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.

NBC News [2/17/2026 12:20 PM, Megan Lebowitz, 42967K] reports that U.S. Southern Command announced that the military launched strikes on three alleged drug smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean on Monday, killing 11 people. "Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations," Southern Command said Tuesday in a post to X. The strikes are the latest in a series of controversial military operations that have alarmed and frustrated congressional critics of the administration, although lawmakers have opted to allow the strikes to continue without prior congressional approval. In the latest announcement, U.S. Southern Command alleged the three boats were "operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations." The post referred to those killed as "male narco-terrorists," saying that eight people were killed on two boats in the eastern Pacific and three were killed on a boat in the Caribbean. No U.S. troops were harmed, the post said. The post also said the strikes were conducted at the direction of Marine Corps Gen. Francis Donovan, who serves as the commander of U.S. Southern Command. The military has not provided evidence that the boats or people onboard were involved in drug trafficking or proof of the number killed. NBC News has not independently verified the military’s claims. The U.S. has launched more than 40 strikes that have killed more than 130 people, according to official estimates provided by the Defense Department. The New York Times [2/17/2026 4:36 PM, Carol Rosenberg, 148038K] reports that the triple strike late Monday was the first time the Trump administration bombed targets on both sides of the Panama Canal on the same day in its five-month string of boat attacks. It was also the deadliest day of strikes this year. Of the 11 men killed, eight were on the two boats in the Pacific and the other three were in the Caribbean, the military said. The United States Southern Command announced the strikes on social media with a 39-second video clip that appeared to show the three boats being destroyed. One was on the move, its outboard motors leaving a wake, while the other two appeared to be at full stop in the water. A broad range of legal specialists on the use of lethal force have said the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because the military cannot deliberately target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence, even if they are suspected of engaging in criminal acts. CNN [2/17/2026 12:23 PM, Natasha Bertrand, 19874K] reports "Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations," Southern Command said in a statement. "Eleven male narco-terrorists were killed during these actions, 4 on the first vessel in the Eastern Pacific, 4 on the second vessel in the Eastern Pacific, and 3 on the third vessel in the Caribbean. No U.S. military forces were harmed." The strikes bring the death toll from the US campaign, which began in September, up to at least 135 people killed, with several more survivors of the strikes presumed dead. The last US strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel was carried out Friday in the Caribbean and killed three people, according to Southern Command. Last fall, the Trump administration produced a classified legal opinion that justified the lethal strikes against a secret list of at least two dozen cartels and suspected drug traffickers classifying them as enemy combatants, CNN has reported. The strikes have come under intense scrutiny, however, by legal experts and Democratic members of Congress who say they amount to murdering civilians since the US is not in a declared, congressionally authorized war with drug cartels.

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Reuters [2/17/2026 11:42 AM, Jasper Ward, 38315K] r
NewsMax [2/17/2026 11:42 AM, Theodore Bunker, 3760K]

Politico [2/17/2026 11:01 AM, Daniel Lippman and Adam Wren, 21784K] reports one of the Trump administration’s most vocal defenders of its aggressive immigration crackdown is leaving as public opinion sours against the hardline approach. Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s spokesperson, informed colleagues Tuesday about her plans, according to two DHS officials familiar with the move. She’s leaving DHS next week. “I am enormously grateful to President Trump, Secretary Noem, and the American people for the honor and privilege to serve this great nation,” McLaughlin said in a statement after this story was first published. “I look forward to continuing the fight ahead.” Noem released her own statement saying “McLaughlin has served with exceptional dedication, tenacity, and professionalism.” But the news led House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to say, “Another MAGA extremist forced out of DHS. Noem next.” McLaughlin publicly supported the Trump administration’s controversial tactics at some of the most tense moments amid its immigration enforcement operations in Chicago and Minneapolis, frequently sparring with social media detractors. McLaughlin’s departure comes at a crucial time amid a funding lapse for the agency as Republicans and Democrats negotiate potential reforms to ICE and Customs and Border Protection. Lauren Bis, DHS’ deputy assistant secretary for media relations, will replace McLaughlin, and Katie Zacharia will be spokesperson and deputy assistant secretary. The Washington Post [2/17/2026 4:34 PM, David Nakamura, Marianne LeVine and Isaac Arnsdorf, 24826K] reports Tricia McLaughlin, whose regular Fox News appearances made her a face of the administration’s hard-line immigration agenda, is leaving just over a year into Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem’s tenure leading the agency. The move comes after DHS and the White House have scrambled to tamp down public outrage over the killings of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis last month. McLaughlin informed colleagues Tuesday of her departure. She had begun planning to leave in December but extended her stay to help the administration deal with the fallout of the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, according to people briefed on her exit. Politico first reported on McLaughlin’s departure. Confirming McLaughlin’s decision in a post on X on Tuesday, Noem cited her “exceptional dedication, tenacity, and professionalism” and said she “has played an instrumental role in advancing our mission to secure the homeland and keep Americans safe.” In a statement, McLaughlin thanked Noem and President Donald Trump, saying she is “immensely proud of the team we built and the historic accomplishments achieved by this Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.” McLaughlin said she will be replaced by her deputy, Lauren Bis, and DHS’s public affairs team is adding Katie Zacharia, a Fox News contributor. Christopher Parente, an attorney for Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen shot multiple times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago in the fall, asked a federal judge for permission to release body-camera footage and other evidence that he said was necessary to demonstrate that McLaughlin and other senior administration officials had falsely accused Martinez of being a domestic terrorist and of doxing federal agents. “We are pleased with this resignation,” Parente told The Washington Post when asked about McLaughlin’s departure. “Unless Pinocchio is applying for the position, we believe her replacement will be a great improvement and hopefully work to start repairing the credibility of DHS.”

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Axios [2/17/2026 12:08 PM, Brittany Gibson, 17364K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is reshaping its public affairs team with the departure of spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. Promoting President Trump’s immigration agenda has been a high-octane effort spearheaded by McLaughlin and the agency’s public affairs team. Lauren Bis, a deputy of McLaughlin’s who was an early hire in Trump’s second term, will be promoted to Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs, Axios has learned. DHS is also hiring Katie Zacharia, a Fox News commentator and a former adviser to Richard Grenell, who is now the interim head of the Trump-Kennedy Center and a former U.S. Ambassador to Germany. She will join as deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Public Affairs, a person familiar with the matter told Axios.

Daily Wire [2/17/2026 12:07 PM, Zach Jewell, 2314K] reports Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday that the Trump administration does not want "chaotic" immigration enforcement, but added that federal officials will not stand by when sanctuary cities refuse to cooperate. During an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum, Vance discussed the tactics of U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and acknowledged that "none of us like" the videos of altercations between federal agents and agitators, such as the shooting deaths of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti. "We don’t want immigration enforcement to be chaotic," Vance said. "In 99% of cases, you have a federal law enforcement officer, they show up at a jail or they show up somewhere else, they identify a person who needs to be deported, and they get them out of our country… Where you have that chaos in Minneapolis or Los Angeles, it’s because the local authorities are so committed to an open border that they want to put law enforcement at risk. We’re not going to surrender to that. We’re not going to submit to that.” Some of the largest cities in the United States, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, refuse to work with ICE and hand over illegal immigrants who have been arrested for other offenses. This refusal to cooperate with federal authorities in these Democrat-run cities led the Trump administration to take an aggressive approach to detaining suspected illegal immigrants, including an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and the surrounding area, dubbed "Operation Metro Surge.” Vance’s comments come shortly after the Trump administration began removing many federal agents from Minnesota in February after the major surge in immigration enforcement. From the beginning of "Operation Metro Surge," Democratic leaders in Minnesota opposed Trump’s efforts to detain illegal immigrants, and the outrage over the Trump administration’s actions erupted following the shooting deaths of Good and Pretti, which were captured on video. Vance’s remarks on Tuesday seem to cut down the middle of a rift in the Trump administration over immigration enforcement tactics. Some Trump officials, such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her top advisor Corey Lewandowski, have pushed for an aggressive strategy and increasing the number of total arrests, Daily Wire immigration reporter Jennie Taer previously reported. Homan and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, meanwhile, want ICE to prioritize arresting the most violent criminals before nabbing other illegal immigrants.

Reuters [2/17/2026 4:08 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports a U.S. immigration judge has rejected efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to deport Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested last year following his participation in pro-Palestinian protests. Lawyers for Mahdawi detailed the immigration judge’s decision in a court filing on Tuesday with a federal appeals court in New York, which had been reviewing a ruling that led to his release from immigration custody in April. It was the latest case in which an immigration judge rejected a case brought as part of the broader effort by Trump’s administration to detain and deport non-citizen students with pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel views who engaged in campus activism. Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based Immigration Judge Nina Froes wrote in a February 13 decision that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security failed to meet its burden of proving he was removable, which it sought to do using an unauthenticated document signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

AP [2/17/2026 11:57 AM, Maryclaire Dale, 16072K] reports a Pennsylvania man who spent 43 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned — only to be taken straight into immigration custody — was denied bail Tuesday while he fights deportation. Subramanyam Vedam, 64, will remain in custody while he appeals a 1999 deportation order. The Board of Immigration Appeals agreed this month to hear his appeal based on what it called exceptional circumstances. The Trump administration had initially pursued a quick deportation and moved Vedam to a detention center in Louisiana last fall, before two separate courts intervened. Vedam’s lawyer argued Tuesday that he would have likely been spared deportation and become a citizen if not for the murder case, given immigration laws in place at the time. Vedam would have left prison on a drug charge by 1992, lawyer Ava Benach said. "It was delivery of LSD on a very small scale. This is not importing tons of cocaine," Benach said Tuesday. "He is not a danger to the community. We are talking about offenses that occurred over 40 years ago.” In August, a Pennsylvania judge threw out Vedam’s murder conviction in the 1980 death of a college friend, based on ballistics evidence that prosecutors hadn’t disclosed during his two trials. Supporters listening in remotely to the bail hearing included a Centre County prosecutor and the mayor of State College, where Vedam’s late father was a renowned professor at Penn State University, Benach said. Immigration Judge Tamar Wilson, sitting in Elizabeth, New Jersey, said she believes detention to be mandatory given the felony drug conviction. Alternatively, she agreed with Department of Homeland Security officials who said he remains a safety risk. "The fact he’s been a ‘model prisoner’ does not suggest that out in the general public he’s going to be safe," Wilson said. It’s not yet clear whether Wilson or another judge will hear the merits of the deportation case. No hearings have yet been scheduled.

NewsMax [2/17/2026 5:38 PM, Jim Mishler, 3760K] reports the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement Tuesday warning that "Another Democrat Government Shutdown Dramatically Hurts America’s National Security.” DHS said the partial block on DHS funding will disrupt operations across the department’s major components, including cybersecurity offices. "Shutting down the DHS means cutting off resources and funding to FEMA, TSA, the Coast Guard, and thousands of federal law enforcement officers," said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs. McLaughlin said the funding lapse will leave "260,000 men and women who defend our homeland" without the mission support needed to carry out national security responsibilities. DHS said operational planning and mission-critical procurement will be delayed, making it more difficult to respond to urgent threats, including in cyberspace and to critical infrastructure. As for the Coast Guard, DHS noted that military families could face disruptions in housing, utilities, and base support if vendors reduce or stop services, while fleet operations could see canceled patrols and flights. At the Transportation Security Administration, DHS warned that frontline officers will continue working through the shutdown, with the potential for increased airport wait times the longer the lapse continues. Customs and Border Protection sites may be unable to pay rent as well for utilities, phone service, and supplies, raising the risk of operational disruptions and delays in mission priorities. The department also noted that in some sectors, CBP’s Honor Guard may be unable to travel to provide funeral honors for current and retired employees. The Federal Emergency Management Agency could see disaster relief funding run dry, grant payments delayed, and training at the National Fire Academy canceled until funding is restored.

The New York Times [2/17/2026 6:07 PM, Carl Hulse, 148038K] reports the White House on Tuesday rejected the latest offer from Democratic lawmakers on proposed new constraints on federal immigration officers, the latest sign that there would not be a quick resolution of the stalemate that has left the Department of Homeland Security without funding since Saturday. A White House official who provided a statement on the condition of anonymity to describe private negotiations said the two parties were still far apart, adding that President Trump’s team remained interested in continuing good-faith talks to resolve the impasse. In response, aides for the Democratic leaders in Congress said that Republicans had largely ignored the guardrails the public was demanding, and urged them to start negotiating in good faith as they said their side had been doing. The Hill [2/17/2026 8:55 AM, Al Weaver, 18170K] reports Senate Democrats late on Monday night sent a counterproposal to the White House to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the impasse reached Day 4 with no deal in sight. A spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) confirmed the latest horse-trading as talks continue between the two sides. Democrats initially sent a 10-point plan featuring their wishlist on Feb. 4, headlined by calls to tighten warrant requirements, unmask agents engaging in field operations and end roving patrols. That was sent to Republicans in the form of legislative text on Feb. 7. The White House responded in kind with a proposal of its own days later. They hoped that would convince Democrats to support a stopgap measure to keep the DHS open until a final deal was struck. That did not happen, with lawmakers leaving on Thursday for a planned recess around Presidents Day. Schumer panned the previous White House offer as “not serious.” “These are commonsense proposals,” Schumer told CNN on Sunday, referring to unmasking agents and having every Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection authority wear a body camera. “They’re supported by the American people. Why won’t Republicans go for them? They don’t give any good answers. It’s something that every police department does across the country. But ICE is rogue, out of control,” he said. ABC News [2/17/2026 11:45 AM, Lauren Peller and John Parkinson, 34146K] reports that the shutdown, now in its fourth day, is affecting DHS agencies like the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Secret Service -- as Democrats demand reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Meanwhile, Capitol Hill remains nearly empty with lawmakers on recess. They’ve been told to prepare to return to Washington on 48-hours notice if a deal comes together. If not, lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return until next week. Democrats have asked for a range of new restrictions on immigration enforcement, including a mandate for body cameras, judicial warrants before agents can enter private property -- rather than administrative warrants -- and a ban on ICE agents wearing face masks. They also want stricter use-of-force policy and new training standards for agents. Republicans have objected to many of those demands, with the exception of some openness to body cameras.

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The Hill [2/17/2026 3:52 PM, Al Weaver, 18170K] reports the White House on Tuesday indicated that a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a ways off, despite more than a week of talks between the two sides over Democratic demands to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Democrats late Monday night sent a counteroffer to the White House, which Republicans had expected to arrive over the weekend. The Democrats’ latest offer was in response to a GOP proposal that came last week, which Democrats panned as falling far short of acceptable.

The Hill [2/17/2026 5:39 PM, Sophie Brams, 18170K] reports Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) urged Republican senators on Tuesday to find “some low-hanging fruit” among Democratic demands for reform within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to bring an end to the days-long partial government shutdown. During an appearance on MS NOW, Bacon suggested Republicans have two choices: “Play hardball” or identify potential areas of compromise to avert further disruptions to agencies such as the U.S. Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Republicans have seemed willing to support some of the Democratic proposals, including body cameras and an end to roving patrols, but many have drawn a line against new warrant requirements and a ban on masks. Bacon on Tuesday called the mandatory body-camera request “an obvious one.”

NewsMax [2/17/2026 11:58 AM, Staff, 3760K] reports Florida GOP Rep. Greg Steube said Democrats are "holding hostage the American people" by tying government funding to what he repeatedly called "ridiculous reforms" that are "complete nonstarters." Appearing Tuesday on Newsmax’s "National Report," Steube warned that a shutdown would immediately affect front-line agencies, stressing that "strong and courageous law enforcement officers" would soon go unpaid. "Who suffers is the American people," Steube said. "And then these strong and courageous law enforcement officers in our Coast Guard officers that in a week or so aren’t going to get paid. TSA is going to start not getting paid," he added. Steube argued the standoff centers on Democrats pushing new restrictions on immigration enforcement, claiming they have "latched on to ICE" because "they don’t think that immigrants, illegal immigrants, gang members, rapists, and murderers should be deported from our country.” "They’re going after our ICE agents who are courageously doing the great work of the American people," he said, accusing Democrats of using immigration enforcement as "a bargaining chip to shut down the government.” Steube specifically rejected Democrat demands for judicial warrants in deportation cases, calling it unnecessary because ICE already operates under "an administrative warrant called a detainer.”

Breitbart [2/17/2026 9:18 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports on Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) acknowledged that ICE has a lot of money even with DHS shutting down and said that “Democrats had more leverage when the appropriations process had six different funding bills, as opposed to just one, in front of us, which is why it was frustrating to see 21 Democrats defect and vote with Republicans to fund those five other bills.” Co-host Brianna Keilar asked, “ICE, as you’re well aware, is already super well-funded, into the future, through Trump’s big bill, and Secretary Noem has a lot of discretion in how to use those funds to make sure, for instance, that they can continue their operations, that they are paid. Is it worth it, from your perspective, for families, like those of Coast Guard families, TSA, FEMA, to be losing out, potentially, on pay, or even just really stressed out that they’re going to, when the impact on ICE here could be negligible?” Auchincloss responded, “You’re right that ICE was given a blank check last year. Republicans tripled its budget such that now there is more money going towards ICE than there is towards crime, gun trafficking, drug trafficking, corruption, counterterrorism combined at the federal level. I think Americans think that’s a misallocation of resources and priorities, and they want to see that if there is going to be further appropriations towards ICE, that those appropriations come with policy riders that reflect rule of law, due process, and protections of civil rights.”

Breitbart [2/17/2026 11:48 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports on Tuesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) acknowledged that the DHS shutdown hurts TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard and “We can’t cut off” money for ICE due to the fact that “they’re funded. They can do whatever they want.” Titus said, “The shutdown really hurts Nevada, if you don’t have TSA. Our tourism is already negatively impacted by this administration, and this will just hurt more. And there’s such an easy solution: Pull those out, pull out FEMA, pull out TSA, pull out Coast Guard, fund them, and send them on their way, and then deal with the safeguards that we can put in place…with ICE.” She continued, “We can’t cut off their money because they got all that money back in the big, beautiful bill. So, they’re funded. They can do whatever they want. They’ve got the 16th-largest military budget in the world, but we could put those guardrails in place.”

The Hill [2/17/2026 6:00 AM, Chris Stirewalt, 18170K] reports Republicans want to identify voters. Democrats want to identify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. Can they both get what they say they want? That’s the question before the Senate as dual-track negotiations continue over funding the Department of Homeland Security and a House-passed bill mandating changes to state election laws. The two have become intertwined as the (barely) GOP-controlled House and MAGA Republicans in the Senate look for ways to get something out of any potential compromise that may come out of the Homeland Security fight. It’s Democrats who have a choice to make between making laws and “messaging” on the shutdown, while Republicans face the same quandary on voter identification. The quick primer goes like this: After the killings of two activists by Homeland Security agents in Minneapolis last month, the massive public opinion backlash forced the Trump administration to abandon its efforts to brazen it out on mass deportations and listen to politically vulnerable Republicans in Congress facing the midterm abyss. That led to administrative moves — personnel changes and some policy shifts — but also the agreement to allow the agency’s funding to be pulled out of a larger budget deal. Isolating the current shutdown into one agency — and a controversial and unpopular one at that — dramatically de-leveraged the White House and MAGA members of Congress. With more than 90 percent of the government funded through the end of September, there are far fewer pain points for the administration to punish Senate Democrats than there were during last fall’s ObamaCare-themed shutdown. The administration has a lot less fat in the fire, too. Because of an extra $75 billion to fund immigration enforcement in President Trump’s reconciliation package last year, the GOP gets to keep its top agency priority running while the rest grinds to a halt. But eventually, stoppages and disruptions at some combination of the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide sufficient incentives for both sides to make a deal.

FOX News [2/17/2026 9:21 AM, Taylor Penley, 37576K] reports that Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is urging Senate Republicans to resurrect the old-fashioned talking filibuster as he pushes for a vote on his Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, daring Democrats to physically hold the floor if they want to block legislation requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to vote. "Over the last few decades, we’ve made it way too easy to where people can filibuster in their sleep or while on vacation, while at recess, at a bar, whatever. They don’t have to show up and speak," Lee told "Jesse Watters Primetime" on Monday. "All we’re asking is that if you want to filibuster this bill, you should have to show up, stand up, seek recognition and speak," he said. The act, which would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, has amassed more than 50 co-sponsors, enough to break through a key procedural hurdle. Lee argues there is no reason the bill should remain stalled and says Republicans should be willing to force a floor fight if necessary. "We need to vote as soon as possible, Kayleigh, because the American people demand elections that are secure. Right now, they’re not," he said. "All of these horrible things [Democrats are] saying about this is paranoid fantasy. Our mantra in this: We want to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. The SAVE America Act accomplishes both."

FOX News [2/17/2026 9:00 PM, Alex Miller Fox, 37576K] reports Senate Democrats have panned the GOP’s push for voter ID legislation as akin to segregationist laws from the Deep South, but the architect of the bill in the Senate says their arguments are detached from reality. "It’s paranoid fantasy," Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told Fox News Digital. "These are absurd arguments. They should be ashamed to make them.” Lee was responding to comments from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who has doubled down on his claim that the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act is "Jim Crow 2.0.” The bill, which passed the House last week and has been introduced and championed by Lee in the Senate, would require photo ID to vote in federal elections, proof of citizenship to register and would mandate that states keep voter rolls clear of ineligible voters. Schumer and his caucus plan to block the bill, arguing that it is a tool of voter suppression that would disproportionately harm poorer Americans and minority groups. But Lee argued that providing identification or proof of citizenship is routine in everyday life — whether undergoing a background check to buy a firearm or filling out tax forms when starting a new job. "By their logic, it’s Jim Crow to require somebody to establish citizenship before taking a job with a new employer, and that’s insane," Lee said. "And so then they argue here, well, voting is so fundamental, and we have constitutional protections protecting our right to vote," he continued. "Well, we’ve got constitutional protections protecting our right to bear arms, and yet that doesn’t cause us to dispense with proving who you are and your eligibility to buy a gun. This has just been insane.” Without Democratic support, however, the pathway to sending the legislation to President Donald Trump’s desk is complicated.

FOX News [2/17/2026 12:10 PM, Greg Norman-Diamond, 37576K] reports that the head of a Minnesota investigative agency looking into the shooting death of Alex Pretti called the FBI’s "lack of cooperation" in the probe "concerning and unprecedented." Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said the FBI formally notified his agency on Friday that "it will not provide the BCA with access to any information or evidence that it has collected in the Jan. 24 shooting death of Alex Pretti." "The BCA reiterated the request to receive information, access to evidence, and cooperation in the Jan. 7 shooting death of Renee Good and the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis. It remains unclear if there will be any cooperation or sharing of information related to those two shootings," Evans continued. "While this lack of cooperation is concerning and unprecedented, the BCA is committed to thorough, independent and transparent investigations of these incidents, even if hampered by a lack of access to key information and evidence," he added. Evans also said, "Our agency has committed to the FBI and Department of Justice that should its stance change we remain willing to share information that we have obtained with that agency and would welcome a joint investigation," and, "We will continue to pursue all legal avenues to gain access to relevant information and evidence." When asked Tuesday for comment, the FBI referred Fox News Digital to remarks that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made on Jan. 30, the day he announced that the Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation in the shooting death of Pretti.

AP [2/17/2026 5:56 PM, Steve Karnowski, 42967K] reports that Democrats hope to rein in the power of federal immigration officers in Minnesota as the state’s legislative session gets underway Tuesday, while Republicans will focus on combatting fraud in taxpayer-funded programs that President Donald Trump cited to justify the recent immigration enforcement surge. While White House border czar Tom Homan said over the weekend that more than 1,000 officers have left the Twin Cities area, and hundreds more will depart in the days ahead, the aftermath will continue to reverberate at the state Capitol during the session, which runs through late May. It’s unclear whether any significant changes can pass the closely divided Legislature. The House is tied with a Republican speaker, while Democrats hold only a one-vote majority in the Senate. So nothing can pass without bipartisan support. And it’s an election year, with all 201 legislative seats on the ballot. House Speaker Lisa Demuth is among the GOP candidates running for governor and has expressed hope she will win Trump’s endorsement. All of that could make compromise difficult. "There are definitely going to be priorities on both sides of the aisle... But when it comes right down to it, we need to have bipartisan votes to move bills through the committees and get the work done for Minnesotans," Demuth told reporters Monday

FOX News [2/17/2026 12:18 PM, Charles Creitz, 37576K] reports that top Minnesota Democrats are demanding the federal government "pay for what they broke" following weeks of DHS’ immigration enforcement surge — a demand that comes after fraudsters stole as much as $18 billion from taxpayers who funded the state’s social services programs under their watch. Embattled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey both made public overtures to the feds for reimbursement for usage of state and city resources and recouping of other alleged damages. "The federal government needs to pay for what they broke here. There [is] going to be accountability on the things that happened, but one of the things is the incredible and immense costs that were borne by the people of this state," Walz recently said. "The federal government needs to be responsible. You don’t get to break things and then just leave without doing something about it," he said, adding that he will be asking Minnesota’s congressional delegation to be "doing the things necessary" — apparently for reimbursement claims. Frey estimated economic and financial costs to his city to top $203 million, telling Minnesota Public Radio he would like to see the state and federal governments help pay. "I’m not naive to think that we’re going to get the entire amount," Frey said, adding that about 76,000 Minneapolis residents require relief in some form or another. Minneapolis estimated $47 million in lost wages for people "afraid to leave home" for work, $81 million in small business revenue losses and $4.7 million from hotel cancellations, according to the outlet.

The Hill [2/17/2026 5:32 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18170K] reports the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has launched an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) handling of whistleblower complaints following a string of complaints about DHS’s Office of Inspector General. According to an email obtained by the Project on Government Oversight, the GAO is reviewing the handling of whistleblower complaints from President Trump’s first term through the first year of his second one. The GAO confirmed the probe, which comes after the DHS said it had asked Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, an appointee from Trump’s first term, to turn over a list of all his active investigations. The GAO, Congress’s nonpartisan watchdog, reached out Monday asking for interviews with whistleblowers. The GAO confirmed the probe, saying it “has work underway reviewing the process and handling of whistleblower complaints at DHS.”

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [2/17/2026 10:39 PM, Michael Katz, 3760K]

Breitbart [2/17/2026 6:20 AM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports on Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s "Situation Room," Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) said that it’s best if uses of force by ICE should be investigated "by an outside agency that really has no dog in the fight," and the administration needs to make sure their accounts of events are accurate. Gimenez answered, "I’m very concerned. Look, the things — again, I go back to my days as mayor and sheriff of Miami-Dade County, whenever we had an incident, the best thing to do is say, we have to gather the facts, see what happened, and then we will come out, okay, with our side of events. But, again, that’s why it’s so important to have body cameras, right? So that you can see exactly what happened and what transpired before the event." He added, "What we can do is complain to the administration and say, hey, I think that, before you come out and you implicate or you say your version of events, you may want to make sure that [that] version of events [is] correct. One of the things that bothers me is, somehow, this person’s a terrorist or that person is terrorizing them, and you put all these labels on people. Look, it’s the incident. You go back to the incident, here’s what happened. I don’t care the individual — who the individual was. It’s about the incident. Was that officer justified in the use of deadly force or any force? And that has to come through an investigation, and, hopefully, through an investigation that’s conducted by an outside agency that really has no dog in the fight, so that the public can have confidence that the agency is investigating, is being — the incident is being investigated by a neutral investigator, and that what comes out [are] the facts. That’s what the public wants to know."

AP [2/17/2026 4:00 PM, Travis Loller, 35287K] reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia because a 90-day detention period has expired and the government has no viable plan for deporting him, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. The Salvadoran national’s case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to his home country last year. Since his return, he has been fighting a second deportation to a series of African countries proposed by Department of Homeland Security officials. The government “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, in Maryland, wrote in her Tuesday order. “From this, the Court easily concludes that there is no ‘good reason to believe’ removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future.” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin criticized the ruling in an email. “If this matter were actually about the law or due process, Kilmar Abrego Garcia would already be deported and would never set foot in this country again; Judge Xinis will not be satisfied until he is authorized to live in the United States forever,” she wrote. Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that he could not be deported to El Salvador because he faced danger there from a gang that had threatened his family. By mistake, he was deported there anyway last year.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [2/17/2026 3:55 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18170K]
CNN [2/17/2026 1:02 PM, Devan Cole, 612K]
USA Today [2/17/2026 4:02 PM, Eduardo Cuevas, 70643K]
Washington Examiner [2/17/2026 3:23 PM, Kaelan Deese, 1147K]

Wall Street Journal [2/17/2026 4:36 PM, Victoria Albert, 646K] reports an immigration judge dropped the Trump administration’s case against Columbia University protester Mohsen Mahdawi, his lawyers said, the second such dismissal in recent weeks. The judge terminated the case because the government failed to properly authenticate a key document, Mahdawi’s legal team said Tuesday. While the judge’s order prevents Mahdawi, 35 years old, from being deported on the initial charges, the administration could still appeal the decision or refile charges. “I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government’s attempts to trample on due process,” Mahdawi said Tuesday. Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Palestinian green-card holder was detained last April after a naturalization interview in Colchester, Vt., one of the final steps in the process to become a U.S. citizen. He was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, where he lived until he moved to the U.S. in 2014, according to court documents. Mahdawi had organized pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University, where he is a graduate student. He was one of several high-profile demonstrators detained last spring under the Trump administration’s crackdown on what it called antisemitism and extremist ideology on college campuses. The administration accused some of those students, including Mahdawi, of being deportable because they posed a foreign-policy threat to the U.S. The students have denied posing any kind of risk, and have accused the government of unlawfully retaliating against them over their activism on the Israel-Gaza war. Several of the students, including Mahdawi, filed lawsuits in federal court that ran alongside their immigration cases, and many were ordered released by district court judges while their cases continued. Mahdawi was freed weeks after his detention by a judge who compared the government’s actions to the Red Scare. The Trump administration has appealed the bail decision, which remains pending.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/17/2026 6:01 PM, Ana Ley, 148038K]
AP [2/17/2026 9:12 PM, Jake Offenhartz, 40934K]

FOX News [2/17/2026 8:29 PM, Emma Bussey Fox, 37576K] reports a Palestinian activist accused of making antisemitic statements and leading anti-Israel protests at Columbia University will not be deported from the U.S., an immigration judge has ruled, according to reports. Judge Nina Froes determined on Feb. 13 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not provide sufficient admissible evidence to establish that Mohsen Mahdawi was removable, Reuters reported. Froes said DHS relied in part on a memorandum purportedly signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio but failed to authenticate the document. As a result, the government was unable to "meet its burden of proving removability," according to Reuters. Mahdawi’s attorneys shared the decision Tuesday in a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, which has been reviewing a prior ruling that led to his release from immigration custody in April 2025. Mahdawi, 34, had been detained at that point during a citizenship appointment in Vermont and spent more than two weeks in custody. He was later released on bail after filing a habeas petition. A federal judge ordered that he not be deported or removed from the state and was released under an order issued by U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford in Burlington. According to the 2025 court filing, Mahdawi co-founded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack. He founded the group with Mahmoud Khalil. Mahdawi’s deportation case also stems in part from allegations dating back to 2015, when he was interviewed by the FBI after reportedly making antisemitic remarks at a Vermont gun store and a firearms museum. The owner also alleged that Mahdawi stated at a museum in Windsor, "I like to kill Jews." Mahdawi has denied making antisemitic comments or expressing violent intent. At the time, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Trish McLaughlin said in a statement, "As the media works overtime to glorify a ringleader of the Columbia pro-terrorist riots, court documents show Mahdawi allegedly told a gun shop owner that he had considerable firearms experience and he ‘used to kill Jews’.”

ABC News [2/18/2026 12:29 AM, Armando Garcia, 34146K] reports for the second time in a little more than a week, attorneys have announced that an immigration court has terminated deportation proceedings against a pro-Palestinian student after Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed they posed a threat to foreign policy. According to a letter filed in court, attorneys for Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student who was detained at his naturalization interview in April, a judge has found that the Department of Homeland Security "did not meet its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence" that he is removable. It comes after an immigration court terminated removal proceedings against Tufts University Ph.D. student Rümeysa Öztürk. Her attorneys announced the order in a letter to the federal judge overseeing the case challenging her detention on Feb. 9. For Mahdawi’s case, immigration judge Nina Froes appears to have based her decision on the finding that DHS failed to authenticate a memo allegedly signed by Rubio claiming Mahdawi was a threat to U.S. foreign policy. Mahdawi’s attorneys have argued that, like other pro-Palestinian demonstrators, organizers and students, he was being targeted for his constitutionally protected speech. Öztürk, like Mahdawi, was also labeled a foreign policy risk by Rubio in a memo. Both cases can be appealed by the Trump administration, so their habeas petitions will likely continue to play out in federal court. In response to a request for comment about both cases, the Department of Homeland Security sent a previous statement about Mahdawi and said: "It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. No activist judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that.”

Breitbart [2/17/2026 6:14 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2238K] reports states are preventing teachers and school administrators from encouraging anti-ICE walkouts amid rising violence by emotional and uninformed children. Texas and Florida officials, in particular, are stepping up to put a halt to these dangerous school walkouts. Just over a week ago, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott warned Texas school kids that there will be consequences if they skip school to attend anti-ICE riots. Now, to follow up on that, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that three independent school districts are being investigated for "facilitating student protests against lawful immigration enforcement.” "I will not allow Texas schools to become breeding grounds for the radical Left’s open borders agenda," Paxton, who is running for the U.S. Senate from Texas, wrote in a post on X on Monday. A growing number of national teachers unions have jumped headlong into using children to push their open borders agenda, including the National Education Association, which is even fundraising on pushing its propaganda on kids. Florida is another state where officials are pushing back on the radical teachers and their efforts to involve kids in anti-ICE rioting. After a Florida teachers union made the claim that participation in anti-ICE protests is "required," Florida officials are striking back. Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis took aim at the radical teachers, and wrote on X that "Our kids are not pawns for political activism. Education, not indoctrination.”

The Hill [2/17/2026 12:41 PM, Lexi Lonas Cochran, 18170K] reports Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced Monday he is investigating three school districts after students there participated in the nationwide walkouts against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Paxton’s office said the Dallas Independent School District, Manor Independent School District outside of Austin, and North East Independent School District in San Antonio did not keep students safe and even facilitated the protests. “I will not allow Texas schools to become breeding grounds for the radical Left’s open borders agenda,” said Paxton, who is running for the Senate, in the announcement. “Let this serve as a warning to any public school official or employee who unlawfully facilitates student participation in protests targeting our heroic law enforcement officers: my office will use every legal tool available to hold you accountable.” The announcement comes after the state attorney general’s office warned schools it would punish and revoke the licenses of teachers it found encouraging ICE walkouts. “We are aware of the Attorney General’s investigation, which is focused on Churchill High School. We are fully cooperating and gathering documentation to provide to the AG’s Office. In fact, in the spirit of transparency, we are providing additional documentation for other schools as well. NEISD gave guidance to staff before the TEA issued its guidance and it was substantially similar,” North East Independent School District said in a statement. “Staff was informed to follow our policies which dictate that their role is to supervise students, maintain a safe learning environment, and remain professionally neutral. Staff was reminded to not encourage, endorse, discourage, or attempt to persuade students about participating in a walkout or protest,” the district added.

New York Times [2/17/2026 5:02 AM, Julie Bosman, Talya Minsberg and Jazmine Ulloa, 148038K] reports Tom Kendall, 78, can usually spot a fellow veteran outside the Whipple building near Minneapolis, where he has stood in his gray parka keeping tabs on federal immigration agents’ vehicles for six weeks. Some wear military insignia on their hats or coats, identifying themselves as veterans of wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. Others are people he has slowly gotten to know over conversations in the bitter cold, as they have demonstrated together in opposition to the immigration crackdown. Late last week, there were dozens more veterans than usual outside Whipple, the home base for federal operations in the region, drawn by a boisterous protest organized by a veterans’ group. In the Twin Cities, veterans of the U.S. military have been among those on the front lines of protest during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation that has convulsed the Minneapolis area for months and was expected to wind down in the coming days. Veterans, who make up about six percent of the U.S. adult population, are often visible members of protests around the country. But they bring a unique perspective to the conflict between some members of the American public and immigration agents that has played out in Los Angeles, Chicago and, most recently, in the Twin Cities. While many veterans favor a crackdown on illegal immigration and some have even gone on to work as federal immigration agents, veterans who have been protesting in Minnesota said they view the operation through the lens of their own military experience. Some said they were troubled to recognize weapons used by agents that were similar to those they carried overseas. Many of them said their sense of patriotism drove them to protest. “I can’t speak for all the veterans,” said Mr. Kendall, who served in the U.S. Air Force. “But a lot of us feel that we protected America once, we’ll protect America again.” It has been more than two months since the Trump administration began the crackdown that sent thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into Minnesota. Trump officials said the effort was necessary to arrest undocumented immigrants, particularly those with violent criminal records, who have dodged the legal system in the Twin Cities, and have defended their tactics as lawful and claimed that the state was safer because of the operation. But the operation drew widespread criticism from Minnesota residents, including those who have served in the military and have seen armed conflict up close. In interviews, veterans participating in anti-ICE efforts said they were especially dismayed to see ICE agents patrolling streets recklessly in their own country, wearing masks and treating civilians roughly. In response to an inquiry about the veterans’ critiques, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, defended the actions of ICE agents, saying that “these types of smears” against them had contributed to a large uptick in assaults against them. “To most Americans our brave ICE law enforcement are heroes,” she said in an email.

Chicago Tribune [2/17/2026 11:43 AM, Steve Sadin, 5209K] reports that Robyn Rea of Island Lake brought he two children—Isaac Rea, 5, and Eli Rea, 10 months—to a Not My President rally to mark President’s Day with the youngsters because she believes it is vital for their future. Daughter of German immigrants married to the son of Mexican immigrants, Rea said she has fears her children may reach maturity in a country where the color of their skin could relegate them to second-class citizenship. “I’m raising two little brown boys,” Rea said. “I am here for their future. If things keep going the way they are, they may not have a future. They shouldn’t be taking people off the street because they look different or speak a different language.” Rea was among more than 300 people attending a Not My President Rally on Monday in Round Lake Beach, holding signs and chanting to express their displeasure with the administration of President Donald Trump. Randy Harnicker, the executive chair of Indivisible Western Lake County and one of the organizers of the rally, said the event was prompted by the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement activities in Minnesota and the resulting violence by federal agents. Harnicker said the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, officers of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Minnesota, and the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in particular spurred his group to organize.

New York Post [2/17/2026 10:14 PM, Ben Chapman, 40934K] reports LA’s schools boss has been condemned for his anti-ICE rants as more students across the city prepare to walk out of classrooms to protest against illegal immigration crackdowns. Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is one of the nation’s top educators. He’s also a been a very vocal critic of federal immigration enforcement. "Immoral, unethical and illegal," is how he characterized some of the federal government’s tactics at a press conference in September. "A new level of despicable insult," is how he referred to a video he shared online, which allegedly captured ICE agents urinating on school grounds in July. Carvalho’s comments were slammed by California State Superintendent candidate Sonja Shaw. "Fewer than half of the students in Carvalho’s Los Angeles Unified School District can read or write at grade level, that’s the real crisis here," Shaw told The California Post. "How about, for a change, we focus on lieracy and science instead of chaos and violence?" After three consecutive weeks of raucous, sometimes violent protests involving students, the Los Angeles Police Department has asked the city’s teens to stay in class, rather than protest ICE.

New York Post [2/17/2026 10:29 AM, Zain Khan and Ben Chapman, 40934K] reports the Los Angeles Police Department issued a warning to students and parents after three consecutive Fridays in which students cut class and participated in raucous anti-ICE demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles — including a violent clash last week that left federal agents injured. Teens last week were spotted burning flags, vandalizing buildings and throwing objects at cops, with one swinging a pole at officers in a scary confrontation in which one cop fired his taser. In another instance, rioters hurt two federal agents. Now police have said: enough is enough. "School attendance is mandatory in the City of Los Angeles and there may be legal consequences for parents and students," the LAPD wrote in a news release Monday. "It is unlawful for any minors under 18 to be in public places, streets, or amusement spots during school hours (typically 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.).” Authorities said middle and high school students are permitted one excused absence per calendar year to participate in a "civic or political event," but only in cases where there is advance school notification. The department further warned that any adult who transports or assists a minor in participating in illegal activity could face charges for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The LAPD announcement comes just days after an agent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement was sent to the hospital when high school students turned violent at an anti-ICE demonstration last Friday. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said rioters threw rocks that injured the federal agent during the chaotic protest, and video shows a teen wielding a pole against officers.

Los Angeles Times [2/17/2026 4:23 PM, Brittny Mejia, 12718K] reports a Compton man who was previously on the FBI’s most wanted list pleaded guilty Tuesday to assaulting and injuring a federal officer during an anti-immigration enforcement protest last year. Elpidio Reyna, 41, admitted to throwing rocks at a convoy of government vehicles during a June 7 protest in Paramount. One of the rocks shattered the glass of a vehicle, injuring a Customs and Border Protection officer by cutting his forehead, according to the plea agreement. Reyna pleaded guilty to a felony count of assault on a federal officer by deadly or dangerous weapon resulting in bodily injury. He has been in federal custody since July 2025. When Reyna is sentenced in August, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [2/18/2026 1:19 AM, James Gant, 40934K]
Univision [2/17/2026 4:53 PM, Staff, 4937K]

National Review [2/17/2026 1:05 PM, James Lynch, 109K] reports conservatives spent several years crusading against the ability of government agencies to pressure tech companies into censoring online speech. Now, a prominent free-speech group that fought against Biden administration censorship is accusing the Trump administration of employing the same tactics. A new lawsuit accuses Attorney General Pam Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of strong-arming tech companies into censoring an app and a Facebook group each built to share footage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

CBS News [2/17/2026 6:11 PM, Staff, 51110K] Video: HERE reports this trial was moving along routinely with jury selection until the judge noticed the clothing on one of the defendant’s attorneys and decided a declare a mistrial.

FOX News [2/17/2026 9:00 AM, Ryan Walters, 37576K] reports that across the country, mass chaos is erupting in classrooms. Students are being encouraged and aided in walking out during school hours to protest American law enforcement. And we’re told these "demonstrations" are organic expressions of "student voice" and civic engagement. If one thing is clear, it should be: Children do not design national protest strategies, coordinate messaging across states or time walkouts for political effect. Adults do. To be specific, what is being represented as an organic, grassroots movement is being orchestrated by adults who run the same teacher unions and activist networks that have blurred, and now erased, the lines between education and political warfare. This distinction matters because when schools across the country become staging grounds for political demonstrations, students aren’t being empowered to speak their mind. This is not harmless symbolism; it’s negligence. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), U.S. high school reading and math scores are at their lowest levels in decades, with only 35% of seniors proficient in reading, and 22% proficient in math. Nearly a third of students can’t even read "basic" level, while 45% fall below basic in math. These aren’t abstract numbers. They are the direct result of an education system that has overlooked academics and replaced it with ideology.

Wall Street Journal [2/17/2026 12:11 PM, William A. Galston, 646K] reports immigration has roiled the politics of many Western democracies over the past decade. Leaders who failed to address this issue effectively have been drummed out of office, and populist nationalist parties have gained popularity just about everywhere. The U.S. is no exception. The issue fueled Donald Trump’s rise in 2016, and Joe Biden’s epic mismanagement of the border helped Mr. Trump return to the presidency in 2024. Understandably, Mr. Trump took the outcome of the latter election as a mandate for much tougher policies, not only at the border but within it. But it has become clear that he misread the sentiments of the American people. While they broadly approve of his border policies, they disagree with his deportation strategy. Throughout the 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump focused on the worst of the worst—illegal immigrants who were members of gangs and cartels or who had committed felonies. But federal agents swept through cities across the country, catching people whose only offense was their illegal presence, who were working hard to support their families and contribute to their communities. Voters saw tactics they couldn’t accept—excessive force, denial of due process and hasty deportations. Approval of Mr. Trump’s handling of immigration has declined steadily. An Economist/YouGov poll conducted in early February 2025 found that 51% of Americans approved of his immigration policies while 40% disapproved. A year later, only 40% approved and 53% disapproved. The decline was especially sharp among young adults and independents, groups that moved toward Mr. Trump in 2024. The shift in public sentiment helps explain the administration’s abrupt turn from confrontation to conciliation in Minneapolis and its recent decision to withdraw most immigration agents from that city. It also contributed to the administration’s quiet withdrawal of National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. Yet Mr. Trump’s aggressive approach isn’t the only problem. After the tumult subsides, we will be left with two long-term problems—obsolete immigration policies that haven’t been revised in decades and institutional structures that no longer fit their purpose. On the policy front, Congress needs to rethink the law’s current emphasis on family reunification, its neglect of the country’s economic needs, the inadequacy of guest-worker programs, and failing strategies for those seeking asylum and refugee status as their numbers have overwhelmed our capacity to address individual cases fairly and efficiently. Lawmakers also need to revise policies that hinder cooperation across the layers of our federal system to deport dangerous felons. When federal policies impose fiscal, administrative or manpower burdens on states and localities, there should be a way of compensating them. On the institutional front, it is time to re-examine the Department of Homeland Security, which was created in the wake of 9/11 to fight terrorism. Some of the nearly two dozen agencies brought together in the largest government reorganization in decades fit squarely into this mission, while others didn’t. Fighting terrorism is only one goal of immigration policy.

NewsMax [2/17/2026 10:10 AM, Daniel McCarthy, 3760K] reports anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis are setting up blockades. They’re demanding ID from drivers. In short, they’re setting up their own borders — against America’s laws and law enforcement. It’s not the first time "protesters" have done this. Activists inspired by Black Lives Matter (BLM) seized control over a portion of Seattle six years ago and christened their conquest the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" (CHAZ) or "Capitol Hill Occupation Protest" (CHOP). A black teenager, Antonio Mays Jr., was shot and killed by what the Seattle-area ABC affiliate KOMO News calls "civilian guards who were acting as CHOP security." Let that sink in: "Protesters" took over part of a major city and deputized thugs to replace police. That caused a young man’s death — a crime for which no one has been arrested, though last month a jury held the city of Seattle liable to the tune of $30.5 million for Mays’ slaying. The city wasn’t enforcing the law — it allowed "protesters" to establish their own law — yet now it’s the city’s taxpayers who are on the hook for what the CHAZ activists brought about. Whether the scene is Minneapolis today or Seattle six years ago, what’s happening in America’s cities is not just a revolt against law enforcement — it’s an attempt to establish different laws, different borders and a different kind of government, not through anything like a democratic electoral process but by directly seizing power in the streets.

Bloomberg Industry Group Bloomberg Law [2/17/2026 4:44 PM, James Matheson, 763K] reports the IRS urged a federal appeals court Tuesday to overturn an injunction barring it from sharing taxpayer data with immigration authorities, even as the agency recently admitted mistakenly sharing some immigrants’ personal information. The lower court "abused its discretion" in November 2025 by halting the agency’s data-sharing agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the IRS said. It asked the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to vacate the injunction preventing the IRS from sharing data on millions of American taxpayers with Department of Homeland Security because the Center for Taxpayer Rights failed to prove the agreement directly affected or obstructed its core business activities. The IRS also contended that the Center and other plaintiffs failed to prove they have standing to challenge the agreement or that it qualifies as "final agency action" reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act. Under the agreement between DHS and the IRS, the IRS was effectively only able to match an individual’s full address with its records if the address was first provided by ICE. In response, the Center asked the appeals court in a Feb. 13 motion to pause the case, arguing the newly disclosed facts about the data-sharing errors support the district court’s ruling.

Washington Times [2/17/2026 3:49 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports ICE’s use of force incidents skyrocketed after President Trump took over last year, according to new agency documents released Tuesday that show officers grappling with the early phases of the White House’s call for mass deportations. American Oversight, a left-leaning watchdog group that obtained the documents through open-records lawsuits, said Homeland Security saw a 353% increase in use of force over the first two months of the Trump administration. The documents detailed 10 incidents involving officers shattering vehicle windows and deploying pepper spray. The documents also detail the extent of “collateral arrests,” where DHS officers went seeking particular targets but ended up arresting other migrants along the way. In one operation last March, ICE made 370 arrests, 225 of which weren’t targets. The rise in use of force incidents tracks an overall rise in ICE activity. Homeland Security said it’s seen a rise in resistance to its immigration enforcement efforts and blamed overheated rhetoric from Mr. Trump’s opponents.

NPR [2/18/2026 3:00 AM, Wailin Wong, Darian Woods, Julia Ritchey, and Kate Concannon, 28764K] Audio: HERE reports the Department of Homeland Security says it has more than doubled the workforce of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Trump. Yet videos of immigration officers killing two U.S. citizens and using aggressive arrest tactics have left some politicians and community leaders rethinking the agency’s approach. On today’s show, law enforcement experts assess the training and culture at DHS. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Bloomberg [2/17/2026 10:56 AM, Alexis Waiss, 50K] reports that States have limited ability to respond to sweeping immigration enforcement as prison companies use their relationship with ICE to shield themselves from regulation. Prison contractors successfully convinced two federal appeals courts that their federal contracts entitled them to immunity from being directly regulated or interfered with by states. They sued over laws to regulate or ban private immigration detention in California, Illinois, Washington, and New Jersey. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has amounted to ICE holding over 75,000 people in January. A majority of these detainees—79% in late January—are held in facilities run by for-profit entities, with Geo Group Inc. and CoreCivic Inc. dominating the market. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was also awarded $45 billion under the Republican mega tax-and-spending law to further expand its detention capacity. Since then, Democrat-led cities including Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Chicago have been subjected to ICE raids that have resulted in thousands of arrests. California was the first state to try to ban the use of private prisons for immigration detention when then-state legislator Rob Bonta sponsored a bill that subsequently became state law. As state attorney general now, Bonta’s still fighting to curb private prisons for migrants. “I believe deeply that for-profit detention is fundamentally incompatible with the health and welfare of Californians,” he said in an emailed statement.

AP [2/17/2026 3:00 PM, David A. Lieb and Brian Witte, 35287K] reports that over the past 18 years, officers at Maryland’s Frederick County jail have asked thousands of inmates two standard questions: What country are you a citizen of? And where were you born? If the answer was anything other than the United States, local officers deputized with special federal authority launched an investigation into whether the person was in the country illegally. Since 2008, Frederick County has turned over 1,884 people to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sheriff Charles Jenkins said. But that is coming to an immediate halt under a law signed Tuesday by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore that prohibits immigration enforcement agreements with the federal government. The new Maryland law highlights the extent to which Democratic-led states are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Ten states — all led by Democrats — now have statewide policies prohibiting law enforcement officers from cooperating in one of the primary programs Trump is using to carry out his agenda of mass deportations. Laws banning cooperative agreements with ICE were signed earlier this month in New Mexico and took effect last month in Maine. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also is backing legislation that would ban local law officers from being deputized by ICE. And Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger recently terminated state ICE agreements signed under her Republican predecessor, though her order didn’t cancel existing arrangements with local sheriffs.

FOX News [2/17/2026 9:44 AM, Charles Creitz, 37576K] reports that President Donald Trump’s joint Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) made more than 500 arrests in one month as the interagency operation conducted a "surge" of resources in January. HSTFs, joint operations of DHS’ Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the FBI that partner with other state and local agencies, were established via the president’s day-one executive order, "Protecting the American People Against Invasion." "The President’s Homeland Security Task Forces are a landmark achievement that highlight what the federal government can achieve with a leader like President Trump who is willing to slash red tape, increase coordination, and put the safety of the American people first," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. "The January HSTF Human Trafficking Surge made tremendous progress toward getting criminals off the streets and protecting victims," she said, adding that HSTFs around the country continue similar work every day to fulfill Trump’s pledge to "Make America Safe Again." The January surge sought to stifle the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs and dismantle cross-border smuggling rings with a particular focus on crimes involving children as it utilized any and all available tools to enforce federal immigration laws.

Axios [2/17/2026 3:20 PM, Steph Solis, 17364K] reports immigration officials are temporarily barred from arresting immigrants at some Boston-area churches following a federal ruling. The Trump administration’s decision to remove guidance discouraging immigration enforcement at "sensitive locations" such as churches has evolved into a legal fight. Faith leaders say religious protections are at stake. A Boston federal judge last week barred the Department of Homeland Security from conducting immigration enforcement within 100 feet of churches affiliated with the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the American Baptist Churches USA. Judge F. Dennis Saylor also prohibited federal agents from setting up checkpoints to interrogate people on the way to or from one of these churches. The ruling bars agents from conducting arrests at a church without a judicial warrant "absent exigent circumstances." The restrictions also apply to Sunday schools, religious day-care centers and church parking lots. DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Axios that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents do not raid churches and that "anti-ICE agitators" are targeting agents at churches and hotels. "The facts are dangerous criminals are no longer able to hide in places of worship to avoid arrest," McLaughlin said. Under the ruling, the churches have two weeks to provide DHS a list of churches and addresses they must steer clear of as the lawsuit continues.

Univision [2/17/2026 2:14 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports the arrest of a driver by federal immigration agents in Union City marked the second consecutive day of immigration raids in the city, intensifying fear among residents and prompting further mobilization by community organizations. The arrest occurred shortly before 9 a.m. on Monday, at the intersection of Bergenline Avenue and 40th Street. Witnesses reported that a silver pickup truck stopped at a red light when it was blocked by two vehicles. Federal agents got out of the vehicles, forced the driver out of the truck, and took him away in handcuffs. On Sunday, federal agents arrested two people near a Christian church, sparking outrage among religious leaders and community members. Mayor Brian Stack confirmed that the city was aware of the operations and revealed that one of the cases involved a father who had gone out to buy diapers for his baby, which increased local outrage.

Washington Times [2/17/2026 11:36 AM, Mary McCue Bell, 1323K] reports that Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday signed two bills into law that ended partnerships between Maryland law enforcement agencies and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The legislation, passed overwhelmingly by the Maryland Legislature, prevents state agencies and employees from entering into partnership agreements known as 287(g) agreements and cancels the existing agreements in nine Maryland jurisdictions. As emergency bills, they took effect immediately. “In Maryland, we will not allow untrained, unqualified and unaccountable agents to deputize our brave local law enforcement officers. Because Maryland is a community of immigrants,” Mr. Moore, a Democrat, said at the signing ceremony. State Senate President Bill Ferguson cheered the termination of the partnerships. “We know that ICE will no longer be assisted or subsidized by local law enforcement, ensuring that they cannot abuse or terrorize our immigrant families with Maryland’s complicity,” said Mr. Ferguson, a Democrat. The new law was roundly criticized by the state’s conservative leaders and sheriffs. The Maryland Freedom Caucus said that the law ties the hands of law enforcement and endangers communities.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [2/17/2026 3:32 PM, Katie Mettler and Dana Hedgpeth, 24826K]

FOX News [2/17/2026 6:19 PM, Peter Pinedo, 37576K] reports the arrest of an illegal alien who allegedly sliced his wife’s neck open with a box cutter in Anne Arundale County, Maryland, would have been jeopardized by a new sanctuary law signed by the governor on Tuesday, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Wes Moore pushed back, saying that "nothing in today’s legislation would prevent criminals from getting deported.” DHS told Fox News Digital that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested the illegal, Filberto Gonzalez Gutierrez, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, who was charged with attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment in Anne Arundale County, Maryland. Local Maryland outlet, the Capital Gazette, reported that Gutierrez sliced his wife’s neck open with a box cutter and accused her of cheating on him. Following the crime and his subsequent arrest, DHS said that the ICE detainer lodged with the Anne Arundale County Detention Center was honored, "allowing a safe and controlled transfer of custody." Gutierrez is currently in ICE custody pending removal proceedings, according to DHS. The agency said that "safe arrests like these are now in jeopardy with sanctuary politicians in the Maryland legislature passing a bill banning cooperation with ICE.” The bill, signed by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday, prohibits state and local jurisdictions in Maryland from partnering with ICE in immigration enforcement operations through what is known as the 287(g) program. Signed as a piece of emergency legislation, the bill takes immediate effect and requires any local jurisdictions with standing 287(g) agreements to terminate them immediately. The bill does not ban local law enforcement from honoring ICE detainers, which, under Maryland law, is up to the discretion of the local agency. However, by banning 287(g) partnerships, local law enforcement agencies are prohibited from issuing immigration detainers of their own. Moore said that "this bill draws a clear line: we will continue to work with federal partners to hold violent offenders accountable, but we refuse to blur the lines between state and federal authority in ways that undermine the trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.” However, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who is set to depart from DHS next week, told Fox News Digital that the Maryland legislature is "unfortunately following a dangerous path … of putting criminal illegal aliens over American citizens.” "Filberto Gonzalez Gutierrez, a monster who sliced his wife’s neck open with a box cutter, will never walk American streets again because Anne Arundale County worked with ICE to keep this criminal off our streets," continued McLaughlin. "Now, Maryland sanctuary politicians are playing Russian roulette with American lives by outlawing cooperation with ICE and forcing law enforcement to RELEASE criminals from their jails into our communities and perpetrate more crimes and create more victims.”

Daily Caller [2/17/2026 4:52 PM, Hudson Crozier, 803K] reports Maryland legislation cracking down on police cooperation with immigration officials will put violent aliens back on the streets, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) captured sex offenders, a murderer and an MS-13 gang member in Maryland while ICE partnerships were active, a DHS spokesperson said in a Monday statement. Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed his party’s bill on Tuesday, banning contracts known as 287(g) agreements, a once-obscure tool that the Trump administration used to build law enforcement alliances across the country. The change could make future ICE arrests of dangerous people harder, the department said. Nine Maryland law enforcement agencies signed 287(g) agreements with the first and second Trump administrations, allowing jails and other agencies to arrest, interrogate or transfer migrants to ICE custody depending on the specific contract, federal records show. Activists and Democratic politicians are catching on to ICE’s strategy, filing lawsuits or passing policies against the contracts despite some local support, even in liberal states, the DCNF previously reported.

(B) Good Morning America [2/17/2026 7:23 AM, Staff] reports that the Georgia Senate is taking action against large scale ICE facilities across the state. Lawmakers announced legislation prohibiting the use of state resources to support ICE warehouse detention centers. The Department of Homeland Security recently purchased a warehouse 45 miles east of Atlanta that could fit up to 10,000 detainees and has proposed another project in Oakwood near Gainesville. Four centers are already in the state.

The Hill [2/17/2026 8:04 AM, Jeff Arnold, 18170K] reports a Georgia special education teacher was killed Monday after police said the car she was driving was struck by a man who fled federal immigration agents after an attempted traffic stop and after he made what federal officials characterized as a “reckless U-turn.” Linda Davis, who taught at a local school in Savannah, Georgia, was pronounced dead after her car was hit by a vehicle driven by Oscar Vasquez Lopez, 38. A spokesperson from the Chatham County Police Department said that Vasquez Lopez was attempting to get away from federal immigration and Customs Enforcement officers when the crash occurred just before 8 a.m. Vasquez Lopez faces first-degree vehicular homicide charges, police said, along with charges of reckless driving, driving without a valid license and failure to obey a traffic light. Hesse Elementary Principal Alonna McMullen said in a letter to parents that Davis died in the crash, which occurred just outside of the K-8 school building. A district spokeswoman told NewsNation that students were not in classes due to the Presidents Day holiday but that teachers were participating in a planning day. Davis had only started working at the school in September, the district said, and previously worked as a teacher within the district at Brock Elementary School from 2022 to 2025. “Dr. Linda Davis was a beloved member of our school family and her loss has affected us deeply,” McMullen said in the letter to district parents, which was posted on social media. McMullen is not speaking to media organizations Monday, the district spokesperson said, but is expected to release a more detailed statement about Davis on Tuesday. Department of Homeland Security officials told NewsNation on Monday that Vasquez Lopez, a Guatemalan national, had previously received a final order to leave the country from a federal judge in 2024. Vasquez Lopez entered the United States illegally at an unknown time. Federal officers were attempting to arrest Vasquez Lopez on Monday during a targeted operation. Officers saw him enter a vehicle and attempted to conduct a traffic stop, which Vasquez Lopez initially complied with before he sped away, a DHS spokesperson said. “This vehicular homicide is an absolute tragedy and deadly consequence of politicians and the media constantly demonizing ICE officers and encouraging those here illegally to resist arrest—a felony,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to NewsNation. “These dangerous tactics are putting people’s lives at risk. Fleeing from and resisting federal law enforcement is not only a crime but extraordinarily dangerous and puts oneself, our officers, and innocent civilians at risk. Now, an innocent bystander has lost their life.”

Reported similarly:
(B) Fox 54 Morning News [2/17/2026 7:04 AM, Staff]
Blaze [2/17/2026 2:40 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1556K] r

The Daily Wire [2/17/2026 5:48 AM, Jennie Taer, 2314K] reports that authorities say an illegal immigrant fleeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Savannah, Georgia, caused a vehicle collision on Monday that resulted in the death of a beloved special education teacher. ICE agents were attempting to pull over Guatemalan national Oscar Vasquez Lopez, 38, when he made "a reckless U-turn" and ran a red light before colliding with Dr. Linda Davis’ vehicle, according to the federal agency. Davis was pronounced dead at the scene. "This vehicular homicide is an absolute tragedy and deadly consequence of politicians and the media constantly demonizing ICE officers and encouraging those here illegally to resist arrest — a felony," Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "These dangerous tactics are putting people’s lives at risk. Fleeing from and resisting federal law enforcement is not only a crime but extraordinarily dangerous and puts oneself, our officers and innocent civilians at risk. Now, an innocent bystander has lost their life," McLaughlin added. Vasquez Lopez unlawfully crossed the border at an unknown time, according to DHS. He then received a deportation order in 2024. On Monday, DHS said Vasquez Lopez was in custody at a local hospital, where he was being treated for minor injuries. CNN [2/17/2026 4:45 PM, Alisha Ebrahimji, 19874K] reports what was supposed to be a quiet studentless staff planning day for teachers at a Georgia public school turned into a day of mourning when a man fleeing immigration agents crashed a car into a cherished educator’s vehicle. Linda Davis, a special education teacher in her first year at Herman W. Hesse K-8 School in Savannah, was killed Monday morning on her commute to the school. The driver of the car that hit her, Oscar Vasquez-Lopez, was arrested and charged with first degree homicide, reckless driving, driving without a valid license and failure to obey a traffic control device, according to the Chatham County Police. The teacher’s death comes as the nation continues to debate the efficacy of the Trump administration’s mass immigration enforcement efforts, which have impacted people of all ages and races through arrests during traffic stops, at protests, workplace sweeps and outside schools. "An innocent American has lost their life because a criminal illegal alien attempted to evaded arrest," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a X post Tuesday. Driver made a U-turn and ran a red light before crash, ICE says. He suffered minor injuries from the collision while Davis died at the scene, ICE said. However, police said Davis was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. A third car was also involved in the crash, but no one from that car was injured or taken for medical aid, Betsy Nolen, a spokesperson for the police department told CNN Tuesday. He is currently booked at the Chatham County Jail, sheriff’s office spokesperson Tawana Garrett told CNN Tuesday afternoon, under an immigration detainer – a request asking federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to notify ICE before the person is released.

NewsMax [2/17/2026 9:58 AM, Brian Freeman, 3760K] reports four years of open border policies during the Biden administration and encouraging non-cooperation with police are to blame for a deadly car crash that killed an elementary school teacher, Rep. Buddy Carter said on Newsmax. He said that Democrats have "blood on their hands.” The Georgia Republican appeared on "Wake Up America" Tuesday and addressed the incident, which occurred in his district. It involved an illegal migrant suspect who authorities say fled from Department of Homeland Security officers attempting a traffic stop, triggering a pursuit that ended in a fatal crash. The collision killed Linda Davis, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade teacher at Hess Elementary School in the Savannah-Chatham public school system. "It is a tragedy. Again, here we lose one of our finest," Carter said. "She was a beloved teacher who was there helping students.” Carter sharply criticized Democrat leaders over the incident, arguing that policies limiting cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have contributed to dangerous outcomes. "She is a victim," Carter said. "She is a victim of ... the Democrats having an open border for four years and again encouraging people not to cooperate with ICE.

Univision [2/17/2026 5:01 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports the incident in Savannah, Georgia, which claimed the life of Linda Davis, a third-grade teacher, who died after a Guatemalan citizen, with a final deportation order, tried to evade federal arrest, reignited criticism from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) against "sanctuary" policies and political leaders who urge resistance to immigration authorities. It was on Monday, February 16, 2026, when officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) attempted to arrest Oscar Vasquez Lopez, a Guatemalan immigrant who entered the country illegally and who had a court order for removal since 2024. During the operation, officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop. Although Vasquez Lopez initially complied, he suddenly fled the scene, making a U-turn that authorities deemed reckless and running a red light. According to the Department of Homeland Security, this maneuver caused a collision with Linda Davis’s vehicle, who died at the scene due to her injuries. Vasquez Lopez is in custody at a hospital and faces vehicular homicide charges from the Chatham County Police Department. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the event an "absolute tragedy" and a direct consequence of what she calls the demonization of ICE officers. According to McLaughlin, encouraging those who are in the country illegally to resist arrest puts officers, suspects, and innocent civilians at risk. The Department of Homeland Security closes the message by asking politicians and the media to reduce hostility and stop calls for resistance against immigration enforcement.

Univision [2/17/2026 4:10 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports new security videos reveal the chase between ICE and Oscar Vasquez Lopez in Savannah moments before the crash that killed teacher Linda Davis. Images captured by cameras outside Hesse K-8 school, where Davis worked, show Vasquez’s red pickup truck driving down Whitefield Avenue followed by three unidentified vehicles, two of them with flashing lights. Vásquez is originally from Guatemala and, according to ICE, had a final deportation order since 2024. The agency indicated that they did not know where he entered the United States or when he arrived. The Chatham County Sheriff reported that the accused was being pursued by ICE agents. However, the federal agency made no mention of the pursuit and stated that he made a reckless U-turn and ran a red light, causing the collision with the teacher’s vehicle. Vásquez is accused of a first-degree murder. Vásquez had his first court appearance on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 17. The judge decided not to set bail at this time. In her message, Noem repeated entire phrases from the statement sent by ICE a day earlier in which the Hispanic man was held responsible for fleeing from federal agents. Noem reiterated that her department will continue to enforce immigration laws and pursue individuals with deportation orders. It is still unclear whether the agents had an arrest warrant for Vásquez or if they were carrying out an operation in that area at that time of the morning.

Washington Examiner [2/17/2026 12:17 PM, Claire Carter, 1147K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday rejected online claims that the agency’s actions were to blame for the death of a Georgia teacher, calling the notion an "utterly disgusting lie.” Linda Davis, a teacher at Hesse K-8 school in Savannah, was killed Monday morning when an illegal immigrant struck her vehicle while fleeing arrest. Davis’s story circulated online after an X user, Faith Jackson, shared the initial reporting by local news outlet WTOC and said, "ICE killed a teacher in Georgia today when they chose to chase a man who posed no danger and had no criminal history.” The ICE X account quoted Jackson’s tweet and dismissed the allegation that the government agency was at fault. "This is an utterly disgusting lie," ICE posted. "A Guatemalan criminal illegal alien fled from law enforcement and crashed into another vehicle, killing Linda Davis — an American citizen and beloved teacher at Hesse K-8. This tragic loss of life at the hands of someone who shouldn’t be here could have been prevented.” The Chatham County Police Department told the Washington Examiner that 38-year-old Oscar Vasquez-Lopez was fleeing from a traffic stop initiated by ICE when he ran a red light and collided with Davis’s car. She was taken to the hospital, where she later died from her injuries. Vasquez-Lopez sustained no life-threatening injuries and is in custody. There were no additional passengers involved in the accident. The illegal immigrant has been charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, reckless driving, driving without a valid license, and failure to obey a traffic control device. A press release from the Department of Homeland Security reiterated that Vasquez-Lopez had failed to cooperate with officers and that his reckless actions, which included making a U-turn and entering an intersection against a red light, were the proximate cause of the collision, not ICE’s attempt to initiate a lawful stop. "This vehicular homicide is an absolute tragedy and deadly consequence of politicians and the media constantly demonizing ICE officers and encouraging those here illegally to resist arrest—a felony," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "These dangerous tactics are putting people’s lives at risk. Fleeing from and resisting federal law enforcement is not only a crime but extraordinarily dangerous and puts oneself, our officers, and innocent civilians at risk. Now, an innocent bystander has lost their life.”

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [2/17/2026 6:49 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 3760K]

Washington Times [2/17/2026 10:25 AM, Mary McCue Bell, 1323K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to use a Dallas County million-square-foot warehouse as a detention center, but the owner said Monday the property would not be leased or sold to the federal government. The owner, Majestic Realty Co., said it was “contacted about the potential sale” of a warehouse in Hutchins, Texas. But the company, based in California, said in a statement that it “has not and will not enter into any agreement for the purchase or lease of any building to the Department of Homeland Security for use as a detention facility.” Majestic added, “We’re grateful for the long-term relationship we have with [Hutchins] Mayor Mario Vasquez and the city of Hutchins and look forward to continuing our work to find a buyer or lease tenant that will help drive economic growth.” Mr. Vasquez said he told the company that using the warehouse for detention would “devastate” Hutchins. The town was uneasy about the potential sale after news outlets reported that the warehouse was among two dozen nationwide — four in Texas — that the DHS identified as potentially converting into immigration detention centers. “God answered our prayers,” Mr. Vasquez said after being made aware of the company’s decision. The department has purchased properties in El Paso and San Antonio to fulfill President Trump’s expansive deportation campaign. The Hutchins warehouse could have reportedly held up to 9,500 people. The city’s population is about 7,000.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [2/17/2026 11:02 AM, Sophie Alexander, 18082K]

CBS News [2/17/2026 12:05 PM, Staff, 51110K] reports prosecutors allege a group carried out a violent, coordinated incident at the Prairieland ICE detention facility that left an Alvarado police officer shot in the neck. The officer survived. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [2/18/2026 3:23 AM, Neil Munro, 2238K] reports President Donald Trump’s deputies are facing a last-minute 10-day delay in deporting an Irish migrant who has overstayed his visitor visa by 20 years. The legal fight to deport Seamus Culleton has become another tool for the business-backed pro-migration groups who are trying to block Trump’s 2024 mandate to help ordinary Americans by deporting millions of wealth-shifting illegal migrants, regardless of their race. Culleton’s deportation cause is also a hot topic in Ireland, where Irish politicians and media are lobbying to keep him in the United States as they import a huge number of Indians and Africans into their small green country. Last week, Culleton’s lawyers won a 10-day reprieve from a federal appeals court in Texas that ends on February 23. "The First Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, February 13, 2025, entered a temporary order staying Culleton’s removal for the next ten business days," said a statement from his Boston-based lawyer, Nigerian-born Ogor Winnie Okoye. She graduated from Boston-based Suffolk University Law School in 2003. She argues Culleton should be allowed to stay and get a green card because he has no U.S. criminal record, and is married to an American. Before Trump, the Department of Homeland Security "has routinely exercised favorable discretion in such cases, including cases like Culleton’s where a marriage-based adjustment application [for a green card] is already pending," she said. However, there is little chance that Culleton will avoid deportation. A federal judge confirmed he should be deported, partly because the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act imposes a 10-year bar on reentry for migrants who overstay their visas for more than a year. U.S. officials are not sympathetic. "Yeah, if you’re in the U.S. illegally for 16 years and have a final deportation order from a judge, you’re going to get deported," said a comment from DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. She also retweeted a comment that Culleton is free to leave for home anytime he wishes.

AP [2/17/2026 9:13 PM, Jim Mustian, Michael Biesecker and Jack Brook, 1257K]
Minnesota and federal authorities are investigating the alleged beating of a Mexican citizen by immigration officers last month, seeking to identify what caused the eight skull fractures that landed the man in the intensive care unit of a Minneapolis hospital. Investigators from the St. Paul Police Department and FBI last week canvassed the shopping center parking lot where Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wrested him from a vehicle, threw him to the ground and repeatedly struck him in the head with a steel baton. ICE has blamed Castañeda Mondragón for his own injuries, saying he attempted to flee while handcuffed and “fell and hit his head against a concrete wall.” But hospital staff who treated the man told The Associated Press such a fall could not plausibly account for the man’s brain hemorrhaging and fragmented memory. A CT scan showed fractures to the front, back and both sides of his skull — injuries a doctor told the AP were inconsistent with a fall. Earlier this month, the AP published an interview with Castañeda Mondragón in which he said the arresting officers had been “racist” and “ started beating me right away when they arrested me.” His lawyers have contended ICE racially profiled him. In separate visits to the shopping center last week, local and federal investigators requested surveillance footage from at least two businesses, whose employees told the AP their cameras either did not capture the Jan. 8 arrest or the images had been overwritten because more than a month passed before law enforcement asked for the video. Johnny Ratana, who owns Teepwo Market, an Asian grocery store that faces the parking lot where the arrest occurred, said St. Paul police twice sent investigators to the business in recent days. The second time, he said, a data technician sought to recover images automatically overwritten after 30 days. Ratana said he also was visited by FBI agents interested in the same footage. For weeks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security refused to discuss any aspect of Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries. It has not answered detailed questions from the AP, including whether its officers recorded body-worn camera footage of the arrest. But the agency last week doubled down on its claim that Castañeda Mondragón injured himself. “On January 8, 2026, ICE conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest Alberto Castaneda Mondragon, a 31-year-old illegal alien from Mexico who overstayed his visa,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs “While in handcuffs, Castaneda attempted to escape custody and ran toward a main highway. While running, Castaneda fell and hit his head against a concrete wall.” McLaughlin’s assertion that Castañeda Mondragón had been targeted for removal was contradicted by a Jan. 20 court filing in which ICE said officers only determined the man overstayed his work visa after he was in custody. McLaughlin did not respond to questions about which account was correct.

Breitbart [2/17/2026 9:33 AM, Bob Price, 2238K] reports a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper uncovered a human‑smuggling operation on US‑90 in Kinney County after stopping a black Cadillac XT5 driven by a San Antonio woman. The trooper arrested the woman for allegedly transporting four illegal aliens— including two children from Belize — toward stash‑house destinations in Texas and Florida. Texas DPS spokesman, Lt. Chris Olivarez, posted a video on social media showing a traffic stop in Kinney County. The trooper, operating under Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, became suspicious of possible alien smuggling activity and questioned the passengers in the Cadillac. During questioning, the trooper identified the passengers as illegal aliens who appeared to have illegally crossed the border without being apprehended by Border Patrol agents. One of the passengers, an illegal alien from Honduras, admitted to paying $10,000 to be smuggled into the U.S. He claimed the destination for his journey was a stash house in Florida. The female passenger, identified as a Belizean citizen, said she was traveling to a stash house in San Antonio with her two children, ages 6 and 8, Olivarez reported. The trooper placed the San Antonio woman, identified as Georgina De Hoyos, under arrest on four counts of alien smuggling.

New York Post [2/17/2026 7:18 PM, Zain Khan and Matt Troutman, 40934K] reports Homeland security officials on Tuesday shot down a gadfly Australian influencer’s claim that firebrand pop superstar Billie Eilish got him deported from the US. Drew Pavlou’s self-admitted "s–t posts" campaigning to move into Eilish’s $3 million mansion after her anti-ICE "no one is illegal on stolen land" rant had nothing to do with his recent deportation ordeal at LAX, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told The Post. "Claims that this individual’s admissibility was tied to external reports regarding Billie Eilish are false," the spokesperson said.

FOX News [2/17/2026 1:26 PM, Anders Hagstrom, 37576K] reports that Canadian border officials seized nearly 600 pounds of what they believe to be methamphetamine at the U.S.-Canada border this month. The Canada Border Services Agency announced the seizure on Tuesday, but the incident occurred on Feb. 4. They say a 29-year-old Canadian national, Kulbir Singh, was driving the drugs into Canada from the U.S. "On February 4, 2026, a commercial truck arriving at the Blue Water Bridge port of entry from the United States was referred by a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officer for a secondary examination. During the inspection of the trailer, border services officers, with the assistance of a detector dog, detected 16 duffle bags containing suspected methamphetamine," Canadian authorities said in a statement. The total weight of the narcotics was 266.4 kg, or just over 587 pounds. Singh has been charged under Canadian law with importation of methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking. The CBSA in Southern Ontario says it has seized 616.5 kg of methamphetamine coming from the United States since January 2025. The announcement comes amid chafing relations between Canada and President Donald Trump’s administration, with Trump complaining last week about Ottawa’s tariff plans and negotiations with China.

FOX Business [2/17/2026 8:00 PM, Eric Revell, 7946K] reports Americans set a new record for domestic air travel in 2025 even as travel patterns shifted, a new analysis found. AAA Northeast examined several years of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint data and found that over 904 million travelers went through a TSA checkpoint last year, an increase of 2.57 million passengers compared with 2024. That figure marks a new annual record for domestic air travel, though the year-over-year increase was under 1% growth – much cooler than in prior years. By comparison, the number of passengers going through TSA checkpoints was up 5.3% in 2024 from 2023, which had a 13% growth from 2022. Fewer travelers flew on Mondays and Tuesdays in 2025, with passenger volume declining by 0.39% and 3%, while more travelers caught flights on Thursdays and Sundays with growth of 1.89% and 1.87%, respectively. AAA’s report noted that the data could reflect "softness in business travel early in the workweek and continued strength in leisure travel, which tends to occur closer to weekends.” The data also showed that 2025 had lower passenger volumes in the first part of the year when compared with 2024, with four of the first six months of last year showing declining growth compared with 2024. January 2025 saw passenger volumes rise by 1.75%, though February experienced a 2.97% decline. A 0.17% decline in March and 0.23% gain in April were followed by declines of 1.48% in May and 0.45% in June.

USA Today [2/18/2026 3:00 AM, Eve Chen, 70643K] reports a partial government shutdown can spark anxiety for travelers, but for now, airport security is operating largely as normal. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says airport screenings remain "essential missions and functions will continue as they do during every shutdown," meaning officers are still on the job even as parts of the Department of Homeland Security face funding gaps. Travelers flying during the shutdown should still expect standard security operations at U.S. airports. Popular expedited programs, like TSA PreCheck and Global Entry, are also working. PreCheck lanes remain open, and eligible travelers can continue using expedited screening benefits, like keeping light jackets on and leaving laptops in bags. There are no changes to who qualifies for PreCheck or how the lanes operate. For international travelers, Global Entry kiosks at U.S. airports are also still functioning. Customs inspections are considered essential, so travelers returning from abroad should not see changes in arrival procedures or automated passport processing.

USA Today [2/17/2026 1:07 PM, Zach Wichter, 70643K] reports that the current (partial) government shutdown isn’t directly affecting travelers yet, but it could. The ongoing funding pause affects Department of Homeland Security functions, which include Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at airports nationwide. For now, TSA screenings are proceeding normally, but the longer this funding lapse drags on, the more likely it is that security checkpoints back up. Agents are expected to miss their first paycheck in early March, according to Katy Nastro, a travel expert at Going. During the previous shutdown, the TSA warned travelers via social media to expect long security lines, and the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that similar issues could develop during the current lapse. "DHS essential missions and functions will continue as they do during every shutdown. However, during a shutdown, many employees will be forced to work without pay, putting strain on the frontline defenders of our nation," the agency previously told USA TODAY in a statement. For travelers, that means you may want to leave a little extra time at the airport, especially if the funding issue isn’t resolved soon. "If this partial shutdown lasts long enough, we could see not just long security lines, but also temporarily checkpoint closures due to understaffing and the potential for delayed flights if enough passengers are still stuck in security lines," Nastro told USA TODAY in an email.

The Washington Examiner [2/17/2026 12:16 PM, Christian Datoc, 1147K] reports President Donald Trump offered Tuesday that the federal government could step in to help clean up the sewage spill in the Potomac River, if Democratic leaders across Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., ask him "politely.” DC Water announced early Tuesday morning that emergency repairs to the Potomac Interceptor sewer line, which has spilled nearly 250 million gallons of wastewater into the river since Feb. 6, would not be completed until at least the end of March. "Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., who are responsible for the massive sewage spill in the Potomac River, must get to work, IMMEDIATELY," Trump wrote on Truth Social, days after announcing the deployment of Federal Emergency Management Agency assets to contain the spill. "If they can’t do the job, they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed. The Federal Government is not at all involved with what has taken place, but we can fix it.” The president added that, due to the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown, "we’ll have to bring in true Patriots to do the work because many are not working right now.” "These Democrat caused Disasters, both River and Shutdown, will only get worse. The two Governors and the Mayor of D.C. must act, IMMEDIATELY. This is a Radical Left caused Environmental Hazard," Trump’s post continued. "With all of their talk about carbon footprints and everything else, they’re allowing hundreds of tons of sewage to pour into the Mighty Potomac, making it much less mighty. ACT FAST. I am awaiting your call.” The Hill [2/17/2026 6:02 PM, Max Rego, 18170K] reports that the floods resulted in $33.7 million in damages, with homes, schools, libraries and other community buildings affected, according to a letter Moore sent to Trump in August. On Monday, the president wrote that the spillage, which stemmed from a collapsed section of the Potomac Interceptor in Maryland, is the “result of the Gross Mismanagement of Local Democrat Leaders, particularly, Governor Wes Moore, of Maryland.” CBS News [2/17/2026 4:06 PM, Kathryn Watson, 51110K] reports the president placed most of the blame for the spill squarely on Moore and Democratic officials in Maryland. He said over the weekend that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is responding to the incident, but that the ongoing funding lapse for its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is affecting the agency. But on Tuesday, Moore said it’s the federal government that has long been responsible for the sewage project. FOX News [2/17/2026 2:29 PM, Emma Colton, 37576K] reports "President Trump will not allow the failures of local and state Democrats to diminish the quality of life for millions of Americans," White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital Tuesday. "In line with the President’s promise to make Washington, D.C. safe and beautiful, President Trump is fixing the disaster exacerbated by Maryland Governor Wes Moore, whose gross mismanagement has allowed millions of gallons of raw sewage to be dumped into the Potomac River," Rogers said. "Just like Governor Moore has failed to address the crime crisis in his state, he has also failed to make long-overdue repairs to Maryland’s water and wastewater infrastructure.” Trump is on a tear, calling on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal government agencies to protect the Washington, D.C., water supply after a sewage pipe interceptor rupture in January that released an estimated 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac. The president has directed his ire toward Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on the issue, claiming alleged incompetence led to the disaster. Trump reiterated Tuesday that Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., leaders are "responsible for the massive sewage spill in the Potomac River" and that if they can’t handle the clean-up and prevention, "they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [2/17/2026 10:45 AM, Claire Carter, 1147K] reports President Donald Trump and Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) are trading blame over one of the largest sewage spills in U.S. history — a rupture of a major wastewater pipeline that dumped raw sewage into the Potomac River. Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday, calling the ecological disaster "a result of the Gross Mismanagement of Local Democrat Leaders, particularly, Governor Wes Moore, of Maryland.” The president also said in his post that federal authorities, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were being directed to step in to "provide all necessary Management, Direction, and Coordination to protect the Potomac, the Water Supply in the Capital Region, and our treasured National Resources in our Nation’s Capital City.” Moore’s office responded sharply, disputing the president’s characterization, saying the federal government is responsible for the inceptor, and condemning the Trump administration’s actions after the incident. "The President has his facts wrong — again. Since the last century, the federal government has been responsible for the Potomac Interceptor, which is the origin of the sewage leak," Ammar Moussa, spokesman for Moore, told the Washington Examiner. "Apparently the Trump administration hadn’t gotten the memo that they’re actually supposed to be in charge here.” As Trump is sending FEMA aid to help resolve the wastewater contamination, Moore’s office said Maryland is willing to work collaboratively, though it noted the delay in response and the political nature of the president’s comments. "Maryland officials were on site within hours of the leak to do our part to coordinate the response, and ensure the public was aware and protected. If the federal government is just now showing up to take action, we will work collaboratively—as we always do—to be responsive," Moussa said. "The Potomac isn’t a talking point, and the people of the region deserve serious leadership that meets the moment.”

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [2/17/2026 11:02 AM, Nicole Silverio, 803K]

Washington Examiner [2/17/2026 2:05 PM, David Zimmermann, 1147K] reports that President Donald Trump is blaming Democratic leaders in the metropolitan area encompassing Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia for a massive sewage spill that contaminated the Potomac River, claiming they hold direct responsibility for cleaning up the environmental disaster. Trump suggested a federal takeover of the response on Tuesday, after he deployed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate with local authorities. The saga has left many wondering who is actually responsible for the environmental cleanup of one of the largest wastewater spills in U.S. history. The answer is a mix of both federal and state authorities. The White House maintains that Maryland has regulatory enforcement authority over the Potomac and that it enforces regulations requiring sewage system operators to respond immediately to a wastewater spill. The state government led by Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) failed in this respect, a White House official told the Washington Examiner. The incident began last month when a pipe in the Potomac Interceptor sewage system collapsed in Montgomery County, Maryland. As a result of the break, an estimated 200 to 300 million gallons of raw sewage were dumped into the Potomac. The White House official said Maryland did not promptly notify federal authorities of the sewage spill. Because the ruptured section of the pipe runs over federal property stretching from Dulles International Airport to the nation’s capital, the White House says it should have been made aware of the incident right away.

Washington Post [2/17/2026 11:10 AM, Matthew Cappucci, 24826K] reports a developing storm system is about to unleash hazards from every season across a swath of the United States from the Plains to the Upper Midwest — beginning with fire danger for some, tornado risk for others and blizzard conditions in between. The result is a concerning weather alert map lit up like a colorful Bob Ross painting. The storm system was gathering strength over the Rockies on Tuesday morning. It will soon slip eastward, dragging dry air onto the High Plains where fire danger begins Tuesday afternoon. Fire weather warnings stretch from the Pecos Valley of Texas all the way to the Black Hills of South Dakota. From there, the storm taps into moisture, dumping snow on its cold side and spawning severe weather in its warmer sectors over the Ohio Valley. The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has issued a rare top-tier "extremely critical" wildfire risk in northeast Colorado and adjacent western Nebraska. This includes the Interstate 76 corridor, Fort Morgan, Akron, North Platte and the Sand Hills. Farther north, winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings span from northwest Montana to the northern half of Michigan’s Mitten. Moderate snow will fall along the border with Canada. In northeast Montana, including Glasgow and Plentywood, it’s a blizzard warning. Sustained winds or frequent gusts at or above 35 mph will combine with snowfall to reduce visibilities below a quarter-mile. The crescendo comes Thursday, when a few tornadoes are expected in parts of the Ohio Valley. The Storm Prediction Center has already issued a slight (Level 2 out of 5) risk of severe weather from Louisville to Indianapolis, and it covers much of Illinois, too. Meteorologists are expecting a band of rotating thundershowers, like short supercells. Because conditions are not very warm or humid, thunderstorms won’t grow very tall, but that will be offset by robust changing wind with height in the atmosphere. That will help even meager storms to rotate.

New York Times [2/17/2026 9:07 PM, Rylee Kirk, 148038K] reports powerful winds moving across the Southwestern United States and the Great Plains on Tuesday prompted dire warnings from forecasters and local officials that wildfires could break out and spread rapidly. In Colorado, the winds were also blamed for a highway pileup that left at least four people dead on Tuesday. More than 30 vehicles were involved in the deadly crash, on Interstate 25 near Pueblo, and more than two dozen people were treated for injuries, the Colorado State Police said, calling the conditions a “brownout” caused by dust and dirt that severely limited visibility. High-wind warnings were in place in parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, with each area facing its own particular danger. Around El Paso, Texas, forecasters warned that the wind could kick up dust and limit visibility to a quarter-mile in places. Elsewhere, it was the potential for fast-moving wildfires that had local officials most concerned. Woodward, Okla., was under an immediate evacuation order issued by the state’s emergency management agency. The alert urged residents to leave immediately without packing belongings “to avoid injury or death” from an approaching fire. The city has around 11,000 residents and the evacuation area included most of the city. In Goodland, Kan., the National Weather Service on Tuesday issued a “particularly dangerous situation” alert, a type of warning the agency uses rarely, when especially extreme conditions are forecast. The combustible combination of high winds and low humidity across the region means that wildfires are more likely to break out, and more likely to spread quickly if they do. About three million people across parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas were under the highest risk, the Weather Service said. At least two fast-moving wildfires had been reported by Tuesday afternoon.

AP [2/17/2026 5:28 PM, Gary Fields, 31753K] reports U.S. Capitol Police in Washington, D.C., arrested an 18-year-old man Tuesday after he ran from his vehicle toward the west side of the Capitol Building armed with a shotgun. Capital Police Chief Michael Sullivan said the man, identified as Carter Camacho of Smyrna, Georgia, was arrested after he parked a Mercedes SUV near the Capitol, got out and ran “several hundred yards” toward the building with a shotgun before officers intercepted him and ordered him to put down the firearm and get on the ground. Speaking at a press conference following the arrest, Sullivan said Camacho was wearing a tactical vest and gloves and had a Kevlar helmet and gas mask in the vehicle. The shotgun was loaded and he had additional rounds on him, the chief said. Sullivan said the motive was under investigation, including whether members of Congress were the target. Congress is not in session. Sullivan said the department has video footage, but he asked the public for any footage they might have of the incident. “Who knows what would have happened if we wouldn’t have officers standing here?” the chief said, adding that the department had run active shooter drills in almost the identical spot in recent months. Sullivan said Camacho was not known to authorities and described him as not being from the area. The chief said the vehicle was not registered to the suspect, who has multiple addresses. He is being held for unlawful activities and carrying a rifle without a license, an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition, the Capitol Police said in a press release.

Washington Examiner [2/17/2026 6:00 AM, Mike Brest, 1147K] reports in the final 39 days of fiscal 2025, the Coast Guard allocated more than $26 million for contracts, completing 626 improvements at 236 facilities. That’s just the first phase of the project, which will likely go on for years. Some of these improvements range from ensuring air conditioning systems work in warmer climates, heat in the colder climates, fixing plumbing troubles, and many more routine maintenance issues that for years would go unfixed until the local coast guard personnel affected by those problems figured out how to do it themselves. Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Phil Waldron is overseeing the initiative, and he sat down with the Washington Examiner earlier this month to discuss its progress. In the past, some of these more maintenance-related problems could take "years" to be addressed while other cases "could almost be filed away as indefinite," he said. "Oftentimes, though, what would happen was the crew on board that unit would just undertake the project themselves," Waldron said. "And the frustrating part behind that, there is, you have folks who are paid to be boat drivers, boat mechanics, law enforcement officers, and now in their spare time, when they’re not out doing the job, they’re back hanging drywall and fixing toilets and trying to do work that they’ve never been trained to do. Quite frankly, a lot of times you have folks performing maintenance on their buildings by watching YouTube videos to learn how to do it.” Brian Martin, the command master chief for Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England, described the previous strategy for repairing older infrastructure as do-it-yourself projects. "I think we’ve done the best we could with what we’ve had," Waldron said, acknowledging however, that, "significant underfunding is really the root cause of how we got into this situation.” The mission is personal to Waldron, who remembers early in his career being stationed at a small boat station in Detroit where they "spent a substantial amount of our time just fixing the building," and "having to worry about leaky pipes and having to worry about plumbing issues," he said.

New York Times [2/17/2026 4:47 PM, Nicholas Nehamas, Seamus Hughes and Christiaan Triebert, 148038K] reports the United States indicted the captain of an oil tanker that led American forces on a weekslong chase across the Atlantic Ocean after being stopped on its way to Venezuela, the first time President Trump’s crackdown on Venezuelan oil has resulted in criminal charges. The captain, Avtandil Kalandadze, was charged with two federal crimes, according to the Feb. 12 indictment, which has not previously been reported. The first count accused Mr. Kalandadze of falsely flying the flag of Guyana on the tanker — the ship was not registered in that country — in an attempt to evade being seized by the U.S. Coast Guard on Dec. 20. The second accuses Mr. Kalandadze of failing to obey an order from the Coast Guard to stop the tanker and allow U.S. forces to board it.

NBC News [2/17/2026 5:00 AM, Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube, Jonathan Allen, and Julia Ainsley, 42967K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s relationship with U.S. Coast Guard officials has become strained throughout her first year leading the department, according to two U.S. officials, a Coast Guard official and a former Coast Guard official. The tensions between Noem and the only branch of the U.S. military overseen by DHS stem from some early decisions she made that rankled Coast Guard officials, including a verbal directive to shift Coast Guard resources from a search and rescue mission to find a missing service member, the sources said. Noem’s leadership at DHS has created a specific split in the Coast Guard. Many rank-and-file members are motivated by her approach, in which she showcases their work by joining them on operations and visiting their ships. Some more senior officials, however, see that approach as taking away from the Coast Guard’s traditional missions. The dynamic with more senior officials has only worsened in recent months as Noem oversaw a tenfold increase in the use of the Coast Guard’s aircraft for immigrant deportations, which has strained its limited resources, the sources said. The increase was captured in data compiled by ICE Flight Monitor, a nonprofit group that tracks deportation flights. "It puts so much stress on the wing," the Coast Guard official said, referring to the branch’s aviation units.

NewsMax [2/17/2026 11:11 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security rejected an NBC News report claiming Secretary Kristi Noem has a strained relationship with Coast Guard officials. NBC News, citing unnamed current and former officials, reported that tensions have emerged between Noem and senior Coast Guard leaders over her focus on immigration enforcement and the use of Coast Guard aircraft for deportation flights. The outlet reported some officials were frustrated by what they described as shifting priorities within the service. "The entire premise of your story is incorrect, and these attacks are nothing more than a politicized deep state effort to undermine President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda and distract from the historic successes that the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard have achieved since he returned to office," a DHS spokesperson told NBC in response to the report. The NBC News report centered in part on a February 2025 search-and-rescue mission for a missing Coast Guardsman in the Pacific. The outlet reported that Noem verbally instructed leaders to ensure a C-130 aircraft remained available for deportation flights tied to what it described as the administration’s "alien expulsion operations." DHS denied that the aircraft was diverted away from the search, stating, "the C-130 never left the search" and that there is no documentation showing it was pulled from the mission.

CBS News [2/17/2026 10:39 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports Coast Guard spouse Ellie Walker says that the new government shutdown is the fourth her family has gone through. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CyberScoop [2/17/2026 7:10 PM, Matt Kapkp, 122K] reports researchers uncovered more worrying details about a long-running cyber espionage campaign suspected to be backed by the Chinese government, exemplifying how such attacks often go undetected until they’ve already caused significant damage. Google Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant said the Chinese threat group UNC6201 has been exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines since at least mid-2024. The group overlaps with UNC5221, also known as Silk Typhoon, which has been burrowing into critical infrastructure and government agency networks undetected since at least 2022. The zero-day exploitation marks an escalation from this particular cluster of actors. State-sponsored attackers spent years implanting Brickstorm malware into networks before the campaign was finally detected last summer. By September, however, the attackers had replaced Brickstorm with Grimbolt, a more advanced malware that’s harder to detect, Google security researchers said Tuesday. The zero-day vulnerability — CVE-2026-22769 — hinges on a hardcoded administrator password in Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines that was pulled from Apache Tomcat. It carries a 10/10 CVSS rating. The Chinese threat group has been using the hardcoded password, which triggers the vulnerability and allows unauthenticated remote attackers to gain full system access with root-level persistence for at least 18 months, Google said. Dell Technologies disclosed and released a patch for the vulnerability Tuesday.

AP [2/17/2026 4:52 PM, Kimberlee Kruesi, Michael Casey and Patrick Whittle, 1323K] reports a person who opened fire Monday during a youth hockey game at an ice rink in Rhode Island killed their ex-wife and one son, authorities said Tuesday. Pawtucket Chief of Police Tina Goncalves said the victims were the shooter’s ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and adult son Aidan Dorgan. Three others were injured: the parents of the shooter’s ex-wife and a family friend, Goncalves said. Police said the shooter died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police identified the shooter as 56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who also went by the name Roberta Esposito. Goncalves said there was “no indication” there would be violence at the ice rink in Pawtucket on Monday afternoon, adding that Dorgan had been to many hockey games before without incident. She said it doesn’t appear that Dorgan had any conversation or confrontation with relatives before the shooting happened. Investigators had spoken to nearly 100 witnesses as of Monday evening as they attempt to piece together what happened earlier that afternoon inside the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence. Goncalves on Monday credited an unnamed “good Samaritan” who intervened, bringing the attack “to a swift end.” She said Tuesday at least three bystanders were able to contain Dorgan but said Dorgan was still able to reach for a second firearm. Dorgan then died of a self-inflicted gunshot, Goncalves said. The hockey game was livestreamed by LiveBarn, a streaming platform for youth sporting events, whose videos have been shared on social media showing players on the ice as popping sounds are heard. Chaos quickly unfolds as players on benches dive for cover, those on the ice frantically skate toward exits and fans flee their seats. LiveBarn’s social media account has been issuing warnings to those who shared the video that they do not have permission to do so.

NBC News [2/17/2026 5:57 PM, Mirna Alsharif and Dan Gallo, 42967K] reports students injured in a 2024 shooting took the stand Tuesday on the second day of a trial for the accused shooter’s father, who allegedly provided his son access to a firearm. Colin Gray faces two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, 20 counts of cruelty to children, and five counts of reckless conduct in connection with the shooting. His son, Colt Gray, has been charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder. A trial date has not been set for him yet. Fourteen minors spoke about the morning of Sept. 4, when Colt Gray allegedly opened fire at the school, killing two students and two teachers and wounding nine others. The victims were identified as Mason Schermerhorn, 14; Christian Angulo, 14; Richard Aspinwall, 39; and Cristina Irimie, 53.

Breitbart [2/17/2026 12:07 PM, Randy Clark, 2238K] reports that Benjamin Hanil Song, the accused Antifa organizer behind the July 4, 2025, armed assault on the Prairieland ICE Detention Center, is expected to testify Tuesday as nine defendants stand trial in Fort Worth on federal charges ranging from attempted murder of a federal officer to providing material support to terrorists Court records show that the alleged Antifa ringleader in the organized attack and shooting will testify about events that led up to the shooting that left an Alvarado police officer seriously injured in the melee. The jury trial will be held at the historic Eldon B. Mahon United States Courthouse in downtown Fort Worth for nine defendants facing federal charges related to the July 4, 2025, attack that authorities say involved a North Texas “Antifa cell.” The defendants face a myriad of federal criminal charges that include attempted murder of a federal officer, discharging a firearm during, in relation to, and in furtherance of a crime of violence, rioting, and providing material support to terrorists. The suspect was captured in Dallas, Texas, after an intensive manhunt that lasted for more than ten days after the attack. The search for Song ended when a law enforcement task force comprised of Texas Rangers, FBI special agents, and Johnson County Sheriff’s deputies located Song hiding at an apartment complex on the north side of the city.

DailySignal [2/17/2026 11:02 AM, Virginia Allen, 474K] reports that about 100 U.S. troops have landed in Nigeria to aid the African nation in its fight against radical Islamic terrorism. The troops will focus on training and advising the local army, according to a statement from the Nigerian military on Monday. Another 100 U.S. troops are expected to arrive in Nigeria soon as the two countries work to combat the threat Islamist groups pose to the nation’s Christian communities. More than 50,000 Christians are estimated have been killed in Nigeria since 2009, and about 7,000 in the first half of 2025 alone, most at the hands of either the terror group Boko Haram or Muslim Fulani militants. President Donald Trump has drawn attention to the killings since returning to the White House, and designated Nigeria a "Country of Particular Concern" over the slaughter of Christians. In October, Trump tasked a handful of members of Congress, including Rep. Riley Moore, "to immediately look into" the situation in Nigeria and report back to him. "Working with the administration, we are making steps in the right direction to address this persecution," Moore said during an interview on Fox News last week. The U.S. and Nigeria have signed a "security cooperation road map," according to Moore, who is advocating for each state within Nigeria to have a police force to protect its residents. The Nigerian government has acknowledged that it needs U.S. support to combat the violence inside the country.

AP [2/17/2026 1:36 PM, Astrid Suárez, 10094K] reports that Colombia said on Tuesday it will resume peace talks with the nation’s largest illegal armed group two weeks after negotiations were suspended when government officials said that they would try to “neutralize” the Gulf Clan’s top commander. A joint statement said the suspension of talks had been “overcome” following a meeting between delegations that was facilitated by the Catholic Church, along with the governments of Qatar, Spain, Norway and Switzerland. The Gulf Clan controls dozens of communities in northern Colombia, where it has been accused of running extortion rackets while profiting from drug trafficking and illegal immigration. The group of about 9,000 fighters — which is also known as the Gaitanista Self Defense Forces — is considered a drug trafficking operation by the Colombian government. It was designated a terror organization by the U.S. State Department last year. The Gulf Clan’s leadership claims it is an armed insurgency with political grievances. The peace talks were suspended earlier this month after the Colombian government said it would work with the United States to capture the group’s top leader, Jobanis de Jesus Avila, known also as Chiquito Malo. Tuesday’s statement did not clarify if operations against Malo will cease, saying only that “agreements” aimed at advancing the peace talks had been reached.

New York Times [2/18/2026 3:28 AM, Aaron Boxerman, Erika Solomon, and Nick Cumming-Bruce, 148038K] reports indirect talks between American and Iranian officials in Switzerland ended on Tuesday with an agreement on a “set of guiding principles,” according to Iran’s foreign minister, who said both sides had agreed to exchange drafts on a potential deal. The foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, was as positive as he was vague, providing little clarity on what had been discussed or when the next round of discussions might be held. American officials did not immediately comment publicly on the talks, but one U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations, said the two sides had made progress. The official said the Iranians would provide more detailed proposals in the next two weeks to address some of the gaps between the United States and Iran, but did not provide any specifics. Mr. Araghchi told Iranian state television that the talks, which were held in Geneva and lasted about three hours, had been “more constructive” and had made “good progress” compared with a previous round of negotiations in Oman this month. “We now have a clear path ahead, which in my view is positive,” he said.

NPR [2/17/2026 1:56 PM, Geoff Brumfiel, 28764K] reports that the U.S. government has released fresh intelligence on what it claims was an illicit Chinese nuclear test conducted in 2020. On June 22 of that year, a remote seismic station in Kazakhstan detected a tiny earthquake. The event registered just 2.75 magnitude, but it originated around 450 miles away at China’s main nuclear test site, known as Lop Nur, according to Christopher Yeaw, the assistant secretary for arms control and nonproliferation at the State Department. "There is very little possibility that it is anything other than an explosion, a singular explosion," Yeaw said at an event hosted Tuesday by the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. "It is quite consistent with what you would expect from a nuclear explosive test." Independent experts did not immediately agree with that assessment. The ratios of different seismic waves is consistent with an explosion, said Ben Dando, the head of seismology and verification at NORSAR, a Norwegian organization that watches for possible nuclear tests. But, he added, the signal was weak, and it was recorded at a single station. Based on those limitations and others, he believes that it’s still possible that this could have been a natural event. "I would not say that there’s really strong conclusive evidence," Dando told NPR. "We can’t really confirm or deny whether a nuclear test took place at this point."

Wall Street Journal [2/17/2026 5:26 PM, Michael R. Gordon, 646K] reports the U.S. presented new seismic data Tuesday to buttress its recent allegation that China has secretly carried out low-yield nuclear tests, challenging Beijing’s insistence that it has scrupulously observed an international accord banning all nuclear detonations. A senior State Department official said that a seismic monitoring station in Kazakhstan had detected a 2.75 magnitude event on June 22, 2020. The U.S. has accused China of conducting a clandestine low-yield nuclear test at that time. “We are aware that China conducted a nuclear explosive test,” said Christopher Yeaw, an assistant secretary of state. He said the probable explosion occurred near Lop Nor in northwest China, which has long served as China’s main nuclear test site. The U.S. allegation comes at a time when the Trump administration is seeking to pressure Beijing to join potential talks with the U.S. and Russia on drafting a new accord to limit nuclear weapons. The question of how to limit nuclear arms is all the more pressing as it follows the expiration earlier this month of the New Start treaty that reduced U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear arms. President Trump is planning to visit Beijing for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in April. Trump said last year that the U.S. would resume nuclear testing “on an equal basis” with China and Russia. The administration has yet to order a resumption of nuclear tests, but American officials have said that if they proceed, any U.S. tests would be similar to the low-yield nuclear detonations it has accused China and Russia of conducting. China has repeatedly denied allegations that it has carried out such tests. China’s embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the seismic data cited by Yeaw.

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