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 Wall Street Journal [3/27/2026 11:51 PM, Olivia Beavers, Terell Wright, and Natalie Andrews, 646K] reports President Trump directed federal officials to pay Transportation Security Administration workers, bypassing a gridlocked Congress after the latest proposal to fund the broader Department of Homeland Security ran aground Friday. The move, which Trump had previewed a day earlier, came as House Republican leaders rejected a Senate-passed bill that would fund most of DHS, including the TSA. A standoff in Congress over immigration enforcement and funding has led to missed paychecks for airport-security workers and long lines for travelers. The executive action instructs the Homeland Security secretary and the White House budget director to use federal funds that have a “reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to pay the TSA workers. The memo, signed Friday afternoon by Trump, described the situation at the airports as an “unprecedented emergency.” TSA officers should begin getting paychecks as early as Monday, DHS said. DHS funding lapsed Feb. 14. Both parties have searched for other ways to fund DHS and pay TSA agents. Many unpaid security workers have been calling in sick while others have quit, driving delays for airline passengers. Trump, who has expressed skepticism about any bipartisan deal in the Senate, acted as progress in Congress stalled. Shortly after 2 a.m. Friday, the GOP-led Senate agreed in a voice vote to approve legislation to fund all of DHS through the end of the fiscal year—except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The measure would provide funding for an assortment of programs, including TSA, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But the legislation ran into objections in the House over the lack of immigration-enforcement funding. Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) told GOP colleagues that the House wouldn’t vote on the Senate bill and instead look to pass a measure that would fund all of DHS for eight weeks and provide back pay for government workers. “To make clear, the Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” Johnson said at a press conference Friday afternoon. He called the bill a joke and blamed Democrats, saying they “forced this upon the Senate.” The House GOP bill passed late Friday in a 213-203 vote. ABC News [3/27/2026 6:51 PM, Nicholas Kerr, 34146K] reports that a senior administration official told ABC News on Thursday that TSA officers would be paid with funds already approved by Congress through the sweeping domestic policy bill signed into law by the president last summer. That bill allocated over $190 billion to DHS through 2029, including a massive $75 billion injection into ICE. Trump’s order comes a day after he announced on social media that he would take executive action to pay TSA officers as long airport security lines continue to plague travelers across the country. On Friday, Trump criticized Senate Republicans for striking a deal with Democrats overnight to separate out funding for other agencies under DHS from Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CPB), telling Fox News in a phone interview that the deal "wasn’t appropriate.” "In my opinion, you can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund ICE. You can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund any form of law enforcement, of which ICE is a big form, and so is Border Patrol," Trump said. The Department of Homeland Security said that TSA workers will start seeing their paychecks on Monday March 30. "Today, at the direction of President Trump and the Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, TSA has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce," a DHS spokesperson said. "TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30. TSA is grateful to the President and Secretary for their leadership to put money back into the pockets of TSA employees who worked without pay during the ongoing Democrat DHS shutdown.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link] Reuters [3/28/2026 2:57 AM, Richard Cowan, Nolan D. McCaskill and David Shepardson, 38315K] reports that after a day of legislative drama, Congress ended up right back where it started - unable to resolve a dispute over immigration enforcement that has halted paychecks for many of the 270,000 employees of the Department of Homeland Security, even as most of them are required to stay on the job. With lawmakers deadlocked, the White House said President Donald Trump had declared an emergency that would enable airport-screening officers to be paid as soon as Monday. But other DHS employees who have worked without pay since mid-February, including many of those responsible for emergency response and coastal defense, would still go unpaid while lawmakers leave Washington for a two-week break. The day started with an early-morning vote in the Senate, which unanimously passed a bill that would restore funding for most DHS operations while tackling a dispute over immigration enforcement that led to the standoff. Democrats backed the ⁠measure because the bill did not include funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Republicans backed it because it did not include the restrictions that Democrats had sought to curb Trump’s aggressive approach to enforcement. But Republicans who control the House rejected that approach. Instead, they narrowly passed a stopgap bill that would fund all of DHS though late May, including immigration enforcement. Democrats had already declared that to be a nonstarter. "We’ve been clear from day one: Democrats will fund critical homeland security functions — but we will not give a blank check to Trump’s lawless and deadly immigration militia without reforms," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. It was unclear whether the Senate would take up the bill. Or, if the Senate takes up the bill, Democrats were expected to block its passage. The shutdown has led to long lines at U.S. airports, and many of the 50,000 security officers who have gone without pay have called in sick or resigned. Nearly 12% of TSA officers did not show up to work on Thursday, including more than a third of officers at New York’s JFK, Baltimore, Houston’s two airports and Atlanta. Major disruptions and security wait times of several hours or more were reported on Friday. Airline officials told Reuters ⁠the problem could worsen this weekend if there were no concrete details on how TSA officers would be paid. The agency’s acting chief, Ha McNeill, said this week that some agents have been sleeping in their cars at airports to save gas money and selling blood and taking on second jobs to make ends meet.

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ABC News [3/27/2026 7:25 PM, Tesfaye Negussie, et al., 34146K] reports Transportation Administration Security officers should receive their first paychecks in more than a month next week, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said on Friday. It came after TSA workers waited on Congress to come to an agreement and end the partial shutdown that’s left them and other DHS employees without pay. TSA employees have been required to work the entire 42 days of the shutdown, which began Feb. 14. TSA officers told ABC News that they missed bill payments and got second jobs to pay ends meet. Union representatives described to ABC News stories of officers having to pull their children out of day care and in some cases getting eviction notices because they can’t pay their rent. President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Friday asking for DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to work with the Office of Management and Budget to use funds "that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations" to pay the agency’s workforce. The TSA employees will be paid through funds allocated by Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill signed last summer, according to a senior administration official. "Today, at the direction of President Trump and the Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, TSA has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce," a DHS spokesperson said. "TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30.” It is unclear what legal authority Trump is issuing this order under. The White House hasn’t responded to ABC News’ request for comment. Rebecca Wolf, a TSA officer at Boise International Airport and president of AFGE TSA Local 1127, reacted to the news with mixed emotions. "I’ll believe it when I see it. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of faith," she told ABC News. "I did get a message that the order that was signed is to pay us for the missed paycheck, so we’ll get the finished or the partial check we are missing from pay period three, four and five, but there was nothing in there stating that we would be paid going forward.” Senate Democrats vowed to block funding for DHS until reforms are made to Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal law enforcement. The New York Times [3/27/2026 6:07 PM, Madeleine Ngo, 148038K] reports T.S.A. workers who have been calling out of work because of child care and other challenges stemming from a lack of pay are likely to return soon once they get paid. But there is a bigger challenge: More than 450 T.S.A. officers have quit since Feb. 14, according to the Department of Homeland Security. It is unclear how long it could take for the agency to staff back up, but its leaders have recently warned about the operational challenges that come with losing employees. During the record 43-day government shutdown last fall, the agency had a spike in resignations with about 1,110 officers quitting, Ha Nguyen McNeill, the T.S.A. acting administrator, told lawmakers this week. The current funding lapse started barely three months after last fall’s shutdown ended, during which many T.S.A. employees took on side jobs to cover basic living expenses. Senators passed a bill on Friday morning that would fund most of D.H.S. but omit money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, two immigration enforcement agencies at the heart of Mr. Trump’s deportation drive. But House Republicans swiftly rejected the Senate-passed deal, saying it would threaten immigration enforcement and criticizing it for aligning with Democratic positions to fund other parts of the department that do not carry out immigration enforcement.

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AP [3/27/2026 7:14 PM, Staff, 35287K]

The Washington Examiner [3/27/2026 11:32 PM, Rachel Schilke, Lauren Green, 1147K] reports the House voted to pass a short-term funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security late Friday night, rebelling against a plan from Senate Republicans that omitted funding for immigration enforcement agencies. House Republican leaders pushed a bill, through a rare procedural vote that bypassed an hour of debate and a second vote, that would fund all of DHS until May 22. The move punts the burden to reopen DHS back to the Senate, which left for its scheduled two-week recess on Friday after sending over their bipartisan deal that was swiftly rejected by lower chamber Republicans. Overall, three House Democrats voted with 209 House Republicans and independent Rep. Kevin Kiley (CA) for the 60-day extension. The Democratic defectors were: Reps. Henry Cuellar (TX), Don Davis (NC), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA). "I believe ICE reform is necessary. I voted for this bill because I believe that it’s wrong not to pay people for their work. It’s also foolish not to pay people for their work because you think it’s going to get you unattainable goals," Gluesenkamp Perez said in a post on X. "The president has agreed to several reforms to ICE—including mandatory body cameras, ID numbers, ending enforcement at hospitals and schools, and other reforms—but only in exchange for full 2026 funding of ICE.” "Walking away from DHS funding will not fix anything about ICE and it screws a lot of hard-working people," she added. "Ideological purity that empowers a broken system and hurts working people is not what I was sent to Congress to be part of.” The Rules Committee reconvened on Friday afternoon to tee up the vote, that bypassed typical House rules to require a procedural vote before final passage. The committee adopted the rule as an amendment to the Senate-passed bill, which allowed them to use this rare procedural tool and pass it through one simple vote for a quicker adoption, as the House heads home for their two-week congressional recess. The eight-week continuing resolution drew a line in the sand between House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). Republicans erupted at the Senate after the upper chamber jammed a last-minute deal to the House at 2:30 a.m. that would have funded all of the departments except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The eight-week CR has already been declared everything from nearly impossible to completely "dead on arrival" by Senate Republicans and Democrats. "Maybe he’ll [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)] have a rode to Damascus experience over the weekend," House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) joked with the Washington Examiner. "They didn’t worry about us," Cole went on to say of what comes next with the bill already "dead on arrival.” The New York Times [3/28/2026 12:02 AM, Carl Hulse, Megan Mineiro and Robert Jimison, 330K] reports House Republicans angrily rejected a bipartisan deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security and pushed through their own plan late Friday, putting themselves on a collision course with the Senate and extending the agency shutdown that has crippled U.S. airports. Revolting over an agreement their own party struck with Senate Democrats to end the crisis, which had passed the Senate before dawn on Friday, House Republican leaders — with President Trump’s backing — refused to take it up. They derided the Senate plan for hewing too closely to Democrats’ position by omitting money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, the two agencies responsible for carrying out Mr. Trump’s deportation crackdown, which are operating under previously approved funds. “House Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference on Friday afternoon. “This gambit that was done last night is a joke.” Mr. Johnson called the Senate-passed deal engineered by Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, “ridiculousness,” and instead teed up a stopgap measure to fund the entire department until May 22. The House passed that measure on a 213 to 203 vote late Friday night, before leaving Washington for a scheduled two-week break. FOX News [3/27/2026 11:33 PM, Adam Pack, 37576K] reports that both chambers are scheduled to leave Washington for an Easter recess without ending the funding standoff, paving the way for the partial government shutdown to become the longest in history. "In those eight weeks, we will figure this out with Democrats and figure out a couple of reforms or whatever they need to make sure that we do this right, but we are going to protect the homeland. We have to," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on "The Ingraham Angle" on Friday evening. "It’s the most important and most basic function of Congress, and Democrats don’t want to do that.” Democratic lawmakers, who have repeatedly voted against DHS spending bills funding President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown absent reforms, echoed the same position Friday. "House Republicans have decided that they would rather inconvenience you, create chaos for you and for your families so that they can continue to jam their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people so they can continue to spend billions of dollars for ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to brutalize and kill American citizens," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during a news conference Friday. The vote came after House GOP leadership and the conservative House Freedom Caucus unequivocally rejected a Senate-passed deal earlier on Friday. The agreement, which passed the Senate unanimously, would have funded the vast majority of DHS sub-agencies minus ICE and parts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The National Border Patrol Council endorsed the House bill late Friday, arguing the Senate’s failure to fund all of DHS is "completely unacceptable and should not stand.”

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The Hill [3/27/2026 5:09 PM, Mallory Wilson, 18170K] reports President Trump said Friday he is not on board with the Senate-passed funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because it does not fully fund the agency, which has been a sticking point with congressional Democrats. Trump, in a phone interview with Fox News, said the bill “wasn’t appropriate” because it does not include appropriations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Later Friday, Trump reiterated to reporters traveling with him to Miami that he wanted the whole agency funded, and he appeared to offer some understanding of both House and Senate leadership’s opposing sides on measures making their way through Congress. The Senate passed a DHS funding bill in the early hours of Friday morning that would end the department’s shutdown. It funds most of the department, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), but not ICE or CBP. The House rejected the measure and offered up an alternative continuing resolution, but Senate Democratic leaders offered their rejection back to them. Johnson flatly rejected the Senate’s bill, calling it a “joke.” He said he will try to hold a vote “as soon as possible” on their version of the continuing resolution, but lawmakers are set to have a two-week recess for Easter and Passover, and some senators have already hopped on flights. Trump for his part directed the DHS to pay TSA workers during the shutdown in a memo that said, “These circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security.” The shutdown is now in its 42nd day. A DHS spokesperson told The Hill that TSA employees will start to see paychecks as soon as Monday as a result of Trump’s executive action.

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Axios [3/27/2026 5:10 PM, Hans Nichols, Kate Santaliz, 17364K] reports sharp differences between House and Senate GOP leaders burst into the open this afternoon, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) two-step plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security and then ICE the first casualty. The collapse was public — and painful. Blame flew freely, with House Speaker Mike Johnson and President Trump weighing in. Johnson claimed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was the "engineer" of the plan, but his anger at the Senate — where not a single GOP lawmaker objected — was unmistakable. Johnson insisted that Trump backs his plan to pass an eight-week DHS funding bill and send it to an empty Senate, where most senators are already airborne. The speaker’s claim was bolstered by Trump’s actions, as the president followed through on his plan to pay TSA employees by shifting funds with an executive order. Both chambers were bracing for a tougher fight ahead over a second reconciliation bill — where they’ll have to agree on funding, and offsets, for ICE and CBP. National Review [3/27/2026 3:17 PM, Brittany Bernstein, 109K] reports that while the Senate bill withheld money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deportation operations thanks to Democrats’ demands, Johnson said the House would move toward advancing a measure that would instead fully fund the agency for 60 days “as soon as possible.” “This gambit that was done last night is a joke. I’m quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill,” Johnson said. “We’re not doing that.” “I spoke to the President a few moments ago. He understands exactly what we’re doing,” the speaker added. The battle over ICE funding could extend a partial shutdown of the agency that has snarled airport security operations and left federal workers without paychecks for more than a month, as the Senate left D.C. for a two-week recess after passing its DHS bill. Several House Republicans were publicly outspoken against the Senate-backed bill. Representative Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.) accused Republican senators of caving to pressure from Democrats. “I mean, they got a vacation coming, they’re ready to get the heck out of town. They’re not handling any legislation,” he said of the Senate. “If this is just some trickery to get them home for a dad-gum vacation, then, no, I’d say let’s stay here and work.” Meanwhile, Representative Ralph Norman (R., S.C.) said the Senate bill is “irresponsible.” Voter identification provisions and parts of ICE funding “will have to be in” any reasonable bill, he said.

FOX News [3/27/2026 4:33 PM, Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports House Speaker Mike Johnson chastised congressional Democrats Friday, saying Republicans will not be part of any effort to reopen America’s borders and stop the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants. Johnson held a two-hour conference call with House Republicans Friday, saying they were all "united" in the party’s position to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to end the partial government shutdown that has injected chaos into air travel. On Friday, the Senate advanced a bill to fund much of DHS, except for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol. Democrats have refused to fully fund DHS unless Republicans agree to new restrictions on federal immigration authorities. Lawmakers have come under increased pressure to strike a deal to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents after many have resigned and lines at airports across the country have swelled daily because of staffing issues. On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to pay TSA agents despite Congress having not appropriated the funds for it. Johnson said Republicans will put forward a continuing resolution for all agencies under DHS to keep operating at their current funding levels.

Reuters [3/27/2026 7:13 PM, Richard Cowan and Nolan D. McCaskill, 38315K] reports Democrats in Congress have waged a battle to place new legal restrictions on President Donald Trump’s immigration agents, knowing that they were unlikely to win Republican ​support but hopeful they might win a bigger prize: control of Capitol Hill in the November elections. The exact outcome was still unknown as House of Representatives Republicans on Friday rejected a ‌Senate compromise bill passed in the early morning hours to end the partial government shutdown. House Republicans then crafted their own remedy that Senate Democrats vowed to reject. Throughout the standoff, Democrats were steadfast in sending a message against the aggressive tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the country. "We’ve been clear from day one: Democrats will fund critical homeland security functions, but we will not give a blank check to Trump’s lawless and deadly immigration militia without reforms," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck ​Schumer said on Friday. The White House and congressional Republicans have framed the stepped-up enforcement as carrying out the president’s pledge to deport people in the country illegally. Democrats have high expectations for seizing ​control of the House and in recent months have been heartened by races in some Republican-held Senate seats becoming more competitive. Democrats cite their success in ⁠a series of special elections and polling that has shown Trump’s approval rating sinking to 36% amid rising gas prices and the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Despite taking a stand on ICE, Democrats ​are likely to come away with little else they wanted, such as requiring ICE agents to identify themselves and stop wearing masks; ceasing stakeouts at churches, hospitals and schools; and obtaining judicial warrants before entering private homes. Republicans, who narrowly control ​the Senate, rejected most of those proposals, saying they would hobble deportation efforts. But despite losing those battles, Democrats can say they refused to fund ICE operations, as well as claim other recent wins on immigration such as the drawdown of ICE agents in Minneapolis, where two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by federal agents.

FOX News [3/27/2026 3:51 PM, Peter Pinedo, 37576K] reports a Senate hearing got tense and quiet after Illinois father Joe Abraham confronted retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., for not acknowledging his daughter, Katie, who was killed by an illegal immigrant drunk driver. After Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, expressed his condolences to Abraham, the grieving father thanked him and then proceeded to drill into Durbin. Abraham’s 20-year-old daughter, Katie Abraham, was killed by an illegal immigrant in a drunk-driving incident while standing at a stoplight in the college town of Urbana, Illinois. The federal government’s immigration crackdown in the Chicago area was launched in Katie’s honor. Dubbed "Operation Midway Blitz," the effort resulted in more than 4,500 illegal immigrant arrests, according to DHS.

FOX News [3/27/2026 9:00 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller discusses Democrats blocking funding to the Department of Homeland Security on ‘Life, Liberty & Levin.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [3/27/2026 4:20 PM, Ryan Mancini, 18170K] reports TMZ wants travelers to submit photos they take of U.S. lawmakers on vacation “at your expense” as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown impacting Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers stretches into its 42nd day. Harvey Levin, TMZ’s executive producer, made the request to “everybody in our audience right now” in a video posted on the social platform X. Prior to TMZ posting the video, the outlet shared photos and video of senators leaving Reagan Washington National Airport. The outlet shared a submitted photo of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on a flight out of Washington, D.C., Friday. Another photo shows Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) leaving an escalator at National Airport Thursday night. TMZ also shared a video from Fox News of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) at National Airport on Friday. He said “we’ll see” if the House would pass the Senate’s bill. The Senate early Friday approved a measure by unanimous consent that would fund all of the DHS with the exception of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. House Republicans rejected the bill, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) proposing a stopgap to fund all of DHS for eight weeks. He said he intends to hold a vote soon on a continuing resolution that keeps DHS fully funded through May 22. Separately, President Trump signed a memo Friday to pay TSA workers. It is expected workers could begin to get pay Monday. The shutdown has left many DHS employees working without pay, as they are deemed essential. Missed paychecks for TSA workers has led employees to call out sick or quit their jobs. The agency’s acting administrator, Ha Nguyen McNeill, told members of the House at a hearing Wednesday that 480 airport screeners have quit since the shutdown began.

NPR [3/27/2026 5:53 PM, Jude Joffe-Block, 28764K] reports the Department of Justice acknowledged in court Thursday that it plans to share voter registration data it gets from states with the Department of Homeland Security, so that the data can be run through a U.S. citizenship check housed at DHS. The disclosure came during a federal court hearing in Rhode Island. The state is one of more than two dozen that have been sued by the DOJ for rejecting the department’s request for sensitive voter data. Last year, the Trump administration overhauled a DHS data system known as SAVE into a controversial citizenship lookup tool that can use a person’s name, date of birth and Social Security number to verify citizenship. Over the past year, federal officials have been urging states to run their voter rolls through the upgraded SAVE system to check whether any noncitizens appear on their voter rolls. A number of states, including Texas and Louisiana, have run their entire voting lists through the system and found very small numbers of potential noncitizens on their rolls — matching state-level reviews. But some U.S. citizens have also been inaccurately flagged by SAVE, which has compounded concerns by voting rights advocates that the use of SAVE will disenfranchise eligible voters. In its lawsuits against states, the Justice Department has cited federal laws and a goal of ensuring states are conducting proper voter roll maintenance. So far federal judges in California, Oregon and Michigan have dismissed DOJ’s lawsuits in those states, with the California judge calling the government’s request "unprecedented and illegal." For months, state officials and voting rights advocates have said it’s an open question whether at least part of DOJ’s motivation for receiving voter roll data from states was to share that data with DHS and run voters through SAVE. Previous public statements by federal officials about whether DOJ planned to share voter roll data with DHS to search for noncitizens have been unclear. The Justice Department has yet to make any public announcements about a data sharing agreement with DHS or provide an opportunity for the public to comment about the plan, which is required under the Privacy Act before data is shared.

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Washington Times [3/27/2026 6:27 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports an illegal immigrant who’d been living under the stolen identity of an American citizen has been charged with voting in Texas in the 2024 presidential election, federal authorities said. Eliseo Morales-Tapia, 58, used a stolen birth certificate and Social Security number to get driver’s licenses, a Social Security card and a U.S. passport, according to the criminal charges. He also registered to vote and did vote under the stolen identity. As recently as last year, in updating his license, he checked the box stating he was a U.S. citizen and wanted to register to vote, prosecutors said. He is actually a citizen of Mexico. Authorities only learned of the situation after the man whose identity was being used reported to the FBI that he’d been booted off Social Security disability because the government said his pay records showed he’d been working. He lived in Chicago at the time, and was even in prison for part of that time that the pay records showed he was working in Texas. The U.S. citizen, whose name wasn’t given in court documents, told investigators he believed his ex-wife had given his birth certificate to Mr. Tapia. Mr. Tapia also knew the name of the U.S. citizen’s father, and the mother’s maiden name. He also had a college ID, vehicle title and utility bills in the American citizen’s name.

FOX News [3/27/2026 12:47 PM, Ashley Oliver, 37576K] reports that an Obama-appointed federal judge who once blocked North Carolina’s voter identification law has reversed course and ruled it constitutional, delivering a major win for Republicans and election security advocates after a seven-year court fight. Judge Loretta Biggs upheld the law Thursday, finding the liberal voting rights groups that sued North Carolina’s election board failed to prove the voter ID law was discriminatory. The ruling leaves North Carolina’s voter ID law in place ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. It also comes as President Donald Trump has been advocating stricter voter ID laws nationwide, alleging what he has said is widespread fraud in elections and to prevent illegal immigrants from potentially casting ballots. The North Carolina case centered on a bill that the GOP-led Senate crafted in 2018 to govern how the state would enforce an amendment requiring voters to present a photo ID at the polls. The amendment had been approved by about 55% of North Carolina voters, and the legislation dictated how the amendment would be put into practice. "Finally. After seven years, we can put to rest any doubt that our state’s Voter I.D. law is constitutional," said Republican state Sen. Phil Berger, who intervened in the case to defend the law.

AP [3/27/2026 5:11 PM, Michelle L. Price, 1257K] reports that Vice President JD Vance on Friday held the inaugural meeting of a new anti-fraud task force he’s leading as the Trump administration seeks to show it’s cracking down on potential misuse of social programs. Vance, speaking Friday before the task force held a closed-door meeting, said that the federal government for decades had not taken the issue of fraud seriously and that it needed to be tackled with "a whole-government approach." "This is not just the theft of the American people’s money," Vance said. "It is also the theft of critical services that the American people rely on." President Donald Trump, a Republican, has made a crackdown on fraud part of his chief domestic focus as voters have said they’re concerned about affordability ahead of November’s midterm elections. That effort comes after allegations of fraud involving day care centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis prompted a massive immigration crackdown in the Midwestern city, resulting in widespread protests. Vance cited some of the Minnesota allegations on Friday. Last month, he held a news conference to announce a temporary halt of some Medicaid funding until the state took actions that federal officials said would address their concerns.

FOX News [3/27/2026 11:51 AM, Preston Mizell, 37576K] reports that Vice President JD Vance on Friday hosted the first anti-fraud task force meeting, where he delivered opening remarks saying the Biden administration "turned off" anti-fraud protections that "existed in our government for a very long time." Vance was joined by Cabinet and administration officials, including White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. The vice president, Ferguson and Miller delivered brief opening remarks before the meeting was closed to the press to further privately discuss their planned actions to combat fraud nationwide. "We think fraud has been a problem for a long time," Vance explained. "It became a massive, massive problem under the Biden administration. We’re going to do a number of things. First of all, we’re going to turn back on those anti-fraud protections so that all of these Cabinet officials are looking at what’s going on and focusing on it." President Donald Trump established the task force through an executive order last week, naming Vance to lead the team that will be focused on identifying and recovering Medicare, Medicaid and other areas of fraudulent usage of federal funds across the U.S. Trump indicated that fraud is "usually in blue states," which was reiterated by Miller during Friday’s opening meeting.

Washington Examiner [3/27/2026 3:18 PM, Emily Hallas, 1147K] reports Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that the Trump administration is examining how it can prove allegations that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) married her brother in an immigration fraud case. An investigation by the Washington Examiner in 2019 found dozens of documents that indicate discrepancies within the congresswoman’s marriage statements. The allegations appeared to have gained traction in 2020 when a Minnesota man told the Daily Mail the Democratic congresswoman married her brother to help him gain citizenship in the U.S. The FBI reportedly investigated the matter that year, and President Donald Trump has continued to raise concerns that the allegations could be true. Vance told host Benny Johnson this week that he has "recently" held conversations with senior White House adviser Stephen Miller on legal avenues to "go after" Omar. Vance also questioned what information Omar allegedly knew and withheld regarding sweeping fraud federal investigators are unraveling in her home state of Minnesota.

Washington Times [3/27/2026 5:59 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports a federal judge has sided with Minnesota in ruling that the state’s policy of offering in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrant college students isn’t trumped by federal law. That federal law generally says states can’t offer a special rate to illegal immigrants who reside in a state unless they also allow the same rates to be paid by anyone — including those from other U.S. states. U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, though, said Minnesota’s law ties the special rates to a student having attended high school in the state. It doesn’t specifically require state residency. And because that means someone who lives outside of the state could qualify, it doesn’t run afoul of the federal law. “Under Minnesota’s statutory scheme, nonresidents can — and do — qualify for resident tuition: by living in a neighboring state and attending Minnesota high schools, attending a Minnesota boarding school, or attending and graduating from a Minnesota high school before moving out of state,” wrote Judge Menendez, a Biden appointee. The ruling is the latest in a string of losses for the Trump administration in its attempt to wield federal laws to try to suppress state policies that offer special leniency to illegal immigrants. Orders to deny sanctuary jurisdictions federal funding have been blocked by other courts. And an attempt to shut down New York’s law prohibiting arrests at state courthouses failed late last year.

Daily Wire [3/28/2026 12:00 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 2314K] reports it was a humid night in June 2024 when Matt Carney encountered a pair of men rummaging through his truck. Carney, who owned the popular chicken restaurant Smokin’ Thighs, went to confront the men. As he did, they sped out of the parking lot, striking Carney and knocking him onto the street. As police hunted for the men behind the fatal hit-and-run, Carney succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. Eventually, Nashville police arrested Ulises Martinez, first confirmed by The Daily Wire to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico, and charged him with murder over the incident. Martinez admitted to police that he was driving the car that fatally struck Carney, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement slapped a detainer on him. Smokin’ Thighs, which Carney built from the ground up, closed a few short months after his death. Martinez has yet to face justice as his case makes its way through the Davidson County court system. The case quickly made headlines as then-candidate Donald Trump talked about the incident as he warned about a "migrant crime wave." The case illustrated how illegal immigration can impact even deeply red states like Tennessee. While Joe Biden was in office, conservative states struggled to respond as the federal government released millions of illegal immigrants into the United States. With the Trump administration, some Republican lawmakers see a golden opportunity to crack down on illegal immigration.

Washington Examiner [3/27/2026 12:07 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports that before Kristi Noem was even out the door, her more than 10 framed glamour shots hanging on the walls of one of her Washington offices were being taken down by staff. Department of Homeland Security employees at one agency were eager, even tearful, about the future. Her replacement, former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, is quickly finding his way into his new role atop the nation’s third-largest federal department and its more than a quarter of a million employees. Within 24 hours of being sworn in at the White House surrounded by family on Wednesday, Mullin had rolled up his sleeves and begun undoing the unprecedented regulations that Noem and her cohort, Corey Lewandowski, had imposed across the department. "He has the opportunity to be like a prince or knight in shining armor as he comes riding over the hill and saves everybody from this freaking chaos," a senior official within DHS said in a phone call Wednesday evening. "All he has to do, literally, is put things back in a normal order." The Washington Examiner spoke with five current and former senior department officials, as well as two sources familiar with Noem’s management, to piece together what Noem’s final days and Mullin’s first ones on the job entailed. President Donald Trump had planned for Mullin, a former U.S. senator and mixed martial arts fighter, to take over for Noem on March 31, but the Senate moved quickly with his confirmation, allowing Noem to hit the road early. She has since been shifted into a new position as Special Envoy for the Western Hemisphere.

The Hill [3/27/2026 1:54 PM, Sarah Davis, 18170K] reports that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday defended his criticism of newly minted Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s resume, despite receiving attacks from conservative pundits. Kimmel questioned Mullin’s credentials for the role, pointing to his past employment as a “low-level MMA fighter and a plumber.” The DHS chief most recently represented Oklahoma in the U.S. Senate, until he was confirmed as President Trump’s replacement for Kristi Noem. “Listen, let me make this very clear, I’m not upset that the head of Homeland Security used to be a plumber. I’m upset that he isn’t still a plumber,” the ABC host said during his opening monologue Thursday evening. The comedian added that conservatives went “nuts on every channel” about his comment. “Of course, they decided to twist that to say it was an insult to plumbers, which it was not,” Kimmel continued. “I wouldn’t put a plumber in charge of Homeland Security for the same reason I wouldn’t call a five-star general to pull a rat out of my toilet. We all have our areas of expertise.” During a live taping of Fox News’s “The Five” on Thursday, President Trump called Kimmel “a loser” in response to his comments about Mullin. “He’s a loser. He gets no ratings. None. He’s got no talent. He’s got Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Trump said. “Whenever I watch him, I just can’t believe he’s even on the air.”

Reuters [3/28/2026 6:08 AM, Brad Brooks and Maria Tsvetkova, 38315K] reports thousands of rallies are expected across the U.S. on Saturday ​in the latest "No Kings" protest against the policies of President Donald Trump and his administration. Organizers say that ‌more than 3,200 events are planned in all 50 states for what they hope could be the largest single-day nonviolent protest in U.S. history. The two previous No Kings events attracted millions of participants. Flagship rallies will take place in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Minnesota’s ​Twin Cities, but two-thirds of participants are expected from outside major city centers, a nearly 40% jump for ​smaller communities from the movement’s first mobilization last June, organizers said. NPR [3/28/2026 5:00 AM, Alana Wise, 28764K] reports organizers behind the No Kings protests are forecasting their biggest showing yet on Saturday against the policies of President Trump, energized by issues including the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics and the war in Iran. "March 28 will be the biggest protest in US history," the group, which comprises a progressive coalition of activists, wrote on its website. "Find your local No Kings event to make it clear that America rejects the regime’s brutality at home and abroad.” Organizers have planned more than 3,000 events in cities across the United States, with several more planned abroad, including in Mexico and Canada. This is the third series of nationwide protests organized by the group, which says Trump’s actions in office are more akin to those of a monarch than a democratically-elected leader. In response to a request for comment about the planned protests, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson dismissed them as "Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions" and listed what she said were some of the campaign’s g "major leftist" financial backers. "The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them, said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. The last round of protests, this past October, saw some 5 million attendees spread across about 2,600 demonstrations in the country, according to No Kings. Bill McKibben is the Vermont-based founder of Third Act — a No Kings-affiliated group comprising people who are 60 years old and up. He says intergenerational solidarity is a key part of the movement and that there are many older people willing to take to the streets alongside their younger compatriots. "If you’ve been to any of the No Kings protests that have happened so far, you’ll see a lot of people with hairlines like mine, which is to say, scant," he joked. "People of all kinds are outraged by what’s happening in the country right now, but older people have a particular role to play here.” He says that for older Americans, who have lived through several presidencies, describe the current one as the closest the country has come to authoritarian rule. "This is a very weird moment in our political history," he said. "Look, there have been plenty of presidents in my lifetime I didn’t much like or didn’t agree with politically, but there’s never been any that I thought were fascist, and I think that that’s very clear what we’re now starting to deal with in this country.” President Trump has said repeatedly that he’s not a fascist or a king and has previously scorned the protests. "I think it’s a joke," he said last year of the October demonstrations. "I looked at the people. They’re not representative of this country.”

Reported similarly:
ABC News [3/28/2026 5:18 AM, Ivan Pereira, 34146K]

FOX News [3/28/2026 5:11 AM, Leo Briceno, 37576K] Video: HERE reports "No Kings," a decentralized protest movement that crystallized in opposition to President Donald Trump’s second term, will hold thousands of events on Saturday morning, according to Sarah Parker, an organizer for one of the events in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The protests mark the most recent development for the amorphous group, which has prompted similar events in the past. "Tomorrow we’re going to have over 3,500 events across the country," Parker said. "I think it’s important to be out in the streets at this moment in time to save our country. The events will be overwhelmingly peaceful and there are going to be millions of Americans from different affiliations, different ages and different ethnic backgrounds coming together to be in community." Parker did not describe how "No Kings" works with local figures to organize events but said the protests aim to build on local displeasure with the administration. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Los Angeles Times [3/27/2026 6:14 PM, Cierra Morgan, 12718K] reports after years of demonstrators repeatedly shutting down freeway traffic around downtown Los Angeles, Caltrans has installed large metal swing gates onto freeway ramps ahead of this weekends "No Kings" protests. Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol finished installing swing gates early Friday morning on Los Angeles Street ramps at downtown Los Angeles along the 101 Freeway, according to Lauren Wonder, a public information officer for Caltrans District 7. These gates can be closed by California Highway Patrol officials when deemed necessary to restrict both vehicle and pedestrian entry to help ensure public safety, said Wonder. The installation comes as Southern California prepares for another round of nationwide "No Kings" demonstrations against the Trump administration Saturday. With 41 rallies planned, turnout could rival or exceed previous protests, which have drawn millions nationwide and tens of thousands of participants in downtown Los Angeles. Past "No Kings" protests have included crowds of up to 30,000 protesters downtown, as demonstrators rally against policies they describe as executive overreach. The gates are supposed to allow California Highway Patrol to manually block access points to the freeway. "Anytime the gates are closed is based off the situation that we’re faced with and there will be individuals there to open and close the gates," said CHP Sgt. Daniel Keene. "This will prevent individuals from going places they don’t belong.”

FOX News [3/27/2026 9:00 AM, John Tillman, 37576K] reports on Sunday, March 22, passengers at Atlanta’s airport waited in line for five hours or more to get through security. But in Orlando, Florida — just a few hours south — the security lines averaged about 30 minutes or less. How could passengers at two major airports have such dramatically different experiences? Simple: The Orlando airport has effectively privatized security screenings, while Atlanta uses government employees who work for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). As airports nationwide struggle with hours-long TSA lines amid the current government shutdown, the Trump administration should push for privatization nationwide. The mess in Atlanta isn’t unique. At airports across the country, insane TSA lines have been causing missed flights and canceled routes. TSA screeners aren’t showing up for work because they can’t get paid until Congress funds the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). But Democrats refuse to do that unless the Trump administration agrees to dramatic changes in its immigration enforcement policies. But Orlando’s airport shows that passengers need not suffer at all. The airport is one of 20 that has opted into the TSA’s "Screening Partnership Program." Some of the others include San Francisco’s major airport and the airport in Kansas City. Essentially, these transit hubs contract with private companies that run the security process. The companies operate under federal oversight and comply with all TSA rules, so they keep flyers completely safe. But because they aren’t government-run, they also keep the lines moving and keep customers happy. Rarely is the contrast between businesses and bureaucracies so stark. One gets the job done even during a time of major disruption. The other is widely hated even in normal times. The private companies have more flexibility and also more pressure to deliver results. They answer to shareholders and owners, and if they don’t do a good job, an airport might replace them. But the TSA doesn’t really answer to anyone. While it’s taxpayer-funded, taxpayers exert precisely zero control over its operations. The TSA also has zero competition. There’s no second government agency that can do its job. When it fails at its basic responsibilities, nothing happens. For bureaucracies, it’s always business as usual, even if that’s objectively awful.

Daily Caller [3/27/2026 6:30 PM, Steve Smith, 803K] reports for all the focus on reforming Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) most in need of defunding is the Transportation Security Agency (TSA). Founded in the wake of 9/11, the TSA was a response to the hijackers’ use of box cutters to take control of the four airliners that were used to destroy the World Trade Center, damage the Pentagon, and potentially the White House. Prior to 9/11, passenger screening was conducted by private security screeners employed by the airports and airlines and the logic was that a government agency could do a better job. But the opposite has happened. TSA screeners consistently fail to identify dangerous weapons in tests conducted by government auditors known as red teams that secretly place weapons of many types in luggage and on passengers to determine if TSA will find them — and a 2015 DHS investigation revealed that over 90 percent of the time they don’t. Most of the time, the found firearms are due to passenger forgetfulness, but there are no public cases of a potential hijacking having been prevented by TSA screening. To demonstrate its value, one journalist documented how TSA displayed seized items near inspection points in 2008, but most of what was seized were quirky items or fingernail clippers and cuticle scissors. The display of dangerous items are posted on the TSA website in an annual top ten list — the process of dumping liquids continues. The agents themselves are a liability. From 2003 to 2012, 381 TSA agents had been terminated for theft. More recently, a theft ring of TSA agents working at Miami airport were arrested. This isn’t to say that there aren’t real issues with ICE being debated at the moment. This week, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, President Trump’s nominee to head the DHS, vowed during his confirmation hearing that ICE officers would obtain search warrants signed by judges rather than their controversial use of administrative warrants.

New York Post [3/27/2026 12:21 PM, Rich Lowry, 40934K] reports that there are many things in American life that deserve our suspicion and contempt, but plumbers aren’t among them. Evidently, Jimmy Kimmel disagrees. The late-night host took a shot at newly confirmed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who used to run a plumbing business, by saying, "We have a plumber now protecting us from terrorism." The gibe was a setup for a line about Super Mario — the Italian plumber starring in the Nintendo game — but the premise was that there was something inherently ridiculous about a plumber ascending to a position of major responsibility in Washington, DC. Yes, why couldn’t Markwayne Mullin have made something of himself by getting, say, a law degree rather than devoting himself to a family business involving nasty little things like pipes and joints? One problem with calling Mullin a plumber is that it drips — no pun intended — with condescension; the other is that it significantly understates his business background, which involved leveraging a small, struggling family concern into a business mini-empire in Oklahoma, including a real estate business, construction company and restaurant. Anyone doubting the drive and acumen it takes to create and manage such enterprises should try doing it himself.

USA Today [3/28/2026 6:02 AM, James E. Causey, 67103K] reports Mr. Vice President, I want to report government fraud I hope you can get to the bottom of really soon. President Donald Trump signed an executive order March 16 establishing a task force to combat fraud nationwide led by Vice President JD Vance, which makes him the nation’s "fraud czar." Maybe Vance can borrow Elon Musk’s chainsaw, since Musk cut out all that government waste and exited Washington. At the White House, Trump told reporters that the amount of fraudulent spending the task force may recover could help address the national deficit and reduce taxes. The Government Accountability Office estimates the federal government loses between $233 billion to $521 billion annually to fraud. Good thing Vance is on the job. He has a case right under his nose with a plot – and a budget – like a Hollywood blockbuster. With a $200 million budget, producing a blockbuster movie is certainly expensive. Now, imagine spending even more than that on a 1-minute-long commercial to stem illegal immigration. Outgoing Homeland Security Security Kristi Noem spent $220 million on a controversial ad campaign in 2025, featuring her in chaps and a cowboy hat in front of Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. A few lines from the ad have Noem saying: “You cross the border illegally; we’ll find you. Break our laws. We’ll punish you. Harm American citizens; there will be consequences.” The DHS ads were the third most expensive marketing campaign by the U.S. government in the past 10 years. The only campaigns that cost more were the COVID-19 public service announcements and military recruitment ads. Since Trump replaced Noem with Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, it’s uncertain if the campaign is now a loss. If the president didn’t approve of the ad campaign, then firing her isn’t enough. The vice president needs to get to the bottom of this. Shouldn’t taxpayers get a refund? I know many ways that money could be used here in Milwaukee.

Houston Chronicle [3/27/2026 10:31 AM, Sharon Steinmann, 2493K] reports I saw it myself. Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement lending a hand. Behaving cordially. Unmasked. Establishing order not fomenting chaos. Travelers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport were pretty eager for any kind of improvement. I interviewed the poor souls stuck in epic lines on Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning. Most wanted to talk. They had already waited three hours to clear security. Why not chat with a journalist? They were a captive audience. And they had plenty to say. “I’ve been in line for 4 hours and 90 minutes outside in the heat,” said Nefertiri Long, 23, of Chicago on Tuesday afternoon. “I just pray for everybody and pray we all make it home safe.” Hundreds of thousands of Department of Homeland Security employees, including Transportation Security Administration workers, have gone unpaid since a partial government shutdown began Feb. 14. At Bush, nearly 40% of TSA workershave called out of work. ICE agents, whose aggressive tactics are at the center of the federal funding standoff, have been deployed to help cover TSA shortages. I’d read that at Bush, ICE agents were just lazing around, drinking coffee and walking aimlessly through the terminals. But that’s not what I saw. On Tuesday, I thought I’d find the agents in Terminal E, where international check-ins are. Instead, they had swarmed Terminal A, even though the lines there had shrunk by the time I arrived at 5 p.m. By Wednesday morning ICE agents were visible in both terminals. The unmasked ICE agents wearing tactical vests were even more visible than airport employees. Confused passengers frequently approached them for information. After months of news stories involving shocking video of ICE operations using brutal maneuvers that have been banned by local police departments, some travelers were unnerved and intimidated by the officers’ presence. “I feel so intimidated,” said Erica Zecca, 65, of Northridge, Calif., who moved to the United States from Costa Rica years ago. “It feels weird … you feel like you are doing something wrong.” But for others, they served as a source of relief — an approachable, smiling person who was actually available to answer questions.

Breitbart [3/27/2026 5:22 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested more illegal aliens this week, convicted of murder, child pornography, and assault, among other crimes. "While sanctuary politicians continue to demonize our ICE law enforcement, our ICE officers continue arresting public safety threats from our communities," the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Lauren Bis said in a statement. “Yesterday, ICE arrested criminal illegal aliens convicted for murder, production of child pornography, drug trafficking, and other despicable crimes. These types of violent, depraved criminals should never have been in the U.S. in the first place. Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, we will not allow criminal illegal aliens to continue victimizing innocent Americans.”

Politico [3/27/2026 1:14 PM, Daniel Lippman, 21784K] reports Acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons has been hospitalized at least twice for stress-related issues as he has carried out President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda — strain that has caused him to struggle to make key decisions for the agency, according to two current and two former administration officials. The hospitalizations took place over the last seven months. In one incident in December, Lyons’ security detail drove him to a hospital in Washington and he was admitted overnight, according to one former and two current administration officials. During an episode in September, the three people said Lyons was hospitalized for at least one night. In a separate incident in Los Angeles over the summer, Lyons became so distressed when ICE agents couldn’t locate a migrant on their target list after a ride along with top administration officials that one of his bodyguards took a portable defibrillator from a nearby government office to Lyons in case he needed medical intervention, according to one current and one former official. During these episodes, the current and former officials said they saw Lyons break out into a full sweat, with his face turning deep red. They also attributed the source of the pressure to ramp up deportations to the White House and top adviser Stephen Miller, who yelled at Lyons during morning phone calls with administration officials, according to four people who were on the calls. Other officials disputed that Miller yelled at Lyons, with one saying the deputy chief of staff was merely “passionate.” Miller didn’t respond to a request for comment. But the attempt to blame Miller is the latest example of continued infighting among administration figures over immigration policy — even after former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and some of her aides have departed the agency.

FOX News [3/27/2026 6:00 PM, CJ Womack, 37576K] reports the White House sharply disputed a POLITICO report published Thursday that said acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has been hospitalized multiple times in recent months as he works to carry out the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. The reporting cited current and former administration officials who described Lyons as under intense strain, while the White House publicly rejected the account and defended his leadership. The report described at least two hospitalizations over a seven-month period, including one incident in Washington, D.C., and another episode earlier in the fall, according to multiple unnamed officials cited in the article. Additional claims in the report described a separate moment in Los Angeles in which Lyons allegedly became distressed during an enforcement operation, prompting concerns from those around him about his condition. Lyons, who has led Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a period of expanded enforcement priorities under President Donald Trump, disputed the characterization of events and denied that any stress he experienced was tied to the White House. The POLITICO report also cited claims from some officials that senior adviser Stephen Miller applied pressure during internal calls over deportation targets, though others disputed that characterization and described his tone as "passionate" rather than excessive. FOX News [3/27/2026 7:08 PM, Louis Casiano and Alexandra Koch, 37576K] reports "Trash reporting from a trash "reporter" pushing tabloid b------- in an attempt to divide and distract. Todd Lyons is an American Patriot," the White House Rapid Response X account said in response to the story. The episodes were attributed to pressure from above for Lyons to ramp up deportations and from top advisor Stephen Miller, who allegedly yelled at Lyons during morning phone calls with administration officials, Politico reported. "This is b------- and more of the trash that Daniel Lippman has peddled over the years in the name of clicks and clout," Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, wrote on X in response to the Politico reporter’s story. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Politico was given "on record" denials prior to the story being published. "Shame on Politico for publishing such inaccurate trash," Jackson wrote on X. "Todd Lyons is an American patriot who has worked tirelessly to undo Biden’s disastrous immigration policies that wreaked havoc on American communities. "And the American people are deeply appreciative for his hard work making our country safer. Despite multiple on record denials and sources refuting their pathetic ‘reporting’ and *still* ran with this absurd article.” The reported hospitalizations took place over several months. In one incident, Lyons was driven to a hospital by his security detail, and he was admitted overnight. "Todd, Stephen and the entire White House team have a great working relationship and coordinate closely to deliver on the president’s many promises," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. "Todd Lyons is an American patriot who has worked tirelessly to undo Biden’s disastrous immigration policies that wreaked havoc on American communities.”

New York Post [3/28/2026 4:16 AM, Nicholas McEntyre, 40934K] reports Progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) is calling for illegal immigrants to be paid reparations over alleged trauma they sustained from the Trump administration’s crackdown and ICE operations across the US. Jayapal made the shocking revelation on Friday in front of a panel of "experts" during a hearing she hosted titled "Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Attack on Children.” "We are going to have to have some form of reparation for the kids and the families that have been traumatized through all of this," Jayapal said at the conclusion of the hearing. The 60-year-old lawmaker, who was born in India and obtained her US citizenship in 2000, has been a vocal critic of President Trump and his immigration crackdown. Trump’s Department of Homeland Security launched multiple ICE operations to root out illegal immigrants, but led to violent clashes between federal officials and pro-immigration protesters, including the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. Jayapal serves as the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement. She threatened to move forward with her reparations proposal if the Democrats win back control of the House and elect her to lead the subcommittee. "If I am chair of the immigration subcommittee, we will be pursuing all of these pieces," Jayapal indicated. "We need offensive actions around prosecutions. We need real accountability because at the end of the day, the people that have been inflicting this harm need to be prosecuted," Jayapal said. "They need to be brought before us and they need to be held account for the trauma that they have created. In Jaypal’s half-baked proposal, the reparations would be used to fund "support" for the people who didn’t receive relief following their interactions with immigration officials. "There’s a lot that’s on our plate but I want you to know how seriously we take this issue and how committed I am," she said.

The Hill [3/27/2026 11:22 PM, Ryan Mancini, 18170K] reports Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Friday said the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers at U.S. airports has “enhanced” airport operations as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown causes massive problems at America’s airports. Trump deployed ICE officers to over a dozen airports as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) shortages have contributed to security checkpoint closures, long lines and flight delays and cancellations. “It seems that it has enhanced some kinds of performance across there, yeah,” Fetterman told independent journalist Nicholas Ballasy. Most DHS employees have continued to work without pay as the shutdown drags on, as they are deemed essential. But an increasing number are calling out sick — though relief appears to be coming, as Trump has ordered TSA employees to be paid despite the funding standoff. Fetterman said it has become “harder and harder to justify this shutdown,” emphasizing the amount of travel expected for the FIFA World Cup. “And now we’re 77 days out and this is still shut down,” he said. “And you have millions of people from abroad coming and millions of Americans joining these too. And it’s like, if you’ve seen the kinds of chaos at airports, I can’t even imagine –– you have millions coming here for [the] World Cup and we are sitting on our hands.” Fetterman added that he could “never justify this [shutdown] from the start.” The Pennsylvania Democrat was the only member of his party to back a bill last month to keep the whole department running. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday that the ICE officers are “helping people with bags, even picking up and cleaning areas.” “They are so proud to be there!” the president added. “The fact is, they shouldn’t have to do this, but they are rehabbing a fake image given to them by Radical Left Democrat politicians.” Some ICE officers have also started checking travelers’ identification documents after receiving standard training, TSA Acting Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said on Wednesday. Democratic lawmakers have called for major reforms with ICE in response to the agency’s aggressive and secretive tactics in carrying out Trump’s hardline deportation agenda. Calls for reform intensified after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by federal immigration officers in separate incidents in Minneapolis in January. Fetterman has previously said he supports reforms for ICE, but he added that shutting down DHS would not reach that goal. “As a committed Democrat, I want the same changes that every other Democrat wants to make on ICE,” he said in February, in a video shared to social media. “We want to find a way forward to produce those changes but shutting down the government is the wrong way.”

Bloomberg [3/27/2026 7:41 PM, Patricia Hurtado, 18082K] reports a former Mozambique finance minister convicted in the US for his role in a $2 billion bond fraud was set to be deported Thursday after his release from prison, but was instead detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to his lawyer. Manuel Chang, 70, wasn’t allowed to get on his flight to Mozambique after airline officials at Boston’s Logan Airport found a problem with his travel documents, said Adam Ford, his attorney. Ford asked US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who sentenced Chang in January 2025, to help expedite the deportation, according to a letter filed with the court Friday. The lawyer said Chang is being held at an ICE facility in Plymouth, Massachusetts. A jury in Brooklyn, New York, convicted Chang of wire fraud conspiracy and a second scheme to launder money, finding he’d pocketed $7 million in illegal kickbacks to approve and guarantee $2 billion in loans to state-owned entities in Mozambique. The money was intended to fund three projects, including a tuna fishing fleet. The fraud also ensnared Credit Suisse Group AG, which in 2021 paid almost $475 million to resolve multiple investigations around the world into its role in the scandal. Three Credit Suisse bankers also pleaded guilty to taking millions of dollars in kickbacks. Chang was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison, but he got credit for the years he’d already spent in custody fighting extradition and awaiting trial, court records show. That reduced his prison sentence to just over 14 months, and he became eligible for release from the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on Thursday.

FOX News [3/27/2026 6:34 PM, Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports an illegal immigrant gang member accused of assaulting a first responder was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after he was released by New York City authorities despite him posing a danger to public safety, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday. Bryan David Tasiguano Leon, an Ecuadorian citizen, was arrested by the New York Police Department on Feb.14 on suspicion of assault on a first responder. He has a prior arrest for assault and family neglect. Leon, a member of the Latin Kings, was subsequently released from custody despite ICE having lodged a detainer with the NYPD so he could be transferred to federal authorities, DHS said. "New York sanctuary politicians chose to release this Latin Kings gang member from jail back not New York City communities," said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. "This gang member was previously arrested for assault on a first responder and family neglect.” ICE agents arrested Leon on March 4 during immigration enforcement operations in New York City. He remains in ICE custody pending deportation proceedings. Leon first illegally entered the United States around Nov. 11, 2022 through the southern border and was released into the country by the Biden administration. He was issued a final order of removal by a judge on Feb. 27, 2025. "Not only was this illegal alien released by the Biden administration, but he was also released again by New York’s sanctuary politicians," said Bis. "Enough is enough. Sanctuary politicians must stop releasing criminal illegal aliens back into our communities to perpetrate more crimes.” Currently, there are 7,113 illegal immigrants in custody across New York state with an active ICE detainer. Their crimes include 148 homicides, 717 assaults, 134 burglaries, 106 robberies, 235 dangerous drug offenses, 152 weapons offenses, and 260 sexual predatory offenses, DHS said.

Breitbart [3/27/2026 11:00 AM, Hannah Knudsen, 2238K] reports an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent saved a baby’s life at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday. The agent was one of many who had been deployed to the airport to assist the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) during the partial government shutdown, which was preventing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from being properly funded. TSA is part of DHS. According to DHS, the one-year-old boy stopped breathing in his father’s arms. His father, in the TSA PreCheck line, panicked trying to find help for his baby, whose arms had gone limp. The agent heard the panic, rushed to the area, and performed the Heimlich maneuver on the baby, according to DHS. The baby began to breathe again and was even cleared to fly. The agent working at his post, heard the screams from the father and other passengers and sprinted to the scene. The father handed the child to the officer, who then assessed the unresponsive child and began performing the Heimlich maneuver. After a few seconds, the child started breathing again. The baby had been unresponsive for about two minutes before the ICE officer arrived to help. "This officer’s extraordinary bravery embodies the selfless service of DHS law enforcement," DHS added. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin also praised the actions of the ICE agent. "The ICE agent sprang into action and saved this one-year-old child’s life. If our agent had not been there and stepped up, this would have been a tragic outcome," Mullin said. He added, "Despite the endless smears and lies told about them by sanctuary politicians and the media, our ICE officers show up every day to protect the Homeland and their fellow Americans.”

New York Post [3/27/2026 4:31 PM, Chris Nesi and Anthony Blair, 40934K] reports the US Department of Homeland Security slammed the six-month plea deal Manhattan prosecutors struck with a trans illegal immigrant who sexually assaulted a teenager in a New York bodega — calling it a "disgrace." Nicol Alexandra Contreras-Suarez, a 31-year-old transgender woman from Colombia, pleaded guilty in court this week to viciously assaulting the 14-year-old boy in East Harlem in a 2025 attack. In exchange, Contreras-Suarez was promised a slap on the wrist in the form of a six-month prison sentence — and won’t have to spend any more time behind bars due to time served. The sweetheart deal has left the DHS furious, as Contreras-Suarez was wanted in New Jersey and Massachusetts at the time of the assault, and was already the subject of an ICE detainer in those states. Contreras-Sanchez was arrested in March 2023 by US Customs and Border Protection after she illegally entered the US in San Ysidro, California — and was released into the country under then-President Joe Biden, federal officials have said. The illegal immigrant, who was born male, was later arrested for armed robbery, prostitution, and assault with a dangerous weapon in Medford, Mass., but then released, according to the feds. Contreras-Suarez’s lenient plea deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has also left legal experts baffled as they pleaded guilty to second-degree rape, which usually carries a penalty of between two and seven years in prison. DA Alvin Bragg’s office said the resolution was reached in close consultation with the victim’s family, sparing the teenager from having to testify and that they expect Contreras-Suarez to be deported following the April 27 sentencing.

New York Times [3/27/2026 7:13 PM, Leigh Giangreco and Mitch Smith, 148038K] reports an Illinois judge said on Friday that a man accused of fatally shooting Sheridan Gorman, a Loyola University Chicago student, must remain in jail ahead of his trial. The man, Jose Medina, a Venezuelan national the Trump administration says is in the United States illegally, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ms. Gorman, who was out for a lakefront walk with friends last week when she was shot and killed. The shooting left the family and classmates of Ms. Gorman, a freshman from Yorktown Heights, N.Y., shocked and in mourning. Her death also became entangled in the country’s immigration debate, with the Trump administration noting Mr. Medina’s immigration status and criticizing Illinois policies that limit cooperation with immigration agents. “She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians,” Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said of Ms. Gorman in a statement after Mr. Medina’s arrest. Mike Pekara, a prosecutor, told a judge on Friday that Ms. Gorman and several of her friends were walking along a pier near Loyola’s campus and looking at Chicago’s skyline around 1 a.m. on March 19 when Ms. Gorman encountered Mr. Medina behind a lighthouse. Mr. Pekara said that Mr. Medina, who is in his mid 20s, then emerged from behind the lighthouse, wearing a black mask and holding a gun. The prosecutor said that the students began running, and that Ms. Gorman, 18, was shot in the back, killing her. The others hid and called 911. “The victim was doing what college kids are supposed to be doing: enjoying good times with good friends,” Mr. Pekara said in court. The public defender’s office for Cook County, Ill., said Mr. Medina was raised in Venezuela and was developmentally delayed. While he was living in South America, the office said, Mr. Medina was shot and sustained brain damage, leaving him with brain development comparable with that of a child. The public defender’s office said Mr. Medina came to the United States in 2023 and that he had spent time in a detention center before being bused to Chicago. Mr. Medina, who appeared in court by video because he has tuberculosis, lived with his mother near Loyola’s campus on the Far North Side of Chicago, according to his lawyer

New York Post [3/27/2026 4:01 PM, Priscilla DeGregory, 40934K] reports the Venezuelan illegal immigrant accused of murdering Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman is missing a part of his brain and has the "development of a child," his lawyer said in court Friday. Jose Medina-Medina, 25, was held without bail by Chicago Judge D’Anthony Thedford after his defense attorney argued he’s cognitively challenged from a previous gunshot wound to the head, according to reports by Chicago Sun Times writer David Struett on X. Medina-Medina was shot in the head during a robbery when he was living with his mom in Colombia, where they fled in 2016 after the mother was allegedly raped by a government official, his defense attorney, Julie Koehler said. The injury left Medina-Medina with a part of his brain missing and forced him to have to relearn basic functions like walking and talking, the defense attorney claimed. After Thedford ordered Medina-Medina to be held without bail until trial, Koehler asked that he be treated for epilepsy and tuberculosis. He’s being treated at the health facility inside the Cook County Jail, where his lawyer asked he remain so that immigration officials don’t arrest and deport him. Medina-Medina was let into the country by Border Patrol in 2023. He has a prior arrest for shoplifting but was released from jail because of the Windy City’s sanctuary laws. Medina-Medina is charged with first-degree murder, weapons charges and related crimes. He is due back in court on April 15.

FOX News [3/28/2026 4:00 AM, Alec Schemmel, 37576K] reports that, while Republican senators, like Texas’ Ted Cruz and Florida’s Rick Scott, were quick to condemn the policies that kept the illegal immigrant killer of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman from being deported, Democratic senators dodged questions on whether Gorman’s killer should have previously been deported prior to this month’s murder. Gorman, who was a student at Loyola University of Chicago at the time of her death, was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, Jose Medina, 25. Medina was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, but was subsequently released into the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. A short time later, Medina was arrested for shoplifting in Chicago, but was again released on June 19, 2023, DHS said. A judge put a warrant out on Medina after he failed to appear in court for his shoplifting charge, which was still active at the time of Gorman’s killing, according to the Chicago Sun Times. "Shoplifting in and of itself is not a violent crime. It’s not an indicator of a person that’s leaning toward violent crime," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., when asked about Medina’s case and whether he should’ve been deported prior to Gorman’s murder. "You’re asking me to speculate on a bunch of things and I can’t answer that," said Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., when asked if Gorman’s killer, and other illegal immigrant murderers who had significant criminal records at the time of their arrests, should have been deported before people got hurt. "I don’t know the cases. I trust our justice system to do the right thing and hold people accountable.” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., responded that the Trump administration’s broad deportation crackdowns have prevented federal law enforcement from targeting genuinely dangerous people, an argument pushed by other top Democrats in Congress. "I think that if Trump cleared out Chicago and if ICE did their job, he wouldn’t be here, right?" Duckworth said as she got onto an elevator on Capitol Hill. "But they deported people who are not… [unintelligible].” Meanwhile, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., offered a more judicious response, but also suggested the style by which the Trump administration is deporting people is problematic. "Do I think violent criminals should be deported? Yes," Slotkin said, adding it is an "easy" call to deport someone who has been "accused and properly prosecuted." But, Slotkin added, "Innocent civilians who are protesting their government and using their freedom of speech should not be fingered and booted out.” Democrats who spoke with Fox News Digital did quickly agree that violent criminals who entered and are residing in the country unlawfully should be deported. "Anybody who violates, or creates crime in this country – particularly kills somebody – should not only be held accountable in the United States, but, yes, there should be immigration enforcement against that individual," Cortez-Masto said.

FOX News [3/27/2026 8:04 PM, Joseph A. Wulfsohn Fox, 37576K] reports a Chicago-area college newspaper announced it has launched an "ICE tracker" just days after an illegal immigrant was charged in the murder of 18-year-old Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman. The Dominican Star, the paper of Dominican University, located just west of Chicago, revealed Wednesday it is taking a page from The Loyola Phoenix, the paper of Gorman’s university that unveiled its own ICE tracker last fall. "We became inspired by their initiative and decided to create our own addition to service the Dominican University community," the Dominican Star wrote. "After having a meeting with [Loyola Phoenix editor-in-chief Lilli Malone and managing editor Julia Pentasuglio], we gathered more information to make this launch possible." "These developments have led to us creating our own map with pinned locations where there has been confirmed ICE activity. The ICE Tracker will include areas that are around Dominican and that have a large commuter student population," the paper continued. The paper listed several surrounding neighborhoods it intends to monitor and asked its readers to submit reports of ICE activity to its staff, which will update a map with pins. The Dominican Star did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed Sunday that the suspect in Gorman’s murder is Jose Medina-Medina, a "Venezuelan criminal illegal alien" who was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol and released into the country under the Biden administration in 2023. Medina-Medina was released again one month later after being arrested for shoplifting. The Loyola Phoenix went viral with a mea culpa after walking back a social media headline that called Medina-Medina an "illegal immigrant." "On March 23, a post on The Phoenix’s Instagram page carried the following headline: ‘Immigrant Man Charged in Murder of Sheridan Gorman, DHS Involved,’" the editor’s note said at the bottom of a report about Gorman’s murder. "That headline didn’t reflect the most important elements in the story, and it was taken down minutes later to prevent any further harm to affected community members."

Reported similarly:
FOX News [3/27/2026 10:28 AM, Peter D’Abrosca, 37576K]

Bloomberg [3/27/2026 10:30 AM, Jason Leopold, 18082K] reports the surge of immigration agents to Minneapolis in December followed weeks of incendiary comments by President Donald Trump about the Somali community (who he blamed for massive fraud schemes in the state) and fiery retorts by state and local officials, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The agents’ presence combined with the aggressive manner of the immigration arrests sparked huge protests that lasted nearly two months and captured the nation’s attention. The public outcry intensified in January after the deaths of Good and Pretti, which took place under the command of Greg Bovino, the controversial commander of the US Border Patrol. Bovino may be best remembered for hurling canisters of tear gas into crowds of protestors and patrolling the streets while sporting an olive green greatcoat, which California Governor Gavin Newsom and other critics described as “Nazi-coded.” (In public statements, Bovino said he’d owned the coat for decades.) It was an inflection point in how the public viewed ICE and its tactics. This week, Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration for withholding evidence related to the state’s investigation. Unfortunately, the emails I received from O’Hara’s inbox don’t reveal new details about the FBI’s refusal to work with state law enforcement officials on the investigation. A public records official explained, “In order to respond to your data request more quickly” a decision was made to pull all of O’Hara’s emails for just the month of January.

Bloomberg Industry Group Bloomberg Tax [3/26/2026 9:16 PM, Beth Wang, 50K] reports noncitizens detained in Minneapolis’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement building must have access to attorney calls and be notified of their legal rights while a lawsuit against the agency runs its course, a federal judge ruled Thursday. "Due process is not a game of keep-away. ICE recognizes detainees’ right to access counsel in theory and written policy, but not in practice. Instead, it has placed obstacle after obstacle in front of detainees and their attorneys, blocking communication between clients and counsel," Judge Nancy E. Brasel of the US District Court for the District of Minnesota said. Brasel’s decision converts her February temporary restraining order requiring ICE to allow in-person attorney visits and phone calls at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building into a preliminary injunction. ICE has made "considerable but inconsistent efforts to improve attorney access and comply with the Court’s Order," Brasel concluded based on declarations and testimony from attorneys and noncitizen detainees presented during an evidentiary hearing on March 19 and 20. The preliminary injunction requires every noncitizen taken into custody be given contact information for free legal service providers within one hour of arriving at the facility and have access to private phone calls with lawyers free of charge. ICE can’t transfer detainees out of state during the first 72 hours of detention, and the agency must ensure that its online detainee locator system is up to date and accurate. Detainees who will be transferred must be allowed to make a phone call once they know where they’ll be moved to.

Univision [3/27/2026 2:07 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports the scene unfolded one night in January, at a mobile home in Lakeland, in central Florida. Outside, patrol cars waited while federal agents carried out an immigration arrest. Inside, a mother tried to resolve in minutes what other families spend years planning: who would get custody of her daughters. Flores was arrested along with her husband during an ICE operation in Polk County, where local authorities maintain cooperation with federal immigration agencies. Before they took her away, she picked up the phone and called her pastor. He and his wife arrived while the officers were still at the house. The decision was urgent: if no one took responsibility for the girls, the state could intervene and place them in foster care. Flores had to explain, in just a few minutes, how to feed the baby, how to change her, and how often she should eat. The child depended on breast milk and formula. That night, the process was interrupted. In the emergency, a neighbor who had just given birth helped breastfeed the baby. Meanwhile, Flores was held in immigration detention centers. During that time, she recounts suffering physical complications related to the interruption of breastfeeding. The process moved quickly toward deportation. Flores was deported to Honduras. Days later, she was reunited with her daughters. Flores’ case comes amid a surge in arrests of parents with U.S. citizen children. An analysis of ICE data obtained by the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights and reviewed by ProPublica shows that in the first seven months of Donald Trump’s second term, more than 11,000 U.S. citizen children had at least one parent arrested or detained. The figures also show a change in the outcomes of these processes. Nearly 60% of arrests of mothers end in deportation, double the rate of the previous administration and four times higher. Meanwhile, more than half of the detained parents do not have serious criminal records, beyond traffic violations or immigration issues.

NPR [3/27/2026 4:42 PM, Matt Ozug, William Troop, 28764K] Audio: HERE reports in her own words, we hear from a young Palestinian woman from Paterson, N.J., who was released from ICE detention in Texas. She had been held for over a year.

Telemundo 48 El Paso [3/27/2026 4:12 PM, Luisa Barrios, 19K] reports the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) announced the arrest of Carlos Andry Daviel Matute Marchena, a 26-year-old Venezuelan citizen, identified as a member of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang and wanted for his alleged participation in a sex trafficking network, state authorities reported. According to DPS, the arrest was the result of a multi-year investigation related to sex trafficking originating in West Texas. The arrest was made possible through coordinated work between the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) of DPS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Authorities located Matute Marchena in the city of Peoria, Illinois, where he was arrested and later transferred to Texas. Following his transfer, Matute Marchena was booked into the El Paso County Jail, where he remains in custody. According to DPS, his court hearing is scheduled for next month.

AP [3/27/2026 3:01 PM, Khari Johnson] reports citing fear of authoritarianism and invasive surveillance, California lawmakers voted this week to audit the operation of joint intelligence centers where federal, state, and local agencies share information. The decision was made Tuesday along party lines by the Joint Committee on Legislative Audit, a 14-member body made up of members of the California Senate and Assembly. Nine members voted in favor, one against, and four did not vote. The audit will be conducted by State Auditor Grant Parks. Advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Oakland Privacy urged lawmakers to demand the audit to rein in what they described as abuses at the facilities, known as fusion centers. They cited an incident in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement reportedly asked La Habra police to run searches on its behalf at an Orange County fusion center and several others in which San Francisco police circumvented a local ban on facial recognition by asking for help from a fusion center with access to the technology. CalMatters investigations last year and last month found instances where local law enforcement agencies shared license plate information with ICE or the Border Patrol, violating state law. California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent letters to more than a dozen local law enforcement agencies since 2024 for potential violations of the state law banning it and sued the City of El Cajon for allegedly violating the ban.

Univision [3/27/2026 11:21 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports José Ramos , a 52-year-old immigrant detained at the ICE Processing Center in Adelanto , died on March 25, 2026, according to pro-immigrant organizations. The victim was pronounced dead at Victor Valley Global Medical Center in Victorville, according to information from San Bernardino County. According to initial reports from detainees and advocacy organizations, the man presented with difficulty breathing and symptoms of increased temperature before his transfer to the hospital. Detainees contacted by the Immigrant Defenders Law Center indicated that Ramos showed symptoms of overheating and difficulty breathing in his bunk, took off his shirt when he felt suffocated, and that the facility’s medical staff did not respond immediately. Officials informed the family that Ramos died under hospital care, although some detainees allege that he had already died in the cell before the transfer. The official cause of death and the results of the autopsy have not been released. Testimonies gathered by the Immigrant Defenders Law Center and the community watch group We Keep Us Safe 1312 , which works directly with the family, agree that the incident occurred inside the center operated by the private company GEO Group. The detainees claimed that the man "had already died in the facility in his bunk." So far there is no independent confirmation as to whether the death occurred exactly in the cell or in the hospital. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not released an official statement on this specific case as of this publication, two days after the death. In general statements regarding deaths in custody, the agency has reiterated that it “provides comprehensive medical care from the moment people arrive and throughout their stay,” according to its policy for reporting and reviewing deaths of detainees. ICE states that it prioritizes “the health, safety and well-being of all persons in its custody.” Human rights organizations have called for an independent investigation, and ICE has not released an official response to the allegations of delays in medical care. The Adelanto Detention Center has been the scene of several recent deaths in federal custody. This would be the most recent case at the facility, which has faced criticism for health care conditions in previous reports from the ACLU and other organizations. In 2025 and early 2026, other similar cases involving transfers to the same Victor Valley Global Medical Center were recorded . Advocates argue that many of these deaths could be prevented with timely care, although ICE consistently refutes allegations of negligence in every incident. Ramos’ family has not issued any public statements so far.

FOX News [3/27/2026 10:11 AM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Attorney General Pam Bondi discusses the DOJ’s crackdown on citizenship fraud, highlighting the Trump administration’s aggressive denaturalization efforts against criminals. She notes that the DOJ has revoked 22 citizenships under Trump compared to 24 in Biden’s four years, targeting arms smugglers and healthcare fraudsters to keep the country safe. Bondi emphasizes that US citizenship is a privilege.

Daily Caller [3/27/2026 9:18 AM, Hudson Crozier, 803K] reports immigration hard-liners are taking aim at rules that protect foreign-born U.S. citizens from deportation even if they become terrorists. Naturalized citizens committed three suspected terrorist attacks in Texas, Michigan and Virginia in a two-week timeframe after the U.S. went to war with Iran’s Islamic regime in February. Other naturalized citizens caught plotting terrorist attacks have been released or are due for release back onto America’s streets, according to Department of Justice (DOJ), court and prison records. Despite the jihadists’ crimes and increasing calls to expand denaturalization’s, shredding their coveted status as American citizens is easier said than done; the system is unlikely to change without Congress passing contentious GOP-backed legislation. "Naturalized citizens who attack our country and break our laws aren’t true Americans," Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas told the Daily Caller News Foundation after introducing legislation on March 17 to strip criminals of citizenship, leading to deportation. "My bill creates a fair process to revoke citizenship from terrorists and felons." The bill currently sits in the Senate Judiciary Committee with no co-sponsors. Current law only permits denaturalization if someone fraudulently obtained citizenship, including if someone lied about having joined a foreign terrorist organization before applying. An exception is if someone becomes "affiliated" with the group within five years of naturalization, which can serve as evidence that they were insincere about their loyalty to America when applying, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website says. Joining a terrorist group more than five years after naturalization would not cost someone their citizenship. Cotton’s bill would make terrorist group ties and certain serious crimes grounds for denaturalization regardless of timing. Another bill Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt introduced in January would expand the timeline from five years after citizenship to 10.

Washington Examiner [3/28/2026 6:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports the Trump administration has shut down three social media accounts that recently retired Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino renamed to his personal title and had refused to return despite them being federal property, the Washington Examiner has learned. Facebook, Instagram, and X accounts that had a combined audience of 850,000 people, belonging to the Border Patrol’s El Centro, California, region, were shuttered mid-Thursday after being up and running earlier in the day, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “Chief Patrol Agent Bovino has retired from federal service and no longer has access to official government social media accounts,” a CBP spokesperson wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner on Friday. Five people familiar with the showdown between Bovino and the federal government over this unusual issue spoke with the Washington Examiner between January and March about the effort in Washington to take back the accounts from an employee who had gone rogue. The battle over the social media accounts comes as the era of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem comes to a close, and it sends a message that the federal government will not cede its public relations power to a single man.

Washington Times [3/27/2026 6:36 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports Federal prosecutors announced charges against a U.S. Border Patrol agent who they say handcuffed and strangled a detainee, then tried to conceal the body camera footage of the incident. The indictment, handed up last month and announced by the U.S. attorney in New Mexico on Friday, does not say what led to the confrontation involving Eduardo Prat, 40, and an unidentified victim. It does say Agent Prat was working in Dona Ana County, which covers the state’s boundary with Mexico. The incident took place on May 22, 2023. Prosecutors said he then “concealed and covered up a body camera recording of the assault.” He is charged with a civil rights violation for the alleged assault, and evidence tampering for the body camera cover-up. Local media reported that the detainee survived. He was granted an unsecured $10,000 bond. Gabriel Perez, Agent Prat’s lawyer, called him a dedicated agent who “served in a challenging and demanding role along the New Mexico border.”

AP [3/27/2026 5:08 PM, Staff, 35287K] reports TSA officer absentee rate hit a record Thursday, DHS says. The Department of Homeland Security says the daily absentee rate for TSA officers scheduled to work on Thursday reached 11.83%, the highest level since the DHS shutdown started on Feb. 14. The department says 33.6% of scheduled officers missed work at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and 37.4% at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport. "I want to thank President Trump for his leadership in finding a way to pay our TSA officers to end this chaos at our airports," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. TSA officers must be confident they’re going to keep getting paid before the delays will end. The delays and long security lines may not improve significantly until TSA officers are confident they can count on their paychecks. Right now TSA officers have a lot of questions about what Trump’s order will mean for them after Congress was unable to reach an agreement on Homeland Security funding, said former TSA officer Caleb Harmon-Marshall. He now writes a travel newsletter called Gate Access, but he remains in contact with a bunch of current TSA officers and some who have recently quit during the shutdown. DHS says TSA workers could be paid as early as Monday, but doesn’t say where the money will come from. The Department of Homeland Security says Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is starting the process of paying the Transportation Security Administration workforce. "TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30. TSA is grateful to the President and Secretary for their leadership to put money back into the pockets of TSA employees who worked without pay during the ongoing Democrat DHS shutdown," the department said in a statement Friday.

New York Times [3/27/2026 7:08 PM, Jacey Fortin, Shannon Sims and Michelle Baruchman, 148038K] reports for air travelers hoping to get a sense of what major airports are like this weekend, confusion still reigns. Some major hubs in Houston, Baltimore and New York City were clogged by hourslong security lines on Friday. Other airports, including in Los Angeles, Miami and Minneapolis, appeared to be doing fine. Wait times varied not only from one airport to the next, but also from one hour to the next: Major hubs tend to be particularly busy in the mornings, as well as on Fridays and Sundays. Some airports’ trackers did not always appear to be a reliable gauge of the most up-to-date information on wait times, and some did not provide times at all. A partial government shutdown, now lasting nearly six weeks, has crippled airports by requiring Transportation Security Administration employees to work without paychecks, leading to more than 3,000 work call-outs per day that have turned terminal security lines in some places into interminable slogs. (Those workers will receive back pay for the time once the shutdown ends.) And more than 480 T.S.A. workers have left the agency altogether, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were sent to more than a dozen major airports beginning this week, federal officials said, to help the understaffed T.S.A. teams. But at some airports on Friday, the wait times were still around the highest they had been in years. Things have been especially bad at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, where the security lines on Friday morning zigzagged through two floors of the airport, around the baggage carousels and outside the international terminal. Inside the security area, agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, appeared to be checking passengers’ IDs alongside T.S.A. agents. The rate of T.S.A. call-outs at the airport the previous day (the latest information available) was 44.4 percent, the highest rate in the nation. David Bailey, 38, an anesthesiologist from London, had been stuck in Houston since Thursday, when he tried unsuccessfully to catch a connecting flight to Costa Rica. “Our view of the U.S. is already dim and at an all-time low, and this situation certainly gives the impression that the system is broken,” he said on Friday.

CNN [3/27/2026 10:21 AM, Tami Luhby and Alexandra Skores, 19874K] reports funding to pay Transportation Security Administration officers may be on its way soon, but despite this, frontline workers and hours-long lines of travelers at US airports may not return to normal right away. For weeks, the partial government shutdown seemed to have no end in sight as few proposals were passed back and forth. Many workers didn’t come to work or quit their jobs altogether. Then, on Thursday evening, President Donald Trump directed his newly installed Department of Homeland Security chief to swiftly pay TSA agents. Hours later, the Senate unanimously moved to fund most of the DHS, including TSA, but not Immigration and Customs Enforcement and part of Customs and Border Protection. It’s unclear which effort might take effect first to get paychecks to the workers. CNN has reached out to the White House, DHS and TSA about how quickly Trump’s order can be carried out. And House Republican leaders do not yet have a plan for passing the Senate bill. Even in a best case scenario, it may take days, if not weeks, for airport security checkpoints to return to full staffing levels, union leaders said. Roughly 61,000 TSA employees are working without pay during the shutdown, which began February 14. The workers will likely miss their second full paycheck as soon as today after not receiving their first full paycheck in mid-March and only getting a partial paycheck at the end of February. On Friday, TSA will reach over $1 billion in missing paychecks because of the shutdown, testified Ha Nguyen McNeill at a House hearing on Wednesday. She said many TSA workers have "missed bill payments, received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut off, lost their child care, defaulted on loans, damaged their credit line and drained their retirement savings.” "Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma and taking on second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public," McNeill said.

CNN [3/27/2026 5:01 PM, Elizabeth Wolfe, Taylor Galgano, Tami Luhby, 19874K] reports officers may soon get relief after President Donald Trump ordered DHS to pay TSA officers in a memo Friday. TSA workers should start receiving paychecks as early as Monday, DHS said in a statement. Additionally, the Senate unanimously voted to fund most of the DHS, including TSA, though House Republicans rejected the measure and will vote on a short-term bill that funds the entire department. Finlay and other TSA officers tell CNN they have become increasingly desperate for this financial relief. Their families have been buried under a mountain of unpaid bills, debt and accruing fees that have resulted from missing two full paychecks. Even if they are paid soon, some officers say their financial hardships will continue. It is not easy to reverse the ramifications of eviction, accumulating debt or ruined credit. Nearly 500 TSA employees have quit since the start of the partial shutdown and thousands have been calling out of work each day as they struggle to afford gas, child care, food and housing, according to DHS. As the DHS shutdown stretches on, some employees have resorted to extreme measures to get by.

CBS News [3/27/2026 3:42 PM, Megan Cerullo, 51110K] reports hours-long security lines snarled airports across the U.S. on Friday as TSA officers missed another paycheck during the partial government shutdown, but travel experts say delays could ease within days once workers are paid again. President Trump, who said he recognized the urgency of paying security personnel, on Thursday directed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA workers immediately. On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to CBS News that, at the direction of Mr. Trump, "TSA has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce." The department added that TSA officers should begin receiving pay as early as Monday, March 30. The president’s directive comes as Congress is still negotiating a deal on the department’s funding, with the Senate passing a measure that the House then rejected. But House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday the lower chamber would vote "as soon as possible" on its own plan, which could occur later in the day. When money starts to flow into federal workers’ bank accounts again, security lines should improve relatively quickly, according to travel experts.

CBS Boston [3/28/2026 12:40 AM, Brandon Truitt, 51110K] reports despite having low levels of sick calls during the partial government shutdown, the unpaid work appears to have taken a toll on Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at Boston’s Logan Airport. On Friday, the local union representing those officers reported that 25 of them had resigned from their jobs at Logan during the course of the partial shutdown. Earlier in the day, Congress failed for a seventh time to pass a spending bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, of which the TSA is a part of. By late afternoon, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to grant TSA employees back pay using money from last year’s GOP spending bill. However, the president of the TSA Officers Union (AFGE 2617) New England told WBZ it appeared officers would be paid only for the period of February 14 to March 12. Passengers at Logan have experienced minimal impacts to TSA wait times during this shutdown thanks in large part to TSA officers’ willingness to work without a paycheck. The airport reported minimal sick calls over the last month. Passengers told WBZ they were not taking chances and arriving early for flights.

Wall Street Journal [3/27/2026 5:42 PM, Amira McKee, Chao Deng, and Harriet Torry, 646K] reports two numbers are rocking Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport: four and zero. Four hours is how early airport officials suggested passengers arrive to make it through backed-up security lines. Zero is what thousands of Transportation Security Administration employees were due to receive from Friday paychecks, for the second time this year. The world’s busiest airport, Atlanta has become a chokepoint in the federal funding standoff in Congress. Security-screening lines stretched out to terminal sidewalks on several days this week, frustrating passengers, airport managers and airline executives. Officials in Atlanta and other U.S. airports cautioned that travelers could continue to face lengthy wait times in coming days. “You shouldn’t expect lines to decrease over the weekend,” said Ricky Smith, general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson. A congressional impasse over funding the Department of Homeland Security cut off paychecks for TSA agents, prompting hundreds of workers to quit and thousands more to call out. A Senate-approved measure to provide funding for DHS garnered resistance Friday from some House lawmakers. President Trump instructed DHS to start the processing of paying TSA workers in an executive order on Friday. TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, the agency said. Since the partial government shutdown began Feb. 14, TSA officers have increasingly called out to work second jobs or save money on commuting costs. Hartsfield-Jackson has among the highest call-out rates in the country, with around 41% of the TSA staff out on Wednesday, according to DHS. The national average was around 11%.

USA Today [3/27/2026 8:44 PM, Anthony Robledo, 70643K] reports that, after a kind gesture to airport employees in Georgia didn’t go as planned, Tyler Perry found a workaround. The "A Madea Homecoming" director tried to hand cash to TSA employees at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on March 26, but was turned down due to federal rules, USA TODAY has learned. He later worked with the Transportation Security Administration to find another way to support them during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown. And so the actor and filmmaker ended up donating $250,000 worth of Visa gift cards to TSA workers at the Atlanta airport on March 27. The donation comes as the Department of Homeland Security shutdown continues with no end in sight, leaving more than 64,000 airport security workers working without pay. President Donald Trump signed an order on Friday declaring an "unprecedented emergency situation" to reroute federal funds to pay TSA staffers. The move will allow TSA employees to get their paychecks as early as March 30 instead of waiting for back pay after the shutdown ends. Collectively, TSA officers, who are considered essential workers, have now missed nearly $1 billion in paychecks since the shutdown, prompting many work absences as they find alternative forms of financial support.

CBS Chicago [3/27/2026 6:52 PM, Marissa Perlman, 51110K] Video: HERE reports despite the 42-day Homeland Security shutdown, travelers at O’Hare International Airport said they haven’t seen the extremely long waits in TSA security lines – in some cases 2 to 4 hour waits – that have plagued some other airports across the country. On Friday, the Mitchell family was grateful to arrive at O’Hare to a short security line and staffed TSA desks as they prepared to fly to Germany. They ended up with about six hours to kill at O’Hare before their flight. "We’re surprised that it doesn’t look like it’s going to be too long of a wait, and we’re excited about it," Tiffany Mitchell said. Like many, they arrived more than four hours before their flight, out of fear of long waits in security lines. "We weren’t sure. My husband is an on-time person, so he’s like, ‘We’re leaving at 9 o’clock, no matter what time our flight is leaving," Mitchell said. That’s because a shortage of TSA officers — many working without pay — has led to call-offs, staffing gaps, and growing frustration at airports across the country. "If they’re not being paid, they shouldn’t be working," Mitchell said. In Washington, President Trump has signed an executive order to ensure TSA agents will be paid during the Homeland Security shutdown, using funds from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act to cover TSA paychecks as pressure grows to ease airport chaos. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that TSA has "immediately" begun the process of paying workers in response to the president’s directive to pay them using funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill, and employees will soon begin receiving their paychecks. "TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30," the department said.

San Diego Union Tribune [3/27/2026 6:13 PM, Phillip Molnar, 1257K] reports San Diego International Airport was back to normal flight operations on Friday after a shortage of air traffic controllers caused heavy delays the previous night. The Federal Aviation Administration was required to slow flight traffic on Thursday night because of a lack of staff in the air traffic control tower. Nearly 200 flight departures and arrivals were delayed. FAA and airport officials confirmed Friday that normal flight operations had resumed, but travelers should still expect longer security lines. Agents with the Transportation Security Administration have not been paid for 42 days and many employees, in San Diego and across the nation, are not coming to work. Staff shortages in the traffic control tower were not related to funding struggles, airport officials said. President Trump on Friday signed an executive emergency order to immediately pay TSA agents. Details were scarce on when checks would arrive, and a political battle in Congress over funding the Department of Homeland Security continued in earnest Friday.

Washington Examiner [3/27/2026 10:10 AM, Rachel Schilke, 1147K] reports that a House Ethics subcommittee found that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) committed wrongdoing on most of the 27 counts leveled against her in a monthslong investigation centered on allegations of financial misconduct. Cherfilus-McCormick is accused of stealing $5 million in funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and funneling a portion of them to her campaign account. The subcommittee, which was carrying out the investigation on behalf of the full ethics panel, said it deliberated "well past midnight" after a rare public hearing for Cherfilus-McCormick began Thursday afternoon. The subcommittee said on Friday that 25 of the 27 counts "had been proven." "Shortly after the House returns from April recess, the full committee will hold a hearing to determine what, if any, sanction would be appropriate for the Committee to recommend," the Ethics subcommittee wrote. The verdict from the Ethics Committee could result in the Florida congresswoman’s expulsion from the House as Democrats prepare to navigate a politically dicey vote. House Democratic leadership had been urging patience as her case made its way through the Ethics Committee, but on Friday, rank-and-file members began calling for her resignation. "You can’t crime your way into legitimate power," Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) said on social media. "Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed."

SFGate [3/27/2026 5:16 PM, Allaire Conte, 10094K] reports more than 1.45 million acres across the Western U.S. have already been ravaged by wildfires in 2026, and multiple states are now bracing for what could be one of the country’s most devastating fire seasons. After one of the warmest winters on record in the U.S., experts are warning that a low snowpack and a searing heatwave in the West are already boding ill for the months to come. In January, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC)-the federal body tasked with forecasting wildfire risk-predicted an "above-normal" season for much of the country. Today, an early start to those flames is acting like a grim exclamation point on that prescient warning.

Breitbart [3/27/2026 6:33 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports a U.S. Secret Service agent on former first lady Jill Biden’s detail shot himself in the leg by mistake Friday in Philadelphia, the agency announced. Around 8:30 a.m., the agent sustained "a non-life-threatening injury following a negligent discharge while handling a service weapon at the Philadelphia International Airport during a protective assignment," a Secret Service statement issued to ABC News said. "There were no reported injuries to any other individuals and the special agent is being evaluated at an area hospital in stable condition.” Doctors at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center were evaluating the agent, who was listed in stable condition. The Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility expects to investigate the incident, CNN reported. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Biden was at the airport when the shooting happened, but wasn’t in the agent’s presence. Reuters [3/27/2026 7:00 PM, Christian Martinez, 38315K] reports "There was no impact to ​the protectee’s movement and they were not present at the time of the incident," the statement said. The agent "accidentally ​discharged his firearm" while traveling in an ​unmarked SUV near the airport, Philadelphia Police Department Cpl. Jasmine ‌Colón-Reilly ⁠said in a statement. Emergency medical personnel responded to the scene and the agent was transported to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in stable ​condition, Colón-Reilly ​said. "The Secret ⁠Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility will be reviewing the facts and circumstances ​of this incident," the Secret Service ​said.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [3/27/2026 2:10 PM, Aimee Ortiz, 148038K]
The Hill [3/27/2026 12:35 AM, Sarah Davis, 18170K]
ABC News [3/27/2026 11:00 AM, Jack Date and Luke Barr, 34146K]
CNN [3/27/2026 11:11 AM, Betsy Klein, 19874K]
FOX News [3/27/2026 11:22 AM, Alex Nitzberg, 37576K]
USA Today [3/27/2026 3:01 PM, Kaitlyn McCormick, Natalie Neysa Alund, 70643K]
NewsMax [3/27/2026 12:03 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K]

AP [3/27/2026 5:20 PM, Staff, 35287K] reports Mexico’s Navy searched for a second day for two missing sailboats carrying nine people bound for Cuba with humanitarian aid, officials told The Associated Press on Friday. The announcement came after reports that the ships had been found by the U.S. Coast Guard. Mexican authorities said Thursday the vessels departed from Isla Mujeres in southern Mexico on March 20. The disappearance comes as an increasing number of countries and aid organizations send shipments of aid to Cuba as a U.S. fuel blockade causes crippling blackouts and pushes the Caribbean nation to the brink of collapse. The loss of contact with the vessels has fueled concern in Cuba, Mexico and beyond. “From our country, we are doing everything possible in the search and rescue of these brothers in struggle,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote in a social media post on Friday. Despite reports that the ships had been found by the U.S. Coast Guard, Mexico’s Navy said authorities have received no communication or confirmation of the vessels’ arrival in Cuba. The U.S. Coast Guard told AP they were not involved in search efforts. On Friday, the organization Nuestra América Convoy, said that based on the speed of the vessels reported to the Cuban maritime authorities, the window of arrival for the boats in Havana should be between Friday and Saturday. The organization made an open call for any information or sightings of the boats. The captains and crews are experienced sailors, and both vessels are equipped with appropriate safety systems and signaling equipment. “We are cooperating fully with the authorities and remain confident in the crews’ ability to reach Havana safely,” the organization said in a statement.

ABC News [3/27/2026 4:53 PM, Nadine El-Bawab, 34146K] reports three people are dead and two others were evacuated after a helicopter crashed off Kalalau Beach in Kauai, Hawaii, on Thursday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Bystanders and Kauai Fire Department crews rescued and medically evacuated two survivors to Wilcox Medical Center in Lihue, Hawaii, the Coast Guard said. According to a preliminary report, the helicopter was carrying one pilot and four passengers when it crashed at Kalalau Beach, the County of Kauai said Thursday. "We are greatly saddened by the loss of three lives in this helicopter crash and thinking of those individuals’ families and friends," Cmdr. Andrew Williams, search and rescue mission coordinator with the Coast Guard Sector Honolulu, said in a statement. "We are also keeping the survivors in our thoughts as they begin their recovery. We remain grateful for close coordination with our partner agencies throughout this tragic incident," Williams added. Kauai Police Dispatch personnel reported a helicopter crash at around 4 p.m., with five people aboard. The helicopter landed on the sandbar 100 yards off Kalalau Beach, according to the Coast Guard.

Reported similarly:
San Francisco Chronicle [3/27/2026 11:50 AM, Aidin Vaziri, 3833K

Reuters [3/27/2026 10:24 PM, Jana Winter and A.J. Vicens, 474K] reports that Iran-linked hackers have broken into FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email inbox, publishing photographs of the director and other documents to the internet, the hackers and the bureau said on Friday. On their website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team said Patel "will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims." The hackers published a series of personal photographs of Patel sniffing and smoking cigars, riding in an antique convertible, and making a face while taking a picture of himself in the mirror with a large bottle of rum. The FBI confirmed that Patel’s emails had been targeted. In a statement, bureau spokesman Ben Williamson said, "we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity" and that the data involved was "historical in nature and involves no government information." Handala, which presents itself as a group of pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers, is considered by Western researchers to be one of several personas used by Iranian government cyberintelligence units. Handala recently claimed the hack of Michigan-based medical devices and services provider Stryker on March 11, saying they had deleted a massive trove of company data. Alongside the photographs of Patel, the hackers published a sample of more than 300 emails, which appear to show a mix of personal and work correspondence dating between 2010 and 2019. Reuters was not able to independently authenticate the Patel messages, but the personal Gmail address that Handala claims to have broken into matches the address linked to Patel in previous data breaches preserved by the dark web intelligence firm District 4 Labs.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [3/27/2026 7:30 PM, Staff, 2238K]
New York Times [3/27/2026 6:11 PM, Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman, Aric Toler and Glenn Thrush, 148038K]
CBS News [3/27/2026 1:07 PM, Staff, 51110K]
CNN [3/27/2026 11:30 AM, Evan Perez, Sean Lyngaas and Holmes Lybrand, 19874K]

CyberScoop [3/27/2026 1:40 PM, Tim Starks, 122K] reports Iranian hackers claimed Friday to have compromised the personal data of FBIDirector Kash Patel, and the bureau confirmed that it knew of the targeting of Patel’s personal email. The government-connected hacking group, Handala, previously claimed credit for hacking medical device maker Stryker, a boast that threat researchers considered credible. “All personal and confidential email of Kash Patel, including emails, conversations, documents, and even classified files, is now available for public download,” Handala — also known as Handala Hack — said. The group said it did so in response to the FBI seizing its domains and the U.S. government offering a $10 million reward for information on members of the group. he FBI noted that Handala frequently targets government officials, and challenged elements of Handala’s claims, such as that it had brought the FBI’s systems “to its knees,” rather than Patel’s own email. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity,” the FBI said in response to questions from CyberScoop. “The information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information.” The activist group Distributed Denial of Secrets published what it said was Patel’s email cache.

CyberScoop [3/27/2026 1:40 PM, Greg Otto, 122K] reports every RSA Conference has its buzzwords. Cloud. Ransomware. Zero trust. Plastered across the 87-acre Moscone Center complex on every booth, banner and bar. This year was AI, with vendors pitching AI-powered solutions to every security problem imaginable. But 2026 stood out for a different reason: Industry leaders spent the conference warning about disruption from the very technology everyone was selling. In an exclusive discussion with CyberScoop at this year’s conference, Kevin Mandia, founder of AI security company Armadin, Morgan Adamski, former executive director of U.S. Cyber Command, and Alex Stamos, a researcher and former chief security officer at several major technology companies, said the industry is entering what they described as an unprecedented two- to three-year period of upheaval, driven by AI systems that are discovering vulnerabilities exponentially faster than defenders can respond and threatening to render decades of security practices obsolete. “We are just at the inflection point that is going to be pretty insane, at least two to three years,” Stamos said, describing a near-term future in which AI systems flood the threat landscape with working exploits while organizations struggle to patch vulnerabilities faster than attackers can weaponize them. Mandia put the timeline more bluntly. “It’s a perfect storm for offense over the next year or two,” he said. The core problem, according to the executives, is speed. AI has made vulnerability discovery almost trivial, while remediation takes time and effort, creating a widening gap that favors attackers across every stage of the kill chain. “Because of the asymmetry in the cyber domain, where one person on offense can create work for millions of defenders, speed leverages that asymmetry,” Mandia said. “In the near term, there’s an advantage to the attackers as they start to use models and agents to do a lot of the offense.”

New York Times [3/27/2026 7:10 PM, Liam Stack, Tracey Tully and William K. Rashbaum, 148038K] reports the New York Police Department and federal authorities disrupted what officials described as a plot by a member of a pro-Israel terrorist organization to assassinate the leader of one of New York’s most active pro-Palestinian protest groups, according to officials and court papers. Members of the F.B.I. and the Police Department’s Joint Terrorism Task Force notified the activist, Nerdeen Kiswani, and her lawyer late Thursday that an arrest had been made in connection with an imminent attempt on her life, her lawyer and law enforcement officials said. The man who was arrested, Alexander Heifler, 26, of Hoboken, N.J., was taken into custody after detectives and federal agents searched his apartment and found eight Molotov cocktails. A police official said Friday that Mr. Heifler was a member of the JDL 613 Brotherhood, which was inspired by the Jewish Defense League, a pro-Israel group designated by the F.B.I. as a terrorist organization. Representatives of the J.D.L. and its offshoot did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment. Mr. Heifler was charged Friday morning in a two-count criminal complaint with making and possessing the devices and appeared in federal court in Newark hours later. The complaint did not specify a motive for the planned attack, which was laid out in detail. If convicted, Mr. Heifler could face up to 20 years in prison. The complaint said the plan had been in the works since at least February, when Mr. Heifler discussed building and using Molotov cocktails for what he described as “self-defense” on a group video call that included an undercover detective. Prosecutors said in the complaint that Mr. Heifler and the undercover detective met in person the next day and then twice more in the weeks that followed, including on Thursday, when they built the eight Molotov cocktails together in Mr. Heifler’s home. He was arrested shortly thereafter. Mr. Heifler planned to use the devices to target Ms. Kiswani, 31, the co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, prosecutors said. He was ordered held without bail after a brief court appearance in which he told the magistrate judge, Stacey D. Adams, that he understood the charges he faced.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [3/27/2026 4:57 PM, Natalie Neysa Alund, Swasti Singhai, 70643K]

Washington Examiner [3/28/2026 5:00 AM, Mia Cathell, 1147K] reports millions of dollars in cash, including large sums believed to be funding foreign terrorists, continue to fly out of the Minneapolis airport annually, according to lawmakers investigating the money funneling schemes. Republican Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins, chairwoman of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, told the Washington Examiner that these cash-smuggling operations have been moving massive volumes of money via the state’s busiest airport for years. But the $350 million flown out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2025 marked a record-high haul, a steady rise from the $343 million in 2024 and more than triple the $75 million identified back in 2000. Robbins said the amount of money exiting through MSP, although only the country’s 16th largest airport, is far higher than the cash totals leaving other major U.S. travel hubs, including Los Angeles International Airport, New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. "We’re not that big of a city compared to these other international airports, but we have 90% more cash leaving ours," Robbins said. "We’ve got to figure out what’s going on here.” Over the years, criminal investigators have tied the cash flow to child care fraud within Minnesota’s social services. Fraudsters, many from the state’s Somali community, are suspected of transporting cash to terrorist networks abroad. Much of the cash, stuffed inside suitcases and shipped out on international flights, makes its way to countries scattered across East Africa, where many Somalis fanned out following their nation’s civil war. Somali refugees who resettled in Minnesota have been pressured to pay remittances to their war-torn home country through organized collection systems, known as hawalas. The Minnesota Star Tribune and the Sahan Journal, a St. Paul newspaper, have interviewed operators of hawalas in Minneapolis, called collectors, who go around extracting money from members of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora. Of those interviewed, some Somali immigrants said the contributions went toward funding clan-based warfare back home, buying guns, ammunition, and general military supplies for the warring militias. U.S. officials found that significant portions of the money funneled out of Minneapolis wound up in the pockets of terrorists who demanded a cut of the remittances. Some hawala systems have been controlled directly by al Shabab, a designated terrorist group and paramilitary organization based in Somalia. In 2011, two Somali immigrants in Minnesota were convicted of raising money on behalf of al Shabab by soliciting funds door-to-door in Somali communities in Minneapolis. Federal counterterrorism sources told City Journal that millions of dollars sent to Somalia by way of hawalas based out of Minnesota landed in the coffers of al Shabab.

Breitbart [3/27/2026 4:46 PM, Ildefonso Ortiz, Brandon Darby, 2238K] reports an Arizona gun dealer is facing terrorism charges in connection with a conspiracy to provide weapons to both Cartel Jalisco New Generation and the Sinaloa Cartel. Both Mexican cartels are designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. Department of State. This week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a superseding indictment claiming 65-year-old Lawrence "Larry" Gray provided material support to terrorist organizations by providing them with weapons. The indictment follows a prior indictment that federal prosecutors filed in 2025 against him and others in connection with the alleged sale of guns to cartel-connected individuals. The new charges are part of an enhancement of various charges previously filed against Gray. The case began as an investigation into Arizona gun stores that were deemed as high risk after various of the weapons sold there were found in Mexico in a matter of days. At the time, federal agents sent a "confidential informant" to purchase various weapons. A criminal complaint filed in the earlier part of the case revealed that the man purchased belt-fed rifles, 50. caliber rifles and high-end Colt 1911-type handguns, which are sought after by cartel members as a status symbol. The complaint revealed that when the man made the purchases, he asked Gray and 73-year-old Barret Weinberger for the nearest port of entry into Mexico. The document revealed that they directed him to a nearby crossing that leads to Agua Prieta, Sonora. Court documents revealed that at the time of the initial arrest, authorities charged Gray and Weinberger with several counts of aiding the straw purchasing of firearms and various weapons trafficking offenses. While Gray fought the charges and most recently pleaded not guilty to the new indictment, Weinberger pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

FOX News [3/27/2026 5:59 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Drug czar Sara Carter discusses the White House’s effort to combat drug trafficking and the threat posed by criminal illegal immigrants on ‘The Will Cain Show.’

CNN [3/28/2026 5:00 AM, Holmes Lybrand, 19874K] reports as the US sends large numbers of troops to the Middle East, preparing for a possible ground incursion, Iran’s willingness to inspire lone-wolf attacks, lead cyber hacks, and conduct assassination operations abroad is likely to increase, terrorism experts and US law enforcement officials told CNN. In the early days of the war, officials raised concerns that Iran might activate "sleeper cells," a kind of covert agent who has sat undetected in the US waiting for an order to carry out a terror plot. But in recent years, Iran has instead depended heavily on an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to attacks abroad — with a key focus on inspiring domestic attacks and, at times, working to hire known criminals to assassinate its enemies, several experts told CNN. The Justice Department has foiled several assassination plots in recent years, including against President Donald Trump, top US officials and Iranian dissidents. In those cases, Iranian officials, often through proxies, have hired low-level criminals — sometimes recruiting from inside US prisons — to act on their behalf. In early March, a Pakistani man was convicted of attempting to carry out political assassinations in the US, including against Trump, at the direction of Iran. The man, Asif Merchant, met with undercover agents he believed were hitmen in the summer of 2024 to carry out these attacks before being arrest by federal authorities. Iranian assassination plots targeting Israeli officials have also been foiled, including one late last year against the Israeli ambassador to Mexico. Iran additionally — through social media channels, chatrooms and beyond — works to inspire lone wolf attacks of vandalism and violence across the globe, something William Wechsler, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats, said is cause for concern.

Reuters [3/27/2026 7:14 PM, Steve Holland and Gram Slattery, 38315K] reports Donald Trump said on Friday the United States does not "have to ​be there for NATO," comments that again raised questions about the ‌U.S. president’s commitment to the mutual defense provisions at the center of the transatlantic alliance. Speaking to an investment forum in Miami on Friday night, Trump said he was ​upset that European NATO countries had declined to provide material support ​to the U.S. as it nears the fourth week of its ⁠ongoing war on Iran. European allies were not consulted by the U.S. on ​its decision to attack Iran late last month, and many leaders in the ​alliance opposed the action. "We would have always been there for them, but now, based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be, do we?" Trump told the ​audience. "That sounds like a breaking story? Yes, sir. Is that breaking news? ​I think we just have breaking news, but that’s the fact. I’ve been saying ‌that. ⁠Why would we be there for them if they’re not there for us? They weren’t there for us.” The president has had a famously on-again-off-again relationship with the alliance, and he has at various points made comments that provoked ​questions about his ​willingness to adhere ⁠to NATO’s Article 5, which states an attack against one member state is an attack on all.

Univision [3/27/2026 7:24 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports in his speech this afternoon in Miami, President Donald Trump released a surprise statement that has lit alarms in the field of international politics by suggesting that Cuba is the next country in its agenda of intervention or political pressure. During his speech before an audience of followers of his MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, Trump stressed that his supporters seek "strength, victory and success", elements that, according to him, have defined his career. The former president recalled his approach to Venezuela. "I built this great army. I said you’d never have to use it, but sometimes you have to use it," Trump told aides. The Republican added when referring to his past actions. "And Cuba is next, by the way." Immediately after uttering these words, Trump tried to soften the impact of his statement by ironically asking the media to “pretend he didn’t say it” and to “ignore that claim.” However, before concluding that segment of his speech, he reiterated again: "Cuba is next." Cuba’s mention is not minor, considering that Miami is the epicenter of Cuban exile in the United States. Trump’s words suggest a possible tightening of policies toward the island. Although Trump’s tone swung between the serious warning and sarcasm toward the press, the repetition of the phrase makes it clear that the Caribbean island’s issue remains a priority in his speech and his strategic vision for the region.

Reuters [3/28/2026 12:27 AM, Menna Alaaeldin, Nayera Abdallah and Humeyra Pamuk, 16072K] reports Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched missiles at Israel on Saturday, their first such attack since the Iran war began, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. expected to conclude military operations within weeks. The Houthis, whose involvement risks broadening and prolonging a war that has entered its fifth week, said their operations would continue until the "aggression" on all fronts ended. Israel said it had intercepted a missile from Yemen. The war, launched with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and causing the biggest disruption ever to energy supplies, hitting the global economy and fuelling inflation fears. The Houthis had said on Friday they were prepared to act if what the group called an escalation against Iran and the "Axis of Resistance" continued in the war.The group has shown an ability to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, as they did in support of Hamas in Gaza after October 7, 2023. If the Houthis open a new front in the conflict, one obvious target would be the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the coast ⁠of Yemen, a key shipping choke point that controls sea traffic towards the Suez Canal, after Iran effectively shut the critical Strait of Hormuz. Speaking on Friday before the Houthi attack, Rubio said Washington was "on or ahead of schedule" and expects to conclude military operations in "weeks, not months". He also told Group of Seven counterparts in France that European and Asian countries which benefit from trade through the Strait of Hormuz - a conduit for a fifth of global oil and natural gas supplies - should contribute to efforts to secure free passage. The war has driven a wedge between the U.S. and its traditional allies, who have stayed on the sidelines. President Donald Trump said this lack of support had implications for NATO, the West’s most important alliance. "We would have always been there for them, but now, based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be, do we?" Trump told an investment forum in Miami on Friday. "Why would we be there for them if they’re not there for us? They weren’t there for us." The charter underlying the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has long been led by the U.S., says an attack on one member is an attack on all, requiring them to support each other. Rubio said the U.S. could achieve its aims without ground troops but acknowledged it was deploying some to the region "to give the president maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to ⁠adjust the contingencies, should they emerge". Washington has dispatched two contingents of thousands of Marines to the region, the first of which is due to arrive in coming days on a huge amphibious assault ship. The Pentagon is also expected to deploy thousands of elite airborne soldiers.

FOX News [3/27/2026 11:45 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports ‘Fox News @ Night’ panelists discuss reports Yemen’s Houthis could enter Iran conflict as Iranian citizens remain in an internet blackout. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [3/27/2026 8:21 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on the Pentagon considering deploying thousands of additional troops to the Middle East on ‘Special Report.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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