt of the wildfires. But a volunteer firefighter died on Thursday evening after suffering an unspecified medical emergency while fighting a brush fire in northern Florida, according to various news media reports. The conflagrations were primed by a ⁠confluence of climate extremes gripping the Southeast, authorities said. Unusually sparse rainfall this spring following heavy vegetation growth in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene last fall has created a fuel bed of drought-parched timber and brush now posing the kind of wildfire hazards more typical for the Western United States in summer. "We are in extreme drought conditions, and wildfire activity has already surpassed our five-year average," Georgia Forestry Commission Director Johnny Sabo said in a video message posted online. "Right now conditions are so dry that even one small spark can quickly turn into a dangerous wildfire." As of Friday night, the Highway 82 and Pineland blazes had scorched more than 39,500 acres (16,000 hectares) combined, incinerating at least 122 homes and other structures, state forestry officials said. The tally of destruction marked the biggest property loss from a single fire event in Georgia’s history, the governor told a press conference. Nearly ‌1,000 more ⁠homes remained threatened, he said. Fires are scattered across Georgia, with the two biggest clustered in the southeast near the Florida border, roughly 250 miles (400 km) southeast of Atlanta, the state’s capital and largest city. News footage of the fires showed walls of pine trees engulfed in flames, and Kemp described "fire that is burning to the top of trees and burning from one treetop to another." With firefighters and water-dropping aircraft struggling to halt the advance of the flames, crews were trying to protect homes still ⁠in harm’s way, Kemp said. Teams had managed to carve containment lines around 10% of the perimeters of each of the two major fires, forestry officials said. In a move aimed at hastening and consolidating Georgia’s disaster response, Kemp declared a state of emergency in 91 of Georgia’s 159 counties. Sabo announced a 30-day ban on the outdoor ⁠burning of refuse, agricultural waste or campfires in the same counties, the first such restriction in the state’s history. The origin of the two biggest blazes illustrated how a small ignition source could touch off catastrophic fires.

HS Today [4/24/2026 7:20 AM, Staff, 38K] reports as hearings continue to be held in Austin in lawsuits filed by parents against Camp Mystic, and as a multi-state agency investigation continues, a Texas congressman’s bill to require updating a national emergency preparedness system unanimously passed the U.S. House. U.S. Rep. August Pfluger, a Republican from the Panhandle, filed the Mystic Alerts Act to modernize the national emergency alert infrastructure by integrating satellite networks into the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. The alert system is voluntary. Pfluger’s two daughters were at the camp during the historic July 4 flood last year that killed nearly 200 people in multiple counties, including 25 campers and two counselors at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, The Center Square reported. Pfluger’s daughters survived.

USA Today [4/24/2026 4:22 PM, Brandi D. Addison, 70643K] reports powerful tornadoes tore across Oklahoma late Thursday, April 23, into early Friday, injuring at least 10 people, damaging homes and knocking out utilities as a widespread storm system moved across the Central Plains. The severe weather was part of a larger system that stretched across the region, triggering dozens of tornado warnings. Warnings and watches were issued across Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska as storms intensified and tracked northeast. In addition to tornadoes, the system produced large hail, damaging winds and frequent lightning. The outbreak comes during a volatile spring pattern that has brought back-to-back rounds of severe thunderstorms since late March, including hail, high winds and tornadoes. For Oklahoma, tornado activity began in January 2026 with an unusually active month that set a record for the most tornadoes ever documented in January in the state, according to the Oklahoman. Damage assessments were ongoing on April 24, with officials urging residents in impacted areas to avoid debris fields and remain alert as the storm system continued moving through the region.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [4/24/2026 4:07 PM, Staff, 2238K]

CNN [4/24/2026 3:33 PM, Mary Gilbert, Briana Waxman, Martin Goillandeau, and Holly Yan, 19874K] reports multiple tornadoes roared through the central United States Thursday, including a powerful twister that caused significant damage and multiple injuries in Oklahoma — the start of a dangerous multi-day stretch of severe thunderstorms for the region. Thursday was the first of at least five consecutive days of considerable severe thunderstorm risks. Tornado threats of varying levels are in place each day through Monday, as are risks for damaging straight-line wind gusts and hail. A large and slow-moving powerful tornado tracked through Enid, Oklahoma, Thursday evening, triggering a rare tornado emergency — the National Weather Service’s most urgent type of tornado warning. Enid is about 65 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. Video from CNN affiliate KOCO shows major structural damage, overturned vehicles and widespread debris on the southeast side of the city after the tornado was active for more than 30 minutes. At least 10 people were found with injuries, which are believed to be minor, according to Garfield County emergency management, KOCO reported. CNN has reached out for additional details.

HS Today [4/24/2026 7:20 AM, Staff, 38K] reports U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Resolute’s crew offloaded approximately 2,570 pounds of cocaine worth more than $19.3 million and transferred six suspected drug smugglers to federal authorities, Thursday, at Base Miami Beach. The seized contraband was the result of three interdictions in the Caribbean Sea by the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma and the crew of the USS Billings with an embarked Coast Guard law enforcement detachment. “The success of these interdictions reflects the strength of our partnerships and the persistence of our crews,” said Cmdr. Ian Starr, Resolute’s commanding officer. “By stopping these shipments at sea, we are preventing dangerous drugs from reaching our communities and disrupting transnational criminal organizations.”

Telemundo 51 [4/24/2026 12:20 PM, Staff, 162K] reports that More than $19.3 million worth of cocaine seized by the U.S. Coast Guard was offloaded Thursday in Miami Beach, authorities reported. The shipment consists of 2,570 pounds of cocaine—more than 1.2 tons—which was offloaded at Base Miami Beach along with six suspected drug traffickers who were taken into federal custody, Coast Guard officials stated. The cocaine was seized during three interdictions in the Caribbean Sea by crews from the Coast Guard Cutter *Tahoma* and the USS *Billings*. Coast Guard officials reported that in 2025, more than 511,000 pounds of cocaine were seized—more than three times the annual average. Additionally, Operation Pacific Viper—launched last August and focused on drug trafficking in the Eastern Pacific—has resulted in the seizure of over 215,000 pounds of cocaine and the arrest of 160 suspected drug traffickers.

CBS News [4/24/2026 10:01 AM, Kerry Breen, 51110K] reports dramatic video and photos show members of the U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard searching for the missing crew of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship that overturned after an engine failure during a typhoon in the Pacific Ocean. The Coast Guard shared video of Air Force pararescuemen leaping from a C-130 Hercules airplane to meet the crew of a Coast Guard cutter on Sunday. Once the pararescuemen were brought aboard the vessel, the teams traveled to the site of the Mariana, which reported trouble to Coast Guard watchstanders at the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, on April 15. The video and photos shared by the Coast Guard show the pararescuemen preparing to conduct dive operations. The teams also used a remotely operated underwater drone to search the interior of the ship. According to the Air Force, pararescuemen are elite combat forces that "execute the most perilous, demanding, and extreme rescue missions" across the globe.

HS Today [4/24/2026 11:30 AM, Daniel O’Donohue, 38K] reports the devastating flash flooding that hit central Texas in July 2025 quickly brought out thousands of local volunteers to help search over more than 60 miles for people swept away by rushing waters. With little formal infrastructure for responding to such a widespread disaster, volunteers and local authorities relied on a civilian version of the military’s Technical Awareness Kit (CIVTAK) for operational command-and-control (C2). CIVTAK enabled them to successfully use personal mobile devices to check in, get maps and directions and ensure accountability for search actions. This unexpected emergency exposes a gap in US response preparedness for another type of threat – an attack on critical infrastructure. The possibility is not theoretical. For example, it is known that nation state-sponsored cyber attackers like Salt Typhoon, Volt Typhoon and CARR have already infiltrated US power and water infrastructure, potentially putting every American community at risk. Even our military is not immune. After funding cuts, some domestic bases are sourcing power, water and medical support from outside their own boundaries. They are consequently as vulnerable to threats as any other off-base community. And while considerable emphasis and investment is being put toward external-facing threats, even programs like the space-based Golden Dome missile defense system, which will require satellite ground station infrastructure, are vulnerable to cyber infiltration.

HS Today [4/24/2026 8:20 AM, Staff, 38K] reports the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK), together with federal and international partners, have released a new cybersecurity advisory titled “Defending Against China-Nexus Covert Networks of Compromised Devices.” This advisory equips network defenders with vital tools and resources to combat the threat posed by Chinese government-linked threat actors’ use of covert networks of compromised devices. “Working closely with U.S. and international partners, CISA continues to identify and warn organizations of Chinese state-sponsored cyber actors threatening critical infrastructure. This advisory informs organizations of how these actors are strategically using numerous, evolving covert networks at scale for malicious cyber activity,” said CISA Acting Director Nick Andersen. “CISA strongly encourages organizations to review and implement appropriate mitigation measures to defend their devices from this threat. Every day, CISA works to empower organizations with actionable information to strengthen their security and resilience against cyber threats.” The advisory explains how attackers create hidden networks by taking advantage of weak devices, like those used at home or in small offices, as well as Internet of Things (IoT) gadgets. It also describes how groups such as Volt Typhoon and Flax Typhoon use large groups of hijacked devices, called botnets, to hide who they are and carry out spying, break-ins, controlling devices, and stealing data.

New York Times [4/24/2026 12:39 PM, Santul Nerkar, 148038K] reports that on a December morning in 2017, a man left his Brooklyn apartment, entered a New York City subway station and detonated the pipe bomb strapped to his chest in a passageway, terrifying commuters during the early rush hour. Nobody was killed by the attacker, Akayed Ullah, who later told law enforcement that he carried out the attack “on behalf of the Islamic State.” He had consumed ISIS propaganda on YouTube and scribbled a popular slogan on his visa, passport and a box of bomb-making materials. Despite that evidence, Mr. Ullah did not provide “material support” to ISIS that morning, according to the federal appellate court that on Tuesday reversed one of his convictions. The court upheld the other convictions he was appealing, which included committing a terrorist attack against mass transportation systems. While Mr. Ullah will still spend the rest of his life in prison, the decision takes aim at a tool federal prosecutors have used for decades to crack down on terrorism. Some experts say the ruling could affect longstanding convictions and change the prosecution of so-called lone wolf terrorists, including those who have carried out ISIS-inspired attacks. In cases where a defendant is inspired by but does not directly communicate with terrorists, prosecutors “are going to be concerned that an important tool will be taken off the table,” said Matthew Levitt, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank. “It could make it harder for some of these charges to stick.” It was clear Mr. Ullah’s attack was inspired by ISIS, Judge Myrna Pérez wrote in Tuesday’s ruling, and that ISIS wanted men like him to carry out attacks around the world.

CBS Philadelphia [4/24/2026 6:12 PM, Tom Dougherty, 51110K] reports a 19-year-old man who was allegedly involved in a mass shooting that killed one person and injured eight others on the Fourth of July in Philadelphia nearly two years ago turned himself in to police Friday. The Philadelphia Police Department said Naseem Sills was taken into custody after he turned himself in to 9th district headquarters Friday. Sills is expected to be charged in connection with 19-year-old Maurice White’s murder, according to police. Police said specific charges are forthcoming. Police identified Sills as a suspect in the July 4, 2024, mass shooting in the 1900 block of Salford Street. White was killed, and a group of young women and men ranging in age from 15 to 24 years old were wounded in the shooting. A group of people, including White, gathered at the corner of Chester and Kingsessing avenues when an SUV drove by and someone in the passenger seat fired into the group.

AP [4/24/2026 6:54 PM, Sara Cline, 612K] reports Louisiana authorities said Friday they had charged a 17-year-old with murder and were searching for another suspect after bystanders were caught in the crossfire of a shooting at a mall in Baton Rouge that killed one teenage girl and injured five other people. Baton Rouge Police Chief TJ Morse said the shooting Thursday at the Mall of Louisiana was not a random act and seemed to be driven by “social media beefs and maybe gang-related stuff,” adding that the investigation was ongoing. “We know that this was two groups of people that met up at the mall, exchanged words and then pulled guns and innocent people were hit,” Morse said. The chief spoke at a news conference alongside Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who vowed to crack down on gang violence in the capital city and said he had spoken with FBI Director Kash Patel. The Republican governor promised to use state, local and federal resources to address the issue and that consequences “are going to start being felt immediately.” Landry said he was asking all levels and sectors of law enforcement to “prepare for a targeted warrant sweep” for anyone connected to the mall shooting. He said it would focus on the “neighborhoods that these individuals came out of” without naming specific parts of the city. “We are not going to allow our streets, our schools and our public spaces to become your battleground,” Landry said. “Those who brought this violence into our public spaces and into the lives of our ordinary citizens, I want you to know you are now the criminal problem and we are focused on you.” Shoppers and workers inside mall fled and hid for cover as shots rang out at in the food court. Morse said that two officers on duty at the mall ran toward the gunfire without hesitation and rendered aid. Their quick action helped save lives, he said.

Univision [4/24/2026 1:44 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports that FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Friday, April 24, 2026, the arrest of a man who allegedly planned a mass shooting this weekend at the 2026 New Orleans Jazz Fest in Louisiana. In recent days, the region has recorded at least two gun-related incidents. Via his account on the social media platform X, Patel stated that the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force worked in coordination with local authorities in Louisiana and Florida to locate and apprehend the suspect. The official confirmed that the individual is now in custody and that the investigation remains ongoing. "Thanks to our agents and local partners who acted quickly," he noted. Although the detainee’s identity was not initially disclosed, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office reported that he is Christopher Gillum, a native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who was wanted for making terrorist threats. Federal authorities had issued an alert indicating that the subject was in northwest Florida with the intention of carrying out an attack at a festival in Louisiana. Gillum was arrested without incident on Wednesday, April 22, at a hotel in Destin, Florida. During the operation, agents seized a handgun and approximately 200 rounds of ammunition from the room where he was staying. The suspect was detained as a fugitive and will be extradited to Louisiana to face charges.

CBS News [4/24/2026 11:16 PM, Lauren Fichten, 51110K] reports OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has apologized to members of a Canadian community where a mass shooting took place earlier this year for not flagging the ChatGPT account of the shooter to law enforcement. "The pain your community has endured is unimaginable," Altman wrote in a letter shared Friday on social media by the British Columbia Premier David Eby. "I have been thinking of you often over the past few months.” Eight people were killed in the Feb. 10 massacre in the small community of Tumbler Ridge in northeast British Columbia. Six people were fatally shot when 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, authorities said, and the shooter’s mother and 11-year-old brother were killed at a nearby residence. Van Rootselaar died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said. Altman wrote in the letter, dated Thursday, that Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT account had been banned in June 2025 — about eight months prior to the shooting. "I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June," Altman said. In February, OpenAI told CBS News that Van Rootselaar’s account had been flagged last year by automated abuse detection tools and human investigators that identify potential misuses of ChatGPT for violent activities. OpenAI said the account was then banned for violating its usage policies. OpenAI said that the company had weighed whether to flag the account to law enforcement, but had determined at the time that it did not pose an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others, failing to meet the threshold for referral. "Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the Tumbler Ridge tragedy," OpenAI said in a statement to CBS News in February following the shooting. "We proactively reached out to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with information on the individual and their use of ChatGPT, and we’ll continue to support their investigation.”

Telemundo [4/24/2026 7:35 PM, Staff, 162K] reports the death of two U.S. agents and two Mexicans after an anti-drug operation in the state of Chihuahua again put at the center of the debate the action of U.S. agents in Mexican territory, while the president, Claudia Sheinbaum, defended on Friday the national sovereignty and strict compliance with the legal framework In recent days, diplomatic tensions have grown with Sheinbaum’s demand for explanation from Washington over the involvement of U.S. agents in an anti-drug operation in the northern state of Chihuahua, bordering the United States. For David Saucedo, a security analyst, the episode evidences an increasingly frequent practice: the unilateral action of U.S. agencies without prior notification to the Mexican federal government, driven by distrust of possible leaks of information to criminal organizations. The presence of agencies such as the CIA, the FBI and the DEA, he explained, “is not new”, since for years they have been carrying out intelligence, investigation and tactical support in Mexico, usually under coordination schemes reserved with national authorities. However, he said that in recent years Washington has reduced the previous exchange of intelligence with Mexican authorities, especially at the federal level. “Sharing the information with the government of Mexico involved greater risks, including falling into the hands of organized crime,” he said. In his opinion, the information obtained from extradited kingpins, particularly from structures linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, has allowed U.S. agencies to identify clandestine laboratories, traffic routes and institutional protection networks without the need to share all the data with Mexico. This factor, he added, is combined with Washington’s political interest in directly awarding the results in the fight against drug trafficking and protecting the identity of its agents deployed in sensitive operations.

NPR [4/25/2026 2:35 AM, Staff, 28764K] reports the White House has confirmed that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are planning to travel to Pakistan Saturday for a new round of talks with Iran. Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday arrived in Islamabad, where Pakistan hosted direct U.S.-Iran talks earlier this month. But his spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, denied that a direct meeting with the U.S. was planned. "Iran’s observations would be conveyed to Pakistan," he wrote on X. The news of U.S. and Iranian officials traveling to Pakistan came the same day that Israel’s military said it attacked southern Lebanon, targeting sites belonging to the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and the militant group fired rockets into Israel. That was despite President Trump’s announcement that Israel and Lebanon agreed during White House talks Thursday to extend the ceasefire by three weeks. Hezbollah was not involved in the negotiations and has opposed them. The shaky Israel-Lebanon ceasefire is linked to broader U.S. efforts to draw its war with Iran to a close. Tehran has insisted that the fighting in Lebanon remain paused as a precondition for further peace talks with the United States. Trump unilaterally extended the ceasefire with Iran this week, hours before it was set to expire, without indicating a new expiration date. Iran has dismissed that extension as "meaningless," saying the continued U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports is a violation of the deal and that the Iranian delegation will not return to the negotiating table until the blockade is lifted.

Reported similarly:
AP [4/24/2026 7:27 PM, Munir Ahmed, Jon Gambrell, and Jamey Keaten, 5209K]
Washington Examiner [4/24/2026 1:55 PM, Mabinty Quarshie, 1147K]

NewsMax [4/24/2026 10:34 AM, Staff, 3760K] reports War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday the United States has imposed an "ironclad blockade" on Iran that is tightening "by the hour," with U.S. naval forces turning back vessels and expanding enforcement worldwide as part of a broader military and economic campaign. Speaking at a morning press briefing, Hegseth said the blockade, a central component of "Operation Epic Fury," is designed to cut off Iranian shipping and force Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. "As part of that effort, the United States has imposed an ironclad blockade that grows more powerful by the day," Hegseth said. "From the Gulf of Oman to the open oceans, our Navy is enforcing this blockade without hesitation or apology." He said every ship meeting U.S. criteria, including Iranian vessels or ships traveling to and from Iranian ports, has been turned around, while 34 non-Iranian vessels have been allowed to transit as of Friday morning. "Our blockade is growing and going global," Hegseth said, pointing to the seizure this week of two Iranian "dark fleet" ships in the Indo-Pacific that had departed before the blockade took effect.

CNN [4/24/2026 12:00 PM, Jennifer Hansler and Sean Lyngaas, 612K] reports that the Trump administration has frozen $344 million in cryptocurrency it says was linked to Iran as the United States ratchets up pressure on Tehran. The move, first reported by CNN, comes as shaky diplomatic efforts to reach a deal to end the war continue to stall and the global economy reels from its impact. The administration has sought to increase economic pressure on Iran during the tenuous ceasefire. It’s unclear if the large sum of money seized will have an impact on Tehran or its approach to the war and negotiations. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that the agency "is sanctioning multiple wallets tied to Iran." "We will follow the money that Tehran is desperately attempting to move outside of the country and target all financial lifelines tied to the regime," he said in a statement. The Iranian mission to the United Nations declined to comment. On Thursday, Tether, a digital currency company that facilitates crypto transactions around the world, announced it had "supported the US government in freezing" $344 million in cryptocurrency across two addresses, after information was shared "by several U.S. authorities about activity tied to unlawful conduct.” A US official told CNN that the government had information linking the currency to Iran.

New York Times [4/25/2026 5:02 AM, William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, 148038K] reports as nuclear talks restart in Pakistan this weekend, President Trump will confront the complicated legacy of his own decision, eight years ago, to cancel what he has called “a horrible, one-sided deal.” That Obama-era agreement suffered from flaws and omissions. It would have expired after 15 years, leaving Iran free after 2030 to make as much nuclear fuel as it wanted. But once Mr. Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, the Iranians went on an enrichment spree much sooner, leaving them closer to a bomb than ever before. Now, Mr. Trump’s negotiators are dealing with the consequences of that decision, which he made over the objections of many of his national security advisers at the time. Much recent attention has focused on Iran’s half ton of uranium that has been enriched to a level just shy of what is typically used in atom bombs. The majority of it is thought to be buried in a tunnel complex that Mr. Trump bombed last June. But those 970 pounds of potential bomb fuel represent only a small fraction of the problem. Today, international inspectors say, Iran has a total of 11 tons of uranium, at various enrichment levels. With further purification, that is enough to build up to 100 nuclear weapons — more than the estimated size of Israel’s arsenal. Virtually all of that cache accumulated in the years after Mr. Trump abandoned the Obama-era deal. That is because Tehran lived up to its pledge to ship to Russia 12.5 tons of its overall stockpile, about 97 percent. Iran’s weapon designers were left with too little nuclear fuel to build a single bomb. Now, matching or exceeding that diplomatic accomplishment is one of the most complex challenges facing Mr. Trump and his two lead negotiators, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who are expected to leave for Pakistan on Saturday.

AP [4/25/2026 4:38 AM, Abdul Qahar Afghan and Elena Becatoros, 2493K] reports Afghanistan’s foreign ministry says Afghans who helped America’s war effort and have been stuck in Qatar in the hope of reaching the United States, can safely return to Afghanistan. The statement Saturday by foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi comes after reports emerged that the Trump administration is in discussions to potentially send 1,100 Afghans who assisted the U.S. during its war in Afghanistan and relatives of U.S. service members to Congo. An organization called #AfghanEvac that supports Afghan resettlement efforts said Wednesday that U.S. officials had informed the group of discussions between the United States and Congo about taking the Afghan refugees who have been in limbo at Camp As-Sayliyah, a U.S. base in Doha, for the past year. The State Department said it is working to identify options to "voluntarily" resettle the refugees in a third country, but did not confirm which nations were being discussed. An alternative provided to the refugees was to return to Afghanistan, #AfghanEvac said, where they fear reprisals or even death at the hands of the Taliban, who have been running the country since they seized power in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led forces in 2021, for working alongside the U.S. during the two-decade war. Want more Houston Chronicle? Make us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search. Afghanistan’s foreign ministry "reiterates that Afghanistan constitutes the shared homeland of all Afghans and it invites all those concerned, as well as others sharing a similar situation, (to) return to their homeland, whose doors remain open to them, to do so with full confidence & peace of mind," Balkhi wrote in his statement. He added that "those intending to travel to another country may do so at an appropriate juncture through legal & dignified channels." Afghanistan’s foreign ministry "stands ready to engage with all countries," Balkhi said, adding that the foreign ministry "underscores to all sides that there exist no security threats in Afghanistan, & none is compelled to leave the country on account of security considerations.” In a joint statement posted by the #AfghanEvac group on behalf of those in Camp As-Sayliyah, the Afghans said they had received no information from U.S. officials about the talks to potentially relocate them, and had found out about it from the press. The state of limbo they have been living in is taking a severe toll on them, they said.

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