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

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

The Hill [2/28/2026 6:00 AM, Al Weaver, 18170K] reports the impasse over funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is showing no signs of easing as lawmakers barreled past the first reduced paychecks for agency employees on Friday and the shutdown of the agency hits the two-week mark. Lawmakers have spun their wheels for a full month over how to fund DHS for the remainder of fiscal year 2026, with talks between the White House and Democratic negotiators showing scant progress despite the increasing chances of employees missing payday. The desire to pay federal workers on time is normally a key pressure point in government shutdowns, and with the first missed payday behind them — and most DHS employees reporting to work regardless of the funding lapse — both sides are worried that there is little on the immediate horizon that can break the stalemate. “How can you get a win on both sides?” Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said. “I just haven’t figured that out yet.” Democrats made their last counteroffer to Republicans on Feb. 16, one that went unanswered for nearly two weeks before the White House formally responded late Thursday night. “[On Thursday], the White House made another serious counter offer,” a White House official said. “Democrats need to make a move to end the shutdown before more Americans are harmed by a lack of funding for critical services like disaster relief.” Spokespeople for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a statement that they are “reviewing [the offer] closely.” “Democrats remain committed to keep fighting for real reforms to rein in ICE and stop the violence,” they said in a statement. Both sides have aired similar complaints throughout the discussions: that the opposite party is not negotiating in good faith and has not made meaningful concessions.

Politico [2/27/2026 7:30 PM, Eric Bazail-Eimil, 21784K] reports the Trump administration is taking actions to increase the sense of urgency to fund the Department of Homeland Security. But lawmakers calling for reforms to the agency are feeling little urgency to cede ground, indicating the funding standoff could continue for weeks to come. The most recent move came Friday, when DHS leadership disbursed billions of dollars in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund and warned that its coffers are running low. In the past week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also briefly halted the Transportation Security Agency’s PreCheck program and paused counterterrorism grants to help with security at this summer’s FIFA World Cup. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have withheld support for the DHS funding bill said they see the moves as reflecting bad management on the part of the Trump administration, rather than upping urgency for a compromise from their side. “They’re putting pain on the American people when they could be doing something positive for them,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. One reason for the resolve: The Trump administration moves aren’t necessarily mandated by the shutdown. Even after the Friday disbursal, FEMA still has billions left to distribute on disaster relief and other priorities. And, so far at least, there are few obvious public signs of the impasses there were in previous shutdowns, when many TSA agents called in sick to protest being forced to work without pay. The Trump administration is hoping that its moves will eventually prompt some Senate Democrats to split off and back a Republican-led funding bill that provides for no changes to tactics or training of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers amid outrage over the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by agents in Minneapolis. Democrats have so far refused to fund the department, arguing that major changes — including enhanced training and a ban on agents wearing masks during operations — are still needed to the practices of U.S. immigration agencies. Boosting them is a continued flood of public and private polling data that shows Americans have soured on the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement. Democrats have pointed to a Feb. 13 poll commissioned by the Senate Majority PAC, which works to elect Democrats to the Senate, that found a majority of Americans support Democrats holding up DHS funding until changes are made to ICE practices.

Roll Call [2/27/2026 1:09 PM, Ryan Tarinelli and Aris Folley, 673K] reports a moratorium on federal employee layoffs lapsed at the start of the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, removing one hurdle faced by the Trump administration as it seeks to remake the size of the federal government. That doesn’t mean the government will face a clean path forward in implementing large-scale layoffs President Donald Trump outlined in executive orders last year, with legal challenges to the administration’s layoff efforts that appear far from over. Congress put the provision to halt layoffs in a continuing resolution in November, part of a deal that ended the longest-ever partial government shutdown. But that provision expired this month when Congress could not come to an agreement on a Homeland Security funding bill. Federal unions said in a court filing late last month that many federal agencies were forced to hold off on their full layoff plans throughout 2025 and into early 2026 because of litigation and that moratorium. But the unions in that filing point to an executive order from October and a government memo from November, as well as actions from Interior, State and Homeland Security departments, as signs of what’s to come. "As 2026 begins, the Administration is poised to continue these efforts to downsize the government, including through additional mass terminations, if the CR language is not extended," the unions wrote. Such an extension of the restriction on layoffs could be in the mix as Congress and the White House continue negotiations on a fiscal 2026 spending measure for the Department of Homeland Security, where there is a clash over policies for immigration enforcement. Asked about the prohibition earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said an extension of the prohibition "is an issue that could be on the table" as discussions continue. The Department of State attempted to lay off Foreign Service employees but was temporarily blocked by the layoff moratorium and court action, the filing said. And at least one agency, the Department of Homeland Security, did not wait for the moratorium to expire before moving forward on layoffs, according to the filing. The unions have accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of defying the congressional layoff moratorium and disregarding FEMA’s statutory mandate by ordering the rolling separations of FEMA workers, with the aim of cutting the agency staff in half this year. That would eliminate thousands of positions, they say.

Bloomberg [2/27/2026 12:51 PM, Hadriana Lowenkron and Greg Ryan, 91157K] reports World Cup host cities from Kansas City to Miami are sounding the alarm over delays in federal public-safety grants with only a few months left before millions of fans descend for the world’s largest sporting event. The US Department of Homeland Security has yet to award any grants through a $625 million program overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that’s meant to help cities and states with their World Cup security needs. Municipal officials say federal help is essential given the scale and complexity of the 39-day event and with local budgets under strain. The World Cup, which the US will co-host with Canada and Mexico, kicks off on June 11 across 16 cities, two-thirds of which will be in the US. Cities are hosting not only games, but team practice facilities and local supporter festivals. They need the money in the next few weeks to purchase infrastructure and line up additional public-safety personnel in time for the games. "The drop-dead date is immediate," Joseph Mabin, Kansas City’s deputy chief of police, said during a congressional hearing on Tuesday. A government funding impasse has shut down parts of DHS, including FEMA, since Feb. 14. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said this week that FEMA was in the "final stages" of reviewing applications before the shutdown, blaming Democrats for the impasse. Democrats, including Representative Nellie Pou, ranking member of the task force on special events, have countered that the awards were due Jan. 30 and urged President Donald Trump to release the funds. Amid the finger-pointing, cities are warning they don’t have much more time to wait. The $625 million in grants, allocated through Trump’s tax bill last year, support activities such as training and readiness exercises, staff background checks, cybersecurity defense and increased police and emergency response for FIFA venues, according to a program fact sheet.

FOX News [2/27/2026 5:16 PM, Alex Miller, 37576K] reports frigid negotiations between the White House and Senate Democrats appear to be thawing, with the Trump administration submitting what it calls a "serious" offer to reopen the government. It’s the second offer from the White House in an ongoing back-and-forth that has left the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without funding for two weeks. With lawmakers away from Washington, D.C., for the weekend, the shutdown will stretch into a third week. The latest development comes after a week of stalled negotiations between Senate Democrats and the administration, along with concerns that an off-ramp from the shutdown remained out of reach. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., both acknowledged receiving the offer in a joint statement Friday.

Politico [2/27/2026 3:21 PM, Jordain Carney and Alex Gangitano, 21784K] reports the White House made a new Homeland Security funding proposal to congressional Democrats late Thursday as a partial shutdown of the sprawling department enters its third week. The two sides have struggled to make progress since the funding lapse began Feb. 14, with the Senate failing Monday to advance legislation that would restore the flow of cash to agencies dealing with matters ranging from immigration enforcement to airport security to cyber infrastructure. “Democrats need to make a move to end the shutdown before more Americans are harmed by a lack of funding for critical services like disaster relief,” a White House official said, describing the latest proposal as a “serious counter offer.” A joint statement from spokespeople for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the two Democrats “received the White House’s counteroffer and are reviewing it closely.” “Democrats remain committed to keep fighting for real reforms to rein in ICE and stop the violence,” the statement added. No congressional action is expected until the middle of next week at the earliest, with the Senate out of town until Monday and the House not voting until Wednesday. The White House official’s warning about disaster relief comes after President Donald Trump pointed to a recent snowstorm that clobbered parts of the Northeast in urging Democrats to end the partial shutdown during his State of the Union speech. FEMA officials said earlier this month that the main federal disaster fund “has sufficient balances to continue emergency response activities for the foreseeable future,” but expected new disbursements could drain it quickly. Democrats have vowed to block DHS funding until they get changes to Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics after federal agents killed two people in January in Minneapolis. Enforcement agencies like ICE and Border Patrol, however, have been largely unaffected by the shutdown due to funding put in place last year by the party-line GOP megabill. Democrats haven’t yet weighed in on the latest White House offer. But Schumer said this week that Republicans have not meaningfully changed their position as talks have continued. “They’re just trying to pass paper back and forth with no real changes,” he told reporters.

Daily Wire [2/27/2026 6:44 AM, Cameron Arcand, 2314K] reports some Department of Homeland Security employees, including Transportation Security Administration agents, will receive only partial paychecks this week as the department’s funding lapse continues. The standoff between the White House and congressional Democrats shows little sign of resolution. At issue are proposed restrictions on federal immigration enforcement tactics, which Democrats are seeking in exchange for restoring funding. "Democrats have submitted a laundry list of demands in order for the government to fund the Department of Homeland Security," Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) said on the Senate floor Thursday. "260,000 people in all working without pay. It’s the Democrats that shut down the Department of Homeland Security, or at least refused to pay them. They’re still working, but they’re not getting paid because of the Democrats," Barrasso said, adding that "Republicans have offered fair terms for a deal." Few details on any compromise have been made public, despite counteroffers exchanged as recently as Thursday, a White House official confirmed on background on Friday. "Yesterday, the White House made another serious counteroffer. Democrats need to make a move to end the shutdown before more Americans are harmed by a lack of funding for critical services like disaster relief," the official stated. Other DHS agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard and FEMA, are also affected. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that "significant portions" of FEMA staff were placed on administrative leave.

The Hill [2/27/2026 4:01 PM, Alexander Bolton, 18170K] reports Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) announced Friday that they are reviewing a counteroffer from the White House on how to end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is about to stretch into its third week. Democrats submitted their last offer to the White House on Feb. 16 and had not heard anything from White House negotiators since then. Republicans had dismissed that offer as little more than a rehash of the demands Democrats had previously laid out.

NewsMax [2/27/2026 9:45 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K] reports the Republican-led Congress may need to pass a continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security because the Democrats’ government shutdown is affecting security planning for both the World Cup and America 250 celebrations this summer, Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., told Newsmax on Friday. Appearing on "Wake Up America" with co-hosts Sharla McBride and Marc Lotter, Harris said the 14-day shutdown of DHS is already creating serious consequences, including missed paychecks for Transportation Security Administration agents and disruptions at the Federal Emergency Management Agency — with national security implications. "We did what we needed to do in the U.S. House," Harris said. "We passed the Homeland Security funding bill, sent it over there. "And the Senate has just continued to sit on it." Harris accused Senate Democrats of playing politics with national security, saying, "It’s very dangerous. [Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer is holding the American people hostage." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned Thursday that the shutdown is disrupting security and planning for the 2026 World Cup and America’s 250th anniversary celebration.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [2/27/2026 9:42 AM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 3760K]

AP [2/27/2026 6:26 PM, Todd Richmond, 35287K] reports a judge on Friday sentenced to 16½ years in prison a Wisconsin man who forged threats against President Donald Trump as part of a scheme to get the victim in a robbery case against him deported. A Milwaukee County jury in January convicted 52-year-old Demetric DeShawn Scott of felony identity theft, witness intimidation, bail jumping and reckless endangerment. Judge Kristy Yang sentenced him to a year and six months behind bars on the identity theft count, five years on the intimidation count and 10 years on the endangerment count. She sentenced him to 882 days already served on the bail jumping charge. According to court documents, Mexican immigrant Ramon Morales Reyes was riding his bike in Milwaukee in September 2023 when Scott approached him. He kicked Morales Reyes off the bike, stabbed him with a box cutter and then rode away on the bike. Scott was out on bail in a separate burglary case when the incident happened. Yang dismissed that case Friday, online court records show. Scott was arrested hours after the stabbing. While he was in jail, Scott wrote multiple letters posing as Morales Reyes to state and federal officials threatening to kill Trump at a rally. Federal immigration authorities took Morales Reyes into custody in May after he dropped his daughter off at school. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blasted his photo on social media, along with an excerpt of a letter he purportedly wrote in English promising to shoot Trump at a rally. The White House and Trump supporters played up his arrest as a major success in the administration’s crackdown on immigration. Investigators determined that Morales Reyes couldn’t have written the letters since he doesn’t speak English well, can’t write in the language and the handwriting in the letters didn’t match his. Meanwhile, Scott was making calls from jail in which he talked about letters that needed to be mailed and a plan to get U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities to pick someone up so his trial could get dismissed. He admitted to police that he wrote the letters.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/27/2026 11:14 PM, Pooja Salhotra, 148038K]

Daily Caller [2/27/2026 4:33 PM, Jason Hopkins, 803K] reports lawmakers must do more to save American lives and fix what’s fueling the trucking crisis, says the father of a young girl irreparably injured from an illegal migrant trucker. During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Donald Trump first unveiled "Dalilah’s Law," a legislative proposal that would block illegal migrants from obtaining commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) and address other trucking regulation loopholes. Named after a young girl who was severely wounded in an accident, the bill marks the administration’s latest attempt to fix an industry currently plagued by unqualified foreign drivers. Dalilah’s father, Marcus Coleman, supports the bill and is actively working with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to see it through the finish line. While he says the legislation does the obvious by restricting CDLs from illegal migrants, he adds that real reform would need to do so much more to keep American highways safer — including the elimination of so-called "chameleon carriers."

FOX News [2/27/2026 9:11 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports Stephanie Bennett provides details on the shootout between the Cuban Coast Guard and a U.S.-registered speedboat that left one American citizen dead and another injured. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [2/27/2026 10:28 PM, Andrea Rodríguez, 34146K] reports top officials with Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior unveiled for the first time late Friday the items they said were aboard a Florida-flagged speedboat that opened fire against troops in waters off the island’s north coast this week, with soldiers responding and killing four suspects. Officials also revealed to The Associated Press that authorities were able to establish that the 10 Cuban suspects left the U.S. in two boats, but one failed, so they transferred all the supplies to the remaining one and left the other adrift. The government said the detained suspects revealed those details and stressed that they immediately contacted the U.S. Coast Guard. Among the items Cuban officials said were aboard the boat: a dozen high-powered weapons, including one with a scope; a big cooler filled with more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition; 11 pistols; heavy-duty boots, helmets with cameras; and camouflage backpacks. "We were clearly able to assess that we were facing a terrorist action from a boat coming from the United States," 1st Col. Ivey Daniel Carballo of the Cuban Border Guard Troops told the AP. According to Carballo, the 30-foot (nine meter) border patrol boat detected an intruder on Wednesday morning and approached to within about 600 feet (185 meters) to investigate, but it was met with high-caliber gunfire. He said that three of the attackers were immediately killed and that a fourth was wounded and later died. Caraballo said the speedboat was located about one mile (1.6 kilometers) northeast of Cayo Falcones off the island’s north coast. The border guard commander was injured, he added. Victor Eduardo Álvarez Valle, one of the heads of Criminal Investigation for State Security at the Ministry of the Interior, told the AP that authorities were surprised by the resistance they encountered. "We didn’t expect it, especially with that many people and weapons," he said. "The military equipment found on board has been identified by the assailants, including where and how they acquired it, and the training they received. They also revealed who financed it," Álvarez added. He noted that officials detected 13 bullet holes on the border guard boat and 21 others on the suspect’s vessel, "meaning that there was combat.”

Wall Street Journal [2/27/2026 5:46 PM, Deborah Acosta and Vera Bergengruen, 646K] reports in recent weeks, family members of a group of Cuban dissidents who overheard them making plans to “liberate Cuba” dismissed the talk as the kind of bravado that is common among Cuban-American exiles. Ten of the dissidents this past week boarded a speedboat for what one of them told relatives was a fishing trip. A few hours later, four were killed after engaging in gunfire with Cuban security forces near the island’s northern coast. Cuba’s Interior Ministry said the group, which U.S. officials said included two American citizens, were carrying assault rifles, handguns, homemade explosives, bulletproof vests, telescopic sights and camouflage uniforms. Six of them were injured after the gunfire and transferred to the island to receive medical care. One of the U.S. citizens on board was killed, and the other was injured and is now held in custody by Cuban authorities, according to a U.S. official. Relatives said that the men lacked military training and capabilities and that they had unrealistic expectations. They said the men were hoping to infiltrate the island little by little and spark a rebellion against a bankrupt regime mired in one of its worst economic crises. They coordinated on a WhatsApp chat group to equip themselves with a stash of weapons and tactical gear. In a video posted on Facebook, two of them showed off various rifles, bragging about Serbian and Russian guns and demonstrating their capabilities. Relatives said they now believe the ragtag group’s mission was doomed from the start. They suspect that the plan was compromised and that the boat was ambushed. Cuba’s Embassy in Washington declined to comment and referred to statements by the country’s Interior Ministry describing the incident. The White House and the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment.

Breitbart [2/27/2026 11:10 AM, Frances Martel, 2238K] reports a man the Cuban Communist Party falsely identified as having been detained in a dramatic speedboat shootout this week told local media outlets in Florida that he is “worried” for his safety and suspected that the men onboard the ship, accused of plotting actions against the regime, were “infiltrated” by a Cuban spy operation. The Cuban Ministry of the Interior announced on Wednesday that it had allegedly intercepted a speedboat that it claimed was registered in Florida and carried armed individuals on board. The Castro regime accused the men aboard of opening fire on the Cuban Coast Guard when the latter approached their boat and demanded identification. Regime authorities reported that ten men were onboard and that it arrested six and killed four. The administration of President Donald Trump has refused to confirm or deny any of the Cuban regime’s claims. The only information provided by Secretary of State Marco Rubio following Havana’s declarations on Wednesday was a confirmation that the events transpired did not involve any American government operation, vessel, or known employees. Rubio expressed deep skepticism in response to the Communist Party’s claims that it had thwarted a “terrorist” operation. The Cuban regime identified Roberto Azcorra Consuegra as one of the six men detained on the boat on Sunday. In reality, Azcorra was in his home in Florida when the news broke and was shocked to be included on the list. He spent much of Thursday in front of Versailles, the iconic Miami restaurant known as the political heart of the Cuban exile community, speaking to journalists and clarifying his position.

AP [2/28/2026 12:49 AM, Joshua Goodman, Gisela Salomon and Mike Catalini, 2238K] reports a stolen boat, with 10 people aboard, loaded with weapons, departs the Florida Keys but gunfire erupts before reaching Cuba. The explanation, according to the Cuban government, is the men aboard were terrorists who wanted to infiltrate the country. The fatal shooting broke out Wednesday amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Cuba. The ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has led the Trump administration to take a more aggressive stance toward the country’s longstanding ideological nemesis in Latin America. It shines fresh attention on the deep-rooted freedom movement among Cuban exiles in south Florida, including some fringe elements who have long sought a violent overthrow of the island’s communist leadership. Armed raids, provocative publicity stunts and protests blurring the lines of legality stretch back decades in the Florida straits. Many of them are led by hardliner exiles, some who fought in Fidel Castro’s guerrilla army that took power in 1959 before breaking ranks when the popular leader converted Cuba into a Soviet satellite. But such confrontational tactics have faded since the Cold War, leaving many in Miami to speculate the armed incursion was a fabrication of Cuba’s intelligence agencies. "Cuban Americans today are, whether on the left or on the right, really focused on trying to influence U.S. policy rather than thinking that somehow paramilitary action by small groups are gonna overthrow the Cuban government," said William LeoGrande, an American University government professor who specializes in Cuba. The shooting left four dead and many questions. Cuba’s government said most of the people on the boat were violent criminals. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who rose to prominence surrounded by the Cuban exile politics of Miami, was quick to cast doubt on the Cuban account, saying that the U.S. would investigate what he described as a "highly unusual" sea shootout. The counter-revolutionary groups — with names like Alpha 66 and Omega 7 — were always small in number but were at their strongest in the 1970s and ‘80s. Their influence receded as the Reagan administration arrested their leaders for violent attacks on U.S. soil, like an assassination plot targeting Castro during his 1979 visit to the United Nations and the shooting death a year later of a Cuban diplomat in New York. Antonio Tang joined Alpha 66 shortly after fleeing Cuba and going into exile in Canada in 1981. He trained in weapons and guerrilla tactics with the volunteer group at a camp in the Everglades called Rumbo Sur — Direction South. Many of its actions were over before they started, he said. "We were kind of amateurs — and no match for the Cuban military and interior ministry," said Tang. "They always knew in advance what we were doing. Many folks ended up in jail.”

Reuters [2/27/2026 11:55 PM, Daniel Trotta, 38315K] reports a commando of Cuban exiles who intended to infiltrate Cuba on a speedboat was armed with nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition, 13 rifles and 11 pistols, Cuban officials said on Friday, providing new details about Wednesday’s deadly exchange of gunfire at sea. The government in Havana has said 10 Cuban nationals coming from the United States entered Cuban waters and opened fire on a border guard vessel, leading Cuban forces to return fire killing four and wounding six others, who were taken into custody. In an attempt to dispel doubts about its account to date, senior Cuban Interior Ministry officers displayed the captured armaments from the studio on a special television program, including bins full of at least some of the 12,846 recovered rounds. They also showed pictures of the vessels, each peppered with bullet holes from the firefight they said took place at a range of 20 meters (66 feet). The confrontation took place at a fraught moment in U.S.-Cuban relations, with U.S. President Donald Trump pressuring the island by imposing a virtual oil blockade after capturing and ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a crucial Cuban ally, on January 3. Cuba has identified the assailants as Cuban exiles, some of whom had been previously placed on a list of accused terrorists, who came from the United States with the intent to sow chaos and attack military units on the Communist-ruled island. "The intent of this group is to infiltrate, to promote public disorder. To incite the people to unite. To carry out something violent. Attack military units in order to incite social unrest and to unite the people in order to steal the revolution. That has been duly proven," said Colonel Victor Alvarez of the Interior Ministry. U.S. politicians have expressed skepticism over Cuba’s version of events. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said his government would independently investigate, adding that it was not a U.S. operation and that no U.S. government personnel were involved. Cuban officers said the infiltrators set out from Marathon in the Florida Keys on two vessels but ditched one at some point due to technical difficulties. They united on one speedboat, which a U.S. official said was reported stolen in Florida. Cuba said it recovered a drone, radios, knives, a portable power plant, bolt cutters and other materiel. They also found emblems of the November 30th Movement and People’s Self-Defense, anti-communist groups that oppose the Cuban government. Cuba says a patrol of five border guard members on a 9-meter boat spotted the incoming vessel shortly after 7 a.m., with some members of the incoming crew in the water, about one nautical mile off a cay on the Caribbean island’s northern coast, about 100 miles (160 km) from Marathon. The infiltrators opened fire at a distance of 185 meters, striking the captain of the Cuban vessel in the abdomen, Cuba said. Bleeding heavily, the wounded captain remained at the helm and steered toward the enemy vessel, leading to a firefight at a distance of about 20 meters, the officers said. Cuba called its response "proportional.”

Daily Wire [2/27/2026 8:38 AM, Cameron Arcand, 2314K] reports that President Donald Trump floated the United States taking control of Cuba after the communist country’s Coast Guard killed four individuals on a boat registered in the state of Florida on Wednesday. “The Cuban government is talking with us, and they’re in a big deal of trouble, as you know. They have no money, they have no anything right now, but they’re talking with us, and maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba,” the president told reporters Friday, adding that the island nation is in “big trouble.” “You know, we have people living here that want to go back to Cuba, and they’re very happy with what’s going on,” he continued. The boat had Americans on board, according to Axios. The Cuban government claims that the “violating speedboat” was in “territorial waters.” “When a surface unit of the Border Guard Troops of the Ministry of the Interior, carrying five service members, approached the vessel for identification, the crew of the violating speedboat opened fire on the Cuban personnel, resulting in the injury of the commander of the Cuban vessel,” the Ministry of the Interior stated. “In the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defense is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban State in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region,” the statement added, noting that there will be investigations into the incident.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [2/27/2026 2:00 PM, Molly Parks, 1147K]

ABC News [2/27/2026 1:55 PM, Staff, 34146K] reports that James Uthmeier discussed the investigation into what Cuba called a "confrontation" that left four people dead. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [2/27/2026 5:41 PM, Michael Katz, 3760K] reports President Donald Trump continued his tirade against the Supreme Court’s recent decision limiting his tariff authority, publicly questioning Friday whether the case could be reheard. In a post on Truth Social, Trump argued the ruling could result in massive amounts of money being returned to foreign countries and companies and suggested the justices could revisit the case. In a 6-3 decision last week, the justices ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize a president to impose broad-based tariffs, marking a major rebuke of Trump’s use of emergency powers to reshape U.S. trade policy. The ruling affirmed a lower-court decision striking down the tariffs and vacated a separate district court ruling for lack of jurisdiction. Trump has defended tariffs as central to his economic agenda. The ruling invalidated tariffs imposed under IEEPA but did not address the mechanics of unwinding them, leaving those issues to be litigated in lower courts and through administrative processes. The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model estimated that reversing the IEEPA tariffs could generate up to $175 billion in refunds. Separately, the Congressional Budget Office has projected total U.S. tariff revenue of about $300 billion annually over the next decade. Refund claims, if successful, would be paid to importers that remitted the duties to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They would not automatically flow to foreign governments.

Axios [2/27/2026 5:30 AM, Jason Lalljee, 17364K] reports following the Supreme Court’s blow to President Trump’s sweeping tariffs agenda, the prospect of compensation for Americans remains an open question. A growing number of Democrats, however, are declaring that Americans are owed billions in compensation, which amounts to about $1,700 per household. That includes New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday calling for the federal government to "refund all tariff payments to New Yorkers." Several other Democratic state leaders have made similar demands, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. And 26 Senate Democrats announced Thursday the "Tariff Refund Act," a bill that would require U.S. Customs and Border Protection to pay refunds, prioritizing small businesses. Democrats’ $1,700 refund pitch inverts Trump’s own playbook for generating tariff support, promising $2,000 dividend checks amid the policy’s broad unpopularity.

AP [2/27/2026 8:28 AM, Alanna Durkin Richer, 35287K] reports the Justice Department has filed a complaint to legally take ownership of a sanctioned tanker and nearly 2 million barrels of petroleum seized off the coast of Venezuela in December, another step by President Donald Trump’s administration to assert power over the country’s oil sector after capturing leader Nicolás Maduro. It’s the first complaint filed by the U.S. to start the legal process to formally take control of one of at least 10 oil tankers intercepted by American authorities since late last year. The U.S. has accused Venezuela of using a shadow fleet of falsely flagged vessels to smuggle illicit crude into global supply chains. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the era of secretly bankrolling regimes that pose clear threats to the United States is over,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an emailed statement. “This Department of Justice will deploy every legal authority at our disposal to completely dismantle and permanently shutter any operation that defies our laws and fuels chaos across the globe.”

Blaze [2/27/2026 11:43 AM, Cooper Williamson, 1556K] reports though the Department of Homeland Security has achieved some success in deporting illegal aliens, it has always been met with resistance — both on the street and in the department itself. In an interview with podcaster Patrick Bet-David this week, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem revealed the depth of some of the problems her department has been facing and the people who have helped her fight the alleged corruption. "You wouldn’t even believe what I’ve found since I’ve been in this department," Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said on the "PBD Podcast" this week. "I just found the other day a whole room on this campus that was a secret SCIF — secure facility — that had files nobody knew existed. So we just happened to have an employee walk by a door and wonder what it was and started asking questions. We went in there. There was individuals working there that had secret files that nobody knew about on some of these most controversial topics." "Now I’ve got that turned over to attorneys, and we’re getting to the bottom of what exactly happened there." Noem also claimed that her devices were compromised but that Elon Musk’s tech team helped expose the software that was compromising her privacy. "Elon and his team were extremely helpful to me. They helped me identify that some of my own employees in my department had downloaded software on my phone and my laptop to spy on me, to record our meetings. They had done that to several of the politicals."

Axios [2/28/2026 6:15 AM, Brittany Gibson, 12972K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s plan to use border funds for an almost $300 million luxury jet fleet has horrified top Trump officials, Axios has learned. Until last year, DHS owned zero luxury jets. Soon it could have three. "This is the world’s worst deal to buy an aircraft," a senior administration official told Axios when granted anonymity to discuss internal matters. "This is an abuse," the official said, calling it a misuse of federal money. Russ Vought, who runs the Office of Management and Budget, raised concerns about the luxury jet spending to the White House, sources told Axios. (OMB declined to comment). Noem purchased two Gulfstream G700 luxury jets in October. A third plane, a Boeing 737 nicknamed the Big Beautiful Jet, is being leased with plans to buy it for about $70 million. The funding comes from the One Big Beautiful Bill’s cash infusion to DHS. It includes money intended for border security and Operation Homecoming, which funds the "self deportation" campaign that DHS has promoted and is co-run with the State Department. Two sources indicated at least one top State Department official was concerned, but a spokesman for the department and other sources disputed that characterization. The two Gulfstreams cost a total of roughly $200 million. They initially were paid for out of accounts meant to secure the maritime border, buy new C-130 Hercules planes, and upgrade the Coast Guard’s older fleet, three sources familiar told Axios. One of the sources familiar said Noem’s office briefed Congress that it planned to reimburse the Coast Guard accounts for the planes with money for "border support" in the One Big Beautiful Bill. That section of the bill states funding should be used for "costs incurred in undertaking activities in support of the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to safeguard the borders." In a procurement document, DHS explained that it bought these planes to allow commanders to "address key mission requirements across domestic and international areas of responsibility, including reliable access to secure communication suites during principal movements." Democratic lawmakers at the time questioned the cost and "acquisition strategy" of the ~$200 million purchase in a letter to Noem, which went unanswered.

Roll Call [2/27/2026 7:00 AM, Chris Johnson, 673K] reports Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C, threatened on Thursday to place a hold on additional presidential nominees if he doesn’t get data he requested from the Department of Homeland Security on immigration enforcement in his state. Tillis had sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem more than three weeks ago with questions about encounters between federal immigration officers and residents. He gave a deadline of March 2, the day before Noem is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I expect to see it presented before the committee, or I’ll place holds on even more confirmations outside of DHS, if they’re not prompt with those responses," Tillis said. "That’s not an unreasonable response." Tillis sent the letter to Noem amid increased concerns about immigration officials sweeping up U.S. citizens for arrests and detention in immigration enforcement. He requested information on Operation Charlotte’s Web, which sought to apprehend migrants in North Carolina who were illegally in the United States.

USA Today [2/28/2026 6:03 AM, Dianne Farah, 67103K] reports I watched President Donald Trump’s entire State of the Union address. It was full of untruths and half-truths, disrespect for Congress and the Supreme Court and self-adoration. I got tired of listening to the deception, and more tired of the Republicans who know better yet couldn’t contain themselves. I had hoped to hear more than a reiteration of Project 2025. I was disturbed by the insinuation that anyone ideologically different was somehow unwelcome, unworthy or crooked. It was wrong to see some Supreme Court justices and congressional Democrats absent and/or insulted. The lack of decorum was unbecoming. Trump took it to a new low. I had hoped to hear a message suggesting the government was going to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement ‒ along with an apology to families of Americans and immigrants killed and brutalized by federal agents. I had hoped there would be an apology to the Supreme Court and Democratic lawmakers who were legitimately representing views of the rest of us in our republic. I had hoped in our 250-year celebration there would be something to celebrate besides money for the wealthier Americans; and an economic plan for job creation, housing, education, Medicare for all, better food prices and safety in the streets. The speech did not affect my plans to vote in the midterm elections or my opinion of Trump. I think we need a U-turn on foreign affairs with focus on reconciliation. I think we are making ourselves vulnerable by supporting Israel in Gaza; the Board of Peace as a stepping stone for Trump’s emperor aspirations weakens us morally, financially and militarily; our immigration policy of erratic detention and deportations is killing our guest-worker economy. The State of the Union was a big Trump-fest with little to offer us externally or internally except insecurity and confusion. A Dow at 50,000 is no match for community compassion and empathy. Political gridlock and disrespect show immaturity and a broken party system. We are better than this. I don’t think this government represents me or the people I know.

Chicago Tribune [2/27/2026 1:09 PM, Tony Lux, 5209K] reports that the Republican-controlled legislature of Indiana has just passed Senate Bill 76, which will compel all local units of government in Indiana — including public schools and universities — to assist without question ICE-related federal agencies in carrying out any “lawful” task. The legislation also enhances the power of Attorney General Todd Rokita to enforce the provisions of the measure. Based on the continuing cruel brutality of unfettered ICE agents in major cities across the U.S., this should strike fear and trepidation into anyone with a moral or legal conscience as to what might be required of them as a State government employee, as well as for the potentially traumatic effects on Indiana students. It is mind-bending that Indiana legislators would call for unquestioned obedience to an organization that has, time and again, been documented to neither give unquestioned allegiance to the constitutional rights accorded to everyone who lives in this country, nor to the findings and directions of our state and federal court systems. The new legislation includes the caveat of unquestioned compliance for “any lawful task.” So when it is already known that ICE actually carries out unlawful violations of the Constitution as per state and federal court rulings, government employees are being set up to be intimidated to serve as accomplices to unlawful, not to mention immoral, behavior.

FOX News [2/27/2026 5:00 AM, Chad R. Mizelle, 37576K] reports with Puerto Vallarta and the state of Jalisco under siege from the cartels, American policymakers need to know that President Donald Trump would be on strong legal ground if he chooses to hit the cartels in Mexico or anywhere in the world. Over the last four decades, the drug cartels have transported tens of thousands of military-age men over our borders, many of them carrying weapons of mass destruction like fentanyl or carfentanil. This isn’t "migration." It’s an invasion, and, under the Constitution, the president not only has the authority, but the duty to act. Though the drug cartels are non-state actors, they effectively control roughly one-third of Mexican territory, exerting quasi-sovereignty by extracting "taxes," controlling the movement of people, and intimidating and extorting government into doing their will. Trump has done what no president in decades could do: he secured the southern border and stopped the massive influx of illegal aliens and dangerous drugs. But is America required to stand back and wait for criminals to cross our borders in order to defend itself? Of course not. There is ample precedent for presidents using the military to take on non-state actors abroad who threatened the lives and livelihoods of Americans — even without congressional authorization.

New York Times [2/27/2026 6:36 PM, Jonah E. Bromwich, 148038K] reports a Columbia University undergraduate this week was arrested by federal immigration agents who falsely told the superintendent of a university-owned apartment building that they were the police and that they were searching for a missing child. The student, Ellie Aghayeva, was released after Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with President Trump and asked that her case be dismissed. But the episode has raised questions about whether the agents’ actions were legal and, more generally, what immigration agents are permitted to do on college campuses. Federal agents do not have any special privileges on campuses. While certain parts of campuses are considered public property, many are considered private. Agents need federal judicial warrants to search private property, meaning a judge would have to be convinced that there was probable cause that a crime was being or had been committed. Illegal immigration, per se, is not a crime; it is a civil violation of the law. Shortly after 6 a.m. on Thursday, five federal immigration agents were let into a university-owned apartment building by the building’s superintendent. They gained entry by posing as police officers searching for a missing child. They had no warrant. They entered Ms. Aghayeva’s apartment holding posters for the fictional missing child. Despite a public security officer’s protest that they had no warrant, they took her. The university’s president, Claire Shipman, said that the episode was “utterly unacceptable.” The Homeland Security Department said its officers “verbally identified themselves and wore badges around their necks.” It said it arrested Ms. Aghayeva because her “student visa was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for failing to attend classes.” In 2005, the acting director of ICE, John Torres, issued a memo officially endorsing the use of ruses, including “adopting the guise of another agency.” When doing so, the memo said, immigration agents should contact the local agency in question. Agents have also posed as delivery people or used fake photos to suggest they are involved in a fictional investigation. It is unclear whether the immigration agents on Thursday identified themselves as New York police officers or merely as “the police.” If they said they were New York officers, it would have required them to contact the N.Y.P.D., which a spokeswoman for the Police Department said they did not do. But if they said they were the police, they would not have been required to seek permission.

New York Times [2/27/2026 6:15 PM, Campbell Robertson and Callie Holtermann, 148038K] reports hundreds of students walked out of high schools across Washington on Friday for a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the latest and among the most visible in a national wave of student protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement action. Within a short walk of the White House, the students carrying posters and flags came from schools all over the city — public, private and religious. At least one said student he was home-schooled. Some said they had been planning this demonstration for weeks, coordinating with friends. Others said they had learned about it on social media at the last minute, and hurriedly drew protest signs in school on Friday. In recent months, thousands of students have walked out of class in more than three dozen states, controlled by both Democrats and Republicans, to protest the aggressive tactics of federal immigration agents — among them, the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens last month in Minneapolis, as well as the detention and deportation of thousands of migrants and at least some permanent U.S. residents. In Tampa, Fla., about 60 students marched in an anti-ICE protest this month. In Baltimore, the student government president of Dunbar High School led dozens of his classmates down snowy sidewalks to City Hall. Students have walked out of numerous schools in the Washington suburbs, facing suspension in some places. Elected officials and school administrators have taken different approaches to the walkouts. More than 100 students were suspended in Oklahoma, and at least five teenagers were arrested following a confrontation with police in Quakertown, Pa. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has also called for the arrest of disorderly student protesters, and suggested that state funding could be stripped from school districts where walkouts have taken place. When Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia delivered the Democratic rebuttal to the State of the Union address this week, however, she praised student protesters “whose voices are becoming so powerful that the governor of Texas seeks to silence them.”

Reuters [2/27/2026 6:30 AM, Ben Kellerman, 38315K] reports in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that undocumented migrants are responsible for a wave of violent crime despite studies showing that is not the case. Democratic U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan confronted him during the speech, shouting "you’re killing Americans." At least eight people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers since the start of 2026, following at least 31 deaths last year. Federal agents fatally shot U.S. citizens in Minnesota on two separate occasions in January. A growing share of the people detained by ICE have committed what the agency says are immigration violations but have no other criminal conviction or pending criminal charge, according to the agency’s own numbers. People in that category represent the biggest group currently detained by ICE, a number that rose sharply in mid-2025, around the time that White House official Stephen Miller pressed ICE to escalate operations. The agency is struggling to keep pace with vetting new hires during its recruitment push and is laying out a process to deal with allegations of past misconduct among recruits, an internal email shows.

FOX News [2/27/2026 3:43 PM, Charles Creitz, 37576K] reports a Bill Clinton-appointed federal judge is among several drawing criticism for continuing to order the release of some of the 650 illegal immigrants arrested by ICE in Operation Country Roads. In one case that drew public attention, Judge Joseph Goodwin of the Southern District of West Virginia granted the release of Salvadoran national Anderson Jesus Urquilla-Ramos, a decision the man’s attorney told Bloomberg Law "reinforces that immigration enforcement must operate within constitutional limits." In his order, Goodwin lashed out at ICE agents’ masks and warrant-free arrests, saying "antiseptic judicial rhetoric cannot do justice to what is happening." Goodwin characterized DHS’ behavior as an "assault on the constitutional order [and] what the Fourth Amendment was written to prevent," according to WVMetroNews, and he permitted habeas corpus, a detained defendant’s ability to challenge his confinement.

NPR [2/27/2026 5:50 PM, Huo Jingnan, Will Chase, Zazil Davis-Vazquez, Candice Kortkamp, Greta Pittenger, Susie Cummings, 28764K] reports social media accounts from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and other immigration agencies have spent much of the past year posting about people detained in the administration’s immigration crackdown, typically portraying them as hardened, violent criminals. That’s even as over 70% of the people detained don’t have criminal records according to ICE data. NPR’s research of cases in Minnesota shows that while many of the people who have been highlighted on social media do have recent, serious criminal records, about a quarter are like Chandee, with decades-old convictions, minor offenses or only pending criminal proceedings. Scholars of immigration, media and criminal law say such a media campaign is unprecedented and paints a distorted picture of immigrants and crime. A year into President Trump’s second term, the X accounts of DHS and ICE have posted about more than 2,000 people who were targets of mass deportation efforts. Starting late last March, DHS and ICE began posting on X on a near daily basis, often highlighting apprehensions of multiple people a day, an NPR review of government social media posts show. Among the 2,000 people highlighted by the agencies, NPR identified 130 who were arrested by federal agents in Minnesota and tried to verify the government’s statements about their criminal histories.

NBC News [2/27/2026 2:47 PM, Sahil Kapur, 42967K] reports that the British rock band Radiohead is demanding that the Trump administration take down a promotional video for Immigration and Customs Enforcement that uses one of their songs. The ICE video, which was posted on social media last week, features a version of the song "Let Down" from the band’s critically-acclaimed 1997 album "OK Computer," alongside faces of people the administration describes as victims of "criminal illegal alien violence." It is part of the "this is our why" campaign by the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to defend President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown amid public backlash. Social media accounts for Trump, the White House and DHS, which collectively have tens of millions of followers, also shared the video. It has since circulated and gained attention on other social media platforms. "We demand that the amateurs in control of the ICE social media account take it down. It ain’t funny, this song means a lot to us and other people, and you don’t get to appropriate it without a fight," Radiohead said in a statement sent to NBC News. "Also, go f--- yourselves," the band added. DHS and ICE didn’t immediately return requests for comment when asked if they would honor Radiohead’s request and remove the video in question.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/27/2026 9:35 PM, Neil Vigdor, 148038K]

New York Times [2/27/2026 7:11 PM, Mattathias Schwartz, 148038K] reports a 20-year-old freshman at Babson College in Massachusetts said she would remain in Honduras on Friday, the deadline that a judge had given the Trump administration for facilitating her return to the United States after it violated a court order by mistakenly deporting her. The government had arranged for a plane on Friday that would have brought the student, Any Lucia López Belloza, back to the United States. But her lawyers said she chose not to board, believing that she would be immediately detained on arrival and deported again. They pointed to a Thursday court filing by the Justice Department noting “ICE’s intent to effectuate” her “final order of removal after she is returned.” In a tearful video call on Friday with journalists, Ms. López said a representative from Immigration and Customs Enforcement had tried to persuade her to return to the United States by wrongly suggesting that she was likely to be set free upon her return. “An officer told me again and again that I will be released once I landed in the United States,” she said. “She asked if she would be freed upon arrival or if she would be detained again,” said Ivonne Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the immigration advocacy group FWD.us, who said she joined a call with Ms. López and the ICE employee. “He said very likely you will be freed, and that the only way to know for sure is to get on the plane.” Her legal team said she would continue to fight in court for her permanent return to the United States. In an emailed statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that Ms. López “failed to appear for her prearranged flight” on Friday and that “ICE made multiple attempts to reach out to her with no response.” The department added that she had received “full due process” after an immigration judge issued a final order of removal when she was a child.

Reported similarly:
AP [2/27/2026 5:45 PM, Leah Willingham, 1323K]
Reuters [2/27/2026 4:17 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K]

CNN [2/27/2026 3:09 PM, Emma Tucker, Alaa Elassar, and Holly Yan, 19874K] reports Ellie Aghayeva had documented an intensive, 10-hour study session in the Columbia University library Wednesday night, sharing with her sizeable social media following how she prepares for an exam and conducts research. Little did she know at the time, she would spend roughly the same number of hours in federal immigration detention the next day. Aghayeva, a senior at the university, was taken into custody by agents from the Department of Homeland Security at a Columbia-owned residential building in New York City at approximately 6:30 a.m. Thursday, university officials said. About nine hours later, she posted on her Instagram account she had been released. University officials claimed the agents misrepresented their purpose in order to access the building, entering "without any kind of warrant" and using the false pretense of searching for a missing child. DHS said they were targeting Aghayeva because she is an undocumented immigrant "whose student visa was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for failing to attend classes." New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani raised Aghayeva’s detention with President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House Thursday, saying shortly after that Trump had informed him she would be released. When asked by CNN whether the agents misrepresented themselves as searching for a missing person, the agency replied, "Homeland Security Investigators verbally identified themselves and visibly wore badges around their necks. They did NOT and would not identify themselves as NYPD." A spokesperson for DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, said Aghayeva had been placed in removal proceedings and was "released while she waits for her hearing," according to the Associated Press.

(B) NBC News Daily [2/27/2026 2:32 PM, Staff]
A Columbia University student has been released from ICE custody after she was detained inside her residential building yesterday. She was released after Mayor Mamdani brought her case up directly with President Trump. She was escorted out of custody yesterday afternoon. The university says ICE agents posed as police looking for a missing child to gain access to the building. The Department of Homeland Security says agents identified themselves.

CBS News [2/27/2026 11:48 AM, Tom Hanson, 51110K] reports Columbia University acting president Claire Shipman described the ICE detention of student Elmina "Ellie" Aghayeva, claiming agents gained entry to a residential building by stating they were police seeking a missing child. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [2/27/2026 8:01 PM, Bianca Quilantan, Madina Touré and Rebecca Carballo, 21784K] reports the recent detainment of a Columbia University student is showing just how much harder it is getting for colleges to protect their students from President Donald Trump’s immigration raids. Universities have spent the past year strengthening their policies for how to deal with law enforcement officials who come on their campuses looking for their international students, who have increasingly been targeted for deportation. But the shortcomings of those protections came into stark focus with Ellie Aghayeva’s detainment Thursday, which set off a political firestorm that put New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on the phone with Trump. Even though Aghayeva was released within hours, the circumstances of her detainment sparked outrage among Democratic lawmakers, education advocates and from New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. The school’s leader said that agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered an off-campus residential building without a warrant and “misrepresented themselves” to gain entry under the pretense of searching for a missing child. That alleged deception — disputed by the department — may complicate already fraught negotiations to fund DHS. It also shows how even colleges with the most comprehensive immigration and law enforcement policies can’t account for situations where government officials don’t follow the rules. “Colleges and universities really have been doing as best as they can, but they can only do just as much as they can control,” said Zuzana Wootson, deputy director of federal policy at the Presidents Alliance on Higher Education and immigration, a group representing university leaders. “If agents gain entry through misrepresentation or refuse to pause for some sort of verification or judicial warrant, these are all things that universities cannot control.” Education advocates are again urging federal lawmakers to crack down on immigration enforcement tactics, which have become a sticking point in the negotiations over federal funding for DHS, which has been without an appropriation for about two weeks. They want lawmakers to enshrine what previously had been just guidance — revoked by the Trump administration last year — protecting K-12 schools, college campuses and other “sensitive spaces” from immigration raids. It is up to Congress to provide “clear protections and practical enforcement limits for sensitive locations to reduce the fear and disruption” on campus, Wootson said, and federal agents must “follow what is required from them.” Democratic lawmakers are trying to follow through. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) — formerly an undocumented immigrant — cosponsored legislation last year that seeks to codify these protections for schools and other locations. “Any time ICE could twist the rules or change the protocol to try to sneak in somebody and arrest people, they are circumventing the traditional scope of the law, so that’s important for me,” he said in an interview following news of the Columbia incident. “You have to look at and to see how we can stop that from occurring. Everything should occur within the strict letter of the law. You shouldn’t have to impersonate anybody to enforce that law.”

AP [2/27/2026 8:21 PM, Jake Offenhartz, 16072K] reports the 911 call came in at 6:32 a.m. on Thursday: Two “suspicious” men wearing dark clothing were lingering inside a Columbia University residential building. But when New York Police Department officers were dispatched to the scene, they came across U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents in the midst of an unusually elaborate operation. According to a statement later released by Columbia, the agents had gained access to the building by posing as police in search of a 5-year-old — going so far as to present a flyer of the “missing child” to a campus safety officer. The ruse allowed them to make their way to the apartment of Ellie Aghayeva, an international student from Azerbaijan who immigration officials claim overstayed her visa. The NYPD officers arrived after the men had entered her apartment, a department spokesperson said. They confirmed the men were federal agents, then quickly left the building. The arrest has prompted widespread censure and calls for investigation by Democrats, as well as a surprising intervention by President Donald Trump. The Republican informed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani that Aghayeva was being released shortly after meeting with the Democratic mayor Thursday. As new details emerge, the operation has also threatened to open a rift between the city’s police department and ICE, whose agents have increasingly donned the disguises of utility workers, delivery drivers and other uniformed professionals to carry out Trump’s sweeping deportation campaign. While such tactics are not illegal, former police officers said the apparent misrepresentation at Columbia represented a startling escalation, one that could gravely undermine public trust during the next emergency. “If the police are actually looking for a child in danger, people are now going to be more hesitant to help,” said Michael Alcazar, a retired hostage negotiator with the NYPD. “Almost immediately, this sort of ICE subterfuge is going to make the job of police officers more difficult.” A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, has disputed portions of the university’s narrative, claiming the federal agents “verbally identified themselves and visibly wore badges around their necks” and were allowed into the building by a property manager. McLaughlin did not respond to repeated questions about whether the agents had used the guise of a missing child to enter the apartment. Claire Shipman, the university’s acting president, said on Thursday that security cameras had “captured the agents in the hallway showing pictures of the alleged missing child,” adding that the situation was “utterly unacceptable.” Columbia has so far declined to release that footage. The NYPD also declined to share body camera footage of their response. A department spokesperson said the officers had followed the law by not interfering in an active federal investigation.

Washington Examiner [2/27/2026 11:40 AM, Molly Parks, 1147K] reports Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) voiced her opposition to plans for a North Jersey Immigration and Customs detention facility in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Friday. “DHS’s treatment of human beings – citizen and non-citizen alike – reflects a chilling disregard for both human life and the rule of law. New Jersey will not be complicit in this,” Sherrill wrote. New Jersey residents in Roxbury Township learned of DHS’s plans to build an ICE detention facility in the community for illegal immigrants last week, when news broke that DHS purchased a warehouse in the township. Local officials in Roxbury confirmed the purchase last Friday and said they would not “passively accept this outcome,” vowing to “pursue all available legal remedies,” according to the New Jersey Monitor. ICE currently has illegal immigrant detention facilities in Elizabeth and Newark, New Jersey. Sherrill blasted as “inexcusable” what she called DHS’s “lack of communication and transparency with Roxbury” regarding the 470,000-square-foot facility.

Daily Wire [2/27/2026 5:46 AM, Jennie Taer, 2314K] reports local authorities in Pennsylvania released an illegal immigrant charged with rape while he was training to become a corrections officer. Ibrahim George Kallon, who hails from Sierra Leone, had been living in the United States illegally since 2024, when his visitor visa expired, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In recent years, he also worked security for the president and first lady of his native Sierra Leone, his former colleague told The Daily Wire. A photo posted to Kallon’s Facebook appears to show him with the leaders of the West African nation. ICE had lodged a detainer with the Delaware County Prison in Thornton, Pennsylvania, but he was released on bail on Feb. 5, according to the agency and court records. The court only required that he pay $1 of his $100,000 bond, which was earlier lowered from its original $250,000. Federal immigration officers were then forced to hunt Kallon down in the community and arrest him on Feb. 11, ICE said.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [2/27/2026 3:06 PM, Louis Casiano, 37576K]

FOX News [2/27/2026 1:12 PM, Charles Creitz, 37576K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security slammed a new vulgar New Jersey bill aimed at punishing federal immigration enforcement in the Garden State, highlighting several victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants that officials say lawmakers are ignoring. Earlier this week, Assemblymembers Ravinder Bhalla and Katie Brennan, both Hoboken Democrats, drafted the "F---ICE Act" — with the profane acronym spelled out — that would allow civil action to be taken against immigration enforcement agents. The bill was reportedly drafted after a Democratic Socialist councilman from neighboring Jersey City was rebuked by a federal agent when he arrived at the scene of a raid on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, where an agent told him: "I don’t need a warrant, bro." "This is a disgusting bill just meant to demonize our officers who are experiencing a highly coordinated campaign of violence against our law enforcement," Deputy Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. "Our officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks, and an 8,000% increase in death threats." Bis warned that anyone who lays hands on officers or tries to obstruct their operations "is committing a felony and a federal crime." "What these New Jersey sanctuary lawmakers are trying to do is unlawful, and they know it. Federal officials acting in the course of their duties are immune from liability under state law," she said. Fox News Digital reached out to the New Jersey Assembly Majority Office for comment from Bhalla and Brennan.

FOX News [2/27/2026 6:58 PM, Alec Schemmel, 37576K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is calling on Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger to ensure local law enforcement cooperates with federal immigration officials by handing over an illegal immigrant with a lengthy criminal record who allegedly killed a woman earlier this week at a Virginia bus stop. Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, arrested an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone earlier this week on charges of second-degree murder after he fatally stabbed a woman, Stephanie Minter, 41, who was found dead at a local bus stop with several wounds to the upper body. The alleged suspect, Abdul Jalloh, 32, also has a criminal history of more than 30 arrests, according to DHS, including for rape, malicious wounding, assault, identity theft, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, assault, pick-pocketing and more. The request from the Trump administration comes after the newly elected Democratic governor of Virginia signed an executive order to end cooperation between federal immigration officials and state and local law enforcement, a move several Democratic Party governors have taken recently amid President Donald Trump’s move to increase deportation operations around the country. The DHS request asking Virginia officials to cooperate with ICE also comes after an illegal immigrant murdered someone just days after being released from jail for a separate crime in December.

Breitbart [2/27/2026 1:24 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports that Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is introducing legislation that would incentivize states to track crimes committed by illegal aliens and report such crimes on a public website, Breitbart News has learned. The Migrant Crime Reporting Act, reviewed first by Breitbart News, seeks to nationalize a Tennessee law that requires the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference to publicly report migrant crime every year. "Joe Biden’s open border allowed millions of illegal aliens to flood our country, and all Americans deserve to know how many have been charged or convicted of crimes in their communities," Blackburn said. "The Migrant Crime Reporting Act would ensure that states have the tools and resources to collect data on illegal alien crime and report it." Under Blackburn’s bill, states would be incentivized to publicly report migrant crime by submitting such data to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and posting it to an official government website. In return, states that take such action to keep track of migrant crime would be awarded federal grants.

Detroit Free Press [2/27/2026 2:16 PM, Keith Matheny, 4749K] reports that a proposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Romulus would be built within historical floodplains, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acknowledged in a notice on its website. Yet the department still plans to proceed with the ICE facility at 7525 Cogswell St. in the city — and its deadline for the public to comment on potential floodplain impacts ends Friday, Feb. 27. The Homeland Security notice is required under Executive Order 11988. Signed in May 1977, the order mandates that federal agencies avoid, to the extent possible, the long- and short-term adverse impacts associated with the occupancy and modification of floodplains. It requires agencies to avoid direct or indirect support of floodplain development whenever a practicable alternative exists. But ICE, in its notice, cited the project’s limited scope and said the absence of stormwater or grading changes and the elevations of finished floors in the building to state the detention center project "would not affect floodplain hydrology or increase flood risk on or off the site," and declared "ICE has determined that the facility can be safely occupied and operated within the mapped floodplain."

New York Times [2/28/2026 3:23 AM, Ernesto Londoño, 330K] reports the Justice Department announced on Friday that 30 additional people have been charged with disrupting a Sunday worship service with a protest during the peak of the immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The new indictments bring the total number of people accused in the protest to 39, including Don Lemon, the former CNN anchor. The demonstration on Jan. 18 took place at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., where one of the pastors, David Easterwood, is also a senior official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mr. Easterwood was not at the church during the service that day. Attorney General Pam Bondi has made the case a top priority, even as the Department of Justice has faced criticism over the arrests of two defendants who are journalists, including Mr. Lemon. “YOU CANNOT ATTACK A HOUSE OF WORSHIP,” Ms. Bondi said in a social media post Friday afternoon, after an updated indictment with 39 names was unsealed. “This Department of Justice STANDS for Christians and all Americans of faith.” Several people charged in the case have called the prosecution an effort to stifle dissent over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. On the day of the church service, protesters chanted slogans criticizing the immigration roundup in Minnesota that began late last year and led to violent clashes, thousands of arrests and the fatal shootings of two American citizens. “I have no regrets,” said William Kelly, an Army veteran who is charged in the case and is married to one of the newly indicted, Ariel Hauptman. “I stood up for the Constitution.” The case had a troubled start after a federal judge in Minnesota declined to sign off on arrest warrants for two of the original defendants, Mr. Lemon and Georgia Fort, an independent journalist, finding that prosecutors had lacked probable evidence that crimes had been committed. The new charges come at a time when the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota is reeling from a staffing shortage that has been exacerbated by the departure of several experienced litigators over the immigration crackdown. All 39 defendants are charged with two crimes: conspiring to violate religious freedoms at a house of worship and injuring, intimidating and interfering with the exercise of religious freedoms at a place of worship. The nine protesters and journalists who were originally charged in the case have entered not guilty pleas and have expressed confidence that the charges will be dropped or that they will be acquitted at trial. It was not certain on Friday how many of the new defendants have lawyers. The investigation has been led by the Justice Department’s civil rights office, which has also been hollowed out by mass resignations over the past year. “We are going to pursue this to the ends of the earth,” Harmeet K. Dhillon, the head of the office, said in a podcast interview last month.

Reported similarly:
AP [2/27/2026 5:36 PM, Sarah Raza, 612K]
Reuters [2/27/2026 1:43 PM, Staff, 38315K]
FOX News [2/27/2026 1:38 PM, Rachel Wolf and David Spunt, 37576K]

AP [2/27/2026 2:13 PM, Giovanna Dell’Orto, 2238K] reports that two American cardinals and the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. denounced the mass deportations in Minnesota under the federal government’s immigration crackdown, but they urged everyone to repair strained relations and work together toward humane solutions. In St. Paul on Friday, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington addressed growing concerns with immigration enforcement while highlighting the need to be peacemakers on the polarizing issue after a Mass for migrants he celebrated with his fellow prelates and the Twin Cities’ archbishop. McElroy depicted this winter’s enforcement surge as "almost a siege" that unfolded in "literally the heartland of our country." "Catholic teaching supports the nation’s right to control its border and, in these cases, to deport those who’ve been convicted of serious crimes," he said. "Seeking to deport millions of men and women and children — families who often lived here for decades, many children who don’t know other countries — is contrary to Catholic faith and, more fundamentally, contrary to basic human dignity."

CBS News [2/27/2026 7:58 PM, Matt Gutman, 51110K] reports Renee Good’s family said they spent agonizing "hours in limbo," unsure of the details surrounding her fatal shooting in January by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis. "It’s the complete antithesis of who she was to die in that way. It doesn’t feel real still," Good’s brother, Brent Ganger, told "CBS Evening News" in an interview. Good’s brothers, Brent and Luke Ganger, said they first learned from their older sister that Good had been shot, and they weren’t sure of her condition when they told their parents. "I mean, there’s just no way to even prepare yourself to hear that…There’s nothing to say. But it was just a complete, utter shock," their father, Tim Ganger, said. Donna Ganger, Good’s mother, said she got a call from her son. "He said, Renee’s been shot by an ICE agent," Donna Ganger said in the interview that aired Friday. "And you know, she’s passed away, she’s gone. I think I just said no a whole bunch of times.” Good was "always a very calming presence," brother says. In the hours after Good’s shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Good’s actions "an act of domestic terrorism.” Luke Ganger said his response to Noem’s words in the moment was that "it just doesn’t even register.” "Those words are just so far removed from who she was as a person," Luke Ganger said. After learning she had died, family members urged each other to stay offline as videos of the shooting circulated online. They said the only footage they’ve seen was of Good sitting behind the wheel of her car, telling an officer: "It’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” Those words, her family said, appeared to be an effort to diffuse the situation. "She always was a very calming presence," Tim Ganger said. Luke Ganger added, "It feels like an exaggeration, but it feels true to say that she’s like the least combative person I’ve known.” She was someone who immediately brightened a room, they say. "She made you feel like you are the most important thing in her life, but she could do it to all of us," Donna Ganger said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Telemundo [2/27/2026 10:04 PM, Maggie Vespa and Alicia Victoria Lozano, 2524K] reports it has been nearly two months since Renee Good was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent while driving her car in Minneapolis. Neither President Donald Trump nor any member of his administration has contacted Good’s family since then, they told NBC News on Thursday. "There’s a reason we hired our own investigators: to make sure the truth is transparent and available, to make sure this is taken seriously, and to make sure we know what happened," said Brent Ganger, Good’s brother. Many details are now known about the January 7 shooting that sparked weeks of protests in Minneapolis, riots that worsened after federal agents shot and killed a second person, Alex Pretti, weeks later. An autopsy commissioned by Good’s family revealed that she died after being shot three times, once in the left temple. A fourth bullet grazed her, according to a statement released last month by Good’s family lawyers. One bullet struck his left forearm and another his right chest, neither of which penetrated any vital organs. According to his lawyers, neither of these wounds appeared to pose an immediate threat to his life. "We believe that the evidence we are gathering and will continue to gather in our investigation will be sufficient to prove our thesis ," said lead attorney Antonio M. Romanucci at the time. These initial findings, along with widely circulated videos of the incident, contradict the Trump Administration’s initial reports and its description of Good. The federal investigation into Good’s death has focused more on whether his partner obstructed a federal agent moments before the shooting, and less on the shooting itself or the agent who shot Good, according to NBC News. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested shortly after the shooting that it was justified, although an internal investigation is underway. Noem claimed that Good had "used" his vehicle as a weapon against law enforcement and that the officer who fired the fatal shots, Jonathan Ross , acted in self-defense. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) stated in an emailed statement that it is not conducting an investigation into the use of force because it does not have full access to the evidence and witnesses. The department is assisting the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office in gathering and cataloging information related to Good’s death and is also providing evidence to the FBI. "The BCA remains open to conducting a full investigation of the incident if the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI reconsider their approach and express a willingness to resume a joint investigation or share all evidence and supporting reports in the possession of FBI investigators," BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said in the statement. The FBI declined to comment.

New York Times [2/27/2026 5:08 PM, Jesus Jiménez and Pooja Salhotra, 148038K] reports thirteen measles cases have been reported at an immigration detention center in El Paso according to state and federal officials. The burst in infections comes as lawmakers cite increasing concerns about conditions inside such detention facilities nationwide. Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that 13 people held at the Camp East Montana detention facility just outside of El Paso had contracted the disease. Those with infections were quarantined, and health care workers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement took steps to cease “all movement within the facility,” she added. “Medical staff is continuing to monitor the detainees’ conditions and will take appropriate and active steps to prevent further infection,” Ms. Bis said. “All detainees are being provided with proper medical care.” The Texas Department of Health confirmed that 17 measles cases overall have been reported in El Paso County this month.

NBC News [2/27/2026 5:00 AM, Mike Hixenbaugh, 42967K] reports the voices on the emergency calls sound calm. Matter-of-fact. Routine. “Frio County 911. What is your emergency?” “I’m calling from the Dilley immigration center in Dilley, Texas. I’m calling for a little kid going through respiratory distress.” The callers — medical staff inside the remote facility that houses hundreds of immigrant children and their parents in South Texas — tick through the clinical details: symptoms, vital signs, ages. “He’s a 6-year-old male.” “Sixty?” “Six-year-old.” On the calls, staff at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center request ambulances for children struggling to breathe, burning with fever or appearing lethargic — emergencies unfolding inside a detention center that lawyers, immigration advocates and pediatricians have warned is not suitable for children. Since mid-September, emergency crews have been dispatched to Dilley at least 11 times to treat children in medical distress, according to EMS call logs and 911 audio obtained by NBC News. The calls offer a glimpse into what happens when children fall seriously ill inside a detention center that has become a flashpoint in the national immigration debate.

Washington Examiner [2/27/2026 9:38 AM, Emily Hallas, 1147K] reports Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) led Democrats on Thursday in urging the Trump administration to shut down an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Texas. Two dozen lawmakers cited concerns over mismanagement and poor living conditions at El Paso’s Camp East Montana. They pointed to the three deaths at the facility since December, which include one homicide. Aside from the ICE center’s "poor" and hasty construction, the lawmakers said that detainees have been grappling with "foul" drinking water, rotten food, and inadequate medical care. "We do not believe Camp East Montana is being run professionally or responsibly," Escobar and 23 other congressional Democrats wrote in a letter to ICE director Todd Lyons and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. "For the safety of everyone at the facility, for an end to abuses to detainees, and for fiscal responsibility to the American people, the site cannot continue to operate.” The Washington Examiner reached out to ICE and DHS for comment, but did not receive a reply. The Trump administration has previously dismissed humanitarian concerns about the El Paso detention center.

FOX News [2/27/2026 9:40 PM, Michael Sinkewicz, 37576K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accused Everett, Washington, Mayor Cassie Franklin of escalating tensions with federal authorities after she issued a directive limiting immigration enforcement in the city. Franklin issued a mayoral directive this week establishing citywide protocols for staff, including law enforcement, that restrict federal immigration agents from entering non-public areas of city buildings without a judicial warrant. "We’ve heard directly from residents who are afraid to leave their houses because of the concerning immigration activity happening locally and across our country. It’s heartbreaking to see the impacts on Everett families and businesses," Franklin said in a statement. "With this directive, we are setting clear protocols, protecting access to services and reinforcing our commitment to serving the entire community.” ICE blasted the directive Friday, writing on X it "escalates tension and directs city law enforcement to intervene with ICE operations at their own discretion," thereby "putting everyone at greater risk.” ICE said Franklin was directing city workers to "impede ICE operations and expose the location of ICE officers and agents.” "Working AGAINST ICE forces federal teams into the community searching for criminal illegal aliens released from local jails — INCREASING THE FEDERAL PRESENCE," the agency said. "Working with ICE reduces the federal presence.” "If Mayor Franklin wanted to protect the people she claims to serve, she’d empower the city police with an ICE 287g partnership — instead she serves criminal illegal aliens," ICE added. During a city council meeting where she announced the policy, Franklin said "federal immigration enforcement is causing real fear for Everett residents.” "It’s been heartbreaking to see the racial profiling that’s having an impact on Everett families and businesses," she said. "We know there are kids staying home from school, people not going to work or people not going about their day, dining out or shopping for essentials.” The mayor’s directive covers four main areas, including restricting federal immigration agents from accessing non-public areas of city buildings without a warrant, requiring immediate reporting of enforcement activity on city property and mandating clear signage to enforce access limits. It also calls for an internal policy review and staff training, including the creation of an Interdepartmental Response Team and updated immigration enforcement protocols to ensure compliance with state law.

New York Post [2/27/2026 11:56 PM, Katie Jerkovich, 40934K] reports two wannabe anti-ICE influencers have been found guilty of stalking an unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent at his California home and livestreaming the event on Instagram. Cynthia Raygoza, 38, of Riverside, and Ashleigh Brown, 38, of Aurora, Colorado, were found guilty by a Los Angeles federal jury on Friday of stalking the ICE agent by following him to his home last year. In August of 2025, Brown and Raygoza livestreamed themselves on social media following the ICE agent from the LA field office to his home, provided directions as they followed him, and encouraged others to share the livestream, US Attorney Bill Essayli wrote on X. Once at the agent’s home they hopped out wearing masks and "began yelling and shouting" to bystanders "neighbor is ICE," "la migra lives here," and "ICE lives on your street and you should know," Essayli added. The two women also allegedly shouted racial slurs at the victim’s wife. The victim’s children also witnessed the incident. "We thank the jury for bringing justice to these agitators who violated the law and endangered the safety of this federal officer and his family," the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California said. "Peaceful protests are protected by the Constitution, political violence and unlawful intimidation are not. The two anti-ICE agitators each face up to five years in federal prison. Their sentencing hearing has been set for June 8. The stalking of the ICE agent came at a time when attacks against immigration officers had exploded across the nation. In September, an anti-ICE gunman opened fire on federal officers at a Dallas field office. Shooter Joshua Jahn meticulously plotted the attack and took aim from a rooftop of a nearby building before firing with a Nazi battle rifle at a van near the ICE office. The same ICE facility was targeted with a bomb threat a month earlier when a man named Bratton Dean Wilkinson, 36, arrived at the entrance of the Dallas Field Office claiming to have a bomb in his backpack and brandishing what he said was a detonator on his wrist. At the time, the Department of Homeland Security said that there had been a 1,000% increase in assaults against ICE officers. Last summer, the City of Angels was torn apart by anti-ICE rioting, which resulted in dozens of charges from the Los Angeles DA and is expected to cost more than $32 million in emergency response and property damage costs.

Daily Wire [2/27/2026 9:43 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 2314K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested an illegal alien from Mexico on Thursday convicted of first-degree murder in California, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire. The man, Luis Padilla-Tapia, was also convicted of threatening crime with intent to terrorize and corporal injury to spouse/cohabitant in Bakersfield. Padilla-Tapia was one of the "worst of the worst" illegal aliens picked up on Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security highlighted in a release to The Daily Wire. "Yesterday, ICE arrested criminal illegal alien murderers, pedophiles and drug traffickers," said Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. "These are the types of thugs our officers are arresting and removing from American neighborhoods. While sanctuary politicians demonize ICE law enforcement, our officers continue to risk their lives to arrest public safety threats. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, we are putting the safety of American citizens FIRST.”

Daily Wire [2/27/2026 7:55 PM, Leif Le Mahieu, 2314K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested an illegal alien from Mexico on Thursday convicted of first-degree murder in California, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire. The man, Luis Padilla-Tapia, was also convicted of threatening crime with intent to terrorize and corporal injury to spouse/cohabitant in Bakersfield. Padilla-Tapia was one of the “worst of the worst” illegal aliens picked up on Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security highlighted in a release to The Daily Wire. “Yesterday, ICE arrested criminal illegal alien murderers, pedophiles and drug traffickers,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “These are the types of thugs our officers are arresting and removing from American neighborhoods. While sanctuary politicians demonize ICE law enforcement, our officers continue to risk their lives to arrest public safety threats. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, we are putting the safety of American citizens FIRST.”

AP [2/26/2026 3:31 PM, Lindsay Whitehurst, 35287K] reports the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow it to move ahead with ending legal protections for migrants from Syria, in the latest emergency appeal to the nation’s highest court. The Department of Justice wants the court to lift a New York judge’s ruling halting the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end temporary protected status for Syrians while lawsuits play out. The government is also asking for a broader ruling that could affect other cases over protections for people from other countries as the administration pursues its immigration crackdown. The conservative-majority court has previously allowed immigration authorities to end legal protections for migrants from Venezuela as litigation continues. About 6,100 people from Syria have temporary legal status after fleeing armed conflict, according to court documents. Ending those protections could halt their authorization to work legally in the United States and expose more to possible deportation, especially the 800 people with pending applications, according to the International Refugee Assistance Project. Protections for Syrians were first granted protected status in 2012, during a civil war that lasted for more than a decade before the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in late 2024. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem acted to revoke protected status less than a year later, finding that the situation "no longer meets the criteria for an ongoing armed conflict that poses a serious threat to the personal safety of returning Syrian nationals.”

NewsNation [2/27/2026 7:01 PM, Katelyn Harlow, 4464K] reports three people are facing federal charges for allegedly trafficking Mexican agricultural workers into forced labor on farms in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. The federal trafficking charges come just months after a settlement was reached between agricultural workers and a labor contractor and Virginia farm over alleged labor law violations. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Las Princesas Corporation is a farm labor contracting company owned and operated by Martha Zeferino Jose, also run by her husband and her adult son, based in Washington, N.C., that recruited workers from Mexico to come to the U.S. on temporary H-2A agricultural visas. Las Princesas reportedly entered into a contract with Tankard Nurseries, located in the town of Exmore in Northampton County, to provide workers that Las Princesas hired and paid, according to Tankard Nurseries’ legal team. On May 29, 2024, four migrant workers filed a federal class action lawsuit against Jose and her business, Las Princesas, as well as Tankard Nurseries Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia due to allegations of labor rights violations. The workers sought reimbursement of wages and coverage of legal fees. Ed Tankard is reportedly the president and day-to-day manager of Tankard Nurseries, according to the complaint. The Virginia State Corporation Commission’s website lists C. Arthur Robinson II as Tankard Nurseries’ registered agent.

AP [2/27/2026 7:09 PM, Steve Karnowski and Ed White, 3833K] reports a federal judge on Friday extended an order protecting refugees in Minnesota who are lawfully in the U.S. from being arrested and deported, saying a Trump administration policy turns the “American Dream into a dystopian nightmare.” U.S. District Judge John Tunheim granted a motion by advocates for refugees to convert a temporary restraining order that he issued in January into a more permanent preliminary injunction while the case develops further. A federal judge on Friday extended an order protecting refugees in Minnesota who are lawfully in the U.S. from being arrested and deported, saying a Trump administration policy turns the “American Dream into a dystopian nightmare.” U.S. District Judge John Tunheim granted a motion by advocates for refugees to convert a temporary restraining order that he issued in January into a more permanent preliminary injunction while the case develops further. The order applies only in Minnesota. But the implications of a new national policy on refugees that the Department of Homeland Security announced Feb. 18 were a major part of the discussion at a hearing held by the judge the next day. “Minnesota refugees can now live their lives without fear that their own government will snatch them off the street and imprison them far from loved ones,” Kimberly Grano, an attorney with the International Refugee Assistance Project, told The Associated Press. The Trump administration asserts it has the right to arrest potentially tens of thousands of refugees across the U.S. who entered the country legally but don’t yet have green cards. A new Homeland Security memo interprets immigration law to say that refugees applying for green cards must return to federal custody one year after they were admitted to the U.S. so that their applications can be reviewed. The judge, however, expressed disbelief in a 66-page opinion. “This Court will not allow federal authorities to use a new and erroneous statutory interpretation to terrorize refugees who immigrated to this country under the promise that they would be welcomed and allowed to live in peace, far from the persecution they fled,” Tunheim said.

Los Angeles Times [2/27/2026 11:19 PM, Staff, 12718K] reports a federal judge Friday extended an order protecting refugees in Minnesota who are lawfully in the U.S. from being arrested and deported, saying a Trump administration policy turns the "American Dream into a dystopian nightma`re.” U.S. District Judge John Tunheim granted a motion by advocates for refugees to convert a temporary restraining order that he issued in January into a more permanent preliminary injunction while the case develops. The order applies only in Minnesota. But the implications of a new national policy on refugees that the Department of Homeland Security announced Feb. 18 were a major part of the discussion at a hearing held by the judge the next day. "Minnesota refugees can now live their lives without fear that their own government will snatch them off the street and imprison them far from loved ones," Kimberly Grano, an attorney with the International Refugee Assistance Project, told the Associated Press. The Trump administration asserts that it has the right to arrest potentially tens of thousands of refugees across the U.S. who entered the country legally but don’t yet have green cards. A new Homeland Security memo interprets immigration law to say that refugees applying for green cards must return to federal custody one year after they were admitted to the U.S. so that their applications can be reviewed. The judge expressed disbelief in a 66-page opinion. "This Court will not allow federal authorities to use a new and erroneous statutory interpretation to terrorize refugees who immigrated to this country under the promise that they would be welcomed and allowed to live in peace, far from the persecution they fled," Tunheim said. He said the U.S. decades ago promised refugees fleeing persecution that they could build a new life after rigorous background checks. "We promised them the hope that one day they could achieve the American Dream," Tunheim wrote. "The Government’s new policy breaks that promise — without congressional authorization — and raises serious constitutional concerns. The new policy turns the refugees’ American Dream into a dystopian nightmare.” Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a statement Friday night that the ruling was "yet another lawless and activist order from a federal judge" and that the Trump administration expected to be "vindicated in court.” "USCIS is committed to rooting out fraud and protecting the public safety and national security interests of the American people by screening and vetting aliens," the statement said.

Bloomberg [2/27/2026 9:03 PM, Stephanie Gleason, 50K] reports the Department of Homeland Security’s policy of arresting and detaining refugees that were lawfully admitted to the US is flatly contradicted by the statute the administration says gives it such authority, a federal judge said Friday. Citing the promise to refugees upon admission to the US that they would be allowed to live in peace and achieve the American dream, Judge John R. Tunheim of the District of Minnesota wrote, "the Government’s new policy breaks that promise—without congressional authorization—and raises serious constitutional concerns. The new policy turns the refugees’ American Dream into a dystopian nightmare.” He granted a class of Minnesota refugees’ motion for a preliminary injunction, forbidding the government from implementing its policy. DHS and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced last month that they were reexamining the cases of refugees in the US, specifically 5,600 in Minnesota who hadn’t yet been granted green cards. To be admitted to the US as a refugee requires an extensive process, which the judge outlined in his order. After one year, the refugee must resubmit to DHS to apply for a green card. Tunheim noted that the statute says that refugees who meet the statutory requirements are entitled to permanent resident status. The US began arresting and detaining refugees who had passed 366 days in the US but not yet received green cards, despite longstanding guidance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that failure to obtain a green card is not grounds for removal or detention of refugees. ICE rescinded that guidance in December. In a Feb. 18 memo, ICE said that if a refugee doesn’t voluntarily submit to DHS after one year, "DHS will return the individual to custody.” The new policy resulted in numerous arrests, including the arrest of a girl on her way to high school. Tunheim wrote in his order that she was forced to share a hotel room overnight with two ICE agents after being told that her entire family would be arrested and detained if they arrived to pick her up from custody. She was ultimately released to her lawyer. Previously, Tunheim issued a temporary restraining order in the case and ordered all refugees being held in detention to be released. The case is U.H.A v Bondi, D. Minn., No. 26-00417, preliminary injunction 2/27/26.

Washington Examiner [2/27/2026 7:02 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports some immigrants who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and were arrested by Border Patrol have been released into the United States by the Department of Homeland Security despite the Trump administration’s claims that "zero" releases have occurred over the past nine months, according to four sources aware of the releases. Although the number of border crossers let into the interior of the country is significantly smaller than it was during the Biden administration, that some illegal immigrants have been released into the U.S. at all appears to contradict President Donald Trump’s claim during the State of the Union address, as well as numerous statements by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, that no one had been let in since early last summer. "In the past nine months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States," Trump said to a round of applause from lawmakers at the State of the Union on Tuesday. In just one year, President Trump’s effective immigration and border security policies have led to an all-time-low in illegal crossings at the southern border. The message is clear: America’s borders are closed to lawbreakers. Noem stated in November, December, and January that "zero" people who crossed the border and were arrested had been released from custody and permitted to remain in the country. Noem has also conflated releases with apprehensions. The DHS secretary stated during an August 2025 press conference that "we have had — for three months in a row — zero illegal aliens entering the United States.” Sources did not deny that the Border Patrol, a part of DHS’s agency Customs and Border Protection, responsible for initially arresting people, had released anyone. However, sources said it was DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement that has and continues to release an unspecified number of people from the border who are turned over to them from Border Patrol. The number of ICE releases under Trump is unclear. "Dirty little secret that the [Trump administration] does not want getting out for obvious reasons," the first source wrote in a text message. "There are in fact folks who are being released who recently crossed the border. … [Border Patrol] is not releasing anyone, but ICE is.” Border Patrol is mandated by federal detention standards to limit the detention of immigrants to 72 hours after an arrest before turning that person over to ICE for longer detention pending removal. Border Patrol may handle some removals of Mexican nationals, but ICE is responsible for the detention and removal of illegal immigrants.

AP [2/27/2026 12:36 PM, Michale Hill and Jake Offenhartz, 1257K] reports that a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar who disappeared after U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a Buffalo doughnut shop was found dead on the street five days later, prompting a police investigation and complaints from city officials that he’d been abandoned without care for his safety. Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, was detained by Border Patrol agents on Feb. 19 after his release from a county jail, but was let go that same day after federal authorities determined he wasn’t eligible for deportation. The agents brought him to a Tim Hortons restaurant north of Buffalo’s downtown and dropped him there, authorities and advocates said. His family, which had initially expected him to walk out of jail, wasn’t informed he had been released. Shah Alam’s lawyer reported him missing to Buffalo police on Feb. 22 after learning that an area immigration detention center didn’t have him in custody. Shah Alam was found dead Tuesday night near the downtown sports arena where the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres play. It was unclear how he got there from the Tim Hortons, several miles away, or when he died. The county medical examiner was investigating the cause of death, health officials said Thursday. The Buffalo Police Department told reporters that the medical examiner had concluded that the death was “health related” and ruled out exposure or homicide, but the Erie County Department of Health later disputed that account, saying no determination had been made.

AP [2/27/2026 6:08 PM, Staff, 35287K] reports in the moments after Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a Buffalo doughnut shop, surveillance video recorded Nurul Amin Shah Alam stepping gingerly through the empty parking lot in his county-issued jail booties. He pulls up his hood against the cold as he walks past a drive-thru window, then paces away into the night. Five nights later, the nearly blind refugee from Myanmar was found dead in the street, raising questions about whether federal agents could have done more to ensure his safety when they released him from custody, miles from his home, without informing his family or lawyer. The video obtained by the Investigative Post shows Shah Alam, 56, after agents dropped him off at a Tim Hortons on the night of Feb. 19, the day he was released from a county jail where he had been held for a year. Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan has said the restaurant was closed at that time. The nonprofit news site says the footage it obtained shows Shah Alam being let out of the Border Patrol van, which can be seen driving away, then walking by the restaurant’s locked front door. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said this week that agents chose "a warm, safe location" for the drop off. Shah Alam was found dead Tuesday outside the arena where the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres play. A woman called 911 to report his body lying in the sidewalk. It was unclear how he got to that downtown spot from the restaurant several miles away. Buffalo police were reviewing footage throughout the city in an attempt to identify his movements. The county medical examiner was investigating the cause of death. Shah Alam was initially charged with felony assault, burglary and criminal mischief charges. A federal immigration detainer was issued after his arrest.

CNN [2/27/2026 3:30 PM, Hanna Park, Alisha Ebrahimji, and Elise Hammond, 19874K] reports the death of a Rohingya refugee in Buffalo, New York, has raised pressing questions about how federal immigration agents handled his release from their custody – and what happened in the five days he was missing before his body was found. Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, who spoke little English and was nearly blind, was released from the Erie County Holding Center on February 19. Border Patrol agents briefly took custody of him on an immigration detainer before determining he shouldn’t be deported and, later that night, dropped him at a closed coffee house alone in near freezing temperatures. His body was found on February 24, about four miles away. US Customs and Border Protection has defended the agents’ actions, but local and state leaders are calling for investigations. Meanwhile, Shah Alam’s friends and family gathered at a mosque Thursday for his funeral, offering prayers before accompanying him to a cemetery for burial. "We do not want his death to just go to waste," Khaleda Shah, a spokesperson for the family, told the Associated Press. "We want his death to bring awareness to his community, his family, his community at large. We want his name, his story to be a voice for those who are still suffering." The case comes amid growing concerns about the constitutional protections and treatment of people who come into contact with federal immigration authorities, regardless of their immigration status, under the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.

FOX News [2/27/2026 7:00 PM, Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports an illegal immigrant who reported to a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Florida to perform some Information technology contractual work was arrested when authorities were made aware of his citizenship status, officials said. Angel Camacho, a Venezuelan citizen, reported to a USBP facility in Dania Beach, Florida on Jan. 6 to perform some IT work when U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials began vetting him, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News Digital. During their investigation, it was revealed that Camacho was in violation of U.S. immigration laws, authorities said. "CBP vets all external visitors before allowing them to enter secure facilities to ensure safety and operational integrity," DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement.

NBC News [2/27/2026 10:55 AM, Ryan Chandler, 42967K] reports two hours from the closest stoplight, the Rio Grande runs through rugged canyons under the darkest skies in the Lower 48 states, carving cliffs that drop 1,500 feet below the desert floor of the beautifully desolate Big Bend National Park. The few who call the region home feel a unique bond to the land. In their eyes, it’s the kind of natural barrier that steel cannot supplement. It’s one reason why the Big Bend has so far been spared from the bulldozer crews that come with new stretches of border wall. "We’ve got a God-made barrier," said Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, a Republican who oversees a department of five deputies just east of Big Bend. But this year, the Trump administration is forging ahead with a plan Cleveland never thought he would see. Locals and elected leaders from both parties across far West Texas are condemning the Department of Homeland Security’s newly revealed plans to build a border wall through Big Bend National Park and its neighboring state park. They are warning it will cut off access to popular destinations, choke off tourist dollars and disrupt one of the nation’s most pristine regions, while doing little to stop illegal immigration. Customs and Border Protection’s public plans include more than 100 miles of planned border wall throughout Big Bend National Park, cutting off access to much of the Rio Grande from the American side. CBP told NBC News the entire 517-mile stretch of the Big Bend sector’s border is set to receive new infrastructure or upgrades, including areas within the national and state parks.

Washington Post [2/27/2026 2:56 PM, Victoria Craw and Alex Horton, 24826K] reports the U.S. military fired a laser to bring down a drone operated by Customs and Border Protection in Texas, officials and lawmakers said, triggering a second airspace closure along the Mexico border this month and further exposing the apparent lack of coordination among government agencies. The Federal Aviation Administration closed airspace near the town of Fort Hancock on Thursday, citing unspecified “special security reasons” and setting an end date of June 24. It was the same reasoning given when air traffic was briefly halted at El Paso International Airport weeks ago after a counter-drone system was used by Homeland Security personnel against what the Trump administration identified as Mexican cartel drones and other officials said was probably a Mylar balloon. The incident happened at Fort Hancock, a border town where U.S. troops are assigned as part of the administration’s immigration enforcement mission. CBP did not notify the Defense Department that it was operating a drone in the area, so U.S. forces, suspecting a potential threat, used a laser system to disable it, a Pentagon official said, citing an initial assessment of the incident. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. A joint statement issued by the Pentagon, FAA and CBP does not indicate which agency bore responsibility for the episode or whether the federal government intends to undertake a broader review of drone operations in an effort to mitigate such incidents. The “engagement” was far from populated areas with no commercial aircraft in the vicinity, it said.

New York Times [2/28/2026 3:23 AM, Karoun Demirjian, Kate Kelly, Eric Schmitt and Chris Cameron, 330K] reports the closure of airspace near the U.S.-Mexico border for the second time over the use of lasers to shoot down drones is the latest evidence that some powerful government agencies seem to be at war. With each other. On Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration closed air travel over the small town of Fort Hancock, Texas, after soldiers fired a high-energy laser on a drone they deemed threatening. The drone was later determined to have been flown by Customs and Border Protection, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. A preliminary internal report on the incident said Customs and Border Protection had not notified the Defense Department it was launching a drone in that area. So to the military, it was an unknown drone, a Pentagon official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an investigation into the matter. The F.A.A. did not know the system would be used and had not authorized it. When it was, the F.A.A. played the card it had used before: It shut down airspace. In a joint statement issued late Thursday, the Pentagon, the F.A.A. and Customs and Border Protection presented a united front, stating that they were “working together in an unprecedented fashion to mitigate drone threats by Mexican cartels and foreign terrorist organizations at the U.S.-Mexico border.” Behind the scenes was the troubling lack of cohesion and trust among three agencies, said five people who had participated in or been briefed on interagency discussions about the lasers and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential matters. Some lawmakers and civilians say they are increasingly worried that if a referee does not forge better coordination, the situation could have dire consequences. “Congress needs to step in with all dispatch to direct D.O.D. to fully involve the F.A.A.,” Roy Goldberg, an aviation lawyer at the Washington firm Clark Hill, said in an email to New York Times. “It is paramount that F.A.A. be fully involved and not walled off by Pentagon officials.” At the heart of the standoff is a debate over security versus safety. Immigration and Defense Department officials say they need systems like this in their arsenal to protect the border with Mexico. Aviation officials say they are charged with making sure technology is not misused in a way that might bring down an aircraft. Bad blood between the agencies has been brewing for weeks, if not longer. Officials at the Pentagon and the F.A.A. have been exchanging snippy emails about the Defense Department’s right to fire off high-energy lasers without the aviation agency’s permission. The Pentagon has argued it does not need it; the F.A.A. disagrees. That dispute escalated into a major shutdown of airspace late on Feb. 10, when the F.A.A. closed airspace over El Paso for seven hours after Customs and Border Protection shot down a foreign object in a suburb of the city, just over the New Mexico line, using a laser it had been lent by the Army.

Breitbart [2/27/2026 11:01 AM, Bob Price, 2238K] reports a U.S. military counter‑drone system brought down a Customs and Border Protection surveillance drone near Fort Hancock, Texas, after operators identified the aircraft as a potential threat inside military‑controlled airspace. Federal officials said the engagement occurred in a remote area east of El Paso and prompted the FAA to expand an existing temporary flight restriction while agencies reviewed the incident. Multiple sources report that the Department of War shot down a drone that was later determined to be operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Military forces near Fort Hancock utilized a laser-based weapon to take down the unmanned aircraft. It appears the drone was flown in restricted airspace under a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) that FAA records show has been in effect since 2023. The NOTAM is scheduled to remain in effect until June 24. The NOTAM authorized the use of deadly force. Congressional aides report a lack of coordination between the FAA and the Pentagon, which led the FAA to expand the restricted airspace near Fort Hancock.

(B) NBC News Daily [2/27/2026 3:01 PM, Staff]
The military used a laser to shoot down a Customs and Border Protection drone in Texas. A similar incident happened two weeks ago near El Paso, which temporarily shut down the city’s airport. The Pentagon says they moved to target the drone and did not learn that the drone belonged to CBP until after a laser was used to bring it to the ground. The Pentagon says they are working to improve cooperation between agencies.

Wall Street Journal [2/27/2026 2:54 PM, Lara Seligman, Dean Seal, and Joseph Pisani, 646K] reports on Wednesday, U.S. military forces operating near the Mexican border detected an unidentified drone. The troops hadn’t received any notification that any other U.S. agency was flying unmanned aerial systems in the area. The servicemembers conferred, and decided the object could pose a threat to their position. Unbeknown to them, the drone belonged to Customs and Border Protection. The military forces shot it down with a high-energy laser weapon, marking the second time in less than two weeks that the controversial technology had been fired on the southern border, yet again setting off a scramble to deconflict myriad government agencies operating in the area. The incident prompted a startlingly similar chain of events to the Feb. 12 event near El Paso, when CBP personnel fired the laser weapon, on loan from the military, at aerial objects that were later determined to be likely party balloons. The new shootdown is likely to intensify scrutiny of the communications problems among the government agencies responsible for protecting the border over the use of a potentially dangerous counterdrone technology. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate aviation subcommittee, said she would call for an investigation into the El Paso and Fort Hancock incidents. “The situation is alarming and demands a thorough, independent investigation,” she said. Aviation experts say high-powered lasers can temporarily blind or distract pilots, leading to eye injuries and potential loss of aircraft control. Yet the Pentagon believes the weapons have great potential to solve the growing problem of drone threats worldwide. The Wednesday shootdown led aviation officials to expand flight restrictions around an area of Fort Hancock, Texas, and was met with alarm from Democratic lawmakers. “Our heads are exploding over the news that DOD reportedly shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using a high-risk counter-unmanned aircraft system,” said a joint statement by Reps. Rick Larsen of Washington, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Andre Carson of Indiana, top Democrats on committees overseeing aviation and homeland security issues. The lawmakers criticized the “lack of coordination” between the Defense Department, the FAA and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP. The White House had directly notified some lawmakers that the Pentagon had used a laser to shoot down a CBP drone, according to a person familiar with the matter. A representative for the White House didn’t respond to a request for comment. After this article was published, a U.S. official said that the CBP forces had not followed proper procedures in notifying the Pentagon that they were flying a drone in military airspace. A CBP spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

New York Post [2/27/2026 6:55 PM, Pierce Sharpe, 40934K] reports a vast surveillance network is recording every driver passing through a stretch of road between San Diego and the Arizona state line. Dozens of cameras were discovered hidden in trailers and construction barrels on boarder roads according to CalMatters. The secretive move started after California granted permits to the Border Patrol and other federal agencies allowing the placement of license plate readers on state highways in the last months of the Biden administration. Now as many as 40 such devices are feeding information to Trump administration databases as the Democratic-led state grapples with the federal government’s deportation program. The devices have been found on Old Highway 80 near Jacumba Hot Springs, outside the Golden Acorn Casino in Campo and along Interstate 8 toward In-Ko-Pah Gorge. Privacy experts are sounding the alarming, telling CalMatters that California should not be supporting a data-collection program they view as unwarranted government overreach. They argue the program is in conflict with state law.

Wall Street Journal [2/27/2026 6:24 PM, Tarini Parti, Josh Dawsey, and Michelle Hackman, 646K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for months failed to appropriately respond to the findings of an internal watchdog that one of her biggest changes to airport security—allowing passengers to pass through screening checkpoints with their shoes on—is creating “significant” security risks, according to a letter from the inspector general reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and officials familiar with the matter. In July, she announced the change with great fanfare, granting the shoes-on policy to passengers even if they weren’t enrolled in the Transportation Security Administration’s precheck program. The announcement to eliminate what millions of travelers view as a nuisance was one of Noem’s most politically popular moves to date. But a classified November report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, the agency’s top watchdog, found that some of the TSA full-body scanners that most airline passengers pass through can’t scan shoes, according to people familiar with the report’s contents. The report determined Noem’s policy move had inadvertently created a new security vulnerability in the system. Some White House officials have been made aware of the report. When the secretary’s office was briefed on the report, officials there gave it a higher level of classification and blocked it from being publicly released, people familiar with the matter said. A spokeswoman for the department disputed the inspector general’s claims and said Noem had appropriately responded to the findings. Many homeland-security officials said Noem’s handling of the inspector general report fits a pattern in which she has ignored or played down national-security concerns. In another instance, her office published photos of a secret government facility, publicizing a site meant to house the president in emergencies, officials said. Officials across the department have complained that Noem places priority on her public image and political standing in a way that jeopardizes her sprawling department’s core mission.

The Hill [2/27/2026 7:50 AM, Alexander Bolton, 18170K] reports Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) is pressing Department of Homeland Secretary (DHS) Kristi Noem to reopen the Global Entry program and to back off a new threat to suspend the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) PreCheck program amid the DHS shutdown, which is stretching into its third week. Rosen, who represents the major tourist hub of Las Vegas, is concerned about the shutdown’s cascading effects on air travel and the economy, and she accused Noem of playing politics with two programs that are intended to make it easier for low-risk fliers to travel. She warned the senior Trump administration official that suspending the Global Entry program and threatening to suspend TSA PreCheck is “counterproductive” and “unnecessary.” “The Global Entry program facilitates lawful international travel, strengthens security, improves the traveler experience, and supports U.S. economic activity,” Rosen wrote in a Thursday letter to Noem obtained by The Hill.”As such, it should be immediately reopened and the related … PreCheck program should remain open as well,” she added.

CNN [2/27/2026 2:10 PM, Tami Luhby, 612K] reports that Transportation Security Administration workers will receive only a portion of their next paycheck, which they are set to receive as soon as Friday, according to a union official. The reduced pay comes as the partial government shutdown ends its second week with no resolution in sight. The impasse could lead to staffing shortages and airport delays for some travelers, especially the longer TSA workers go without pay. (Air traffic controllers, however, are not affected by this partial shutdown.). The agency is also making some changes to at least one trusted traveler program, temporarily halting the Global Entry program. Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would also suspend the popular TSA PreCheck program but then reversed that decision. While some DHS workers are continuing to be paid, many other employees throughout the agency are also set to receive partial paychecks soon unless Congress acts. Most affected workers will only be paid for the second week of February in their next checks since the agency’s funding lapsed as of February 14. These smaller paychecks will be the last many DHS employees receive until Congress comes to an agreement to fund DHS for part or all of the fiscal year, which ends September 30.

Reuters [2/27/2026 11:45 AM, Doyinsola Oladipo and David Shepardson, 70643K] reports that airport security screeners across the U.S. received a fraction of their usual pay on Friday, Feb. 27 as the partial government shutdown drags on, increasing the risk that more officers will call in sick to take second jobs, or even quit. Funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security lapsed on Feb. 13 after Congress failed to reach a deal on immigration enforcement reforms demanded by Democrats. That halted funding for the operation of several government agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration. This shutdown is more limited than the record 43-day October-November event that closed numerous departments of government. But with TSA agents facing the possibility of losing even more pay if this one drags on further, the ripple effects could emerge again: absences, departures, and bottlenecked security lines at the nation’s airports. "People are going to get discouraged a lot quicker this time," said Philip Glover, national vice president of District 3 of the American Federation of Government Employees, who represents TSA workers at 19 airports in Delaware and Pennsylvania. Local AFGE officials said they are expecting TSA resignations to rise, while other TSA workers, some of whom are still repaying debts from the last shutdown, again tighten their finances. Ha Nguyen McNeill, the top official at the TSA, told Congress this month that around 1,110 transportation security officers (TSOs) left the TSA in October and November 2025, a more than 25% increase from the same time period in 2024.

(B) GMA3 [2/27/2026 3:01 PM, Staff] reports that the stowaway convicted of sneaking onto a flight to Paris in 2024 is allegedly at it again. Officials say Svetlana Dali was arrested after improperly boarding a flight to Milan from Newark. Italian authorities say Svetlana Dali is now requesting asylum in Italy. The FBI said it is aware and United said it is investigating. TSA said it is aware and the incident is under investigation.

CBS Colorado [2/27/2026 2:26 PM, Anna Alejo, 51110K] reports that the last paycheck for Colorado’s Transportation Security Administration workers is arriving today, but only for part of what they’ve earned. The partial government shutdown, now entering its third week, is sending TSA workers scrambling. The Senate left the Capitol Thursday with no plans to vote on a DHS funding bill, continuing a lapse in funding for the Coast Guard, FEMA and TSA. One leader representing Colorado TSA employees says she’s concerned there’s no urgency to find a solution. "What did we do wrong?" asked Angela Grana, regional vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1127. The local represents TSA workers in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Idaho and Oregon. She says TSA workers are already among the lowest-paid in the federal government. "We’re barely surviving. We have a lot that’s expected from us," said Grana. "We cannot get it wrong. It’s our job to make sure that we are focused, concentrating, watching what we’re doing and only worrying about that one bag, that one passenger. Why do we need to worry about, ‘Oh my God, I gotta pay my bill, how am I going to do that?"

The Hill [2/27/2026 6:18 PM, Rachel Frazin, 18170K] reports the Trump administration is releasing billions of dollars in disaster aid that was previously awaiting approval from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. A source familiar with the situation told The Hill that billions in combined public assistance and hazard mitigation funds are being awarded from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and that the funds were previously held up under Noem’s policy of personally reviewing major expenditures. FEMA’s public assistance funds help communities recover from disasters, while its hazard mitigation funds help communities better prepare for future disasters. The source said that more than $10 billion in public assistance funds are still awaiting approval. The source also said that Minnesota, Illinois, California, Colorado and the Virgin Islands are the only U.S. states and territories that would not receive public assistance awards in the tranche of funding. However, a FEMA spokesperson confirmed to CNN, which first reported that some of the funds would be released, that it was doling out more than $5 billion.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [2/27/2026 6:46 PM, Rachel Frazin, 18170K]

Politico [2/27/2026 1:56 PM, Thomas Frank and Jennifer Scholtes, 21784K] reports the Trump administration spent more than half of the balance in the nation’s disaster relief fund this week, pointing to that dwindling aid as means to pressure Democrats into yielding in Department of Homeland Security funding negotiations. A FEMA spokesperson said Friday that the agency sent out more than $5 billion this week for recovery projects, including for disasters “that happened more than 15 years ago.” The withdrawal substantially shrinks cash in the disaster coffer that held $9.6 billion as of last week and appears to contradict Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s weekend announcement that FEMA “is scaling back to bare-minimum, life-saving operations only.” Accusing Democrats of “playing political games” with disaster aid amid the DHS shutdown, the FEMA spokesperson warned of “dire consequences” as the disaster relief fund “is being rapidly depleted.” It has been almost two weeks since DHS funding lapsed, and still top lawmakers and the White House are trading offers on policies to curtail the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics, which Democrats are demanding as a condition of voting to fully restore agency operations. Republicans delivered a private counteroffer late Thursday, 10 days after Democrats on Capitol Hill sent their last proposal. A White House official granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations also cited diminished disaster relief Friday, challenging Democrats to “make a move … before more Americans are harmed.” Some Democrats on Capitol Hill have offered plans to fund FEMA and other non-immigration agencies at DHS amid the negotiations over immigration enforcement policy. But top Republicans have rejected that idea.

Washington Times [2/27/2026 12:11 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports that a Brazilian man in the U.S. illegally ran a brazen scam pretending to head a fake federal agency that trained chaplains in Florida to respond to emergency situations, prosecutors said Friday. Mario Cesar Dos Santos Jr. ran what he called the Chaplain Emergency Management Agency, which authorities said he falsely claimed was an official part of the government endorsed by the real Federal Emergency Management Agency. He even used FEMA, FBI and Homeland Security seals on his material to further the illusion of an official imprimatur. He targeted fellow immigrants, and Brazilians in particular, with his scam, telling them that being certified by his agency let them “take control of emergency situations until law enforcement arrived,” Nicholas Jobson, a special agent with Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, said in court filings. Mr. Dos Santos also said the certification could block deportation, the agent said. The inspector general and the FBI ran a sting operation last year, putting a confidential source into a CEMA training session where Mr. Dos Santos claimed he was a “Harvard graduate” and held a medical degree. Agent Jobson said Mr. Dos Santos charged at least $400 to issue chaplain certificates, plus and gave out ID cards and law enforcement badges. Mr. Dos Santos registered CEMA as a nonprofit with Massachusetts, where he said he was president, treasurer, clerk and director.

USA Today [2/27/2026 1:43 PM, Saleen Martin, 70643K] reports the FBI is warning financial institutions about an increase in cybercrimes that allow thieves to dispense money from automatic teller machines remotely. The act, called "ATM jackpotting" by the FBI, occurs when thieves use malware to make the machines dispense money whenever they want. The FBI issued an alert on Thursday, Feb. 19, to let financial institutions know about the recent uptick in jackpotting, noting that there have been at least 1,900 "ATM jackpotting" incidents reported over the past six years. "Out of 1,900 ATM jackpotting incidents reported since 2020, over 700 of them with more than $20 million in losses occurred in 2025 alone," the FBI wrote in the alert.

Breitbart [2/27/2026 5:19 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2238K] reports the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts has charged two Venezuelan nationals in the U.S. illegally over an ATM "jackpotting" theft scheme resulting in millions in losses to financial institutions and the federal government. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says officials in Augusta, Maine, arrested Moises Alejandro Martinez Gutierrez and Lestter Guerrero, both 29, who they say operated a scheme using computer software to force ATMs to output their entire inventory of cash in one shot. The pair have been charged with conspiracy to commit bank theft. They will make their appearance in federal court in Boston at a date still to be determined. The feds also allege that the pair are Tren de Aragua gang members. Prosecutors say the pair perpetrated their schemes in the following locations: Norwich, CT; Rochester, NH; Coventry, RI; Stoneham and Braintree, MA; and other areas across New England.

AP [2/27/2026 1:34 PM, Meg Kinnard, 35287K] reports that a crowd gathered at a commuter gate at Reagan National Airport on Friday as fog-laden Washington skies caused an hourlong ground stop that backed up passengers hoping to head out from American Airlines’ Terminal D. But soon the already densely packed area swelled even more, as word spread across nearby gates that, of the hundreds of air travelers coming and going, only one among them was accompanied by a U.S. Secret Service detail, along with uniformed local police officers: former President Joe Biden. Biden, who has rarely made public appearances since leaving office last year, sat, like many of his fellow passengers, awaiting a flight that would take him to Columbia, South Carolina, for an evening event with the South Carolina Democratic Party. Passengers whispered and gaped in wonder: Why would a man who for a time was leader of the free world be, like they were, at the mercy of airport travel delays, even as he sat ensconced in his security detail? Former presidents and their spouses receive lifelong Secret Service protection under federal law, but there are no provisions guaranteeing the elite levels of private travel that were necessary features of their time in office.

Axios [2/27/2026 3:48 PM, Sam Sabin, 17364K] reports Madhu Gottumukkala, acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has been reassigned to a role at Department of Homeland Security headquarters, a senior DHS official confirmed. Nick Andersen, CISA’s top cybersecurity official, will replace Gottumukkala as acting director while Congress reconsiders Sean Plankey’s nomination to lead the agency. The reassignment of Gottumukkala, who was named CISA’s deputy director last year and has served as acting director since May, comes amid growing concern about whether he was qualified to be the U.S. cyber agency’s interim leader. Gottumukkala, the former CIO for South Dakota, reportedly uploaded sensitive files to a public version of ChatGPT. He also failed a polygraph required to access sensitive cyber intelligence shared with the agency, according to Politico. DHS called the polygraph test "unsanctioned" and "misleading," while CISA said Gottumukkala had been "granted permission" to use ChatGPT. Politico reported Thursday that two top officials at CISA — CIO Bob Costello and acting Chief Human Capital Officer Kevin Diana — were recently reassigned to other roles within the Department of Homeland Security. A senior DHS official said in a statement Friday that Gottumukkala is now the director of strategic implementation at DHS "as part of Secretary Noem’s broader efforts to stop waste, fraud and abuse." Last year, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers placed holds on his nomination over issues they had with either CISA or the Coast Guard, which Plankey has been advising while awaiting confirmation.

Federal News Network [2/27/2026 7:16 PM, Justin Doubleday, 1297K] reports the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency continues to face leadership uncertainty, after CISA’s acting director was moved to another Department of Homeland Security position following a rocky tenure. A senior DHS official confirmed that Madhu Gottumukkala will now serve as DHS’s “director of strategic implementation.” CISA’s acting executive assistant director for cybersecurity Nick Andersen will now serve as acting CISA director, the senior DHS official confirmed. “Madhu Gottumukkala has done a remarkable job in a thankless task of helping reform CISA back to its core statutory mission,” the senior official said. “He tackled the woke, weaponized, and bloated bureaucracy that existed at CISA, wrangling contracts to save American taxpayer dollars.” Gottumukkala was named deputy director at CISA last May after serving as the chief information officer for the state of South Dakota. He immediately took over the agency’s top role in the absence of a permanent CISA director. Gottumukkala’s tenure was marked by a wave of departures that has led to deep uncertainty at the nation’s top cyber defense agency. His departure comes as CISA also navigates a government shutdown, with more than two-thirds of its staff furloughed. In recent months, Gottumukkala had faced increasing congressional scrutiny after reports that he failed a polygraph test and uploaded sensitive documents to a public version of ChatGPT. Gottumukkala most recently reportedly attempted to force out CISA’s long serving CIO. “I think most people aren’t surprised and will not miss him,” a current CISA employee told Federal News Network. “He was ineffective and out of touch with the mission. Nick will be a welcomed change.” In a Friday evening email to CISA employees, Andersen thanked Gottumukkala for his service at the agency. He also announced that Chris Bhutera, Andersen’s deputy, will serve as acting executive assistant director for cybersecurity, as he did for several months last year.

DefenseScoop [2/27/2026 11:45 AM, Drew F. Lawrence, 150K] reports a Democratic senator on the intelligence committee said in a letter this week he would block President Donald Trump’s pick for top uniformed cyber chief because his nominee “is not qualified for this job” and after what the lawmaker characterized as “vague assurances about following the law” from the general. In correspondence addressed to the president and published in the Congressional Record Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he would block the confirmation of Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd, who Trump nominated for the dual-hat role of National Security Agency director and U.S. Cyber Command commander. Wyden’s office confirmed to DefenseScoop Friday that the lawmaker will vote against Rudd and put a hold on his nomination. His objection threatens to put Rudd’s nomination to a formal vote, instead of approval via unanimous consent. Rudd, who has more than 30 years experience in the military — mostly in special operations — is currently the deputy commander for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and has no military cyber background, which Wyden cited as a reason for his objection. “General Rudd, despite his service, does not have the background that would allow him to immediately step into this role,” Wyden wrote. “He is not qualified for this job. And, when it comes to the cybersecurity of this country, there is simply no time for on-the-job learning. The threat is just too urgent for that.”

Roll Call [2/27/2026 12:06 PM, Mary C. Curtis, 673K] reports that just who is a "domestic terrorist," and what is the danger when a protest is labeled "an act of domestic terrorism"? President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has announced a drawdown of troops in Minnesota, where immigration raids swept up many, including U.S. citizens, triggered protests and left two of those citizens dead. But the administration hasn’t ruled out future surges across the country. In analyzing federal actions in the past and yet to come, Rachel Levinson-Waldman, director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, doesn’t deny the presence of domestic terrorists among us. But does the Trump administration’s expansive definition of the term clash with First Amendment rights? And do recent enforcement activities make us more or less safe? [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Reuters [2/28/2026 6:03 AM, Laura Gottesdiener, Stefanie Eschenbacher, and Sarah Kinosian, 38315K] reports the Mexican government’s killing of one of the world’s biggest kingpins, known as "El Mencho," is being heralded as a major blow to drug trafficking. But it did little to dismantle his cartel’s critical U.S. operations, which will continue fueling its dominance unless Washington steps up the fight inside its own territory, U.S. and Mexican security sources said. Mexican special forces killed the elusive drug lord Nemesio Oseguera in a U.S.-backed raid on Feb. 22. It was the biggest takedown of a cartel kingpin in at least a decade. El Mencho’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel responded by torching buildings and blockading roads across Mexico in a terrifying display of its territorial reach that grabbed headlines worldwide. On the U.S. side of the border, the cartel also has extensive networks that receive far less attention yet are the lifeblood of its power and profits, current and former U.S. and Mexican officials said. These enable it to source military-grade weapons, smuggle billions of dollars’ worth of fuel, and launder billions more in cartel cash. "The United States has become increasingly important to cartels, especially the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, for it to thrive," said Alamdar Hamdani, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said that the Trump administration "has worked closely with the Mexican government to stop the scourge of drugs and criminals entering our country" and that this cooperation led to the "elimination of infamous narcoterrorist ‘El Mencho.’" "The president will continue to do everything in his power to keep America safe from these vicious criminals and the drugs they use to poison our country," she added.

New York Post [2/27/2026 6:39 PM, Nina Joudeh, 40934K] reports a massive $5 million reward has been offered up for an alleged Sinaloa Cartel boss facing charges of narcoterrorism and drug trafficking. Prosecutors paint Rene Arzate-Garcia, or "La Rana," as a ruthless and influential cartel lieutenant. La Rana and his brother, Alfonso Arzate-Garcia, or "Aquiles," have ruled the Tijuana Plaza with an iron fist for 15 years, dodging drug trafficking charges while dominating the Tijuana drug corridor, according to officials. The brothers have orchestrated murders, kidnappings, extortion, and corruption to tighten their grip on the region, according to prosecutors. The two have also allegedly fueled drug operations that have funneled thousands of kilograms of methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl, and marijuana into the United States, all while laundering millions in illicit profits. The narcoterrorism charge comes from the Trump administration’s decision to label some cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel, as foreign terrorist organizations. The U.S. State Department says the Sinaloa Cartel’s operations, which reach areas like San Diego, involve thousands of pounds of fentanyl and methamphetamine, as well as gold-plated firearms and rocket launchers.

AP [2/27/2026 10:58 PM, Staff, 1257K] reports that the U.S. State Department said Thursday that it would pay up to $10 million for information leading to the arrests or convictions of two brothers identified as leaders of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel in the state of Baja California, which includes Tijuana. The reward offer came the same day that authorities announced a new indictment against Rene Arzate Garcia, 42, known as “La Rana” (“The Frog”). He was initially charged with drug crimes in San Diego. The superseding indictment includes charges of conspiracy, narcoterrorism and material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The U. S. is offering $5 million each for information on Rene Arzate Garcia and Alfonso Arzate Garcia, 52, known as “Aquiles” (“Achilles”). Their whereabouts are unknown. “As controllers of a critical trafficking node in Tijuana at the U.S. border, the Arzate-Garcia brothers have become key essential components of the cartel’s command-and-control structure,” the State Department said. “Their control of the Tijuana Plaza offers the Sinaloa Cartel a tactical advantage in maintaining dominance over rival organizations, ensuring no interruption to the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere.”

CNN [2/27/2026 2:15 PM, Duarte Mendonca, 19874K] reports that the killing of Mexican cartel leader Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes on Sunday set off a wave of retaliatory violence from his gunmen, affecting areas popular with foreign tourists such as Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [2/27/2026 12:46 PM, Molly Parks, 1147K] reports Colombia has arrested a key leader of the Venezuelan-based terrorist organization Tren de Aragua with the support of United States law enforcement officials. The U.S. State Department Bureau of Counterterrorism announced on Friday that the officials captured Jorge Luis Laez Cordero, nicknamed "Cucaracho," this week. The bureau said Cucaracho was one of seven Tren de Aragua leaders arrested in Colombia this week. "TdA is known to engage in drug trafficking, sex trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, arms trafficking, money laundering, and even murder—fueling violence and pushing narcotics into the United States," the Bureau of Counterterrorism wrote. "This action underscores the Trump Administration’s commitment to designating, disrupting, and eliminating violent transnational terrorist groups like TdA.”

New York Times [2/27/2026 6:36 PM, Matthew Cullen, 148038K] reports President Trump has ordered all federal agencies to stop using artificial intelligence technology made by Anthropic. He disparaged the A.I. maker this afternoon as a “radical left, woke company” and accused it of trying to “strong-arm” the U.S. military. Soon after, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was designating Anthropic a “supply-chain risk to national security.” That would mean that any contractor or supplier that works with the military would be prohibited from doing business with the A.I. company. Anthropic, which spent today negotiating with the Pentagon, is expected to challenge the designation in court. Anthropic is the only A.I. company operating on the military’s classified systems, so banning it could complicate C.I.A. analysis and defense work. For days, Anthropic and the Pentagon have been locked in an escalating battle that, on its surface, is over the terms of the Pentagon’s use of Anthropic’s A.I. model, called Claude. The company said it wanted to embed safeguards in its technology to prevent it from being used to support mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon, which indicated it had no plans to use the A.I. for those purposes, said that private contractors did not get to make those kinds of decisions. Underlying this all is a debate about how A.I. should be used, what its risks are and who gets to set limits on the technology.

Reported similarly:
Washington Times [2/27/2026 6:17 PM, Ben Wolfgang, 1323K]

AP [2/27/2026 4:56 PM, Edith M. Lederer, 1323K] reports that U.S. first lady Melania Trump will preside over a U.N. Security Council meeting in what the United Nations on Thursday said would be a first. When the wife of President Donald Trump takes her seat in the president’s chair on Monday afternoon, it “will be the first time a first lady, or first gentleman for that matter, has ever presided over a Security Council meeting,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. The United States takes over the rotating presidency of the 15-member council for the month of March, and the first lady’s office said the meeting she will preside over will “emphasize education’s role in advancing tolerance and world peace.” Melania Trump has made children in conflict one of her signature issues, writing a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin last year ahead of a summit with President Trump and later announcing that the effort had led to a group of children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war reuniting with their families. It comes as President Trump has criticized the United Nations, saying repeatedly that the 193-member world body has not lived up to its potential. He has withdrawn the U.S. from U.N. organizations, including the World Health Organization and the cultural agency UNESCO, while pulling funding from dozens of others. The U.S. also owes the United Nations billions of dollars. Until earlier this month, the Trump administration had not paid any of its mandatory dues for the U.N.’s regular operating budget for 2025 or this year. It paid $160 million, about 4% of the nearly $4 billion it has owed the U.N. overall, including for U.N. peacekeeping operations.

Breitbart [2/27/2026 12:44 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports the United States is pulling some non-emergency staff and their families out of Israel with the possibility of a strike on Iran still on the table Friday. The U.S. State Department authorized the removal of non-essential diplomatic staff due to "safety risks." It did not go into detail about what those risks are but the United States and Iran continue to negotiate a nuclear deal under continued tension. "Persons may wish to consider leaving Israel while commercial flights are available," the State Department said in its new guidance. "In response to security incidents and without advance notice, the U.S. Embassy may further restrict or prohibit U.S. government employees and their family members from traveling to certain areas of Israel, the Old City of Jerusalem, and the West Bank." President Donald Trump and the Pentagon have sent military forces to the region in recent weeks. U.S. and Iranian negotiators met again in Geneva this week seeking to come to an agreement. Special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have headed the talks for the Trump administration. Trump aims to have Iran pare down its nuclear program. If it does not, he has threatened military action.

Breitbart [2/28/2026 4:18 AM, Oliver JJ Lane, 2238K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump told the Iranian armed forces to lay down their arms or face "certain death" and its people to rise up and "seize control of your destiny" as "major" strikes against Tehran commenced. Joint American-Israeli strikes against Iran took place over night, with U.S. President Donald Trump addressing both the nation and the people of Iran. Announcing the strikes to eliminate "imminent threats from the Iranian regime" which "directly endangers the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world", Trump said: "A short time ago, the United States Military began major combat operations in Iran". Iranian retaliatory strikes have been launched against Israel. President Trump said, “The strikes are intended to destroy Iran’s stockpiles of missiles and to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s missile production industry, the President said. Most importantly, Trump said, was preventing Iranian nuclear-tipped long-range missiles from ever threatening the American mainland or America’s allies in Europe. Iran is the world’s no.1 state sponsor of terror and has recently killed tens of thousands of its own people [… which is] developing long range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could seen reach the American homeland. … for these reasons the United States military has undertaken a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It’s going to be totally, again, obliterated.” While noting "every possible step" to minimise threat to U.S. military personnel had been taken, President Trump warned the combat operations afoot were of sufficient scale that there may be casualties. He said: I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war. But we’re not doing this for now, we’re doing it for the future and it is a noble mission. We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran. We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm’s way and we trust that with his help the men and woman of the armed forces will prevail.

Blaze [2/28/2026 4:12 AM, Rebeka Zeljko, 1556K] reports the United States and Israel launched a "massive ongoing operation" against Iran, striking the Islamic Republic for the second time in eight months. President Donald Trump confirmed the coordinated attack with Israel early Saturday morning after strikes were reportedly heard in several parts of Tehran. Dubbed Operation Epic Fury, this is the second military intervention the United States has taken against Iran following Operation Midnight Hammer in June of 2025, where Americans "obliterated" Iran’s nuclear facilities. ‘It will be totally, again, obliterated.’. Trump similarly justified the latest series of strikes to ensure Iran will "never have a nuclear weapon" but noted that "the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.” "That often happens in war," Trump said. "But we’re doing this. Not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission. We pray for every service as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear armed Iran.” President Donald J. Trump on the United States military combat operations in Iran: pic.twitter.com/LimJmpLkgZ— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 28, 2026. Trump said Iran "rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions," prompting the massive military offensive from Israel and the United States. While vowing to end the regime, Trump also urged Iranians to rise up and reclaim their government when the operation is finished. "For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests," Trump said. "We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated.” "Stay sheltered," Trump told Iranians. "Don’t leave your home. It’s yours outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations.”

ABC News [2/28/2026 4:15 AM, Jon Haworth and Jack Moore, 34146K] reports President Donald Trump said that the U.S. military has begun "major combat operations" in Iran and calling on the Iranian people to rise up and seize the opportunity for regime change. "Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people," Trump said in a video statement on Truth Social early Saturday morning. The "massive" operation comes as the U.S. has been trying to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear and missile programs and hours after Trump said he was "not happy with the negotiation.” And it comes amid questions about the potential justification for a U.S. strike on Iran since Trump has said the Iranian nuclear weapons program was "obliterated" in a U.S. strike last year. "Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted "death to America" and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States, our troops and the innocent people in many, many countries," Trump said. The military operation against Iran was a preemptive joint attack by the United States and Israel and could last several days, U.S. officials said, with potential targets including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military sites, government buildings, Iranian intelligence assets and defense installations. "Iran is the world’s number one state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested," Trump said. "It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon. I will say it again. They can never have a nuclear weapon.” Trump, who campaigned on a message of keeping the U.S. out of foreign entanglements, gravely suggested that "the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.” "That often happens in war. But we are doing this not for now, we are doing this for the future and it is a noble mission," Trump continued. At the end of his message, Trump called on the Iranian people to seize this opportunity for regime change. "Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand," Trump said. He added, "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”

FOX News [2/28/2026 6:35 AM, Michael Sinkewicz, 37576K] reports President Donald Trump encouraged the Iranian people to take over their government once the United States and Israel finished "major combat operations" in Iran, marking a dramatic escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran. The U.S. and Israel launched the joint attack just after 9 a.m. local time in what the Pentagon has dubbed "Operation Epic Fury." In video remarks posted to Truth Social, Trump addressed the Iranian people directly and told them to "seize control of [their] destiny." "The hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take," Trump said. "This will be, probably, your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No President was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a President who is giving you what you want." "America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force," Trump directed at Iranians. "Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass." While Trump focused some of his message on empowering the people of Iran, he stated that the intent of the operation is to "defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime," which he described as "vicious" and "very hard, terrible people." Trump also said that while there may be American casualties as a result, the mission is "noble" as it is aimed at stopping a "wicked, radical dictatorship" from threatening American national security interests and destabilizing the Middle East.

CNN [2/28/2026 4:24 AM, Kevin Liptak, 612K] reports President Donald Trump’s announcement of a "massive and ongoing" US military campaign against Iran — and his explicit call for the country’s citizens to shake off their oppressive leadership — put on display his fresh appetite for geopolitical risk and thrust his presidency into a deeper period of uncertainty. "The United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests," he said of Iran in a video posted to Truth Social early Saturday morning, in which he starkly acknowledged that US lives may be lost in the operation. The eight-minute recording laid bare both the president’s objectives in Iran — which had been unclear — and the potential for dire consequences. Trump appears hopeful his major air operation can successfully result in a change in Iran’s regime, despite the vast uncertainties about what might replace it and the limited historical examples of air power alone ousting a country’s leader. "They rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can’t take it anymore," said Trump, who a US official said is continuing to monitor the strikes from Mar-a-Lago. The president reached his decision after weeks of deliberation and an attempt by his envoys to strike a rapid diplomatic agreement that would have forced Iran to abandon long-held red lines. The US military is planning for several days of attacks, two sources told CNN, and Iran has already retaliated across the Middle East, including targeting the US Navy base in Bahrain that is home to the Fifth Fleet, a US official said. Trump never fully publicly laid out his case for war, even during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, despite strikes being a politically perilous move at home, especially for a president who campaigned on ending foreign entanglements. He noted on Saturday the potential cost to American lives. "The Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties — that often happens in war — but we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission," the president said, adding that US had "taken every possible step to minimize the risk to US personnel in the region.” To many of Trump’s allies, military action had long appeared inevitable. After telling Iranian protesters at the start of the year that he would come to their support, warning the US was "locked and loaded" to attack, he felt obligated to enforce his red line. "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations," Trump told the Iranian people in his video. "For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond," he said.

CNN [2/28/2026 4:41 AM, Jennifer Hansler, Natasha Bertrand, Kylie Atwood, and Zachary Cohen, 19874K] reports that in his first comments about Saturday’s US military strikes against Iran, President Donald Trump claimed in a video posted to social media that Iran has been building missiles that “could soon reach the American homeland.” It’s an argument he also made in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. However, that assertion is not backed up by US intelligence, sources told CNN. It was one of several claims about threats from Iran made publicly by the Trump administration in the lead up to Saturday’s strikes. An unclassified assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from 2025 said that Iran could develop a “militarily-viable” intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 “should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.” According to two sources, the claim that Iran will soon have a missile capable of hitting the US is not backed up by intelligence — there is no intelligence to suggest that Iran is pursuing an ICBM program to hit the US at this time, the sources said. Iran does, however, possess short range ballistic missiles that could threaten US bases and personnel in the region, as the administration has warned. Three sources told CNN there has been no change in recent assessments about Iran’s intercontinental ballistic missile aspirations. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly responded to CNN’s reporting, saying “President Trump is absolutely right to highlight the grave concern posed by Iran, a country that chants ‘death to America,’ possessing intercontinental ballistic missiles.”

FOX News [2/28/2026 3:41 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reports on sirens going off and local media saying a missile was intercepted in central Israel on ‘Fox News Live.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [2/27/2026 1:01 PM, John Hayward, 2238K] reports that Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif declared "open war" on Afghanistan on Friday, promising "there will be chaos and a reckoning" after the Taliban junta launched drone strikes against targets in Pakistan. "Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you," Asif growled in a post on social media platform X. Asif complained that the Taliban has "turned Afghanistan into a colony of India." "They gathered all the terrorists of the world in Afghanistan and began exporting terrorism. They deprived their own people of basic human rights. They snatched away the rights that Islam grants to women," he said. "Pakistan made every effort to keep the situation normal through direct means and through friendly countries. It engaged in full-fledged diplomacy. But the Taliban became a proxy for India," he said. Asif promised that the Taliban would fare more poorly against Pakistan’s military than they did against American and Western forces during the long U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. "Pakistan’s army did not come from across the seas. We are your neighbors; we know your ins and outs. Allahu Akbar," he concluded.

Reuters [2/27/2026 6:23 PM, Kanishka Singh, 16072K] reports the United States said on Friday it supported Pakistan’s "right to defend itself" against attacks from Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers after Islamabad said earlier in the day that the neighboring countries were in "open war." Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers had said on Friday they were willing to negotiate after Pakistan bombed their forces in major cities. "The United States supports Pakistan’s right to defend itself against attacks from the Taliban, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group," a State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Pakistan is nuclear-armed and its military capabilities are vastly superior to Afghanistan’s. However, the Taliban are adept at guerrilla warfare, hardened by decades of fighting with U.S.-led forces, before returning to power in 2021 when Washington withdrew chaotically. Pakistan is a major non-NATO ally of Washington. The U.S. considers the Afghan Taliban to be a "terrorist" group. The latest violence erupted after Pakistan’s airstrikes on Afghan territory last weekend triggered Afghan retaliatory attacks along the border on Thursday, escalating long‑simmering tensions over Pakistan’s claim that Afghanistan shelters Pakistani Taliban militants. Afghanistan denies this and argues Pakistan is deflecting blame for its own security failures. The State Department spokesperson said Washington was aware of the escalation in tensions and "outbreak of fighting between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban," adding the U.S. was "saddened by the loss of life."

Bloomberg [2/28/2026 4:08 AM, Staff, 18082K] reports China said US claims that it was carrying out nuclear explosive tests were baseless, and it accused Washington of being the main cause of uncertainty over the global nuclear order, according to a statement. A Ministry of National Defense spokesman said in the statement that China adheres to a no‑first‑use policy, pursues a self‑defensive strategy and keeps its nuclear forces at the minimum level required for national security. China’s response follows repeated allegations by Washington that China is expanding its nuclear capabilities. Christopher Yeaw, the assistant secretary of state for arms control, said earlier this month that the US had detected a seismic event of 2.75 magnitude on June 22, 2020, according to the report. Yeaw told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva this week that China has “massively expanded its nuclear arsenal without transparency,’ according to the report. The China spokesman said that US backtracking on arms‑control commitments has made it the main driver of nuclear instability, urging Washington to uphold the testing moratorium and shoulder primary responsibility for disarmament and global strategic stability. In a separate statement, the spokesman rejected remarks by Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, accusing Beijing of coercive action and heightened military activity. China’s operations are lawful measures to safeguard sovereignty and security, the spokesman said. Beijing has warned that Japan’s security policy revisions and arms‑export changes echo past militarism, and called on the international community to oppose any move toward rearmament and to uphold the post‑World War II order.

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