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 Washington Post [3/11/2026 11:03 AM, Hannah Sampson and Natalie B. Compton, 24826K] reports the Department of Homeland Security reinstated the Global Entry program on Wednesday morning after suspending it on Feb. 22, citing the partial government shutdown. “As DHS continually evaluates measures it can take amidst the Democrats’ continued shutdown of the department, DHS will be reactivating Global Entry on March 11th at 5:00 AM ET,” a DHS spokesperson said in an email statement to The Washington Post. Though Global Entry is back, travelers may still face longer-than-normal lines at airports while the partial shutdown continues. The Transportation Security Administration is facing staffing issues at security checkpoints as officers are asked to work without pay. Meanwhile, U.S. airlines are bracing for a spring break surge and expect 171 million passengers to fly through April 30, according to projections by the trade group Airlines for America. On Sunday, the William P. Hobby Airport in Houston warned travelers that security wait times during this period could exceed 120 minutes, citing the uptick of passengers and fewer open TSA lanes. Some travelers reported missing flights because of long lines at Hobby Airport over the weekend. In New Orleans, lines for security stretched into a parking garage. In a statement issued on Wednesday morning, U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman applauded the decision to resume Global Entry, but urged Congress to support TSA officers “who keep our aviation system functioning.” Breitbart [3/11/2026 12:32 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports "We are working hard to alleviate the disruptions to travelers caused by the Democrats’ shutdown," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. The program was suspended to preserve staff and resources during the partial government shutdown that began Jan. 31. When it was announced, the department said it would also suspend TSA PreCheck, which allows low-risk travelers to speed through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, but quickly reversed course on that decision. Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said the organization was pleased with the decision. "Over the last two weeks, the travel industry has been clear about the role programs like Global Entry and TSA PreCheck play in both security and efficiency," Freeman said in a statement. "Through outreach to members of Congress and administration officials, collaboration across the travel sector and strong public engagement, we highlighted a simple reality: Trusted Traveler Programs enhance security while keeping travel moving.” Travelers at airports have seen long lines for TSA checkpoints, some lasting several hours with lines stretching out onto sidewalks. The AP [3/11/2026 10:35 AM, John Seewer, 1257K] reports that travelers at a handful of U.S. airports faced long security lines this past weekend, raising concerns about how the government shutdown will impact the busy spring travel season. The shutdown began Feb. 14 after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach a deal on legislation to fund Homeland Security. Democrats want changes to immigration operations that are central to President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign. The New York Post [3/11/2026 3:25 PM, Ryan King, 40934K] reports "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," Lauren Bis, a DHS spokeswoman, 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."

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [3/11/2026 1:12 PM, John Seewer, 12718K]
Bloomberg Government [3/11/2026 10:31 AM, Zach C. Cohen, 111K]
The Hill [3/11/2026 10:19 AM, Tara Suter, 18170K] r
Reuters [3/11/2026 8:20 AM, David Shepardson, 38315K]
CBS News [3/11/2026 9:23 AM, Kerry Breen, 51110K]
FOX News [3/11/2026 12:23 PM, Ashley J. DiMella, 37576K]
USA Today [3/11/2026 10:43 AM, Eve Chen and Zach Wichter, 70643K]
NewsMax [3/11/2026 2:31 PM, John Seewer, 3760K]
Washington Times [3/11/2026 11:05 AM, Brad Matthews, 1323K]
Washington Examiner [3/11/2026 8:10 AM, David Zimmermann, 1147K]

ABC News [3/11/2026 1:35 PM, Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky, Alex Stone, and Luke Barr, 34146K] reports that the FBI warned police departments in California in recent days that Iran could retaliate for American attacks by launching drones at the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by ABC News. “We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran,” according to the alert distributed at the end of February. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.” The warning came just as the Trump administration launched its ongoing assault against the Islamic Republic. Iran has been retaliating with drone strikes against targets throughout the Mideast. A spokeswoman for the FBI office in LA declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. intelligence officials have also grown concerned in recent months about the expanding use of drones by Mexican drug cartels and the chance the technology could be used to attack American forces and personnel near the Mexican border. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The Los Angeles Times [3/11/2026 2:22 PM, Richard Winton, 12718K] reports that a source with knowledge of the memo who was not authorized to discuss it publicly said the warning was issued based on intelligence received by the U.S. Coast Guard. Law enforcement sources experienced in intelligence said such alerts are cautionary in nature. The source is experienced in counter-terrorism and said "that it’s not been deemed credible at this time." The sources stressed the warning was cautionary and there was no indication Iran was planning an attack or that it could successfully launch one. But the warning played into security strategies local and national authorities enacted after the war began. Officials with the FBI declined to comment when reached by The Times on Wednesday.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [3/11/2026 4:00 PM, Ryan Mancini, 18170K]
USA Today [3/11/2026 3:58 PM, James Ward and Noe Padilla, 70643K]
Blaze [3/11/2026 12:30 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1556K]
Washington Examiner [3/11/2026 4:55 PM, Mike Brest, 1147K]

CBS News [3/11/2026 8:04 PM, Nicole Sganga, Katie Nielsen, Pat Milton, Joe Walsh, 51110K] reports an FBI memo warning that Iran may try to launch drones at California in a seaborne "surprise attack" raised concern Wednesday — but law enforcement officials and homeland security experts have cautioned that it may not point to an immediate threat. Multiple U.S. and California law enforcement and intelligence officials tell CBS News there is no known, specific threat underpinning the memo, which was issued a week ago and distributed to local law enforcement by the FBI’s Los Angeles office. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on X: "While we are not aware of any imminent threats at this time, we remain prepared for any emergency in our state.” The memo, which was obtained by CBS News on Wednesday, stems from an apparent tip that surfaced prior to the Iranian conflict. It said the FBI received "unverified" information that early last month, Iran "allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran.” The memo added that the FBI had no additional information on the potential "timing, method, target, or perpetrators.” The warning was issued several days into the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, prompting concerns that Iran could seek to retaliate on American soil. Some homeland security experts have pointed to the risk of cyberattacks and to Iran’s alleged history of murder-for-hire plots against dissidents based in the U.S. and prominent American officials. Samantha Vinograd, a CBS News contributor and former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat protection, noted that the "Iranian regime has a vast and diverse arsenal of drones that it has deployed throughout the Middle East.” Iran’s retaliatory strikes on U.S. military bases in the Middle East in recent weeks have included drone attacks. The Iranian military is known for its Shahed-136 "kamikaze" drones. Vinograd also said the U.S. government has sought to prevent malicious drone activity by drug cartels. Warning is "unverified" and "not actionable," officials say. A California-based federal law enforcement official told CBS News the warning that was distributed last week about Iranian drones "is not actionable.” "This is unverified," another federal law enforcement official told CBS News. "There has been no information given on the timing, source, method or target of any such attack... since then, we have seen no further indications of this.” CNN [3/12/2026 12:49 AM, Holmes Lybrand, Josh Campbell, 612K] reports that the US intelligence community routinely collects intelligence on adversaries signaling their desire to cause harm, one law enforcement official source said, but mere claims do not mean adversaries are capable of carrying out an attack. These types of reports are shared with local law enforcement "daily," the source said. President Donald Trump said later Wednesday that the government is investigating the unverified claim. "It’s being investigated," the president told reporters when asked about the FBI memo. "But you have a lot of things happening, and all we could do is take them as they come.” While no specific or credible threat has been outlined in those briefings, one recent Department of Homeland Security bulletin to US law enforcement agencies warned of a heightened threat environment following the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Citing open source intelligence, the DHS "critical incident note" said that "two top Iranian religious leaders issued separate Farsi-language fatwas calling on Muslims worldwide to take revenge for the killing" of Ali Khamenei.

Reuters [3/11/2026 2:09 PM, Humeyra Pamuk and Jasper Ward, 38315K] reports that President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was not worried about Iran-backed attacks on U.S. soil, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned of Iranian drones potentially striking the U.S. West Coast, ABC News reported. The U.S. and Israel carried out strikes on Iran nearly two weeks ago, launching the Gulf region into a war. Tehran has carried out retaliatory strikes in response to the U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed top Iranian officials, including the country’s supreme leader. When asked on Wednesday if he was worried ⁠that Iran may increase it retaliation to include strikes on U.S. soil, Trump told reporters, "No, I’m not.” ABC News later reported that the FBI had warned police departments in California that Iran could retaliate for U.S. attacks by launching drones at the West Coast. "We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in ⁠the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran," the FBI wrote in an alert distributed at the end of February, according to ABC News. "We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack." Spokespeople for the FBI, Los ⁠Angeles Police Department, California governor and Los Angeles mayor did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

The Washington Examiner [3/11/2026 10:45 PM, Claire Carter, 1147K] reports President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that United States authorities know the location of "most" suspected Iranian sleeper cells in the country, as officials have warned about political retaliation linked to the war with Iran. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Trump said U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are closely monitoring suspected operatives tied to Tehran. "I have been [briefed], and a lot of people came in through Biden and his stupid open border," the president said. "We know where most of them are. We’ve got our eye on all of them. I think." Trump had previously said, "I guess," when asked if Americans should be worried about covert Iranian operatives in the U.S., adding that Iranian attacks in the U.S. are the cost of war. His remarks come as the FBI previously said it was monitoring the possibility of Iranian sleeper cells being activated on U.S. soil. U.S. intelligence officials recently intercepted encrypted communications believed to have originated from Iran that could serve as an "operational trigger" for sleeper assets outside the country, according to a federal report circulated to law enforcement agencies. The Daily Wire [3/11/2026 10:32 PM, Virginia Kruta, 2314K] reports Fox News Senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump about an alert — sent by the federal government to law enforcement offices all across the country — indicating that an encrypted message appeared to originate in Iran shortly after the launch of Operation Epic Fury and may have been designed to activate “sleeper cells” already in the United States and other parts of the world. “Have you been briefed about how many Iran sleeper cells there could be inside the US right now?” Doocy asked. “I have been and a lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border. But we know where most of them are. We’ve got our eye on all of them, I think,” Trump replied. “Is it dozens?” Doocy pressed, looking for clarification. “They came in through the open border policies of ‘sleepy ‘Joe Biden. One of the worst…the worst president in the history of our country and we’ve got our eyes on all of them,” he added. “But the war itself is being prosecuted at a level that nobody’s seen before. It’s pretty — it’s pretty amazing to watch.” President Trump has taken every opportunity to tout his administration’s actions and the accomplishments of the United States military — alongside the Israeli Defense Forces — in Operation Epic Fury’s first ten days, telling Republican members at a recent conference, “No other president could do some of the sh*t I’m doing.”

The Hill [3/11/2026 9:57 AM, Sophie Brams, 18170K] reports Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned this week that the danger posed by Iranian-linked sleeper cells operating inside the U.S. has “never been higher,” as tensions escalate between the two nations. “The risk of terrorism right now is quite high,” Cruz said, responding to a question from NewsNation’s Jackie Koppell. “We tragically saw in Austin, Texas, just last weekend, we saw a terrorist attack. We also saw another terrorist attack in New York City.” Cruz tied the risk to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), arguing the funding lapse has weakened the agency’s ability to respond to potential terrorist activity. Republicans sought to use the conflict with Iran to pressure Democrats, who have stonewalled funding over demands for reforms to President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda, into reopening the DHS by emphasizing its role in counterterrorism. That framing has failed to move the needle, however. “The danger has never been higher than right now, particularly after four years of open borders under Joe Biden,” Cruz said. “We know that radical Islamic terrorists entered this country, and there’s a vulnerability all across this country.” “It is disgraceful and indefensible for the Democrats to vote party line not to fund the Department of Homeland Security right now,” he added. His warning comes as U.S. intelligence officials have reportedly intercepted communications believed to be from Iran that could serve as an “operational trigger” to activate potential sleeper agents outside the country, according to an alert reviewed by ABC News.

The Hill [3/11/2026 6:48 PM, Sarah Davis, 18170K] reports Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-Okla.) confirmation hearing to become the next Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary is scheduled for next Wednesday. Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-Okla.) confirmation hearing to become the next Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary is scheduled for next Wednesday. President Trump appointed the lawmaker to take over the role at the end of March after firing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem last week. Mullin is set to appear before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on the morning of March 18. “I am grateful to President Trump for nominating me to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” Mullin wrote on the social platform X following the president’s announcement. “I look forward to earning the support of my colleagues in the Senate and carrying out President Trump’s mission alongside the department’s many capable agencies and the thousands of patriots who keep us safe every day,” he continued.

FOX News [3/11/2026 1:00 PM, Elizabeth Elkind and Alex Miller, 37576K] reports that a member of House GOP leadership is jumping into the open race for a Senate seat likely being vacated by Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., after he was tapped to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). House GOP Policy Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla., is officially launching his campaign for the Senate on Wednesday with support from at least four Republicans in the upper chamber. "The American dream is under threat by the radical left and RINO Republicans who oppose President Trump’s America First agenda and want to turn the United States into a third-world country," he says in his campaign debut video. "That’s why I’m running for U.S. Senate — to ensure President Trump has a loyal ally, a leader who stood by his side when RINOs turned their backs on him, who will fight against Democrat insanity, keep the southern border secure, deport dangerous illegal immigrants, stand with law enforcement, and deliver economic affordability." Hern, who grew up in poverty without indoor plumbing until his teenage years, found considerable wealth as a McDonald’s franchisee before coming to Congress in 2018. He’s the first major Republican candidate to declare his intent to run for Mullin’s seat in November — and whoever wins the GOP primary in the deep-red Midwestern state is the likely favorite to win. Mullin is expected to leave the Senate after being tapped by President Donald Trump to lead DHS following Kristi Noem’s firing. He’s facing a confirmation hearing later this month.

FOX News [3/11/2026 12:27 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports that Fox Nation chronicles Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s journey from plumber, wrestler and rancher to U.S. senator and DHS secretary nominee.

Washington Post [3/12/2026 5:00 AM, Isaac Arnsdorf and Maria Sacchetti, 24826K] reports President Donald Trump’s new pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), employed a supervisor at his family plumbing business who illegally stored weapons and ammunition in an office safe in 2009, according to federal court records. The employee, Timothy L. Saylor, was previously convicted of felonies, barring him from owning firearms. He said Mullin knew his criminal history but nonetheless allowed him to store the weapons at Mullin Plumbing in Oklahoma. “Markwayne knew I was a felon,” Saylor said in an interview with The Washington Post. “Of course he knew. Because I told him.” The incident became a controversy during Mullin’s first run for Congress in 2012. At the time, Mullin denied knowing about Saylor’s criminal history, telling the Tulsa World that he did not conduct a background check. Mullin said that was because Saylor had been an existing employee of a business purchased by Mullin Plumbing. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly provide a weapon to a felon. Mullin told authorities at the time that he gave Saylor guns “to clean.” Mullin was never charged, according to court records. Mullin’s background and views have faced fresh scrutiny since last week, when Trump said he was nominating him to succeed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem at the end of the month. Mullin must be confirmed by his colleagues in the U.S. Senate to run the department, which includes the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, Customs and Border Protection, as well as the Secret Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Wednesday, “The Washington Post should not be giving oxygen to a disgruntled former employee from nearly 20 years ago.” She pointed to statements that Mullin’s congressional campaign released in 2012 from then-Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz and former U.S. attorney David O’Meilia, whose office charged Saylor, saying there was no indication that Mullin did anything inappropriate.

CNN [3/11/2026 2:05 PM, Priscilla Alvarez, 612K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security is seeking to gain access to a trove of federal information that is intended to support the collection of child support payments but could potentially be used for immigration enforcement purposes, according to three sources familiar with the talks who describe the move as unprecedented. The data — which includes both information on people who pay child support and employment information for a much wider universe of people — is stored within the Health and Human Services Department and is used to collect child support payments. The request has prompted concerns among current and former HHS officials over whether Homeland Security would use legally restricted information that has historically been legally restricted for the administration’s immigration crackdown — and, in turn, sow distrust in a critical program. It’s only the latest in a series of attempts by the Trump administration to use data stored in various federal agencies to potentially find undocumented immigrants residing in the United States. Last year, for example, the Internal Revenue Service began sharing sensitive taxpayer data with immigration authorities to assist the search for undocumented immigrants. A federal judge blocked that information sharing late last year, ruling that it violated taxpayer privacy laws, but the administration is appealing.

Bloomberg [3/11/2026 1:23 PM, Angélica Franganillo Diaz, 111K] reports that whistleblowers who previously worked for the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties told Congress the agency provided a misleading account of how it handled civil rights complaints, according to statements submitted to the Senate and House judiciary committees. The filings, submitted by the Government Accountability Project on behalf of former CRCL employees, allege DHS underreported the scope of complaints and investigations in its latest annual report to Congress. The disclosure comes as lawmakers intensify scrutiny of DHS leadership and oversight practices amid ongoing disputes over the agency’s budget and immigration enforcement policies. [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

FOX News [3/11/2026 4:29 PM, Alex Miller, 37576K] reports the Senate floor erupted Wednesday as Republicans and Democrats sparred over funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with one point becoming clear: neither side was close to reaching a deal. While senators met behind closed doors just steps from the chamber, party leaders accused each other of refusing to negotiate over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the key sticking point in the standoff. So far, Senate Republicans have delegated final say over any agreement to the White House, though the back and forth between both sides has slowed to a grinding halt. Republicans want DHS reopened in the short term, while negotiations over reforms to ICE continue. Democrats, meanwhile, have offered a funding proposal that would carve out immigration enforcement but reopen other key functions, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). At the center of the dispute is whether either side will agree to formal negotiations. Republicans say Democrats are ignoring their offers to meet, while Democrats contend they have not received an invitation.

FOX News [3/11/2026 9:46 AM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno repeatedly questioned former Biden adviser Brendan Duke and didn’t receive a direct response to his question.

FOX News [3/11/2026 9:55 AM, Andrew Mark Miller, 37576K] Video: HERE reports a tense exchange unfolded during a Senate Budget Committee hearing Tuesday when Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno pressed a former Biden advisor on whether illegal immigration into the United States should be considered a crime. "I don’t know anything about this law," Brendan Duke, a former senior policy advisor in the Biden White House and now senior director for federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, told Moreno when asked if the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act "made a mistake" prohibiting people from entering the country illegally. "Do you think it should be a crime to enter the country illegally?" Moreno followed up. Duke responded, "I don’t know anything about this. I’m here to talk about budgets." Moreno continued to press: "Look, I’m not a lawyer, you don’t have to be a lawyer. It’s a simple question. Should it be a crime? I’ll say it slowly. Should it be a crime to enter the United States of America illegally without permission?". Duke again said he doesn’t know anything about the specific law, prompting Moreno to ask him if he has a home. Duke said he rents a property.[Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [3/11/2026 3:57 PM, Breanne Deppisch, 37576K] reports a federal appeals court on Wednesday granted the Trump administration’s request to pause a lower court order that blocked it from deporting illegal immigrants to so-called "third countries" — granting a near-term reprieve to the administration just hours before the lower court’s order was slated to take effect. Trump administration lawyers had appealed the ruling to the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals last week, arguing that the order from U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy created an "unworkable scheme" that threatened to derail sensitive negotiations with outside countries, and risked derailing up to "thousands" of planned deportations. They also argued Murphy’s ruling cut against two previous Supreme Court emergency stays last year, after the high court intervened and allowed the administration to continue its deportation policy, for now. The case is all but certain to be punted to the high court for a full review on its merits, as senior Trump administration officials acknowledged earlier this year.

The Hill [3/11/2026 2:13 PM, Regina Zilbermints, 18170K] reports that Senate Democrats on Wednesday seemingly sought to turn the tables on Republicans, asking for unanimous consent to pass a bill to fund agencies within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that do not conduct immigration enforcement. Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, asked for unanimous consent for a measure to fund the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies. It would not cover Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Republican Sen. Katie Britt (Ala.) objected. “We have political games being played by our Democratic colleagues instead of putting the people of this nation first,” Britt said. “Mr. President, what we’ve just seen put forth by the senator from Washington would effectively defund our law enforcement officers that are charged with keeping Americans safe.” She added, “Look, we’re not going back to the era of defund police. We’re not doing it.” Murray responded to Britt’s assertion: “Now, some on the other side are claiming that the bill I just offered would defund Customs — or Homeland Security Investigations. That too is absurd.”

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [3/11/2026 4:33 PM, James Morley III, 3760K]

DailySignal [3/11/2026 1:30 PM, George Caldwell, 474K] reports that Senate Republicans appear to be warming to an extreme measure to overcome Democrat obstruction—the "nuclear option" of overriding the 60-vote threshold required to bring a bill to a final vote. "My fellow conservatives and I have proudly used the 60-vote threshold to protect the country from all sorts of bad ideas and dangerous policies," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote in an opinion article for The New York Post published Wednesday. "But when the reality on the ground changes, leaders must take stock and adapt." In the article, Cornyn, citing "moderate Democrats [going] extinct," expressed support for "whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary" to fund the Department of Homeland Security and pass the SAVE America Act. The act would require photo identification and proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has pledged to put the SAVE America Act on the floor. Absent an attempt to override the 60-vote filibuster rule, however, the bill is likely to be blocked by Democrats. Thune has forged his leadership identity around maintaining the Senate’s traditions, pledging to protect the filibuster from his very first floor speech as leader. "I respectfully urge the remaining handful of my Republican colleagues still holding on to the old position that I used to share to reassess the new reality and update their thinking," wrote Cornyn, who has served in the Senate since 2002 and is seeking a fifth term. Cornyn is facing off against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Lonestar State’s Republican Senate primary.

USA Today [3/11/2026 6:32 PM, Zachary Schermele, 70643K] reports a fiery debate broke out in the Senate on Wednesday, March 11, as lawmakers faced intensifying pressure amid the Iran war and growing airport security lines to end the monthlong partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. The Senate once more opted against even partially reopening the agency after Democrats tried to unanimously pass a bill to fully fund most of its contents except for (crucially) Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Office of the Secretary. Republicans blocked the measure, saying they couldn’t support a bill that disregards immigration enforcement. "We’re not going back to the era of defund the police," said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, a key figure in the talks to end the shutdown. "We’re not doing it.” Republicans and Democrats shouted at each other on the Senate floor against an increasingly dire political backdrop. As the war in Iran rapidly escalates, lawmakers have warned that critical antiterrorism divisions within the 9/11-era Cabinet agency are facing staff and resource shortages. At the same time, security lines have begun to snake longer at airports across the country, as workers at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is part of Homeland Security, continue to go unpaid. As is always the case with shutdowns, the pain has started to grow in more visible ways, pulling focus from the reason it started in the first place. In this case, Democrats, horrified by the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal agents in Minneapolis, dug their feet in last month and refused to fund the agency that houses ICE and Border Patrol. Since then, they’ve been negotiating with congressional Republicans and the White House over potential reforms to federal immigration enforcement. Among other things, they want a ban on masks for agents, more requirements for officers to wear body-worn cameras and a commitment to no raids without warrants from a judge. Republicans have said some of those asks, including the mask ban, are nonstarters. They’ve been more amenable to other requests, though, like the body-worn cameras demand. President Donald Trump ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week in a move many Democrats were happy to see, but it didn’t immediately change their minds on funding the department.

AP [3/11/2026 7:29 PM, Kevin Freking, 31753K] reports Republican and Democratic senators vented their frustrations Wednesday with the lack of progress in funding the Department of Homeland Security, which is resulting in more Americans enduring long lines at airports around the country. It’s a problem that is expected to intensify as the impasse enters its fourth week. Democrats stressed they were willing to fund some of DHS, but not Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, without changes in their operations. Republicans made clear that some of the Democratic demands were a non-starter. The result was that each party blocked the other’s proposal for temporarily resolving the standoff during an hourslong debate on the Senate floor. The stark divide over a shutdown that began on Feb. 14 was acknowledged by members on both sides of the political aisle.

FOX News [3/11/2026 10:33 AM, Adam Pack, 37576K] reports in a sharp break from his long-standing defense of the Senate filibuster, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, urged Republicans Wednesday to enact "whatever changes" necessary to send a Trump-backed voter ID bill to President Donald Trump’s desk before November’s midterm elections. Cornyn, who is locked in a fierce runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is pressing Senate Republicans to pass the SAVE (Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility) America Act — even if it means scrapping the chamber’s 60-vote legislative filibuster. His appeal marks a significant reversal for the Texas Republican, who long argued the filibuster served as a safeguard against Democrats advancing sweeping left-wing priorities with a simple majority. "For many years, I believed that if the U.S. Senate scrapped the filibuster, Texas and our nation would stand to lose more than we would gain," Cornyn wrote in a New York Post op-ed Wednesday morning. "But when the reality on the ground changes, leaders must take stock and adapt." Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is expected to put the SAVE America Act to a vote in the Senate next week, but the measure could fail on the floor given widespread opposition from Democrats. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is also facing a weeks-long shutdown over Democrats’ refusal to fund the agency absent vast reforms to immigration enforcement. NBC News [3/11/2026 4:05 PM, Frank Thorp V, Sahil Kapur and Brennan Leach, 42967K] reports Trump had seemed ready to endorse Cornyn in the race just one week ago, but that the president’s decision is now in "a holding pattern" as Trump emphasizes that Congress must do everything in its power to pass the SAVE America Act. Cornyn denied Wednesday that he shifted his position on the filibuster to win Trump’s endorsement, telling NBC News: "I would say that’s not true." Cornyn later told reporters of his reversal, "Hopefully the president likes what he sees, but this has really been sort of an evolution in my own thinking." The legislation has passed the House but faces a tough path to 60 votes in the Senate, where Democrats have promised to filibuster it. Noncitizen voting is already illegal and very rare, and Trump has now asked Congress to add other provisions to the bill that would ban transgender people from women’s and girls’ sports.

FOX News.com [3/11/2026 11:13 AM, Peter Pinedo Fox, 37576K] reports after an illegal immigrant was discovered to have been voting for more than a decade in Philadelphia, immigration experts are warning that the "system can fail" and that loss of voter confidence represents the true "serious threat" to American democracy. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said that "the most important thing is perception.” "People have to believe that their vote counts. And so that’s, I think, a much more serious long-term threat," said Hankinson. "We have a perception in the United States," he continued, "that elections were free and fair. If even the appearance of impropriety, the appearance of corruption, is bad enough to turn people off, to make people not interested in going to vote, to think, ‘Well, my vote doesn’t count anyway.’ Then that’s really what undermines democracy.” Earlier this week, Fox News Digital learned that Mahady Sacko, a Mauritanian citizen and illegal immigrant, allegedly voted in every federal election since 2008. He has been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and charged with voter fraud in Philadelphia. This comes as congressional lawmakers fiercely debate the SAVE Act, a measure proponents say would strengthen election integrity laws. Despite being given a removal order in 2000, Sacko, 50, 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 the general elections in 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024. In addition, he voted in the 2016 and 2020 primary elections, prosecutors said. Hankinson said that while he believes such cases are more isolated and are not widely prevalent in the U.S., it is a "potentially big problem, and it’s one that’s very easy to fix.”

The Hill [3/11/2026 1:50 PM, Julia Manchester, 18170K] reports that President Trump continued to lob pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to find votes to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act on Wednesday, saying Thune has “got to be a leader.” “Well, he’s got to be a leader. If he’s a leader, he’s got to get them,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “It’s the most popular bill I’ve ever seen put before Congress, and it’s voter ID,” he continued. “You have to be able to be a citizen to vote. It’s called citizenship.” Trump said the legislation would also block transgender participation in women’s sports and restrict gender-affirming medical care. Additionally, Trump said the legislation would end “fake mail-in ballots.” “I think it’s the most popular bill I’ve ever put before Congress,” he said. Thune told his Senate Republican colleagues on Tuesday that they do not have the votes to pass the legislation, which Trump has called his “No. 1 priority.” Trump warned House Republicans in Florida on Monday that passing the SAVE Act would be critical to helping Republicans keep control of Congress in November. “It will guarantee the midterms. If you don’t get it, big trouble,” he said. Trump has also increased pressure on Senate GOP leaders to embrace the talking filibuster by not endorsing a candidate in the Senate Republican primary race between Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Thune and Senate Republican leadership have urged Trump to back Cornyn.

USA Today [3/11/2026 1:46 PM, Nicole Fallert, 70643K] reports that Americans are in the crosshairs of a political fight. The Department of Homeland Security shutdown stretched into its 26th day on Wednesday, March 11, as travelers face long lines and missed flights at airports around the country. The shutdown stems from concerns over the national security agency’s annual budget: Democrats and Republicans need to reach an agreement on a spending package in order to end the funding impasse and fully pay all DHS workers. Here’s why the U.S. is in a DHS shutdown and what the partial closure means for Americans. The DHS funding lapse began on Feb. 13 after Congress failed to pass an annual budget for the 9/11-era Cabinet agency. Lawmakers weren’t able to agree on how to allocate spending for airport security, disaster relief, coastline safety and more national security measures. The biggest hurdle was Democrats’ demands for reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the killings of two U.S. citizens earlier this year by federal agents. The initial weeks of the shutdown showed little impact to Americans’ everyday lives. But gradually, pressure has mounted to find a solution. Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was ousted by President Donald Trump, further putting a spotlight on calls to reform the agency. A White House spokesperson said Trump would not sign any new laws until the shutdown ends, barring the SAVE America Act. (Bills can still become law, though, as long as Trump doesn’t veto them.).

Blaze [3/11/2026 11:39 AM, Landon Pfile, 1556K] reports Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is facing intense criticism after making bizarre claims about the SAVE Act, including a gaffe suggesting the bill would disenfranchise "tens of billions" of people. The legislation, which requires proof of U.S. citizenship for federal voter registration, has become a flash point in the debate over election integrity. While criticizing the bill on Tuesday, Schumer delivered a statement that quickly went viral for its impossible figures. "It allows ICE to kick tens of billions of people off the [voter] rolls, off the rolls," Schumer said, "and they don’t tell them until Election Day." The statement spread quickly online because the figure exceeds the world’s total population. Schumer has repeatedly argued that the SAVE Act, also called the SAVE America Act, would disenfranchise voters.

Daily Caller [3/11/2026 10:00 AM, Jason Cohen, 803K] reports Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed that the SAVE America Act would enable Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to remove "tens of billions of people" from voter rolls on Tuesday. The SAVE America Act would mandate documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration and require photo identification for federal elections, along with directing states to confirm citizenship and remove non-citizens from federal voter rolls. Schumer took issue with a reporter characterizing the bill as a voter ID law and resorted to alarmist rhetoric during a press conference. "[T]heir bill isn’t voter ID … It is about voter registration. It allows ICE to kick tens of billions of people off the rolls, off the rolls," Schumer said. "And they don’t tell them until election day and you show up and you say, ‘You’re not registered anymore, you’re not registered here. You’re not on the rolls.’ And they say, ‘I didn’t know that.’ This is a bill that destroys the country." "And it is not about showing ID when you show up to vote. It’s about the voter registration rolls — destroying them, purging them, not letting people know and taking the rights in a algorithm put together by ICE, put together by DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] and [Elon] Musk," he continued. "It’s an outrage. And that’s why so many people don’t want to pass it.”

Daily Caller [3/11/2026 9:19 AM, Andi Shae Napier, 803K] reports Republican Louisiana Rep. Julia Letlow is calling on Senate Republicans to invoke the talking filibuster to get the SAVE America Act to President Donald Trump’s desk. Letlow is locked in a hotly contested Senate primary against incumbent Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who cosponsors the SAVE Act but has stopped short of saying the tactic — advocated for by some Senate Republicans — should be used to pass the bill. Letlow’s call to pass the election integrity bill comes just hours after Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he plans to bring the legislation to the floor next week for a vote. “I firmly believe, as do most Americans, that only Americans should be voting in our elections. It’s common sense and that’s why I and so many others strongly support the Save America Act, including President Trump,” Letlow, who has Trump’s endorsement in her Senate race, said in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The voting bill contains widely popular policies, such as voter ID and proof of citizenship upon registration, which would strengthen preexisting laws banning noncitizens from voting. Due to Democrats’ staunch opposition, the bill would fail to reach the 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber, causing some Republicans to turn to their talking filibuster push which would require Democrats to deliver speeches to stall votes. Thune told reporters Monday the talking filibuster is “much more complicated and risky than people are assuming at the moment.” The filibuster is a tool of the minority, allowing Democrats multiple procedural tactics to add their legislative priorities to the bill over the course of weeks, if not months. Despite the risks, Letlow said the legislation is “too important to do nothing.”

Federalist [3/11/2026 9:24 AM, M. D. Kittle, 540K] reports stuck in a do-nothing U.S. Senate, the SAVE America Act would be safer in a Canadian euthanasia clinic. And Senate Majority Leader John Thune has become a laughable Pawn Stars meme, effectively telling President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans, ‘The best I can do is a Screw America Act.” He’s helpless. That’s the South Dakota Republican’s answer to the urgent call from actual conservatives warning him that the window for critical election integrity reform is quickly closing. Just call him John "Very, Very Difficult" Thune. "There are no easy ways to do this," Thune told reporters Tuesday when asked about the prospects of Senate passage of the voter verification legislation. "Believe me, we’ve examined all the options." Originally promising the proposal would come up for a vote, Thune has spent the past few weeks whining about how hard — or impossible — it will be to move the measure to Trump’s desk. It was more of the same on Tuesday, despite the president’s threat that he wouldn’t sign any legislation but a Department of Homeland Security funding package until Senate GOP leadership gets its act together and passes the Save America Act. House Republicans, the bill’s Senate shepherds, Trump, and even his old buddy Elan Musk have urged Thune to work around the legislative death warrant that is the 60-vote threshold required to move the bill, using the "talking filibuster" to do it. The strategy would force Democrats — who loathe the legislation — to hold the floor to stall a simple majority vote on the election-integrity reform. The rules would place limits on debate. Eventually the Dems would run out of steam and the vote would be called.

AP [3/11/2026 12:19 PM, Morgan Lee and Susan Haigh, 3833K] reports that Democratic-led states alarmed by the prospect of federal immigration officers patrolling the polls during this year’s midterm elections are taking steps to counter what they see as a potential tactic to intimidate voters. New Mexico this week became the first state to bar armed agents from polling locations in response to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, a step being considered in at least a half dozen other Democratic-led states. The moves highlight a deep distrust toward the Trump administration from blue states, which have been the target of his aggressive immigration tactics, threatened with military deployments and subject to deep cuts in federal funding. Their concerns were heightened after the president suggested he wants to nationalize U.S. elections, even though the Constitution says it’s the states that run elections. The Trump administration says it has no plans to deploy immigration agents to polling locations. Last month, the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol told a congressional committee “No, sir” when asked if they had any plans to guard polling places. The Department of Homeland Security’s deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, Heather Honey, recently told secretaries of state it “is simply not true” that immigration agents will be at the polls this year. But a group of eight secretaries of state want that in writing from the nominee to succeed Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. In a letter Monday to Trump’s new pick to lead the agency, Markwayne Mullin, the group pressed for assurances “that ICE will not have a presence at polling locations during the 2026 election cycle.”

New York Post [3/11/2026 12:15 PM, Josh Christenson, 40934K] reports that House Republicans are looking into nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer funds being spent on a Department of Homeland Security ad campaign featuring now-former Secretary Kristi Noem — and are probing her also-ousted top adviser Corey Lewandowski. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) told The Post Tuesday his panel was "already doing a lot of oversight" and had "asked for a lot of things" regarding the $220 million publicity blitz, as well as other DHS spending overseen by Noem and Lewandowski. "I think Corey had his hands in a lot and probably should not have," Garbarino said during an interview at the House GOP retreat at Trump National Doral Miami. "We are looking into a lot of contracts." Due to a Noem-imposed rule that the secretary’s office had to sign off on all contracts worth more than $100,000, Garbarino claimed a lot of department actions "got bottlenecked" — including disaster relief and other critical funding, even though the purpose of the policy was "to go after waste and abuse." There was also a delay in funding contracts to build hundreds of additional miles of a wall along the US-Mexico border, the Long Islander claimed. The massive price tag for the ads alarmed GOP lawmakers — and frustrated President Trump after Noem testified in back-to-back congressional hearings last week that he had authorized the spending. Reps for DHS did not respond to requests for comment.

New York Post [3/11/2026 10:00 AM, Emily Goodin and Steven Nelson, 40934K] reports embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s top aide and alleged lover Corey Lewandowski bragged that he could do "whatever" he wanted as a powerful federal official because he believed President Trump would pardon him, The Post has learned. The political pit bull made the remark on multiple occasions tied to his work as a special government employee, sources revealed in the wake of the DHS duo’s downfall. "I’m not worried. I do whatever the f–k I want. DJT will pardon me," Lewandowski told one of The Post’s sources last year — making the flippant aside during a discussion about official actions. Another source said Lewandowski, who is expected to leave the department this month alongside Noem, "was telling people he was going to get [a] pardon so he didn’t have to worry.” Four other sources who have worked with Lewandowski said they didn’t hear the remark, but that it sounded like something he would say, citing their experience with him. Lewandowski denied claiming he was free to act with impunity. "Never said that. Never asked for a pardon and have no reason to receive one," he told The Post. Both sources who recounted Lewandowski’s pardon boast heard it as an all-encompassing declaration of immunity from a wide range of alleged professional and personal misconduct, exemplifying what critics view as a years-long power trip. Lewandowski tightly controlled operations under Noem, including approving contracts and abruptly firing staff. He’s sparked a persistent and as-yet-unproven swirl of accusations of impropriety, including reports that he and his political allies are enriching themselves with taxpayer-funded contracts. Both he and Noem have denied having an improper relationship and allegations of any wrongdoing tied to their work at DHS. It’s unclear what exactly Lewandowski might need a pardon for, but NBC News reported Thursday that Trump was asking if Lewandowski profited personally from a $220 million federal advertising campaign that starred Noem.

Washington Examiner [3/11/2026 12:09 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports that Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) has called for an investigation into outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem following bipartisan criticism over the department’s issuance of an exorbitant, no-bid contract and immigration enforcement practices in Minnesota. Walz turned the tables on Noem Tuesday, following months of criticism from Republicans over his state’s $9 billion worth of fraud in social services and Medicaid programs. "People in Minnesota know there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of things that were done to Minnesotans, both physically, mentally, economically, [and] somebody has to pay," Walz told Pivot podcast hosts Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway during a sit-down discussion at Pantages Theater in Minneapolis. Walz said that Noem "was more than happy to tell us she was in charge as she rode her horse around," a reference to a video filmed as part of a $220 million DHS contract issued to produce advertisements advising illegal immigrants in the United States to self-deport. The commercials "prominently" featured Noem, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) noted during a Senate hearing where Noem was present last week. "There’s a big difference between fraud and corruption. People stole from the people of Minnesota, and those people are in jail," Walz said. "Ironically, the amount that we know with our Feeding our Future scandal is exactly what she spent on the riding the horse scandal, or whatever it was. But this goes a lot deeper, where people in government [were] directing money towards their clients."

Daily Wire [3/11/2026 5:38 PM, Luke Rosiak, 2314K] reports the former Trump administration official who is centering a congressional campaign around her work for the ousted Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is employing the firm at the center of a scandal-plagued $200 million contract, which is run by the husband of another one of Noem’s top confidants. Doing work on her campaign is the Strategy Group, CEO Ben Yoho told The Daily Wire. Yoho is married to Tricia McLaughlin, who The Daily Wire has learned was closely involved in the procurement process that led to her husband profiting off of a $200 million ad campaign. A current DHS official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Daily Wire that McLaughlin, the former Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, had significant involvement in the procurement process, and is on emails about the vendor selection. That information is contrary to Noem’s testimony to Congress, when she said that the contract "went out to a competitive bid and career officials at the department chose who would do those advertising commercials." Noem was fired last week, in part over her handling of the $200 million ad campaign. She will leave her DHS post at the end of March. The admission by McLaughlin means that both portions of Noem’s testimony–that the contracts were competed and were chosen by career officials–were misleading.

DailySignal [3/11/2026 4:16 PM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 474K] reports some conservative members of Congress are concerned President Donald Trump is moving away from his promise to carry out the "largest deportation" in U.S. history, while others say they’ve been advocating for such a shift. White House deputy chief of staff James Blair encouraged Republican members this week to focus on the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants rather than mass deportation, ahead of the midterm elections, members confirmed to The Daily Signal. Blair’s message at the GOP Issue Retreat in Doral, Florida, was first reported by Axios. A senior administration official told The Daily Signal this comes in the wake of a "tone shift" at the Department of Homeland Security after Secretary Kristi Noem’s turbulent hearings before Congress. However, many Republicans are on board with the realignment in focus on immigration.

New York Times [3/11/2026 4:01 PM, Michael Gold, 148038K] reports House Republicans sought to use their annual policy retreat near Miami this week to articulate a legislative agenda that could broadly appeal to voters ahead of midterm elections the lawmakers are at risk of losing, and to present an optimistic front as they fight to keep control of Congress. But in the middle of the gathering, Speaker Mike Johnson, a vocal booster of his fractious conference and one who is often publicly sunny about its electoral prospects, acknowledged a vulnerability: President Trump’s immigration crackdown has alienated voters, and his party is now in need of a reboot on the issue. Mr. Johnson’s comments were a strikingly candid admission that his party was, at least for now, trying to shift focus away from hard-line immigration enforcement, a signature issue that Republicans widely credit for helping them win control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in 2024. It came hours after top Republican officials advised lawmakers in a private meeting to stay away from discussing “mass deportations” of undocumented immigrants as they campaigned for re-election, according to two people who were present and were granted anonymity to describe the session.

New York Post [3/11/2026 6:32 AM, John Cornyn, 34146K] reports that, if a man takes a swing at you and barely misses, that doesn’t make him a pacifist — it just means he has bad aim. Standing still and giving him a second free swing wouldn’t be wise or honorable; it would be foolish. In 2022, Chuck Schumer and 47 other Senate Democrats tried to change the rules of the US Senate and “nuke” the filibuster to ram through a left-wing takeover of election laws. They were just barely stopped by two holdout Democrats who were promptly driven out of their party and into retirement. In 2024, Schumer confirmed to reporters that Democrats mean to finish the job and kill the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold the next time they take the majority. For many years, I believed that if the US Senate scrapped the filibuster, Texas and our nation would stand to lose more than we would gain. My fellow conservatives and I have proudly used the 60-vote threshold to protect the country from all sorts of bad ideas and dangerous policies. But when the reality on the ground changes, leaders must take stock and adapt. Today, Democrats are weaponizing the Senate’s rules to block the SAVE America Act, defund the Department of Homeland Security and hurt the American people — all to spite President Donald Trump. But they say openly that if these same rules ever get in Democrats’ way, they won’t hesitate to rip them up. A rule is only a rule if both sides follow it. I believe that Democrats, with their votes and statements, have already dealt the filibuster a fatal blow: The Senate rules will change eventually, whether Republicans like it or not. This leaves conservatives with two options. We can either unilaterally disarm, or we can stand and fight. We can let the Democrats keep obstructing today and then smash the rules the first chance they get, or we can act now and use the mandate the American people gave this president and this Congress to secure our elections, protect our homeland and bring back common sense. The answer is clear: We need to stand, fight and win. Democrats started this fight. Now Republicans should finish it. When 48 Democrats nearly killed the filibuster, it was to pass radical legislation designed to increase election fraud. They tried to ban voter ID requirements, to decriminalize ballot harvesting, and even to send taxpayer dollars into Democrats’ own campaign funds. The SAVE America Act, which I’ve cosponsored, would do the opposite. It would make it easy to vote but harder to cheat, by requiring proof of citizenship and voter ID. These basic, commonsense protections are massively popular with the American people — and the fact that the radical left apparently sees them as such a threat to their chances in November truly gives their game away. The president has made the SAVE America Act his “number one priority,” and he is right. But it’s also urgent to overcome other aspects of the far left’s obstruction. Americans are being forced to wait in line for three hours at airport security checkpoints because the Democrats are blocking funding for homeland security and immigration law enforcement. Bad enough that Democrats’ political tantrum is ruining travelers’ days — but at this time of hostilities with Iran, their financial siege of DHS is not just inconvenient, it’s dangerous. Texans don’t need more endless discussions over Washington rules that Democrats have already promised to break. Talk is cheap. They need leaders who get results. And results are exactly what I have been proud to help President Trump deliver during both of his terms. I’ve partnered with the president to cut taxes for working families, rebuild our military, stop inflation, transform the courts and secure our border. Now this success story needs its next chapter. After careful consideration, I support whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary for us to get the SAVE America Act and homeland security funding past the Democrats’ obstruction, through the Senate, and on the president’s desk for his signature. This could be a “talking filibuster” that removes the obstructionists’ free pass and makes them defend their indefensible views on the Senate floor, or it could be a different reform.

FOX News [3/11/2026 7:00 AM, Lora Ries, 37576K] reports a change in leadership at the Department of Homeland Security is a good time to assess what should change and what shouldn’t when it comes to two of President Donald Trump’s top campaign promises: border security and mass deportations. The Trump administration very quickly and successfully secured the border in its first year. Maintaining this is imperative to prevent additional national security, public safety and economic threats from entering the U.S. With new DHS leadership, however, the administration can better pursue mass deportations. Limiting them to "the worst of the worst" results in only hundreds of thousands of deportations, when at least 20 million deportable aliens were residing in the U.S. at the start of Trump’s second term. In this Phase 2, the administration should open the aperture to significantly increase deportation numbers. Candidate Trump promised the largest mass deportation effort in American history, not just the worst criminal aliens. America needs the administration to carry out that promise to restore the rule of law, relieve American taxpayers from unsustainable welfare, education, healthcare and other costs, and open college and job opportunities for American students, graduates and employees shut out by foreign students, cheaper labor and fraud. Following the bombings in Iran, Americans now wonder whether Iranian and other terrorist sleeper cells, who faced no obstacles entering the country during President Joe Biden’s four years of open borders, may activate and carry out terrorism in the U.S. It is important to note that known and suspected terrorists often do not have a criminal history. In fact, they are often chosen because of their "clean" background. So, DHS will need to use other tools to identify and locate national security threats, including worksite enforcement, scrutinizing immigration and other government benefit applications, as well as financial accounts.

USA Today [3/12/2026 4:03 AM, Nicole Russell, 67103K] reports I’m not an optimist, per se. But when it comes to America, I’m an upbeat patriot. I believe wholeheartedly in Americans, the greatness of this country and the strength of our democratic republic – especially when it comes to elections. But I might be alone in this. According to a March NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll, Americans’ confidence in fair elections has actually dropped: 34% of Americans have little or no confidence in their elections, up from 24% since 2024. This is why it’s so disappointing to see Congress fail over and over to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also known as the SAVE Act or the SAVE America Act. It’s so simple, I can’t believe it’s not the law already. It would require "in person" documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Concerns that it would make voting difficult for married women or other groups of people, because documentation is hard to acquire, are overblown. Voter ID standards aren’t even controversial in other countries. President Donald Trump, elected by the people in an unprecedented victory, is pushing hard for it. Americans in both parties overwhelmingly support requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification, yet Congress continues to stall with no resolution. From the looks of it, both parties are to blame, but as a conservative, I blame Republicans more. Congress has one job. Our elected officials are there to represent us – we the people. If they cannot or will not pass this measure because they prefer to play politics and keep power over enacting the will of the people, they deserve to be voted out. And we should not hesitate to do so.

FOX News [3/11/2026 7:56 AM, Mahmoud Khalil, 37576K] reports three years ago, I came to the United States as a graduate student with the intention of studying public and international affairs at Columbia University, with a focus on public service. Like many who come here from across the world, I had a vision of the United States as the land of the free, a place where freedom of speech was cherished and where I could study freely. I thought it was a place where I could stand up for what I believed in without fear of retaliation from the government. On March 8, 2025, that vision shattered. Multiple plainclothes ICE agents in unmarked cars grabbed me, without a warrant, from the lobby of my apartment building in New York and threw me on a plane to a federal detention center in Louisiana. As a green card holder with a U.S. citizen wife — who was 8 months pregnant at the time — I couldn’t believe what was happening. I had been targeted by the government because of my lawful speech in support of Palestinian rights, for protesting the use of my tax dollars and tuition fees to support the Israeli occupation. Throughout my 104 days in federal detention, during which I missed the birth of my first child, I considered myself a political prisoner. The government had deprived me of my liberty, not because I had broken any laws, but because it didn’t like what I had to say. Once I challenged my detention and Secretary Rubio’s determination that my political views posed a foreign policy threat, the government scrambled to add new accusations. They alleged, baselessly, that I had committed fraud on my green card application. Claims invented not out of evidence, but out of retaliation. Recent evidence in federal court revealed that DHS itself acknowledged, a day before my arrest, that there were no issues with the information I provided on my green card application because everything was complete, true, and correct. Yet I was arrested anyway. I was not alone. Other students and scholars with valid immigration status were similarly targeted for detention and deportation despite having committed no crime. They were pulled off streets by masked agents, targeted outside of their homes, and tricked into arrests during citizenship appointments. What happened to us is exactly what the First Amendment is designed to prevent: the government deciding which speech is acceptable and which is not. Once that protection is weakened, everyone is at risk.

Houston Chronicle [3/11/2026 1:16 PM, Staff, 2493K] reports that HPD arrests: Regarding “Exclusive: Houston Police and ICE are working closer than ever. Experts now say it may be unlawful,” (March 5): The lead story disturbs me. Houston police should and must arrest anyone who is suspected of breaking a legally enforceable law. This should include arresting undocumented migrants who have entered the U.S. unlawfully. The discussion that centers on local versus federal jurisdiction escapes me. Any person who enters the U.S. without proper documentation is here illegally and, in my opinion, must be arrested. Undocumented immigrants are not citizens of the U.S. and should not be treated the same as legal residents. This is not hard to understand. Laws are laws and they must be obeyed whether the undocumented migrants agree with the law or not. I am sorry that these people did not have the great opportunity to be born in the U.S. That is not my problem. Obey the law. Apply for citizenship legally and then they can enjoy the benefits of being an American.

Bloomberg [3/11/2026 2:16 PM, Suzanne Monyak, 763K] reports that a Washington federal judge rebuked the Department of Homeland Security for detaining immigrants for a month or longer without bond hearings, calling the practice "shocking" and a "huge whopping statutory violation." Senior Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia raised concerns about the detention periods during a hearing Wednesday on warrantless immigration arrests in the nation’s capital. "I found that, to be honest, shocking," Howell, an Obama appointee, said, after listing examples where arrested immigrants faced prolonged detention. The judge noted that individuals accused of committing crimes get such a hearing sooner than immigrants accused of civil offenses. She also asked the government’s lawyer, John Bardo of the DC US attorney’s office, if he was concerned about the custody periods "as an officer of the court." Still, Howell asked both Bardo and attorneys representing arrested immigrants to consider if she had authority to take up that issue in this case. At one point, she appeared to hint to an attorney for the immigrants that it may be an issue to challenge separately. If it can’t be reviewed in this matter, she said, "perhaps it could be considered in another case." Howell is the latest federal judge to raise concerns about the Trump administration’s detention practices, after DHS changed its interpretation of detention standards to hold nearly all arrested immigrants without bond hearings. The case is Escobar Molina v. DHS, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-03417, hearing held 3/11/26.

New York Times [3/11/2026 5:02 AM, Kashmir Hill, 148038K] reports the size of the contract, in the realm of federal contracts, was not huge: $22.8 million. But it has shaken employees of Thomson Reuters for two reasons. The government agency is Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the employees’ location is Minnesota. Thomson Reuters is a $50 billion Toronto-based company that owns the Reuters news service. It also operates a widely used legal research tool, Westlaw, whose operations are based in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Thousands of the company’s employees live there. Operation Metro Surge, as the government called the influx of thousands of ICE agents to Minneapolis in December, directly affected their lives. One employee said ICE agents had raided his child’s school. Another bought groceries for immigrant neighbors who were afraid to leave their homes. Two had carried whistles to alert community members when ICE agents were spotted. So when employees learned that the company was providing ICE with investigative software to pull public and private information about individuals, and to track license plates, it felt personal and they mobilized. More than 200 Thomson Reuters employees have signed a letter to management asking that the company not renew the ICE contract when it expires in May. (Ten employees spoke to The New York Times, but asked that their names not be used for fear of retaliation.) “We have experienced our neighbors, friends and family members undergoing arrests and detention, intimidation and harassment, and public violence,” the letter said. We “question if our investigative products and services are being used in accordance with our mission and values, as well as in accordance with the law and our nation’s Constitution.” In an emailed statement, a Thomson Reuters spokeswoman, Julia Commons, said that the company did not comment on specific contracts, but that it worked with customers “to support investigations into areas of national security and public safety.” The statement continued: “We remain committed to this mission while maintaining strong safeguards that ensure our products and services are used in accordance with our contractual terms and applicable law.”

FOX News [3/11/2026 7:00 AM, Kristine Parks, 37576K] reports thousands of students across the country have organized left-wing protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) so far in 2026, according to a campus watchdog report released on Monday. Defending Education, a national education watchdog, has rolled out a new database that tracks demonstrations nationwide in K-12 schools. The list, which goes back to 2022, has found student protests in 236 school districts across 48 states and the District of Columbia, over the past four years. The group has logged 334 walkouts and protests so far in 2026 alone, based on news reports, social media posts and press releases. Fox News Digital could not independently verify every instance recorded in the actively updating database. Defending Education Research Director Rhyen Staley told Fox News Digital that at least 306 of the protests the group tracked so far this year were against ICE.

The Hill [3/11/2026 6:00 AM, Tolu Talabi, 18170K] reports former law enforcement and immigration officials are coming out in opposition to the Trump administration’s defense of masks worn by agents leading its immigration crackdown. The federal government has argued that having officers wear masks is necessary for their protection, but former officials who worked under both Democratic and Republican administrations told The Hill it’s important for law enforcement to show their faces. “We have never worn masks my entire career,” said Darius Reeves, whose Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) career spanned the Bush, Obama, Biden and both Trump administrations. Reeves said the masking appeared to start when other federal forces were augmented into ICE and needed to maintain anonymity for potential undercover operations in their day-to-day job. But that “no longer seems to be the scenario,” he said, adding that current immigration tactics are “something totally weird, something I totally do not recognize.”

NPR [3/12/2026 4:44 AM, Mose Buchele, 34837K] reports while cities in blue states like Minnesota and California resist ICE enforcement, some Democrat-led cities in red states, like Austin, Texas, are in a heated debate over how to respond. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

NewsMax [3/11/2026 5:46 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports a property linked online to the federal immigration agent identified in court records in the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good appears blurred on Google’s Street View imagery, a development that has added another layer of scrutiny to a case that remains under local investigation more than two months after the killing. Court records have identified Jonathan Ross, 43, as the masked federal agent seen firing on Good’s vehicle in widely circulated video recorded Jan. 7 in Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale immigration enforcement push led by ICE in Minnesota. Public records reviewed by journalists list a man with the same name and age at a property whose Street View image is blurred, although officials have not said when any request was submitted or by whom. Google says homeowners or tenants can ask that images of their residences be permanently blurred if they provide documentation verifying the address. "If an image contains inappropriate content, or you prefer your home not be shown, you can request it to be blurred," Google says in its Street View help guidance. News organizations have not published the property address, citing concerns about doxxing and threats to federal agents and their families. The Department of Homeland Security has said threats against ICE officers have sharply increased amid the administration’s immigration crackdown. "Our ICE law enforcement officers face an 8,000% increase in death threats against them while they risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members," then-Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a DHS statement issued Oct. 30. "From bounties placed on their heads for their murders, threats to their families, stalking, and doxxing online, our officers are experiencing an unprecedented level of violence and threats against them and their families," she added.

CBS Boston [3/11/2026 7:55 PM, Kristina Rex, 51110K] Video: HERE reports a federal judge ordered the immediate return of a 14-year-old Massachusetts girl who was detained by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Tuesday. In a hearing Wednesday afternoon, Judge Leo T. Sorokin expressed concern that the young teen had been driven overnight to a detention facility in New York for children, and ordered her immediate return to Massachusetts. The girl’s lawyer told CBS News Boston she was detained by ICE on Tuesday while pulled over in a car with her U.S. citizen brothers in a parking lot outside the Bethel Presbyterian Church in Marlboro. A video captured by bystanders and sent to WBZ-TV by the girl’s attorney shows the aftermath of the arrest. The girl was then taken to the John F. Kennedy federal building in Massachusetts for 10 hours before being driven overnight to a detention facility in New York, lawyer Andrew Lattarulo said. "She’s scared, but she’s a strong kid," Lattarulo said after speaking to the girl around 11 p.m. Tuesday night, shortly before she was unexpectedly transferred. Lattarulo says he had not been able to reach the teen since her transfer to New York. News of the detention sparked immediate outrage among local politicians. "I think like any parent, I’m furious," said Massachusetts Congresswoman Lori Trahan, a Democrat. "This is not immigration enforcement, this is the targeting of a child to inflict maximum pain on a family.” Both Trahan and Lattarulo suggested that the girl was being used as bait by ICE to get access to her father. In a federal hearing on Wednesday afternoon, lawyers for the government said there’s more to the story. Rayford Farquhar, from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Massachusetts, said the officers were concerned for the girl’s safety when they discovered that she was actually not related to any of the people in the car with her and had not been to her school in Brighton for some time. For her safety, he said, they detained her. Farquhar disputes Lattarulo’s claim that the girl was with her brothers in the car. Lattarulo said the girl is originally from Brazil and had an expired visitor visa. Farquhar said there was "No indication that she was in any way a target for whatever was going on" and that she was not arrested because her visa had expired. Judge Sorokin said it was his first time in 22 years as a federal judge that he’s "heard of federal agents taking a juvenile into custody where the only reason is because there wasn’t an appropriate person to release them to.”

Breitbart [3/11/2026 10:15 AM, Paul Bois, 2238K] reports New York-based rapper Bentley Bugz, real name Jimmy Francois, has been charged with trafficking a 16-year-old girl. Francois faces federal charges for allegedly trafficking the girl across state lines for at least two months, at one point threatening her with violence, per Long Island News: The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Jimmy Francois, a rapper known as Bentley Bugz, trafficked the teen from June to August 2024 in multiple states including New York. According to court documents, Francois also threatened and assaulted the girl over those two months — in one instance stating, "I will personally break your bones." U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said in a statement that Francois allegedly "preyed on a vulnerable child and sold her body for his own profit, while subjecting her to physical violence and threats.” "With today’s arrest, Francois is being held to account for his cruel and depraved crimes," Nocella said. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) also said that the rapper’s alleged "exploitation and trafficking of an innocent teenager can only be described as depravity in its most vile form.” "He hid his dark life of threats and abuse behind a facade of power and luxury," said HSI. "Together with our law enforcement partners, HSI New York is wholeheartedly focused on protecting victims as we relentlessly pursue those who dehumanize and debase them for their own selfish gain and satisfaction."

Reuters [3/11/2026 10:59 PM, Kanishka Singh, 38315K] reports a federal judge in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order on Wednesday to halt construction work on an immigration detention center after the state had sued citing environmental concerns. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown had argued that President Donald Trump’s administration had not conducted a proper environmental review or received public input. The federal government spent more than $100 million on a 54-acre warehouse in Maryland’s Washington County to convert it into a detention center capable of holding 1,500 people at a time, Brown said in February when the state sued. U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson granted Maryland’s request for a restraining order to immediately pause construction for up to 14 days while the court considered Maryland’s broader legal challenge. "The State has shown that Defendants likely failed to comply with their obligations under (the National Environmental Policy Act)," the judge wrote. "Defendants do not appear to have taken a ‘hard look’ at the potential environmental consequences of their plans for the Williamsport Warehouse," the judge added. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has federal oversight of immigration and of which the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is a part, has previously said DHS was willing to work with state officials to expand detention capabilities. It has also previously rejected Maryland’s assertion that the lawsuit was based on environmental concerns. The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and deportation drive have received widespread condemnation from rights advocates over what they call violations of free speech and due process rights. Rights experts also say the crackdown has created an unsafe environment, particularly for minorities. Trump has cast his actions as aiming to stop illegal immigration and improve domestic security. Brown cast the ruling as a win. "Though temporary, this ruling stops the construction of this massive immigration detention center while our lawsuit continues to play out in court. We will not let DHS and ICE rush through the proper legal process in their haste to ramp up deportations," Brown said.

CBS Baltimore [3/11/2026 5:48 PM, Caroline Foreback, 51110K] reports a controversial proposal moving through the Maryland General Assembly could block some current and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from working in state law enforcement. House Bill 832, known as the ICE Breaker Act, would prohibit Maryland police agencies from hiring anyone who joined ICE as a sworn officer on or after Jan. 20, 2025, the date of President Trump’s second inauguration. Supporters say the measure is intended to protect Maryland communities and ensure state law enforcement reflects the state’s values. On the other hand, critics argue the bill unfairly targets federal officers simply for working for the government. The bill now awaits a vote in the House Judiciary Committee. Boafo said he believes Maryland should not allow what he described as unqualified or extremist recruits into the state’s law enforcement ranks. Advocates who support the bill say it would create accountability for federal immigration enforcement practices. Republican lawmakers strongly criticized the proposal during Wednesday’s hearing.

Daily Caller [3/11/2026 12:36 PM, Jason Hopkins, 803K] reports that immigration agents are seeking custody of an illegal migrant accused of viciously beating his three-year-old nephew to death. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer request for Samuel Antonio Maldonado-Erazo, a Honduran illegal migrant who settled in western Florida after being allowed into the country by the Biden administration, according to the agency. The Honduran national allegedly beat and abused his nephew, with the child ultimately succumbing to his injuries earlier in March. The child was left in Maldonado-Erazo’s care after his mother was deported from the U.S. in January and chose not to take him with her. "This crime is absolutely sickening," ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a public statement. "This little boy suffered extensively and died when his mother abandoned him to Maldonado-Erazo’s ‘care’ — and Maldonado-Erazo himself is an illegal alien who never should’ve been in this country in the first place." Medical professionals responded to a 911 call in Escambia County, Florida, on March 4 and attempted to help the toddler, who was suffering from cardiac arrest and later died at a hospital, according to local reports. Maldonado-Erazo had reportedly brought the child to work earlier that day and ignored signs that the three-year-old was in extreme physical distress. Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons confirmed that the toddler’s injuries included at least 17 strikes to his head, intentional burns, a broken collarbone, a transected pancreas from blunt force trauma, several broken ribs and extensive bruising, according to ICE. One of the broken ribs was completely detached from his spine.

Chicago Tribune [3/11/2026 1:54 PM, Alice Yin, Talia Soglin, and Caroline Kubzansky, 5209K] reports that a Skokie woman made headlines this week after her family and a local politician claimed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security detained her for nearly 48 hours before she ultimately ended up in Wisconsin — an extraordinary story disputed by accounts from the federal government, two sheriff’s departments and her purported employer. Summer Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi’s family alleges the 28-year-old woman was taken into custody Thursday morning at O’Hare International Airport after arriving on a flight from Istanbul. Naqvi, whom Cook County records show was born in Evanston, allegedly told her family that she was detained at the airport and then taken to Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers in two different states. Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, a family friend, told the Tribune that Naqvi was sent to an ICE facility in west suburban Broadview and, later, a Wisconsin jail that frequently houses Chicago-area detainees before she was released. But in a statement Monday, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said that Naqvi had only been directed through additional security screening upon arriving at the Chicago airport Thursday and was cleared to leave. She “departed CBP” of her own volition less than two hours after landing, the statement said. “The passenger’s claims are blatantly false,” said Harry Fones, principal deputy assistant secretary for public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security. “Ms. Naqvi departed CBP within 90 minutes of her arrival to the United States. Ms. Naqvi was not taken into custody or transferred to ICE for detention.”

CBS Chicago [3/12/2026 12:27 AM, Marissa Sulek, 51110K] reports the Department of Homeland Security released new details on Wednesday involving the Skokie woman who claimed that federal agents detained her and five coworkers for nearly two days after they got off their flight from Turkey to O’Hare. The federal government, along with her alleged employer and two sheriff’s departments, is denying that it happened. This comes following a press conference held on Sunday outside the Broadview ICE processing facility for 28-year-old Sunny Naqvi. Among those who spoke at the conference were Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison and Naqvi’s sister, Sarah Afzul. Naqvi herself was not in attendance to speak about the alleged incident. "She was on a work trip with five other employees, two were U.S. citizens, and three were green card holders," Morrison said. "She is here right now, she just doesn’t want the spotlight on her," Afzul said during the conference. Afzul said they tracked Naqvi’s location last week while she was in custody with federal agents. She said they held Naqvi at O’Hare, then the Broadview processing center, and brought her across state lines to a jail -- not an immigration facility -- in Dodge County, Wisconsin. U.S. Customs and Border Protection responded on Monday, saying the "the passenger’s claims are blatantly false.” On Wednesday, CBP shared photos of Naqvi entering customs secondary inspection after her flight from Turkey last Thursday at 10:46 a.m. She left at 11:42 a.m. The photos coincide with CBP’s statement about the alleged incident: "Summer Sundas ‘Sunny’ Naqvi, arrived at O’Hare at 10:21 a.m. on March 5, 2026. CBP officers referred her to Secondary, for additional inspection based on law enforcement checks and conducted a baggage exam. Ms. Naqvi departed CBP within 90 minutes of her arrival to the United States. Ms. Naqvi was not taken into custody or transferred to ICE for detention. CBP did NOT transfer any individuals to Broadview or perform any phone detentions from her flight on Thursday, March 5th.” CBS Chicago asked the Cook County Sheriff’s Office about Naqvi. They said, "We can confirm that sheriff’s police with the Cook County Sheriff’s Department looked for that individual at the Broadview Ice Facility, but she was not there.” The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office was also asked about her. The responded in a statement, saying in part, "The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has no record of the individual referenced ever being booked, detained, or released from the Dodge County jail. Jail logs confirm that no female inmates or detainees from the federal government were admitted or released during the timeframe in which these events were alleged to have occurred." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [3/11/2026 8:45 AM, Bob Price, 2238K] reports ICE agents in Houston arrested 414 criminal illegal aliens accused or convicted of child sex crimes during President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, almost twice the number taken off the streets during President Joe Biden’s last year. The group accounted for 761 child sex offenses and 525 other crimes, from homicide to robbery, according to ICE. "While elected officials and media pundits across the country were zealously trying to manipulate the American public with fake news stories about ICE’s public safety mission, the brave men and women of ICE were quietly going about their business to arrest and remove more than 400 dangerous child predators from our local communities," said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston Acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez. ICE Houston arrested 761 illegal alien child sex offenders during Trump’s first year back in office, officials reported. During Biden’s final year in office, Houston ERO officers arrested only 211 child sex offenders who were illegally present in the United States. Officers also took 525 criminal aliens into custody with charges or convictions, including homicide and robbery, during the past year. The announcement from the ICE Houston ERO office follows last week’s report of illegal alien, felonious drunk driver arrests by the ICE Houston team, Breitbart Texas reported.

Univision [3/11/2026 7:00 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports at a March 11 press conference, Mayor John Whitmire and Houston Police Department (HPD) Chief J. Noe Diaz, they confirmed that their officers do not work as federal immigration agents. The message that seeks to transmit tranquility to the undocumented immigrant community, comes after detecting isolated incidents where officers deviated from the established protocols. “HPD is not ICE,” the mayor of Houston repeated several times, highlighting how this stance has shielded the city from tensions seen in Los Angeles or Chicago, where protests paralyzed streets for several weeks. The mayor clarified that the city’s policy seeks to comply with state-run Bill Senate 4 and the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. To ensure that there is no confusion in the field, a directive has been issued with immediate effect that adds layers of responsibility to each police interaction: Mandatory presence of a sergeant: In the face of any alert of an administrative immigration order (NCIC hit), a sergeant must go to the scene to verify the facts and supervise the decision of the officer. 30-minute waiting limit: If you contact federal authorities, they have a maximum of 30 minutes to reach the venue. Otherwise, the person must be released with the relevant information. Transportation ban: Officers are prohibited from transporting immigrants based solely on an administrative immigration order, unless there are safety risks (such as being on a dangerous highway).

Univision [3/11/2026 9:43 AM, Staff, 4937K] reports that the 911 call reported an apparent suicide. Last month, a federal contractor called emergency services from an immigration detention center in El Paso to report that a 55-year-old Cuban man "attempted to hang himself." The next day, according to official information, Geraldo Lunas Campos had died, marking the second death in a matter of weeks at Camp East Montana, a tent complex hastily constructed last year at Fort Bliss. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials attributed his death to a "medical distress." But the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide—he died of asphyxiation. The autopsy determined that Lunas Campos lost consciousness while being physically restrained by law enforcement. His death, which has so far not led to any criminal investigation or charges, has renewed scrutiny not only of that camp but also of conditions at nearly two dozen ICE detention centers in Texas. In the span of just six weeks between December and January, six people died while in ICE custody in Texas—three of them at Camp East Montana. The deaths began with a 48-year-old Guatemalan man, Francisco Gaspar-Andrés, who, according to ICE, died on December 3 from liver and kidney failure after being hospitalized for more than two weeks following his arrest.

The Washington Post [3/11/2026 6:23 PM, Douglas MacMillan, 24826K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement replaced the contractor overseeing Camp East Montana and said it is planning to keep the El Paso detention center open, a week after The Washington Post reported on an internal document that appeared to indicate ICE was taking steps to close the facility. ICE terminated its contract with Acquisition Logistics LLC, the company that has overseen the construction and operation of Camp East Montana since last July, and awarded a new contract to Amentum Services, a Chantilly, Virginia-based federal contractor, according to government procurement records. The move comes after the department said it was reviewing Camp East Montana to ensure it met federal standards for immigrant detention. The Post has corrected its earlier story about the internal ICE document; the document said ICE was terminating the contract, not closing the facility. “ICE is always looking at ways to improve our detention facilities to ensure we are providing the best care to illegal aliens in our custody,” Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement Wednesday. The new contract will allow more on-site staff, precise quality assurance and greater ICE oversight of contractors, she added. ICE awarded Amentum the contract without a traditional bidding process, according to a description on the SAM.gov procurement site. The website says Amentum will run the facility for 180 days. Bis did not respond to a question about what happens after the 180-day period ends in September. An Amentum spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Camp East Montana’s population has declined to about 1,500 detainees in recent weeks, about half as many people as it held in January, according to a separate internal ICE document obtained by The Post. It recently closed to visitors and attorneys because of a measles outbreak, according to Rep. Veronica Escobar (D), who represents El Paso and periodically visits the detention center. Telemundo 48 El Paso [3/11/2026 5:00 PM, Luisa Barrios, 19K] reports the Camp East Montana detention center, located in East El Paso, is not closing and has no plans to do so, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, confirmed this Wednesday, March 11. ICE clarified that, on the contrary, the detention center is in the process of transitioning to a new provider, after then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Kristi Noem terminated the previous contract, which, according to the agency, had been inherited from the former Department of War. According to the agency, the new contract will allow for raising operating standards, increasing available staff, and adding a more rigorous system of supervision and quality control within the facility. The agency did not specify when the new provider will take over, but insisted that the center will continue to operate normally during the transition.

CBS News [3/11/2026 7:38 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports in the two and a half weeks since the trial began, the government has called 51 witnesses and tried to link the defendants to antifa. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Colorado [3/11/2026 3:39 PM, Anna Alejo, Austen Erblat, 51110K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accused of leaving "ace of spades" cards on the vehicles of immigrants detained in Eagle County have been pulled from field duty, according to testimony in federal court from a senior official in the agency’s Denver field office. Greg Davies, an assistant field office director for ICE, told the court that the agents remain employed but are under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security. The cards have long been associated with ominous or threatening messages and were found on cars belonging to families whose relatives had just been taken into custody. The two‑day federal hearing is examining whether ICE has violated a court order prohibiting the warrantless arrest of immigrants. On Wednesday, the judge described current ICE detentions as "unprecedented" and said testimony from ICE officers revealed a clear lack of training on DHS standards they are required to follow. Members of Colorado’s Democratic congressional delegation have called for an independent federal investigation. ICE acknowledged the incident and said it launched an internal review.

Axios [3/11/2026 4:33 PM, Abbey Higginbotham, 17364K] reports CoreCivic said Wednesday it expects to start accepting immigration detainees at its Leavenworth facility "in the coming weeks," one day after city commissioners approved the permit needed to reopen the site. The 4-1 vote ends roughly a year of legal battles over whether CoreCivic needed city approval for a special-use permit and clears the way for immigration detainees to be housed in Leavenworth again, subject to local permit conditions. At Tuesday night’s City Commission meeting for the second consideration of the special-use permit, the city limited public comment to one hour and nearly 50 residents spoke. The permit allows CoreCivic to reopen under a three-year initial term and a cap of 1,104 detainees, defined in the ordinance as the facility’s rated capacity. CoreCivic separately described the site as a 1,033-bed facility in its public statements but has not announced plans to expand. The company emphasized that ICE, not the city, decides when detainees will be transferred into the Leavenworth facility.

Houston Chronicle [3/11/2026 3:28 PM, Matt deGrood, John Wayne Ferguson, 2493K] reports Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz announced Wednesday that federal immigration officers will be given a 30-minute window to respond to calls from city police officers about people they encounter who have administrative immigration warrants. The new policy represents a major change in the way the police department handles its interaction with federal immigration authorities. Diaz announced the policy during a news conference alongside Mayor John Whitmire. Diaz also announced that patrol officers will be required to call a sergeant to the scene when they encounter people with administrative warrants, and will be prohibited in transporting people if only their immigration status is at issue. If ICE agents don’t show up within the time window, officers will be instructed to take the detained person’s information and release them. In announcing the policy change, Diaz cited numbers meant to show that officers’ encounters with people who had administrative warrants represented a tiny percentage of the overall number of calls they received in 2025. But in addition to those numbers, he said 17 people were "transported to meet ICE" in 2025. It was not immediately clear if those 17 instances were similar to the two where officers drove people to ICE custody, or something else. Wednesday’s news conference comes after several council members called for changes and accountability from the department following the Chronicle’s exclusive report that officers in at least two cases had arrested and personally transported drivers to immigration agents.

Breitbart [3/11/2026 1:31 PM, Lowell Cauffiel, 2238K] reports that an extensive operation by the Riverside County Sheriff Office’s Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, working with a host of other law enforcement agencies, has resulted in the rescue of more than three dozen missing teens found in California, Arizona, and Nevada. In an effort called "Operation Safe Return," Riverside, California, investigators identified 50 children between the ages of 14 and 17 who had been missing from one to 24 months and launched extensive investigations into the whereabouts of each child, discovering some of them in the two neighboring states. Detectives focused on those teens because some 5,000 to 6,000 children run away or go missing each year in Riverside County alone, according to the sheriff’s department, with most of them returning home not long after leaving. Of the 37 children safely recovered, operation supervisor Sgt. Aron Wolfe said in a statement: Each child received victim advocacy services, medical support when necessary, and follow-up resources prior to being reunited with a legal guardian. Unfortunately, some of these children were identified as victims of various crimes, ranging from child sex trafficking to sexual assault. The operation resulted in seven arrests, including one federal arrest for child sex trafficking being conducted by Homeland Security Investigations. The other 13 cases remain open.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [3/11/2026 2:45 PM, Ben Chapman, 40934K]

Univision [3/11/2026 9:00 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports a video recorded in San Diego shows the moment an activist documenting immigration operations asks for refuge in a high school while claiming that federal agents were trying to arrest him. The footage, recorded on March 4 near King-Chavez High School , shows 24-year-old Arturo Gonzalez approaching the campus entrance while speaking to the camera and asking to be allowed to enter. “Hey, can you let me in? They’re trying to grab me, they’re trying to grab me,” González can be heard saying in the video. The incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. during student arrival time , when federal agents were in the area of K and 30th streets, according to the activist himself. “Hey, can you let me in? They’re trying to grab me, they’re trying to grab me,” González can be heard saying in the video. The incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. during student arrival time , when federal agents were in the area of ​​K and 30th streets, according to the activist himself. González is known on social media for posting reports about ICE raids in Southern California neighborhoods. That day, he says, he was patrolling the area to alert the community about the presence of federal agents near the school.

Telemundo [3/11/2026 9:12 PM, Staff, 56K] reports dozens of people have been detained by federal immigration agents after arriving by mistake or for work reasons at the Camp Pendleton military base north of San Diego, according to immigration lawyers handling multiple similar cases. Immigration attorney Valerie Sigamani said her firm represents at least five clients who were detained at Camp Pendleton, all of whom had work permits. As she explained, some were attempting to enter because they had previously worked on the base without issues, while others arrived as drivers for apps like Uber and Lyft, transporting military personnel from the airport to the facility. Sigamani warned that those who are not U.S. citizens should avoid attempting to enter the base due to the risk of being detained. For their part, military officials told Telemundo 20 that the safety of military personnel, civilian employees, and authorized persons is their top priority. They also noted that in 2025, Camp Pendleton was one of the bases with the highest number of access attempts by foreign nationals. In May of that year, the base announced an initiative to coordinate with ICE. The announcement stated that "while most unauthorized access attempts are accidental, often because civilian drivers mistakenly arrive at base entrances due to incorrect GPS directions, others could represent deliberate security risks." "The problem we are seeing right now is that the officers at Pendleton do not truly understand the type of status that can protect a person," Sigamani expressed. The attorney indicated that her clients were detained for between one week and one month in facilities such as the Otay Mesa Detention Center. In the absence of bond hearings in immigration court, lawyers have had to file "habeas corpus" petitions in federal court to request their release. "Habeas corpus" is a legal remedy that protects people against illegal detentions, Sigamani explained. Court records of these types of petitions reviewed by Telemundo 20 include cases such as a man looking for food without knowing the restaurant was inside the base, and another moving company worker who was detained while helping a Marine. Immigration attorney Brian McGoldrick said he has approximately 15 cases related to Camp Pendleton. Currently, he has several habeas petitions in federal court, but to date, in all those that have received a ruling, federal judges determined that the federal government’s detentions were illegal. "The district court says that what they are doing violates the constitutional right of these individuals to due process," McGoldrick stated. Camp Pendleton officials shared this link with access guidelines for the military base.

The Washington Examiner [3/11/2026 6:28 PM, Jack Birle, 1147K] reports the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to lift the latest lower court block on ending temporary protected status for people from various countries, also asking the justices to consider formally taking up the case to stop lower court judges from blocking a policy they have already allowed the Trump administration to pursue. Although the Supreme Court is already sitting on an emergency application from the DOJ asking it to lift a block on ending TPS for Syria, Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed another application on Wednesday to the high court’s emergency docket seeking to lift a block on ending TPS for Haiti. Sauer explained in his petition to the justices that the high court should again allow the administration to end TPS for Haiti, as it did twice in 2025 for Venezuela, arguing that the Department of Homeland Security’s decision is not reviewable despite lower courts’ efforts to the contrary. "For all of the reasons stated in prior applications and then some, this Court should grant a stay yet again," Sauer wrote. "As to the merits, respondents’ [Administrative Procedure Act] claims are clearly not reviewable and are in all events meritless, and respondents’ precedent-defying equal-protection challenge would apparently invalidate every action the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken since January 2025.” "As to the equities, lower courts are again attempting to block major executive-branch policy initiatives in ways that inflict specific harms to National Interest and foreign relations, while crediting harms to respondents that inhere in the temporary nature of TPS," he added. Sauer also claimed the district court’s ruling, which claimed the revocation of TPS was unlawful because of clear "racial animus," was an endorsement of a "far-fetched and far-reaching equal-protection claim" that has no merit and "threatens to invalidate virtually every immigration policy of the current administration.” The solicitor general urged the high court to take up the case to its merits docket, alongside the pending petition to lift the block on ending TPS for Syria, as lower courts continue to issue conflicting rules on the Trump administration’s bids to end TPS. "Unless the Court resolves the merits of these challenges—issues that have now been ventilated in courts nationwide—this unsustainable cycle will repeat again and again, spawning more competing rulings and competing views of what to make of this Court’s interim orders," Sauer said. "This Court should break that cycle by granting stays as well as certiorari before judgment in both Noem v. Doe, No. 25A952, and in this case," he added. Reuters [3/11/2026 2:59 PM, Andrew Chung and John Kruzel, 38315K] reports thart the judge found that the administration’s action toward the Haitians likely was motivated in part by "racial animus." Kristi Noem, a Trump appointee then serving as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, determined in November 2025 that there were "no extraordinary and temporary conditions" in Haiti that would prevent Haitian migrants from returning to the Caribbean country. The U.S. State Department currently warns against travel to Haiti "due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest and limited healthcare." Under Trump, the Department of Homeland Security ⁠has moved to end TPS status for about a dozen countries, saying it was always meant to be temporary. Acting on a separate emergency request by the administration in October, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to terminate TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants. The administration in February also asked the court to allow its effort to strip TPS status from about 6,100 Syrians living in the United States. The Washington Times [3/11/2026 3:26 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports that lower courts have been conflicted, with a number of judges ruling DHS acted too precipitously, while some have said the administration could proceed. Mr. Sauer said the Supreme Court needs to step in and give firm guidance. In the case of Haiti, Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee in Washington, said just-relieved Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem harbored a “hostility to nonwhite immigrants” that tainted her decision-making. The federal appeals court in Washington declined to block her ruling, sending Mr. Sauer to the justices. He previously asked the high court to put on hold a similar set of rulings out of a federal court in New York. The justices have yet to rule on that.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [3/11/2026 4:04 PM, Abbie VanSickle and Miriam Jordan, 148038K]
Bloomberg [3/11/2026 3:02 PM, Greg Stohr, 18082K]
The Hill [3/11/2026 4:21 PM, Zach Schonfeld, 18170K]
CBS News [3/11/2026 3:51 PM, Melissa Quinn, 51110K]
CNN [3/11/2026 3:16 PM, John Fritze, Tami Luhby, 19874K]
USA Today [3/11/2026 6:07 PM, Bethany Bruner, 70643K]

FOX News [3/11/2026 6:57 PM, Breanne Deppisch Fox, 37576K] reports the Trump administration on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to allow it to terminate the protected legal status of hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants living in the U.S. It’s the latest effort by the administration to unwind Biden-era protections of hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the U.S. as part of the president’s hard-line immigration enforcement agenda. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the high court Wednesday to immediately intervene and overturn a lower court order that blocked the administration’s effort to immediately revoke the temporary protected status designation for some 350,000 Haitian migrants living in the U.S. A majority of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also blocked the Trump administration’s bid to end the program, citing the "substantial" and "well-documented harms" the migrants would likely face as a result, clearing the way for the administration to appeal the case to the high court. In his filing Wednesday, Sauer urged the Supreme Court to review more broadly the issue of whether the Trump administration can revoke TPS protections for other migrants living in the U.S. "Unless the court resolves the merits of these challenges — issues that have now been ventilated in courts nationwide — this unsustainable cycle will repeat again and again, spawning more competing rulings and competing views of what to make of this court’s interim orders," Sauer said Wednesday. "This court should break that cycle." The TPS program in question allows individuals from certain countries to live and work in the U.S. legally if they cannot work safely in their home country due to a disaster, armed conflict or other "extraordinary and temporary conditions." Haitians were first granted TPS status in 2010 after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left some 1.5 million in the country homeless. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced last November that the U.S. would be ending TPS protections for Haitians in the U.S., prompting a group of individuals living in the U.S. with protected status to file suit. The Trump administration’s Supreme Court filing marks the second time this year that the administration has asked the high court to immediately intervene and allow it to strip TPS protections for certain migrants. Reyes described the administration’s effort to abruptly wind down the designation as "arbitrary and capricious," and accused DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of failing to consider the "overwhelming evidence of present danger" in Haiti — which she noted had prompted the Biden administration to extend TPS protections for Haitians in the first place.

Breitbart [3/11/2026 9:46 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports life has not always been easy for Maryse Balthazar since she relocated to the United States from Haiti, but she felt peace of mind before Donald Trump returned to office. "You didn’t have anxiety, like, ‘When are they going to grab me?’" the certified nursing assistant told AFP in a phone interview from Boynton Beach, Florida. "It’s scary.” Balthazar, who stayed in the United States after a devastating 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, is one of some 350,000 Haitian nationals granted Temporary Protective Status but now in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s crusade against immigrants without papers. Trump and recently-ousted homeland security secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly sought to terminate TPS for Haiti, a move that would shift the population’s status from legal to illegal immigrants. These efforts to send Haitians back home come even as the US State Department keeps a red alert on the country over robbery, sexual assault, gangs and other ills, saying, "Do not travel to Haiti for any reason.” The Trump administration had designated the program to end on February 3, but the order was suspended by US District Judge Ana Reyes on February 2. Reyes’ decision was hailed by Colin O’Leary, who runs a 120-bed Ascentria nursing home in Boston that, like other US senior care facilities, includes a heavy number of Haitian workers. "We’ve now had three different times where we thought we were losing a significant portion of our staff," said O’Leary. While Ascentria attorneys have cleared TPS holders to keep working, Balthazar said her son lost his receptionist job. Stories of job loss abound within the US Haitian diaspora as some employers become skittish over the uncertainty surrounding TPS. Doris Etheart, who runs a Caribbean foods store in New York, said a couple of cousins who arrived in 2024 were dismissed from their jobs as security guards. The relatives have been keeping a low profile, said Etheart, who was born in the United States from parents who emigrated from Haiti in the 1990s. Foot traffic near Etheart’s store in Brooklyn’s "Little Haiti" is much diminished. "All of them are just in fear," Etheart said. "They’re in hiding because of this.”

AP [3/12/2026 12:03 AM, Michael Melia, 31753K] reports like many school systems facing teacher shortages, South Carolina’s Allendale County has looked overseas for help. A quarter of the teachers in the rural, high-poverty district come from other countries. The superintendent praises the international educators — mostly from Jamaica and the Philippines — for their skill and dedication, but she is preparing to lose some of them as the Trump administration reshapes visa programs. Facing higher visa sponsorship costs and uncertain immigration policies, Superintendent Vallerie Cave said it feels too risky to extend some international teachers whose contracts are up or bring on others. "Some of my very best teachers are having to return to their countries," Cave said. For rural schools especially, President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is pinching a pipeline used widely to fill staffing shortages that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rural districts can struggle to attract American teachers to remote areas that lack plentiful housing, shopping and services such as health care, especially for lower salaries than some bigger districts offer. Cave is hoping to hire local teachers to fill the gaps left by several teachers’ impending departures. If she can’t, she may expand the district’s use of online teachers. Elsewhere, districts are considering hiring uncertified instructors, combining classes or dropping course offerings.

Telemundo51 [3/11/2026 4:55 PM, Maylin Legañoa, 162K] reports permanent residency in the United States for thousands of Cuban citizens who entered the country through various immigration programs remains on hold, generating uncertainty and difficulties for a community that already meets the requirements to regularize their status. According to immigration lawyer Claudia Cañizares, it is estimated that there are more than 100,000 cases affected by the paralysis in the permanent residence processes. In response to this situation, Cañizares announced that he is preparing a federal lawsuit against the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) along with fellow lawyer Mark Prada, with the aim of forcing the government to move forward on pending cases. The legal action is directed at Cubans who entered the United States through certain specific immigration programs and who subsequently applied for permanent residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act.

Breitbart [3/11/2026 5:17 PM, Neil Munro, 2238K] reports almost 19 million illegal migrants are living in the United States, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The higher figure will add to pressure on GOP leaders and President Donald Trump as they are being pushed by business interests to roll back the popular deportation of all illegal migrants. But the deportations are both popular and beneficial for Americans during the run-up to the 2026 mid-term elections. GOP members’ ambivalent comments do not say if they are going to reduce enforcement against a huge population of non-violent, employed migrants. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Ok), the incoming Homeland Security chief, opposes any migrant amnesty but has been ambivalent on his preferred deportation policy.

Telemundo52 [3/11/2026 9:39 PM, Staff, 61K] reports a beneficiary of the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) filed a lawsuit against the federal government after, according to her lawyer, she was detained and immediately deported to Mexico without the opportunity to defend her case before a judge. Last month, María de Jesús Estrada attended an immigration appointment with her daughter, where she expected to receive her permanent residency card. Instead of celebrating, both ended up facing an unexpected situation that culminated in her deportation. "Stand up, put your hands behind your back, you are arrested, you have an order for immediate deportation... and in a matter of hours she was deported to Mexico," Estrada recounted. Estrada arrived in the United States without documents when she was 15 years old and had been under the temporary protection of DACA since 2013, a program created to temporarily protect certain individuals who arrived in the country as minors from deportation. For that reason, she said that both she and her daughter were confused by what occurred. "It’s like they kill you while you’re still alive; what is happening here? We had no idea of the magnitude of what was happening. I saw the color leave my daughter’s face, she started to shake, her eyes wouldn’t stop crying," she stated. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) noted that DACA does not grant permanent legal status and that beneficiaries can be deported under certain circumstances. In a statement, the agency indicated: "She was given a final order of removal in 1998 and was removed from the country. Shortly thereafter, she illegally re-entered the country, which is an aggravated felony." Immigration attorney Stacy Tolchin, who represents Estrada, questioned that stance. "What does it matter if she had a deportation order in 1998? They cannot deport her because she has DACA. The law does not say they had to grant her that benefit, but that when you have DACA, you have the right not to be deported," she said. The lawsuit filed against the federal government alleges that authorities violated the law and Estrada’s right to due process. "They did not give her any document explaining the grounds for the deportation, nor did they allow her to see a judge. With the lawsuit, they seek to allow María to return to the place she has considered her country for 27 years," Tolchin said. From Mexico, Estrada said her greatest wish is to be reunited with her family. "To be back with my daughter at home, with my kittens, my dogs, hearing my birds sing in the morning."

Univision [3/11/2026 10:51 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports a Venezuelan immigrant living in Prince George’s County, Maryland, reported being the victim of an immigration scam after paying nearly $10,000 to alleged lawyers who arranged what she describes as a fake online immigration hearing. The woman, identified as Ana Yosmary Rubio , says she discovered the deception when she received a deportation letter days after participating in the supposed virtual hearing. Rubio explained that she initially had a final immigration hearing scheduled in person , but after being left without a lawyer, she sought help on social media. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Los Angeles Times [3/11/2026 6:00 AM, Andrea Castillo, 12718K] reports attorneys for a Sacramento DACA recipient who was deported to Mexico last month have filed a lawsuit against the federal government seeking her immediate return to the U.S. Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, 42, was detained Feb. 18 during a scheduled interview for her green card application. She was deported to Mexico the next day, despite having active deportation protection through the Obama-era program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. According to the lawsuit, Estrada Juarez, who worked as a regional manager for Motel 6, was deported without being provided notice of a lawful removal order and without the opportunity to fight her case before an immigration judge. "Maria’s deportation was unlawful and violated basic principles of due process," said her attorney Stacy Tolchin. "She had a valid DACA status, she appeared for her immigration appointment as instructed, and she should never have been removed from the country." The Department of Homeland Security told The Times that a judge had ordered Estrada Juarez’s deportation in 1998 "and she was removed from the United States shortly after." "She illegally re-entered the U.S. — a felony," Homeland Security said. "She was arrested and her final order re-instated. ICE removed her from the U.S. on February 19, 2026."

Breitbart [3/11/2026 10:15 AM, Randy Clark, 2238K] reports a complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General against CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott alleges the agency head utilized the agency’s internal affairs office to "consolidate power and attack colleagues he mistakenly perceives as his political enemies." The complaint was addressed to DHS Inspector General Dr. Joseph Cuffari. In the complaint to the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the whistleblower described themselves as currently working in Commissioner Scott’s office at CBP in a position that affords the complainant "a front-row seat to important internal decisions" within CBP. The complaint alleges Assistant CBP Commissioner Jennifer Barreras-Rawls, who was tasked with leading the agency’s OPR internal affairs office, resigned due to Scott’s abuse of authority. Barreras-Rawls, a former CBP employee who served as a Division Chief at the United States Border Patrol Headquarters Office, retired with more than 25 years of service to the agency. She served as the Kendall County Republican Party chair in Texas in 2025 before assuming the post as CBP Assistant Commissioner. The complainant alleges there are many corrupt activities attributed to Scott, but only provided details on the alleged circumstances regarding Barrera-Rawls resignation and two others that include using the agency’s internal affairs OPR office to manufacture a "perjury trap" against El Centro Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino and the use of the Signal communications platform to direct activities with "cronies" for his purposes. The latest whistleblower complaint only adds to the turmoil underway at both Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security, its parent agency. On Thursday, President Trump announced on social media that he was reassigning DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to work as a "Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas" initiative. Trump nominated Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin to succeed Secretary Noem.

New York Post [3/11/2026 9:36 PM, Zoe Hussain, 40934K] reports a Texas stoner flashed a mischievous grin after a staggering 75 pounds of pot were discovered stuffed inside his luggage at a Florida airport, according to authorities. Harrison O’Neill Tiernan, 23, was cuffed on Saturday at Miami International Airport on a cannabis trafficking charge after unsuccessfully checking in for his flight to London, according to an arrest report obtained by NBC Miami. As the pothead was set to board his London Heathrow Airport-bound flight, US Customs and Border Protection officers stopped him. They discovered 65 vacuum-sealed packages containing "green leafy" substances in the two bags Tiernan, of Austin, had checked for his British Airways flight — that were later confirmed as marijuana, the report said. The alleged trafficker acknowledged that he had checked the two drug-filled bags, court documents said. In total, a whopping 74.98 pounds of marijuana were packed in the suitcases, authorities confirmed in the report. The Department of Homeland Security turned the case over to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office since the amount of pot did not meet "the federal threshold," NBC Miami reported. CBP had been conducting sweeps at the Miami airport due to a "high trend of narcotics being smuggled outbound from USA," the documents added, per the outlet. Tiernan was booked into jail, where his mugshot showed him flashing a nonchalant grin. He appeared in court on Sunday and was ordered held on a $20,000 bond. Tiernan will have to wear a GPS monitor if he is released from custody.

New York Post [3/11/2026 4:03 PM, Ben Chapman, 40934K] reports a Mexican citizen accused of trying to smuggle a half ton of liquid methamphetamine hidden in a truck’s fuel tank at the California border is facing life in prison. Alonzo Cesena Camacho, 26, of Tijuana, Mexico, had nearly 1,000 pounds of liquid meth concealed inside a commercial tractor-trailer’s fuel tank when he was caught last week during a routine inspection at the San Diego border, prosecutors said. Camacho was trying to smuggle the drugs into the US at the Otay Mesa Import Cargo Facility last Monday when Customs and Border Protection officers noticed a white, crystalline substance on top of his truck’s fuel tank, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Officers conducted a follow-up search of Camacho’s truck and found 29 buckets of liquid meth hidden inside the passenger-side fuel tank, totaling nearly 995 pounds, authorities said. A sample of the liquid tested positive for methamphetamine. Camacho was attempting to enter the US on a business visa and told officers he planned to leave the truck in a parking lot in Otay Mesa in exchange for $1,000, according to a criminal complaint filed in San Diego federal court. Federal officers arrested Camacho and prosecutors charged him with importation of a controlled substance under federal law. He faces 10 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $10 million. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection are leading an investigation into the case.

(B) NBC News Daily [3/11/2026 2:25 PM, Staff] reports TSA officials say 300 Transportation Security Officers have quit since the partial government shutdown started. At Houston’s Hobby Airport, more than half of the officers called out sick on March 8, and nearly half the following day. The average callouts at the other major airports range from 13% to 21%. The increases come as roughly 50,000 TSA employees are being required to work without pay during the DHS funding lapse that began February 14.

ABC News [3/11/2026 5:04 PM, Luke Barr, Ayesha Ali, and Kelly McCarthy, 34146K] reports since the partial government shutdown began on Feb. 14, the rate of unscheduled absences and callouts by Transportation Security Administration officers has "more than doubled" nationwide, and more than 300 TSA officers have left the agency, according to TSA statistics obtained by ABC News. Travel turmoil has plagued airline passengers across the country as TSA security screening wait times continue to fluctuate amid the shutdown, with the staffing shortages and callouts contributing to longer lines in some places. At several airports nationwide, passengers have seen security wait times ranging from 20-30 minutes to as high as two hours at certain points, with travelers being advised to arrive at the airport early to allow adequate time for screening. Approximately 60,000 TSA employees have gone nearly a month with reduced pay and will receive their first $0 paycheck of this shutdown this week. Major hubs from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Houston’s Hobby Airport have all been significantly impacted by the staffing shortages. The callout rate for TSA officers is typically around 2%, according to the agency, but that figure has increased to 6.16% during the partial shutdown. Based on the data obtained by ABC News, the highest average callout rate among all airports has been at JFK, with a callout rate of approximately 21% amid the shutdown. JFK was also impacted significantly during the massive blizzard on Feb. 23, which the agency said worsened staffing shortages, with more than 76% of TSA officers calling out. About 53% of TSA officers also called out that day at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Other airports that have seen an increase in callouts amid the partial shutdown include Atlanta (19%), Houston (18%), Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (14%), and Pittsburgh International Airport (13%). Despite the security screening backlog, relief may be on the horizon for pre-approved travelers who utilize expedited clearance coming into the U.S. through Global Entry, as DHS reactivated the program Wednesday morning. The agency told ABC News in a statement Tuesday that it was "working hard to alleviate the disruptions" resulting from the shutdown.

FOX News [3/11/2026 11:07 AM, Elizabeth Elkind, 37576K] reports House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., is hammering Democrats over the partial government shutdown as its effects begin to hit millions of travelers at airports across the country. "This is expected to be one of the busiest spring travel seasons on record. Over 171 million travelers are estimated to fly in the coming weeks, and they expect the agencies responsible for keeping them safe to be fully operational," Scalise told Fox News Digital. "The longer Democrats hold the Department of Homeland Security hostage, the longer they’re forcing [Transportation Security Administration (TSA)] agents to work without pay and the worse the pain will be that Democrats inflict on regular Americans." It comes as TSA agents, whose agency operates under DHS, are set to miss their first full paychecks next week. And with Democrats continuing to withhold the department’s funding in protest of President Donald Trump’s handling of illegal immigration, the standoff still has no clear end in sight. Scalise’s own hometown travel hub, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, is facing hours-long delays due to the ongoing shutdown.

AP [3/11/2026 1:28 PM, Rio Yamat, Ap Airlines and Travel Writer, 1323K] reports long security lines snaked into baggage claim areas and parking garages at some U.S. airports this weekend, a possible indicator of more widespread travel problems as the latest government shutdown drags on. That kind of disruption, while not yet widespread, is not a concern that typically surfaces at San Francisco International Airport, the largest of nearly two dozen U.S. airports where screening checkpoints are staffed by private contractors under a little-used federal program that allows airports to outsource security screenings while maintaining TSA oversight. Because contractors’ pay comes from a federal contract, it often continues even when the government shuts down. “The money’s already been allocated, the payments have already been made, and that continues without interruption,” SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel told The Associated Press. “That is a very nice place to be.” The contrast draws attention to a long-running debate in the aviation industry: Can private contractors operating under TSA oversight provide a stopgap — and shield airport security operations from the political impasses that can disrupt U.S. air travel? Some aviation experts see the TSA screening program as a potential model for keeping security lines moving with fewer disruptions during shutdowns. At SFO, that system helped maintain screening operations during last year’s record 43-day shutdown, Yakel said. But critics caution that privatization is not a silver bullet — and could introduce new risks. The union representing federal screeners argues that moving operations to private companies could erode job protections and reduce pay and benefits for workers already facing high turnover amid demanding conditions.

NewsMax [3/11/2026 1:38 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K] reports that the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown is unnecessary, damaging to the aviation system, and the result of political dysfunction in Washington, Airlines for America President and CEO Chris Sununu told Newsmax. Speaking on Newsmax’s "National Report" on Wednesday, Sununu said the funding standoff is frustrating airlines, travelers, and federal airport security workers who continue to operate without pay. "It sucks. It’s terrible. It’s completely unnecessary and fixable," Sununu said. "I wouldn’t call it a political ploy, but it is political nonsense up on Capitol Hill." The shutdown has left thousands of Transportation Security Administration officers working without pay as Congress remains deadlocked over DHS funding. Sununu said the stalemate is placing growing pressure on airport operations and could worsen if lawmakers do not act soon. "It’s incredibly frustrating for the American traveler," he said. "It’s frustrating for the airlines." Sununu pointed to the strain on TSA officers, many of whom continue screening passengers despite missing several paychecks. "God bless those TSA agents, those men and women in blue," Sununu said. "They haven’t been paid in weeks, and they’re looking at another zero paycheck coming up this week.” He noted that TSA officers earn relatively modest salaries, typically averaging between $35,000 and $40,000 a year, making the missed paychecks particularly difficult.

FOX News [3/11/2026 4:36 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 37576K] reports a Caribbean getaway turned into a midair nightmare Monday when an Alabama woman allegedly went berserk on a pair of seniors, forcing the flight to make an emergency diversion. Ebony Shyteria Harper, a 31-year-old standing just 4-foot-11, is trading her airplane seat for a jail cell after a disagreement turned into a fistfight at 30,000 feet. The chaos kicked off on Frontier flight 2089 from Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as the plane cruised toward the mainland. The flight was diverted to Miami International Airport, where a welcoming committee of FBI agents and TSA officials was waiting at the gate to remove Harper from the aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the incident to Fox News Digital and said it was continuing to investigate. While the victims managed to escape without visible wounds, according to the affidavit, they told authorities they want to press charges. Harper is facing a felony charge of battery on a person 65 or older and one count of misdemeanor battery. Harper was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where she remains as of Wednesday afternoon.

NBC News [3/11/2026 4:47 PM, Corky Siemaszko, 42967K] reports facing eviction, mounting bills, and with no paycheck in sight, a desperate Transportation Security Administration worker based at an airport in upstate New York sent an SOS to the two senators who represent his state. Riley, who has worked for three-and-a-half years at Syracuse Hancock International Airport, said he understands that his job requires him to show up whether or not he gets paid. And he has been, he said. Even more concerning, Riley said he lost his car during the first government shutdown last year because he couldn’t afford to replace the transmission. He said his 39-year-old wife, Keya, is waiting for a kidney donation. Riley is not alone in his desperation. More than 300 fed-up TSA workers have quit since the start of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown last month and the number of unscheduled call-outs has more than doubled at many key airports across the country, a senior TSA official confirmed. The effects on the shutdown on the TSA led to long security lines over the weekend, with travelers at many major airports reporting up to three-hour wait times on Sunday. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bis said travelers are facing missed flights and massive delays. She blamed the chaos on congressional Democrats’ refusal to fund DHS, which led to the partial shutdown.

CBS Colorado [3/11/2026 9:19 AM, Olivia Young, 51110K] reports TSA workers remain without pay ahead of the busy spring break travel season. While TSA disruptions have caused long wait times in other parts of the country, so far, Denver International Airport wait times have not been affected. This weekend and next, there could be more than 80,000 people a day passing through Denver airport security. "To have the stress of not getting a paycheck, it’s just not fair. It’s not fair for us," said Angela Grana, regional vice president for the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1127. TSA officers like Grana are fed up. "We seem to be the light switch. Turns on, turns off. Turn this on. Turn yourself. We’re not robots. We do have an important job," said Grana. "It seems like we’re forgotten." They’re tired of repeated government shutdowns that force them to work without pay. "It’s our third one in the last few months," said Grana. "The stress is beyond." Late last year, TSA workers had to work without pay for 43 days, the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Eleven hundred employees resigned. Grana says many of them were women. "It’s hard to have a family and be in this position," said Grana. For those who stayed, two more shutdowns would hit.

New York Times [3/11/2026 12:59 PM, Robert Chiarito, Sonia A. Rao, and Nazaneen Ghaffar, 148038K] reports that Tim Pinson and his wife, Karen, returned to their home in Kankakee County, Ill., on Wednesday morning to see if they could salvage anything after a tornado the night before tore through their property. The storm ripped the front door and several windows straight off their house, along with part of their roof. They had taken cover in a pantry closet, just off the attached garage, which was now gone. Mr. Pinson said it felt like the entire house had lifted and dropped. “We didn’t think we’d make it through,” he said. Homeowners and officials in Illinois and Indiana were just beginning to assess the fallout on Wednesday after a storm that spawned as many as a dozen tornadoes in the Midwest and South killed at least two people and shredded many homes. Officials from Kankakee County, on the eastern border of Illinois around 60 miles south of Chicago, added in a Wednesday morning news conference that nine people had reported minor injuries. Roughly 35 miles east in Newton County, Ind., where the damage in the state might have been the worst, an elderly couple were found dead in their home, and more people had reported injuries, officials said. Indiana officials said that they were conducting search and rescue operations on Wednesday morning.

NBC News [3/11/2026 5:17 PM, Patrick Smith, Selina Guevara, and Marlene Lenthang, 42967K] reports hours after deadly storms ripped through the Midwest, causing extensive damage in Illinois and Indiana, a severe weather risk took hold over the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic and across the northern Gulf Coast on Wednesday. “A few tornadoes will be possible across these areas, along with damaging wind gusts. A few storms producing large hail are also possible within the northern storms,” the National Weather Service said on X. Tornado watches are in effect in east Texas, Louisiana, northern Kentucky, southeast Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, western Maryland and Pennsylvania through Wednesday evening. Overall, 62 million people remain at risk for severe weather in areas that stretch from east Texas to southern New Jersey. Tornadoes were still possible Wednesday, but are forecast to be less intense than Tuesday’s. Cities included in the risk zone include Houston; Cincinnati; Cleveland, Ohio; Pittsburgh; Nashville; Charleston, West Virginia: and Baltimore.

AP [3/11/2026 11:43 PM, Nam Y. Huh and Kathy McCormack, 31753K] reports major storms whipped up tornadoes that killed at least two people in northwest Indiana and leveled buildings in Kankakee, Illinois, authorities said Wednesday, as another round of rain, hail and strong winds made its way through the region. Several intense supercell thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana the previous day, including one responsible for at least four tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service office in Chicago. The Newton County Coroner’s office said Edward L. Kozlowski, 89, and his wife Arlene Kozlowski, 84, were killed when a tornado struck their home in Lake Village, in northwestern Indiana. The couple appeared to have been killed by blunt force trauma, the coroner’s office said, and an autopsy was scheduled for Friday. “They were wonderful, just really wonderful human beings,” son-in-law Steve Rehfeldt told CBS News in Chicago. “You know, tough old guy and sweet old lady.” They left behind four children, seven grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The storms shattered windows, tore off roofs and smashed vehicles in Kankakee, Illinois. Wood planks and other debris littered yards, streets and parking lots. A landscape and garden center was seriously damaged, some parts completely destroyed. Storms also dropped 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) of rain and left piles of hail in the Grand Rapids area in western Michigan, said Alex Manion, a weather service meteorologist in Detroit. Streets flooded, swamping cars with water above their doors in some places. The weather service said crews were determining the strength and number of tornadoes, and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio remained under a tornado watch Wednesday.

Chicago Tribune [3/11/2026 5:50 PM, Rebecca Johnson, Madeline King, and Amy Lavalley 5209K] reports Bob Wehrle sat in his driveway Wednesday morning and looked at the lot where his house once stood. His belongings and debris were scattered across his lawn, and his trailer was frozen in the air, pierced by a tree. It’s difficult to make out where the house ended and began. Wehrle, 60, said he and his wife moved into their Kankakee home about 30 years ago. The same tri-level home that Tuesday’s tornadoes demolished while he was inside. “Where do you start cleaning up? Where do you start making calls? What’s the process?” Wehrle told the Tribune. “You got insurance. What do you do now? And how do I get my trailer out of a tree?” At least two people are dead and homes leveled after tornadoes and “gumball”-size hail tore through Kankakee County and northwest Indiana Tuesday evening, according to local authorities and weather officials. Several intense supercell thunderstorms were responsible for at least four tornadoes that hit Livingston and Kankakee counties in Illinois, as well as Newton, Jasper and Starke counties in northwest Indiana, according to Chicago’s National Weather Service. Survey crews will work to determine the strength and total number of tornadoes. “When (tornadoes) happen outside of the core season, they have the propensity to be on the stronger side,” said meteorologist Kevin Donofrio. “We have less of them but they’re stronger.”

NBC News [3/11/2026 7:57 AM, Staff, 42967K] Video: HERE reports tornadoes leave trail of destruction across the Midwest.

CBS Chicago [3/11/2026 6:41 PM, Chris Tye, 51110K] Video: HERE reports as families work to rebuild their lives after tornadoes touched down in the Chicago area and northwest Indiana on Tuesday, questions over whether the federal government will help out will likely be a focal point down the road. Receiving federal disaster assistance funding in Illinois has proven trickier during President Trump’s second administration. Politics has popped its head into the conversation, and you need to look no further than places like Palatine, Romeoville, and Sugar Grove, which were hammered with storms last summer. Last August, soaking rains and 70 mph winds ravaged parts of the Chicago area. While there were no tornadoes as a result of those storms, Boone, Cook, Kane, McHenry, and Will counties saw flooding, wind and hail damage, blocked roads, and extensive power outages. The Federal Emergency Management Agency rejected the Gov. JB Pritzker’s request for disaster assistance, so state aid had to suffice. Pritzker said the president was playing politics with disaster relief. FEMA told the Illinois Emergency Management Agency that federal supplemental assistance was not warranted in last summer’s storms. On Wednesday, Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-IL), who represents Kankakee, said she is going to fight for FEMA money for victims of Tuesday’s severe storms. "People have died. People’s homes have been torn apart. Businesses have been torn apart. We should not look at Democrat or Republican. These are people that live here, and they need to release the money, and there should not be retaliatory efforts. That would be absolutely ridiculous," Kelly said.

CBS News [3/11/2026 6:28 PM, Sarah Lynch Baldwin, Lana Zak, 51110K] reports an elderly couple in Indiana was found dead after their home was destroyed as a string of tornadoes touched down in multiple states on Tuesday. At least 17 tornadoes were reported in Indiana, Illinois, Texas and Alabama over the past 72 hours, according to data from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center. There were also more than 300 damaging severe storm reports from the Southeast to Pennsylvania. Lake Village, Indiana — a town of about 1,800 people in Newton County — was in the path of a "large tornado" Tuesday night, officials said. Two people died when their home was struck by a tornado, according to Liz Woods, deputy chief of staff at the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. The two people killed were tentatively identified as 84-year-old Arlene Kozlowski and 89-year-old Edward Kozlowski, the Newton County Coroner’s Office said. An autopsy was scheduled for Friday. Indiana State Police said officials located 10 people who were injured, though there were others who transported themselves to local hospitals. More than 100 structures were damaged and 32 were destroy, but many homes that were damaged weren’t included in the figure, officials said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. A secondary search and rescue effort will be conducted and the damaged scenes will also be double-checked, state police told reporters. Multiple suspected tornadoes are being investigated by the National Weather Service. So far, the NWS has confirmed a tornado touchdown near Wheatfield, Indiana, about 24 miles away from Lake Village. A large tornado also struck down in the Kankakee County area south of Chicago, where it downed trees and power lines and overwhelmed the 911 center with emergency calls, according to officials. The twister caused major damage on the south side of Kankakee City, said Trooper Jayme Bufford, a spokesperson for Illinois State Police. It then traveled northeast into Aroma Park, where it leveled entire blocks — shearing the roofs off some buildings and ripping straight through others. The severe weather threat continued Wednesday afternoon into the evening, with numerous tornado watches already issued. Tornadoes and damaging winds will be the biggest threat.

CBS Chicago [3/11/2026 4:53 PM, Laura Bannon, Darius Johnson, and Elyssa Kaufman, 51110K] reports two people died after tornadoes touched down across Illinois and Northwest Indiana during severe storms on Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service. So far, the NWS has confirmed a tornado touchdown near Wheatfield, Indiana. Peak winds reached 110 mph just south of Wheatfield, which is EF-1 intensity. Multiple suspected tornadoes are being investigated by the NWS as crews continue to survey damage in areas near Kankakee, Illinois, Aroma Park, Illinois and Lake Village, Indiana. The suspected tornadoes stemmed from the same supercell, the NWS said, which tracked from Pontiac, Illinois, to Wheatfield, Indiana, and continued toward Knox, Indiana. The touchdowns were reported in Pontiac, Illinois; Lake Village, Indiana; and Wheatfield, Indiana. Officials also said the supercell from the tornadoes produced hail ranging in size from 2 to 4 inches in diameter from Pontiac to the Illinois/Indiana state line. A 6-inch diameter hailstone that fell in Kankakee may have set a new Illinois record. A separate supercell produced giant hail from Bolingbrook to Darien, Illinois, with hailstones measuring 3 to 4 inches in diameter, according to the NWS. The largest hailstone from this supercell was 4.8 inches in Darien. The NWS is deploying survey crews in Kankakee County in Illinois and Newton and Jasper counties in Indiana.

CBS Chicago [3/11/2026 6:19 PM, David Yeomans, Kylee Miller, 51110K] reports based on the debris left behind in Aroma, Park, the tornado in Kankakee County Tuesday night was large and destructive. Multiple building collapses were reported. Houses lost their roofs and upper floors, and trees scattered like matchsticks. Huge trees were pulled from the ground by their roots. While the final word on how many tornadoes touched down and how powerful they were will come from the surveys conducted by the National Weather Service, the damage left behind could be indicative of EF-2 or EF-3 strength, with winds up to 160 miles per hour. The National Weather Service is still working on its Kankakee County surveys. So far, of four suspected touchdowns, the NWS has confirmed one EF-1 tornado touchdown in Jasper County, Indiana. They are also assessing at least one touchdown in Lake Village, Indiana, where an elderly couple was killed.

New York Post [3/11/2026 6:00 AM, Jamie Paige, 40934K] reports a US senator is demanding answers about billions in taxpayer funds meant to prevent wildfires before the deadly January firestorm that devastated LA County. Florida Sen. Rick Scott urged Vice President J.D. Vance to investigate how federal wildfire prevention funds sent to California over the past decade were spent — and whether misuse left communities unprepared for the catastrophic Pacific Palisades fire — in a letter exclusively obtained by The California Post. Scott’s letter asked Vance, who is leading the Trump administration’s anti-fraud effort examining federal spending, to review whether federal dollars meant for wildfire prevention, mitigation and recovery were properly used before and after the disaster. The January 2025 fires that tore through Los Angeles County were among the deadliest and most destructive in California history. At least 31 people died in the wind-driven wildfire outbreak, 12 in the Pacific Palisades fire and 19 in the Eaton Fire, which erupted hours later in Altadena. Together, the fires burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed thousands of homes across Los Angeles County.

New York Times [3/11/2026 1:34 PM, Nazaneen Ghaffar, 148038K] reports that a powerful and slow-moving storm was inching across Hawaii on Wednesday, bringing an extended period of heavy rain, thunderstorms and strong winds that could last into early next week. Forecasters said flash flooding and downed trees and power lines were possible across the state, and significant snowfall was likely on the summits of the Big Island. The storm, known as a Kona low, is a major weather maker in the Hawaiian Islands. On Tuesday, the Honolulu office of the National Weather Service said a “high-impact weather event” was beginning to unfold, as the system strengthened northwest of the state, drawing in very moist tropical air northward toward Hawaii. Flooding concerns had already begun for the western end of the state, in Kauai and Oahu, where forecasters said rainfall rates reached up to two inches per hour on Tuesday. The flood threat is expected to grow as the week progresses. Repeated rounds of rain and thunderstorms could produce intense rainfall rates, as the storm is expected to slowly spread eastward across the rest of the smaller islands by midweek, before reaching the Big Island toward the end of the week. Flood watches, which mean flooding is possible, were issued for Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Maui County and the Big Island through Saturday afternoon. Forecasters warned that streams and drainage systems could overflow, potentially leading to road closures, property damage and landslides. Forecasters also said severe thunderstorms were possible, especially on Friday and Saturday, and could bring strong winds, large hail and even a tornado.

The Washington Times [3/11/2026 9:05 AM, Mary McCue Bell, 1323K] reports a van drove through a security barricade near the White House on Wednesday morning, and the driver has been detained. The Secret Service is investigating the incident, as President Trump was at the executive mansion at the time. He is scheduled to travel to Ohio and Kentucky for events later Wednesday. “The Metropolitan Police Department’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team responded and subsequently cleared the vehicle, declaring the scene safe,” officials said in a statement. Officers with the Secret Service’s uniformed division are “looking into a suspicious vehicle,” Anthony Guglielmi, an agency spokesperson, told CBS News. The Metropolitan Police Department said that at around 6:37 a.m., officers responded to the vicinity of the White House to assist the Secret Service. The van crashed through the barricade at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and H Street, Northwest, adjacent to the northeast corner of Lafayette Park. There were no injuries reported. The driver has been detained and is being questioned, according to the Secret Service. Criminal charges are pending, authorities said, although it is unclear what charges the driver could be facing. Police temporarily closed several streets and entrances surrounding the White House as authorities investigate, including 15th Street and E Street Northwest and H Street Northwest between 15th and 17th Streets. Commuters have been advised to avoid the area. All road closures had been lifted by 10 a.m., according to the Secret Service. CBS News [3/11/2026 9:51 AM, Emily Mae Czachor, 51110K] reports the U.S. Secret Service is investigating after a vehicle crashed into a barricade near the White House early Wednesday, according to the federal agency and police in Washington, D.C. The driver of the car was detained by Secret Service agents and is being questioned, said Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesperson for the agency. He told CBS News in a statement that officers with the Secret Service’s uniformed division were "looking into a suspicious vehicle." "Various entrances and the streets are temporarily closed as teams conduct their work," Guglielmi said. "We will provide additional information once we get updated from officers later this morning.” No injuries have been reported in connection with the collision, said a spokesperson for the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, which is assisting the Secret Service in its investigation. The police spokesperson said the crash happened along a section of the intersection at Connecticut and H Streets. Streets north of the White House were shut down, with police tape, police cars, Secret Service officers, Metropolitan police officers and National Guard Members blocking them off. FOX News [3/11/2026 8:17 AM, Stephen Sorace, 37576K] reports that the driver, who has not been publicly identified, struck the barrier just before 6:30 a.m. near Madison and H Streets, Northwest, in Washington, D.C., a U.S. Secret Service spokesperson said. Secret Service uniformed police officers immediately apprehended the driver of the vehicle, the spokesperson said. The individual was currently being interviewed. The spokesperson added that criminal charges were pending, though did not immediately specify what kind. The Metropolitan Police Department’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team also responded to the scene. The Secret Service spokesperson said the team cleared the vehicle and declared the scene safe.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [3/11/2026 10:22 AM, Emily Crane and Ryan King, 40934K]
Breitbart [3/11/2026 11:06 AM, Staff, 2238K]
AP [3/11/2026 11:58 AM, Staff, 31753K]
AP [3/11/2026 10:12 AM, Staff, 35287K]
(B) NBC News Daily [3/11/2026 2:31 PM, Staff]
NewsNation [3/11/2026 9:03 AM, Meg Hilling, 4464K] r

Blaze [3/11/2026 10:49 AM, Cortney Weil, 1556K] reports a Missouri woman was arrested after she allegedly stole a gun from her dad and, according to the accusations, planned to use it to assassinate President Donald Trump. On January 4, deputies with the Ozark County Sheriff’s Office arrested Johnetta Parsons in Thornfield, about an hour east of Branson, after learning that she had allegedly stolen an SCCY CPX 9mm caliber handgun from her father, Johnny Schofield. According to police reports obtained by Blaze News, Schofield called the sheriff’s office on December 8, claiming that "he believed his daughter, Johnetta, had stolen a pistol from his nightstand." He further claimed that she had left his residence with the gun still in her possession. The weapon was reported as stolen in the Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System that same day. Less than a month later, on January 3, the Columbia Police Department in Missouri had located the missing firearm.

MarineLog [3/11/2026 10:35 PM, Staff] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Coast Guard announced that its newest training center that will be opening in the state of Alabama. The Coast Guard announced the selection of Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) in Birmingham, Alabama as the location of its newest training center. “We must invest in our most valuable treasure—our people—to meet the increasingly complex maritime security challenges facing the Nation,” said Adm. Kevin E. Lunday, Commandant of the Coast Guard. “The acquisition of the historic Birmingham-Southern College as our new training center is a critical step in our Force Design 2028 strategy, providing the right facilities necessary to grow our service and ensure the Coast Guard stands always ready.” In November, the Coast Guard issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking potential locations for the new center based on a list of requirements, including lodging for 1,200 recruits, a medical facility to support 1,000 personnel, a land area of 150-250 acres, and 14 classrooms sized to accommodate 30-60 students, among other criteria. Birmingham-Southern best satisfied Coast Guard training mission requirements, offering turn-key ready facilities critical to supporting immediate commencement of training missions, while meeting all the service’s eligibility criteria with nominal investment compared to new construction. “I’m thrilled that President Trump and Secretary Noem have selected Birmingham Southern as the new land-based training facility for the United States Coast Guard. This move will save the American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville. “Alabama and the Coast Guard are a natural partnership. Alabama is already home to every branch of the military and we have the infrastructure, resources, and personnel ready to make sure our United States Coast Guard continues to be elite.”

Breitbart [3/11/2026 2:41 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2238K] reports that Ecuador’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday announced that, with the help of the United States, Ecuadorian Armed Forces officials seized 1.9 tons of presumptively U.S.-bound suspected drugs at sea. The Ministry detailed in an official statement that the drug bust was carried out by Ecuadorian officials in collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard and the support of naval intelligence, noting that the action was part of the South American country’s cooperation agreements to combat transnational crime at sea with allied nations such as the United States. The seized illicit cargo is valued at approximately $40 million at U.S. markets and $70 million in Europe, according to the Ministry. Two Ecuadorian nationals identified as "Víctor V" and "Jonathan V." were arrested in the operation. The individuals, the seized cargo, and other pieces of evidence will be delivered by the U.S. Coast Guard to an Ecuadorian Navy coast guard unit in Ecuadorian waters over the next few days, and will be kept under strict chain of custody. "This intervention highlights the effectiveness of international cooperation and the firm and ongoing response of the Armed Forces, which are committed to the security and protection of national maritime areas, as well as to the well-being and peace of mind of Ecuadorian families," the statement read.

Axios [3/11/2026 5:36 PM, Jason Lalljee, Sam Sabin, 17364K] reports U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran are playing out in the air and at sea, while a parallel fight is unfolding online. Iranian actors — both state-linked and loosely affiliated — have a history of cyberattacks against the U.S., but the U.S. and Israeli governments are now using similar tactics. A Wednesday cyberattack allegedly linked to Iran‑aligned hackers disrupted operations at Stryker, a major U.S. medical technology company, The Wall Street Journal reported. The same group claimed on X that it hacked U.S.-based payments firm Verifone. The company said it found no evidence of a breach and no service disruption. Iran-aligned hackers and self-described "hacktivist" groups have increased activity against entities in the Middle East, the U.S. and parts of Asia following the Feb. 28 airstrikes, according to CrowdStrike. Hydro Kitten, a group that operates on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has indicated plans to target the financial sector, Adam Meyers, senior vice president of counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike, said in a statement earlier this month.

Reuters [3/11/2026 6:14 PM, Staff, 4749K] reports an Iranian-linked hacking group on Wednesday claimed ‌responsibility for a destructive cyberattack on U.S.-based medical device and services provider Stryker, according to messages posted to the group’s Telegram channel. The Michigan-based company, with 56,000 employees and operations in 61 countries, said in a filing with the SEC that the attack caused disruptions and limitations of access to some systems, and that the timeline for a full ​restoration is not yet known. Staff and contractors said in social media posts that the logo of an Iran-linked hacking group has appeared ​on the company’s login pages. Reuters was not able to verify the posts. "We have no indication of ransomware or ⁠malware and believe the incident is contained," a company spokesperson said, without commenting on who may have been behind the attack. Calls to the ​company’s global headquarters in Portage, Michigan, were answered with a recording that said the company is "currently experiencing a building emergency." Stryker (SYK.N), shares ended down 3.6% on Wednesday. Fears ​have mounted that Iran, which has sophisticated cyber espionage capabilities, might retaliate against U.S. or Israeli entities after the two countries began airstrikes against it. "This is exactly the type of attack we have been worried about: Iranian proxies using destructive cyber attacks like data deletion against U.S. companies to retaliate," said Cynthia Kaiser, senior vice president of ​cybersecurity firm Halcyon’s Ransomware Research Center and a former senior FBI cyber official. Handala, an Iranian-linked hacking persona that has claimed multiple attacks on targets ​in Israel and around the world, said in a message posted to its Telegram channel that it was responsible for the attack, which was in response to the ‌strike on ⁠the Minab school in southern Iran "and ongoing cyber assaults."

Reported similarly:
CNN [3/11/2026 1:54 PM, Sean Lyngaas, 612K]

NBC News [3/11/2026 9:42 PM, Kevin Collier, 42967K] reports an Iran-linked hacker group has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on a medical tech company in what appears to be the first significant instance of Iran’s hacking an American company since the start of the war between the countries. The company, Stryker, which is headquartered in Michigan, produces a range of medical equipment and technology. Historically, Iran has conducted some of the most infamous "wiper" cyberattacks on national enemies, aiming to simply erase all data on computers’ networks. Victims include Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, in 2012, and the Sands Casino in 2014. Since the war started, some established hacker groups sympathetic to Iranian leadership have claimed minor attacks, but most have been relegated to briefly altering the appearance of a website, and none have appeared to have had major impact. Some tech and cybersecurity companies, including Google, and the email cybersecurity company Proofpoint have told NBC News that they have largely seen Iran’s hackers conducting espionage related to the war. But that appears to have changed Wednesday, with what appears to have been a different type of attack that also deleted information from devices. A Stryker employee, who requested to not be identified because they are not authorized to speak for the company, said that employee’s work-issued phones stopped working, grinding work and communications with colleagues to a standstill. Handala Team has claimed responsibility for the Stryker hack in statements on its Telegram and X accounts. The group routinely brags about its exploits on the social media platforms, which have in recent days taken down previous versions of their accounts. Specifics of how the hack was conducted are not clear. But public evidence of the hack points to the likelihood that hackers gained access to the company’s Microsoft Intune account, which the employee confirmed Stryker uses. From there, Handala appears to have wiped some employees’ devices back to factory settings, an expert said. "They seem to have obtained access to the Microsoft Intune management console. This is a solution for managing corporate devices," said Rafe Pilling, the director of threat intelligence at the cybersecurity company Sophos, which has tied Handala to Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. "One of the features is the ability to remotely wipe a device if it’s lost/stolen etc. Looks like they triggered that for some or all of the enrolled devices," he said in a written exchange. Microsoft’s website describes the remote wipe feature as "commonly used when a device needs to be retired, repurposed, reset for troubleshooting, or securely erased if lost or stolen.”

Reuters [3/11/2026 6:02 AM, Raphael Satter, 38315K] reports a foreign hacker compromised files relating to the FBI’s investigation of the late ⁠sex ⁠offender Jeffrey Epstein during a break-in at the bureau’s New ⁠York Field Office three years ago, according to a source familiar with the matter and recently published Justice Department documents reviewed by Reuters. The details of who accessed a server at the FBI’s New York Field Office, including the allegation that a foreign hacker was involved, are being reported here for the first time. In a statement, the FBI said what it described as a "cyber ‌incident" was "an isolated one." "The FBI restricted access to the ‌malicious actor and rectified the network. The investigation remains ongoing, so we do not have further comments to provide at this time." Although the source said the intrusion appeared to have been carried out by a cybercriminal rather ⁠than a foreign government, ⁠the incident underscores the files’ potential intelligence value, one academic said. The legally mandated publication of U.S. Justice Department documents has exposed the dead financier’s ties to prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business, triggering investigations in numerous countries around the world.

CyberScoop [3/11/2023 11:10 AM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports threat hunters and a collection of unconfirmed victims are responding to a series of attacks targeting Salesforce customers, which the vendor disclosed in a security advisory Saturday. “Salesforce is actively monitoring threat activity targeting public-facing Experience Cloud sites, including attempts to take advantage of overly permissive guest user configurations,” the company said in the alert. The campaign marks the third widespread attack spree targeting Salesforce customers in about six months. The number of victims ensnared by the latest attacks is unverified, but ShinyHunters, the threat group asserting responsibility for the attacks, claims about 100 companies have already been impacted. Researchers told CyberScoop they are confident the threat group behind the campaign is associated with ShinyHunters, an outfit that’s previously stolen data from Salesforce instances for extortion attempts. Salesforce did not attribute the attacks, but pinned blame on a “known threat actor group,” adding that the issue is not due to a vulnerability in the company’s platform.

Breitbart [3/11/2026 9:16 PM, Sean Moran, 2238K] reports roughly one billion sensitive records across 26 countries have been exposed as part of a massive data leak, although the company impacted maintains it has no indication that customer data has been compromised. Researchers say that an unprotected database tied to IDMerit, a company that helps businesses confirm identities, exposed about one billion sensitive records across 26 countries. In America, more than 203 million records were left unsecured. Mexico, the Philippines, Germany, Italy, and France were also heavily impacted by the data leak. Fox News wrote, “Researchers at Cybernews, a cybersecurity news and research publication, discovered an exposed MongoDB database on Nov. 11, 2025, that they believe belongs to IDMerit, a global identity verification provider that serves banks, fintech firms and other financial services companies. IDMerit uses artificial intelligence tools to help businesses perform KYC, short for Know Your Customer, which is the identity verification process required when you open financial accounts. The database was not protected by a password. Anyone who knew where to look could access it. Inside were full names, home addresses, postal codes, dates of birth, national ID numbers, phone numbers, email addresses and gender information. Some records also included telecom-related metadata and internal flags that may have referenced past breaches.” Researchers notified IDMerit, and the database was secured the next day. However, reports have noted that automated bots can scan the internet for exposed databases and can copy them almost instantaneously. Companies such as IDMerit are used to identify identities when a customer opens up a bank account, crypto account, or other similar accounts for a financial application. However, verifying identities often requires collecting sensitive personal information, such as collecting full names, dates of birth, phone numbers, and other information that scammers can use for phishing and SIM-swap attacks. Scammers can use one’s personal information to transfer your number to their device, to which the criminal can use the phone number to obtain security codes sent by text message to access bank accounts and email accounts. IDMerit said in a statement, “On November 11, IDMERIT was made aware by an ethical hacker that certain data ports associated with independent data sources could have been open, which had the potential to expose certain databases. Upon receiving this notification, we immediately conducted a comprehensive review of our software, security controls, configurations and system logs. That review identified no exposure, vulnerability or unauthorized access within the IDMERIT environment. IDMERIT’s systems and security infrastructure have never been compromised. At the same time, we notified all relevant data source partners and worked with them to assess the matter. Our partners conducted their own internal investigations and confirmed that there has never been a data breach or exfiltration from their systems during, before or after this event. We requested a security incident report from the ethical hackers as proof, and the response was a demand for money for the report, which confirmed our suspicion that this was a ransom-related incident. Based on our internal review and confirmations from our partners, we have no indication that any customer data has been compromised.” IDMerit added, “We continue to maintain robust security safeguards on our systems and are taking these accusations very seriously as we continue to investigate this matter in coordination with our partners.”

StateScoop [3/11/2026 7:10 PM, Colin Wood, 37K] reports after announcing last summer that New York’s drinking water and wastewater facilities would be held to a more stringent set of cybersecurity standards, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday unveiled the completed regulations, along with a $2.5 million grant program designed to aid facilities in conducting risk assessments and implementing upgrades. In a press release, Hochul’s office called the new standards “first-in-nation,” a “comprehensive, unified approach” to protecting a sensitive public-sector target. Colin Ahern, the state’s former cyber director, who recently became New York’s first director of security and intelligence, said the new rules move the state “beyond reactive defense.” The new regulations are expansive: Treatment facilities are required to meet new reporting requirements after cybersecurity incidents, to establish written procedures for managing vulnerabilities and to protect all operational technology “by separating it completely from information technology” and “external networks such as the internet.” Facilities must implement common cybersecurity controls, such as limiting users’ access to only systems they need, prohibiting the use of default credentials and requiring complex passwords and multifactor authentication. Larger treatment plants, those processing at least 10 million gallons of water per day, are required to begin monitoring and logging network activity. And treatment plant operators will be required to complete cybersecurity training, every five years, to renew their certifications (though the regulations offer assurance that their total training hours will not increase). A new $2.5 million grant program, called the Strengthening Essential Cybersecurity for Utilities and Resiliency Enhancements (SECURE) grant program, will provide grants of $50,000 for cybersecurity assessments and $100,000 for implementing cybersecurity upgrades. The Environmental Facilities Corporation, New York’s water infrastructure bank, will administer the grants and lend the free aid of its “community assistance teams,” to advise on cybersecurity best practices.

ABC News [3/11/2026 9:29 PM, Aaron Katersky, 34146K] reports the two Pennsylvania teens charged with attempting to carry out what authorities described as an ISIS-inspired attack in New York considered other targets before driving into Manhattan late Saturday morning with homemade bombs, law enforcement sources told ABC News. Investigators searching a storage unit in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where the teens are from, discovered a notebook in which the teens wrote about soft targets like shopping centers, the sources said. No specific target was mentioned. The NYPD said the teens brought improvised explosives to Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the mayor of New York City, where an anti-Muslim protest clashed with a counter demonstration. The notebook and other evidence suggested Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi had been planning some kind of an attack for at least a week, the sources said. Video ABC News obtained appears to show one of the teens entering a fireworks store in Penndel, Pennsylvania, on March 2 and making a purchase. "The single item purchased was a 20 ft. length of consumer fireworks safety fuse. The total spend was under $7.00," Phantom Fireworks’ William Weimer said in an email to ABC News, identifying the man in the video as Emir Balat. The FBI carried out controlled detonations of devices in the storage unit that contained explosive residue. Balat and Kayumi are being held on terrorism charges, use of a weapon of mass destruction and other offenses. They have not yet entered a plea. Neither Mayor Zohran Mamdani nor his wife, Rama Duwaji, were in Gracie Mansion when the incident occurred, the mayor said Monday. "They’re suspected of coming here to commit an act of terrorism," Mamdani said in a statement at the time. "Let me say this plainly: Anyone who comes to New York City to bring violence to our streets will be held accountable in accordance with the law.”

Breitbart [3/11/2026 11:54 PM, Paul Bois, 2238K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi has reportedly relocated to a protected military base near Washington, DC, due to a wave of death threats from drug cartels and those angry over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein probe. Unidentified sources close to Bondi confirmed to New York Times that the attorney general moved from an apartment in D.C. to a military base in the past month due to security concerns following the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro: Ms. Bondi is the latest administration official to move into heavily guarded quarters at military facilities in or near the nation’s capital after citing danger from criminals, adversaries overseas and protesters. Other officials who have relocated include Stephen Miller, the president’s top domestic policy adviser and the architect of his hard-line immigration policy; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Kristi Noem, the exiting homeland security secretary; and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Daniel P. Driscoll, the Army secretary, has also moved into military housing, as has Navy Secretary John Phelan, whose home in Washington was damaged in a fire last year. Reports of Bondi relocating to a military base come as the House Oversight Committee prepares to schedule testimonies from both her and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about the probe into Jeffrey Epstein. "I’m in communication with them," Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told reporters Wednesday morning. "We’re trying to get them in very, very soon.” Neither Bondi nor a spokesperson has commented on the matter.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [3/11/2026 8:50 AM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 3760K]

Telemundo [3/11/2026 10:31 PM, Gonzalo Solano, 2524K] reports Ecuador will launch a major offensive this weekend against criminal organizations in three western provinces with logistical support from the United States, the Minister of the Interior reported this Wednesday. Speaking to a local radio station, Interior Minister John Reimberg urged citizens to respect the curfew between 11:00 pm and 5:00 am from March 15 to 30 in the provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, three of the South American country’s most violent. Residents subject to the curfew must remain in their homes and keep roads clear to facilitate the movement of troops and equipment, he indicated. "We do not want collateral victims from the attacks we are about to launch," Reimberg noted. "We have significant support from U.S. forces for the operations we are about to carry out." The United States Embassy in Ecuador did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from The Associated Press. When asked for comment Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Southern Command only reiterated comments offered by Marine General Francis L. Donovan following the March 3 attacks: "We commend the men and women of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces for their unwavering commitment to this fight, demonstrating courage and determination through continued actions against narcoterrorists in their country." The announcement came days after Ecuador and the United States began joint military operations against organized crime groups in the South American country, although at that time neither government gave details on the location and scope of the operation. The attacks against violent criminal groups aim to "destroy what they have built in various parts of the country," Reimberg stated, though he declined to give specific details, citing security reasons. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [3/11/2026 4:19 PM, Daniella Cheslow, Eric Bazail-Eimil, and Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing, 21784K] report the war with Iran is increasing concerns in Washington about terror attacks from Tehran or its proxies. And Team Trump may be less ready to deal with any such attack than previous administrations. The Trump administration has slimmed down and redirected offices that help identify threats and respond to terror attacks across multiple departments, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center, which is responsible for fusing intelligence about terrorism threats across government. “All of that suggests to me we have far fewer people at the outset of this war focused on threats from places like Iran,” said LARRY PFEIFFER, a 32-year veteran of the U.S. intelligence community who served as senior director of the Obama administration’s White House Situation Room. “Presidents have the right to set whatever priorities they like. But we have to understand the tradeoffs that could result.” There are a multitude of ways Iran could strike back at the U.S. An Iranian regime that feels threatened could activate sleeper agents and proxy organizations to wreak havoc across the United States, and it could also launch cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.

Washington Post [3/11/2026 9:49 AM, Perry Stein, 24826K] reports the Justice Department filed an appeal late Tuesday night of a magistrate judge’s order in Virginia that blocked federal officials from searching a Washington Post reporter’s electronic devices as part of a leak investigation. Federal prosecutors argued in the appeal that applying for a warrant and executing a search are core functions of the executive branch. They said the judge’s order for the court to conduct the search violates the Constitution’s separation of powers and that journalists are not protected from searches when the government fears they could possess sensitive government materials. Magistrate Judge William Porter ruled last month that the government could not be trusted to conduct the search of Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s phone, laptop and other devices. Government officials might use the search to identify Natanson’s sources on other stories unrelated to the leak of classified documents they’re investigating, he suggested. Porter said he, instead, would be responsible for conducting a narrow search of the electronic devices. Natanson has said that she used those devices to connect with more than 1,200 confidential government sources and searching them could chill future government sources who may want to speak with the press. In its appeal, prosecutors said reporters should not receive that degree of special treatment. “As a reporter, Ms. Natanson is subject like any other citizen to a legitimate use of criminal legal process in a criminal investigation, such as this search warrant,” the appeal said. “The magistrate judge’s path forward instead creates a reporter-specific search procedure that binding precedent clearly rejects and that is unjustified by Ms. Natanson’s First Amendment activities.” Federal prosecutors also argued that Porter and the court are not qualified to conduct a search of highly classified materials. Porter contended at the hearing last week that the court is equipped to handle the search and that he would take all necessary precautions. “When classified information is at risk of further dissemination, as it is here, the search of the devices must be executed by an authority with the ‘necessary expertise’ in identifying classified material and ‘protecting’ this compelling government interest,” the appeal reads. “That authority and expertise belong to the Executive Branch, not the Judiciary.”

The Hill [3/11/2026 1:26 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18170K] reports that Senators overwhelmingly confirmed Gen. Joshua Rudd to lead the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command on Tuesday, adding to his responsibilities after already being the deputy chief of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Rudd was confirmed in a 71-29 vote in the Senate. Lawmakers were able to sidestep Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-Ore.) procedural hold intended to block Rudd’s confirmation. “He is not qualified for this job,” Wyden wrote in a letter addressed to President Trump that was submitted to the Congressional Record. “And, when it comes to the cybersecurity of this country, there is simply no time for on-the-job learning,” the senator added. “The threat is just too urgent for that. For these reasons, I oppose the nomination.” Rudd’s predecessor in the NSA and Cyber Command roles, retired Gen. Timothy Haugh, had more than 30 years of experience in the U.S. Air Force and led numerous cyber operations to counter efforts from Russia and other U.S. adversaries. Despite Wyden’s concerns, most welcomed Rudd’s confirmation as NSA director after the position remained vacant for months following the ousting of Haugh and his civilian deputy Wendy Noble last April. Trump moved to fire the two after a meeting with the conservative activist Laura Loomer. “General Rudd is a war hero with a lifetime of service to our nation. He is the right choice to lead the protection of our nation from cyberattacks by Iran, Russia, and China,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said in a statement following Rudd’s confirmation.

Roll Call [3/11/2026 5:28 PM, Ryan Tarinelli and Savannah Behrmann, 673K] reports two key Trump administration officials huddled with Senate Republicans behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss a powerful but controversial surveillance authority that expires next month, an issue that for years has bitterly divided privacy hawks and intelligence-focused lawmakers. FBI Director Kash Patel and CIA Director John Ratcliffe came to Capitol Hill as the Republican-controlled Congress grapples with how to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and whether to include further changes to the spy authority such as a warrant requirement for certain collected information. Section 702 allows the U.S. government to collect digital communications of foreigners located outside the country, but it also sweeps up the communications of Americans and allows the FBI to search through data without a warrant, using information such as an email address. Privacy advocates and members of Congress from both parties have cited past abuses and said the searching of Americans’ information violates Fourth Amendment protections. In committee hearings in recent months, they have said they would once again press for a warrant requirement. After a Wednesday meeting in the Senate, multiple lawmakers said the Trump administration signaled it wants an extension of the authority with no changes, referred to as a "clean extension.” The program as it stands has enthusiastic support from lawmakers from both parties who are focused on national security. "I know the administration’s position is there needs to be a clean extension, and so I think they were there to answer questions and to get some feedback," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said of Patel and Ratcliffe’s appearance. Cornyn, a vocal supporter of the authority, said he would support a clean 18-month extension of the authority and would back an even longer extension.

CBS News [3/11/2026 1:42 PM, Staff, 51110K] reports that three brothers have been arrested in connection with the explosion at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, authorities said Wednesday. The brothers were Norwegian citizens of Iraqi origin, police prosecutor Christian Hatlo said in a news conference. They have been arrested around 3:30 p.m. local time Wednesday on suspicion of a "terrorist bombing" at the building. The men are in their 20s and were not previously known to police, Hatlo said. Investigators are still working to determine a motive, Hatlo said. "We are still working from several hypotheses. One of them is whether this is an order from a government entity," Hatlo said. "This is quite natural given the target — the U.S. embassy — and the security situation the world is in today," he said. Hatlo said investigators are still working to determine what role the brothers played in the bombing, which caused minor damage to the building but did not result in any casualties or injuries. Hatlo said that police believe one man placed the bomb outside the embassy and the other two were "complicit in the act." Hatlo said police are not ruling out links to "criminal networks." The explosion occurred at one of the entrances to the U.S. Embassy around 1 a.m. local time, Oslo police previously said. Police incident commander Michael Dellemyr told public broadcaster NRK that the blast hit the entrance of the embassy’s consular section. Officials said that there were no indications of a lingering threat after the explosion.

The New York Post [3/11/2026 11:14 AM, Ronny Reyes, 40934K] reports at least three vessels were attacked along the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday as Iran vowed to launch its “most intense” assault of the war so far. Three separate attacks were recorded along the key trade route, with one ship, the Thai-flagged Mayuree Naree, reporting a fire in its main engine room that forced the crew to evacuate, according to the Oman News Agency. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the attack on the cargo ship, claiming the ship “ignored the warnings” from Iran to stay away from the Strait of Hormuz. “Any vessel that intends to pass must obtain permission from #Iran,” the IRGC said in a social media post. “American aggressors and their partners have no right of passage.” Iran’s attacks triggered a warning from US Central Command, warning civilians to steer clear of ports along the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran’s military actions leave the area as “legitimate military targets under international law.” The Hill [3/11/2026 7:42 AM, Ryan Mancini, 18170K] reports unknown projectiles struck three ships in the Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday, with one of the strikes causing a fire onboard one vessel and prompting most of its crew to evacuate, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). The maritime security agency posted on social platform X that the fire on one vessel was extinguished and there was no environmental impact. A skeleton crew remained to operate the cargo ship. The Thai bulk carrier, called Mayuree Naree, was targeted and damaged about 11 nautical miles north of Oman, sources told Reuters. The carrier departed Dubai and was headed for India, with a crew of 23 onboard; three crew members were reported missing following the strike, according to the Thai Enquirer. A Japanese container ship, One Majesty, received minor damage about 25 nautical miles northwest of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, according to Reuters. The ship’s crew members were reported to be safe. The Marshall Islands-flagged Star ​Gwyneth was hit 50 nautical miles northwest of Dubai, the UKMTO reported. The ship’s crew was also reported to be safe. The strikes happened as the Strait of Hormuz remained closed amid the U.S.’s ongoing conflict with Iran. The strait’s closure cut off the transit for about 20 percent of global oil and gas supply, which has left more than 150 ships stranded since March 1, according to hormuzstraitmonitor.com.

FOX News [3/11/2026 11:53 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports that Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin and Victoria Coates discuss the escalating military pressure on the Strait of Hormuz amid Operation Epic Fury and the Iranian nuclear sites still being targeted. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

National Review [3/11/2026 10:23 AM, Jim Geraghty, 109K] reports on the menu today: The war against Iran brings a new danger and another complication, as U.S. government sources tell CNN that the Iranian military has begun to mine the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, three more vessels off Iran’s coast have been struck by projectiles, and the U.S. Navy has told shipping companies that it isn’t able to provide escorts through the Persian Gulf yet. And a new report reveals that Iran has sent at least 11.7 million barrels of crude oil through the Strait since the war began, all of which were headed to China. And finally, a debate on the true meaning of “Big Beautiful Jet.” The good news is U.S. Central Command reported that American forces destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz Tuesday. The bad news is that the remaining Iranian military has quite a few mines — an estimated 2,000 to 6,000 naval mines largely produced by Iran, China, or Russia, according to U.S. officials talking to CBS News — and they don’t sound particularly difficult to deploy.

Reuters [3/11/2026 7:07 PM, Erin Banco and Jonathan Landay, 38315K] reports U.S. intelligence indicates that Iran’s leadership is still largely intact and is not at risk of collapse any time soon after nearly two weeks of relentless U.S. and Israeli bombardment, according to three ​sources familiar with the matter. A "multitude" of intelligence reports provide "consistent analysis that the regime is not in danger" of collapse and "retains control of the Iranian public," ‌said one of the sources, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss U.S. intelligence findings. The latest report was completed within the last few days, the source said. With political pressure building over soaring oil costs, President Donald Trump has suggested he will end the biggest U.S. military operation since 2003 "soon." But finding an acceptable end to the war could be difficult if Iran’s hardline leaders remain firmly entrenched. The intelligence reporting underscores the cohesion ​of Iran’s clerical leadership despite the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, the first day of the U.S. and Israeli strikes. Israeli officials in closed discussions also ​have acknowledged there is no certainty the war will lead to the clerical government’s collapse, a senior Israeli official told Reuters. The sources stressed that ⁠the situation on the ground is fluid and that the dynamics inside Iran could change. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment. Since launching their war, the U.S. and Israel have struck a range of Iranian targets, including air defenses, nuclear sites, and ​members of the senior leadership. The Trump administration has given varying reasons for the war. In announcing the beginning of the U.S. operation, Trump urged Iranians to "take over your government," but top aides have since denied that the objective was to oust Iran’s leadership.

New York Times [3/11/2026 6:04 PM, Matthew Cullen, et al., 148038K] reports an ongoing military investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the preliminary findings. The Feb. 28 strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the U.S. military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base of which the school building was formerly a part, the preliminary investigation found. Officers at U.S. Central Command created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, people briefed on the investigation said. Officials emphasized that the findings are preliminary and that there are important unanswered questions about why the outdated information had not been double checked. Striking a school full of children is sure to be recorded as one of the most devastating single military errors in recent decades. Iranian officials have said the death toll was at least 175 people, most of them children. While the overall finding was largely expected — the United States is the only country involved in the conflict that uses Tomahawk missiles — it has already cast a shadow on the U.S. military operation in Iran. President Trump’s attempts to sidestep the blame for the strike have also already complicated the inquiry, leaving officials who have reviewed the findings showing U.S. culpability expressing unease. The people interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation and Mr. Trump’s assertion at one point that Iran, not the United States, was responsible. “As The New York Times acknowledges in its own reporting, the investigation is still ongoing,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. Asked about this article as he left the White House on Wednesday for a trip to promote his economic agenda in Ohio and Kentucky, Mr. Trump replied, “I don’t know about that.”

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [3/11/2026 2:31 PM, Nicole Silverio, 803K]

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