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

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

The New York Times [3/10/2026 3:18 AM, By Benjamin Weiser, Chelsia Rose Marcius, and Andy Newman, 330K] reports two young men were charged in federal court on Monday with attempting to support the Islamic State after a homemade bomb laced with metal and powerful explosives was thrown at anti-Muslim protesters outside the New York City mayor’s residence over the weekend. The device outside the residence, Gracie Mansion, did not detonate and no one was injured, but the police said the attack could have been disastrous: The bomb, one of two devices recovered, tested positive for TATP, a highly volatile material used in numerous terrorist attacks over the last decade. According to a criminal complaint, the man accused of throwing the bomb, Emir Balat, 18, told the police he had hoped to trigger a deadlier incident than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which he noted caused “only three deaths.” Rebecca Weiner, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, said that if the bombs had detonated as intended, “They could have caused death, destruction.” She called the explosive an “extremely dangerous compound” that was deployed in “an extremely dangerous place.” Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said the police in New York have been on high alert for terrorism since the United States attacked Iran last month. Mr. Balat and the other man arrested, Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, both made statements without being questioned by the police in which they said that ISIS, as the Islamic State is known, had motivated their actions, the complaint says. The Washington Post [3/9/2026 5:05 PM, Praveena Somasundaram, 24826K] reports that officials said Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, traveled to New York from Pennsylvania and tried to detonate two devices near protesters gathered for an anti-Islam rally near Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence, where Mamdani lives with his wife, Rama Duwaji. According to a complaint filed in New York federal court and unsealed Monday, the suspects made multiple references to the Islamic State, or ISIS. The devices contained an explosive material that has been used in multiple terrorist attacks over the last decade, officials and the complaint said. Balat said that he and Kayumi wanted to "carry out an attack bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing," according to the complaint. Mamdani and Duwaji were not home at the time of the protest, and the devices did not explode. No one was injured. Balat and Kayumi were also charged with transportation of explosives, unlawful possession of destructive devices, and interstate transport and receipt of explosives, according to the complaint. A third device and other materials were found Sunday inside a car associated with the men, officials said. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday that testing on one of the explosives revealed it was made with materials that could have caused serious injury or death. The devices were found after a clash between anti-Islam protesters, led by right-wing provocateur Jake Lang, and counterprotesters — an incident that underscores political tensions in New York and an increase in political violence nationwide. The AP [3/9/2026 8:09 PM, Jake Offenhartz, Michael R. Sisak, and Jennifer Peltz, 5209K] reports “Balat and Kayumi sought to incite fear and mass suffering through this alleged attempted terror attack in the backyard of an elected city official,” James Barnacle, who runs the FBI’s New York office, said at a news conference after the brief court session. The defendants said nothing in court, but Kayumi smirked and looked over at Balat as the judge read part of the complaint alleging they acted in support of the Islamic State group. Balat stared ahead at the defense table. According to the complaint, Kayumi blurted out, as he was being arrested Saturday, that “ISIS” was the reason for his conduct. Balat later told authorities that he had pledged allegiance to the extremists, and Kayumi asserted that he was affiliated with the group, the complaint said. Officers asked Balat whether he was aiming to accomplish something akin to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and wounded hundreds more. “No, even bigger,” Balat replied, according to the complaint. Lawyer says he doesn’t believe the suspects knew each other

Reported similarly:
Politico [3/9/2026 6:53 PM, Joe Anuta, Chris Sommerfeldt and Jason Beeferman, 21784K]
Reuters [3/9/2026 3:24 PM, Maria Tsvetkova and Jonathan Allen, 38315K]
NPR [3/9/2026 11:37 AM, Brian Mann, 28764K]
ABC News [3/9/2026 2:47 PM, Aaron Katersky, Mark Crudele, and Bill Hutchinson, 34146K] Video: HERE
NBC News [3/9/2026 3:35 PM, Daniel Arkin, Nicole Acevedo, Jonathan Dienst, Tom Winter, and Chloe Atkins, 42967K]
NewsMax [3/9/2026 3:14 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K]
CNN [3/9/2026 10:40 PM, Gloria Pazmino, Holly Yan, et al., 612K]
DailySignal [3/9/2026 3:15 PM, Fred Lucas, 474K]
Federalist [3/9/2026 2:17 PM, Brianna Lyman, 540K]

The New York Post [3/9/2026 9:22 PM, Kenneth Garger and Victor Nava, 40934K] reports the FBI revealed on Monday that federal agents were searching a Pennsylvania storage facility in connection with their investigation into the ISIS-inspired botched bombing outside Gracie Mansion. The feds were "conducting a court authorized search" of the storage facility in Langhorne, the same borough where Emir Balat — one of the alleged bomb hurlers — lived with his parents. "The FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, along with our partners at the NYPD, will continue pursuing all leads and tips," the FBI’s New York office said in a Monday night X post announcing the search. Investigators reportedly found more homemade explosive devices inside the storage facility and the FBI’s bomb squad is believed to have set off three IEDS in a controlled detonation after dark, cops at the scene told The Post. At least one loud boom was heard near the storage facility overnight. The FBI didn’t immediately return a Post inquiry on whether explosives were found or detonated at the unit. FOX News [3/9/2026 6:56 PM, Stepheny Price, 37576K] reports that on Monday evening, a federal source confirmed to Fox News that a search warrant was executed at a self-storage facility called Public Storage in Langhorne. The source said that the search is in connection to the ongoing terror investigation. Helicopter video captured authorities at the large storage facility on Monday. A series of photographs captures the critical moments of an alleged ISIS-inspired bombing attempt outside the iconic Gracie Mansion. The first image shows Balat holding what authorities later identified as Device-1 during the protest outside Gracie Mansion and then proceeding to throw it into the crowd of protesters and counterprotesters during the "Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City" rally. According to the complaint, the device was approximately the size of a mason jar and had an attached fuse. Investigators later determined that it contained TATP and had nuts and bolts affixed to the exterior with duct tape.

Breitbart [3/9/2026 11:52 PM, Jasmyn Jordan, 2238K] reports New York City’s first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, criticized an anti-Muslim protest outside Gracie Mansion but did not mention the suspects or their alleged ISIS links in his first statement about the attack. An anti-Islam protest led by Jake Lang, who has described himself as a “January 6 political prisoner,” drew counter-protesters outside Gracie Mansion. During the demonstration, authorities said at least one device was ignited. Two suspects, identified by authorities as Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, were arrested on the scene in connection with the incident. Police revealed the device was an improvised explosive device consisting of a sports drink bottle filled with volatile explosive material known as TATP, placed inside a glass jar and surrounded by nuts and bolts. The New York Post reported that law enforcement sources said Balat used the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar” after his police interview. During a brief appearance before reporters, he flashed the single-finger gesture associated with ISIS. Balat and Kayumi both come from families of legal immigrants who later became U.S. citizens. Balat’s parents are Turkish migrants who obtained citizenship in 2017, while Kayumi’s parents are Afghan legal migrants who became U.S. citizens between 2004 and 2009. Mamdani first addressed the incident on Sunday: “Yesterday, white supremacist Jake Lang organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion rooted in bigotry and racism. Such hate has no place in New York City. It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are. What followed was even more disturbing. Violence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are. I want to thank the brave men and women of the NYPD who acted quickly to keep New Yorkers safe. Our officers ran toward danger without hesitation, demonstrating once again the courage and dedication it takes to protect this city every single day. My administration is closely monitoring the situation and I remain in close contact with our Police Commissioner.” The following day, Mamdani issued another statement: “Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi have been charged with committing a heinous act of terrorism and proclaiming their allegiance to ISIS. They should be held fully accountable for their actions. We will continue to keep New Yorkers safe. We will not tolerate terrorism or violence in our city.” Mamdani’s lack of condemnation of radical Islam comes as his November mayoral victory drew celebration from Muslim advocacy groups and political figures. Pakistani-born lawyer and commentator Qasim Rashid celebrated the outcome by declaring that “America’s Mayor is an American Muslim Immigrant.”

New York Post [3/9/2026 4:08 PM, Vaughn Golden, 40934K] reports Gov. Kathy Hochul condemned "both" sides following the ISIS-inspired attempted terrorist attack at an anti-Muslim protest outside Gracie Mansion. Moments after Hochul posted a statement acknowledging the "terrorist attack" by two allegedly self-radicalized Islamist teenagers, she quickly jumped to also blame Saturday’s hateful protest, organized by far-right influencer Jake Lang. On Sunday, the Democratic governor first reacted to the incident, thanking NYPD’s quick response and announcing an investigation into what would eventually be ruled a terror attack.

Reuters [3/10/2026 12:03 AM, Kanishka Singh, 38315K] reports record high Islamophobia in the U.S. in 2025 was driven in part by President Donald Trump’s crackdown against pro-Palestinian protests and immigration, a Muslim advocacy group said on Tuesday. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it recorded 8,683 anti-Muslim and anti-Arab complaints in 2025, the highest since it began publishing data in 1996, compared to 8,658 in 2024. Most complaints were about employment discrimination (12.7%), immigration and asylum (6.5%), hate incidents (6.4%), and travel discrimination like government watchlists and screenings (5.6%), CAIR’s report noted. Over the ⁠years, advocates have attributed Islamophobia to the September 11, 2001 attacks; and more recently to anti-immigration sentiment, white supremacy and the fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza. Trump denies being discriminatory and says his administration aims to curb illegal immigration and improve domestic security. Advocates say the immigration crackdown is unsafe and violates due process. CAIR noted Trump’s targeting of Somali Americans in Minnesota, a majority Muslim community, who he accused of fraud and called "garbage.” CAIR said the government used isolated cases for collective targeting and dismissed Trump’s ability to tackle fraud, citing pardons to those with past fraud convictions. CAIR’s Minnesota chapter reported 693 complaints, up from 353 in 2024. CAIR also ⁠noted targeting of Afghan immigrants after two National Guard soldiers were shot in Washington in November for which an Afghan was indicted. Trump alleges pro-Palestinian protesters are antisemitic and sympathize with extremists. His administration has attempted to deport foreign protesters, threatened freezing funds for universities where protests were held, and ordered aggressive screening of immigrants’ online comments. Protesters, including some Jewish ⁠groups, say he wrongly conflates criticizing Israel’s assault on Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and advocating for Palestinian rights with supporting extremism. "The Trump administration framed anyone who holds pro-Palestinian views as inherently threatening," CAIR said. Notable ⁠deportation attempts were against Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained for months while his wife was pregnant, and Leqaa Kordia, who lost over 170 family members in Gaza and was briefly hospitalized following a seizure in ⁠detention. CAIR raised free speech, due process and academic freedom concerns. Trump’s crackdown has faced judicial roadblocks. Republican governors in Florida and Texas have signed orders designating CAIR as a "terrorist" group. CAIR sued over the ​designations. A judge has blocked Florida’s order.

The Hill [3/9/2026 10:26 PM, Max Rego, 18170K] reports Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Monday he hopes to hold a confirmation hearing next week for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), President Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “We’re shooting for a week from Wednesday,” Paul told reporters as he stepped into a car, according to video captured by CBS News’s Grace Kazarian. Trump tapped Mullin, a first-term senator from Oklahoma, to replace Kristi Noem as DHS secretary last Thursday. Noem, who will take on a new role within the administration on targeting drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere, was under fire from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for her department’s immigration enforcement tactics and the bottleneck of disaster relief funding, among other concerns. Republican senators have praised Mullin, a member of the Appropriations, Armed Services, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Indian Affairs committees. “He’s the sort of person who knows what he doesn’t know. That was the problem with Noem. She couldn’t scale her experience, and I think he can. He’s a man of his word,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a fierce critic of Noem who called for her ouster. “There’s nothing that’s too big for him to tackle,” said Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), a member of the Appropriations Committee. “He’s built solid relationships with people on both sides of the aisle. He’s going to keep his word. He’s loyal, and he’s straight-forward and pragmatic in his approach.” Senate Democrats, though, have mostly been reluctant to support Mullin’s nomination — with some noting that their issues with immigration enforcement tactics do not end with Noem’s departure. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee, told Bloomberg last week that Mullin will have to outline “his vision on how to fix what’s really wrong in Homeland Security” during the confirmation process. One Democratic member of the committee, Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.), has already vowed to back Mullin’s nomination. Mullin’s confirmation hearing will also come over a month after he sharply criticized Paul, the chair. Speaking to the McGrath Breakfast Group in February, the Oklahoma senator called his libertarian colleague from Kentucky a “freaking snake” for often breaking, according to Oklahoma journalist David Arnett. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [3/9/2026 10:44 PM, Sam Barron, 3760K]
Washington Examiner [3/10/2026 3:11 AM, Staff, 1147K]

Breitbart [3/9/2026 9:55 PM, Matthew Boyle, 2238K] reports Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) told Breitbart News in a long-form exclusive on-camera interview in early February in his U.S. Senate office that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has had its plans for global domination through the Belt and Road Initiative disrupted by President Donald Trump. The interview, which took place on Feb. 4 before Trump picked Mullin to succeed outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, is a big deep-dive into China’s expansionist vision and the efforts of the American government to counter those. Breitbart News had been planning to release the interview closer to Trump’s upcoming trip to China, where he is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in early April, but since Trump shocked the world by selecting Mullin to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Breitbart News has decided to move the timeline of the publication of the interview up to now. It is a rare exclusive look into a major arena of national security by a prominent incoming member of the president’s Cabinet ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs (HGSAC), chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). The hearing was announced for next week on Monday. Usually, cabinet secretary candidates do not do interviews during their confirmation processes, and it is unlikely Mullin will do another one between now and when he is confirmed by the full U.S. Senate, which is expected later this month. But the strange timing of this pre-recorded interview on the threat of China, the president’s sudden appointment of Mullin, and the president’s trip to China upcoming later this spring creates a perfect storm that allows a unique situational window for Breitbart News readers and viewers into what the president’s new man in charge of Homeland Security thinks on China and the threats America’s greatest adversary presents to national security. It also represents an opportunity to see just how deeply Mullin has thought about and studied these issues of paramount importance, and how prepared he is for his new role in countering Chinese influence in particular.

New York Times [3/9/2026 5:30 AM, Michael Gold, 148038K] reports when Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma businessman, was trying to stand out in a crowded Republican primary in 2011, he made a striking promise: If voters sent him to Congress, he said, he would serve for just three terms before heading for the exit. Six years later, with that self-imposed term limit drawing near, Mr. Mullin changed his mind; he wanted to stay. The plumbing company owner without a bachelor’s degree, who had campaigned as the ultimate outsider and political novice, had decided that with President Trump now in the White House, he was finally positioned to be an insider pushing for the policies he’d long sought. “The only way we can do that is make sure that we have people in key places,” Mr. Mullin said in a video announcing his turnabout. “And the first lesson I learned up there is, you got to build relationships.” It was the beginning of an arc in Congress that took him from the fringes of American politics to its epicenter, just as Mr. Trump was upending Washington with a more populist, pugilistic style that mirrored Mr. Mullin’s own. Over the years that followed, Mr. Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter with right-wing views, would build close ties to Mr. Trump that helped him land in the Senate in 2023. By the time Mr. Trump returned to the White House last year, he had established himself as a steadfast MAGA loyalist and an indispensable Capitol Hill ally to a president who seems to prize fealty above almost anything else. His political evolution culminated on Thursday, when Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Mullin to replace Kristi Noem as his homeland security secretary. If Mr. Mullin were to be confirmed by the Senate, where he is popular with members of both parties, he would take the reins of a massive federal agency at the center of the president’s sweeping and signature immigration agenda. Mr. Mullin does not fit the traditional mold for a cabinet secretary. He has never held a prominent party leadership role. He has not served on any of the congressional committees that directly oversee the Homeland Security Department or immigration enforcement. He has no law enforcement experience, and before running for Congress, he had never worked in government. But in Mr. Trump’s Washington, none of those things matter. What does is that, in his short Senate career, Mr. Mullin has become the senator perhaps mostly closely aligned with the president.

FOX News [3/9/2026 7:10 PM, Elizabeth Elkind, 37576K] reports nearly 50 House Republicans are writing to President Donald Trump backing Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after Kristi Noem’s ouster. The pragmatist GOP Main Street Caucus is taking a formal stance, endorsing Mullin on Monday, as well as backing a targeted crackdown on illegal immigrant criminals in the U.S. It’s a rare formal statement by the House Republican group, led by both Chairman Mike Flood, R-Neb., and Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., and signed by 47 other GOP lawmakers. "Senator Mullin has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to border security. His familiarity with the legislative process and his longstanding support for pro-America policies make him well-suited to lead DHS at this critical moment," the letter said. "We are confident he will bring the focus and discipline necessary to further our shared priorities.” Trump tapped Mullin to lead the department last week while announcing that Noem would no longer serve in his Cabinet. He instead established a new role for her as special envoy at a new Trump-created initiative called Shield of the Americas. The vast majority of Republican lawmakers immediately hailed Mullin’s nomination, particularly as criticism was steadily growing of Noem’s handling of DHS.

Breitbart [3/9/2026 7:46 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports airports across the United States are feeling the strain of a partial government shutdown causing a shortage of travel safety agents, leading to extended travel delays for air passengers. "Please plan to arrive to the Airport 3 hours early if you have travel scheduled," the New Orleans Airport posted Monday on social media, the latest transportation hub snarled by extended wait times due to short-staffing. Since February 14, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees US air travel security, has had funding frozen due to ongoing disagreements between Congressional Democrats and Republicans over another agency overseen by the department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Thousands of federal DHS employees have been furloughed, while others have been asked to keep working without pay until Congress passes a budget. Some Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents opt to call in sick rather than work without pay, leading to staffing shortages and delaying travelers. Major airline hub airports — Atlanta in the southeastern state of Georgia and Houston in the southern state of Texas — have also faced hours-long waits due to low TSA staffing. Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday criticized the lack of progress in reaching a deal to fund DHS. "Negotiations have been going now for well over a month," the Republican said. "And Democrats have sent two offers to the White House. Two offers that were basically the same. No compromise. No give-and-take. Just ‘take it or leave it.’". Democrats in Congress, for their part, have stalled DHS funding until significant reforms are made with ICE agents. Demands for ICE reforms reached a fever pitch in January after federal agents killed two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, on the streets of Minneapolis. "What we want is a situation where ICE is actually conducting itself like every other law enforcement agency in the country, as opposed to using taxpayer dollars to brutalize, or in some cases kill, American citizens," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday on "Face the Nation" from broadcaster NBC News.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [3/9/2026 9:08 AM, David Zimmermann, 1147K]

FOX Business [3/9/2026 6:04 PM, Staff, 7946K] Video: HERE reports Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., discusses public opinion toward the conflict in the Middle East and the DHS funding battle on ‘Kudlow.’

NewsNation [3/9/2026 3:19 PM, Zach Kaplan, Joe Khalil, 4464K] reports Democrats are continuing their push for reforms to the Department of Homeland Security as it nears a month since the partial government shutdown began. The government partially shut down Feb. 14 after Congress failed to pass DHS funding amid calls from Democrats for increased accountability and transparency within DHS and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The push for DHS reforms by Democrats hasn’t wavered since the shutdown began and was largely spurred by the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens who were fatally shot weeks apart by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January. Several Democratic lawmakers had called for Noem to resign alongside their DHS policy demands; it remains unclear, however, whether the shift in DHS leadership will be enough to persuade Democrats to vote to fund DHS.

Daily Signal [3/9/2026 6:55 PM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 474K] reports President Donald Trump slammed congressional Democrats for holding out on funding the Department of Homeland Security amid threats of terrorism from Iran. When asked about reports that Iran has activated terrorist sleeper cells abroad, Trump said his administration is "very much on top of it," though the ongoing DHS shutdown is a challenge. "One of the things we have to do is get the Democrats to stop the Democrat shutdown," he said. "Because, as you know, the apparatus that looks into that [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer and the Democrats have shut it down, which tells you they probably hate our country a lot, but the Democrats have to open that up.” The agency has been shut down for 24 days over Democrat demands to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump said he has "very, very good intelligence" on Iran’s sleeper cells. However, he said the shutdown prevents the administration from handling them as they want. "We know a lot of different things that have happened that have been very bad," he said. "A lot of them came in during the Biden period.” "We’re watching every single one of them," he added of the sleeper cells. "Yeah, we know a lot about them. The biggest problem we have is a Democrat shutdown. We know a lot about them, but the shutdown doesn’t allow us to do what we have to do.” When asked if the war would be finished this week, Trump said it would not, but reiterated that it will be done soon, when he is confident Iran won’t be immediately able to resume developing a nuclear weapon.

Daily Wire [3/9/2026 9:16 AM, Cameron Arcand, 2314K] reports that between lengthy TSA lines and increased concerns about national security threats amid the conflict with Iran, conservative experts told The Daily Wire that there are serious risks associated with the continued shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, as talks in Washington stall. DHS has faced a lapse in funding since Feb. 14, as Democrats and Republicans are at odds on federal immigration enforcement tactics, despite Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection already being heavily funded through the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" last year. Still, other agencies under DHS like TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard are unfunded. "We’re dealing with a heightened threat environment right now, and we need the federal government security capabilities to be firing on all cylinders," Nathan Sales, former special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, said. "If you’re a Hezbollah operative and you want to carry out an attack in the United States, you have to cross the border, and that’s a DHS responsibility," he noted, later adding that "this is not the time to be playing politics with national security." Sales specifically highlighted the risks of FEMA not having the money it needs to fully operate. "What happens if, God forbid, there is a terrorist incident on American soil and we need an immediate federal response to that," Sales asked. "It’s not a great time for FEMA to be sitting on the sidelines either."

NewsMax [3/9/2026 6:21 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K] reports Kristi Noem’s ouster as head of the Department of Homeland Security could clear a path to reopen the agency, according to Senate sources familiar with the negotiations who spoke with The Hill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told The Hill that firing Noem as homeland security secretary is a "major step" that should move the negotiations closer to a deal. Some Democrats still have reservations, however. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., welcomed Noem’s firing, calling her "a disgrace" but adding that "a change in personnel is not sufficient. Republicans invoked the war in Iran and the prospect of retaliatory terrorist attacks as they made another unsuccessful effort Thursday to pass a bill funding DHS. Democrats are insisting on changes to immigration enforcement operations as part of the measure and blocked it from advancing. The procedural vote was 51-45, falling well short of the 60 that Republicans needed to proceed with the measure. The House also took up the bill on Thursday, passing it 221-209, but in the end, a bipartisan compromise will have to be reached to end a DHS shutdown that began Feb. 14.

Washington Examiner [3/9/2026 2:44 PM, Naomi Lim, 1147K] reports that President Donald Trump is making an exception to his threat not to sign any legislation until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act and sends it to his desk. A White House official told the Washington Examiner that Trump would sign legislation reopening the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shuttered for more than three weeks. "The President was referring to other bills, not DHS funding," the official said. "If the Democrats do the right thing and pass funding for DHS, the President will, of course, fund the agency." Over the weekend, Trump pledged not to sign any bills into law until the SAVE America Act, which would require national voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote, reaches his desk. "I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD," Trump wrote on Truth Social. The SAVE Act passed the House last year, but has failed to make progress in the Senate because of the chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold. To get around the threshold, Trump and a cadre of conservative lawmakers are demanding Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to adopt a "talking filibuster." Democrats have refused to back legislation funding DHS until Trump agrees to broad reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Despite the White House making multiple offers, Democrats have stuck to their demands that ICE agents be banned from wearing masks while on duty, even as passengers see increased wait times at airports nationwide.

Washington Examiner [3/9/2026 2:02 PM, Naomi Lim, 1147K] reports that President Donald Trump is pledging not to sign any legislation until the Senate approves the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act, but the threat could be less menacing and not as government-halting as it sounds. Trump vowed on Sunday not to sign any bills into law until Congress sends to his desk the SAVE Act, which would require national voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote. "I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "It must be done immediately. It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE," the president added. "[Voters] MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY – ILLNESS, DISABILITY, TRAVEL: NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS: NO TRANSGENDER MUTILIZATION FOR CHILDREN! DO NOT FAIL!!!" But Trump’s threat regarding legislation might not bring the government to a screeching halt. That is because, according to Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution, if Trump does not sign or veto formalized, or "enrolled," bills that are transmitted from Congress to the White House within 10 days, they automatically become law unless Congress is adjourned. The 10-day period starts at midnight on the day that particular legislation is presented to the president, excluding Sundays. If Trump were to veto the bill, the measure would be returned to the congressional chamber that introduced it.

USA Today [3/9/2026 12:02 PM, Kate Perez, 70643K] reports President Donald Trump said he would stop signing bills until Congress passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America, Act, a bill that would require individuals to provide proof of citizenship upon registering to vote, as it attempts to get through the Senate. Trump made his latest move in support of the bill on March 8, writing on Truth Social that he would not sign any other bills that pass his desk until the SAVE America Act is through Congress. While supported by the president, the bill has drawn criticism and worry from people and groups who fear the legislation could hinder voting rights. Trump took to Truth Social to support the bill, writing that passing it "must be done immediately." "It supersedes everything else," Trump wrote in the post. "MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION - GO FOR THE GOLD." Trump’s post continues with notes about voting requirements the bill would include, such as showing voter ID and proof of citizenship, no mail-in ballots barring specific exceptions, and more.

FOX News [3/9/2026 6:32 PM, Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports an illegal immigrant from Africa who has allegedly voted in every federal election since 2008 has been arrested, Fox News Digital has learned, as congressional lawmakers fiercely debate a proposal to strengthen election integrity laws. Mahady Sacko, a Mauritanian citizen, has been charged with voter fraud in Philadelphia, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Monday. "This criminal illegal alien committed a felony by voting in federal elections dating back to 2008. Illegal aliens should NOT be electing American leaders," DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. "Our elections belong to American citizens, not foreign citizens. Congress must pass the SAVE America Act immediately to secure our elections. The Senate must pass the SAVE America Act.” Sacko, 50, entered the U.S. in March 1998 in Miami, and was ordered to be removed from the country by an immigration judge in 2000, according to a federal criminal complaint reviewed by Fox News Digital. In May 2025, investigators obtained voting records for Philadelphia County from the Philadelphia City Commissioners (PCCO) and the Pennsylvania Department of State (DOS) via a subpoena. Sacko registered to vote in 2005, and falsely stated on several occasions that he was a U.S. citizen, authorities allege. The voting records showed that he cast ballots in several federal elections, including during the general elections in 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024. In addition, he voted in the 2016 and 2020 primary elections, prosecutors said. He voted in person for every election, except for the 2020 primary, in which he voted by mail, the complaint states.

Washington Examiner [3/9/2026 9:16 PM, Rachel Schilke, 1147K] reports President Donald Trump made his "biggest plea" to House Republicans on Monday: Pass the SAVE America Act, a GOP voter identification bill, even if it takes the rest of this year. A little over 100 of the House GOP’s 218 members gathered in the ballroom of the Trump National Doral hotel in Florida to hear from Trump on Monday afternoon. The hourlong speech kicked off House Republicans’ three-day annual issues conference, where they are expected to plan out the rest of their agenda for the year before the November elections. Trump, on Monday, made his opinion known for what should be at the forefront of that agenda: the SAVE America Act, which would require voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote. "This is the No. 1 priority. It should be for the House," Trump said during his speech to the gathered members. A version of the legislation has already passed the House, but it is stalled in the Senate, where Republicans are hesitant to sidestep the 60-vote filibuster. Trump said passing the legislation will "guarantee the midterms," where Republicans are facing an uphill battle to reverse a historical trend in which the House flips to the party opposite the White House in an off-year election. "If you don’t get it, big trouble, in my opinion," the president added. "I’m for it if it takes you six months, I’m for not approving anything. … I don’t think we should approve anything until this is approved.” Passing the SAVE America Act is already a tall ask, as Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has repeatedly cast doubt on its ability to get through the Senate. Under current Senate procedure, Republicans would need a bloc of Democrats to join them to break the 60-vote filibuster to advance the bill to a final vote. Only one Democrat voted for the SAVE America Act in the House. Conservative influencers and a handful of GOP lawmakers in both chambers of Congress have called for sidestepping that threshold using a talking filibuster, an alternate approach that would allow the bill to pass at 50 votes after a Democrat-led speaking marathon. But Thune and other Senate Republicans have been cool to that idea, arguing that it is logistically impractical and could burn weeks or months of floor time. The president’s request to add more provisions to the SAVE America Act would also likely make passage difficult. Trump told the gathered lawmakers he wants language that would end mail-in voting and target transgender operations for minors. "If you could, if I could ask the people in this room, to go for the gold. We’re going for the gold. We’re not going for the bronze. We’re not going to sign a watered-down version like has been sent up there. Let’s go for the gold, and let’s just not accept anything else.”

Reported similarly:
FOX News [3/9/2026 8:30 PM, Leo Briceno, 37576K]

AP [3/9/2026 2:13 PM, Lindsay Whitehurst, 35287K] reports that the Trump administration is criticizing lower court judges who have slowed its efforts to strip legal protections from a broad swath of migrants living in the U.S. It’s asking the Supreme Court to clear the way for moves that could expose thousands more people to deportation. The Justice Department wants a broad ruling that would let it move more quickly to end legal protections for migrants from multiple countries, including Haiti and Syria, according to a letter sent to the high court on Monday. The Trump administration argues that the federal government has the authority to end temporary protected status as it sees fit, without intervention from the courts. But lower courts have disagreed, including a judge in Washington D.C. that found “hostility to nonwhite immigrants” likely played a role in the decision to end protections for Haitians. An appeals court upheld the decision. The Supreme Court, though, has sided with the Trump administration on the issue before, allowing the termination of protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to proceed amid litigation. It was part of a series of wins for Trump on the Supreme Court’s short-term emergency docket that have allowed him to move ahead with key parts of his agenda. Now the administration is asking for a ruling finding that courts can’t question the Department of Homeland Security moves that come amid a wider mass deportation effort. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the lower-court judges have shown “persistent disregard” for the court’s earlier emergency-docket decisions, part of a cycle that looks “likely to repeat again and again unless and until this Court steps in.”

Reuters [3/9/2026 1:08 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports that a federal judge has blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing a fast-track process to dispose of the vast majority of appeals by people seeking review of adverse decisions by immigration judges. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington, D.C., late on Sunday vacated the core part of a rule set to take effect on Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) issued in a bid to revamp the appellate review process before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). Moss, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, said the office adopted the rule without first providing an opportunity for notice and public comment in violation of the rulemaking requirements in the Administrative Procedure Act. "Issues that are so fundamental to the rights of tens of thousands of individuals (and that ⁠will guide how organizations and lawyers present their claims to the BIA) ought to be considered and addressed before—rather than after—a rule takes effect," Moss wrote. He vacated core provisions of the rule that would have cut the amount of time people have to file notices of appeal of an immigration judge’s decision from 30 days to 10 and treated any issue not raised in that notice as waived. Those appeals would be summarily dismissed unless, within 10 days of the notice of appeal being filed, the case was referred to the full BIA and the board voted to accept the appeal.

NPR [3/9/2026 2:47 PM, Shannon Bond, 28764K] reports an adjunct professor at a university in the eastern U.S. who studies online harms to children has left the country because they are not an American citizen and fear being denied a visa or deported. At another university in the Northeast, a content moderation expert who has permanent resident status has shifted their focus to more "politically neutral" topics and stopped traveling internationally. A professor in the South who studies the role of media in American politics has ceased publishing op-eds on their research and decided not to hold public events to promote a new book they wrote on disinformation, because they’re worried they will lose their H-1B visa. These accounts from people who would only speak anonymously are detailed in a new lawsuit filed against the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., federal court on Monday. They are among a host of noncitizen academics and independent researchers who are living in "pervasive fear" of immigration enforcement that’s having "chilling effects" on independent research and advocacy, the lawsuit alleges. The suit accuses the administration of violating the First Amendment with an official policy to deny visas to or deport noncitizens who work on or study social media platforms, fact-checking or other activities the government deems "censorship" of Americans’ speech. It argues that amounts to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. "The Trump administration is engaged in a brazen and far-reaching campaign of censorship while cynical and falsely claiming that censorship is what it’s fighting," the complaint says. The suit names Secretary of State Marco Rubio, outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi as defendants. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

FOX News [3/9/2026 6:40 PM, Breanne Deppisch, 37576K] reports the Department of Homeland Security on Monday blasted a federal judge’s order requiring it to immediately improve conditions at its ICE processing facility in Baltimore — including reducing the number of detainees held there at one time, and improving access to food, hygiene, and medical care — telling Fox News Digital that the court’s determination of any "subprime" conditions or overcrowding are "false.” "Illegal aliens in custody are provided food, water, blankets, and hygiene products," a spokesperson for DHS said Monday, alleging that ICE "has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens," including access to "comprehensive" medical care. The characterization comes hours after a federal judge in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction Monday ordering ICE to either drastically improve conditions at its Baltimore processing center or find a new facility to "humanely" and legally hold the migrants before transferring them to a longer-term detention center. U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin, a Biden appointee, sided with plaintiffs Monday in ruling that Baltimore’s holding center conditions are "unhygienic, unsanitary," and ultimately, unconstitutional. Rubin used a 67-page preliminary injunction to carefully tick through a long list of egregious conditions alleged by lawyers for plaintiffs over the last 10 months, including allegations of squalid, unsanitary holding, severe overcrowding, and a lack of medical screening, access to medical care, and necessary treatment — which the judge noted could lead to liability issues, or "in the worst-case scenario, fatalities.” "The debated issue here is not defendants’ legitimate governmental interest; it is that defendants apparently dispense with even rudimentary decent, humane treatment of civil detainees, and so too their constitutional rights as a result," Rubin said in the preliminary injunction, which applies to all current and future detainees at the holding facility operated by Baltimore’s ICE Field Office. She sided with plaintiffs in ruling that the conditions in Baltimore are "unlawfully punitive" and reflect a "deliberate indifference to the health, safety, and medical needs" on behalf of the government, in violation of the Fifth Amendment and due process protections granted under the U.S. Constitution. Rubin also rejected the notion that ICE detainees and illegal immigrants are not entitled to due process, citing the Supreme Court precedent under Zadvydas v. Davis, which holds that such protections apply to "all ‘persons’" within the U.S. "including [noncitizens], whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent.” A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that migrants detained at the ICE holding center in Baltimore are granted "comprehensive" health care, including "medical, dental, and mental health services as available, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care," and rejected claims made by plaintiffs and the judge. "This is the best healthcare tha[t] many aliens have received in their entire lives," the spokesperson added.

FOX News [3/9/2026 3:22 PM, Ashley Oliver, 37576K] reports an Obama-appointed federal judge’s attempt to rein in immigration enforcement in Chicago backfired after a federal appeals court ruled she overstepped her authority and "effectively established the district court as the supervisor of all Executive Branch activity in the city of Chicago." A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit tossed out Judge Sara Ellis’ preliminary injunction and dismissed the appeal in a sharply worded 2-1 decision. The panel, comprising two Trump appointees and a Reagan appointee, said the lower court’s injunction was "overbroad" and "constitutionally suspect." It faulted the judge for applying the order not just to specific officers but "the entire Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, as well as anyone acting in concert with them." Ellis had issued a lengthy 233-page opinion explaining why she granted the class-wide preliminary injunction against Homeland Security and Justice Department authorities carrying out immigration enforcement in Chicago. The majority, however, said that also throwing out the inju

FOX News [3/10/2026 3:14 AM, Landon Mion, 37576K] reports a federal judge in Oregon on Monday placed new limits on federal agents’ use of tear gas and other crowd-control munitions during protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists. The suit names the Department of Homeland Security and argues that officers’ use of chemical munitions amounts to retaliation that chills First Amendment rights. The order followed a three-day hearing in which plaintiffs — including a demonstrator known for wearing a chicken costume, a married couple in their 80s and two freelance journalists — testified that federal officers used chemical spray and projectile munitions against them. In his written opinion, Simon said video evidence submitted in court depicted officers spraying OC spray into the faces of protesters engaged in passive resistance and deploying tear gas and pepper-ball rounds into crowds. "Plaintiffs provided numerous videos, which were received in evidence and unambiguously show DHS officers spraying OC Spray directly into the faces of peaceful and nonviolent protesters engaged in, at most, passive resistance and discharging tear gas and firing pepper-ball munitions into crowds of peaceful and nonviolent protestors," Simon wrote. "Defendants’ conduct — physically harming protestors and journalists without prior dispersal warnings — is objectively chilling.” The Department of Homeland Security has previously said that the agents have "followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property.” A federal judge also ruled to restrict agents’ use of tear gas in a separate case brought by the residents of an affordable housing complex across the street from the ICE building. This comes amid demonstrations across the country against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. In his ruling, Simon barred agents from using chemical or projectile munitions such as pepper balls and tear gas unless someone poses an imminent threat of physical harm. He also instructed agents not to fire munitions at the head, neck or torso "unless the officer is legally justified in using deadly force against that person.”

FOX News [3/9/2026 6:00 AM, Andrew Kugle, 37576K] reports Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., called on President Donald Trump to remove long-time adviser Stephen Miller from the administration on Sunday, describing him as an "embarrassment" and a "big problem" for the administration. The North Carolina Republican’s comments come on the heels of the high-profile firing of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week. Tillis, speaking on CNN’s "State of the Union," suggested that Miller should be the next official to exit the West Wing in his latest shot at the top aide. "It gives me pause that you have people like Stephen Miller calling the shots," Tillis told host Jake Tapper. "It was Stephen Miller that was talking about a terrorist brandishing a gun. It was Stephen Miller who said it was the position of the United States that we should go after Greenland. It was Stephen Miller who has been repeatedly responsible for embarrassment for the President of the United States by acting too quickly. Speaking first and thinking later." Tillis, who is not running for re-election, specifically took aim at Miller’s role in orchestrating the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. While the GOP remains largely unified on the need for border security, Tillis argued that Miller’s methods and public rhetoric — including comments regarding the shooting death of Alex Pretti — have become a liability. When asked directly by Tapper if he believes Miller should be fired, Tillis was unequivocal: "Oh, of course I do."

CNN [3/10/2026 5:01 AM, Bob Ortega, Majlie de Puy Kamp, and Thomas Bordeaux, 19874K] Video: HERE reports Leigh Kunkel never saw the federal agent pointing a pepper ball gun at her face from about twenty feet away. Kunkel, a freelance journalist at a protest outside an immigration detention center in Chicago on September 26, was crouched behind a van when an agent took aim from a safe perch behind a chain link fence. He fired multiple rounds at Kunkel, video shows. Her nose exploded in blood and pain. "I was lucky that I’d been wearing the respirator. It very likely could have broken my nose if I hadn’t been," Kunkel said. "Insanely lucky that he didn’t hit me, you know, two inches higher and I could have lost an eye." Firing a pepper ball gun at someone’s face violates numerous federal and local police rules – yet the incident is far from an aberration for the federal officers who have confronted protesters demonstrating against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago. A CNN analysis of more than two dozen videos of federal agents using less-lethal weapons such as chemical sprays, pepper ball guns and rubber bullets found officers routinely violated both federal and local law enforcement use-of-force policies. Those include cases where officers deployed chemical weapons near children and numerous incidents where officers fired less-lethal weapons at protesters’ heads and faces from close range. In most of these cases, agents had no obvious reason to fear for their safety, a key requirement for this type of use-of-force. "They have violated every protocol on less-lethal (weapons) and crowd control," former Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said about these federal agents. "Not making an announcement to disperse, body-slamming people to the ground…they’re supposed to de-escalate, and they don’t.” The agents’ actions have had severe consequences for some protesters, who have lost eyesight, broken bones and suffered serious breathing complications and other injuries. Experts said federal agencies’ lack of specific policies and training for urban policing, combined with encouragement from Trump administration officials for agents to aggressively confront protesters, has created a perfect situation for widespread misuse of less-lethal weapons.

Washington Post [3/9/2026 11:00 AM, Maria Sacchetti and N. Kirkpatrick, 24826K] reports Jose Avendano tried explaining to the immigration officer yanking him out of his car that he had permission to be in the United States. The 62-year-old dishwasher had fled El Salvador decades ago and had a valid work permit and one of the few temporary statuses offering protection from deportation that the Trump administration wasn’t revoking. “They didn’t listen,” Avendano said. As he was being shuttled to a detention camp near a U.S. military base in El Paso in early January, most of Minneapolis and the nation was focused on the clashes between protesters and federal immigration officers that led to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens and ignited tensions over the Trump administration’s mass-deportation campaign. More than 4,000 people have been arrested in Minneapolis since the start of Operation Metro Surge in December, and federal judges and civil rights lawyers say many of those detentions broke the law. The Washington Post reviewed nearly 70 cases in which U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz ruled that the Trump administration had violated court orders. The court records offer the most detailed account yet on who officers arrested in Minneapolis and how they conducted arrests. The case files show how officers repeatedly detained people under a reinterpretation of a 1996 law that states that anyone in the United States illegally “shall be detained” without bond, indefinitely, even when courts had ordered they be granted a bond hearing or set free. Most were quickly transferred to detention centers in Texas or Louisiana.

Wall Street Journal [3/9/2026 1:07 PM, Brenna T. Smith, Hannah Critchfield, and Brian Whitton, 646K] reports since President Trump took office, U.S. government social-media accounts have issued more than 1,400 tweets saying federal law-enforcement officers are under attack by terrorists, rioters and agitators. A Wall Street Journal investigation found that most people accused in these X posts were Americans—including Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both killed by federal agents in January. Here are the key findings from the Journal investigation, which tracked U.S. citizens caught in the crosshairs of an aggressive government campaign to detain and demonize dissenters. Over the past year, arrests of Americans on suspicion of assaulting federal officers have been tied largely to demonstrations and vehicle stops, according to a Journal review of more than 200 videos. Most assault allegations posted on X against American protesters, which accounted for almost half of the U.S. citizens arrested, were unsubstantiated. The Journal analyzed Justice Department data and found that under the Trump administration, immigration law-enforcement agencies sought federal assault charges against U.S. citizens more frequently—an increase of more than 300% compared with the previous year. As with the fatal shootings of Good and Pretti in Minneapolis, the Journal analyzed videos that cast doubt on the federal government’s claims.

New York Times [3/10/2026 3:41 AM, Zia ur-Rehman, Vivian Nereim, and Aie Balagtas See, 148038K] reports Murib Zaman worked as a driver in the United Arab Emirates for two decades, living more than a thousand miles away from his family in northwestern Pakistan and sending home $300 each month. The manicured city of Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital, seemed much safer than his remote village, where Pakistani Taliban militants roamed. So when his family received word that he had been killed in a faraway war — struck by debris that fell from an intercepted Iranian missile, according to a statement by the U.A.E. — they were shocked. “Every family wants to send its youth to the Middle East because there are no jobs here, and the security situation is difficult,” Mr. Zaman’s cousin, Farman Khan, said in a phone interview. “But now it appears that even those countries are no longer safe.” Tens of millions of men and women like Mr. Zaman, who was in his 40s, form the backbone of the economy in the Gulf states, oil and natural gas-rich countries that depend heavily on foreign workers. Since the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran began, Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones in retaliation at Gulf countries. It is migrants who are paying the highest price.

Wall Street Journal [3/9/2026 5:56 PM, Staff, 646K] reports federal prosecutors in New York on Monday charged two men for ISIS-inspired Islamist terrorism, after they tried to detonate shrapnel bombs at a small far-right protest near Gracie Mansion on Saturday. The explosive devices fizzled. But perhaps New York Sen. Chuck Schumer can find it in his instinct for political self-preservation to restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security. Emir Balat, age 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, are accused of coming to New York from Pennsylvania to conduct the attack, and Mr. Balat told investigators his goal was to kill more people than the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, which ended three lives. “These were not hoax devices nor smokebombs,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday. “They were improvised explosive devices that could have caused serious injury or death.” Ms. Tisch said there isn’t yet any indication of a connection to President Trump’s war in Iran, but “we have been in a heightened state of alert in New York City since the start of hostilities.” That includes heavy weaponry and other resources at the ready. For years Tehran exported terror under its late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and it isn’t likely to stop under its new Supreme Leader, his son. Yet the Department of Homeland Security continues to operate in shutdown mode, more than three weeks after its funding lapsed, with thousands of federal employees not getting the paychecks they’re owed. Democrats, led by Mr. Schumer, refuse to reopen DHS because they want to pick a fight over President Trump’s push for “mass deportation.” They’ve said they won’t restore funding unless Republicans agree to dramatic changes at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Inflicting pain on the public is a bad negotiating tactic, and the DHS shutdown is being felt acutely at the nation’s airports, as the Transportation Security Administration deals with employees calling out of work. The main airport in New Orleans warned Monday that TSA lines might be two hours. In Houston the checkpoint hit three hours. Travelers who miss a flight, and maybe a wedding or a funeral, can send regards to Mr. Schumer. The bigger worry, though, is that there might be a security lapse that makes this failure to fund DHS look in retrospect like the height of partisan recklessness. In addition to airport security screeners, DHS includes the Coast Guard (which has personnel who support the U.S. Navy in Bahrain), the Secret Service, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Democrats insist they won’t restore DHS funding without an overhaul of ICE, but they are running a big risk if there is a successful terror attack. After the attempt in Manhattan, the wisest move for Mr. Schumer would be to quit posturing and pass the bill.

Washington Times [3/9/2026 4:50 PM, Emilio T. Gonzalez, 1323K] reports for more than 20 years, the diversity visa, also known as the visa lottery, has faced numerous calls across the federal government for reform and outright elimination. In Congress, among federal agencies and think tanks, many believe the diversity visa is an unnecessary national security vulnerability that has run its course. The diversity visa was the brainchild of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who in 1990 inserted this random visa lottery into the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 to solve a uniquely Massachusetts political problem: the many illegal Irish immigrants unable to qualify for legal status. The solution was a lottery, rigged from the start to favor the Irish as well as random immigrants from supposedly underrepresented countries. This way, the legislation would not appear to favor any one group. This visa lottery can award up to 55,000 immigrant visas per year to people from countries with traditionally low immigration rates to the U.S. Administered by the State Department, it has morphed into a unique national security threat and a magnet for fraud, adding millions of random people to the U.S. population. Lottery applicants must meet only the minimum requirements: a high school diploma or equivalent, or two years of work experience. Once selected for an immigrant visa, the winner can bring a spouse and all his or her minor children. Given these minimal requirements, the visa is so susceptible to fraud that it constitutes an invitation for criminal and terrorist exploitation on an industrial scale. The program draws from an online pool of applicants with no demonstrable ties to the U.S., no skills, no language requirement, no employer sponsor and no family anchor. This is precisely the population about which the U.S. government has the least verifiable information.

New York Times [3/9/2026 5:03 AM, Frank Bruni, 148038K] reports is there a heart somewhere inside Kristi Noem, underneath all those costumes, behind all that lacquer? She makes no attempt to show it. Whether killing an inconvenient dog or slandering Minnesotans gunned down by federal agents, she picks cruelty over compassion — and, sadly, seems to equate that choice with strength. Does she have a pinch, even a grain, of modesty? She spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on advertisements for, well, Kristi Noem. That seemed to peeve the president. From his underlings he expects compliments, not competition. But another, less colorful trait of Noem’s should have disturbed him, and should unsettle us, even more, because it’s the root of so much of what’s wrong with Trump’s White House — an explanation of its dysfunctions, a key to its disgraces, a signal to the world of how fickle and foolish America has become: She’s unprofessional. During her mercifully terminated stint as the homeland security secretary, she made extravagant claims without much, if any, attempt to ascertain their veracity. She used government resources in questionable ways. She treated public service as private amusement. That’s not how true professionals behave. But it’s how many senior officials in the Trump administration do. And it’s a big part of my and many other observers’ profound apprehensions about the military strikes in Iran. We can’t trust that they got the degree of deliberation that war demands. We can’t assume temperance, reflection, rationality. Those hallmarks of professionalism aren’t values to which the Trump administration subscribes. It’s a twisted culture, its warp and warts evident not only in the shenanigans at federal departments that routinely draw scrutiny but also in the melodrama at those that typically don’t.

New York Post [3/9/2026 7:56 PM, Rich Lowry, 40934K] reports it’s hard to get a more perfect metaphor for our times than a leftist braying on his bullhorn at a protest about how welcoming New York City is, then having a jihadist throw a bomb directly over his back. That’s what happened to progressive influencer Walter Masterson Saturday when he was telling far-right provocateur Jake Lang a thing or two about New York values — before getting interrupted by an act of Islamic terrorism. Irving Kristol famously said that "a neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality.” What’s a preachy left-winger who has nearly become a victim of a mass-casualty event? Masterson’s brush with potentially serious injury or death has caused him . . to keeping inveighing against Jake Lang. During the French Revolution, they said "pas d’ennemis à gauche," or "no enemies to the left.” It shows an extraordinary commitment to this approach not to get overly worked up about someone yelling "Allah Akbar" and almost blowing you up with a bunch of other people. But, hey: Some people in New York City throw bombs, and others don’t. Diversity is our strength! None of this is to deny that Jake Lang, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, is a poisonous toad. He was leading a small, buffoonish demonstration against the supposed takeover of New York City by Muslims when the attack happened. It’s just that engaging in First Amendment-protected activity is not in the same moral universe as trying to kill people. Someone might want to get word to Mayor Zohran Mamdani. His initial statement on the episode began with a strong condemnation of Lang by name and went on to say that, yes, throwing bombs is bad, too. "Violence at a protest is never acceptable," he wrote. Mamdani didn’t name the perpetrators, note that they were attempting to kill Lang, or call out their Islamic extremism.

New York Times [3/9/2026 4:18 PM, Campbell Robertson, 148038K] reports that Columbus, Ohio, was sure it would be next. As thousands of federal immigration agents were overwhelming Minneapolis, officials, activists and residents across Columbus prepared for the sprawling immigration crackdown many thought was imminent, particularly given the city’s sizable Somali population. In Philadelphia, nerves were on edge for weeks. Some worried local officials grumbled that the district attorney’s brazen pledge to arrest federal agents all but guaranteed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would show up in force. And in Maryland, rumors of a major ICE crackdown have been swirling. Local and state officials have been scrambling to verify or disprove the rumors, checking for fluctuations in hotel occupancy rates and keeping an eye on federal transactions, including ICE’s purchase of an enormous warehouse in the western part of the state and efforts to lease more office space around Baltimore and Washington. These efforts have continued even as the prospects seemed to dim for a big, confrontational operation like the one that engulfed Minneapolis over several weeks in December and January. After two U.S. citizens were killed by immigration agents during the Minneapolis operation, the Department of Homeland Security demoted the Border Patrol commander who had been leading the charge, Gregory Bovino. The president’s border czar, Tom Homan, stepped in and said that the operation would be winding down and that tactics would be changing nationwide. And on Thursday, Kristi Noem, the D.H.S. secretary who had called the dead Americans domestic terrorists, was fired after two contentious appearances this week on Capitol Hill.

Washington Post [3/9/2026 5:00 AM, Douglas MacMillan and Aaron Schaffer, 24826K] reports for decades, two companies have been the government’s go-to partners for immigrant detention: Geo Group and CoreCivic run the facilities where the majority of people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are held. But as the Trump administration embarks on a $38 billion plan to convert industrial warehouses into a new breed of large-scale holding centers, it is turning to a crop of relatively untested businesses to rapidly build and operate the facilities. On Friday, the administration awarded a contract worth at least $113.1 million to KVG LLC, a defense contractor, to build and operate a detention center in a Williamsport, Maryland warehouse, according to federal spending website USASpending.gov. The company has not been awarded any previous federal contracts for immigrant detention, according to government procurement records. GardaWorld Federal Services, a security contractor, was awarded at least $313.4 million to run the detention center planned at a Surprise, Arizona, warehouse. The company employs guards at immigrant holding centers in Canada as well as at the “Alligator Alcatraz” facility in the Florida Everglades. Prior to the Arizona award, it had not been directly contracted by ICE to oversee any detention centers, records show. Both contracts have a potential end date of 2029. John Boyer, the CEO of KVG, declined to comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement. A GardaWorld spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Reuters [3/9/2026 7:24 PM, Ted Hesson, 38315K] reports at least 11 immigrants have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody from January 2026 through early March, according to ICE. That follows 31 deaths last year, a two-decade high. Emanuel Cleeford Damas: ICE took Damas into custody after he was arrested on assault and battery charges in September 2025 in Boston, ICE said. Damas was transferred to the Florence Detention Center in Florence, Arizona. ICE said he reported shortness of breath on February 19 and was sent to a local hospital and then transferred to a Phoenix hospital and placed in an intensive care unit. Pejman Karshenas Najafabadi: ICE took Karshenas into custody in April 2025 after he was convicted of fentanyl possession, ICE said. He had several chronic health conditions but remained detained and was transferred in October 2025 to Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Angola, a facility opened under the Trump administration, according to ICE. Alberto Gutierrez Reyes: Gutierrez was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Los Angeles in January, ICE said. He reported feeling faint on February 25 and was admitted to Victor Valley Global Medical Center for chest pain and shortness of breath, ICE said. He became unresponsive and died on February 27, ICE said. Jairo Garcia Hernandez: ICE took Garcia into custody after he was encountered by local police near Rochester, New York, on January 21, 2025, the agency said. ICE said he was immunocompromised and was "already in ill health" when he was detained. On February 16, 2026, more than a year after he was taken into custody, he collapsed unexpectedly and died, according to ICE. Lorth Sim: Sim entered the U.S. as a refugee in 1983 but had been ordered deported following several convictions, ICE said. He was detained after arriving at an ICE office in Boston on December 30, 2025, and then transferred to the Indiana detention center, the agency said. Victor Manuel Diaz: Staff at the detention center, which is located on the grounds of Fort Bliss, found Diaz unconscious and unresponsive in his room on January 14 and he was pronounced dead shortly after, ICE said. ICE said the incident was under investigation but that he died of "presumed suicide." Heber Sanchaz Domínguez: Sanchaz was detained by ICE after being arrested in Georgia for driving without a license, ICE said. He was found "hanging by the neck and unresponsive in his sleeping quarters" and later pronounced dead at an area hospital, ICE said. The agency said the incident is under investigation. Parady La: ICE said La was being detained at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia after a January 6 arrest and was being treated for "severe drug withdrawal" when he was ⁠found unresponsive in his cell. He was transferred to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital where he was diagnosed with brain and organ failure and declared deceased on January 9, ICE said. Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz: Beltran was arrested by federal immigration officers in Newark, New Jersey, in November, according to ICE. At some point, he was moved to the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico, California. On January 4, he complained of chest pain and was transferred to a hospital where he died two days later, ICE said. Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres: Nunez was arrested during an immigration operation in Houston on November 17, 2025, ICE said. He was eventually taken to Joe Corley Processing Center in Conroe, Texas. Geraldo Lunas Campos: Lunas died on January 3 in Camp East Montana, a detention site ⁠opened by the ​Trump administration on the grounds of Fort Bliss in Texas, according to ICE. The agency initially said he experienced "medical distress" and that they were investigating the incident.

Telemundo51 [3/9/2026 4:37 PM, Hatzel Vela and Connie Fossi, 162K] reports an asylum seeker claims he was detained during an immigration hearing, transferred to several states, and ultimately deported, without ever understanding why. Now, his lawyer is fighting to bring him back to the United States, calling his deportation “illegal” in a lawsuit and warning that he “faces an imminent risk of harm” in his home country. Speaking from Latin America, Alex says he fears for his life. "I’m in danger here," he told the Telemundo 51 team, adding that he believes he could be attacked because of his political opinions. Alex says he showed up for an immigration court hearing on December 3 and ended up handcuffed and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The man says he was first taken to an ICE facility in Miramar, Florida, and then spent more than 50 days at the detention center that Florida officials call “Alligator Alcatraz”. Alex describes the conditions at "Alligator Alcatraz" as "horrible". Alex says the transfers didn’t end there. He recounts being flown from "Alligator Alcatraz" to Louisiana, where he stayed for several days, and then transferred to Arizona, where he says he spent more than 20 days before being deported. Rub filed an emergency habeas corpus petition in federal court, arguing that Alex was “illegally deported from the United States” and that he “faces an imminent risk of harm.” The petition also notes that Alex had previously been placed in deportation proceedings, but that case was dismissed. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that ICE detained Alex on December 3 and issued a statement saying in part: "The allegation that this individual was ‘illegally deported’ is false," adding that "he received due process in full and was issued a deportation order on December 12, 2025." Rub is one of several immigration lawyers in Florida who have resorted to habeas corpus petitions to challenge detentions and request bond hearings for their clients. Because Alex is no longer in custody in the United States, a federal judge denied the emergency request, ruling that the court no longer has jurisdiction over the case. Subsequently, Rub filed another lawsuit requesting that the judge “assume jurisdiction” over the case and order the Trump Administration to “facilitate” Alex’s return, arguing that, under federal law, “an immigration judge must conduct proceedings to determine the inadmissibility or deportability of an alien.”

Washington Examiner [3/9/2026 6:00 AM, Mia Cathell, 1147K] reports an illegal immigrant allegedly stabbed a woman to death at a bus stop last week in Fairfax County, Virginia, a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, particularly those with a criminal record, after the Democrat-led jurisdiction let the suspect out of jail dozens of times. In fact, in recent years, Fairfax County reportedly had the country’s third-highest number of criminally charged illegal immigrants released back into the community, behind Santa Clara County’s main pretrial holding facility in California and Chicago’s Cook County Jail in Illinois. In 2025, the northern Virginia suburb ranked No. 3 nationally by release volume out of sanctuary strongholds across the country that routinely disregard detention requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE detainers, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Through these immigration detainers, ICE asks police agencies to temporarily hold illegal immigrants, who were arrested on criminal charges, until deportation officers can safely take custody of them without having to hunt down the at-large illegal immigrants in the streets, sometimes years later, after they had absconded and committed more crimes. From October 2022 to February 2025, the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center freed more than a thousand deportable illegal immigrants from lock-up in direct defiance of over 1,150 detainers lodged with local officials, according to ICE records obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies. CIS reported that Fairfax County’s rejection rate of ICE detention requests over that period outpaced those of many large U.S. cities, including San Francisco County Jail at No. 9 with 462 declined detainers, Minneapolis’ Hennepin County Jail at No. 11 with 363, and New York City’s Rikers Island in Queens at No. 16 with 237. In terms of refusal rate, Fairfax County trailed slightly behind all of the top non-cooperating jails in Los Angeles County combined, according to the detainer data.

Wall Street Journal [3/9/2026 8:09 PM, Mariah Timms, 646K] reports a federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to justify the detention of a Nashville, Tenn., journalist who was arrested by immigration officials last week. Colombia-born Estefany Rodriguez Florez, 35 years old, was arrested by immigration officials Wednesday in the company of her U.S. citizen husband, according to legal filings. Rodriguez and her family were in a vehicle that had a Nashville Noticias logo on it, the filings said. The Spanish-language online news outlet where Rodriguez works covers the Tennessee capital region. The arrest was retaliation for news coverage critical of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, her attorneys said. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson ordered quick responses in the case, directing the government to file a written justification this week. He could set a hearing on the case soon after. Rodriguez was being held in a county jail in Gadsden, Ala., as of Monday morning, according to a database maintained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lawyers for Rodriguez filed an emergency petition Wednesday, seeking her immediate release. They said she was improperly detained with an inadequate warrant, violating her Fourth Amendment right to due process. They filed an amended complaint Sunday, alleging Rodriguez was arrested in retaliation for coverage critical of ICE operations in Tennessee. “Her work as a journalist is central to this,” her lawyer Mike Holley said. “She’s the kind of person that ICE has been retaliating against, has been abusing, whether they’re citizens or noncitizens. She’s vulnerable to this kind of retaliation because of her status as a noncitizen.” Much of the legal debate hinges on whether Rodriguez was arrested without a warrant. Her attorneys argue she wasn’t served with a copy of the administrative warrant until well after she was taken into custody. A DHS spokesperson denied Rodriguez was targeted because of her journalism, calling the accusation a “gross smear,” and refuted the claim there were issues with the warrant. “She will receive full due process and remains in ICE custody pending the outcome of her immigration proceedings,” the emailed statement said. “Any pending asylum claim does not preclude immigration enforcement.” The federal government said Rodriguez was in the country illegally and was arrested as part of a targeted immigration-enforcement operation.

New York Times [3/9/2026 6:50 PM, Annie Karni, 148038K] reports two teenage brothers and mariachi stars who visited the White House last summer were released with their family on Monday from ICE detention centers in South Texas, immediately following the visit of a delegation of Democratic lawmakers who pressed for them to be freed. The case had drawn national outrage, and Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas, who led the delegation, had been working to secure their release since the family was detained over a week ago. On the drive to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center on Monday, Mr. Castro spoke to an ICE official out of the San Antonio field office and warned him that the story of the detained mariachi brothers was gaining national attention and would prompt an outcry from the public. After visiting with one of the brothers, Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, and members of his family inside the detention center, Mr. Castro waited in the parking lot with other visiting lawmakers for hours as they were processed for release. Another brother who is also a member of the mariachi group, Antonio, 18, was released from a separate facility for adults, the El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas. Mr. Gámez has said that his family entered the United States in 2023 at the border crossing in Brownsville, Texas, and claimed asylum, because they were fleeing threats in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where he had been kidnapped by cartel members. CNN [3/9/2026 3:42 PM, Lauren Mascarenhas, Karina Tsui, Ruben Correa, 612K] reports Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, and Joshua Gámez-Cuéllar, 12, had been held with their parents at the South Texas Family Residential Center, a facility in Dilley. Their brother, Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, was also released after being held at a separate facility in Raymondville, Texas. He appeared at a news conference Monday with US Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Texas Republican, outside the facility. "The Gámez-Cuéllar family has been released," Castro said in the post alongside photos of the family. "We are taking them now to reunite with their son Antonio," Castro said in the post. A DHS spokesperson confirmed the family’s release in a statement to CNN on Monday night, adding, "They will have mandatory check-ins with ICE law enforcement.” On Monday night, the family spoke to the media about their experience in detention, with Luis Antonio Gámez Martínez, the brothers’ father, calling the Dilley facility a "horrible place" and thanking everyone who supported them. Less than a year ago, Antonio and Caleb were recognized on Capitol Hill for their award-winning performances in a premier high school mariachi group. Word of the talented musicians’ detention spread through their hometown of McAllen, and the mariachi musicians’ community in the area and around the nation, as some state leaders decry DHS tactics that again landed children in federal custody. Their parents, Gámez Martínez and Emma Guadalupe Cuéllar López, were arrested by ICE on February 25, according to DHS. The agency said the family had been living in the US after entering illegally in 2023 near Brownsville, Texas. "They chose to bring their adult son and two children with them," a DHS spokesperson said in an earlier statement about the family’s detention. Castro and other lawmakers say the family followed all of the rules needed to enter the US by claiming asylum. Efrén C. Olivares, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center representing Antonio, told the Associated Press the family entered the US lawfully in 2023 through the CBP One app, a legal pathway. The family’s case is still pending, Castro said. CNN has reached out to the family’s attorneys for further information. Gámez Martínez insisted he and his wife always attended their required court appointments, telling CNN affiliate KRGV, "I was never running away, I always showed up.” Gámez Martínez said federal agents put an ankle monitor on him and his wife, and they were told they can only travel up to 75 miles from his home. The father of three said seeing his eldest son Antonio taken away in chains to a different detention facility was painful. "It’s a horrible thing, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, it was horrible," he said. "My children are good people. They’ve always dedicated themselves to school," Gámez Martínez added.

Reported similarly:
AP [3/9/2026 6:53 PM, Valerie Gonzalez]
NBC News [3/9/2026 5:33 PM, Suzanne Gamboa, 42967K]
Telemundo 48 El Paso [3/9/2026 2:56 PM, Staff, 19K]

Telemundo 48 El Paso [3/9/2026 3:27 PM, Staff, 19K] reports immigrant advocacy organizations, along with a group of Democratic congressmen led by Representative Joaquin Castro, will hold a press conference to demand the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immediately release families detained at the Dilley Detention Center. Lawmakers have denounced practices that have raised concerns within the detention center, such as lack of medical care, insufficient food, and unsanitary conditions. For its part, DHS indicated that the Dilley facilities are adapted for families. The federal agency also defended itself against the allegations, stating that residents of the center have continuous access to doctors, pediatricians, nurses, and mental health professionals. The demand for the release of migrant families is also reflected in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, where community unrest is growing after the detention of the Gámez Cuéllar family.

ABC News [3/9/2026 6:09 AM, Laura Romero, 34146K] reports Adriana Laya and Miguel Alberto Caicedo thought their worst nightmare was over when they were released with their two children from a family detention center in Dilley, Texas. But when they returned to their home in Las Cruces, New Mexico, after being detained for two months, they faced a new nightmare. The family claims they were kicked out of their apartment during their detention and that their belongings -- including their life savings and their pet dog -- were taken. "We started crying," Laya told ABC News in Spanish. "My kids started crying over their pet, their clothes, their bed. We just held on to each other outside of the apartment." The family from Venezuela said they are now living in their car -- the only possession they were able to recover after it was left in a government parking lot outside of where they were detained. The couple and their children, ages 11 and 5, entered the United States in 2024 under the Biden administration and were released on parole to pursue an asylum claim the family says. The family told ABC News they had built a life in New Mexico: Caicedo worked as a delivery driver, Laya cleaned hotels and their two children attended school. But in January, when the family of four showed up for a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they were detained. They say they were taken to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, a detention facility that has faced criticism from immigrant advocates over allegations of poor conditions and a lack of medical care. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment regarding the family’s detention, but in a statement issued last month the agency disputed any suggestion that detainees are being denied proper care. "The truth is this facility provided proper medical care for all detainees, including access to a pediatrician," DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. "The fact is, being in detention is a choice. We encourage all parents to take control of their departure by using the CBP Home app and receiving a free flight home and $2,600." The family also alleged that ICE staff pressured them several times to sign voluntary departure forms.

Breitbart [3/9/2026 4:50 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports an illegal alien, classified by the Biden administration as a "non-enforcement priority," is accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the ultra-wealthy community of Park City, Utah, where the average home price hovers around two million dollars. Conrrado Ahuexoteco Atrisco, a 24-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, has been arrested in Park City and charged with suspicion of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, as well as providing a false statement to a peace officer. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Breitbart News has learned, is now seeking custody of the illegal alien. "These are the kinds of predators sanctuary politicians are protecting by refusing to cooperate with ICE law enforcement," the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Lauren Bis said. "We have requested Utah authorities not release this pedophile and sexual predator from their jail without notifying ICE. These types of monsters have no place in American communities," Bis said. "Under President Trump, we will continue to fight for the arrest and removal of criminal illegal aliens to protect American families." Prosecutors in the case are asking Summit County officials to keep Ahuexoteco Atrisco locked up in jail, as they consider him a flight risk. ICE agents have lodged a detainer against Ahuexoteco Atrisco.

San Francisco Chronicle [3/9/2026 10:05 PM, Jessica Flores, Aidin Vaziri, 3833K] reports federal immigration officials say a Hayward mother and her two young children, including a 6-year-old boy who is deaf, were deported to Colombia last week because an immigration judge ordered their removal two years ago. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, 28, on March 3 in San Francisco, according to an agency statement. Rodriguez Gutierrez, a Colombian national, and her sons entered the United States without legal authorization on April 6, 2022, ICE said. An immigration judge ordered the family removed from the country in 2024, and Rodriguez Gutierrez was detained after failing to comply with reporting requirements, the agency said. It did not identify the judge. The arrest comes as federal immigration authorities have increased enforcement actions nationwide following policy changes under the Trump administration. The family was taken to San Francisco International Airport on March 5, flown to Alexandria, La., and then deported to Colombia. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not separate families or deport U.S. citizens,” an ICE spokesperson said. “Illegal alien parents — absent indications of abuse or neglect — can choose to take their children with them, regardless of the children’s immigration statuses.” Rodriguez Gutierrez’s attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza, said the family was detained during what they believed was a routine immigration check-in at an ICE office in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. “Ms. Rodriguez Gutierrez was never given a choice to be removed, and never agreed to deportation,” De Bremaeker said in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security said Rodriguez Gutierrez was given the option to leave her children with a designated caregiver in the U.S., but chose to be deported with them. During the arrest, Rodriguez Gutierrez asked agents to allow relatives outside the building to bring hearing devices for her son, Joseph, who is deaf, the attorney said. But the request was denied, De Bremaeker added. Joseph had been attending the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, according to the school. “We are deeply saddened by the circumstances affecting one of our students and their family,” the school said in a statement. “Our school community remains committed to supporting all students and advocating for their right to learn, grow, and thrive.” California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond criticized the deportation and called on federal officials to return the family to the U.S. “No child should be ripped from their home community and hidden in a detention center, especially not a Deaf child who is being deprived of the ability to communicate and understand what is happening to him,” Thurmond said in a statement. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Castro Valley, said Monday that members of his staff traveled to Colombia and delivered hearing aids to the boy. “To the child we have returned his sound, but to our nation, what has happened to our soul,” Swalwell said at a press briefing.

USA Today [3/9/2026 6:35 PM, Noe Padilla, 70643K] reports members from Rep. Eric Swalwell’s staff traveled to Colombia to return hearing aids to a 6-year-old deaf boy who was abruptly deported with his family last week, the congressman announced. The family’s deportation made international news after California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond held a press conference to demand the return of the 6-year-old. The child, as well as his mother, Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, 28, and brother, were detained at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s San Francisco office on March 3 without his medically required hearing aids, according to their immigration attorney Nikolas De Bremaeker. Swalwell called on the federal government to return Rodriguez Gutierrez and her sons to the United States. "What happened here is not about public safety," Swalwell said. "How does ruining the life of a 6-year-old deaf child make our community of the country any safer? It doesn’t.” The family was deported within the span of a few days before Bremaeker said he had the ability to file an emergency request and ask a judge in federal immigration court to halt their deportation. "In a move that shocks the conscience and violates several laws as well as our constitution, ICE denied Joseph the assistive devices he needs to live," Bremaeker said during a press conference on March 9. "In the fundamental violation of the family’s due process rights, ICE misled our team at every turn regarding the location of the family.” A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in an emailed statement that Rodriguez Gutierrez entered the country with her two sons in 2022. On June 24, 2024, a federal immigration judge issued a removal order for Rodriguez Gutierrez, claiming that she "failed to comply with multiple directives to report," according to ICE.

CBS Los Angeles [3/10/2026 12:03 AM, Matthew Rodriguez, 51110K] reports federal immigration agents arrested a person outside the Culver City Police Department shortly after officers cited and released him on Monday. Culver City PD said its officers arrested the driver on Sunday after determining the individual was under the influence of alcohol and drugs. The department also said the person had controlled substances and an illegal weapon. Police booked the person into jail but released him on a "promise-to-appear" citation, as required by law, according to Culver City PD. Federal immigration agents were waiting at the front of the police station as officers were escorting the person off the property on Monday, according to Culver City PD. In a statement, the department said its "personnel were not notified in advance that federal authorities intended to take this action, and CCPD officers did not assist with or participate in the detention." "It is important for our community to know that the Culver City Police Department does not participate in immigration enforcement," the agency wrote in a statement. "CCPD follows California law, including the California Values Act (SB 54), as well as local policies that prohibit the use of department resources to assist federal immigration authorities with civil immigration enforcement.”

Reuters [3/9/2026 8:44 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports immigrant rights advocates filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to stop U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from next week ending legal protections that allow nearly 1,100 Somalis to live and work in the United States. The lawsuit, brought by four Somalis and two advocacy groups, challenges the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Somali immigrants, whom Trump has derided in public remarks. Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in January announced that TPS for Somalis would end on March 17, arguing that Somalia’s conditions had improved, despite fighting continuing between Somali forces ​and al-Shabaab militants. The plaintiffs, who include the groups African Communities Together and Partnership for the ⁠Advancement of New Americans, in the lawsuit filed in Boston federal court argue the move was procedurally flawed and driven by a discriminatory, predetermined agenda. The lawsuit cites a series of statements Trump has made describing Somalis as "garbage" and "low IQ people" who "contribute nothing.” The plaintiffs said the administration is ending TPS for Somalia and other countries due to unconstitutional bias against non-white immigrants, not based on objective assessments of country conditions. "The termination of TPS for Somalia is racism masking as immigration policy," Omar Farah, executive director at the legal group Muslim Advocates, said in a statement. DHS did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously said TPS was "never intended to be a de facto amnesty program.” TPS is a form of humanitarian immigration protection that shields eligible migrants ⁠from deportation and allows them to work. Under Noem, DHS has moved to end TPS for a dozen countries, sparking legal challenges. The administration on Saturday announced plans to pursue an appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court in order to end TPS for over 350,000 Haitians. It also wants the high court to allow it to end TPS for about 6,000 Syrians. Somalia was first designated for TPS in 1991, with ⁠its latest extension in 2024. About 1,082 Somalis currently hold TPS, and 1,383 more have pending applications, according to DHS. Somalis in Minnesota in recent months had become a target of Trump’s immigration crackdown, with officials pointing to a fraud scandal in which many people ​charged come from ⁠the state’s large Somali community. The Trump administration cited those fraud allegations as a basis for a months-long immigration enforcement surge in Democratic-led Minnesota, during which about 3,000 immigration agents were deployed, spurring protests and leading to the killing of two U.S. citizens by ⁠federal agents.

NewsMax [3/9/2026 5:35 PM, AFP, 3760K] reports a coalition of tech experts on Monday sued the Trump administration over a policy resulting in visa denials, detention or deportation for researchers and fact-checkers reporting on social media platforms. The nonpartisan Coalition for Independent Technology Research filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Washington, D.C., naming Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi as defendants. The suit follows the administration’s decision in December to impose visa sanctions on five European figures involved in regulating tech platforms, reiterating its longstanding assertion that such work amounted to a form of online censorship.

Washington Times [3/9/2026 10:47 AM, Tom Howell Jr, 1323K] reports President Trump said Monday the U.S. is willing to grant asylum to members of the Iranian women’s soccer team if Australia forces them to return to their home country, where they may be harmed. Mr. Trump posted the offer on social media as Australia faces pressure to protect the team. Players stood silent during the national anthem for their first match of the Women’s Asian Cup, and members of the Iranian regime, which is at war with the U.S. and Israel, might interpret their silence as treason. “Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iranian Women’s National Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed,” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social. “Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM. The U.S. will take them if you won’t.” Mr. Trump softened his tone in a later post, saying Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appeared to be taking proactive steps to address the situation. “He’s on it!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. Five members of the team appeared to have defected by leaving their hotel and seeking safety with the police, according to CNN. Members of the team sang the anthem in their second and third matches, but concerns linger after their silence in the initial fixture. The team lost over the weekend, meaning they must exit the cup and face an excruciating choice between returning home, where they could be harmed by the regime, and staying put and being separated from their families.

Telemundo [3/10/2026 1:37 AM, Rafael Colorado, 56K] reports last Friday, the federal government demanded that the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) cancel approximately 13,000 commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) for drivers with visas, refugees, and asylees. “Immigrant truckers who have been in the country legally and have obtained legal authorization to work, have obtained their commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), and basically, a state has decided that none of that counts,” said Bhupinder Kaur of the Free Drivers Coalition. The cancellations came after the DMV made errors with the expiration dates for thousands of licensed drivers. The dates exceeded the time they were allowed to remain in the country. All the individuals to whom the DMV issued a CDL had federal work authorization and were legally present in the United States at the time their license was issued. “Well, hopefully things will improve because it’s really a bit difficult for both transporters and workers,” said Jaime Gutiérrez, a driver. In a statement, DMV Director Steve Gordon said that the federal administration is using its war on immigration to remove qualified commercial drivers and workers who comply with language and safety regulations from the workforce. He added that the effects will most likely be felt in the economy. “There are no guarantees that additional solutions will emerge to help these drivers and their employers, but in the meantime, they should take immediate steps to obtain a Class C license so they can drive regular vehicles,” said Steve Gordon.

Univision [3/9/2026 2:49 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports the number of asylum seekers who fail to appear for their immigration court hearings is increasing in Los Angeles County, driven primarily by fears of being detained or deported during the legal process. However, community organizations and immigration lawyers warn that fear is causing more and more migrants to choose not to attend their court dates. Recent data indicates that in January, one in five asylum seekers in the United States failed to appear for their immigration hearing. According to figures, in Los Angeles County, approximately 56% of applicants missed their court date. Meanwhile, at the national level, it is estimated that more than 11 million immigration cases remain pending in immigration courts. Along with the increase in no-shows at hearings, asylum approvals have fallen to historically low levels. In January, less than 3% of applications were approved, a significant drop from the 18% recorded in the same month last year. This trend has reinforced the perception among many applicants that their chances of obtaining protection are dwindling. However, immigration specialists warn that missing a hearing can have serious consequences.

FOX News [3/9/2026 1:09 PM, Morgan Phillips, 37576K] reports that House Republicans are pressing the Trump administration for answers over whether China is exploiting U.S. birthright citizenship and visa programs in a U.S. territory to secure long-term influence inside the United States. In a letter sent Monday to outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., and 32 other GOP members raise concerns that so-called "birth tourism" and visa-waiver policies in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands could be leveraged by Chinese nationals in ways that present national security risks. Noem will leave her position at Homeland Security at the end of the month. "American citizenship is a sacred trust — not a loophole to be exploited," Roy said. "When foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party can leverage birth tourism and visa-less programs to gain influence within our borders, we must restore integrity to our immigration system and defend the sovereignty of our Republic." Tiffany argued that "Communist China has exploited ‘birth tourism’ by sending women to the Northern Mariana Islands solely to give birth and secure U.S. citizenship for their children," adding that "it is time to close this loophole, end the abuse, and protect our national security." The Chinese embassy could not immediately be reached for comment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [3/9/2026 2:25 PM, Kaelan Deese, 1147K] reports that a whistleblower complaint filed late last month accuses Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott of abusing his authority to order investigations of direct subordinates and to target a senior Border Patrol official with whom he had clashed internally. A career CBP employee in the commissioner’s office with firsthand knowledge of internal tensions filed the five-page complaint to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general on Feb. 25. The complaint outlined what three sources within the Department of Homeland Security described to the Washington Examiner as Scott lashing out over “personal or political vendettas” against his subordinates. One CBP official resigned last month over the "deep-seated culture of division, corruption, and mandatory fealty to Commissioner Scott," according to the complaint. Although news of the complaint comes after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s abrupt ouster by President Donald Trump last week, its filing predates her removal by more than a week. A source familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner on Monday that Scott referred the complaint to the DHS Office of the Inspector General for review. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson did not comment on the substance of the complaint but said Scott "has done an excellent job implementing the President’s agenda to secure the Southern Border and put America First."

New York Times [3/9/2026 11:20 AM, Peter Eavis, 148038K] reports Dr. Andrew Angel, a physician from Cambridge, Mass., paid a tariff on a $345 pendant he bought last year from an eBay seller in Japan. Now, after the Supreme Court ruled that one of President Trump’s most widely used tariffs was unlawful, Dr. Angel said he was entitled to a refund. “The principle is obvious,” he said. “If it was illegal to collect my money, I would certainly like to have my illegally collected money returned to me.” Like many other shoppers who bought goods overseas in recent months, Dr. Angel paid his tariff to the shipping company that delivered the item, in his case DHL. The company charged him $67 for the customs duty on the pendant, which was a birthday present for his wife, Dr. Irina Angel. “She loves it. It’s a keeper,” he said. For years, Americans who bought items from overseas did not have to pay tariffs on items worth $800 or less. Last year, Mr. Trump took away that loophole, known as the de minimis exemption, and shipping companies started demanding that shoppers pay their tariffs before they got their goods. The shipping companies have been paying the duties on behalf of the shoppers to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that collects tariffs. Dr. Angel and many like him have the paperwork to prove that they paid tariffs. That is not case for shoppers who paid higher prices because retailers or other businesses included all or some of the tariff in the final cost of goods. Such shoppers did not pay the customs duties themselves and, according to lawyers, would therefore find it hard to make a claim. Costco, which has sued the government for its own tariff repayment, signaled during a quarterly earnings call last week that it could cut prices should the company receive a refund. From the end of August until late November, Customs and Border Protection said, it collected about $400 million in tariffs on the lower-value items that were previously exempt from tariffs. The agency did not provide a more recent tally. It also did not say how much of those funds came from the tariff that the Supreme Court said was unlawful, known as the IEEPA tariff because Mr. Trump introduced it under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. On all types of imports, the IEEPA tariff has collected over $100 billion, according to U.S. Customs data.

Los Angeles Times [3/9/2026 1:03 PM, Cierra Morgan, 12718K] reports that the truck’s tank was full but it wasn’t with fuel. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay Mesa Import Cargo Facility discovered nearly 1,000 pounds of liquid methamphetamine stuffed inside a commercial tractor-trailer’s fuel tank last week after spotting a white, crystalline substance on top of the tank during inspection, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. A follow-up search uncovered 29 buckets of liquid concealed inside the passenger-side fuel tank, totaling approximately 428.60 kilograms, or 944.90 pounds. A sample from the fuel tank tested positive for methamphetamine, federal prosecutors said. The driver, Oscar Alonzo Cesena Camacho, 26, a Mexican citizen from Tijuana traveling on a business visa, was arrested and charged with importation of a controlled substance under federal law, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, up to life, and a fine of up to $10 million if convicted. Cesena Camacho appeared in court March 3 before Magistrate Judge Jill L. Burkhardt, who ordered him held without bail citing flight risk. A preliminary hearing is set for March 17 and arraignment for March 26, court records show. Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are leading the investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The Wall Street Journal [3/9/2026 3:11 PM, Allison Pohle, 646K] reports airports are warning travelers to prepare to spend hours in security checkpoint lines, with the partial government shutdown stretching federal security workers. Security checkpoint wait times at airports in Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans and Charlotte, N.C., stretched to nearly an hour or longer on Sunday, and airport officials told travelers to expect continued delays as spring-break travel ramps up while the shutdown continues. “We’re seeing strong travel demand with fewer screening lanes open at some checkpoints,” said Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System, in a statement posted to social media. At Houston’s Hobby Airport, travelers said they missed flights Sunday after waiting for more than three hours in long lines that snaked around the length of the concourse. The airport advised passengers to arrive four hours before their flight to allow for TSA delays. In New Orleans, passengers posted videos of lines that spilled into the parking garage. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Transportation Security Administration, has been largely shut down since Feb. 14, when federal funding lapsed without a new appropriation from Congress. The agency’s approximately 50,000 TSA officers received a partial paycheck on Feb. 28 and are set to miss their first full paycheck this week. The current funding lapse represents the second extended shutdown for TSA workers in less than six months. In 2025, they worked without pay during the record-long, 43-day government shutdown. Reuters [3/9/2026 10:00 PM, David Shepardson and P.J. Huffstutter, 70643K] reports rising absences by airport screeners caused a second straight day of ‌longer-than-normal security lines, sparking worries from airlines as the busy spring break travel period ramps up. Houston Hobby Airport on Monday again reported lines averaging 3 hours at 2 p.m. EDT at standard checkpoints. Longer than normal lines were ​reported over the last two days at a number of U.S. airports as officials ​urged passengers to get to the airport three to four hours before their ⁠flights board. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed on February 13 after Congress failed to reach ​a deal on immigration enforcement reforms demanded by Democrats. That halted operational funding for several government ​agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration, resulting in about 50,000 TSA airport security screeners working without pay. Airlines are worried. "Congress and the administration must act with urgency to reach a deal that reopens DHS and ends this shutdown," ​said Chris Sununu, CEO of trade association Airlines for America. "America’s transportation security workforce is too important ​to be used as political leverage." Carriers are expecting a record-breaking spring travel period, with 171 million passengers expected ‌to ⁠fly, up 4% over the same two-month period last year.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [3/9/2026 12:37 PM, Staff, 2238K]
Bloomberg Government [3/9/2026 9:54 AM, Allyson Versprille, 111K]
Reuters [3/9/2026 2:47 PM, David Shepardson and P.J. Huffstutter, 38315K]
Telemundo [3/9/2026 8:16 PM, Staff, 2524K]

AP [3/9/2026 8:33 PM, Josh Funk, Rio Yamat, 34146K] reports the hourslong security lines at a handful of U.S. airports this week highlight the potential problems when a government shutdown coincides with the busy spring break travel season. Houston’s secondary airport weathered the worst problems, with lines consistently lasting over three hours for much of Sunday and Monday. Passengers also had to wait more than an hour to get through security at several other airports, including in New Orleans and Atlanta. The surge of millions of travelers as schools take spring breaks would put pressure on even a fully staffed airport system. With the staffing problems that tend to accompany a government shutdown, some airports are are beginning to feel more pressure. Still, most airports have not experienced significantly long security lines. The longer Transportation Security Administration officers have to work without pay during the partial shutdown, the more likely it is that some will miss work as they take on second jobs to pay for necessities like gas and child care and their other bills. Many may still be rebuilding finances after the 43-day shutdown last fall, the longest in history. Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the TSA union’s bargaining unit, said workers will miss their first full paychecks this weekend since the shutdown began Feb. 14. He said morale among the workforce “has taken a severe hit.” “Over the last 15 months, TSA officers have went through three government shutdowns,” he told The Associated Press. Jones, who also works as a TSA agent, said it took months for him to financially recover from the 43-day shutdown. “I refilled my water buckets and now I’m starting to empty them again. Some people were not so fortunate to be able to refill their water buckets,” he said. This current shutdown has only affected the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats in Congress refused to fund the department because they objected to its immigration enforcement tactics. Democratic lawmakers have said DHS won’t get funded until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year. The TSA and Homeland Security have consistently blamed Democrats for the long security lines. “This chaos is a direct result of Democrats and their refusal to fund DHS. These political stunts force patriotic TSA officers, who protect our skies from serious threats, to work without pay,” said Lauren Bis, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Homeland Security. “These frontline heroes received only partial paychecks earlier this month and now face their first full missed paycheck, leading to financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.”

FOX News [3/9/2026 2:08 PM, Ashley J. DiMella, 37576K] reports that many airports have been grappling with massive security lines as spring break travel kicked off over the weekend amid a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding lapse. Houston Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, had lines lasting an average of 3.5 hours at one point Sunday — while Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana told passengers to arrive at least three hours before their flights, Reuters reported. Lauren Bis, DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, told Fox News Digital in a statement the delays are "severe fallout" from the "Democrat shutdown" of DHS. "Today, travelers are facing TSA lines of up to nearly 3 hours long at some major airports, causing missed flights and massive delays during peak travel," said Bis. "These political stunts force patriotic TSA officers, who protect our skies from serious threats, to work without pay," she said. "These frontline heroes received only partial paychecks earlier this month and now face their first full missed paycheck, leading to financial hardship, absences and crippling staffing shortages." A TSA spokesperson told Fox News Digital passengers should arrive "as early as possible" to avoid missing their flights. "As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case-by-case basis and adjust operations accordingly," said the spokesperson. Airport wait times are expected to increase as the shutdown continues — leaving TSA officers in a troubling spot. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [3/9/2026 4:30 PM, Joel Rose, 28764K] Audio: HERE reports security wait times have ballooned at several airports across the U.S. at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints. Workers are not getting paid as a partial government shutdown drags on.

CBS News [3/9/2026 11:27 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports travelers passing through "the world’s busiest airport" Monday morning were urged to pack extra patience for their trips. Officials at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport warned passengers to expect longer security lines after extended wait times developed at TSA checkpoints following flight disruptions and ongoing staffing shortages. In an update posted around 8:15 a.m., airport officials said security teams were still working through the ripple effects of two ground stops issued Friday, along with limited staffing among Transportation Security Administration officers. At one point on Monday, wait times at the airport’s main checkpoint approached an hour, according to the airport’s website. Airport officials advised travelers to arrive at least three hours before their scheduled departure and check real-time wait times online. The delays come as TSA continues to deal with staffing challenges linked to a partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security.

Axios [3/9/2026 5:21 PM, Jay R. Jordan, 17364K] reports travelers are waiting hours to get through security at Houston’s Hobby Airport amid Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages as the partial government shutdown drags on. The delays are impacting more than 2 million spring break travelers as they navigate the Bayou City’s two airports, according to Houston Airports. Travelers are waiting two hours to get through TSA at Hobby Airport as of 3pm Monday. Those wait times were upwards of three hours on Sunday and earlier Monday, leading to several flight delays. Wait times at Bush Intercontinental Airport were normal as of Monday afternoon. TSA agents are working without pay starting this week after congressional Democrats voted against funding the Department of Homeland Security weeks ago over the Trump administration’s immigration policies. In Houston, TSA operations can change shift by shift depending on how many agents scheduled for that shift call out, per the Houston Airport System. The shutdown is affecting airports nationwide, especially here and in New Orleans, as Democrats continue to hold up DHS funding, demanding that ICE agents stop wearing masks and display IDs, among other things.

New York Times [3/9/2026 1:26 PM, Nazaneen Ghaffar, 148038K] reports that more severe storms are expected across a large section of the United States this week, with forecasters warning they could deliver all manner of severe weather — including large hail, damaging winds, tornadoes and flooding — anywhere from the southern Plains through the Midwest and into the Northeast. The renewed threat of severe weather comes just days after a wave of storms swept from Texas to the Great Lakes on Friday, producing tornadoes that killed at least six people in Michigan and Oklahoma. Matt Mosier, a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center, said at least 11 tornadoes were reported on Thursday and Friday, including one that killed three people and left another 12 injured in Union City, Mich. On Sunday, the National Weather Service rated that tornado a three on the five point Enhanced Fujita scale, the earliest in the calendar year a tornado of that intensity has struck the state. Mr. Mosier said similar conditions were possible again on Tuesday and Wednesday, and in some of the same regions that experienced severe weather last week. On Tuesday, he said, the focus will mostly be on Missouri, central Illinois and into Indiana. “And then as we go into Wednesday, it shifts east of there, in a fairly broad area from East Texas and Louisiana, Mississippi and then all the way up into parts of West Virginia and Pennsylvania,” he added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
NBC News [3/9/2026 4:20 PM, Isabel Yip and Kathryn Prociv, 42967K]

NPR [3/10/2026 4:05 AM, Gerard Albert III, 34837K] reports politicians in North Carolina are hopeful new leadership at the Department of Homeland Security will result in finally getting FEMA recovery funding that’s been delayed by Kristi Noem. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

USA Today [3/9/2026 3:15 PM, Dinah Voyles Pulver, 70643K] reports a powerful storm system generated at least 13 tornadoes across the central United States from March 5‑7, 2026, including Michigan’s earliest‑record EF‑3, which killed four people and marked the state’s deadliest tornado day since 1980. At least 13 tornadoes were spun up by powerful storms crossing the United States between March 5 and 7, including a Michigan storm that spawned four deadly twisters on March 6. One of the Michigan tornadoes was an EF-3, becoming the state’s earliest EF-3 on record, the National Weather Service said in preliminary reports. The twisters killed at least four, also making it the state’s deadliest tornado day in 46 years, since five people died on May 13, 1980, according to weather service records. Elsewhere across the central U.S. between March 5 and 7, at least five other tornadoes were documented. Tornadoes also were reported in Arkansas, Texas, Kentucky and in Oklahoma, where four people died. In total, tornadoes killed at least eight and injured 26 over three days between March 5 and 7, the weather service said.

CBS Chicago [3/9/2026 6:01 PM, Tara Molina, 51110K] reports following a warm and record-setting day, things are about to change as a severe storm threat, with all weather hazards possible, arrives on Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, the Cook County Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security is preparing for what’s to come. However, weather experts and the CBS News Chicago First Alert Weather Team said that Tuesday will be a very different story, with heavy rain expected and possible flash flooding, wind damage, hail, and even tornadoes.

San Francisco Chronicle [3/9/2026 4:03 PM, Anthony Edwards, 3833K] reports the National Weather Service warns of a “high-impact and potentially life-threatening weather pattern” in Hawaii this week, with torrential rainfall, flash flooding, strong winds, severe thunderstorms and mountain snow. Through Saturday, “we could easily see over 20 inches in the harder-hit areas, but that’s just a ballpark estimate,” said Laura Farris, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Hawaii. Greater totals are possible atop the state’s volcanoes, which can measure feet of rain from the biggest storms.

NewsMax [3/9/2026 10:48 PM, Michael Katz, 3760K] reports an Iranian intelligence operative from Pakistan has been convicted by a federal jury of trying to recruit people in the United States in a plot to kill President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials. Asif Merchant was convicted Friday of murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, the Department of Justice said in a news release. He faces up to life in prison. Targets in the 2024 plot included Trump, who was seeking a second term in the presidential election. Prosecutors said other potential targets included then-President Joe Biden and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was challenging Trump for the Republican nomination. "This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the release. "The Department of Justice will remain ever-vigilant to protect Americans, prosecute terrorists, and halt acts of terrorism before they happen." Prosecutors said the plot was hatched by Iran in retaliation for the killing of Qasem Soleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, in Trump’s first term. Merchant admitted at trial that the Revolutionary Guard sent him to the U.S. to arrange political assassinations and steal documents, but law enforcement foiled the plot before any attack could be carried out. Merchant arrived in the U.S. in April 2024 and met with purported hit men in June, who were undercover U.S. law enforcement officers in New York. He was arrested before leaving the country in July 2024. Prosecutors said Merchant began working for the Revolutionary Guard in late 2022 or early 2023, when he received training in intelligence tradecraft, including countersurveillance. Later in 2023, he was sent to the U.S. to look for potential recruits. Merchant testified that he knew the Guard was a designated terrorist organization. During this period, Merchant repeatedly traveled to Iran to meet with his Guard handler. Merchant testified that in 2024 he was sent back to the U.S. with a new mission to recruit hit men to arrange the murder of one of three specific U.S. officials or politicians, prosecutors said. Merchant admitted that he had been tasked by the Guard to kill a U.S. government official or politician to avenge Soleimani’s death.

Washington Examiner [3/9/2026 4:22 PM, Asher Notheis, 1147K] reports Kai Trump is receiving scrutiny over her latest YouTube video, in which she visits Erewhon, a high-end grocery store. President Donald Trump’s granddaughter began her YouTube channel in October 2024 and has 1.45 million subscribers. Her newest video shows her visiting Erewhon, "the most expensive grocery store pretty much out there" in Los Angeles, where she spends $233 "for one grocery bag."

FOX News [3/9/2026 2:07 PM, Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports that a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and its crew returned to their home in California following a 119-day mission in which they seized more than 22,000 pounds of cocaine, the largest maritime drug seizure in 18 years, in the Atlantic in support of the Trump administration’s effort to target drug traffickers. The cutter Munro left its port in Alameda on Nov. 3, 2025 for training and participation in Resolute Hunter exercise offshore of San Diego, before sailing into the Pacific Ocean to conduct counternarcotics patrols in support of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Operation Pacific Viper. However, the ship was diverted to the Atlantic Ocean in support of Operation Southern Spear, a Trump administration effort to target and disrupt transnational criminal networks, the War Department said Monday. "The service, our nation and our families can be extremely proud of Munro," said Capt. Jim O’Mara, Munro’s commanding officer. "This crew rose to every new challenge thrown at them with professionalism and persistence, and they achieved historic results. This was a one-of-a-kind deployment for us, but it is also just one part of a much broader campaign and U.S. national strategy." After transiting the Panama Canal, the Munro patrolled the Carribean Sea, where it followed the U.S.-sanctioned Motor Tanker Bella 1, across the Atlantic Ocean for 18 days and 4,900 miles. The vessel was determined to be without nationality and subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The crew of the Munro boarded the Bella to seize control of the 333-meter crude oil carrier. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CyberScoop [3/9/2026 1:20 PM, Tim Starks, 122K] reports the Trump administration is plotting an interagency body to confront malign hackers, pilot programs to secure critical infrastructure across states and other steps tied to its freshly-released cyber strategy, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said Monday. The “interagency cell” will bring together agencies like the Justice Department, the Department of State, the FBI and the Pentagon, which will make it clear that going on cyber offense isn’t just about attacking enemies in cyberspace, Cairncross said. “Sure, that’s part of it, but that’s not all of it,” he said at an event hosted by USTelecom. It will include diplomatic efforts, arrests and more, he said. “As President Trump has made clear, he expects results, and he’s empowered the team under him to go get them.” A series of pilot programs will be catered to specific critical infrastructure industries in specific states, such as water in Texas and beef in South Dakota, Cairncross said. Different sectors operate at more or less mature levels, he said. “One of the things that we are working to do is to align those sectors and prioritize those sectors in a way that makes sense,” he said.

Federal News Network [3/9/2026 2:25 PM, Justin Doubleday, 1297K] reports that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is postponing meetings with industry on a forthcoming cyber incident reporting rule due to the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown. The shutdown is also "likely" to delay the final Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA) rule, CISA confirmed today. In a notice posted to its website, CISA said it won’t be able to hold planned town halls on CIRCIA due to the lapse in appropriations. The town halls were scheduled for today, March 9, through early April. Nick Andersen, acting CISA director, blamed the postponement on the "Democrats’ shutdown of DHS" in a statement provided to Federal News Network. The DHS-specific shutdown began on Feb. 14 over disagreements between Senate Democrats and the White House over immigration enforcement reforms. "Once the appropriations lapse has concluded, CISA will issue an updated notice with a revised town hall schedule and share the schedule on cisa.gov/circia," Andersen said. "The continued delays associated with the shutdown will likely result in a delay to the issuance of the final rule." CISA had planned on hosting a series of virtual meetings with specific industry sectors, as well as two general meetings, starting today, March 9, through early April.

Axios [3/9/2026 5:30 AM, Peter Sullivan, 17364K] reports two years after the seismic Change Healthcare cyberattack, Congress is advancing a plan to safeguard against the kind of hacks that can expose millions of people’s private data and cripple health systems. The bipartisan plan puts the burden on the government and providers to prevent the kind of breach that reverberates across the entire industry, jeopardizing patient access to needed treatments and costing hospitals billions. The Senate’s health committee late last month advanced legislation to fortify health care cybersecurity in a strong 22-1 vote. The bill would improve coordination among government agencies and requires the Department of Health and Human Services to develop an incident response plan. It also would establish new grants to health entities for cyberattack planning and response and make them use multi-factor authentication and encryption — a key shortcoming exposed by the Change breach.

Reuters [3/9/2026 6:08 AM, Anthony Deutsch, 38315K] reports Russian-backed hackers have launched a global cyber campaign to gain access to Signal and WhatsApp accounts used ‌by officials, military personnel and journalists, two intelligence agencies in the Netherlands warned on Monday. Users are persuaded in chats initiated by the hackers to divulge security verification and pin codes, giving them access to personal accounts and group chats, they said in a statement. "The Russian hackers have likely gained access to sensitive ⁠information," the General Dutch Intelligence Agency (AIVD) and Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said. "Targets and victims of the campaign include Dutch government employees" and journalists, the agencies said.

StateScoop [3/9/2026 6:25 PM, Colin Wood, 37K] reports Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday issued a letter directing state agencies and state-owned medical facilities to address a cybersecurity threat related to medical devices made in China. In a letter addressed to the heads of the state’s cyber command, health services department and human services department, Abbott flagged recent notices issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Food and Drug Administration warning of vulnerabilities in Chinese-manufactured patient monitoring devices. The risks, he wrote, include “unauthorized actors” accessing sensitive medical and personal information. Protecting such data, the governor wrote, is “of paramount importance.” “I will not let Communist China spy on Texans,” Abbott’s letter reads. “State-owned medical facilities must ensure there are safeguards in place to protect Texans’ private medical data.” The letter includes a bulleted list of actions agencies are to take, including a review of all state-owned medical facilities and ensuring that any new medical devices purchased comply with a 2014 executive order limiting the acquisition or use of technologies, including the short-form video platform TikTok, made by adversarial nation states, such as China. Abbott in his letter calls on the state agencies and Texas’ higher education institutions to catalog any medical devices that can transmit data and to review cybersecurity policies related to the protection of personal health information. His letter also flags a couple of devices in particular — the Contec CMS8000 and Epsimed MN-120 patient monitors — as being on the state’s prohibited technologies list.

NewsMax [3/9/2026 1:17 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K] reports that the State Department announced Monday that it has designated the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a "specially designated global terrorist organization" and intends to formally label the group a foreign terrorist organization effective next Monday. In a statement released Monday, the department said the move comes in response to the group’s role in Sudan’s ongoing conflict and its alleged involvement in violence against civilians. According to U.S. officials, the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood has used "unrestrained violence" to undermine attempts to resolve the war in Sudan while promoting what the State Department described as a violent Islamist ideology. The announcement alleges that fighters associated with the group have carried out mass executions of civilians during the conflict. The State Department also said some members of the organization have received training and other support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the U.S. has long designated as a terrorist organization. The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood’s armed faction, known as the al-Baraa Bin Malik Brigade, was designated under Executive Order 14098 in September 2025 for its role in the conflict in Sudan. Monday’s action expands U.S. sanctions and restrictions to the broader organization.

Univision [3/9/2026 4:31 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports that the man who was accused of assaulting an employee inside the Tesla Gigafactory months before the attack was reportedly charged assaulting an employee inside the Tesla Gigafactory months before the attack, according to a lawsuit recently filed in Travis County Court. The lawsuit was filed by a worker identified as Lillian Brady, who claims she was attacked in December 2025 by Ndiaga Diagne, the same man who subsequently starred in the shooting that left three people dead and more than a dozen injured in the entertainment district of Sixth Street. The legal document accuses Tesla of allegedly failing to provide a safe work environment and of not taking steps to prevent violent incidents inside its Austin plant. According to the complaint, the alleged attack occurred on December 4, 2025, when Diagne was in a prayer break authorized by the company inside the factory. Brady claims she was assaulted without provocation and that the company did not reveal the identity of the attacker for weeks. The woman says she only discovered who the man who attacked her after the mass shooting was when police released footage of the suspect in the media. The lawsuit filed by Brady seeks to determine what Tesla knew about Diagne’s behavior before the attack inside the plant and whether the company ignored warning signs. The lawyer representing the worker maintains that, if action has been taken after the alleged assault in December, the tragedy that occurred months later in downtown Austin could have been avoided. “If Tesla had information about Diagne’s violent behavior before he attacked Lillian Brady and did not act, then not only could he have avoided aggression against her, but it could also have been an early sign of a much greater danger,” said attorney Bob Hilliard, founder of Hilliard Law and Brady’s legal representative.

CBS News [3/9/2026 6:39 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports U.S. and Ecuadoran forces conducted joint strikes inside Ecuador as part of ongoing operations to combat drug trafficking in the South American country, according to a statement by U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). The statement posted to X said SOUTHCOM Commander General Francis Donovan, at the order of Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, "directed the joint force to support Ecuadorian forces conducting lethal kinetic operations against Designated Terrorist Organizations within Ecuador March 6." The post included video showing multiple targets exploding and being destroyed. No details on casualties were immediately provided. "At the request of Ecuador, the Department of War executed targeted action to advance our shared objective of dismantling narco-terrorist networks," Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote in a statement posted to X. Ecuador’s right-wing President Daniel Noboa said in an Instagram post the strikes targeted a training camp belonging to a dissident faction of the FARC guerilla group. The operation was carried out in the northeastern province of Sucumbios near the border with Colombia.

Breitbart [3/9/2026 4:34 PM, John Hayward, 2238K] reports the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said on Sunday that it conducted a "lethal kinetic strike" against a drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing the "six male narco-terrorists" on board. SOUTHCOM said the vessel was "operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations" and was "transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific" while "engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” "No U.S. military forces were harmed," the SOUTHCOM statement added. The strike was directed by SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan and conducted by Joint Task Force Southern Spear, the anti-drug operation formally launched by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in November 2025. The Associated Press (AP) reported that Sunday’s strike "brought the death toll to at least 157 people" from 45 strikes since the operation was launched. "Going on offense with Operation Southern Spear has restored deterrence against the narco-terrorist cartels that profited from poisoning Americans," Hegseth said at the Americas Counter Cartel Conference last week. Hegseth noted that the much weaker deterrence — being "arrested and then released" — was "priced in" by the drug cartels long ago. "Last month, we went a few weeks without targeting a single boat. Why? Well, because we couldn’t find a whole lot of boats to sink, and that’s the whole point is to establish deterrence from narcoterrorists who have been able to traffic almost unfettered," he said.

New York Post [3/9/2026 7:12 PM, Caitlin Doornbos, 40934K] reports a battle is brewing inside the US intelligence community over explosive evidence that Russia may be behind the mysterious "Havana Syndrome" illness that has sickened hundreds of US officials — as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard pushes to make the findings public after the Biden administration allegedly buried them. Multiple sources familiar with the case told The Post that US intelligence agencies internally concluded Moscow was responsible for the attacks dating back to 2016, but all declined to disclose the determination publicly. US officials are also believed to have obtained at least one of the devices used in the incidents, former intelligence officials say — a potential smoking gun reported by CBS News’ "60 Minutes" on Sunday. Victims of Havana Syndrome, so named because it was first reported by US diplomats in Cuba, have reported the sudden onset of symptoms including vertigo, hearing loss, migraines, blindness and cognitive impairment. A classified report produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence criticizes the Biden administration’s intelligence community for conducting a cover-up, according to a source who has seen the report. However, its public release has so far been delayed. CBS News reported that Russia was the likely culprit, but some officials worry formally blaming Moscow could complicate delicate negotiations to end the Ukraine war and deepen economic ties with Russia, according to sources familiar with the discussions. Others say the biggest resistance to Gabbard is coming from the Central Intelligence Agency. Asked for a response to the allegation, the CIA said "Director Ratcliffe supports DNI Gabbard’s efforts to review the AHI issue and looks forward to her report on this important matter.” "The health and security of CIA personnel is of the utmost importance to the Director," the agency added. In a covert operation, American agents secretly purchased a miniaturized microwave weapon from a Russian criminal network for roughly $15 million as part of a Pentagon-backed effort to better understand the mysterious attacks, according to CBS.

Washington Post [3/9/2026 3:23 PM, Ian Duncan and Elizabeth Dwoskin, 24826K] reports Anthropic sued the Trump administration Monday, calling on federal judges in San Francisco and Washington to strike down a government order forbidding military contractors from partnering with the artificial intelligence company on the grounds that it poses a risk to national security. “These actions are unprecedented and unlawful,” the company’s attorneys wrote in the San Francisco case. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech.” The Defense Department last week formally tagged the AI company as a supply-chain risk, the kind of label usually reserved for Chinese and Russian firms suspected of helping foreign spies. The move followed increasingly bitter negotiations over how the company’s technology might be used in warfare, with Anthropic seeking guarantees that the Claude model would not be used for mass domestic surveillance or to power fully autonomous weapons. The unprecedented step by the Pentagon came even as Anthropic’s tools were playing a central role in President Donald Trump’s bombing campaign in Iran. The Pentagon declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Reported similarly:
AP [3/9/2026 5:01 PM, Matt O’Brien, 2238K]
Washington Examiner [3/9/2026 1:56 PM, Mike Brest, 1147K]
San Francisco Chronicle [3/9/2026 2:20 PM, Roland Li, 3833K]

NewsMax [3/9/2026 1:57 PM, Jim Mishler, 3760K] reports that undercover U.S. agents obtained a mysterious Russian weapon that could help explain a cluster of brain injuries suffered by American diplomats, intelligence personnel, and military officers for nearly a decade, according to a report aired Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes. The incidents have been referred to as Havana Syndrome, a term that emerged after early cases were reported among U.S. diplomats stationed in Cuba. The broadcast reported that undercover Department of Homeland Security agents secretly obtained the suspected device through a Russian criminal network in a Pentagon-funded operation that cost about $15 million. The device is described as a miniaturized microwave weapon designed to operate silently and be concealed while targeting individuals from a distance. Researchers said the device generates a pulsed electromagnetic signal capable of penetrating building materials such as windows and drywall and affecting brain tissue. The pulsed energy signal has been cited as a possible explanation for sudden neurological symptoms reported by hundreds of American personnel stationed overseas and within the U.S. since at least 2016. Reported symptoms have included vertigo, hearing loss, migraines, vision problems, and cognitive impairment. According to the broadcast, the device has been undergoing testing for more than a year at a U.S. military laboratory. Experiments involving animals reportedly produced injuries similar to those described by people reporting Havana Syndrome symptoms.

NBC News [3/9/2026 2:48 PM, Jane C. Timm and Gary Grumbach, 42967K] reports that federal investigators sought and obtained records relating to the 2020 election in Arizona, the Republican leader of the state Senate said Monday. "Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County," state Senate President Warren Petersen said in a post on X. "The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news." The FBI did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News. Peterson’s post in response to a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump, in which he shared a report from the right-wing outlet Just The News that stated the FBI was secretly investigating the 2020 election in Arizona. The development signals the FBI’s investigation into the 2020 election — which Trump falsely claims he won — extends outside Fulton County, Georgia, where the FBI raided an elections hub in search of records and ballots earlier this year. Fulton and Maricopa counties are both solidly Democratic areas in key battleground states. Unlike in Fulton County, though, the 2020 ballots cast and counted in Maricopa County were destroyed in accordance with the state’s records retention laws. The Maricopa County Elections Department told NBC News on Monday they have not received a subpoena at this time, "but will cooperate if that were to occur."

Breitbart [3/9/2026 6:07 AM, Kurt Zindulka, 2238K] reports Norwegian authorities are considering a terrorist motivation for the explosion outside the U.S. Embassy in Oslo. In the early hours of Sunday morning, a blast occurred at the public entrance of the U.S. Embassy in the Norwegian capital. Fortunately, no one suffered any significant injuries; however, the incident has sparked concern of potential extremist backlash against America over the military conflict with the Islamist terror-sponsoring regime in Iran. In a press conference on Sunday, police confirmed that they are considering terrorism as a potential motive and are currently treating the incident as a targeted attack, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported. During the press conference, Grete Metlid of the Oslo police said that explosives were "thrown" at the embassy building, but would not confirm what type of explosive was used. The police force said that it is currently conducting a manhunt for the suspected perpetrators with dogs, drones, and helicopters. The U.S. State Department has also launched its own independent investigation into the suspected bombing.

Reuters [3/9/2026 11:06 AM, Jessica Donati, 38315K] reports the U.S. is nearing a deal with Mali that will allow Washington to resume flying aircraft and drones over the West African country’s airspace to gather intelligence on jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda, according to one current U.S. official and a former U.S. official. Last month, Washington made the first move to implement the agreement by lifting sanctions targeting the defense minister and other senior officials who ‌it said had ties with Russian mercenaries, a key request by Mali’s government, the sources said. The U.S. hopes this will lead Mali to grant the U.S. permission to fly intelligence-gathering missions over the country’s vast terrain where jihadists have been gaining ground, according to the current and former U.S. officials. The Trump administration has sought to rebuild ties with Mali after they came under strain during the previous administration. In Washington, the goal to resume intelligence gathering is partly driven by a desire to find an American pilot who was kidnapped by armed men while working for Christian missionaries in neighboring Niger. The pilot is currently believed to be held in Mali by the local al Qaeda affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the officials said. The State Department declined to comment.

AP [3/9/2026 8:16 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is issuing “warnings” to prevent missile threats, after NATO defenses on Wednesday intercepted an Iranian ballistic missile heading toward its airspace. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [3/9/2026 9:26 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K] reports Americans have been advised not to visit southeast Turkey and to exercise increased caution when traveling elsewhere in the country due to terrorism, armed conflict, and arbitrary detentions, according to the U.S. State Department. The updated State Department travel advisory warns that terrorist threats, regional conflict, and the possibility of Americans being detained by Turkish authorities pose ongoing risks for U.S. citizens visiting the NATO ally. While the advisory level for Turkey overall remains at Level 2 — "Exercise Increased Caution" — officials stress that some areas face far greater dangers, particularly the country’s southeastern provinces near Syria and Iran. The State Department specifically issued a Level 4 "Do Not Travel" advisory for southeast Turkey, citing risks tied to terrorism and armed conflict in neighboring countries. Officials also ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave the U.S. Consulate General in Adana on March 9, citing safety concerns. The consulate has suspended all services, and Americans in the region have been strongly encouraged to depart immediately.

NewsMax [3/9/2026 10:53 AM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 3760K] reports U.S. intelligence officials have intercepted encrypted communications believed to have originated in Iran that could serve as an "operational trigger" for sleeper cells operating abroad, according to a federal alert issued to law enforcement agencies. The alert, reviewed by ABC News, references "preliminary signals analysis" of a transmission described as "likely of Iranian origin" that was sent to multiple countries shortly after the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei was killed Feb. 28 during a joint U.S.-Israeli strike. Officials say the intercepted transmission was encoded and appeared to be intended for "clandestine recipients" who possess the encryption key. Messages of that type are usually used to pass instructions to "covert operatives or sleeper assets" without relying on the internet or cellular communications. According to the alert, it is possible the signals could "be intended to activate or provide instructions to prepositioned sleeper assets operating outside the originating country." "While the exact contents of these transmissions cannot currently be determined, the sudden appearance of a new station with international rebroadcast characteristics warrants heightened situational awareness," the alert said. Authorities emphasized that the alert does not identify a specific threat location. It states there is "no operational threat tied to a specific location," but urges law enforcement agencies to increase monitoring of suspicious radio-frequency activity. If confirmed, the communications could reinforce concerns raised by law enforcement officials following the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that sleeper cells positioned throughout Western countries could be used in retaliatory attacks.

Washington Examiner [3/9/2026 12:21 PM, Timothy Nerozzi, 1147K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio is warning hostile state actors, Iran in particular, that the United States will no longer engage in "hostage diplomacy.” Rubio made the remarks ahead of a flag-raising ceremony at the State Department to mark U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day. The top diplomat asked for a moment of reflection, noting the recent return of six U.S. soldiers killed in the Iranian counterstrikes following Operation Epic Fury. "I think we are all seeing right now the threat this clerical regime poses to the region and to the world. They are trying to hold the world hostage," the secretary of state said. "They are attacking their neighbors — they are attacking neighboring countries, their energy infrastructure, their civilian population, they’re attacking embassies. This is a terrorist government. This is a terroristic regime." "And the objective of this mission is to destroy their ability to continue to do that and we are well on our way to achieving that objective every single day with overwhelming force, with overwhelming precision," Rubio said. He took the opportunity to note the relevance of Iran to U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day — decrying the "clerical regime" as not only the "worst offenders in the world of terrorism" but also the "worst offenders in the world of hostage-taking.”

Wall Street Journal [3/9/2026 9:00 PM, Margherita Stancati and Benoit Faucon, 646K] reports after 10 days of punishing airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel, Iran’s leadership is battered but showing signs it is still in control and able to fight. Senior Iranian political figures, while hunted from the air and limiting their appearances in public, are regularly posting messages that reflect recent developments and project unity and defiance. Iran’s military continues to hit high-value targets across a wide front encompassing Arab Gulf countries, Israel and beyond, though it is firing fewer missiles than in the first days of the war. On the streets of Iranian cities, security forces maintain a heavy presence, and there has been no significant recurrence of the sorts of protests that shook the regime in January. The inner workings of Iran’s leadership is opaque, and it is hard to get a solid read on its status, particularly when the U.S. and Israel aren’t putting boots on the ground. But observable evidence of their effectiveness makes clear the U.S. and Israel’s hopes for a quick regime collapse aren’t yet panning out. The degree of resilience shown by the country’s leadership raises the question of how long the U.S. and Israel can sustain their war from above and at what cost if their enemy doesn’t fold. One reason Iran’s leaders have been able to withstand the overwhelming military pressure is because they had been planning for a new war since they suffered heavy losses during the 12-day war with Israel and the U.S. in June. “They were prepared,” said Mohsen Sazegara, a founder of Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps now living in exile in the United States. “Even if their military capacity and their buildings are being destroyed, they believe that airstrikes alone can’t destroy the regime.”

FOX News [3/9/2026 8:06 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has the latest on President Donald Trump’s conference on the Middle East conflict on ‘Special Report.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [3/9/2026 7:59 PM, Diana Nerozzi, 21784K] reports President Donald Trump is standing by his claim that Iran could be responsible for a deadly missile strike on a girls’ school even as U.S. authorities say they are still trying to determine who is to blame. Trump said in a news conference Monday that Iran and other countries also use Tomahawk missiles like the one that struck the school in southern Iran in the initial wave of the U.S. and Israeli air assault on the country. Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that he hadn’t seen video of the attack, which Iranian authorities have said killed about 175 people, mostly children. “Well, I haven’t seen it and I will say that the Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, is used by, you know, is sold and used by other countries,” he said. He then said that Iran “also has some Tomahawks” and he didn’t rule out that they struck the school. “But whether it’s Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk, a Tomahawk, is very generic. It’s sold to other countries. But that’s being investigated right now.” Neither Iran nor Israel are known to possess Tomahawks, a U.S.-made weapon, which is also used by Britain, Australia and the Netherlands. The president had first claimed Iran could be responsible for the strikes on Saturday, telling reporters on Air Force One, “in my opinion and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.” Trump, who has offered shifting rationales for the attack on Iran as well as evolving statements about what it might take to end it, dodged a further question at his news conference Monday about the strike on the school — an incident that has drawn international condemnation. “I just don’t know enough about it,” he said. “I think it’s something that I was told is under investigation, but Tomahawks are used by others as, you know, numerous other nations have tomahawks. They buy them from us, but I will certainly, whatever the report shows, I’m willing to live with that report,” he added. The president also suggested the U.S. and may attack Iran’s ability to produce energy as it seeks to force the government to surrender. Israel has already begun striking fuel sites, a tactic that could further spook oil prices and damage the global economy. “If we hit them, it’s going to take many years for them to be rebuilt, having to do with electricity production and many other things,” Trump said. “So we’re not looking to do that if we don’t have to.” “But they’re the kind of things that are very easy to hit, but very devastating if they are hit. We are waiting to see what happens before we hit them.”

ABC News [3/10/2026 12:19 AM, Alexandra Hutzler, 34146K] reports President Donald Trump said on Monday he doesn’t "know enough" about the strike on an Iranian elementary school that Iran says killed at least 168 people, including dozens of children, but that he was "willing to live" with the findings of a U.S. investigation into the incident. A newly surfaced video appears to show a U.S.-made missile, a Tomahawk, hitting a building in Iran adjacent to the girls’ school, experts told ABC News. Trump suggested Monday it could have been a Tomahawk fired by Iran. "I will say that the Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, is used by, you know, it’s sold and used by other countries, you know that," Trump said. "And whether it’s Iran, who also has some Tomahawks, they wish they had more, but, whether it’s Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk -- a Tomahawk is very generic, it’s sold to other countries. But that’s being investigated right now.” The U.S. makes and sells Tomahawks to its closest allies, including the U.K. and Australia. But it has never sold the technology to Iran or other adversaries. While other countries like Russia use cruise missiles, only the U.S. makes Tomahawks, as the missile experts say appears to be seen in the video of the school strike. Israel has already said it wasn’t operating in the area of the school bombing. The president faced questions Monday on the Feb. 28 incident during a news conference at Trump National Doral Miami, including his comment over the weekend that Iran was behind it. "Based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, standing just behind the president on the plane, said the matter was under investigation and that "only side that targets civilians is Iran.” But pressed on those remarks, Trump said on Monday, "I just don’t know enough about it.” "I think it’s something that I was told is under investigation. But Tomahawks are --are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have Tomahawks. They buy them from us," Trump said. "But I will certainly, whatever the report shows, I’m willing to live with that report," the president continued. The U.S. military was striking targets in the country last Saturday in an area where an elementary school was hit and dozens of children were killed, two people familiar with the initial findings previously told ABC News. An analysis of satellite imagery by ABC News suggests the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab was near an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps compound but had been separated from it more than decade ago.

NBC News [3/9/2026 2:13 PM, Molly Hunter, Chantal Da Silva and Tavleen Tarrant, 42967K] reports that newly surfaced video adds to evidence that the United States likely struck a school in Iran, killing more than 170 people, including scores of children. The video, geolocated by NBC News, shows what experts say appears to be an American Tomahawk missile hitting a compound belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps next to the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school where witnesses said children were trapped under the rubble and “people were pulling out children’s arms and legs. People were pulling out severed heads.” NBC News has tried to contact the person who shot the video for further comment about the strikes, which the individual recorded Feb. 28 in the southern town of Minab. The person has not responded. Published Sunday by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News Agency, the video was first geolocated by the online research group Bellingcat, which said a Tomahawk — an American-made, long-range cruise missile — was used in the attack near a compound that was once home to a Revolutionary Guard military facility. Several munitions experts agreed with that analysis, including N.R. Jenzen-Jones, the director of arms intelligence firm Armament Research Services. U.S. Central Command did not comment on the latest video. The White House did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Times [3/9/2026 6:18 PM, Susan Ferrechio, 1323K] reports before the U.S. and Israel opened a war on Iran, the Islamic republic had waged a nearly 50-year campaign of global terrorism that has killed thousands, including at least 995 U.S. servicemen, military personnel and other Americans. Beginning with taking hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, Iran’s campaign of terror included as many as 360 targeted assassinations, dozens of terrorist plots and violent attacks in more than 40 countries. Iran-backed militias are responsible for killing at least 603 U.S. troops during the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011. U.S. officials say those deaths accounted for roughly 1 in 6 U.S. combat fatalities in the country. Iran funds and provides weapons such as attack drones and ballistic missiles to military groups in the region, known as the “Axis of Resistance.” Their purpose is to carry out Iran’s anti-American, anti-Israel terrorist agenda. The group includes Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militia in Iraq. According to the White House, Iran has killed more Americans than any other terrorist regime. Iran has twice attempted to assassinate President Trump. After hundreds of attacks and nearly 1,000 American deaths, the United States is on the verge of ending the regime’s “blood-soaked war” on the United States, Mr. Trump said.

Washington Examiner [3/9/2026 10:47 PM, Brady Knox, 1147K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Afghanistan a state sponsor of wrongful detention after he said it "unjustly" detained several U.S. citizens. The designation makes Afghanistan the second country to fall under the designation, created by an executive order from President Donald Trump in September. "Today, I am designating Afghanistan as a State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention. The Taliban continue to use terrorist tactics to seek policy concessions, but it won’t work under this administration. The Taliban must release Dennis Coyle, Mahmood Habibi, and all Americans unjustly detained in Afghanistan," Rubio said. Iran became the first country added to the blacklist last week. It operates similarly to the state sponsor of terrorism designation, carrying additional penalties. Rubio said it was "not safe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan because the Taliban continues to unjustly detain our fellow Americans and other foreign nationals.” The designation reflects the Trump administration’s hard-line stance taken against Afghanistan, which has clashed with the United Nations’s urging for humanitarian assistance. Also on Monday, U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz urged a reevaluation of aid given to Afghanistan, given the abuses by the Taliban. "In light of the Taliban’s intransigence, we must ⁠carefully evaluate the utility of international assistance and engagement in Afghanistan," Waltz said, ​though ceded that a "humanitarian disaster" was unfolding there. "This council must consider carefully the ​funds we collectively provide for this mission’s budget, when the mission’s female national staff are not even able to go into the office to work," he added. Afghanistan has faced disaster since the Taliban retook control over the country in August 2021, with international isolation and mismanagement rife. Roughly one-third of the population, 17 million people, face acute food shortages, according to the U.N. World Food Program.

{End of Report} RETURN TO TOP