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.

CBS News [2/20/2026 3:17 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51110K] reports the Trump administration on Friday formally proposed a regulation that would dramatically restrict work permits for asylum-seekers, confirming a CBS News report about a plan to upend longstanding U.S. immigration policy. But a proposed Trump administration regulation unveiled Friday would suspend the acceptance of asylum work permit applications until U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reaches the point where it decides all asylum cases within an average of 180 days. That requirement would almost certainly amount to indefinite pause on asylum-related work permits, since the U.S. government faces a massive backlog of asylum applications. A federal government watchdog found in 2024 that more than 77% of the asylum applications before USCIS had been pending for beyond 180 days. Nearly 40% of applications remained unresolved after two years. USCIS is currently overseeing more than 1.4 million pending asylum applications, according to the agency. The text of the regulation acknowledged such a pause could last for "many years," predicting that, without considering the proposed changes, it could take officials between 14 and 173 years to adjudicate asylum cases within an average of 180 days. The Department of Homeland Security proposal also stipulates that asylum-seekers would only qualify for a work permit a year after they apply for asylum, increasing the eligibility wait period from 180 days to 365 days. Additionally, the rule proposed to disqualify migrants who crossed the U.S. illegally from work permit eligibility, unless they told immigration officials within 48 hours of entering the country that they were fleeing persecution. The proposed regulation is subject to a 60-day period during which the public can file comments in support or opposition to the changes. It would need to be converted into a final rule before it can take effect. Reuters [2/20/2026 10:36 AM, Ted Hesson, 38315K] reports that the new DHS proposal would pause processing of work permits for all new asylum applicants until average processing times for certain asylum applications reach 180 days or lower. Based on current wait times, DHS estimated it could take between 14 to 173 years to reach the level to resume the processing, but stressed that other factors could shorten the timeline. The Trump administration also proposed creating more restrictive eligibility criteria for asylum-based work permits, arguing that a work permit "is not an entitlement" and is issued at the discretion of the DHS secretary. Bloomberg [2/20/2026 9:17 AM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 50K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sought to end relief like Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands. And the agency in October issued regulations ending automatic extension of work permits for immigrants with backlogged renewal requests. The new proposed restrictions on asylum seekers’ employment authorization would put further pressure on the ability of immigrants to support themselves and their families while seeking protection in the US. The first Trump administration in 2020 proposed increasing the employment eligibility waiting period for asylum seekers from six months to one year. [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

Reported similarly:
Washington Times [2/20/2026 4:18 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K]
Telemundo 52 [2/20/2026 1:45 PM, Staff, 61K]

The AP [2/20/2026 6:49 PM, Michael Biesecker and Jesse Bedayn, 31753K] reports newly released records show a US citizen was shot and killed in Texas by a federal immigration agent last year during a late-night traffic encounter that was not publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security. The death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, would mark the earliest of at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since the start of a nationwide immigration crackdown in President Donald Trump’s second term. On Friday, DHS said the shooting on South Padre Island last March occurred after the driver intentionally struck an agent. The shooting involved a Homeland Security Investigations team that was conducting an immigration enforcement operation in conjunction with local police, according to documents obtained by American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group based in Washington. The records are part of a tranche of heavily redacted internal documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the nonprofit obtained as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Though Martinez’s death on March 15, 2025, was reported by local media outlets at the time, federal and state authorities did not disclose that the shooting involved the team from HSI. In a statement Friday, DHS said the driver who was killed "intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent," resulting in another agent firing "defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.” The department did not respond to questions about why it had made no media release or other public notification of the officer-involved shooting over the last 11 months. The New York Times [2/20/2026 6:48 PM, Pooja Salhotra and Edgar Sandoval, 148038K] reports ICE’s connection to the shooting was first reported by Newsweek this week. The episode, which occurred around 12:40 a.m. on March 15, 2025, was reported by local media at the time as a shooting carried out by a law enforcement officer. It was not clear which agency was involved until the internal incident reports were made public this week. The documents did not name the officers involved in the encounter, but the description of the victim matched that of Mr. Martinez. Charles Stam, a lawyer for the Martinez family, confirmed that his client was the victim mentioned in the ICE report. The ICE documents state that Homeland Security Investigation agents from Harlingen, Texas, were helping the South Padre Island Police Department control traffic near a car accident when a blue Ford approached the area. Mr. Martinez initially did not follow officers’ instructions but eventually slowed to a stop after receiving verbal commands. Agents surrounded the vehicle and told him to get out of the car before Mr. Martinez accelerated and hit a federal agent who landed on the roof of the car, according to the documents. Another agent then fired multiple times through the driver’s side window. Mr. Martinez was transported to a hospital in Brownsville and later died.

CNN [2/20/2026 10:56 PM, Aleena Fayaz, 19874K] reports the US military conducted a strike against another alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Friday, killing three people, according to US Southern Command. "On Feb. 20, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations." SOUTHCOM wrote on X, adding that no US military personnel were harmed in the strike. At least 138 people have now been killed in strikes on suspected drug boats as part of Operation Southern Spear, a campaign the Trump administration says is aimed at curtailing narcotics trafficking. Friday’s boat strike marks the sixth publicly known attack of the year and the second attack this week. The US military on Tuesday conducted a strike on three alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, killing 11 people, according to US Southern Command.

Reported similarly:
AP [2/20/2026 9:09 PM, Staff, 35287K]
NBC News [2/20/2026 8:55 PM, Phil Helsel, 42967K]
NewsMax [2/20/2026 8:11 PM, Staff, 3760K]

CNN [2/20/2026 5:00 AM, Annie Grayer, Gabe Cohen, and Evan Perez, 612K] reports that lawmakers who oversee the Department of Homeland Security say the agency has repeatedly stymied their requests for information in recent months, with even some Republicans alleging they’ve had phone calls go unanswered and data requests left to languish. As the Department of Homeland Security has found itself embroiled in controversies across the country over high-profile killings by immigration agents and the resulting bitter policy disputes, lawmakers say they’ve stepped up their efforts to try to get answers for the public. But they’ve often been met with resistance, they said — thwarting their ability to hold anyone accountable. "I’m not going to sit here on bended knee hoping to God that somebody returns the call," GOP Rep. Mark Amodei, the Republican who oversees the DHS budget in the House told CNN, after his request to speak with White House Border Czar Tom Homan went unanswered for days. One Republican staffer told CNN that the stonewalling extends beyond just thorny policy questions about immigration enforcement. Requests to the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the status of federal disaster funding and questions over potential crimes committed by those detained by federal officers have also been met with silence or evasiveness, the staffer said.

The Hill [2/20/2026 9:15 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18170K] reports Border czar Tom Homan on Thursday said any immigration agents who break the law will be held accountable, arguing a failure to do so undermines public trust in President Trump’s enforcement. “If someone acts outside of policy, if they cross that line to breaking law, they’ll be held accountable. That’s one of the first things we did when I got to Minneapolis, and I stand by that today,” Homan said during an appearance on “Cuomo” on NewsNation. “I think anybody that knowingly acts outside of policy and do something they shouldn’t be doing, they need to be held accountable because that puts a stain on everybody. That raises the rhetoric, raises the hate, and that raises the assaults. We got to do the right thing, and that’s what we’re going to make sure they do.” Homan’s comments come amid greater scrutiny of Department of Homeland officers in the wake of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Homan said he has increased the number of referrals to internal affairs to review the conduct of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

CNN [2/20/2026 6:00 AM, Priscilla Alvarez, 19874K] reports that the Trump administration plans to double down on targeted immigration enforcement, taking Tom Homan’s playbook in Minneapolis and applying it to multiple cities nationwide, according to current and former Homeland Security officials. It’s a marked departure from the highly visible and aggressive tactics employed by top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino. That approach, documented in Hollywood-style social media videos and touted by senior Trump officials at the time, is being tabled, for now, following the scenes that unfolded in Minneapolis, including the shooting deaths of two American citizens. "No more Bovino bullsh*t. That show is shut down," a Homeland Security official told CNN. The return to ICE’s typical immigration enforcement tactics, which include identifying targets ahead of time, instead of broad sweeps in areas trafficked by immigrants, comes amid waning public support for how the administration has been conducting immigration arrests. The protests and images coming out of Minneapolis late last month prompted concerns from some Trump administration officials over the optics of the immigration crackdown. That included President Donald Trump, who privately expressed frustration that his immigration messaging was getting lost. The debate over federal immigration enforcement has also sparked a partial government shutdown affecting portions of DHS, as Democrats have pushed for ICE reforms in exchange for supporting funding for the department.

FOX Business [2/20/2026 6:38 PM, Sophia Compton, 7946K] Video: HERE reports Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Friday announced sweeping changes to commercial trucking regulations, including a new requirement that all commercial driver’s license (CDL) exams be administered exclusively in English. Speaking at the Department of Transportation (DOT) headquarters in Washington, D.C., Duffy and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Derek Barrs said the move is aimed at strengthening oversight and ensuring drivers can read road signs and communicate with law enforcement. "What we’re doing is implementing a rule that will say there’s one language in which you can take your test — It’s English only," Duffy said. "You take the test in English. You can’t speak English, you can’t read English — You’re not going to do well on the test." Duffy noted that several states, including California, currently offer CDL exams in multiple languages. In addition to the English-only testing requirement, Duffy said the DOT will ask states to disqualify drivers who fail to meet federal English proficiency standards. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze [2/20/2026 5:15 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1556K] reports Idaho police are trying to identify and locate a man who allegedly stole an ambulance and rammed it into a building housing a Department of Homeland Security office before failing to light it all on fire. The incident began at St. Luke’s Hospital, where the suspect stole an ambulance, then crashed it into the lobby of the building on Wednesday at about 11 p.m. in Meridian, according to Meridian police. Meridian is a suburb of Boise. After he crashed the ambulance, the suspect retrieved cans with some sort of accelerant that were hidden in bushes and doused the vehicle with the substance, according to police. Because the suspect had apparently planted the accelerant before stealing the ambulance and had driven about a quarter of a mile to the building with the DHS office, police believe the attack was intentional. Basterrechea said his department was leading the investigation, but they were cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as DHS and other agencies.

New York Times [2/20/2026 9:03 AM, Jack Nicas and Christiaan Triebert, 148038K] reports Cuba is confronting the United States’ first effective blockade since the Cuban Missile Crisis and running out of fuel fast, pushing the nation toward a humanitarian crisis and its government to the edge of collapse, according to a New York Times analysis of shipping data and satellite images. Cuban tankers have hardly left the island’s shores for months. Oil-rich allies have halted shipments or declined to come to the rescue. The U.S. military has seized ships that have supported Cuba. And in recent days, vessels roaming the Caribbean Sea in search of fuel for Cuba have come up empty or been intercepted by the U.S. authorities. Last week, a tanker linked to Cuba burned fuel for five days to get to the port in Curaçao but then left without cargo, according to ship-tracking data. Three days later, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a tanker full of Colombian fuel oil en route to Cuba that had gotten within 70 miles of the island, the data showed. While President Trump has pledged to halt any oil headed to Cuba, the Trump administration has stopped short of calling its policy a blockade. But it is functioning as one. Mr. Trump signed an executive order last month threatening to impose tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba. That has succeeded at scaring other nations, like Mexico, into sitting on the sidelines despite their desire to help Cuba. At the same time, the largest U.S. military presence in the Caribbean in decades is policing the waters around the island, fresh off its work blocking oil shipments to and from Venezuela ahead of the U.S. capture of the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, last month. And, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, the Coast Guard’s interception of the tanker headed to Cuba last week was part of a blockade that the Trump administration has not yet announced. “Among us longtime Cuba watchers, we’ve always resisted people using the word blockade,” said Fulton Armstrong, the former lead Latin America analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, who has been studying Cuba since 1984. “But it is indeed a blockade.”

Reuters [2/21/2026 6:06 AM, Sarah Kinosian, Julia Symmes Cobb, and Laura Gottesdiener, 38315K] reports Cuban security advisers and doctors have been leaving Venezuela as Interim President Delcy Rodriguez’s government faces intense pressure from Washington to unwind Latin America’s most consequential leftist alliance, according to 11 sources familiar with the matter. Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodriguez has entrusted her protection to Venezuelan bodyguards, according to four of the sources, unlike deposed president Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, the late president Hugo Chavez, who both relied on elite Cuban forces. Thirty-two Cubans were killed in the U.S. military attack that captured Maduro on January 3, according to the Cuban government. These soldiers and bodyguards were part of a deep security agreement between Caracas and Havana that began in the late 2000s in which Cuban intelligence agents embedded throughout the military and Venezuela’s formidable DGCIM counterintelligence unit, which was fundamental to weeding out domestic opposition. “The Cuban influence was absolutely essential” to the survival of the Chavista government, said Alejandro Velasco, an associate professor of history at New York University and an expert on Venezuela. Inside DGCIM, some Cuban advisers have been removed from their posts, according to a former Venezuela intelligence official. Some of the Cuban medical workers and security advisers have travelled from Venezuela to Cuba on flights in recent weeks, two of the sources said. One source close to Venezuela’s ruling party said the Cubans were departing on the orders of Rodriguez due to U.S. pressure. The other sources were not clear on whether the Cubans were being forced to leave by the new Venezuelan leadership, departing of their own accord, or being summoned home by Havana. The decision to sideline Cubans from the presidential guard and the counterintelligence unit has not been previously reported.

Washington Post [2/20/2026 1:11 PM, Theodoric Meyer, 24826K] reports Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire) has asked the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general to investigate whether Trump administration officials’ derisive characterizations of two U.S. citizens killed by federal agents in Minneapolis have biased the investigations into their deaths. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and a homeland security adviser, both described Renée Good and Alex Pretti as domestic terrorists after immigration agents fatally shot them last month in separate incidents in Minneapolis. Their comments drew criticism from lawmakers in both parties, and the administration quickly backtracked. In a letter, Hassan asked the DHS inspector general to investigate whether those comments have impeded or biased the investigations into the deaths of Good and Pretti, citing an exchange with another administration official as reason to open a probe. Hassan asked Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing last week whether Noem’s and Miller’s comments could bias the investigations. “Any comments that are made publicly, privately — texts, email or Instagram posts, whatever — is going to put a bias on the information,” Lyons responded. “In light of Secretary Noem and Deputy Chief of Staff Miller’s public statements calling Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti domestic terrorists, and the fact that the leader of ICE subsequently testified to Congress that comments like these inject bias into investigations, I call on you to conduct an inquiry into the impact these statements may have had on federal investigations related to the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti,” Hassan wrote Thursday in a letter to Joseph Cuffari, the DHS inspector general. She also asked Cuffari to look into whether Noem’s comments violated DHS policy, and whether Noem and other DHS officials have exerted improper influence over the investigations into the deaths of Good and Pretti. Any action by the inspector general, however, could be delayed because much of the department is shut down. About 85 percent of the DHS inspector general’s ongoing audits, inspections and evaluations have been suspended during the shutdown, according to a spokesperson for the office. The suspended work includes a review of how ICE investigates allegations of excessive force and holds personnel accountable, and inspections of ICE detention facilities.

Axios [2/20/2026 5:00 AM, Brittany Gibson, 17364K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has upended DHS staffing in her first year, pairing high-level leadership ousters with a growing staff exodus. Why it matters: Multiple reports describe a culture of fear inside DHS as Noem and her top adviser Corey Lewandowski have fired, reassigned and demoted people throughout the department’s 23 sub-agencies. The big picture: About 10% of employees left DHS last year, according to a review by Federal News Network. Roughly 80% of career leadership at ICE has been fired or demoted under Noem’s tenure, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation. The agency is under immense pressure to reach arrest and deportation goals. This includes the early demotion of the first acting agency director Caleb Vitello last February. Noem tried to replace Vitello with her political ally Madison Sheehan, who became deputy director before departing to run for Congress. At Customs and Border Protection, the agency that oversees Border Patrol, enforcement at ports of entry as well as tariff revenue collection, Noem reportedly tried to force out Commissioner Rodney Scott. Two people told the Washington Examiner that Noem and Lewandowski went to extreme lengths to pressure Scott to quit. He is Senate-confirmed and can only be fired by the president. Scott’s leadership team was fired by DHS headquarters, kicking out a century of combined experience, according to the Examiner.

Reuters [2/20/2026 10:06 AM, Andrew Chung and John Kruzel, 38315K] reports the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs that he pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies, handing a stinging defeat to the Republican president in a landmark opinion on Friday with major implications for the global economy. The justices, in a 6-3 ruling authored by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld a lower court’s decision that Trump’s use of this 1977 law exceeded his authority. The justices ruled that the law at issue - the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA - did not grant Trump the power he claimed to impose tariffs. "Our task today is to decide only whether the power to "regulate .. . importation," as granted to the president in IEEPA, embraces the power to impose tariffs. It does not," Roberts wrote in the ruling, quoting the statute’s text that Trump claimed had justified his sweeping tariffs. Trump has leveraged tariffs - taxes on imported goods - as a key economic and foreign policy tool. They have been central to a global trade war that Trump initiated after he began his second term as president, one that has alienated trading partners, affected financial markets and caused global economic uncertainty. Roberts, citing a prior Supreme Court ruling, wrote that "the president must ‘point to clear congressional authorization’ to justify his extraordinary assertion of the power to impose tariffs," adding: "He cannot.". Democrats and various industry groups hailed the ruling. Many business groups expressed concern that the decision will lead to months of additional uncertainty as the administration pursues new tariffs through other legal authorities. The ruling did not address the issue of the government refunding tariffs that were struck down. The ruling sent U.S. stock indexes, long buffeted by Trump’s unpredictable moves on tariffs, up by the most in more than two weeks and weakened the dollar. Treasury yields edged higher.

CNN [2/20/2026 5:45 PM, Adam Cancryn, 19874K] reports President Donald Trump’s months of preparation for a Supreme Court ruling on his sweeping tariff powers did little to contain his rage when the verdict finally came. Trump swung between indignation over the elimination of his broad emergency tariffs and insistence that his ambitions for his favored economic tool would not be derailed, claiming at one point the US would emerge "stronger for it" even as he confessed to being "deeply disappointed." The White House now plans to impose a new 10% across-the-board tariff for as long as five months — unless extended by Congress — under a separate legal authority, buying Trump time to draw up a new gameplan for waging the trade war that has animated his agenda both at home and abroad. The Supreme Court did not offer directions for how the government should pay back the billions of dollars in refunds collected from companies that are now racing to seek restitution, creating an economic scenario that Trump aides and trade experts alike have succinctly described as "a mess." Trump on Friday declined to commit to paying back the money, which he had previously suggested could be used to fund a variety of new initiatives, including sending Americans $2,000 "tariff dividends." The president instead suggested the matter would get tied up in years of legal fights. On Friday, Trump struck a somewhat different tone, seeking to downplay the size of the setback. He claimed the alternative levers his administration planned to use for tariffs would be more formidable and possibly even result in higher levies on foreign goods and materials around the globe.

Breitbart [2/20/2026 9:29 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2238K] reports President Donald Trump announced he had signed a Proclamation imposing a "global" ten percent tariff "on all Countries," hours after the Supreme Court struck down his sweeping, global tariffs created under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). "It is my Great Honor to have just signed, from the Oval Office, a Global 10% Tariff on all Countries, which will be effective almost immediately," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "Thank you for your attention to this matter!" In a fact sheet from the White House, it was explained that "Trump is invoking his authority under section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which empowers the President to address certain fundamental international payment problems through surcharges and other special import restrictions:" President Trump is invoking his authority under section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which empowers the President to address certain fundamental international payment problems through surcharges and other special import restrictions. By taking this action, the United States can stem the outflow of its dollars to foreign producers and incentivize the return of domestic production. By increasing its domestic production, the United States can correct its balance-of-payments deficit, while also creating good paying jobs, and lowering costs for consumers. The proclamation imposes, for a period of 150 days, a 10% ad valorem import duty on articles imported into the United States. The temporary import duty will take effect February 24 at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time.

Axios [2/20/2026 3:39 PM, Josephine Walker, 17364K] reports the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s tariffs but was silent on whether that money must be refunded — leaving the $175 billion question to an obscure trade court. Companies, including Costco, Revlon and Bumble Bee Foods sued in the Court of International Trade last year to preemptively secure refunds if SCOTUS ruled against the administration. Potentially, companies could ultimately be entitled to more than $175 billion, according to a new estimate released Friday from Penn-Wharton Budget Model economists. The president slammed the Supreme Court for ducking the refund question in a White House press conference Friday afternoon. The president also announced he’ll be imposing a new global 10% tariff to replace the ones overturned by the court. The court ruled that the president doesn’t have the power to "unilaterally impose unbounded tariffs and change them at will." The justices found that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not clearly authorize the president to impose tariffs, meaning the government collected the fees illegally.

New York Times [2/20/2026 5:38 PM, Alan Rappeport and Colby Smith, 148038K] reports the Supreme Court ruling striking down President Trump’s emergency tariff authority is expected to result in what Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who opposed the decision, called “a mess.” That’s because the administration may have to refund more than $100 billion in tariff revenue to thousands of American importers — a recoupment process that is unparalleled in scale and complexity. Trade lawyers, economists and lawmakers all appeared to agree that things were about to get pretty complicated after the sweeping tariffs Mr. Trump imposed on the basis of national security were struck down by the court. The ruling is expected to set off a head-spinning process that could take months or even years as thousands of companies seek to recoup the import duties that they paid. Even Mr. Trump was uncertain how the process worked on Friday, lamenting at a White House briefing that the Supreme Court did not explicitly explain what to do about refunds. The president, who spent months warning that a loss at the court would doom the United States economy, subsequently added that the litigation could take half a decade. The Supreme Court is leaving it to lower courts and the U.S. Court of International Trade to initiate the refund process, which will be carried out by Customs and Border Protection and the Treasury Department.

Reported similarly:
AP [2/21/2026 12:08 AM, Paul Wiseman, 31753K]

Washington Examiner [2/20/2026 11:00 PM, Molly Parks, 1147K] reports Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is telling the U.S.’s global trade partners to honor their tariff agreements following the Supreme Court’s decision curbing the administration’s emergency tariff powers. Bessent said that despite the court’s decision to block President Donald Trump from raising tariff revenue through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Trump administration can instead implement tariffs under Sections 232 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. "We can move to 232 and 301 tariffs, so I think that everyone is going to honor their deal," Bessent said in a Fox News interview with host Will Cain. "I would call on all countries to honor their agreements and move forward." Bessent also floated the idea that embargoes stand as a "draconian alternative" to tariffs in the event a President needs them.

Washington Examiner [2/20/2026 7:41 PM, Molly Parks, 1147K] reports Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) on Friday demanded over $8.6 billion in damages from President Donald Trump over his tariff policies following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Trump’s "Liberation Day" duties. "Your tariff taxes wreaked havoc on farmers, enraged our allies, and sent grocery prices through the roof. This morning, your hand-picked Supreme Court Justices notified you that they are also unconstitutional," Pritzker wrote to the President. Pritzker said he is seeking a $1,700 refund for every family in the 5,105,448 households in Illinois. White House Spokesman Kush Desai said Pritzker should take a look at his own state’s taxes in a statement to the Washington Examiner. "The immense weight of Illinois’s sky-high taxes and regulations is matched only by JB Pritzker’s own personal bloat. If this slob really cared about delivering economic relief for Illinois, he’d start with his own state government instead of chasing another stupid headline," Desai said. Pritzker’s campaign sent an invoice to Trump, along with the threat of "further action" in the letter if he does not cough up the money.

NewsMax [2/20/2026 9:42 AM, Staff, 3760K] reports that President Donald Trump on Friday insisted that the Democrats’ ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security is modeled after last year’s wider government shutdown, which "Cost the U.S.A. at least two points GDP." He also launched an attack against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and demanded immediate interest rate cuts. "The Democrat Shutdown cost the U.S.A. at least two points in GDP," Trump posted on his Truth Social page. "That’s why they are doing it, in mini form, again. No Shutdowns! Also, LOWER INTEREST RATES. ‘Two Late’ Powell is the WORST!!! President DJT." Trump’s comments that last year’s shutdown reduced gross domestic product are supported by reports released during the peak of last year’s standoff, when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published a report estimating that an eight-week shutdown would reduce annualized real GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2025 by 2 percentage points. While the CBO noted that much of this loss would be recovered in the following quarter as back pay was issued and federal spending resumed, it also identified a permanent economic loss of up to $14 billion due to unrecovered federal work hours. Private firms like Goldman Sachs and EY-US echoed these concerns, noting that every week of a shutdown typically shaves 0.2 percentage points off annualized growth. The current "mini form" shutdown began on Feb. 14, disrupting funding for agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Coast Guard.

FOX News [2/20/2026 8:27 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports that Border czar Tom Homan discusses preventable crimes by illegal migrants and criticizes Reps. Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal for Democrats’ demands to dismantle DHS amid rising border threats. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [2/20/2026 8:50 PM, Victor Nava, 40934K] reports a dozen lawmakers led by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) urged President Trump on Friday to ensure US Coast Guard members get paid amid the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown. "[M]ore than 41,000 active duty and activated Reserve Coast Guard members face the very real possibility of missing their next scheduled payday on February 27 if the Department of Homeland Security does not receive appropriations," Malliotakis and 12 other congressional lawmakers in districts with a significant US Coast Guard presence wrote in a letter to Trump. "The Coast Guard is an essential branch of our armed services, and its members should never be used as leverage in partisan disputes," the letter continued. "It is deeply concerning that Coast Guard personnel are being placed in this position due to political brinkmanship by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and other Democratic leaders who are choosing to play politics with our homeland security.". The lawmakers called on Trump to "once again use every authority at your disposal to ensure that these dedicated servicemembers do not miss a paycheck.".

NewsMax [2/20/2026 10:12 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports more than a dozen House Republicans from districts with a significant Coast Guard presence are urging President Donald Trump to ensure Coast Guard members are paid as the Department of Homeland Security remains shut down. The lawmakers, led by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, wrote to Trump on Friday asking him to protect Coast Guard pay similar to steps his administration took during last year’s shutdown to ensure military members received paychecks. "As a result of the current partial government shutdown, members of the United States Coast Guard — who serve under the Department of Homeland Security — are once again working without pay," the lawmakers wrote. "These dedicated men and women continue to carry out critical homeland security missions. They safeguard our shores, secure our ports, interdict illegal narcotics, protect our maritime borders, and conduct lifesaving search-and-rescue operations with the courage and professionalism that have long defined this proud branch of our Armed Forces. "At the same time, more than 41,000 active-duty and activated Reserve Coast Guard members face the very real possibility of missing their next scheduled payday on Feb. 27 if the Department of Homeland Security does not receive appropriations."

NewsMax [2/20/2026 9:25 AM, Theodore Bunker, 3760K] reports that Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told Newsmax on Friday that lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill on Monday with hopes of breaking a budget standoff fading as debate intensifies over funding for the Department of Homeland Security and immigration enforcement. Speaking on "Wake Up America," Stutzman criticized Democrats for tying concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement to a broader Department of Homeland Security funding bill that has stalled as lawmakers struggle to reach a deal. Stutzman placed responsibility for the impasse squarely on Democrats, arguing they are using a DHS funding bill as leverage to force changes to immigration enforcement policy rather than negotiating a clean agreement. "You know, it really depends on the Democrats if they want to find a way forward," Stutzman said. "This doesn’t even affect ICE. They are just using this particular funding bill, which affects FEMA, TSA, Coast Guard, and other agencies, that’s the group of people that they are affecting right now." He said those agencies "actually do directly work for the American people" and criticized efforts to link their funding to demands targeting ICE. "And so the fact that they are using this as a leverage point to somehow defund ICE, it’s just not going to work," Stutzman said.

Breitbart [2/20/2026 5:16 AM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports that on Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D-MD) responded to a question on the DHS shutdown not impacting ICE due to it having so much money, while impacting FEMA by saying that after “the senseless killing of American citizens to a lawless agency, I don’t think just letting them go forward and pretending like this is normal is okay.” Host Audie Cornish asked, “How long will you hold out for it? I’m under the impression that ICE has so much money in the bank that you’re not going to stop a single operation. Meanwhile, FEMA, disaster, all these other things, it’s — they’re out of luck.” Olszewski responded, “Yeah. If you look at what happened in Minneapolis, the senseless killing of American citizens to a lawless agency, I don’t think just letting them go forward and pretending like this is normal is okay.” Cornish then asked, “But you think — so, what I’m hearing you say is the public is with you if you hold out longer and it affects their TSA lines or whatever?” Olszewski answered, “The public overwhelmingly supports these reforms, 70, 80%. Almost any of the items that you listed that Democrats are asking for is overwhelmingly supported by the public.”

Breitbart [2/20/2026 12:18 PM, John Nolte, 2238K] reports that U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) has seen the future, and it is not good if Democrats do not reverse their destructive policy of wide open borders. In a Thursday interview with the far-left New York Times, Masto was asked if Democrats holding up funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) might make them look weak on immigration and border issues. “Well, I think traditionally I have seen that the Democrats are weak on immigration,” she answered, which surprised the Times. “Full stop, you’re conceding that?” the Times asked. “Yeah. Absolutely,” she answered. “I know as somebody who has worked in this space, we can do both. We can secure our borders. We can address the human trafficking, the drug trafficking and weapons trafficking that’s happening there.” She added that, “We can work to secure [the border], fund it, and at the same time have an immigration process that treats people with respect — people who want to come to this country, who have been playing by the rules, who have actually contributed to our communities and paying taxes and raising their families.” “But I have seen Democrats shy away from that,” she continued. “They don’t talk about the balance between the two. I watched as the last administration was too afraid to talk about securing the border.”

FOX News [2/20/2026 12:23 PM, Alex Miller and Elizabeth Elkind, 37576K] reports that Congressional Republicans are pushing back against Democratic claims that their marquee voter ID legislation would wreak havoc on elections in the country. Congressional Democrats have panned the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act as a tool of voter suppression — saying it’s a bill that allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to monitor Americans’ voter information and create barriers for married women to vote, among several other claims. Along with requiring photo ID to vote, the bill would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, mandate states to actively verify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls, expand information sharing with federal agencies, including DHS, to verify citizenship and create new criminal penalties for registering noncitizens to vote. Trump has time and again pushed voter ID, calling the election reforms in the bill a "CAN’T MISS FOR RE-ELECTION IN THE MIDTERMS, AND BEYOND.". Some of the bill’s strongest proponents fact-checked those claims in interviews with Fox News Digital. "If you look at what it actually says, rather than what Democrats aggressively and, I believe, disingenuously are arguing right now — they’re overlooking the requirements of the SAVE America Act — those requirements are actually really generous," Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told Fox News Digital. "They’re really flexible."

Federalist [2/20/2026 7:38 AM, Chuck Devore, 540K] reports that drones are increasingly violating American airspace. We know that tens of thousands of drone sightings on our southern border are connected with the Mexican drug and human trafficking cartels. But dozens of other drone sightings at sensitive military installations suggest hostile nation-state actors, most likely China. As drone operations in Russia’s war on Ukraine show, the threat is no longer hypothetical — it is active and escalating. Unfortunately, a dangerous combination of bureaucratic inertia and misplaced priorities has left our borders and military installations vulnerable. In December 2023, Langley Air Force Base in Virginia endured 17 consecutive nights of drone incursions, some involving craft up to 20 feet in length. Despite clear sightings and briefings that reached the White House, proposals to jam signals, deploy directed energy weapons, or shoot the drones down were rejected as "too risky." To this day, no official explanation has been provided, and no one has been held accountable. In New Jersey, 11 months later, drones were reported over Picatinny Arsenal, a 6,400-acre U.S. Army research and manufacturing facility, as well as over Naval Weapons Station Earle. After weeks of public alarm and official confusion, then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, "I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings." He went on to ambiguously remark, "Some of those drone sightings are, in fact, drones…"

Axios [2/20/2026 4:07 PM, Mitchell Byars, 17364K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more people per day in 2025 than at any other point in the past decade, even as the share of arrestees with criminal convictions fell to a near-historic low, a new study by University of Colorado economists reveals. The data underscores a shift in enforcement priorities — away from targeting people with criminal records and toward broader sweeps — a strategy that could reshape the political and legal fight over immigration. The findings come from a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper analyzing a decade of ICE arrest data. Immigration enforcement spiked at the outset of both of President Trump’s terms — and increased even more the second time. In the first 10 months of Trump’s first term, ICE averaged 435 arrests per day, a 43% increase from President Obama’s final year in office. In the first 10 months of Trump’s second term, that jumped to 821 arrests per day — 170% higher than in President Biden’s last year. Only 37% of ICE arrests in the first 10 months of Trump’s second term involved people with criminal convictions — a sharp drop from prior administrations. Nearly half of arrests in the first 10 months of Trump’s second term were "community arrests" — at schools, churches, workplaces and on the street — up from 22% in his first term. The increases were especially pronounced in Democratic-leaning areas, including Colorado.

FOX News [2/20/2026 9:48 PM, Sophia Compton, 37576K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday announced new arrests carried out by federal enforcement officers targeting illegal immigrants convicted of violent and sexual crimes. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested multiple offenders Thursday who had prior convictions for crimes including child rape, sexual assault of minors, methamphetamine trafficking and aggravated assault, according to DHS. "Even while facing doxing, threats, harassment, and a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them, ICE continues to go after criminal illegal aliens, including pedophiles, violent sex criminals, and drug traffickers," outgoing DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Bloomberg [2/20/2026 8:14 AM, Sophie Alexander, 50K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to shrink its network of more than 200 detention facilities — most of them privately operated — to just 34 government-owned sites, according to local officials briefed this week on the plan, a move that would affect longtime private prison giants like GEO Group and CoreCivic Inc. If carried out, the shift would replace the current patchwork of local jails and privately run prisons with a centralized system of larger facilities, most of them industrial warehouses, owned by the Department of Homeland Security. The majority of people currently in ICE custody are in facilities run... [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

Univision [2/20/2026 5:45 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports a new deportation case by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has generated national outrage, following the expulsion of a victim who was seeking asylum for humanitarian reasons because she was under death threats in her homeland, the Democratic Republic of Congo. The case has generated concern among migrant rights organizations, which question the process followed by the immigration authorities. According to The Independent, court documents and statements from her legal team, the woman claimed to have lived as a domestic hostage and to fear for her life due to alleged retaliation from a very powerful politician in the region. The woman entered the United States seeking international protection, invoking laws that allow asylum claims when there is a well-founded risk of persecution. During her immigration proceedings, she remained in custody while her case was reviewed by an immigration judge. However, on February 15, ICE executed the deportation order after determining that the woman did not meet the legal criteria to remain in the country. She was put on a deportation flight to Senegal, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana and Nigeria, without being given any further information, according to the affidavit in the possession of that media outlet. The woman’s defense attorneys argued that the risk assessment failed to adequately consider the ongoing violence in her country of origin. They also argued that the deportation was carried out before all pending legal remedies had been exhausted, which, in their view, violated her right to due process.

Washington Post [2/20/2026 5:00 AM, Drew Harwell, 24826K] reports Ben Palmer, a stand-up comic in Nashville, has built a following online with his signature style of elaborate deadpan pranks, stumbling his way onto court TV shows and pyramid-scheme calls to poke fun at the latent absurdities of American life. Then in January of last year, he had an idea for a new bit: He’d set up a fake tip line that people could use to report anyone they thought was an undocumented immigrant. It was darker than his other stunts, but it felt topical, the kind of challenge he wanted to try. At the very least, he thought, he might get a few calls he could talk about at his next show. Instead, his tip line has received nearly 100 submissions from across the country: people reporting their neighbors, ex-lovers, Uber drivers, strangers they saw at the grocery store. One tip came from a teacher reporting the parents of a kindergarten student at her school. “I mean, they seem like nice people or whatever,” the woman told Palmer on the call. “But if they’re taking up resources from our county, I’m not into illegal people being here.” What began as a comedy routine has become one of the most viral pieces of social satire during President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation campaign. The kindergarten video has been watched more than 20 million times on TikTok and exploded across Facebook, Reddit and YouTube, where one commenter called it “one of the most creative, nonviolent and effective acts of resistance” they’d ever seen. Palmer’s methods have fueled anger among some conservatives who argue his deception threatens to obstruct how immigration laws get enforced. While he does not claim to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement, his webpages, which use the same submission form and appear in Google search results for ways to report immigrants, use words like “official report” and include a logo resembling the U.S. seal. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said it was “aware of a fraudulent YouTube page falsely representing ICE” and that the agency “strongly [condemns] any actions intended to mislead the public or impersonate official government entities.” But neither Palmer nor the websites claim to represent a government agency, and the sites’ privacy policies include disclaimers at the bottom saying they’re intended only for “parody, joke purposes and sociological research.” (Palmer spoke on the condition that The Washington Post not name the websites, so as not to ruin the bit.)

Washington Post [2/20/2026 6:00 AM, David Nakamura, Scott Clement and Isabelle Gibson, 24826K] reports thirteen months into President Donald Trump’s second term, a growing majority of Americans have soured on his handling of immigration, with 58 percent saying he has gone too far deporting undocumented immigrants, a rise of eight points since last fall, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. The survey finds that a slightly higher number, 62 percent, oppose the aggressive tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a result that comes after federal immigration personnel shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month. More than half the public is “upset” or “angry” about enforcement operations in that city. Trump’s approval rating on one of his signature campaign issues has eroded steadily over the past year, falling to 40 percent in the latest poll, down 10 points from a year ago, when half the country approved of his handling of immigration. The president receives higher marks — 47 percent approval — for his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, specifically. Illegal border crossings rose dramatically during the Biden administration but dropped sharply in Trump’s first year. The widespread negative views of Trump’s immigration crackdown underscore a stark political reality ahead of his State of the Union address next week. Once a pillar in the president’s efforts to build a larger electoral coalition in 2024, immigration may no longer be a reliable bulwark for GOP lawmakers, who are increasingly worried about their chances of maintaining full control of Congress in the midterm elections this fall. At the same time, half of the nearly 2,600 Americans surveyed in mid-February said they support federal efforts to deport all of the estimated 14 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States — a figure that is almost identical to the 51 percent who supported doing so a year ago. And the public opposes abolishing ICE by a margin of 50 percent to 37 percent. The poll nonetheless shows Americans are increasingly uncomfortable with how that campaign is being carried out. In October, the public was divided on expanded ICE operations to detain and deport undocumented immigrants, with 45 percent in support and 46 percent opposed. Today, Americans oppose ICE’s widening operations by 53 percent to 40 percent. Just over three-quarters of Americans overall, including a majority of Republicans, say federal officers should be required to obtain a warrant signed by a judge to force their way into a private residence. A recently disclosed ICE memo permits officers to enter homes with an administrative warrant signed by senior ICE officials — a move that immigration lawyers and advocates say violates the Constitution.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [2/20/2026 6:03 AM, Emily Guskin, 34146K]

New York Post [2/20/2026 5:29 PM, Ben Kochman, 40934K] reports at least three West African migrants detained in ICE’s bid to crack down on knockoff vendors on Canal Street last fall have been ordered freed — with one judge calling the busts "blatantly unlawful." Manhattan and New Jersey judges ordered the feds to release Mamadou Ndoye, Sergigne Diop and Abdou Tall after determining that the ICE agents made illegal arrests in Chinatown, court records show. New Jersey District Judge Karen Williams slammed ICE’s Oct. 21 apprehension of Diop — a 19-year-old who has a type of immigration status meant to provide a path to citizenship for neglected children and teens — as "blatantly unlawful from the start" in a Dec. 29 ruling. Ndoye, 45, a Mali native who has lived in the US for decades, was ordered released on Feb. 5 by Manhattan District Judge Vernon Broderick, court records show. The feds had a final order of removal for Ndoye, but failed to explain in court how they identified him or why he was arrested, the judge said. A week later, however, Ndoye was detained again by ICE after what he was told would be a routine check-in to adjust his GPS monitor, Gothamist reported. He’s now being held at an immigration detention facility in New Jersey. Tall was arrested by ICE in a similar Canal Street dragnet in November, court records show. Manhattan District Judge Arun Subramanian ordered him freed in a two-paragraph ruling on Dec. 23, finding similarly that his arrest was unlawful, court papers said. At least four of the other seven alleged vendors nabbed by ICE in October are still locked up, and are being held at immigration jails in New Jersey and Louisiana, the agency’s online detainee locator shows.

New York Times [2/21/2026 3:00 AM, Tracey Tully, 148038K] reports democratic lawmakers in New Jersey are using their legislative majorities to try to expand protections for the state’s sizable immigrant population in sweeping ways. One measure that is expected to come up for a vote in the State House on Monday would bar law enforcement officers, including federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, from wearing masks. Another would impose a 50 percent tax on privately run migrant detention centers. There are also calls for the state to divest from a tech company that sells a product that can help the police and military officials search digital data to locate people. And two new Democratic members of the State Assembly have injected the conversation with a dose of in-your-face Jersey attitude, introducing a bill on Thursday that is encoded with an unsubtle message. Named the Fight Unlawful Conduct and Keep Individuals and Communities Empowered act, the legislation, known by its blunt acronym, would expand residents’ rights under state law to sue immigration officials for unconstitutional conduct. “There have to be real consequences if ICE breaks the law,” said Katie Brennan, an Assembly Democrat from Jersey City who is sponsoring the bill with Ravi Bhalla, a former Hoboken mayor. Like Ms. Brennan, he was elected to the Assembly last year. A similar effort in Illinois, adopted with a far less flamboyant title, has encountered legal challenges by the Trump administration. Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, did not comment on the New Jersey measure.

New York Times [2/21/2026 3:00 AM, David Waldstein, 148038K] reports this time of year, MetLife Stadium sits dormant in the middle of a vast parking lot at the far end of New Jersey’s ninth congressional district. But in just four months, it is expected to come alive as host to a boisterous, colorful sporting festival with hundreds of thousands of fans arriving from around the world to attend soccer’s World Cup. Organizers have envisioned a well-attended, exciting and lucrative event in 16 cities across Mexico, Canada and the United States. The capstone event will be the final game, which will be held at MetLife Stadium, in East Rutherford, N.J., on July 19. But in recent days, federal officials confirmed what had previously been the subject of speculation: that ICE agents will be at the World Cup, too. For some, that revelation raised fears that the typical scenes of revelry and celebration could be replaced by images of tear gas and batons. “It’s going to cause chaos, that’s what I think,” said Representative Nellie Pou, Democrat of New Jersey, whose district includes the stadium. It was Ms. Pou who posed questions about the World Cup to Todd Lyons, the director of ICE, at a congressional hearing this month in Washington. She found his answer — that ICE, “specifically Homeland Security Investigations,” is a “key part” of World Cup security — disconcerting. Mr. Lyons did not rule out using the militarized, tactical teams of agents who have inspired protests in Minneapolis, where federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens during its operations. ICE, which already has a presence in the region, also has an investigative wing that Mr. Lyons referenced. Homeland Security Investigations has been involved in security at large events domestically and abroad for years, including Super Bowls and the Winter Olympics in Milan, largely without notice. In an email, Tricia McLaughlin, the outgoing spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that international visitors who came to the United States legally would have nothing to worry about. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is whether or not they are illegally in the U.S. — full stop,” she said. “Speculation to the contrary is ill-informed.” Ms. McLaughlin stressed that visitors should start working on their travel plans now, “to ensure a smooth travel experience.”

Breitbart [2/20/2026 7:03 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2238K] reports nine Maryland county sheriffs on Wednesday vowed to continue working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), despite a ban signed by Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) on Tuesday that ended official agreements between local police and the federal agency, as state Democrats admit the new rules cannot stop the cooperation. "It is the biggest betrayal to law enforcement and public safety that I have ever seen," said Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis. "This is sad day for Maryland, it really is. This is a sad day for Maryland.". The group of Maryland sheriffs held a joint press conference on Wednesday to decry the ban on state participation in the federal government’s 287(g) program that pairs local law enforcement departments to federal agencies to work directly in immigration enforcement and other law enforcement operations. Sheriff Lewis ripped Gov. Moore and state Democrats for the folly of banning the 287(g) program as a "betrayal to law enforcement," and pointed out that the ban does not stop ICE from doing its work, regardless. "The abolishment of the 287(g) program is not the abolishment of ICE. They’re going nowhere. In fact, they’re going to intensify their efforts," Lewis said, according to WBAL-TV. "Mark my words, you will see a dramatic increase in the presence of ICE in this state." Each of the sheriffs also said the so-called ban does not actually prevent them from working with ICE, it only prevents them from being conveniently enrolled in the 287(g) program, and they vowed to simply create their own, individual policies to continue working with ICE despite what the Democrats want.

FOX News [2/20/2026 8:30 PM, Alexandra Koch Fox, 37576K] reports a Kentucky Lyft driver accused of sexually assaulting a female passenger during a ride to a doctor’s appointment is now also the subject of a U.S. immigration detainer, according to local police records. Yordan Diaz Vera, 34, of Louisville, is charged with first-degree sodomy, menacing and kidnapping, according to Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) records obtained by Fox News Digital. He also has a U.S. immigration detainer, indicating federal authorities believe he is subject to removal. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately confirm to Fox News Digital if Diaz Vera was in the country illegally.

CBS News [2/20/2026 2:27 PM, Dan Raby, 51110K] reports that Social Circle officials have shared new documents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detailing the plans to create an immigrant detention center within the city’s limits. In the documents, officials with the Department of Homeland Security state plans to "implement a new detention model by the end of Fiscal Year 2026," which involves the creation of large-scale "hubs" across the country that would hold thousands of detainees. The document release comes after Social Circle leaders met with DHS officials earlier this week to discuss the agency’s plan to turn a warehouse it recently purchased in the city into one of those "mega centers." In the "Ice Detention Reengineering Initiative" document, the agency said it plans to reduce the total number of facilities from hundreds to around 34 while increasing the total bed capacity. "The facility in Social Circle is expected to house anywhere from 7,500 to 10,000 detainees and will be constructed using a modular design so that capacity can be scaled up or down as needed," the city posted on Facebook on Wednesday. Currently, no construction contracts have been officially awarded for the facility on Hightower Trail, but authorities say one should be awarded within the next week, if it is not delayed by the ongoing government shutdown. Once construction has begun, the agency estimates to begin accepting detainees sometime between mid-May and June, and is expected to employ 2,000 to 2,500 staff.

FOX News [2/20/2026 6:40 PM, Julia Bonavita, 37576K] reports an illegal immigrant is behind bars after authorities allege he was involved in a drunk hit-and-run accident that injured a Florida motorcyclist. Authorities say 24-year-old Gudiel Miguel-Vasquez was behind the wheel of a black Scion sedan when he turned into a Walmart parking lot and blew through a stop sign in Polk County on Sunday night, according to FOX 13. Miguel-Vasquez then allegedly collided with a motorcyclist, police said. Witnesses at the scene reportedly told authorities that Miguel-Vasquez did not stop to check on the victim, and instead continued to drive through the parking lot despite sustaining significant damage to the front of his vehicle. The motorcyclist was transported to a local hospital with a broken arm and concussion. Miguel-Vasquez was taken into custody on charges of leaving the scene of a crash with injury, driving under the influence, driving under the influence with property damage and no valid driver’s license, according to FOX 13. He remains in the Polk County Jail with an ICE detainer lodged against him by the Department of Homeland Security. The two additional passengers were issued citations for open container violations and were taken into custody on civil ICE detainers.

FOX News [2/20/2026 12:24 PM, Julia Bonavita, 37576K] reports that an illegal immigrant is behind bars after police say he ambushed a woman on a popular Florida beach and attempted to drown her before leaving her for dead in a late-night attack. Said Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez, a 26-year-old Venezuelan national, was arrested on Sunday for his alleged role in the "unprovoked" attack at Tiger Shores Beach in Stuart, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. "This is an extremely alarming case," Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek told WEPC. "Random acts of violence like this are some of the most difficult crimes to solve — and that’s exactly what this was." According to the Department of Homeland Security, Hernandez-Gonzalez entered the United States illegally in 2023, and was paroled and granted Temporary Protected Status by the Biden administration. DHS has placed an immigration detainer against Hernandez-Gonzalez to ensure he remains in custody. "Said Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez — a product of the Biden administration’s open-border policies — brutally attacked a woman on the beach and attempted to drown and kill her," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "She bravely fought back and survived this wicked attack. ICE has lodged an immigration detainer with the Martin County Sheriff’s office, and because of Florida’s cooperation with ICE, this sicko will never walk American streets again. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S." The Martin County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

CNN [2/20/2026 6:00 AM, Caitlin Hu, 19874K] reports that on a recent Sunday morning, Pastor Carl Ruby gave his sermon, greeted congregants and then headed to his office to speak with the FBI. "After church, I get phone calls from Ohio Homeland Security and the FBI," he said. "It’s surreal." The agencies have advised Ruby on how to handle anonymous threats over his pro-immigrant preaching and organizing at Central Christian Church, where he is the senior pastor. Since the start of the month, calls have poured into the church, calling for Ruby’s death and touting conspiracy theories about his motives. As the Trump administration works to strip protected status from hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants in the US, Ruby’s is among a small group of churches that have vowed to offer sanctuary from ICE, even if that means a potential face-off with federal immigration enforcement agents. Inside church walls, some are already fortifying rooms and stockpiling food and blankets. "We’re going to be peaceful," Ruby said. "If they come with a judicial warrant for a person who’s a criminal, we’re not going to protect a person like that. "But if they come for someone who has done everything our country has asked of them, and if they come to send them back to Haiti, for us that’s a matter of life or death. And yeah, we’re going to stand and say: ‘No, you can’t.’"

Detroit Free Press [2/20/2026 3:46 PM, Violet Ikonomova, 4749K]Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison has reversed course on his vow to fire two officers who allegedly coordinated with federal Border Patrol agents against department policy, Bettison said in a statement on Friday, Feb. 20. Citing a Thursday decision by the Detroit police oversight board to suspend the officers without pay, Bettison said, "I am satisfied with the Board’s decision, and I will not be pursuing termination of these two officers." A Detroit police spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for more information. The about-face comes after one of the suspended officers — a 27-year veteran of the department and sergeant suspended for coordinating with Border Patrol agents in downtown Detroit on Feb. 9 — sued the city to block further discipline, including termination. In her lawsuit, Sgt. Denise Wallet argued that department policies restricting contact with federal immigration authorities violate Section 1373 of Title 8 of the U.S. Code, which prohibits state or local governments from limiting communication with federal immigration officials. The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement also weighed in on the situation Thursday, on X, formerly Twitter. "We have a place for you, patriots," ICE posted over a news story noting the department’s intention to fire the sergeant and another officer.” DHS later posted: "It’s absurd that two Detroit police officers would face punishment for alerting CBP about a criminal illegal alien — they are American heroes who chose public safety first."

Reported similarly:
Daily Wire [2/20/2026 12:50 PM, Zach Jewell, 2314K]

CBS Chicago [2/20/2026 11:15 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports that Community leaders in Little Village are demanding the FBI open an independent investigation into the Franklin Park shooting death of Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez by ICE agents in September 2025. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [2/20/2026 10:40 AM, Rachel del Guidice, 37576K] reports that a campus of an Illinois Catholic university is moving classes to "alternative formats or locations" after learning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is renting office space in the same building as one of its sites. "All Session I classes and activities originally scheduled at its Oak Brook location (1111 W 22nd Street) will shift to alternative formats or locations due to ongoing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) administrative operations occurring at the site," a Thursday email from Lewis University, obtained by Fox News Digital, read. In a Sunday announcement, the university said that all in-person classes at the university’s Oak Brook location from Feb. 16 to 21 will "transition to online delivery where possible." Lewis University told Fox News Digital that updates would be forthcoming about their operations at Oak Brook beyond Feb. 21. The Thursday email update announced that, "All in-person activities scheduled at Oak Brook during Session I of the Spring Semester (January 20–March 14, 2026) will be transitioned," with the College of Business classes going fully online and the radiography program turning to a hybrid of online and in-person classes at alternative locations. "The temporary change is aligned with Lewis University’s Catholic and Lasallian mission," the email read. "It calls us to foster a respectful, supportive, and inclusive environment where every individual is valued and treated with dignity. This commitment guides our decision-making, particularly when circumstances arise that may cause concern or disruption for members of our community."

Reuters [2/20/2026 9:35 AM, Staff, 38315K] reports German soccer club Werder ⁠Bremen ⁠have cancelled a trip ⁠to the United States due to concerns over unrest in Minnesota following the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ‌as well as economic risks, ‌a club spokesperson told Reuters on Friday. The top-flight team were ⁠planning to ⁠visit Minnesota and Detroit in May and play two ​friendly matches, according to media reports in the U.S. and Germany. However, the Bundesliga club decided to cancel the visit amid growing concerns about the ​actions of ICE, after two U.S. citizens were shot dead by ⁠federal agents ⁠last month. "It is ⁠correct that ​we cancelled a planned trip to Minnesota in the United States. There ​were sporting, economic ⁠and political reasons for this," a Werder Bremen spokesperson said. "Playing in a city where there is unrest and people have been shot does not fit with our values. Furthermore, it was unclear to ⁠us which players would be able to enter the USA at ⁠all due to the stricter entry requirements.". Bremen’s struggles in the Bundesliga, where they are battling to avoid relegation as they languish in 16th place, which is the relegation playoff spot, were also a factor in making the decision, the spokesperson said. "We are currently facing a very challenging sporting situation, which also makes planning such a trip difficult. There have ⁠also been certain economic risks," he added.

Washington Examiner [2/21/2026 5:00 AM, Mia Cathell, 1147K] reports the nine defendants charged as co-conspirators in the federal church occupation case are rebutting the Justice Department’s claims that their takeover of a Christian parish in Minnesota last month was the culmination of a sprawling conspiracy, and accordingly, requires an extensive review of the evidence against them. On Jan. 18, dozens of activists stormed Cities Church, a congregation in St. Paul, during a Sunday sermon in protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Organizers of the protest, which was led by a broad Black Lives Matter coalition, claimed that one of the pastors is also an ICE official. At their behest, a mob of anti-ICE agitators mobilized to carry out the "clandestine mission," a so-called "secret operation" involving various activist organizations in the Minneapolis area barging into the sanctuary together to shut down church services. In a Thursday court filing, the defense opposed a recent prosecution motion to treat the case as a grand conspiracy rather than a simple snap protest. Prosecutors told the court earlier this week that they expect the case to be a large-scale undertaking due to the massive volume of records, victim interviews, communications data tied to the defendant, and incident footage to sort through. "The indictment arises from a single incident lasting approximately one hour at one location," the defense attorneys collectively wrote in response. "It alleges no multi-year scheme, no enterprise spanning jurisdictions, [and] no extraordinary evidentiary scope." Federal officials are seeking to classify the case as a "complex" prosecution, one that necessitates a time-consuming examination of all the evidence, "given the volume, complexity, and scope of the investigative materials."

NewsNation [2/20/2026 9:06 PM, Sandra Sanchez, 4464K] reports the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed to Border Report that special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were involved in the shooting death of a man during spring break on South Padre Island. In a statement to Border Report on Friday, a DHS spokesperson said an officer shot at the man’s vehicle on the popular island resort "to protect himself" after the vehicle’s driver failed to slow down and struck an agent at a traffic accident they were helping local police to contain. "On March 15, 2025, Homeland Security Investigation special agents were assisting the South Padre Island Police Department with traffic control after a major accident. A driver of a blue Ford intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent resulting in him being on the hood of the vehicle. Upon witnessing this, another agent fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public. The driver was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased," the DHS spokesperson said.

Univision [2/20/2026 11:17 AM, Staff, 4937K] reports that a Mexican citizen with a history of assault and indecency with a minor was sentenced to nearly two years in federal prison in Houston after being convicted of illegally re-entering the United States. Juan Ignacio Miranda-Arente, 42, pleaded guilty on November 19, 2025. This week, federal judge Charles R. Eskridge handed down a 21-month prison sentence and highlighted during the hearing the seriousness of the crimes the defendant committed after returning to the country without authorization, particularly the case of indecency with a minor. According to court records, Miranda-Arente already had a previous conviction for assault with an iron bar in 2008, a fact after which he was deported. However, he re-entered illegally and was again identified by immigration authorities in March 2020, when he was arrested in Conroe, Texas, for the crime related to child abuse. The man will remain in custody until he is transferred to a Federal Bureau of Prisons center. At the end of his conviction, he will face a new deportation process. The investigation was conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division. The federal prosecutor’s office assigned Assistant Attorney Ben Hostetter as responsible for the case.

Univision [2/20/2026 3:04 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports after spending months in detention, Marta Brizeyda Renderos Leiva, the Salvadoran woman whose arrest last October was captured on video at the Salt Lake City airport, was finally deported to her country, 2KUTV reports. According to the media outlet, the woman spent months in detention, transferred to several detention centers, before being deported to El Salvador. The images show Marta Brizeyda Renderos Leiva, then 39 years old, in the baggage claim area of ​​Salt Lake City International Airport, when two men in civilian clothes grab her. They lift her up and handcuff her despite her resistance and cries for help; she can also be heard telling them that she has her "papers." After the video went viral, Erin Mendenhall, mayor of Salt Lake City, issued a statement regretting the arrest. The mayor added that a local police officer who responded to a report was able to verify the federal agents’ identification, but noted that these officers cannot interfere in federal activities related to immigration. Later, ICE reported that the arrest was due to Renderos Leiva receiving a final deportation order in absentia on February 19, 2020.

San Diego Union Tribune [2/20/2026 10:52 PM, Alexandra Mendoza, 1257K] reports two county health officials set to perform a planned inspection of the Otay Mesa Detention Center were granted only limited access Friday, and two county supervisors who said they had prior written approval to also tour the facility were subsequently turned away. An hour later Friday, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, who also wished to conduct an oversight visit, was also denied access to the San Diego immigration detention center. “I am very deeply concerned,” Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer told reporters. She and Supervisor Paloma Aguirre said they had both received prior written clearance from local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials but were told Friday they required additional approval from the agency’s national office. “It is a huge red flag to me that they will not let us in,” Lawson-Remer said. The events Friday only add to the ongoing inconsistencies in access faced by Democratic public officials trying to inspect local facilities that detain immigrants. The day prior, Rep. Mike Levin was granted access for a brief tour of public areas. County officials said their visits were in response to reported concerns about conditions inside the detention center, including the quality of food and nutrition and access to medical care. The news site L.A. Taco first reported that detainees earlier this month had thrown lotion bottles with handwritten notes denouncing the situation inside the detention center to protesters attending a weekly vigil outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, which is run by a private contractor. During her visit to San Diego last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem touted the agency’s standards for detention facilities nationwide. “We’re proud of the fact that every single individual, when they come, that they’re well taken care of,” she said. Padilla referenced the secretary’s statement and asked, “If that’s the case, what are they afraid of?”

Los Angeles Times [2/20/2026 2:33 PM, Sonja Sharp, 12718K] reports that U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi claimed a victory in the 9th Circuit on Thursday in the case challenging California’s ban on masks worn by ICE and other law enforcement agents. The mask ban was struck down earlier this month and is not being considered by the appellate court. The 9th Circuit ruling was a procedural move to stop part of California’s law enforcement ID law from taking effect. U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi declared a triumph against California on Friday, touting an appellate court ruling that she said blocked a state ban on immigration agents and other law enforcement officers wearing masks. "The 9th Circuit has now issued a FULL stay blocking California’s ban on masks for federal law enforcement agents," Bondi posted on the social media site X, calling the Feb. 19 decision a "key victory." Bondi, however, appeared confused about which case the court was ruling on this week. A federal judge in Los Angeles blocked California’s first-in-the-nation mask ban 10 days earlier, on Feb. 9. At the time, U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder said she was "constrained" to block the law because it included only local and federal officers, while exempting state law enforcement. The state did not appeal that decision. Instead, on Wednesday, the law’s author Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced a new mask bill without the problematic carve-out for state officers.

New York Times [2/20/2026 2:14 PM, Ceylan Yeğinsu, 148038K] reports Michelle Cowley, a London-based communications specialist, and her husband spent nearly two years planning a $16,000 vacation to Walt Disney World in Florida. Then their children, ages 7 and 11, heard about Renee Good and Alex Pretti being killed by ICE agents and didn’t want to go. Comments by President Trump in January, including threats to annex Greenland and criticisms of British military contributions in Afghanistan, sealed the family’s decision. “We have decided that it really is not the place we want to be at the moment,” Ms. Cowley said. Last year, as tourism grew worldwide, the United States was the only major destination to see a decline in foreign visitors, recording a 6 percent drop, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, an industry group. January saw a continued decline in inbound visitors, down 4.8 percent from January 2025. Visitors from Canada, usually the second-largest source of U.S. tourism after Mexico, plunged by 28 percent in January compared to January 2024. Other key markets like Germany and France also recorded significant declines, while Britain, the largest long-haul source market for U.S. tourism, saw a marginal growth of 0.5 percent compared to the previous year. “When 11 million international visitors aren’t showing up, the result is billions of dollars in economic losses to the travel industry,” said Erik Hansen, a senior vice-president at the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group that promotes travel to and within the country. The Trump administration has made it significantly harder for some travelers to enter the United States, barring visitors from more than a dozen countries and introducing a $250 “visa integrity fee” for nonimmigrant tourist and business visas designed to discourage visitors from overstaying. Visitors are also facing more rigorous vetting at the border, with increased searches of electronic devices, some resulting in detentions and denied entry. Citizens of countries who just need an electronic authorization to visit the United States may soon be required to provide up to five years of social media history to enter; that could result in a loss of up to $15.7 billion in visitor spending, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. “These are the kinds of measures you expect from China or countries in the Middle East, not from America,” said Felicity Morgan, 49, a British trade auditor who lives between Amsterdam and London, referring to detentions at airports linked to social media screenings for content deemed critical of the government or a risk to national security. Last month, she canceled a trip to Miami for her friend’s 50th birthday because she didn’t want to risk losing thousands of dollars if she was denied entry.

Univision [2/20/2026 9:44 AM, Staff, 4937K] reports Morris Brown was wearing the correctional officer uniform in Minnesota, his colleagues saw him as one more employee of the state prison system and he was left undeported for years, until he was arrested; at N+ we share with you what happened and how he pretended to be a citizen with legal status. Behind that official image, federal authorities say a chain of alleged immigration irregularities that are now in custody was hidden. On January 15, agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in coordination with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), arrested the 45-year-old man, originally from Liberia, in Minneapolis. The arrest is part of the so-called Operation Twin Shield, which is an initiative focused on investigating potential immigration fraud in the Minneapolis-St metropolitan area. Paul. According to authorities, Brown reportedly remained in the country after his student visa expired and allegedly made false statements about his U.S. citizenship in various official proceedings.

NewsMax [2/20/2026 12:16 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 3760K] reports that the Justice Department is seeking to take away the U.S. citizenship of a Haitian-born man accused of using two different identities — and what officials describe as a fake marriage — to avoid deportation and eventually become an American citizen. The department, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, announced Friday that it had filed a civil complaint in federal court in Miami against Philippe Bien-Aime, who is also known as Jean Philippe Janvier. Prosecutors say he entered the United States illegally and then used different names and birth dates, along with false statements, to gain immigration benefits and ultimately U.S. citizenship. "This Administration will not permit fraudsters and tricksters who cheat their way to the gift of U.S. citizenship," Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said. "The passage of time does not diminish blatant immigration fraud." According to the complaint, Bien-Aime first came to the U.S. using a fraudulent, "photo-switched" passport under the name Jean Philippe Janvier. In 2001, an immigration judge ordered him deported under that name. He initially appealed that decision but later dropped the appeal, telling authorities he had returned to Haiti, prosecutors allege. The government says that wasn’t true and that he stayed in the United States, adopting a new name and date of birth. Blaze [2/20/2026 1:15 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1556K] reports that the DOJ filed a denaturalization case against Bien-Aime on February 18. Prosecutors state Bien-Aime "willfully misrepresented his identity and immigration history throughout the naturalization process," WTVJ reported. Department of Homeland Security records, including fingerprint comparisons, found that Bien-Aime was previously ordered removed from the U.S. under the name Philippe Janvier, court documents claimed. An immigration judge found in 2000 that Janvier entered the U.S. by fraudulently using a photo-switched passport. The judge ordered his deportation to his country of birth, Haiti. "In 2001, Bien-Aime was placed in removal proceedings and ordered removed under the Janvier identity," a DOJ press release read. "He appealed the removal order, but he withdrew the appeal, representing that he had returned to live in Haiti. In reality, Bien-Aime remained in the United States and, using the new name and date of birth, married a U.S. citizen to obtain permanent resident status." The DOJ claimed the marriage was fraudulent and invalid because he was already married to a Haitian citizen.

NBC News [2/20/2026 5:07 PM, Hatzel Vela, Nicole Acevedo and Erika Angulo, 42967K] reports the Department of Justice said it is looking to strip a former mayor of North Miami of his U.S. citizenship after he allegedly misrepresented his identity and immigration history during his naturalization process. Federal attorneys filed a denaturalization case against Philippe Bien-Aime in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Wednesday, court records show. In a civil complaint reviewed by NBC News and NBC Miami, which first reported the story, the DOJ claims Bien-Aime first entered the United States in 1997 using a fraudulent, "photo-switched" passport under the name Jean Philippe Janvier. In July 31, 2000, an immigration judge determined he entered the country fraudulently and ordered him removed to Haiti, according to the complaint. He appealed the removal order at the time, but later withdrew the appeal, representing that he had returned to live in Haiti. But federal authorities allege he never went back to Haiti and instead remained in the United States under the name Philippe Bien-Aime. Department of Homeland Security records — including fingerprint comparisons — show that the person who naturalized as Philippe Bien-Aime is the same individual who was previously ordered removed from the United States under the name Philippe Janvier, according to the complaint.

Bloomberg [2/20/2026 11:36 AM, Antonia Mufarech, 18082K] reports that the US has imposed visa restrictions on three unnamed Chilean government officials for allegedly undermining regional security, the State Department said Friday. The rare move comes on the eve of a transition to a new right-wing administration closely aligned with the White House. The officials “knowingly directed, authorized, funded, provided significant support to, and/or carried out activities that compromised critical telecommunications infrastructure and undermined regional security in our hemisphere,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the statement. “In its twilight, the Boric government’s legacy shall be further tarnished by actions that undermine regional security at the ultimate expense of the Chilean people.” Chile’s Foreign Affairs Ministry didn’t immediately comment on the visa restrictions. The South American country is the only nation in the region that has a US visa waiver, meaning its citizens generally don’t require a visa to travel to the US. Rubio said he looks forward to working with incoming President-elect José Antonio Kast’s administration on shared security priorities in the hemisphere. Kast will take office on March 11, taking over from left-wing leader Gabriel Boric who has been critical of some of the Trump administration’s policies. The individuals and their immediate family members will be “generally ineligible” for entry into the US, and any US visas held by them have been revoked, the State Department noted.

NewsMax [2/20/2026 7:50 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K] reports that the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein reportedly cultivated relationships with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to help him in various ways as he influenced rich and powerful people. Emails and records recently released by the Justice Department show how Epstein developed unusually close ties with several CBP officers stationed in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands — the port of entry nearest his private island, Little St. James, The New York Times reported Thursday. Epstein dispensed favors, including food, helicopter rides, financial advice, and even paid musical gigs to a handful of customs officers, the Times reported. In return, some officers allegedly provided concierge-style services, helping whisk Epstein through inspections and assisting when he encountered issues at mainland airports. The relationships reportedly spanned at least from 2008 to 2016, years during which authorities in the Virgin Islands have said Epstein was sexually abusing girls and young women on his island. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor and became a registered sex offender, yet continued traveling extensively. Emails cited by the Times show that Epstein maintained friendly communications with certain officers even after his conviction.

Daily Caller [2/20/2026 4:47 PM, Andi Shae Napier, 803K] reports Democratic Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto called out her party on Thursday for traditionally being "weak on immigration," but also pushed to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Cortez Masto, a moderate Democrat who has broken from her party in the past, said the Biden administration was "too afraid" to talk about securing the border — only then to propose lowering the funding allocated to protect it during an interview with The New York Times’ "The Daily" podcast (NYT) published Thursday. Her comments come as the Democratic-led shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) heads into its second week, leaving vital agencies such as the Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) without funding.

Washington Examiner [2/20/2026 12:43 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports that two police officers have been suspended without pay by the Detroit Police Department on the allegation that they violated policy by contacting federal immigration authorities during traffic stops. In a vote Thursday evening, the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners chose to punish the police officer and sergeant for contacting Border Patrol agents on two occasions, with the end goal of firing both law enforcement officials, according to WXYZ Detroit. The move comes a year into President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants in the United States and as more local police departments than at any other time have opted to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection make arrests in communities, even as police departments controlled by some progressive local governments refuse to help with enforcement. In one incident on Dec. 16, 2025, the Detroit officer contacted Border Patrol agents while conducting a traffic stop. Border Patrol has hundreds of agents based out of the Detroit area, given its border with Canada. In the incident involving the sergeant on Feb. 9, the sergeant contacted Border Patrol for help with translation during a traffic stop involving a Spanish-speaking driver, rather than using the local police department’s 24-hour translation hotline. In both cases, the individuals pulled over went on to be detained by CBP for federal immigration violations.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [2/20/2026 10:30 PM, Sam Barron, 3760K]

CNN [2/20/2026 3:58 PM, Alexandra Skores, Aaron Cooper, 19874K] reports it was not a mistake to close the airspace around El Paso, Texas, last week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference Friday afternoon. He declined to share details about what happened and the subsequent finger pointing, saying he would speak to Congress before addressing it publicly. The decision to close the airspace was made without first telling the White House, sources told CNN, and drew intense focus inside the West Wing. The restrictions were reversed about eight hours later. However, sources told CNN the closure came after Customs and Border Protection officials deployed a high-energy counter-drone laser on loan from the Pentagon without having coordinated with the FAA about potential risks to civilian flights.

FOX News [2/20/2026 9:32 AM, Preston Mizell, 37576K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security revealed large percentages of foreign countries whose total national populations illegally entered the U.S., noting the majority of crossings occurred between February 2021 to January 2025. The countries in which most nationals live in the U.S. are Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti and Honduras, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). "During the Biden era – 8% of the ENTIRE population of Nicaragua illegally entered the US," DHS posted to X. "This is in ADDITION TO 7% of Cuba, 6% of Haiti, and 5% of Honduras." The total number of illegal migrants from the various countries is in the multimillions, and DHS blasted the Biden administration for allegedly turning "America into a dumping ground for criminals from the third world." The department’s finger-pointing at Biden has been a central theme of Secretary Kristi Noem’s and DHS’s position, and the Trump administration continues deportation efforts amid criticism from Democrats in Washington and across the country. During an interview along the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas, earlier this month, Noem touted efforts that led to what the White House says is the "the most secure border in the history of this nation."

The Hill [2/20/2026 3:01 PM, Rachel Frazin, 18170K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will now need to approve all travel for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff, even if the travel is funded through a pocket of disaster money that’s separate from appropriations that have lapsed. A travel bulletin sent to staff Friday and reviewed by The Hill states that “Effective February 18, 2026, all Federal Emergency Management Agency travel during a lapse in appropriations … must be approved by the Department of Homeland Security.” The DHS, which houses FEMA, is facing a shutdown after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on its budget. However, FEMA, which often has to help out during sudden and difficult-to-predict disasters, has a separate funding source known as the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). Unlike regular DHS and FEMA appropriations, the DRF has not lapsed, and it had more than $7 billion in available funding as of January. The Hill has reached out to FEMA and the DHS asking why travel, including DRF-funded travel, will now need DHS written approval.

Roll Call [2/20/2026 6:00 AM, Aidan Quigley, 673K] reports the federal government’s main disaster relief fund is dwindling as the partial shutdown of the Homeland Security Department nears the end of its first full week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to report that its disaster relief fund totals $9.6 billion, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday night. That is down from the roughly $30 billion balance that existed as of Dec. 31, according to FEMA’s Feb. 3 report to Congress. But since the partial shutdown that began Feb. 14, FEMA lost access to $22.5 billion that had been provided on a temporary basis in a Homeland Security continuing resolution that expired last week. Democrats refused to back another extension of Homeland Security funding last week as they push for an overhaul of immigration enforcement practices after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents last month. There’s been no signs of significant movement toward a bipartisan immigration deal this week, either. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that the most recent offer from Democrats was "very unserious," while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said there has been no "high-level effort" from Republicans. While the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agencies have billions of dollars in funding from the 2025 budget reconciliation law, other agencies in the department, like FEMA and the Transportation Security Administration, face more immediate impacts. Until an immigration deal is reached that would unlock a full-year Homeland Security bill, FEMA has access to just the $9.6 billion remaining in its fund balance, with major disaster responses on the agency’s agenda. That is roughly enough money, in normal times, to cover relief efforts in the first 60 to 90 days of a major disaster declaration, according to the source’s estimate. Further, at least $17 billion in disaster aid has been held up for additional review by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, The New York Times reported last month, citing internal FEMA documents. Noem has insisted on personally approving all expenses in her department over $100,000.

NewsMax [2/20/2026 12:19 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K] reports that Trump administration is "coordinating" with local authorities to fix the broken underground pipe dumping wastewater into the Potomac River, according to Virginia Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Friday. "I’m encouraged that EPA and FEMA have begun coordinating with DC Water to respond to the sewage spill in the Potomac," Spanberger wrote on X. "Amid the response, our state agencies are conducting water quality testing and monitoring the status of repairs. Our focus is on Virginians’ health and safety." Her comments came after the White House confirmed that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are working with District officials to contain and repair the damaged Potomac Interceptor — a major sewer line that collapsed Jan. 19 inside the federally controlled C&O Canal National Historical Park in Maryland. DC Water said Friday that crews are working around the clock to stabilize the pipe and remove obstructions. "Work is progressing inside the Potomac Interceptor as crews continue assessing conditions and clearing large rocks, boulders, and other material from within the pipe," the utility posted on X. "Teams have been on-site around the clock and are moving steadily through each stage of the stabilization process." According to NBC Washington, crews recently reached the damaged section of the 54-mile interceptor, marking what DC Water called "a critical step in the ongoing damage assessment and repair efforts."

Washington Examiner [2/20/2026 6:18 PM, Rachel Schilke, 1147K] reports House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans are opening an investigation and demanding information from DC Water on the failures that led to roughly 243 million gallons of wastewater into the Potomac River, and whether they could have been prevented. In a new letter, first shared with the Washington Examiner, led by Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Reps. John Joyce (R-MI) and Gary Palmer (R-AL), the committee raised concerns about how the sewage spill, which is now considered the largest in United States history, will affect public health, safe drinking water, the environment, interstate commerce, and tourism, “all of which fall within the Committee’s jurisdiction.” The spill occurred on Jan. 19, after an underground section of the Potomac Interceptor sewer line operated by DC Water burst in Cabin John, Maryland. The amount of sewage skyrocketed, raising E. coli levels in the water to the point where the river is now considered unsafe to touch, prompting authorities to warn against recreational water contact. "An incident of this size and scale presents a significant threat to the public health and welfare of the affected communities, and swift mitigation of these risks is critical," the Republicans wrote. "Understanding the nature of how this incident occurred and how future incidents of this scale may be prevented in the future is imperative." The spill has led to President Donald Trump feuding with Democrats over who is to blame for the large amount of waste entering the waterway, calling the disaster a "result of the Gross Mismanagement of Local Democrat Leaders." Washington, D.C., has since declared the incident to be a local public emergency. In the letter to DC Water Chief Executive Officer and General Manager David Gadis, Guthrie and his GOP energy and commerce members argue details from a DC Water Environmental Quality and Operations Committee meeting back in April 2025 show the utility "knew that the Potomac Interceptor was at risk of failure and in need of emergency repairs." Trump has directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to resolve the issue, and DC Water said it would cooperate with federal regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency.

CNN [2/20/2026 5:05 PM, Holmes Lybrand, Jamie Gangel, 19874K] reports new Secret Service protective detail agents are about to get a wardrobe upgrade, courtesy of taxpayers. The Secret Service will soon offer each agent who graduates from protective detail training two tailored suits, according to sources familiar with the matter and a public contract solicitation. The initiative to have the Secret Service purchase suits happened because Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem disliked how a protective detail was dressed in the suits they bought for themselves, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denied that account, telling CNN, “This does not have to do with optics” but aims to fix inequities for the “men and woman who are just starting their career.” “This is to fix the inequity that non-uniformed (officers) have to pay for their uniform,” she added, noting that while the Secret Service supplies clothing to the uniformed division — who dress in protective vests and dark, police-style clothing — agents in protective details have to purchase their own suits. One of the sources echoed that leadership at DHS believes supplying suits for agents could work as an incentive to help with recruiting, bearing the cost of what can be a financial burden, the source said. The source added that the Secret Service had to find funding for the suits inside its current budget. The new suits will only be supplied to new graduates from protective detail training. Newly trained agents assigned to protective details will be supplied with two, navy-blue tailored suits made entirely in the US, according to a public solicitation for a 5-year contract for the suits published last week. The contract also calls for “name embroidery on inside of jacket.”

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [2/20/2026 10:31 PM, Jim Thomas, 3760K]

New York Post [2/20/2026 5:24 PM, Thomas Barrabi, 40934K] reports ATM "jackpotting" schemes are on the rise across the country, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Hackers are exploiting a mix of "physical and software vulnerabilities in ATMs" to get them to spit out cash without the need for an actual customer or transaction, the feds warned in a bulletin. More than $20 million in cash was stolen last year alone, the FBI alert said. The feds have identified about 1,900 jackpotting incidents across the country since 2020. The bad actors often use "widely available general keys" to open an ATM’s face and remove its hard drive. Next, they upload malware to override its security – or replace the hard drive entirely with a compromised device.

USA Today [2/20/2026 12:52 PM, Nathan Diller, 70643K] reports that a Carnival Cruise Line ship rescued five people during a Caribbean cruise. Carnival Celebration "responded to a small vessel in distress and successfully completed a rescue at sea" on Feb. 16, the cruise line told USA TODAY. "Five individuals were brought safely onboard, and the U.S. Coast Guard was notified and provided guidance throughout the operation," Carnival said in an emailed statement. The company did not identify the people who were rescued. The ship was on its way to Cozumel, Mexico, at the time. Carnival Celebration is currently sailing a week-long Western Caribbean cruise that departed from Miami on Feb. 15, with additional scheduled stops in Roatan in Honduras and the cruise line’s private Bahamas destination, Celebration Key, according to CruiseMapper. The news comes after other similar events in recent months. A Norwegian Cruise Line ship rescued 63 people in the Ionian Sea during a search and rescue operation in coordination with Greek authorities in October. A Holland America Line ship also rescued two people from a "vessel in distress" after departing from Boston in August.

CBS News [2/20/2026 6:34 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports that the navies of Mexico and El Salvador announced big drug seizures in the Pacific Ocean this week of more than 10 tons of cocaine, in contrast to deadly strikes by the U.S. government that just this week left 11 people dead on three boats suspected of carrying drugs in Latin American waters. The latest announcement came Thursday, when Mexico said it had seized about four tons of suspected drugs and detained three people from a semisubmersible craft, or so-called "narco sub," 250 nautical miles south of the port of Manzanillo. Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said via X that the seizure from the sleek, low-riding boat with three visible motors brought the weekly total to nearly 10 tons, but he did not provide detail on the other seizures. Mexican authorities said the seizure was made with intelligence shared by U.S. Northern Command and the U.S. Joint Interagency Task Force South. Officials released video of the seizure, showing a naval vessel intercepting the narco sub and images of the confiscated narcotics. "This represents a direct and multimillion-dollar blow to the financial structures of organized crime, by preventing millions of doses from reaching the streets and protecting the safety of Mexican families," García Harfuch wrote on X.

Bloomberg [2/20/2026 2:28 PM, Jake Bleiberg, 18082K] reports that over the last five weeks, a limited number of hackers broke into more than 600 firewalls across dozens of countries with the help of widely available artificial intelligence tools, according to security research from Amazon.com Inc. The small group of hackers – or possibly just one person – used commercial generative AI services to quickly take advantage of weak security measures, such as simple sign-in credentials or single-factor authentication, according to a report from the company. The techniques let the intruders compromise firewalls at a scale that would have otherwise required a larger and more skilled team. The Russian-speaking hackers leveraged their access to the security devices, spread across 55 countries, to move further into some victims’ networks in ways that appeared to be setting up ransomware attacks, the report states. The widespread breaches, which Amazon said were financially motivated, are the latest example of hackers using AI to ease and speed cyberattacks. “It’s like an AI-powered assembly line for cybercrime, helping less skilled workers produce at scale,” CJ Moses, who leads security engineering and operations at Amazon, said in the report. It doesn’t identify the AI tools the hackers used nor does it name the victims. Researchers believe the hackers opportunistically broke into firewalls with weak protections, rather than targeting certain industries, according to the report. The compromised devices were spread across South Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, West Africa, Northern Europe and Southeast Asia. When the hackers encountered more hardened security, they simply moved on to other targets, Moses said.

CNN [2/20/2026 4:05 PM, Sean Lyngaas, 19874K] reports a ransomware attack has forced one of Mississippi’s largest health care systems to close clinics across the state on Friday, raising larger concerns about the cybersecurity of medical facilities across the country. The closure affects all 35 of the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s health clinics, which provide a range of care to patients from cancer treatment to chronic-pain management. The attack also caused the cancelation of elective procedures in what health officials said would be a “multi-day event.” Doctors at UMMC are now using pen and paper as they treat patients because they are cut off from the electronic health records system they normally use to draw up patient information. A top FBI official in the state said the bureau was “surging resources both locally and nationally” in response to the attack. Emergency rooms remain open and UMMC doctors are drilled on delivering services when computers are down.

NewsNation [2/20/2026 6:24 PM, David Charns, 4464K] reports a New York man is dead after he rammed a power substation outside Boulder City, sources told the 8 News Now Investigators. Metro police confirmed the vehicle rammed through the gate of a power substation between the communities of Boulder City and Searchlight. The facility, located on Eldorado Valley Drive, is owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a news conference Friday. Officers from the Boulder City Police Department received a 911 call at 10 a.m. Thursday, reporting a car drove through a fence and gunshots were heard shortly after, McMahill said. When officers arrived, they saw a person in the driver’s seat who had died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after crashing the car into a pile of industrial wire spools. The driver of the vehicle was identified as 23-year-old Dawson Maloney of Albany, New York. According to McMahill, Maloney was holding a shotgun that appeared to be the weapon he used to kill himself. Maloney was wearing soft body armor. Several other guns were found in a search of the vehicle, along with “numerous” magazines, a box of shotgun shells and two devices that were described as flame throwers, McMahill said. Police also searched a Boulder City hotel room, discovering books that McMahill described as containing various extremist ideologies. In the room were also bomb-making materials, including thermite, ammonium nitrate, metal pipes and gasoline. According to McMahill, Maloney’s family had reported him missing recently, but had been in communication with him before the ramming. In conversations, he said he was going to do something that would be on the news, and he referred to himself as a “dead terrorist son.” He also told family members that he felt he had an obligation to carry out this terrorist act. There was no major damage caused by the attack and no interruptions to service, according to Boulder City Police Chief Tim Shea. FOX News [2/20/2026 5:11 PM, Alexandra Koch, 37576K] reports Maloney’s car was stopped by large, industrial wire reels, seemingly leading to his subsequent suicide, according to McMahill. He added that there is no ongoing threat to the public. Officials said he spoke to his family prior to the attack and made multiple references to self harm and committing an act that would place him "on the news." Two shotguns, an AR-style pistol, numerous loaded AR magazines, a box of shotgun shells, two flamethrowers containing thermite material, a crowbar and hatchet were found inside the car, leading the incident to be treated as a "terrorism related event," according to McMahill. Multiple books were found in Maloney’s hotel room related to extremist ideologies, including right- and left-wing extremism, environmental extremism, white supremacy and anti-government ideology. Authorities also recovered explosive materials and components to include thermite, ammonium nitrate, magnesium ribbon, metal pipes, and gasoline. Boulder City Police Chief Tim Shea said there is no major damage to critical infrastructure. Officials said there is no ongoing threat to the community. NBC News [2/20/2026 5:40 PM, Dennis Romero, 42967K] reports that the vehicle approached the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power facility in Boulder City at about 10 a.m. Thursday, breached a perimeter fence, and came to a stop after hitting the cable spool, McCahill said. The facility was not damaged. First responders, including Boulder City police, found the driver dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, McCahill said. The sheriff said the exact motive was not clear, and that the driver’s ideology may have spanned extreme sides of the political spectrum. It wasn’t clear if authorities think any other people may have been involved.

CNN [2/20/2026 8:40 PM, Alaa Elassar, Bill Kirkos, 19874K] reports a driver is dead after he rammed a vehicle through the gate of a power substation in Boulder City, Nevada, on Thursday in what authorities are investigating as a terrorism-related event, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The driver, who was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, has been identified as 23-year-old Dawson Maloney of Albany, New York, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a news conference on Friday. Evidence recovered during the investigation included multiple books related to extremist ideologies — spanning right- and left-wing extremism, environmental extremism, white supremacy and anti-government beliefs — as well as explosive materials and components, according to McMahill. A search of the rental vehicle also uncovered two shotguns, an AR-style pistol, numerous loaded AR magazines and shotgun shells, two devices described as flamethrowers containing thermite material, a crowbar, a hatchet and a cellphone currently undergoing forensic analysis, McMahill said. The “critical incident” began late Thursday morning at a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power facility located near Boulder City, according to McMahill. There was no indication of major damage to the facility or any other critical infrastructure, and no service disruptions were reported as a result of the incident, Tim Shay, chief of the Boulder City Police Department, said during the news conference. The AP [2/20/2026 6:34 PM, Jessica Hill] reports that the driver of the vehicle was 23-year-old Dawson Maloney from Albany, New York, who was reported missing and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, McMahill said. The man had communicated with family before the crash, referencing self-harm, and said he was going to commit an act that would place him on the news. He referred to himself as a terrorist in a message sent to his mother, according to police. Authorities found explosive materials and multiple books “related to extremist ideologies” in Maloney’s hotel room, McMahill said. Two shotguns, an assault rifle-style pistol, and flame throwers were found in his rental car, McMahill said. Maloney was wearing what police described as “soft-body armor.” Authorities recovered a 3D printer and several gun components needed to assemble a firearm from an Albany residence. Boulder City Police Chief Timothy Shea said there is no evidence of major damage to critical infrastructure and no service disruptions.

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [2/20/2026 3:41 PM, Ruben Vives, 12718K]
ABC News [2/20/2026 5:00 PM, Sasha Pezenik and Nadine El-Bawab, 34146K]

Federalist [2/20/2026 7:37 AM, Benjamin Baird, 540K] reports that in a highly anticipated move, the Trump administration designated factions of the global Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations last month, an executive action with profound implications extending beyond the Middle East to America’s heartland. Astonishingly, a Somali-American legislator from Ohio, State Rep. Munira Abdullahi, D-Columbus, continues to serve as a national leader for the Muslim American Society (MAS), a registered nonprofit that federal prosecutors have identified as the "overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America." Abdullahi’s involvement with MAS dates back to at least 2012, when she served as a youth director in Columbus and later as a national program director. The organization’s youth programs have been marred by scandals nationwide, including an incident in Philadelphia where children were taught songs about beheading Israeli Jews, and a fundraiser selling merchandise glorifying Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. Upon her election to public office in 2022, Abdullahi appeared to distance herself from MAS, updating her LinkedIn profile to indicate she no longer worked for the group. However, her ties persisted and deepened. Now heading MAS-Columbus and part of the organization’s national leadership, she leverages her elected status to host events featuring ultra-conservative preachers and pro-Hamas activists.

Reuters [2/20/2026 9:49 AM, Gianluca Lo Nostro, 38315K] reports the U.S. State Department said it is watching closely the case of a French far-right activist killed by suspected hard-left militants, suggesting it might count as terrorism, in comments that may stir fresh tensions between Paris and Washington. The State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism said it was monitoring the case, warning in a Thursday post on X that "violent radical leftism was on the rise" and should be treated as a public safety threat. "We ... expect to see the perpetrators of violence brought to justice," it said. Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers, a public diplomacy official who has taken the lead in a series of attacks on European governments, said in a post on X on Friday that she, too, was keeping close tabs on the case. "Democracy rests on a basic bargain: you get to bring any viewpoint to the public square, and nobody gets to kill you for it. This is why we treat political violence - terrorism - so harshly," she wrote. The State Department Bureau of Counterterrorism plays a central role in developing terrorist designations and related sanctions work. Washington and Paris have clashed for months on trade, free speech and foreign policy. Rogers has repeatedly criticised France over its approach to tech regulation and free speech.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [2/20/2026 12:21 PM, Staff, 2238K]

Washington Examiner [2/20/2026 6:00 AM, Beth Bailey, 1147K] reports after failing to obtain the release of three U.S. prisoners from Taliban custody using the ‘carrot’ method, U.S. leaders suddenly appear prepared to deploy the stick. On Feb. 13, Senior Director for Counterterrorism on the National Security Council Sebastian Gorka noted on X, "we will not rest until Dennis Coyle and Mahmood Habibi come home." This was a stark change from his statement last August that the Taliban were "moderately cooperative counterterrorism partners.". It might reflect a toughening of administration policy toward the Taliban. On Feb. 12, U.S. delegates drafted a U.N. Security Council resolution to extend the mandate of the U.N. sanctions monitoring team for an additional year. The decision will maintain sanctions, which include travel bans, arms embargoes, and asset freezes, against Taliban entities. Though some Taliban leaders had previously received travel ban exemptions, not all exemptions were reportedly renewed. Explaining this resolution, the United States cited the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls, its human rights violations, and its "unacceptable use of hostage-taking as a leverage point against the United States and other nations.". Congress is also taking action. In January, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) introduced the No Tax Dollars for Terrorists Act, which would force the State Department to "develop and implement a strategy to discourage foreign countries and nongovernmental organizations from providing financial or material support to the Taliban." The act is controversial, however. While the Taliban are known to divert foreign aid entering their country, 40% of Afghans are facing acute levels of hunger and are in desperate need of aid. Regardless, the efforts to push back on a regime that supports terrorism, grievously harms its people, and uses U.S. citizens as bargaining chips could be further strengthened. Both Congress and the White House already possess another array of tools they could use to compel the Taliban without harming the Afghan people.

Breitbart [2/20/2026 12:27 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports that five Russian planes flew into the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone and were escorted out by U.S. planes on Thursday. The North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the two Tu-95s, two Su-35s, and one A-50 and tracked them in the ADIZ, a NORAD press release said. NORAD launched two F-16s, two F-35s, one E-3, and four KC-135s to intercept, identify and escort the planes until they left the Alaskan ADIZ. The Russian military aircraft stayed in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian airspace. This activity in the Alaskan ADIZ happens regularly and isn’t seen as a threat, NORAD said. An ADIZ is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security. NORAD uses a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter planes to detect and track aircraft, the release said. A similar event happened in September near Alaska, as it did in August two days in a row. The August event drew attention because it happened soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Alaska to meet with President Donald Trump.

Washington Examiner [2/20/2026 12:50 PM, Emily Hallas, 1147K] reports that President Donald Trump said Friday that he is "considering" limited military strikes on Iran, which he suggested would force the country to the negotiating table. "I guess I can say I am considering that," the president said when asked by a reporter at a White House gubernatorial event if he was considering a limited military strike to force Iran into a deal. The Trump administration has been eyeing such an agreement in an effort to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Trump has sought to avoid military intervention amid concerns about Iran’s nuclear capabilities, and he has, for months, engaged in diplomatic negotiations with the country, sending special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to meet with Iranian officials this week for another round of talks. But a clear breakthrough on an agreement has failed thus far to materialize. On Thursday, Trump said he thinks 10 to 15 days is "enough time" for Tehran to reach a deal with the United States. "We’re going to make a deal or get a deal one way or the other," the president said. Iran, a theocratic Islamic regime, is viewed as the world’s leading sponsor of terrorists, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Washington Examiner [2/20/2026 7:15 AM, Jamie McIntyre, 1147K] reports speaking at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace, President Donald Trump seemed to set a two-week deadline for Iran to come to terms on a nuclear agreement that would meet U.S. demands to give up its capability to enrich uranium and accept limits on its ballistic missile program. In rambling remarks at the two-and-a-half-hour ceremony at the U.S. Institute of Peace, newly-renamed for him, Trump first floated a 10-day window, but later told reporters on Air Force One that he thinks 10 to 15 “would be enough time, 10 to 15 days, pretty much maximum.” “We’re going to get a deal one way or the other,” he said. “We’re either going to get a deal, or it’s going to be unfortunate for them.” As the U.S. continued to move more attack and critical support aircraft into the Gulf region — including command and control and tankers — the level of firepower arrayed against Iran is beginning to rival the air and sea power the U.S. amassed ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. “Now is the time for Iran to join us on a path that will complete what we’re doing. And if they join us, that’ll be great; if they don’t join us, that’ll be great too, but it’ll be a very different path,” Trump said at the Board of Peace ceremony. “They cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region, and they must make a deal,” he said. “But bad things will happen if it doesn’t.” Trump is moving all the pieces in place to conduct a major military campaign against Iran, far different from the one-off bombing of nuclear facilities last summer, or this year’s snatch mission to arrest Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Congress is in recess at the moment, and unlike the fervent calls for Trump to seek authorization for the use of military force that were heard from Democrats before the Venezuelan crisis, there has been mostly silence from Capitol Hill.

FOX News [2/20/2026 12:23 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports that Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin joins ‘The Faulkner Focus’ reacting to the United Nations nuclear watchdog sounding the alarm on Iran as U.S. military presence increases in the region. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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