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

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

The Wall Street Journal [4/26/2026 1:18 AM, Yoko Kubota, Melissa Korn, and Joseph Pisani, 646K] reports a man from California was arrested Saturday evening after allegedly opening fire inside a hotel where President Trump was due to address the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Secret Service agents whisked Trump, the first lady and other leading members of the administration away from the stage at the Washington Hilton, about a mile and a half from the White House in Washington, D.C. An officer was shot during an exchange of fire but was wearing a bulletproof vest and was later well enough to speak with the president. There were no reports of any other injuries. Trump was sitting on the stage in the front of a ballroom in the hotel when several loud bangs were heard in the hallway outside the ballroom. Vice President JD Vance was also attending the dinner. After the bangs, once backstage, Trump initially told people he thought the event should continue, according to a White House official but was taken back to the White House where he later spoke to journalists, many of whom had been attending the event. “I want to live because I want to make this country great. That’s why I want to live,” Trump told reporters. “But when you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone.” The suspect is Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., according to two law-enforcement officials briefed on the investigation. The president earlier posted an image on his Truth Social account of a dark-haired man lying face down on the floor who he said was the suspect, without naming him. NewsMax [4/25/2026 11:05 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports that a man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of Secret Service," Trump said at the White House. "They acted very quickly.". According to Trump, one Secret Service agent was shot at close range during the confrontation but was saved by a bulletproof vest. The president said he personally spoke with the agent, who was "in great shape" and in high spirits after the incident. Trump also ordered the release of video footage of the attack, emphasizing transparency and showcasing what he called the professionalism and bravery of law enforcement. He described the suspect as a "thug" who "attacked our Constitution," framing the incident as part of a broader pattern of political violence in recent years. The shooting occurred outside the ballroom during the annual dinner — often dubbed the "Nerd Prom" — which Trump noted was intended to celebrate free speech and bring together political leaders and the media. Despite the chaos, Trump said the moment revealed a rare sense of unity. "I saw a room that was just totally unified … Republicans, Democrats, independents … there was a tremendous amount of love," he said. Secondary reports from Reuters and AFP confirm the suspect was apprehended near a security checkpoint before reaching the main event space, likely preventing further harm. Guests inside the ballroom dove under tables as security teams moved swiftly to secure the area. Trump used the incident to renew calls for enhanced security measures in Washington, pointing to the need for a more secure White House ballroom facility with modern protections such as bulletproof glass and anti-drone capabilities. "This is why we need levels of security that probably nobody has ever seen before," he said. The New York Times [4/26/2026 12:55 AM, Luke Broadwater, 148038K] reports that a security video posted by Mr. Trump showed the gunman sprinting past the security checkpoint before being captured short of the ballroom. Mr. Trump said the incident underscored why he wanted to build a $400 million ballroom on White House grounds that he said would be equipped with the latest security features. That project is currently subject to litigation. “It’s not a particularly secure building,” he said of the Hilton, before launching into a pitch for the necessity of his planned ballroom. “It’s bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom.” The New York Times [4/26/2026 12:57 AM, Pooja Salhotra, 148038K] reports that the suspect exchanged gunfire with authorities before being brought under control by the Secret Service. He did not reach the ballroom where President Trump and hundreds of members of the media were gathered for the annual event, said the Washington police chief, Jeffery W. Carroll, in a separate news conference Saturday night. The suspect was carrying knives, a shotgun and a handgun, officials said. He was believed to be staying as a guest in the hotel when he carried out the attack, the authorities said. A Secret Service agent was shot, Mr. Trump said, but he was protected by a bulletproof vest. He was taken to a hospital for treatment, officials said. The suspect was also taken there to be evaluated, though officials said they did not believe he had been injured. “The man has been captured,” Mr. Trump said during a briefing shortly after the shooting, adding that investigators were going to his apartment in California. “He’s a very sick person.” The authorities said they believed the shooter acted alone. They were still investigating whether the person was targeting the president. A spokeswoman for the California Institute of Technology said a person named Cole Allen had earned an undergraduate degree in 2017, but that the school had no other information to disclose immediately. A student named Cole Allen graduated with a master’s degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills, in 2025, according to a statement from that school. “The university cannot confirm if this is the same suspect identified in the April 25 shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner,” the statement read, adding that the university “unequivocally condemns this act of violence, as well as all forms of violence.”

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Wall Street Journal [4/26/2026 2:06 AM, Alex Leary and Josh Dawsey, 646K]
New York Times [4/26/2026 12:30 AM, Michael M. Grynbaum, 148038K]
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USA Today [4/26/2026 6:33 AM, Karissa Waddick and Christopher Cann, 67103K]
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NBC News [4/26/2026 2:35 AM, Rudy Chinchilla, Rich Schapiro, and Bill Feather, 42967K] reports the man suspected of opening fire at officers during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C., on Saturday is a 31-year-old from Southern California, authorities said. The suspect was identified as Cole Thomas Allen, of Torrance, a federal official familiar with the case told NBC News. Allen was armed with a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives when he rushed a security checkpoint and ran toward the ballroom where the dinner was being held, said Jeff Carroll, interim police chief for the Metropolitan Police Department. He exchanged gunfire with law enforcement and was tackled to the ground, Carroll said. The suspect was not hurt, while a Secret Service officer was struck in his bulletproof vest but was expected to survive, authorities said. The officer was released from a local hospital after the shooting, a source said early Sunday. Allen’s motives in Saturday’s attack at the dinner — the first attended by President Donald Trump while in office — are unclear. Officials have said he has no criminal record and was not on the radar of law enforcement in Washington, D.C. The Washington Examiner [4/26/2026 12:25 AM, Zach LaChance, 1147K] reports the gunman who opened fire outside the main ballroom of the White House correspondents’ dinner is currently believed to be a guest at the Washington Hilton, the hotel where the event was being held. The suspect, who has been widely identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old teacher from Los Angeles, California, charged the security checkpoint, shooting the agent with a shotgun. Agents then discharged their weapons and pursued Allen, exchanging gunfire and later tackling and handcuffing him. The Secret Service agent was wearing a protective vest and was hospitalized. He is in "good spirits," according to Carroll. Allen was not struck by gunfire but was also hospitalized. Agents found on Allen the shotgun, one handgun, and "multiple" knives. He is also believed to be a guest at the hotel and a room in the hotel has now been secured, Carroll said. Pirro said Allen is facing two charges, specifically using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer. Carroll also said it is unclear whether Allen was allegedly "targeting" Trump, though he acknowledged the president’s presence at the event at the time of the shooting. Carroll added that he was not on the D.C.’s police’s radar.

Reported similarly:
CBS News [4/26/2026 1:54 AM, Faris Tanyos, 51110K]

Daily Caller [4/26/2026 12:13 AM, Anthony Iafrate, 803K] reports U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced charges against the gunman who opened fire at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner in an apparent assassination attempt against President Donald Trump. Authorities arrested the suspect, who multiple outlets have reported to be 31-year-old Cole Allen of Torrance, California, after Trump, his wife Melania and Cabinet members present were evacuated following gunfire. Pirro told reporters the would-be assassin is "charged with two counts," "using a firearm during a crime of violence" and "assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon." (RELATED: Journalists Laugh At Mention Trump Could Speak After Assassination Attempt). "Now, as you all know, there was an individual, a uniformed Secret Service officer, who was shot, and fortunately, he is doing alright and he will be fine," Pirro added. She added that based on the available evidence, it is clear that the suspect "was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could.". "And thankfully, because of the checkpoint right outside the ballroom where thousands of people were situated to hear the President of the United States — because that checkpoint worked, there was no one who was injured when it was clear where this defendant was going, Pirro continued. The U.S. Attorney and former Fox News host was, like several other Trump administration members, in attendance for the dinner which the president was slated to address for the first times during either of his White House terms. "I, for the first time, was in a situation where there were shots fired, shots heard, and a whole room went silent. When I lifted my head and when I looked up, every law enforcement officer was out there as we all had our heads down," Pirro said. "Thousands of them. These are the men and women every day who do what they do silently, and they do it with courage and with dignity.".

NewsMax [4/25/2026 11:52 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports the suspect arrested in the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting "was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could," U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said Saturday night. Authorities said the quick, coordinated response by Secret Service and law enforcement likely prevented a mass-casualty event at the Washington Hilton, where thousands had gathered to hear President Donald Trump. According to Metropolitan Police Chief Jeffery Carroll, the suspect charged a Secret Service checkpoint in the hotel lobby armed with a shotgun, handgun, and multiple knives before being intercepted by officers. "Members of the United States Secret Service intercepted the individual," Carroll said, noting there was an exchange of gunfire during the confrontation. A uniformed Secret Service officer was struck but protected by a bulletproof vest and is expected to recover. Speaking shortly after the shooting, Carroll confirmed the suspect himself "was not struck by gunfire" and was instead subdued, taken into custody, and transported to a hospital for evaluation. Officials emphasized that the multilayered security perimeter worked as designed, stopping the attacker before he could reach the ballroom, where Trump, cabinet members, and high-profile guests were gathered. Pirro underscored the seriousness of the threat, saying it was "clear where this defendant was going" and warning that the outcome could have been catastrophic if not for the checkpoint. "Because that checkpoint worked, there was no one who was injured," she said, praising the "courage and dignity" of officers who responded within seconds. The suspect has been charged with multiple federal offenses, including using a firearm during a violent crime and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon. Additional charges are expected as the investigation unfolds. Law enforcement officials believe the suspect acted alone and said there is no ongoing threat to the public.

Bloomberg [4/25/2026 11:38 PM, Hadriana Lowenkron, Josh Wingrove, and Skylar Woodhouse, 18082K] reports President Donald Trump said his impression is that the suspect who disrupted Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, DC, acted as a “lone wolf” and was in custody as law enforcement investigates the incident. “A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of Secret Service,” Trump said at a press briefing at the White House Saturday. “He’s in custody and they’re asking him a lot of questions,” the president added. He indicated that police were searching the suspect’s residence in California. Secret Service apprehended a suspect at the Washington Hilton, where the event was being held in the US capital. Witnesses said they saw an individual running past security, down the stairs and toward the ballroom hosting the event. Security officials fired multiple rounds at the individual, witnesses said. Trump and other senior US officials were evacuated from the event immediately after shots were fired outside the ballroom. Trump earlier said Vice President JD Vance, First Lady Melania Trump and members of his Cabinet were safe. “As you know this is not the first time in the past couple of years that our republic has been attacked by a would-be assassin who sought to kill,” Trump said. “In light of this evening’s events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts and resolving our difference peacefully.” “We have to resolve our differences,” he added. US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the suspect has been charged on two felony counts and will be arraigned on Monday. “There will be many more charges based upon the information that we are learning in this very fluid situation,” she said at a separate press briefing on Saturday. Both Pirro and the president said there had been no indication of additional potential threats. Trump, asked if he believed the incident was related to the Iran war, he said he did not think that was the case. Trump praised the efforts of law enforcement and said that one officer was shot, but had been protected by wearing a bullet-proof vest. That officer is “doing great,” Trump said. “I don’t care how many people you have, how good they are. They can be the greatest people you have, the greatest security in history — if you have a whack job who’s got a brain, but it’s a little bit distorted, or a lot distorted, they can make trouble,” he said. The president was joined by FBI Director Kash Patel and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for the press conference. Blanche said the investigation was ongoing and that authorities expected to file charges shortly. Patel said that law enforcement officials were already conducting investigations and that an evidence response unit was examining the ballistics from the scene, including a “long gun and the shell casings.”

New York Post [4/26/2026 4:02 AM, Adam Silverstein, 40934K] reports a Secret Service officer who was shot as a gunman rushed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night is "in great shape," President Trump said. "One officer was shot, but saved by the fact that he was wearing obviously a very good bulletproof vest," Trump said in a press conference on Saturday night, noting the officer was being treated at a local hospital. "He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job. I just spoke to the officer, and he’s doing great. He’s in great shape. He is in very high spirits.". The officer has since been released from the hospital, according to NBC, citing a source. Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed out of the ballroom alongside a wave of senior administration officials after suspected gunman, Cole Allen, 31, allegedly stormed a security checkpoint and pushed toward the event armed with two firearms and multiple knives, according to police and sources. Trump praised law enforcement for acting quickly as he revealed what happened on social media. "Quite an evening in DC, Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The shooter has been apprehended, and I have recommended that we ‘LET THE SHOW GO ON,’ but will entirely be guided by Law Enforcement," he added.

Reuters [4/26/2026 3:29 AM, Gram Slattery, Bo Erickson, and Nandita Bose, 38315K] reports the shooting on Saturday night of a Secret Service agent at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner raises questions yet again about the protection afforded to America’s political leaders at a ‌time of increased political violence. Hundreds of agents from several law enforcement agencies were tasked with protecting the annual bash, which President Donald Trump headlined this year. Yet a suspect with a shotgun and other weapons managed to get just a floor above the Washington ballroom where an extraordinary concentration of cabinet members, high-ranking lawmakers and celebrities were dining. In addition to Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and various other government officials were in attendance, many with their own security details. It is too early to definitively say whether there were any law enforcement failures or miscommunications. But coming less than two years after a pair of assassination attempts against Trump during the presidential campaign in 2024, Saturday’s incident suggests even the nation’s most comprehensive personal security apparatus has points of vulnerability.

New York Post [4/26/2026 1:22 AM, Ryan King, 40934K] reports chilling security footage released by President Trump shows the wild moment that a gunman attempted to rush past security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The sicko, whom sources have identified as Cole Allen of Torrance, Calif., was shown in the blurry footage sprinting past multiple security officers, as agents drew their guns and pursued him. The entrance to the Washington Hilton, which hosts the feted dinner, was subject to a loose check, where officials ensured attendees had tickets for the marquee dinner or a party beforehand. To enter the hotel’s ballroom, where the main course takes place, attendees must go through magnetometer screenings and security checks. There was no security screening beyond the screening in the immediate perimeter before entering the ballroom, which has been the case at past White House Correspondents’ Dinners for decades. The suspect, who is believed to have been a guest at the hotel, according to Interim DC police chief Jeffrey Carroll, was shown trying to blow past that beefed-up security perimeter. Ultimately, agents on the scene were able to pin the suspect down after multiple shots rang out. The 31-year-old was found with two firearms and multiple knives. One Secret Service officer suffered a minor injury after getting shot in their bulletproof vest. Authorities believe Allen acted alone. Records indicate that Allen was a teacher and video game developer, having earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. Trump also posted images of a shirtless Allen pinned to the ground after responding officers detained him. Allen is facing two counts of discharging a firearm during a crime and one count of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, according to US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro. He is set to be arraigned on April 27. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [4/26/2026 1:54 AM, Kathryn Watson, Caroline Linton, 51110K] reports President Trump told reporters Saturday night that he wanted the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner to go on after he was evacuated when shots rang out at the hotel where the event was taking place. The suspect, who is in custody and hospitalized, has been identified by three law enforcement sources as 31-year-old Cole Allen of Torrance California. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the investigation is "ongoing," and charges will be filed "shortly." The president said one Secret Service agent was struck by a round but was protected by a bulletproof vest. Mr. Trump said he was "very far away" when the shots were fired and said the suspect "hadn’t come anywhere close to breach the doors of the room." Asked if he was concerned about the threats to his life, Mr. Trump said, "It’s a dangerous profession." Mr. Trump released photos of the suspect and a clip of security video of the incident, "showing the violence of this thug that attacked the Constitution, and also showing how quickly Secret Service and law enforcement acted." The evacuation occurred just after 8:30 p.m. ET after the sound of gunfire sent attendees scurrying and ducking under tables. Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump were whisked off the stage by Secret Service agents. The suspect had a shotgun and handgun on him, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. Mr. Trump said he "heard a noise" and thought it was a "tray going down." "But it was a gun," the president said. "And some people really understood that pretty quickly, other people didn’t. I was watching to see what was happening, probably should have gone down even faster. Melania was very cognisant, I think, of what happened. I think she knew immediately what happened." "We were whisked away, along with other people, but we were really whisked away," he added. The suspect told law enforcement following his arrest that he wanted to shoot Trump administration officials, two sources told CBS News. The suspect didn’t specifically say he was targeting Mr. Trump, just "administration officials," another law enforcement source said. One officer was shot but "saved by the fact that he was wearing a, obviously, a very good bulletproof vest. He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun," the president said. "The vest did the job." The president said he spoke with the officer, and described him as being in good spirits. "This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press," the president said. "And in a certain way it did. Because the fact that they just unified, I saw a room that was just totally unified. It was, in one way, very beautiful, a very beautiful thing to see." Mr. Trump said the event would be rescheduled within the next 30 days. He added that he "fought like hell" to keep the event going, but law enforcement insisted otherwise. White House Correspondents Association president and CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang asked Mr. Trump what he was feeling when it occurred, particularly after he was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania. Mr. Trump said "it’s always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes." [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The Washington Post [4/26/2026 12:43 AM, Isaac Arnsdorf, 24826K] reports President Donald Trump said Saturday that he views his repeated brushes with violence as a sign of his historic significance and is determined not to let the dangers affect him. “I’ve studied assassinations, and I must tell you, the most impactful people, the people that do the most ... they’re the ones that they go after,” Trump told reporters at the White House soon after a shooting suspect was apprehended. “And I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot.” Trump mentioned Abraham Lincoln, but not Ronald Reagan, who was injured in a shooting outside the same hotel in 1981. Trump said he tries not to dwell on the occupational hazards of being president. His ear was wounded by a would-be assassin during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July 2024. That September, a man set up a sniper’s nest outside Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, and was spotted by Secret Service agents; he was sentenced in February to life in prison.

New York Post [4/26/2026 12:43 AM, Nicholas McEntyre, 40934K] reports President Trump said First Lady Melania Trump had a "traumatic experience" as she declared "that’s a bad noise" when an alleged gunman fired several shots outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night. "Melania was very cognizant," Trump said at a press conference at the White House just over an hour after the chaotic scene across town. "It was a rather traumatic experience for her," he added. The first couple had just made their grand entrance to the annual event at the Washington Hilton Hotel when they heard what they initially thought was dinner trays falling. But she soon realized something was wrong and said "that’s a bad noise," Trump said. The commander in chief revealed the first lady has always been cautious of his job and the higher risk he is put in. "The first lady was doing a terrific job. She loves the country. She recognizes it better than any. But she told me numerous times, she said ‘you are in a dangerous job.’". Secret Service agents captured suspected shooter Cole Allen in the lobby. Allen, a 31-year-old teacher from Torrance, Calif., was found armed with a "shotgun, handgun and multiple knives," DC Police Chief Jeffrey Carroll told reporters. The gunman is believed to have acted alone, but a motive and target have not been revealed. CCTV footage captured the alleged gunman storming through the hotel lobby and past several Secret Service agents. Trump, Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and members of Trump’s Cabinet were rushed out of the ballroom. Guests, including journalists and members of Trump’s cabinet, took cover under their table as Trump and Melania were rushed off the dais. One Secret Service agent was shot in the chaos. Trump said the agent was hit "from a very close distance with a very powerful gun," but survived thanks to his bulletproof vest and is in "great shape" at a local hospital. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [4/26/2026 1:35 AM, Konstantin Toropin, 16072K] reports the suspect detained after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is believed to have made it past the outermost layer of security at the event at which President Donald Trump was scheduled to speak because he was a guest of the hotel, officials said Saturday. The shooting suspect was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, two law enforcement officials told the AP. Officials told reporters after the incident that Allen was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. Security for the annual event is always tight when the president attends, especially given the venue’s history — 45 years ago, the Washington Hilton was the site of an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan — and law enforcement argued that their “multi-layered protection” worked as designed. Still, the incident was sure to set off more questions about security around the president and political events in the wake of high-profile acts of political violence in recent years. Here’s what we know about the security of the correspondents’ dinner. The interim police chief for Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, Jeffery Carroll, told reporters Saturday evening that investigators believe that the suspect was staying in the hotel and that appears to be how he was able to enter the hotel at the time of the event. The hotel was closed to the public beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday in anticipation of the dinner which began at 8 p.m. Outside, dozens of protesters gathered in the rain — mostly directing their criticism at the media attending the event. Access to the hotel was restricted to hotel guests, people with tickets to the dinner itself, an invitation to one of the receptions that are held at the hotel before or after the dinner, or documents from the White House Correspondents’ Association indicating affiliation with the dinner. The 2,300 guests at the event in the hotel’s cavernous subterranean ballroom had to pass through several additional checks to enter the room, including showing tickets to association volunteers and hotel staff and passing through magnetometers manned by the Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration. It was not immediately released when the suspect checked into the hotel. Security camera footage released by Trump to social media shortly after the incident shows the gunman running past security officers who appear to be disassembling the metal detectors. Once the president was seated in the ballroom, additional attendees were not permitted to enter the secured area, which is why they were taking them down. “It shows that our multi-layered protection works,” Secret Service director Sean Curran said. His comments were echoed by Carroll, who said the security plan for the evening was developed by the Secret Service and “that security plan did work this evening.”

Reported similarly:
USA Today [4/26/2026 12:30 AM, Josh Meyer, 70643K]

Washington Post [4/26/2026 5:00 AM, Jonathan Edwards, 24826K] reports President Donald Trump said Saturday night that the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner hours earlier highlighted the need for his planned White House ballroom — a project that has been mired in legal battles for months. Trump described the venue of the correspondents’ dinner, the Washington Hilton, as “not a particularly secure building.” “We need the ballroom,” he said, listing some of its security features, including bulletproof glass and “drone-proof” measures. Even if the new ballroom were built, it’s not at all clear that a future White House correspondents’ dinner would be held there. The dinner is a private event, not a government function. That question, however, did not slow the chorus of conservative officials and right-wing commentators who seized on the shooting to argue for the $400 million project. “Unfortunately, the First Lady and I had to be evacuated from the White House correspondents’ dinner alongside the President and the entire cabinet,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry posted on X, referring to his wife, Sharon. “This event is yet another reason that President Trump’s ballroom should be built!” Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) wrote: “We’d better never again hear a peep from anyone complaining about a White House ballroom.” Conservative commentators Meghan McCain, Tom Fitton and Nick Adams all joined in the refrain for building the ballroom to ensure the safety of presidents and their guests. Activist Chaya Raichik, who runs the Libs of TikTok social media accounts, made the case plainly: “THIS IS WHY WE NEED TRUMP’S BALLROOM.”

CNN [4/25/2026 10:26 PM, Wolf Blitzer, Todd Symons, Logan Schiciano, 612K] reports CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was just a few feet away from a gunman when shots were fired outside the main ballroom at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. Blizter had just left the men’s restroom on an upper floor outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton when he saw a man with “a very, very serious weapon.” “All of a sudden I heard these loud, very loud, very scary gunshots right near me. Next thing I knew, a police officer threw me to the ground and was on top of me,” Blitzer said. The officers took him back in the the men’s restroom where about 15 other men were also taking shelter. The veteran CNN anchor said the gunman was just “a few feet away” from him when the gunfire began. “I had no idea, as I was hearing the gunshots, who this shooter was aiming at, or if he was just trying to scare everybody,” Blizter said. “And, of course, the first thing that went through my mind was whether he was going to shoot me.” “It was a terrible, very frightening moment for me,” Blizter added. One person is in custody after a shooting near the screening area at the White House Correspondents Dinner, according to the US Secret Service. “I did see the gunman on the ground after he started shooting. Police officers threw him to the ground but he was still shooting. And I could hear the shots going off,” Blizter said, adding that there were a lot of police there to secure him quickly. The shooting happened outside the ballroom on an upper floor near the security screening area of the lobby, where the restrooms are located. A secret service officer was shot in the incident, three sources told CNN. The bullet struck the officer’s protective gear and they were taken to a local hospital. President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet, including Vice President JD Vance, were at the event taking place in the ballroom at the time and were swiftly escorted offstage and from the venue. “Quite an evening in DC. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely. The shooter has been apprehended,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. While initially saying he hoped the event would go on, Trump returned to the White House at the request of Law Enforcement. Trump said the the White House Correspondents’ Dinner will be rescheduled. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [4/25/2026 8:44 AM, Robert McGreevy, 37576K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it partnered with the U.S. Coast Guard to intercept smuggling boats off the California coast, apprehending 60 people aboard three vessels. CBP’s Air and Marine Operations unit interdicted three separate vessels off the coast of Southern California from April 17-21, CBP said in an announcement Friday. On April 17, CBP’s San Diego Marine Unit crews interdicted a 24-foot boat near San Clemente Island. The boat had 13 people on board, including seven men, five women and a juvenile female. CBP brought the boat to Ballast Point Naval Base for processing, according to the announcement. The next day, CBP apprehended another suspected smuggler boat 80 nautical miles southwest of San Diego. Aided by the Coast Guard’s Cutter Florence Finch, Air and Marine Operations’ Long Beach Marine Unit crew intercepted the boat near San Nicolas Island, apprehending 29 Mexican nationals. The Coast Guard transported the individuals and the vessel to Newport Harbor and turned them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, CBP said. The third and final operation occurred on April 21. The Coast Guard’s Terrel Horne interdicted a 25-foot cuddy cabin boat containing 18 Mexican nationals on board. The Coast Guard also transported them for processing by U.S. Border Patrol. Many of the 60 individuals have criminal histories for a wide array of offenses including failure to yield, driving under the influence, felony hit-and-run, making false police reports, drug possession, active warrants for resisting arrest, trespassing, burglary, possession of burglary tools, receiving stolen property, drug trafficking, aggravated assault with a weapon and domestic violence, according to CBP.

AP [4/25/2026 11:35 AM, Staff] reports the U.S. military said it launched another strike Friday on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people. The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has persisted since early September and killed at least 183 people. Other strikes have taken place in the Caribbean Sea. The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs. Regarding the attack Friday, U.S. Southern Command repeated previous statements by saying it had targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. It posted a video on X showing a boat floating in the water before an explosion left it in flames. President Trump has said the U.S. is in "armed conflict" with drug cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.

FOX News [4/25/2026 8:00 AM, Adam Pack, Alex Miller, 37576K] reports Senate Republicans are forging ahead with a two-step plan to end the record-breaking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, but their House counterparts tell Fox News Digital they are not on board with the strategy. A swath of House Republicans have voiced growing frustration that a forthcoming GOP-only funding package does not include other policy priorities beyond funding immigration enforcement ahead of November’s midterm elections. The Senate approved a budget resolution early Thursday largely along party lines that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term. Republicans are pursuing the partisan budget reconciliation process to bypass Democrats and fund immigration enforcement with GOP votes after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., refused to fund the department without sweeping reforms added to the proposal. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is racing to pass the Senate’s budget resolution as early as next week, at which point he can afford to lose only a handful of votes. President Donald Trump has set a June 1 deadline to fully fund immigration enforcement through a GOP-only bill, forcing Republicans to act quickly with little room for error. DHS, meanwhile, has warned this week it is short on funds to continue paying its employees through May.

NewsMax [4/25/2026 3:46 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K] reports Democrats are jeopardizing national security by delaying funding for key Homeland Security operations, Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., said Saturday. Speaking on Newsmax’s "Saturday Agenda," Evans, a former police officer and Army veteran, said the 70-day funding lapse has left key civilian support staff without resources, even as frontline operations continue. "I was a cop for ten years. I was a soldier for 12 years. National security is supremely important to me, as it is to the American people," Evans said. "And so it’s just absolutely disgusting that we see the Democrats continuing to play games with Homeland Security funding.". Evans said that while some elements of the Department of Homeland Security were funded in prior legislation, gaps remain that affect day-to-day operations. He pointed to civilian employees, such as mechanics, clerks, and administrative staff, as those most impacted by the funding shortfall.

The Hill [4/25/2026 3:03 PM, Ryan Mancini, 18170K] reports President Trump on Saturday renewed his call to “terminate” the filibuster to ensure the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act passes through the Senate as it remains in limbo in the upper chamber. Not passing the Republican-led bill would lead to “the worst results for a political party in the HISTORY of the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “An Unrecoverable Death Wish!!! Likewise, the FILIBUSTER – TERMINATE IT NOW!!!” The president has made the SAVE America Act his top legislative priority. The bill would require all voters to show photo ID, request those registering to vote to show proof of citizenship and to require all ballots be counted within 36 hours of Election Day. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) previously dismissed the notion of forcing Democrats to use a talking filibuster to oppose the SAVE America Act, a move that Thune has warned could paralyze the legislative process for weeks — possibly even months. But some Republican senators, like Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), have argued that changing the filibuster would allow for the bill’s passage.

New York Times [4/26/2026 5:01 AM, David Ovalle and Patricia Mazzei, 148038K] reports Nilufa Easmin arrived most days at the D&D Convenience Store by 6 a.m. Wearing a head scarf, she murmured a brief Muslim prayer before her shift selling snacks, cigarettes and gas in a blue-collar neighborhood of Fort Myers, Fla. After 3 p.m. she drove to her second job at a 7-Eleven, hours of more work stretching before her. Ms. Easmin, a 51-year-old from Bangladesh, had held many such jobs since arriving in the United States in the 1990s, blending into South Florida’s vast immigrant work force. What had been a life of determination and perseverance ended in a horrific act of violence on the morning of April 2, when a man beat her to death with a hammer. The suspect, Rolbert Joachin, 40, was himself an immigrant, smuggled by boat from Haiti to the Florida Keys four years ago. The killing was thrust into the national spotlight a week later, when President Trump posted gruesome surveillance footage of it on Truth Social. It was the latest proof, he wrote, that liberal immigration policies had allowed “millions of criminals” into the country to run amok. To advance his anti-immigration agenda, Mr. Trump focused on Mr. Joachin, barely mentioning Ms. Easmin as he blasted the Biden administration for extending a program that shielded Mr. Joachin and other Haitians from deportation. Mr. Trump, who has made disparaging comments about Haitian immigrants for years, wants to end the program, Temporary Protected Status, for some 350,000 Haitians; the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the matter this week. A day after the president’s post, a Homeland Security official offered reporters a single detail about Ms. Easmin’s immigration status: that she had obtained citizenship “the right way.” But Ms. Easmin’s life and death tell a different and more nuanced story than Mr. Trump and his administration portrayed — one that reflects the challenges many immigrants face when they get here, and the lengths they go to try to stay. To forge a life here, Ms. Easmin appears to have resorted to a sham marriage, according to divorce records and interviews, that under other circumstances the White House might condemn. But the nation’s long-broken immigration system makes legal immigration to the United States exceedingly difficult, and immigrant journeys rarely simple.

Daily Caller [4/25/2026 9:18 AM, Hudson Crozier, 803K] reports Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s staff is hiding the criminal records of migrants receiving free legal aid after the Daily Caller News Foundation previously exposed serious charges. Krasner cannot disclose the foreign defendants’ charges because it no longer keeps such a list, his team told the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records Tuesday in response to a DCNF information request. Krasner created an immigration counsel role in 2018 to help foreigners avoid convictions that lead to deportation, one of many soft-on-crime reforms he implemented after leftist megadonor George Soros supported his first and second campaigns with $1.9 million. The district attorney’s office provided the same list the DCNF is asking for in prior years, releasing it to a legal group that now belongs to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Those previous records showed former Immigration Counsel Caleb Arnold consulted migrants who were charged with murder, rape and other violent crimes, the DCNF reported. This contradicted Krasner and Arnold’s statements to the media that the immigration counsel would only assist low-level cases. Krasner’s staff now refuses to disclose its foreign defendants’ charges to the taxpayers footing their legal expenses to keep them in the country. Meanwhile, the district attorney has repeatedly promised to put immigration agents in handcuffs if he deems their actions criminal.

FOX News [4/25/2026 7:00 AM, Nikolas Lanum, Rachel del Guidice, 37576K] reports Seattle’s fentanyl crisis is impossible to hide from public view, with open-air drug use, rising overdose deaths and struggling addicts highlighting the challenges facing city leaders and community advocates. In an internal email obtained by Fox News Digital, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes wrote that "all charges related to drug possession and/or drug use will be diverted from prosecution to the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program," but Wilson denied claims that her administration was changing drug enforcement policy. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported in November that the agency seized roughly 3.4 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl from the two drug trafficking groups targeted in investigations in the Western District of Washington.

NPR [4/25/2026 7:37 AM, Eric Westervelt, Adrian Florido, 28764K] Audio: HERE reports many of the people being caught up in Trump’s ongoing mass deportation campaign are immigrants who’ve spent decades living in the U.S. Some deported Mexicans are staying in the border city of Tijuana.

Wall Street Journal [4/25/2026 8:42 PM, Shane Shifflett and Hannah Critchfield, 646K] reports the Wall Street Journal identified $425 million in surveillance-related spending between Jan. 20, 2025, and Jan. 19, 2026. The Journal reviewed nearly 4,000 contracts with more than 200 companies matching its surveillance criteria going back to 2008. Government contracting data doesn’t have a check box for “surveillance.” To figure out how much money the Department of Homeland Security has spent on such services, the Journal had to classify the work itself. The Journal interviewed privacy experts to create a list of commercial tools and companies tied to surveillance activities, which include monitoring of social-media sites, vehicle tracking, geolocation tools, biometric identification, communication interception and the acquisition of commercial databases that provide access to public records. For every company identified, the Journal gathered all contracts where the buyer was DHS. Contracts awarded to companies that provide a broad array of services, in addition to direct or indirect law-enforcement support, were filtered to awards from DHS agencies the Journal determined were involved in immigration-related surveillance, primarily Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection. Most administrative contracts were excluded. For instance, the Journal identified Deloitte as a consultant involved in surveillance based on a DHS spending forecast that described open-source intelligence-gathering methods for immigration enforcement. Because Deloitte does more work for DHS than just surveillance, the Journal limited its tally to Deloitte contracts awarded or funded by ICE and CBP, which fund border-security work, law-enforcement analytics and intelligence gathering to support targeting centers where analysts build leads for immigration officers to investigate. The Journal applied the same rule to other consultants not named in the story. To catch contracts that might fall outside the Journal’s list of companies, reporters also performed targeted searches within the federal contracts database using such terms as “license plate reader,” “threat monitoring” and “skip tracing.” The Journal included payouts for what DHS labeled as “intelligence services,” which were largely awarded to consultants hiring staff to support investigations.

Washington Examiner [4/26/2026 12:14 AM, Peter Cordi, 1147K] reports that, after what may be another attempt on President Donald Trump’s life, masked cowards waited outside the scene of the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting with signs calling for "all tyrants" to die. You know who the real tyrants are? The ones who murder their political opponents. The ones who keep trying to kill the leader of the free world, and justify it by calling him a "fascist.". They’re not just tyrants, they’re despicable terrorists. Along with other members of the Washington Examiner crew, I was just feet away from the door the shooter attempted to breach. Everyone was horrified as shots rang out. We hit the ground, and I was lucky enough to come away relatively unscathed apart from being hit in the head with a chair someone flung in desperation. That horror, that terror, was exactly what the shooter hoped to achieve, short of his likely goal of killing Trump. Earlier in the night, as the media walked into the Washington Hilton — where Ronald Reagan was shot over four decades ago — we were met with dozens of protestors yelling in our faces, accusing us of being complicit in a made-up "genocide" and calling Trump a pedophile. Then after we heard gunshots outside the doors and were left to consider what was almost carried out in front of us, we were greeted outside by absolute scumbags holding signs glorifying the act. Of course, they were wearing masks. The message from the Left is clear: if you have any association with Trump, you’re fair game as a target for terrorism. It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of journalists in attendance can’t stand Trump. I have been a Trump supporter for over a decade, but I have never been more proud to support him than I am today — even more so than after the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting. We must respond to these cowards not by shrinking in fear, but through boldness. Like him or not, we must come together around our president and restore some level of decency to political discourse. One side labels their opponents as "fascists" and debates using bullets; our side must fire back with the same intensity — but without the violence. Terrorists win when their attacks produce fear and compliance. Freedom wins when terrorism is met with defiant chants of "USA, USA, USA" — those chants broke out after the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting just as it did after the Butler attempt on Trump’s life. My message to those losers outside the White House Correspondents Dinner is simple: You want to kill tyrants? Look in the mirror and see what you’ve become. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [4/25/2026 1:25 PM, Aaron Kessler and Tim Sullivan] reports at the peak of the crackdown, carloads of masked immigration officers were a common sight in the streets of Minneapolis, while thousands of people were being arrested every week in Texas, Florida and California. "Turn and burn," top Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino called the strategy, with relentless displays of force and teams of agents descending on restaurant kitchens, bus stops and Home Depot parking lots. In December, arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents peaked at nearly 40,000 nationwide and were nearly as high the next month, according to data provided to UC Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project and analyzed by The Associated Press. In late January, the killings in Minneapolis of two American citizens by immigration officers and growing concerns over the government’s heavy-handed tactics led to a shake-up of top immigration officials. In the weeks that followed, ICE arrests across the country dropped on average by nearly 12%. An AP analysis of ICE arrest records show the department averaged 7,369 weekly arrests nationwide in the five weeks after Homan’s drawdown announcement, the most recent period for which data is available, down from 8,347 per week in the previous five weeks. The numbers were not, however, uniform across the country. ICE arrests rose significantly in Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina and Florida during those five weeks, in some cases hitting their highest weekly count since the start of Trump’s second term. Those increases were offset by steep drops in a handful of large states, including Minnesota and Texas. Many of the toughest criminals taken into ICE custody were already in prison, but many others who were arrested have no criminal history.

NBC News [4/25/2026 8:00 AM, Daniella Silva, 42967K] reports Olivia Andre thought the traumas were behind her. She and her family escaped repression and torture in the Democratic Republic of Congo and suffered the tragic death of her 8-year-old brother on their journey to America in 2022. They spent three years trying to rebuild their lives in Maine. Then ICE arrested the family in November, tearing them apart again with Andre, now 19, detained separately as an adult.

CBS Boston [4/25/2026 6:41 PM, Emerson College, 51110K] Video: HERE reports a Suffolk County sheriff deputy has been arrested and charged with human trafficking and child rape in several Massachusetts towns, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz. Hanson Police explained that it had been investigating several sexual assaults and the creation of child sexual abuse material involving a 15-year-old boy. After a week-long investigation, Hanson and Middleboro police arrested 41-year-old Hanson resident Richard Kielczweski on Friday. Police said the crimes happened in Halifax, Hanson, and Middleboro. Kiewlcweski works as a sheriff’s deputy in Suffolk County, according to the DA. The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office said that it had decided to take "swift and decisive action to indefinitely suspend" him following the charges. "The charges against Officer Kielczweski are extremely serious and deeply disturbing," The Suffolk County Sheriff’s office said in a statement. Kiewlcweski is facing charges in all three of the towns. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Miami [4/25/2026 12:54 PM, Matthew Ablon, 51110K] reports more than a dozen men are facing charges tied to a recent human trafficking sting operation in Miami. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office announced the arrests on Friday, saying the people were taken into custody as part of a two-day operation meant to identify suspects online who were trying to talk with minors to arrange for sex. The 14 men, plus one teenager, are being held without bond and charged with human trafficking, using certain prohibited computer services and using a computer service to travel to meet a minor. Prosecutors noted that one of the suspects was identified by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) as a person of interest in an ongoing investigation involving the alleged possession and downloading of child sexual abuse material.

Univision [4/25/2026 1:13 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports after the killings of two US citizens by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis, President Donald Trump’s offensive had to be restructured , causing arrests to drop by up to 12% nationwide in the following weeks. Before these tragic events, ICE agents had reached their highest number of arrests in December of last year with 40,000 nationwide, under the leadership of Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino. Following the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Gregory Bovino was removed from his command, and border czar Tom Homan took over, tasked with changing the course of the arrests. His first order of business was to reduce the number of federal agents in the states on February 4th. According to the Associated Press , in the first five weeks of Homan’s tenure, arrests nationwide averaged 7,369. This is a decrease compared to the 8,347 arrests recorded during the previous five weeks. However, these figures remained high compared to the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term and the administration of Democrat Joe Biden.

New York Post [4/25/2026 8:30 AM, Jeanne Erickson, 40934K] reports an illegal migrant maniac allegedly high on a powerful drug chomped on a toddler’s face in Texas last week, two years after the Biden administration failed to kick him out of the country despite his arrest in an earlier violent assault, authorities told The Post. The horrific April 18 attack in a San Antonio park left 3-year-old Amelia Perez with deep scratches and bite wounds across her face, two teeth knocked out, and life-changing trauma, her family said. Vyas was jailed in the Bexar County Detention Center and charged with injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury, assault causing bodily injury and illegal entry from a foreign nation, according to court records. The Department of Homeland Security told The Post Vyas first entered the country from India in August 2023 on a student visa. Three months later, he was arrested on the University of Texas campus for felony assault. The college contacted ICE, but the feds under President Joe Biden determined the crime was not "egregious" enough to warrant visa revocation. But in April 2025, the Trump administration revoked Vyas’ F-1 visa based on the assault arrest. The day Vyas allegedly attacked Amelia, ICE lodged a detainer request with San Antonio police — asking the local cops to turn him over after he faces the American justice system. The agency blasted the failed policies that allowed the illegal migrant to remain in the US.

Washington Examiner [4/25/2026 7:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports a fight decades in the making came to a head this week as Texas defeated Houston’s push to stop cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sealing the Democrat-run city’s fate for the time being. The administration of Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), an incumbent seeking a fourth term in November, delivered a blow to Democrats in the nation’s fourth most populous city by holding back state funding after Houston attempted to step out of line with the state’s immigration approach. It’s the latest example of a fallout between a red state and a blue city over how to respond to ICE’s crackdown on illegal immigrants nationwide as President Donald Trump continues his mass deportation operation. On April 16, GOP state Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Houston officials for approving sanctuary policies that violated SB 4. Abbott gave Houston until this past Wednesday to repeal its new policy or refund the state $110 million for public safety. In the lead-up to the city vote on Wednesday, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Houston issued a statement doubling down on the kind of work its officers do in the region. The office said it arrested 277 criminal illegal immigrants who had a combined 751 criminal offenses and had illegally entered the United States 654 times. On Wednesday, the Houston City Council debated for several hours on how to proceed and ultimately voted 13-4 to walk back much of the policy, allowing local police to detain suspected illegal immigrants for ICE. The vote means that Houston police may detain a person who is not the recipient of a judicial warrant until ICE can respond and take custody.

The New York Times [4/25/2026 3:40 PM, Amy Qin, 148038K] reports a federal appeals court cleared the way on Friday for Texas to act on an expansive 2023 state law that empowers state and local police officers to arrest migrants who cross illegally from Mexico, the latest development in a long-running case that could have far-reaching implications for immigration enforcement in the United States. In a 10-to-7 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the law, known as Senate Bill 4, and lifted a temporary injunction that had been in place since 2024. That year, the U.S. Supreme Court had briefly allowed the law to go into effect and returned the case to the 5th Circuit, which quickly put the law on hold. In July 2025, a three-member panel of the 5th Circuit upheld the 2024 injunction. Texas has since continued to press its case and, on Friday, a majority of the full 5th Circuit sided with the state and removed the injunction. The court, however, did not address the underlying question of whether the law unconstitutionally infringes on the federal government’s power to set and enforce immigration law. The ruling does not take effect until May 15, and the challengers, which include civil rights and immigrants’ groups and the El Paso County government, have indicated that they intend to appeal the decision. Univision [4/25/2026 12:28 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports that the ruling, approved by a split vote, determined that migrant advocacy organizations and local authorities lacked standing, preventing them from proceeding with the lawsuit. As a result, the previous injunction halting the implementation of SB 4 was lifted, according to The Texas Tribune. This legislation, passed in 2023, allows state police to arrest people suspected of illegally entering the country. It also establishes that such an act is a state crime and empowers judges to order the deportation of those arrested, instead of following traditional criminal proceedings. Despite the ruling, opponents insisted they will continue to seek legal alternatives to stop the implementation of SB 4, whose entry into force is not yet fully defined.

Reuters [4/25/2026 8:55 PM, Kanishka Singh, 38315K] reports an Egyptian family which was released from more than 10 months of immigration ‌detention following court orders was taken into custody again by federal authorities for several hours on Saturday, the family’s legal team said. Hayam El Gamal and her five children aged 5 to 18 were detained less than 48 hours after a federal judge had ordered their release, the family’s legal team said in a statement. The family, which lives in Colorado, was arrested as they complied with a requirement to check ⁠in at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Denver, according to The Colorado Sun. ICE had put them on a plane that would have flown to Michigan "and then outside the United States to an unknown location," the family’s legal team said. Eric Lee, a lawyer for the family, later said a federal court granted an emergency motion to stop the planned deportation. Lee posted early on Sunday that "ICE just released the El Gamal family," saying their detention violated court orders. In a statement on Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security said the family was receiving "full due process" and cast the judge who ordered the family’s release as an "activist judge" who is "releasing this terrorist’s ‌family onto ⁠American streets AGAIN." "We are confident the courts will ultimately vindicate us," the DHS’ acting assistant secretary, Lauren Bis, said. The statement did not address why the family was detained on Saturday after Thursday’s ruling. El Gamal and the children were released from their earlier detention on Thursday after U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered their release following a similar separate ruling earlier ⁠in the week. The family was first taken into federal custody last June. Their immigration detention, the longest for a family under President Donald Trump’s administration, began after El Gamal’s ex-husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was charged with attempted murder, assault and a federal hate crime ⁠following last year’s firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado. The U.S. government has previously said it was investigating how much the family knew about the attack. El Gamal, who divorced Soliman after his arrest, has condemned the Boulder ⁠attack and said the family had no knowledge of any plans for it. Trump has defended his immigration crackdown as necessary to curb illegal immigration and reduce crime. Critics and rights groups have said the DHS campaign violates due process and free speech. Breitbart [4/25/2026 6:21 PM, Staff, 2238K] report that after an emergency appeal earlier in the day, U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery said the family’s immediate deportation should be paused, The Guardian and The Texas Tribune reported. Hayam El Gamal and her five children had been held in the Dilley detention center outside San Antonio, Texas, which has been criticized for lack of medical care and food, for ten months. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney on Thursday ruled that the family, which came to the United States in 2022 on a tourist visa and applied for asylum, should be freed while they wait for a decision on their case. After the family was arrested again on Saturday morning, El Gamal’s attorney, Eric Lee, posted on X that the family had already been put on a flight to Michigan, where they are expected to be deported to Egypt. Calling the agency’s actions "an absolutely brazen violation of separation of powers," Lee said the flight "constitutionally" should not be permitted to take off, posting "stop this travesty of justice from taking place."

Reported similarly:
Newsweek [4/25/2026 8:39 PM, Peter Aitken, 52220K] r

FOX News [4/25/2026 7:06 PM, Brittany Miller, 37576K] reports an illegal migrant is accused of biting a 3-year-old girl in the face during an attack at a Texas park, authorities said, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged a detainer against the suspect after his arrest. Gabriella Perez, 27, and her daughter, Amelia Perez, 3, were walking at Espada Park April 18 when they were allegedly attacked by 24-year-old Atharva Vyas, an Indian national, according to San Antonio police. Police said Vyas assaulted the mother by pulling her hair and punching her, causing her to drop her daughter, and then attacked the child and bit her face. The case has drawn scrutiny because Vyas had previously been arrested for an alleged felony assault months after entering the U.S. in 2023, but he was not removed from the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Witnesses restrained Vyas until officers arrived, according to police. The child’s mother later described the attack as something "out of a zombie movie.". Since the attack, Perez created a GoFundMe page, saying her daughter lost two teeth and "has needed constant care, comfort, and reassurance.". "She is unable to return to daycare or be left with anyone else, so I have had to take time away from work to be by her side," the page’s description states. Vyas was charged with injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury, assault causing bodily injury and illegal entry, according to authorities. He was booked into the Bexar County Detention Center. ICE has lodged a detainer requesting that local authorities transfer Vyas to federal custody after his criminal proceedings, according to DHS. DHS said Vyas first entered the United States in August 2023 on a student visa. Three months later, he was arrested on the University of Texas campus on charges of felony assault, and university police contacted ICE.

Houston Chronicle [4/25/2026 6:00 AM, Emiliano Tahui Gómez, Faith Bugenhagen, 2493K] reports federal immigration agents deported an Austin man who says he is a U.S. citizen after detaining him during a traffic stop near Fredericksburg earlier this month. Brian Jose Morales Garcia, 25, said he was born in Denver but grew up in Mexico and lived there until last year, when he legally crossed into the U.S. Despite having documents at home that he said show he is a U.S. citizen, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him four days after his arrest. The American-Statesman reviewed copies of Garcia’s Colorado birth certificate, hospital records and a baptismal record from a few months after his birth, which he and his attorney provided to the newspaper. The Statesman independently corroborated the existence of the birth certificate and baptismal record. "There just is no dispute about whether he is a U.S. citizen," his lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said. "What happened here was not that they reviewed those documents and decided that they didn’t care. What happened here was that they immediately assumed that he was lying.". Morales Garcia was being driven to a worksite on April 3 when his boss’ truck was stopped by Texas state troopers for what the officer said was a window tint violation. The officer contacted ICE, which asked the Gillespie County Sheriff’s Office to hold Morales Garcia in jail. Morales Garcia, whom authorities identified as a Mexican citizen, was eventually picked up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and deported four days later. During those four days, friends of Morales Garcia said they tried to provide authorities with a copy of his birth certificate. In a statement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that it had determined Morales Garcia’s lack of authorization to be in the country "through record checks" and pointed to an admission by Morales Garcia that he had entered the country illegally, a statement that Morales Garcia said he made after being intimidated. "They didn’t believe me; they were intimidating me so that I’d sign," Morales Garcia said. "I figured that I’d come back with my birth certificate.". Border Patrol did not provide the Statesman with proof of its claims or evidence to dispute Morales Garcia’s account. In its statement, the agency wrote: "CBP did NOT arrest a U.S. citizen.". Morales Garcia’s arrest comes after reporting has shown that U.S. citizens are sometimes detained amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. His case also appears to raise questions about federal agents’ willingness to detain — and even deport — individuals without allowing for due process, University of Texas immigration law professor Elissa Steglich told the Statesman. On its website, ICE states that everyone the agency arrests receives due process. Morales Garcia’s deportation was first reported by Univision. Morales Garcia’s mother, Maria del Socorro Garcia, said she gave birth to him in Denver in 2001. She had met Morales Garcia’s father the year prior, shortly after immigrating from Mexico. At the time, she said, she was working as a custodian and he was working as a cook. Denver Vital Records, the agency that maintains birth certificates for the city and county of Denver, told the Statesman that "there’s a record available" for someone with Morales Garcia’s name and date of birth — a detail that had not been previously reported. A staff member declined to confirm further details about the document, citing Colorado law. Staff at the Denver Archdiocese confirmed that they had a record matching the information in the baptismal certificate provided to the Statesman.

Washington Times [4/25/2026 5:56 PM, Valerie Richardson, 35287K] reports a federal judge ordered the Trump administration not to deport the wife and five children of suspected firebomber Mohamed Sabry Soliman after attorneys said they were rearrested hours after their return to Colorado. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery issued an emergency order Saturday blocking the administration from removing the family members, who had returned to Colorado after a judge ordered their release Thursday following 10 months at a detention center in Dilley, Texas. Eric Lee, attorney for the El Gamal family, said afterward on X that the "deportation flight has turned around and is returning to Denver. We are told the family will be released, but we don’t trust a word they say.". Mr. Lee said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "kidnapped" Hayam El Gamal and her five children Saturday morning in Colorado, then placed them on an airplane to Detroit’s Willow Run Airport. From there, he said the family would be flown "outside the United States to an unknown location," but that the airplane "constitutionally cannot be allowed to take off.". "The attempt to remove the El Gamel family is a violation of a federal court order and must be halted immediately," Mr. Lee said in a Saturday statement. "The rights of the entire population and the most basic constitutional principles of separation of powers are at stake. The legal team urges the population to exercise its free speech rights to stop this unlawful deportation from taking place." This is outrageous and undermines the rights of every single American.

Colorado Sun [4/25/2026 6:01 PM, Lance Benzel, 568K] reports the family of the Boulder firebombing suspect was back in federal custody Saturday, two days after a judge halted their deportation and ordered their release after nearly 10 months in a Texas detention center. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rearrested Hayam El Gamal and her five children Saturday morning, according to Eric Lee, the family’s lead attorney. The move came hours after the El Gamals returned to Colorado following their release Thursday evening from Dilley Immigration Processing Center, southwest of San Antonio, Lee said in a statement on X. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered that El Gamal and her children, ages 5 to 18, be allowed to return to their Colorado Springs home as their immigration proceedings continue. The judge required El Gamal and her 18-year-old daughter, Habiba, to wear electronic monitors and the family to comply with any “reasonable” reporting requirements to immigration authorities. Biery also halted a last-minute attempt to deport the family before their scheduled appearance in his courtroom for a hearing to consider their release. Despite the judge’s ruling, Lee said Saturday that ICE put the family on a plane headed for Detroit’s Willow Run Airport, with plans to move them “outside the United States to an unknown location.”

CBS News [4/25/2026 5:29 PM, Cara Tabachnick, 51110K] reports Arizona has sued the federal government to block a proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement mass detention facility near a site in the city of Surprise allegedly filled with hazardous chemicals. "The Trump administration has run roughshod over federal law in its rush to expand detention capacity across the country," Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose office filed the lawsuit Friday, said in a statement. Mayes claims the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have not conducted or publicized the required environmental reviews for opening a facility. The lawsuit also alleges the proposed facility — which could house anywhere from hundreds to up to 1,500 individuals — violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, which mandates the federal government arrange for "appropriate" places for immigration detention. An ICE spokesperson told CBS News that before purchasing this site, the agency carefully evaluated the use of existing facilities to help minimize environmental impacts, "including potential impacts to protected species, sensitive natural resources, and valued cultural resources." The spokesperson added that the lawsuit wasn’t about the environment, "It’s about trying to stop President Trump from making America safe."

Breitbart [4/25/2026 5:26 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2238K] reports Tom Steyer, a Democrat candidate for governor in California, suggested that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents be put "in jail for their crimes.". In an article on X, Steyer described President Donald Trump as attacking and robbing "the most vulnerable in our society, while protecting and enriching the most powerful." Steyer also called for ICE to be abolished, and stated that people needed to stop the "authoritarian takeover" of Trump and ICE by countering "ICE head-on," and going "after both their agents on the streets" and the leadership in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and putting them in jail. "ICE is acting like a criminal organization, carrying out indiscriminate racial profiling and using violence, intimidation, terrorism, and the murder of Americans to extend Trump’s rule by fear," Steyer wrote. Steyer said that if elected governor, he would do five things to give California the power and authority to "take on ICE and win." The first thing Steyer said he would do was go after ICE, adding that he would pass legislation building on California laws and statutes to prevent ICE agents from profiling people based on things like race, ethnicity, or their jobs.

Los Angeles Times [4/26/2026 6:00 AM, Ana Ceballos, 14672K] reports in the span of 10 days, the nation’s capital saw a cascade of ethical scandals that cut across party lines and branches of government, raising fresh doubts about whether Washington is capable of holding itself accountable. Three members of Congress — two Democrats and a Republican — resigned within days of one another as they faced calls for their expulsion due to their alleged misconduct. A fourth lawmaker is facing the same pressure but has so far refused to step down. A Cabinet secretary stepped down amid a months-long investigation into allegations that she pursued a romantic relationship with a member of her security detail, while her husband stood accused of sexually assaulting female staffers in her agency. In a separate case, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed last week that it put a senior counterterrorism official on administrative leave as it investigates an ex-boyfriend’s allegations that she was seeking out wealthy men online to pay for luxury items. The back-to-back resignations and investigations, spanning both parties and both the legislative and executive branches, have reignited a debate about whether Washington’s rules and institutions for self-oversight can keep pace with the misconduct unfolding within it. Even those charged with policing it say the system is failing. “Clearly, we have an ethical problem,” Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord), the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, said in an interview.

Washington Times [4/25/2026 8:53 AM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports having DACA status is no longer an automatic blockade on being deported, the Board of Immigration Appeals has ruled, tossing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant "Dreamers" into a new and more complicated situation. The BIA, a part of the Justice Department, ordered immigration judges to weigh all the factors in a deportation case, going beyond the mere fact that a migrant had been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The BIA overturned a lower judge’s ruling that had considered DACA dispositive. At its peak, it protected about 800,000 people, and it still covers more than half a million. But it’s always been legally tenuous, both in terms of its creation and the extent of its protections. The case the BIA ruled on involved Catalina Santiago-Santiago, whose arrest last August made headlines and sparked several legal battles.

Breitbart [4/25/2026 7:30 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports that, during an interview with “The Joe Pags Show” that took place on Thursday and was released on Friday, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) addressed his vote in favor of extended TPS for Haitians and said that he thinks some Haitians, like those who came across the border illegally, should lose TPS, but “I’m asking for individual consideration of people who came here in good faith, who never broke the law, who are working, who are not a burden to our society.” And “you can’t lump everybody together in this rule. And, unfortunately, when Kristi Noem announced this, that’s exactly what she did.” McCormick began by saying, “I am not here to protect anybody who came here illegally. If you came here across the southern border here illegally, even from Haiti, send them back to Mexico, wherever they came in from, that’s fine. But there is a subset of Haitians who came here in good faith, legally, absolutely legally. And a lot of them are working in hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice homes, people I know and who I worked with, who I respect, never broke the law, not one law.” He added, “If we take away the temporary protection, it doesn’t mean they go home right away. They still get their day in court. It just means they can’t work. For those people who say, well, 65% or 60% of them are on welfare, that would be 100% now on welfare while they wait for their day in court.” Host Joe Pags then asked, “So, can we make that delineation between those who came here illegally under Biden and those who came here because of the earthquake and because of how bad things are in Haiti?” McCormick answered, “So, that’s exactly what I asked for. I actually called the administration. I tried to do this in good faith. I said, please, when Kristi Noem announced everybody’s going back, I was like, can we have a discussion about this? Because you can’t group everybody together. Not everybody was brought in the same way. Not everybody has the same rules of application of the way that they work or when they’re going to be sent back and how they’re going to be sent back. You can’t group everybody together. These blanket rules are always what get us in trouble in government. I’m asking for individual consideration of people who came here in good faith, who never broke the law, who are working, who are not a burden to our society. I don’t believe that you should have been coming here from — once again, just like any other immigration, if you came here from some other country via — through Mexico or wherever, that’s not okay. You stay there. I’ve never said that was okay. But you can’t lump everybody together in this rule. And, unfortunately, when Kristi Noem announced this, that’s exactly what she did. And I immediately protested. I tried to keep this from coming to the floor. I voted against the measure. I voted against those provisions. And I don’t like to empower the Democrats at all. But, in good moral faith, I could not look people that I actually worked with, that I know, and say, I’m going to vote to send you back to almost certain rape, starvation, and even death.”

Reuters [4/26/2026 6:04 AM, Jan Wolfe and Jason Lange, 38315K] reports a majority of Americans believe all babies born in the country should automatically be granted citizenship, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll carried out as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to rule on President Donald Trump’s effort to end the ‌practice. The high court is poised to rule in the coming weeks on a range of polarizing issues - from immigration policy and transgender rights to rules on how to count mail-in ballots - that could help define the Republican president’s legacy and set key rules for the November 3 midterm elections. The poll, conducted nationwide April 15-20, found that 64% of Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship, while 32% support scrapping it as Trump ordered in January 2025. Trump’s executive order was challenged in court and Supreme Court justices are expected to rule by the end of June in what will be a landmark civil rights case and a test for Trump’s hardline immigration agenda. The high ⁠court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, appeared unlikely to side with Trump during an April 1 oral argument. Public perception of birthright citizenship is split along party lines, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Only 9% of Democrats think the policy should be scrapped, but Republicans are divided, with 62% supporting an end to birthright citizenship and 36% in favor of keeping it. The Supreme Court often issues high-profile rulings in May and June as it nears the end of its annual term.

Daily Caller [4/25/2026 10:48 AM, Mark Tanos, 803K] reports a federal appeals court blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order barring migrants from seeking asylum at the southern border. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 Friday that the president lacks the authority under federal immigration law to create his own fast-track deportation procedures or to deny migrants the ability to apply for asylum, CBS News reported. Judge J. Michelle Childs, a Biden appointee, wrote for the majority that Congress never intended to hand the executive branch such expansive removal power through the Immigration and Nationality Act. Judge Cornelia Pillard joined the opinion. Walker agreed that the government cannot strip migrants of safeguards against deportation to countries where they would face persecution or torture but contended the president can lawfully issue blanket denials of asylum claims. Legal experts have long expected the case to reach the Supreme Court, and Friday’s decision likely sets the stage for that fight, CNN reported. The ruling does not formally take effect until the D.C. Circuit resolves any motion for reconsideration.

The National Desk [4/25/2026 10:55 AM, Jessica A. Botelho, 571K] reports U.S. authorities arrested an illegal immigrant with alleged ties "to Somali piracy" and an outstanding warrant on fraud-related charges after he was found near the U.S.-Canada border, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced. The agency identified him as Said Jama Ahmed. "Weak Biden Administration border policies allowed this illegal alien to enter and remain in the country despite his multiple law enforcement encounters,’ Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement on Friday. DHS said Ahmed was taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) after being spotted walking near the border. He is currently being held on a charge of illegal entry. Ahmed has a long record of United States military and law enforcement encounters, according to the statement. DHS said Ahmed faces an arrest warrant related to alleged passport fraud and that his fingerprints match those collected in a 2012 U.S. Navy operation involving suspected Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. During that incident, a Navy boarding team encountered Ahmed and "nine other armed pirates who had taken the Indian ship hostage by force." Bis said Canadian authorities also played a role in the recent arrest, as an off-duty Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer reported seeing the suspect near the border on April 14 a few hours before CBP agents tracked him down and took him into custody.

USA Today [4/25/2026 5:10 PM, Eduardo Cuevas, 70643K] reports cases of a flesh-eating infection miles from Texas’ border with Mexico are alarming officials about the return of a parasitic fly that was once eradicated. Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported active cases of New World screwworm in the Mexican state of Nuevo León. In an April 20 statement, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said one infected calf, about 62 miles from the border, was the northernmost active case from the parasitic New World screwworm fly to date, calling it a “flashing red warning sign.” Latest available USDA data, as of April 21, showed more recent active cases among cattle in Tamaulipas, a Mexican state bordering Texas. USDA has said there’s no current risk to livestock, pets or people in the United States. American officials have closed southern ports of entry to livestock trade. New World screwworm flies feed on warm-blooded animals and humans to create painful, foul-smelling wounds, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They spread when female flies lay eggs in an open wound − sometimes as small as a tick bite − or in an animal’s nose, eyes, ears or mouth. Then, eggs hatch maggots that burrow and eat live tissue. After a few days, larvae drop and burrow into soil, later emerging as mature flies.

Los Angeles Times [4/25/2026 6:21 PM, David Zahniser, 12718K] reports two San Diego men have been sentenced for smuggling vulnerable birds into the United States, with one heading to prison and the other getting hit with thousands in fines. Ricardo Alonzo was sentenced to three months in prison for smuggling 17 birds — two red-lored Amazon parrots, five yellow-crowned Amazon parrots and 10 Burrowing parakeets — into the U.S. without quarantining them to prevent the spread of disease, officials with the federal Department of Justice said in a news release. In a second case, a federal judge ordered San Ysidro resident Carlos Abundez to pay $74,330 for smuggling 14 sedated keel-billed toucans in the dashboard of his Volkswagen Passat, the government said. Some of the birds suffered injuries, including broken tails and a broken leg. The two cases provide the latest glimpse into a persistent problem plaguing the border: exotic birds — many native to Mexico or Latin America — being squirreled away deep inside vehicles or even a suspect’s clothing.

ABC News [4/25/2026 12:18 PM, Kyle Reiman and Patricio Chile, 34146K] reports a severe weather threat is shifting back to parts of Kansas and Oklahoma on Saturday after damaging winds, hail and tornadoes impacted the region over the past week. A level 4 of 5 "moderate risk" has been added for southeast Oklahoma, including Ada and McAlester, for the potential for very large hail (larger than baseballs), strong tornadoes, and damaging winds. A level 3 of 5 "enhanced risk" is up for northeastern Oklahoma and far eastern Arkansas, including Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Broken Bow and Enid, in Oklahoma, and Fort Smith, Arkansas. Damaging winds and very large hail are the primary threats with these storms, but a few tornadoes, some potentially strong, cannot be ruled out with these storms. Almost 50 million Americans will be on alert for severe storms on Sunday or Monday – almost 8 million for Sunday, and almost 40 million for Monday.

CBS News [4/25/2026 12:22 PM, Sarah Lynch Baldwin, 51110K] reports two massive wildfires in south Georgia have scorched more than 40,000 acres and destroyed over 100 homes. Extreme drought has turned the region into a tinderbox and allowed flames to spread. Overnight, new fires sparked in rural south Georgia. Gov. Brian Kemp toured the damage on Friday and met with first responders trying to contain the flames. Authorities said Saturday that the Brantley County fire had grown to cover more than 9,500 acres, while the Pineland Road fire in Clinch County had expanded to more than 31,000 acres as of Friday. Kemp said at a press conference that federal authorities determined the Brantley Highway 82 fire and the Pineland Road Fire were currently the "two most dangerous, biggest, problematic fires anywhere" in the country. He said officials believe the Brantley Highway 82 fire started when a party balloon landed on a power line and caused a spark. Fire activity was expected to remain extremely high over the weekend.

AP [4/25/2026 4:17 PM, Staff, 1323K] reports two wildfires in southeastern Georgia continued to threaten homes and lives on Saturday as officials warned that strong winds could spread the flames. Brantley County Manager Joey Cason called it a “dynamic situation” in a video posted to social media and begged residents to “please evacuate” if ordered to do so. “This fire is going to move rapidly once these winds get here later today,” he said. The Highway 82 Fire has been burning since Monday and has destroyed at least 87 homes. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday that is the most for a single wildfire in the state’s history. The blaze was started by a foil balloon hitting live power lines. That created an electrical arc that ignited combustible material on the ground. An infrared flight that detects heat was conducted overnight Friday, helping officials to better map the fire. A joint statement issued by multiple government agencies said the fire’s perimeter was more than 14.8 square miles (38 square kilometers) and it was only about 10% contained. Meanwhile a second fire about 70 miles (110 kilometers) to the southwest in Clinch and Echols counties, near the Florida state line, has burned more than 46.9 square miles (121 square kilometers) and destroyed at least 35 homes. Started by sparks from a welding operation, that wildfire was also about 10% contained.

CBS News [4/26/2026 5:42 AM, Lauren Bostwick, 51110K] reports tornadoes, large hail, intense straight-line winds, and significant flash flooding was witnessed across North Texas Saturday night. Sadly, the storms were deadly. One supercell in particular ignited around 4 pm in Wichita County and violently intensified as it moved southeasterly. This was the destructive storm that lasted nearly 12 straight hours, dissipating around 3:30 am Sunday morning. A dryline to the west was the key trigger for this devastating storm. Again, the dryline will play a role in Sunday’s forecast. There is an isolated severe threat due to the same atmospheric setup in the afternoon and evening. However, the cap in the atmosphere is a lot stronger, meaning the risk for severe weather will still remain a possibility, but the likelihood of any initiation that is strong is extremely low. Expect most of the area to stay dry and conditions to be a muggy, breezy, and cloudy day with a conditional threat of severe weather. Highs will be in the upper 80s and winds will come from the southeast gusting around 25 mph. Another First Alert Weather Day is issued Tuesday as the Storm Prediction Center, SPC, has highlighted most of North Texas under a risk for severe weather, especially counties to the northeast of the metroplex. This is due to a cold front that will swing across the area. All modes of severe weather will be possible, including damaging winds, hail, flooding, and even a tornado. Now is the time to prepare. Be sure to stay alert and have a safe place as well as a plan in case a severe storm passes through your area.

CBS News [4/26/2026 5:08 AM, Doug Myers, Marissa Armas, and S.E. Jenkins, 51110K] reports at least two deaths have occurred in North Texas after storms ripped through the area on Saturday, authorities said. One person was killed, numerous injuries were suffered, and at least 20 families in the Runaway Bay area of Wise County were displaced after severe storms caused major structural damage across multiple neighborhoods, according to County Judge J.D. Clark. In Parker County, one person has died as a result of the storms on Saturday night, south of Springtown, officials said. The victim was not identified, and Parker County fire did not release any further information. Rescue and medical operations remained ongoing, with responders coordinating with utility providers to clear hazards. The American Red Cross was en route to assist displaced families with shelter and recovery needs, Clark said. A Reunification Center was established at 513 Port O’ Call Drive in Runaway Bay for families seeking information or assistance. Clark said the public was urged to avoid the area to keep roadways clear for emergency crews – and that more updates were expected as conditions evolve and information is verified.

CBS Colorado [4/25/2026 6:05 PM, Christa Swanson, 51110K] reports Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a disaster declaration on Saturday for a wildfire burning in southeastern Colorado. The fire ignited on Friday in Las Animas County, northwest of the Town of Kim. Town officials said multiple agencies are working to bring the blaze under control. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, the Poitrey Canyon Fire has grown to approximately 1,996 acres. Polis verbally declared a disaster emergency in response to the fire on Saturday. The declaration will activate the State Emergency Operations Plan, which mobilizes resources to manage the response and contain the wildfire.

Los Angeles Times [4/25/2026 7:24 PM, David Zahniser, 12718K] reports tornadoes aren’t completely out of the question in California’s Central Valley. Over the last century, the region has had scores of them. But this week, as several thunderstorms moved through, the region experienced something rare: four tornadoes on the same day, all in less than five hours. The first touched down Tuesday around 2:20 p.m. near Biola, about eight miles from Fresno. Another was spotted an hour later near Atwater. Shortly after 5 p.m., a tornado touched down in Clovis. The final tornado was an outlier, showing up much farther south at around 6:30 p.m., in Terra Bella in Tulare County, said Alex Cooke, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Hanford/San Joaquin Valley office. Two of the tornadoes had a strength of EF-1, while the others were EF-0. An EF-0 tornado has speeds somewhere between 65 to 85 mph, while an EF-1 ranges between 86 and 110 mph. Cooke said forecasters were aware at the start of the day that there was "a lot of spin in the atmosphere" — the kind that could produce a tornado. But it wasn’t immediately clear whether there would be something to pull it and lift it up, "like a figure skater drawing their arms in," making it faster, he said. "We weren’t quite sure we had enough of what’s called instability to give us that lift," he said. Cooke’s office monitors the southern half of the Central Valley. The last time that area had four tornadoes in a single day was in 2000, and before that in 1996, he said. That part of the state typically has one or two tornadoes per year, he said, and about 100 since 1955. Those who experience a tornado in their community should stay away from cars and mobile homes — and go to the lowest floor of a building, Cooke said. Those who have a basement should find shelter there, he added. "But since most people don’t, the best thing you want to do is get in the most interior room of your house as possible, and put as many walls between you and the tornado as possible," he said. "Get in there with your kids, your pets.". Cooke recommended that residents, once they have found shelter, put on helmets if they have them available, or cover themselves with blankets or a mattress.

FOX News [4/25/2026 11:01 PM, Amanda Macias, 37576K] reports a shooting near President Donald Trump and several Cabinet members Saturday night is putting a spotlight on the Secret Service’s funding shortfall amid an ongoing standoff in Congress. A gunman opened fire outside the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., where celebrities, members of the press and administration officials had gathered, prompting a swift security response. The suspect is in custody and has not been identified. One Secret Service agent was reportedly shot in their protective vest but is uninjured. The incident unfolded near a security screening area, prompting a rapid response from Secret Service agents and law enforcement. The shooting comes amid a more than 60-day funding stalemate in Congress over the Department of Homeland Security — a lapse driven by Democrats blocking funding bills and rejecting multiple GOP-backed proposals to reopen the department. The funding standoff centers on disputes over immigration enforcement policy and has raised concerns about resources for agencies including the Secret Service, FEMA and the U.S. Coast Guard. The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the president, vice president, their families and other senior U.S. officials, along with visiting heads of state, has faced growing demands in recent years. The incident adds to a growing list of threats against Trump, including two confirmed assassination attempts and a recent incident involving an armed intruder at Mar-a-Lago. Senate Democrats declined to fund DHS through regular appropriations earlier this year following a deadly January incident involving immigration officers, triggering a funding lapse that has now stretched beyond 60 days. Negotiations remain stalled. Democrats are seeking changes to DHS operations, while Republicans are relying on alternative funding to continue enforcement. Republicans are also considering funding the department for the remainder of Trump’s term through budget reconciliation, the same process used for immigration funding last year. The shooting also comes as the Secret Service faces increasing pressure during a high-threat election cycle. Last week, Secret Service Director Sean Curran warned lawmakers the agency is not adequately staffed to handle the demands of the upcoming FIFA World Cup, the 2028 Olympics and the 2028 presidential cycle, underscoring mounting concerns about staffing and resources. As more details emerge from the investigation into this latest shooting, questions continue to mount over whether the Secret Service has the resources needed to handle an increasingly complex threat environment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX San Antonio [4/25/2026 11:47 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports a family in Lexington, North Carolina, is grappling with the fallout from a federal investigation after an 18-year-old North Carolina woman was charged in an alleged plot to attack a Houston synagogue. Angelina Hicks, of Lexington, is accused of conspiring with two men in what investigators described as a plan to “kill as many Jews as possible” at Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, Texas. The FBI said it received information that Hicks was targeting members of the Jewish community, leading federal agents and Davidson County deputies to her home in Lexington. Investigators said they found evidence that Hicks and others were planning a mass-casualty attack at the synagogue. Hicks has been charged with felony conspiracy to commit murder and assault with a deadly weapon. She is being held in jail on a $10 million bond. Her father, Dannie Hicks, said the case has upended their lives. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [4/26/2026 6:00 AM, Hailey Bullis, 1147K] reports the fate of a key government surveillance tool is expected to be decided next week, as House GOP leadership rushes to reauthorize the program before an April 30 deadline. GOP leaders dropped the latest iteration of legislation to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Thursday. Under the plan, FISA, which allows warrantless wiretapping of noncitizens, would be extended for three years, with new oversight guardrails and penalties for abusing the spy tool. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is hoping to vote next week on extending the program, and the House Rules Committee is set to debate and vote on the three-year reauthorization on Monday. However, the latest deal to extend FISA does not include a warrant requirement for gathering information on U.S. citizens, something conservative hardliners have been demanding be included to get their support. Without the warrant requirement, Johnson is expected to face conservative opposition to the extension on the House floor. House GOP leadership was forced to pass a short-term extension of the spy authority earlier this month after GOP hardliners sunk both a five-year extension and a “clean” 18-month extension over warrant demands. Twelve Republicans voted against a five-year extension on April 17, with 20 voting against the “clean” 18-month reauthorization.

New York Times [4/25/2026 5:29 PM, James Wagner, 148038K] reports the two American officials killed in a car crash last weekend in northern Mexico while returning from a counter-cartel operation did not have formal authorization for such activities in the country, the Mexican government announced. In a statement released on Saturday morning, the Mexican federal security cabinet said that, according to immigration records, one of the two officials entered the country as a visitor — “without permission to engage in paid work” — and the other arrived on a diplomatic passport. “The government of Mexico, the institutions comprising the security cabinet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were unaware of any foreign agents operating, or planning to physically participate, in any operational activity within Mexican territory,” the statement said. The New York Times and other outlets reported that the U.S. officials were C.I.A. officers. The two Americans, along with two Mexican officials, were killed early Sunday when their vehicle plunged off a remote mountain road while returning from an operation led by Mexico’s armed forces to dismantle a large clandestine methamphetamine lab in the state of Chihuahua, the state authorities said. The deaths of the two Americans have raised urgent questions about the extent of U.S. involvement in the region’s drug war, and which Mexican authorities granted permission for the American officials to participate in this recent operation.

Reported similarly:
AP [4/25/2026 3:54 PM, Staff]

Washington Examiner [4/25/2026 3:21 PM, Brady Knox, 1147K] reports the United States adjusted sanctions to allow Venezuela to pay former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s legal fees during his drug trafficking case in New York. The U.S. caved to the demand after Maduro’s defense lawyer, Barry Pollack, argued his client’s rights were being violated, so the case should be dismissed. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, an appointee of then-President Bill Clinton, said at a March 26 hearing that he didn’t intend to dismiss the case, but was critical of the government for blocking Caracas from paying the legal fees, Reuters reported. Prosecutor Kyle Wirshba previously insisted that the sanctions blocking the legal payments were based on national security concerns and that the court had no say over the matter, as foreign policy is the realm of the executive branch rather than the judiciary. Hellerstein wasn’t convinced. "The defendant is here, Flores is here. They present no further national security threat," he said, referring to Maduro and his wife. "The right that’s implicated, paramount ​over other ⁠rights, is the right to constitutional counsel.".

New York Post [4/25/2026 12:43 PM, David Spector, 40934K] reports Iran released vile kids textbooks featuring disturbing images of President Trump and asking children to solve math problems calculating how long a missile will take before striking Israel, The Post has learned. The twisted tomes, entitled "We Defend Our Iran," were released some time last year after the regime’s humiliation in the 12-Day War and also include images of intercontinental ballistic missiles launching out of a student’s backpack and other graphic war imagery. The books, which are distributed to children in elementary, middle and high school students in Iran, were recently obtained in pdf format from the official Iranian education ministry website by Israeli nonprofit Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se). "These textbooks show a deliberate effort to promote violence, antisemitism, and hostility toward the United States… the threat is real and the evidence is in the classroom," IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff told The Post.

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